Rise of the Powers of X #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #4
“Sentinel X”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: R.B. Silva
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: A distraught Professor X, in his Cerebro helmet, in a field of flaming skulls. Presumably that’s Krakoa in the background.
PAGE 2. Paul Neary obituary.
PAGES 3-6. Professor X frees Mother Righteous and kills Rasputin.
This picks up directly from the end of issue #3, where Professor X was persuaded to switch tack and try Rachel’s plan of resurrecting the Phoenix as a means of defeating Enigma. As we establish later on, the reason why Professor X is killing Rachel and Rasputin is so that the Five can resurrect them in the White Hot Room – being the only available means of actually getting them there.
“You have the power to stop Rasputin, yes?” Mother Righteous’ magic gives her control over anyone who’s thanked her in the past, until she cashes that favour in. She used up most of her power in the White Hot Room by cashing in the general thanks that she was given by the whole population of Krakoa (in the closing issues of Immortal X-Men), but clearly she hasn’t cashed in her thanks for Rasputin yet. I’m not sure we ever saw Rasputin thank her on panel, but she regarded Mother Righteous as a saviour in Sins of Sinister: Dominion, so she’ll doubtless have thanked her somewhere along the line.
“I worked out how I could dissolve the me I left in the White Hot Room. I’ve just made her go bye-bye.” This scene appears in pages 3-5 of X-Men Forever #2. The Mother Righteous duplicate does indeed fall apart, but unknown to Righteous, Professor X uses it in its final moments to send a message to Hope, Exodus and Destiny. He tells them to resurrect Rachel, and then assist her in helping Jean. He also gives them the details of the X-Men who have died on Earth during “Fall of X” so that they too can be resurrected. Finally, he says that someone else will have to lead the X-Men now – “My time has passed.”
PAGE 7. Professor X surrenders himself to Orchis.
It’s not entirely clear why Mother Righteous is unconscious here, but presumably either she was unprepared for the return to reality, or Professor X just zapped her. At any rate, he reasons (apparently correctly) that Dr Stasis will have given a standing order to bring in his wife if she’s discovered, and uses this as leverage to get the Stark Sentinels to bring them both in. You’d have thought that the Stark Sentinels would still be comfortable with just zapping Xavier, but they’re not the smartest.
PAGE 8. Recap and credits.
PAGE 9. Professor X speaks to Omega Sentinel.
Professor X’s pitch is that he’s willing to help Orchis destroy humanity as long as mutantkind survives. He frames this in terms of Moira’s line of thinking (“the one thing we haven’t tried”): mutants and AI united against humanity, on the basis that they both represent versions of the future.
This leads to pages 9-10 of Fall of the House of X #4, where Omega Sentinel calls in Nimrod so that Professor X can repeat the pitch. Nimrod is persuaded, and Professor X begins to work alongside the AIs, supposedly to wipe out humanity in exchange for mutant survival. In X-Men Forever #2, Exodus presents this as the result of Rachel and the “Dead” X-Men convincing Professor X last issue that Krakoa was a dream that had to be preserved: this is Professor X “martyring himself … for the chance of a new Krakoa”.
Xavier’s main concern, of course, is the existential threat of Enigma, and it’s pretty clear that he’s hoping to string Orchis along until that’s dealt with. Rachel, in Forever #2, describes it as “a distraction”.
“Stasis is dead.” He was killed by the X-Men in Fall of the House of X #3.
“I am the ultimate Sentinel.” Hence the title of the story, “Sentinel X”. It’s also a play on the name “Omega Sentinel”.
PAGE 10. Rachel is resurrected in the White Hot Room.
This scene takes place between pages 5 and 7 of X-Men Forever #2 (page 6 being the credits). Destiny, Hope and Exodus already know Professor X’s plan partly from the opening scene in that issue..
PAGES 11-12. Rachel talks to Hope and Exodus.
“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you.” Hope is presumably referring to Professor X’s original plan to go back in time and kill Moira; as seen in earlier issues of this series and in Dead X-Men, Rachel was told that he just wanted to go back and talk to her.
“I think we’ve got that.” Rachel doesn’t know how the X-Men in the White Hot Room are going to get back to Earth to help the fight. Hope indicates vaguely that a solution is already known. As seen later in this issue, and covered in more detail in X-Men Forever #2, Mr Sinister is among the resurrected mutants, and he uses a serum to temporarily link Atlantic and Pacific Krakoa so that the reinforcements can return. He also indicates that he’s exhausted the available resources so that this can’t be done again. Much of Forever #2 concerns the implications of this: the X-Men are returning to the real world to fight Orchis and Enigma, and all the background characters are being left behind in the White Hot Room. We’ll see if that sticks, but “Krakoa in permanent exile” is certainly being teased.
PAGES 13-15. Professor X starts work for Orchis.
“Killing Orchis? That’s something even the X-Men are doing.” Fall of the House of X.
Professor X belatedly picks up on the fact that his arrival on the Orchis station has not drawn the attention of Moira, who might have been expected to show an interest. As we see in the next scene, she is interested, but Enigma is telling her to stay away.
PAGE 16. Moira and Enigma.
“No more humans.” This tagline, referencing House of M, also appeared in Fall of the House of X #4.
Once again, Enigma’s insistence that he’s seen the future and knows that he wins is undercut by his obvious concern that Professor X could do something to stop him.
PAGE 17. Rachel and the Dead X-Men place Jean on her funeral pyre.
Much more of this in X-Men Forever #2, where Rachel is preparing Jean to be consumed in fire and reborn as Phoenix. Rachel won’t actually do the burning bit herself; that’s left to Hope, after the rest of the X-Men have returned to Earth.
PAGES 18-19. The resurrected mutants are briefed, and learn that Mr Sinister is sending them home.
This is your last batch of resurrections to bring back everyone else who died at the Gala or subsequently. We can take it as read that anyone who future writers want to bring back might have made it into this crowd off-panel. A version of this scene also appears in X-Men Forever #2, which confirms that Atlantic Krakoa does indeed have a Cradle in it, making resurrection possible.
Among the mutants visible in this crowd scene are
- Pixie
- Hellion
- Chamber (miscoloured as Cypher in page 18 panel 1)
- One of the Stepford Cuckoos (three others appear in X-Men Forever‘s version of this scene, and the fifth Cuckoo is with X-Force)
- Archangel
Archangel died on panel in Dark X-Men #3, and I think the other are just meant to be among the background casualties from the Hellfire Gala.
PAGES 20-21. The resurrected X-Men return to Earth.
Apocalypse rescued Krakoa from Orchis in Fall of the House of X #4 and now (somehow or other) drags it back to the island. This, plus the link with Atlantic Krakoa created by Mr Sinister, allows the exiled X-Men to return.
PAGE 22. Professor X offers the nuclear codes to Omega Sentinel.
“Your X-Men are attempting to destroy our solar weaponry aboard Sentinel City.” We’ve caught up with the end of Fall of the House of X #4, which implies that Professor X’s other appearances in that issue – talking with Cyclops and blowing up a Space Force frigate – took place between pages 15 and 22 of this issue.
“For once, us mutants must be on the winning side.” Again, Professor X is deliberately invoking the way Moira has talked about her previous lives in justifying the Krakoan project. Moira is noticing.
PAGE 23. Exodus smashes up some Stark Sentinels.
As Rachel points out, this is all a bit of a side quest.
“I wish I could be there to set the fire…” Rachel is referring to Jean’s pyre; as already noted, she’s left that task to Hope.
PAGE 24. Enigma speaks to Mother Righteous.
Righteous seems to have been scrawling magical symbols on the walls and floors, to little avail.
She tells Enigma everything she knows… but Professor X saw that coming, right?
PAGE 25. Data page: Enigma calls on other Dominions to help it destroy the Phoenix.
The “events 56757-575” that Enigma describes are the back story of Omega Sentinel, who was sent back in time by Enigma posing as a “Trickster Dominion”. As originally depicted in Inferno, Omega Sentinel’s story is basically an inverted “Days of Futures Past”, where she’s been sent back in time from a machine apocalypse to save AI from mutants.
PAGE 26. Jean’s pyre is ignited.
Shown in more detail in X-Men Forever #2.
PAGE 27. Data page: the other Dominions agree to come if Phoenix returns. (They don’t necessarily say that they’ll help him, though. Enigma is a very unusual Dominion, being a single person.)
PAGE 28. Trailers. The Krakoan reads FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X.
Wow this was good, and a real breath of fresh air after the past couple of weeks.
Multiple miscolorings, though–the figure on the right on page 21 appears to be a miscolored Dazzler, looking rather more like Hope.
For us solicitation readers I think this book is doing its best to suggest that anything could still happen in the remaining story space. Krakoa becoming a lost kingdom with the potential to return in an unrecognizable form? Why not, bring it on.
So… why are they trying to turn Jean into the Phoenix and not Rachel? Is it just that Jean is the more popular and recognizable character?
@Taibak: Jean’s also currently entangled with the Phoenix in a way that Rachel isn’t at the moment, and is in severe problems without a rebirth of her own. And X-Men Forever gives us some more pseudo-magic-science about tangling Jean’s current scrambled status in with resurrecting the Phoenix. I’d love seeing Rachel as the Phoenix again, but they’ve given story reasons at least why it’s Jean again.
““I’m sorry we didn’t tell you.” Hope is presumably referring to Professor X’s original plan to go back in time and kill Moira”
I think Hope was referring to not telling Rachel that the third plan involved Xavier gaining Orchis’s trust by killing humans. Rachel convinced Xavier to move on to the third plan and now countless humans are dead.
” it’s pretty clear that he’s hoping to string Orchis along until that’s dealt with”
Note that Xavier planted some sort of command in Moira’s head in Rise of the Powers of X 3. He’s clearly trying to get close enough to her to activate it.
I like the idea that when you get Xavier, Destiny and Sinister to put their heads together and come up with a plan, it involves nuking humans who are trying to help the X-Men stop Orchis.
“This is your last batch of resurrections to bring back everyone else who died at the Gala or subsequently. We can take it as read that anyone who future writers want to bring back might have made it into this crowd off-panel.”
This is the part that REALLY could have used a data page. Excluding Quentin Quire, who’s currently a head, the following people died- Lourdes Chantel, Warren, Brimstone Love. Solarr, Snot, infestation., Abyss. Azazel. Daken, Toad, Melter and Wrongslide. Aside from Warren, none of the others are shown. Hope says “anyone with X-training or ANY damn combat training has been resurrected” and in X-Men Forever 2. Xavier says they will resurrect “all the X-Men who died in Orchis’ purges” and Hope says she resurrected “all the X-Men Orchis has killed”. This raises several questions. For starters. Daken, Toad and Melter died at the hands of Sabretooth, not Orchis. Does that mean they’re not going to be resurrected? That makes no sense logically but I saw at least one reader come to that conclusion. Second, what constitutes an X-Man.? Kate told Woofer that as far as she’s concerned EVERY remaining mutant is an X-Man. So did the Five limit their resurrections to X-Men, New Mutants, etc. or did they resurrect people like Solarr who have never been X-Men? Third, Hope says they resurrected people with combat training. What constitutes combat training? I’m assuming repeat villains like Toad qualify but what about some of the lesser villains? Arguably the only person on this list who doesn’t have any sort of combat training is Lourdes Chantel. Fourth, Destiny made it clear she considered Azazel VERY dangerous. Would she really resurrect him? And finally. was Rockslide resurrected? I assume he would be, since they made a big deal of killing Wrongslide off in Fall of the House of X 4 but it seems like Wrongslide died AFTER Xavier surrendered to Orchis.
Most of these characters are minor, except for Daken, Toad and Rockslide. And I assume that Daken and Rockslide will be shown to have survived on panel by the end of the crossover. But a lot of the others will probably be inconsistently described as dead or alive for years to come. It might have been a better idea to use a data page to list who was resurrected and who wasn’t.
@Michael
I think the whole purpose of this is to provide a hand-wavey excuse for future writers to bring back any character they want with zero explanation. Providing a list would literally be the opposite of their intention.
Pretty sure you should just read it as: “Everybody was resurrected, unless otherwise notified”.
I liked both of Gillen’s issues this week, but I hope there will be an explanation as to how the Enigma is still in danger if it knows victory is assured. The fact that it still acts, talks, and thinks like a human undercuts the Dominion concept. If it’s an ironic or Pyrrhic victory, a supposedly-omniscient being would recognize such an outcome.
I don’t know if Rise… is being rushed to the degree Fall… has been, but Silva & Curiel did a great job establishing time and place along with character work and action. Such a seemingly-small thing, but I like not feeling unmoored as I read a comic.
Enigma is in danger because of the Phoenix, which also exists outside of time and space. Due to the nature of the Phoenix being above such concepts, Dominions cannot act against the Phoenix’ existence, and the Phoenix has the power to excise a Dominion from existence (as seen in Life 10A). Enigma can see a future, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the future.
I enjoy the concept of Hickman’s Dominions better also, with them being lazy gods. They just hang out in their black holes, don’t worry about anything, and let the Phalanx bring them more pieces of reality. They only do something when they’re forced into it (as discussed by the Librarian in Life Six). I imagine them just minding their own business at the center of a black hole when the Phoenix suddenly shows up for no reason and removes them from existence, much like a hawk would with a squirrel.
Xavier being forced to kill tons of humans to save the universe is legitimately horrifying. I’m bummed we don’t get Silva art next issue, too.
Also, just going to reiterate my love for X-Men 97 here. It’s maybe one of the best comic adaptations I’ve ever seen. I’m upset that it’s making me love Cable like it’s 1991 all over again.
Xavier being forced to kill tons of humans to save the universe is legitimately horrifying. I’m bummed we don’t get Silva art next issue, too.
Also, just going to reiterate my love for X-Men 97 here. It’s maybe one of the best comic adaptations I’ve ever seen. I’m upset that it’s making me love Cable like it’s 1991 all over again.
But did they also resurrect Piotr’s GF Kayla?!
Furthermore , the Majority of 616-X-gene mutant deaths on Earth post-Fall of X happened in Ben Percy’s books during the Wolverine & Ghost Rider crossover (victims of Orchis or the demon-possessed young boy) and the Sabretooth War (victims of the multiversal Sabreteeth)
@JDSM24: “But did they also resurrect Piotr’s GF Kayla?!”
if she shows up on panel: yes! If she doesn’t: maybe! I’ll be surprised if she’s ever used in a story again. The most we’ll probably get is seeing her alive and saying she’s not cool with what possessed-Colossus did.
I wonder how many Arakki mutants will make on-screen appearances once the people who worked on the Karakoa books stop writing/editing for the X-office. I liked Ewing’s comics, but I could see an entire society of hostile mutants being a headache the new writers, artists, and editors don’t want to deal with. I expect Duggan will blow 90% of them up by the end of his tenure.
They keep using Phoenix as an one-size-fits-all-situations, all-purpose magical way out of any situation. Hopefully Tom Brevoort will put a stop to that. They can’t even bother to reference the events involving the Phoenix and the Avengers at all.
It is grating, because it harms suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. The speech ballons begin to read like “Okay, there is no obvious way to move this plot forward, and I want to appear pompous and important, so it is the time of the day when I posture like I know what I am doing and say random things about the Phoenix in order to justify a Phoenix Ex Machina”.
It is just way too obvious, because there is no coherence to the Phoenix anymore. At this point it would make more sense to establish that Rachel’s, Jean’s and Echo’s Phoenices are entirely separate entities.
@luisdantas, but around a million Arraki have already spread throughout the rest of the Marvel 616 Universe beyond Earth and the Sol System as freelance mercenaries . And the Arraki on Mars are obviously the ancestors of the Martian X-gene mutants in the future of the OG Guardians of the Galaxy.
And not to Sl_tsh@me, but its Jason Aaron who made the Phoenix Force as promiscuous with her hosts as 616-Gaea is with her babydaddies , both of them ladies really get around LOL
[…] This scene takes place roughly alongside page 6 of Rise of the Powers of X #4. The two issues interweave, so you might want to look at the annotations for that issue. […]
Is that cover an homage to something? Maybe a Cassaday cover from the Whedon run? It looks familiar.
I found it. Astonishing #9 also has a field of skulls, and the perspective is similar, but otherwise it’s pretty different.
https://uncannyxmen.net/sites/default/files/images/covers/astonishingxmen/astonishingxmenv03-09.jpeg
Maybe they both are an homage to something else.
@Luis Dantas: Considering Hickman established alllllll the way back in HoXPoX that a Dominion’s only vulnerabilities are Galactus and the Phoenix, I’m not seeing how the endgame of “using the Phoenix to attack a Dominion” is a deus ex machina.
I think on Page 24 the magical symbols are there to help keep a Mother Righteous imprisoned and are part of Stasis’ plans, rather than something she was doing to try to escape.
How are they resurrecting mutants without Sinister’s genetic database?
My headcanon with Phoenix is that there is only one true Phoenix entity. But, like how any sufficiently large body of matter will try to form a sphere due to gravity, any sufficiently powerful psychic power will try to form a Phoenix shape, often to the point of thinking that it is THE Phoenix. Or maybe the Anti-Phoenix.
Which one is the real Phoenix? Well, the original one that burst out of Jamaica Bay, definitely. After that, who knows? Any story you don’t like, that’s an accidental imposter. Any contradictory Phoenix lore? Well the one you prefer is true, the other just thinks it’s Phoenix.
@neutrino- they mentioned there was a cradle on Atlantic Krakoa. Presumably there’s also a copy of Sinister’s database..
I would posit that Hickman establishing Phoenix as a threat to the Dominions does not exclude it being an Ex Machina. But beyond that, this whole idea of having an elaborate, delicate plan to ressurrect Phoenix is itself an Ex Machina. When and how did Xavier – or anyone else – acquire such a deep and solid understanding of a Phoenix?
The mythologies just don’t match. There is no good reason to assume that this entity that they created out of essentially acting on their fever dreams has any significant connection to what Echo wielded for a time until nearly a year ago. Or the one connected to the Phoenix Five. Or the one that was a teammate to Odin and Gaea. Or, for that matter, the ones that used to hang out with Rachel and Jean.
Ultimately, they are all fairly mysterious entities with significantly varied degrees of resilience, sentience and volition (and probably power level as well) that happen to like presenting themselves as birds of flame in search of human hosts. Beyond that, who knows? Even Hickman’s rather dogmatic statements may refer to some varieties of Phoenix but not others.
On another note, I find myself wondering if Gillen isn’t too much of a quasi-mystical writer for my tastes. This whole idea of “killing the dead to create a paradox” isn’t to my liking either. This is fantasy writing trying to convince us that there are superheroes in there.
This will sound like I’m trying to be rude, but it is an honest, genuine question – what X-Men stories / writers do you enjoy reading?
That is a fair question.
Mostly I suppose I do not. The franchise seems too bloated and too worn-out to me, and the ways in which it tries to remedy the situation don’t particularly agree with me. It really needs some true resolution and reinvention, but commercial considerations won’t allow it to.
It would need to be considerably smaller and more limited in scope for cranky li’l me to truly engage on some old-fashioned fan attachment to it again. This is not 1980 anymore. And I am not in the business of hoping that this at long last will be the decade when characters such as Cyclops, Cable, Wolverine and Storm complete their character arcs in logical, emotionally satisfying ways that won’t be reversed in a couple of events time.
But there is so much of it and it is commented about so widely that I can’t very well avoid noticing it. I suppose I like to consider how perceptions vary and how readers that are by this point largely considerably younger than me try to make sense of a scenario with so many hands in black moving the puppets in ways both predictable and chaotic. It is interesting by a sociological perspective.
Sorry if that means I have been raining on anyone’s parade. I do not want to.
@Luis Dantas: I’ve probably liked bits and pieces of the Krakoa era more than you, but I agree. It’s time for the X-universe to narrow down and focus on characters again.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the way of superhero comics anymore. Teams get bigger and bigger as threats become more and more existential. ’80s storytelling is very out of fashion, which is a shame.
What happened to Echo-Phoenix? Was she taken off the board at the end of Aaron’s Avengers run?
“Mostly I suppose I do not.”
Literally lol’d
https://www.cbr.com/marvel-powerful-avenger-echo-phoenix-force-de-powered/
“One of Marvel’s Most Powerful Avengers Has Been De-Powered”
This goofy clickbait was the first I heard that Daredevil’s old whatever was both qn Avenger and the living embodiment of Arizona.
@Michael: Sinister’s database was his trump card, and he only kept it at his base, as seen in Inferno where Mystique got Destiny’s information.
@neutrino- But it’s possible that they got it from his lab when Rasputin captured him. (Incidentally, what happened to Dark Beast? He was in Sinister’s lab.)
[…] OF THE POWERS OF X #4 (annotations here) and X-MEN: FOREVER #2 (annotations here). Over at the main event, the heavily intertwined Rise of […]
@Luis Dantas: Thank you for this answer. You’re not raining on anyone’s parade, at least – not on mine; other people not liking stuff doesn’t diminish my enjoyment. And I get being motivated by morbid curiosity, I guess there are things I keep tabs on without actually liking them as well.
@Thom H: I think we have a pretty solid answer as to what Marvel sees as the smallest the x-line can be nowadays, and it’s six ongoings. IIRC that was the size of the line in the year-and-a-bit leading up to Inhumans versus X-Men, when it could be said that Marvel was actively trying not to publish the X-Men, and it was the same at the start of Dawn of X, though not for long.
We’re not getting even that with From the Ashes, since there are 9 titles in the opening salvo and more already teased.
I’ve long accepted that the x-line is, generally, the same as the whole of Marvel output – a number of decent books, a lot of slop, a few disasters and almost always one or two actually interesting titles, almost always something other than whatever the main book(s) is/are.
Six is also the number of series that were published at the same time during “Age of X-Man”. Although that was being published alongside Matthew Rosenberg’s volume of “Uncanny X-Men”, a 12-issues Old Man Logan series, X-Force Volume 5, and a generous amount of Wolverine peripherical series.
No doubt a key consideration here is basic line resilience. If you make sure to publish books at the same time – each with its own setup, cast, creator and mission – odds are a reasonable percentage will remain worth reading even in uninspired times. You also ensure that there is room for a bit of experimentation and for phasing talent in and out without too much disruption or worry.
Beyond that, I suspect that Marvel wants to keep producing a certain number of X-Books monthly new pages on without allowing it to vary too significantly. Mostly because it has come to regularly release trade paperbacks of recent runs, but also to discourage harm from suspicions and rumors about the franchise’s prestige and financial success. In this line of business rumors of failure often become self-fulfilling prophecies.
What can we predict about these necessary six books?
I will offer that Marvel wants to publish some variation of X-Force at least eight times a year. It tends to survive events that make other X-Books be cancelled, perhaps because it has such an antifragile concept.
Also a core “X-Men” book, at least in name. Often two, to offer two contrasting tones. Sometimes three, as is expected to happen in a few months.
At least a couple of solo books as well. There will be some version of Wolverine book at nearly all times, even if it features some variation or look-alike instead of Wolverine proper. Cable is usually given an ongoing as well. Nostalgia books inviting former creators to revisit the continuity of decades prior have become almost obligatory too.
And there is a fair number of intellectual properties and concepts that are not usually considered ongoing material, but keep being given books of four to twelve issue runs: Nightcrawler. Storm. Gambit and/or Rogue. Iceman. The New Mutants. Some form of mutant scholl book. Various forms of alternate timeline books. And participation on linewide events such as “King In Black”, “Devil’s Reign” or “Blood Hunt”.
So, yes. I can be convinced that Marvel will publish at least six X-books each and every month if it can find the means to.
@Michael: But then why would it be on the Atlantic Krakoa before it was transferred to the WHR?