{"id":9638,"date":"2023-11-29T21:49:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9638"},"modified":"2023-11-29T21:49:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:49:34","slug":"realm-of-x-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9638","title":{"rendered":"Realm of X #4 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>REALM OF X #4<\/strong>
\n“The Promised Day”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Torunn Gr\u00f8nbekk<\/strong>
\nArtists: Di\u00f3genes Neves & Rafael Pimentel<\/strong>
\nColour artists: Rain Beredo & Dono S\u00e1nchez-Almara<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Lauren Amaro<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Saturnyne watches as the cast are trapped in an hourglass. This doesn’t really have much to do with the story.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Sif learns what’s happening in Vanaheim.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sif<\/strong> took over as guardian of the Bifrost in\u00a0King Thor<\/em> #4 (2019) following the death of her brother Heimdall, and now has the same all-seeing powers that he used to. The Bifrost itself has actually been destroyed for most of her tenure, but it was recently restored in\u00a0Immortal Thor<\/em> #1. Although we don’t see the Bifrost in this issue, it’s mentioned twice as something that exists, so evidently we’re after that issue. That also means that Thor is wrongly drawn in the costume from his previous series throughout this issue, though that’s a minor error; he’s allowed to have more than one set of clothes.<\/p>\n

Saturnyne has been magically preventing communication between Asgard and Vanaheim throughout this series, which we’ve seen mainly in the form of the prayers and messages from Vanaheim failing to generate a response from Thor. Curse used her powers to shut down that effect at the end of issue #3; Saturnyne’s “What did you do?” line is repeated from that issue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Magik.<\/b> Last issue also ended with Magik falling to her death, and remembering Belasco teaching her how to harness the misery of the world. As we see later on, she’s able to use this to harness some magical power from the world around her, temporarily replacing her normal magic, which has been blocked by Saturnyne throughout the series.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Saturnyne yells at Curse.<\/em><\/p>\n

The woman hanging in the background in panel 2 is\u00a0Joanna<\/strong>, the prophetess who has spent the last two issues taunting Saturnyne about her doomed efforts to escape the prophecies. Joanna’s point was mainly that Saturnyne had failed to grasp the fact that\u00a0she<\/em> needed to sacrifice something in order to change her fate; Saturnyne continues here to insist that somebody else needs to be doing the sacrificing.<\/p>\n

It’s never made entirely clear what Saturnyne is trying to achieve here, but Tsanna’s diary entry later in the issue suggests that Saturnyne may genuinely believe that she’s acting for some long-term greater good, or at least that she has a rationalisation for her actions. She certainly seems to think that Curse is potentialy persuadable.<\/p>\n

Dust<\/strong>. The content of the bottle is a part of Dust which was captured by Saturnyne in the previous issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Magik harnesses her powers.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think the art is meant to show Magik halting her fall just before she hits the ground.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Saturnyne tells Tsanna that they will drain power from Vanaheim itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Okay, so. It’s been clear since issue #2 that Saturnyne’s immediate goal was to get Curse to use her power to enable access to an “ancient power source” which was at the centre of the citadel. The glowing energy thing seen in that issue (and later in this one) is not the source itself, but a portal, through which the source can be seen but not accessed. Saturnyne told Curse in issue #2 that the source had limitless power if they could bring it back, and that they needed it in order to “stand a chance in the coming war”. The narrator described this as a half-truth. In issue #3, Saturnyne tells Magik that she is “creating something new. A new realm. A new home. A new centre of operations.”<\/p>\n

Draining the power of Vanaheim itself is presumably the “other alternative” that Saturnyne mentioned to Tsanna in issue #3 – which Tsanna didn’t seem very happy about. The “Fate of Vanaheim” prophecy in issue #3 also mentions Saturnyne’s army “drain[ing] the realm of life”. The narrator in that issue also confirms that Saturnyne believes that Vanaheim will be destroyed unless Curse can be persuaded to provide access to the source, although that could be read as Saturnyne refusing to countenance the possibility of just giving up on her plans.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page. Tsanna’s diary entry. Tsanna seems to be a true believer in Saturnyne’s overall good intentions, and genuinely thinks that her plans are leading to the greater good in the long run. She claims that Saturnyne plans to turn Vanaheim into “the centre of the joined universes”, which apparently means some kind of interdimensional nexus under her control. Quite\u00a0why<\/em> that’s desirable, or what it’s intended to achieve, is not made clear. It may simply be a case of Saturnyne trying to restore a version of her control of Otherworld, perhaps in a genuine belief that somebody needs to do and that she’s the best qualified.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Vonos and Mary.<\/em><\/p>\n

These two have been flirting throughout the series. Although it’s not mentioned explicitly, the important point here seems to be that over in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> and\u00a0Invincible Iron Man<\/em>, the Kingpin appears to be genuinely concerned about rescuing his beloved wife or at least avenging her – it’s his whole motivation for allying with the surviving mutants. In contrast, in\u00a0Realm of X<\/em>, Mary seems to have entirely forgotten about him.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10. <\/strong>Saturnyne’s forces attack.<\/em><\/p>\n

Straightforward.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.\u00a0<\/strong>Magik rescues Curse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magik advises Curse not to try and recover the power source, on the grounds that whoever locked it away presumably knew what they were doing.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-15. <\/strong>The battle continues, and Saturnyne makes one last pitch to Curse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Vonos is apparently killed in page 15 panel 1. That’ll teach him to be inconvenient to the wider plot. His death is confirmed on page 20 panel 2, where he’s specifically flagged as an example of something that Magik can’t revive.<\/p>\n

PAGE 16.\u00a0<\/strong>Thor and Freyja come to the rescue.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marvel’s version of\u00a0Freyja<\/strong> is currently the God of the Hunt, as of\u00a0Thor<\/em> #16 (2021), though she hasn’t done much of note in that role. The mythological Freyja is one of the Vanir, and thus a native of Vanaheim.<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-18.\u00a0<\/strong>Saturnyne tries to kill Curse.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ignoring Magik’s warning from page 11, Curse uses her powers to access the power source, but gives it to Magik. Curse then keels over because the rule that she suffers pain when using her powers for good.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-21.\u00a0<\/strong>Magik uses the source to restore life to Vanaheim.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently, freeing the source wasn’t such a bad idea after all.<\/p>\n

The “Fate of Vanaheim” prophecy in issue #3 referred to the world being “remade”, which is obviously what happens here. The idea seems to be that the death of most of Vanaheim, and its replacement with new life, somehow creates an interruption in the ability of Vanaheim’s seers to see the future.<\/p>\n

“A memory of an acorn flickers through her mind. Magik once tried to make a tree grow.”<\/strong> This refers back to a scene in the\u00a0Magik<\/em> origin miniseries where she tries to create an acorn but is unable to do so because of her demonic corruption. Apparently, this time round everything is going just fine. (I mean, I suppose it’s possible we’re laying the ground work for a sequel, but don’t hold your breath.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.\u00a0<\/strong>Epilogue.<\/em><\/p>\n

Freyja updates the mutants on the plot of “Fall of X”, and naturally they want to go back and help (including Typhoid, to be fair).<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: another set of annotations by Frider Frostborn, now the librarian of a collection of prophecies all of which are historic.<\/p>\n

The “white room” is obviously the White Hot Room in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> and\u00a0Jean Grey<\/em>. The “island lonely” is Krakoa. “The anger and hurt of a family found” is probably something to do with the reunion of Typhoid and the Kingpin.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25. <\/strong>Trailers. Since this is the final issue, we’re directed to X-Men<\/em> #29, and the Krakoan just says DOOM.<\/p>\n

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

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. REALM OF X #4 “The Promised Day” Writer: Torunn Gr\u00f8nbekk Artists: Di\u00f3genes Neves & Rafael Pimentel Colour artists: Rain Beredo & Dono S\u00e1nchez-Almara Letterer: Clayton Cowles Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Lauren Amaro COVER \/ PAGE 1: Saturnyne watches […]<\/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-9638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9638","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=9638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9640,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9638\/revisions\/9640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}