Jeffries and maybe Jeffries in X-Men: Legacy #248

X-Men: Legacy #248
Jul 2011

The Age of X storyline continues in this “Aftermath” issue, which isn’t one of the official books that had been listed in the checklist, but may as well have been, since nearly everything that happens in the book is related to it. It carries the Age of X banner and is part 1 of a 2-part epilogue by Mike Carey, the writer of the storyline who continues his writing duties in this title, leaving the other Age of X title, New Mutants, with a new team. Similar to the way some remnants of the Age of Apocalypse universe persisted after its destruction, certain elements of the Age of X reality persist as well, making it more than a self-contained miniseries. Mister Jeffries appears in one or two panels as a regular member of the X-Men Science Team, having joined up in Uncanny X-Men #505.

A group of senior X-Men and the Science Team meet in a conference room on Utopia to discuss how to deal with one of the most important residual elements: unpleasant implanted memories that remain from many years of false reality. Several of the mutants flat-out request a permanent memory wipe, so telepaths Emma Frost and the Cuckoos hold individual treatment sessions. On one page later in the book, a series of panels show a sequence of individual mutants requesting the mind-wipe and Mister Jeffries gets an unusual close-up.

Previously in the book where the X-Men are in the conference room, there is a panel showing the discussion, and on the far right is a character wearing a teal-colored shirt who may be Jeffries… or Namor. It’s ambiguous for many reasons, the first of which is that he’s not sitting with the Science Team, who are on the far end of the table. One could claim that the character is sitting where Namor ought to be sitting, on the “leadership” end of the table with Emma and Scott. Also, Namor is almost always included in these steering committee meetings, so his absence would be rather odd. Here is the panel in its entirety. Click the image below for a much larger image.

If it were Jeffries, you’d expect him to be sitting with the rest of the Science Team. However, Cyclops’ hands would obscure anyone sitting to Dr. Nemesis’ right and Emma’s head in the foreground would obscure anyone sitting to Dr. Kavita Rao’s left. Perhaps artist Jorge Molina meant to have Jeffries sit with the Science Team but had to place him further to the right in the panel than one would expect to prevent him from being obscured.

Inset from above panel

The character is wearing a teal shirt with a collar, something we’ve typically seen Namor wear. Jeffries appears later in the book wearing a rust-colored shirt or vest, not a teal shirt. However, notice the collar on the teal shirt – it does appear to be padded and a close-up image of Namor elsewhere in the book (below) shows him wearing a collared shirt but it is a very thin collar. So Namor wins on color, Jeffries wins on thickness of collar, tie.

The ambiguous character’s hair does not have Namor’s classic widow’s peak; rather he has a rumpled hairline. Namor is drawn with a prominent widow’s peak in the close-up while Jeffries is typically drawn with a more rumpled hairline. But, Jeffries also has greyed temples, which are lacking in the unknown character, so based on hairstyle, it’s a tie.

The facial hair is what clinches it for Jeffries, though, as Namor is clean shaven in the close-up while Jeffries clearly has a five-o-clock shadow in his close-up.

Revised image

I’m pretty sure the mystery character is an image of unshaven Jeffries, placed far to the right because Emma is blocking, wearing a miscolored teal shirt that should be rust-colored (and plaid) and who should be drawn with greyed temples. Toss in a white T-shirt and there ya go. My very, very brief career as a comic book colorist is now over, thankfully.

Tags: Age of X, Madison Jeffries