{"id":9169,"date":"2023-06-09T23:25:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9169"},"modified":"2023-06-09T23:25:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T22:25:59","slug":"x-men-before-the-fall-mutant-first-strike-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9169","title":{"rendered":"X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN: BEFORE THE FALL – MUTANT FIRST STRIKE #1<\/strong>
\n“Mutant First Strike”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Valentina Pinti<\/strong>
\nColourist: Frank William<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> The Krakoan rescue squad search underground.<\/p>\n

This is the second of four\u00a0Before the Fall<\/em> one-shots, all written by regular X-book writers. The first one was effectively the final issue of Legion of X<\/em>. This one is… not obviously connected to anything much, but maybe it’ll play into something down the line.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.\u00a0<\/strong>Milford, New Hampshire gets hit by something mysterious.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a real town, population circa 16,000. It used to be famous for its granite quarries, although they’re almost all closed now.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.\u00a0<\/strong>Hostile news coverage of the Milford incident.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, this is a false flag attack by Orchis and the media is blaming the mutants. It’s a story where the Krakoans show up and act heroically, they impress the locals, and it has no impact on the wider media narrative. In fairness, it appears that Judas Traveller has planted faked evidence of mutant DNA being present at the attack, so there is at least some <\/em>legitimate reason for people to think it’s a mutant attacker (though no particular reason to associate them with Krakoa).\u00a0The point, presumably, is to illustrate the effectiveness of Orchis’s control of the narrative (which isn’t even presented as being contested within the media) and perhaps to get Judas Traveller established as an Orchis character, since thus far he’s been seen in that role only in somewhat peripheral books.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Weren’t the Krakoans supposed to have a plan for this, though? Magneto had a whole speech about it in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #4 (2020) – the one where they visit Davos: “We will buy your banks. We will buy your schools. We will buy your media. We will buy your politicians… Then when we have all this influence, we will use it…” Did they just… not get around to it?<\/p>\n

“When their teen terrorist Nature Girl attacked our cities?”<\/strong> In the “X-Men Green” storyline over in\u00a0X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic.<\/em><\/p>\n

“When their unhinged Thunderbird ransacked an innocent police station?”<\/strong> Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird<\/em> #1. An odd thing to mention, but Edwyn Martynec and Judas Traveller were both in that issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.\u00a0<\/strong>The Quiet Council despatch Bishop to deal with the crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n

The two empty seats belong to Mr Sinister and Nightcrawler, so we’re after “Sins of Sinister” (and the previous\u00a0Before the Fall<\/em>) one-shot, and before this week’s\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>. Professor X is acting as leader despite not having a vote any more, but strictly speaking he doesn’t actually give any orders here – he just says that he can’t see anyone disagreeing, and indeed nobody does.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-7.\u00a0<\/strong>The Marauders arrive.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, I know, that’s not the Marauders. But Bishop specifically calls it “more than a Marauders activation”, and these red and white rescue costumes previously appeared in Orlando’s\u00a0X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic<\/em> #44, where a similarly random selection of X-characters likewise identified themselves for the day as the Marauders.<\/p>\n

The team shown here are Bishop and Tempo from\u00a0Marauders<\/em>, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Iceman from\u00a0X-Men<\/em>, Storm from\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>, Angel and Penance from X-Corp, and Triage, a healer from the Bendis\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> run who’s barely been used since. A bunch more characters, of varying degrees of obscurity, will show up during the story.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The recap just explains the basic premise of Orchis.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Judas Traveller receives a report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Traveller expects the X-Men to solve this problem; that’s not really the point. It still provides ammunition for the story he wants to tell.<\/p>\n

Traveller makes a point of reminding us that he’s a mutant, which begs the question of why he was allowed to join Orchis, and indeed why he wanted to do so in the first place. In terms of his own motivations, the closest we’ve had is a speech at the end of\u00a0Marauders<\/em> #6, where he basically alleges that mutant hubris is bringing Earth to the brink of disaster. However, he seems there to be describing the narrative that he wants to convey, not necessarily his own genuine views.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Tempo, Cerebra and Theia inspect the planted evidence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cerebra and Theia are Marauders<\/em> supporting characters, and Cerebra’s powers allow her to sense mutant DNA.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-12.\u00a0<\/strong>The Watchdogs attack.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Watchdogs<\/strong> are old\u00a0Captain America<\/em> villains – basically grassroots proto-MAGA types who were secretly bankrolled by the Red Skull. Their main claim to fame is killing the USAgent’s parents. Orlando used them once before, in\u00a0Marauders<\/em> vol 2 #7.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.\u00a0<\/strong>Tempo, M and Theia reconstruct the “mutant”‘s appearance.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re basically told that this guy was a lab-created mutant with only rudimentary thought, though enough to justify treating him as a victim.<\/p>\n

The Unbreathing<\/strong> are the enemies of Theia’s Threshold community in the distant past where she originates from, which is the main storyline of Orlando’s Marauders <\/em>run; the details really don’t matter for present purposes.<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.\u00a0<\/strong>More rescue efforts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tag\u00a0<\/strong>was a member of the early 2000s version of the Hellions (the one that Julian Keller led). He was killed in\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #24 and was among the mutants resurrected at the start of the Krakoan era, but hasn’t done much beyond pad out crowd scenes.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong> Cyclops and X-Corps fight the Watchdogs.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Damn muties can steal a planet outta the sky…”<\/strong> Mars, obviously, in\u00a0Planet-Size X-Men<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

Bishop adopts Monet’s “open hands” speech on pages 20-21, though she hardly seems to calling for a non-violent approach here, so much as just dialling it back a bit from outright slaughter.<\/p>\n

PAGE 16.\u00a0<\/strong>Thunderbird arrives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thunderbird beat up the cops in\u00a0Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird<\/em> #1, but the idea that this fairly minor incident made a massive impact on the population of Milford is, bluntly, difficult to credit. At any rate, that issue did indeed involve Edwyn Martynec and his Heritage Initiative acquiring DNA from Native American mutants, and the suggestion is that this is where Orchis got the DNA to make their bioweapon attacker. (A bit of a leap of logic, given the number of X-Force clones littering Orchis’s space station… but I suppose Thunderbird doesn’t know that.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-20.\u00a0<\/strong>The Watchdogs are defeated.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jean is surprised that the Watchdogs genuinely believe that it’s a mutant attack. Since we’ve already established that the media are reporting this, and that Orchis have ensured that there’s evidence to superficially support it, it’s not entirely obvious why she finds this surprising. Perhaps she just assumed that they were bound to be part of the original plan, when they really are just a bunch of passing grassroots lunatics.<\/p>\n

PAGES 21-24.\u00a0<\/strong>A montage of assorted mutants helping with the relief effort.<\/em><\/p>\n

This being a Steve Orlando story, some of these guys are very obscure. In order of appearances:<\/p>\n