{"id":9625,"date":"2023-11-24T22:18:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T22:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9625"},"modified":"2023-11-24T22:18:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T22:18:30","slug":"uncanny-spider-man-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9625","title":{"rendered":"Uncanny Spider-Man #4 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4<\/strong>
\n“Slice and Dice”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Si Spurrier<\/strong>
\nArtist: Lee Garbett<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Joe Caramagna<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Nightcrawler and Spider-Man fighting a Stark Sentinel.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Nightcrawler watches Spider-Man deal with an anti-mutant mob.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nightcrawler decides to leave it to Peter to deal with this – and he’s probably right that Peter’s better placed to try and calm the mob than he is. But the little ghost Bamf clearly sees this as another example of Kurt hiding from his problems. And he’s probably right too.<\/p>\n

The Bamf also tells us directly that he isn’t an illusion. Admittedly, he would, wouldn’t he? But that’s consistent with issue #1, where he seemed to be able to shield Kurt from the Stark Sentinel’s detection.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More interestingly, the Bamf also refers to a “boss” who “thought you [Kurt] were someone who led with his heart”. That doesn’t really fit with the Bamf being Legion, and nor does the Bamf’s accent. But I suppose the Bamf could still be one of his creations, and it’s not like there are many other obvious candidates.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the Stark Sentinel has now decided it’s going to arrest suspected mutants who\u00a0aren’t<\/em> mutants, so that they can be interrogated on suspicion of being mutant sympathisers. This feels like the sort of thing that could backfire on Orchis, but maybe not in the short term.<\/p>\n

The Sentinel then goes on to accuse Spider-Man of being a mutant, which he certainly isn’t – but that would fit with Orchis having an agenda of moving on to other superheroes when the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-10.<\/strong> Mystique opens fire on the crowd.<\/em><\/p>\n

With a bazooka, at that. This\u00a0does<\/em> prompt Nightcrawler to step in, by teleporting the shell so that it hits the Sentinel instead. Mystique is still completely out of her mind, and although at first she seems to be acting out of hatred of the anti-mutant mob, mostly she seems to be under a delusion that they have something to do with the loss of her child (which she’s been obsessed with throughout the series).<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: a direct continuation of the conversation in the previous scene. Nightcrawler directly picks up on the point that established continuity has Mystique abandoning him, rather than having him taken from her (as covered in the annotations for issue #2)<\/a>. She doesn’t give him a direct answer to that point, instead choosing to tell him that he’s just as broken as she is, except he’s covering for it better on the surface.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.\u00a0<\/strong>Silver Sable and Vulture.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Dumme verdammte waffen.”<\/strong> “Stupid damn weapons.”<\/p>\n

“Only because you refuse to take the damn kill fee.”<\/strong> We established last issue that Orchis had tried to terminate Silver Sable’s contract, but she refused to let them, supposedly as a matter of principle. At this point, Vulture’s belief that they’re achieving nothing, and that his Hounds will eventually get the job done, seems reasonable enough.<\/p>\n

“The old X-tree.”<\/strong> The Treehouse base from\u00a0X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“Run-in with your target’s mom.”<\/strong> The Hounds fought Mystique last issue. She shot Cloak in the head, but because of his Phalanx infection, it didn’t cause any lasting harm<\/p>\n

Travers\u00a0<\/strong>was the irritating Orchis officer that Silver Sable was stuck with in issue #2, and who was responsible for the mind-control technology that was used on Nightcrawler when he was an Orchis prisoner in\u00a0X-Men: Before the Fall – Sons of X.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Surrender now or ten humans die.”<\/strong> The threat made to mutants by Orchis in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>, though it doesn’t seem to be something they actually do routinely in practice.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-17.\u00a0<\/strong>Kurt and Silver Sable’s date.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Cheney concert.”<\/strong> Silver Sable mentioned her father taking her to a Lila Cheney concert last issue.<\/p>\n

Like the Bamf, Silver Sable correctly identifies that Nightcrawler is dodging his problems and that their bizarre relationship is part of that. Nightcrawler is not up for being lectured on morality by a mercenary, but Silver Sable does at least have the argument that she acts for the good of her people – being the main export industry of her nation – while Kurt is dodging the problems of mutantkind. Presumably, he’s deliberately been avoiding any contact with the X-Men.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Kremer threatens Silver Sable.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the same anti-mutant thug that we saw at the end of issue #1, and causing trouble for Silver Sable in issue #2. The fact that Silver Sable is inclined to cancel the contract rather than\u00a0really<\/em> be forced to bring Nightcrawler in strongly supports the view that she wasn’t trying very hard. Kremer has a point that, by damaging the reputation of her organisation, and thus the economy of her nation, this behaviour is contrary to the moral justification Silver Sable had for her mercenary activities in the first place.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nightcrawler is pointed towards Mystique by the same park-dwellers we saw at the start of issue #1.<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.\u00a0<\/strong>Text page, directing our attention to next week’s\u00a0X-Men Blue: Origins.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 21-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Silver Sable lures Nightcrawler into a trap.<\/em><\/p>\n

Somewhat reluctantly. Note, though, that she told Nightcrawler that she had something to tell him\u00a0before<\/em> she knew she would have to capture him for real.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.\u00a0<\/strong>Nightcrawler is brought in to Orchis.<\/em><\/p>\n

The story goes out of its way to close off the obvious possibility that he might have swapped places with Mystique between pages 19 and 21.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads FADE TO BLUE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4 “Slice and Dice” Writer: Si Spurrier Artist: Lee Garbett Colour artist: Matt Milla Letterer: Joe Caramagna Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Sarah Brunstad COVER \/ PAGE 1. Nightcrawler and Spider-Man fighting a Stark Sentinel. PAGES 2-5.\u00a0Nightcrawler […]<\/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-9625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9625","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=9625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9627,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9625\/revisions\/9627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}