First some spoiler space:
- So, Scott has told the world via Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle that mutants have achieved a kind of immortality, because he found out that some heels were trying to trap them into denying it and then calling them out for lying about it. Not sure why he didn't go to the Mutant Supreme Soviet or whatever they're called. Maybe he doesn't trust them?
- As an exercise, some mutants pretend to be Avengers invading Krakoa East of Java so they can show up any weaknesses on the island's defenses.
- The heels are working with lawyers on the idea that if mutants can be brought back from the dead, then no one can ever be convicted of murdering a mutant - at most, "destruction of property".
- Clea, Reed, Tony and Steve all think they have to go to the gala.
- Moira MacTaggert is an evil robot now - I missed that plot development - and she's planning to infiltrate the gala by possessing a captive Mary Jane.
- The Mutant Supreme Soviet decides not to cancel the party because it would make them look bad.
- Bishop orders that the "Five" -who are apparently the key to mutant resurrection -placed in protective custody.
- Synch reveals to Cecilia that using his powers in certain ways causes him rapid aging.
- Scott tries to talk to Emma, but she blows him off in favor of Jonathan Hamm, who I'd never heard of, but apparently he's a "real-world" actor and it's all some kind of a "meta" gag.
- Clea wants Emma to resurrect Stephen, but Emma says it's for mutants only and anyway, maybe Clea will be better at Stephen's job than he was, and I don't know why Clea didn't incinerate Emma on the spot.
- Peter has a weird run-in with "Mary Jane" and then plants the idea in Victor's head that David Bowie may have been a mutant.
- Emma tries to talk to Angelica, who blows her off. Steve terlls Emma about he recruited Rogue to the Avengers, saying that Emma could gain Angelica's trust by giving her more responsibility, which I'm not sure if that's how it works.
- Scott and Forge snark at each other.
- Illyana decides the Five can go to the gala after all, because obviously there's no way they'd be in danger there. One of the Five is Proteus - who I guess isn't an eldritch horror anymore - who is immediately contacted by Moira, so, so much for Illyana's judgement.
- Reed tells Tony that Charles and Erik wiped information from Reed's mind.
- Tony tells Emma that things will go badly for the mutants, and lets her know about Reed's mind-wipe, which is a surprise to her.
- Deadpool is mad at someone called "Posehn", which I gather is an in-joke of some sort.
- Doug Ramsey clues Peter to the fact that all is not right with MJ. A fight ensues until Logan intervenes, allowing Moira to escape to save MJ's life. He and Peter plan to follow her.
- Scott and Jean trick Emma into listening to Scott. He tells her about the heels' plan and she tells him about Charles and Erik mind-wiping Reed.
- Gwenpool makes a brief appearance, wearing what looks like Sailor Moon's underwear.
- Elesewhere, Doctor Stasis - who is actually the Sinister Minister, or whatever he's called - is preparing something nasty for Krakatoa, or the mutants in general.
- Scott, Jean and Synch nominates themselves to be X-Men. Emma nominates Angelica, who doesn't seem too happy about it, and then brings out Wanda to announce the new team.
- Scott nominates Forge, who gets back at him (?) by nominating Alex. Illyana and Bobby nominate themselves.
- So, the new X-Men team line-up is Scott, Jean, Synch, Forge, Illyana, Alex, Angelica and Bobby.
- Charles asks Forge about something called "Project Blackbox", whatever that is.
- Tony more or less suggests to Angelica that she could be the Avengers' spy on the X-Men.
- We end with Moiia ratting the Five out to some Eternals I don't recognize. I've never understood - why do people have a mad on for just mutants? Why not Inhumans, too, or super-humans in general? How is Ben Grimm any less a "Deviant" than Nightcrawler is? What are the Eternals' attiudes towards Immortals like Thor or Hercules??
Overall: Well, I'm not sorry that I read it. It's an interesting look at where continutiy is and might be going, but I doesn't make me want to read more X-books. It feels as though they're setting up a conflict between some unpleasant people and some really unpleasant people, and I have no interest in that.
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I haven't read this yet, but my attitude about Spoilers is bring 'em on. And I have read every blinkin' X-book leading up to this (going back two-three years) so I may be able to help with some of it.
So, Scott has told the world via Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle that mutants have achieved a kind of immortality, because he found out that some heels were trying to trap them into denying it and then calling them out for lying about it. Not sure why he didn't go to the Mutant Supreme Soviet of whatever they're called. Maybe he doesn't trust them?
Exactly right. The Quiet Council -- although "Supreme Soviet" is probably more accurate -- is, like, 90% bad guys now. You have Mister Sinister, who betrays mutants in virtually every one of Moira's 11 lives. (That was her mutant power, if you didn't know, to be endlessly reborn while retaining knowledge of her previous lives. And in every one of them, mutants get wiped out, no matter what path she takes. Worse, somehow along the way she really ticked off Mystique and Destiny, with the latter predicting she'd only get 10 lives, 11 if she was lucky. I don't know if this counts as a prediction, because Mystique and Destiny made it happen, by taking away Moira's mutant power.) Destiny's on the Council now. Exodus. Mystique. Sebastian Shaw. Emma Frost (who teetered on being a good guy until she found out Charlie and Magneto had been lying to her about Moira, so now she's hates them again). Would you trust those guys?
The heels are working with lawyers on the idea that if mutants can be brought back from the dead, then no one can ever be convicted of murdering a mutant -- at most, "destruction of property".
The ultimate "othering."
Moira MacTaggert is an evil robot now -- I missed that plot development -- and she's planning to infiltrate the gala by possessing a captive Mary Jane.
As mentioned above, Destiny and Mystique reallllly hate Moira, and after they took away her mutant power they badly -- perhaps mortally -- injured her, and sent her back to the non-mutant world, with the promise that they're not far behind and will kill her soon. True to their word, they began hunting her immediately. Moira basically cyborgized herself to save her own life, and now hates mutants because she wasted her various lives trying to save them, only for them to turn around and not only try to kill her, but do so permanently, since as a non-mutant now she can't be resurrected. Neither human nor mutant now, she lives to kill mutants, especially Destiny and Mystique. This all happened in X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine.
The Mutant Supreme Soviet decides not to cancel the party because it would make them look bad.
Also, necessary for plot development.
Bishop orders that the "Five" -- who are apparently the key to mutant resurrection -- placed in protective custody.
That's because they are key to mutant resurrection. The five's powers connect in a way that achieves resurrection. It turns out that Goldball's power (you remember him from New Warriors, right?) isn't creating gold balls, it's creating gold eggs. So he calls himself Egg now. And it works like this (from the Marvel Database): "Egg produces a number of nonviable biological eggs, equal to the number of mutants the Five have to resurrect. The eggs are then injected with mutant DNA from Mister Sinister's genetic catalogue, and then made viable thanks to Proteus' reality-altering powers. Elixir biologically gives the eggs life starting a new cellular replication process and husk growth, and then Tempus uses her time manipulation powers to quickly age the mutant husks. Hope Summers uses her powers to enhance everyone else's abilities. Hope's powers allow the Five to operate at both their peak and in unison. A telepath then copies over the mutant's consciousness, recorded by Cerebro, from a copy made at the time of their deaths, onto the husk."
My suggestion is to not think about it too hard, because I still don't understand why mutants are reborn with the injuries they had before they died. Why does Forge keep coming back missing the leg he lost in Vietnam, for example? And how do they keep adamantium-izing Wolverine, who should be reborn with bone claws? Why can't reborn Cyclops control his optic blast, when it was a head injury in the youth of O.G. Cyclops that prevents this? If this has been explained, I missed it.
Synch reveals to Cecilia that using his powers in certain ways causes him rapid aging.
Don't care. Mutants who copy other mutants' powers are inherently boring. (See: Mimic.)
Scott tries to talk to Emma, but she blows him off in favor of Jonathan Hamm, who I'd never heard of, but apparently he's a "real-world" acotr and it's all some kind a "meta" gag.
Jon Hamm is a famously handsome actor, the star of Mad Men.
Clea wants Emma to resurrect Stephen, but Emma says it's for mutants only and anyway, maybe Clea will be better at Stephen's job than she was, and I don't know why Clea didn't incinerate Emma on the spot.
I don't know why everybody doesn't kill Emma on the spot.
Peter has a weird run-in with "Mary Jane" and then plants the idea in Victor's head that David Bowie may have been a mutant.
Moira replaced Mary Jane in X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine #5. I don't know if that's been addressed in Spider-Man comics, as I don't read those. So, yeah, she'd be weird. And is this Peter Parker or Peter Rasputin? If it's Parker, his Spider-sense should have gone off.
One of the Five is Proteus, who I guess isn't an eldritch horror anymore.
With the Resurrection Protocols, Proteus doesn't need to possess and burn out (read: kill) other people to stay alive. Egg gives him all the empty-headed bodies he wants. With his vampire-like hunger assuaged, he is no longer crazed and murder-y.
Illyana decides the Five can go to the gala after all, because obviously there's no way they'd be in danger there. So, so much for Illyana's judgment.
Again, plot development. When it's this obvious, it's called "bad writing."
Reed tells Tony that Charles and Erik wiped information from Reed's mind.
News to me!
Tony tells Emma that things will go badly for the mutants, and lets her know about Reed's mind-wipe, which is a surprise to her.
Again, a surprise. What was wiped? When? Am I supposed to know this? I don't read Fantastic Four!
Deadpool is mad at someone called "Posehn", which I gather is an in-joke of some sort.
The only Posehn I know is Brian Posehn, the writer, stand-up comic and actor. Does that fit?
Doug Ramsey clues Peter to the fact that all is not right with MJ. A fight ensues until Logan intervenes, allowing Moira to escape to save MJ's life. He and Peter plan to follow her.
Again, where is Peter's Spider-sense? Unless, again, it's Peter Rasputin, which would be BAD, because he is secretly being mind-controlled by some bad guys.
Scott and Jean trick Emma into listening to Scott. He tells her about the heels' plan and she tells him about Charles and Erik mind-wiping Reed.
I'm glad this news is getting around. When is somebody going to tell the reader what's going on?
Gwenpool makes a brief appearance, wearing what looks like Sailor Moon's underwear.
I have never read anything with Gwenpool in it. I guess I'm about to.
Elesewhere, Doctor Stasis -- who is actually the Sinister Minister, or whatever he's called -- is preparing something nasty for Krakatoa, or the mutants in general.
He's called Mister Sinister, and yes, the X-Men just found out that the evil Mr. Stasis -- who is working with Orchis, the organization trying to wipe out mutants, which in many of Moira's lives succeeds, and is doing very well in the current timeline -- is one of Mister Sinister's clones. The one on the Quiet Council claims he has no idea how that happened, which nobody believes.
So, the new X-Men team line-up is Scott, Jean, Synch, Forge, Illyana, Alex, Angelica and Bobby.
Well, they got the fire & ice team from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends going for them anyway.
Charles asks Forge about something called "Project Blackbox", whatever that is.
I don't know that one, either.
Tony more or less suggests to Angelica that she could be the Avengers' spy on the X-Men.
That would be interesting. Especially when -- inevitably -- one of the telepaths discovered it.
We end with Moira ratting the Five out to some Eternals I don't recognize. I've never understood - why do people have a mad on for just mutants? Why not Inhumans, too, or super-humans in general? How is Ben Grimm any less a "Deviant" than Nightcrawler is? What are the Etenrals' attiudes towards Immortals like Thor or Hercules??
I agree, it does seem like Marvel's bigots are really careful about only hating mutants. Of course, now that they're all living on an island or on Mars, they're really easy to pick out.
Overall: Well, I'm not sorry that I read it. It's an interesting look at where continutiy is and might be going, but I doesn't make me want to read more X-books. It feels as though they're setting up a conflict between some unpleasant peole and some really unpleasant people, and i have no interest in that.
By coincidence, I'm dropping all the X-books as they head into "Judgment Day," which I'll probably read in an omnibus someday. So this is a coda for me, as well as a preview of how I, too, will be keeping up with X-continuity in the future.
"That's because they are key to mutant resurrection. The five's powers connect in a way that achieves resurrection. It turns out that Goldball's power (you remember him from New Warriors, right?) isn't creating gold balls, it's creating gold eggs. So he calls himself Egg now. And it works like this (from the Marvel Database): "Egg produces a number of nonviable biological eggs, equal to the number of mutants the Five have to resurrect. The eggs are then injected with mutant DNA from Mister Sinister's genetic catalogue, and then made viable thanks to Proteus' reality-altering powers. Elixir biologically gives the eggs life starting a new cellular replication process and husk growth, and then Tempus uses her time manipulation powers to quickly age the mutant husks. Hope Summers uses her powers to enhance everyone else's abilities. Hope's powers allow the Five to operate at both their peak and in unison. A telepath then copies over the mutant's consciousness, recorded by Cerebro, from a copy made at the time of their deaths, onto the husk."
My suggestion is to not think about it too hard, because I still don't understand why mutants are reborn with the injuries they had before they died. Why does Forge keep coming back missing the leg he lost in Vietnam, for example? And how do they keep adamantium-izing Wolverine, who should be reborn with bone claws? Why can't reborn Cyclops control his optic blast, when it was a head injury in the youth of O.G. Cyclops that prevents this? If this has been explained, I missed it."
Well, that all sounds nuts.
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"And is this Peter Parker or Peter Rasputin? If it's Parker, his Spider-sense should have gone off."
It's Parker. I think of Colossus as "Piotr", but maybe that's just me. His Spider-Sense does go off, but he initially seems to think that it's because Doom is right behind him.
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"Again, a surprise. What was wiped? When? Am I supposed to know this? I don't read Fantastic Four!"
Reed supposedly discovered a way to mask the "X-Gene", and Charles and Erik came and removed the information from his mind, and made sure that Reed knew they'd done it. Xavier is now as much of a villain as Buckethead always was, as far as I'm concerned. If I'm the FF and the Avengers, I am now working on ways to take these people down.
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"The only Posehn I know is Brian Posehn, the writer, stand-up comic and actor. Does that fit?"
I think that's it.
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"I have never read anything with Gwenpool in it. I guess I'm about to."
She appears in one panel, asking to be put into a book. The guy she's talking to appears a couple of times in the book. I think he's meant to be someone at Marvel. I suspect that a number of the "guests" in the background are "real-life" people put in as gags.
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"I have read every blinkin' X-book leading up to this (going back two-three years)"
Oh, Cap, I'm so sorry! Is there anything I can do to help?
"It doesn't make me want to read more X-books."
Me either.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
Yes. You can donate to my charity, the Brett M. Kavanaugh Memorial Intemperance Society. For donations large enough for a six-pack, you get a free "I like beer!" T-shirt with this image of our distinguished jurist:
I guess y'all are gonna have to make room for me there on the Group W bench.
As long as you don't create a nuisance.