Issue Details

Release Date: March 26th 2008.
X-Men: Legacy #209 review on CBR

Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Scot Eaton
Guest Artist: Billy Tan

Billy Tan previously pencilled the first 6-issue X-23 series for Marvel, and was part of the rotating art team on Uncanny X-Men between issues #469 and #494.

Story Title: None given.

Issue Synopsis: Magneto and Karima attempt to awaken Xavier - despite Exodus reconstructing his brain, Charles remains comatose. Meanwhile the Acolytes discuss their next move. Cargill storms out, arriving just as Xavier successfully awakes, in a dazed and fragile mental state. Deciding to kill Xavier, Cargil fights Karima until a still-powerless Magneto intervenes, burning a laser through her eye. While Magneto and Xavier discuss Charles’ current mental state, Exodus arrives on the scene and attacks Erik. The issue ends as Xavier engages Exodus on the astral plane in telepathic combat.

Annotations
Cover: David Finch’s cover is the second section of a 5-part panorama. It depicts the original “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” (later renamed the “Brotherhood of Mutants” for public relations reasons.) The members shown from top to bottom are Magneto, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Toad and Mastermind. In the top right a mutant-hunting Sentinel robot is depicted, though clearly not as part of the brotherhood. This line-up of the Brotherhood first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #4.

Page 1: Magneto quotes from the final lines of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses:

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved Earth and Heaven that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

I’ll leave it up to the reader to interpret the relevance.

Page 2: “You stopped being that on Genosha” is Magneto referencing his role in freeing Karima of her Sentinel programming, shown in Excalibur (vol 3) #4.

Page 3: The dialogue for the first two panels in this this scene comes from Uncanny X-Men #4 as Magneto and Xavier converse on the astral plane. (shown right)

The dialogue from panel 3 comes from Uncanny X-Men #161 - a flashback scene to Xavier and Magneto’s days in Israel and their initial disagreement over the future of mutantkind. The visual from this panel is still referencing Uncanny X-Men #4.

The dialogue from panel 4 also comes from Uncanny X-Men #161 as does the visual (shown right) . Magneto is wearing a Hydra uniform after he and Xavier infiltrated their ranks and levitating a large amount of Nazi gold, which he then steals. Xavier is cradling the unconscious body of Gabrielle Haller, another former girlfriend of his (and the father of his son, David.)

Page 4: The speech on this page was all originally delivered when Magneto interrupted Illyana Rasputin’s funeral in Uncanny X-Men #304, at the start of the Fatal Attractions crossover. Illyana is/was Colossus’ sister who died of the Legacy Virus.

Panel 2 shows, from left to right: Storm, Jean, Havok, Strong Guy, Xavier, Jubilee, Gambit, Colossus, Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine, all of whom were indeed attending Illyana’s funeral, in-costume.

In Panel 3, Magneto asserts that “Not long ago, Xavier, I tried your path”. What’s he talking about? It’s originally from X-Men #25, but what the hell, I’ll explain it all anyway.

In Uncanny X-Men #200, Xavier was mortally wounded and taken away by Lilandra and Corsair of the Starjammers in an attempt to save his life. He made a last request of Magneto to try and follow “their” dream, reminding Magneto of when they both wanted peaceful integration of mutants (shown right) . Magneto’s sense of honour lead him to join the X-Men and became the headmaster of Xavier’s school, attempting to work for peaceful co-existence of mutants and humans.

Magneto eventually gave up when the X-Men were thought dead (having entered the Siege Perilous in Uncanny X-Men #251), the mansion was demolished (by Sinister, in Uncanny X-Men #243) and the New Mutants abandoned him after learning of his ties with the Hellfire Club (New Mutants #75) formally deciding to return to his less peaceful philosophy in Uncanny X-Men #253.

Page 5: The dialogue in panels 1-4 comes from X-Men #3.

The visuals for panels 2-5 come from X-Men #25. Xavier is wearing a Shi’ar-built, psionically-powered exo-skeleton that allows him to walk so that he can lead the strike against Magneto on Avalon.

The dialogue in panel 5 comes from X-Men #25 when Xavier and Jean (despite her objections) force Magneto to relive the moment he saw his family killed by the Nazis in order weaken and disorient him. This comes slightly earlier than the moment depicted visually, which shows Xavier wipeing Magneto’s mind (reproduced right)

Visible in panel 6 are Rogue, Xavier, Quicksilver and Gambit, all of whom were part of the Magneto-specific strike team Xavier took to Avalon. (Gambit/Wolverine chosen for a physical attack, Rogue/Quicksilver for an emotional attack and Jean/Xavier for a psychic attack. It was totally awesome.)

Page 7: The new character here (not shown in X-Men Legacy #208) is Random, a mercenary who was, for a time, a member of X-Factor. It has not yet been clarified why or how he joined the Acolytes.

Page 10-11: Another flashback to Uncanny X-Men #4, though this scene does not appear in the issue. The use of Santo Marco and the original brotherhood does, at least, confirm that this is a re-interpretation of those events.

Another one for obsessives: Toad is depicted with his long tongue, which was previously the result of his unstable genetic structure being corrected in X-Men Forever #6 (which also left him looking a little more like Ray Park in the X-Men movie. Strange, that.)

Page 11: If there was any doubt that Xavier’s memories are jumbled up, this page confirms it! Magneto’s words in Panel 3 were originally spoken by Magneto in Uncanny X-Men #304. Xavier says they’re from Illyana’s funeral, but… they’re not, they were delivered in monologue by Magneto, who was alone on Avalon at the time, so it’s debatable how Xavier can “remember” them now. Still, I guess he is a telepath, remembering someone else’s memories isn’t that unlikely.

Magneto’s words in Panel 4 were originally spoken by Xavier, a later on in the same issue. (shown above)

The dialogue from Panel 5 and 6 was spoken by Magneto in X-Men #113. (shown right)

Page 13: “Flat-scan” is a derogatory term for human (used by mutants) that doesn’t actually get used that often these days. It’s usually used without the hyphen, though.

Page 17: Panel 5 is a brief flashback to the events of House of M #7. The Scarlet Witch is cradling the body of Quicksilver, who had just been killed.

Page 18: Panels 1-3 are a recreation of the climax of House of M #7. Again, Xavier wasn’t present for this, but he’s somehow remembering it, which again, could be explained a number of ways (but let’s not get too nerdy…)

Marvel Digital Comics:
Excalibur (v3) #4
House of M #7
New Mutants #75
Uncanny X-Men #4
Uncanny X-Men #161
Uncanny X-Men #200
Uncanny X-Men #243
Uncanny X-Men #251
Uncanny X-Men #253
Uncanny X-Men #304
Wolverine #104
X-Men #3
X-Men #25
X-Men #113
X-Men Forever #6

Last Issue: X-Men Legacy #208
Next Issue: X-Men Legacy #210

Last updated: 13th June 2008
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