{"id":8214,"date":"2022-09-01T22:04:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T21:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8214"},"modified":"2022-09-01T22:04:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T21:04:04","slug":"x-force-31-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8214","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #31 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>X-FORCE vol 6 #31<\/strong>
\n“The Hunt for X, part 2: Anatomy of a Killer”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Benjamin Percy<\/strong>
\nArtist: Robert Gill<\/strong>
\nColourist: Guru-eFX<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Joe Caramagna<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Mark Basso<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Kraven, wearing Beast’s fur and with Deadpool’s head on a spear.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-4.<\/strong>\u00a0Kraven confronts the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I covered last time, this Kraven is a clone of the original who debuted in 2019. Since he has the original’s personality, and his obsession with nature red in tooth and claw and so forth, he dislikes not having a proper birth; presumably it serves as a symbol of his own artificiality. He seems to hope that a confrontation with teh Celestial will give him some sort of symbolic rebirth.<\/p>\n

The first chapter of this arc was billed as an\u00a0A.X.E.\u00a0<\/em>crossover despite having no actual crossover content, but the arc as a whole clearly\u00a0is<\/em> a tie-in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE<\/strong> 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits. This time we’re told that the story takes place after\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day<\/em> #3 (which is publication order) and concurrently with\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> #24 (which is due out next week). Wolverine isn’t actually in this issue, but maybe the significance of the timing will become apparent.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-8.<\/strong> Omega Red arrives back on Krakoa with the mutants he rescued from traffickers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently Omega Red has sailed all the way from the Russian arctic straits to Krakoa without being noticed, so let’s assume he used a gate somewhere.<\/p>\n

This is the mission that Omega Red and Deadpool were sent on last issue. In that issue it was Sage who seemed more concerned with the PR advantages of the mission, while Beast seemed to see it more as a show of strength; but I suppose that wouldn’t work unless there was PR involved. As we see in this issue, Beast seems to have decided that Krakoa should no longer be welcoming low-end, undesirable mutants – though that might be influenced in part by the fact that these particular mutants are Russian, and Russia is The Enemy in\u00a0X-Force<\/em>. Still, Beast can hardly have thought it would go unnoticed by the Quiet Council if X-Force rescued a boatload of mutants and\u00a0didn’t<\/em> bring them to Krakoa, but instead publicly dumped them on a human nation. Perhaps he’s looking for a vehicle to have the argument, and figured that Russian mutants were as unsympathetic as it was going to get.<\/p>\n

Sage has been using Omega Red as a proxy for her own rehabilitation in recent issues and persists in putting the most positive spin on everything he’s done. Technically she’s right to describe what Omega Red has done as a heroic\u00a0act<\/em>, but Beast’s cynicism about Omega Red’s motives seems well earned.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong>\u00a0Data page, with Beast explaining the plot. Having started off scheming with X-Force behind the rest of Krakoa’s back, Beast is apparently now coming to the view that he doesn’t even need X-Force.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong> Kraven is ignored by the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Evidently Kraven is beneath the Progenitor’s notice – he may be planning to judge all of humanity individually, but he doesn’t have time to actually speak to them all. Or maybe clones don’t count in his book. Either way, this all fits very nicely with Kraven’s vision of God as non-existent, at least as any sort of loving presence. Apparently reassured by God’s complete indifference to him (and presumably unworried about the prospect of the imminent end of the world), Kraven turns his attention back to the unnatural, immortal mutants.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong>\u00a0Drunk Sage shows Omega Red the Shadow Room.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is apparently between attacks.\u00a0Omega Red is supposed to be on X-Force as a way of vicariously rehabbing Sage, but if anything it seems to be going the other way round. Sage is offering to indulge Omega Red’s murderous impulses as long as he stays on their side, while it’s Omega Red arguing that surely there are more urgent things to worry about. She seems to be coming to terms with her worst impulses rather than controlling them.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-19.<\/strong>\u00a0Deadpool reassembles himself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kraven picked up Deadpool’s severed body parts last issue; it was Omega Red who was responsible for his dismemberment. Apparently Deadpool can currently survive for really extended periods in this form; stories tend to vary wildly about that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-21.<\/strong>\u00a0Beast and Sage in the Green Lagoon.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve covered most of this already. Of course, the idea that Beast is unrecognisable from his earlier personality is a frequent observation.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Data page. Colossus warns Beast not to be racist to the Russians.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong>\u00a0Kraven interrogates Deadpool.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is poor Deadpool going to do\u00a0anything<\/em> in Percy’s stories other than get beaten up and dismembered? Anyway, Kraven figures out that he can use Deadpool to get to Krakoa and fulfil his dream of hunting the Beast.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-FORCE vol 6 #31 “The Hunt for X, part 2: Anatomy of a Killer” Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Robert Gill Colourist: Guru-eFX Letterer: Joe Caramagna Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen Editor: Mark Basso COVER \/ PAGE 1: Kraven, wearing Beast’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8216,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8214\/revisions\/8216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}