{"id":8699,"date":"2023-02-02T22:35:04","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T22:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8699"},"modified":"2023-02-02T22:35:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T22:35:04","slug":"x-force-37-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8699","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #37 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 #37<\/strong>
\n“Unmasked”<\/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> The Man with the Peacock Tattoo removes his mask, which must have been terribly itchy with X-Force inside. Wolverine is shown with X-Force here, but he’s not in the issue – presumably, this takes place while he’s still missing over in his own title, thanks to the Beast imprisoning him.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Carlos Pacheco obituary.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Deadpool annoys his teammates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Omega Red<\/strong> threw Deadpool off the waterfall before, in issue #30. But aside from that, what\u00a0is<\/em> he doing, staring at the wall? Is he meditating? Does he suspect that something is behind there, maybe to do with one of Beast’s schemes?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Oh look, they’ve lost the egg.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Beast’s big plan last issue was to let Legacy House auction off a Krakoan egg, presumably to track whoever wound up buying it. As usual in this series, he was terribly confident that nothing could possibly go wrong, and as usual, it immediately has. Leave aside the fact that he’s evil – have we actually seen any sign in years that Beast is even\u00a0competent<\/em> enough to do the job?<\/p>\n

At any rate, he refuses to concede that he’s screwed up yet again, and immediately starts to blame Sage for getting something wrong.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Domino suggests that she should get her memories back.<\/em><\/p>\n

Domino says that her luck leads her to believe that recovering her memories of her torture at the hands of XENO would allow her to track them down. Although she doesn’t mention it, she received a painting last issue – presumably from Colossus – actively prompting her to recover these memories.<\/p>\n

As she says, these memories were excised when she was resurrected in issue #8. Contrary to what she says here, she didn’t ask Colossus to have them removed – she specifically asked for them to stay – but Colossus lied to the Five about it, and then lied to Domino about what she had asked for. In the short term, at least, it did seem to make her much happier.<\/p>\n

Do we\u00a0really<\/em> trust Beast with access to “the memory files of all mutants”?<\/p>\n

Sage goes out of her way to stress X-Force as a source of support for Domino, possibly because she remembers how traumatising Domino found these memories the first time round.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-10.\u00a0<\/strong>The Man with the Peacock Tattoo and Max.<\/em><\/p>\n

As we established at the end of last issue, the Man with the Peacock Tattoo has got hold of the Beast’s egg. As in the previous issue, we’re clearly shown that there’s a fully formed body in that egg, though it’s not recognisable as any mutant in particular.<\/p>\n

The clones in tubes around him are all based on X-Force members (plus former member Colossus), and his botched chimera appears to be a hybrid of Beast and Wolverine.<\/p>\n

Max<\/strong> is revealed as the baby who was stolen from Krakoa by evil surfers way back in issue #25. In that issue, he was said to have vaguely defined psychic powers (as in, even the other characters didn’t know exactly what his powers were). We’re told on the following data page that a “growth serum” was used to accelerate his ageing. His identical costume seems intended to imply that he’s a clone of the Man, but I don’t think that’s actually stated, and it doesn’t really fit with the fact that he has mutant powers. It’s also possible that the Man is literally just Max’s father.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: a logbook by the Man with the Peacock Tattoo.<\/p>\n

He basically tells us that he’s struggled to make lab-grown mutants, but now he can do it because he has the egg and he has Max.<\/p>\n

This… doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, honestly. It’s not obvious how acquiring an egg “allows [him] access to the mutant biological factor” or, really, what that even means. After all, the eggs normally need the combined efforts of the Five, or at least someone who can simulate their powers.\u00a0He tells us that Max “permits me to properly fertilize and hatch the egg” but… how? What does being a telepath have to do with that? None of the Five are telepaths, unless you count Hope being able to copy it from others.<\/p>\n

He also seems to suggest that he kidnapped Max in order to use him for this purpose, but Max was kidnapped in issue #25 and he didn’t get the egg until issue #36.<\/p>\n

At any rate… I don’t really understand what most of this page means, and the bits I do understand don’t make sense.<\/p>\n

We’ll come back to the last couple of lines.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong> Max demands to know about the Man with the Peacock Tattoo’s father.<\/em><\/p>\n

This version of events is entirely false, as Max immediately picks up on. The basic point of all this is that the MwtPT was created as an expendable clone by his “father”, and if nothing else, he seems genuinely determined to behave better towards Max. Plainly that’s at least in part for pragmatic reasons – he wants to keep the kid on side – but I think it’s also at least partly genuine.<\/p>\n

“An island not so different from Krakoa.”<\/strong> We’ll find out later that this is mutate-era Genosha, which was indeed a paradise of sorts if you weren’t a mutant. By describing it as “not so different from Krakoa”, the Man may be making a point about mutant exceptionalism, or may simply be referring to the fact that it was a paradise built on mutant powers (if involuntarily).<\/p>\n

Labradorite.<\/strong> The Man with the Peacock Tattoo’s mask was identified as labradorite back in issue #8. It’s a genuine iridescent mineral that Beast described in that issue as “said to be a stone with a magic connection to transformation and protection”. Beast did identify Genosha as one source of labradorite in that issue (along with several others, one of which was Russia).<\/p>\n

“My father kept a menagerie of what he considered superior animals.”<\/strong> As explained later, the Man’s father is David Moreau, the original Genegineer, who was responsible for the technology that enslaved mutants as a Genoshan slave labour force. Presumably, the “menagerie” is standing in for a collection of particularly interesting mutants.<\/p>\n

The Genegineer wasn’t a very long running character – he was introduced in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #236 (1988) and died in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> #97 (1990). He was killed helping to fight Cameron Hodge.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-16.<\/strong>\u00a0Domino’s memories are restored.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently it’s possible to restore individual memories without the involvement of a psychic. Domino says she’s doing it this way in order to avoid traumatising the psychic would have to be involved, but it’s possible that she just wants privacy – as noted, she was already prompted to think about this in the previous issue.<\/p>\n

The flashbacks on page 15 show Domino being captured and tortured by XENO in issues #1-2, and Domino fighting XENO soldiers with her powers, and dying in Colossus’s arms, both in issue #8. She clearly becomes aware here that Colossus lied about her wishes, but she doesn’t mention that to anyone else just yet. You have to suspect that it didn’t come as a surprise to her.<\/p>\n

The flashback on page 16 is an original scene of the Man with the Peacock Tattoo trying to sell his services to Mikhail Rasputin. Mikhail is understandably sceptical that his monstrous creations can sensibly be classified as mutants, but we know that they did go on to work together – for a bit, anyway. Mikhail lost patience with him and imprisoned him in a pocket dimension in issue #23. We never did find out how he got out.<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-20.\u00a0<\/strong>The Man with the Peacock Tattoo’s origin story.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, he’s one of many abused clones of the Genegineer. Since Max doesn’t object to this account, we can probably take it as accurate.<\/p>\n

His scars appear to come from an accident, but many of his fellow clones also have scars – or possibly just flaws in their cloning.<\/p>\n

Philip and Thomas<\/strong>\u00a0Moreau<\/strong> are both existing characters. Philip debuted in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #236 as part of the original Genoshan storyline – basically, he’s the privileged kid who discovers that his life is built on exploitation and becomes an activist. He’s still out there somewhere, though he obviously hasn’t had much to campaign about Genoshan got razed. Thomas Moreau is much more obscure; he’s the mutant son of the Genegineer who showed up to challenge Magneto’s rule of Genosha in the 1999 miniseries\u00a0Magneto Rex<\/em> and got swiftly killed. It’s understandable that Thomas gets used as the callous son here – honestly, if Philip knows anything substantial about what his father was up to during this period, it screws up his arc.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Data page. More from the Man with the Peacock Tattoo’s logbook. From the look of it, his motivation in experimenting on mutants is not so much anti-mutant prejudice but a desire to outdo his hated father by mastering mutant biology in a way that the Genegineer failed to do. Of course, at the same time, he’s inherited the Genegineer’s tendency to view mutants as subhuman.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.<\/strong> X-Force arrive on Genosha.<\/em><\/p>\n

Genosha is looking in remarkably good shape here compared to how it’s normally shown, but to be fair, we\u00a0are<\/em> out of the main cities, and it’s been long enough that the plants have had time to regrow. It’s rather bizarre for the footnote to attribute Genosha’s dilapidated state to the alien invasion in\u00a0Empyre: X-Men<\/em> rather than, you know, the mass slaughter by giant robots thing.<\/p>\n

And… the “electrical grid is dumping 300,000 kilowatt hours into this location a month”? The “electrical grid”? In\u00a0Genosha<\/em>? It’s an uninhabited graveyard! It has been for 20 years! What electrical grid?<\/p>\n

PAGES 24-25.<\/strong>\u00a0Max runs away, and the Man’s chimera emerges.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a mix of all the members of x-Force, basically. Not sure how he’s copying the claws without Proteus around, but okay.<\/p>\n

PAGE 26.\u00a0<\/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 #37 “Unmasked” Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Robert Gill Colourist: GURU-eFX Letterer: Joe Caramagna Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen Editor: Mark Basso COVER \/ PAGE 1: The Man with the Peacock Tattoo removes his mask, which must have […]<\/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-8699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699","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=8699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8701,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions\/8701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}