A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #1 Review/Spoilers

[Rift]

We begin with the Tony-Sersei meeting from the previews. Echo suddenly bursts in, carries Sersei into space, where she's knocked out and collected by more Avengers.

Back at the Treehouse, Jean and Scott observe some flatscan protestors who are buttmad they can't get a lil immortality.

On Krakoa, Kurt and his moms talk about an upcoming war Destiny sees. Once she confirms that the Eternals are this event's villains, she and Mystique go to warn the Council, while Kurt goes to warn the Great Ring. Kurt meets with Cable, Mags and Storm.

Sersei awakens in a psychic dead room in the stupid Avengers Mountain, where they can talk without Sersei influencing him. Sersei says that she can still manipulate matter and kill him, while using her powers to turn her dress into something sexier and more revealing.

Tony gives her a powerpoint presentation about how the Eternals snuck into their dumb mountain last month. They only told the truth about Thanos' involvement with the Eternals, and the destruction of Earth, when they got caught. Sersei regrets this, but Iron Man points out that she's not saying it's a mistake, nor is she apologizing. They're interrupted by someone, but their identity is obscured by lens flare.

Meanwhile, an hour earlier, on the Eternal capital of Olympia, Druig is giving a boring speech to the Uni-Mind, who approve of him murdering the mutants. He goes to Uranos and lets him out of prison for one hour to destroy Arakko.

At the Damocles Foundation's Corporate HQ, Moira meets with a bald guy. (Hell, I only barely know about the Eternals. This guy is a mystery to me, sorry.) Moira exposits about how Krakoa was mean to her, and the guy is like "lol grudges are cool. Yeah, let's go to war with them."

To the Quiet Council. Half of the Eternals' committed forces combine with the Uni-Mind to psychically assault the Council. This is a plan to distract the leaders of Krakoa, while they attack with an attack flight, outfitted with war armor. Those guys are beaten up by the X-Men. Except THAT'S not a big deal either, because Arakko is being attacked, while stealth units kill the Five. While they lose Egg, Wolverine is able to stop Jack of Knives from killing Hope, then tells Jean to secure the rest of the Five.

Moira tells the guy how the Eternals kind of suck, but the baldy is all "it's okay, we're Eternals. If nothing else, we'll win by erosion."

In the Arbor Magna, Egg is brought back, thanks to having made some spare eggs earlier. Hope is pissed that her friends were attacked. Kurt comes in after the explosion on Mars. He frantically tells them that they need to "bring them back" and "Arakko needs leadership."

They revive Cable. Hope hugs her naked dad, who angrily and desperately asks them what had happened.

The part of Arrako we see is completely ravaged, littered with bones of the dead. The Great Ring appears to have been wiped out, leaving only Hellion to take charge and rule the planet. Uranos is ported back to prison once his hour is up. He succeeded in destroying all gates to Earth, and he left an arsenal to distract whoever was left on the planet.

Back with the Avengers, Sersei is telling them how Druid sucks and is a power-hungry loser. But then Druig hacks the eastern U.S. seaboard's tech to deliver a message: They think mutants overstepped their bounds and are trying to take over everything, but they're going to defeat them so it's alright. Also, Druig's summoning a bunch of kaiju to help.

The people protesting for immortality are super stoked about them taking care of the mutant problem. At least they're having a good time.

The Avengers have Sersei locked up. They know that she's not with Druig's Eternals, but they don't know why. Ajak, Makkari and a captured Mister Sinister show up. Salma Hayek says that this is a holy war, born of holy scripture. They need to build a god in order to rewrite the scripture and end the war. Tony's in on the plan. Looks like they'll be reviving the Avengers' dumb Celestial corpse to be their god.

Notes:

• Magneto's helmet is among the wreckage and bones of Arakko, so he's likely (though not confirmed to be) dead. Unless they disregard Arakkii feelings and revive the Great Ring, Isca's probably alive - she's mentioned in a solicit for a future X-Men Red issue.
• Jada, one of the six most important people we've seen in promotional material, is seen in the crowd of protestors. She's sad because her daughter is dead. She's later seen crying and hugging someone in the crowd as people cheer for the Eternals. It's unclear if her tears are of sadness or joy.
• I don't know what's going on in Avengers right now, but Robbie Reyes is nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, he has been freed from the book.
• Before the Eternals attacked, Arakko had a population of a million, and Krakoa had 200,000. We don't know the current totals.
• Fun cameos: Graymalkin, Marrow, Strong Guy

[jwatson]

Sounds about right. Well off to get ready for work. Rip: Another group of diverse mutants that had nothing to do with the eternals or Gillien's story.

[Jackraow21]

Nice. So now that I can legally post my review/spoilers, I’ll just add mine to this thread.

This issue was a pretty solid start. Gorgeous art from Schiti, and really nice pacing from Gillen. It’s a set up issue, but it is dramatic! Here goes…

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- Open with The Machine (Earth) talking to us… two interesting things are said here: 1) “I do not exist yet” and 2) “Who are the heroes here? We will find out.”

- Cut to the preview pages we’ve seen of Tony Stark and Sersi having lunch and then Echo-Phoenix jumping her and Captain Marvel confirming they have her; Scott and Jean dealing with jealous protestors outside the Treehouse who hate and fear mutants all over again due to the story about their ability to resurrect having broken; and Destiny, Mystique and Nightcrawler hanging out with Destiny finally being able to see what’s coming and telling Kurt to warn the Great Ring of Arakko while they brief the Quiet Council on Krakoa.

- Cut to Kurt briefing Magneto, Storm and Cable (in the scene from the trailer) and they also decide that Storm should go to Krakoa to be with the Quiet Council while Magneto and Cable stay to brief the Great Ring; Magneto also asks Cable for his thoughts on battle plans and Nathan somewhat arrogantly says that “he has some thoughts but it shouldn’t be anything they cannot handle” (famous last words); and Erik babbles some biblical sh!t about how the gods of Olympus overthrew the Titans and thus they must do the same to the Eternals now… and it is indeed about to get biblical, only not in the way that Mags expects.

- Go to Sersi being held by the Avengers in a psychic dead room deep in Avengers Mountain and Iron Man is interrogating her, wanting to know their plans because ever since they found out about Thanos leading the Eternals they’ve been keeping tabs on the Eternals and they’ve picked up some strange readings that indicate mobilization for war.

- Captain America cuts in and says basically “she used to be an Avenger so she’s earned a little trust, Tony” (*eye roll* he’s such a sanctimonious #@n&); and she lets them know that her and a faction of Eternals have left their society so whatever is happening she’s not a part of it and it must be Druig.

- Cut to Druig in Olympia making his case to the Uni-Mind about culling the mutants as they are now in gross violation of “excess deviation” and he says here that the mutants’ X-gene actually came from the Deviants (sure to be controversial if true!); they all vote in favor of “correction” (i.e., “fire and death”).

- In the Exclusion, Druig is bragging to Thanos about how easily he manipulated the Uni-Mind and tells him that this is all about uniting the Eternals behind him as their new Prime Eternal by giving them a common threat to face; he recruits Uranos to go to Planet Arakko and tells him he has one hour before he’ll automatically be brought back to his prison; Uranos gloats “the mutants terraformed Mars in one day; you will see what Uranos the Undying can do in one hour” (ominous!).

- Go to Druig now meeting with Moira MacTaggart at the Damocles Foundation’s HQ in Los Angeles, where she shares her motivation for wanting the mutants dead and the rationale behind her and ORCHIS helping them (aligned interest basically).

- Cut to Krakoa where the Uni-Mind suddenly attacks, taking out all the telepaths; an “attack flight” also lands sporting some war armor from The Eternals earlier days (which makes them, a hardy people, even more so as per Druig); the X-men come through a gate and join the fight, which Moira chastises Druig for allowing to happen, to which he replies that Magik could’ve teleported them there anyway even if they’d destroyed the gates.

- Over on Arakko, Cable is going over battle plans with the Great Ring when Nightcrawler teleports in with a warning, telling them to “get out!”; cut back to Krakoa and Logan sniffs out Egg/Goldballs lying on some stairs dead and follows the scent (while this is going on Druig is going over his plan to take the mutant circuit, The Five, off the board and thus end the mutant’s resurrection capability); we see Logan stab Jack of Knives who says “you’re good; how did you sense me?” to which Logan responds that he was sloppy and didn’t clean his blade so he followed the scent of Egg’s blood on the blade; he saves Hope’s life here, as she’s down and out from the Uni-Mind attack on the psychics, but not before Jack flings a bunch of knives at him that land and cause Logan to burst into flames… but not before Logan can shout a psychic warning to Jean to protect the rest of The Five.

- Moira tells Druig he blew it, but Druig seems unconcerned… now here comes my favorite part…

- Cut to Arbor Magna, where Logan is telling Jean that they have to get Hank, Brand and Cable on this right away (I suppose thinking of their most devious strategists) while Hope is in the background telling a newly resurrected Egg (who had fortunately made a bunch of back-up eggs earlier) that “they went for my people… these @&#$&# are going to pay” when Nightcrawler BAMFs in, saying “it’s hell, bring them back, I barely made it out, Arakko needs leadership” and Hope immediately says, “Where’s my dad?”

- Jump to the Five bringing someone back… it’s Cable (yay!!!), and he hugs Hope and asks what happened… when no one answers, he asks more forcefully “WHAT HAPPENED?!”… it’s worth noting that Cable’s techno-organics in this scene are back to looking all Transmode virus-y (like Warlock only black with glowing blue versus glowing yellow), which I’m starting to think is how it looks all the time underneath his armor plating… definitely a new development that I’m sure Ewing plans to do something with down the line… regardless, super happy about this scene and loving the Cable-Hope dynamic as always (best daddy-daughter duo in comics, hands down!).

- Go to Uranos on Arakko, which he has absolutely laid to waste to in biblical fashion… no idea how many are dead, but looks like he got Cable (who’s already back thankfully), Magneto and all of The Great Ring for sure along with anyone else who was in the vicinity… it’s bad; this dude is clearly a level above Thanos here and more like a Darkseid level threat… or worse!

- Back to the Exclusion where Uranos is returned to his cell, telling Druig that he failed to take out The Five and thus he will need him so he should go ahead and let him out; Druig says “it’s not that bad yet” and then proceeds to send a message to all smartphones and other viewing technologies around the world letting the humans know that the Eternals are their protectors and will save them from the threat the mutants represent, as they have watched over them for centuries… and it appears that the humans are actually cheering this news (disgusting).

- But then he asks them to be not afraid as the Hex are released, the giant kaiju Eternals (yes, they are Eternals just monstrous ones), and we see them off the Western Seaboard of the United States in the Pacific.

- At this point Cap assembles the Avengers to go into battle but just then Ajak and Makkari show up with a bound and gagged Sinister, who they’ve kidnapped, telling Tony Stark that the only way to stop a holy war being driven by a divine scripture that compels them to destroy excess deviation is to create a god who will rewrite that scripture and end the war… to which Stark responds that the plan is “hubris… but it’s a good thing I’m pro-hubris” and is onboard with it… they point to the dead Celestial they are standing in and say, “We have everything we need.”

- The end… for now.
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All in all a really solid start to the series. I’m concerned about Magneto, however, after recent developments in Red (where he destroyed his backup) and thus am not sure he can still be brought back. I’m extremely thankful they didn’t leave Cable off the board, though, and immediately brought him back so he can play a role in this event (for a change). Really, really looking forward to X-men Red #5 and A.X.E. Judgment Day #2 and beyond.

8/10
(I’d have given it a 10/10 but don’t love how easily the Great Ring and Magneto were taken out; we’ll get more insight into how that went down in XMR #5)

[Grunty]

Somehow i feel like reserving judgement on them suddently killing all or most of Arrako until the crossover is over and we see which mass deaths stick, since X-men Red and Immortal X-men solicits seem to imply Arrako still exist to be bothered about who leads it. So i can't rule out a last minute "everyone back to life but the RP goes away" outcome.

The true Judgement Day on this event will be when it's over (bad pun).

Also someone told me Marrow was shown among the bodies on the ground when the Eternals retreat. Which normaly means she died, but since i'm a firm believer in her healing factor i don't consider her dead until explicitly stated, so i keep her on my "characters who didn't stupidly die during the Krakoa era" bingo card for the time being.

[Kingdom X]

Wheeeeew boy I have thoughts and feelings bout this one. First gotta shout out Valerio for the killer art, because they surely don't MISS!

I guess I'll start with the Arrakko revelation.... this really done rubbed me the wrong way. I KNEW this was gonna interrupt Ewing's story and it did it in the worst way. I don't care how good he is at making crossovers work and salvaging the sh*t. A bunch of the story potential that he's presented us with is gone. And all the naysayers of Arrakko were right. They were canon fodder. We had a vibrant planet of (POC-coded) mutants learning how to balance their past of violence, new intergalactic trade opportunities, and how to hang onto their identity within the new context of peace/ Krakoa. Of course Ewing can get back to all that but first he's gonna have to rebuild everything that's just been torn down. I get that one of the first major X-overs was the Mutant Massacre but the franchises need to constantly one up itself when it comes to mutant mass murder is out of hand.

The Avengers side of the story was also... not hitting. Tony can't help but be outta pocket, kidnapping an old teammate and interrogating her when she coulda BEEN told y'all at lunch that the leadership has changed over on Olympia.

The humans presented in this story were on pure weirdo energy. Yes we knew protests were gonna happen and we knew people were gonna be upset. But y'all THAT happy that some random alien looking mf pulled up on your phones and said he gone take care of them? Yeah... no don't share them protocols with NOBODY.

I don't get how the Avengers are supposed to be mediators in this conflict. The Eternals are full on aggressors here, trying to snatch up a key mutant resource and killing thousands, if not a million, mutants. Glad Egg survived and Krakoa ready to bounce back.

[PotniaTheron]

Now I wonder if the Eternals will pay the price when this is all over. Hopefully by the time this is over, the Eternals won't be forgiven for some stupid reason, like the rest of the "good" Eternals have teamed up with the Avengers and x-Men to stop The Celestials.

[jwatson]

Got to say also sounds like a good way to potentially have Storm want to step down from her Krakoan council. The writer who hasn't written two words of dialogue for her basically hands her the biggest L of her career while she chose to go to krakoa showing she can't do it all. Thank goodness for Krakoa they had Emma and Hope and the other "capable" leaders there so they aren't looking at a fate worse than the molock massacre. Also kind interesting, just from the combination of these reviews etc that Eternals who are suppose to be protecting humanity because of access deviation on the machine that is earth would target arrako. but smart move having one eternal do it so no one can go ALL eternals. lol

And somehow thousands of her people are slaughtered and she's barely in a promo image. LMAO.

[Starfish]

This being a Gillen event, I wouldn't be surprised if Sinister and his Moira farm became of crucial importance.

[Jackraow21]

Wheeeeew boy I have thoughts and feelings bout this one. First gotta shout out Valerio for the killer art, because they surely don't MISS!

I guess I'll start with the Arrakko revelation.... this really done rubbed me the wrong way. I KNEW this was gonna interrupt Ewing's story and it did it in the worst way. I don't care how good he is at making crossovers work and salvaging the sh*t. A bunch of the story potential that he's presented us with is gone. And all the naysayers of Arrakko were right. They were canon fodder. We had a vibrant planet of (POC-coded) mutants learning how to balance their past of violence, new intergalactic trade opportunities, and how to hang onto their identity within the new context of peace/ Krakoa. Of course Ewing can get back to all that but first he's gonna have to rebuild everything that's just been torn down. I get that one of the first major X-overs was the Mutant Massacre but the franchises need to constantly one up itself when it comes to mutant mass murder is out of hand.

Yeah, the more I think about it the more it does kind of bug me. But I think what you said above (which I bolded) made me feel better about it. The Arakki basically got treated like the new Morlocks here, but Ewing can and will rebuild the Great Ring. For sure. We already know Isca’s not dead as she’s in the solicit and on the cover for XMR #7. So either they bring her back or she didn’t die somehow. Maybe Magneto protected her?

And, of course, the other thing that colored my feelings on this issue towards the very positive — aside from the banging artwork — was Cable being immediately resurrected and thus not getting sidelined for yet another event and put on the shelf for awhile. Gotta love how Hope prioritizes bringing her daddy back… now if they’d just stop killing a MFer! Damn.

The Avengers side of the story was also... not hitting. Tony can't help but be outta pocket, kidnapping an old teammate and interrogating her when she coulda BEEN told y'all at lunch that the leadership has changed over on Olympia.

Agreed here. But, to be fair, the Avengers are dorks to me and as such are never hitting.

The humans presented in this story were on pure weirdo energy. Yes we knew protests were gonna happen and we knew people were gonna be upset. But y'all THAT happy that some random alien looking mf pulled up on your phones and said he gone take care of them? Yeah... no don't share them protocols with NOBODY.

Human beings gonna human being is how I saw that I guess.

I don't get how the Avengers are supposed to be mediators in this conflict. The Eternals are full on aggressors here, trying to snatch up a key mutant resource and killing thousands, if not a million, mutants. Glad Egg survived and Krakoa ready to bounce back.

No doubt. There’s no “good people on both sides” here, mane. So hopefully the Avengers are going to help the mutants wreck some kaijus, otherwise my feelings on them sucking are completely going to be validated here.

[Kingdom X]

Got to say also sounds like a good way to potentially have Storm want to step down from her Krakoan council. The writer who hasn't written two words of dialogue for her basically hands her the biggest L of her career while she chose to go to krakoa showing she can't do it all. Thank goodness for Krakoa they had Emma and Hope and the other "capable" leaders there so they aren't looking at a fate worse than the molock massacre. Also kind interesting, just from the combination of these reviews etc that Eternals who are suppose to be protecting humanity because of access deviation on the machine that is earth would target arrako. but smart move having one eternal do it so no one can go ALL eternals. lol

And somehow thousands of her people are slaughtered and she's barely in a promo image. LMAO.

Moreso it’s like… Storm already had this story beat done when she was the leader of the Morlocks and they were killed off. I’ll reserve judgement for Storm’s role in all this based on what Ewing writes but it’s all just very uninspired. Uranos himself is like… why don’t you just send me to Krakoa and I’m truly asking the same thing.

[sunofdarkchild]

As a first issue of the event it's fine. Schiti's art is fantastic as always.

The main thing this issue needed to do was establish the Eternals as a real threat to the mutants, and I'd say they accomplished that. While the first attack on Krakoa was ultimately beaten back, they succeeded in neutralizing all telepaths but Jean who was in New York when the attack started, they managed to kill 1 of the 5 and would have gotten the other 4 if Logan hadn't smelled Egg's blood, and they showed a level of knowledge of their enemy/tactical planning in knowing not to waste resources trying to keep the X-Men from returning to Krakoa when they have Magik. And of course the real threat was revealed to be Uranos and not the rest of the Eternals . Krakoa would seem to have an answer to everything but him right now.

If I thought for a second that Storm and Magneto would stay dead I might care about what happened to Arakko, but as it is the only aspect of Arakko's fate that interests me is what happened with Isca. Was she not around for some reason or did she turn to Uranos' side?

Last thought, when writing this I wrote 'Inhumans' instead of 'Eternals.' Guess I've still got PTSD from the last time we did this song and dance.

[Reigna]

So to the anti krakoan anti arakki people all I have to day is, you were right. Arakko is fodder for these big dumb events. Feel free to gloat.

IMG_20220716_193341.jpg

All the omegas with abstract fantastical powers still couldn't beat one overgrown one note villan. I lost today, I truly lost.

[Kingdom X]

So to the anti krakoan anti arakki people all I have to day is, you were right. Arakko is fodder for these big dumb events. Feel free to gloat.

IMG_20220716_193341.jpg

Bruh I’m literally bout to put on some clown makeup cause I feel like such a fool. “They aren’t fodder, Ewing is developing them as individuals and as a society and it’d be such a waste!” Lemme go find a circus to join.

[Rift]

Re: Arakko being wiped out. Solicits for X-Men Red suggest that there are still some people around. Arakko will inevitably be ravaged by this, but they won't be wiped out. But they'll likely undergo a lot of changes because of it, which sucks because I love them the way they are now. And I'm still pretty mad that they were mistreated in the first place.

Got to say also sounds like a good way to potentially have Storm want to step down from her Krakoan council. The writer who hasn't written two words of dialogue for her basically hands her the biggest L of her career while she chose to go to krakoa showing she can't do it all. Thank goodness for Krakoa they had Emma and Hope and the other "capable" leaders there so they aren't looking at a fate worse than the molock massacre. Also kind interesting, just from the combination of these reviews etc that Eternals who are suppose to be protecting humanity because of access deviation on the machine that is earth would target arrako. but smart move having one eternal do it so no one can go ALL eternals. lol

This isn't really a blemish on Storm. Everyone is taking L's. Storm went to the Council while Cable, Mags and Nightcrawler went to the Ring, so they can exchange ideas and better communicate. She's a member of both councils and is the best person to represent the wants of Arakko. Meanwhile, Hope needed to be rescued by Wolverine, while Emma didn't appear. From solicits, it looks like Storm will be dealing with the L in her own book, and we'll be seeing more of her handling the crisis.

As an aside, how strong is Uranos actually? We've seen people resist Omegas before, but could this guy reasonably wipe out much of Arakko on his own? I feel like Hellion could kick his ass.

[Exodus]

writers in X-Men books can always ask Jean to use the Phoenix Force and resurrect everybody on Arrakko. easy thing. Let the event unfold and be redone in the last issue. ;-)