Resurrection of Magneto #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #3
“Falls the Shadow”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The Shadow King grips Magneto.
PAGES 2-4. Annihilation confronts Storm.
Issue #2 ended with Storm and Magneto arriving together in a black space and being confronted by what was strongly implied to be the Shadow King; that’s confirmed in this scene. Somehow, since the last issue Storm has been separated from Magneto and is now being confronted by Annihilation instead of the Shadow King. We’ll see later on that Storm can apparently unite with Magneto again through an effort of will, so either this is an illusion, or at least it’s the sort of magical weirdness that Storm is in a position to override once she understands it.
Annihilation was last seen in X-Men Red #18, where used lightning to destroy the Annihilation mask that was mounted on the staff carried by Genesis, thus ending the Arakko civil war (the “Genesis War”, as it’s referred to here). Immediately before that, Annihilation had tried to persuade Storm to become its new host, making a pitch to provide Storm with the power to fulfil her goals. Obviously, being the hero, Storm rejected it. Annihilation claims here that the effect of destroying the mask was simply to cut off her connection to the physical world.
At the end of page 3, Storm asks whether the Shadow King is simply impersonating Annihilation. Annihilation responds by raising the possibility that she is a manifestation of the Shadow King, and then says that there are many more of them. We then get a parade of characters, from the high profile to the obscure, who are united by being some sort of cosmic spirit of evil. The story is deliberately ambiguous as to whether they are in fact all different manifestations of the same entity, or just closely linked as a sort of family or type of cosmic entity. Many of these characters have been presented as opposite numbers to the Phoenix Force, which would only really make sense if they are indeed all manifestations of the same thing.
The characters shown in page 4 panel 1, from left to right:
- The thing that looks like a cut-price version of the Phoenix is Bête Noir, a sort of demonic anti-Phoenix whose only appearance was in the 2000-2001 Gambit & Bishop miniseries.
- The Adversary, whose mouth is drawn here to resemble the Shadow King’s, was the Big Bad in Uncanny X-Men in 1987. He’s an ancient demonic trickster figure; Forge was supposed to have been raised from birth to combat him, but turned his back on magic.
- The Shadow King
- Annihilation
- The First Fallen, identified by name later in the issue. His only previous appearances were in Uncanny X-Men #473 and #474 (2006), both written by Chris Claremont. He’s presented as an ancient anti-Phoenix who pursues a goal of stasis in opposition to the Phoenix’s cycle of death and rebirth. The name obviously positions him as a Lucifer-style figure.
- The black thing with a green outline is the Goblin Force, a sort of Galactus/Phoenix hybrid which was a major threat in the 1998-2001 Havok series Mutant X.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits. The title, “Falls the Shadow”, is a quote from T S Eliot’s 1925 poem “The Hollow Men”: “Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the shadow.”
PAGES 6-7. The Shadow King talks to Magneto.
The Shadow King adopts the guise of Professor X, initially in his Krakoan design, then in the 90s hover wheelchair, and finally in his traditional wheelchair.
“We must beware of good men, mustn’t we? Charles, most of all.” This refers to Magneto’s dying speech to Storm from X-Men Red #7, warning her to keep an eye on Professor X: “He is a good man, Ororo. We must be wary of good men. For what will they not do, to show how good they are?”
“Is that why you named your opposing force the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?” Strictly, nobody actually calls Magneto’s team the “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” in Silver Age X-Men – it’s the title of the story in which they debut, but it never actually appears in dialogue. Its first in-universe use is actually in a newspaper headline. At any rate, Mystique certainly did name her version the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and Magneto gives the traditional explanation of the name being ironic.
“You met him as Erik Lehnsherr, so that’s how he thinks of you…” In X-Men Red #11, Storm criticises Professor X for continuing to refer to Magneto as “Erik” even though he had reverted to “Max”; Professor X replies that Magneto never let him grow to know “Max”. Here, the Shadow King argues – and Magneto accepts – that Magneto has become his real name and identity. That ties in with the idea that, particularly in the Krakoan era, the mutants regards their codenames as their actual names.
PAGE 8. Silver Age Magneto appears to Magneto.
“Magneto! The human race no longer deserves dominion over planet Earth! The day of the mutants is upon us! And the first phase of my plan will be to show my power … to make homo sapiens bow to homo superior!” Aside from the opening word where he says his own name, this is Magneto’s dialogue from page 11 panel 5 of X-Men #1, part of his first ever scene.
PAGES 9-10. Storm fights off the First Fallen.
Freezing Storm into a statue seems like a reference to that time Dr Doom turned her into a statue in Uncanny X-Men #146.
PAGE 11. Storm resists Annihilation.
“Last time we spoke.” X-Men Red #18.
“You are addicted to responsibility…” Annihilation picks up on the recurring theme in X-Men Red that Storm is overcommitted and never where she needs to be. The suggestion is that she takes on responsibility for her own ego rather than because she’s actually in a position to discharge it.
PAGE 12. The Shadow King confronts Storm.
The Shadow King seems to be saying here that the various demons are not merely the same character, but that have a common source of some sort.
“Remember how I tricked you? Forge does.” In the run-up to “Fall of the Mutants”, specifically Uncanny X-Men #223, the Adversary – not the Shadow King – poses as a shaman who’s fighting the Adversary, and tricks Storm into stabbing Forge.
PAGES 13-15. Magneto confronts Silver Age Magneto.
The idea here is that Magneto is finally confronting and reconciling with the early Silver Age interpretation of the character, which has generally been downplayed or ignored in 21st century versions. Magneto as one-note villain doesn’t really fit well into the modern reading of him, and Al Ewing is trying to square that off here. He references the recent Magneto miniseries, which attempted to explain Magneto’s Silver Age behaviour as a pose intended to provide the X-Men with an opportunity to be heroes (though it also suggested that having adopted the identity, he went off the deep end).
“Remember, we are homo superior! We are born to rule the Earth! he humans must be our slaves! They are our natural enemies – and together, with our superhuman powers, we can conquer them all.” Again, the dialogue here is recycled from the Silver Age – specifically X-Men #4. This is Magneto talking to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch on page 9 panel 2.
“You dare say that in my presence? Have you forgotten that our personal feelings are nothing? It is the plan that is all-important!!!” This is Magneto reprimanding Mastermind on page 8 panel 4. Oddly, a bunch of ?? and !!s in the original have become ??? and !!!s here.
“Of course! Humans are like sheep! They respond to certain stimuli – and fear is one of the most potent!” Page 11 panel 6, explaining why an illusory army can subdue the remarkably Swiss-looking Central American nation of Santo Marco.
“Why??? Why do you fight us??? For you too are a mutant!!!” Page 10 panel 4, arguing with Professor X.
“Never! The humans must be our slaves! They are not worthy to share dominion of Earth with us! You have made your choice – forevermore, we are mortal foes.” Page 10 panel 5, talking to Professor X. As present day Magneto indicates, Xavier’s preceding line was “We must use our powers to bring about a golden age on Earth – side by side with ordinary humans!”
“What is this?” The one line of dialogue that isn’t from X-Men #4, as far as I can see – and writen in a somewhat more normal font.
PAGES 16-18. Storm and Magneto join forces to defeat the Shadow King.
Fairly straightforward: Storm sees through the false dichotomy and realises she needs to work with Magneto.
Storm says that she’s feeding her life force to Magneto to power his attack (which is a bit incidental given its importance to the plot).
PAGES 19-23. Magneto refuses to let Storm die and returns her to the real world.
Again, more or less self explanatory.
PAGE 24. Trailers. The Krakoan reads RETURN OF MAGNETO.
Establishing that the Goblin Force exists in 616 raises obvious questions about Maddie, since the Goblin Force in the Mutant X reality was responsible for the corruption of that world’s Maddie.
The “Am I to be allowed no flaw?” seemed to be a response to Ewing’s critics that he was allowing Ororo no flaws- every time something bad happened it was because Ororo wasn’t there, not because she did something stupid. The “Remember how I tricked you? Forge does” line seemed to be acknowledging that Ororo is flawed but even in that, Ewing doesn’t explicitly mention that Storm stabbed Forge. Look at how he wrote Tho
… Thor’s trying to kill Skymir in Immortal Thor. He specifically acknowledged that Thor’s behavior was horrible, even if he had changed.
“Men call me Magneto” is from X-Men 17.
We all knew Magneto was not going to stay dead forever, but I’m happy with the thought and care Ewing’s put into this character study justifying his return. From using the key he obtained with Namor to trigger his resurrection in the last issue to cleverly repurposing dialogue to enter a nuanced conversation about recognition and self-acceptance with his psychotic Silver Age persona–I’m really impressed with how elegantly and artfully this is being handled.
Even Storm experiencing a reckoning for her various shortcomings has been a surprisingly natural and welcome extension of all the themes Ewing is juggling in this title. For my money, Magneto and Storm have been two of the best written characters in the entire Krakoan era.
All in all, two excellent issues in a row after the somewhat dense, symbolism-heavy debut. This and Gillen’s coda to Immortal over in this week’s X-Men Forever are more than welcome palette cleansers to the Duggan and Brevoort clusters we’ve been subjected to these last few months. It might be foolish to hope for a stronger finish to Fall of X, but Ewing and Gillen are certainly putting in work to soften the landing a bit.
This and X-Men Forever were such palate cleansers after last week’s garbage. Characters written with care and thought! Moral dilemmas! Dark nights of the souls! This is what I want in my X-Men comics, in addition to zapping things or cutting them with claws. I’m going to have to savor each Ewing & Gillen X-comic, I know the end is coming too soon.
Yeah, I love the “Am I allowed no flaw?” part and all of the Storm stuff. Ewing’s getting to wrap up everything he’s done with her here, with the Shadow King trying to appeal to her to keep repeating her mistakes of the era even while she’s rejecting him. Always nice to see a manipulator actually try working below the surface.
In addition to what other people have already said, I like the idea of trying to draw together all of these different shadowy manipulative evil beings, especially the disparate anti-Phoenixes we’ve seen over the years, and maybe give them a collective purpose/identity/association.
Because when you put them all together, there certainly have been a bunch, especially the ones specifically said to be a counterpart to the Phoenix. (Missing: Necrom from Excalibur, who also did an Anti-Phoenix thing…)
“Ewing’s critics that he was allowing Ororo no flaws- every time something bad happened it was because Ororo wasn’t there, not because she did something stupid.”
That’s… a position you could take, I guess. In my reading, it’s precisely Ororo’s stupid decisions which keep her away from the real crises that are her most persistent flaw.
Are we going to get a discussion of X-Men 97? Holy crap, Trial of Magneto/LifeDeath/Inferno!!! It was mid 80s X-men gold.
@Alexx Kay: The problem is that no one in-story (except Emma that one time) actually sees it that way or calls her out on it. Ewing himself tends to position Ororo as always being right (her argument with Xavier in Red #11, her ceding the Regent’s seat to Lodus Logos yet still being in sole command of her faction during the Genesis War, and ultimately being the only person to have any real influence on Arakki society and how it changes).
This issue reads less like a vindication of how Ewing was writing her all along than an acknowledgment he may have taken it too far.
Jeff: late 80’s but through a very 2024 lens, the riot at the trial was a clear riff on Jan 6th.
I liked Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk, but not his X-Men work. It reads like badly executed satire of the “White Savior” and “Mary Sue” tropes. Way overextended satire at that.
It doesn’t help that it is also so sympathetic to Magneto.
As for Phoenix… I really feel saturated of all the relentless mentions of it. They are incessant, unnecessary, and increasingly meaningless.
If this keeps up, in ten years time it will be revealed that Eternity, Chaos and Order are all aspects of the Phoenix. Which is also the true origin of Franklin Richard’s power. And the mother of all stars. And Shun Lao’s aunt. And creator of Hickman’s G.O.D.S. And mental instigator of the Fastball Special.
Then it will be revealed that it was the Phoenix that caused Avengers: The Crossing and Heroes Reborn by manifesting to Marvel Editorial and threatening them. Then Marvel will see the light and refuse to use the concept for some ten years. Then we will have peace. For a time.
I still don’t see how people can read X-Men Red and not see Storm making mistakes or choices that don’t work out. I know that’s been a criticism, and I get why because Storm is usually right. Under her watch, however, Uranos massacred the Arakki and there was a civil war.
Arakki society wasn’t used to relatively peaceful times, and had just been uprooted from all they knew. Storm showed the them a different path while operating by their cultural mores (at least mostly). Her actions had both benefit and cost.
@Jeff: I really liked the first two episodes of X-Men ’97, despite not caring for the original cartoon.
I am extremely cold on anything related to Arrako, including the Further Character Development Adventures of Storm and Magneto on Arrako, but the craft of this issue really blew me away. Ewing is superb at integrating the silver age stuff as it exists on the page with modern storytelling, including the way his complementary modern dialogue is also overwrought, but differently (“Ah, yes. The plan.”). I guess you could also say it’s a kind of silver age homage that the resolution of the issue makes no sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Mike Loughlin: There’s a significant difference between something happening on Storm’s watch, and something happening because Storm made a bad call. She had nothing to do with Uranos attacking Arakko, and Ewing won’t even let you pin the civil war on her because Genesis had an evil brainwashing staff.
So what mistakes did she make that actually had consequences? Where, anywhere in Red, is Storm shown to be wrong?
@Diana: Her mistake is the one spelled out by Annihilation. She’s the extremely competent person who’s ended up with a savior complex and spread herself too thin. Yes, when there’s a problem in front of her she’s handling it well, but that feeds the mindset.
She keeps not stepping back to let someone else handle things *because* she’s that good and feels like she’s indispensable.
What mistakes did she make that had consequences? She kept trying to split her time between Arrako and the Quiet Council, which led to distractions and problems. When she admitted there was a problem with spreading herself thin, she still just gave her proxy to Colossus rather than find an actual replacement. There’s a big mistake right there, considering Nightcrawler had also stepped out. But, as Annihilation pointed out, she felt like she had to be there and no one else could replace her. And that choice led to the Council being taken advantage of by Mother Righteous and then much of everyone’s current problems on Earth.
I’ve worked with people who fell into that trap. It doesn’t matter if every individual thing you do is right, if you’re busy trying to handle everything then things are going to fall on the floor and not get done. Take a breath, take a step back, and find someone competent to handle the things you don’t have time for.
@Diana: See also literally in the first issue of Red.
Nameless calls Storm out during their duel, reminding her she’s not of Arakko and that she wasn’t there during the Amenth War, and that her seizure of power (i.e., Brand and Storm unilaterally deciding that she would be head of Arakki state AND their top diplomat) is not without consequences. Isca and Brand also needle Storm on how focused she is on consolidating power throughout the issue.
These criticisms have clearly informed virtually every major decision Storm has made in Red (e.g., integrating herself in Arakki culture, foregoing resurrection, seeking their consent before aiding, relinquishing her Regent role and vacating her extra vote on the Great Ring), all of which has paid off as the Arakki recognize as her as one of their own.
@Jon R: That’s why Shadow King trying to bait Storm for having an addiction to responsibility and an inflated sense of self-importance in this issue of Resurrection was such an slick, full circle moment (going all the way back to the waning days of SWORD). Her progression through this arc has been nuanced and excellently written.
I think my problem with the Anti-Phoenix, however many of it there is, is that all these entities are embodiments of evil, sometimes of Ultimate Evil. So their opposite number is, presumably, a force of Ultimate Good?
Sure. Tell that to the D’Bari.
@Diana: Storm did not cause the Civil War or Uranos’s rampage, but her absences and effect on their culture (based on her prior experiences rather than theirs) had a ripple effect leading to Genesis gaining a foothold. Yes, theAnnihilation mask played a part, but it didn’t just take over the minds of Storm’s allies and call it a day. The resentment Storm fostered (at least in part by her dividing her attention and efforts during AXE) was magnified by the mask.
@Jon R.: Like I said, my problem with this reading is that Ewing’s story literally demonstrates the opposite: Storm is that good, she is that indispensable. She defeats Tarn, Uranos, Vulcan, two Horsemen, Genesis. She brings Magneto back. And if she made a mistake in giving Colossus three votes, no one ever calls her out for that; the blame for what happens afterwards falls squarely on Colossus’ shoulders.
And again, there’s a vast difference between some weak supposition that maybe if she’d been in one place or another she might have single-handedly stopped bad things from happening (which doesn’t exactly disprove the notion that she’s indispensable), and actual mistakes she made that had direct cause-and-effect consequences.
@Moonstar Dynasty: That’s precisely my point, though – you’ve just described an arc in which Storm does everything right. For all Nameless’ talk about how Storm didn’t belong, everything Ororo does from the very beginning of Red leads to the Arakki accepting her. She never missteps, never backslides, never miscalculates reactions to any decision she makes. And her “mistake” in assuming power is never treated as such, because no sooner has she given up that power than the Genesis War immediately breaks out, which conveniently puts the Seat of Loss in charge. It’s all lip service, a shell game.
@Mike Loughlin: Annihilation’s involvement (which of course only Storm is strong enough to resist) is an example of Ewing putting his thumb on the scale. The schism in the Great Ring could have stemmed from and grown out of genuine resentment and resistance to Storm’s ideas (though, as Moonstar Dynasty points out, she’s functionally Arakki by then) – but there’s a demonic mind-control staff involved, so how can anyone quantify that? It’s the obvious out for Storm – it’s not that she pushed too hard for social reform because of hubris, it’s that a demon subverted Sobunar and the others.
Blaming her for Arakki suffering is like blaming her for the Mutant Massacre: if the strongest case to be made against her is that her presence might have made a difference, that’s not much of a flaw to have.
@Diana: One pretty explicit case she was called out for last issue was Magneto asking her to watch Professor X. She couldn’t do that, she wasn’t there, she was overbooked. Sure, you can say that she might have not managed to do anything if she had been there, like you do elsewhere, but that’s still not an out for her. She knew she was being pulled in several directions, she still took up a new responsibility without trying to find someone else to help her, and she wasn’t there.
Readers here have been calling her out on it for a while at least. Yeah, Ewing isn’t explicitly having the people around her point fingers at her. But for instance, when she gave her proxy to Colossus, multiple people here saw that this was going to end in tragedy. Even if he hadn’t been controlled, “Let’s have one person have 3x his normal votes because we’re not prioritizing finding replacements” is a really bad idea for any important voting council.
The fact that she’s so successful aside from not being around for all her responsibilities is part of the point. She’s got a good reason to feel arrogant and like she’s the one who has to save everyone! It’s just still not good.
Anyway, it seems like we’re probably at an agree-to-disagree point, but I wanted to raise that last example.
@Jon R: The last thing I’ll say in response to that, then, is this: based on what Red itself depicts (and SWORD before it), when Storm isn’t “there”, she’s “somewhere else”, doing something equally important. She wasn’t off on her date with Craig of NASA when Colossus was voting Selene in; she wasn’t having fun and games with Yukio during the Gala attack. Storm being overbooked isn’t a criticism or a flaw, because her duties to Krakoa and Arrako are portrayed as equally important.
Essentially, the only thing she can be “blamed” for is not accurately predicting which situation would require her immediate attention – and to me, that reads like a cop-out. It’s not Storm making a selfish choice and having to deal with the consequences, it’s her choosing which group of people to save and somehow being held accountable for the group she couldn’t.
I got to a point where I was just flipping through X-Men Red. I read the death of Magneto on Arrako for its own sake, not because I enjoyed the story. Magneto is so OP, he was always coming back, so there no suspense in his “death” and I just could not get into this. I applaud everyone who can keep up with these complicated storylines.
From Ewing’s* email newsletter:
“I did a bit of research on the various “oppositional forces to the Phoenix” we’ve seen on-panel. I’d heard that the Shadow King was originally intended to be one of these by Claremont, but I’d been made aware of others that had filled that niche since, such as the Goblin Force. Were there any others? Turns out the answer is yes. Did I get them all? Who even knows. The oppositional forces to the Phoenix can be plural, but for the purposes of the larger story they should probably be coherently arranged.”
* Also we’re going to have to start qualifying ‘Ewing’ with a first name shortly when discussing X-books…
True Friends #3 by Claremont establishes the Shadow King as a sort of order to the Phoenix’s chaos and passion. Also UXM 273 kind of hints that Naze or the Adversary was another possible side to the Shadow King.
The trouble with that is that Claremont had established the Adversary as a kind of evil Coyote, an agent of chaos who was going to destroy and recreate the universe until he got it right.
Yeah. I kind of liked the idea that True Friends was retroactively establishing the Shadow King as the other side — the totalitarian force of Order now that the X-Men have defeated unrestrained Chaos in the form of the Adversary.
But the actual stories leading up to whatever saw print of Claremont’s original vision for the Muir Island Saga don’t really support this neat dichotomy all that well.
In practice, the Shadow King is more of a generically malevolent demon, out to corrupt and control people because it’s pure evil. This was even more the case as Claremont started to hint that the Shadow King was older than and distinct from Amahl Farouk as its host.
Like Selene and the Adversary, the Shadow King seems to come out of Claremont’s interest in dark fantasy, the kind of stuff he wrote when he worked on Satana, Dracula, and his co-creation Marada the She-Wolf (all of whom battled the N’Garai in Claremont’s stories, which he also brought into the X-Men).