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Mutantversity: Shhhhh, Sinister Secrets!

By | September 16th, 2019
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Welcome back to Mutantversity, a class offered to humans and mutants alike. There’s just so much to talk about with “House of X” and “Powers of X” that we’ve decided to do an early entry, just to decode the secrets of these very exciting two issues. We will be back at our regularly scheduled time for the rest of the column, including the next couple of issues and our Mutantversity Monthly Medals of Merit. But for now… let’s get to cracking the clues!

Last we saw the X-Men, their space plane was in the process of exploding. This month, we pick up with the X-Men in the middle of a mission against impossible odds, in close orbit around the sun. But before we get to any of that, writer Jonathan Hickman and designer Tom Muller have got a chart we’ve got to take a look at.

Every word of this chart hits like a cannonball to the face. It breaks down the list of organized hate crimes against mutants, identifying perpetrators, organizations, and casualty numbers. And since this is Mutantversity, we’re going to look closely at all of them.

The list opens with Steven Lang and Project: Armageedon. Lang (no relationship to Scott), was the leader of a secret government super soldier program, initially hiding the fact that he was an anti-mutant bigot. He’s been revived from the dead multiple times, and carried out his project of killing mutants every time. His mutant casualties measure 29.

Mister Clean is the leader of the Church of Humanity. He’s appeared in four issues of comics as the leader of one of a bunch of anti-mutant Christian groups. They live on a ranch and are sort of a freaky militia group. They’ve killed 126 mutants.

Graydon Creed is the son of Mystique and Sabretooth. That whole family hates each other so much it’s crazy. Creed led the Friends of Humanity, which you guess it, is another anti-mutant hate group. They were big in the 90s, responsible for the death of 147 mutants. They’ve got a culty, clean-cut Reagan-Era Republican vibe.

Cameron Hodge was the college roommate of Angel (aka Warren Kenneth Worthington III). If you don’t know him, he’s one of the scariest villain the X-Men have. At first, Hodge appeared to work for Warren, but he was secretly putting together an anti-mutant conspiracy called The Right. Hodge traded the souls of mutant babies to a demon in exchange for immortality, and later siphoned the powers of robot/mutant/self/friend Warlock to become a techno-organic monster. So Hodge is a half-robot, half-demon conspiracy leader, fueled by pure hatred. His organization has killed 178 mutants.

The Leper Queen existed in the pages of X-Factor from 2006-2009. She was disfigured in an accident involving her mutant daughter, disappeared for a while, then re-emerged as the leader of the Sapien League. She’s led them to kill 221 mutants, and has also worked with the Sentinel Bastion, before she was killed by Laura Kinney (aka X-23, aka Wolverine).

The Reavers started as the private army of the Hellfire Club, before they splintered off to become mercenaries, bandits, and soldiers for hire based out of the Australian Outback. They became a much a murdering cyborgs, and although they were remorseless killers, they didn’t come together to kill mutants. But they got really good at it, and often were employed as minions of other bad guys, most notably Lady Deathstrike in the classic Barry Windsor-Smith issue ‘Wounded Wolf’ (“Uncanny X-Men” #205). Donald Pierce is their current leader, and together the group is responsible for 348 mutant deaths.

The Reverand William Stryker is the founder of the Christian anti-mutant hate group The Purifiers, and the antagonist of the very famous “X-Men” story ‘God Loves, Man Kills.’ That story was such an instant classic, that Stryker has been brought back numerous times, following Cameron Hodge in ruthlessness and commitment to evil. Stryker has started a robot Sentinel-worshiping cult, become a cyborg, and dealt with demons. In other words, all of Hodge’s hits. The Purifiers are organized and terrifyingly effective. They’ve killed 414 mutants, including 45 junior X-Men who were on a bus heading for a safe location.

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The next entry on this list is very different, so its notable that she is included at all. Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) was told numerous times throughout her life that she (and her brother Peitro aka Quicksilver) were the mutant children of Magneto. That wasn’t entirely correct. Magneto led the kids to believe they were his in order to indoctrinate them into his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In reality, Wanda and Pietro were given their powers by a mad scientist, the High Evolutionary (I swear, that’s the latest on this story right now guys).

Wanda Escaped her father’s control, and became one of the Avengers, and one of the most celebrated heroes in the world. That was, until a series of twists led to her giving birth to a robot’s kids, having those kids turn out not to be real, stolen by demons, seeing those kids revived, and then being drive insane by Pietro, Magneto, and Dr. Doom. Her powers were used to cause M-Day, which depowered most of the world’s mutant population, a total of 986,420.

This is notable because unlike those other groups, Wanda didn’t try to kill anybody. But through a series of turns, she took away the powers, the mutant identity, of almost a million people. And who does this chart blame? The Avengers, the team she was a part of at the time. To most, they are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but to mutants, they stood by for one of the greatest hate crimes in the history of the world. Wanda has doubtlessly been done dirty, but I for one am excited to see how she pushes back against that, especially considering that this page labels her as a “pretender” to mutantdom.

Finally, we’ve got Bolivar Trask, the inventor of the sentinels. The mutant hunting death machines have been “X-Men” antagonists since Lee & Kirby’s “X-Men” #14 in 1965. Though the X-Men cut down the purple death bots with ease, their casualty numbers have been steadily increasing until finally, the Sentinel/Trask/Mummudrai Genocide, which happened in “New X-Men” #115. That single event was responsible for the death of 16.5 million mutants, bringing the Sentinel death count to 16,521,618.

This is clearly an important moment of “X-Men” history, so it’s worth lingering on for a moment. Genosha was formally an oppressive anti-mutant state, before being taken over by Magneto, who made it a mutant safe haven. Magneto was even doing a fairly good job governing until an attack orchestrated by Cassandra Nova, the evil twin sister of Charles Xavier. (“Mummudrai” is a Shi’ar concept that at its most simple, means “evil opposite). Cassandra manipulated Bolivar Trask’s nephew to send a sentinel attack at the mutant island, utterly decimating the world’s mutant population. Fan favorite movie character Negasonic Teenage Warhead made her first appearance moments before the sentinels arrived, and in the comics is most famous for being one of the casualties. Humans were killed too, Kitty Pryde’s father, in an effort to connect with his daughter was on Genosha, and perished in the attack.

It’s politically interesting that Trask is held responsible for all the deaths by sentinel. Trask himself has been dead for decades in “X-Men” comics (he was briefly revived by sentinels in 2009-2010 in the lead up to the ‘Second Coming’ story). Blaming Trask for all those deaths is like blaming a weapons manufacturer for everyone killed by their creation. Either Hickman is asking us to think about the complicity of gun manufacturers in the murders their weapons cause, or he’s making a point that the sentinels are uniquely hateful creations. I’m inclined to think there’s a lot of the first point in his writing.

In the present, the X-Men coordinate with the strike team in their new war room, and it is awesome. They seem to have fused biology and technology to the point that their communicator is a psychic scrying pool, and anyone who doesn’t think that’s freaking dope should probably find a hobby other than superhero comics. Xavier and Magneto lead the command team, but there are a number of other famous X-Men there with them. Storm with the three Stepford Cuckoos help prepare the scrying pool, and Beast is on the computers doing calculations. The newest member of the X-Men, Trinary, is backing him up. Trinary has the ability to talk to computers. She’s super cool.

Continued below

But then we find out that the mission is not going well. Husk and Archangel were killed in the explosion at the end of last issue. Jean and Logan waver, but Cyclops, clutching the dead body of his friend Archangel, is filled with resolve.

The rest of the issue plays out almost like a Mass Effect mission. There are four levers that need to be pulled, and if all of them are, the Mother Mold will be dropped into the sun. The creative team really shines as they tell one of the simplest “X-Men” stories you can tell. Cyclops leads his team to do a daring mission. But it’s filled with little character details. I’m especially struck by the panels of Wolverine and Nightcrawler subduing members of Orchis. Wolverine is shown walking away from a pile of colorless bodies. They’re dead and they don’t matter to him anymore. Nightcrawler ties up two of the scientists who are left, very much alive and in color, in the foreground of the panel. Pepe Larraz and color artist Marte Gracia do a masterful job at characterization through posing and color.

Things take a turn when Monet is cornered by an Orchis team. She tells Jean to continue to mission as she transforms into a red-skinned quill monster. This is Penance, the horrifying form she was trapped in by her evil brother. Penance is so sharp that even touching her gently can lead to terrible wounds. Monet’s Penance form is usually not looked at as a weapon, but a terrible curse inflicted on her. But she goes down fighting in her fearsome form.

As Mother Mold is activated by the human scientists, Mystique makes her move, but she’s pushed out the airlock. The body count on this mission is steadily growing, but Professor X tells Jean to “Do whatever it takes.” So Wolverine and Nightcrawler express their love for one another, swear to meet up on the other side, and charge into their deaths. They are successful, but they both burn to death on the surface of the sun.

That leaves Scott and Jean as the last two surviving X-Men in the strike force. They attempt to reunite, but Scott is shot by Omega Sentinel. Filled with hatred, Doctor Gregor shoots Scott Summers in the face, killing him. It’s brutal. Jean is the last survivor, and she’s pulled into space by the sentinels, suffocated by the mass of them. The final image of the story is Professor X, one tear rolling down his cheek thinking. “No more.”

That’s not the end of the issue though. We return to the chart from the beginning, now coupled with newspaper clippings describing atrocities against mutants, and the repetition of Professor X’s vow: “No more.” I read this issue digitally, and as the words grow bigger and bigger, I became more and more overwhelmed. It was a comic book simulation of a panic attack, and some of the most effective storytelling I’ve ever seen in sequential images and words. “No more!”

In the past, Professor X and Magneto visited Bar Sinister, the secret palace of mad scientist Nathaniel Essex aka Mister Sinister. The are stopped by a guard… who turns out to also be Mister Sinister. Let me explain something about Sinister. He was once a colleague of Charles Darwin in 19th century London, and he seeks genetic perfection. He’s also an epic narcissist, so he cloned thousands of copies of the most perfect being he knows- himself. Everyone is Sinister!

Hickman and R.B. Silva do an amazing Sinister. The ruler of Bar Sinister is unable to start any sort of meeting until discusses capes with the Master of Magnetism. When his steward (also Sinister) fails to bring him a cape, he is executed. (The executioner is also Sinister). But once the sartorial discussion and casual murders are done, the three men turn to business: Sinister’s project to build a library of all the DNA on Earth. It is Xavier who encourages Sinister to turn his efforts towards mutant DNA in particular, but Sinister isn’t having it.

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Well, not this version of Sinister anyway. The leader of Bar Sinister is executed… by a mutant Mister Sinister, one who wears a familiar cape. It should be noted that in a room filled with swords, axes, and presumably outlandish ray-guns, Sinister kills Sinister with a little 9mm pistol. It looks so out of place, you can’t help but laugh in shock. And Charles manipulates Sinister, erasing his memory of the meeting.

This is where we get our latest chart, “The Red Diamond.” It is a gossip newsletter written by Sinister and distributed to Sinisters. It is essentially a series of riddles and clues, and you bet we’re going to dive into every one of them.

Sinister Secret #1: Red shoes makes me think of The Wizard of Oz. I think that it’s simply a clue to look out for a Sinister wearing red shoes. This issue implies that there is a Sinister who remembers the meeting with Magneto and Xavier, and I’m guessing we’ll be able to identify him based on his footwear choices.

Sinister Secret #2: We have to find a “trendsetting mutant who was cut down in his prime.” This makes me think of Jumbo Carnation, the mutant fashion designer who was killed by human bigots, inspiring Quentin Quire’s ‘Riot at Xavier’s’ (his first ever appearance!). Carnation could certainly be the “flower that’s the fullest” (get it?) and this whole clue is in line with Hickman’s notion that X-Men don’t wear human clothes, they’ve got closets full of superhero costumes.

Sinister Secret #3: “A deceased redhead pretender who made a pact with the devil” can only refer to Madelyne Pryor, the Jean Grey clone that Sinister created, and the biological mother of Cyclops’ son Cable. The fact that she left behind a whole mess of secrets isn’t too much of a surprise, but is a promise that we will be returning to one of the most tragic characters in “X-Men” history.

Sinister Secret #4: This one is tricky, but “no one noticed what washed ashore” makes me think of Betsy Braddock. The ninja once known as Psylocke was captured when she washed ashore, and forced into the body of the assassin Kwannon. We know that Psylocke will be leading the new Excalibur team, and Kwannon will be the star of the “Fallen Angels” series, maybe this is telling us that their apparent happiness is a ruse?

Sinister Secrets Revealed! This issue introduces us to the first mutant clone of Sinister, and here it is revealed that his X-gene was stolen from none other than John Proudstar, aka Thunderbird. He was a member of the team that originally battled Krakoa, joining at the same time as Wolverine, Storm, and Nightcrawler. Unfortunately, Thunderbird was killed in his second mission with the X-Men, one issue after he was introduced. His legacy lives on in his brother James aka Warpath, but it looks like his story isn’t over.

Sinister Secret #5: “The best there is at what he does” is Wolverine. But who is married with a kid? I’m going to guess that this is another reference to Madelyne Pryor, who indeed married Cyclops and had a kid with him. When Scott found out that Jean was alive, he ditched his whole family in what was probably the biggest scumbag move of his life, and formed the original X-Factor team with the newly resurrected Jean. Madelyne stuck with the X-Men and relocated with the team to Australia. Maybe Logan and Madelyne carried on an affair in those days, and Scott ignored it because of his own history of cheating?

Sinister Secret #6: “Progeria” is a real condition that causes someone to appear to age prematurely. There is one character in all of Marvel who explicitly has that condition, and it is the mutant child Ernst. The rest of the entry doesn’t make a lot of sense for Ernst though. But Cyclops and Madelyne’s son Cable was brought into the future, and the next time he met his father, he was actually older. Cable has an evil clone named Stryfe, and once you consider that the puzzle comes together. Sinister is implying that Stryfe is not truly the clone of Cable!

Continued below

Sinister Secret #7: This one is incredibly obvious. For years, Cyclops and Havok were believed to be the only two Summers brothers, until Sinister implied there was a third. For years after that it was implied to be supreme doofus Adam X the X-Treme, until finally it was confirmed to be Gabriel Summers aka Vulcan. Here Sinister is alluding to even more Summers brothers, then quickly turns away and says “LOL no, I’m just trolling.” Sinister made clones of Jean, I’d be shocked if he didn’t clone the Summers family as well.

Sinister Secret #8: The literal meaning of this is simple, but there’s a lot more we are going to consider in just a minute. The “fittest-of-all mutant” can only be the first mutant, Apocalypse. His “particularly numbered entourage” is his four horsemen. This has often been used a plot device to turn X-Men evil for a story. Archangel is his most famous horseman, but everyone from Wolverine to Gambit to Psylocke to Sentry have all been horsemen. But here, Sinister tells us that there are four original horsemen, and Apocalypse is ultimately loyal to them, willing to drop everything to have them back. Who are these horsemen? Hold tight true believers, we’ll come back to that in a second!

Sinister Secret #9: This one is all about a “non-couple couple” who “has been apart for so long.” They’re also supposed to be kids. The way a lot of us talk about comics now, this sounds like it must be referring to a popular ship like Kitty and Ilyana, or Sunspot and Cannonball. I don’t think it’s strictly speaking romantic at all though. I think this is referring to Warlock and Doug Ramsay, who haven’t seen each other since Doug’s death in “New Mutants” #60, which came out in 1988. The two of them fit all the criteria. They are kids (as members of the younger New Mutants team), in paradise (we later see Doug settling on the tropical paradise island of Krakoa), a non-couple couple (they regularly merge into one being, a process described as deeply intimate), been apart for so long (more than 30 years), and the world is not going to be ready for their reunion.

Sinister Secrets Revealed! Keep an eye out for when a character uses the word “Inferno.” It’s the name of one of the most famous Sinister stories ever, and I’d bet he’s using it as an activation phrase for when he triggers his master plan, especially because…

Sinister Secret #10: Professor X thinks that he’s got one over on Sinister, but that is not the case! One Sinister, with the mutant gene, is actually a step ahead of Xavier’s plans. I think we’ll know this Sinister when we see that he’s wearing red shoes, and when he speaks the word “Inferno,” it will activate memories in all the Sinister clones, and they will act together to bring about the downfall of the mutants.

Next, we head to Krakoa, a few months before the start of “House of X.” Professor X introduces Doug Ramsay to Krakoa, and the three of them start to work at understanding each other and creating the mutant language. I must note that Xavier is wearing a safari outfit, and looks exactly like his evil twin Cassandra Nova, who wore the same outfit when she ordered the Genoshan Genocide.

Is it possible that Cassandra is under the helmet in place of Xaiver in the present? He has been moving in a way that seems to be coded very feminine. But when his team died in the last issue, he shed a tear, and the Cassandra we know is quite evil. Then again, last we saw Cassandra, her ability to feel empathy had been restored by Jean Grey in “X-Men Red.” Maybe she and her brother are finally working together? That would be a crazy twist.

Doug and Krakoa bond instantly. It makes sense because in the future, the two of them form a very special relationship and merge into one being. Krakoa tells Doug its origin story, which he repeats to Xavier and the reader. It is dense, mythological, and very, very Hickman.

Continued below

There once was a being called Okarra, a living land. But Okarra was chopped in half by “the twilight sword.” Now, there is a classic artifact in Marvel comics called “the twilight sword.” It belongs to Surtr, the fire king of Muspelheim. But the sword shown on panel here looks like a more recent addition to Marvel canon: All-Black the Necrosword of Knull, the Dark God of the Symbiotes. So it seems that Knull chopped Okarra in two, creating two lands: Arakko or Krakoa. Minions of Knull invaded the Earth, but were turned back by Apocalypse, the first mutant, and his original four horsemen.

We see the horsemen in silhouette, so it’s hard to tell if we’ve seen them before. But one of them is indubitably a dead ringer for Pyreus Kril, aka Firelord, a former herald of Galactus. The one all the way on the right looks a lot like Destiny, but that can’t be right, she hasn’t been born yet. Second from the right is someone who looks a lot like they are Shi’ar. And all the way on the left is a lupine figure, who looks a lot like the Egyptian god Anubis. Or maybe it’s Romulus, the immortal lord of Wolverines. X-continuity gets freaking weird.

Krakoa was saved and remained on Earth, but Arakko was lost. I’ll bet you right now that it can be accessed using the black flowers mentioned in the very first issue of “House of X.” The “No-Place.” The “Krakoan Tumor.”

The issue ends 1000 years in the future, as the librarian considers ascension. This part of the story has confused a lot of people, but I think that’s simply because we don’t know very much yet. We learn here that the librarian isn’t trying to join the Phalanx at all, they are trying to overcome it by adding a consciousness to the collective mind that will fundamentally change it. I’m being vague, because we don’t know a lot else yet. But there are a few threads we can connect.

The librarian keeps an orb that is what remains of Nimrod, the sentinel leader. That orb is the library, and I think the key to overcoming the Phalanx. We also know that 100 years from now, Nimrod is brutally melting down mutants to create a genetic library- which is the project that Professor X asked Sinister to complete in this very issue! And we know that Sinister believes himself to be one step ahead of the X-Men. So it seems that Xavier and Sinister will inadvertently create Nimrod, eventually leading to the library of mutant genomes, the only thing that can stop the expansion of the Phalanx in the far future.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m wrong about everything. If there’s one thing to learn from HOXPOX it’s that none of us know a damn thing!


//TAGS | Mutantversity

Jaina Hill

Jaina is from New York. She currently lives in Ohio. Ask her, and she'll swear she's one of those people who loves both Star Wars and Star Trek equally. Say hi to her on twitter @Rambling_Moose!

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