Excalibur #12
- Apocalypse heavy issue, as we are full steam ahead to X of Swords. Apoc summons his fellow Externals because he needs their life force (well, their bones at least, as shown previously in Excalibur when Rictor was salvaging those bones to extract the magic) to complete his ritual. Suffice to say, they ain't too happy about that, well, at least most of them.
- With a relunctant Rictor's help (a powered up Rictor at that), Apoc manages to subdue and kill the externals he needed to complete the ritual, except Candra, who hid her soul in that red gem Gambit picked up last issue.
- Speaking of, while Betsy tries to convince the Citadel queen she is a legit Captain Britain, Rogue and Gambit get back from their thieving escapade, with Candra teasing Gambit from the red gem and telling him not to let Apoc have it and complete the ritual.
- In the end tho, Gambit has to choose between the devil he's teaming with and the devil that fucked him and rogue over in the past, and he gives Apoc the red gem, and thus Candra's soul, to complete the ritual and open the gateway to Otherworld and... X of Swords.
X-Men #12
- ok, so this was the most "Hickman issue" yet in this entire reboot, by far. I had to read it twice back to back, AND check out some videos to see if I had understood all, because he throws a lot of lore at you all of a sudden. So, as far as I understand:
- back when good ol' Apoc and his fellow warriors sundered Krakoa and Arrako in two seperating them defending the earth from hordes of demons or whatever it was, the Arakko mutants were transported to Amenth (another planet? another dimension? HICKMAAAAN) and Apoc stayed behind to seal the gate (as Summoner himself narrates, some see this as act of heroism, some of treason).
- these Arrako mutants (now in Amenth) create their own mutant society over thousands of years, nicely mirrored with Krakoa with that scene that looks like their version of the Quiet Council, and upon seeing a premonition of doom, they set out an army to defend their society (again, not unlike what the X-Men are doing).
- their leader is Genesis, Apocalypse's wife (well, ex-wife) and I guess Summoner's grandma, since he called Apoc "grandfather" and she leads the mutant army on Amenth. Their war continues until they meet a Apocalypse-looking super powerful mutant External (White Sword I think was the name?), who had been warring with the Amenth demons and can ressurect his army every day, which eventually drove him mad and he didn't distinguish friend from foe and the Arakko mutants were the same fodder for him as the demons.
- Eventually Genesis and a few survivors return home (how nobody knows, this is specifically stated), only to find they had been betrayed by one of their own (in a funny bit of writting, betrayed by a mutant with the power to never lose, and since they would lose against the Amenth demons, she flipped sides because, well, she can't lose lol).
- Isca (the traitor) was sent to parlay with Genesis and setup a meeting with Annihilation, the Amenth demon god. They fought and Genesis lost, and Summoner claims she was killed and buried by Annihilation.
- With Genesis fallen, the Amenth demons overwhelm and take Arrako. In the hopes that Apocalypse had risen a great mutant army himself (and what do you know, we just happen to have a big mutant army in Krakoa these days), Summoner was sent to retrieve him as the only hope of saving Arrako.
- My head hurts.
And with that, Dawn of X is complete. I'll start X of Swords tomorrow, I do like that SEEMINGLY at least all this Apocalypse machination was ultimately to save, well... more mutants, and for now he seems to continue to have good intentions.
And lastly, a little tier list of my favorite Dawn of X books. I have weird tastes so without thinking too much into it I would say:
S tier: X-Men, Hellions, X-Factor
A tier: Marauders, X-Force
B tier: New Mutants, Cable, Wolverine, Excalibur, the Giant-Sized issues
C tier: X-Men/FF
D tier: Fallen Angels
