{"id":9308,"date":"2023-08-09T23:31:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T22:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9308"},"modified":"2023-08-09T23:31:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T22:31:34","slug":"immortal-x-men-14-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9308","title":{"rendered":"Immortal X-Men #14 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>IMMORTAL X-MEN #14
\n<\/strong>“Sympathy for the Scarlet Witch”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Lucas Werneck<\/strong>
\nColourists: David Curiel & Erick Arciniega<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Professor X on the beach of Krakoa, confronting the ruins of a half-buried Sentinel. Presumably a Planet of the Apes<\/em> riff.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> John Romita tribute.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X stares into space.<\/em><\/p>\n

The very fact that we’re seeing him without his Cerebro helmet is a symbol of the Krakoan era being over.<\/p>\n

“X weeks later. Krakoa, population: 1.”<\/strong> The “X weeks later” tag also appears in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #25 (well, as “X weeks ago”, but same difference). Oddly, this week’s Children of the Vault <\/em>#1 just opts for “weeks later”.\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em> ends with a caption noting the population of Krakoa as 1.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X recalls Destiny asking him to get Mystique to safety if something happens at the Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

This puts a different complexion on the scene at page 57 of\u00a0Hellfire Gala 2023\u00a0<\/em>where Professor X very aggressively tries to force Mystique to go through the gates, apparently giving her a stroke and prompting her to fall to her death. Destiny has very explicitly asked for this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Destiny maintains that given the flux in the timeline after “Sins of Sinister” she isn’t sure whether anything will happen at the Gala. However, we’ve seen her in\u00a0X-Men\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Rogue & Gambit<\/em> apparently making plans for this event by getting Manifold into place. She also suggests that she’s resigned to the fact that nobody would believe her anyway if she tried to give a direct warning, presumably through a combination of distrust and her failed prediction that Shaw was working with Orchis in issue #12.<\/p>\n

You have to figure that Destiny knows what would have happened if she’d given the warning, at least in the immediate future, though – does she think that the exile of mutantkind was a good thing in the long run, or at least the least worst option? Her dialogue in Gala <\/em>seems to suggest so.\u00a0(At this stage, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this turns out to be a five-month arc that ends with the re-establishment of a chastened, less complacent Krakoa – and one no longer able to depend on the drugs as a source of income.)<\/p>\n

The flashback in panel 4 is to the announcement of the new X-Men team in Hellfire Gala<\/em> 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 5-7.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X recaps Hellfire Gala 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a montage of flashbacks, designed to bring anyone who skipped\u00a0Gala<\/em> up to speed while conveying something about Xavier’s state of mind to the rest of us. Specifically:<\/p>\n