NYX #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NYX vol 2 #7
Writers: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Artist: Enid Balám
Colour artist: Raúl Angulo
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Annalise Bissa
NYX
Seven issues into the book’s second volume, there’s actually a thing called NYX! In a slightly baffling scheduling decision, it previously appeared in Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #2, where it was described as “a commnity hub for the city’s mutants”. A comparison of the art suggests that Astonishing is meant to show it in advanced stages of decoration – people were putting up the “The Shield” banner which can be seen on the wall here (albeit that it looks different), and the art on the back wall is much more elaborate. According to Astonishing #2, NYX is in Red Hook.
Prodigy is the driving force behind NYX. After being fired by the university following his public fight with the Krakoan in issue #4, he’s now running informal teaching sessions at NYX. He has a “chair” elevated over the room, which Synch quite reasonably takes to be a throne. Kamala genuinely doesn’t seem to have thought of this but it does give Synch good reason to think that there’s an ego trip going on here.
Prodigy insists that they’re building a non-violent world which breaks from the past. He seems to have come to the view that Krakoa was an overcorrection in which mutants declared themselves to be above humans, an unsustainable scenario compared to carving out a place for mutants in the human world. Whether it’s genuinely novel for mutants to try to exist within the human world might be open to question. It’s not something we’ve seen an awful lot of, but plenty of stories have implied the presence of a mutant community in substantial numbers within the human world, even if no big names were involved; District X is maybe the closest we’ve seen.
Ms Marvel is providing “security” for NYX, and enthusiastically greets Synch, her teammate from the “Fall of X” X-Men. She’s the only person in NYX still wearing a mask and costume, which leads to both Synch and mad cousin Bilaal accusing her of hiding who she is. This is obviously a sore spot for her, and while she insists to Synch that “Ms Marvel is who I am”, there’s no getting away from the fact that she’s the only person in NYX who’s actively maintaining a closeted double life. It actually plays quite well into her status as a not-quite-an-X-character. She seems quite upset about it at the end of the issue, when she’s separated from everyone else and misses the grand reconciliation scene.
Anole, Wolverine (Laura) and Kiden Nixon have cameos. Kamala calls Laura and Kiden “friends” before adding “I mean, I think they’re just friends.” Laura seems to have reverted to her dress sense from NYX vol 1 in Kiden’s company, while Kiden is dressed normally – if that’s an intentional direction rather than a random art choice then it could be interesting.
SUPPORTING CAST
Synch is very disillusioned by the fall of Krakoa, and doubtless the death of his beloved Talon hasn’t helped. He comes to pick a fight with David before deciding that David seems like an acceptable sort of community leader after all.
His arguments in this issue are rather garbled, though this seems to be an intentional choice to show him as confused. Much like Sophie in issue #1, he argues that David is making unacceptable compromises with mutant culture, and that NYX is basically an ego trip for David. He positions himself as a representative of “true” mutant culture, invoking traditions of the human-free Arakko culture – to which he was never anything more than a visitor – and implying that a refusal to accept his challenge to ritual combat for David’s leadership role would mark David as not a proper mutant.
At the same time, he talks about mutant culture being inherently violent, something that he equates with the X-Men. And he seems to have developed anti-human sentiments after being resurrected on Krakoa and finding out that his heroic sacrifice in Generation X #70 had absolutely no impact on anything. (This is one of those rare cases where it actually helps that the earlier story is almost entirely forgotten – except, naturally, by Synch himself.) Synch also claims to take seriously the “responsibility” of shortening his life every time he uses his powers to draw on the abilities of mutants he’s met in the past, but then uses those powers almost casually while squabbling with David. Does he have a death wish?
Recognisable mutants hanging around in NYX include Mammomax and Loolo, whose presence suggests a link with the Morlocks.
VILLAINS
Cousin Bilal has gone from being mildly bigoted to a nutcase with grenades and what looks to be a second hand Goblin Glider. Ms Marvel correctly identifies that he can’t possibly expect to beat her in a fight. She calls him “Truthseeker”, but presumably that’s because she doesn’t want to give away her identity by using his real name, rather than because it’s a code name.
Bilal is trying to scan Ms Marvel to find out who she really is, apparently because he believes that dual identities are form of truth that needs to be exposed. This is, obviously, a bit of a sore spot for Kamala. Fortunatley, Bilal doesn’t get enough data to get an answer, and because he exists in the superhero genre, he can’t recognise a close relative in a domino mask from ten paces.
REFERENCES:
Page 5 panel 2: “Sorcerer Supreme or Hermit King?” The newspaper article is about Dr Doom becoming sorcerer supreme at the end of Blood Hunt and then sealing Latveria away from the world. Technically it’s foreshadowing the One World Under Doom crossover, but this book isn’t actually participating in that event.
Page 5 panel 3: “Our sacred places… the very thought of home…” That’s the Treehouse in the background – the headquarters of the Krakoan-era X-Men – but it’s not clear why it’s surrounded by the police and has two guys in hazmat suits by it. People seem to have been able to approach it fairly freely in this book up to now. Later in the issue, Synch says that the NYPD have shut the Treehouse down, and implies that they’re trying to stop it serving a memorial for mutants.
Page 7 panel 1: “She’s not my Laura, Kamala.” Synch is referring to his main storyline from the previous volume of X-Men, which involved his love for a version of Laura who had spent many years with him in the Vault; she died. Technically, she was the original Laura, with the current one being a clone created by a divergent resurrection, but everyone seems inclined to gloss over that. Synch, for obvious reasons, isn’t.
Page 7 panel 3: “Empath wanted the City Council. But the only thing he actually did was get David fired.” Empath’s schemes are the main story arc for issues #1-5.
Page 9 p anel 3: “I’ve synced with mutants who aren’t even in this reality any more.” Presumably the Five and other people now in the White Hot Room version of Krakoa. The bit about Synch shortening his life by using these powers from past exposure is another storyline from Duggan’s X-Men.
Page 9 panel 6: “Don’t think you ever made it to Arakko, but I did.” I don’t remember a story with either Synch or Prodigy on Arakko, but since Synch was in the X-Men, it would be surprising if he hadn’t visited. To be honest, it would be surprising if Prodigy hadn’t visited either. Yes, his official role on Krakoa as a member of X-Factor wouldn’t have taken hiim to Arakko, but the gate was right there and he’s a curious kind of guy.
Page 16 panel 1: “Mutant culture is the X-Men.” David did indeed say this in issue #4, though in context he had in mind “the X-Men” in the sense of “everyone vaguely associated with Xavier’s movement”.
Page 16 panel 2: “Like you don’t remember what happened the minute you made the team.” Prodigy’s mayfly-lived version of the X-Men was killed almost immediately by Nimrod at the second Hellfire Gala.
Page 18 panel 3: “I was wearing the X before you borrowed your first idea.” Synch debuted in 1994, Prodigy in 2003.
Page 18 panel 4: “When I saw a bomb that might hurt some humans, I threw myself on top of it. I gave my life so some humans could live.” Generation X #70.
I liked this one, in general. I hope that Synch is joining the regular cast, as I think there’s a lot of room to explore his character (having 500 years of memories, and powers that have a cost to employ make him stand out). I haven’t been as big a fan of Prodigy in this run, but it was interesting seeing someone from GenX interact with one of the younger new mutants.
His line “that’s not my Laura” was a reminder that Duggen killed the wrong X-23. Talon was a more interesting character, and had finally broken out from “Wolverine, but a teenage girl” character. I expect this is the last we’ll hear about her for a while, though.
I didn’t care about the Ms Marvel half of the story at all. Her secret identity stories aren’t that interesting, and I never read the Ms. Marvel solo books to get invested in her family. I know she’s in the book my editorial mandate, but I’d like to see less focus on her and more Sophie (who broke her powers and that feels like something we should be exploring) or even Kiden.
Synch’s main ability is false dilemma. When he uses his powers he loses years of his life, but he’s already lived thousands of years by using his powers.
If Synch synced to a healer, could he use their regenerative abilities to roll back his aging process? (i.e. Laura is right there. Or tap into Elixir’s powers.) What if he synched to Mister Immortal?
It’s just too easy to think of ways to sidestep this limitation, or to at least ask awkward questions about how it works. What would happen if he found a mutant with age-control powers?
And yeah, for someone worried about the cost of his powers, he’s pretty quick to use them here for no actual productive reason. I get the impression that the writers just really wanted a Synch vs Prodigy fight because it sounded kewl on paper.
I’m not liking how Everett accused Kamala of hiding who she is. He was a superhero in the ’90s, when the X-Men were hiding their identities from the world- he should be much more understanding. (In fairness, that did contribute to his death- Emma’s evil sister Adrienne blackmailed her way into the school by threatening to reveal that Generation X were mutants and planted bombs.)
Everett was totally out of character in this story. He was deliberately portrayed as a black man who was peaceful most of the time and not a stereotypical Angry Black Man. Here, he starts a fight when they could have just a conversation. He’s basically portrayed as a stereotypical Angry Black Man.
“She calls him “Truthseeker”, but presumably that’s because she doesn’t want to give away her identity by using his real name, rather than because it’s a code name.”
He refers to himself as “Truthseeker”.
A lot of people didn’t like the idea of Bilal, a Muslim, turning into a terorrist. But I thought he was more a super-villain than a terrorist- coming up with crazy schemes to learn the hero’s secret identity is classic supervillain behavior.
Again, David does much better fighting someone who’s much more powerful than him than he should. Although in this case, there’s at least the excuse that Everett couldn’t use his powers to their fullest extent without aging.
I’m also not buying Everett being anti-human because of how he died. Yes. there were human bigots in the story where he died but he was a killed with a bomb planted by Emma’s mutant sister Adrienne.
I;m also not liking Everett arguing that his sacrifice meant nothing. He saved several people’s lives! No, that didn’t singlehandedly end prejudice against mutants (and Emma altered people’s memories of what happened to preserve the X-Men’s secrets) but saving people’s lives is a good thing regardless of whether prejudice persists.We saw a similar argument in this week’s Spider-Man, where Cytorrak’s daughter convinces Peter that saving the world is pointless since everyone eventually dies and is forgotten after centuries. Both of these arguments seem to miss the point of why people do good deeds.( in the Spider-Man story, it’s deliberate. Here, I’m not so sure.)
@John- I don’t think Duggan had much choice in the matter. The premise of NYX required a Laura who was roughly the same age as Kamala. It seemed like X-Men 30-31 were hastily written to kill off Talon- notice the cliffhanger in issue 29 had to be explained in issue 31.
@Michael
Didn’t the narration Hickman gave Synch in the Vault story already imply some very anti-human leanings?
Either way, he was in Gen X for a small number of years, half a millennium ago for him. He probably shouldn’t even remember it.
@SanityOrMadness: Not sure that’s the best metric, *everyone* had anti-human leanings under Hickman
Was someone specific trained by Captain America?
“Was someone specific trained by Captain America?”
I don’t know if there’s an exact reference, but I imagine Aaron Fischer could easily be a frequenter of NYX (as well as any other Avengers Academy alumni who I imagine received lessons from Cap).
I don’t recall Kamala ever being in the Avengers at the same time as Steve Rogers, and as good as he is I don’t think training with Sam Wilson would lead to bragging rights to being trained by Captain America.
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I can buy that Synch’s experiences post-Fall of X led to disillusionment and hostility. I think he was acting out of character in this issue, but for plausible reasons. On the other hand, the fight with Prodigy ended abruptly and unconvincingly. I don’t think Everett would have been persuaded by what David said. I would have preferred Synch realize that violent conflict wasn’t going to solve the philosophical impasse, but still object to the NYX center being a potential target.
It would have made sense to combine the A and B plots. Everett could have concrete example of his point because of Bilal’s actions. David could point out that they could handle violent attacks, and that bigots weren’t going to shut them down. Kamala would have the same storyline, but with the added responsibility of defending NYX weighing on her. Synch could end up not being persuaded by David’s arguments, but sticking around to provide security.
Steve Rogers trained some neighbourhood kid(s?) in his ongoing (the one before the current one, I think). I’d guess it wasn’t the first time.
Way back around Decimation the Cuckoos removed David’s mental block that made him lose the copied skills soon after the target left his range, so he retained everything, including the combined martial arts training of all the senior X-Men.
Which was how he stayed a superhero after losing his powers – he had superhuman knowledge and training, that’s what he was relying on when he moved over to Young Avengers.
But since that hasn’t been brought up in, well, forever, I guess he lost all that after the Krakoan Resurrection that gave him his powers back.
…and I’m mentioning all that because that would be a way to give him an edge over Synch. Those capabilities were just simply skills and knowledge, Synch couldn’t copy those.
Still, the idea of “I know kung fu because someone here does” “Well now I do, too” was fun.
I enjoyed this issue a lot. I buy this version of Synch – Everett went through unimaginable shit under Hickman (and to a lesser extent Duggan), I don’t mind if he’s having a bad day or a month. Or even a year.
I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the art in the fight. The mirrored movements, the, what was it, ‘peak human’ acrobatics, it all worked for me.
Cousin Bilal on an off-brand glider was funny, though I was less captivated by that plot.