X-Men #23 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

Oof, things continue to get more brutal as the pieces are coming together and we march towards the Fall.

"After a long day of quietly and efficiently committing genocide against the mutants, there's nothing that Doctor Stasis enjoys more than eating with clones of his family." We open with Stasis concluding dinner with his family, the clones then falling face first into their plates. A figure enters the room behind Stasis. He turns and is shocked. "R-Rebecca? How can this be? You're not one of my creations..." Mother Righteous laughs, saying she hasn't been Rebecca Essex for many lifetimes. She sits on his lap and tells him that he's a fraud, not the original Essex. As she touches the club on his forehead and seeing the heart on hers, he quickly comes to the realization that there must be an Essex of each card suit. MR came to tell him that she's going to be taking an interest, possibly a controlling one, in Orchis. As she reaches for a glass of wine he grabs her hand and pricks her with a small needle on the underside of a ring on his finger (it's not clear to me exactly what the needle did). She strikes him in the crouch. In pain and on the floor, Stasis says whatever game is afoot he intends to be the winner and maybe they can work together. She puts her foot on his face and is like nah. She warns him not to make clones of his wife and son anymore and to make no attempt to have a future with her.

The title page tells us tensions between mutant and humankind are on the rise as Orchis continues to spread anti-mutant propaganda and instigate fights that have the X-Men bending over backwards in what are coordinated media pitfalls.

We now get the preview pages as FDNY firefighters take on a three-alarm blaze in the Bronx. A Stark Sentinel arrives to assist and saves two of their lives. Narration tells us that Feilong's rebranding of the Sentinels seemed to work for most Americans, who view the machines favorably. Suddenly the Sentinel declares a mutant detected as it points at one of the firefighters. It fires a blast at the man and corners him. The Sentinel lifts its foot as the man says he doesn't want to die. Before its foot comes crashing down it's hit by an optic blast in the back, its foot narrowly missing the firefighter.

Cyclops, Forge, Firestar, and Iceman are on the scene and Cyclops tells Firestar it's her turn to call the shots. She tells Bobby to immobilize the Senti but his attempts to freeze it don't work. Senti announces lethal protocols enabled as it punches Bobby and his ice slide in half. Forge fires his marvin the martian ray gun at Senti's face but it does nothing. Firestar tells Iceman to switch gears and focus on putting out the building fire while she distracts the Sentinel and Cyclops hits it with another optic blast. He calls for Jean, Synch, and Talon to join them and tells Synch to be ready to use Polaris' powers. They battle the big machine which continues to counter their attacks. When Bobby returns it identifies him as omega-level and calls for backup. It knocks Forge violently into a building and identifies Cyclops as a Krakoan war captain (obviously it knows how to use Google) and tries to execute him "with extra prejudice."

Magik teleports to the scene with Jean, Synch, and Talon as the Sentinel is trying to kill Cyclops. Magik says, "You gonna let it stomp Scott?" to which Jean replies, "No, that's still my job." Ouch! She wraps Cyclops in a TK bubble just in time and narration tells us this is "their first embrace of any kind in some time." She did save his life though. Synch starts to use Lorna's powers on the Sentinel but is caught by surprise when it counters him. The Sentinel swings its arm down fast and crushes Synch with its fist. Talon runs over to a battered and near death Synch and his powers thankfully sync to hers and he starts healing. She stays with him, comforting him and talking him through his healing.

Magik lunges at the Sentinel as narration tells us that Orchis would later say that the Stark Sentinel had saved the lives of several firefighters and then was attacked by the X-Men. However the truth is that it was secretly programmed to draw out the X-Men, to provoke the fight. Orchis wanted to draw them out not only to test their machine and the X-Men's response, "but to draw blood." At the same time we see the Sentinel fire a harpoon at Illyana from its finger and although she cuts it down in time, a piece of shrapnel delivers a small cut on her face which drips a little bit of blood. Hmm. Jean tells Magik to end it. Though her first idea was to teleport the Sentinel directly into the sun, she noticed people were recording with their phones...



Jean ensures Orchis won't retrieve anything from the Sentinel as she crushes the head down into nothing. Cyclops, still shaky, asks how many of those machines exist. Forge says they're not going to like the answer and that he'll talk to Stark because they need to start planning to counter all of his patents. He admits that their overconfidence was almost fatal. He has a very serious look on his face as he's in no mood to joke.



Data page, a paid op-ed to be run in all major newspapers. It's written by Dr. Stasis and paints the X-Men in a very bad light as he describes the incident with the Stark Sentinel. He pretends that maybe there's hope for peace with the mutants in the future. "Surely not all mutants are bad, but surely some are, and it's long past time for humanity to protect itself from a powerful minority that has yet to prove its willingness to coexist with us." He also mentions that Orchis is hiring.

The final scene is on Krakoa as Emma and the Kingpin walk the beach. She tells him that he now knows their laws and norms on the island, that his Krakoan citizenship by marriage will be defended in the human world should it be required. But that their protection of him will be rescinded should he slip back into any of his bad habits. Fisk says he expects no special treatment and will be a good citizen of Krakoa. Scott appears with his open shirt/chest exposed beach vibe and says he hopes he's not interrupting. Fisk says he's not and that he'll see them both at the gala as he walks off. Scott, to Emma, is like please tell me that was Mystique.

[Diammandis]

From the sound of the last page, Emma and Scott seemingly going to do something with Kamala whether that be resurrecting her or something different…who knows

[Triniking1234]

God dammit. I forgot Typhoid Mary was a mutant.

[Itchpfork]

Eesh. Getting tired of Duggan writing Cyclops as an inept himbo.

[Dthirds3]

If I'm right. Scott brings her back but has frost mind wip people so they don't know she died. God yo love the xmen cleaning up the spideroffice mess

[Neocide]

Eesh. Getting tired of Duggan writing Cyclops as an inept himbo.

I feel you for real. It's so bad

[gonnagiveittoya]

From the sound of the last page, Emma and Scott seemingly going to do something with Kamala whether that be resurrecting her or something different…who knows

He's certainly not reacting like someone who's childhood friend is dead forever

[Cyclone_Ablaze]

This Cool.

I'm going to guess(based off Dr. Stasis/Feilong's Conversation) they plan on showing up at the Gala grabbing mutants and throwing them in prison and killing them at the same time?

Also, i'm sorry I don't buy Nimrod being able to beat "Pesky Omegas" I just call BS on that. But, whatever.

Yay, Magik destroying the Stark Sentinel. Good Job :-)

[Diammandis]

It seems that come issue 24? (The Fall of X) ShadowKat will be the one tasked with going inside Orchis trying to figure how to break out mutants that were imprisoned by them.

We now also an idea as to how cable is captured…makes me wonder who else is getting locked up in those Orchis prisons. I can totally see them getting cypher, taking away Krakoa's voice would be pretty symbolic tbh

[Sparda V]

If I'm right. Scott brings her back but has frost mind wip people so they don't know she died. God yo love the xmen cleaning up the spideroffice mess

Sure like this totally wasn't Planned from the Start . Wells already said in the past that he's still part of the X men writing team, this isn't them doing clean up but Just continuing his dumb idea for Kamala.

[Jackraow21]

I really liked this issue. For a comic that had none of my faves in it, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Duggan did a nice job setting up these Stark Sentinels as a real threat, and Orchis. Magik was badass. Forge was awesome and has quickly become my favorite character in this book. Cassara’s art was on point, and now I’m ready for The Hellfire Gala and Fall of X. Bring it on!

Also, glad Scott and Jean are officially taking a break. It’s felt forced for awhile now IMO. As for Kamal Khan, don’t really care, but glad that won’t be a long running subplot and they’re just going to bring her back quickly and get it over with.

[Braxxer]

Theories about mother being Rebecca were right after all. Mother righteous not being Nathaniel kinda kills the vibe of all of them being Nathaniel.

So that sentinels aren’t a joke. Idk how they’ll deal when more of them come.

Jean and Scott are in separation. Kinda out of nowhere. Did i miss something or their only conflict was that pointless brood argument and Duggan never tried to develop their conflict.

Scott meets Emma and he thinks Emma wanted to meet with him because she heard about him and jean. Idk if scott/Duggan tried to be funny or to disrespect Emma. Or make scott an idiot. Glad Emma wasn’t so easy and said what she said.

Kamala’s death is mentioned and Emma brings up some mysterious conversation between her and Scott. Mcu synergy? I don’t think they will erase memories of her death tho. If their previous conversation was about Kamala then it was before her death so is it possible they found out she was a mutant. Or partly a mutant but because of Kamala keeping a secret identity Scott was against telling Kamala the truth? If it was about resurrecting human they could just ask jean because she’s responsible for phoenix foundation

Was hoping to see more from kingpin/Emma scene

Orchis wants Jean �� and now nimrod is going after all omegas. Interesting especially with Jean getting solo and solicitations says about her saving herself first

Btw have you noticed how X-men avoid dying. That sentinel is a big threat and could easily kill some members. They definitely try to avoid resurrections of X-men members.

Illyana being infected with some machines makes wonder about her involvement in realm of x

[Jackraow21]

We now also an idea as to how Cable is captured.

I just hope it doesn’t happen off panel and we see how they take him down in The Hellfire Gala. That would be nice for a change when it comes to him as a character.

And, of course, my boy better go down swinging.

[Exodus]

cool first set up for the Hellfire Gala.

I suppose they will try to kill Jean and the other omegas. The new Jean mini series will probably about her bringing herself back to life?

This Jean Scott separation comes really out of nowhere...if you write a series for so many issues, can you not set up a plot like this more carefully?! Just wondering............

[Diammandis]

I just hope it doesn’t happen off panel and we see how they take him down in The Hellfire Gala. That would be nice for a change when it comes to him as a character.

And, of course, my boy better go down swinging.

Yeah same, I just really can't imagine Cable getting captured and especially getting sent to some prison. He's not really a character that is careless enough to let this happen so I really wonder how he gets caught