X-Force #45 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #45
“A Slip of the Pen”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colour artist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller and Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. A weird image of Colossus, Quentin Quire and Wolverine (Laura) as prisoners of Mikhail Rasputin with multiple perspectives and a kind of 3D effect. The solicitation for this issue read: “X-Force is held captive. But what powerful force can keep Wolverine, Colossus, Omega Red and Quentin Quire from their compatriots, and what will this mean for the future of mutantkind? And, as the Chronicler focusses his powers on a new subject, how will his control shift the balance of power in the Fall of X era?” That last sentence is certainly in this issue, but Wolverine, Omega Red and Quentin Quire only have brief cameos in this issue (a single panel of each of them, on page 23).
PAGES 2-4. Chronicler recaps the plot, and Colossus kidnaps Jun Wei.
The Chronicler opens by reflecting on how Colossus was perfectly placed to be the first person narrator of his story about Krakoa precisely because he’s a secondary character in the grand scheme of things; it accords with his sense of how this sort of story ought to work, and as we’ve seen, Chronicler’s reality-warping powers are constrained by what he can rationalise as a sensible story. Mind you, given how often Chronicler has taken to writing directly about his control of Colossus and the way in which Colossus is being manipulated, this book must be a very strange read.
But perhaps that’s intentional on Chronicler’s part. Even though he’s explicitly positioning Colossus as the narrator on page 2, and rationalising their targeting to Jun Wei, the actual first person narrator here is Chronicler himself. Chronicler is no longer writing about Colossus – he’s writing about himself and Mikhail, which implies that this is the sequence of events that he’s actually dictating now, and the subtext is that Chronicler is himself in a position to change the course of events. Since Mikhail is watching over his shoulder, Chronicler has to be careful here, but he seems to be deliberately steering this to a point where he can make his move – as he does later in the issue. After all, Mikhail doesn’t do subtext.
Chronicler specifically warned Mikhail that if he stopped writing Colossus’s story without a resolution then Colossus might die; his concern is presumably that if the story just stopped dead, Colossus would too. Another reading of what’s going on here is that Chronicler is trying to shift the focus of his narrative onto the very fact of Colossus being under his control, so that he can then present the act of relinquishing his control as a form of resolution, and at least try to release Colossus in a controlled way.
Jun Wei. Jun was in one of the photographs of possible new subjects that Mikhail gave to Chronicler last issue. Aside from that, I think this is her first appearance – or at least, if she has appeared before, it was indeed as a background character.
Colossus is sent to abduct her, as Mikhail directed last issue. That issue suggested that Colossus was likely to be in some terrible danger while carrying out this mission – which Mikhail wasn’t much bothered by, since Colossus had outlived his usefulnessIn the event, Colossus seems to have no trouble with it at all.
The portal which he uses to access the Orchis station is created by Mikhail’s powers.
PAGE 5. Data page about the history on Jun Wei. Jun was radicalised when her parents were killed in the collateral damage from a “seaside battle” 13 years ago. This is unusually specific stuff for Marvel time, because we’re told that this battle involved “Magneto, Astra, Toad and the Scarlet Witch”. Astra is a villain from the late-90s Alan Davis run who was apparently a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for a brief period before they made their public debut against the X-Men – apparently, Jun ran into her during this period. That’s basically the dawn of the Silver Age, so it’s unusual that we get a time frame as specific as 13 years for it, though like most things to do with Marvel sliding time, it’s best not to think too hard about it.
I don’t think we’ve ever actually seen any of Astra’s exploits with the Brotherhood, so the specific incident mentioned here is new (and probably unimportant).
PAGES 6-7. Colossus brings Jun back to Mikhail, and gets banished to a “void”.
This is one of the “dimensional rifts” that Mikhail created for the other X-Force captives last issue. As his last act as Colossus’ narrator, Chronicler gives Colossus his signature painting equipment, effectively inviting him to express himself again. This seems to be Chronicler’s way of trying to relinquish control of Colossus in a way that at least plays as an open-ended resolution rather than a dead halt.
PAGE 8. Recap and credits.
PAGES 9-10. Sage and Domino ask Deadpool to help.
Sage told us last issue that Deadpool was offline and uncontactable.
Despite his desperation to join X-Force in the first place, Deadpool has no interest in joining the battered remnants of X-Force. As he points out, he’s already doing anti-Orchis stuff in Uncanny Avengers, and Sage’s remaining group are not really the team he wanted to join any more. He wanted to be part of Krakoa and hang out with Wolverine (Logan). None of that is on offer any more.
PAGES 11-12. Sage and Domino discuss the ring.
This is the ring that Domino stole from Mikhail’s former ally Boba Golubev last issue, which was implied to be some sort of device for contacting or otherwise reaching Mikhail. It’s stored in the scan-proof No-Place tumour where Sage put it last issue. The little cube things floating around it suggest it’s a creation of Mikhail’s reality warping powers. Since this doesn’t respond to any sort of scientific principles that Sage understands, she decides to ask Dr Strange for any insights from a magical perspective.
PAGES 13-14. Chronicler begins to talk to Jun Wei.
Although Chronicler needs to talk to a victim in order to understand them and write their life, his powers apparently force his victims to co-operate in the exercise. It seems that Chronicler can only write one life at a time, because as soon as he starts to bond with Jun, Colossus finally comes to his senses.
PAGES 15-18. Sage and Domino visit Dr Strange.
I’m including the data page in this block because it’s basically an exposition dump that follows directly from the scene before. Strange tells us that Mikhail’s powers are not magic, but that his reality-warping powers operate on somewhat similar principles, and the ring is probably a key to access one of his voids. More to the point, Strange believes that Mikhail’s voids have to be actively sustained by him, so if he dies then the people inside – i.e., X-Force – will either be expelled back into the real world, or crushed to death as the voids cease to exist.
PAGES 19-22. Chronicler makes Jun shoot Mikhail.
At last, Chronicler gets a moment when he’s got his puppet and Mikhail right next to one another, and Mikhail isn’t paying attention, and he does exactly what you’d expect. And then desperately scrabbles to get Jun back under control before she kills him too.
PAGES 23-24. Mikhail’s voids start to collapse.
We see Wolverine, Quentin and Omega Red in the situations as last issue. Mikhail, apparently dying, somehow winds up in Colossus’s void – presumably the idea is that his instinct is to turn to his brother for help.
PAGE 25. Trailers. The Krakoan reads A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS.
The 13-year Silver age thing is something that gets thrown around occasionally. I recall hearing about a Bar Mitzvah issue about Ben Grimm that he celebrated because it had been 13 years since his rocky rebirth.
@Jaymes Buckman- and in the recent Venom 25. Eddie and Dr. Doom travel back in time to shortly before Doom met Spider-Man and Doom comments that it’s less than 15 years ago.
It’s a little disappointing that Percy invented a new Orchis member to be controlled by the Chronicler instead of using an existing one- especially since none of the Orchis members except MODOK, Stasis, Feilong and Karima have done anything since the Gala.
I think Jun Wei is the author of the Fall of the House of X pages we’ve seen so far (with the Chronicler’s help). If you read carefully the author knows more about Orchis than Krakoa- the author described how at an Orchis meeting about Mother Righteous Nimrod expressed distrust of her but when the subject comes up of whether the Quiet Council telepathically influenced the government to accept the Limbo Embassy, the author only says “the Quiet Council swore” they didn’t. A reformed-but-not-trusted-by-the-X-Men Jun Wei would be the perfect author.
Sage is wary about seeking help from Dr. Strange. This might be a reference to events in Strange’s own book. Years ago, Strange’s patrons the Vishanti enlisted Strange to fight a war against demons called the Trinity of Ashes. The war lasted 5,000 years and Strange became a war criminal. Realizing Strange was too dangerous, the Vishanti split the war criminal part of Strange’s soul off from Strange into a being called General Strange and trapped General Strange within a gem. General Strange escaped and is currently enacting a plan involving using children as soldiers. To stop him, Strange made a deal with the Trinity of Ashes.
I’m curious if it’s a coincidence the “demonic” aspects of Mikhail from Colossus’ painting look so much like a Dominator (from DC), or if Gill did it on purpose.
Not sure how Sage would know anything about that, though.
The Richards rocket launch is normally between 10-15 years. Also it can never be more the 14 years from amazing fantasy 15 as that would make your flagship character 30.
So making it 13 years to immediately before the attack on cape citidel or at the latest the invasion of San Marco fits well in to the restrictions of the time lines. The bigger issue are all the six month gaps that get used to reboot new stories and ho they all add up.
Besides the neat fit for the bar mitzvah bit, 13 years is in the area where you can fit a lot of events in, but most characters who started off as adults won’t have issues with aging out of their role. (Child and teenage characters are always going to be more trouble.)
That means that Magneto was at least 70 years old in his earliest Marvel Universe stories, before being deaged by Alpha in the Defenders comic.
It’s not a problem with child characters unless they were born prior to FF #1 and remain children. I don’t think any characters fit into that role. Peter Parker started out as a teenager, but he has since aged to being post-university age. Franklin Richards was born in the Marvel Silver Age, but he is currently ten (I think) years old, so he has also aged appropriately for Marvel time.
The six month gaps don’t matter anymore than the fact that characters have experienced multiple Christmases or that the Marvel Universe had Lyndon Johnson as president at the start.
The way I see Marvel time working is that the further from the event it happens, the more compressed the timeline becomes.
@Chris V- Franklin and Valeria are currently teenagers but that was the result of a time travel story, so that’s okay.
The biggest problems have to do with Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn. The sequence of events is this- the Venom symbiotie decides to spare Peter’s life after hearing Peter talk about not getting to see his godson Normie grow up, the symbiote bonds with Eddie and then Dylan is conceived. So Dylan has to be at least nine months younger than Normie. But Dylan is usually written as older than Normie.
Meanwhile, Normie has his own problems. In Venom 25, which I mentioned earlier, after Doom and Eddie accidentally thwart the assassination of Adolf Hitler while time traveling, they travel into the past shortly before Doom first met Spider-Man. Doom comments that it’s less than 15 years ago and Eddie meets Peter Parker, who’s still in high school. They then time travel again, meet Kang and accidentally cause the recent story where Normie seemingly kills Phil Urich. (Doom and Eddie REALLY need to be banned from time traveling.) Anyway, Normie’s age is stated as 11 in that story, which is inconsistent because Liz found out she was pregnant while Peter was in graduate school.
@Michael
“It’s a little disappointing that Percy invented a new Orchis member to be controlled by the Chronicler instead of using an existing one- especially since none of the Orchis members except MODOK, Stasis, Feilong and Karima have done anything since the Gala”
The most glaring missed opportunity of the Fall of X run has been the lack of an Orchis title that basically does what Gillen was doing in Immortal, but for internal Orchis politics. The tendency of different writers to bring in/create/stick to their own Orchis villains (Orchistrators?) has somewhat diluted them as antagonists, but if you made them the leads of a book it not only fills out the cast, it suggests some interesting divisions and overlaps of different factions in the organization:
The Humanity Faction: Killian Devo, Alia Gregor; this is the faction whose goals and ideals are the original foundation for Orchis; the ‘mutant problem’ is their reason for being. Dr. Stasis has one foot here, but a second planted more firmly in…
The Supervillain Faction: Stasis, Modok, Feilong, and to an extent Nimrod; a motley crew of immoral misanthropes, their ideological investment in solving the mutant problem varies wildly, mostly coming second to various currently compatible personal agendas. If you take what we’ve seen from the outside in the X titles as a cue, this faction has largely wrested operational control away from the Humanity Faction, though neither is aware of the existence of…
The A.I. Faction: Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel, obviously. Fills the same ‘snake in the garden’ role that Sinister did in Immortal, and the most glaringly dropped post-Inferno thread.
And of course there’s Moira MacTaggart, who should probably be the primary arc character of this wholly hypothetical series. The thread that links Hickman’s HOXPOX with his Inferno is that Moira’s motivation all along has been self-interest and self-preservation, and it’s hard to believe she hasn’t already realized the implications of the fact that she’s now herself an A.I., which she once saw as the ultimate threat. It’s perfectly teed up for either a redemption arc or an even greater heel turn.
It must be remembered that Devo/Gregor founded Orchis under false pretences. Omega Sentinel was the one who planted the idea for the founding of Orchis after she travelled back in time. While her warnings about the extinction of humanity and wanting to stop the dystopian future brought about by mutant ascendancy were true, her own agenda was always to bring about robotic superiority after the “mutant threat” was eliminated.
I do wish that the agenda by the members of Orchis had been better fleshed out, so they didn’t come across as another generic mutant-hating group.
-Stasis wants to see the rise of post-humanity. How does he feel about the Children of the Vault? How is Stasis working alongside the greatest threat warned of by Essex, Nimrod?
-Moira has been completely ruined as a character post-“Inferno”. She was an interesting, shade of gray character until Percy turned her into a psychopathic evil villain. Now, we have no idea what Moira is attempting to accomplish. How is Moira working alongside the greatest threat she warned about, Nimrod? Has she secretly been on the side of post-humanity since the end of her sixth life as hinted by Hickman?
-We got a glimpse of Nimrod and Omega Sentinel’s thinking in “Inferno” where they revealed they hated baseline humanity as much as mutants…giving flashbacks to Moira’s Life Six and Life Nine. However, there’s been no further followup on the future envisioned by the machines.
Tristan-I don’t see it that Moira was solely driven by self-preservation. She was on the side of humanity, but she was trapped in the body of a mutant, which was something she always hated. She took up the mutant cause because she was terrified of Destiny’s threat.
We saw in Moira’s Life Six that she had a moment of doubt, though, when she was confronted by the Librarian. He confessed his own doubts to Moira about the idea of Ascension into the hivemind of the Phalanx and then the Dominion. He asked Moira what alternative she offered, and she had no answer. I think it was at that moment that she realized that mutants and machines were the enemy and she wanted to take the side of humanity, which would evolve into post-humanity.
It seems as if Gillen took Hickman’s ideas for Moira and transplanted them to Sinister when he took over the book. Perhaps because Percy had already made Moira an irredeemable Silver Age psychopath.
Hickman wouldn’t have used Essex in the way the four Essexes have been used since Gillen took over. Hickman’s Essex was the one who was only driven by self-interest. In Moira’s Life Nine, he did work for Apocalypse because the alternative was being killed by Apocalypse. When he got the chance, he betrayed the mutants and joined the Man-Machine Supremacy, which seemed like it would win the war.
Well, good to see the Colossus/Chronicler story moving along…it’ll probably be resolved by #50?
“It seems as if Gillen took Hickman’s ideas for Moira”
Which were what, exactly? Did Hickman ever mention if he had any other plans for her?
Not really, no. The characterization of Dr. Stasis post-“Inferno” seems like it would fit Moira from where Hickman left her…opposition to mutants and machines, belief in post-humanity as the solution to both.
Moreso than Moira turning into mutant-hating Silver Age supervillain.
@wwk5d- judging from solicitations, the Colossus/ Mikhail story will be resolved next issue. Issues 47-50 will resolve the evil Beast story. (I have a feeling that Percy’s leaving with 50, since the only other outstanding subplot is Quentin’s power problems and that’s relatively easy to resolve in a few pages.)
Is the book even continuing after #50?
On a related note, how the hell did this become the title spanning the whole Krakoan era? It’s just so… grimy and off in its little, slightly alternate universe.
Curious fact indeed, @Krzysiek Ceran.
Being at a safe distance from the main overarching plots probably helped, as did having such an antifragile concept. The more uncertain things are, the more likely it is that some form of X-Force will operate. This volume survived the frequent loss of most or all of its main characters, as well as the overarching plots of X of Swords, Inferno and the most recent Hellfire Gala tragedy.
@Chris V
“I don’t see it that Moira was solely driven by self-preservation”
Fair enough, I was mostly trying to short-hand as many possible takes on Moira’s Deal These Days as I could, as that was already pretty fat for a blog comment. I just wanted to highlight the irony of Moira’s current status quo having forfeited her claim to both her mutant and human selves, and become something much more like what she considered the ultimate enemy of both, as it’s a good example of the sort thing that feels like an obvious thread to pick up on, but that the current line up of titles doesn’t really afford room for.
Also, be a little fair to the silver age: we might associate it with simplistic, black-and-white morality, but characters rarely skinned their exes and wore them like a rain poncho
Colossus’s painting on pg 14 bears a strong resemblance to Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son”. I don’t know that the characters really line up in a father-son kind of way, but the visual similarity (though flipped L-R) is too close to be coincidental.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son