The X-Axis – w/c 15 January 2024
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #122. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Nick Roche & Yen Nitro. Well, this is certainly a slimmed-down phase for the core X-titles, which is no bad thing in itself. This is the second part of the Thunderbird arc and… well, it’s mostly just random fighting, honestly. The Proudstar brothers assume that Crule is working with Orchis so they attack him. Crule is apparently there for his own reasons, which is something to do with stealing the refugee mutants himself, but there’s nothing to flesh that out. And if you want people to take Crule seriously, that does need some legwork, because nobody cared about this bozo even back in the early 90s. Nick Roche draws some nice punching, but it really is one-dimensional as a story.
X-MEN #30. (Annotations here.) Oh boy.
So issue #29 ends with a cliffhanger where the other X-Men get back from Latveria, find the base trashed and covered in blood, and Synch and Talon missing. The next issue caption says we’ll find out in this issue where they are. And… this issue has nothing to do with that at all, unless I’m missing something fundamental. After an opening scene with Scott (which is pretty good, and the best thing in the issue) it shifts to a completely unrelated story about how to distribute the cure to the killswitch that Orchis placed in Krakoan medicines… which I don’t think has been mentioned at all until now, but somehow involves Spider-Man and Norman Osborn. Aside from a couple of pages of subplot with Firestar, what we then get is Synch and Talon visiting the High Evolutionary – and the exercise of getting to him is compressed to a single page – to recover a device last mentioned in issue #3. The entire confrontation lasts four pages, and at the end it turns out that Talon died and Synch is keeping her alive in his mind.
Um… what? The basic idea of this is fine – the X-Men need a way to make sure that Orchis can’t kill random humans as punishment when the mutants from Arakko invade. The High Evolutionary thingie from issue #3 could be adapted to do the job. Someone being trapped in someone else’s mind is an old standby and sure, why not? But the pacing is just inexplicable. The disconnect with issue #29 is downright incoherent. The killswitch thing is ignored for months and then desperately rushed to a resolution. It feels as though someone discovered at the last minute that they desperately needed to get some plot points set up months ahead of the original plan. This is what you expect from a book undergoing a guillotine cancellation, not from the first chapter of a tie-in arc to a major storyline. I have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes here, but the main impression given by this comic is that the wheels are coming off.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #14. By Gerry Duggan, Andrea Di Vito & Bryan Valenza. By comparison, this is a lot more coherent – and semi-important to the plot, since it covers the creation of Iron Man’s invasion fleet, and more detail of Orchis’ response to Firestar’s disinformation. Invincible Iron Man has generally felt a lot more focussed than X-Men, but then it’s a solo book, so there are fewer plates spinning. Okay, this particular issue isn’t really an Iron Man story at all – it’s Ironheart and Forge making the fleet, and the main event is the resolution of a subplot about Ironheart and the Mandarin’s rings, inherited from the previous writer, if I remember rightly. But Di Vito’s a solid artist who lets Forge and Ironheart give some grounding to the fantasy settings, and the whole thing draws on the wider Marvel Universe quite effectively to let Iron Man out-plan Orchis. Perfectly fine.
CABLE #1. By Fabian Nicieza, Scot Eaton, Cam Smith & Java Tartaglia. In which the older Cable rescues the younger Cable from Orchis, where he’s been languishing since just before the Hellfire Gala. Despite the “Fall of the House of X” branding on the cover, this is a bit of a red skies crossover – Cable Sr has just discovered that there’s a threat so pressingly urgent that the two of them have to deal with it right away, even though it has nothing to do with Orchis. That’s fine – it feels a lot like a story that could have been done at any time, but I’ve got no problem with some books sitting out the crossover and doing something else. And if you’re going down that route, you may as well leverage the Fall of X stuff to stress how extra important this must be, because we’re doing it instead!
To be honest, as a set-up, the story maybe needs that sort of push, because the basic premise is that Cable has spotted the first signs of a social media campaign by the Neocracy, which (at least in some timelines) is a pharmacy company’s well meaning attempt to end all conflict by making everyone identical, leaving a bland hive mind. It doesn’t actually sound that bad, to be honest. Everyone’s “enlightened” and “at peace”. But Cable wants to nip this in the bud and so drags young Nate along with him on this mission. There’s a nice rapport between the two versions of the lead character, and Eaton’s always been solid – the opening break-out sequence is well done. It feels a lot like it exists to pad out the line without doing a proper tie-in book, but there are far worse ways of dealing with that problem.
Ah, I was hoping you’d annotate Cable and give a more coherent explanation of where Cable and Nate are on their personal timelines than the book itself gives.
Is this Cable plot basically redoing the Children of the Vault plot again so soon? I’m not reading Cable, so I could be wrong. It sounds a lot like the CotV’s agenda.
Iron Man is no doubt an improvement over X-Men, but just based on the dialogue, Forge and Tony are practically indistinguishable (and Duggan’s Cyclops not too far off either).
It does seem as though there was a shift in plans somewhere between issues 29 and 30, perhaps due to a miscommunication with the artists or maybe some editorial shifts, but it really does feel egregious. We’ll probably get a line of dialogue in the next issue explaining it away ….
Neocracy felt like a rehash of Nicieza’s Blue Man Group from the first arc of Cable and Deadpool.
It’s amusing to think about Cable and Cable going after a group that wants to make everyone the same. Cable, who ushered in the whole early 90s huge-man-with-huge-gun trend that made 80% of comics at the time near-identical. Plus there’s like three versions of his mother Madeline running around, the real Jean, Phoenix, Hope to an extent, that Morlock with her face, etc. etc.
Re: Crule- I’m not sure if he is working for Orchis. His exact words are “Orchis. Krakoa. Humans. Mutants. I care not for such words.” That could mean he either is or isn’t working for Orchis.
I didn’t think the opening scene of issue 30 was that good. We had ANOTHER scene with Scott dreaming of Jean in Fall of the House of X 1. At this point they’re taking up pages that could be used for other characters and plots. Plus, Scott having a sex dream about Jean while she’s bleeding out and being used to fuel Enigma seems …odd. not romantic.
I’m not liking the idea of Cable going to fight the Neocracy while Scott is being held prisoner, tortured and might be executed. First, the Neocracy don’t really seem that much worse than Karima and Nimrod. The Neocracy want to eliminate human individuality. Karima and Nimrod want to turn humans into part of a Dominion. And although Cable doesn’t know exactly what the Orchis AIs have planned, he’s got to realize that they won’t exactly make nice with the humans when the mutants are gone.
But more importantly. they’ve got TWENTY YEARS to stop the Neocracy. Scott and the others are in danger right now. There’s no reason they can’t go after the Neocracy right after Orchis is defeated. “We do it right now or we wait twenty years” is a false dilemma. Young Cable is right to think this is dumb. This isn’t youth vs. Maturity. It’s youth vs. lunacy.
Shouldn’t Old Cable remember everything that’s going to happen to Young Cable since he lived through it once already? There’s one line of dialogue about their memories being complicated and no further attempt to explain.
If Old Cable does remember all of this, it explains the Neocracy threat. Old Cable remembers that the Marvel editors need to get all this Dominion/Krakoa stuff wrapped up by July for a big linewide relaunch. He doesn’t need to worry.
The editors don’t care about this third-tier “legacy” Cable series and its plots, so there’s a good chance if he doesn’t do something about this now no one will be bothered to ever care.
The previews for Magneto Resurrection are out and in it, Adam Brashear notes that Enigma has some connection to Orchis. So is this just referring to the link between Stasis and Enigma or are we supposed to conclude that Enigma is the Trickster Dominion?
He could simply be pointing out that they are figuring out that without Orchis, Enigma could never have achieved Dominionhood. It might be hinting about the need to go back in time to stop the founding of Orchis, which could lead to the revelation of Omega Sentinel tampering with the timeline.
I get that comics publishing is a business with tight deadlines, but they couldn’t have hashed out Orchis’s plans, resources, influence, and a timeline for their actions months ago? I keep seeing better stories just not being told.
I’m not looking forward to Breevort’s tenure, but I think White dropped the ball on making the Fall of X coherent. I know Duggan’s writing is generally mediocre, but there’s no excuse for the sloppy plotting on display.
“Cable rescues the younger Cable from Orchis, where he’s been languishing since just before the Hellfire Gala”.
I’ve already forgotten everything about this, and I’m reading further behind than…anyone up-to-date. Currently about midway through the ‘Fall Of’ issues (and trying to catch up before Rise and Fall get to the end).
@Rob: While the book doesn’t stop to mention when at their personal timelines each Cable is at this point, as long as there’s no evidence to the contrary I’d assume that:
– This is current Cable, that is – Krakoa-resurrected old man with all the present time history we’ve already seen going back to 1990. The one from Cable: Reloaded and the recent Cable&Bishop miniseries.
– Kid Cable returned to the future at the end of his solo series and went back to the past mere months later, since he’s still, you know, a kid.
As for the comic itself – hey, it’s Irene Merryweather! Why, I haven’t seen that supporting character since… the last time Nicieza wrote Cable, probably? Sometime late in his Cable & Deadpool run, I guess?
Also – Nicieza clearly supports the notion that Cable is at his best when he is part of a double act. I am not convinced Old Cable and Young Cable is the right way to approach that.
Overall it was okay – I had fun – but it’s not helped by releasing so soon after the Cable and Bishop mini. It’s unfair to say it was vastly more interesting – I’d be comparing a finished miniseries to the first issue of an… wait, is this an ongoing?
Anyway. It wouldn’t be fair, so I’ll limit myself to strongly suggesting that instead.
Irene Merryweather got killed off by Deadpool towards the end of Duggan’s long run on his book. Nicieza makes a point here to acknowledge that (by mentioning that Old Man Cable somehow reversed her death off-panel through time-travel).
I think this is a 4-issue miniseries. Even Marvel aren’t crazy enough to launch a new ongoing six months before the whole X-line relaunches anyway.
(Of the three X-ongoing series left, X-FORCE and WOLVERINE are clearly nearing their conclusion circa #50, and I heavily doubt Duggan’s X-MEN will last past Fall of X.)
Most sources are listing Cable as a four issue mini-series.
So far as the timeline is concerned, the older Cable was last seen in the Children of the Vault miniseries. The younger Cable returned to the present in order to try and stop Orchis’ attack on the Hellfire Gala, and promptly got himself captured in X-Men #24. He’s been in Orchis custody ever since.
“Languishing can include a lack of motivation and interest, feeling stagnant or stuck, and struggling to start behaviors and concentrate on tasks. Many parents have reported their kids feeling this way.”
I am aware of the “languishing in prison” saying… but I choose to use this definition for Kid Cable’s experience before Adult Cable picks him up.
Emma feels terribly off in this issue. Has she ever, ever acted so conventionally romantic and/or sexual without some deeper game or kink going on? We’ve seen this sort of generic love scene (“we were just pretending and I didn’t like you but now I have the feelings so let’s do it”) in hundreds of movies.
My tentative headcanon has been that Emma’s aromantic or even asexual, her provocative exhibitionism notwithstanding. It’s all about power over others to her. Her thing with Cyclops, well that’s a lot to unpack, but when Morrison started it, it was mainly a kinky mindfuck.
Who knows what Emma might be feeling. There are all forms of interpretations that might apply.
Among them, that it is just her spontaneous way of dealing with genuine feelings of gratitude and admiration for the person who is, after all, going through a lot for a common cause that may help a whole lot of people.
Count me in as hoping we’d get annotations for Cable. This mini looks promising, but some of the references are pretty obscure and could use some help.
Gerry Duggan’s last three issues (FOTHOX #1, Iron Man #14, X-Men #30) all begin with a dream sequence. That’s… odd.
it feels a lot like a story that could have been done at any time
True in a sense of almost all Cable stories. If you have on-demand time travel, why not stop this earlier?
I seem to recall it being established that Emma and Tony had had flings before, for whatever reason seems most logical…so at least there’s some vague history to go along with this relationship.
I don’t know about Emma being ace and/or aro… but demisexual or sapiosxual isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Especially since both Tony and Scott are highly intelligent, driven, strategic, and resourceful in their own ways. (Scott is drawn to redheads and telepaths. Tony… well… gets around and doesn’t have a specific type so he probably just appreciates a smart, resourceful, take-control partner who can stimulate his mind…)
Come to think of it, I don’t think that it is out of character for Emma to casually have sex with Tony… but it is a bit at odds with her recent characterization in Iron Man.
She had every excuse and opportunity to show attraction towards him and apparently refused to.
But what do I know of the minds of women? Even fictional women?
About asexuality, I think we can safely say that it is not one of Emma’s traits either in recent or traditional characterization.
She has a long story of relationship with Scott, after all. And didn’t we have thought balloons of her regarding Steve Rogers in one of the Hellfire Galas? Something about Namor as well?
Emma and Namor seem made for each other.
Imperious Sex!
No data pages at all this week. Don’t expect them in Iron Man (not an X office book, despite the close connection storywise), but did expect them in Cable and especially in X-Men. Blip or a changed editorial mandate?
Last data pages we’ve seen were in ROTPOX #1, in an issue titled “Data Pages”.
In Cable, they mentioned Glob, Random, and Slack DNA samples. I couldn’t find any character named Slack though?
Surely not Sluck from X-force?
“they eliminated all conflict and suffering but at the cost of individuality and therefore must be stopped” is such a 90s pitch