{"id":9485,"date":"2023-10-05T21:49:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T20:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9485"},"modified":"2023-10-05T21:49:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T20:49:09","slug":"immortal-x-men-16-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9485","title":{"rendered":"Immortal X-Men #16 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>IMMORTAL X-MEN #16<\/strong>
\n“The Island of Doctor Xavier”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Lucas Werneck<\/strong>
\nColour artist: David Curiel<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Apocalypse – or rather, the version of Apocalypse from the desert landscape – with the Phoenix Force in the background. I think it’s meant to be perching on his left arm (note the claws). His Pharaoh trappings reflect the role that he’s been cast in for this re-enactment of the Book of Exodus.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Shaw and Selene monitor Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recap: The External Gate was created in Excalibur<\/em> #12 from the (involuntary) sacrifice of most of Selene’s fellow Externals. Now that the mutants are out of the way, Selene wants to secure the Gate and bring back the Externals. Charles Xavier has been repelling all the landing parties by turning them back telepathically. Last issue, \u00a0Selene and Sebastian Shaw tried sending a group of soldiers with psi-blockers. Professor X responded by tearing them apart, apparently with his growing telekinetic powers; that’s the red smear they see next to the External Gate. This is not what Shaw was trying to achieve, and while it’s unlikely he cares about the soldiers himself, it hasn’t advanced his goals of actually profiting from his notional ownership of Krakoa.<\/p>\n

It’s worth saying here that we don’t actually\u00a0see<\/em> Professor X killing the soldiers last issue. We see the fight starting, and then the next panel takes place the following morning and shows their bodies scattered by the Gate. We’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.\u00a0<\/strong>Shaw unveils his Hellfire Armour.<\/em><\/p>\n

By this point, Shaw has either figured out that aligning himself with Orchis was a mistake (in the sense of not advancing his own goals after all), or at least has decided that it’s time to cut and run from them now. He certainly wants to pursue his goals with Krakoa independently of them, and to keep them at arm’s length.<\/p>\n

As Selene points out, the “Hellfire Amour” was obviously named and designed back when he was still the Black King; since\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #25, the Hellfire Club has been under the control of the Kingpin, and Shaw is not welcome.<\/p>\n

Despite Shaw’s claim that the armour was “designed by myself”, it’s obviously an opulent version of Iron Man’s armour. That said, Shaw\u00a0is<\/em> meant to be a technical genius, so it’s certainly possible that it really does contain a lot of his design work. Note that unlike Iron Man, Shaw doesn’t lower himself to actually\u00a0building<\/em> his designs. He commissions someone to do that for him.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The title is obviously a reference to “The Island of Dr Moreau”<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Shaw attacks Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the narrator for this issue is apparently Apocalypse – or, more accurately, the version of Apocalypse from the desert vision where most of the Krakoans are currently trapped. Apocalypse was a member of the Quiet Council but left before this book started, so he kind-of-sort-of keeps the them. (Jean Grey is also in that category, and hold that thought.)<\/p>\n

“Apocalypse” gets to narrate a grand total of five pages of this issue, keeping very much at a distance from things.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Apocalypse narrates.<\/em><\/p>\n

The narrator tells us directly that they aren’t Apocalypse, though they rightly point out that their apparent function in the desert – testing the mutants and making them stronger – is something Apocalypse would probably approve of.<\/p>\n

The narrator also claims to be “something grander” than Apocalypse, and describes this location as “the most dangerous room of all.” Page 22 indicates that they’re actually in the White Hot Room (see below). If so, this line – and the cover – would seem to indicate that “Apocalypse” is actually Phoenix. The narrator’s closing line – “They will not survive the experience” – should also be seen in the context of the White Hot Room being a place of death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

The two mutants in the foreground in panel 4 are Chlorophil and Kafka. We’ll see later that they’re trying to farm some kind of weird local plant.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Exodus and Hope rescue Egg.<\/em><\/p>\n

Egg<\/strong> is still in his costume from the Hellfire Gala. His previous death was in\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day\u00a0<\/em>#1.<\/p>\n

The random duplicated characters attacking him are versions of Wolverine and Bishop. Our attention was drawn last issue to the fact that Wolverine had once tried to kill Hope, and she flags the point again here. As for Bishop, he not only tried to kill her, he spent an entire volume of Cable<\/em> fixating on it. That’s also come up recently in Children of the Vault<\/em> (after a long, long period of being politely ignored because it broke the character). It’s suggested later on that this landscape is based on Exodus’s mind; it’s possible that he’s fixating on people who have directly tried to kill his Messiah, or indeed that Hope herself is. Either way, it’s clearly not a coincidence that the “bad guys” in this landscape are linked by being heroes who once tried to kill Hope.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: Destiny’s diary of the diaspora. We saw one of these last issue, marked as Day 9. This one is marked Day 107, but as Destiny points out, time seems to be screwy in this landscape. Destiny is clearly sceptical of this whole place, and Mother Righteous’s role in it in particular, and she still doesn’t have working visions of the future (probably because they’re outside normal time), but she’s starting to come round to things for want of any better option.<\/p>\n

Now that the Five have been reassembled, they want to restart resurrection. Originally that required Cerebro and Mr Sinister’s DNA samples. But the Waiting Room (created in\u00a0Trial of Magneto<\/em>) allowed the Five to make contact directly with the spirits of the mutant dead. It’s not entirely clear how this gets round the need for a DNA sample – if you can do resurrection without a DNA sample by going direct to the Waiting Room, why didn’t the Krakoans just do that with the compromised members of the Quiet Council, and guarantee that any manipulation by Mr Sinister had been circumvented? Still, we see on the next page that it seems to work.<\/p>\n

As covered last issue, Mother Righteous has been lying to the other mutants about how she wound up here. It seems likely that she’s been deliberately adding the members of the Five, who left Earth at the same time as everyone else, as it suits her to advance the plot.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>The Five successfully resurrect someone with Mother Righteous’s help.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is she\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>contacting the Waiting Room? If not, who is this guy that’s been resurrected?<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.\u00a0<\/strong>Destiny grumbles about Mother Righteous.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope thanks Mother Righteous for her help, which we all know by now gives her magical power over you. Interestingly, Mother Righteous positively sends them out to find one last mutant – we’ll see later that this is Jean Grey, and why does Righteous want\u00a0her<\/em> involved?<\/p>\n

Hope and Exodus do attach at least\u00a0some<\/em> weight to Destiny’s warnings, so they’re not complete idiots.<\/p>\n

We see on page 13 panel 2 that this room is Atlantic Krakoa’s makeshift version of the Quiet Council chamber, and Hope, Exodus and Destiny are still regarding themselves as the Council. It’s not clear whether anyone else has been added yet.<\/p>\n

Again, that’s Kafka and Chlorophil coming in to represent the masses.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-17.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X fights Sebastian Shaw and Selene.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emma Frost tried to contact Professor X in issue #14 (the first issue of his vigil on the island), but he simply told her “Our children are dead. Leave me be, Emma.” He contacts her now to try and find out why Shaw is attacking the island, and learns that Shaw has lost control of the Hellfire Club. His solution is to give Shaw telepathically-raided passwords for a dozen key Hellfire accounts and tell Shaw to go and use them in exchange for leaving the island. Selene gets the gate (Shaw presumably asks for this because otherwise Selene will keep pestering him to go back).<\/p>\n

When Shaw mentions the soldiers that were killed last issue, Professor X replies “I don’t understand. I haven’t killed anyone” (with the emphasis on the second “I”). Remember, we didn’t actually see what happened to those soldiers in the previous issue – the story cut past that bit. But Professor X seems confused about what Shaw is talking about, full stop. Hmm. We’ll come back to this.<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page – another excerpt from Exodus’s idiosyncratic translation of the Book of Exodus. This is Exodus 8:1, with Exodus as Moses and Apocalypse as Pharaoh.<\/p>\n

PAGE 19.\u00a0<\/strong>Hope and Exodus find Jean Grey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jean is delirious, but her dialogue here comes directly from the last page of\u00a0Jean Grey<\/em> #2. In that book, Jean is experiencing a series of apparent hallucinations in which she imagines making different choices at key points in her life. Jean’s presence here is interesting, because she died at the Hellfire Gala and didn’t go through the gates. She’s here because she’s Phoenix, and when Phoenixes die they go to the White Hot Room for resurrection.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-21.\u00a0<\/strong>“Apocalypse” defeats Exodus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Exodus is also conflating Apocalypse with Satan, who doesn’t feature in the original Book of Exodus – Exodus is presumably bringing in elements from Satan tempting Jesus in the desert.<\/p>\n

“Apocalypse” claims that this is Exodus’s desert, and Exodus seems to confirm that it reflects a vision he had at some point in the past. Understandably, Exodus has until now assumed that this was a precognitive vision.<\/p>\n

The White Hot Room\u00a0<\/strong>is a Grant Morrison term, and one of those intentionally hazy cosmic ideas that’s very open to interpretation by different writers. Put very broadly, it’s a sort of home dimension for the Phoenix and an afterlife where Phoenixes go to be resurrected… kind of? It was most recently seen in\u00a0Defenders: Beyond<\/em> #3, an Al Ewing story, where it was described as “the highest plane you can reach without risking the abyss”.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X enters Mr Sinister’s lab.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinister’s animals are still alive and well, so that’s nice.<\/p>\n

The implication here seems to be that Sinister\u00a0is<\/em> still present within Professor X, despite Forge’s attempts to cure him, and that he may have taken over Xavier’s mind at the point when he slaughtered the Orchis soldiers last issue. Also, Sinister is apparently trying to leave messages for Professor X during his periods in control.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads DANGER.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. IMMORTAL X-MEN #16 “The Island of Doctor Xavier” Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Lucas Werneck Colour artist: David Curiel Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. Apocalypse – or rather, the version of Apocalypse from the desert landscape […]<\/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-9485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485","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=9485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9487,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485\/revisions\/9487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}