X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: HEIR OF APOCALYPSE #3
Writer: Steve Foxe
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers: Sean Parsons & Lorenzo Ruggiero
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Annalise Bissa
APOCALYPSE
We get another recap of Apocalypse’s fight with the X-Men in X-Men #35 – which the footnote insists on calling Uncanny X-Men #700, just to make absolutely sure that there’s no danger whatsoever of readers being able to find the bloody thing on Marvel Unlimited or Amazon. Apocalypse attempts to explain what the hell was going on there and doesn’t really make matters much clearer. He starts by claiming that Krakoa was Professor X’s vision (which it wasn’t, and that was a large part of the point of Immortal X-Men). He accepts that he was rejected by mutantkind, but conflates mutantkind entirely with the X-Men (and Xavier’s vision), and utterly ignores the fact that he was trying to claim control of a Krakoa which had developed without him for several years (which seemed to be the point of X-Men #35). Nor does it really explain why his selection of contestants is predominantly made up of the very people who he claims rejected him.
Charitably, let’s assume that Apocalypse is simply reinterpreting his rejection in the way least humiliating to him. At any rate, he recognises that he is no longer welcome as a mutant leader on Earth and needs to find someone else for the role – essentially what he said in issue #1.
Apocalypse is unmoved by Archangel’s “I survived you” speech – in his eyes, that’s precisely the point, and the more mutants he can strengthen in this way, the better. He claims not to care much about human life one way or the other, but he’s much more concerned about preserving mutant life and, as 99% of readers will have guessed, he’s been teleporting all the failed combatants to safety in suspended animation when they died.
Notably, Apocalypse’s son Genocide, who he lured here, is not among the characters shown in suspended animation, so apparently Exodus really did just kill him last issue by squashing him into a ball.
THE CONTESTANTS
Armageddon Girl, Rictor, M and Exodus all turn out to be alive and well in suspended animation.
Mr Sinister is the only contestant (as far as we know) who actually asked to be in this tournament. He claims to have found out about it by listening in to Apocalypse’s other pitches via nanotech bugs, and cheerfully offers himself up as an heir. Since Mr Sinister gave himself a mutant gene during his life, Apocalypse doesn’t regard him as a true mutant and dismisses him as a “pretender”, but apparently Apocalypse is somehow persuaded by Sinister’s argument that, having become a biological mutant, he has a stake in mutants succeeding.
For some reason, the remaining contestants allow Sinister to continue tagging along with him even though he’s quite openly trying to get fellow contestants killed. In fairness to Sinister, this is apparently what Apocalypse considers to be the game, but it doesn’t explain why everyone else is willing to keep him around. The only reason given for this is that it would be too traumatising for the human bystanders if they saw Sinister get killed right in front of them. But weren’t we told last issue that Exodus had “relocated everyone within a one-mile radius”? And if that’s the reason, why not just shoot him as soon as they’re underground?
When Sinister does attempt another betrayal, Emma Frost makes him jump over a ledge to his death. To be fair, he does seem to think at first that he can resist her, so either he had psi-shielding which he wrongly thought was up to the job, or he decides for some reason to play along.
Emma Frost is uncharacteristically dispirited in this issue, presumably because she’s taking the apparent deaths seriously. A flashback shows Emma accepting Apocalypse’s invitation to participate in the contest, and spelling out that beneath her cynical persona she cares deeply about the fate of mutantkind. This is a fairly standard interpretation of the character, but quite why she’s spelling it out in dialogue to Apocalypse, of all people, who knows.
Gorgon gets turned against the other contestants by Mr Sinister using a “control disc”; Mirage knocks him out with a psychic arrow before he can do any damage, but he gets killed by an explosion soon after.
Wolverine (Laura) gets taken out in the same explosion, without contributing much to the plot. That leaves Cable, Mirage, Forge and Cypher, none of whom do much of interest in this issue either. Those are the four characters who haven’t yet had flashbacks explaining how they became contestants, which might be significant – or might just mean that the characters who “die” early had to have their flashbacks first.
GUEST STAR
Archangel starts the issue by attacking Apocalypse, but seems to stop fighting when Apocalypse claims to have been humbled by his experiences in X-Men #35. Frankly, his role here is just to listen politely to Apocalypse’s exposition.
OTHER SPECIFICS
Page 6: “I survived your twins. Survived the death seed. Survived what you made me.” Unless I’m missing something, this is a bit confused. The Death Seed was a plot point from Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force run in 2011. According to that story, Apocalypse had implanted the Death Seed into Warren in order to turn him into Archangel, and it was later triggered to turn Archangel into Apocalypse’s heir; that storyline ends with Archangel apparently dying and being reborn as an amnesiac. The “twins” are probably meant to be the Apocalypse Twins from Remender’s 2013-14 Uncanny Avengers arc, but (1) Archangel wasn’t in that arc and never fought the Twins, and (2) despite their name, the Twins were actually the children of Archangel himself. (They died at the end of the storyline.)
Page 9: “The translator’s good for something beyond gossiping to landmasses.” Sinister is referring to Cypher’s role as Krakoa’s inerpreter.
Page 9: “I wager you appreciated by comprehensive gentics work when it came time to fertilise those golden eggs your lot abused so readily.” Sinister is reminding Forge of the fact that his genetics library was used as the basis for resurrection on Krakoa. He has a point about the system being “abused”; the mutants did become extremely cavalier about getting themselves killed while on Krakoa, something that was only heavily flagged as an issue in Way of X.
Page 18: “It would be so easy to be someone else… I tried it under absolutely horrendous conditions and pulled off the charade beautifully. Even as a brunette.” Emma is referring to her stunt using the alias “Hazel Kendal” during the Fall of X arc, principally covered in Invincible Iron Man.
Page 23: The giant figures attacking the remaining contenders are versions of the (Krakoan-era) Horsemen of Apocalypse – possibly the same statues that we saw at the beginning of issue #1, although the colouring is different.
Cypher’s behavior is odd. He “accidentally” triggers the trap that nearly kills Cable and we haven’t seen his flashback yet. Maybe Cypher is a shape- shifter in disguise- Mystique, maybe? But Laura should be able to tell the difference.
It’s odd that issue 1 made a big deal out of not revealing Laura’s motivations for participating and she’s eliminated without us learning what her motivations were. Maybe we’ll find out next issue?
Re: why Sinister wasn’t worried about Emma’s telepathy- Emma was in diamond form most of this issue. Emma can’t use her telepathy in diamond form.He probably figured she’d stay in diamond form instinctively while she was falling.
(Although the Krakoan Era would have gone very differently if Emma could read or control Sinister’s mind whenever she wanted. Maybe he lost his good psi-dampers when the X-Men raided his labs?)
Speaking of Emma’s diamond form, why does everyone assume Emma was killed by the fall She could have turned back to diamond and survived the fall.
So Apocalyse’s plan was to teleport the losers to safety without the remaining contestants knowing? But that only worked because of the circumstances he couldn’t have predicted in advance. For example, suppose that gizmo Sinister used on Gorgon contained a poison instead of a mind-control device. Gorgon would have been killed!
Or suppose Cable had been in danger of dying from the spike trap. Apocalypse would have had to teleport him to safety in full view of the other contestants.
This issue does a good job of demonstrating that Apocalypse is still a villain. He did take steps to make sure that none of the mutant contestants were killed But he lured Genocide to the testing grounds without caring if any human civilians would be killed.
So who do we think will be the victor? Forge is probably not going to be the new Apocalypse since he’s going to be appearing in X-Force. So will it be Cable, Cypher or Dani?
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Cable. He who fights monsters, and all that. And it would even possibly explain Cable’s (ridiculous Breevort-enforced) absence in the initial From the Ashes era.
Dani would just be a nonsensical choice.
Doug -was- acting oddly, but a second “not really Doug” fakeout in a row would also be a nonsensical plot device. (After him turning out to be Sinister in Rise/Fall)
Not really seeing Cable in this role. The way I see it, he makes no sense by two different perspectives.
Doug, however, just might fit the bill. He has always had hidden depths, he has showcased them in recent years, and this is just the time to encourage him to go outside usual X-Men ways.
My initial guess for winner was Exodus, since there was a lot of emphasis on his relationship to Apocalypse in Immortal and in X-Men #35/#700, and he seemingly doesn’t have much to do now that Hope’s dead. I’m still holding out some hope that the eliminated contestants will get to contribute to the ending somehow, but I’m not holding my breath.
It’s probably gonna be Cable. The real question is if/how Apocalypse himself will be taken off the board. Is he just going to retire to Arakko now?
Does it have to be anyone? It might have been verified somewhere that there will definitely be a new Apocalypse, but otherwise I can see the thing ending with a team of survivors giving a speech about how Earth doesn’t need an Apocalypse and they’re turning their backs on the gift.
As much as I don’t like the idea of redeeming Apocalypse, I do kind of like the way it’s circling back to Louise Simonson’s original plan of him being fairly benevolent, and just playing the bad guy to get the mutants ready for what’s to come.
@Si- According to Foxe:
“And it has to be said loud and clear: there is no fake-out here. By the end of this event, one of these 12 mutants will have a new name, a new look, and a new mission as the Heir of Apocalypse.”
Ah well that’s that then. Well I hope the new Apocalypse is Darkseid.
Forge will be forming an X-Force team. Maybe becoming the Heir is why he does?
Dani hasn’t used her main mutant power at all, and the “psionic arrow” could be faked, so she’s a decent possibility of actually being Mystique. Though she’s remained “in character” remarkably well, if so.
Cable would seem to be out, per Brevoort. Making him the Heir would hardly make his character *easier* to get a handle on, after all.
Doug’s a wild card. Since shortly after HoxPox, there have been consistent (if rare) hints that something significant and secret was up with him, and those have never really gone anywhere so far. His presence here is part of that pattern. Maybe we’re finally going to pull the trigger on this?
Notably, Apocalypse’s son Genocide, who he lured here, is not among the characters shown in suspended animation, so apparently Exodus really did just kill him last issue by squashing him into a ball.
oh_dear_what_a_pity_never_mind.gif
“Doug’s a wild card. Since shortly after HoxPox, there have been consistent (if rare) hints that something significant and secret was up with him, and those have never really gone anywhere so far. His presence here is part of that pattern. Maybe we’re finally going to pull the trigger on this?”
There are a dozen things I wish we knew about Hickman’s original plans for concluding the Krakoa era, but what he had in mind for Doug is pretty high on my list.
Re: Tom Brevoort’s decree about no confusing future characters for now, I alllllllllmost feel like it’s just an excuse to sideline some of the lamer characters. Rachel gets to stay, after all. Cable and Bishop have both had good runs that transcend their ignoble early stories, but as long as Cable continues to indulge in the shoulder pads and overcompensating guns, he’s never gonna be entirely free of that stink.
Wait, so the idea here is that Apocalypse is simply giving up and leaving bc mutantkind wasn’t interested in his ideas? So all the times x-factor/x-men fought him they could’ve simply told him “actually we don’t care for natural selection” and he would have let them alone?
Demonstrating the real power of direct communication.
“but as long as Cable continues to indulge in the shoulder pads and overcompensating guns, he’s never gonna be entirely free of that stink.”
Maybe the idea is to divest Cable of all of that stuff as he takes on “a new name, a new look, and a new mission.” Not sure if that makes him more confusing or less, though.
I suspect that Doug was Hickman’s “No one will ever see *this* big bad coming!” (paraphrased).
Has the series explained what being ‘Heir to Apocalypse’ entails?
Let’s say Mirage wins. Then what? Does she go to all the mutants on Earth and say, “I’m Apocalypse’s chosen heir. Now you have to do what I tell you and call me Queen Mirage.”
Why is anyone supposed to care who Poccy’s ‘heir’ is?
The series has not explained it. However, at a guess, I’d assume the deal includes a physical transformation / power-up similar to what Apocalypse offers his Horsemen, as well as access and use to whatever resources he has left on Earth. Hidden bases aplenty, Celestial technology propping up every couch as far as the eye can see and so on. Jet hangar under Stonehenge. Whatever’s your heart desire, as long as your heart desires Kirby tech decorated with questionably Egyptian motifs.
Are the Egyptian motifs negotiable? Could I remodel? Not right away, have to deal with getting my mail sent to the right address and whatnot, but after.
@Matt, probably not , he would have thought that at the point in time , they were still too weak and thus required much more strengthening . Now , however , he recognizes just how over-all powerful theyve become (Jean and Bobby are full-fledged God-mode Omegas who are equal to any magickal deity and/or cosmic entity, Scott and Warren and Henry are Alpha’s with their own individual feats in the years since then) so no further improvements required anymore
Thom H.: So you want to bring back Soldier X?
Ha! I didn’t even think of that. If we can get Igor Kordey back, then maybe…