Legion of X #7 Review/Spoilers - The Abyss Gazes Also

[Rift]

Nightcrawler briefs his cops, and many of them are notably curious about the fact that he's sprouting devil horns. Kurt doesn't know the cause, but he assures everyone that's it's fine, and just to ignore them.

Back to Spurrier's new favorite character, Legion. He and Blindfold meet up with Cypher and Warlock in the Astral Plane. Warlock's spiritual form is very human-like, looking like a bald, gold, naked man. Ruth's astral form also looks naked, aside from her blindfold. Everyone's just having a good time.

Warlock talks about how the Phalanx created the Technarchy, how they infect and destroy, yadda yadda. But if exceptionally powerful or novel modes of being are detected, an algorithm is triggered in them: when something is to valuable to consume and replicate, they instead build the "Babel Spire." Without thinking, everything recorded as data for Phalanx enrichment, and whatever is not needed, is destroyed.

Anyway, Warlock has his father's ashes, which can exist even in the Astral Plane. Cypher says that they're more like spores, wisps of curiosity and inspection. Given critical mass and the presence of a novel mutant community, Warlock can send out a "call." And like, I'm glad Warlock is getting focus and development, I love that for him. But this is boring, and I'm waiting for Hellion to show up and save this issue.

David agrees to help. So he gathers those Astral Bloom things from last issue. With them, Warlock creates Pi, expressed as a geometric constant - perfect for attracting inquiring minds. It's bait to call forth this really cute, multi-eyed whale, which is the form of the Astral Technarchy.

Data Page time. The TL;DR is that the Technarchy can infect stuff even on the Astral Plane. Basically just visualizing everything Warlock talked about, but adding more words.



At Bar Sinister, Sinister is approached by Nightcrawler, Pixie and Nemesis. He thinks Nemesis' genetic edits to himself are "perversions," and even he thinks Nemesis' work is weird. The two scientists sass each other, and let's be honest here, Sinister can out-bitch most mere mortals. His comebacks are funnier. With Nemesis flopping in this challenge, he sashays away.

Anyway, they're here to see what the deal is with Kurt's new horns. Sinister takes a blood sample. Sinny determined that it's a fusion of mutation and magic. Sinister isn't sure how to fix it, but he'd like to study it. But since Kurt wants it undone, Sinister proposes that Kurt "switching it off and on again." He whips out a gun and shoots Kurt dead.

So Kurt is dead, and Vox Ignis (whom Kurt recognizes as Banshee) insists that he and Mommy Righteous are on Kurt's side. They're between worlds, but since Kurt is due for a resurrection soon, he won't remember their convo. But if anything about this manages to stick with Kurt, it's this: protect Legion, because he's the real star of this book.

Kurt is resurrection, except he's not back to normal. In fact, his horns are bigger and spikes are now growing on his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Mother Goose complains to Vox about how Warlock is strengthening David's astral defenses with stuff like consciousness traps, warp-weaves, and mathematic artillery. She's annoyed because now it'll be harder to persuade (ie manipulate) Legion. But they notice a "hitchhiker," an aura roughly shaped like Juggernaut, is attached to Warlock.

To Kurt is getting an observation from Nemesis now, admitting that he should have gone to him first. Why didn't he? Hellion thought it would be funny to mislead them, I assume. Or maybe this will tie into Sins of Sinister. Anyway, Kurt's new mutation is mutant in origin, but Pixie's souldagger is vibrating like a tuning fork when they find a signature match.

They teleport to an X-Corp building in LA, where they meet Dane Whitman! ....'s daughter Jackie, who's also the Black Knight. She's also a mutant - this isn't mentioned in the books, but it's on the Wiki and might be important later. And since we're on the subject of Jackie, anyone notice how Marvel has this weirdly specific trend, where a white character suddenly gets a biracial child that looks completely like the other race, and nothing at all like their white parent? I know mixed race kids tend to swing more towards the non-white side of a mix, but I always thought how weird it was that Marvel has repeated this very specific idea, in the exact same way, likely by accident. I guess it's their way of adding diversity to a family in a way that feels more natural? Off the top of my head, there's Dane Whitman and his daughter, Jackie Chopra; James Bourne (Solo) and his daughter; Nathaniel Richards and his daughter, Joanna; Nick Fury and his son, Nick Fury; Wade Wilson and his daughter, Eleanor. And in a weird reverse-example, Blade being revealed to have a white dad who looks almost nothing like him.

So Black Knight 2: Knight Harder explains that she was meeting Angel here for ask him if she could use her mutant status to get in an X-Book and bag Hellion. Angel left the room for a call (presumably Hellion), when some strange, demonic creature showed up. She believed it murdered Angel and began fighting it, but Kurt reveals that the monster is Angel.



Notes:

• It's implied Stacy X banged Kurt.
• Mother Righteous calls consciousness is the worst curse of all.
  

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I liked today's issue. I'm guessing Mother Righteous is shaping to be a recurring antagonist. The end reveal was fun and I'm curious where it leads to.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Mother Righteous is like the least interesting of these plot threads

[Nicoclaws]

So the Technarchy plot is actually gonna be picked up in Legion of X ? I never thought we would find it HERE.

The important thing is :
Is Kurt's new form sexy ?

[Grunty]

Meanwhile half of Gene Nation: "Oh NOW having random horns, spikes and bladed growths is fashionable? Posers!"

[LordUltimus]

And Moira apparently "fears true death more than anyone Nightcrawler knew".

Yeah, not like they never saw her spirit after she died way back when or anything. No signs of her being content in the afterlife.

[Kingdom X]

Legion’s plots always feel very disjointed from Kurt’s in this book. Tbh I think Spurrier should just write a Legion book and call it day, but I can see why Marvel won’t let him since his X-Men Legacy run didn’t last that long.

Quick note: I thought the aura attached to Warlock was Nimrod.

It seems like this book is becoming more and more important to the line overall, with it’s return to the Phalanx plot and it’s upcoming involvement in SoS. Interesting choice because I feel like it doesn’t sell all too well and seemed positioned to be more of a supplemental book, but we’ll see what happens!

[Proxy]

Kurt consulting sinister feels a bit shoehorned in, probably needs to set up something with all those Nightcrawler hybrids in SOS. The two plots feel really separated from each other at the moment.

[PyroFN]

And Moira apparently "fears true death more than anyone Nightcrawler knew".

Yeah, not like they never saw her spirit after she died way back when or anything. No signs of her being content in the afterlife.

Funny thing about retcons. Everything prior is left as irrelevant. Like the revelation that Moira never died to begin with. That would incur a reset of the universe. What you are referencing is a Shi’ar Golem in Moira’s guise. This has been a thing since Powers of X 6.

[norj]

Since mutants are descended from Deviants and resurrection strengthens powers I am guessing that Nightcrawler and Warren are undergoing excess deviation.

[LordUltimus]

Funny thing about retcons. Everything prior is left as irrelevant. Like the revelation that Moira never died to begin with. That would incur a reset of the universe. What you are referencing is a Shi’ar Golem in Moira’s guise. This has been a thing since Powers of X 6.

Yeah, and they still haven't explained it. You may as well have not even had the Shi'ar golem for all it matters, and have her wander in and no one questions it.

[Tobinator]

Warlock's monolog was one of the more egregious violations of "show don't tell" I've seen lately. It was like watching the opening crawl on a movie that hasn't been edited or reading a fantasy novel appendix before reading the novel itself. Like the intro to Final Fantasy 12.

The "who's more sciencey" dick-measuring contest read very much like someone who didn't know any scientists writing Hollywood scientists. They're caricatures that worship the metaphorical concept of "science" without any respect for what science actually entails. Nemesis is just a catty little bitch in this issue.

The "turn it off and back on" again thing was admittedly probably the smart move, from an IT perspective. Just happened to not work in this case.

And it's really obnoxious for the avatar of death to come in and tell us how important Legion is. That's the kind of thing that happens in fanfics.

[CoCoBandz]

So the Technarchy plot is actually gonna be picked up in Legion of X ? I never thought we would find it HERE.

The important thing is :
Is Kurt's new form sexy ?

God no.

No more Eternals garbage ...

[captain Qball]

I really enjoyed this. It was beautiful, with the altar, Astral plane and group shots in particular standing out to me. Nightcrawler was looking a lot like Sinister in this. Might be the facial hair and facial structure, or might be intentional.

The blending of Astral, magical, and mutant elements is fascinating to me. It makes sense the Phalanx would reach out beyond the physical plane. I enjoyed the Sinister appearance, but a bit disappointed they all just treated him like a wacky scientist when Immortal X-men has shown Nightcrawler doesn't trust him.

I guess the death of Warlock's father should have given it away, but I didn't expect this book to continue the ascension/phalanx story from House/powers.

Very convienent that warlock is able to know everything we know from the Hox/Pox data pages about how the Phalanx operate. Felt like catching the characters up to where the readers are. Warlocks new form seems weird, especially since they specifically mention they are in physical space when he is first seen in it. Almost like the artist didn't want to draw Warlock as we know him.

[Nicoclaws]

Legion’s plots always feel very disjointed from Kurt’s in this book. Tbh I think Spurrier should just write a Legion book and call it day, but I can see why Marvel won’t let him since his X-Men Legacy run didn’t last that long.

Quick note: I thought the aura attached to Warlock was Nimrod.

It seems like this book is becoming more and more important to the line overall, with it’s return to the Phalanx plot and it’s upcoming involvement in SoS. Interesting choice because I feel like it doesn’t sell all too well and seemed positioned to be more of a supplemental book, but we’ll see what happens!

To be fair, Spurrier has a habit of making several disjointed plots coalesce in the finale so I'm not that worried.
As for the importance of the title, I think it goes with Hickman's way of doing things. Each book has its important moment on the franchise at some point. I think X-force will become relevant again after SoS, and lead to FoX.