X-Men 14 - Review and spoilers

[Viteh]

First, the spoilers:

• Apocalypse is gathering his thoughts in some garden, and Genesis comes to see him.
• She somewhat mocks him for being weak and peaceful. He replies by asking her why she is carrying the Twilight Sword.
• She says it's just a tool. Powerful, but not really important. She then offers to hell him what really happened to them in Amenth.
  
• It's exactly the same art from X-Men #12. The story is very similar to the one told by Summoner, but with some key differences.
• Genesis says that Arakkoans do theorize why Apocalypse stayed behind, but that it does not matter because they (she and Apocalypse) know the truth (He wasn't strong enough).
• One detail that Summoner didn't mention was that about 1/10th of the mutants lost their minds as soon as they entered Amenth and were lost to the wasteland. Genesis says it was hundreds of them.
• Apparently Isca begged Genesis to come parlay with Amenth.
• Genesis reveals that those mutants lost thousands of years ago had been captured by the demons, and bred with them to create Mutant Demon hybrids.
• She actually defeated Annihilation, not the other way around. Except that there was a catch.
• Turns out, someone must always wear the helm. Otherwise, the demons go mad and destroy everything until they die. If anyone has ever played WoW this is very similar to the "There must always be a Lich King".
• Genesis refused to wear the helm for 100 years, and for those 100 years the true (because before they had been somewhat restrained) horde attacked Arakko.
• Just like Summoner said, they hoped that Apocalypse had created a stronger mutant society. However the difference is that Genesis expected Apocalypse to get there on his own.
• She didn't want to reopen the way back to Earth/Krakoa. When she saw this had happened, she decided to put on the helm. She doesn't explicitly say this, but I think she did it to stop the horde from going to Earth.
• However, she was unable to control the helm. While she isn't a zombie, she wants want the helm was, which is everything.
• That's why the attacked Dryador, and why they want Krakoa.
• Apocalypse asks her to fight it, but she says even she isn't strong enough.
  
• We get a data page with some more info
• The mutants of Amenth seem to be prisoners. The "Vile school" seem to have them under their control, by mentally searching for insurrections and by depowering them. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the Vile School is made up of the mutant-demon hybrids.
• The last prophet of Arakko had one last prophecy "Only under the black moon will the two become one. A white light will judge them, and a red land will see them split forever."

I had read elsewhere that this was another retelling of the same story from X-Men #12 and #13, and it is. It's particularly sad that they reused all of the art from #12. I get what they were going for, but it still feels lazy. Having said that, I did like knowing more about Genesis and what had gone down with Amenth. It's still more build up, but at least it sounds like it's the last of it.

I am beginning to think that Isca is playing a really long game of 5th dimensional chess. The fact that she "begged" Genesis to come talk to Amenth may mean that this is all part of her plan, and that she is doing all of this in order to "win".

The whole story of Arakko reminded me a lot of Moira's 9th life.

Apocalypse created a great mutant society. Built cities, and they seemed to be prospering. But then it turns out that those battles they had won against the machines were just the humans buying time. They had turned themselves into a machine-human hybrid that would eventually mean the mutants defeat. Krakoa fell.

Genesis created a great mutant society. Build the walls and towers, and they seemed to be prospering. But then it turns out that those battles they had won against the horde were just the demons buying time. They had created demon-mutant hybrids that would eventually mean their defeat. Arakko fell.

I think there are still some holes in Genesis' story. In particular the part with the White Sword. He didn't seem crazy at all in Stasis, so I don't get why they would battle. I am beginning to wonder if we'll get a 4th retelling of this story from the White Sword's PoV.

[Glio]

Ok I was a little confused at first with the Summoners but now I get it: There are both Summoners of Arakko and Summoners of Amenth and and neither of them are loyal to either mutants or Annihilation if not themselves.

In general this issue has been weak repeating the same from another point of view. I understand what you're trying to do but it's just the official no-lie version of Summoner. The previous issue although it was also a flashback, had completely different things.

PD: And yes, good parallels with Moira's 9th life.

[Dipter]

I like the unraveling mystery taking place here, but there was not enough new information presented to warrant this taking up an entire issue. I’ve heard some people calling this one a waste of money, which is honestly justified.

[Sapfiryt]

X-men #13 gives to readers much more information than x-men #14. This X of Swords ship go down and the ship's crew don't fix old holes, but create more and more new ones. Maybe Hickman doesn't want to write X-Men anymore

[Glio]

X-men #13 gives to readers much more information than x-men #14. This X of Swords ship go down and the ship's crew don't fix old holes, but create more and more new ones. Maybe Hickman doesn't want to write X-Men anymore

My god with the hyperbole.

[sunofdarkchild]

As I said in another thread. This issue is only for people who are heavily invested in the Apocalypse romance subplot. It's a boring waste of time for everyone else.

That's 2 issues so far in this event that were not worth buying, this and Excalibur.

[baxer]

X-men #13 gives to readers much more information than x-men #14. This X of Swords ship go down and the ship's crew don't fix old holes, but create more and more new ones. Maybe Hickman doesn't want to write X-Men anymore

Really makes me think tha the wants to be fired, such lazy choices

[Bgardner]

Ok I was a little confused at first with the Summoners but now I get it: There are both Summoners of Arakko and Summoners of Amenth and and neither of them are loyal to either mutants or Annihilation if not themselves.

In general this issue has been weak repeating the same from another point of view. I understand what you're trying to do but it's just the official no-lie version of Summoner. The previous issue although it was also a flashback, had completely different things.

PD: And yes, good parallels with Moira's 9th life.

I totally don’t get the summoners. Did The Summoner take the arak maw unauthorized? If he did that before Anihlation put on why was he working with Amenth there? Is he a summoner of Amenth?

[Drexelhand]

This would have been better if the art had not been reused. I understand why, looking back at House of X and Powers of X, but it feels different in this instance and a bit lazy.

[Glio]

I totally don’t get the summoners. Did The Summoner take the arak maw unauthorized? If he did that before Anihlation put on why was he working with Amenth there? Is he a summoner of Amenth?

Summoners of Arakko were never loyal to Arakko, they were just faking it. Both Arakko and Amenth developed Summoners but they only serve themselves and their dark religion.

It's a bit confusing.

[Dipter]

If I understand this correctly, the dark religion that the summoners follow is native to Amenth? If that's the case, who trained War's son to become a high summoner if all of the Arakkii were living in isolation behind their towers?

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

For the love of... we're totally going to get a fourth retelling of this story, aren't we?

Anyway. Not a particularly fun showing.

[cranger]

If I understand this correctly, the dark religion that the summoners follow is native to Amenth? If that's the case, who trained War's son to become a high summoner if all of the Arakkii were living in isolation behind their towers?

While I don't hold my breath we have the whole story yet, there is about 200 years for Summoner to have become a summoner and move up the ranks based on Genesis' version.

edit: I might have to read this again at some point, in my head this is not adding up...

[Bgardner]

Summoners of Arakko were never loyal to Arakko, they were just faking it. Both Arakko and Amenth developed Summoners but they only serve themselves and their dark religion.

Thanks! So the summoner we are familiar with stole/conned part of arrako to bring this whole shindig on? Why was he not suprised/why werenÂ’t the horsemen suprised if Genesis didnÂ’t put on the helm until he left?

[JustAnotherFan]

Man was this issue was a waste of money. I do get what they are going for but this is just lazy and a bit dishonest to charge people a full price for this issue. Most of the art was copy-pasted from a previous issue and even the narration was the same with just a different character narrating and some of the details being changed. But those changes were too small IMO. And there wasn’t that much new info given. So really this was the previous issue with maybe 5 pages changed. That’s so lame. I guess if I were to use a Hickman expression I “found this issue wanting”, lol. I was already tired of reading the part about the Twilight Sword tearing the world asunder and making two of that which was one and then it was repeated again! Aaaagh! Please, no more of that. Ever.

I guess I’m starting to grow a bit tired of Hickman tropes since I just read his Avengers & Secret Wars. Also I couldn’t care less about Apoccy’s little romance. I really don’t like this take on him. I preferred him as the incredibly old and incredibly powerful mutant leader instead of this weak and sad lovelorn shell of a man. I get that they are trying to humanize him and give him a more relatable motivation and backstory but it’s not working for me. To me that goes against what he’s supposed to be. And maybe it’s partially because I have this certain perception of him as more of a force of nature than a man. For example, I loved his depiction in TAS where he “wasn’t good or evil, he just was” or how he was “as far above mutants as mutants were above humans.”. And I’m not saying that you can’t give him a deeper motivation behind his survival of the fittest ideology but I think it should be done differently. In fact I liked how Louise Simonson did it in X-Factor Forever. To me that kind of background fits Apoccy better without watering him down. But that’s just me.

All in all this issue was meh. Well written but too repetitive. This event is lagging a bit too much for my tastes.