{"id":8405,"date":"2022-10-27T21:43:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2022-10-27T21:43:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:43:15","slug":"a-x-e-judgment-day-6-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8405","title":{"rendered":"A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #6<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtists: Valerio Schiti with Ivan Fiorelli<\/strong>
\nColourist: Marte Gracia<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Members of the X-Men, Avengers and Eternals giving the thumbs down sign (presumably their verdict on the Progenitor).<\/p>\n

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

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

PAGES 5-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Captain America brings Jada to the Eternals’ city.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jada is still sitting in the place where she was talking to Captain America last issue (and still has the Starbucks coffee that she shared with him). Seems awfully quiet for New York, but obviously the scene works better when she’s not just a face in the crowd.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong>\u00a0The civilians react.<\/em><\/p>\n

Everyone has some degree of turning point or realisation by the end of this, with the possible exception of Komali, who is just resigned to death. Tom finally and decisively realises that he’s got it wrong, albeit too late to do anything about it. Katrina actually does something instead of just talking about it. Daniela had already turned her focus to her family, even if she remains somewhat distracted by practicalities. Jada gets to reconnect with someone (which is another reason why she couldn’t be in a crowd in the last scene) and Kenta is forced to take the situation seriously.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.\u00a0<\/strong>Starfox and Nightcrawler discuss tactics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Starfox\u00a0<\/strong>is very much enjoying the adulation that the Eternals are getting for saving the world (from a threat that they created in the first place). He’s written in this issue as somewhat naive – he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that everything is now going well, and he’s unreasonably confident that the X-Men will similarly be rewarded in the public mind for their heroism, in the face of all historical evidence. Nightcrawler is presumably here to serve as a contrast – he’s the most persistently optimistic member of the X-Men, but he comes across as a level headed pragmatist next to Starfox. Nonetheless, it’s no coincidence that the last leaders standing (the mutants being rather depleted right now) are the most idealistic X-Man and Avenger.<\/p>\n

“Phastos resetting the Machine gave us time.”<\/strong> In\u00a0A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants<\/em> #3.<\/p>\n

“My A.I. … colleagues are at work.”<\/strong> Orchis. Nightcrawler enlisted their aid in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #7.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-10.<\/strong>\u00a0The Progenitor heads straight for the Reality Loom.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Reality Loom\u00a0<\/strong>appeared in\u00a0Eternals<\/em> #4-6 (2021), where it was presented as the core of the Machine; Phastos was working away on it.<\/p>\n

Starfox is completely panicked by the realisation that the plan is going awry, and again is positioned as more idealistic and unrealistic than Nightcrawler – or, for that matter, Captain America.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-13.\u00a0<\/strong>Inside the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr Sinister<\/strong> mentions twice in this issue that the Celestial hasn’t judged him yet. This hasn’t been too obvious until now, since three of the incursion team only got judged in the recent\u00a0A.X.E.\u00a0<\/em>one-shots, but our attention is drawn to it in a way that suggests it’s significant. When you bear in mind that the Progenitor found time in\u00a0Captain Marvel<\/em> #42 to judge Captain Marvel’s cat, it does seem curious that Sinister seems not to rate his attention.<\/p>\n

“The Stark boy’s become unbearable since he passed his test…”<\/strong> In\u00a0A.X.E.: Avengers<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

“…and Jeannie has become unbearable since she failed.”<\/strong> In\u00a0A.X.E.: X-Men<\/em> #1. Jean is not taking any lectures on genocide from a creature that’s destroying the world on purpose.<\/p>\n

“Our God temporarily deactivated our protocols and resealed our firewalls…”<\/strong> As set up in\u00a0A.X.E.: Eternals<\/em> #1, at least for Ajak – the Progenitor told her that “In those final moments, you will have true freedom.” The point here is that the Eternals can’t defy the “principles” which require them to defend Celestials, including the Progenitor; they deliberately allowed the mutants to mind-control them so that their powers could be used against the Progenitor.<\/p>\n

The Progenitor\u00a0<\/strong>appears ultimately to be a human-sized figure controlling a much larger entity.<\/p>\n

“Betsy’s move, but it’s a good one. My psychic totality will blow this sky-high.”<\/strong> Psylocke’s old psychic knife routine from the late 80s and 90s, which (particularly under Claremont) was repeatedly described as “the focussed totality of my psychic powers” or such like. A direct attempt to kill the Progenitor would normally trigger the Principles, but as Ajak just told us, those have been switched off – which is why only Ajak responds, and does so voluntarily.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-16.<\/strong>\u00a0The Progenitor attacks the Eternals’ city.<\/em><\/p>\n

“There’s an unusual mutant circuit. We’ve been saving it…”<\/strong> Presumably referring to the stunt we see on the next page, with assorted mutants including Hope, Synch and Proteus channelling their powers into Exodus, who in turn channels them in to Syne.<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Ajak makes her case, and Jean just tries to kill the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ajak is arguing against killing the Progenitor so that it can be prevailed upon to reverse the damage that it has done. As Ajak points out, the fact that the Progenitor has carried on testing people even after issuing its verdict on the planet indicates that “This is still a test” – or at the very least that the Progenitor remains open to persuasion. It’s something of a reversal of normal roles to have the zealot Ajak and the hyper pragmatist Iron Man making this case while Jean, normally the spirit of compassion and all that, is rooting to just kill him.<\/p>\n

The Progenitor’s conclusion from all this is that everyone is just acting out of self-interest; he seems to misread Ajak’s motivations and concludes that the Eternals have proven that they cannot change (even though neither Makkari nor Sersi attempted to defend him).<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.\u00a0<\/strong>Sersi reveals the Eternals’ secret to humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her attempt to keep this secret – which was indeed self-interested, because she wanted to preserve the Eternals’ heroic image – was indeed what got the Progenitor to fail her.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21-23.\u00a0<\/strong>The heroes make their case to the Progenitor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note that Starfox was also well aware of the secret and he too was evidently fairly comfortable with preserving the Eternals’ image.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Ajak, Jean and Iron Man each make their separate case to the Progenitor for changing course. Ajak argues that the Progenitor would himself fail to meet her standards as a better god; Jean argues that he will never forgive himself for destroying the world; and Iron Man argues that it is never too late to change course and make amends.<\/p>\n

PAGES 24-27.\u00a0<\/strong>Progenitor restores the Earth and dies by empowering Ajak.<\/em><\/p>\n

As we establish later, this isn’t an outright Cosmic Reset Button, because everyone does remember what happened – he simply restores the world to the way it was before. Also, he only resets it to the point of his judgment, so it doesn’t reverse earlier events like the death of Magneto and the attack on Arakko.<\/p>\n

As for Ajak, she declares herself the new god of the Celestials, with a rather greater emphasis on striving to be worthy of the role.<\/p>\n

PAGE 28.<\/strong>\u00a0Montage of the civilians.<\/em><\/p>\n

Everyone is just a little bit better for the experience.<\/p>\n

The Progenitor continues to narrate, justified on page 27 as a reflection of its Celestial power – it made similar claims at the start of issue #1, when it began narrating before it had actually been created.<\/p>\n

PAGES 29-31.\u00a0<\/strong>Zuras apologises to the mutants.<\/em><\/p>\n

Evidently Starfox voluntarily relinquishes the role of Prime Eternal once the crisis is over. Zuras, the traditional distant leader figure, isn’t exactly diplomatic but he does do the right things – note that instead of saying outright that Druig’s approach to mutants is wrong, he simply describes his own view as “more conservative”. Zuras is not a hero so much as a figure of the established order which was disrupted by Druig seizing control. That said, Zuras is pretty obviously correct: for all that the Eternals talk about their ability to interpret the principles, the intended meaning of “excess deviation” is surely demonstrated by the point where they’re compelled to act.<\/p>\n

PAGE 32.\u00a0<\/strong>The X-Men launch the Phoenix Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the X-Men’s way of heading off criticism about monopolising resurrection: they’ll make 5% of their resources available to resurrect “the vulnerable, the weak, the poor and those whom the world has abandoned.” We’re not really told how they’re choosing candidates from within that very large category, which suggests this might not go quite as smoothly as Scott and Jean think, certainly from a PR standpoint.<\/p>\n

Orchis are apparently now an outright public organisation, benefitting from the good PR of fighting to defeat the Progenitor.<\/p>\n

PAGE 33.\u00a0<\/strong>The Avengers move back in to Avengers Mountain.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently we’re sticking with the dead Celestial body as Avengers HQ. Oddly, Iron Man seems to be the only one who really has a problem with this, and his rationale is more about PR (rather than, say, sensitivity).<\/p>\n

PAGE 34.<\/strong>\u00a0Steve and Jada share coffee again.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 35-36.\u00a0<\/strong>Ajak continues her work.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Progenitor seems here to be talking as if it continues to exist within Ajak, and the main lesson the two of them have learned is that the judgment process needs to take more time before Ajak can take a view on whether to destroy the world. So that’s nice.<\/p>\n

PAGES 37-39.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers and design art.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #6 Writer: Kieron Gillen Artists: Valerio Schiti with Ivan Fiorelli Colourist: Marte Gracia Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort COVER \/ PAGE 1: Members of the X-Men, Avengers and Eternals giving the thumbs down sign (presumably their verdict […]<\/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-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","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=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8407,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions\/8407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}