Trial of Magneto #2 Review *spoilers*

[teapartyofthedead]

I originally typed this up last night, woke up this morning, and thought it wasn’t needed. Then the spoiler thread that had been up mysteriously vanished. So here’s a summary of what happened that will hopefully do it justice.


It opens with Magneto lounging in bed with **** out like the silver fox he is. He immediately picks up on Xavier’s telepathic surveillance, and calls him out. Hope answers him instead, apologetic as she peers at him, the size of a giant amid Escher-esque stairs.

Meanwhile, back in the waking world of the Healing Gardens of Krakoa, Hope questions Xavier on the ethics of enhanced psychic interrogation and keeping the matter from the Five. She isn’t comfortable with the whole situation, and wonders why Emma or Jean isn’t doing this instead.

However, Emma and Jean have their hands full already. Jean is greeting the Avengers that just disembarked from a Quinjet: Vision, Wasp (Janet), Captain America (Steve), and Iron Man. She hugs Vision and Wasp as Cyclops offers to take them on a tour of Krakoa before they retrieve Wanda’s remains.

As the tour proceeds through the various landscapes and territories that make up Krakoa, Polaris starts to see a problem with their route. Arbor Magna is ahead, and resurrection protocols are supposed to remain secret from the humans. She urges Jean to erase their memories to protect the secret, to which Jean counters that she isn’t comfortable committing such a diplomatic breach. Lorna reminds her that a major security breach is in the offing if she don’t, and Jean insists there alternatives.

It turns out that alternative is Emma Frost telepathically projecting a zoom background of a sunning area in the woods over the actual image of the hatcheries. The Avengers see only her and the Cuckoos getting a tan, remaining none the wiser.

Elsewhere, Northstar, Rachel, and Daken are holding counsel. They note the missing cerebro helmet, and surmise it has a connection to Wanda’s murder. Perhaps Magneto is trying to force her resurrection against the Quiet Council’s decree. Rachel chronoskimms the area, and sees Magneto taking the helmet himself.

An elaborate multi-arrow symbol with two tree spheres dominates most of the page. There’s an awful lot of words to quote, so here’s the image of it instead.

97FEC8A4-0AF7-46D4-9843-C90B44B22F7A.jpg

One very long arrow points to these words: “Because magic rules itself. And mortality simply bears witness.”

It seems Wanda is trapped in some sort of purgatory in which she is being hunted, murdered, dies, is reborn, flees, then once again murdered in an endless loop. It sounds horrible, but the art makes it look a lot more sparkly than you would think purgatory would be.

In the land of the living, Hope telepathically awakens Magneto from his coma. Xavier has left them alone for a minute, and she wastes no time in telling Magneto not to let the Avengers see Wanda’s body. A psychic spark goes from Hope to Magneto’s temple as she tell him “Do you understand? Do not let them see her body.” Magneto answers he does understand.

At the Boneyard, the Avengers, the X-Men, and X-Factor talk among each other. Pietro sardonically remarks on this, about how a brutal murder could bring so many different people together. Steve corrects him and says it’s the grief bringing them together, across the political divide. Pietro thanks him and apologizes, as Steve comforts him with the knowledge that Wanda would appreciate him defending her even after death.

This causes Pietro to tear up, and Jean Paul starts to asks if he’s okay. Pietro tries to deflect, and Jean Paul offers a hug. Pietro says “F*ck you. Not that-“ and is cut off as he is wrapped up in a metallic mass by Magneto. Northstar almost meets the same fate, but is protected by Rachel’s shields.

Magneto hovers before the Boneyard and demands the Avengers be sent out to him. Iron Man, boasting of his magnet-proof suit, is eager to oblige. When he questions why Wolverine (Laura) was trying to stop him, Steve explains that the X-Men don’t want them to have to. Tony gives Cyclops ten minutes to conclude matters, and Polaris asks to confront Magneto first.

As she flies out to meet him, Magneto sneers at her design of the Boneyard and mocks her level of education. This is incredibly rich coming from him, considering that as far as I know, Magneto doesn’t have a degree from a higher institute of learning. You know who does? Lorna. Its a Ph.D and she did her thesis on a design for a sentient defensive structure. As she corrects him, Cyclops once again ignores her wish to let her handle it first and blasts him.

Northstar tells Prodigy to take point and protect the chain of custody from Magneto’s interference. Prodigy assembles X-Factor to do just that, while outside the Avengers join in the fray several minutes early. The fight rages in Magneto’s favor until, surprisingly, Kyle (?) walks out of a gateway. Magneto takes him hostage, and begins threatening Kyle’s life if the Avengers don’t leave Krakoa.

Northstar promptly turns around and tells the Avengers to get the f*ck out, which Wasp found to be rude. Jean counsels him to remain calm, but Northstar tells her he is more than ready to kill them all to save Kyle. Steve reminds Magneto that Kyle is an innocent, Magneto replies that he’s human, and Northstar counters with Kyle’s Krakoan citizenship.

Magneto finally lands and releases Kyle. Northstar rushes to his side, as Magneto stalks forward to the Avengers. He reiterates his demand for the Avengers to leave Krakoa. Steve in turn questions why Magneto would prevent the Avengers from taking Wanda’s body home. Magneto bellows that none of them knows what home means for Wanda. Pietro, finally free of Magneto’s earlier attack, counters that he does.

As a last ditch effort, Magneto finally makes a ‘confession’ to killing Wanda, and demands to be taken away by the Avengers before he continues to brings the place down. Steve only stares behind him, and Magneto wants to know why what he’s waiting for. After all, he killed the Scarlet Witch.

Wanda (!?) herself floats down from the sky, to respectfully disagree with this point. From the trees, Mystique watches and comments that this should be interesting. As Wanda lands and walks towards everyone, she greets everyone and thanks them for their help. In fact, Wanda tells them that she’s all right, everything is fine, and she just wants to put this whole thing behind her and let things get back to normal. At this last part, she goes up to Vision and throws herself in his arms, passionately kissing him.

Issue #3 will be released October 20.

[Tenebrae]

Then the spoiler thread that had been up mysteriously vanished.

That wasn't a review thread, it was just a picture. This is much better.

[Kingdom X]

That wasn't a review thread, it was just a picture. This is much better.

Would it be possible to merge the threads? I thought the discussion was good even if it didn’t start with a review/ synopsis.

[Mercury]

Would it be possible to merge the threads? I thought the discussion was good even if it didn’t start with a review/ synopsis.

I completely agree.

For those interested, here's the previous spoiler thread. I was planning on editing in a spoiler review but I wanted to give people a chance to read the issue first.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...neto-2-preview

[JB]

Happy to hear Lorna got her Ph.D. Other than that I have no idea what's going on.

It was nice to see the X-Men and Avengers treating each other with such warmth and I like that Synch was leading the tour. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of snarling Magneto just going around hurting people but it is what it is.

Wanda (?) appearing at the end definitely threw me for a loop.

[king81992]

Happy to hear Lorna got her Ph.D. Other than that I have no idea what's going on.

It was nice to see the X-Men and Avengers treating each other with such warmth and I like that Synch was leading the tour. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of snarling Magneto just going around hurting people but it is what it is.

Wanda (?) appearing at the end definitely threw me for a loop.

'Wanda' is probably Hope copying Mystique's power. I feel like Hope already knows that Magneto is innocent and is trying to buy time for something(unsanctioned Wanda revival by the Five? force the real killer to show their hand?) or she's involved with the murder.

[ericng]

This Wanda is a fake or else the story won't continue until 5 issues. It's either an illusion caused by Jean/Emma or Hope Summers herself shapeshifting by copying Mystique powers? But how can she fly?

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

[WinterCoyote]

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

Maybe she doesn't know Magneto well enough, but she and Wanda did work together to break Wanda's curse on mutants. She could be helping Magneto for Wanda's sake.

[Agatha's Ghost]

This Wanda is a fake or else the story won't continue until 5 issues. It's either an illusion caused by Jean/Emma or Hope Summers herself shapeshifting by copying Mystique powers? But how can she fly?

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

Hope is controlling Magneto. She can control any mutant. She used him to kill Wanda.

With Leah, we finally have an author who understands how magic works.

[RamaBird]

This Wanda is a fake or else the story won't continue until 5 issues. It's either an illusion caused by Jean/Emma or Hope Summers herself shapeshifting by copying Mystique powers? But how can she fly?

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

Hope could be helping Xavier. If Magneto isn't the main focal point, other secrets could be discovered...

But it also seemed like Hope found Xavier shady in whatever he's doing now...

Mystique observing in the bushes looked ominous af.

That's cause she knows what really happened...

[Havok83]

This Wanda is a fake or else the story won't continue until 5 issues. It's either an illusion caused by Jean/Emma or Hope Summers herself shapeshifting by copying Mystique powers? But how can she fly?

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

Hope knows Magneto more than she knows Xavier. They were teammates on the Extinction team and were acquainted with each other in the time prior to the Krakoa era, whereas Xavier was dead for most of that

[king81992]

This Wanda is a fake or else the story won't continue until 5 issues. It's either an illusion caused by Jean/Emma or Hope Summers herself shapeshifting by copying Mystique powers? But how can she fly?

Why is Hope betraying Xavier to save Magneto? It doesn't make sense because Hope doesn't know Magneto well enough.

Hope probably knows that Magneto is being framed. Or she's trying to hide her involvement in Wanda's death.

[Lucyinthesky]

Happy to hear Lorna got her Ph.D. Other than that I have no idea what's going on.

It was nice to see the X-Men and Avengers treating each other with such warmth and I like that Synch was leading the tour. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of snarling Magneto just going around hurting people but it is what it is.

Agreed completely it looks like his one personality trait besides snarling at people, specially Lorna is grief and this just doesn´t make sense given his personality over at planetsize and just could Leah stop trying to ruin Lorna and Magneto´s relationship? I was so happy for Lorna getting her Phd a Magneto in character would have congratuled her, especially given his own investigations he used to do under pseudonyms so it would be nice to see them exchange pappers some day.

Wanda (?) appearing at the end definitely threw me for a loop.

Yes I think this is the old backup Wanda but her backup should not be that old imo, she just discovered she wasn´t a mutant during Uncanny Avengers, unless Xavier knew all this time, including during HoM and decided to not tell anyone, which I don´t think really happened.

[xhx23x]

This whole issue felt like a huge missdirect. So I refuse to speculate on any of this for now and just take it for what it is.

Also, nice to see teams meet and not fight.

Also, >_> Pietro and Northstar be cute.

I hope that Raven has nothing to do with any of this and is really just finding the whole ordeal funny hence why she's just spying around. Bonus points if she gets popcorn at some point.

[Rev9]

On a side note to me the writing of Stark flirting (or whatever he was doing) with Emma right after Jean offers condolences is just atrocious. It is not at all in keeping with the somber reality or gravitas of the entire episode. I know Emma doesn't give a damn but the writer(s) are all over the place, to depict Stark acting like that in front of Vision and other team-mates in the face of what happened is just insulting imo