#THE STORY OF AN HOUR ANNOTATIONS SERIES#

#THE STORY OF AN HOUR ANNOTATIONS SERIES#

This seems to be the first in a series of data pages profiling the ten provinces of Otherworld, as neither Roma’s world nor Merlin’s (profiled later) has any direct impact on this issue. In X of Swords: Creation, Krakoa made it very, very clear that he wanted the gate to remain open, presumably in the hope of being reunited with his literal other half, Arakko.

Krakoa isn’t happy about the closing of the gate.

In Krakoa’s case, it’s Polaris, who would not normally be seen as an oracle. “Both Arakko and Krakoa have their oracles in play.” As we’ll see, Saturnyne has given one character from each side a message with the clues they need to decipher. The two women with her are White Priestesses, basically Saturnyne cultists. Presumably everything that’s happened so far is all part of a series of events that she wants to play out.

Saturnyne closes the External Gate.Īpparently she could have done this whenever she wanted, which begs the question of why she didn’t destroy it immediately. The guy in red accompanying them is Z-list villain Unus the Untouchable, who they rescued in that issue the body belongs to Rockslide, killed by Summoner in the same issue. The next group to come through are M, Havok and Polaris, who were also in the mission squad from Creation. The three rescuers are medic Cecilia Reyes, translator Cypher, and X-Factor regular Prestige. But maybe it’s a plot point – who knows? Apocalypse and Rictor do get carried to the Healing Gardens telekinetically. Mind you, Saturnyne’s attendants were probably exposed for much longer, and the X-Men have healers around who may be able to nip it in the bud. Here, nobody suffers any immediate ill effects from approaching Apocalypse or Rictor. In X of Swords: Creation, an infected messenger showed up at Saturnyne’s citadel and (so we were told) the attendants who brought him in both died from the plague. It’s not immediately clear what connection Apocalypse means, particularly if it’s involuntary – Apocalypse has spent most of Excalibur actively working to get Rictor on his side, with great success. But Apocalypse also says “I did not ask for this connection to you.” That suggests a more direct concern that if Rictor dies, something will happen to him. Apocalypse is very keen that he shouldn’t do that, giving a hazy mutant-pride rationale. “Why bother…” Rictor is presumably figuring that there’s no real need to fight the infection because he can just die and be resurrected in a healthy body. Apocalypse yells at Rictor as best he can, and more mutants return through the External Gate. The small print on the right reads “Mutants of the world unite”, which is normally X-Men‘s line. The small print on the left reads “X-Factor crossover” (!). Credits, with the modified layout used for “X of Swords” tie-ins. Rictor and Apocalypse have evidently been infected by the Horseman Pestilence. If you’re not familiar with the characters, then from left-to-right in the bottom panel, this is Archangel, Apocalypse, Siryn, Rictor and Beast.They’re retreating from the battle we saw in X of Swords: Creation #1. This is an issue of X-Factor by virtue of the writer and the prominent role for Polaris, but that’s about it. “X of Swords” seems to be an old-school 90s crossover where the secondary titles get overrun by somebody else’s plot. The Five recoil in horror from a newly resurrected mutant… which is not really what happens in the issue, but it’s close enough, I guess. She grows excited and begins to fantasize about living her life for herself.By Leah Williams, Carlos Gomez & Israel SilvaĬOVER / PAGE 1. Although this reaction is completely unexpected, the reader quickly accepts it because of Louise’s adequate explanation. She realized that although at times she had loved him, she has regained her freedom, a state of being that all of God’s creatures strive for. The widow whispers “Free, free, free!” Louise realizes that her husband had loved her, but she goes on to explain that as men and women often inhibit each other, even if it is done with the best of intentions, they exert their own wills upon each other. “The delicious breath of rain…the notes of a distant song…countless sparrows were twittering…patches of blue sky….”Īll these are beautiful images of life, the reader is quite confused by this most unusual foreshadowing until Louise’s reaction is explained. The descriptions used now are as far away from death as possible. Next, the newly widowed women are looking out of the window and see spring and all the new life it brings.

The story of an hour annotations