Comic Book Herald

Marvel comics of 1983. Hobgoblin! The Trial of Hank Pym! Monica Rambeau!

On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited):

Up Next:

My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 3 —

You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at:

mymarvelousyear.com

https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/

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The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 2 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Hellions #1 by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia introduces the problem children of mutantkind, all under the steady gentle guidance of Mister Sinister. It’s a Suicide Squad meets Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. What could go wrong?

Today I’ll answer:

+ Who are the Hellions?

+ What is Hellions role in the Dawn of X?

+ How does this oddball collection connect to Mister Sinister, Madylene Pryor, and possibly Inferno 2?!

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Hellions begins with the X-Men tracking renegade Hellfire Cultists (more on them in a few) attempting some terrorist plot on the anniversary of the Mutant Massacre (more on this in a few too!). Following a bazooka attack that leaves Nightcrawler unconscious, Havok seemingly “breaks” and lets a darker persona loose, nearly frying a cultist alive until Wolverine – of all people – interjects (lest Havok break that Krakoan no killing humans law).

The mission’s sour turn puts Alex on a fast track for the gathering of the Hellions.

In this case, Alex is joining the following problem mutants being put on trial for their actions endangering Krakoa: Orphanmaker & Nanny, John Greycrow aka Scalphunter, Kyle Gibney aka Wild Child, and Manuel De La Rocha aka Empath. On the surface it’s an oddball, nearly inexplicable gathering, but as I’ll explain, the connections these characters share are actually pretty clear.

In pre release interviews, writer Zeb Wells said: “The book asks how the mutants with blood on their hands can possibly integrate in a civilized society.” As Nightcrawler says in the issue’s opening quote, “It is folly to create an Eden, if no one has use for snakes.”

This all actually sounds a bit like Fallen Angels, but whereas that short-lived failure was a meditation on Kwannon’s new status free of Betsy Braddock, Hellions immediately takes the question to Krakoa’s Quiet Council and demands the council account for the “inconvenient” mutants. Not for nothing, Wells and Segovia also clearly take the cues from Hickman’s glam rock Sinister in crafting a wicked rush of energy coursing through the chaotic geneticist.

After much debate, it’s actually Sinister who lands on the idea to put these Hellions to use as his own personal task force. The likes of Cyclops – I would say reasonably – have issue with Sinister taking ownership of some of Krakoa’s most violent, but with certain restrictions put in place – for example, the Hellions are not to be used if there’s a possibility of human casualties, which I’m sure won’t possibly ever be a line that gets crossed – the Quiet Council agrees to this proposal. And the new Hellions are born!

In the pages of New Mutants, in an issue by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema, the original Hellions are students of the Hellfire Club’s White Queen, Emma Frost, at the Massachusetts Academy. It’s a fun inversion of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and a great rivalry and occasional frenemy status with the developing New Mutants franchise. The original Hellions are Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot, Thunderbird, and for a short time, Firestar.

There’s of course plenty of story between, but many of these original Hellions, save Empath, were killed by Trevor Fitzroy in Uncanny X-Men #281 and #282.

Although there has never before been a Hellions comic title, the Hellions name has also been repurposed in the pages of New X-Men.

With Mr. Sinister working in the wings as the Hellions leader, it brings to mind a 90’s Marvel What If issue (#74 to be precise) about Sinister leading the X-Men.

Notably, every member of the Hellions has recognizable often deep connections with Sinister throughout X-Men history, which I’ll highlight here.

John Greycrow is the Native American mutant Leader of the Marauders and a leading villain in the Mutant Massacre, the 80’s X-Men crossover that led to the deaths of many Morlocks and the violent removal of Angel’s wings. When you talk about mutants whose very presence ruffles the feathers of other mutants on Krakoa, Scalphunter is high on the list.

Sinister Connections: Scalphunter has worked for Mister Sinister, often as a Maruader, for about as long as the character’s been in Uncanny X-Men comics. This extends into modern day comics as well, through events like Messiah CompleX.

As expected, we get a glimpse of the problems with Scalphunter’s presence on Krakoa when Callisto and a group of Morlocks attack him on the anniversary of the mutant massacre, although gathering from the fact that he was cleaning his weapons at the time, this didn’t go well for the Morlocks… again.

Although Wild Child, aka Kyle Gibney, is most frequently found in the pages of Alpha Flight, the most recognizable version of Wild Child for me is found during Age of Apocalypse, as Sabretooth’s dog-like sidekick. Wild Child’s somewhat similar to a Wolverine or Sabretooth in both powerset and in the fact that his feral half is out of control on Krakoa.

Sinister Connections: Wild Child’s a part of the 2000’s Weapon X relaunch, and it’s revealed as the series progresses that Mister Sinister has a major role in that incarnation of Weapon X.

Debuting in New Mutants #16, Empath is the only original Hellion on this unit. As mentioned, Empath survived Trevor Fitzroy’s assault on the team and went on to work for X-Corps, although don’t let that suggest Manuel has turned over a new leaf.

Empath, Manuel de la Rocha is making the other original Hellions fight… just for fun. Notes on the Empath problem state “A violent sociopath was not gifted the X-gene, the X-gene created a violent sociopath.”

In terms of Sinister connections, Empath is also the front-man for a Hellfire Cult led by Madylene Pryor in the pages of Uncanny X-Men written by Matt Fraction. Since these are the idiot goons Havok and the X-Men are tracking down at the beginnings of Hellions #1, it’s certainly not an accidental connection.

Created by Louise and Walt Simonson in the pages of X-Factor.

Nanny views herself as a self-appointed savior of mutant children, and enlists Orphanmaker to assassinate parents of mutants so she can protect these children – now part of her Lost Boys and Girls. I’d also note that originally, Nanny rebels against the Right’s plans to kill mutant children, and this is what gets her sealed in one of her egg-like cyborg robot suits of armor.

What makes them mutants? Nanny exhibits low level mind control, although most frequently she uses her tech to regress individual’s mental state towards childhood. Orphanmaker’s mutant abilities are repressed and contained by the suit of armor.

Sinister Connections: Orphan Maker was one of the children in Mister SInister’s orphanage, and Nanny rescues him from a likely murder by Sinister’s forces.

On a potentially related note, they’re really strange and disturb just about everyone.

The “always a bridesmaid” of Summers brothers had a particularly rough go of it lately, as basically the only Avenger to remain inverted evil after the events of 2014’s event-dud AXIS. He’s also somehow perpetually following a trail of Scott’s ex-girlfriends, whether we’re talking Madelyne Pryor or Emma Frost.

Sinister Connections: He’s a Summers! Nuff said!

Since he absolutely doesn’t trust Mister Sinister, Cyclops asks Kwannon aka Psylocke to oversee the team

Sinister Connections: See Fallen Angels! In order to confront Apoth, Psylocke leverages Sinister’s connections and influence on Krakoa. For all intents and purposes, she is still indebted to him, and Sinister means to collect.

Appropriately, the newly formed Hellions first mission is to raze Sinister’s orphanage & underground clone factory (doesn’t every orphanage have one), and the original Marauders (of Mutant Masscare infamy) within.

When Psylocke confronts Sinister about the dangers ahead, Sinister is clearly concealing something about the dangers the team will face, but smugly refuses to offer any more information.

Hellions #1 ends with the tease that what Sinister likely knows the team will find is one Madylene Pryor, Sinister’s clone of Jean Grey who married Cyclops, gave birth to Nathan Summers (Cable), and brought about Inferno as the Goblin Queen (among many others things that I’m sure I’ll get to in a future Krakin’ Krakoa).

For me, this brings the inclusion of the Hellfire Cult full circle, as Madie once ruled them as well.

All in all, Hellions is a really enjoyable opening issue from Wells and Segovia, and a welcome entry to the Dawn of X.

Predictions?

It’s felt like we’ve been building to an Inferno 2.0 for a while now, whether we’re talking the demonic presence of Arakko, Cable #1, or even the use of Belasco in the pages of the otherwise unrelated Ghost Rider. Madylene’s reemergence only cements that idea, and I’m betting this could well be build-up to the promised December 2020 X-Men event.

The post Krakin’ Krakoa #46: Hellions #1 Review – The X-Men’s Sinister Suicide Squad! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Giant-Size Nightcrawler by Jonathan Hickman and Alan Davis, with Carlos Lopez colors, & Clayton Cowles letters, is the second entry in the 5 issue Giant-Size X-Men series, and finds Kurt leading a team of mutants through a Krakoan gate into the deserted & seemingly haunted X-Mansion.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

The issue opens with Nightcrawler traveling to the deserted X-Mansion gates with Illyana Rasputin, Eyeboy, Cypher and Lockheed.

Right away the team sees a curious array of ghostly mutants, setting Lockheed out of his mind with flame bursts. It’s all mysterious and a bit too familiar until Hound Rachel’s form dissolves before the team’s eyes – shouts to Alan Davis’ rendering of Lockheed’s utter shock – into a cluster of the beetle-like aliens known as the Sidri! The Sidri are a fantastic, and unexpected pull from Hickman and Davis, a techno-organic alien race of freelance bounty hunters. They’re a really sparingly used deep cut from X-Men lore but make so much for the broader themes and connective tissue of the Giant-Size series so far.

The Sidri debuted in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #154, hot on the tail of Corsair when he was on the run (again) from the Shi’ar. Although they seem almost too small to operate as anything other than pests, collectively the Sidri are capable of working as freelance bounty hunters, which is somewhere between hilarious and terrifying. Imagine Mandolorian was made up of thousands of tiny baby yodas, and you kind of have an idea of the potential here.

In line with the Brood’s involvement in X-Men #8 and X-Men #9 written by Hickman (and issue nine released the same day as Giant-Size Nightcrawler) the Sidri are introduced on the front-end and back-end of the Uncanny X-Men Brood saga, first with art by Dave Cockrum in #154 and later by Paul Smith in issue #168

(168 being the famous Kitty Pryde “Professor Xavier is a Jerk” opener.) In #168 they’re effectively big beetles with laser eyes, and Kitty and Colossus fight a leftover nest of them in the X-Mansion’s basement.

The other important development as all this is happening in the X-Mansion is Doug Ramsey pulled through the Sidri’s alien base where he begins negotiations with the bounty hunters. Illyana finds Doug to rescue him, only to find that 1) Doug’s in talks with the Sidri and 2) Warlock is alive and well, hopping off Doug’s arm and into the form of one of the Sidri.

In X-Men #8 we saw it briefly teased that Doug, Warlock and Krakoa were all discussing Tom Brady’s release from the Pats (at least that’s what I assume), but this is the first real clear instance of Warlock alive and seemingly well as his own entity in the Dawn of X.

Upon his return, Douglock lets the team know the Sidri encountered Lady Mastermind, who came looking to use the gate to Krakoa and has since been kept in a sort of symbiotic coma, causing Kurt and friends to hallucinate those apparitions upon their entrance, and unconsciously using her powers to ask for help.

Although she has a goofy name and puts new meaning in the term V-neck, Lady Mastermind is a really entertaining holdover from the Mike Carey X-Men run – we know Hickman’s a fan.

Doug makes deal with the Sidri that they can keep the X-Mansion real estate for their nest, so long as they basically allow access to the Krakoan gate there. As Doug notes, “It’s going to be a problem,” which is what we in the business refer to as foreshadowing.

The Sidri make a TON of sense to introduce into Hickman’s X-Narrative. A techno-organic alien race with a hive mind? That’s right in line with everything we’ve seen from all of the following:

A very real concern I could see developing for the X-Men is an alliance of all these alien/techno-organic forces, continuing the man vs. machine structural war so eloquently teased in Powers of X.

If the Children of the Vault, and now the Sidri team-up that’s an immensely intimidating threat for mutants. Throw the Phalanx into the mix and it may just be up to Douglock to save us all.

As much as I enjoyed this issue, it’s a strange choice for a Nightcrawler showcase. He’s the leader of the squad here, but the story’s not really about him? My biggest takeaways are definitely the developments for Douglock and the sci-fi alien threats added to the growing “techno-organic hivemind” category in the X-men’s database.

In that regard – and really that regard alone – Giant-Size Nightcrawler #1 is disappointingly devoid of the things that make Nightcrawler my favorite X-Men character. The swashbuckling charm, the smile as he leaps into danger, the incredible use of his bamfing teleportation… none of that is really strongly on display. Likewise, whereas X-Men #7 left Kurt telling Scott Summers he’s planning on developing a mutant religion, none of that thread is followed here either.

Even when the decision comes for one character to “rescue” Doug, Kurt chooses Illyana – a sensible choice for her powerset, but another way the focus is taken off Nightcrawler.

Unanswered Questions?

+ The mystery of Douglock – What specifically is going on with their relationship, and why is it a secret from the rest of mutantkind right now?

Predictions

+ My theory would be Doug’s treaty actually offers the X-Men an ally against the Vault. Either way, we know Giant-Size is building towards freeing Storm from a Vault infection. The introduction of the Sidri and free-standing Warlock will unquestionably play a role in that goal, either in support or opposition.

The post Krakin’ Krakoa #45: Giant-Size Nightcrawler #1 Review – Hickman’s Haunted X-Mansion! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Marvel comics of 1983. Elektra! Rogue! More Brood Belly Babies!

On this episode we cover the following issues (all available via Marvel Unlimited):

Up Next:

My Marvelous Year – Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 2 —

You can find more Marvel Comics guides on Comic Book Herald at:

mymarvelousyear.com

https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/

Music for My Marvelous Year is credited to Disasterpeace. Support for My Marvelous Year comes via Patreon backers, for as little as $1 a month.

Make sure to subscribe now in order to get every reading list for every year of Marvel Comics! Subscribe to the Podcast! — iTunes, Google Play, Pod Feed

If you like the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!, to help us reach more readers & listeners!

The post Marvel Year Twenty-Two: 1983 Pt. 1 appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

While he’s been laughably drunk and bombastic throughout the Krakoa era of X-Men, Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan’s return to the world of X-Men brings with a huge mystery that extends from Hickman’s X-Men to Immortal Hulk to cosmic fallout from the 2009 event War of Kings.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Full Dawn of X Reading Order

All Krakin’ Krakoa X-Men Video

In X-Men #8 (2020), Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan, is shown having restless dreams/nightmares about his time floating through space in the Fault, in the wake of his battle to the “near death” with Black Bolt in the cosmic event War of Kings. His hard partying lifestyle would seem be a coping mechanism. At the same time, Shi’ar Battle records from this issue let us know that while presumed dead, Vulcan in fact *never* died, implying he was not resurrected on Krakoa but instead somehow found his way from War of Kings to House of X.

This clear and present mystery got me thinking about *why* Jonathan Hickman would want to call back to War of Kings, and pretty soon I was falling down an endless theory rabbit hole pertaining to 1) Black Bolt’s role as one of the Celestial Messiahs as seen in my video connecting Hickman’s FF to the upcoming Empyre and 2) How Hickman’s X-Men and so much of Marvel right now is on a cosmic crash course with “The Death of Death,” with the third Summers brother perhaps at the center of it all.

If stating Vulcan never died wasn’t enough, Hickman and artist Mahmud Asrar hammer home the point by mirroring the exact same panel layout used in FF prior to showing Black Bolt’s escape from the Fault (shouts to @AbyssalOdin on Twitter for being the first I’ve seen to identify these layouts are exactly the same!).

Before digging into what this means, a quick refresher on War of Kings is useful to understand why Vulcan and Black Bolt are simultaneously drifting in the vacuum of a tear in space and time. We get there because Vulcan, having ascended to Emperor of the Shi’ar following the “Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire” storyline written by Ed Brubaker in Uncanny X-Men, is at war with the Kree Imperium, at the time ruled by Black Bolt and the Inhumans.

Very very notably, the Vulcan of this era is a mad king, warped by power and bloodlust after an admittedly traumatic sequence of events detailed in the pages of X-Men Deadly Genesis.

In “Deadly Genesis,” we learn that Vulcan is the long lost third Summers brother, a secret part of Professor X’s history as the group of young mutants originally sent to rescue the OG X-Men from Krakoa, before Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975.

With the aid of Darwin, Vulcan does not die, but is instead launched into space on a piece of Krakoa (my head is buzzing from the House / Powers connections here), until his return to the living after the the post House of M Scarlet Witch’s M-Day.

So again, this all sets Vulcan on a violent collision course with Marvel Cosmic, culminating in a fist fight with Black Bolt. Despite his love of explosions, it’s actually Black Bolt’s planned Terrigen-Bombs (an idea Hickman would gravitate to again during New Avengers and Infinity) that creates the Fault in space, and seemingly leads to the death of the two Kings.

Of course, we now know the Kings did not die. Before detailing his genetic prophecy as the Midnight King and Celestial Messiah, Hickman and artist Greg Tochinni deliver a few pages of Black Bolt’s escape, although the specifics are few. My biggest takeaway is that it looks like Black Bolt is fighting a many-angled one, the Cthulu like entities that dominate the Cancerverse. Again, though, the escape effectively boils down to “Black Bolt’s destined to fulfill prophecy and his powersets dope, so sure he can escape.” It should not come as a shock that there could be more to it.

The cancerverse is the realm that lies at the end of this Fault, as discovered by Quasar in Realm of Kings, and most thoroughly explored in The Thanos Imperative. It’s an alternate dimension that follows the trajectory of our known Earth-616 until The Death of Captain Marvel story (Marvel’s first original graphic novel by Jim Starlin) is reversed. It’s a truly deathless universe, with undead parallel universe “Revengers” and these Many Angled Ones seeking growth into the Marvel U’s known reality.

Speaking of the Cancerverse – and this is where I really start to run off the tracks – the concept is very relevant to the current state of X-Men, Immortal Hulk, and others. In Valkyrie #7, written by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing with art by Cafu, we’re introduced to “The Death of Death.” As Jane Foster tells us the entity is “the living judgment of death as a function of the universe,” literally determining whether or not Thanos’ longtime paramour Lady Death can die.

As part of the evaluation, The Death of Death notes that in the Immortal Hulk “A green door swings open, and death is irrelevant” and that in X-Men “A pod grows new life, and death is without meaning.” It’s a wise observation that the recent trend in the best Marvel Comics is to literally take death off the table, whether it’s through Ewing and Joe Bennet’s cosmically perpetual Hulk, or the resurrection protocols on Krakoa detailed in House of X.

There’s also a meta observation here that superhero comics have so heartily exploited killing and reviving characters that the affair has lost meaning, which is a big part of why I like Immortal Hulk and X-Men’s approach to death as a narrative device.

It also sets up Jane Foster, Valkyrie, to make the case for death. In doing so, Jane determines “A universe of living cells that didn’t die but still reproduced. I’d call that a cancerverse. And I don’t think I’d want to live there.” I’m confident that’s not an accidental turn of phrase, especially given Ewing’s love of Marvel Cosmic, and it sets up the idea that current trajectory of Immortal Marvel has the makings of a well-intentioned cancerverse. There are perhaps concerning similarities when you remove death from the circle of life.

So bringing the Cancerverse into the cosmic portion of X-Men makes a strong amount of thematic sense, and no one in the world of mutants has closer ties to the Cancerverse than Vulcan.

Given that Black Bolt escaped a Many Angled One, it’s not inconceivable to me that Vulcan might have actually been brought to the Cancerverse himself, instead of instantly escaping (assuming that is what Black Bolt actually did!). I could see this resulting in anything from repressed memories of his time there to actually working as a stealth agent of the Cancerverse himself (in Realm of Kings Quasar is infected by the Cancerverse and operates undetected for some time as well).

This is pure theory, but I’ll also note that the Cancerverse has returned to Marvel very recently in the pages of the rushed Annihilation: Scourge mini-event. After being led by an exiled Sentry, the Cancerverse fault now resides under the watchful of a seemingly less evil Sentry in the Negative Zone. (speaking of the Negative Zone and the death of death that’s also where Hickman sent Johnny Storm to die before revealing he was endlessly resurrected by Annihilus, but I digress)

Another possibility for Vulcan’s return is the use of the Phoenix in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men, Marvel’s 2012 event. The Phoenix Force is fragmented into 5 mutants during this time, the Phoenix Five, before ultimately being consolidated into Vulcan’s brother, Scott Summers. When Scott turns Dark Phoenix, the Phoenix force is then taken by Hope Summers, who disperses the energy after re-establishing the mutant population on Earth.

That’s a whole lot of Phoenix Summers combos, and would mark some clean synergy with M-Day reviving Vulcan the first time, and the opposite effects of M-Day reviving him a second time.

It’s a stretch, but this would also connect to Vulcan’s newfound obsession with bombastic sayings about the fire inside him.

Plus in Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness’s Avengers #32, we’ve just seen the return of the Phoenix!

A personal favorite alternate route relates to the original “Sinister Secrets” from Powers of X. While initially taken to mean the existence of more Summers brothers (my Gawd is that Adam X the X-Treme’s music!), I’m known theorizing this could mean an array of Gabriel Summers. As I’ve gone back into his origins, this actually begins to make more and more sense.

In his origin, the Summers family parents are pregnant with Gabriel when they’re captured by the Shi’ar and Emperor D’ken. Although D’ken kills Scott, Alex and Gabe’s mom to punish Corsair for an escape attempt, he saves the baby and has him aged up to adolescence. Given this Shi’ar technology, and the fact that we know they have cloning tech readily available (it’s used on Professor X at the end of the Brood Saga for example), there could easily be a variety of Gabriel Summers clones running around.

This could also explain why Gabriel Summer’s personality is so different in the pages of Hickman’s X-Men (You know, aside from the creator simply wanting to make him fun to write).

The other way you could work in a narrative of multiple Vulcans is simply through the nature of the Fault, where timelines and realities bleed together.

Likewise, the inclusion of “countless realities” opens all kinds of doors, from Apocalypse trying to get to his first horsemen in the upcoming X of Swords, to the lifelines of Moira X!

On a final note, I fully expect the Shi’ar to want a word with Vulcan. Xandra Neramani has to account with Vulcan killing her mother, Lilandra (and not to mention trying to kill her genetic father, Charles Xavier by throwing him into the M’Kraan Crystal in ‘Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire’). Plus you’ve got Deathbird as a former love interest… If the Shi’ar are going to make a point of demanding a mutant for trial (a la Jean Grey in the Dark Phoenix Saga, Gabriel Summers would likely be first on the list).

Obviously there’s a lot to unpack here, and probably we’ll get some good answers as soon as X-Men #9. Plus, I have to admit the likelihood that Hickman’s plans for this thread are unpredictably brand new are super high! Nonetheless, there’s a lot of connective tissue here that has been very fun to explore, and whether any of it bears fruit in future Marvel Comics, hopefully you now have some more fun stories and Marvel history in your back pocket.

——————————————————————————————————-

Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

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The post Krakin’ Krakoa #44: Death of Death – How Vulcan Connects Hickman’s X-Men, Immortal Hulk, War of Kings & Avengers! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Tini Howard and Marcus To’s Excalibur #9 is moving closer to the Multiversal Mayhem I’ve always wanted, and teasing a March towards the upcoming X of Swords event.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Full Dawn of X Reading Order

All Krakin’ Krakoa X-Men Videos

In Excalibur #9 we’re quickly tossed into a history lesson about The Starlight Citadel, Captain Britain Corps, and Omniversal Majestrix Opal Luna Saturnyne. If you’re unfamiliar with the history of these concepts in the pages of Captain Britain or Excalibur, this history can feel particularly byzantine, but here are the essential details I’d pay attention to at this point:

1)The Captain Britain Corps have been destroyed. I’ll go into more detail about the hows, but this means the Omniversal (see also: alternate reality) collection of Captain Britains across universes does not exist (as we knew it at least). The Omniversal Corps is where we get Earth designations like “Earth-616,” which as far as we know may know be the only catalogued Earth with a Captain Britain!

2)The Citadel is currently inhabited by Saturnyne, who has been teased as the “White Witch,” a detail I called way back in my review of Excalibur #1. Although it’s located in Otherworld, the Citadel currently hidden from view to outsiders.

3)Following the destruction of the Corps, Saturnyne has been promoted to role of Omniversal Guardian, which was previously held by Merlyn.

Why does this matter? Well, in regards to the destruction of the Captain Britain Corps, this enhances Betsy’s own import as one of – if not the last – Captain Britain in the Omniverse, and suggests fascinating future storylines like reassembling the omniversal corps. Plus, it means that for the time being, the protectors of the Omniverse are missing, leaving the collected realities of Marvel Comics without their known Defenders. Betsy and Excalibur need to use the Warwolf skulls they assembled the previous two issues to track their way to the hidden Citadel and learn why the Omniversal protectors are in hiding.

What happened to the Captain Britain Corps? Well, in the build to 2015’s Secret Wars, Brian Braddock escaped Otherworld to report the builders led an assault on the Starlight Citadel, and decimated the Corps. It’s a very short depiction of events (and apparently an even shorter battle), but it also reads like Saturnyne’s defensive tactics failed and contributed to the destruction – not that there was likely much she could do given the encroaching reality that “Everything dies.”

Although the Corps are gone, it would appear that Saturnyne escaped their fate, and remains as the Omniversal Guardian with a new gathering of Priestesses of the Starlight Citadel. Following the removal of Morgan Le Fay from the throne of Otherworld, Saturnyne observes a new threat in the form of Apocalypse and his merry band of mutants we know as Excalibur. She sets her priestesses on the hunt to prevent Excalibur from making their way to the Citadel.

Who is Saturnyne? The character was created by Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis for Marvel UK, although my first exposure was in Marvel Superheroes by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. In that underrated 80s series, Saturnyne is established as an ally to Earth-616 Brian Braddock and a major part of the Ominversal court ruled by Merlyn and Roma. It’s Roma in particular, as the daughter of Merlyn, who would go on to have the most direct relationship guarding the Omniverse with Saturnyne at her side.

Essentially, Saturnyne can in many ways be credited with the – perhaps intentional – formation of the original Excalibur, after sending Technet to capture Rachel Summers, at the time the Phoenix, in Excalibur Special Edition #1.

In more recent years, omniversal threats like Spider-Verse and Secret Wars severaly challenged Saturnyne’s responsibilities, and given the end result of Secret Wars (2015), there can be little arguing that Saturnyne is coming off her greatest failure. The Captain Britain Corps’ response to Hickman’s grand Secret Wars remains one of the storylines with the most to fill in (the entire affair is covered in something like 2 pages), so I’ll be curious to see if we learn more about what Saturnyne’s been up to since that time, or what she views as her new role in a post Corps world.

On a final note, much like the omniverse full of Captain Britains, there’s an omniverse full of Saturnyne’s, with the only one from Earth-9 standing tall as Omniversal Guardian. These variations range from Brian Braddock’s romantic partner, Courtney Ross, to the villainous Sat-Yr-9. both a tyrannical nazi, and one of my favorite LCD Soundsystem songs.

Of course, Apocalypse is fueling Saturnyne’s worry with a deliberate lack of subtlety creepin’ on the Citadel. This is where Howard and To really begin planting the seeds for X of Swords, with Apocalypse’s clear interest in the tools of the Omniversal protectors, and the dimensional realms they may allow access to for mutantkind and his own plans.

In the opening pages of Excalibur #9, Apocalypse laments the need to separate Krakoa and Arrakko, and particularly to send his first horsemen to an eternal fight against the demonic forces of another realm. This all quite firmly cements my X of Swords theory that the upcoming crossover event will heavily tie into Apocalypse’s quest for his first horsemen, and the use of both Otherworld magic and the Twilight sword to get there.

This is the second allusion in as many weeks towards this “Reddest Hell” that traps the horsemen, and increasingly looks like the demonic realms of Limbo that seem prepared to set off an Inferno part 2.

I may need to explore this in more depth as the story progresses, but I will note here that the allusions to the hellish Limbo of X-Men comics – not to be confused with the Time-Travel Limbo hub typically presided over by Immortus – requires more complications. After all, if Apocalypse’s horsemen are staving off a demonic invasion from Limbo, why couldn’t the Big A just use the abilities of longtime ruler of Limbo Illyana Rasputin to access this realm? For all this magic to be necessary, and for Otherworld and the Starlight Citadel to be factors, there has to be significantly more at play.

Big picture, Excalibur #9 is the most invested I’ve been in any issue since the Dawn of X series launch, and Howard and To are finding firm footing among tantalizing mysteries and a build towards an exciting summer crossover.

Remaining Questions:

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Marvel’s Celestial Madonna and Celestial Messiah concepts are some of the most confounding in Avengers and Marvel cosmic history, mysteries wrapped inside enigmas made of questions.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

The history of the Celestial Messiah begins with the story of the Celestial Madonna, as told in the pages of Steve Englehart written Marvel comics, beginning in Avengers and extending through the likes of Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and eventually an early 2000’s eight issue series called Avengers: Celestial Quest.

The quick version is that while with the Avengers, the Vietnamese Mantis, Mistress of the Martial Arts, learned of her prophesied role as the universe’s Celestial Madonna. Although it was unknown to even Mantis until a ways into the saga, she had been trained by the Priests of Pama, Kree pacifists loyal to the Cotati – a plant-based alien race – in ways of telepathic empathy making her the perfect human half of a Cotati / Human pregnancy.

That’s right: All this builds to Mantis marrying and sleeping with a tree!

So yes, it’s important right off the bat to accept that the basis for basically everything I’ll be talking about today is tree-sex. You have to be pine with that. Fine with that. Just leaf your preconceived notions of mating at the door. Oak-K moving on.

The original Celestial Madonna saga runs through eight issues of the core Avengers series, plus three “Giant-Size” specials from about 1974 through 1975. The Celestial Madonna saga reading order:

Again, essentially, Giant-Size Avengers #4 concludes with Mantis consummating a marriage with the elder Cotati, in the recreated form of the just dead Swordsman, in order to give birth to the Celestial Messiah.

Before we get to this Messiah, though, it’s really important to understand the Cotati, in terms of where they come from and what their relevance is for the Marvel Cosmic landscape.

In Marvel’s late 2019 Incoming teaser, building towards the 2020 Empyre event, it was revealed both the Kree and Skrull were sending a message that said “Beware the Trees.” For readers of the Celestial Madonna saga, this is a clear allusion to the Cotati, long since confirmed (particularly with Empyre tie-ins like Lords of Empyre: Celestial Messiah announced). Why might the Kree (and Skrulls for that matter) find themselves running scared of the returned Cotati? And what has changed in the Cotati that they appear to be stealthily assassinating Kree and Skrull agents on Earth?

During Engelhardt’s “Celestial Madonna” saga there’s an ancient galactic history lesson that tells us one million years ago the Skrulls traveled to Hala, the emerging Kree homeworld, and challenged both the co-existing Kree and Cotati to prove who was the superior galactic partner on Earth’s moon. Long story short, when the Kree think the Cotati are about to win, they effectively commit genocide, and only a small amount of Cotati survive.

The Kree’s actions – not only decimating the Cotati but killing the Skrulls who witnessed their atrocity – sparked the Kree- Skrull war that has more or less been an ongoing feud for all of Marvel history.

It makes a lot of sense that the Cotati might have some grievances to air out with both the Kree and the Skrull, resulting in a massive war in Earth’s atmosphere in the pages of Empyre.

In the aftermath of the Celestial Madonna saga, Mantis does in fact give birth a baby boy she names Sequoia, Quoi for short, the half human, half Cotati baby prophesied to become the Celestial Messiah. I’ll note here again, this prophesy stems from the Priests of Pama and the Cotati. It’s also a prophesy that we see the likes of Kang the Conqueror and Thanos very fully buying into in the pages of Englehart’s Avengers and “Celestial Quest.”

Nonetheless, I can’t emphasize this enough, taking prophesy as absolute truth is time and time again proven complicated, whether we’re talking the fictional worlds of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, or any number of sacred religious texts, or even the works of someone like Nostradamus. Plus, the Celestial Messiah prophecy is deliberately vague – it promises a “perfect child” who is destined to change the universe. But that can mean plenty of things!

Over the course of “Celestial Quest,” Sequoia begins as an extremely surly teen who resents his mother for bailing on him after 1 year of raising him – fair! – before growing into his energy absorption powerset and universe-saving messiah role. Naturally, this includes swinging a giant ax into Thanos with an all-time least cool hero line “You lack an ax in your tummy.” To be fair, he was raised by plants.

You could make the argument that Sequoia preventing the equally confounding universal threat that resulted from Death and Thanos’ consummation (I don’t want to dip into these waters really at all but there’s a whole lot of problems with consent here, actually from Thanos) means he has fulfilled his destiny as Celestial Messiah… but for my money that feels kind of inadequate. Obviously the language is meant to invoke religious figures like Jesus, and to mix metaphors, “bring balance to the force.” Sequoia’s actions in Marvel history haven’t really gotten there. In many ways, I’m still looking for the answer to what it means to be the Celestial Messiah.

Remarkably, since “Celestial Quest,” Marvel readers haven’t seen hide-nor-hair of this Celestial Messiah! But – and this is where things get really interesting – there have been similar, intertwined cosmic prophecies arising in his wake. And this is where the notion of the Celestial Messiah and Kree cosmic prophesy becomes particularly relevant in 2020. As recently as X-Men #8 by Jonathan Hickman and Mahmud Asrar, the Inhuman King Black Bolt has been referred to as both the Midnight King and the Celestial Messiah! This language dates back to Hickman’s time on Fantastic Four and begins a trend this decade of Marvel creators – namely Hickman and Al Ewing – mixing their own cosmic prophecy into the Marvel mix.

In the pages of Hickman’s Fantastic Four and more specifically FF (in a sequence that bounces from amazing work by Greg Tochinni to amazing work by Steve Epting), it’s revealed that not only did Black Bolt survive his apparent death in War of Kings, but also that he’s destined to fulfill a Kree / Supreme Intelligence prophecy to one day destroy the Kree Empire.

The Supreme Intelligence takes a very Herod like approach to this revelation, calling for the deaths of all the Kree-created Inhumans across the galaxy, with only 5 civilizations escaping – these would go on to be known as the Universal Inhumans.

Whereas the prophecy of the Celestial Messiah is covered in faith and hope, the Kree’s Black Bolt prophecy is awash in fear and destruction. Despite this, Black Bolt does ultimately sue for peace with the Kree, sacrificing the love of Crystal and Ronan the Accuser in order to break the chain of fate and forge his own path.

Admittedly, Hickman’s use of “Celestial Messiah” to describe Black Bolt – which I’ve noted as early as New Avengers #2 in 2013 – is an oddly specific choice. Hickman’s very good at concise cool sounding nicknames – see also Midnight King and King of the Dead – but the repetition of Black Bolt’s role as Celestial Messiah – and doubling down in X-Men #8 with “the will of a celestial messiah cannot be denied” – feels very intentional. I wouldn’t have believed it prior to X-Men #8, but I don’t think Hickman’s quite done with Black Bolt.

I also think the phrasing of “a celestial messiah” suggests a more interesting take on the original Celestial Madonna saga. You have the Priests of Pama fortelling their messiah, you have the Supreme Intelligence / Kree Empire foretelling their own, and then you’ll have the third we’re about to look into. Varying visions of messianic salvation in the Marvel Cosmic landscape are way more interesting than lying in wait for Sequoia to get super interesting!

As far as where we stand with Black Bolt, last readers saw of him was in Death of the Inhumans by Donny Cates and Ariel Olivetti, when Blackagar extended the true meaning of this prophecy to mean Kree and Inhumans alike must ultimately succumb to his final death scream.

Well, kinda – the Royal family of the Inhumans does seem to escape with their lives, although what they’re up to is a mystery awaiting the right moment – perhaps that moment will be in the pages of Empyre.

As teased, the third major cosmic prophecy comes from Al Ewing’s time writing New Avengers, and clearly sets the stage for 2020’s mega Marvel Empyre event. Ewing created a collective of Kree / Skrull hybrid peoples known as the Knights of the Infinite who are working to fulfill the prophecy that one day the heir / reincarnation of the first Kree / Skrull combo platter – Dorek Supreme – will bring the ultimate alliance to the galaxy. According to the Knights of the Infinite, this individual is the longtime Young Avenger Teddy Altman, aka Hulkling.

The seeds for Teddy’s ascension atop the throne date back to some of his earliest appearances in Young Avengers (issues #8 through #10 I believe), when both the Supre Skrull and Kree warriors showed up to claim Teddy as one of their own, given his Skrull mother and Kree – in fact, Captain Mar-Vell – father. It’s a lineage Hulkling has been aware of for plenty of time now, and although he’s not quite ready to take on the role in New Avengers, by the time the Knights of the Infinite call again in 2019’s Incoming Hulkling packs up his Star-Sword and hits the road to kick off Empyre.

For my money, Teddy’s prophesied place in the cosmic scheme makes the most sense, as his Arthurian narrative is designed to unify the strongest Kree Skrull alliance the galaxy has known.

I’ll admit, though, Marvel’s pre-Empyre hype has me trying to figure some of Teddy’s motives. There’s a lot of talk of holding Earth accountable for the atrocities they’ve committed against the Kree and Skrulls (things like turning Skrull agents into cows, or any number of various ways you can blame humans for Galactus eating the Skrull’s throneworld and Hala getting destroyed in the Black Vortex Saga). But Teddy’s from earth, and not only that, his romantic partner, Billy, is an Earthling too! If the stated prophecy is for Hulkling to bring love to the universe, an imperial armada sailing toward Earth is a very curious move.

As we approach Empyre in May 2020, we have two of the known Celestial Messiah figures definitely included in the event, and my prediction is we’re in a for a surprise inclusion of the third, Black Bolt, in the Empyre X-Men tie-in series (especially since we’re talking comics talking place in the Blue Area of the Moon, long time home of the Inhumans!).

It will be fascinating to see how these mythologies collide and unfold over the next several months, and to see how years, often decades in the making seeds can pay off in the hands of Al Ewing, Dan Slott and Valerio Schitti, among others.

For one final wild theory, all of this talk of Celestial Messiahs does not outwardly appear to have direct connections to Marvel’s known Celestials, as created by Jack Kirby. It’s very literal wordplay, but I’d love to see the concept actually work in these Celestials, which both Hickman and Ewing have played with in their various Marvel cosmic stories.

I especially like the idea that true Celestial Messiah should be capable of saving all life from the coming of the Celestial’s judgment, as promised in the year 2026! Mostly I’m just pulling here for some art of Black Bolt or Teddy straight roundhousing some Celestials, but this is Marvel Comics, stranger things have happened!

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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

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The post Krakin’ Krakoa #42: 3 Cosmic Prophecies in Marvel Comics- How Ewing, Hickman & the Celestial Messiah Intersect appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

Zack & Dave cover your questions, poll results, and recap the Marvel Comics of 1982!

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The parasitic alien Brood are back threatening the X-Men and unveiling more of Jonathan Hickman’s major cosmic plans for mutantkind.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

In X-Men #8, writer Jonathan Hickman and fill-in artist Mahmud Asrar return to the swirling hard science fiction of Powers of X, full of Shi’ar graveyards, intergalactic bleed space (evoking Warren Ellis’ argonaut poetry in The Authority), and rivers of dark matter inhabited by alien Brood.

As we’ve known since New Mutants #1 written by Hickman with art by Rod Reis, Hickman’s been planting seeds of Brood narratives deep in our unconscious with the creation of the King Egg. And now, with the OG New Mutants squad returning from their Hickman written adventure among the Shi’ar and the Starjammers, they of course bring the menace of the Brood back with them.

Hickman’s been quite locked into a Devil-May-Care attitude for all of the New Mutants, leading Rahne Sinclair here to declare the King Egg naught more than her “Space Booty.” This is the point in time where that carefree spirit comes back to haunt Krakoa.

Because Rahne Sinclair brought the King Egg back to Krakoa, the ever expanding Brood empire is set for a full scale invasion. Although they’ve been decimated over the course of the previous decades, Hickman writes here that the Brood are exponentially expanding, up to trillions of drones, thousands of conquered worlds, and 1,000 Queen Brood.

For the less familiar, the Brood are a menacing alien race the X-Men first encounter in earnest during a Brood Saga that runs from approximately Uncanny X-Men #160 through #167, with writing by Chris Claremont and art primarily by Paul Smith. In addition to vicious physical capabilities, and a deceptively intelligent, merciless cunning, the nastiest thing about the Brood is that they can infect their adversaries with Brood eggs that will turn anyone into a part of the shared Brood collective.

In their first encounter with the X-Men, this is what the Brood due to the team, putting the likes of Cyclops, Storm, Kitty Pryde, and Colossus on borrowed time, until some last second saving from the likes of Wolverine’s healing factor, Carol Danvers newfound Binary powers (a result of Brood experimentation) and that time Storm became a baby space whale for a little while!

Adding insult to injury, when the Uncanny X-Men return from their near-death experiences at the hands of the Brood, they return to find Professor X – who had recently taken responsibility for the New Mutants at the X-Mansion – succumbing to full Brood Queen takeover. The Professor literally begs for death before the full transformation, but is instead casually cloned into a new walking body via Shi’ar technology by Moira MacTaggert and Lilandra. I’ve been talking about this particular development since early House / Powers because of the ways it might connect back to big picture Moira and Charles storylines, so pay careful attention here!

In retrospect, the single most fascinating Brood moment of the 2000’s occurred in the Warren Ellis written Astonishing X-Men, a follow-up to the Joss Whedon and John Cassaday run that never lived up to its predecessor, but did introduce a Brood-infected clone of Krakoa.

This is something that’s actually kind of hard to fathom given Krakoa’s role in the post House of X landscape, but could a Brood still infect Krakoa? And what would that look like when all of mutantkind is living there!

Like basically all of the known Marvel cosmic players (shouts to my Kree / Skrull listeners and the upcoming Empyre event), the Brood are nearly wiped out during the events of Annihilation and Annihilation Conquest. Abigail Brand, director of SWORD, actually makes a case for the Brood’s role in the universe as parasitic predators, although it’s worth pointing out that she was half-infected by Brood at the time. Nonetheless, I find this argument interesting, the Brood as cosmic necessity ala Galactus rather than straight up evil aliens.

Historically, there have also been evolving, dare I say mutant Brood, with a sense of compassion setting them apart from all of Brood-kind. One of these is a member of Hulk’s warbound from Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, but the best of all of these is of course Broo, who was introduced in the pages of the Jason Aaron written Wolverine and the X-Men.

Naturally, Broo is coincidentally visiting when the Brood invasion occurs, and he’s quite perturbed to find a King Egg just chilling like a decorative sculpture. Although Broo – who has most recently been seeing working with Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda – declares “King Eggs disrupts the breeding cycle… and makes the queens go to war,” I’ll admit I’m generally unclear about the details. Broo knows of the King Egg, but have their been Brood Kings before (perhaps during the Brood Invasion Jonathan Hickman teased in SHIELD #1 with Apocalypse fighting off as an agent of SHIELD?).

Either way, the presence of the egg leads to a full scale invasion of Krakoa, in what is without question the heaviest attack on sovereign Krakoa we’ve seen to date. Acanti space whales come crashing onto the soil and all mutants are almost instantly at war. Because Hickman has so many spinning plates in this issue it’s almost easy to overlook, but this is very much event sized catastrophe and destruction in the home of the mutants.

We’ll get more of this in X-Men #9 I’m sure, but there’s some very cool fight choreography between Hickman and Asrar, particularly with Magick and Cyclops teaming up their powersets to unleash beams from all angles on the unsuspecting Brood. Also, 10/10 dialogue writing for Broo leading his mid-battle plan to save all mutants with a very polite “Excuse me.”

Importantly in the updated Shi’ar Battle Record, Vulcan was not simply revived via Krakoa resurrection protocols – instead, the update says that he never died. Vulcan’s clearly dreaming of floating through the fault after his battle with Black Bolt, but it remains a mystery how he escaped, what he’s been doing, and how the X-Men found him. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to see War of Kings so thoroughly reintegrated into Hickman’s cosmic plan, in an amazing confluence of Vulcan, Black Bolt as the Celestial Messiah, and the recent New Mutants development that Xandra will step in as Empress of the Shi’ar (Gladiator has been Emperor since War of Kings).

I’ll save a true deep dive for another time, but it’s also really interesting to me that Hickman’s been using “Celestial Messiah” language to describe Black Bolt since his Fantastic Four and New Avengers days. This is hugely relevant for the upcoming Empyre event, which the X-Men will tie into, as Empyre is going to connect heavily to the Avengers’ “Celestial Madonna” saga. Suffice to say for now, I have some real questions about whether or not it was ever appropriate to label Black Bolt the Celestial Messiah.

Speaking of Empyre, we also see Bobby De Costa, aka Sunspot, making a deal with a Kree Accuser, inhabiting Shi’ar space in order to collect the King Egg from the Starjammers (or so he had planned). Bobby effectively promises the egg to the Kree in order to free the Starjammers (despite his dislike for Corsair and company), although the bigger reveal here is the presence of Kree in Shi’ar space, which clearly rings warning bells for the likes of Smasher, Gladiator, and even better, Kid Gladiator!

Rapidfire predictions:

+ Vulcan’s escape from the Fault could well offer an additional mode of travel connecting back to Powers of X. There was a lot of work done there on interconnected black holes and galaxy-brain sized space questions, and I’m really interested to see how Vulcan’s story connects back to all of that.

+ It’s a small detail within this issue, but I don’t think it’s happenstance that the genetic heir of Charles Xavier is currently being placed on the Shi’ar throne. I think is part of Moira and Charlie’s plan to establish a mutant empire in space.

+ The King Egg is going to hatch, and it’s going to upend everything we know about the Brood. I’m sensing a mutant / Brood alliance from here on out!

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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

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The post Krakin’ Krakoa #41: X-Men #8 (2020) Review – Hickman’s Cosmic Plan For Mutants! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.

In Cable #1 Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto reunite for only the second solo character ongoing in Marvel’s Krakoa era of X-Men, with the wildly controversial Teen Cable! It’s a fantastic, unexpected first issue to discuss.

Today I’ll answer:

Spoilers for discussed comics may follow!

Cable #1 opens with a day in the life of Teen Cable, beginning with Nate and Wolverine facing off in the Krakoa arena known as the Quarry, just for kicks. It’s a nice intro displaying Teen Cable’s lust for life, his familial relationship with Wolvy, and perhaps most importantly, Phil Noto’s incredible interior art, which is some of my favorite in all of the Dawn of X to date. Just look at the glowing red interpretation of Silver Samurai – so cool!

We’ve seen two versions of Cable so far in the Dawn of X, one in Fallen Angels and one in X-Men. In Fallen Angels, we get “sad boy” teen Nate Summers, running missions with Psylocke just to feel something, listening to a lot of Sunny Day Real Estate, and possibly developing a romance with Laura Kinney that I’m actually pretty curious if we’ll ever see again.

Given Fallen Angels already completely ignored status in the Dawn of X, this can all more or less be completely ignored, but you and I both know it happened!

Meanwhile, in the Hickman written and Leinil Francis Yu penciled X-Men #2, we get “Meatball Cable,” making bonehead decisions about live grenades and jokes to himself about time-travel. Admittedly, I prefer this version by approximately 12 million percent because 1) It’s just a lot more fun to read but also 2) Teen Cable should behave differently than grizzled war veteran Cable.

Fortunately, Gerry Duggan is taking all of his inspiration from this interpretation as well.

For his part, Duggan and Noto quickly send Cable on a monster hunt to Arakko, where little toddler mutant Fauna has gone missing. It’s both a fun adventure that ties back to Cable’s trip with Poppa Summers and Sister Rachel in X-Men #2, and builds towards insanely exciting developments that connect to everything from the upcoming Ten of Swords crossover to the entire Marvel Cosmic landscape.

Before I get to all that action, though, let’s take a moment to level-set: Who is Cable

For the most part, Cable is known as a militaristic survivor from a future timeline ruled by Apocalypse, all enormous guns, telepathic powers, and metal robot arm. He’s a time-traveler and a present-day X-Men player, with roles across New Mutants, founding the original X-Force, and joining everyone from the X-Men to the Uncanny Avengers. If you know anything about Nathan Summers, it’s that he’s a timey-wimey embodiment of 90’s Marvel with a grim outlook and plays a great straight man.

Of course, as his last name implies, Nate is a Summers, the son of Scott Summers and (well technically) Madylene Pryor, and his childhood is real messed up! During 1991’s X-Factor #68, Apocalypse infects baby Nathan with a technorganic virus, and in order to save his life and defeat Apocalypse, Jean and Scott have to agree to let Sister Askani take baby Nathan into the distant future where the virus can be kept at bay.

Both Apocalypse and Mister Sinister take a deeply invested interest in baby Nathan, with Sinister of course obsessing over the potential of the Summers and Grey (well, Pryor) bloodline. Indeed, as Sinister’s all too happy to remind Cable, he is more or less responsible for Nathan’s existence, since Sinister schemes and machinations are so heavily integrated into the lives of Scott Summers and of course Madylene Pryor.

Once he’s back from the future, Cable quickly takes to leading teams like the New Mutants and more famously, X-Force.

In the pre House of X Extermination event, familiar Cable is assassinated by Teenage Cable, who blames OG Cable for letting Hank McCoy pull the original teen X-Men from their past to present day Marvel, wreaking all kinds of damage on the timestream (and still not preventing teen Cable’s hellish future). Teen Cable views his actions a necessary correction for an OG Cable that wasn’t fulfilling his duty of protecting the timestream.

Does any of this make sense? I have no idea. Nonetheless, we’re good and stuck with Teen Cable.

Back in Cable #1, in the course of defending little Fauna from the Arrako monster – with aid from Pixie and Armor – Cable uncovers a giant sword in the beasts foot setting it off and causing its rage.

With the upcoming summer X crossover titled Ten of Swords, this is clearly a Big Deal, and apart from some choicely worded Betsy Braddock dialogue in Excalibur the first very clear set-up for the event.

Even cooler, this isn’t just any sword, but as Cable’s psychic flashback tells him, it’s the former sword of a Galadorian Spaceknight known as Morn! The sword is known as the Light of Galador, and was apparently lost when Morn arrived on Arakko and found himself blindsided by demonic prey.

This connection instantly gives Cable unexpected ties to the Marvel cosmic landscape, and appropriately for the character, ties deep back into the Marvel Universe’s past, as the sword has possibly been lost since what Morn describes as “primordial earth.”

The discovery of the Light of Galador wakes up Spaceknight armor on display in the Bachgigian Museum of Lost Civilizations (which is a damn fine idea), meaning we are now destined for a Cable vs Spaceknights showdown.

While I won’t get too in the weeds on this, the most famous Galadorian is Rom the Spaceknight, who due to toy licensing issues, is now published by IDW (although Rom was a part of the Marvel Universe from 1979 – 1986). The spaceknights remain a part of Marvel, though, and can be found semi-recently in the likes of Annihilation and Annihilators as part of the Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning Marvel cosmic universe.

The final big reveal is that Old Man Cable is going to be a part of this series, so if you need substantially more grizzle in your cereal, Cable will deliver. Old Man Nate is seen bustin’ monsters in a hellish landscape, and details in a data page Diary the possible development of a new demonic Inferno on Earth, which of course we’ve seen teased since we back in Powers of X and “Sinister Secrets.”

Rapid Fire Predictions:

Outstanding questions –

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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.

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The post Krakin’ Krakoa #40: Cable #1 Review – Does Teen Cable Work for X-Men? appeared first on Comic Book Herald.