The Fall of X is here in an all new X-Chat!
Shadowkat is out for blood, Firestar is in over her head and Iron Man and Emma Frost screw up in X-Men #26 written by Gerry Duggan, drawn by Jim Towe & Javier Pina, colored by Marte Gracia and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
In X-Force #43, we find out exactly where X-Force was the night of the Gala, from Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru-eFx, and Joe Caramagna.
Tony Thornley: Matt! So glad to step back in the swing of things after all the chaos since the Gala!
Matthew Lazorwitz: It is indeed great to be back! Had a little vacation, caught up on a monthās backlog of comics, so I am having a better time than anyone in an X-book right now. Well, anyone who isnāt a member of Orchis, and who wants to be like those guys?
Undercover Emma
Tony: I think one of the best things about “Fall of X” to date is the strange bedfellows everyone is needing to cozy up to. We get the Kingpin in the prelude of the issue. Wilson Fisk is probably the most exciting addition to the X-line of the past year. The Kingpin may be a bad guy but is seldom a bad character, and his few moments in the last few issues before “Fall of X” were highlights.
So Wilson Fisk, White King, is one of my favorite set-ups weāve gotten in ages, and seeing it happen because Emma makes a deal to preserve mutantkind makes it so much better.
Matt: Fisk is the devil you know, for sure. I never expected the Devilās Reign: X-Men mini-series to reverberate the way it has, which I love. These mini-series that are tangents to major or minor events so rarely bear any fruit, so kudos to Duggan for seeding all this back then.
Tony: Duggan is really good at using toys he put in the toybox. They often seem to pop up at unexpected times too. I wonder if Elektra is going to be a part of this story when we get a little deeper into it. The best part of that set-up is the butterfly effect. Wilson seeking refuge on Krakoa leads to Emma signing her assets over to him leads to Fisk as White King leads to Iron Man going semi-undercover leads to Tony Stark proposing to Emma. And that last bit of story happens in the funniest way possible, which weāll get to in a minute.
Matt: If we didnāt know better, Iād say this was Fiskās endgame to begin with, but we know itās not. Still, it shows that Fisk is the master of a Xanatos Gambit; anything that happens, he can manipulate to his own benefit. You mention Elektra, but I wonder about the Stromyns from Zdarskyās recent completed Daredevil run. Super rich amoral narcissists with a mad on for Fisk sound like the kind of people who would get into bed with Orchis. But it really is a question of how much Daredevil weāre going to get in our X-Men. Daredevil doesnāt have a ton of history with mutantdom, but if we got anything half as fun as DD fighting a possessed vacuum like during āInferno,ā Iād be in.
Tony: It seems like this set up will be a natural fit for tying into the upcoming “Gang War” crossover kicking off in Spider-Man. I wonderā¦ Or maybe “Fall of X” is too plot heavy for that to be possible.
But anyways, the important thing about this plotline is that Fisk isnāt the only one helping the X-Men here. Tony Stark is essentially undercover, playing the despondent (sober) drunk, using the Hellfire Club to milk information to relay to the X-Men. Which Emma isnāt thrilled about, but she still needs to get a warning through Stark to his mole in Orchis: Firestar.
LOVE that in the wake of everything, Firestar has been turned into aā¦ triple? Quadruple? What level of double cross is this now? I think it makes it a lot more palatable for Firestar that sheās feeding Iron Man information, and makes the faked double cross much more interesting.
Matt: Oh, Tonyā¦ I think itās time to get to the end of the issue, yes? Before we get to the actual āproposal,ā how in character to you was Emma getting ready to throw away all of this carefully arranged deception to just mindwipe Feilong? I keep going back and forth on this. My first instinct said Emma is too much a planner, too much of a long term thinker, to just lose her temper like that. But then I realized this guy was partially responsible for yet another massacre of children under her guardianship, so I think this might make more sense. And I hope it gets explored further, frankly; an Emma right on the edge strikes me as a scary thing.
Tony: Yeah, Iād say under normal circumstances, this would be out of character for Emma. But like Kate has been pushed into becoming an assassin, Emmaās cool demeanor has been totally compromised. When you factor in that Feilong has been the most public part of Orchis since the group went public, and everything heās done to Stark and the X-Men both, I could see her taking the moment to tear him limb from limb.
I love seeing Stark being the voice of reason as well. Tony is absolutely not that normally, and here he is, the voice of reason. Emma, in her rage, though isnāt willing to listen to reasonā¦ so she kicks Tony in the nuts, causing him to double over in pain the moment Feilong bursts into the room. And since heās down on his knees holding Emmaās dampener ring, he makes it official.
This is the funniest possible way they could have gotten engaged, and makes total sense that would be the only explanation Stark could come up with in an instant.
Shadowfire
Tony: The other major plotline of the issue is Kate Pryde tracking down Angelica, and I think itās the weaker of the two. Kate seems to find Angie pretty quickly, and then the two have the most awkward fight I think Iāve seen in a superhero comic in ages.
Matt: Iām glad Duggan got through this plotline early; issue after issue of Kate hunting Firestar would have gotten old fast. But it feels like something of an afterthought. It needed to be done, so itās done. And it doesn’t change much of the status quo, since Kate isnāt going to call everyone off of Angelica. It felt like it was there just to show what a badass Shadowkat is, which we didn’t need after last issue.Ā
Tony: Kate is getting a little too bold, too. It makes for a cool fight scene visually, but the dialogue makes it too awkward. She spaces a few Orchis agents, then we get a Dragonball Z-style faceoff between Kate and Angie, and it all gets diffused with āI resist.ā Whichā¦ I donāt dig it. The dialogue here is super clunky and unnatural. It does not feel like anything two human beings would say to one another.
I like Jim Toweās art through most of the issue ā he leans slightly towards the house style but heās got a very good sense of expressiveness in his characters (the large panel of Kingpinās face right before the credits RULED). It reminds me of Javier Garron or Jan Bazaldua. In the confrontation between Kate and Angelica though, he uses the extreme close up a little too much. Like, it took me a second to realize Kate had phased her sword into Angelicaās head?
It kind of, in the end, makes the issue little more than a set-up issue. The Emma and Stark plot advances. Kateās plot advances. The issue reminds us that Duggan and team havenāt forgotten about Kamala or Scott. Itās a solid middle of the road issue after a really strong first month that puts important pieces on the board.
Matt: And itās not the only set-up issue we get this columnā¦
Colossus Is An @$$
Tony: X-Force has run for 43 issues now, and the Colossus mind control plot has been a part of it the entire time. Unfortunately, as it starts to pay off, Iām incrediblyā¦ “whelmed” by this issue.
Matt: X-Force #43 really feels like place setting. We learn why X-Force wasnāt at the Gala and survived the massacre, and we get them moved into place for where this story really wants to go. And Domino learning Colossusās secret should be a BIG deal. But she finds confirmation he canāt be trusted at the same time everyone else does. Thereās no tension in what should be a tense story beat, of Domino trying to warn X-Force.Ā
Tony: I disagree a little. I agree up to the point that Domino finds the body. I think that splash is the most effective page in the entire issue. It was a gut punch, but it also didnāt have much impact after it happens. But everything else, yeah I agree. Even when Dom tells Sage not to do what Colossus says, thereās no tension there.
Matt: I think you phrased how I was feeling better than I did, because that is an excellent splash, and itās a tense moment. My problem, as you said, is the lack of tension from a revelation weāve been waiting so long for.
Tony: I do love some of the place setting though. Iām glad to see Quire back, and back to himself. Well, mostly. The snark is back, but it looks like he might be holding back or have a physical side effect of everything we went through, even with his resurrection.
But man, Percy just goes for the complete heel turn with Colossus here. If we didnāt know about the Chronicler, Iād worry we were rehashing the Beast plot. But Colossus pals around at the Gala, planning on betraying everyone to Mikhail. Then Orchis happens and Piotr needs to pivot, taking X-Force (minus Dom, Sage and Deadpool) with him to Russia.
Matt: I absolutely did chuckle at how Mikhailās whole plan completely falls apart. Heās been planning this since Dawn of X, and just as his little trap is about to snap shut? Heeeeeeeereās Orchis! Do we think this is going to become an enemy of my enemy bit?
Tony: From the preview we shared exclusively here on ComicsXF (synergy!), it seems that way. It did throw me a little bit. I thought Orchis and Xeno were partners, so Mikhailās plans being thwarted by the Orchis invasion was a bit of a surprise. It somewhat makes sense, but I feel like it wasnāt made as clear as it needed to be for this reveal to land.
Matt: I donāt think Orchis has partners; I think they view everyone else as pawns at best and useful idiots at worst. I also think they were counting on Mikhail to betray them because they themselves arenāt idiots, and he was, Iām sure, planning exactly that. But thatās all stuff Iāve inferred from reading this book from the beginning and none of it is laid out on the page, so I can see where youāre coming from.
Tony: But my goodness, I did enjoy that moment. Omega, Quire and Wolverineās different expressions as they realize theyāve been duped? That ruled.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Emma and Kate trying to find Cyclops is a plot I hope to see more of.
- From the next issue preview, looks like weāre getting it.
- Wilson Fisk is back in New York, and itās a New York without Daredevil. I wonder at what point the new Daredevil series, launching this week, will deal with Kingpin?
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. Heās also very humble.
