{"id":9482,"date":"2023-10-04T22:34:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T21:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9482"},"modified":"2023-10-04T22:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T21:34:33","slug":"x-men-27-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9482","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #27 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN vol 6 #27<\/strong>
\n“Road Trip”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Gerry Duggan<\/strong>
\nArtist: Phil Noto<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> A singularly unpleasant image of Cyclops as an Orchis prisoner with his eyes sewn shut, as seen in issue #25. This has very little to do with the content of the issue – Cyclops appears in it for one page, in which he’s asleep. The actual story mostly involves the X-Men going to ask the Fantastic Four for help. The\u00a0solicitation<\/em> for this issue, though, seems to suggest that this was meant to be a Cyclops story. (“When Cyclops joined this iteration of the X-Men, his pitch was simple – ‘I am the X-Men.’ If so, the enemies of the X-Men seem to have this fight all sewn up.”) That’s the second issue in a row where the cover and solicitation have born very little resemblance to the content.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-6.\u00a0<\/strong>Shadowkat breaks into the Orchis facility at Randall’s Island.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last issue, Emma Frost had asked Shadowkat to focus on finding Cyclops (something which Kate seemed to have been paying lip service to up to that point, in favour of her own priorities). They were going to leave together to look for him until Emma got derailed by her wedding subplot. Shadowkat headed off anyway, and apparently she has indeed turned her attention to it this time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Henry Gyrich\u00a0<\/strong>would be known to the public as a US government official – I’m not sure whether his involvement with the orbiting version of Alpha Flight is public knowledge – but he was also an Orchis member. He was killed by Abigail Brand in\u00a0SWORD<\/em> #11.<\/p>\n

“Synch has tasked me with taking a census of mutants.”<\/strong> We saw her doing this in issue #25.<\/p>\n

The Juggernaut<\/strong> was seemingly killed in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em> along with most of the rest of the newly elected X-Men team, but apparently his “unstoppable” magical gimmick heals him from catastrophic injury. (And even restores his costume, which is somewhat magical as well.) Juggernaut’s power levels have fluctuated in recent years, but Orchis evidently assume that he’s still literally unstoppable, so that the only way to keep him contained is to make sure he chooses not to leave. Here, they’ve apparently told him that his adamantium neck chain is tied to the neck of someone in the next room, so that he\u00a0could<\/em> leave, but he’d kill them in the process.<\/p>\n

The chain is apparently connected to that coil we see disappearing into the wall. Cyclops did indeed have something similar in issue #25. According to Dr Stasis, it’s “an adamantium neck brace connected to an adamantium filament” which could be used to kill him at any point. It’s not entirely obvious how Juggernaut’s trap prevents him from simply turning round and smashing through the wall\u00a0towards<\/em> the person on the other end of the coil, but maybe he’s been told that it would set off a boobytrap or something.<\/p>\n

“Resist.”<\/strong> The Red Diamond mind-control resistance mantra used by X-Men in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em> to resist Professor X’s attempt to shove them through the Krakoan gates.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The word “RESIST” on the left is laid out in diamond style, as in\u00a0Hellfire Gala<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.\u00a0<\/strong>The X-Men discuss plans.<\/em><\/p>\n

“This heavily damaged Cerebro unit that Orchis had in its ‘evidence locker.'”\u00a0<\/strong>I don’t think we’ve seen any particular explanation of where Orchis got this from. It’s not the one that Professor X was wearing at the Hellfire Gala – he took that back to Krakoa with him at the end of the issue. Shadowkat rather handwavingly suggests it might have come from\u00a0Legacy House<\/strong>, the black market superhuman paraphernalia merchants from\u00a0Wolverine<\/em>, though that would still beg the question of how something so important wound up in anyone’s hands without its absence being noticed. It might have been picked up by Captain Krakoa when he raided the Pit in\u00a0Uncanny Avengers<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

The Fantastic Four.<\/strong> In the 2020 miniseries X-Men \/ Fantastic Four\u00a0<\/em>#1, Reed Richards created a device to mask his son Franklin Richards’ mutant gene so that he wouldn’t be able to use the Krakoan gates. (Franklin has since been retconned into not being a mutant after all, but don’t worry about that for now.) \u00a0At the end of the series, Professor X and Magneto confront Reed and explain that the device not only cloaks the mutant gene, but can shut down mutant abilities altogether. Professor X then erases Reed’s memory of how to make the device, and claims that he has ensured that Reed will never be able to work out the same idea again. (This story largely ignores that last bit, treating it as a straightforward memory erasure.)<\/p>\n

The X-Men are hoping to help Reed get his memories back so that he can re-make the device and use it to hide them from Orchis, making it easier for them to operate. Honestly, given how important to the plot this is, it really would have justified a data page.<\/p>\n

Shadowkat<\/strong> doesn’t go on the mission, giving a vague excuse about not wanting to revisit history. Her “history with the subjects”, mentioned by Talon, refers to her bonding with Franklin Richards back in the original\u00a0Fantastic Four vs the X-Men<\/em> mini from 1987, where the FF save her life after the Morlock Massacre.<\/p>\n

However…\u00a0Marauders<\/em> vol 1 #27, the final issue of Gerry Duggan’s run, ends with Kate Pryde visiting Reed Richards and asking him to help her use the Krakoan gates. He tells her that he wants the erased knowledge back, and she offers him an unspecified deal. That storyline seemed to have been completely dropped, but it may have something to do with Kate’s reluctance to visit the FF here.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page on Rasputin IV. This is basically a straight recap, with some further explanation of why she isn’t an omega psychic. For some reason this data page doesn’t have the “distressed” effect of most Fall of X data pages.<\/p>\n

Anything that Rasputin IV knows about Ms Marvel would have been told to her by Mr Sinister – normal society had completely collapsed before she was created in the “Sins of Sinister” timeline. So you’d think she’d be a bit sceptical about it. That said, Sinister deliberately set out to make Rasputin IV a sincere (and manipulable) hero, and it makes sense that he’d be giving her role models from the days of yore. Ms Marvel would make some sense if Sinister viewed her as both heroic and naive – exactly what he was going for.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-13.\u00a0<\/strong>The X-Men arrive in Arizona and Rasputin IV starts a fight with the FF.<\/em><\/p>\n

“After the disaster in New York…”<\/strong> In\u00a0Fantastic Four<\/em> #4, Reed Richards averts an alien invasion by sending the entire Baxter Building and everyone inside a year forward in time. Everyone inside should simply find they’ve missed a year, but the many separated families are not happy with the FF at all, which is why they’ve left New York and are now hanging out on the Grimm family farm. Franklin and Valeria are also in the Baxter Building, which is why we don’t see them here.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-19.<\/strong>\u00a0The X-Men talk to Mr Fantastic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reed correctly identifies Rasputin IV as a genetic chimera and correctly guesses at Mr Sinister as the original creator (though his second guess of the Beast is reasonable enough).<\/p>\n

A couple of points are worth mentioning about this scene. Firstly, despite having been thoroughly drilled on Ms Marvel, Rasputin IV seems to know little or nothing about the Fantastic Four, some of the most high profile heroes in the world. Perhaps Mr Sinister was more interest in X-Men-adjacent characters, or just didn’t much like the thought of a scientific genius as a role model. At any rate, it’s another reason for Rasputin IV to doubt the accuracy of what she knows about history.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Reed’s device, which is evidently very good, correctly identifies four of the DNA strands that contribute to Rasputin IV, but it doesn’t pick up Kate. So if the X-Men are looking for something that can make mutant DNA undetectable, maybe she’d be a good place to look?<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.\u00a0<\/strong>Rasputin, Reed and Sue enter Reed’s mind.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first panel is a flashback to\u00a0X-Men \/ Fantastic Four<\/em> #4.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Rasputin simply confirms that the knowledge has been entirely erased. There’s no sign of any evidence of something to prevent Reed from coming up with the idea again, so perhaps Xavier was bluffing about that.<\/p>\n

PAGES 21-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Ms Marvel jogs Reed’s memory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, Ms Marvel’s mutant powers are suppressed by her overriding Inhuman side, and Reed’s device was taking advantage of a similar principle. So now he can build something to sort the problem.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.\u00a0<\/strong>Dr Stasis and Firestar.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stasis has now taken to having dinner with Firestar after Mother Righteous told him to stop making disposable clones of his family, in\u00a0X-Men: Before the Fall – Sinister Four<\/em>. He’s mentioned that he doesn’t like eating alone. Presumably he’s a bit less trigger happy with Firestar.<\/p>\n

Juggernaut has tried to escape off panel and been flattened by Nimrod; Stasis is planning to remove his magic gem and turn himself into a new Juggernaut. So Firestar is going to have to get a move on if she wants to save Juggernaut.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan says JUGGERNAUT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN vol 6 #27 “Road Trip” Writer: Gerry Duggan Artist: Phil Noto Letterer: Clayton Cowles Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. A singularly unpleasant image of Cyclops as an Orchis prisoner with his […]<\/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-9482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482","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=9482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9484,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions\/9484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}