{"id":9296,"date":"2023-08-03T21:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T20:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9296"},"modified":"2023-08-03T21:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T20:15:06","slug":"astonishing-iceman-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9296","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing Iceman #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>ASTONISHING ICEMAN #1<\/strong>
\n“Out Cold, part 1”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Vincenzo Carrat\u00f9<\/strong>
\nColourist: Java Tartaglia<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Mark Basso<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1<\/strong>. Just a straightforward shot of Iceman in action. This is a five-issue miniseries – since it’s part of Fall of X and it’s written by Steve Orlando, I’m going to assume it’s a core title.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Montage of Iceman sightings.<\/em><\/p>\n

As in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #25, several weeks have passed since Orchis attacked the Hellfire Gala in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>, where Iceman was apparently killed by Nimrod. However, along with a pro-Orchis voice over, this is a montage of generally positive images of Iceman being sighted doing good old fashioned superhero stuff. Considering this is Fall of X, the tone is really very upbeat, which is doubtless the point.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits, in the new Fall of X layout. Iceman is the only character in the dramatis personae, and he’s listed as “Iceman (?)”, but Orlando isn’t going to try and keep up the tension on that score for very long.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-10.\u00a0<\/strong>Iceman rescues a San Francisco “mutant” from Orchis.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Castro Theatre<\/strong> (yes, with the British spelling) is the building on page 4; it’s a cinema considered significant in LGBTQ culture. Its website<\/a> describes it as an “LGBTQ community landmark”.<\/p>\n

The Orchis machines<\/strong> are described in the next scene as hunter drones created by nanotech Sentinels when they detected a mutant gene. They’re apparently trying to find an excuse to lure out Iceman – one of the robots even says “Lure in progress” – so even though this guy might<\/em> have an X-gene in his body somewhere, it’s entirely possible that Orchis know the truth and don’t care. Similarly, the collateral damage is designed to lure Iceman out. This might seem at odds with Orchis’s general PR campaign. Perhaps this is a neighbourhood where they don’t expect to get much support – though Iceman does get a somewhat mixed response from the crowd.<\/p>\n

Xperience <\/strong>was a drug that gave normal humans mutant powers for a short period. It was being marketed by the villain Lobe in San Francisco in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #530-535, back in the Matt Fraction run. Assuming this guy is talking about the same stuff, he won’t have had any access to the stuff since Lobe was brought down back in 2011.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure the kiss on page 10 works – I think the art plays it too much as romantic rather than celebratory, which feels weird, and cuts against Romeo’s role.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>Orchis take stock.<\/em><\/p>\n

Agent Pequod<\/b> is new. He’s named after the boat from\u00a0Moby Dick<\/em>, so apparently he’s an Ahab-type “obsessive hunter” figure.<\/p>\n

We don’t know at this point who “the Cleaner” is.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-15.\u00a0<\/strong>Iceman returns home.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Southern Pole of Inaccessibility<\/strong> is a real place – it’s the location in Antarctica that’s furthest from the sea in every direction. The Soviet Union actually build a weather station there back in the 1950s but it’s been abandoned for decades and apparently is now submerged in ice, so we can turn a blind eye to that.<\/p>\n

Clyde<\/strong>, Iceman’s ice golem creature, appears as a snowman in X-Men boots, as Iceman himself did in the early Silver Age.<\/p>\n

Three pictures<\/strong> are shown in the hallway. Two are reprinted art – the first is the cover of X-Men <\/em>vol 1 #1 (1963), with the original X-Men in action against Magneto. The other is the opening panel of Iceman’s “Origins of the X-Men” back-up strip from X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #46 (1968) – complete with the original lettering, though you’d have to zoom in notice. It shows Iceman and Cyclops being surrounded by a lynch mob shortly after they meet. The third is apparently just a picture of Arakko from space.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-18.\u00a0<\/strong>Flashback: Romeo helps Iceman to reconstitute himself after his death at the Hellfire Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

We saw Nimrod using “cellular napalm” to melt Iceman away in\u00a0Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>, and Romeo reacting. Presumably, Iceman didn’t actually die, but just lost the ability to keep his body together.<\/p>\n

Romeo\u00a0<\/strong>is an Inhuman from that brief period when random humans were getting Inhuman powers from the Terrigen Mists.\u00a0He was a supporting character from All-New X-Men<\/em> vol 2 (the Dennis Hallum run). Technically he debuted in\u00a0Spider-Woman<\/em> vol 6 #10 a month before appearing in ANXM<\/em>, but that was a Hallum story too. Romeo dated the time-travelling Silver Age Iceman for a while in ANXM<\/em>, in an Inhuman\/mutant romance during the period when the two camps were fighting over the Terrigen Mists. All this basically qualifies him as Iceman’s first love, assuming that we’re going to discount any girls from consideration. He resurfaced in last year’s Iceman arc in Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic<\/em>, having been conveniently aged up to Iceman’s current age thanks to some interdimensional time travel shenanigans.<\/p>\n

In terms of his powers, Romeo’s meant to be an empath, so actually reconstituting Iceman seems a bit beyond him – but acting as an anchor to help Iceman do it himself seems fair enough. I mean, it’s Power Of Love, obviously, but why not?<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-20.\u00a0<\/strong>Iceman and Romeo.<\/em><\/p>\n

Romeo is basically using his powers to identify places where Iceman is needed (which is a big upgrade from what we’ve seen from him in the past), and also helping Iceman to periodically reconstitute his body. The data page at the end of the issue indicates that Romeo’s ability to serve this role is tied partly to the design of the Ice Palace magnifying Romeo’s powers, and partly by the fact that his powers are inherently magnified when he’s working closely with someone he feels strongly about.<\/p>\n

How is Romeo not freezing to death in here?<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: a memo from Woodrow Pequod to Judas Traveller, the Orchis head of propaganda (who’s featured before in Orlando’s stories).<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.\u00a0<\/strong>Orchis decide to attach Iceman’s mother.<\/em><\/p>\n

Madeline<\/strong> Drake,<\/strong> Iceman’s mother, is a minor character who’s been around since the 60s. I think we last saw her in the Marvel’s Voices <\/em>Iceman arc, where her husband William died (of unspecified natural causes).<\/p>\n

The Elements of Doom <\/strong>were originally Avengers villains from 1979; they were humans who had been transformed into element-themed creatures. Another group, created by the same mad scientist, showed up in\u00a0Thunderbolts<\/em> in 1997; that version was just elements brought to life. It’s not clear whether this is the same group or a new Elements of Doom. So far as I can see, the last appearance of any of the Elements was in a back-up strip in Heroes for Hire<\/em> vol 2 #13 (2007), when the remnants of the Elements were just lying around inert in the NYPD long-term evidence storage facility.<\/p>\n

Orchis claim that there are 118 of the Elements of Doom, which is indeed as high as the named elements currently go (number 118 being oganesson), though it counts a bunch of elements that are too unstable to stick around for more than a moment.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page – Romeo’s notes on his War Room.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan just reads OUT COLD, PART TWO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. ASTONISHING ICEMAN #1 “Out Cold, part 1” Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Vincenzo Carrat\u00f9 Colourist: Java Tartaglia Letterer: Travis Lanham Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Mark Basso COVER \/ PAGE 1. Just a straightforward shot of Iceman in action. This […]<\/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-9296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296","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=9296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9299,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions\/9299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}