Conor ⊗🔺さんのイラストまとめ

...the weight of the singularness of their mutually assigned missions.

In his fight against the Master Mold–and recognizing the corruption in its programming–Scott does eventually come out and make the direct comparison between himself and the machine, but in this comparison...

As the Master Mold quickly approaches, the police that arrived to take Scott into custody following his DIY-demolition of his and Maddie's old home pause to identify the woman (read:women) in Scott's wallet as possibly related to a body discovered by their precinct.

...Xavier's perfect solider.

While the X-Factor wards state, rather than merely imply, criticism of the O5's veneration of Xavier's teachings, Rusty's appreciation of Scott's "sacrifice" for their education marks them as tragic inheritors of that same failing pedagogy.

An apparition of Maddie, formed only of his lingering guilt, taunts him about her disappearance–and its peculiar timing.

"No! Stop! It's not true! I love you!" he shouts as he unleashes a furious optic blast at the spectre of his missing wife, and greatest regret.

...is the issue's truest ghost.

Because when you're dealing with an all-powerful cosmic deity, would it really be too much to believe that, perhaps, its presence in your life has lingered long past its expected expiration?

To believe that it continues to haunt you?

With seeds of doubt sown, Scott investigates the newspaper reporting of Maddie's plane crash, and while his awareness of the date of the crash's overlap with Jean's death on the Moon is old news, her candid absence from the reporting chills Scott's core.

Perhaps then, Phoenix...

It only takes a few panels for Scott's concerns to center how Maddie-has-now-abandoned-him (men would literally rather join a new super-team than get therapy), but his investigations of her whereabouts lead to a shocking discovery.

It's as if Maddie never existed at all.

...haunting its bearer's, possessing them to commit deeds they've far outgrown, if only because at least the way-things-used-to-be is easier to face than what-they-might-become.

The true ghost of X-Factor #13, is Maddie, well on her way to becoming a nothing girl in a nowhere...

...the literal genocide the team just barely survived.

Even Scott's send-off, shaded by Scott's lingering jealousy and Jean's guilt, feels tainted by the drama between these should-be adults.

But that's what X-Factor has been, at least by my measure, about: toxic nostalgia...

...and perhaps, for better or worse, the parts of him that make him as relatable as he is to so many (myself *very* included).

Weezie stops just short of allowing Scott to admit his relief that Maddie (who has fully ceased all contact) wants him gone, Jean slips...