Amazing Spider-Man #27: I've enjoyed Spencer returning us to a 1980s era Spidey, with money troubles and roommates and school drama. That said, I'll admit that it was starting to get a little old. But, Spencer really kicks it up a notch here. Not only does the Syndicate successfully capture Fred after he own-goals Spidey (how often do the bad guys win?), but it turns out Randy's mystery date is Beetle! Dun-dun-DUN! Is it maybe a little ridiculous? Sure. But, I still have PTSD from the Clone Saga-era grim-dark Spidey, so I'll take light and ridiculous any day.
Die #6: Gillen spends this issue on a deep dive into Angela as she describes her life back home to Case.
She does so as she and Case are on a journey to see the Fair to convince them to reduce the six Fair-piece cost that she'd need to pay to sneak Ash, Case, Matt, Fallen Sol, and herself past the Eternal Prussian forces occupying the Glass Town ruins where they're hiding. Ash initially suggested that she let Case not respawn one day, since she can respawn him the day after they escape. But, Angela refuses, decided instead to visit the Fair to make an offer. She arrives at the Fair's lair (for lack of a better term), but they refuse to take back Case, which Angela wants them to do to keep him safe. As such, she decides not to let him respawn ever again. She knows that they're leaving Die at some point, and it'll just be all the more difficult down the road to say good-bye to him. So, she says her good-byes here.
Gillen uses this decision to underscore that she's desperate to leave Die as soon as possible, because she's panicked that she's losing the chance to save her life in the real world. In the letters column, Gillen tells us that his time as a video-game journalist covering crunches inspired Angela's story, as we learn that her affair with a female co-worker happened during a two-year crunch that she endured because all her previous games never made it to market and she needed the credit on her resume. In the real world, she's trying to reunite with her husband, but he refuses. She also carries the emotional scars of her daughter apparently making biphobic comments at her because she was mad about the affair. After letting Case go and returning to Glasstown, she's devastated over his loss. Matt takes away some of her grief using his powers, and they eventually escape to Angria where Gillen ends the issue with Ash and the team encountering his son. Dun-dun-DUN!
I'll admit something didn't grab me about this issue the way it should've. I mean, putting down your dog? Usually I'd be all tears. But, Angela's narration is a distraction, telling more than showing. Moreover, the Fair's decision also seemed less unfair, as Angela calls it, and more capricious. It only makes sense if you read the post-issue description of the Fair and how they operate. But, I also don't understand how the Fair taking back Case makes him any safer than him not spawning again does. Does he go to a bad place when he doesn't respawn? Or does he run in fields if the Fair take him? As sad as it obviously was, it seemed sad for sad's sake, with everyone's actions making sense only if the goal was Angela having to surrender Case. Again, it wasn't a terrible issue; it just didn't have the emotional impact that I think Gillen wanted it to have, at least for me.
House of X #2: The revelation that Moira is a mutant whose power is reincarnation is an obvious ret-con, but Hickman doesn't really apologize for that. Instead, he puts such care into crafting Moira's story that you willfully suspend your disbelief. Is it amazing that Moira never, ever let anyone other than Charles (in two lives), Magneto (in one life), and Apocalypse (presumably, in one life) know that she was reliving her life? Yes, it is. But, Hickman convinces me that it's worth taking that leap of faith. Hickman also attaches two important caveats to Moira's powers here. First, he makes her cognizant of her previous life in utero. She's born into her next life remembering her previous life. The first time it happens, she makes the decision to learn from her mistakes and actively participate in each successive life rather than passively allowing it to unfold as it will. Although he doesn't dwell on it, Hickman at least touches on the psychological impact of that decision, as we have to assume that Moira makes the conscious decision that the children who she had in her first life will not exist again when she decides not to marry her husband. (Does the entire timeline collapse the minute she dies? Or does it continue somewhere?) Second, perhaps most importantly, she learns from Destiny in one of her lives that she only has ten or eleven lives, depending on her choices. In the eleventh or twelfth (depending) life, she'll die as a child before her powers activate, ending the cycle. (At least, I think that Destiny was telling her that. It's also possible that Destiny was just surmising that the cycle could break that way at any point.) It's an important restraint, since otherwise you could see how Moira could go all Groundhog's Day. Hickman also raises the stakes by making it clear that her current life is her tenth one. The decisions that she makes in this one seems likely determine whether she reincarnates only one final time.
Powers of X #2: This issue requires some effort to follow as we're really starting to dive into the four timelines at once.
X0 is perhaps the simplest timeline to follow. Magneto agrees to allow Charles to link his mind to Moira's mind, and he learns all about the lives that he lived that she's witnessed. He then agrees to join them in a "long-term plan" where they join forces, the only iteration that Moira feels hasn't been tried. Hickman seems to imply that Charles, Magneto, and Moira have been pulling the strings for all mutant history that we've seen in the comics since that moment happened. We'll see where he goes with that, since it presumably means that people have made life-changing decisions following people who were, on some level, duping them. They might have opinions on that.
X1 is more interesting to me, as Magneto and Xavier reveal to Scott that Orchis is creating a Mother Mold whose creation will eventually led to Nimrod (as they know from Moira).
X2 is the most involved, as we learn that Rasputin and the Cardinal stole an indexing machine that directs them to the file that they actually need to steal. The problem is that Percival -- the member of that team who died in the first issue -- was the one whose powers hid them from Nimrod's scanners. Without him, they won't be able to break back into Nimrod's tower and steal the file alive. Apocalypse is revealed to be the boss who Logan mentioned in the first issue. If I'm guessing correctly based on his comments and the fact that the X3 future has no humans, Apocalypse plans on rewriting Nimrod's programming to turn him against humans, not mutants.
X3 is more complicated in a very Hickman way. In an attempt not to become a mining system for a more powerful system, our Solar System developed the Outrace project to convert Nibiru, a Planet X-like planet orbiting outside the Kuiper Belt, into our own version of the Kree's Supreme Intelligence. One hundred of "the greatest post-human scientists, scholars and artists of their generation" agreed to have their minds copied into single AI called Nimbus. On its way to Nibiru, Nimbus ate Europa, Io, and Titan so it could have the mass necessary to ascend to a higher intelligence. It succeed in becoming a Worldmind ten years after arriving at Nibiru. The Phalanx eventually appears, announcing that it ate the Worldmind but came to meet its makers. They then ask for "ascension."
I don't have anything else really to say here, as this issue is mostly about getting out Hickman's ideas. We'll have to wait to see where he goes with them.
The White Trees #1-#2: Holy fuck. I don't even know what to say. This two-issues series has the same feel of Richard K. Morgan's "A Land Fit for Heroes," as three war heroes are dragged back into politics and war due to family connections. But, it's really a reminder of how important joy and love are in our lives. The fairy-orgy sequence might seem just shocking for shocking's sake; that large, red penis is hard to ignore after all. But, it's really about showing how deep down the well Krylos is. I feel like it was possible for the team to rescue their children without Krylos sacrificing himself, but it also seemed to be what he wanted. He said that he used to thinking fighting was feeling, but now he understands that he had to love his son to have something to justify fighting. I have to wonder what happens to the son of a king-killer, but I also realize that the king probably wouldn't have been happy with them just springing their children given that, in the first issue, he reprimanded Dahvlan simply for raising his voice at him. Maybe Krylos really did have to sacrifice himself after all. The most impressive part of this series is that Zdarsky and Anka didn't let the world-building get in the way of the story. We have a simple map at the start and we know both sides fought a war. We don't really need to know more than that. When the trio is on the other side, in Trilonia, Zdarsky brilliantly gives us an insight into their thoughts, flipping Blacksands as the aggressor against Trilonia. It's as much as we get in terms of the politics, and it's enough. It's really, really hard, I'd imagine, to exhibit this sort of restraint, given the obvious time and effort Zdarsky put into said world-building. After all, series like this one are usually made by how interesting of a world the author builds. But, by keeping a laser focus on the characters' emotions and relationships, Zdarsky and Anka made possibly the best series ever, two issues or not.
Also Read: Conan the Barbarian: Exodus #1; Detective Comics #1,009; Invaders #8; Star Wars #70; Star Wars: Target Vader #2
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