Children of the Vault #4: Review & Spoilers

[Malachi]

Preview page: We start with the soon to be iconic first page of Cable holding a oversized gun to the head of the city. Wonderful in all its crazy silliness.

We then get a page detailing the message and humans. In Chile a boy named Rodrigo Munoz, unfazed by all the dangers to him because the message is working its magic on him. It has given him a future, or a sense of having a future to look forward to. It has also neutered him mentally, rendering him unable to feel emotions. Advancing to the final stage of the message he starts coughing up a blue essence that is the message.

Back at the good old sun Orchis is busy massproducing sentinels that they send into battle. A thousand every hour. Now this over the top craziness is what I expected from Hickman when Krako started. This feels right.
The Vault has sent Muerte to deal with them and he blows up the the Reforge with a charged crystal.

Preview Page: Serafina tries to talk down Cable. Nathan mentions how ilfitting this hero image of the children is to him. He remembers the old Serafina(which in Marvel time must be like a year ago, or even less). He mentions Sam and Serafina replies that this wasn’t her but she still asks how Sam is. Cable calls this and tells her that with her powers she already knows.

The Captain interrupts and places Cable in a chokehold. Which of course doesn’t stop Cable from benign badass. Delivering lines like “crying over broken promises. You really are children”. I swear Cables mutant power is being a badass. If you think about it like that it tracks even back to his Liefield days.

The message is ravaging earths population on the next page. People all over the world are coughing up blue essence while mumbling “Become”.

Luz is out doing a pretty good impersonation of Lightspeed from Power Pack. That is until she melts the eyes from some Orchis guards. The narration tells us that the old Luz wouldn’t have done this. That the evolution has evolved her kindness and empathy out of her. Improved her as the vault sees it.


Data page: History file from the vault Detailing the core concept of the children. The promise that they are the future.

The Captain can’t finish choking Cable because Bishop interrupts it with a very large energy beam. I mean large enough that i wonder how Cable is still standing.

We get a nice analogue from Lucas about how native americans were given smallpox blankets, just like the message is to humanity in large.

Cable and Bishop prepare to square off against Serafina and the Captain… or are they? It seems they were only stalling with more badass lines until a virus could effect the City. The big head starts to break down. First in language and then physically.

We get a page detailing a child called Diamante, a historian thatisn’t reborn the same way as the others are. We see him succumbing to the virus and die.

Data page: History page about the child Diamante.

We see how the virus is overriding the city and it’s inhabitants. Cable tells them that it’s a super strain of the techno virus he has saved from a timeline in a potential future. That’s why he wanted to be resurrected with his own techno virus. Because with this strain he can have some control over the superstrain. If left unchecked it would absorb teh city and create a spire that calls the Phallanx.

We get a reveal that tells us that the gun he holds isn’t a gun at all, it’s syringe. I like this subversion.

Serafina tries to call them, hoping that they are bluffing. That they wouldn’t sacrifice the earth. But they tell her to read them, read what they have been through. This is not the X-men she faces, it’s two people who have done unimaginable things.

We get to see how the vaults nursery is rigged with oblivion bombs curtesy of Bishop. He holds the trigger and is prepared to wipe it out. We also see that he defeated the child called Madre off-panel between this issue and the last one.

Serafina gives up and by Cables instructions the message is changed into “What is, is”. Rendering the changes null. The cities they created fall apart and Orchis is there to be opportunists. Recruiting as people lose hope.

Cable gets the strain under control. Maybe he absorbs into his arm. It’s not clear.

Serafina leaves but warns them that in the future they might not be this magnanimous. We also gets a more vague warning about something bigger. The dominion she sensed last issue.

We end with a page detailing how the collapsed cities have even become toxic as the material that made them expand so fast turns toxic as it dissolves. Leaving youg Rodrigo from the start of the issue lying in a tent dying. His shirt torn with the message “become the future” left in tatters.


The End.

Review: The end is here. Like a magic trick we get to see the smoke and mirrors as we get to the prestige. My favorite Nolan movie btw.

Much of this issue and even this mini is about subverting expectations. Was this mini about the children? Cable&Bishop? Fall of X? How about all of them but not really about any of them. A stupid answer but I think it’s the one I will go with. I don’t think it lessens the mini though, just makes it harder to sell to someone you meet. Because at the end of the day I will give this issue, and the mini as a whole, a high score.

Cable owns the show in this last issue. This was his magic trick, this was his reveal. He gets to say some really good lines. Camp subverting the idea of big guns is a sweet idea. I liked it.

Bishop is a bit harder to get a grip on. I would say the part that Camp emphasizes the most is his past with Cable. The one in that ongoing I couldn’t stomach and never read. The infamous one among Bishop fans. Be Camps use good or bad is another thing. I find myself missing Lucas the cop. He got pushed from weary cop to grizzled old war veteran. It fits with Cable but in the end I find the chemistry between them, the dynamic, to be too much of the same. Lucas swears more than Nathan. That’s what I end up with.

The Children weave in and out of this mini but this last issue is really more about them then the others. From Luz being a victim of the rebirth process. To Muerte doing a Gambit impression. To Diamanté dying a very poetic death. I have a bit of trouble reconciling Serafinas old personas with her new. Did she really care about Sam now or is she just stalling and trying to get into Nathan’s head? I think the latter.

With Orchis Camp blows up the Mother Mold. Good, that eyesore was a big blemish on Krakoan records. Why the fuck did that thing get rebuilt? Were all intelligence resources in Krakoa sleeping?

One last subversion: the Children themselves. Not only in personality but when you think about it. 4 issues of Bishop and Cable fighting the children and how much fighting did we get. We got the Hammer being mindtricked and nuked. We got the sword guy being blown up Indiana Jones style. We got an off-panel fight between Madre and Bishop. It’s all subversions =)

I rate this last issue a 9,5/10. A high score but I think Camp had a mesmerizing flow that made it all hit just the right tones in the right tempo.

For the mini as a whole it’s maybe 8 or 8,5 of 10. It’s good work but uneven. I think we needed more issues. It feels like two or three stories that could have been small arcs. Still Camp constructs it well enough. Just like the City it appears and disappears over the night, leaving not much behind but an entertaining little window into a time of confusion in the marvel world.

[Kingdom X]

Agree that the issue was great, but I’m feeling a bit conflicted on the mini as a whole. I think this could have easily used an extra issue to explore where our protagonists and the CotV are coming from. Bishop and Cable being willing to kill babies to defeat the Children, but having no ideas for how to take down Orchis doesn’t sit right w/ me. I think this either needed to tie-in more with the rest of FoX OR have a clear place where we could continue this story.

[Malachi]

Agree that the issue was great, but I’m feeling a bit conflicted on the mini as a whole. I think this could have easily used an extra issue to explore where our protagonists and the CotV are coming from. Bishop and Cable being willing to kill babies to defeat the Children, but having no ideas for how to take down Orchis doesn’t sit right w/ me. I think this either needed to tie-in more with the rest of FoX OR have a clear place where we could continue this story.

I agree. I couldn’t make heads or tails with Bishop and Cable, were they bluffing? I chalked it up to Camp doing solid work. I personally aren’t sure. A big problem for me is that while the characters might be at the end a rope due to all the people dying and Orchis winning Miss popularity 2023 we the reader know better. So it’s hard to really feel, emphasize and understand if they are serious or not. Because it’s very fucked up. Real high stakes.

[Viteh]

So is the Orchis base around the sun destroyed now?

[Grunty]

Cable and Bishop get a moment to shine, but the Children of the Vault reinforce their status as D-list villains who despite being supposedly super powerfull and special (to the point of getting a "they can wipe out every hero in minutes" vision scene a while ago), don't actualy get enough "meta" value to actualy life up to it.

Super humans who live in a time accelerated environment and constantly "improve" themself through multiple generations of increasingly more powerfull incarnations, which they have done for centuries and yet it only takes two X-men at their lowest to defeat them within the span of a second line 4 part mini series.

That's not a good showing for a group who never even achieved C-list level of respect and acknowledgement by the fanbase and might be another nail in their coffin.

It's not quite The Shockmaster, but it's definetly a gimick that won't catch on anymore.

Though it's somewhat amusing that this all happening at the backdrop of a supposed winning streak for another villain group who are given victories they didn't "earn" in the eyes of some of these comics audience.

[Master of Sound]

I am soooo sad Luz is no longer like how she used to be. That might have changed if Indra was involved. Might have been interesting to see. Though it did not happen. Indra is a forgotten character.

[Malachi]

Here is Muerte destroying the Reforge.

[Malachi]

Cable and Bishop get a moment to shine, but the Children of the Vault reinforce their status as D-list villains who despite being supposedly super powerfull and special (to the point of getting a "they can wipe out every hero in minutes" vision scene a while ago), don't actualy get enough "meta" value to actualy life up to it.

Super humans who live in a time accelerated environment and constantly "improve" themself through multiple generations of increasingly more powerfull incarnations, which they have done for centuries and yet it only takes two X-men at their lowest to defeat them within the span of a second line 4 part mini series.

That's not a good showing for a group who never even achieved C-list level of respect and acknowledgement by the fanbase and might be another nail in their coffin.

It's not quite The Shockmaster, but it's definetly a gimick that won't catch on anymore.

Though it's somewhat amusing that this all happening at the backdrop of a supposed winning streak for another villain group who are given victories they didn't "earn" in the eyes of some of these comics audience.

I think Camp did some admirable work with the Children as a concept. I agree with you that they are undersold as an actual threat because neither Bishop or Cable actually deal with them. They sidestep them.

So I think the people who wants to see them again are the same people who did so before. Those that loved Mike Carey’s run and those that like the potential of the Vault. Probably some who liked Hickman and Duggans run to, I guess.

[Kingdom X]

Cable and Bishop get a moment to shine, but the Children of the Vault reinforce their status as D-list villains who despite being supposedly super powerfull and special (to the point of getting a "they can wipe out every hero in minutes" vision scene a while ago), don't actualy get enough "meta" value to actualy life up to it.

Super humans who live in a time accelerated environment and constantly "improve" themself through multiple generations of increasingly more powerfull incarnations, which they have done for centuries and yet it only takes two X-men at their lowest to defeat them within the span of a second line 4 part mini series.

That's not a good showing for a group who never even achieved C-list level of respect and acknowledgement by the fanbase and might be another nail in their coffin.

It's not quite The Shockmaster, but it's definetly a gimick that won't catch on anymore.

Though it's somewhat amusing that this all happening at the backdrop of a supposed winning streak for another villain group who are given victories they didn't "earn" in the eyes of some of these comics audience.

You can tell the books have reached a place where they’re absolutely stuck with Orchis as the big bads. The CoTV seemed like they could easily take over big bad status based on how this mini started. And while it’s cool that Bishop and Cable were able to clean up shop, it really makes the rest of the remaining X-Men look incompetent for not being able to do the same to Orchis. I’m ready for Nimrod and Omega Sentinel to betray the human parts of Orchis so we can get onto the tenarchy/ dominion stuff.

[Jackraow21]

I agree. I couldn’t make heads or tails with Bishop and Cable, were they bluffing? I chalked it up to Camp doing solid work. I personally aren’t sure. A big problem for me is that while the characters might be at the end a rope due to all the people dying and Orchis winning Miss popularity 2023 we the reader know better. So it’s hard to really feel, emphasize and understand if they are serious or not. Because it’s very fucked up. Real high stakes.

Man, you just summed up what I loved about this issue... it left me feeling a bit... uncomfortable. I mean, you had Bishop and Cable both saying they were willing to kill a million of the Children, including literal babies and their future. Basically commit genocide in order to stop them from committing genocide on humanity. It was, as you said, "fucked up." But I'd be lying if I didn't say I loved that. These are grizzled old soldiers who have seen and done terrible things. Both of them. They are ruthless when it comes to achieving the mission objective, for the greater good as they see it. Basically, there are no good guys in this story. And, despite being left feeling a bit uncomfortable by that fact, I walked away satisfied with the story Camp told. It made me feel and think.

9/10, only because the art kind of got a bit worse as the series went on and I thought it was a tad rushed and sloppy in parts this issue. Otherwise, though, it was stellar.

You can tell the books have reached a place where they’re absolutely stuck with Orchis as the big bads. The CoTV seemed like they could easily take over big bad status based on how this mini started. And while it’s cool that Bishop and Cable were able to clean up shop, it really makes the rest of the remaining X-Men look incompetent for not being able to do the same to Orchis. I’m ready for Nimrod and Omega Sentinel to betray the human parts of Orchis so we can get onto the tenarchy/ dominion stuff.

Or maybe they're just not ruthless enough? Bishop and Cable are one badass combo. Scary even. Now they can set their sights firmly on Orchis... or in Cable's case, first Orchis (to free his younger self) and then whatever the Neocracy is.

[lefthanded]

You can tell the books have reached a place where they’re absolutely stuck with Orchis as the big bads. The CoTV seemed like they could easily take over big bad status based on how this mini started. And while it’s cool that Bishop and Cable were able to clean up shop, it really makes the rest of the remaining X-Men look incompetent for not being able to do the same to Orchis. I’m ready for Nimrod and Omega Sentinel to betray the human parts of Orchis so we can get onto the tenarchy/ dominion stuff.

Yeah it is pretty lame that Orchis keeps on winning despite not doing anything.

Lose against CoTV? They win in public approval afterwards.
Lose or do nothing in AXE Judgement? They win in public approval afterwards.

There is no need to do this, as 'public approval' is meaningless when (1) Mutants are generally disliked/hated and (2) They have/had a forge on the sun that can pump out thousands of Sentinels an hour. If Iron Man can't handle 1-2 Sentinels on his own, chances are all the heroes on Earth can't even handle 1000 Sentinels in the first hour.

This book is very entertaining, but the power scaling (black hole guns, techno-organic pathogens, etc) on display here makes the 'problems' the mutants face in Fall of X seem farcical. Use that same Phalanx pathogen on the Orchis, Nimrod, and your problem is over. Use the guns that you are bantering about with Bishop to end the Arrako civil war. Etc.

[Rev9]

You can tell the books have reached a place where they’re absolutely stuck with Orchis as the big bads. The CoTV seemed like they could easily take over big bad status based on how this mini started. And while it’s cool that Bishop and Cable were able to clean up shop, it really makes the rest of the remaining X-Men look incompetent for not being able to do the same to Orchis. I’m ready for Nimrod and Omega Sentinel to betray the human parts of Orchis so we can get onto the tenarchy/ dominion stuff.

That is the takeaway, 2 guys took down the greatest threat to the X-Men(and the galaxy, if Forge is to be believed) while the X-Men and especially X-force after several attempts fail to take out Orchis. From now on Cable and Bishop should be thrown at every foe

[charliehustle415]

Here is Muerte destroying the Reforge.

I honestly thought this was going to be a huge plot point in the mainline series, but I feel like it was completely wasted especially how epically it was set up all the way back in HOX/POX

[Rev9]

This story has actually made me think of a reverse concept Since CoV are basically temporaly techno-engineered 'mutants' .MCU could introduce an alt reality where from a certain dimension/star system the CoV are the dominant warring species that become a threat to the Avengers and humanity. Naturally born Mutants have been at war with the Children on their home planet by living on a Krakoa like sentient island that is either a defiant enclave (or masked from CoV akin to Themyscira in DC) Basically Avengers need mutant help to take down the CoV as they know them better than the Avengers would. Anyway would be a cool way to introduce new villains and point out that X-Men are key allies.

[JB]

I honestly thought this was going to be a huge plot point in the mainline series, but I feel like it was completely wasted especially how epically it was set up all the way back in HOX/POX

I believe this is the second iteration so I wouldn't be surprised if they rebuild it again lol