X-Men #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 5 #21
“The Beginning”
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Russell Dauterman, Lucas Werneck, Sara Pichelli, Frank Martin, Matthew Wilson, Sunny Gho & Nolan Woodward
PAGE 1 / COVER. Simply a generic image of some of the cast members of the X-books during the first phase of the Hickman run, with Krakoan vines arranged in a (largely obscured) X-pattern.
PAGE 2. Tribute to the late John Paul Leon.
PAGES 3-7. Professor X and Magneto talk to Namor.
Namor seems to have no desire to be here, which begs the question of why he showed up. Presumably, for all his disdain, he thinks that what the Krakoans are up to is at least sufficiently important to be worth keeping an eye on first hand. At the same time, while the Krakoans are succeeding in their immediate goals, he seems to have no real confidence in the goals themselves.
Professor X and Magneto have colour co-ordinated costumes, down to the customised Cerebro helmet. They’re very clearly positioned as a pair here. They remain keen to get Namor on side, as they have been from the dawn of the Krakoan era. Professor X’s first attempt to recruit him was in Powers of X #5, where Xavier similarly framed the pitch as “come home”. But despite some short stints with the X-Men, Namor has never identified particularly as a mutant, and certainly not primarily as one; he’s an Atlantean first and foremost. At any rate, in that issue Namor suggested that he didn’t think Xavier truly believed in his new posture of mutant superiority, and told him “don’t come back until you really mean it.” Clearly he remains unconvinced – but equally clearly, he has no interest in a mutant-centric agenda. He goes out of his way to claim that he’s superior to everyone, mutant or otherwise.
Magneto offers Namor a seat on the Quiet Council (which has two vacancies following the departure of Apocalypse and Jean Grey at the end of “X of Swords”). It’s maybe worth noting here that there’s no sign of the Krakoans transitioning beyond the Quiet Council into something more, well, democratic. Krakoa remains a profoundly undemocratic society, albeit one with multiple perspectives represented on its council.
Namor conspicuously flounces off to talk with other regular superheroes on rejecting Krakoa – more specifically, other members of the Illuminati from the Brian Bendis Avengers run. Incidentally, this gives the art a chance to show that everyone else is wearing the Krakoan tracking flowers, except for Iron Man, who made a big thing about refusing to wear them for privacy reasons. Namor, likewise, is not wearing one.
PAGE 8. Recap and credits. This is the final issue of volume 5, and the final issue to be written by Hickman; Gerry Duggan takes over as the regular writer with volume 6. Hence the “End of an Era”, “not the end but the beginning” stuff.
PAGES 9-14. The new X-Men are announced.
What do you know, it’s the same people it was in the press release.
Despite the way it was described in earlier issues, this isn’t really an election at all so much as a telepathic consensus-based decision-making procedure. It rather points up the fact that the Krakoans have it in their power to approach matters in a more democratic way, and that the Quiet Council is deliberately designed in the way it is. Dr Strange helpfully spells out for us that this consensus process is meant to result in an X-Men team that truly reflects what mutants want their nation to be. (Overwhelmingly American, apparently.)
In fact, the result is quite a traditional group: mainstays Cyclops, Jean Grey and Rogue; Magneto’s daughter Polaris; Sunfire, not a core X-Man but a long-time ally; Wolverine (Laura), who’s perhaps more approachable to the average Krakoan than Logan; and Synch, the only really surprising choice. Do the Krakoans know about what he went through in the Vault? We’re told nobody’s hiding anything here, but is that really the sort of thing that the general Krakoan public is being made aware of? Or is it just that his power-copying schtick appeals to mutant nationalism?
Incidentally, despite the references to this exercise including all mutants, the many, many mutants of Arakko seem to be entirely absent from the procedure. There’s no mention of them, and it’s unimaginable that they wouldn’t vote for at least some of their champions. This may be why Jean begins her address with “Mutants of Earth” – it sounds like it’s all-encompassing, but it’s actually also a restriction, excluding the mutants who originated somewhere else.
Page 11 has two cutaway panels showing mutants participating in the election. The first shows Peeper and Risque from S.W.O.R.D.. The other shows Rain Boy, Cosmar and Anole from New Mutants.
The woman talking about “No hidden agendas or manipulation” appears to be Sersi, presumably here as a representative of the Eternals.
The reaction shots from the five elected members (Cyclops and Jean apparently just deemed themselves to be team members) show them with their established supporting cast:
- Rogue is with her husband Gambit; her Excalibur teammates Jubilee and Rictor are also in the panel.
- Sunfire has no friends and is hanging out alone on the fringes of the party. (And he won a popularity contest… how exactly?)
- Laura is alone as well, but not to quite the same extent; she’s being a little more playful in what she’s doing, and Cannonball and Sunspot are congratulating her from a distance.
- Synch celebrates with Mondo and Skin, his former teammates in Generation X. The standoffish M doesn’t join in.
- Polaris seems quietly proud of her achievement; her teammates in X-Factor are surrounding her.
PAGES 15-16. Data page – the Red Diamond.
It’s been a while since we’ve had one of Sinister’s blind-item columns.
- Sinister Secret #51: Well, the obvious masked member of the Quiet Council is Professor X. The implication seems to be that Xavier’s Krakoan persona is at least partly an act, but is now taking over. What Sinister means by “not being able to let things go” is not so clear.
- Sinister Secret #52: This sounds a lot like Mystique, who has wanted the return of her wife Destiny ever since she arrived on Krakoa, and is being strung along. The “diamonds” likely refer to the Shi’ar logic diamonds from Marauders #21 and X-Force #21, which Emma didn’t remember asking for. Those diamonds are used by Cerebro to store backed-up mutants. A plausible scenario is that Mystique impersonated Emma to get her hands on the diamonds, and has some sort of plan to use them to copy Destiny’s mind.
- Sinister Secret #53: This just acknowledges that we haven’t heard anything about how Apocalypse (“fittest-of-all”) is settling in with his wife Genesis on Amenth. The word “external” refers to Apocalypse’s status as one of the immortal mutant Externals.
- Sinister Secret #54: The island is Krakoa; its “favourite boy” is its translator Cypher. The “seducer” is Bei, who married him in X of Swords. The point here seems to be that Krakoa knows an awful lot about everything that’s happening on the island. No matter where you are, Krakoa is watching you. Nobody seems terribly bothered about any of this, which is… weird.
- Sinister Secret #55: The obvious two ruling councils are the Quiet Council on Krakoa, and its Arakkan counterpart, the Great Ring. The third, I suspect, is their counterpart in Orchis, which has repeatedly been presented as another sort of mirror Krakoa.
- Sinister Secret #56: They’re going to fill the two vacant seats on the Quiet Council. Thanks, Sinister.
- Sinister Secret #57: This refers to Betsy Braddock and Kwannon; apparently we’re going with the idea that Kwannon was trapped within Betsy’s body for a time before her resurrection (even though originally it was more of a mind swap). The “demanding queen” is Saturnyne, and Betsy was “shattered” in X of Swords (as part of magical weirdness). Kwannon, as Psylocke, is being blackmailed into working for Sinister in Hellions; he has a copy of her daughter’s mind. Sinister rightly suspects that Psylocke is on the verge of turning on him anyway.
- Sinister Secret #58: The Vescora are the rampaging alien horde from “X of Swords”, who were packed off to Blighstpoke in the epilogue to X of Swords: Destruction. Blightspoke is a dimension of fragments from ruined worlds, where the Vescora will hopefully find some sorts of treasures. Some of these retrievals are evidently making it onto the black market, in the form of Otherworld’s “Crooked Market” domain; its ruler Mad Jim Jaspers is taking everything for himself for now.
- Sinister Secret #59: This is very cryptic. The suggestion seems to be that Sinister (or someone) would normally be murdering someone to take their place, but resurrection rules out doing that the normal way. So some sort of workaround is going to be needed.
- A reprise of the Inferno tease, which Hellions also seems to be building towards, with repeated mentions of the potential return of Madelyne Pryor.
- Sinister Secret #60: A version of Sinister returned from Amenth, having apparently survived his encounter with the Locus Vile after all, in the latest Hellions.
PAGES 17-18. “Exodus.”
Apparently this is everyone heading outside for the fireworks. The random celebrity cameos are just a distraction.
The two people from the hidden city are new, as is the “Kara Kutuça”, which contains something that Emma wants. “Kara Kutuça” appears to be Turkish for “black box”.
PAGES 19-21. Cyclops’ monologue.
The man Cyclops is talking to is, apparently, Kevin Feige.
Scott’s monologue is accompanied by a seemingly unrelated sequence of X-Force’s Kid Omega ushering people in the direction of the fireworks, I guess. It doesn’t really seem to connect with anything that Scott is saying.
Basically, Scott restates the traditional Xavier’s Dream formulation of the X-Men’s agenda with the caveat that, as a practical agenda for what is achievable, it doesn’t survive contact with reality. The “everyone’s fundamentally the same” trope of the dream is restated as a reason not to deify Xavier. Scott’s suggestion that his own dreams are at least as valid as Xavier’s seems to tie in with the fact that his new X-Men appear to serve as a competing power base on Krakoa. And given the general mutant-nationalist vibe of all things Krakoan, it’s somewhat notable to see Cyclops reiterating that point at all: “There is no real difference between any of us. No matter how much we believe the lie that there is.” He then proceeds immediately to describe himself as “a man – a mutant”. None of this is on message for Krakoa, and while part of the point is to restate that these elements of X-Men-ness are still present on the inside, it does feel like there’s more going on.
PAGES 22-26. The fireworks.
This leads into an announcement which is, presumably, something to do with Mars – the red planet seen in the closing panels. The X-Men have had a present on Mars since House of X but nothing has really been done with it yet. Presumably we’re coming to the details in Planet-Size X-Men #1 later this month.
Incidentally, this may explain why the credits pages for “Hellfire Gala” issues have a whacking great red circle on them.
PAGE 27. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: NEW START.
Looking ahead: glad to see Rogue back under Gerry Duggen and Pepe Larraz. Too bad she’s wearing her 90’s outfit.
The costuming for the Hickman era has been all over the place. Polaris appears to be wearing her *second* new Hickman era costume, while Jean Grey is dressed like she did as a teenager.
Nice to see a Hickman / Dragotta reunion, especially focusing on Namor.
Re: Cyclops
It’s notable just how much his current characterisation is a complete U-turn from his Magneto-lite “I’ve finally graduated” thing which started under Morrison & Whedon, and reached a peak in the Fraction-to-Bendis period. THAT Cyclops would have been all-in on Krakoa (It’s also not quite how he was shown in HoXPoX, notably that scene with the F4 there.)
Typo: “The X-Men have had a present [sic] on Mars since House of X but nothing has really been done with it yet.” Should be “presence>”
Mark: The costuming for the Hickman era has been all over the place. Polaris appears to be wearing her *second* new Hickman era costume, while Jean Grey is dressed like she did as a teenager.
The funny thing is the “party line” c. HoXPoX of “everyone has a wardrobe of old costumes” has been completely ignored in all but a tiny minority of cases. Artists, and by extension characters, seem to have almost no interest in it whatsoever.
[Jean is actually one of the few to have been shown wearing multiple costumes – Dauterman drew her X-Men Red suit (recoloured), Brett Booth her Walt Simonson X-Factor uniform, and the SWORD artist her Jim Lee outfit. Possibly because it’s such an ill-fitting choice?]
What in the world was Emma showing everyone?
Obviously, Mars, yes.
The inset pictures, though, look more like the end of the universe. With the two characters sitting on asteroids.
Was that part of Emma’s vision, or was that something that Hickman placed in the story, taking place in the far future?
The new X-Men team is both very very safe, and very very odd.
I mean sure, you think of the X-Men and Cyclops, Jean and Rogue are all long-time, high profile members.
Polaris? She’s been a reluctant X-Man at best for most of her rather long career, and has spent more time mind-controlled or brainwashed or crazy than most, and has also spent a lot of time on auxiliary teams. I dare you to name one truly great thing she ever did on the main team.
Sunfire? Not a team player. EVER. His stints on the team or as an ally have always been short, rude, and abrupt. Why he’d want to be on it–why anyone else would want him on it–is beyond me.
Synch? He’s spent a very long time being dead and all he brings to the table is his ability to copy other people. I like him, but seriously, how do people know who he even IS apart from his Generation X friends?
Laura/Wolverine? Again, more notable for all the time spent on auxiliary teams than associating with the main team. A Wolverine knock-off for when you can’t get the real thing, and saner than any of the other Wolverine knock-offs.
You can argue in part that the inclusion of Synch and Sunfire is to give the main team the illusion of diversity (since all of the other major characters of color are otherwise engaged elsewhere I guess?) but this is, as noted, a very American-centric team apart from Sunfire, which defeats the purpose if you wanted to make this represent the full range of mutants across the globe. (Hell, the original New Mutants and the original Giant-Size team both did better on representation!)
If this is supposed to be the best X-Men team for the people, by the people, they could have done better. If this is supposed to represent a mass consensus, I’d have expected other results. (And yeah, I know Polaris was the result of letting the fans vote, which was stupid because it gave us hope that we’d get someone out of left field like Tempo, and instead just yoinked her out of X-Factor where she was being handled just fine…)
IMHO, this team should have included the core of Scott and Jean, another long time member like Rogue, an ex-villain who -hasn’t- been an X-Man before to represent the massive amounts of former foes inhabiting the island, someone from an auxiliary team (Generation X, New Mutants, Hellions, etc etc etc), several who AREN’T American, and an Arakkoan. You know, at least diversify it a bit more.
Either that, or make it an all-star line-up of actual classic X-Men. Scott, Jean, Kurt, Piotr, Rogue, Ororo, Logan, etc. Y’know, go serious throwback to the glory days.
Ah well. We’ll see what happens.
Paul > Namor conspicuously flounces off to talk with other regular superheroes on rejecting Krakoa – more specifically, other members of the Illuminati from the Brian Bendis Avengers run.
This is indeed the Illuminati, but I think the reference is to Hickman’s Illuminati from his Avengers run rather than Bendis’s Illuminati, of which Xavier was a member. Notably, Black Panther refused to have anything to do with the Bendis Illuminati but then caved in and joined it during Hickman’s run.
The six former Hickman Illuminati members in this issue are Iron Man, Namor, Mister Fantastic, Black Panther, Captain America and Doctor Strange. I think Sinister Secret 55, in addition to Orchis, the Quiet Council and the Great Ring, also hints at a possible reformation of the Illuminati as a response to Krakoa with these six members. Their motto was ‘In Secret, We Rule’, so they could fit the ‘ruling council’ criteria of the secret.
The other former Hickman Illuminati members were Beast (now the director of Krakoa’s X-Force), Black Bolt (off in space with the Inhumans), Captain Britain (now Captain Avalon in Otherworld), Hank Pym (dead), Hulk (now in an ‘Immortal’ state) and Amadeus Cho (now with the Champions). I don’t think they’ll have anything to do with this.
Well, the art was all over the place in that issue, especially Namor at the start. And any conversation where Namor is the one making sense is a bad one. And what was going on at the end? I was promised fireworks, not Emma throwing a tiny little red ball in the air.
I wonder if the bringing up of Apocalypse and the mention of how Cypher is distracted and not paying attention to Krakoa means that everyone’s favourite sentient island is going to go bye-bye and everyone has to decamp to the much less hospitable Arrako for the duration?
I, for one, am looking forward to the adventures of the new team because they are so badly mismatched it’s going to be interesting how a writer is going to have them win confrontations with any even vaguely organised foes.
Loz-The “red ball” is Mars.
She is projecting an image of Mars, which reveals that Krakoa has now terraformed Mars.
The two inset images, with the two characters floating on asteroids though, is weird.
I don’t know if that was part of Emma’s vision or if that is Hickman showing the future.
“Synch? He’s spent a very long time being dead and all he brings to the table is his ability to copy other people. I like him, but seriously, how do people know who he even IS apart from his Generation X friends?”
The fan theory is that Synch is the new celebrated X-Man hero because of the decades he spent in the Vault battling the children. It was in recent issues of ‘X-Men’.
Paul > Scott’s monologue is accompanied by a seemingly unrelated sequence of X-Force’s Kid Omega ushering people in the direction of the fireworks, I guess. It doesn’t really seem to connect with anything that Scott is saying.
It’s a bit confusing because the art is decoupled from the narration, but Kid Omega seems to be only ushering certain people out of the party. The rest of them are still there for the fireworks later (which are psychic anyway).
The people he gets are Storm, Jean Grey, Exodus, Monarch, Hope, Elixir, Proteus and Iceman. (Cyclops is not actually leaving, just mingling with guests.) Together with himself, they are some of the Omega Mutants of Krakoa. Hence, this is presumably Magneto’s Omega project. It was hinted at back in the Captains’ report in X-Men 11 and recently Magneto asked Legion to participate when he was resurrected in Way of X 2. David declined.
Magneto is presumably already waiting for this group at the destination (which is probably Mars). The Omega mutants not seen here are Legion (who declined), Mister M (living in Otherworld), Powerhouse (who is not a mutant anymore) and Vulcan. Vulcan might just not be attending the Gala but might show up for the project.
We have actually seen some of this project taking place in Excalibur 21. When Stern says ‘the mad king is away among the stars’, there is a panel of Monarch on a red planet (you can see Earth in the sky) doing something with his powers. To be expanded upon in Planet-Size, I suppose.
Interesting that in Moira’s life nine, Sinister tampered with the Omega-class clones. They formed a hive-mind, apparently destroyed Krakoa, and then collapsed Mars in to a self-singularity.
Now, Krakoa seems to be moving all the Omega mutants to Mars.
Could Moira’s plan in life nine bern similar to what she plans in the current life, except in life nine Sinister’s tampering ruined her goal.
Maybe collapsing Mars in to a singularity wasn’t due to Sinister’s tampering, but an aspect of Moira’s goal. Sinister just messed up the remainder of her plan.
Also, I read a theory on other web-sites that Sinister’s Secret #54 isn’t about Krakoa, but about Warlock.
Doug Ramsey’s “island friend” could conceivably be a reference to Warlock instead of Krakoa. Doug brought his best friend, Warlock, to the island.
It is just so odd to see Laura being called “Wolverine” left and right. I don’t think that I will ever truly accept that.
I may be going through wishful thinking, but I don’t think that the third council is meant to be any version of the Illuminati. If for no other reason, because I do not expect the editorial heads to be willing to deal with the implications at the current time.
Instead, I think that the most likely meaning is that Scott and Jean’s recreated X-Men will indeed position themselves as a competing power base disputing influence with Krakoa and Arakko.
The new team is very strange. It’s full of redundancies. We have the happily married person (Rogue and Cyclops/Jean), the legacy character (Rogue, Polaris, Wolverine, and arguably Synch as a member of the junior spinoff junior spinoff team), the one who can copy powers (Rogue yet again, Synch). Sunfire’s about the only one who brings anything unique to the table. As unique as “hothead who can fly and make fire” could be called, anyway.
Plus they’re all straight, mostly white, and mostly American. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky there’s more than one woman on the team.
There’s a very serious problem with the mutant set-up in the Marvel Universe, period.
The majority of mutants are from the United States.
The idea is that mutants are the next stage in human evolution.
Based on statistics, the majority of mutants should be Chinese and Indian. Those nations have the largest populations in the world, so it should equate to the largest number of mutants being born in those countries.
Why would the characters find Krakoa’s lack of privacy to be unsettling? I mean, most of them have known that Professor X can track them down and read their minds any time he wants. Is this really any different?
Professor X doesn’t constantly listen to everyone.
I mean, hypothetically, this would mean that Krakoa is listening to people having sex.
However, I see some problems with the idea…
First, who says that anyone on Krakoa other than Sinister knows this Sinister secret.
Secondly, wouldn’t this mean that Krakoa would be aware of Mystique’s plan to “burn Krakoa to the ground”.
You would think that if Krakoa was always listening, he might have made Doug Ramsey know that someone is planning to kill him.
Third, the “secret” doesn’t read properly if it’s referring to Krakoa anyway.
It’s very circular. Why bring Doug Ramsey in to the clue in the first place?
It references Doug Ramsey in relation to the island in the first part.
Then, it circles back to make the answer to the clue as the island. It doesn’t seem correct.
I think Warlock is the more likely answer.
Warlock might have spread the techno-organic virus around the island, after all. Warlock might be listening to everything that goes on with the island.
Only Sinister has figured it out.
I like to think Doug and Warlock have been suspicious if Krakoa since the beginning. Doug deliberately infected part of the island in his first HoX/PoX appearance. Doug is the only one who really knows what Krakoa is saying. And I kind of see Hickman turning Doug into the saviour.
(I mean, what’s with the convenient marriage with Bei? How is that supposed to actually work? What does Bei see in Doug? I can see Bei as a linguistic challenge for Doug, but there’s no reasoning for Bei to seemingly fall in love.)
Another issue where very little happens.
Sunfire is on the team because he just saved the day for them in King in Black. He’s riding high on that popularity. Plus Uncanny Avengers.
Now why he would want anything to do with Krakoa when he’s pretty much always been Japanese first and a Mutant far second has not been touched on to my knowledge, but that’s true for a lot of characters.
Synch and Wolverine 23 are there because of the Vault sacrifice.
I assume someone lit a candle for poor Darwin off panel.
I mean we all know the real reason why America has so many mutants. Isn’t the in world rational that America is a melting pot where a lot of x-gene carriers fled to in the past? Or is that just my head cannon?
Hasn’t China been stated as culling the x-gene pretty heavily out of the population?
It is a very white, American, straight, fairly redundant team.
And all the pretty human looking mutants, which hopefully is a plot point.
I assumed they’d put an Arakkon mutant in their, and a reborn Gorgon since he saved the day in XoS and hasn’t been seen since, but I keep forgetting this era adds in a million plots and never does anything with most of them.
Remember Vulcan being a sleeper agent for bizarre aliens or Broo becoming Brood King?
Good times.
I don’t know if it was ever stated that China was culling its mutants. It was stated that the USSR killed all of its mutants, I think it was part of the Winter Guard backstory.
I’m not sure how carriers of the X-gene would have any idea they had the X-gene.
I don’t remember it ever being mentioned as an explanation.
It used to be explained by all the nuclear tests, but that hasn’t been canon in decades.
It’s just supposed to be natural evolution that mutants are increasing in number.
Making so many of them white Americans can be read as highly problematic.
Of course we know the real reason, but when you downplay the “minority metaphor” for mutants in the text and make the “next stage in human evolution” aspect front and center, it starts to look like something that white supremacists would applaud.
Also, if China has been culling the X-gene, it seems like Krakoa would make a huge issue out of that, considering that Xavier has been raving about the “humans killing all the mutants in Genosha”.
China signed on to Krakoa’s trade deal after the island was established.
That wouldn’t explain India either.
“I dare you to name one truly great thing she ever did on the main team.”
I’m bummed Polaris has been pulled away from X-Factor, and I agree that she works better in ancillary teams, but she did send Krakoa into space in Giant Size #1. And she continues to have a direct relationship with Krakoa, as shown recently. She’s the only one outside of Doug and maybe Mondo, as far a I know, so that might become important later.
Marvel Universe mutancy is highly detached from anything that exists in the Real World(TM), down to the basics. Come to think of it, it works a lot like Kirby’s concept for the Eternals instead. Particularly under Hickman’s worldview.
In the Real World(TM) there is no such thing as a “gene for mutancy”. That would be a direct contradiction of concepts.
But if such a thing existed, it would hardly work as an explanation for the USA-centric distribution of known mutants. Whatever “melting pot” attributes might have ever existed there are now very much unremarkable in a global scale. If anything, it is one of the least mixed societies around – and not by coincidence, one of the most attentive to ethnic composition.
Also, this new team echoes Claremont’s classic team configuration(s) in a few ways:
Scott –> Scott
Jean –> Jean (Professor X?)
Rogue –> Colossus (and Rogue, obvs.)
Laura –> Logan
Sunfire –> Ororo
Synch –> Rogue
All they really need is a teleporter to complete the 80s feel.
Polaris is the only one who doesn’t fit in that way. Maybe she’s just there because of the fan vote. Or maybe she’ll bring something integral to the story later.
And redundant powers can be a team asset. At least they were in X-Factor, which I will stop mentioning now.
I agree that from Hickman’s perspective, Synch and All-New Wolverine are there because of the Vault. But do the Krakoans who have no history of association with the X-Men know about that? The whole vote/consensus thing suffers greatly from the fact that the population of Krakoa is just another one of Hickman’s nameless, faceless hordes. We have no idea why they might have chosen this group, but we also have no idea why they might have chosen anyone else.
Krakoa definitely has been presented as a society that would glorify those who fight or die for the nation.
If you die in the name of the mutant cause, you are granted priority for resurrection, as an example.
I would assume that the Quiet Council probably made a big deal out of Synch and Laura’s sacrifices.
However, it is true that it would work better if more were shown on the page.
Hickman could have shown Magneto giving a speech about how brave Synch and Laura were, or as simple as posters in the background on Krakoa presenting Synch and Laura as war heroes.
It strikes me that voting for the most popular mutants for a team, who are given priority for dying, is exactly how you get X-Statix. Maybe this team is just made up of the most photogenic and charismatic Krakoans.
Wait a second. That sounds like how you get X-Statix!
The point of X-Statix was that the team were more reality stars than heroes.
Cyclops, Jean, and Rogue are on the team because they seem to be the best fit for the job.
Uncanny X-Ben makes a good point that Sunfire is on the team because he is seen as a national hero right now (due to “King in Black”).
Synch and Laura seems to be on the team because of the sacrifices they were willing to make for the nation.
And, Polaris is on the team because of…nepotism?
So, I’d say the team makes sense for the most part considering the type of society Krakoa has been presented.
Be interesting to see if Mad Jim Jaspers got an invite to this Omega mutant secret club. Having nearly destroyed the multiverse, they might feel like he’s too dangerous to be involved. But then again, maybe that’s a reason to keep him close…
Did all the older Sinister Secrets actually happen, or lead to anything, or whatever? I can’t think of what the one about something washing up on Krakow was referring to.
Seems to me that Sinister Secret #52 is about the box, or rather its contents, that we saw Emma trying to get at the gala from the two strangers.
“Maybe this team is just made up of the most photogenic and charismatic Krakoans.”
I wonder who would the most popular mutant diageticalky speaking?
I’d think Dazzler, presuming people know she is a mutant.
She’s been outed as a mutant back in the 80s, I think.
I guess maybe Deadpool just did…
Re: Dave’s question about resolving the previous Sinister Secrets… hell with it, I’ll take a stab. #1 is about a Sinister clone in red shoes, who duly crops up in Cable #6. #2 is Jumbo Carnation coming back as seen in Marauders. #3 is about Maddie Pryor being back, as seen in Hellions. #4 is the “washed ashore” one, nothing springs to mind. #5 is the Jean/Scott/Logan throuple with Emma on the side. #6 is an oblique reference to Sinister having DNA samples of all the students and faculty of the Jean Grey School from Spider-Man and the X-Men.
#7 is about Vulcan and foreshadowing the Adam-X reveal from X-Men Legacy. #8 is setup for X of Swords and the original Horseman of the Apocalypse. #9 doesn’t seem to be resolved – it’s about a young non-couple couple being reunited. My gut feeling is that the intention was to launch X-Corp earlier and have Synch and M’s awkward reunion post-resurrection be a subplot, and then Hickman did the Vault thing and that was off.
#10 is unresolved, I think (brainwashed mutant being used by Sinister). #11 is about Kate being made Red Queen, but also says that she was the third choice, and I don’t think we know who the first two were. #12 is foreshadowing Shaw attacking Kate Pryde. #13 now seems like it’s setting up the return of Lourdes in the next issue of Marauders, which would be impressively long-term plotting if true. #14 is about the mutant cultists around the gates that pop up occasionally. No idea on #15.
#16 is Sinister throwing shade at Kate for avoiding Council meetings. #17 is setting up Quentin’s wardrobe change and romance subplot in X-Force. #18 is about Stinger being pregnant, as seen in Cable. #19 is about Fenris being back as seen in Marauders. I don’t remember which issues #20 through 50 appear in so that’s all I can contribute.
Without reading the items proper, I would guess #9 to be about Cypher and Warlock and #10 to be about Kwannon as Psylocke.
But are all those trivia items supposed to be presented as gossip about future happenings in Krakoan society? Sounds unlikely. The implication would be that Sinister is a precog or has ready access to one, and is making no effort to hide that. Surely Xavier and Magneto would react in some way.
Maybe they are to be taken as meta commentary that does not actually exist in-history?
And yes, Dazzler was ousted as a mutant back in the 1980s, in her Graphic Novel. It factored into her eventual decision to finally join the X-Men, between the Mutant Massacre and the Fall of the Mutants IIRC.
I’m pretty sure that it was mentioned that these Sinister secrets were printed as a gossip column on Krakoa.
Maybe Xavier and Magneto aren’t paying attention, because it’s presented as simply gossip.
Maybe they’ll start paying more attention once there is an Inferno.
I get the idea that Sinister does have some sort of precog abilities.
I was thinking that maybe Sinister actually is using Destiny’s DNA.
What better way to mess with the Quiet Council?
I was thinking that might have been the reference to a “Sinister with the red shoes”, that he has Destiny’s DNA.
Another possibility now, I was thinking, might be that Sinister actually had Destiny’s diaries. Gambit only pretended to destroy them.
How the diaries would get from Sinister to Moira though seems hard to reconcile.
Fan speculation on Sinister Secret #4 (and it may be outdated) was that “what washed ashore” was Kate Pryde.
The speculation was that Sinister had tampered with her DNA and that was why she couldn’t use the gates.
They pointed out that Kate, suspiciously, named her team the Marauders, which was Sinister’s group.
Also, they pointed out that the Sinister secret columns started popping up in the Marauders comic, while Sinister wasn’t appearing in that comic.
They felt it could be a clue that Kate and Sinister are connected.
I don’t know if this theory is still plausible or not.
Didn’t some sort of gross undersea tumor thing wash up in an issue of X-Force?
I’ll take a crack at the Sinister Secrets (what they refer to and which ones have been followed up on) in a few days. But I think we can make very good guesses on what most of them refer to by now.
As for Mars, I posted the following theory last month:
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I’m actually about 95% certain that Hickman’s new book will be centred around Arakko, but with the caveat that Storm, who recently left Marauders, will be the viewpoint character. I’ve mentioned this here before, but I have a theory that Storm might join the Great Ring of Arakko (specifically the ‘Day’ section) and that Arakko will be leaving Earth to take root on Mars. Here, Hickman will start building on all the cosmic elements of his big Krakoa arc.
(…)
So, this leaves Storm, who recently resigned from Marauders. Arakko arrived on Earth after X of Swords but did not merge with Krakoa as expected. Its long-term presence will cause a problem. Storm is African, so she has something in common with the Ancient Egyptian Arakkii. She is an Omega mutant, so she is eligible for Great Ring membership. My theory is that she will resign from the Quiet Council and take a ‘Day’ seat on the Ring. ‘Storm’ could fit the redacted name on the Ring data page.
As for Mars, Idyll made a prophecy back in X-Men 14:
Only under the black moon will the two become one. A white light will judge them, and a red land will see them split forever.
I believe that the ‘two’ is Krakoa and Arakko and the ‘one’ they become is Okkara. The ‘white light’ is Opal Luna Saturnyne, referred to as the ‘White Light of Otherworld’ in X of Swords: Creation. The ‘judgement’ is the tournament of swords that she held. My theory is that the ‘red land’ that separates them will be Mars. The ‘black moon’ is the only thing I’m not certain of.
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Now, I was obviously very wrong about Hickman’s new book Inferno, which will focus on the Mystique, Destiny and Moira plotlines instead. But I’m still fairly confident that the Arakko to Mars stuff is still happening, and I think S.W.O.R.D. is the book that will be following up on all of this instead. Khora of Arakko joining that book might be foreshadowing. I’m less confident now about Storm joining the Great Ring, but I think she might have something to do with S.W.O.R.D. once the Hellfire Gala is over. Perhaps as the Quiet Council representative once Magneto’s turn is done.
So, the ‘white light’ is Saturnyne and the ‘red land’ is Mars. Could the ‘black moon’ have something to do with the summer solstice that Hellfire Gala falls on?
Well, the Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, so that seems like a contradictory date to describe as “a black moon”.
I don’t think SWORD is going in that direction (although it does feature Magneto, but he seems like he’s going to be tied up until after Inferno with this murder thing). I think SWORD is going to deal with Krakoa’s further expansion outside the solar system.
As far as Storm, she might end up the Quiet Council representative to the Shi’ar. It seemed like Hickman was setting up Storm to be involved with the wider Shi’ar plot during her last appearance in X-Men.
I do think you are right about Arakko’s mutants, since so many of them are Omega-class. Krakoa are moving their Omega-class mutants to Mars. So, that would make sense.
I don’t think we’re going to see a lot of follow-up with Mars for a while in the books though, as I think it will feature as a major plot before Hickman finishes his run, so it’ll probably be picked up again during the third and final chapter of Hickman’s story.
If my theory is right and Moira’s plan involves the creation of a singularity being created from Mars, which ties in with life nine, since Sinister was cloning Omega mutants for Krakoa, that leaves open how many Omega mutants were on Mars when they collapsed the planet in to a “self-singularity”.
Maybe that is why the mutants on Arakko were needed (and are now seen so rarely in the story), Hickman and Krakoa needed more Omega-class mutants.
‘Well, the Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, so that seems like a contradictory date to describe as “a black moon”.’
Not sure if this is important, but the Hellfire Gala was originally planned to take place in December, before COVID messed up the scheduling.
If it was the Winter Solstice, then it might possibly have had some meaning.
It would be funny if the prophecy was now incorrect due to meta-concerns. Grant Morrison would write an awe-inspiring series based around the idea.
However, there wasn’t anything in the “Hellfire gala” event that pertains to Arakko and Krakoa merging, so I doubt it was the reference to the “black moon”.
If Krakoa was in the Southern Hemisphere, the “summer solstice” would be the longest day of the year, right?
I mean, longest night / shortest day.
Stupid lack of editing button. 🙂
Fair point. Although, they’re celebrating the “Hellfire gala” on Mykines.
“Storm is African, so she has something in common with the Ancient Egyptian Arakkii.”
Thats like saying someone from Hungary has something in common with ancient Rome because they are both European.
Synch *and* Rogue on a team?
I don’t get it. Synch is already an odd choice, but coupled with Rogue? Aren’t they both basically power-plagarists? Why would a team need two of those? Seems redundant.