{"id":8353,"date":"2022-10-05T21:57:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8353"},"modified":"2022-10-05T21:57:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:57:59","slug":"a-x-e-x-men-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8353","title":{"rendered":"A.X.E.: X-Men #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>A.X.E.: X-MEN #1<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Francesco Mobili<\/strong>
\nColourist: Frank Martin<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Jean Grey in front of the Progenitor. It’s part of a single image with last week’s\u00a0A.X.E.: Avengers<\/em> one-shot. As noted last week, these three one-shots are essentially part of the\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day<\/em> miniseries, albeit with different artists.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-7.\u00a0<\/strong>The heroes (and Sinister) discuss their next step.<\/em><\/p>\n

This picks up from the end of\u00a0A.X.E.: Avengers<\/em>, where Iron Man was judged by the Progenitor and realised that the very fact that the Progenitor was still judging him proved that it hadn’t really made a final decision to end the world.<\/p>\n

“I’ve stolen one Celestial’s power before and it ended very badly for me.”<\/strong>\u00a0Mr Sinister is referring to the time he co-opted the power of the Dreaming Celestial, in the early issues of Gillen’s\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 2.<\/p>\n

Iron Man.\u00a0<\/strong>Wolverine describes him as “an addict on a hope high, and I’m glad one of us is.” A few points from that. Firstly, Iron Man is the only traditional Avenger in the group and therefore the most conventional and traditional superhero here – but by Avengers standards he’s normally the morally dubious one. Of course, he’s also a futurist and in that sense all about optimism for the future. Second, Wolverine is presumably alluding deliberately to Iron Man’s long history of alcoholism (which has recently reared its head again over in his solo title with a stint in rehab). Third, note that Wolverine suggests that Iron Man is the sole optimist in the group even though Ajak just agreed with him. Since Ajak’s religiosity is partly pre-programmed, Wolverine may not take it very seriously – or, not being that religious himself (unless Jason Aaron’s writing), Wolverine may attach rather more weight to Iron Man’s secular optimism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Namor and I had a bath here.”<\/strong>\u00a0In the recent\u00a0Eternals<\/em> #12.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-11.\u00a0<\/strong>Jean gets everyone past the energy monitoring facility.<\/em><\/p>\n

Which leads to…<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.\u00a0<\/strong>Dream: Jean arrives at the school.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a reference to Jean’s arrival at the school in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #1 (1963), hence the dated clothes. It’s the point where she joins the X-Men. Later stories retcon in a previous history with Professor X, but for present purposes that’s a complication best ignored.<\/p>\n

“I hope\u00a0anyone<\/em> survives the experience.”<\/b> Referring to the tag lines from the cover of\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #139 (1980) (“Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde – hope you survive the experience”) and\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #171 (1983) (the same but with Rogue). Here, of course, the Professor is the form taken by the Progenitor, but he’s expressing hope that humanity passes the test.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong>\u00a0Dream: Dark Phoenix kills the Silver Age X-Men.<\/em><\/p>\n

The D’Bari<\/strong> are the race that Dark Phoenix wiped out by destroying their sun in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #135 (1980). As touched on later in the issue, the precise relationship between Jean and Dark Phoenix is a convoluted area of continuity. The original idea was simply that Dark Phoenix was a cosmically powered Jean who had been driven mad. When Jean was brought back, Phoenix and Dark Phoenix were retconned into being a cosmic entity impersonating Jean, but also taking a part of her soul as its personality (thus retaining the idea that Phoenix was in some sense Jean). Where that leaves Jean in terms of personal responsibility for Dark Phoenix’s genocide has always been an awkward point.<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.<\/strong>\u00a0Jean pushes the others away.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 15-17.\u00a0<\/strong>Dream: Jean fails to influence the Quiet Council.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jean quit the Quiet Council at the end of “X of Swords” to re-start the X-Men, and the question has been raised from time to time of whether she could have done more good by sticking around and influencing Krakoan politics. Is she just doing the uncomplicated hero thing, or is she ducking a less glamorous form of responsibility?<\/p>\n

Jean is imagining the Council taking the decision to try and destroy the Celestial at the risk of massive devastation to the human cities within range, as shown in\u00a0A.X.E: Judgment Day<\/em> #3 and\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #6. Jean envisages Emma taking the lead, but in fact it was Sinister and Destiny who concealed the full risks from the rest of the Council (including Emma), and\u00a0Immortal\u00a0<\/em>#6 has Destiny tell us that Emma was always likely to vote against the plan even with the lower level of risk that was disclosed. Jean just really doesn’t like or trust Emma, partly because she’s an ex-villain and partly because she was the rival for Scott in Grant Morrison’s run.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-21.<\/strong>\u00a0Jean confronts the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I cloned Jean Grey. And I couldn’t clone Jean Grey. I made something else several times.”<\/strong> Sinister is referring to Madelyne Pryor (and presumably earlier failed efforts along the same lines). As covered in\u00a0X-Factor<\/em> #38 (1989), Madelyne is a clone of Jean, but Sinister couldn’t get her to wake up. She was finally animated by the part of Jean’s soul that had been taken by Phoenix (after Jean herself rejected it), none of which was anything to do with Sinister.<\/p>\n

“I met your husband. He implied that I should be scared of you.”<\/strong> In\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #14. (“The only person alive who can judge me is my wife, Jean Grey. If you want to meet her, I can arrange that.”)<\/p>\n

“Dark Phoenix wasn’t me…”<\/strong> See above under page 13.<\/p>\n

“Last month alone, I went to a casino where countless worlds’ fates were being wagered…”<\/strong> Gameworld, in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #11-12. That story specifically tries to suggest that by saving multiple anonymous worlds, Jean has atoned for the genocide of the D’Bari. (“You said you wanted to be an X-Man until you saved as many lives as the Phoenix claimed. Well, you just saved trillions.”)<\/p>\n

“You are the Phoenix, now and forever.”<\/strong> Referring to Phoenix’s debut in X-Men<\/em> #101 (1976): “I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever, I am Phoenix!” The flames are taking the form of the late D’Bari, all with Progenitor eyes. Ultimately, the Progenitor agrees with Jim Shooter (and with Jean herself, deep down) that she is in some sense responsible for the D’Bari genocide, and can never atone for it.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-24.<\/strong>\u00a0The battle resumes.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 25-26.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. Despite what it says here, A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants\u00a0<\/em>#3 isn’t out yet.\u00a0The other tie-ins out this week are\u00a0A.X.E.: Starfox<\/em> #1 (which is an Eternals<\/em> special, and intended to be read after DttM\u00a0<\/em>#3, though it’s not essential) and\u00a0X-Men: Red<\/em> #7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. A.X.E.: X-MEN #1 Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Francesco Mobili Colourist: Frank Martin Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort COVER \/ PAGE 1. Jean Grey in front of the Progenitor. It’s part of a single image with last week’s\u00a0A.X.E.: Avengers one-shot. As […]<\/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-8353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353","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=8353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8355,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353\/revisions\/8355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}