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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #153

  
  

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Shrug
21:08 / 14.02.04
I think Apollyon is probably more likely to be Fantomex, firstly the look is very Fantomex and he seeks the Phoenix grafts.. to be whole... (again)? since he is missing his external nervous system. Then again maybe he is just a clone of the original Fantomex and he literally has dreamed of Phoenix grafts "his whole life"...
 
 
■
22:43 / 14.02.04
ooooh. Beast mixed with Crawler... [Even this old DC fanboy starts drooling...].
Anyone reckon EVA might be Apollyon? She's much more likely tha Fantomex (and Scott, natch) to have survived so long. She's in both camps!
 
 
Mike-O
18:19 / 15.02.04
For TroyJ15 or Pusshy, I don't know if this goes against forum rules or not, but I was wondering (without knowing what happens if this is true) whether or not this issue includes scenes in the present day much as 151 did....?

... if this isn't something anyone can answer until after next week, that's cool but I was just wondering.
 
 
A beautiful tunnel of ghosts
18:54 / 15.02.04
Dicodisco - any chance of posting or messaging the spoilers from Millarworld for those of us who aren't members? Cheers.

I haven't read New X-Men since Murder at the Mansion, but from the discussions on this thread and others I hope that everyone who is putting this much effort into speculating on the underlying mechanics of Morrison's whistle-stop script is writing at least one comic themselves - the ideas that have been posited on these threads so often outstrip the comic that initiated them in the first place.
 
 
TroyJ15
04:18 / 16.02.04
Nah, Mike-O, no scenes of present day. Anyone know if issue 154 is going to be larger-sized issue than normal. God, I hope that whoever replaces Morrison keeps the ballsiness, back-to-basics, in-your-face style in tact. Here is hoping that Chuck Austen doesnt stay too long.
 
 
Mike-O
06:17 / 16.02.04
No luck, bub. Previews say 32 pages.
 
 
Dicodisco
06:26 / 16.02.04
(According to Millarworld poster Monkey Nate: )

The gist of the issue:

Appolyon is worried that Phoenix will regain her memory and then she'll kill them all. The X-men (Wolverine, Beak, EVA, Tom, and others) attack some ship in the ocean (I can't recall why). Wolverine & Beak do a fastball special.
Tom's Sentinel gets clobbered and sinks to the bottom. But just as the good guys win, hundreds of flying crawlers attack the ship; the X-men prepare to go down fighting.
Back at the "mansion" the Cuckoos are still going on about some hole in space/time. The last page has the Phoenix arriving on the scene and meeting Logan.

Not much in the way of developments or any clue as to what's going on, though.

We still don't know what exactly Magneto did to time/space, how Sublime is Beast, why Phoenix doesn't remember anything, what's going on in the present with Scott & Co., why Magneto had Emma shot, what Mags' & Sublime's connection to Weapon X was, etc.
 
 
I'm Rick Jones, bitch
07:51 / 16.02.04
next issue is regular size. HOW THE FUCK IS HE GOING TO WRAP THIS UP? It's like the end of Aliens- how can Ripley rescue Newt and escape in so little time?

Either he's a master of suspense or he's being paid too much. We'll find out March 17th.
 
 
A beautiful tunnel of ghosts
11:43 / 16.02.04
Thanks Dicodisco - much appreciated.
 
 
Aertho
12:53 / 16.02.04
Maybe he's NOT going to wrap it all up.

He sure as hell didn't explain everything that went on in the Invisibles, rubber glove/hand of Glory/Timesuit and the fictionsuit garbage... we had to have a companion book with annotations AND a Barbelith forum site to answer all the questions we collectively have.

X-Men readers tend to LIKE having everything explained, everything tied tightly and sweetly together and loose ends becoming not so loose at the end. Third Summers brother, anyone? Sometimes the writers try to tie stuff together so they can all move forward and out of the "mystery". Is ANYONE happy with the Twelve storyline?

Plus, I wouldn't doubt this is Grant's rationale. Rememebr when he was chastized for the Sebastian Shaw telepathic fubar? He suggested that the readers use whiteout and a comic book font to re-do the parts they found were offensive or unsatisfactory. He said he wanted to involve the reader in the more interactive process. Maybe he wants US to fill in the blanks. Maybe he wants us to do all this work together, and maybe build a NXM annotations.

I've already said ohow the overall theme of NXM is "evolution", or just-plain "Learning". Not everything in evolution is fully explored, or explained, or understandable to the human creature. Same goes for the student in the education process. Maybe we won't get the WHOLE story, but we will get this one.
 
 
Aertho
13:03 / 16.02.04
Maybe he's NOT going to wrap it all up.

He sure as hell didn't explain everything that went on in the Invisibles, rubber glove/hand of Glory/Timesuit and the fictionsuit garbage... we had to have a companion book with annotations AND a Barbelith forum site to answer all the questions we collectively have.

X-Men readers tend to LIKE having everything explained, everything tied tightly and sweetly together and loose ends becoming not so loose at the end. Third Summers brother, anyone? Sometimes the writers try to tie stuff together so they can all move forward and out of the "mystery". Is ANYONE happy with the Twelve storyline?

Plus, I wouldn't doubt this is Grant's rationale. Rememebr when he was chastized for the Sebastian Shaw telepathic fubar? He suggested that the readers use whiteout and a comic book font to re-do the parts they found were offensive or unsatisfactory. He said he wanted to involve the reader in the more interactive process. Maybe he wants US to fill in the blanks. Maybe he wants us to do all this work together, and maybe build a NXM annotations.

I've already said ohow the overall theme of NXM is "evolution", or just-plain "Learning". Not everything in evolution is fully explored, or explained, or understandable to the human creature. Same goes for the student in the education process. Maybe we won't get the WHOLE story, but we will get this one.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:08 / 16.02.04
I think most of the important stuff will be explained, and some things will be left off-panel and a bit messy. The things that will almost definitely be explained:

*Who/what is Cassandra? How does she fit into this? Is Ernst Cassandra?

*What's the deal with Martha?

*Who is Sublime? What's his deal? How is he connected to Magneto/Xorn, Cassandra, Weapon Plus, etc? Why did he do all of this?

*What's up with The Cuckoos?
 
 
MFreitas
13:24 / 16.02.04
Hey, Pusshy, can you please tell me what is specifically told in this issue about Cassandra/Ernst?

Concerning Morrison's ability to tie everything together in issue 154, I have an opinion: I think the answers will all be there; but we'll have to look at them; really look; not just read and go on, as many people do.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if we'd have answers given this way(about Magneto, for example) : "He was being addicted by the very air around him and he never even noticed it!" (a reference to Dummy Kick, right?)
 
 
MFreitas
13:31 / 16.02.04
Just to make sure everyone understood my last post included a hypothetical quotation and not one taken from any issue.

Thanks.
 
 
Aertho
14:51 / 16.02.04
Here's a q...

How would Esme know Fantomex is Weapon 13? That's what she whispers in recognition when she sees him outside Magneto's Manhattan HQ. Are the Xavier students briefed on X-Men adversaries/allies?

If the Cuckoos ARE just quintuplet mutants, how would SHE get access to Kick and/or Weapon Plus intelligence? I DON'T think she'd be able to glean the fact that he's Weapon 13 from anyone in the room's mind, and definitely not from Fantomex himself.

This isn't a particularly specific 153 Question, but it relateds to the Cuckoos in the context of the story... anyone have any guesses?
 
 
TroyJ15
15:58 / 16.02.04
Why Jean cant remember anything is explained in the issue 153 and as for Magneto having Emma shot, that came about because he was picking off all the X-Men one-by-one, that was already explained, Mike-O.

What was the Sebastian Shaw fubar? I must have missed that one...also...

"X-Men readers tend to LIKE having everything explained, everything tied tightly and sweetly together and loose ends becoming not so loose at the end. "

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true, I mean Claremont is king of dangling plot threads. HE would try to do the mystery ending when it never really needed one. Now in the years following his abscence, they tied up alot of his nonsense but he came back and just added more to the confusion.
 
 
MFreitas
16:29 / 16.02.04
And what's the reason for Phoenix's amnesia, Troy? Can you spoilt it, please? That and the information concerning Cassandra/Ernst.
Thanks.
 
 
■
17:53 / 16.02.04
Hmm. How about this Phoenix just not being Jean AT ALL?
 
 
Aertho
20:17 / 16.02.04
I guess what I meant by the tight and sweet line is that we're used to danglers and plot threads coming back to bite us. X-Men readers are used to the massiveness of these threads and usually catalog them and imagine them resolved on our own. Yeah, Claremont made a mess of things, but we loved it. We remember each and every nuance of "character development" and how Nightcrawler SHOULD have had two moms.
 
 
TroyJ15
02:54 / 17.02.04
I gotta question...I was flipping through the NXM vol 2 hardcover and read issue 132 when the X-Men went back to Genosha after it's destruction.

1) To Morrison ever comment on how the destruction of Genosha mirrored the World Trade Center disaster.

2) was issue 132, Morrison's way of addressing 9/11, If so it's well done and completely in context but rings of awareness.
 
 
TroyJ15
03:01 / 17.02.04
MFreitas, I'd answer your question but I'm not sure if others would want to know. So I'll do what they do on movie reviews...

Do not read below this line if you dont want to know what happens in NXM #133
******************SPOILER ALERT**********************
******************SPOILER ALERT***********************
It's simple Jean was hatched out her Phoenix egg too early so her memory is very spotty. She is starting, very slowly to fill in the blanks, but not in time to stop her from going to battle with Wolverine. Which is where this issue ends!
******************SPOILER*********************
 
 
MFreitas
08:26 / 17.02.04
Thanks, Troy! That's the way to do it: spoiler tags

And what about Cassandra/Ernst? You mentioned something about it too, right?

Thanks.
 
 
TroyJ15
15:11 / 17.02.04
The Cassandra/Ernst thing is very vague, but it definitely seems like the book is pointing in that particular direction so that reader watches them a bit more carefully. There is no huge revelation from Martha or Cassandra just a breifconversation between the two...

Dont read below this line if you dont want to know...

*******************SPOILER ALERT************************
Martha asks Cassandra if she can call her "Ernst." Cassandra gives her permission to do so. Now I'm not sure if this is because of Martha developing. Alzheimers (no joke, that is pointed out in the story) or because there is something else going on there...not much, but pretty interesting nonetheless.
*******************SPOILER ALERT************************
 
 
CPedro
19:06 / 17.02.04
As posted by MFreitas I thought I would put some concepts linked to the Omega Theory. Here they are:

c-boundary: The set of points which are not the pasts of any points or the future of any point in spacetime (essentially the "edges" of spacetime).

Immanent Omega: The developing Omega-being in the last moments of the Omega Point Theory, as it becomes more and more godlike but is still finite

[/B]Omega: The Omega Point seen as a single being or God

[B]Omega Point: A future c-boundary which is a single point and an Aleph. (p142 PoI) Tipler defines this state as (p132-133 PoI):

*Information processing continues indefinitely along at least one world-line gamma all the way to the future c-boundary of the universe.

*The amount of information processed between now and the future c-boundary is infinite in the region of space-time with which the worldline gamma can communicate.

*The amount of information stored at any given time tau within this region diverges to infinity as tau approaches its future limit.

Omega Point Theory: (Also called the Quantum Omega Point Theory) Quantum general relativity with the Omega Point as a boundary condition (p189 POI). [Tipler]

Omegon: A hypothetical civilization which creates a local collapse of spacetime in order to create a c-boundary and reach an Aleph state.

...
This concepts are applied directly in the Omega Theory posted by MFreitas (bows in reverence). As you can see many of this terms can be linked to Quentin Quire, not only from what was posted before, see for exam ple the Immanent Omega. We can understand this as the conversation with Xavier before Xorn arrives and free him from the "Painful attachments from this flesh" (something like this).

For more information go to:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/ome...tml#OMEGA_POINT

another interesting link which can provide some information, or not, this is because I couldn't read it all (it's gigantic GOD!), is:
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Psychology/staff/d.../drpage244.html
This page can provide you the Omega Effect. If you want to know what it says I give just a little quote, the rest is up to you:

"What is the origin of the Omega effect?

The random dot displays we have used contain, to a first approximation, motion in all directions at all velocities at all spatial and temporal frequencies. What mechanism constrains the perceived motion vectors to a uniform direction and velocity, and then only to give rotary global motion?"

I don't know if this can mean something but it might be helpful.
...

That's all for now.
 
 
Dicodisco
09:18 / 18.02.04
I've just read these spoilers on a French comics board (why yes, I'm gallic, so excuse my English).
Though I gotta say I don't know how in the blue hell that poster got to know this.

******** SPOILERS *********
Apparently, at the end of Grant's run (or at the beginning of Whedon's ???):
- Xavier leaves for Genosha
- Scott and Emma assume the leadership of the school
- Phoenix stays dead
********* SPOILERS ********
 
 
chairmanWOW
12:48 / 18.02.04
That isn't Beast. It's Snowbird who was resurrected by Hellcat's ex-husband Damien Hellstrom to kill the child of Henry McCoy and Patsy Walker, which she did. Later she was merged with her former teammate Sasquatch in a bid by Talisman to stop her from starting a nuclear war with a small African country. The two minds waged war in their new body for control and Snowbird ultimately won. She/he, now calling itself Albino Beast, went on a rampage and Wolverine was asked to go to Canada to kill her, with the X-men tagging along. During the fierce battle that ensue, one of Xavier's supressed split personalities (like father like son, ay) managed to slip itself into the mind of the almost unstoppable monster and took control. With Xavier knowledge of the X-Men and his psychic powers and the physical strenght of Sasquatch and Snowbirds mystical powers it proved to great an adversary and killed them all. It's campaign for world conquest quickly spread across the planet and it destoyed all that stood in its way. Crap, predictable, formulaic, marvel bullshit.
 
 
MFreitas
13:38 / 18.02.04
Is this shit supposed to be funny?
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
14:32 / 18.02.04
****SPOILER****
I think it's a definitive answer to the Ernst Cassandra link. To wit (in one of the best conversations in the series):

Cassandra (to Martha): You with your deluxe Alzheimer's, me in a synthetic alien body that's light years from the nearest bloody spare part.
The old team's still got that wiggle, eh, Martha?
Engage artillery.
Why, of course you can still call me Ernst, dear. He was my favorite artist. "Europe after the rain," I still love that one.
Like some sad memory of a future that never happened.

Suffice to say, this was one of my favorite issues, oh, ever. Grant shows his true chops, couching such a fan-salivary revelation in such a down to Earth and pretty conversation between a floating brain and the reformed remnants of Genocidal Mainiac. Nice painting too.
 
 
MFreitas
14:47 / 18.02.04
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

And to think that some people who've read the issue said nothing special happened... What did they want? Cassandra in a raving frenzy, in the best Claremontian style, screaming "YES! I WAS ERNST ALL THE TIME!".
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
15:34 / 18.02.04
Yeah, exactly. Fuck them. This issue was top drawer.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
16:57 / 18.02.04
Great issue. I don't have time to say much right now, but I think that scene with Tito and the "Fastball Special" was really cute.

Nice set up for the end, isn't it? Angels, even! Truly, this is the Apocalypse.

If it's not ESN now, I'll be surprised, what with all of the symbolism and the hint that the Beast has had heralds/partners/HORSEMEN!
 
 
Quimper
17:27 / 18.02.04
And for the BIGGEST clue that Sublime is and always has been ESN...

"Our enemies. The diverse, the strange ones, the crooked masses of Megamerica, forever breeding and multiplying into new and more lethal forms...I told you about them. Xavier's men.

Giving birth to creatures like YOU (phoenix), introducing COSMIC strands into the global genebase. The mutants might have become immortal, unstoppable supermen if left unchecked.

I HAD TO MAKE THEM FIGHT. I had to protect myself somehow. I refuse death! I deny extinction!"

"I had to make them fight" sounds like the En Sabah Nur M.O.


Anyone else reminded of Logan's line from E is for Extinction to Cassie: "You're just some f*cked up thing trying to survive."
 
 
Quimper
18:04 / 18.02.04
****SPOILER****

And the Xavier statue's tears of blood at the end!!! Those alone deserve a separate thread.

But my question...did the statue actually respond to that angel X-girl? She asked Xavier to protect them and then all of a sudden, those weird telepathic speech balloons... "I can't...something just crawled into my face...I can't..eat mind." Was that Chuck?
 
 
doyoufeelloved
20:53 / 18.02.04
Man, the INVISIBLES dialogue-makin' machine was on overdrive for this issue, wasn't it? This arc reads more and more like everything that made THE INVISIBLES what it is crash-landing into the X-Men universe and pollinating it. Which I think we can all agree is kind of what we all wanted to happen at the end of NXM...

And awwww, poor gay Rover dying in the ocean. "Error/Not Error" are kind of amazing as last words.

Re: the telepathy bubbles at the Xavier statue -- those are just the institute telepaths being overcome by the Phoenix effect -- you can see that the "Hrr Aurrrch Eeurr" thoughts are coming from the people approaching that Angel IV chick (or whatever the hell number we'd be on at this point).
 
 
doyoufeelloved
21:00 / 18.02.04
Also: What was the function of the Beast-Crawler being teleported into the Institute (and, apparently, promptly dying off-panel)? The Phoenix fire starts to show up around him, and he does something to Koo-Koo's mind that apparently spreads... I guess Sublime just bred Phoenix traits into him and turned him into some kind of mental bomb?
 
  

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