Die #8: The problem with such a dense issue is that it's easy to get lost in one particular narrative and lose track -- or, at least, your emotional connection -- to the other ones.
Do you follow the story of Ash and her struggle with Sol? She's trying to get Sol to explain what the Eternal Prussians are building in Glass Town in the hope that the Angrians will in turn help him find Chuck and Isabelle. To do so, Ash almost immediately ditched her vow not to use the Voice on Sol, revealing yet again that Ash is a lot less principled than she hoped that she is. For obvious reasons, Angria apparently keeps Dictators on a short leash, so they distrust Ash; she's assigned a minder. But, Sol is obstinate as ever, forcing Angela to sneak into Glass Town to get the information. Matt exposits for us that they've learned that Sol escaped the Grandmaster five years ago and rallied an alliance that overthrew him two years ago, but then he turned on his allies. But, Ash still can't get Sol to answer the most important question: how did he create Die?
Or do you follow the story of Ash and her son, Augustus? We know from last issue that Isabelle had an unconsummated love affair with Zamorna, and we now learn Zamorna is the father of Ash's child, explaining all the implications of tension between Ash and Isabelle. We learn that Isabelle transferred the child to the Mourner to carry Augustus to term before they left Die last time. As the son of a paragon and vampire with a god as a surrogate mother, Augustus is some form of a demi-god, and the Ruling Party of Angria sees him as a threat, particularly since they exiled his father. (You can't really blame them, I'd have to say.)
Instead, do you follow the story of Matt? Ash has been trying to convince the Knightly Orders to help discover what's happening in Glass Town, but they've so far refused. But, a group of Joy Knights gets a message to Matt to meet them in the Eightfold Temple. We learn that original eight knights "stood beside the genie-touched ones" and founded Angria. We also learn that Matt initially came close to choosing anger instead of grief, and we watch him reconsider his choice here, enraging his sword. Earlier Matt told the sword that he was happy for 20 years, and the sword tells him that grief is the price of joy. He explains that Matt is grieving his family because he knows that he can never return to the way that it was with them. Matt has enough and makes quick work of the Joy Knights, since grief is something that you'd give anything to lose (giving Matt an edge) whereas joy is something that you're frightened to lose (making the Knights hold back a little). (That makes a weird amount of sense.) Matt later admits that he always feels cleansed after a fight.
In the end, the stories converge as Angela returns from Glass Town and reveals that the Prussians are building a Forge that asks the question, in binary, "What am I for?" Ash asks the Angrian Queen to help find Chuck and Isabelle, but she demurs. It doesn't matter, though, because Isabelle arrives, saying that they all destroyed Glass Town and should all be punished for it. OK, then!
House of X #6: This issue spends most of its time covering ground that we've already covered, but in more detail.
We now see the entirety of Xavier's speech about mutant emancipation that he projected to the world, about how humans killed his dream of peaceful coexistence so he's killing their dream that they would forever control the world.
We then move into the first meeting of the Quiet Council as it considers Krakoa's first laws. Professor X, Magneto, and Apocalypse form Autumn; Mister Sinister, Exodus, and Mystique form Winter; Sebastian Shaw (Black King), Emma Frost (White Queen), and an absent chair (Red King) form Spring; Storm, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler form Summer; and Cypher represents Krakoa. We also learn the four "great [war] captains" are Cyclops, Gorgon, Bishop, and Magik.
This section is tedious in the way that governing is. Exodus threatens Sinister when he speaks to him, and Sinister jokingly suggests that killing a mutant should be against the law. But, Apocalypse notes that it isn't a challenge to kill someone who isn't unkillable, and Jean sort of agrees; she argues that it should be against the law to kill a human since they can't return. Everyone else agrees, even Apocalypse since, as he notes, it's a point that means nothing to him, like humanity. (So, he's going to break that one soon, right?). Shaw then wants to discuss basics about the economy, and Cypher warns them on the property-rights issue, reminding them that Krakoa is a living being. Exodus agrees, nothing that the land is sacrosanct. Mystique thinks that she's getting to Nightcrawler when she asks what his God's wisdom is, but he then quotes "And God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and then subdue it..." as justification for creating more mutants. As such, this conversation yields the three initial laws: 1) make more mutants; 2) murder no man; and 3) respect this sacred land.
With the laws formed, they turn to judging Sabretooth for defying Magneto's orders not to kill human security guards in a previous issue. They all find him guilty, since Magneto specifically ordered him not to kill. This next part is chilling: since they won't submit a mutant to human authorities and, for some reason, they "tolerate no prisons" on Krakoa, he's put into conscious stasis deep inside Krakoa. Larraz is spectacular here, watching even Sabretooth panic as he realizes what they're doing to him. It's brutal.
That said, the issue ends on a happy note. Larraz does a great job showing the independence celebrations as Xavier and the Council leave their meeting and join them. Xavier notes that they carry a heavy burden now, like a parent with a child; they will lose sleep so their children can sleep. But, the most spectacular sequence happens as Logan hands Cyclops a six pack. Logan takes a beer to Gorgon, and Scott hands two beers to Jean, who sits down next to Emma. Jean passes one wordlessly over her shoulder to Emma, who accepts it, equally without looking at her. It's two small panels, but it's a spectacular moment that made me grin ear to ear. We then watch Havoc hug Scott, and you realize exactly what Hickman has done here. It's like he took the best parts of every other storyline -- Revolution, Utopia, Necrosha, Second Coming -- and perfected it. It's in these last wordless moments that you realize the magnitude of this accomplishment, how perfectly he's weaved this story to tweak what needed tweaking and ret-con what needed ret-conning. It didn't require a deal with the Devil, like in Spider-Man. Hickman did the hard work of identifying the problems and fixing them. You can imagine him standing next to Charles and Magneto in the last panel as they look upon Dazzler's Siryn-amplified fireworks display and nodding to Magneto's words: "Just look at what we have made."
Star Wars #72: Han's suspicions about Dar are proven correct here, though not necessarily for the right reasons. Dar has Boss Carpo's thugs grab Han as he leads Leia from the dance floor, explaining his plan to convince Carpo to use his floating military fortress (or "panop") to attack the Empire. Since Han will conveniently be on said panop, he kills two birds with one stone, quite literally: getting rid of Boss Carpo and his rival for Leia's affections. Meanwhile, the most meaningful sequence in the issue is when Threepio manages to inform Chewie that Vader is on K43. Chewie contemplates sacrificing the planet to take out Vader, but a young rock creature approaches him quizzically. Chewie pats him on the head and disables the detonators. Awww, Chewie. Vader then decides to use Chewie as his own trap for Luke, turning the tables on the Rebels. Oh, Darth. Always with the traps.
Showing posts with label House of X (2019). Show all posts
Showing posts with label House of X (2019). Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2020
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The September 18 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
House of X #5: Hickman gets right to the point here: resurrection.
The mutant with fire in his eyes that we saw in issue #1 was Scott, not Vulcan, as the mutants who sacrificed their lives at the Forge are now resurrected. How? Man, Hickman really sells you on the how. Happily, he uses characters that Bendis created as the answer, something I love when authors do. I was worried Hickman's reboot would gloss over some of the X-Men's recent past. It often happens with reboots: we focus on the old days and not the recent ones. Instead, Hickman really leans into Bendis' run, and I loved it.
First, Goldballs "seemingly benign and pointless power" is key to the whole process: they're not balls, but eggs. Then, we learn that Proteus has been freed to help: with his intervention, the eggs become viable. (I do hope Hickman at some point explains how Proteus become manageable because, man, I'd call that revelation a pretty significant change in the status quo.) Then, the DNA of a mutant is injected and Elixir uses his powers to kickstart cellular replication. Eva Bell then uses her powers to advance time to age the mutant to the correct age. Hope oversees the entire process, enabling everyone to operate at their peak and in unison. The end result? Resurrection. Charles then uses Cerebro to take a copy of their mind -- "the essence, the anima" -- and transfer it to the body. In one of the interstitial pages, we learn that Charles backs up the minds of every mutant mind. (The DNA comes from Sinister's files, natch.) Interestingly, it means all their wounds should be healed; in doing so, Hickman resolves the eye that Cyclops lost under Rosenberg's run, for example.
But. Hickman doesn't stop there. Magneto starts the issue by noting that humans created society when they moved form hunting-gathering to agriculture, deciding that they had ownership over fertile land. Here, Hickman expands on that premise as Storm serves as a high priestess of sorts at a ceremony before the assembled mutants of Krakoa. After the resurrected mutant answers a question that Storm asked him, Storm announces to the mutants that she knows him. Hickman is making it clear that the mutants are creating their own society, complete with a resurrection-based religion.
That said, he doesn't make it too easy, what the Five are doing. For example, Proteus burns out his host body at some point, meaning that they have to create a husk from Charles' genetic base each time that he needs a new one. At current levels, it will take 300 years to bring back everyone who died, notably the 16 million people who died on Genosha. It's possible that the Five might become more efficient, but Charles would also need to teach other telepaths to use Cerebro properly to match their pace.
Hickman also sets the stage for future stories -- and underlines the troubling ethical questions of what they're doing -- by noting that they haven't seen what happens when a mind is implanted in a different husk and that Charles will need to set up a team to ensure that mutants who suffer suspicious deaths are actually dead. I mean, how Charles is this entire endeavor? He used Sinister to steal everyone's DNA and he himself has been stealing their minds? I could see a scenario where a mutant is resurrected against his will, eventually leading a revolt against Charles.
The issue wraps up no less spectacularly than it starts. In fact, this issue is where Hickman really puts all his cards on the table. Emma uses her powers to convince the Russian ambassador to support recognizing Krakoa as a nation. Charles tells Emma that domination has a consequence for both sides of that equation. Just when you're ready to chortle with the irony of him lecturing anyone about domination, Charles thanks Emma for her service and seems ready to make her Secretary of State. Several nations refuse to acknowledge Krakoa, and we learn that Charles and Magneto deem them enemies of the state. Speaking of enemies, Charles and Magneto call all the X-Men's enemies "home," including Apocalypse, who accepts their offer by acknowledging their dominion. Sure, that's going to last.
All in all, it's now pretty clear where Hickman is going. Charles and Magneto have their relatively secure mutant state with an enviable amount of resources. I wonder how it'll all go wrong.
The Weatherman, Vol. 2 #4: Holy shit. Man, LeHeup really kicks it up a notch here.
First, he foreshadows Ian Black's return when Cross has Nathan practice firing a gun. After Nathan misses numerous times, he "freeballs" it, firing dramatically and randomly. It looks like he accidentally hit the target once, but when the Marshall takes a look at it later it turns out Nathan hit it in the same place all five times. Ruh-roh.
The team then makes its way to Syngen Station in the Arctic, where Nathan accidentally releases an experiment, separating him from Cross and Dr. Argus as they all flee the rampaging monster. When she and Dr. Argus arrive at Dr. Nyseth's office, Cross is surprised that Kestrel and her goons are there. (We later learn that they dug up Nyseth's corpse to gain access. Heh.) Nathan flees Kestrel's troops, stumbling across his memory drive. As the goons arrive, he disappears into the air vent and the goons take anything that looks important -- including Ian's memory drive -- with them. The ships depart with everyone but Nathan. Suddenly Ian Black emerges, noting that it's the first time that Nathan's been alone. At his urging, Nathan leaves behind his gun and walks towards the biophagus horde approaching him to give it "justice."
We then move to Skyborough, which we learn is where Kestrel and the survivors live. It's an invisible floating station above New York City originally created as a prison but then as public housing, "a floating favela of the poor and the powerless." Now it's all that remains of the American people. Cross tells Kestrel that they're just searching for Black's memory to prevent what happened to them from happening to Mars. But Kestrel points out the enormous furnaces the "Solar Council" has been dropping on Earth to elevate its temperature to the point where the virus will die -- they'll kill the survivors, but Earth can be recolonized. (I guess that's what the lobbyist meant in issue #1.) Cross begs for Kestrel to help her save billions of innocent people, and Kestrel pulls a knife on her, telling her that she'd slaughter them all with her bare hands if it saved just one of her people. Understandably, she says that they've suffered enough. Kestrel then informs Cross that she'll be on the surface transport the next day.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Skyborough, someone recruits the kid from issue #1 whose father too his place for the Sword of God to help "end the tyranny of human life." Then, a shuttle from Syngen Station arrives, but it isn't cleared to land. It does so anyway, and the troops go to meet it. A trooper like them emerges -- and then detonates himself. It turns out he's a biophagus...and it's Nathan. Dun-dun-DUN!
Also Read: Guardians of the Galaxy #9
The mutant with fire in his eyes that we saw in issue #1 was Scott, not Vulcan, as the mutants who sacrificed their lives at the Forge are now resurrected. How? Man, Hickman really sells you on the how. Happily, he uses characters that Bendis created as the answer, something I love when authors do. I was worried Hickman's reboot would gloss over some of the X-Men's recent past. It often happens with reboots: we focus on the old days and not the recent ones. Instead, Hickman really leans into Bendis' run, and I loved it.
First, Goldballs "seemingly benign and pointless power" is key to the whole process: they're not balls, but eggs. Then, we learn that Proteus has been freed to help: with his intervention, the eggs become viable. (I do hope Hickman at some point explains how Proteus become manageable because, man, I'd call that revelation a pretty significant change in the status quo.) Then, the DNA of a mutant is injected and Elixir uses his powers to kickstart cellular replication. Eva Bell then uses her powers to advance time to age the mutant to the correct age. Hope oversees the entire process, enabling everyone to operate at their peak and in unison. The end result? Resurrection. Charles then uses Cerebro to take a copy of their mind -- "the essence, the anima" -- and transfer it to the body. In one of the interstitial pages, we learn that Charles backs up the minds of every mutant mind. (The DNA comes from Sinister's files, natch.) Interestingly, it means all their wounds should be healed; in doing so, Hickman resolves the eye that Cyclops lost under Rosenberg's run, for example.
But. Hickman doesn't stop there. Magneto starts the issue by noting that humans created society when they moved form hunting-gathering to agriculture, deciding that they had ownership over fertile land. Here, Hickman expands on that premise as Storm serves as a high priestess of sorts at a ceremony before the assembled mutants of Krakoa. After the resurrected mutant answers a question that Storm asked him, Storm announces to the mutants that she knows him. Hickman is making it clear that the mutants are creating their own society, complete with a resurrection-based religion.
That said, he doesn't make it too easy, what the Five are doing. For example, Proteus burns out his host body at some point, meaning that they have to create a husk from Charles' genetic base each time that he needs a new one. At current levels, it will take 300 years to bring back everyone who died, notably the 16 million people who died on Genosha. It's possible that the Five might become more efficient, but Charles would also need to teach other telepaths to use Cerebro properly to match their pace.
Hickman also sets the stage for future stories -- and underlines the troubling ethical questions of what they're doing -- by noting that they haven't seen what happens when a mind is implanted in a different husk and that Charles will need to set up a team to ensure that mutants who suffer suspicious deaths are actually dead. I mean, how Charles is this entire endeavor? He used Sinister to steal everyone's DNA and he himself has been stealing their minds? I could see a scenario where a mutant is resurrected against his will, eventually leading a revolt against Charles.
The issue wraps up no less spectacularly than it starts. In fact, this issue is where Hickman really puts all his cards on the table. Emma uses her powers to convince the Russian ambassador to support recognizing Krakoa as a nation. Charles tells Emma that domination has a consequence for both sides of that equation. Just when you're ready to chortle with the irony of him lecturing anyone about domination, Charles thanks Emma for her service and seems ready to make her Secretary of State. Several nations refuse to acknowledge Krakoa, and we learn that Charles and Magneto deem them enemies of the state. Speaking of enemies, Charles and Magneto call all the X-Men's enemies "home," including Apocalypse, who accepts their offer by acknowledging their dominion. Sure, that's going to last.
All in all, it's now pretty clear where Hickman is going. Charles and Magneto have their relatively secure mutant state with an enviable amount of resources. I wonder how it'll all go wrong.
The Weatherman, Vol. 2 #4: Holy shit. Man, LeHeup really kicks it up a notch here.
First, he foreshadows Ian Black's return when Cross has Nathan practice firing a gun. After Nathan misses numerous times, he "freeballs" it, firing dramatically and randomly. It looks like he accidentally hit the target once, but when the Marshall takes a look at it later it turns out Nathan hit it in the same place all five times. Ruh-roh.
The team then makes its way to Syngen Station in the Arctic, where Nathan accidentally releases an experiment, separating him from Cross and Dr. Argus as they all flee the rampaging monster. When she and Dr. Argus arrive at Dr. Nyseth's office, Cross is surprised that Kestrel and her goons are there. (We later learn that they dug up Nyseth's corpse to gain access. Heh.) Nathan flees Kestrel's troops, stumbling across his memory drive. As the goons arrive, he disappears into the air vent and the goons take anything that looks important -- including Ian's memory drive -- with them. The ships depart with everyone but Nathan. Suddenly Ian Black emerges, noting that it's the first time that Nathan's been alone. At his urging, Nathan leaves behind his gun and walks towards the biophagus horde approaching him to give it "justice."
We then move to Skyborough, which we learn is where Kestrel and the survivors live. It's an invisible floating station above New York City originally created as a prison but then as public housing, "a floating favela of the poor and the powerless." Now it's all that remains of the American people. Cross tells Kestrel that they're just searching for Black's memory to prevent what happened to them from happening to Mars. But Kestrel points out the enormous furnaces the "Solar Council" has been dropping on Earth to elevate its temperature to the point where the virus will die -- they'll kill the survivors, but Earth can be recolonized. (I guess that's what the lobbyist meant in issue #1.) Cross begs for Kestrel to help her save billions of innocent people, and Kestrel pulls a knife on her, telling her that she'd slaughter them all with her bare hands if it saved just one of her people. Understandably, she says that they've suffered enough. Kestrel then informs Cross that she'll be on the surface transport the next day.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Skyborough, someone recruits the kid from issue #1 whose father too his place for the Sword of God to help "end the tyranny of human life." Then, a shuttle from Syngen Station arrives, but it isn't cleared to land. It does so anyway, and the troops go to meet it. A trooper like them emerges -- and then detonates himself. It turns out he's a biophagus...and it's Nathan. Dun-dun-DUN!
Also Read: Guardians of the Galaxy #9
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The September 4 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Die #7: This issue is a return to form after last issue, as Gillen throws a lot at us without getting lost in the details.
Izzy writes in a journal as she wallows in guilt over the situation in which she, Chuck, and the Glass Town refugees find themselves. Apparently, when she asked the Skywatcher to "get us out of here?" in issue #5, it deposited them on the opposite side of Die, in a desert called the Expense in the Realm of Three. (Gods are always so literal, she complains.) Chuck arrives in her tent and throws her journal in piss-soaked sand, telling her that she should be a professional and only write for money. Enraged, she asks Mistress Woe to teach him a lesson: after all, she already owes all the gods so much for giving her the gifts that she needs to keep the Glass Town refugees alive in the middle of a desert, she might as well enjoy the debt. Chuck later drinks with some dwarves and mistakes his hangover the next day as his lesson. As they all march through the desert, he spies an oasis where he leads the refugees. Izzy worries that it's a trap and asks Mistress Woe as much. She denies making the place as one of the dwarves comments that it looks like a mighty impact broke the ground, bringing forth the water. (Uh oh.)
As the refugees enjoy the water, the Chamberlain pulls the "paragons" aside and basically threatens to expose their manipulation of him. However, Izzy observes that the enraged refugees would likely kill him, too. Izzy tells him and Chuck that she's approached a possible patron about providing assistance just as a large group of strangers arrives. Tellingly, the Chamberlain asks if it's her patron, and Izzy responds, "Dusk? It's too early." As they wait, Izzy informs Chuck that her patron is Zamorna of Angria. The False Friend (I assume one of the gods) has briefed her that Zamorna was deposed when Sol became Grandmaster and he's hiding in Gondol now. Meanwhile, the large group arrives. It's a group of elves led by the actual Elf Queen (not the Fallen One whom they previously encountered). She informs Chuck and Izzy that they're there for water, because they've been driven from their homeland, the Dreaming Lands. As everyone camps for the night, a Titan appears. It turns out Mistress Woe at least indirectly created the oasis; she sent the Titan to break the land to teach Chuck a lesson. Chuck successfully kills it and everyone parties.
During the party, Izzy apologizes to Chuck, and he blows off the apology. When she's mad at him for doing so, he reminds her that he has to joke with her, because if he lets anything touch him then his luck goes and they'd be fucked. He literally has to look on the bright side to keep them alive. He later sleeps with the Elf Queen (fulfilling his original goal) and tells her about his ex-wives, how he kept trading up each time he got more successful. The Elf Queen tells him that he's lonely and wonders if he talks to her because she's wise. He says that it's because she isn't real. After she leaves, Mistress Woe asks him about whether he really thinks that she isn't real, and he responds with a comment about implants: they're real, but are they real real? He notes that he doesn't even know what "real" means at this point. He tells her about a great party in London that he attended one night, "a sort of real human connection evening." Later, he found out everyone left after he left; they were only there for him because he was famous. This moment is perhaps Gillen's most insightful in an already heavily insightful issue. He gets to the heart of human relationships here: it all starts going downhill once you feel like you can't have a "real" relationship, as we see with Chuck. He then pees blood, and Mistress Woe wonders if he learns his lesson there. (I'm not sure what that means exactly. Does Chuck have an STD? Maybe?) At any rate, Zamorna arrives. He looks exactly like Kit Harrington, and we learn that he and Izzy were in an unconsummated love affair. We also learn that he's a vampire, which Chuck and Izzy already know. The issue ends with him commenting, "After all, we're all monsters here."
Along the way, Gillen is as witty as ever. At one point, Chuck explains that his second wife left him when he accidentally tweeted and not DMed a girl; the dwarves ask what Twitter is, and Chuck explains that it's a "place devoid of any sentient life, entirely hostile to humanity." In other words, "A lot like here, really." Moreover, Chuck and others frequently break the Fourth Wall throughout the issue. When the dwarves tell Sol that they fled to Glass Town for similar reasons, he comments, "You two have a backstory? I thought you were kind of one-note characters." When Chuck talks about his ex-wives and the Elf Queen, he mentions their charisma scores. When Izzy uses old-timey language with Zamorna, he comments, "You don't need to treat me like one of those characters. I'm better written than that."
In other words, it's an incredibly dense and rewarding issue. If last issue felt like Gillen skimmed on top of a story that could've been more meaningful if approached in a different way, he dives deep into Chuck and Izzy's psyches here, pulling you into the story in a way that makes you forget the world around you. As he alludes to Ash trying to make an alliance with "his boy" in Angria, Zamorna also reminds us how they're all scrambling to be adults in an adolescent world, just like we all are.
House of X #4: It's clear from the death of Archangel (and, to a lesser extent, Husk) that Hickman isn't going to let his death stand. By the end of the issue, as he's killed off Monet, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, it's clear that they'll all return. I know that Professor X somehow uses Krakoa to resurrect them since, after all, I'm reading this issue seven months late. But, Hickman somehow still manages to infuse this issue with emotion and heart. Whereas I often read an issue with a "shocking" death (I'm looking at you, Alfred) with little more than an eye roll at this point, Hickman makes it clear from the start that these deaths are going to move us to the next phase of the story. They're not "shocking" for shocking's safe. It more feels like we've ended the first act.
In terms of the plot itself, the team succeeds in its mission. Despite the loss of Archangel and Husk, the team hits the ground running, with Logan and Nightcrawler unlocking two of Mother Mold's collars almost immediately. Omega rouses Dr. Gregor by stressing that she can't just wail on the floor if she wants her husband's death to mean something while the station's acting security chief sends a team to board the ship, where Monet is amplifying Jean's powers so she can communicate with Krakoa. Monet shoves Jean into an escape pod and, when Jean notes that she needs Monet's power to reach Earth, Monet hilariously quips, "I dunno what to say, Marvel Girl. Try harder." Oh, Jean, you always were a whiner. Meanwhile, Scott shuts down his collar, but before Mystique can shut down her collar Dr. Gregor opens a door that sucks her into space.
In perhaps the best sequence so far in this series, Scott broken-heartedly authorizes Nightcrawler to teleport Logan onto the support beam itself where Logan can manually cut the collar. Laraz and Garcia have been amazing so far throughout this series, but they're spectacular here. You feel like you're on the beam with Logan, basking in the heat of the brilliant sun behind you. Kurt dissipates immediately but Logan manages to cut the beam, as he and Mother Mold ride into the Sun. (It's a fitting end for Logan, honestly, in its Dr. Strangelove way.) Moreover, the scene before their sacrifice is also great, as Logan asks about the afterlife and Nightcrawler assures Logan that he'll see him there, in the good place. Again, it's this entire sequence that makes you really believe what Hickman's selling here, that the X-Men believe that they're sacrificing themselves even if we know that they're not.
Devastated and exhausted, Scott makes his way to Jean, with a plan to jump into the escape pod via an EVA suit and use his powers to push them into an escape vector. But, Omega and Dr. Gregor intercept him on the way, killing him. But, we learn that Scott's mission was doomed anyway as the drones that Dr. Gregor recalled from Mercury arrive, killing a terrified Jean who's still reeling from the deaths of her friends. On Earth, a devastated Professor X pledges, "No more." In other words, away we go.
Star Wars #71: I always love a good Threepio-based story, and this one didn't disappoint. The Kakrans recognizing Threepio as metal and thus calling him "Cousin Ore!" was remarkably clever. But, Pak goes one step further by making one of the Elders root around Threepio's memories to show him iconic moments from the movies and the comics where "the flesh" abandoned him or Artoo, which the Elders insist the flesh will always do. I could totally hear in my head Threepio saying, "Well now, that seems like a bit of a broad brush--." When the Kakrans impressed Threepio into service as a translator and Darth Vader entered the room, I was surprised and thrilled. Threepio versus Vader! The Han and Leia story also didn't disappoint. First, you have Leia sneak-attacking Dar and yelling, "Don't just stand there, Han!," as Han, well, just stands there. But, Pak doesn't just make Dar a turncoat. Dar's right that bringing the Empire to Lanz Carpo will hurt a lot of people, since the Empire will likely set up shop there to keep it under control. So, Dar quite reasonably argues that Han and Leia should instead trick Boss Carpo into attacking the Empire (instead of tricking the Empire into thinking he's supporting the Rebellion). This ploy somehow results in Han and Leia slow dancing at a ball. I mean, how much better can you get?
Also Read: Alpha Flight: True North #1; Conan The Barbarian #9
Izzy writes in a journal as she wallows in guilt over the situation in which she, Chuck, and the Glass Town refugees find themselves. Apparently, when she asked the Skywatcher to "get us out of here?" in issue #5, it deposited them on the opposite side of Die, in a desert called the Expense in the Realm of Three. (Gods are always so literal, she complains.) Chuck arrives in her tent and throws her journal in piss-soaked sand, telling her that she should be a professional and only write for money. Enraged, she asks Mistress Woe to teach him a lesson: after all, she already owes all the gods so much for giving her the gifts that she needs to keep the Glass Town refugees alive in the middle of a desert, she might as well enjoy the debt. Chuck later drinks with some dwarves and mistakes his hangover the next day as his lesson. As they all march through the desert, he spies an oasis where he leads the refugees. Izzy worries that it's a trap and asks Mistress Woe as much. She denies making the place as one of the dwarves comments that it looks like a mighty impact broke the ground, bringing forth the water. (Uh oh.)
As the refugees enjoy the water, the Chamberlain pulls the "paragons" aside and basically threatens to expose their manipulation of him. However, Izzy observes that the enraged refugees would likely kill him, too. Izzy tells him and Chuck that she's approached a possible patron about providing assistance just as a large group of strangers arrives. Tellingly, the Chamberlain asks if it's her patron, and Izzy responds, "Dusk? It's too early." As they wait, Izzy informs Chuck that her patron is Zamorna of Angria. The False Friend (I assume one of the gods) has briefed her that Zamorna was deposed when Sol became Grandmaster and he's hiding in Gondol now. Meanwhile, the large group arrives. It's a group of elves led by the actual Elf Queen (not the Fallen One whom they previously encountered). She informs Chuck and Izzy that they're there for water, because they've been driven from their homeland, the Dreaming Lands. As everyone camps for the night, a Titan appears. It turns out Mistress Woe at least indirectly created the oasis; she sent the Titan to break the land to teach Chuck a lesson. Chuck successfully kills it and everyone parties.
During the party, Izzy apologizes to Chuck, and he blows off the apology. When she's mad at him for doing so, he reminds her that he has to joke with her, because if he lets anything touch him then his luck goes and they'd be fucked. He literally has to look on the bright side to keep them alive. He later sleeps with the Elf Queen (fulfilling his original goal) and tells her about his ex-wives, how he kept trading up each time he got more successful. The Elf Queen tells him that he's lonely and wonders if he talks to her because she's wise. He says that it's because she isn't real. After she leaves, Mistress Woe asks him about whether he really thinks that she isn't real, and he responds with a comment about implants: they're real, but are they real real? He notes that he doesn't even know what "real" means at this point. He tells her about a great party in London that he attended one night, "a sort of real human connection evening." Later, he found out everyone left after he left; they were only there for him because he was famous. This moment is perhaps Gillen's most insightful in an already heavily insightful issue. He gets to the heart of human relationships here: it all starts going downhill once you feel like you can't have a "real" relationship, as we see with Chuck. He then pees blood, and Mistress Woe wonders if he learns his lesson there. (I'm not sure what that means exactly. Does Chuck have an STD? Maybe?) At any rate, Zamorna arrives. He looks exactly like Kit Harrington, and we learn that he and Izzy were in an unconsummated love affair. We also learn that he's a vampire, which Chuck and Izzy already know. The issue ends with him commenting, "After all, we're all monsters here."
Along the way, Gillen is as witty as ever. At one point, Chuck explains that his second wife left him when he accidentally tweeted and not DMed a girl; the dwarves ask what Twitter is, and Chuck explains that it's a "place devoid of any sentient life, entirely hostile to humanity." In other words, "A lot like here, really." Moreover, Chuck and others frequently break the Fourth Wall throughout the issue. When the dwarves tell Sol that they fled to Glass Town for similar reasons, he comments, "You two have a backstory? I thought you were kind of one-note characters." When Chuck talks about his ex-wives and the Elf Queen, he mentions their charisma scores. When Izzy uses old-timey language with Zamorna, he comments, "You don't need to treat me like one of those characters. I'm better written than that."
In other words, it's an incredibly dense and rewarding issue. If last issue felt like Gillen skimmed on top of a story that could've been more meaningful if approached in a different way, he dives deep into Chuck and Izzy's psyches here, pulling you into the story in a way that makes you forget the world around you. As he alludes to Ash trying to make an alliance with "his boy" in Angria, Zamorna also reminds us how they're all scrambling to be adults in an adolescent world, just like we all are.
House of X #4: It's clear from the death of Archangel (and, to a lesser extent, Husk) that Hickman isn't going to let his death stand. By the end of the issue, as he's killed off Monet, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, it's clear that they'll all return. I know that Professor X somehow uses Krakoa to resurrect them since, after all, I'm reading this issue seven months late. But, Hickman somehow still manages to infuse this issue with emotion and heart. Whereas I often read an issue with a "shocking" death (I'm looking at you, Alfred) with little more than an eye roll at this point, Hickman makes it clear from the start that these deaths are going to move us to the next phase of the story. They're not "shocking" for shocking's safe. It more feels like we've ended the first act.
In terms of the plot itself, the team succeeds in its mission. Despite the loss of Archangel and Husk, the team hits the ground running, with Logan and Nightcrawler unlocking two of Mother Mold's collars almost immediately. Omega rouses Dr. Gregor by stressing that she can't just wail on the floor if she wants her husband's death to mean something while the station's acting security chief sends a team to board the ship, where Monet is amplifying Jean's powers so she can communicate with Krakoa. Monet shoves Jean into an escape pod and, when Jean notes that she needs Monet's power to reach Earth, Monet hilariously quips, "I dunno what to say, Marvel Girl. Try harder." Oh, Jean, you always were a whiner. Meanwhile, Scott shuts down his collar, but before Mystique can shut down her collar Dr. Gregor opens a door that sucks her into space.
In perhaps the best sequence so far in this series, Scott broken-heartedly authorizes Nightcrawler to teleport Logan onto the support beam itself where Logan can manually cut the collar. Laraz and Garcia have been amazing so far throughout this series, but they're spectacular here. You feel like you're on the beam with Logan, basking in the heat of the brilliant sun behind you. Kurt dissipates immediately but Logan manages to cut the beam, as he and Mother Mold ride into the Sun. (It's a fitting end for Logan, honestly, in its Dr. Strangelove way.) Moreover, the scene before their sacrifice is also great, as Logan asks about the afterlife and Nightcrawler assures Logan that he'll see him there, in the good place. Again, it's this entire sequence that makes you really believe what Hickman's selling here, that the X-Men believe that they're sacrificing themselves even if we know that they're not.
Devastated and exhausted, Scott makes his way to Jean, with a plan to jump into the escape pod via an EVA suit and use his powers to push them into an escape vector. But, Omega and Dr. Gregor intercept him on the way, killing him. But, we learn that Scott's mission was doomed anyway as the drones that Dr. Gregor recalled from Mercury arrive, killing a terrified Jean who's still reeling from the deaths of her friends. On Earth, a devastated Professor X pledges, "No more." In other words, away we go.
Star Wars #71: I always love a good Threepio-based story, and this one didn't disappoint. The Kakrans recognizing Threepio as metal and thus calling him "Cousin Ore!" was remarkably clever. But, Pak goes one step further by making one of the Elders root around Threepio's memories to show him iconic moments from the movies and the comics where "the flesh" abandoned him or Artoo, which the Elders insist the flesh will always do. I could totally hear in my head Threepio saying, "Well now, that seems like a bit of a broad brush--." When the Kakrans impressed Threepio into service as a translator and Darth Vader entered the room, I was surprised and thrilled. Threepio versus Vader! The Han and Leia story also didn't disappoint. First, you have Leia sneak-attacking Dar and yelling, "Don't just stand there, Han!," as Han, well, just stands there. But, Pak doesn't just make Dar a turncoat. Dar's right that bringing the Empire to Lanz Carpo will hurt a lot of people, since the Empire will likely set up shop there to keep it under control. So, Dar quite reasonably argues that Han and Leia should instead trick Boss Carpo into attacking the Empire (instead of tricking the Empire into thinking he's supporting the Rebellion). This ploy somehow results in Han and Leia slow dancing at a ball. I mean, how much better can you get?
Also Read: Alpha Flight: True North #1; Conan The Barbarian #9
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The August 28 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Amazing Spider-Man #28: I 100% laughed out loud when Randy called Janice a psychopath and she looked into space considering it: "Huh? No, there's a clear profit motive here. I could never get that plea--." The rest of this issue is a bit slow, with Spencer now starting to belabor the mystery of what information Boomerang has that the Kingpin wants. But, so long as Spencer includes moments like the one described here, I'm happy to hang in there.
Batman: Curse of the White Knight #2: This issue was a miss for me as Murphy leans too much on an overly convenient event to propel forward the series' narrative.
It isn't that the issue didn't have plenty of believable developments. Ruth reveals to Bruce that she knows that he's Batman and that she created the Batman Destruction Fund for Gotham's elites. She warns/threatens him that he'll destroy Gotham and everyone he loves if he reveals his identity to the public. After that conversation, however, she realizes that the Joker is right that he doesn't seem to care. As such, she throws in her lot with Azrael and company, telling him that he needs to become their Batman. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon announces that he's running for mayor to take down the elites, but the Joker crashes the party, publicly revealing that Barbara is Batgirl. Gordon not only pushes Bruce to reveal himself, but blames the Joker and the elites exposing Barbara's secret on Bruce's failure to do so, saying that he ruined his little girl's life. All that make sense to me.
I'm also fine with the mythology here. We learn that the Order of St. Dumas rescued Edmund Wayne in London where he was a thief. It's unclear how he survived the plague that apparently wiped out the rest of the Waynes, but I assume that Murphy will get there. The Order chose Edmund as its agent because they needed someone with a legitimate claim to win back Gotham Valley from crazy Laffy Arkham, though we're still not told how the Waynes have a claim in the New World in the first place. Again, though, I assume that we'll get there so I'm fine with this part.
But, I am not on board with how easily Azrael and company hack into the Batcave. Murphy really made his name with the first series by grounding his stories in some semblance of how they would happen in the real world, and this part is just totally unbelievable to me. I think that it's the Mad Hatter helping Azrael to hack into the Cave, but really? Are they paying him? And, if he could hack into the Batcave so easily, why didn't he do it himself? Why give someone else all the glory? Moreover, Azrael and company aren't only able to destroy the Batcave remotely but they also waltz into Wayne Manor and plant enough explosives to destroy it. It's a pretty overly convenient reach in my book. The problem is that this development is clearly going to be the fulcrum on which this series balances, so it's going to get harder and harder to believe the subsequent events if we don't believe this one. I guess we'll see where we go from here.
Captain America #13: Coates follows in Spencer's footsteps here as the Daughters of Liberty decide to have Steve seek redemption from the people by taking on the Watchdogs and their harassment of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Steve is initially uncomfortable with the idea of helping people break the law, even after White Tiger notes that he's wanted for murder. But, he becomes more comfortable with the idea when he realizes that the Watchdogs aren't doing anything legal by rounding up the immigrants; he's essentially meeting them in the same gray zone. He also leans into the fact that he certainly embraces the immigrants' ethos a lot more than he does the Watchdogs'. Coates really excels in giving us this insight into Steve's thinking, particularly because most heroes act from places of total confidence in their actions. It's fascinating to watch Steve work out his feelings on the issue in real time. I know some people are going to take issue with Coates trodding the same controversial ground that Spencer did, but I don't see how you avoid it. As we see here, Cap himself is grappling with how radically different America is from the one that he thought he knew, and I think Coates does a great job of showing how uncomfortable he is with this new America. He's forced to chose a side if he's going to find redemption, but it doesn't mean that he's happy about it or that it's easy to identify just one side. Meanwhile, the Dryad lures Nick Fury and his team to her base to present her case to them. Coates is holding his cards close to his chest on this front so we'll see how Fury reacts.
House of X #3: I have a relatively minor quibble with this issue. Hickman reminds us that Moira learned in her seventh life that she couldn't stop the rise of the Sentinels because humanity was bound to discover artificial intelligence. But, Hickman asserts that Moira believes that she can prevent the creation of Nimrod because his creators created him with a specific intent and in a specific set of circumstances. But, that intent and those circumstances are pretty universal, aren't they? Humanity was bound to improve upon Sentinels to create Master Molds and then Mother Molds and then Nimrod, no? I don't understand how the Sentinels are any different than Nimrod. I guess that Hickman is arguing that Nimrod is a very specific subset of the Sentinels, but it seems a reach to me to argue that no one other than the Orchis Protocols would create him, just like Moira discovered someone other than the Trasks would eventually create the Sentinels.
At any rate, the rest of this issue is great. At the Forge, I realized that I was wrong that the head at the center of the station was a Celestial: it's a Mother Mold. Dr. Gregor explains to Omega that Mother Mold isn't operational yet because they haven't confirmed that she's past the "Heller-Faust line," which, based on Omega's comment, seems to be the point at which they can be sure that she isn't a sociopath. (Ha!) It's a relevant point, because Omega had just pointed out a space station full on Master Molds will likely at some point identify humanity as a threat, since mutants come from humans. Dr. Gregor informs Omega that they have release collars attached to the Mother Mold just in case she does go sociopath; once activated, they'd drop her into the sun. The data file that Apocalypse and company swiped in the X2 timeline in "Powers of X" #3 apparently has the schematics to the Forge, explaining how Charles and Magneto knew about the Orchis Protocol in "Powers of X" #2. (I observed in "House of X" #1 that Xavier seemed unaware of the Orchis Protocols, but Hickman confirms last issue that he and Magneto knew via Moira.)
Using their Shi'ar spaceship, the X-Men head straight for the corridor on the Forge that gives them access to all four release collars. The Forge's security team expected them to land in the hangar (since ships generally land in hangars), and Erasmus is impressed when it turns out they can cut their own entrance into the station. He then sacrifices himself to explode the entry point, detonating the X-Men's ship as well. It's definitely a moment. One of my main complaints about Hickman previously was how robotic his characters are, but it isn't the case here. Erasmus' last words to Dr. Gregor are that he wasn't ever joking when he frequently said that he wished that they had children and that he wishes her luck in saving their species. Dr. Gregor is devastated as she realize what he's going to do, and you can see how she'll be even more motivated now to take out the X-Men!
This issue is the first one where all the various strands come together, so it's clear that the parts of this enterprise that will functionally reboot the X-Men are imminent. I honestly can't wait.
Thor #16: Toothgnasher! Honestly, Aaron had to do one thing for me here, and it was bring back Toothgnasher, so I'm a very happy camper. As Aaron himself says in the letter at the end of the issue, it's not really good-bye until "King Thor" #4, so I'll save my sappiness for them, since he says that he will, too. But, this issue is a wonderful coda to what he's done with present-day Thor. Thor decides not to attend his coronation ceremony, performing good works throughout the Ten Realms instead. (My heart was particularly warmed by his appearance in Svartalfheim, bringing the coronation buffet -- much to Volstagg's fury -- to the starving dark elves praying for help in a post-Malekith reality.) Odin is initially furious at Thor's absence, but Freyja understands: Thor wants to earn his position as king not have Odin hand it to him. Odin laments that he doesn't get to deliver the beautiful speech that he planned, where he thanks Thor for saving all of them, himself included. It truly is a beautiful speech. He also planned to thank Thor for his greatest feat of all, reuniting Odin with Freyja. I found tears in my eyes as Freyja told Odin that it wasn't Thor who reunited them (meaning that Odin and his change of heart did). Freyja and Odin happily depart Asgard as Jane, now Valkyrie, raises a glass for all Asgardians in Thor's honor, saying a storm doesn't wait for a coronation before it decides to go become a storm. Long may he thunder, indeed. Perhaps the most touching moment among an issue full of them comes after that, as King Thor and young Thor depart the celebrations to return to their timelines. King Thor encourages young Thor to take his time and not drink away all the bad because he might learn something. As they depart, he guesses that young Thor will head straight for Mjolnir to see if he's worthy. He does...and then decides that he has time to have life before he grows old. Enjoy, young Thor. Enjoy!
Also Read: Detective Comics #1,010
Batman: Curse of the White Knight #2: This issue was a miss for me as Murphy leans too much on an overly convenient event to propel forward the series' narrative.
It isn't that the issue didn't have plenty of believable developments. Ruth reveals to Bruce that she knows that he's Batman and that she created the Batman Destruction Fund for Gotham's elites. She warns/threatens him that he'll destroy Gotham and everyone he loves if he reveals his identity to the public. After that conversation, however, she realizes that the Joker is right that he doesn't seem to care. As such, she throws in her lot with Azrael and company, telling him that he needs to become their Batman. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon announces that he's running for mayor to take down the elites, but the Joker crashes the party, publicly revealing that Barbara is Batgirl. Gordon not only pushes Bruce to reveal himself, but blames the Joker and the elites exposing Barbara's secret on Bruce's failure to do so, saying that he ruined his little girl's life. All that make sense to me.
I'm also fine with the mythology here. We learn that the Order of St. Dumas rescued Edmund Wayne in London where he was a thief. It's unclear how he survived the plague that apparently wiped out the rest of the Waynes, but I assume that Murphy will get there. The Order chose Edmund as its agent because they needed someone with a legitimate claim to win back Gotham Valley from crazy Laffy Arkham, though we're still not told how the Waynes have a claim in the New World in the first place. Again, though, I assume that we'll get there so I'm fine with this part.
But, I am not on board with how easily Azrael and company hack into the Batcave. Murphy really made his name with the first series by grounding his stories in some semblance of how they would happen in the real world, and this part is just totally unbelievable to me. I think that it's the Mad Hatter helping Azrael to hack into the Cave, but really? Are they paying him? And, if he could hack into the Batcave so easily, why didn't he do it himself? Why give someone else all the glory? Moreover, Azrael and company aren't only able to destroy the Batcave remotely but they also waltz into Wayne Manor and plant enough explosives to destroy it. It's a pretty overly convenient reach in my book. The problem is that this development is clearly going to be the fulcrum on which this series balances, so it's going to get harder and harder to believe the subsequent events if we don't believe this one. I guess we'll see where we go from here.
Captain America #13: Coates follows in Spencer's footsteps here as the Daughters of Liberty decide to have Steve seek redemption from the people by taking on the Watchdogs and their harassment of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Steve is initially uncomfortable with the idea of helping people break the law, even after White Tiger notes that he's wanted for murder. But, he becomes more comfortable with the idea when he realizes that the Watchdogs aren't doing anything legal by rounding up the immigrants; he's essentially meeting them in the same gray zone. He also leans into the fact that he certainly embraces the immigrants' ethos a lot more than he does the Watchdogs'. Coates really excels in giving us this insight into Steve's thinking, particularly because most heroes act from places of total confidence in their actions. It's fascinating to watch Steve work out his feelings on the issue in real time. I know some people are going to take issue with Coates trodding the same controversial ground that Spencer did, but I don't see how you avoid it. As we see here, Cap himself is grappling with how radically different America is from the one that he thought he knew, and I think Coates does a great job of showing how uncomfortable he is with this new America. He's forced to chose a side if he's going to find redemption, but it doesn't mean that he's happy about it or that it's easy to identify just one side. Meanwhile, the Dryad lures Nick Fury and his team to her base to present her case to them. Coates is holding his cards close to his chest on this front so we'll see how Fury reacts.
House of X #3: I have a relatively minor quibble with this issue. Hickman reminds us that Moira learned in her seventh life that she couldn't stop the rise of the Sentinels because humanity was bound to discover artificial intelligence. But, Hickman asserts that Moira believes that she can prevent the creation of Nimrod because his creators created him with a specific intent and in a specific set of circumstances. But, that intent and those circumstances are pretty universal, aren't they? Humanity was bound to improve upon Sentinels to create Master Molds and then Mother Molds and then Nimrod, no? I don't understand how the Sentinels are any different than Nimrod. I guess that Hickman is arguing that Nimrod is a very specific subset of the Sentinels, but it seems a reach to me to argue that no one other than the Orchis Protocols would create him, just like Moira discovered someone other than the Trasks would eventually create the Sentinels.
At any rate, the rest of this issue is great. At the Forge, I realized that I was wrong that the head at the center of the station was a Celestial: it's a Mother Mold. Dr. Gregor explains to Omega that Mother Mold isn't operational yet because they haven't confirmed that she's past the "Heller-Faust line," which, based on Omega's comment, seems to be the point at which they can be sure that she isn't a sociopath. (Ha!) It's a relevant point, because Omega had just pointed out a space station full on Master Molds will likely at some point identify humanity as a threat, since mutants come from humans. Dr. Gregor informs Omega that they have release collars attached to the Mother Mold just in case she does go sociopath; once activated, they'd drop her into the sun. The data file that Apocalypse and company swiped in the X2 timeline in "Powers of X" #3 apparently has the schematics to the Forge, explaining how Charles and Magneto knew about the Orchis Protocol in "Powers of X" #2. (I observed in "House of X" #1 that Xavier seemed unaware of the Orchis Protocols, but Hickman confirms last issue that he and Magneto knew via Moira.)
Using their Shi'ar spaceship, the X-Men head straight for the corridor on the Forge that gives them access to all four release collars. The Forge's security team expected them to land in the hangar (since ships generally land in hangars), and Erasmus is impressed when it turns out they can cut their own entrance into the station. He then sacrifices himself to explode the entry point, detonating the X-Men's ship as well. It's definitely a moment. One of my main complaints about Hickman previously was how robotic his characters are, but it isn't the case here. Erasmus' last words to Dr. Gregor are that he wasn't ever joking when he frequently said that he wished that they had children and that he wishes her luck in saving their species. Dr. Gregor is devastated as she realize what he's going to do, and you can see how she'll be even more motivated now to take out the X-Men!
This issue is the first one where all the various strands come together, so it's clear that the parts of this enterprise that will functionally reboot the X-Men are imminent. I honestly can't wait.
Thor #16: Toothgnasher! Honestly, Aaron had to do one thing for me here, and it was bring back Toothgnasher, so I'm a very happy camper. As Aaron himself says in the letter at the end of the issue, it's not really good-bye until "King Thor" #4, so I'll save my sappiness for them, since he says that he will, too. But, this issue is a wonderful coda to what he's done with present-day Thor. Thor decides not to attend his coronation ceremony, performing good works throughout the Ten Realms instead. (My heart was particularly warmed by his appearance in Svartalfheim, bringing the coronation buffet -- much to Volstagg's fury -- to the starving dark elves praying for help in a post-Malekith reality.) Odin is initially furious at Thor's absence, but Freyja understands: Thor wants to earn his position as king not have Odin hand it to him. Odin laments that he doesn't get to deliver the beautiful speech that he planned, where he thanks Thor for saving all of them, himself included. It truly is a beautiful speech. He also planned to thank Thor for his greatest feat of all, reuniting Odin with Freyja. I found tears in my eyes as Freyja told Odin that it wasn't Thor who reunited them (meaning that Odin and his change of heart did). Freyja and Odin happily depart Asgard as Jane, now Valkyrie, raises a glass for all Asgardians in Thor's honor, saying a storm doesn't wait for a coronation before it decides to go become a storm. Long may he thunder, indeed. Perhaps the most touching moment among an issue full of them comes after that, as King Thor and young Thor depart the celebrations to return to their timelines. King Thor encourages young Thor to take his time and not drink away all the bad because he might learn something. As they depart, he guesses that young Thor will head straight for Mjolnir to see if he's worthy. He does...and then decides that he has time to have life before he grows old. Enjoy, young Thor. Enjoy!
Also Read: Detective Comics #1,010
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely New Comics: The August 7 and 14 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
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
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
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The July 24 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Guardians of the Galaxy #7: I was planning on canceling this series, but I have to say that Cates really held my interest here. He not only brings back the Universal Church of Truth as an amped-up threat from the future, but he reveals that J'Son, Peter's father, is the Patriarch. After J'Son manages to entrance (verb, not noun) everyone else, Groot and Moondragon flee the ship. Cates and Smith do an amazing job making their panicked escape feel like a horror movie. Cates even goes one better: Groot and Moondragon go to a dying Rocket as their last resort, finally answering the mystery of his absence. In other words, I'm definitely hanging in here.
House of X #1: If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I dislike Jonathan Hickman. But, I obviously need to get past that, because I'm a happy camper with what he does here. The highest compliment I think I can pay to Hickman after reading this issue is that the amazing innovations at the center of this series is just the beginning.
First, the innovation: Professor X uses "Krakoa flowers" as a deus ex machina to solve several problems that the mutants have long faced First, he creates yet another island nation for mutants, somewhere in the Pacific. But, it isn't the usual rigamarole on this front. The flowers also create habitats around the world that serve as extensions of the island itself as well as gateways that mutants (and only mutants) can use to travel between them. Perhaps even more importantly, Xavier uses the flowers to synthesize three drugs for humans: L, which extends human life by five years; I, which serves as a universal antibiotic; and M, which curses mental illnesses. Xavier offers these drugs to the nations of the world in exchange for amnesty for all mutants and the soveriegn recognition of Krakao.
I just have to say that it's all remarkably clever. It truly creates a believable justification for considering Hickman's run a reset of the brand. First, mutantkind is no longer scrambling for a home. But, Krakao isn't just another Asteroid M or Genosha or Utopia. The mutants finally have leverage in the form of the drugs; they're not just feared now, but needed. As we've seen over and over again, fear was never enough to keep them safe; the drugs may be. The combination of the homeland and the drugs puts them on steadier ground than they've possibly ever been. Some unhinged security official always used to come after them, and no one in the U.S. government really cared all that much if he killed a bunch of mutants. With the drugs, it's different this time.
But, the greater innovation is the Orchis Protocol. We're used to mutants having to think outside the box and innovate. How many times has the X-Men's status quo and modus operandi changed? But, here, the humans are also innovating. Dr. Alia Gregor has put together a team pulled from some of the most advanced "strategic organizations" in the Marvel Universe (S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., etc.) to protect humanity. She activated the Protocol when she realized the extent of Charles' plans. It's the yin to Charles' yang: Hickman is reminding us that Xavier isn't the only one fighting for his species' survival here.
To that end, Gregor has created the Forge, a high-tech spaceship built around the head of a Mother Mold Sentinel orbiting the Sun. (I originally thought that it was a Celestial's head, but Hickman later reveals that it's a Mother Mold's.) While the machines that created the Forge are mining Mercury for resources, Gregor and her team prepare for more humans to arrive. Hickman goes to great lengths to show that Gregor isn't a racist. She started developing the Protocol after she studied the Genosha genocide. Her research found that mutantkind would've displaced humanity within ten years if not for Genosha; she now reckons that they have 20 years left.
The Orchis Protocol is important because otherwise this issue would have no dramatic tension. Just as the mutants step up their game, humanity does, too. As Magneto says at the end of the issue, it's clear that humans have new gods now. The quote at the end of the issue -- about humans needing to speak Krakoa's name with reverence -- perfectly underlines the religious aspect of this rebirth. Also, we're talking about a literal rebirth here. We don't have all the information yet, but it's clear that Xavier -- if it is Xavier -- has used Krakoa to resurrect dead mutants, as Vulcan appears to be one of the mutants emerging from the pods that we see at the very start of the issue. (His name is also listed on the interstitial page of Omega-level mutants later in this issue.) In other words, the mutants now enjoy territorial control, financial power, and a standing army. You can understand why Gregor activated the Protocol.
But, the Orchis Protocol seems to exist outside Xavier's cognizance. Moreover, it isn't like humanity outside the Orchis Protocol is going to go without a fight. Scott's interaction with the Fantastic Four here has an edge, as he essentially announces mutantkind has finally drawn a line in the sand when it comes to its relationship with humanity. Hickman also doesn't stop with humanity existing as the only threat: in one of the interstitial pages, he tells us that Krakao seems to suffer from something called No-Space, a part of his consciousness he's unaware that he has. In other words, rebirth or no rebirth, it's still the X-Men: to paraphrase Milhouse, it may not yet be smooth sailing for the mutants.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #26; Star Wars #69
House of X #1: If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I dislike Jonathan Hickman. But, I obviously need to get past that, because I'm a happy camper with what he does here. The highest compliment I think I can pay to Hickman after reading this issue is that the amazing innovations at the center of this series is just the beginning.
First, the innovation: Professor X uses "Krakoa flowers" as a deus ex machina to solve several problems that the mutants have long faced First, he creates yet another island nation for mutants, somewhere in the Pacific. But, it isn't the usual rigamarole on this front. The flowers also create habitats around the world that serve as extensions of the island itself as well as gateways that mutants (and only mutants) can use to travel between them. Perhaps even more importantly, Xavier uses the flowers to synthesize three drugs for humans: L, which extends human life by five years; I, which serves as a universal antibiotic; and M, which curses mental illnesses. Xavier offers these drugs to the nations of the world in exchange for amnesty for all mutants and the soveriegn recognition of Krakao.
I just have to say that it's all remarkably clever. It truly creates a believable justification for considering Hickman's run a reset of the brand. First, mutantkind is no longer scrambling for a home. But, Krakao isn't just another Asteroid M or Genosha or Utopia. The mutants finally have leverage in the form of the drugs; they're not just feared now, but needed. As we've seen over and over again, fear was never enough to keep them safe; the drugs may be. The combination of the homeland and the drugs puts them on steadier ground than they've possibly ever been. Some unhinged security official always used to come after them, and no one in the U.S. government really cared all that much if he killed a bunch of mutants. With the drugs, it's different this time.
But, the greater innovation is the Orchis Protocol. We're used to mutants having to think outside the box and innovate. How many times has the X-Men's status quo and modus operandi changed? But, here, the humans are also innovating. Dr. Alia Gregor has put together a team pulled from some of the most advanced "strategic organizations" in the Marvel Universe (S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., etc.) to protect humanity. She activated the Protocol when she realized the extent of Charles' plans. It's the yin to Charles' yang: Hickman is reminding us that Xavier isn't the only one fighting for his species' survival here.
To that end, Gregor has created the Forge, a high-tech spaceship built around the head of a Mother Mold Sentinel orbiting the Sun. (I originally thought that it was a Celestial's head, but Hickman later reveals that it's a Mother Mold's.) While the machines that created the Forge are mining Mercury for resources, Gregor and her team prepare for more humans to arrive. Hickman goes to great lengths to show that Gregor isn't a racist. She started developing the Protocol after she studied the Genosha genocide. Her research found that mutantkind would've displaced humanity within ten years if not for Genosha; she now reckons that they have 20 years left.
The Orchis Protocol is important because otherwise this issue would have no dramatic tension. Just as the mutants step up their game, humanity does, too. As Magneto says at the end of the issue, it's clear that humans have new gods now. The quote at the end of the issue -- about humans needing to speak Krakoa's name with reverence -- perfectly underlines the religious aspect of this rebirth. Also, we're talking about a literal rebirth here. We don't have all the information yet, but it's clear that Xavier -- if it is Xavier -- has used Krakoa to resurrect dead mutants, as Vulcan appears to be one of the mutants emerging from the pods that we see at the very start of the issue. (His name is also listed on the interstitial page of Omega-level mutants later in this issue.) In other words, the mutants now enjoy territorial control, financial power, and a standing army. You can understand why Gregor activated the Protocol.
But, the Orchis Protocol seems to exist outside Xavier's cognizance. Moreover, it isn't like humanity outside the Orchis Protocol is going to go without a fight. Scott's interaction with the Fantastic Four here has an edge, as he essentially announces mutantkind has finally drawn a line in the sand when it comes to its relationship with humanity. Hickman also doesn't stop with humanity existing as the only threat: in one of the interstitial pages, he tells us that Krakao seems to suffer from something called No-Space, a part of his consciousness he's unaware that he has. In other words, rebirth or no rebirth, it's still the X-Men: to paraphrase Milhouse, it may not yet be smooth sailing for the mutants.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #26; Star Wars #69
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