{"id":9920,"date":"2024-03-14T21:16:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9920"},"modified":"2024-03-14T21:16:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:16:42","slug":"dead-x-men-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9920","title":{"rendered":"Dead X-Men #3 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>DEAD X-MEN #3<\/strong>
\n“An Echo, a Stain”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Foxe<\/strong>
\nArtists: Lynne Yoshii, Bernard Chang, Javier Pina & David Bald\u00e9on<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Frank Martin<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Cory Petit<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The X-Men confront an alternate Psylocke.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3. <\/strong>The X-Men arrive in Moira’s 9th life.<\/em><\/p>\n

The previous issue ended with the X-Men in Moira’s seventh life, where they learned that the cyborg Moira from issue #1 was visiting Moira’s earlier lives, and decided that they had to pursue her through those timelines in order to stop her from causing damage to the timeline. They’ve apparently come directly from that timeline, but although they tell us that Rachel sent them here, it’s not altogether clear why<\/em>, since they spend much of the rest of the issue trying to persuade Rachel to keep sending them back through Moira’s past lives. Presumably Rachel just assumes that they’re still just randomly visiting past timelines to see if anything interesting turns up, which is pretty much how Prodigy pitched matters to her last issue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moira’s ninth life.<\/strong> House of X<\/em> #2 only shows us two pages of this timeline, in which Moira aligns herself with Apocalypse. We see her in a temple alongside the Horsemen, looking like a smaller female version of Apocalypse himself (much as she appears here, though the colouring on her face was more prominent in the original story). Powers of X<\/em> then shows this version of Moira in the future, ending with the X-Men getting information to her and killing her in order to reset the timeline.<\/p>\n

Frenzy<\/strong> did start off as a follower of Apocalypse, as a member of the Alliance of Evil in her earliest appearances – though she was a hired gun rather than a true believer.<\/p>\n

The Host<\/strong> appear to be a horde of clones of Archangel. They’re wearing the same skull mask that the main Archangel wore as a Horseman of Apocalypse in his earliest appearances in that role.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4. <\/strong>Recap and credits. I should have mentioned this before, but for whatever reason, the story titles in this series are all “Bjork” songs. Issue #1 is titled after her 2007 single “Earth Intruders”<\/a>, issue #2 was “Army of Me”<\/a> (an actual hit, from 1995) and “An Echo, a Stain”<\/a> is a track from her 2001 album “Vespertine”.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-6. <\/strong>The X-Men regroup in the White Hot<\/em> Room.<\/p>\n

Prodigy seems to be saying here that he was trying to learn about Dominions from Moira herself<\/em>. But that doesn’t make any sense, because he already copied the cyborg Moira’s memories in issue #1, which surely include anything that this Moira learned about Dominions.<\/p>\n

Rachel tells us that she’s very busy right now due to “Hunter-Killers” attacking No-Place X in Rise of the Powers of X <\/em>#3. That issue isn’t out for another two weeks but since it seems to be basically a continuation of the attack shown in Rise <\/em>#2, this is hardly a spoiler.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7. <\/strong>Cyborg Moira visits her tenth and third lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moira’s tenth<\/strong> life<\/strong> is the mainstream timeline; for some reason, cyborg Moira is watching Cyclops arrive for his trial in Fall of the House of X <\/em>#1.<\/p>\n

Moira’s third life<\/strong> is the one where she develops a cure for mutant powers, and gets burned to death by Mystique, Destiny and Pyro. The moment shown here appears to be page 10 panel 4 of House of X <\/em>#2, viewed from a different angle; cyborg Moira would have been behind the “camera” in the original scene.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9. <\/strong>The X-Men continue to talk to Rachel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cyborg Moira got the mysterium, and Prodigy got the rock (a shard of the M’Kraan Crystal), in issue #1. The rest of the recap is from issue #2. Professor X speaking to young Moira must happen in Rise of the Powers of X<\/em> #3. Again, that issue isn’t out yet, but the previous issues were clearly setting up such a meeting, so it’s barely a spoiler. As Rise<\/em> #2 and Dead X-Men<\/em> #2 have shown, Rachel believes that Professor X wants to speak to Moira, but Professor X has told Rasputin that he intends to kill her.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10. <\/strong>Cyborg Moira visits her second and fourth lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moira’s<\/strong> second life<\/strong> is shown on pages 8 and 9 of House of X<\/em> #2. She sees Charles Xavier on television announcing himself as a mutant, decides to fly to America to meet him, and dies in a plane crash without achieving anything at all. Obviously, cyborg Moira is watching the plane take off.<\/p>\n

Moira’s fourth life <\/strong>is shown on pages 16 and 17 of House of X<\/em> #2. It’s a timeline where she allies herself with Professor X from the outset and is a loyal ally of the X-Men throughout, until getting killed by Sentinels at some point after the equivalent of Avengers vs X-Men<\/em>. Cyborg Moira is shown here watching what seems to be the original X-Men’s first outing against Magneto – the line “You haven’t defeated me yet!” is from the last page of X-Men <\/em>#1.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-12. <\/strong>Prodigy continue to argue for visiting earlier timelines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mother Righteous<\/strong> is being used as a communications link between the No-Place and the White Room, as explained in Rise of the Powers of X <\/em>#2.<\/p>\n

Cannonball suggests that the cyborg Moira is being drawn to points near the end of her previous lives… which doesn’t really fit with the points they visit in either her fourth or her ninth lives.<\/p>\n

“[W]e got there not long before an assassination attempt hurt Moira so bad that she put herself in stasis.” <\/strong>This is part of the back story of Powers of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“According to Xavier, Moira’s first go was pretty uneventful. Didn’t exactly stretch on for a thousand years.” <\/strong>Moira’s first life is completely normal; she marries, has a family and dies at 74. She only becomes aware that she’s a mutant in her second life. The “thousand years” timeline is her sixth life, where she and Wolverine wind up as the last surviving mutants in a distant future where post-humanity is about to try and ascend to Dominion status.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong> Cyborg Moira appears in the Preserve.<\/em><\/p>\n

This timeline was shown in the Powers of X<\/em> miniseries, though this is apparently a year earlier.<\/p>\n

It’s not at all clear why cyborg Moira is cutting through the timelines in this random order in order to get back to life 1, but that’s time travel for you, I guess.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong> Rachel tries to send the X-Men back to Moira’s first life.<\/em><\/p>\n

And we get some more trailers for Rise of the Powers of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-20. <\/strong>The X-Men arrive in Moira’s fifth life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moira’s fifth life<\/strong> is shown on page 18 of House of X <\/em>#2. Moira seeks out Charles Xavier while still physically a teenager, and radicalises him. They build a mutant city, which gets wiped out by Sentinels. The data page at the end of that issue says that Moira is placed in a coma by the Sentinel attack, and dies a year later following something described as “Genocide at Faraway”. Faraway is the name of the mutant nation, according to the same data page. We’re told that Moira has been in a coma for a week.<\/p>\n

The caption here places Faraway on the Moon. The art in House of X <\/em>#2 does show the domed city in a crater against a mostly mountainous and grey-coloured landscape, but there are trees in the foreground – as there are here, to be fair. I had always assumed it was meant to be in a dormant volcano or something. (Also, the narrator mentions the “outside world of man”.)<\/p>\n

The Beast<\/strong> and Cecilia Reyes<\/strong> are playing their usual role as the X-Men’s doctors.<\/p>\n

The life 5 X-Men <\/strong>are Cyclops, Psylocke (taking Jean’s place, including as Scott’s partner), Banshee, Sway and Wolfsbane. The only particularly obscure one is Sway, who was a member of the abortive X-Men team from X-Men: Deadly Genesis<\/em>. Either Banshee isn’t familiar with Dazzler’s powers, or he simply doesn’t recognise this version. For some reason, Psylocke is the one team member not to wear team colours.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21. <\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads TIME’S UP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. DEAD X-MEN #3 “An Echo, a Stain” Writer: Steve Foxe Artists: Lynne Yoshii, Bernard Chang, Javier Pina & David Bald\u00e9on Colour artist: Frank Martin Letterer: Cory Petit Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. […]<\/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":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9920","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=9920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9923,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9920\/revisions\/9923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}