X-MEN #7 Review *spoilers*

[Mercury]

X-Men #7 opens with a flashback to Dr. Stasis in New Jersey, preparing to send his chimeras to wreak havoc in New York.

Subsequently, there's a flash-forward to Emma greeting Scott upon his resurrection.

Flashback: Scott, Synch, and Wolverine (Laura) are fighting the chimeras on the streets of New York City. (We learn that Jean, Lorna, and Rogue are on Arrako.) Synch and Scott accomplish some incredible feats. The former uses what is later suspected to be muscle memory to replicate Jean's telekinesis. The latter effectively ricochets and channels his optic blasts through traffic lights to target and blast several chimeras at once.

Finally, Scott saves a baby from a chimera before it slices him on the neck. After he hands the baby to a woman, he collapses on a garbage heap. A paramedic approaches him and assures him, "The good news is, it wasn't a complete cut of your carotid artery," before pulling out a scalpel, slicing him, and noting, "The bad news is...now your carotid's finished." As Scott lies dying, the paramedic says to him, "Let's try a little experiment. I'm going to tell you exactly where to find me, and let's see if you can remember when you come back," before whispering his location, which is illegible.

Flash-forward: Forge and Jumbo Carnation are examining the Captain Krakoa suit in the Quiet Council's meeting room, presumably after Scott used it in X-Men #6, as Scott, Jean, and the Council look on. Scott talks to Jean telepathically, admitting, "I don't remember anything about the day." Jean responds, "Not surprising, but--" and Scott interrupts: "Urich knew about resurrection...until he didn't. I'd like you to look back on my chat with Ben the other night." Jean is surprised. "Oh," she says, "You don't think I erased Ben's memories, do--" and Scott interrupts again: "No. Just making sure, because..."

There's a panel of Scott and Jean looking at Emma before Scott continues, "Because we may be in a two-front war. One with the Quiet Council, and of course, we have a much bigger problem..."



The scene cuts to Dr. Stasis looking at the uniform of the paramedic that killed Scott. Presumably, it was Dr. Stasis who murdered him. Scott continues his thought, in voiceover: "Somebody is playing a dangerous game with us. And they're ahead. And I'm pissed off."

The issue ends with two data pages:

Synch's Medical Report: As noted above, Dr. Cecilia Reyes theorizes that Synch was able to replicate Jean's telekinesis, even though she is "off-world," due to the fact that "[t]he resurrection protocols are increasing the previous baseline powers, and Synch's power set may now include the ability to retain a limited 'muscle memory.' His close proximity to Jean since moving to New York may also have helped him pull off this feat."

Dr. Reyes also notes the following: "We define an 'Omega mutant' as having no upper limits to their powers, and it may be that we are witnessing the emergence of a new Omega in Synch. It's unclear what, if any, role resurrection has played in the ability to 'recall' Jean's powers, more data is needed."

Earth-Arrako Relay (E.A.R.): E.A.R. is described as "ten satellites [that] were launched into space with the purpose of connecting mutants on Arakko with mutants on Earth." Additionally, it is noted that "[t]he satellites are well-protected and carry a robust self-destruct system which might seem like overkill for a web of communication satellites." Moreover, it is revealed that "[m]utant communication is fundamentally telepathic, and each of the satellites carries a bank of mutant telepathic brains. Forge reckoned correctly that he did not need entire brains but rather just multiples of telepathic left hemispheres that governed speech and language from a single volunteer. The Five were put off at the request, but Xavier nodded, said he was the donor tissue, and E.A.R. was born. Finally, "[t]he existence of the satellites is common knowledge on both worlds, but their telepathic nature is known only to Forge, Krakoa's telepaths, the Quiet Council and the X-Men."

[Saithor]

Goddamnit Scott, I had five bucks riding on you getting squished by Stilt Man during a fight.

This was pretty good, I like that we are finally getting to the Dr. Stasis Plot, and he seems very interested in what I'm interested in: How the heck do these resurrection protocols work?

[Exodus]

Haven't read it yet but I love to see the new X-Men more and more in opposition with the Quiet Council. I said it before but I would love to see Scott and Jean becoming a direct political opposition on Krakoa.

[Mercury]

I thought this was a phenomenal issue. Scott, Synch, and Sunfire are the stars of the show here. Also, Dr. Stasis is proving to be more and more intriguing. And what about Scott indicating that he, Jean, and the rest of the X-Men may be at "war" with Emma and the Quiet Council?

Damn.

[jwatson]

10/10. This was just beautiful and fun.

my fave parts.

thehero.jpg
awholemood.jpg
somebodycallthenotary.jpg

[Exodus]

I thought this was a phenomenal issue. Scott, Synch, and Sunfire are the stars of the show here. Also, Dr. Stasis is proving to be more and more intriguing. And what about Scott indicating that he, Jean, and the rest of the X-Men may be at "war" with Emma and the Quiet Council?

Damn.

Cannot wait to read it. Sounds great.

I hope we will get more insight why Jean and Scott distanced themselves from the Quiet Council in the first place. What is their real agenda forming the X-Men? Only Krakoa marketing and superheroics or is it maybe more complex than that? Do they have their own agenda for Krakoa?

[Saithor]

Cannot wait to read it. Sounds great.

I hope we will get more insight why Jean and Scott distanced themselves from the Quiet Council in the first place. What is their real agenda forming the X-Men? Only Krakoa marketing and superheroics or is it maybe more complex than that? Do they have their own agenda for Krakoa?

Glorious Mutant Revolution. Rise up!

[ExodusCloak]

When I read this issue I was surprised that this is what they fall out over the QC. Its actually so minor and Scott once tortured a guy to get information when he had Karma in the room. As well as wanted to break Bishops mind to get more information in another instance. Plus he had the Cuckoos on stand by to clean up after X-Force. Any way when I read this I had to face palm...

Anyway...the QC have a lot more to fall out over then protecting the protocols from their enemies. I'm surprised Xavier didn't get pissed off with them in the first place. Or did Emma smooth everything over so the QC didn't reprimand him

[BobbysWorld]

I had a really random thought, but I wonder if Dr. Stasis could possibly be a Sinister clone working with Sinister 'Prime' or whatever to keep the Quiet Council and X-Men off-balance and playing both sides of the mutant vs human conflict - with one version of himself on the QC and another embedded in Orchis. Or given past precedent with Sinister's clones, it could be possible for Dr. Stasis to be a clone of Sinister that the 'main' Sinister kinda set on a specific course of action without Dr. Stasis even KNOWING he's a clone, or what Sinister's true intentions with him/for him are.

Like, just saying....we know Sinister is loyal to nobody but himself (and given his track record with his clones, not even that's a given, lol), we know from PoX that Sinister ends up betraying mutants to pursue his own agenda in Moira's most recent life and caused the downfall of Krakoa, we know he's working on making chimera mutants which I can't help but see a parallel in having an army of 'chimeras' doing Dr. Stasis' bidding here, and these chimeras are additionally very reminiscent of creatures the High Evolutionary has made in the past....and Sinister and the High Evolutionary have famously worked together on experiments in the past. And finally, there's a very long running precedent of Sinister adopting alternate personas or guises to embed himself somewhere for a longterm scheme, such as his time spent as Dr. Nathan Milbury and various other identities. The scene a few issues ago with Dr. Stasis presiding over a warped 'family dinner' of some kind, like, in hindsight feels not that dissimilar from how he once inserted himself as the director of the orphanage Scott grew up in and like, on top of his secret experiments there, he fucked with Scott and other kids' lives and daily routines just because he could and it amuses him.

Plus there's the fact that this issue cements Dr. Stasis as being preoccupied with Scott specifically, and playing a game with him, and who is obsessed with playing games with Scott Summers above all else?

*Shrugs* Anyway I had this thought, so tossing it out there. Maybe I'm just being random and am totally off-base, and I'm not super set on this theory or anything, but like, little things keep making this pop back into my head every now and then.

[Saithor]

When I read this issue I was surprised that this is what they fall out over the QC. Its actually so minor and Scott once tortured a guy to get information when he had Karma in the room. As well as wanted to break Bishops mind to get more information in another instance. Plus he had the Cuckoos on stand by to clean up after X-Force. Any way when I read this I had to face palm...

Anyway...the QC have a lot more to fall out over then protecting the protocols from their enemies. I'm surprised Xavier didn't get pissed off with them in the first place. Or did Emma smooth everything over so the QC didn't reprimand him

The Quiet Council sent the same group of mutants to attack and die to ORCHIS floating space station multiple times. They don't have any ground to stand on criticizing folks for accidentally revealing the protocols.

[Exodus]

The Quiet Council sent the same group of mutants to attack and die to ORCHIS floating space station multiple times. They don't have any ground to stand on criticizing folks for accidentally revealing the protocols.

that's true actually and does not make sense at all...

...the mutant resurrection controversy in this book does not really make sense. The Quiet Council never really tried to hide it before.

[andreikes]

Cannot wait to read it. Sounds great.

I hope we will get more insight why Jean and Scott distanced themselves from the Quiet Council in the first place. What is their real agenda forming the X-Men? Only Krakoa marketing and superheroics or is it maybe more complex than that? Do they have their own agenda for Krakoa?

That must be why parts of him appear in the Immortal X-Men variant.

[ExodusCloak]

The Quiet Council sent the same group of mutants to attack and die to ORCHIS floating space station multiple times. They don't have any ground to stand on criticizing folks for accidentally revealing the protocols.

They also sent the same Duds over and over while leaving more useful mutants at home. When all it took was Xavier and Magneto to kill Nimrod. In any case that would explain why they didn't reprimand him. It still makes no sense at all why this is the straw that breaks the camels back.

[ChronoRogue]

I think this issue was fine for the most part. When Duggan actually focuses on developing one conflict, he can write an entertaining story.

Dr Stasis does not have a ton of depth but he's mildly entertaining. I liked Scott's moment of refracting his beams.

I'm glad Synch is getting more time to shine and am happy we're getting another omega (?) added to the list. Though I do wish his powers manifested in a different way than recall, CC did this with Rogue already years ago and thus it doesn't feel new exactly.

But as I've repeated it ad-nauseam, I'm not satisfied with how Duggan doesn't use like half his cast most of the time. Including the main reason I'm following this book. Wolverine, Sunfire and Rogue continue to get the short end of the stick even though two of the three were part of this issue. So biased or not, points off for him continuing this trend, especially since we're nearing a cast shake-up pretty soon.

[JB]

This is one of my favorite issues so far. It was gorgeous, emotional, and I was over the moon about Synch's feat.

Dr. Stasis is becoming a very formidable foe imo and he's kinda frightening.

I'm glad Duggan gave Laura at least a sprinkle of personality here. Larraz and Gracia knocked it out of the park with every page.