{"id":9761,"date":"2024-01-25T23:03:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T23:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9761"},"modified":"2024-01-25T23:03:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T23:03:54","slug":"resurrection-of-magneto-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9761","title":{"rendered":"Resurrection of Magneto #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #1<\/strong>
\n“The Lightning Path”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Al Ewing<\/strong>
\nArtist: Luciano Vecchio<\/strong>
\nColour artist: David Curiel<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Joe Sabino<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO<\/strong> is a four-issue miniseries, which effectively replaces\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>. It’s not exactly a renamed\u00a0X-Men Red\u00a0<\/em>arc – as we’ll see, it’s a rather different book – but it does feature Storm and it continues the plot thread of Magneto’s death.<\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1. <\/strong>Storm, with Magneto in the background.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2. <\/strong>Storm’s dream about Magneto.<\/em><\/p>\n

Storm confirms on page 19 that this is what she sees in her dream, and tells us fairly directly what she singles out as important: “He was standing on a strange shore, readying himself to enter a ruined \u00a0city – his face turned away but in torment. It was more than a dream. It was a distress call.” She also notes the five helmets at his feet. We see a version of this same page with Storm on page 29.<\/p>\n

The city, river and bridge are the same in both images, as are the positions of the helmets (which are replaced in Storm’s version by five versions of her headdress). Magneto has three identical versions of his traditional helmet, together with the less common black and white versions. As in Storm’s picture, the three helmets on the left appear to have pools of blood next to them, although in Magneto’s case, one of the pools is green. All of Storm’s are red.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The general layout is from the Five of Cups tarot card, which has five, well, cups in place of the helmets – three spilled, with the contents leaking out. One of them does indeed have green liquid. The city, river and bridge in the background all look rather more normal.<\/p>\n

Storm doesn’t mention Magneto’s line of dialogue – “I was wrong”. We’ll doubtless find out in due course what he’s referring to.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.\u00a0<\/strong>Storm wakes from her dream.<\/em><\/p>\n

Storm is now sleeping with\u00a0Craig Marshall<\/strong>, the NASA scientist from\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>. He and Storm had their first date in X-Men Red <\/em>#11. The two kids are Loolo<\/strong> and\u00a0Kobb<\/strong>, who Craig adopted after they were orphaned during\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“The big push against Orchis.” <\/strong>The plot of\u00a0Fall of the House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The lengthy recap covers much of the relevant plot of X-Men Red<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-7.\u00a0<\/strong>Storm visits Kadesh Base.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the headquarters of Adam Brashear<\/b>, the Blue Marvel, down at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Storm is apparently teleported in there by\u00a0Lactuca the Knower<\/strong>, whose image appears on the screens on page 6 panel 2. Lactuca doesn’t normally get involved in things unless it’s a big deal, so they evidently attach some importance to Storm’s mission.<\/p>\n

Taaia\u00a0<\/strong>is Galactus’s mother, from his home universe. She debuted in Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez’s 2021 Defenders<\/em> series, where she came to the present day. She always behaves in this rather bombastic way, complete with having all-caps lettering in a book where nobody else does. Although she refers to this as “Defenders HQ”, there is no permanent Defenders team – however, she and Blue Marvel are expecting to be magically summoned back to go on a Defenders mission at some point.<\/p>\n

“‘Look for the Fifth Business.’ … [T]he ‘Dominion’ we were warned about – Eternity’s mysterious enemy who exists outside time and space.”<\/strong> This refers to Ewing and Rodriguez’s Defenders: Beyond\u00a0<\/em>series from 2022, in which both Blue Marvel and Taiaa appeared. This extremely meta series involves the Defenders being sent by Eternity to visit the highest plane of existence that they can reach, where “you will see the face of my enemy.” In the final issue, that highest plane turns out to be the House of Ideas, occupied by a figure apparently representing the collective persona of the Marvel Universe’s literal creators. (“I see through many eyes. I build with many hands.”) Finally, the Defenders are rewarded with a cryptic image of “the Enigma to come”, represented as a crown symbol. With hindsight, this is evidently the Dominion Enigma from\u00a0Immortal X-Men\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Rise of the Powers of X<\/em>, who exists outside conventional space and time.<\/p>\n

“I lent her a dimensional exploration vessel once.”<\/strong> What do you mean, you don’t remember his two page cameo to lend the X-Men a ship so that they could travel to the Negative Zone in X-Men Gold<\/em> #17?<\/p>\n

“Iron Man convinced me we’d stand a better chance if we struck together.”<\/strong> Iron Man is co-ordinating the attack on Orchis over in\u00a0Invincible Iron Man<\/em> and\u00a0Fall of the House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“We must fight together.”<\/strong> The flashback on page 7 panel 4 is to Magneto’s death in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #7, but Blue Marvel and Storm’s dialogue also forms part of Magneto’s speech: “There are [worse dreams]. I’ve come to understand that. To understand that nothing less will save us. We must stand together. We must fight together – all of society’s so-called undesirables, human or mutant – or our enemies will destroy us simply for daring to exist. Because they never stopped, Ororo. They have never stopped.”<\/p>\n

Though he’s mainly used these days as a cosmic scientist type, Blue Marvel’s original premise, from the 2008 mini\u00a0Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel<\/em>, was that he had been a masked superhero in the 60s, forced into retirement due to the controversy when people found out that he was black.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Blue Marvel opens a portal for Storm.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Against the last wishes of a dying man.”<\/strong> Magneto made very clear in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #7 that he wanted to stick by his earlier decision not to be resurrected. Storm pointed out that even with his Cerebro backups having been destroyed for political reasons, he could still choose to return via the Waiting Room. He replied that “With no backup, it’s my decision. You wouldn’t break your word either.”<\/p>\n

“For a moment I’m reminded of Forge.”<\/strong> Like her ex Forge, Blue Marvel is disturbingly willing to do anything for the sake of pushing the boundaries of science – though he has a much more consistent moral compass than Forge does.<\/p>\n

The Waiting Room<\/strong> was created in\u00a0X-Men: Trial of Magneto<\/em>, as Scarlet Witch’s way of atoning for M-Day. Basically, it was a route by which mutants who had died before the earliest Cerebro back-ups could still choose to return and join the resurrection queues. The mechanics were always terribly hazy.<\/p>\n

Kaorak<\/strong> is the new island that Apocalypse created using magic in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #17. Apparently he’s used the same magic to create a special one-off gateway that, with Blue Marvel’s aid, can get Storm into the Waiting Room.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong>\u00a0Storm arrives in the Waiting Room.<\/em><\/p>\n

The one character who greets her is\u00a0Tarn<\/strong>, but more of him – and why there’s nobody else there – in a bit.<\/p>\n

In the distance are what seem to be seven symbols on cloud podiums, with what might be the Infinity Gems floating overhead. Leaving the gems aside, this is based on the Rider-Waite version of the Seven of Cups, usually associated with wishful thinking. It shows seven cups arranged on clouds, with \u00a0different things in each one:<\/p>\n