Solve For X

Inferno #2
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by David Curiel

Mystique dominates this issue, appearing on around 75% of the pages as the story shows how she manipulated her way into resurrecting Destiny and getting her voted on to the Quiet Council in the seat vacated by Apocalypse. As a shape shifter Mystique gets what she wants by never appearing to be what she really is, and in this issue we’re nudged to consider something that’s been right in front of us the whole time: Maybe Mystique and Destiny are actually the heroes of this story, and not the antagonists? After all, their invention in Moira MacTaggert’s third life is what put her on a course towards creating the nation of Krakoa, and their combination of foresight and information gathering via infiltration appears to be the only thing that’s giving the mutants an advantage over what appears to be the inevitable attack of Orchis and Nimrod in the next issue. 

As Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men story comes to a close it looks like each of his three tentpole events asks us to consider that the worst person we know has made a great point – first with Magneto realizing his dream of a united and superior mutant nation, second with Apocalypse’s survivalist ethos proven to be justified, and now with Mystique and Destiny securing the future by any means necessary just as they were trying to do in their first major storyline Days of Future Past. 

At this stage of the story our protagonists Moira MacTaggert, Charles Xavier, and Magneto appear to be hamstrung by their pragmatic natures. They cling to a sense of control over their grand designs and scramble to adjust to the unexpected chaos introduced by Mystique and Orchis. All three of them are tripped up by their arrogance and pride, though only Xavier and Magneto seem to be aware of this being one of their shortcomings. There’s no question in the narrative that what they’ve done to create Krakoa has been a net positive, but we now see the limits of their vision, particularly as they let Emma Frost in on the big secret and it all looks terrible from her perspective. 

This issue of Inferno is illustrated by Stefano Caselli, one of the two primary artists of the Marauders series and one of Hickman’s earliest Marvel collaborators back on Secret Warriors and then later on Avengers during the Time Runs Out phase. It makes sense that Caselli was assigned this issue of the series – the narrative doesn’t really demand anything particularly iconic or imaginative, and the plot is mainly a series of conversations that play to his strengths in drawing faces and body language. It’s meat-and-potatoes art, but like… high quality meat and well-prepared potatoes. 

• Mystique’s scheme to revive Destiny is revealed in this issue, and it turns out we already watched most of it in the previous issue, which raises the question of whether or not Xavier and Magneto even attempted to wipe out the possibility of her rebirth as demanded by Moira. The surprising element is that Mystique fulfilled the psychic transfer requirement by imitating Xavier and manipulating Hope into doing it for the first time with “his” encouragement. There’s something rather sweet about this moment – it plays on Hope’s emotional vulnerabilities but also comes across as a kindness, a show of faith in her talent and capabilities. The scenes that follow with Mystique taking care of Destiny as she copes with being overloaded by the past and future rushing into her mind at once is more bittersweet, particularly as Destiny realizes the degree to which Mystique had become unmoored and unhinged in her absence. I hope whichever writer inherits Mystique and Destiny after this story spends some time unpacking this, it’s very ripe.

• Emma Frost is bribed into voting for Destiny because Mystique has stolen something she was desperately seeking – a seemingly sacred item called the Kara Katuça, which she was attempting to  acquire from the unnamed hidden society introduced in a conspicuously random scene at the Hellfire Gala in Hickman’s final issue of X-Men. It’s an odd thing to wedge into the story at this late stage – we only have around 40 or so pages left to go – but I suspect this thing with a name that translates to “black box” in Turkish may end up as a deus ex machina device in battling with Nimrod.

• Emma Frost is the first mutant to be let in on the secret of Moira MacTaggert in a scene that is set by the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Louvre in Paris, the same place where Xavier and Magneto recruited her as the first member of the Quiet Council back in Powers of X #5.  (Also, more obviously, the depiction of Emma reading Moira’s mind is a direct visual callback to Xavier doing the same in Powers of X.) 

This makes some sense of why Hickman placed Moira in Paris – this scene was very likely sketched out from the start – and the deliberate recurrence of the sculpture makes me wonder why it was chosen to appear in these pivotal scenes. The first time around I thought the work, which is believed to have been created to commemorate a naval victory, was just a nod to Emma taking to the seas in Marauders. But at this stage it seems more like it’s setting her (or Moira, who is more directly visually contrasted with the sculpture on panel) up to be the “goddess of victory” at the end of this arc. The first issue certainly telegraphed a savior role in the first scene, in which we see Emma resurrect Magneto and Xavier presumably after a disastrous Nimrod/Orchis attack to come in the next issue. 

As for the scene itself, Emma quite understandably is furious to have been strung along as she has been through all of this, just as Mystique was upon realizing Magneto and Xavier were playing her for a fool. But she also understands how serious the situation is, and I suspect as we move through the end of this story and into the X-world beyond Inferno that this is the start of her taking on an even larger leadership role.

• The most startling moment of this issue comes in a rather quiet scene between Omega Sentinel and Nimrod in which she tells the developing AI that she’s been monitoring its progress and that it is ready to see what she really is. This line is also the epigraph at the start of the issue, and the previous issue also opens with a line from Omega Sentinel as the epigraph. This strikes me as the set up for what could be a Rabum Alal-level reveal in the third issue, and made me realize that through all of this I have never once given any thought to Omega Sentinel or her presence in the story from the very first issue of House of X.

I went back through all of her scenes and the pattern is clear – from her first lines she is constantly critiquing Orchis and telling them that their plans are likely to end in disaster. Her role as a critical observer is ambiguous, and it’s unclear if she serves any particular master. Director Devo and Doctor Gregor seem to defer to her, but do not answer to her. The alternate timeline version of Omega Sentinel works in tandem with Nimrod but their relationship is also ambiguous, as it defers to her at some points. Her perspective is consistently cold and seemingly neutral. 

So what might she really be? Hickman’s story has an odd recurring theme of characters who are programmed in some way to betray – Cylobel in Powers of X is genetically altered to do this, Isca the Unbeaten’s power dictates that she do this. The alternate Omega remarks on this theme as it’s introduced. The odds seem good that Omega Sentinel will be compelled to betray Orchis, but I don’t think it will be in favor of the mutants. I think it’s more likely that she represents the interests of what will eventually become homo novissima. As a human fully bonded with machines she’s certainly a form of post-humanity. And it makes a lot of sense for this major theme to come around to some sort of conclusion at the end of Hickman’s run. 

I do appreciate the notion of Omega Sentinel not being what she seems coming up in an issue largely focused on Mystique getting what she wants by not seeming to be what she is either. It now seems like Omega and Mystique have been placed in parallel through the entire story as thematic echoes. 

• Colossus is revealed as the new 12th member of the Quiet Council at the end of the issue, which feels like a sensible move, particularly as he fills out what is essentially the X-Men table. This would feel like a fairly unremarkable element if not for the oddly ominous final panel, which tigthens in on his face as Xavier announces “in him, we can trust.” It seems to deliberately signal that something’s not right here but I don’t think we actually have enough space in the plot for there to be some Colossus twist, particularly as this is the first we’ve really seen of Colossus in Inferno or Hickman’s entire story to date. There was a similar move in the previous issue in the ascension of Bishop to Captain Commander, and my sense is that Hickman is stoking paranoia but both characters are poised for big heroic moments. 

• Next issue looks to be rather brutal and bleak as Nimrod and Orchis are prepared to strike. I can’t wait to see the chaos. 

X-Book Mini-Reviews: Marauders, Cable, Wolverine, X-Men + Fantastic Four

Marauders #8-12
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Stefano Caselli (8, 10, 11)  and Matteo Lolli (9, 12)
Color art by Edgar Delgado

Gerry Duggan was just beginning to hit his stride where I left off with this series and with these issues he’s fully in the zone. The magic of this book is in how deftly he balances his exploration of the new Krakoa status quo and a firm grasp of characterization and character history. He does excellent work in restoring Callisto to her Claremont-era greatness as a queer punk anti-hero with a strict code of honor, and pulls off a minor miracle in reinventing Jason Aaron’s absolutely horrible kid Hellfire Club as a legitimate threat under the name Verendi. I love the way he writes the fraught character dynamics of his central cast of Storm, Emma Frost, and Kate Pryde with all the nuance of years of publishing without requiring a reader to have actually read any of those comics. And bless him, he’s even doing his best to acknowledge years of Kate being written as a bisexual woman, though it doesn’t seem as though he’s allowed to state this in the text.

These issues keep up a strong Claremontian momentum even with a significant break in the publishing schedule as a result of the pandemic, though the issue in which Kate is finally resurrected is oddly anticlimactic given how much the question of whether or not she even could be resurrected is positioned as a major plot point. But Kate’s actual return in issue #12 makes up for this bum note – Duggan and Matto Lolli present her with a renewed swagger, and set up the next phase of the plot so enticingly that it actually feels disappointing we have to move away from this story for three issues to get through X of Swords. 

Cable #1-4
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

Whereas Duggan’s Marauders is centered on political intrigue and the nuanced relationship of its trio of leading women, his Cable solo book is positioned as more of a light-hearted wish fulfillment story for boys. Duggan is working with the teenage version of Cable established by Ed Brisson in Extermination – a young man who’s killed the older version of himself we’ve known for decades for the crime of not being good enough at his job. On a macro level, Duggan’s story is about this boy gradually and inevitably becoming the old man, but in these issues it’s mostly just presenting Cable as an adventurer and establishing his five-way romance with the entire Stepford Cuckoos hive-mind. This is clever – the Cuckoos are established as clone/daughters of Emma Frost, and Cable is the time-lost child of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, so it’s a play on their dynamic while also just depicting Cable as this ultra-stud. (We also see that Armor has a crush on him – mutant ladies sure love a Summers man.) 

Phil Noto’s art is typically fantastic in these issues, with his usual flair for clean design, vivid colors, and expressive faces. He’s very well-suited to Duggan’s writing style, adept at both action scenes and conveying his humor. He does a particularly good job in giving the five Cuckoos distinct expressions and body language, and in playing off the odd dynamic of the teen Cable meeting Deadpool for the first time while Deadpool was friends with his older self for many years. 

Wolverine #1-5
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Adam Kubert (1-3) and Viktor Bogdanovic (1, 4, 5)
Color art by Frank Martin (1-3) and Matthew Wilson (1, 4, 5)

In all my years of reading X-Men comics I have rarely regularly followed a Wolverine solo title, largely because those series seem rather inconsequential and I prefer the character as part of a team dynamic. It’s like how I love cinnamon in an apple pie, but wouldn’t really want to eat cinnamon by itself straight out of the spice rack. Benjamin Percy, however, is a guy who just wants as much Wolverine as he can get and is obviously having the time of his life as the primary author of the character in both his solo series and X-Force. Percy has a firm grasp on exactly what makes Wolverine work and is fluent in the particular cadences of his dialogue, and his enthusiasm for the character is infectious, so much so that the two narrative arcs in this run of five issues are only so-so in plot terms but are nevertheless very enjoyable just for all the great character moments. 

I’m particularly fond of Wolverine’s interactions with Magneto, a man who has caused him great agony over the years that he’s now forced to answer to as one of the leaders of Krakoa. Percy is very interested in the nuances of how these old men who are very set in their ways adapt to an entirely new status quo – they are both going about it in good faith, but there’s only so much of the past you can ignore while working for a better future. 

This mix of “same old” and “totally new” seems to be the narrative crux of this series, and that extends to the art as well, as classic Wolverine artist Adam Kubert is trading off arcs with relative newcomer Viktor Bogdanovic. Kubert’s art is solid as ever, though his tendency towards unusual page layouts is kicked into high gear with these issues. He’s very good at drawing Krakoan landscapes and biotech, and it’s apparent he’s excited by the challenge of working with Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva’s designs. Bogdanovic’s art is extremely similar to that of Batman artist Greg Capullo, to the point where you could just pretend it’s actually Capullo drawing the book. This is fine, though I’d like to see him evolve more into his own style as he clearly has the raw skills down. 

X-Men + Fantastic Four #1-4
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Color art by Laura Martin

Chip Zdarsky is a writer that leads with humor and delight, but always grounds his stories in compelling dramatic questions. To some extent that’s the job of a superhero comic writer, but it’s not tremendously common for people to actually achieve that balance, particularly when Marvel comics that lean humorous are nearly always full of unfunny soy jokes with no narrative stakes. This miniseries, in which the X-Men and Fantastic Four clash over the question of whether or not Reed and Sue Richards’ omega-level mutant son Franklin belongs on Krakoa, presents as a high-stakes story, even if the actual resolution of the Franklin question feels like a shruggy compromise. But even if the ending feels a bit inconsequential, the philosophical clashes are handled thoughtfully and Zdarsky’s handle on the personalities and voices of all the core characters is impressive. Terry and Rachel Dodson, no strangers to either the X-Men or Fantastic Four, do typically excellent work in their ultra-clean and dynamic style. The ending of the story hints at a further conflict between Reed Richards and Charles Xavier down the line, but even without that thread this miniseries leaves me with the feeling that I’d be happy to get more X-Men and/or Fantastic Four comics written by Zdarsky in the future.

The Red Coronation

“I’m On A Boat” / “The Red Coronation” / “The Bishop In Black” / 
“The Red Bishop” / “A Time to Sow” / “A Time to Reap” / “From Emma, With Love”
Marauders #1-7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli
Color art by Federico Blee with Erick Arciniega and Edgar Delgado

Marauders is a peculiar series, both the most radical of the new Dawn of X series in concept and the most traditional in its storytelling. Gerry Duggan is enthusiastically exploring the possibilities of the new ideas Jonathan Hickman introduced in House of X/Powers of X – the issues of trade and diplomacy that come from both Krakoan sovereignty and the miracle drugs that drive its economy, the rebranding of the Hellfire Club as the Hellfire Trading Company, the quirks of Krakoan gates, the utility of the resurrection protocols – and is doing it, in of all things, a pirate comic. I was initially wary of the clean, direct “house style” art and emphasis on humor and action/adventure, but seven issues into the series it’s clear to me that Duggan is playing to his strengths as a writer while taking Hickman’s concepts very seriously. 

This is an ensemble series, but the star is clearly Kitty Pryde. Pryde, who now wishes to be called Kate rather than Kitty, is mysteriously unable to pass through the Krakoan gates and can only get to the living island by boat. In the first issue Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, offers Pryde a seat on the Quiet Council of Krakoa in exchange for becoming the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club and heading up both the distribution of Krakoan drugs and missions to rescue mutants around the world who cannot find a way to Krakoa. Pryde is accompanied by her close friends Iceman and Storm, the mutant cop Bishop, and the newly resurrected and reformed villain Pyro. Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Club, is the book’s primary antagonist and is actively scheming against Frost and Pryde. 

Each lead character in Marauders gets some fun moments, but it’s pretty obvious that Duggan is invested in Pryde above all else, and is doing what he can to push the character forward after a few decades of stagnation. The usual problem with the depiction of Pryde is that she’s often written in an overtly nostalgic way by authors who grew up in the early 80s, and that she’s frequently presented as a moralist scold. The latter bit doesn’t have to be a bad thing – it is a legitimate personality flaw that’s been with her since the beginning and it can be genuinely interesting – but Duggan seems rather pointed in steering clear of all that and emphasizing the ways she’s become willing to make ethical compromises. Duggan’s Kate Pryde comes across as a young woman who is so sick of her usual goody-goody patterns that she’s becoming reckless in search of a new identity – she’s more ruthlessly violent, drinking heavily, getting tattoos, and leaning hard into the whole pirate aesthetic. She also seems very depressed and lonely, and I trust Duggan to dig deeper into that as he goes along. 

It doesn’t always work, particularly in the first few issues. There’s a text page in the debut issue in which Wolverine sends a message to Kate asking for a list of goods, foods, and beverages to bring to Krakoa that is both wildly unfunny and nonsensical given that he’s a person who can freely teleport anywhere he wants, and she’s a person who is stuck taking long boat rides everywhere. Duggan fumbles some early story beats by delivering things we’ve already accepted as the high concept of the series, such as Pryde becoming the Red Queen, as big issue-ending reveals. Storm, a Quiet Council member and second to only Cyclops in the chain of command of the X-Men, doesn’t quite make sense as a subordinate supporting character in this series despite her close relationship with Pryde and only seems to be in the book because Duggan called dibs on her very early. 

Duggan’s greatest strength in writing Marauders is that while the circumstances of the story are exploring new ground, the relationships and motives of the characters are firmly rooted in continuity without getting bogged down in rehashing old stories. Frost and Pryde, introduced in the same issue back in the Claremont/Byrne era, have a long and complicated history together, and Duggan pushes them into a new phase of mutual respect and collaboration after too often being written as petty rivals who cruelly condescend to one another. Storm and Iceman are two of Pryde’s closest friends in the X-Men, but are also two people who’ve had very painful histories with Emma Frost. When Callisto is reintroduced in the seventh issue, Duggan gracefully acknowledges her contentious relationship with Storm, her past with the Morlocks, and her brief career as a model. I particularly like when Callisto shows a grudging respect for Pryde taking the name of the Marauders, the kill crew who slaughtered the Morlocks and nearly ended Pryde’s life in the “Mutant Massacre.”

Marauders has been illustrated by four different artists in the span of seven issues, and while they’ve all been somewhat bland and functional, they’ve all matched up stylistically so the series at least has a consistent visual aesthetic. It feels somewhat churlish to complain about the strong draftsmanship of Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli, but I do wish they had a bit more flair. They’re not exactly miscast for the tone or subject matter of the book, and Lolli is particularly good at drawing some of Duggan’s most imaginative action sequences, but it looks like it could be any mid-list Marvel book as opposed to what is effectively one of the flagships of the newly ascendant X-Men franchise. I just wish it looked more fresh. 

All told, I’m glad I held off in writing about this series because it’s been better with each passing issue, with Duggan deepening his characterization and steadily heightening the stakes. He’s even managed to make Jason Aaron’s Hellfire Kids characters from his dreadfully goofy Wolverine and the X-Men run a worthwhile set of antagonists in this, which is borderline miraculous. (That said, why does he take these awful little kids more seriously than Donald Pierce, a character who was presented as one of the more unhinged and terrifying villains of Chris Claremont’s original run?) But despite minor quibbles, I feel like Duggan is headed in the right direction and am grateful for his efforts in evolving Kate Pryde as a character.