Welcome back to Mutantversity, a class offered at the Krakoan Akademos Habitat. This isn’t a place to find big reviews of X-books, (that’s what our Review section is for!) but it’s a great way to keep up with one of the most complicated superhero series around. We’re going to dive into the deep end as we try to parse all the secrets of this new era of “X-Men” comics. As your designated X-Pert, I will do my best to help you work through everything Marvel’s Merry Mutants have to offer!
This month in X-Men
Autumn of our Discontent
There’s been a lot of teasing for the ‘Fall of X’ storyline, so much that I might have become a little numb to it. Yes X is falling, whatever that means, but I don’t really think Marvel is about to take the rug out from under their most popular series. That sort of meta-thinking never gets you anywhere, because the Fall of X is here and it’s freaking insane.
The Gala started out focused on a story that feels… well, I don’t want to write it off but making Kamala Khan a mutant seems eye-rolly. A decade ago Marvel execs were demanding that every new character be an Inhuman. Kamala is the longest lasting character from that initiative. But now that she is going to be a mutant in a new movie, the comics character needs to be retconned similarly. Not the most exciting housekeeping to open up your annual issue.
One Mutant, One Vote
There’s an ominous tone to the party, despite everyone’s wonderful outfit. A few Avengers and X-Men get called away on a mysterious emergency. This does not stop the X-Men vote from being psychically counted, and we have a whole new roster on the official Krakoan X-Men team. As always, we need to stop and take stock of our lineup.
Leading the team, symbolically filling the roles of Scott and Jean, are Synch and Talon. Of all mutant resurrected on Krakoa, Synch has had the biggest glow-up. He was the cool deep-cut cool inclusion on his first X-Men team but since then, he’s become the heart and soul of the thing. Plus who doesn’t love a love story? Synch’s partner in romance and superheroing is Talon. She’s a weird old version of Laura Kinney, the best superhero named Wolverine. Of all the many attempts to make Wolverine old, Talon is obviously the coolest. She’s got a bespoke codename and a great head of hair. Old Man Logan is yesterday’s tomorrow news.
Cannonball is actually one of the longest serving X-Men, so it’s cool to get him back in the mix. Cannonball joined the official team in the late 90s and was its junior member for much of the 2000s. He’s nigh invulnerable when he’s blastin’, which is a cool power, but he also has other responsibilities and a family on the alien planet of Chandilar. The Krakoan gates should make his commute a bit manageable, but well… hold that thought.
Prodigy is here. That’s cool. His profile grew with his inclusion on the Young Avengers, but this is his first time on the main mutant team. His powers, which let him psychically borrow the talents of the people around him, is super cool and definitely hasn’t been utilized to its full extent. Speaking of, there’s also Dazzler, who can sing so hard she shoots lasers, which seems useful. In the last few years, the only exciting adventure she’s been on was fighting some roller derby vampires. Maybe they will come after the X-Men now that she’s a member.
I can’t say no to including Jubilee. She’s been through a ton, is a nationally famous mutant, and has been done a little dirty on Krakoa. Not intentionally. Jubilee had a couple of cool moments when she was hanging out with Captain Britain in Otherworld. But her infant son was turned into a dragon for some reason, and that ended up eating a lot of her attention and time. A new team is a new opportunity for Jubilee can continue to be a kickass mom, while maybe also having a personal life. Maybe she and Chamber will pick up their romance where it left off in “Generation X” vol. 2.
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Frenzy is the coolest inclusion by far. I’ve talked extensively about Frenzy in her capacity as a diplomat working for SWORD. The short version is that she’s super strong, a heartsick wreck, and surprisingly politically savvy. That’s an interesting profile to be sure, and Joanna (her given name) has stolen every show she’s been a part of. She is exactly the kind of interesting, radical mutant that should be thriving on Krakoa.
Then there’s Juggernaut. He’s unstoppable. He’s not a mutant. He has been a surprisingly effective sheriff on Krakoa? He’s good buddies with D-Cel, so maybe we’ll check in with her again? And maybe ‘ol Juggs will kiss his one true love, Black Tom Cassidy, on the mouth.
Sorry to Drop In
And then all the X-Men are killed brutally. Nimrod is here to ruin everyone’s day. He tears Dazzler in half, and caves in the head of Prodigy. The Orchis assault on the Hellfire Gala is one of the most violent scenes in an X-book in a while, and it is brutally effective. Iceman’s death in particular messed me up.
But the plans are so much worse than just some chaotic murder. We’ve seen the members of ORCHIS brewing up a plan for a while, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that they’ve thought of every contingency. Their main nefarious plot involves an activated poison in all of Krakoan medicines. With the push of a button, ORCHIS could cause the death of millions, and the mutants would be perfectly framed. Oh, and MODOK is the one with a tiny hand on said button, which is bad, bad news.
The fight was over before it began. ORCHIS had plans to kill every specific mutant. Professor X has a knife to his throat. Jean is ambushed and stabbed with that same knife. And worst of all, ORCHIS has stolen secrets from Hordeculture, and was able to disable the Krakoan gates. Meaning that while it may be possible to resurrect everyone who was killed, the five are scattered to the eponymous five winds, with no means of getting together in Arbor Magna.
The last group of Krakoans we see are a weird bunch, including Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Angel, Daken, Synch, Psylocke, Talon, Jubilee, Rasputin IV (!), and Wilson Fisk (!!?). Professor X makes it back to Krakoa, where all that greets him is crying on a beach. I mean, Rogue finds him there eventually, but things are bad. Mutants can’t travel or resurrect, and they are being held hostage by the sabotage of their medicines. I cannot BELIEVE how hard “Fall of X” is going. They tried to warn us.
What if Omega Sentinel is the Dominion?
We haven’t seen Karima Shapandar in a while, but here she is evil dancing with Doctor Stasis. Together they reminded me that someone has already/will soon ascend to Dominion status. And we only know two things about this person. We know that a part of them is bright red, and we know that they are not Mister Sinister. That mysterious shade of red seems to be a good match for Omega Sentinel’s skin.
Plus, thematically it’d make sense. The Dominions are essentially robotic beings who upgraded themselves so much they became enormous gods. Krakoa, with all its flowers, has always been about flora and nature, while their ultimate enemies are the hateful, mechanical sentinels. Nimrod, and to a lesser extent Omega Sentinel, have been the faces of those robot forces. I’m starting to think that the Dominion is coming soon, and it’s not going to be a friend.
Pogg! Ur! Pogg!
But you know who is a great friend? Pogg-Ur-Pogg! At least, I assume. Our favorite rhyming four armed crocodile man is still at large, and doing crimes. Like, petty intergalactic bank robbery sort of crimes. The X-Men fought him. It ruled. Marvel writers! Don’t sleep on your chance to use the greatest villain of the last decade. Did I mention the four arms!?
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Extreme Measures
Looking ahead, the X-Men are going to pull some desperate moves. Captain Kate is going back to her brutal ninja training. And Magneto, who we swore we’d leave dead, is getting resurrected somehow. Nightcrawler is living in exile… as Spider-Man!?
In solicits, none of these ideas thrilled me. What’s the point of writing these interesting situations if you’re just going to undo them? But when I saw Iceman’s melting skull, something in me shifted. I knew ‘Fall of X’ was going to be dark, but I thought I’d grown numb. I’ve read a lot of superhero comics in my time, and sometimes I feel like I’ve seen it all a dozen times over. But then an issue like this “Hellfire Gala” comes around reminding you that something doesn’t need to be brand new to be shocking, and sometimes the most predictable outcomes are still the most emotionally affecting.
So resurrect Magneto if you have to. Team up with tedious villains. Time travel if that is what it takes. I thought my morals were steelclad. The mutants thought they knew what they stood for. But sometimes things get so bad that you start to look to approaches you swore you’d never accept. That’s where the mutants are. Let us all hope that the soul of Krakoa doesn’t become further corrupted in the dark days to come.
X-Books read:
“X-Men Hellfire Gala” 2023 – Wow. This is the most monumental shake up in “X-Men” of the last few years.
“X-Men” #24 – The great Pogg-Ur-Pogg returns, and the X-Men start to fall apart going into the Hellfire Gala. Overstuffed issue.
“X-Men” #25 – Wow that was one of the most violent issues of “X-Men” I have ever read. They haven’t had their backs to the wall like this in a long time.
“Immortal X-Men” #13 – No single issue does a better job at preparing you for SOMETHING MAJOR going down in “Fall of X.”
“X-Force” #42 – As bad future stories go, this one was fun, and I feel very prepared to see what drama goes down at the Hellfire Gala.
“X-Men Red” #13 – Sometimes this series just unravels into esoteric fantasy nonsense, and it’s better than any other X comic on the stands. This is one of those issues.
“X-Men Before the Fall: Sinister Four” #1 – As close to a definitive origin as we are likely to get for Mister Sinister, and a tremendously fun issue to boot.
“X-Men Days of Future Past Doomsday” #1 – Last time Marc Guggenheim was in charge of the X-Men it was a disaster. At least this series is too isolated to do much damage,
