Bryan Edward Hill, Szymon Kudranski, and Frank D’Armata bring us, Fallen Angels a story of the new Psylocke exploring a vision of Apoth, the new name of god. To do that, she recruits a squad of soldiers and makes deals with devils, while learning dark truths about herself.
Adam Reck: Yo, Tony! Are you ready to put on your Where’s Waldo hat and find Bill the Lobster? He’s gotta be in here somewhere, right?
Tony Thornley: Hey Adam! I mean we’re four months into this whole era that was wholly advertised with Bill’s presence, so I think he’s contractually obligated to appear here, right?
AR: Of course I’m kidding. Bryan Edward Hill isn’t pulling directly from the cult classic Fallen Angels, so instead we are gonna tag along with Kwannon [Ed. note: Once called Revanche, now called Psylocke] and go kill a god! It is proving to be… shall I say, controversial? Let’s get into it!
The New Name Of God
AR: I want to mention the intro page for just a moment if only to note that apparently the first character we see depicted in Psylocke’s vision is not Psylocke, but Captain Britain? Would not have gleaned that if not from this first page. But no disambiguation anymore!
TT: Yeah, wonder why though… I’m totally going to type “Betsy,” erase it and re-type “Kwannon” a dozen times per article though. [Ed. note: If Dawn of X has done anything, it’s force readers to relearn names. This is a good life skill.]
This does bring up one of the downsides of the issue I saw throughout. The art is very good but the way Kudranski draws faces is very samey. It’s not just Betsy and Kwannon, Laura Kinney also looks very similar as does Kwannon’s informant late in the issue. He also uses a lot of extreme close-up panels. [Ed. note: Some would argue, an excessive amount.] It could be very effective, but it’s done so much that it loses its impact for me pretty quickly. There are touches here that just don’t totally work for me.
AR: Well we are definitely going to get to the takes on Laura and Psylocke here, but I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.
TT: For sure, let’s get into the meat of things.
AR: On first read, the opening narration might not make a lot of sense, but after a reread, we learn that this comes from Psylocke’s daughter. Wait, when did she have a daughter? And not only is her daughter alive, she is implied to be be the child who is Overclockin’ and taking out an entire subway train!
TT: What an interesting caption to start with- “Kwannon was the Goddess of Mercy”- especially given what Psylocke’s mission is going to be in this story. In the Buddhist faith, Kwannon (more often anglicized as Guanyin) is the bodhisattva of mercy, specifically someone who works tirelessly to help anyone who prays to them. They didn’t really have a consistent gender or age until more modern times, when they began to be depicted consistently as a younger woman.
AR: Well, no more Goddess of Mercy now. We’ve got a new god to kill.
TT: And holy crap Overclock (which we’ll get more into shortly). Our esteemed editor called it something out of a mid-00’s Warren Ellis book, which is accurate, but also… I love it? [Ed. note: I, however, was not being complimentary when I said it.]
I love all the butterfly symbolism through the issue though. We get it here on the girl’s neck, in Psylocke’s meditation, and when she stabs someone with the focused totality of her psychic powers. Also, good on Hill for resisting the temptation to not say that at least once.
TT: This book does not waste any time now, does it? After that violent opener, we see midst peaceful meditation, Psylocke gets an overwhelming vision of a hooded figure telling her she needs to kill a new god [Ed. note: No relationship to Orion and Lightray and all of those characters] by the name of Apoth.
AR: We are right into it. We’ve got a shadowy angel-like figure, we’ve got definitely-not-a-dream commands, and we have a nod to the train explosion and Psylocke’s daughter.
TT: Any guesses who the hooded figure is? My best guess is future Cable (especially with the Abraham reference- Cyclops/Abraham and Cable/Isaac parallels anyone?). It could also be future Psylocke, or maybe a new version of Warlock? Maybe even Sarah Grey?
AR: That’s a pretty wide net you’re casting Tony. I have absolutely no idea. But later in this issue it’s implied that the shadowy figure is the person who trained Psylocke and stole her daughter. Whoever it is, this winged fella seems awful pushy and sure of himself.
TT: Ooooh, yeah they could be wings. Or more specifically given all the symbolism in the issue butterfly wings? That adds a few possibilities.
Apoth is introduced as a tetragrammaton. Tetragrammaton is the Hebrew name of God transliterated into four letters. In Hebrew Apoth is only two letters, but in KRAKOAN, it’s four letters.
AR: Right, with how “TH” is handled in Krakoan, it is spelled:
AR: Bet you didn’t think I spoke Krakoan, huh, Tony?
Also interesting that Magneto very distinctly referred to mutants as “New Gods” in House of X. So for all the Biblical hootin’ and hollerin’, this meditation intruder might be referring to a mutant.
I think it’s also really worth mentioning here that the Hill’s use of the word Tetragrammaton hit some Jewish readers the wrong way, prompting Bryan to public respond to the criticism he received:
I’ve seen valid concern about my use of the word “Tetragrammaton” in FALLEN ANGELS. I assure you the book in no way blasphemes any faith. This isn’t a book about an established God or Gods.
— Hilluminati (@bryanedwardhill) November 8, 2019
This is a new about the birth of another “god,” one both lesser and greater than us.
TT: Glad he said it, because Apoth is an interesting concept and it doesn’t feel like he’s trying to be disrespectful at all.
So is Apoth machine intelligence/AI? I mean, that opening scene on the train sure implies that, since the terrorist put some kind of gizmo on her temple before she went black oil, and the black market figure Psylocke and Laura interrogate later calls it a digital bogeyman. That figure on Psylocke’s forehead sure looks Phalanx-y too. Maybe his name is derived from Apotheosis- the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax?
AR: All I know is it seems to involve getting kids high on the internet before turning them into killer weapons. Not what we want for the youth of America. There’s already a vaping crisis.
Meet the Neighbors
AR: What follows is a pair of encounters one could describe as…troubling?
Psylocke’s antagonistic interactions with Magneto make sense given Erik was defeated by Betsy at the end of Cullen Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men run, but he’s still being quite the jerkwad considering Krakoa is this island of peace.
TT: It definitely is a bit problematic, as he’s very dismissive of something that’s definitely happening to a woman. But Psylocke is a strong enough personality to make sure Magnus listens. [Ed. note: Magneto and Sinister are both dismissive of a telepathic woman’s psychic vision, which isn’t great.]
AR: We also get a nod to Xavier’s “death” at the end of X-Force #1, but apparently no one could be bothered to bring him back between issues, so he’s still dead and the island is on lockdown.
TT: I’m impressed that they’re waiting to resolve that cliffhanger until X-Force #2 next week though! It adds a fantastic sense of continuity, even if we know Chuck is coming back But that’s for Ari and Kenneth to talk about their X-Force stuff. [Ed. note: Which you can read about here.]
AR: Mags sends Psylocke on her merry way to visit Mister Sinister, who, while I appreciate his demand to be entertained, is also a complete wanker to his guest. I guess no one got the Pax Krakoa memo? He agrees to let Psylocke off the island not sure why it’s either of their decisions, if she finds some other lost souls to help her.
AR: Our shadowy prophet from the vision is back. This time it’s training Kwannon, calling her ugly and telling her she will be a beautiful butterfly as an agent of death.
TT: I wonder if that is the same hooded figure. It seems too clear a parallel to just be a coincidence. I love to see more butterfly symbolism! The butterflies symbolize resurrection, change, happiness and good luck. I have a feeling we’re not going to see too much of the latter.
AR: Despite Xavier’s apparent death, there’s still campfire frolicking to be had and lonely souls to pick up and let’s talk about this version of Laura Kinney, because I’m not buying it.
TT: Agreed. I love Laura, but I really am not a fan of the regression she’s gone through in the last little bit.
AR: Part of this recruitment includes Laura saying that she deserves “a life without Logan’s shadow.” It feels like we are putting aside the developments from Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine. The whole point of that book was that Laura found her purpose through found family. Now we find her, Gabby and Jonathan-less, still complaining about being some second-rate Wolverine? This made very little sense to me.
TT: Agreed. Where’s the well-adjusted hero? Gabby’s big sister? Hell, she had even accepted her legacy as Logan’s daughter even if she’s not her dad’s biggest fan. This feels much more like pre-Wolverine Laura, than the more recent well-adjusted version we got in All-New Wolverine or Mariko Tamaki’s X-23. Maybe it’s because Gabby’s not with her?
AR: As for Dial-Up (that’s what we call Teen Cable here at DoXToX) [Ed. note: I never agreed to that], he’s practically tabula rasa here. I guess it makes sense that he picks a fight with Laura and signs up for this sidequest without much motivation? I don’t really know what to do with him right now.
After leaving Dial-Up at home, Psylocke and Laura head to Tokyo to get the skinny on Apoth and Overclock from a blind black market dealer named Motoko [Ed. note: I’m told this may be a Ghost in the Shell nod but I also don’t know anything about anime.] Motoko, with the help of another vision, quickly fills in more of the backstory: Kwannon’s shadowy trainer took her child and branded it with a butterfly. Motoko shares video footage of the child who Overclocked the train… and the child has a butterfly tattoo. Was that her daughter? I’m not so sure. [Ed. note: We are lead to believe it is.]
TT: Despite some stiffness in the art, this might be my favorite part of the issue. This shows how cunning and intelligent our new Psylocke is. She is a little more impulsive than Betsy, but she’s clever, observant, and no-nonsense. This is also where Laura feels a little more like herself than what we saw a few pages ago.
AR: The pair kick everyone in the room’s butt and Psylocke psychically shares that she has a daughter with Laura.
I Learned it From Watching You!
AR: Of all the things in this issue, Overclock is the most interesting. Just as a concept, I think it’s a really high quality sci-fi creation, and I love that we get two infographic pages to help flesh out the idea.
TT: Here we get some hints of the post-human future we got hints of in Powers of X in Overclock. It feels very otherworldly, but I don’t think it has an alien/Phalanx origin. But you never know. Hell, we could discover that Apoth is Cameron Hodge or Stephen Lang… Doubt it but it’s possible. Digital adrenaline is a fascinating concept that could really could be fun to explore.
AR: Psylocke pulls a location from Motoko’s mind from psychic knifing her, which leads Psylocke and Laura to a barn. Inside we have more Overclock child junkies being switched off by Apoth. This is some dark stuff.
TT: Oh my gosh this scene was straight out of a horror movie. I’m not sure why Apoth is using children rather than adults though. These kids don’t seem any older than maybe ten? A little young to be building techno-drugs.
AR: Apoth speaks through the surviving child and calls itself a “song,” and asks to be left in peace. I can’t imagine what kind of peace requires mind-controlled child terrorists? Seems like a worthy opponent to track down and cut in half.
Back on Krakoa, Psylocke makes a deal with Sinister. He will keep the team a secret from the council in exchange for the team bringing him Apoth and his technology.
TT: Yeah that’s not going to go poorly. I love how the books continue to play with Sinister as an amoral figure. It makes him a perfect Charlie for these Angels. It absolutely makes sense that Sinister would go there and make this deal with Psylocke. They each have clear and distinct motivations, even if they’re by no means noble in anyone’s case.
AR: We close with Psylocke describing Dial-Up and Laura as caterpillars who can be turned into butterflies which, again, completely misses the lengthy character development Laura already went through?
TT: And also the development Nathan went through in the most recent X-Force series. I mean, he was still a punk kid, but he was a much more likable punk kid [Ed. note: Debatable]. Hill does set out for us that this trio aren’t going to be the only Angels. We see Husk and Bling on future covers, but I wonder if they’re permanent members or just guest stars. And if they’re the latter who will round out the cast?
TT: I really did enjoy this book, but I think it’s more for the high concepts than for the character work. There are some amazing concepts here, but they come at the cost of under-serving the characters and pushing them into very cliche and tropey territory. I’m just disappointed that Hill’s Batman & the Outsiders is a better X-Men comic than his actual X-Men comic.
AR: Having not read the Batman book, I’m going to take your word for that. While I love the concept of Overclock, I am also disappointed in the character work. I wish there were a different motivation for Psylocke’s quest aside from a retconned daughter, and if I haven’t expressed it enough already, I’m very confused about the portrayal of Laura here.
TT: Laura really regressed here. That could get explained away by general discomfort with Krakoa, but it doesn’t quite feel like that will happen. Nate didn’t get nearly as much page time as Laura, but he feels the same way.
AR: I think Szymon Kudranski and Frank D’Armata are making the moody book Hill is scripting. They’re doing a fine job, though I agree maybe a few less extreme close-ups would be nice.
TT: Agreed on the art. I really think it’s well done, but faces are a bit stiff and the close-ups are excessive. It bums me out because his Action Comics issues over at DC were more solid, but then that also gives me hope that we could get that version Kudranksi soon.
AR: I’m interested to see where this Apoth and Overclock stuff goes. As for the rest? We’ve got some big mountains to climb. This was a rough start.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Lobster sightings: 0 – That’s right. ZERO LOBSTERS. The lobsters remain missing.
- Tony only accidentally typed Betsy thrice. This Kwannon/Psylocke disambiguation is harder than we thought.
- Anyone else notice how having Dial-Up in the room really piqued Sinister’s interest? I wonder what his Summers DNA long-game could even be at this point since Apocalypse is just another bro in fantasyland now.
- The Krakoan tease for the next issue is “Chrysalis”
- Check out our coverage of X-Men #2 later today!
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
