X-Factor #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers…
Well, I was going to go with the page numbers in Kindle, but for some reason Kindle is absolutely insistent now that comics start on page 2, which is the cover. So hell, let’s go with the story pages.
X-FACTOR vol 5 #8
“X-Manhunt, part 5: The Summers of Days Past”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colour Artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Darren Shan
In legacy numbering, this is issue #300 – not that the various books called X-Factor have a great deal in common. For the anniversary, we get a larger legacy number on the front cover, and a cover gallery at the end of the issue. Exciting!
X-FACTOR
Angel. He seems to have no problem at all with opposing the X-Men on behalf of the US government and returning Professor X to Graymalkin, despite the X-Men protesting that it’s a “mutant-hating death-trap”. (As mentioned at the end of the last chapter, the X-Men agreed with Storm that Professor X should at least go to a less inhumane prison.) It’s odd behaviour, but to be honest, none of the remaining team seem to have any particular problem with carrying out this mission. Even so, the team’s performance is predictably dismal – the only members to manage any meaningful offence at all are Angel himself and, of all people, ForgetMeNot.
While he was in hospital after issue #1, Angel had “elective procedures” carried out to restore his Archangel powers. This whole thread is a bit odd: he lost that power off panel somewhere between Heir of Apocalypse and X-Factor #1 in what appears to have been a continuity error, and certainly wasn’t explained. The new Archangel also has metal cloaws on his hands and feet (which look like they might be glove-like contraptions) and carries a sword. He also has a weird new move where he folds his metal wings around himself into a sort of buzzsaw.
Pyro. He describes Angel as “our begrudgingly followed leader”, but seems genuinely keen to defend his team against the X-Men.
Xyber. Still petrified of actually fighting – he protests that “I’m just an intern” and gets taken down with a single punch. Admittedly, a single punch from Juggernaut, but a single punch.
Granny Smite. Seems dispirited to realise that her powers don’t actually matter if nobody is trying to use lethal force against her. We’ve covered this before but: her origin story only really makes sense if she’s also invulnerable to injury, since otherwise she’d be a mangled pile of non-dead broken bones. Mind you, the basic point remains valid: her powers are purely defensive, and she’s about as much threat to the X-Men as any other elderly woman that they might be minded to gently restrain. Let’s be generous and assume she’s play acting, because she can’t possibly have given this as little thought as the scene suggests.
ForgetMeNot actually manages to push Magik through one of her own portals, presumably because she forgets that he’s there as soon as she looks away.
Cecilia Reyes is there too, but doesn’t do anything.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Havok. Having quit the team after issue #5, he’s rented a flat (which has no furniture yet) and he’s trying to reconcile with Polaris. He thinks he only joined because he wanted to belong to something, and he’s come round to thinking that all that ultimately matters is the people who he’s close to – whom he’s alienated by joining this version of X-Factor. This, of course, is basically the core theme that Russell laid out in his essay in issue #1.
No doubt because he’s preoccupied with all this, Havok is easily persuaded to help Frenzy – who actually wants him, and claims to have been sent by Polaris. He knows this seems unlikely but seems to be persuaded easily enough.
Naturally enough, he’s upset at finding himself fighting his own brother over Professor X – he was cradling a childhood photo of them together at the start of the issue – but ultimately he thinks Cyclops is making the same mistake by turning his back on Professor X. This seems to be his “finding something to fight for” moment.
Frenzy. Despite what she tells Alex at the start of the issue, she’s actually been enlisted by Professor X to rescue him. She has no idea of why he’s chosen her, but the list of people he knows in the area who aren’t actively hostile to him is clearly a short one. It’s notable that Professor X turns to her before Havok, but we don’t know whether that was an actual choice. The narrator suggests that Frenzy is going along with this basically because it’s a thing that turned up and she’s willing to have hope – which, by implication, is why she seems to be in a mentally better state than Havok.
Polaris. Alex tries to phone her and gets her voicemail message.
VILLAIN
Well, there’s a guy with a stun baton at the end, who abducts Professor X in order to take him to the X-Force chapter.
GUEST STARS
Professor X. Spends most of the issue unconscious. For some reason, he’s trying to show everyone a secret store where he’s kept the last Krakoan resurrection egg, with someone unspecified inside it. Quite what this has to do with the Xandra plotline is unclear, but to be fair, he gets cut off before he has a chance to explain further. He gives Scott a quick speech about Hope, but given his behaviour in NYX he might just be trying to play on Scott’s emotions.
Generously, the X-Men have given him back the Cerebro helmet that they took off him in the previous chapter in order to defeat him.
The X-Men:
Cyclops gets emotional while fighting Havok to get to Professor X. He starts off claiming that Professor X is dangerous because of his “leaking” telepathy, but quickly shifts to talking about how Professor X destroyed his life, then yells at Havok for turning his back on them all and asks him “Why can’t you just stay gone?” Possibly he’s being affected by Professor X’s telepathy at close range here, but that would contradict the previous chapter, which claimed that the X-Men were inoculated. So it’s probably just a sore spot for him.
Professor X believes that Scott has “given up on hope”, which isn’t an unfair description of his current approach to the X-Men; it’s Scott’s rational response to giving up hope of actually making things better.
The Beast serves as spokesman for the team in Cyclops’ absence, and gets to pick the obvious holes in the X-Factor characters. Psylocke, Magik, Juggernaut, Temper and Kid Omega are also there for the fight scene.
FOOTNOTES:
Credits page: The title, “The Summers of Days Past”, is obviously a play on the Summers family name and “Days of Futures Past”.
Page 2: Havok betrayed Polaris for X-Factor (at least in his view) in issue #2.
Page 4 panel 1: “I thought you were dead.” Angel was injured in X-Factor’s disastrous first mission in issue #1.
Page 12 panel 1: The photograph shows the X-Men as they stood at cancellation in 1970, which is when Havok and Polaris are generally taken to have joined the team.
Page 14 panel 2: Cyclops “had my head frozen by Storm” in Storm #6.
For all that Russell’s writing has been very hit-and-miss on this title, I’m enjoying how he’s absolutely nailing the comedic timing with ForgetMeNot.
(And honestly, the dude does deserve a few wins.)
It is a shame that the editorial offices are not better integrated. There is a development in Amazing Spider-Man #69 (and #70, still to come) that logically ought to have reflections in Storm’s current status (nonsensical as it is) and perhaps vice-versa.
Actually, on second thought the development dates back to the recent Thanos/Infinity Watch issues.
I don’t particularly enjoy Russell’s “whose that guy” “I forget” running gag, because it makes no sense as a response. That’s not what humans say when someone asks them about what appears to be a complete stranger.
That said, I was amused by Havok going “Aggh! My eyes!”
Magik can just teleport herself back in the next panel, but hey, Xabi deserves a win, I’ll take it.
Hank’s reaction to discovering one of his oldest friends is still alive: mild interest. I’d say it’s meant as a hint that he’s not who he claims, but really it’s just bad writing.
It’s odd that Cecilia and Forget Me Not have no problem turning over Xavier to Graymalkin. Xyber and Granny Smite are new characters and Pyro was perfectly willing to turn his fellow mutants over to the government when he was with Freedom Force. But Cecelia is a doctor- her turning a sick man over to a facility where he will be treated inhumanely is out of character. And Forget Me Not felt he owed Xavier.
There’s definitely something going on with Warren. Last issue, Cecilia said that his healing factor should have healed him sooner and he changed the subject by making a callous joke about her dead boyfriend, which was out of character. This issue Beast also points out that his healing factor should have healed him sooner and Warren deflects again. Warren willingly submitting to becoming Archangel and turning Xavier in would be out of character/
Is Warren’s sword magic? It was able to hurt the Juggernaut and usually magic is the only thing that can hurt the Juggernaut.
Scott really is a jerk and an idiot this issue. He attacked Frenzy unprovoked and attacked Alex when he was trying to talk things out.
Note that one of the future events in Timesldie was listed as “Who Waits Within the Last Egg?”
“He gives Scott a quick speech about Hope, but given his behaviour in NYX he might just be trying to play on Scott’s emotions.”
I’m not sure if Xavier meant Hope or hope with a lower-case. If it is Hope inside there, then how could her powers help with Xavier’s tumor or Sandra’s kidnaping. I supose she might be able to amplify Xorn’s healing powers so he could try to heal Xavier but if Xavier needed a power amplifier.,couldn’t he try to find Fabian Cortez or Chance or someone else first?
The most common theories I’ve seen is that it’s; either Lilandra or Legion in the egg. Either one would make sense.
The preview for X-Force 9 makes it clear that the guy with the baton is Wolverine’s old ally John Wraith, who was acting at the behest of Tessa. That makes sense- Tessa was considering employing Wraith’s services before Xavier contacted her at the end of X-Force 8 and Wraith is a teleporter.
Personally I hope the egg contains an ostrich.
I thought the egg would contain Legion. However, Devil Dinosaur wound be my personal choice. Seeing how FtA has progressed, perhaps creme and glucose syrup would be the most likely solution.
“What waits within the last egg? Something sickeningly sweet and gooey which will once again unite all mutants.
Oh yes, a giant Cadbury Creme Egg, just in time for Easter. That would be perfect.
I found Russell’s comedy to be better this issue when there were comedic characters and moments (like with Pyro and Forget-Me-Not) instead of his odd attempts at drama/comedy. Previously, he seemed to be trying to make everyone sarcastic snarkers without depth with pretty weak attempts at comedy. His dramatic moments this issue were strong (even if the characters were acting out of character). Maybe if the book had more of those, it wouldn’t be cancelled. It also helped to focus on the main characters instead of the military conspiracy stuff.
My money’s on Legion being in the egg given he (or some version of him) appears to be the villain in Ms. Marvel’s X-men crossover this summer. It would odd though if he somehow thinks inserting Ms. Marvel into important x-events would help mutants now.
Yeah, but… Legion doesn’t need resurrecting. Iirc Orchis didn’t get him.
Also, although the answer is most likely ‘White Hot Room resurrection before X-Men #35’, wasn’t it Spurrier’s intention that ForgetMeNot wouldn’t be resurrected because they loose the gizmo that made them finally remember him?
“Generously, the X-Men have given him back the Cerebro helmet that they took off him in the previous chapter in order to defeat him.”
It is Havok and Frenzy who have purloined the helmet when they manage to take Xavier away in the confusion of the X-Factor-X-Men clash.
The Cerebro helmet is seen on the ground between Juggernaut and Temper, while Beast is holding Xavier, in the splash page where the two groups face each other. Then it is in Frenzy’s hands as Havok picked up Xavier (it would have been more logical for the one with the super-strength to lift the unconscious person, actually…).