The post-Inferno to end of the Krakoa era X-titles thread

[Leoparis]

This isn't such a stumbling block. Consider this: If Cerebro made a back-up of Synch, would he back up only Synch or elder Laura as well?

So we could have Betsy or other telepaths backing up the STRIKE team before Cerebro has that ability, then once Cerebro has that ability, it mechanically backs up the naturally backed-up mutants.

Another possibility is the white-hot room (demonstrated to be an afterlife for mutants in Immortal X-Men) and whether a mutant telepath achieved dominion and so was able to retroactively transfer the white-hot room mutant signatures to Cerebro. An event that could act as a death for Beast circa Defenders 142 (or 125-152 since we're talking New Defenders era) would be handy if we were to pursue that line of inquiry.

From NDEF 125 Beast is a teammate of Moondragon and she seems to have the necessary skills. In NDEF 130 she summons the consciousness of Matthew Power and merges it with that of his father, Professor Power. Even though in MTU 118 Professor X said "all hope of reaching him has been lost... forever."

In SOLOA 16/2 her own consciousness shares the body of her cousin Pamela Douglas and is then put in a clone body in SOLOA 18/2.

In Ewing's GOTG 5, the alternate Moondragon merges her consciousness with that of the 616 Moondragon.

The only time the Defenders risk death is in NDEF 134 but unfortunately Beast is the one who is never in danger.

Then there is NDEF 152 where the Dragon of the Moon endangers the team but Heather saves some supporting characters. It is conceivable she would make a backup of Beast at that time. She could also have done this in NDEF 134 in case their plan to survive Manslaughter's attack failed.

[Clive_Reston]

Wolverine #42 follows immediately from #41; X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #124 follows on from #123; and Dead X-Men #1 is... apparently a bit later than what we've seen in Immortal and probably FotHoX and RotPoX so far (although it DOES include a scene to which there was a flash-forward in Immortal X-Men 3 (11)!).

And it would all be that simple, except for Marvel's Voices Unlimited Infinity Comic #88--the continuation of a story that's been running since #85, but this time Storm, Rogue and Dazzler all appear. So it's going to have to be somewhere between the 2022 and 2023 Galas, I suppose, maybe in the fairly relaxed period before X-Men #22.

[Clive_Reston]

This week's X-Men #31 includes a panel that attempts to patch up the inconsistency between #28/29 and #30, which... only really works if you squint REALLY hard and assume that events happen out of published order and with some unannounced gaps. It goes a little something like this:

X6 28 (14): Juggernaut gives Synch and Talon info on how to disarm Cyclops' bomb, and information on Latverian mutants. Kate says she'll go and will take Kamala with her. Although they're acting like it's urgent, they don't go immediately; they apparently plan the trip for a good long while.

[Time passes.]

X6 30 (8-9): In the tunnels, Synch, Laura, Spider-Man, Tony Stark and Gold Goblin are discussing their problem, and decide that Counter-Earth has the answer. Tony, Peter and Norman leave. Kamala doesn't want to go on *that* mission, but Synch and Talon are on the case.

[Time passes.]

X6 30 (10): Tony meets with Firestar; this can't be the meeting he mentioned on the previous page, because he knows that Synch and Talon are currently in "a ship that Starfox provided."

X6 30 (11-15): Synch and Talon land on Counter-Earth and spend "days" there. The fight with the High Evolutionary begins.

X6 30 (17-20): Synch returns with the gizmo, and encounters Tony and then Kamala, who observes him talking to Talon, who isn't there. He explains to Talon that he "used Jean's power to pull your mind inside mine."

And then, sometime after THAT:

X6 28 (17-20): Kate and Kamala parachute into Latveria, meet Logan on the ground, and encounter Doom and his X-Men.

X6 29 (6-19): They fight, then dine.

X6 29 (20): "Later, back in New York City" (although they're still talking about how the mission went), Kamala, Kate and Logan return to the tunnels to discover their HQ completely wrecked and a lake of blood on the floor.

X6 31 (2): Synch is a mess. Kate tells Kurt that Synch "hid that he was aging while synching from muscle memory with mutants who were not in his presence, and Talon didn't return from Counter-Earth. I think he popped bone claws and trashed his bunk. Then he didn't have Talon's healing factor to sew him up."

How he would have muscle memory to pop bone claws but not to have a healing factor is an open question. Same goes for where he got ALL that blood from, and why he would have gone from trashing his bunk to destroying the entire base of operations. Also, it's supposed to be tragic that Synch "lets Laura go" when there's a perfectly good backup of her from not too long earlier out there somewhere (Synch even mentions the cradles), and stuff like Shi'ar cloning technology even if the Five aren't around. Actually, why it was a big deal that Synch was "aging rapidly" when 1) that was basically never visible and 2) he had access to exactly the same powers that kept Old Lady Laura youthful were open questions even when Krakoan resurrection was easily accessible...

Later in the issue, Typhoid returns to Wilson Fisk, which sets this before Gang War. At the end of the issue, Synch says that Kate should tell Polaris that she "has a green light," which puts this just before the final scenes of Fall of the House of X 1.

[Jason Doty]

X6 28 (14): Juggernaut gives Synch and Talon info on how to disarm Cyclops' bomb, and information on Latverian mutants. Kate says she'll go and will take Kamala with her. Although they're acting like it's urgent, they don't go immediately; they apparently plan the trip for a good long while.

Or they traveled, a good long while. I think they stowed away on commercial flights, that could take some time

[Clive_Reston]

Or they traveled, a good long while. I think they stowed away on commercial flights, that could take some time

The problem is that Kamala is present when Synch and Talon decide to go to Counter-Earth, and also present when Synch returns ("days" later) without Talon--and, on returning from Latveria, is shocked to see the HQ covered with blood and smashed up.

[Michael]

Placement of X-Men 31 within Fall of the House of X 1 is complicated. As mentioned earlier, at the end, Synch tells Kate to contact Lorna. Earlier in the issue, Nimrod mentions the X-Men's failed attempt to free Cyclops. And Emma is said to be coordinating the invasion. In Fall of the House of X 1, Rogue, Gambit, Kurt, Kate, Peter and Logan are returning from Scott's trial. They let Kate off in London to use the gates to contact people. First she contacts Tony and Emma so they can start coordinating the invasion. Then she contacts Juggernaut. Then we see her running in New York City while Kamala and other heroes are fighting a Sentinel. Then Kate goes to contact Lorna.So apparently what happens is this- after Kate contacts Juggernaut, she returns to New York to check on Synch. Kurt and Logan get back from Europe. Then everyone gets teleported to the Adirondacks. Then Kate and Kamala return to New York City where Kamala helps other heroes fight a Senintel. Then Kate goes to contact Lorna. Duggan's plotting has resulted in Kate and Kamala making interesting travel decisions.
X-Men 31 suggests that Gang War takes place after the Fall of the House of X crossover. We're going to have to keep an eye on future issues to see if that's possible. For example, Chasm is slated to appear in Amazing Spider-Man 47-49 and if it's mentioned that Maddie is unavailable because she's fighting Enigma or Orchis, that could cause problems.
Talon appears in Dark X-Men 5- that might take place between X6 28 (14) and X6 30 (8-9).

[Midnighter]

Maybe by working on it a little bit we can find a better interlocking of the various sequences.
After Juggernaut Synch escapes, he decides to send Shadowkat and Ms. Marvel to Latveria. (X 28)
Before they leave, they discuss with Tony Stark, Spider-Man and Gold Goblin the drugs sabotaged by Orchis, and Synch and Talon decide to leave in search of the High Evolutionary. (X 30)
The two missions continue in parallel, when Shadowkat and Ms. Marvel return they find the lab devastated (X 29) by Synch, who contains Talon's consciousness within himself but manages to maintain control (X 30). Synch manages to maintain control for a while, but then has a breakdown (X 31).
While Synch is out of the picture, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Rasputin attempt to rescue Cyclops in Paris, but Rasputin abandons to rejoin Xavier. They are brought home by Rogue, Gambit, and Shadowkat, who meanwhile initiates the counterattack plan using the portals. Polaris makes contact with Broo and the rest of the Brood, Ms. Marvel flanks the Avengers against a Sentinel, (FotHoX 1) and then joins Spider-Man in spreading the cure (X 31). After fighting with Nimrod, Synch tells Shadowkat to give Polaris the green light for her attack on Orchis (which was seen in the preview of FotHoX 2).

Admittedly, not everything runs particularly smoothly (Shadowkat does not know where Lorna went in FotHoX 1, but Synch tells her to give her the green light in X 31), but in this way the consequentiality of events seems smoother to me.

EDIT: Incidentally, Shadowkat and Ms Marvel could not have left for Latveria after Synch returned, since in X 28 Logan says he is in Latveria because "Kinney thought you could use a friend," so he was sent there by Talon.

[Michael]

EDIT: Incidentally, Shadowkat and Ms Marvel could not have left for Latveria after Synch returned, since in X 28 Logan says he is in Latveria because "Kinney thought you could use a friend," so he was sent there by Talon.

We don't know WHEN he spoke to Talon, though. For all we know, five minutes before she left for Counter Earth, Talon called Logan and said "Kate and Kamala are planning to invade Latveria on Tuesday at 8PM. Could you help them out?"

[Clive_Reston]

Fall of the House of X #2 continues the complications. Nimrod, who was immobilized last issue by Krakoa's previously unseen amber-spitting powers (uh...), doesn't free himself until the very end of the issue. So the fight with Nimrod in X-Men #31 (at the end of which Synch tells Shadowkat to tell Polaris she's "got a green light") has to be before Omega Sentinel tells Nimrod to "go kill Krakoa" in FotHoX #1, specifically between pages 19 and 20.

(There's also a callback to the not-yet-published Invincible Iron Man #15 in the very first panel. And there's a scene midway through the issue "at what once was Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," which is drawn--as with the Rogue & Gambit #5 scene to whose site it returns--as Central Park. To be fair, the mansion WAS there during X-Men Gold...)

X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #126 continues the ongoing storyline, which seems to be concurrent with FotHoX #1. And Wolverine #43, as expected, continues THAT sequence.

[Michael]

Yeah, I think the idea is this- after failing to rescue Scott, Kurt and Logan return to New York where they help out in the fight against Nimrod. Then, Synch orders them to return to Paris with Rogue and the others to try to rescue Scott again. This is consistent with Synch's dialogue at the end of X-Men 31.
This means that in the scene where they drop Kate off in London, they were flying back TOWARD Paris. Most of us assumed that they were flying back home FROM Paris when that issue came out. Especially since Rogue, Gambit and Kate were asking questions about what happened but apparently they were asking questions because they weren't on the original mission. Duggan could have made that a LOT clearer.

[Clive_Reston]

Rise of the Powers of X #2 dares to ask the question: how does one go about making a chronology for an entity that exists outside of time? The "what you would call 'now'" in the opening scene is when Cyclops is still in his cell, so before the end of FotHoX 2. Pages 12-17 appear to be simultaneous with Dead X-Men #1, more or less (Rachel's team departs and then comes back); pages 19-20 are during "the X-Men invasion," which hasn't turned up elsewhere yet.

X-Force #49 continues on from #48, and a note reiterates that it's before Sabretooth War. It also takes place while Namor's imprisoned, which leaves a pretty wide berth for it.

[Michael]

The ending pages of Rise of the Powers of X 2 have to take place after Fall of the House of X 2 because Nimrod is free of the amber.
X-Force 49 has to take place after X-Men Red 18, since Genesis's takeover of the Phobos base is referenced.

[Midnighter]

In Daredevil 6 Wolverine (Logan) appears in the finale, and it is supposed to take place after Fall of the House of X, since Elektra's attacks on Heat that took place during Daredevil: Gang War are mentioned in the story, which takes place as we saw after the mutant events given the reunion of Wilson Fisk and Typhoid Mary

[Clive_Reston]

I'm not sure we know yet what period of time Fall of the House of X encompasses! (Though it does seem like everything falls together pretty quickly, thus far.)

Fun continuity bit of the week is Resurrection of Magneto #2, which begins with a flashback that starts by overlapping with pg. 23 of Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto and continues onward from there.

Invincible Iron Man #15 has a break on pg. 14 between panels 2 and 3. A footnote indicates that that scene leads into Emma Frost's appearance in Fall of the House of X #1--although that's only the single panel in which Kate tells her and Tony "game on," which seems more likely to be just before the beginning of this issue. Another footnote indicates that Avengers #12 takes place during that break, but that's still a couple of issues of Avengers away!

Dead X-Men #2 spins out of Rise of the Powers of X #2. Wolverine #44 continues that story and isn't linked to anything we don't already know about. Cable #2 has a throwaway line about "while I'm doing this, the rest of the X-Men are handling Moira and Orchis," which is to say it's still vaguely during this time period.

Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic #92 continues the story I mentioned a few weeks ago; Rogue and Storm appear again, and it sure doesn't seem to be happening during FotHoX. And Thor is back in his new/old costume. Hm. So, er, sometime between the second story in Thor Annual 2023 and Immortal Thor #1? Going to cross my fingers that it doesn't refer to Storm's appearance in Immortal Thor.

This week's Women of Marvel special has a little one-panel flash-forward to what appear to be a couple of post-Krakoan X-Men teams. They don't seem to be doing anything in particular, though.

[Michael]

Also this week, Storm appeared in Power Pack:Into the Storm 2. It's a continuity insert, and Storm appears with a mohawk and using her powers while Franklin Richards has the ability to send out his dream selves. Which is impossible, since there was no point in Marvel history where Franklin was sending out dream selves while Storm had both her mohawk and her powers, but I'm sure Leoparis will have more to say on that.
Note that Aunt Anna will appear in Amazing Spider-Man 45, which takes place after Gang War. We'll have to watch that issue to see if her appearance is consistent with Fall of the House of X taking place before Gang War.