Now eventually you are going to have a Comic Book thread on this Comic Book forum, right?

[Fero McPigletron]

Ok, I read it. Horrific actually. We didn't need to see some really torn apart like that, yow.

Love that Synch was a chosen leader. Prodigy stepped up too, cool. Cannonball has a family now, right? Why's he in active service?

There can't be only three omega level mutants on the island at that time. Iceman, Jean Grey and Xavier were it? Where's Storm?

Firestar getting focus is a surprise choice. I wonder why.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Love that Synch was a chosen leader. Prodigy stepped up too, cool. Cannonball has a family now, right? Why's he in active service?

Yeah, Cannonball's married to a human member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, Smasher. And they have a son, Josiah. There's another widow and orphan for you. I think they're both out in space, so they were probably spared all...this.

Roberto/Sunspot isn't going to like this either. Those two are best buds in the comics. Basically, Marvel's version of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, lately. He might be on Mars/Arakko, along with Storm, actually. I don't remember seeing him in the background of the special.

Cannonball's been off and on the X-Men books, mostly in New Mutants. He picked a BAD time to come back.

There can't be only three omega level mutants on the island at that time. Iceman, Jean Grey and Xavier were it? Where's Storm?

Storm is on Mars/Arakko. She's actually the de-facto leader of Mars/Arakko, where the ancient mutants that Apocalypse used to rule are living right now.

Storm's actually in the middle of dealing with Apocalypse's war-mongering wife, Genesis. But, she's being manipulated by a "demonic" psychic staff who wants to start a civil war between the ancient Arakko mutants and the Earth-based mutants.

And this is all pretty separate from the Orchis stuff. Probably. Unless they're all being manipulated by the Dominion, which is possible, but not something they've said, yet.

Firestar getting focus is a surprise choice. I wonder why.

She's actually been getting a fair amount of attention in the "Adjectiveless" X-Men book, lately. I'm guessing the writer just likes the character and wants to do SOMETHING with her. *shrugs* The only other story she's had in the last few decades is recovering from cancer, so at least this isn't that.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Spoiler

Orchis. Which is a anti-mutant organization that teams up...a bunch of mostly newer characters. They're trying to overthrow and undermind Krakoa by controlling various corporate, broadcast, and criminal agencies. They kind of filled the hole that was left by SHIELD collapsing.

Nimrod does most of the actual killing. But, a LOT was only possible by Orchis sabotaging the medicine that mutants have been handing out for free to humanity. In other books, they've explained that they basically changed the medicine so that they could make the humans that took the medicine try to kill each other in a mindless frenzy. That's how they blackmail Professor X to mind control ALL the mutants in the entire world and get them to march through the Krakoan gates at the same time to their unknowing doom. With only a few resisting due to training they got from Professor X himself in the past.


Nimrod, the killer robot from the alternate "Days of Futures Past" future, is probably the most important of the bunch (named after the legendary HUNTER, not the Bugs Bunny insult).

Doctor Stasis, one of the clones of Mr Sinister, wants to basically keep humans as the dominate species on the planet.

The Omega Sentinel, aka Karima Shapandar, who actually has a long history with the X-Men, who was infected with Sentinel nanobots in the past, and recently had her mind overwritten by a evil version of herself from the future.

MODOK is here. He just likes killing people so he's just having fun. Also, parts of AIM and Hydra got absorbed into this group, as well.

Henry Gyrich, who you probably know, is a mutant hating government agent.

Feilong, who is now more of a Iron Man villain, is a billionaire industrialist angry at humanity for leaving Mars in the hands of the mutants, since humans WERE on Mars circa Hickman's Avengers.

Marianna Stern, who is the leader of the magical division of Orchis. She's mostly been dealing with the new Captain Britain (who is currently Betsy Braddock who USED to be Psylocke, but she's back in her original body again...*SIGH*) and is also helping Apocalypse's wife Genesis.

Abigail Brand, who is TRYING to be a double agent, and to subvert Orchis from within, but it isn't going very well for her.

Judas Traveller. Yes, they really brought back a 90s Spider-Man villain from the Clone Saga to be a minor general in Orchis' army.

Moira MacTaggart, who is now a villain, who USED to be a mutant and the secret mastermind behind Krakoa's creation in the first place due to her time travel power, but is now a cyborg...it's complicated.

Mother Righteous is also a ally of Orchis, but has her own schemes. She's actually the clone of the wife of the ORIGINAL version of Mr Sinister, and is more involved in the magical side of things. But...she's also magically bonded with Doctor Stasis, who is a clone of her husband. She "promised" to love, honor, and OBEY him back when they were married...and I guess the implication is that oath is now magically binding due to her magical powers.

You'll notice that most of these people have ties to the Sentinels, and there's a reason for that. This is ALL probably setting up the eventual coming of the Dominion, who are higher dimensional robots and the "evolution" of the Phalanx.



There are other agents, but those are the most important ones. And some people, like Sebastian Shaw and Selene who are both a part of Krakoa's government, have deals with Mother Righteous but don't know they're indirectly helping Orchis. It's all very cloak and dagger in parts.

So they all just came in at once, and tore everyone to shreds?

 

[ZacWilliam1]

Coordinated attack. Very detailed very methodical and planed.

Did stuff like stage a secondary attack elsewhere to draw off the Avengers and so on.

-ZacWilliam, it wasn't a bum-rush so much as a meticulous coordinated slaughter.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Yeah, I just decided to go ahead and read this one. Wow.

On the upside, it's kind of nice to have villains you can truly hate here. I feel like it's been a while, no?

I do have some questions, though...

Spoiler

Why did Jean turn into a skeleton?

What happened to Cyclops?

Where did Rogue come from near the end there?

And when did Xavier teach Ms. Marvel the Red Triangle?

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I do have some questions, though...

Spoiler

Why did Jean turn into a skeleton?

Long story short? It's probably a plot point or ongoing mystery.

There's a few of options. One, Nimrod did something similar to her offscreen that he did to Iceman. She was another of his priority targets, being another Omega level mutant.

Two, the Blightswill on Moira's blade had that effect on her. Blightswill is a drink from Otherworld that dampens mutants powers...but it's never had this kind of effect on mutants that I remember. So I don't think it's this. It's possible Moira has "concentrated" the effects, but it doesn't really track with what's happened before. Oddly, Jean probably shouldn't have been able to USE her psychic powers after she got stabbed, and I'm not sure why she could.

Or three...this was actually a psychic illusion and Jean isn't as dead as she looks. Given that both Jean and Professor X are around, psychic illusion hijinks are DEFINITELY on the table. I have a feeling something similar happened with Mystique. Also...Jean has a mini-series of her own in the future. So, either she didn't die, she's coming back pretty soon, or she's copied her mind into someone else's mind and is living inside someone else as a psychic energy entity.

What happened to Cyclops?

Where did Rogue come from near the end there?

Both of these are references to the Avengers/X-Men 2023 Free Comic Book Day issue.

Okay, time for some backstory. Cyclops was leading a team of "traditional superhero" X-Men and got publicly killed on a mission. He was easily brought back, but since the mutants were keeping the fact that they COULD bring anyone back at any time a secret from the general human public, Cyclops could no longer be the public leader of these X-Men. So, he created a new identity and costume, calling himself "Captain Krakoa". During the Judgment Day event, everyone on Earth finds out about the mutants' resurrection protocols and "Captain Krakoa" isn't really needed anymore. In the FCBD issue, a Orchis agent breaks into the X-Men's public base in New York and steals the Captain Krakoa outfit. Then burns down the X-Men's tree-fort base and beats up Cyclops. Throwing him off the equivalent of a 5 story building. We don't know who this guy is yet. Personally...he's kind of giving me Fantomex vibes, but we don't know for sure who he is yet.

Rogue was off saving Captain America from Orchis agents. They were just doing this to distract the other heroes so they wouldn't be able to make it in time to help Krakoa during their main attack. Also, "Captain Krakoa" shows up again...and blows up the Senate in Washington DC. Therefore framing Krakoa for attacking the USA.

And when did Xavier teach Ms. Marvel the Red Triangle?

I'm honestly not 100% sure. It's POSSIBLE this happened already in a past book, but I'm unaware of it.

Ms Marvel WAS on a team with...*SIGH* a time-travelling younger version of Cyclops. It's possible he taught her the trick during his time on the Champions.

Or Professor X could have just given her a lesson psychically during or after she got resurrected. It doesn't take him long to download information into other people's minds.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Ah, gotcha. Been a bit since the FCBD issue, so I don't recall all the details offhand.

But to one point...

Spoiler

I knew Rogue went off on that call, I mean where did she come from suddenly at the end there, like out of nowhere? Did she just get back?

Also, this feels like she's very '90s/Fox Kids X-Men Rogue, right down to the outfit, which seems to be a trend among some of them (which I welcome). I thought she lost those Ms, Marvel powers? Did she get revived and someone decided, "hey, the '90s weren't so bad, let's give her the full set again"?

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Spoiler

Yeah, as far as I can tell, she went straight from saving Captain America and then checking out what happened in Washington all the way to Krakoa, once she found out what was happening. There's a little bit of a bridging scene in Invincible Iron Man 8, but it doesn't go into too much detail on Rogue's side of things. That Iron Man issue is also a bit of a epilogue to the Gala special, in the second half. We get to see a bit of what Emma Frost and Kingpin are up to.

And, yeah, the 90s outfit IS Rogue's most identifiable outfit. They put her back into that every so often.

And I THINK she regained her other powers during the Mr and Mrs X series, pre-Krakoa. I don't think it's because she got resurrected, it's just something that happened before HOXPOX. She seems to be in control of her absorption powers completely, since she can kiss Gambit without hurting him at all now.

Long story short? ...They keep going back and forth on Rogue's powers. I just tend to roll with it at this point.

www.reddit.com/r/xmen/comments/kchae3/when_did_rogue_lose_control_of_her_powers_the/

 

[LiamA]

Wow... who caused all of that?

https://c.tenor.com/_YIo0J9zUVsAAAAd/norm-mac-donald.gif

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I had read summaries, reactions and thoughts before but I finally just got to read the issue itself (sometimes it's hard to get to the store nowadays).

My thoughts:

Spoiler

Good issue.

1) Mother Righteous screwed with the portal system after Orchis. We see her cast a spell on it RIGHT before the mutants start to step in. She tells them "bon voyage" when she does it. Then it points out that no one alive knows she's taken one of the Krakoan islands into her lantern or why. She has ABSOLUTELY made the gates transport all the missing mutants there.

2) Jean Grey and Iceman both have post-Gala books starting soon, so those are two deaths that aren't likely to stick long at all.

3) This is a heck of a way for Ms Marvel to start being a mutant. Wondering if they got around to the changing her parents minds bit before the Gala, I'm guessing yes as otherwise it'd make her book a little harder to work.

4) I guess we can just assume Justice and any other Mutants we havnt really seen since Krakoa all got pushed through a portal too.

5) I liked this issue a lot. Wasn't nearly as bloody and death filled as I was expecting from some responses, but it was big and epic and knocked the mutant onto their back feet wich makes me eager to see where things go from here.

-ZacWilliam, The pared down cast should be fun to see put in focus.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

X-Men #25 is out, and we see what happens after the Gala.

Spoiler

We flash forward a few weeks after the Gala and Orchis has basically taken over. The Marvel Universe is INCREDIBLY easy to take over in events. Ask Doctor Doom or Captain America.

Mutants are getting deported to Mars/Arakko by Orchis. A little odd they aren't just killing them. And the mutants aren't welcomed there, because there's a civil war happening there right now. And their culture doesn't really conceive of"charity" as a option, being a Klingon-like warlike society.

Feilong has War Machine Sentinels watching over Mars/Arakko for the US government.

Cyclops is imprisoned by Doctor Stasis. He wants Cyclops to play ball to get ALL the remaining mutants to go to Mars/Arakko. So...yeah, Orchis is probably planning to blow up Mars, later.

I guess Talon and Synch survived the Gala. I really thought ALL the new X-Men got killed by Nimrod, but it looks like they survived. Looking back at the Hellfire Gala special, yeah, mea culpa on that. I think I got Talon mixed up with "regular" X-23 in my mind. There's a lot of mutants, okay? It's hard to keep track sometimes.

Emma Frost erases Ms Marvel's parents minds, so now...no one remembers anything about Ms Marvel's funeral or her ever dying. There's a pretty deep cut reference to Emma's past with Kingpin, citing the Devil's Reign tie-in, and that she used to do this kind of stuff for Kingpin when she worked for the Hellfire Club.

We see where at least ONE person went after they went through the Krakoan Gates. Forge is on some alien-looking world.

(Sidenote: It COULD be like ZacWilliam1 says and be Mother Righteous's piece of Krakoa. Although, that feels...almost too straightforward for these X-Men books. And one thing to keep in mind...we know that cutting a piece of Krakoa tends to create another personality for the piece. Like when Krakoa and Arakko grew apart. So, Mother Righteous not only has a part of a island...she has a SENTIENT part of the island that is now separate from the "main" body, which she can warp to her own ends. That's just something I've been thinking about. )

Also, the Children of the Vault are now free. They're hyper-evolved humans that hate mutants that have been living in a time-accelerated pocket dimension. They're bad news.

And finally...Kate Pryde has gone a little kill-crazy. And is embracing the part of her that was trained by Ogun WAY back in the Kitty Pryde/Wolverine miniseries from the 80s. And she's calling herself Shadowkat now, to reflect how dark and brooding she is. I don't like this change for Kitty, but it kind of makes sense for how dark things have gotten for the X-Men. Oh and she's going to try and kill Firestar. Great.

Also, we get the start of the Astonishing Iceman miniseries.

Spoiler

Long story short, his boyfriend is basically re-creating Iceman from his memories of him. And now Iceman has a time limit of sorts, and WILL eventually "die" again. Unless someone puts him in a "real" body at some point, I assume. So...not technically the "real" Iceman.

Mind, I guess there isn't much functional difference between this and getting resurrected in a new body by the Krakoan Five Method. They...just make it sound different, with this being his boyfriend's impression of him, instead of Iceman's own direct memories being copied into a new body. But maybe not? I don't know what we're supposed to think about this.

I'm just not sure if we're going to end up with two different Icemen at some point. One getting resurrected by the Krakoan method, if the Five return down the line.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Spoiler

Emma Frost erases Ms Marvel's parents minds, so now...no one remembers anything about Ms Marvel's funeral or her ever dying.

Spoiler

So wait, did she put the mind-whammy on just her parents, or everyone who knew she died? Or are there going to be some real awkward conversations between the "she dead" and the "she not dead" memories coming up?

 

[ZacWilliam1]

Spoiler

So wait, did she put the mind-whammy on just her parents, or everyone who knew she died? Or are there going to be some real awkward conversations between the "she dead" and the "she not dead" memories coming up?

Immediate family (and friends one would assume) and everyone at the city departments involved so there is no legal record of it having ever happened.

-ZacWilliam, she says she's got a lot of practice at doing it for the Kingpin so knows how to make it all stick.

 

[Fero McPigletron]

I read x-men 25. I hate the K, haha.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Spoiler

So wait, did she put the mind-whammy on just her parents, or everyone who knew she died? Or are there going to be some real awkward conversations between the "she dead" and the "she not dead" memories coming up?

I'm assuming basically everyone in New York, at least. You'd almost have to go that far, since I think her death made the newspapers, in-world. Otherwise, like you said, there'd be complications. But, Emma's probably the fifth or sixth most powerful telepath in the world, so she can probably pull that off. I don't know if she mind-wiped some of the heroes or not too. I assume the other X-Men still remember. Especially, anyone who was off-world at the time, like the Five.

...I kind of hope she erased Spider-Man's mind, too. He really doesn't need more guilt. They don't bring it up, though. So she probably didn't.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Spoiler

...I kind of hope she erased Spider-Man's mind, too. He really doesn't need more guilt. They don't bring it up, though. So she probably didn't.

Spoiler

Oh, you know Marvel loves making his life as big a jive sandwich as possible, so he'll probably be the exception. His sheer grief over it will be too much for Emma to overcome without blowing a chip in Cerebro or something.

 

[Daith]

That reminds me, what ever happened to Danger? It seems like she disappeared after Krakoa started. Kinda got used to the sentient Danger Room robot. But admittedly the X-men have a bad track record of their tech coming alive to kill them since the late 90’s with Bastion making the original Cerebro system sentient.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Danger started creating robotic copies of the X-Men and hiding out underneath the old Xavier School (...and I guess she scared away the Sidri aliens that where infesting the place in the Giant Sized X-Men Nightcrawler issue...that plot went NOWHERE).

Wolverine and Deadpool tracked her down and faced off against her, but she was basically just lonely and felt abandoned by the other X-Men. Especially since robots are the thematic "ultimate enemy" of the entire Krakoan era. She had basically created some robotic copies for herself to "nurture" like her "children". They all fight a little, but Wolverine and Deadpool just sort of...leave. (The Judgment Day event started the next issue, so they probably had to wrap things up quick to tie in with that.). So, I think she's still living underneath the old school with her robotic family. The last issue I think she showed up in was Wolverine #20-23.

So, yeah, it seems like they just left her behind when they started up Krakoa. Didn't even invite her to come. No robots allowed, I guess. Mind, they let Cerebro come onto the island...which was a bit of a mistake. One of the Cerebro helmets gained sentience and became a mind-vampire and started calling itself Cerebrax. So maybe they had a good idea, leaving most of their old technology behind.

 

[LiamA]

A current video about IDW's troubles.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Here's some interesting news. Tom Brevoort will be taking over the editorial duties for the X-Men books sometime next year.

Tom Brevoort Has Been Put In Charge Of The X-Men At Marvel

Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of Publishing at Marvel, Tom Brevoort is to take charge of the X-Men at Marvel from 2024

bleedingcool.com

I feel like this is probably going to signal when the Krakoan Age really ends. I think Tom will end up wanting to have a new direction for the X-Books once he gets on them. And about a year tracks for how long I think it'll take the Fall of X to play out. And maybe give us time to do a big "Dominion War" event to cap things off. And if the X-Men save humanity from killer robots...humanity will probably forgive them for everything they've been doing and the X-Men COULD be seen as superheroes again by the wider world. Just a guess on my part, we'll see where they end up going.


And while I'm at it, let's go around the Marvel Universe to see what's up with the X-Men books, lately. Mostly just snippets this time. They're good, but they're kind of telling their own stories.

Immortal X-Men #14

Spoiler

This is mostly about Professor Xavier continuing to protect Krakoa from getting taken over by Orchis. Mostly, Sebastian Shaw, who has now taken a mutant cure, losing his mutant powers, so he'll be accepted by Orchis. Shaw wants to mind-control Krakoa into becoming a factory for him to regain his fortune.

And we get to see where the majority of the mutants got transported when they went through the Gates. They're in a desert...somewhere. And now Exodus gets to lead the exiled mutants across the desert like Moses. Literally, they even edit a Bible verse for him.

Children of the Vault #1

Spoiler

This is actually a stealth Cable and Bishop team up book. They don't like each other, because of what happened between them YEARS ago concerning Hope. But they have to team up together to stop Orchis and the Children of the Vault. Who are now calling themselves the Children of Tomorrow.

The Children have ALSO unleashed a psychic meme virus that is making everyone in the world LOVE them and make them think they're just the best superheroes ever. So, the world is basically not ONLY taken over by Orchis, but by the Children, too...at the same time. And these two groups are not exactly allies, but Orchis isn't going to start a fight without finishing off the mutants first.

There's also a really cute reference in one of the data pages. "Hawkspox" a narrative virus from the future that takes over EVERYTHING....which is clearly a subtle ribbing of Jonathan Hickman and HOXPOX the event. I feel like this got referenced before in some other book, but I can't remember which one for the life of me. It's just kind of cute. Not sure if it's the writer being annoyed they have to follow Hickman's plan, or if it's just a joke.

Scarlet Witch 7

Spoiler

Magneto's old clone Joseph is back and hanging out with the Scarlet Witch. It's...kind of a weird relationship they have going on. Mind, Magneto's not even her real dad at this point, after all these retcons, but it's still feels a little...weird.

I don't know if this will matter in the other X-Men books, but it's worth noting. It might come up.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2023 (Don't confuse this with the "Adjectiveless" Spider-Man Annual, which is a tie in to the Contest of Chaos mini-event)

Spoiler

So, this is actually a stealth follow up to the Dark Web event. We get to see Hollow's Eve try to break Ben out of Madelyne Pryor's prison. It doesn't work.

Oh, and Mary Jane's Aunt is sent to the insane asylum because she used some of Krakoa's Medicine. Driving her into a murderous rage. They go full Hannibal Lecter on the old woman, it's something to see.

Amazing Spider-Man 31

Spoiler

Spider-Man DOES remember Ms Marvel's death, so I'm not sure how complete Emma's mind-wiping actually was. Spider-Man fills in Kamala about how she died, since she doesn't remember, since her back up wasn't THAT up to date.

Oh, and Spider-Man unmasks and reveals his secret identity to Ms Marvel. Kind of a big moment, I guess.

Ghost Rider Wolverine Weapons of Vengeance Alpha

Spoiler

This seems mostly skippable if you don't care about it. Just Ghost Rider and Wolverine teaming up to save a kid they both failed years ago. It's fine, but nothing to write home about. At least at the moment.

Oh, and they're REALLY teasing Hickman's GODS in a bunch of different books. A bunch of one-page teasers where the new GODS characters do mysterious and vague things in mysterious and vague ways. It's...not actually doing a great job making me excited for the book itself. None of this means anything to me yet. Right now, it kind of feels like a reboot of Hickman's SHIELD book from years ago, with Howard Stark and Leonardo da Vinci. I'm curious about the book itself, but these teasers feel a bit desperate to me. Oh, these characters have ALWAYS been around, you just didn't notice them. *shrug*