It seems like in the lives of many a high school or college student, a crucial moment is a realization that “Utopia” means “no place.” It’s a revelation that appeals to the cynicism of that age, the idea that a perfect world is high fantasy and not an attainable reality. This often translates to putting that lens up to media that is “too good to be true.” This is probably best represented in Star Trek’s need to constantly put The Federation under a microscope to explore how it ticks. While that’s the best example, recently, that “too good to be true” idea could easily be applied to the nation of Krakoa. From the start, there was always something that felt sketchy about the resurrection-based paradise. Enter Kieron Killen and Lucas Werneck. In “Immortal X-Men” #3, Kieron Gillen continues to dissect utopia in unique and intriguing ways, building conspiracies but focusing on the individuals behind them.
Written by Kieron GillenCover by Mark Brooks
Illustrated by Lucas Werneck
Colored by Dijjo Lima
Lettered by VC’s Clayton CowlesTHE DESTINY OF X! Over one hundred years ago, Irene Adler wrote twelve books. A sequel is long overdue.
While many of the Krakoan books have focused on protecting and observing the mutant paradise, “Immortal X-Men” is a different book. One that puts a magnifying glass up to the island paradise and looks at how it was created and, more importantly, how it will survive. In “Immortal X-Men” #3, Kieron Gillen shifts the focus to another player in the burgeoning threat to mutantdom, Irene Adler, AKA Destiny. While the book doesn’t skimp on the political machinations of the quiet council or embraces the cerebral nature of Adler’s powers, Gillen helps keep the focus on something more important than the success or failure of a nation, but a relationship.
Yes, in a book that focuses on the macro of Krakoa, the growing threats, and the splintering factions of the mutant’s heaven on Earth, “Immortal X-Men” #3 makes the radical decision to focus on the most human touchstone (well, homo superior in this case) of all, a relationship. Much of the issue focuses on Irene Adler and her relationship with Mystique, how this relationship is a driving motivation for everything that has happened and what has yet to happen in the future. Gillen does a remarkable job of capturing Destiny’s inner turmoil while highlighting her quiet strengths and powers. He’s able to present big ideas like nexus points in time, and the concept of chaos theory in easily digestible ways, not necessarily through overwrought explanations but through Destiny’s illustrations of her powers. Her powers are seeing multiple timelines, multiple versions of the same realities. A Nexus is her decision to focus on one of those things and work her way towards it. For Irene Adler, an essential nexus, the most important thing for her to focus on, is her relationship with Raven.
While Gillen’s dialogue is solid throughout the issue, the real place his prose shines is in Adler’s inner thoughts. She spends most of “Immortal X-Men” #3 in a coma, so much of the issue is her simply explaining her powers and role in the whole Krakoan experiment. While it’s still unclear what the endgame of this series will be, we get glimpses of potential futures, ranging from mutant Inquisitions, Nimrod level extinction events, continued fights with the Avengers, and a reign of Apocalypse, just to name a few. There are moments in the issue that you feel as overwhelmed as Destiny, awash in many different futures with very little guidance on how to bring about the best one. It all works for Gillen’s story. There’s a war coming, and there’s very little to stop it. Much like her relationship with Raven, the creation of Krakoa is a nexus point. It remains unclear for better or worse, but one thing is for sure. There are fewer possible futures now, and Krakoa might be behind that.
Honestly, one of the biggest challenges to “Immortal X-Men” #3 is how to convey Destiny’s power. As she reminds us throughout, it’s more than simply declaring who will break through a wall when and where, but rather seeing multiple possibilities and guiding events towards them. Lucas Werneck does an excellent job of capturing her ability’s visuals in a few exciting ways. The first is by showing the overwhelming magnitude of her power, with Destiny getting flashes of every possible reality at once. Between Werneck’s coloring and Dijjo Lima’s coloring, these flashes have definite shapes but appear closer to shadows than realities. But then, sometimes, we get the opportunity to follow one of these shadows to their logical end. The second allows Gillen to drop Krakoa’s big revelation that Sinister has cloned Moira and has access to her powers. Yet, of the different ways Werneck displays her power set, the most impactful is the blob-like flow chart of different realities and possibilities. It’s interesting because it’s an excellent visual example of her Nexus points, with some ending in dead ends and others creating a bottleneck to new potential timelines. What’s interesting about this, though, is that some events pop up in multiple places, or some scenarios are just different configurations of the same pieces. It gives you the visual that time is starting to run out and that there are very few “good” endings, as Destiny sees it.
Continued belowAgain, this is all good and effective, if a little daunting. But similar to Gillen’s script, Werneck does a remarkable job of keeping the focus on the relationship between Raven and Destiny throughout “Immortal X-Men” #3. There is an intimacy whenever the pair is together, unspoken love and admiration that Werneck can capture in subtle facial expressions or body language. Even in the scenes with the Quiet Council, Werneck finds a way to capture this love as Mystique passionately argues for her love’s ability and the futures she sees. While Destiny’s mask might hide her true emotions from the Quiet Council and the rest of Krakoa, Mystique gets to see her at her most vulnerable and intimate, and Werneck uses this opportunity to draw out some genuine emotions in a book that could easily just be lofty conversations about statecraft and preventing annihilation.
In the end, the question that Gillen and Weneck seem most interested in is “what’s the most important thing about paradise?” Thus far, each issue of the series has focused on another member of the quiet council and how they view their brave new world. But for Mystique and Destiny, paradise isn’t the end game. Their love for one another is more important than any mutant homeland, utopia, or dystopia. It seems that Mystique has different roles to play and one that Destiny isn’t necessarily ready to reveal yet. “Immortal X-Men” #3 sets up the (multiple) possibilities of an end game to the Krakoan experiment, and the culprit might have been on the council the whole time.
Final Verdict: 8.5 “Immortal X-Men” #3 successfully avoids being a sterile investigation into world-ending events by putting the focus on a single relationship.
