Legion of X #2-3 - "Let Us Prey"

[laughing_tree]

“If Neil Gaiman weaponized his imagination and then tried to do Faustian deals with it,” is kind of where Mother Righteous is coming from, albeit all delivered in a really dirty east London patois which is sort of jarringly wonderful. -- Si Spurrier

















"It's fun."

Comments

[dianakingston]

Zsen thirsting for Kurt is the first and thus far only time an Arakkoan has been relatable

[angelophile]

Sean can't catch a break, can he?

[blues32]

Poor Banshee. Everyone keeps using his body for things. Wearing it, possessing it, putting death seeds in it...

What is Zsen's power? I hope it's not some form of scanning or something. I'd prefer her superb Holmesian skills be something developed, not born into her. I've got mad respect for people who can look a person over and deduce all sorts of facts in seconds. Looking at the hands, they can tell the sort of work they do, the state of their shoes allowing them to surmise the locations they've been, not just recently but areas they tend to frequent...that sort of thing.

And as for Nemesis's theory...he's way off base. Most gods existed before humanity and will continue to do so after all sentient life is gone. He just wants to think that these entities rely on mortals for something rather than accept his low status in the cosmos.

[dianakingston]

And of course the murder suspect turned out to be falsely accused, because mutants are always right

[cainofdreaming]

It's that Irish charm. Everyone just wants to get inside him.

[cainofdreaming]

It might seem that way on the surface, but you're forgetting Xavier. Every other mutant might be right 100% of the time but he'd still manage to balance the equation.

[giraffesforever]

I like Juggernaut here, both the recognition that he's family to Legion and that big dumb brutes can not only have feelings but also be introspective about them.

I had assumed the "trickster god" business was using Loki as a red herring, but can you fool Ruth's visions? I haven't followed Loki's complicated status changes, but I think original/evil Loki is currently off the table? It'd be an interesting choice to bring him back in an x-book.

[giraffesforever]

When was the last time Banshee had a storyline of substance that wasn't just terrible things happening to him? All the way back to Generation X? He might give Colossus some competition for "most things to feel miserable about"

[cainofdreaming]

She doesn't get visions when she's in... was this in Legion's brain or Wanda's waiting room? Anyway, she only sees the now there. Just further into it than others.

[cainofdreaming]

Wait. (Now that the extra scans have been added.) Birdy's been resurrected? Huh. Weird that she'd be that early in the queue. Wonder if it will come up in Sabretooth.

[onsokumaru]

Humanity's collective consciousness could still have retroactively created the gods.
Ewing toyed with that possibility in his Loki series, IIRC.
That would also explain how those supposed superior beings have very human flaws, like being jealous, prone to anger and obsessed with people's sexual life: we just cannot imagine beings that are really beyond our pettyness.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah, Dream of a Thousand Cats went along similar lines. And I do believe retroactive gods, specifically, were gone over in Sandman too. Maybe in Cats, maybe elsewhere.

[xammax]

Zsen's power is she can paint with truth. It sounds beautiful but useless to someone obsessed with war.

[windleopard2]

Too easy.

It's true, but it's still too easy.

[giraffesforever]

It's Ruth's vision of the now that shows Loki and lots of Norse runes. If her now-vision is as accurate as her precognition then he is indeed the trickster god on the run from Arakko? Long horns and furry shoulders look like old bad Loki to me, but I don't closely follow his costume status.

[cainofdreaming]

Or it could be another trickster posing as him. Or past Loki. Or future Loki. Or... Heck, you never know with tricksters. I guess that's why they're called that.

[akodo_rokku]

She's called "Weaponless Zsen," because her power is, "an intuitive gift for expression that allows her to paint with truth," and not considered of any value in combot. So of course she trained to become very good at killing and "vile fleshsmiths," put collapsible blades in her arms.

[beyondthefringe]

But is it early in the queue at this point?
After all, think about how many named mutants have already been resurrected (not counting all the repeat customers who get brought back like they have bulk discounts...) and think about how many randos have been brought back in the background.
They might also have placed a mild priority on Birdy just in case they ever needed her to deal with Sabretooth as a contingency should he escape/be freed from the Pit. (The Hole? Whatever it's called.)

[arilou_skiff]

I'm just finding it hilarious that Kurt's main job seems to give massages to various X-women.

[mastermahan]

Declaring "paints with truth" useless sounds like one of the bigger example of Arakkoan insanity. Information gathering is essential for war. There's got to be some sort of military use for a truth-based power.

[mastermahan]

The epilogue of Sabretooth has Destiny declaring that the Five need to resurrect Birdy, so Legion of X must follow after this.

It's *theoretically* early in the queue. The last population figure we were given was two hundred thousand, and there were sixteen million on Krakoa. That said, Krakoa seems to prioritize fighters, which would have worked in Birdy's favor. Even evil bastards like Mastermind were given priority over your average nameless noncombatant Genoshan.

[blues32]

The most useful application I can think of is determining whether the provocation to war is genuine. Could it be accidental? Or worse, could it be a ploy by a third party? Send in Zsen and she could find out.

[blues32]

Look like King Loki to me. Current Loki doesn't have furry shoulders or long horns on their helmet. In fact, I don't think it's a helmet for current Loki so much as it is a crown or tiara. It offers no cranium protection.

[blues32]

I'd think her ability to look further into the now would make such disguises useless. If it isn't Loki, there should be some sign of that it's a fake.

[blues32]

It's Legion's brain. Ruth is alive, but she doesn't like to use her body. Not sure why she's talking like that again though. I thought that was a result of being damaged when her brother stole a chunk of her powers and/or talking to Cipher. I doubt Cipher is around.

[cainofdreaming]

There was another shadowed image later in the third issue. It still had the Loki horns, but it looked like they were connected to a bucket helmet. Whoever this is also had bat wings, that reminded me of Annihilus.

If not for the god connection I'd guess it was some kind of Super-Adaptoid. Mishmash of several characters.

[alliterator]

He wasn't falsely accused, he WAS technically responsible for her death, it's just that she died of lung cancer and she chose to stay with him.

Also, Switch is right there being completely evil AND a mutant, so I wouldn't say that "mutants are always right."

[bruinsfan]

I wouldn't say most gods. The Elder Gods did, but comparatively few of them survived their wars with each other and with Atum/the Demogorge. The spiritual energy the latter dispersed after the conflict ended is supposedly what gave birth to the various pantheons once there were mortal beings on Earth with minds/souls to shape them. (There are a few exceptions—Gaea remained and spawned new gods with the sky fathers of many of the pantheons once they emerged, and some of her children or grandchildren like Thoth and Bast predate humanity.)

Also, at least some of the various gods degenerate into parasitic demons once they no longer have worshipers or a significant cultural footprint. That seems to be true of many of the Anunnaki, for example.

[bruinsfan]

Loki's illusions managed to fool Dr. Strange into thinking the Vishanti chose to pass the Sorcerer Supreme title from the latter to the former. Presumably other trickster gods are similarly adept, so really it could just as easily be ANY of them framing Loki.

[bruinsfan]

Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.

[mastermahan]

Being able to get reliable information from interrogations seems like the least of what she could offer.

[donnblake]

Divine Adaptoid?