{"id":9342,"date":"2023-08-23T21:43:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9342"},"modified":"2023-08-23T21:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:43:12","slug":"x-force-43-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9342","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #43 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 #43<\/strong>
\n“Friend, Farmer, Soldier, Spy”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Benjamin Percy<\/strong>
\nArtist: Robert Gill<\/strong>
\nColour artist: GURU-eFX<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Joe Caramagna<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Mark Basso<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> X-Force in action, with Colossus in the leadership role. For some reason the group includes Domino but not Sage.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>John Romita tribute.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.\u00a0<\/strong>Colossus prepares for the Hellfire Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re back on the night of\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>, before all the unpleasantness happens. Unlike the other X-books, this one doesn’t jump forward ten weeks to catch up with\u00a0Fall of X<\/em> – it’s a belated\u00a0Gala<\/em> tie-in.<\/p>\n

Again, there’s some ambiguity about whether the narrator here is meant to be Chronicler (or at least reflecting the inner voice that Chronicler is writing for Colossus). The particularly odd moment is on page 3 panel 4, when Colossus briefly lashes out in frustration – Immortal X-Men <\/em>#12 spent a whole issue hammering the idea \u00a0that Colossus is locked in, after all. Is Chronicler acting it out to be true to his understanding of the character? Or does Chronicler just let his guard down for a moment?<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-6.\u00a0<\/strong>Kid Omega shifts his mind into a younger body.<\/em><\/p>\n

This version of Kid Omega has spent decades in an alternate timeline after vanishing in issue #29 and returning to the present day in issue #42. The bodies based on assorted other Krakoan characters were previously seen in issue #28, when we saw him try out the Juggernaut body in training. Understandably, he just goes for a version of his own body, but for whatever reason, his powers don’t seem to work properly in this form.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Colossus briefs X-Force before the Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wolverine (Laura) refuses to take her seat at the table and sulks off at the side.<\/p>\n

Domino, as usual, is the most emotionally perceptive person in the room, and picks up on Kid Omega’s mood; obviously he’s decided not to share his problem with his powers.<\/p>\n

“Due to the extremely sensitive diplomatic situation we find ourselves in as a nation…”<\/strong> Such as the “Sins of Sinister” timeline being made known to the general public through Orchis’s machinations, over in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“…and due to the terroristic behaviour Beast is up to on the global stage…”<\/strong> Covered mostly in\u00a0Wolverine<\/em>. X-Force showed up to help defeat Beast in\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> #35, but he escaped, so Colossus’ comment is reasonable.<\/p>\n

“X-Force will stay off-site, maintaining a satellite presence only at this year’s Hellfire Gala.”<\/strong> As we’ll see later on,\u00a0Mikhail was\u00a0planning<\/em> to mount his own attack on the Hellfire Gala, but Orchis got there first.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page. Although this is marked as a “Chronicler” page, it’s actually a monologue delivered to him by Mikhail. Mikhail lectures Chronicler about how he did nothing of any importance with his powers until falling under Mikhail’s control. He’s not\u00a0wrong<\/em> exactly, but if Chronicler really was spending his time writing modest novels and living a quiet, if alcoholic, life despite his extremely useful powers, maybe Chronicler doesn’t actually\u00a0want<\/em> to do anything important.<\/p>\n

“We have amounted an army” is surely some kind of error – “assembled”, maybe? Mikhail’s “Super Soldiers”, seen at the end of the issue, are the latest version of the “nesting dolls” lab-grown soldiers that he’s used in previous issues.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The title “Friend, Farmer, Soldier, Spy” is a reference to “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy” by John Le Carr\u00e9.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.\u00a0<\/strong>Colossus plants a Krakoan gate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Presumably, the plan was for Mikhail’s forces to march through the gate. But of course, we know Orchis are about to shut them down. The narration stresses the point that this is the moment everything was meant to be working towards, for Mikhail – and of course we know it isn’t going to happen. (If it actually\u00a0is<\/em> a change of plans, then I think this turns it to advantage quite well.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.\u00a0<\/strong>Domino and Deadpool both wander off.<\/em><\/p>\n

Domino.\u00a0<\/strong>As we’ll see in a few pages,\u00a0Domino is going to go and check out Colossus’ farm, as Colossus asked her to do last issue, moments before falling under Chronicler’s control again. It’s not clear what motivates her to do that now, in the middle of a job.<\/p>\n

“Wade, as you well know, we’ve faced incursions at the Gala before.”<\/strong> Sage is referring to Deadpool crashing the first Krakoan Hellfire Gala in issue #20.<\/p>\n

PAGES 15-16.\u00a0<\/strong>Colossus at the Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

“\u0412\u0410\u0428\u0415 \u0417\u0414\u041e\u0420\u041e\u0412\u042c\u0415”<\/strong> \u00a0“To your health.”<\/p>\n

It’s still not entirely clear why telepaths such as Professor X can’t sense what’s up with Chronicler, but presumably it’s something to do with the way Chronicler’s reality-warping powers work.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong> Domino visits Colossus’ farm.<\/em><\/p>\n

As expected, Colossus was trying to get Domino to look at the paintings that he’s been using to try and express himself. The line about Mikhail being “clearly on your mind” is obviously a play on words. Kayla, shown dead in a painting, was Colossus’ girlfriend. He murdered her under Chronicler’s influence in issue #24, after she saw his paintings.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Orchis attack.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nimrod’s attack is shown in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.<\/em> Since this is completely outside Chronicler’s storyline, Colossus is apparently unable to react by anything more than stalling until Chronicler gives him some new directions.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-21.\u00a0<\/strong>Domino finds Kayla’s body.<\/em><\/p>\n

Colossus buried it here in issue #24.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page – basically just more recapping of\u00a0Hellfire Gala<\/em> for any readers who skipped it.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-25.<\/strong> Colossus leads X-Force to his army.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, Colossus\/Chronicler comes up with the fallback plan of bailing from Krakoa and leading X-Force to Russia, which at least gets them to safety. Note that Domino is still in the Savage Land, and Sage gets her warning in time to avoid following too. We’re clearly told that this is\u00a0not<\/em> something that Mikhail asked for, which suggests that it’s something Chronicler did on his own initiative. Is he trying to give X-Force an opportunity to rescue him, now that a deniable opportunity has presented itself?<\/p>\n

PAGE 26.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads THE CHRONICLES OF COLOSSUS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-FORCE vol 6 #43 “Friend, Farmer, Soldier, Spy” Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Robert Gill Colour artist: GURU-eFX Letterer: Joe Caramagna Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Mark Basso COVER \/ PAGE 1. X-Force in action, with Colossus in the leadership […]<\/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-9342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342","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=9342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9344,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342\/revisions\/9344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}