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
Sinister Scheme
I applaud you “X-Men.” I applaud your creators. I give a standing ovation to this entire comic book endeavor of Krakoa stories, still successful four years in. “Sins of Sinister” has packed in so much story, but even that wasn’t enough. Because it turns out we’ve been reading the setup for this story the entire time.
So if I have this straight, we are dealing with four Mister Sinisters (Misters Sinister). I mean, technically we are dealing with a galaxy of Sinister, because Nathaniel Essex has spread his consciousness like a virus. Sure there are some holdouts, plucky rebels, but at this point, more people are Sinister than not.
Right, right, but the four main ones to consider. There’s the main one, who we have been following for years, we can call him Sinister 616. We met Doctor Stasis in the pages of “X-Men” and were shocked when he removed his mask and revealed himself as Mister Sinister but with a club instead of diamond. This story has introduced us to Orbis Stallaris, a shriveled old man with a spade on his forehead. And finally, there’s Mother Righteous, who has been the main antagonist of “Legion of X,” a female Sinister with a heart on her forehead.
Sinister has pulled a Multiple Man, and sent out duplicates to lean and return to him. But Sinister is harder to manage than Jamie Maddrox, so it led to this disaster. Mother Righteous explains that while Sinister 616 was mastering mutant science, she’s been out there mastering magic. Doctor Stasis was investigating post-human possibilities. Orbis Stellaris is trying to solve the “cosmic mysteries.” No doubt, all of this is meant to form one super-gestalt Sinister with a mind so large, it collapses into a singularity. Orbis Stellaris even invokes the word “Dominion,” the beings set up to be the ultimate threat to the mutants.
The part of this story that truly tugged on my heartstrings though, was a scene between Sinister 616 and Rasputin IV, who we first met back in “Powers of X.” Sinister built her to be the most powerful mutant hybrid ever; she is his ultimate soldier. But when confronted with his own manic villainy, he realizes that he is hurting himself too. He may not be able to step up, but he can recognize a hero. He restores Rasputin IV’s free will, and begs her to be a hero and to save the galaxy from Sinister.
Beast Gone Bad
I’ve not been a fan of the direction Hank McCoy’s character has taken on Krakoa, but I appreciate how much it’s escalated. Beast’s long transition to terrifying villain is complete, and I don’t know how he comes back from this.
It’s not as if there weren’t signs. Way back in the day, Beast existed alongside guys like Tony Stark and Reed Richards, even serving on the Avengers. All of them are arrogant science guys who take things too far. That road doesn’t go anywhere good. We got a glimpse of what a full-on evil Beast would look like in “Age of Apocalypse,” and the character felt so vital, that they ported him over to the 616 universe. (His name… is Dark Beast). In the Brian Michael Bendis era, Beast messed with the timeline (for uh, reasons), instigating the entire conflict of that run.
Day one on Krakoa, and Beast is appointed to “X-Force.” He immediately butts heads with his old friend Jean Grey, who leaves to join the X-Men before she and Hank could squash their beef. Over the next thirty-some issues, Beast has committed all sorts of atrocities in the name of safety. He’s gone on to alienate the rest of his team, from Wolverine down to Omega Red, who are a pair of guys who know a thing or two about murder.
Continued below
I realized Beast was fully evil when he created a secret space-prison without telling anyone. And I think officially, when you are doing your thing without any oversight, that’s when you become a villain. Or in the very least, you’re a questionable vigilante. Beast was rounding up enemies without telling the Quiet Council, the rest of X-Force, not even a close friend and confidant.
So it wasn’t all that surprising to see Beast take a page out of Sinister’s book and make a team of clone-selves. He and Sinister have always felt like a likely duo, and this is why. Hank even achieved Sinister’s level of panache when it turned out his secret skull-mountain-lair was also an organic mecha. So at least if we’re stuck with villain Beast, he’s immediately in the top tier of X-Men foes.
Return of the King(pin)
When someone invokes a king in X-Men, it’s usually Magneto. He’s the once and future king. When he leaves and comes back, we start talking about the return of the king. But Marvel has more than one royal family. That’s right friends! Wilson “Big Willie Style” Fisk, aka The Kingpin of Crime, aka the former mayor of the city of New York, has arrived on Krakoa. Wha-huh!?
With disaster on all sides, very few mutants noticed another disaster arriving at their door. Fisk was elected mayor way back in Charles Soule’s “Daredevil” run. At around the halfway mark of the next run, written by Chip Zdarsky, Fisk starts running the city like a supervillain, got caught murdering Daredevil’s identical twin brother (don’t worry about that part) on TV, and subsequently was defeated at the polls by Luke Cage. But now with a murder warrant out for his arrest, Fisk went on the run. He took to the high seas on his yacht with his new wife, Typhoid Mary. It was always a matter of time before Fisk came back, but I thought it’d be in the pages of “Daredevil” or “Spider-Man.”
So what does Fisk do when he’s tired of running? Mary is a mutant, so she is guaranteed Krakoan citizenship. And she and Wilson are married, which means her citizenship can extend to him. There’s precedent for human spouses living on Krakoa, Northstar’s husband Kyle for example. But the mutants will see right through Fisk’s immunity scheme. On the other hand, they’ve given immunity to everyone from unrepentant serial killer Omega Red to genocidal freak Apocalypse. Next to those guys, Fisk seems like a pretty good neighbor. In a month packed with exciting reveals, none got me more hype than this.
This Month’s X-Books:
“X-Men” #20 – This issue made me scream. After a flurry of plot twists, the last page had the most delightful twist of all!
“Wolverine” #31 – Wow! Beast pulls the trigger on his evil plan and just like that, this series finally got exciting!
“Marauders” #12 – This is the least essential X-Book and also, I hate the Threshold and want them to go away.
“Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain” #2 -The second issue keeps up the momentum of the first. Quickly becoming my favorite Betsy Braddock story in the Krakoa era.
“Sabretooth and the Exiles” #5 – Well, that’s it for now. This second miniseries didn’t crackle with the same energy as the first, but that just brings it down to the level of all the other great X-Men books. A deeply weird ending.
“Storm and the Brotherhood” #2 – In another thrilling, groovy issue, Al Ewing and Andrea di Vitto tell an epic sci-fi tale. They even found time for cool space fighter battles.
“Immoral X-Men” #2 – This story is achieving the same heights as the best of the Krakoa era.
“Bishop’s War College” #2 – The A-Plot following Bishop in an alternate timeline is great stuff. The B-Plot with his students fighting the Fenris Twins is feeling a little slow.
“New Mutants: Lethal Legion” #1 – Charlie Jane Anders is doing an X-Book, so obviously the premise is ‘be gay, do crimes.’ I love it.
“X-23: Deadly Regenesis” #1 – Old school in both continuity and style, I cannot understand why this issue was necessary. I’ll never complain about bonus Laura Kinney though.
