The Immortal Thorsday Thoughts 24

From a pure emotional engagement level, this is a top five Thor comic for me. By this point, there’s always a part of me detached from the reading experience, acting the critic in real time, especially with issues of The Mortal Thor. Part of me trying to fit things together and keep the big picture in mind. This issue was an exception to that mindset as I lost myself in its pages when I brought it home from the shop. Two years of buildup to this issue with the Alex Ross cover of that moment teased from the very beginning. Thor, full of lightning, hammer and axe in hand, bloodied, clothing torn, making his final stand. I remember forcing myself to slow down as I was tempted to almost skim the issue on first read. From the escape from Utgard to the destruction of the gate to the battling of the hordes (“FOR I AM THE GATE.”) to Thor’s triumph and moment of clarity of everything he wants himself to be and then... That final page turn is genuinely shocking. Or it was for me, in one of those rare experiences where you so lose yourself that you allow moments like that to shock you. Now, after admitting that, I’ll put that aside and let it sit in the back of your head.

There are two(ish) comics that come to mind as I reread The Immortal Thor #24. I use the word ‘comics’ loosely to describe a group of issues from two different creative teams. There are a few moments that recall the Walt Simonson run, including Al Ewing and Jan Bazaldua following through on a moment so famous that it was adapted in Thor: Ragnarok: when Thor throws away Mjolnir and grabs Loki, telling him that nothing will stop Mjolnir from returning to the hand that threw it, not even Loki’s head. It’s one of those moments that makes a lot of top ten lists of greatest Thor scenes/moments and it’s one of those rare ‘clever Thor’ kind of moments, so Thor recreating it with Tormod and Mejed, the hooded god of ghosts and mysteries is fitting. His big ‘clever’ moment done with the weapon that represents his wit and wisdom. It’s such a purposeful callback that it’s impossible to miss and has the added level of Loki’s touch. If Loki is the teller of the tale, it makes sense that it would be a common moment between the two that’s repeated... Thor must triumph and will do so with Tormod, so Loki draws upon their shared experience and that influences things. How much happens outside of Loki’s influence/control is hard to tell.

Which leads to the other comic that I’m reminded of while reading this issue: the initial storyarc of Kieron Gillen’s tenure on Journey into Mystery where Loki works behind the scenes of Fear Itself to help defeat the Serpent, even if it means the death of Thor. That story has Kid Loki and his allies doing a variety of things that flitter under the surface of Fear Itself, giving that story a greater depth and meaning. This was the issue where it really felt like The Immortal Thor was Fear Itself with little bits and teases of Journey into Mystery existing somewhere out there and we can’t read it. Like Matt Fraction knew what Kieron Gillen was doing but Marvel refused to publish it, so Fraction grabs a panel here, an idea there, made Kid Loki the narrator, and teased them in Fear Itself, knowing that we’d never know the real story. Except here it’s all Al Ewing and, maybe, at some point, we’ll get something closer to the full story.

The parallels to Fear Itself/Journey into Mystery as fairly obvious with the old gods returning to threaten Earth, Thor standing in opposition despite the prophesized death that will come as a result, meanwhile Loki manipulates events to their own end, and it eventually culminates in Loki ensuring Thor’s death as he triumphs over those old gods. But, taken with the Tormod moment, I’ve been wondering: is this meant to be Loki drawing upon things that happened already? After all, Loki folds in the Demiurge, Atum, the Elder Gods, Utgard, Skurge, Magni, Amora... there are various allusions and repetitions of previous stories. Loki continually throws the past at Thor, pelts him with his own history, albeit in altered forms. Loki tests him (and the way Utgard-Loki tests him!) and has him craft weapons to represent himself. Thor must kill or defeat his forefather gods. It’s a modernist text made up of the history of Thor until Thor moves through it all, defeats it all, makes peace with it all, and we reach that second-last page, that ultimate moment of Thor having overcome everything about himself to reach the moment where he looks around, see Skurge on the Black Bridge and, beyond him, Sif with Loki narrating

And beyond him... just now arriving at the very further end of the bridge, just barely in his sight...

...was she who was his love in song and in story.

In that moment, Thor knew many things, and knew them with a perfect, crystal clarity.

He knew that he had been a fool, but foolishness was over. He knew who his true love had always been.

He knew that time ahead--with her--would be as boundless as the fields of childhood on the very last day of autumn.

He knew that everything would be all right now.

And, then, of course, Loki stabs him with arrow fashioned from Eternity’s Mask and Thor dies. That Thor dies at that exact moment is important, in that moment of total clarity and wisdom, where Thor has such a clear idea of himself, of who he is meant to be, if only on such a personal level as his relationship with Sif. It’s a moment where Thor actually reverts to an idea of Thor, the Thor of the stories in Norse Mythology. He sees Sif and his realisation is that who he is is the Thor of story and legend. Those half-known stories written down in The Eddas where Thor and Sif have two sons and we know nothing of their lives together... where you might as well call it a fairy tale that ends with “and they lived happily ever after.” This is Thor at his most pure as far as an identity is concerned. Not a full person or even a full character... an idea. And, once he’s been stripped down to this, Loki kills him, freeing him of everything that he was.

(It’s probably a coincidence that, beginning with the panel where Mejed dies, right through that final splash where Loki kills Thor, it’s nine panels. Right?)

There’s more to this issue from Utgard-Loki’s metafictional games and their inability to escape the rules of the games to the hilarity of Mejed, the smiter, who is just a muscular man wearing a sheet over his head to look like a ghost. To tie into NRGL coming from Egyptian mythology, Mejed seems to be based on Medjed, “the smiter” who is a pretty minor deity and look like one of the ghosts from Pac-Man with legs, which is pretty much what we get here, except crossed with the Juggernaut a little. But, Mejed being the god of mystery and his defeat being a trial that gives Thor a moment of clarity makes sense. The ultimate mystery is death and Thor seemingly overcomes it to be given a glimpse of what his life is meant to be... before he dies. It’s just a cruel joke, after a fashion.

Next week, the final Immortal Thorsday Thoughts as I discuss The Immortal Thor #25 and Defenders Beyond.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 12 – Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1

I was wondering if that was going to happen. Well, not specifically that, but that reveal. After all, a key part about Dominions is that, once one exists, it has always existed. Sort of a chicken/egg thing, right? Fate. A Dominion exists, therefore everything that happened to create it will occur, therefore the Dominion exists. Ouroboros. So, if Sins of Sinister were to feature one of the Essexes reaching the state of Dominion, then that would mean... they’ve always been Dominion. The end goal was reached before the quest to reach it began. Kind of makes the whole thing feel a little futile, doesn’t it? I’m left wondering if it even matters which of them reached Dominion because they’ve always been Dominion and that has not mattered thus far (that we’re aware of).

Like Age of Apocalypse before it, Sins of Sinister is the story that never really happened, except that it did. It doesn’t ‘matter,’ except that it does. Nothing has changed, except that things have. It’s kind of funny the way stories like this work. They’re like the regular sort of events, but stretched to extremes. The actual story doesn’t matter in continuity because it didn’t actually happen; yet, what little touches the ongoing continuity of the comics hits hard. It’s almost the definition of the destination mattering more than the journey. In many ways, you could actually skip Sins of Sinister. Jump from Immortal X-Men #10 page 1 panel 2 to Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 page 28 panel 3 (not counting the two credits pages – or, because the first two panels of those pages are repeats, from the end of Immortal X-Men #9 to Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 page 28) and you’re with the characters. You haven’t lost anything except your ability to read in a perpetual state of dramatic irony. All of the important conclusions/results from the Sins of Sinister story get fed to you. Most events are all about the end change to the status quo, but like to pretend that the journey is essential to understanding that; in a story like this, the journey is literally erased. This is the point where we steer away from endlessly debating what the ‘purpose’ of stories are and what does ‘counting’ really mean... Let’s just leave it at the obvious-but-kind-of-interesting-to-think-about point that: Sins of Sinister can, for the most part, be ignored between the two points that I indicated if all you care about is the strict continuity of the specific X-Men comics universe that we’re reading.

What I’m left with is yet another reversal... Mother Righteous’s plan worked thanks to Moira. All of her accumulated knowledge got sent back to the point where the universe reset. I guess it wasn’t entirely small thinking like I said last week. And Moira’s role is a difficult one to wrap one’s head around entirely, mostly for what it means going forward. She eliminated the Moira Engine, inadvertently helped Mother Righteous while executing her own plan, ensured that all Sinister learned was the final insight about the Dominion, and sent Rasputin IV back. Except, one detail that may be important: Rasputin IV came from a clone program called “Moira.VII.1.RPIV.” That’s not just Rasputin IV in there... is Rasputin IV now, somehow, a six-mutant Chimera? Or something different? Is it just a clone of Moira or is the SoS +1000 Moira in there somewhere as well? I love that, like Age of Apocalypse, Sins of Sinister is having some strays stick around.

So, where does this event leave the X-Men comics with its story that literally happened between panels? Sinister in the pit; Xavier, Hope, Emma, and Exodus in the pit; Rasputin IV (with Moira?) in the present; an Essex is Dominion; Orchis is not in shambles, meaning Stasis is still active; Mother Righteous has knowledge of events and regrets, and, now, the thanks of “every mutant on Krakoa.” She looks like the early favourite for the Essex most likely to establish Dominion—

—I want to point out that I’m struggling a little with that just occurred to me: where does the most recent storyarc of Legion of X fit with all of this? It showed Nightcrawler further mutating beyond the horns, which he has in Immortal X-Men #9 and Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1, and, at the end of Legion of X #10, Mother Righteous comes to him looking to make a deal. She and Nightcrawler interact briefly here and there doesn’t seem to be an awareness there. Moreover, in Sins of Sinister, she spent years trying to break the spell that mutated Nightcrawler and other mutants while he became more and more of a beast. And, if this means that that story didn’t actually happen, what about the Legion/Xavier interaction? That wasn’t Sinister Xavier, was it? I’m sorry, this is a little difficult to line up, maybe the Sons of X one-shot will clear this all up—

—but Orbis Stellaris still has the Worldfarm and Stasis still has Orchis. That last point seems particularly worthwhile in that the SoS timeline was the only one we’ve seen thus far where the machines lose. My running joke about that is that it’s Moira who always loses since she finally switches from mutants to machines and, immediately, the mutants manage to overrun the universe. There’s a bit of a joke to the idea that Moira is the one to end that timelime and does send back knowledge... we just don’t know if it’s to herself. We don’t know if she’s mixed in with the Rasputin IV that’s now in Krakoa. Is Moira now both mutant and machine? Hell, did she somehow get mixed up with Mother Righteous in the process, too? If that’s the case, then Orbis Stellaris seems on track to win... I guess we shall see.

But not here.

This is the end of Custom Kitchen Deliveries, an extension of Them Guys Ain’t Dumb... which is meant to be something of an examination of Kieron Gillen’s event comics. It speaks to the quality of these comics in how they continually sidetracked me from that goal. A writer going back-to-back like this is rather unusual. Sins of Sinister felt like an extension of Judgment Day in an odd way. Of the collaboration with Al Ewing and Si Spurrier that we saw a little taste of there, now on a story where things were split more evenly, but Gillen still took the lead. It was an event without an event book to act as the spine. It was all tie-ins with the bookend issues remaining (because the best issues of an event at the first and last ones) with the dragging middle cut out. More than that, by taking place exclusively within the realm of the X-books, it provided a stronger payoff at the end, one that impacts things going forward. More than anything, that comparison point shows the limitations of Marvel Universe-wide events at times. Unless you’re a Brian Michael Bendis sort of writer who is willing to anchor the MU moving forward, it’s hard to do one that actually leaves a lasting, quantifiable impression. Post-Judgment Day, Gillen has only been writing Immortal X-Men for Marvel, while the rest of the line has been doing its own thing. That’s not a knock against Judgment Day’s quality; it means it’s more Age of Ultron than Siege, you know? Even on Immortal X-Men, Judgment Day felt like a minor detour after the fact... too big and about too many larger things to leave a concrete impact at the end... Sins of Sinister, on the other hand, already made a big impact in changing the course of things on Krakoa. Not that ‘impact’ and ‘mattering’ is all there is with a story... it is important for an event, at least at this stage.

But I digress...

“This is not an exit.”

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 09 – Immoral X-Men #3

Genetics aren’t enough.

We are now 1000 years from where Sins of Sinister began and the universe is a monstrous wasteland of rival factions. Things are so splintered that even Exodus and his religion has broken into dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of sects. When Destiny’s recording for Sinister tells him “I know your eventual goal is to transcend time and space to become a Dominion. You do not succeed,” my first thought was “Yeah, no shit.” It’s apparent, by this point, that the flaw in Sinister means that he is incapable of achieving that goal. Perhaps, a flaw in all of the Essexes.

As I said when discussing Immoral X-Men #1, the key component that Sinister’s genes added to the Quiet Council was narcissistic solipsism. Each and every one of them thinks themself the only true person in the universe, the only person that matters, be they original or clone or staring in the face of a thousand identical clones of themselves. It’s been the ongoing joke of Sinister where every version of him thinks that it is the real Sinister... only to have its head blown off by the next Sinister in line who assures us that he is the real deal (until...). Faced with Doctor Stasis and Mother Righteous, his first instinct is to shout that he’s the real Nathaniel Essex; as does Orbis Stellaris. That overwhelming, unavoidable idea that each of these Essex-derivatives have that they are the only one that matters. The only real person. It comes to a head in the +1000 time period as it’s a universe of single-minded empires, all convinced that they are right, they matter, and all others must be conquered, subjugated, and subsumed.

The supposed goal of the Essexes is to defeat the machines. On Earth, we saw that happen fairly quickly, almost as a throwaway footnote to this entire story. In the +1000 time period, there doesn’t appear to be any threat from the machines. The universe is overrun by mutantkind, endless combinations and variations, almost all carrying that Sinister gene. While our perspective on things is fairly limited by the narrative goals of the comic, the successful domination of the universe via Sinister’s mutants seems complete – despite it being domination without Dominion. Yet, is that any better? Nearly a dozen little fiefdoms that may have sprung from the same genetic source, but wind up mimicking any other random universe of competing interests. Dominion requires unity of consciousness and purpose, and, in +1000, there is none. All Sinister has done is trade one dominant lifeform (machines) for another (mutants) with the same dreary dystopian existence. Except a bit gooier.

In Immoral X-Men #2, when Sinister gave his convincingly insincere speech to Rasputin IV about destroying the paradise of Krakoa, I think what he was trying to get at what the shared purpose of Krakoa. Genetics aren’t enough. This has been the endless cycle of X-Men comics where mutants can never truly unify and thrive, because all that they’ve got in common is an extra gene and a world that hates and fears them. When you take away the hatred and fear and replace it with overwhelming dominance, that extra gene isn’t enough. The centre cannot hold, as it were. By accentuating the individuality of each of the Quiet Council, Sinister has both achieved universal dominance and moved away from Dominion at the same time. Think of those two goals as the X and Y axis on a graph. At the line towards universal domination moves forward, the line towards Dominion rises and rises until it peaks and begins falling until it flattens out. Perhaps, given enough time, one or more of these fiefdoms of the Quiet Council could grow large or powerful enough to approach Dominion on their own. More likely that we’ve reached a dead end. The real path forward was Krakoa, at least for the Sinister branch of the Essex family tree. A multitude brought together under a shared purpose and cause that allows growth. But, alas, even if Sinister were to kill a Moira and reset the universe back to before all of this, with “Fall of X” on the horizon, that chance may be gone, too...

The real problem is that the goal isn’t the survival of a species or a people. The problem is that a single man, Nathaniel Essex, came the conclusion that he will die. He can find ways to prolong his life, but, eventually, something bigger and more powerful, like a Dominion (more likely a Phalanx or something even smaller) would come along and be too much for him. He wouldn’t just die – he would be absorbed, taken in, and made part of a greater whole. Something bigger than him. The problem is that he only cares that he survives forever. Everything flows from his solipsism. So: four of him, each exploring a different path to ensure that Nathaniel Essex can never be lost – each searching for a path to Dominion. Each convinced that they are the only true Essex (or the only one that matters). Each doomed to failure because their message is not one of inclusivity, it’s of singular focus and determination, of absolute control and domination. But, that message of solipsism and singularness, when spread, only breeds new versions of that same solipsism. While the Empress of the Red Diamond may carry Sinister’s genes (Essex’s genes), it is still Emma Frost and thinks of herself as Emma Frost, not Sinister or Essex. The same goes for Xavier and Exodus and Colossus and the rest. They are worshippers at the altar of Essex’s Church of Solipsism and, as devout believers, they each think themself a god.

(To indulge a brief return to my nonsense metacommentary from earlier in this series, if Jonathan Hickman is Sinister and Sins of Sinister is the X-line after HoX/PoX, growing and changing beyond his original plans as each additive creator takes things in new, unexpected ways, deviating further and further from the original singular plan... then Hickman is a Sinister that was able to look at what their influence had wrought, smile, and walk away. Is it what he wanted to do when he began? No. Does that mean he’s unhappy with what has happened? No. You could make a compelling argument for Sins of Sinister as a repudiation of anyone who wished for Hickman to force his vision on the line going forward…)

However, speaking of gods and churches, it’s more and more apparent that one Essex has the potential to succeed: Mother Righteous. She’s the constant figure throughout Sins of Sinister, popping up here and there, planting her little seeds of gratitude, getting her hooks in as many different people as possible. While we don’t yet know the exact state of her religion playing off the Spark with the Legion of the Night, she makes an appearance at the end of this issue, offering Rasputin IV a deal. That her power base is one of belief, calling in her markers at once could, conceivably, unite enough beings to begin the road to Dominion. While the other Essexes spread themselves among the masses – she has focused on spreading herself via a focus on her. She is the singular focus of her interactions with everyone. Not her genes, not her technology, or even her despot orders. Just her, a separate being, ready to possibly enslave all she’s lured in, body and soul... even her two remaining brothers...

Next: Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #3.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 07 – Immoral X-Men #2

This issue is the dead centre of the event and provides the twist of explicitly laying out what’s going on here: the four three Essex clones are racing against one another to reach Dominion. Kieron Gillen is even kind enough to give us a one-page synopsis of that plot, complete with a breakdown of what each clone is working with to reach this goal. It makes plain that the goal was to defeat the machines and, now, the goal is to defeat one another. We knew this already and, now, we know this for certain; so, where does that leave us heading into the back half of Sins of Sinister?

Hope narrating this issue is a convenient way to provide context for the +100 timeframe and where mutantkind has gotten in the 90 years since Emma Frost put Sinister under her boot, while also giving a secondary ‘race’ between the Quiet Council members to be the last one standing. Hope, the war-mongering messiah is the first to fall, mostly because she’s more useful dead than alive. If this timelime follows the pattern that we’ve seen previously in Immortal X-Men, then Exodus is the likely last member standing as the focal point of the mutant religion. While not all mutants appear to rally around the faith, it’s interesting to see that there is a distinct portion of mutantkind that’s entered well into the realm that Mother Righteous seeks to exploit. However, as we saw in Nightcrawlers #2, her efforts to exploit belief do struggle with genuine faith. I guess what that means is that Exodus and his followers could be a liability for Righteous to prey upon or a key to overcoming her. If they play a role in that regard at all, to be honest...

The three scenes involving Sinister intrigue me the most about this issue. By having Hope narrate, Sinister is put at a distance to an extent. The only indication of what he’s been up to during the 90 years since Immoral X-Men #1 is the brief bit of hearsay in Nightcrawlers #1 about him being almost a godlike figure within the mutant empire, actually showing up to witness his latest weapon in person. While that description from Wagnerine seemed plausible in the gleeful callousness of Sinister, it also read as heavily filtered through the Nightkin’s relationship with Righteous. The Nightkin would naturally think that Sinister occupies a similar place for the expanding mutant empire as Righteous does for them, when it’s very much the opposite. In the scenes that he appears in here, Sinister is much more the remorseful scientist who has seen his experiment escape his control and run amok, and, now, is looking for any way to put things right.

Or, that’s how he appears in scenes one and three with Rasputin. To Gillen and Andrea di Vito’s credit, you want to believe that Sinister’s confession of guilt to Rasputin at the end of the issue is genuine. Both writer and artist sell the hell out of it. In the two bookend scenes, Sinister is contrite and kind and... tired. He seems worn down by the past century of watching mutants expand and slaughter their way across the galaxy. But, he’s just selling his own self-serving story, creating his own religion of sorts for Rasputin and the crew of the Marauder to believe in as he seeks to regain his lab and the Moira clones inside, so he can undo all of this – and do it again, only properly. The middle scene with Mother Righteous makes it plain that Sinister has not changed in any way except learning to be a better actor.

His tone in that scene is Sinister-as-we-know-him with sardonic wit and a solipsistic streak a universe long. His insistence that he’s the real Nathaniel Essex, for one thing. His chiding Righteous for aping his style. Or, his final words to himself after she leaves: “This does change everything. I can use this... but I need my Moiras to really use it. And I need them before the council crushes me. Oh, Nathaniel. What did you do to deserve this?” Aside from our knowledge of Sinister, these words both undercut and set up that final scene with Rasputin. Sinister is self-aware enough to know what it is he did that resulted in the current status quo. That’s what makes his unburdening to his Chimera captain work to well: he’s not lying about most of it. He did destroy Krakoa. He corrupted it with his strain of solipsism and that created a chain of events that destroyed Krakoa, Earth, and a good chunk of the universe so far. He genuinely wants to undo that damage and restore Krakoa to the paradise-in-the-making that it was when he managed to kill Hope, Xavier, Frost, and Exodus to finally get his genes to stick. He tells Rasputin everything he did to deserve this and does it in a way that makes her believe in his cause. It’s interesting how little he has to lie in the process. The only lie is the guilt.

Another element that stood out was that Sinister’s approach to Rasputin follows that of Righteous and the Nightkin. He frees her from the Sinister gene and, then, gives her something to believe in, which is his self-serving cause. Is this a signal to the similarities between the Essexes that they can’t help but follow the same paths, or did he take this idea from the book she left him? As he thanked her (her method of gaining influence), will this put her in a position of power over not just him but Rasputin and the crew as well? And I’m reminded of something that I mostly overlooked in Nightcrawlers #1: Orbis Stellaris thanked Righteous as well... I admire the way that repetitions and reoccurring behaviours are central to this event. Much like I mentioned above with Exodus, it’s hard to tell if the overlapping of methods is an advantage or disadvantage. Is it being co-opted or is that, after a certain amount of progress, it’s not a matter of the distinct paths, it’s a merging of methods towards Dominion? Or, perhaps, it’s not so easy to separate out the different approaches when it’s the same person trying them all out. Is it truly a race to the top when the participants are all the same person?

Next: Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #2.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 05 – Sins of Sinister +10

Powers of S

Okay, so the thing about Sins of Sinister is that it’s Age of Apocalypse for Powers of X. Not House of X/Powers of X, I would argue – specifically Powers of X. It’s more straight forward in its linear storytelling and, unless there’s a rug pull late in the game, it doesn’t play with parallel timelines the same way. What we can assume currently is that Sins of Sinister operates on a single timeline (one that will presumably be reset/wiped out at the end to return us to X⁰). That loose framework is... simplistic when compared to Powers of X, a series that juggled four different time periods across three different timelines.

(At this point, I’m going to presume that you’ve either read Powers of X or don’t care if I explain certain elements in depth. If neither of those things are true, I would advise closing the tab, and doing something else with your time.)

When Powers of X begins, the first issue shows us four different time periods:

X⁰ – ‘year zero’ where Moira approaches Charles.

X¹ – +10 years, the founding of Krakoa. Over the course of the series, that ranges from months before the official founding to a short period after.

X² – +100 years, as the last remnants of Krakoa fight against Nimrod and the machines’ rule of Earth.

X³ – +1000 years, as the eventual result of human/machine evolution (homo novissima) seeks to ascend to be part of a Phalanx

We assume that these are all the same timelines. By the end of the series, we know that X⁰ and X¹ seem to be part of Moira’s tenth life, while X¹ is her ninth life and X³ is her sixth. In her sixth life, she learned the true purpose of the machine enemies of mutantkind and subsequent lives attempted to both stop the rise of the machines, while ensuring the survival of mutantkind. Her ninth life, she finally gained knowledge of the specific moment when Nimrod came online and her tenth life (the Marvel universe as we know it) shows the (failed) efforts to prevent Nimrod from becoming active. Stop Nimrod, save the mutants. But, they failed and Moira was eventually exposed and she was stripped of her mutant abilities and she went from basic human to machine pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Mr. Sinister cloned Moira and began using her mutant ability to optimise the timeline for his goals.

Take that big chart from Powers of X #3 outlining all (but one) of Moira’s lives and you can slot Sins of Sinister right at the very bottom, except this is life... 27? 28? Something like that. It doesn’t appear that Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Si Spurrier are pulling the same trick as Hickman with different timelines. When the +100 time period begins in Nightcrawlers #2, it will be a jump from these +10 issues within the same timeline. So, as I said, simpler.

Yet, Sins of Sinister isn’t simple. Where exactly this story is going is anyone’s guess. There have been two key moments that made for rather extensive changes from the timelines we saw in Powers of X: the destruction of Orchis (specifically Nimrod) in Sins of Sinister #1 and the death of Dr. Stasis in Nightcrawlers #1. These two events together mark a huge departure from the timelines of Powers of X where the main goal was setting up the threat of machine life as the true competing interest on Earth. It was never about homo sapiens – it was always homo novissima. In a world where Sinister had ‘corrupted’ the mutants of Krakoa, they were able to completely neutralise the main threat of Moira’s various lives. The big threat that Hickman set up is shunted aside here. In its place, lie two other potential threats to Sinister/mutants: Orbis Stellaris and his interest in alien evolution; and Mother Righteous and her interest in mystic evolution. (I use the word evolution incorrectly and loosely. I haven’t settled upon a better term for the interest of the four Essexes.) By the beginning of Immoral X-Men #1, mutants have conquered Earth, essentially. The idea that humanity – sapiens or novissima – is a threat has passed. Instead, they begin looking outward. Interestingly, despite closing off the central plot of Powers of X, the three writers do play off several elements outlined in the series, specifically Mr. Sinister’s progression of experimenting with Chimera mutants. That they didn’t go heavy-handed into deviating 100% from elements of Powers of X demonstrates the playful aspects of this story.

The time periods is another way that Sins of Sinister plays off Powers of X. In Hickman’s series, the “+10” time period was the present day X-Men comics, while the “year zero” was the past. Here, “year zero” is the present day, while +10 is the future. This story is dealing entirely in hypotheticals. We know – we know – that it will eventually reset to the present day and be undone somehow. I think it was X-line editor Jordan White who said that this wasn’t an alternate reality story and, while that’s technically true, it’s an alternate future. A future timeline that will be wiped away and knowledge gained as a result... but for what purpose? The main thing that we see here is the template for mutant domination and the defeat of the machines. It is mostly through means that the current Quiet Council would not sanction, but is something that could be useful. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 features a play off the famous scene from Powers of X that was used in the promos of Xavier reading Moira’s mind and being surprised at what he finds, except with Xavier (helmet on) and Sinister. He gets another vision of a now-aborted timeline, a picture of what could be to come, and that sets up the next stage of Krakoa.

We shall see.

The Rejection(?) of Hickman

Oh, it began as something of a joke. The idea that Mr. Sinister is a metafictional stand-in for Jonathan Hickman, forced to see his dramatic change escape his direct control and be helpless as his influence spreads in ways unanticipated. But, as Sins of Sinister progressed, I realised that it wasn’t quite that simple, though that reading doesn’t seem wrong, exactly. It also relates to what I wrote above about the defeat of Nimrod/Orchis and the death of Dr. Stasis – the progression beyond both Sinister and Stasis is a purposeful rejection of Hickman’s plans, albeit one that’s not necessarily permanent. This is a possible timeline, one almost certainly doomed to be erased and, with it, so is the destruction of the machines. The defeat of homo novissima will be undone. But, for the moment, this is a story that plays with the idea of Hickman’s influence over the X-line and seeks to move past it, while also embracing it. When you go back and read Powers of X, a lot of space is dedicated to the types of society on a universal level. A lot of space. That’s the area that this story looks like it will be exploring, though from a different perspective. Again, Nightcrawlers #1 is the essential comic in this regard with a text page that gives a brief explanation of the highest form of society, Dominion (big neon flashing sign pointing at the final part of Sins of Sinister) – and Orbis Stellaris’s Worldfarm. There are two key parts that I wish to highlight, out of order:

“Typically, Dominions comprise 10 or more unified artificial intelligences at the TITAN level (each being a Type 0 civilization on the Kardashev scale). Other routes to Dominion status are theoretically possible – albeit highly eccentric – hinging in most cases upon the utilisation of incomparably advanced circuits of power, probability and processing.”

As the domination of artificial intelligence (evolution) on Earth has been seemingly cut off, what remains are the other routes. The word ‘circuit’ jumps out as that is the term used to describe mutant powers used in concert with one another. Though, the final three Ps in that short paragraph seem to describe the specific means of Sinister, Mother Righteous, and Orbis Stellaris. While they seem to be in competition, this could allude to collusion.

But, more than hinting at the possible way we may see Dominion at the end of this story, there is this sentence that possibly points beyond Sins of Sinister and the longterm ramifications (bold and italics taken from the comic):

Irrespective of how or when a Dominion formed, having done so it has always existed, and will always exist.

If Dominion is reached, will it transcend the resetting of the timeline? Does it already exist?

I find it really interesting that, while Sins of Sinister seems to be a rejection of Hickman, it merely closes off the storytelling path that he already explored and showed us in Powers of X. If you’ve read that, you’ve seen the machines win, basically, and homo novissima on the cusp of ascension into a Phalanx. Sins of Sinister looks like it may offer an alternative path to Dominion. Possibly a circuit of Sinisters...

The Visual Cohesion of Paco Medina and Jay David Ramos

The goal, I believe, with having a single artist draw each time period is visual unity. To both the credit and detriment of artist Paco Medina (and colourist Jay David Ramos), I don’t think that goal was achieved. In an obvious way, it doesn’t work because, after the first two issues of this time period were done exclusively by Medina and Ramos (per the credits), the third (Immoral X-Men #1) featured Walden Wong and Victory Olazba on inks, while Chris Sotomayor did some colouring as well. The unified front of Medina as line artist and Ramos as colour artist was not maintained across all three books, immediately giving that third book a different look from the first two in some ways.

Except, my completely amateurish eye can’t necessarily spot those various differences. In part because I don’t have the ability. In part, because the previous two issues didn’t actually look much like one another either. I actually think that’s to Medina and Ramos’s credit, because they adapt fantastically to the different scripting styles of Ewing and Spurrier. Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #1 is written in a brisk action adventure style, roughly adhering to a three-tier page structure. Nightcrawlers #1 is denser, based off a four-tier page structure with more dialogue and, despite covering a larger timeframe, it a bit slower and more methodical. Immoral X-Men is the hybrid issue, alternating between three- and four-tier layouts depending on the scene and need to speed up/slow down.

An interesting effect is that, you would think that the three-tier layouts would lend themselves to more detailed renderings. With more space, it would give Medina a chance to get really intricate and detailed; while the more cramped four-tier layouts would necessitate simpler line work to communicate information in limited space. That’s what makes sense in my logical brain... yet, I find the opposite true in these issues. The more space Medina has, the simpler his line work seems to be. If he’s meant to convey speed and action, part of that comes down to less ornate line work so readers don’t stop to linger over all of the small details. And, on the slower, more cramped pages, the detail increases to slow the reader down a little.

I think the visual cohesion of each timeline will stand out more as we get each trio of issues, as well. Right now, the only point of comparison in this story is to Lucas Werneck on the first issue of the story. I’m curious to see how the visual evolve over the next two months.

The Event Without the Event

A point of comparison that came up several times over the first four issues of Sins of Sinister is Judgment Day. I saw a few purposeful callbacks/comparisons (or what I read as purposeful, to be frank). But, Sins of Sinister is a different sort of event. Part Age of Apocalypse, part linewide crossover that tells a single story through different monthly titles with no central standalone event title, it doesn’t work in the same was as an event like Judgment Day. What I keep coming back to, though, is that it doesn’t work like linewide crossovers either. This doesn’t read like X-Cutioner’s Song or Maximum Carnage or even, I don’t know, The Black Vortex. While the story progresses through these three issues, there isn’t really a linear progression. They are very much trying to both advance the larger story and tell their own specific stories unique to their respective titles.

In essence, they read more like tie-ins to a traditional event and we’re missing the standalone series to tell the true throughline story. The beginning Sins of Sinister one-shot kind of functioned as the first issue of the event in that respect. We just don’t get Sins of Sinister #2-4, though Sins of Sinister Dominion #1 may turn out to be like Sins of Sinister #5. Though it feels like there is that event series-sized gap here, it’s hard to know what would fill it exactly.

Much like the visual cohesion of each time period, the next period will provide insight into the specific structure of this story as an event/crossover.

Next: Nightcrawlers #2.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 04 – Immoral X-Men #1

As Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #1 recalled X-Men Red #5, Immoral X-Men #1 recalls Immortal X-Men #4. In the most obvious way, the repetition of Emma Frost as narrator, the first time a member of the Quiet Council repeats as narrator. Surprisingly, Kieron Gillen didn’t take this issue an opportunity to have one of the post-Sinister members of the Council (Magik, Namor, and Beast, replacing Sinister, Mystique, and Destiny) act as narrator, taking advantage of their novelty and sign o’ the times as it were. After all, this may be the only time any of them sit on the Council. Of course, had he gone with one of them as narrator, this issue would have been quite different as the fixation on Emma and Sinister recalls issue four of Immortal in structure in addition to the narrator.

For those that didn’t read Immortal X-Men #4 (for shame, for shame, etc.), it was the Hellfire Gala tie-in for 2022, and focused on Emma’s trepidation in a post-Moira Krakoa, added in the exposure of the Resurrection Protocols, had her reveal the true face of Dr. Stasis to the Quiet Council, Sinister ran/fought with the Council until he decided the best course of action was to return, at which point he was kidnapped by some unknown party (Eternals), and Emma was left with her anxiety and self-doubts. This issue both follows the general structure of that issue, but inverts many of the ideas, specifically those relating to Emma and Sinister. For instance, Emma sleeping in her diamond form is in the middle of this issue rather than at the beginning and the end, while Sinister doesn’t choose to return/not reset the timeline, he’s unable to and finds himself trapped. Throughout, there are various echoes of Immortal four, and I will save you from a listicle version of this piece where I count them down in some manner.

The main purpose of this callback/inversion is to demonstrate the change in the world in these ten years since Sinister wormed his way into Krakoa’s genes, while also emphasising that it’s not necessarily the drastic change that it appears. At this point, Krakoa rules the world whether or not everyone knows it. Mutant genes proliferate throughout the world, meaning Sinister proliferates. Emma’s narration makes this obvious along with her total confident and ambition to be the sole ruler of the world. The immortal White Queen of Earth. Gone are the moments of self-doubt apparent in Immortal four; but, before you think that this is the corrupted or evil Emma, I would argue that this is the same Emma from that issue. The only difference is the self-confidence and lack of doubts. As we see with Xavier, Hope, and Exodus, the influence of Sinister on each them is to give them the freedom to be themselves without doubts and worries about ‘fitting in.’ All that they needed was a healthy injection of solipsism. Each of them thinks, at their core, that they are the only real person in existence.

Immortal four makes that clear when Sinister reboots his personality. His blank, automatic body states “Add. Core. Motiv. Ations,” before he makes it clear what is at the heart of Sinister:

I AM THE ONLY REAL PERSON IN EXISTENCE. I AM ALL THAT MATTERS.

That is what we see on display in Immoral X-Men #1. For Xavier, all there is is the dream. For Hope, battle. For Exodus, Hope. For Emma, the White Queen. For Sinister, it is himself, of course. With him, though, we see the opposing forces that his solipsism has at its core: he surrounds himself with versions of himself and, yet, he constantly seeks to prove that he’s the ‘real’ one, the important one, the best Sinister. Yet, because he surrounds himself with Sinisters, all of whom share the same solipsism, he constantly chaffs at their efforts to overtake him and ensure their dominion. That’s all we’ve seen from the other Nathaniel Essexes to date with their methods differing. Each seeks to place themself atop the mountain in some way or other, often different mountains. And, as Sinister spreads further and further, what looked like it could be a hivemind situation is looking more like it may turn into one giant battle royal as every Sinister vies for supremacy.

It’s interesting as this is a departure from Sinister as Gillen last wrote him, during his Uncanny X-Men run a decade ago. Not a drastic departure, mind you. That Sinister was also a solipsist and insisted that there was a core, true Sinister that continually, somehow, survived all of the deaths and failures that we saw befall various Sinisters. However, that Sinister seemed interested in developing something akin to a hivemind society. It may not have worked in the sense of a central mind thinking a single thought and making its will known through various bodies; it was more like a designed society with a single guiding mind that set things in motion with the goal of seeing what would happen. In many ways, it was like our society, but where the answer to the question of free will was answered: everything is pre-ordained and planned, but you think it was all your idea. Recall the rebel that looked to kill the despot Sinister... only to learn that the society would be incomplete without the ‘freethinking rebel’ and that his existence only reinforced the ideals of that society that he sought to liberate and destroy... This isn’t that.

The solipsism and selfishness is on full display when Emma catches Sinister and has him at her mercy. He makes the case for not killing him as he can build better, more complex Chimera, and, while that argument seems to convince Emma enough to bring it to the Council, it isn’t quite enough: “...but first, I want something.” The emphasis on the ‘I’ is key to her demand: “Beg.” She requires domination over Sinister, to have him admit, on some level, that she is the superior Sinister. While she thinks of herself still as ‘Emma Frost,’ her core motivation is Sinister. She sees him as useful, she puts him under foot, and only when she is satisfied that she is properly in charge does she go to the others on the Council where, of course, the vote goes the way she wants. She thinks it because she is in charge; it’s more likely because the others wish to assert their own dominance and see Sinister as a tool for that. The issue ends with Emma assured of her place and planning for the future rule of the White Queen, but there is a question left unanswered in truth despite the issue beginning with the supposed answer:

Who rules a world of solipsists?

I guess we’ll find out in 90 years.

Next: a summation of the +10 time period.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 01 – Sins of Sinister #1

It’s rare that something does exactly what you think it will and still surprises you. As usual, I have eschewed as many details about Sins of Sinister that I could so as to maintain the element of surprise. I like surprise. As everyone is oh so fond of pointing out, comics are not cheap and, as such, I refuse to sacrifice my money’s worth. Of course, there is also the enjoyment factor of experiencing a complete work unsullied by previews and spoilers and writers talking too much in promo interviews (something that Kieron Gillen is actually quite adept at doing in a manner that gives little away). All I had were some of the broad details of this X-Men event and the comics that led us here. I even gave out some theories previously and wasn’t far off. In many ways, Sins of Sinister #1 is exactly what I thought it would be. In a shocking number of ways. Sinister needed to take Hope out of the resurrection equation to ensure a little piece of him was in anyone resurrected and slowly begin turning the world into a world of Sinisters. This issue is devoted to that plan playing out and, under many circumstances, that would be dull beyond belief. If I wanted to read a story that I already knew, I’ve got plenty of comics to reread. If I’m buying something new, I want to encounter something new.

Yet, I was surprised throughout Sins of Sinister #1, much to Gillen and company’s credit.

I think what surprised me was the straight ahead boldness of the issue. There was no pussyfooting or dancing around the topic: it was pure, straight ahead Sinisters take over the world in an unrelenting, methodical way. And, eventually, Sinister grows weary of how things are progressing and looks to pull the plug and something gets in his way. When boiled down, it was everything that I expected, executed in a manner that left me somewhat speechless. It was about halfway through, right at the end of the first series of splash pages by the guest artists that I also realised that the trick here wasn’t just that it was Sinister turning the world into what he wants, it was him doing so by making Krakoa succeed. This issue is the overlapping area of a Venn diagram of Krakoa’s plan for success and Sinister’s plan to turn everyone into him. The only thing that’s missing in the issue is Hope walking around in a “SINISTER WAS RIGHT” t-shirt.

That element of showing the Krakoa experiment actually succeed on the global stage through manipulation and betrayal and pure, logical ruthlessness is what makes this issue so surprising. It’s a surprise to see that Sinister’s plan not only works for his purposes, but is also the key to the elimination of Orchis, uniting humankind and mutantkind, and setting up Krakoa as a respected world power with the X-Men as the world’s premier superhero team. Sinister makes the dream come true – albeit in ways that Xavier, Emma, Hope, and the rest would never sanction under normal circumstances. It’s utterly surprising to see how easy it would be for this to happen if everyone put their personal morals aside and just focused on accomplishing the goal. It’s shocking in how quickly it all happens. A few scenes, a montage of splash pages and, bam, Krakoa is everyone’s favourite country and almost all opposition has been neutralised.

It’s what we’ve all wanted since House of X/Powers of X, isn’t it? The X-Men eliminate Thanos, Doom, the Eternals, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Orchis, the Scarlet Witch... anything and everything that could prevent the unchallenged rule of Krakoa is done away with (save Storm). Moira was wrong; mutants do win. All they needed was to stop acting nice and get a little Sinister. Oh ho ho... Like Hickman’s reinvention of the X-Men franchise, this issue does a lot of things very quickly, making broad, sweeping changes to the status quo in an effort to set up what comes next: the +10, +100, +1000 timelines of the next three months of comics. Yet, I’m struck that we’re +1 from Jonathan Hickman’s departure at the end of Inferno and Gillen gets to write the success of Krakoa in a single issue.

In his essay “Football” in Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman discusses the way that football seems like a conservative, never-changing sport, when it’s really a constantly evolving, ever-changing spot. He discusses the way that offensive and defensive schemes change over time and the way that radical thinking has a tremendous effect on the spot. There’s one quote, in particular, that came to mind when reading Sins of Sinister #1: “But this is how football always evolves: Progressive ideas are introduced by weirdos and mocked by the world, and then everybody else adopts and refines those ideas ten years later.” It’s not quite that extreme in comics. It’s more like “Progressive ideas are introduced by weirdos and praised by the world, and then everybody else adopts and ruins those ideas ten years later.” Basically, I kept thinking about Sinister’s influence on the world, the way things go from the point where his influence takes effect, and, how at the end of the issue, he hates what it has become and wants to wipe his influence from the world entirely and cannot. I kept thinking about Alan Moore, honestly. Not the most flattering comparisons (though, with Moore, not the worst comparison anyone has ever made either) and it only works if you tilt your head and squint a little.

But, let’s confine ourselves to the X-books for our meta reading too much into the event comic discussion. You could look at Sinister and see Hickman if you wanted. His influence and direction reshaped the X-Men franchise, turned it into not just an exciting and popular line of books again, but a critically praised one at that. And, down the road we go, and he wants to keep doing his plan, while the rest of the room who had been operating under his plan go “Well, actually...” and make their pitch to do something different. He, of course, was much more gracious than Sinister in accepting their desires and taking a step back. But, the point remains that, like Sinister, he provided the framework for success and, when he was ready to move on to the next stage of the plan, he was outvoted. It’s a gentle echo – particularly the use of similar language to when Hickman left (I think he called it the second act of his plans) and this is Sinister’s second stage of the plan...

I also can’t help but see the coincidence that we’re +10 in the comic from Sinister putting his plan for Krakoa into motion successfully and we’re also +10 from the dissolution of Sinister’s plans and Gillen’s departure from Uncanny X-Men in the real world. The building on his Mr. Sinister stories from his time on Uncanny X-Men, especially the Sinister Society that he created is a key touchpoint/foundational work for what’s going on here. We’ve seen one attempt by Sinister to make a society that is all him fail, mostly due to the intervention of the X-Men and Phoenix Five. Here, he’s trying again – both ten years on, and finding the same people responsible for screwing up his desired plans. When Gillen left Uncanny ten years ago, it was due to Brian Michael Bendis coming aboard as the new writer of the franchise, leaving the Avengers books are turning them into Marvel’s premier franchise. I don’t know how much more Gillen had planned or desired to do with those characters – his final issue of Uncanny X-Men featured a discussion between and imprisoned Scott Summers and a Sinister-posing-as-a-trusted-ally where the issue ends with Sinister throwing down the gauntlet for Scott to stop them from whatever they cook up in the future. The issue, Gillen’s last, literally ends with Scott saying to himself, “This isn’t over.” (Gillen, of course, then wrote the five-issue Consequences mini-series that bridged the gap between Uncanny X-Men #20 and All-New X-Men #1 written by Bendis, so...) And, here we are, +10 and it’s not over...

But, what does it mean to put something out into the world and have no control over what’s done with it? That seems, to me, to be the fundamental question at play here. It’s why I thought about Moore and Hickman and Gillen. They write stories and that leads to other people writing stories and even more people writing stories and, very quickly, it’s beyond them. They can’t control their influence or steer the direction of characters that they don’t own when someone else says no or even force their hand-picked group to do what they want (if they actually wanted to try). What’s it like to put something out into the world that changes a part of it and leads to unexpected consequences and be able to do nothing about it? I genuinely don’t know what will happen in the remaining ten issues of this event. Even if I thought I did, Sins of Sinister proved that knowing what will happen isn’t the same as knowing how it will happen.

Next: Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #1.

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 00 – Immortal X-Men #8-10

“I didn’t fail. I didn’t pass. It didn’t judge me.”

How would Mister Sinister have fared had the Progenitor judged him? It’s the sort of question that only Kieron Gillen knows the answer to, though, perhaps, he doesn’t even know the answer. Maybe he never decided. Maybe there is no answer until it’s canon. I can speculate based on my impressions of Sinister as Gillen writes the character and my observations of the Progenitor’s criteria when judging individuals. If you use the level of a person’s hypocrisy, then Sinister passes. Sinister is Sinister to a fault. Unless Sinister is working against himself, except that’s usually a part of the plan to advance Sinister’s causes. If that makes sense. You would perhaps need to go back to Gillen’s time on Uncanny X-Men to fully appreciate the idea of Sinister working with and against himself as a means for moving his plans forward. Sinister can contain multitudes, a veritable society of diverse peoples that are all a single person. All Sinister. And, as the Progenitor was partly birthed from Sinister’s plans and contributions... was the Progenitor Sinister, too? Perhaps, that was the reason for the absence of judgment. Judging Sinister would be judging itself and judging itself as Sinister would mean confronting the fact that destroying Earth was never the plan, because, if the Earth is destroyed, how can it serve Sinister’s grand ambitions to make all Sinister?

“Clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of you,” I murmur to myself. You could run in circles all day with this bullshit...

Sins of Sinister is fast approaching and it’s weird how, depending on your view, Judgment Day is a building block along the way, ensconced within the framework of Sinister’s plans that have been building since before Immortal X-Men #1. Sinister’s plans are moving right along with a few stumbling blocks (Destiny, Exodus, Stasis) and, suddenly, he’s kidnapped by Eternals and charged with helping to make a new god. I don’t know about you, but I think they didn’t need to kidnap him to gain his assistance. The Progenitor seemed to have very little of Sinister in his behaviours. His arrogance, maybe? Even that, I must admit, seems like a stretch. The Progenitor was nothing like the sort of Celestial you would imagine Sinister crafting if he had free reign. It had very little style. And it wanted to destroy all life on Earth. Like many of Sinister’s experiments and attempts to create something grandiose, it went awry. At least, in this case, he could blame Ajak and Tony Stark; if only they listened to him more and so on...!

All of which is my rambling way to figure out the function of Judgment Day within the larger Sinister story that Gillen has been telling since returning to the X-books in early 2022. Its prominence within Immortal X-Men has shifted from foreground to back and back to the front up until issue eight, the first post-Judgment Day issue, where it has dominated the comic once again with it about to be subsumed by a mini-event that’s also pulling in X-Men Red and Legion of X. And, honestly, we still don’t know entirely what to expect from Sins of Sinister. Is it the full-on culmination of this story or merely a major chapter on the road to something bigger? What we know is that it is bookended by one-shot issues with the main body of the event being three three-issue series, each replacing one of three ongoings involved, and each month following the progression from Powers of X: ten years, one hundred years, one thousand years. It seemed, at first, based around the idea of Age of Apocalypse, an alternate reality that replaced the main one that we all know and love. There are suggestions that it’s not entirely that.

In looking back on how we got here, issue three of Immortal X-Men seemed like a possible place to look. That issue was told from the point of view of Destiny and, at one point, we see a double-page spread of possible futures coming out of NOW. Various futures all hit dead end stops like “Cassandra Supernova,” “Krakoa Dissolution,” “Unity,” and three separate instances of “Nimrod Extinction Event.” How literal this map of possibilities is is hard to tell. One branch has Judgment Day at a focal point, which then had “The Empire of the Red Diamond” as another possible focal point after. Is that Sins of Sinister? And, if we’ve already experienced Judgment Day, does that mean all of the other possibilities are closed off? The map gives way to a confrontation between Exodus and Sinister, the former fueled by belief and powerful beyond his current status, and the latter called the “Gene-Corsair” and ranting about how everything is him. Their conflict ends when Sinister activates his ace in the hole: the Moira clones that he uses to set ‘save points’ and end a timeline to return and try again.

But, how far back did his reset point go?

Ah, but that’s a triviality. Gillen has gotten to this moment through intrigue and innuendo. We don’t know what Sinister wants specifically. He spends issue nine repeatedly trying to “get the second stage up and running,” which mostly involves trying to kill Hope and others on the Quiet Council. Issue ten seems to point to wanting a previously resurrected mutant being involved with resurrecting Hope and the others as the end of the issue reveals a red diamond on Xavier’s head. We know that Sinister has been integral to the Resurrection Protocols by supplying a genetic database and it seems like he slipped a little extra in there that required a non-original mutant’s involvement in the resurrection process to activate. I could be wrong, but I can’t see another reason to kill Hope other than to ensure that she isn’t involved in bringing herself and the others back. In this case, Sync takes her place and we’ve seen him die before. Is this where Krakoa becomes a new version of the Sinister society we saw in Gillen’s Uncanny run? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he retreats to that location in issue ten to ‘escape’ from the Quiet Council and X-Men. Hell, I’m not really convinced that he didn’t want to be thrown into the Pit, worming his way deep into the bowels of Krakoa.

To this point, only two characters have stood out as possible opposition to Sinister: Destiny and Exodus. The former because of her precognition abilities allowing her to see the possibilities of his plans and work with and against them as it suits her needs. She has a long history with Nathaniel Essex, one that positions her as a longtime adversary of sorts; though, sometimes opposing him involves working with him. But, as we learn, her abilities aren’t perfect and her motives are not aligned with the ‘good guys’ necessarily. We know that Sins of Sinister is a story and, at the end, we will get Immortal X-Men #11 and, while the in between may be less than great for all involved (except us, the readers, I hope), it winds up in a place that Destiny desires. While it appears that Sinister has outsmarted everyone, Destiny is quick to get Mystique and leave, abandoning the rest to whatever is coming, seemingly with the hope that it will lead back to somewhere palatable.

Exodus, on the other hand, is Sinister’s opposite. Sinister is a man of science; Exodus is a man of unquestioning faith. Sinister believes only in himself; Exodus believes only in something beyond himself. Sinister seeks to remake the universe into himself; Exodus seeks to remake himself to serve the universe as demanded by his faith. These opposites do position the two similarly at times: that future where Exodus fought the Gene-Corsair involved an Exodus fueled by the beliefs of thousands or millions of the faithful, a unified group working towards a singular goal as channeled through a single entity. It’s the same as Sinister’s little society of himself, albeit driven by people willingly giving up their individuality towards that singular goal rather than a singular goal necessitating the creation of individuals that serve it by design. I do wonder what role he will play in Sins of Sinister (and the choice of that first word in the title...). And I can’t help but note that he was resurrected alongside Xavier, Emma, and Hope... is Exodus a little Sinister now as well?

I like that all I have are questions. I’m not really one for speculation or trying to ‘solve’ stories. I like to ponder possibilities and think about what brought us to this point. It seems like everything is going to plan for Sinister and we don’t know entirely what that plan is – and that’s exciting. However, we’ve also seen Sinister fail. A lot. Even when he supposedly succeeds. For a grand genius that plans things in great detail, he often overlooks things and winds up having to bang his head against the wall again and again and again until he breaks through. Head on back to Immortal X-Men #1 and there’s a text page that previews what’s coming up in the title. Entries 10 through 12 are particularly relevant:

10. Finally! Someone who actually deserves it gets thrown in the pit. Good riddance.

11. Oh no.

12. Help. Just help me. It stretches on endless and cold. Infinity balloons and a scream is too big for my head. This is a hell of my own making. Hell is other people. Hell is also me.

Sinister (or a version of him) getting thrown in the pit is portrayed as a positive, while the seeming success of initiating stage two of Sinister’s plan is a possible negative. When everything is Sinister and he achieves a truly solipsistic existence, is that actually a good thing? Or is he the proverbial man who gets everything he ever wanted only to find that his every desire was a mistake?

Is this the part where Sinister is finally judged by the only being capable of doing so and found wanting?

Next: Sins of Sinister #1.

Judgment Day Reading Order

As with past reading orders, my methodology is that the main event series is the ultimate guide for the reading order. Next come any tie-is written by the writer of the event, followed by the rest using my best judgment. In a few sections, the specific reading order does not matter as tertiary tie-ins often can be shuffled around with little to no impact. In those cases, the order that I have here is simple personal preference/instinct. This is just my personal guide and it may change over rereads. Comments are added to clarify choices with as few plot details mentioned specifically, so, if you haven’t read the event, you won’t have anything spoiled if you wish to use this guide for your first time reading it.

I have added a new feature to this reading order in the formatting. Bold means main event series, underlined means tie-in written by Kieron Gillen, and italics means tie-in that I think fairly important/essential. This gives you four levels of reading the entire event: just the main series, just the Gillen stuff, just the stuff I think is good/important/essential, and the entire event including all of the tie-ins. That italics group is entirely my own taste/judgment and you may not agree.

While not completely essential, before we even get into Judgment Day, I truly would advise reading Eternals and the first three issues of Immortal X-Men. Eternals #1-12 along with the specials, in particular, inform Judgment Day. The event basically began as the third storyarc of that title after all. The Immortal X-Men issues are less essential, but they’re quite good. Mostly, you should read all of these comics before reading the event because they are good comics.

* Free Comic Book Day 2022: Avengers/X-Men #1, X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1, and Immortal X-Men #4. These all set up different elements of Judgment Day. The FCBD stuff that really ‘matters’ is mostly repeated in Eve of Judgment, while the two X-Men comics are nice background on what’s going on with the mutants right before the event starts.

* AXE: Eve of Judgment #1. The proper prologue to the event that gets listed on the official checklist.

* Judgment Day #1

* Immortal X-Men #5 and X-Men Red #5: Both issues expand upon scenes in Judgment Day #1, but Gillen wrote Immortal X-Men, so it comes first.

* Judgment Day #2

* Death to the Mutants #1 and X-Men #13: Expansions on Judgment Day #2 and Gillen gets priority. But, I genuinely think X-Men #13 works better after reading Death to the Mutants.

* Judgment Day #3

* Death to the Mutants #2 and Immortal X-Men #6: I find that Death to the Mutants #2 is a little more related to/expands upon the events of Judgment Day #3 and would suggest reading it prior to Immortal X-Men #6.

* X-Men #14, X-Force #30, Wolverine #24, X-Force #31, Wolverine #25, X-Force #32-33, Avengers #60, Amazing Spider-Man #10, Fantastic Four #47-48, AXE: Iron Fist #1, and Captain Marvel #42: For this bunch of judgment-related tie-ins, the order does not matter really, except in the case of the X-Force and Wolverine issues. You can shift that chunk of six issues wherever you like in this group, but I would recommend keeping them in the order that I have here. X-Men #14 is a borderline important issue as the final three pages are referenced later on in the event, but the rest of the issue is completely unrelated. However, I wouldn’t call the reference essential or something that isn’t explained enough later on to warrant putting that issue in italics.

* X-Men Red #6: This issue leads directly into Judgment Day #4 and is best read right before it.

* Judgment Day #4

* X-Men Red #7, Legion of X #6 and Marauders #6: X-Men Red #7 is a nice expansion on the Storm/Magneto scene from Judgment Day #4 and, then, largely unrelated to the event anymore. Despite Legion of X #6 expanding upon a moment in X-Men Red #5 (which expanded upon a moment in Judgment Day #1), it ultimately takes place after Judgment Day #4, covering a lot of ground. The Marauders issue was released fairly early in the event, but takes place around the effort to reopen the Arakko gate, so it seems best placed here.

* Judgment Day #5

* Immortal X-Men #7, Death to the Mutants #3, and AXE: Starfox #1: The ‘outside the Progenitor’ tie-ins between the final two issues. This order is based on Gillen’s advice for reading them. Who am I to disagree? (Especially when I don’t.)

* AXE: Avengers #1, AXE: X-Men #1, and AXE: Eternals #1: The ‘inside the Progenitor’ tie-ins between the final two issues. These three issues are more directly related to the resolution of the event in the final issue and seem better suited to read right before it.

* Judgment Day #6

* Judgment Day Omega #1: The epilogue to the event and Eternals.

Hopefully, this is a help to anyone looking to make sense of how to read the event and its various tie-ins.

Them Guys Ain’t Dumb 15 (Judgment Day Omega #1)

“Who are the heroes here?”

In the end, it might just be a small group of Eternals. The Lemurian Eternals who, at the end of the first storyarc of the Kieron Gillen/Esad Ribic run, split themselves off from the rest of Eternals society, so disgusted at the knowledge that their eternal life comes at the price of one human life every time The Machine (Earth) resurrects them. That divide has been increased since Sersi revealed this secret to the world and was killed for it – the first Eternal truly killed, never to be brought back; paired with the transformation of Ajak into Ajak Celestia, a new attempt at a god for the Eternals, it has allowed a new path for these Eternals. No longer just outcasts, they are now heretics.

Judgment Day Omega moves in two directions at once. On the one hand, it returns to the status quo of Zuras as Prime Eternal and Eternals society falling into its old routines of quiet background overview of Earth. There are minor changes in their relationships with humans, mutants, and Deviants, but, in general, the concept of Eternal has returned to what it was in Eternals #1. There is lip service towards change, but... how much can a society that has never changed truly change itself? On the other hand, there is the splinter group that fall under the guidance of Ajak Celestia. A new Eternals religion that offer a different interpretation of the Four Principles and seeks to make amends for the Eternals’ crimes against humanity one good deed at a time. Eternal lifetimes dedicated to service. But, for a society that has always had its factions, is one more a true change? Are these acts of servitude different from before? Ikaris posing as a human is how we first met him, after all... has there been change or is this just a variation on a very old, very Eternal theme? Are they heroes? Have they always been?

Less an epilogue to Judgment Day than an epilogue to Gillen’s Eternals run as whole, Judgment Day Omega #1 focuses on the core cast of Eternals and setting them in place within their ‘new’ status quo after the event. This is basically Eternals #17 after Eve of Judgment #1 and Death to the Mutants #1-3 were issues 13-16, and the Starfox issue was this group’s one-shot special. Separating Judgment Day from Eternals is a tough bit of business given that the event rose out of Gillen’s plans for the next story in that run. But, that’s the way it is with these events (or the goods ones, I find): they rise up out of existing titles and, then, flow right into what comes next. Except, unlike a lot of events, there isn’t really a what comes next here as Eternals is done. Gillen is full time X-Men at Marvel (as far as we know) and there has been no announcement for a new Eternals series by a new creative team. Usually, these Omega epilogue issues are part wrap-up, part teaser for the next comic you need to buy – or, honestly, the three or four different comics you need to buy. Here, there may be a “Next” page at the back that points readers in the direction of Avengers Assemble Alpha #1, Immortal X-Men #9, and X-Men Red #9, but none of those comics get a lead-in in the Omega issue proper. It would be overly dramatic to declare this issue a dead end as there is no such thing in corporate superhero comics.

But.

This is an end. And that is incredibly unusual for an event.

There is a specific structure to events, especially for Marvel. It’s a structure perfected in the period of Brian Michael Bendis writing the Avengers titles: status quo leads into event leads into new status quo leads into event leads into new status quo and so on forever and ever amen. You read the monthly comics and they got you hyped for the event, so you read the event, and it ended with a dramatic change that affected the month comics, so you read them, and they got you hyped for the next event. As such, events could wind up feeling very unsatisfying by the time you reached the end as, instead of an end to the story you were reading, you were greeted by a sales pitch for what you needed to read next. And this has largely been the structure of their events ever since. Even events tied specifically to one monthly book like War of the Realms still ended in a way that said “And now you should read the end of Jason Aaron’s time on Thor along with the new Loki and Valkyrie series!”

What I was left with when I finished this issue is a desire to skip ahead a hundred, two hundred, five hundred, a thousand years. This issue is the beginning of “Acts of the Apostles” after Judgment Day’s gospels. A new religion has begun, a splinter of society has broken away, and the heretics are tolerated until they get in the way. An interesting concept, yes – but the real meat is further down the road when the novelty becomes entrenched and we can see if this is cult or religion. Part of me is upset that Gillen isn’t sticking around to develop that; part of me knows that it probably wouldn’t get the chance to develop enough. This is still a superhero comic after all. It may have begun as something a little different when Jack Kirby wrote and drew the first issue, but even he couldn’t keep it from becoming more and more like everything else on the shelf – and, then, after he left it behind, he couldn’t stop it from literally becoming part of the rest of the Marvel story. So, we get an ending.

Again, I’ll state: there is no next for the Eternals that we have been told of. There is no sales pitch in this issue. It is simply the end of the story with elements in place for someone to pick up later. Or not. Who knows. It’s not that they don’t want our money as is the usual driving point of these events and the purpose of the cycle I mentioned above, it’s that there are no Eternals stories to buy next.

Finally, an event that ends with nothing for money instead of the other way around.

(Next: my Judgment Day reading order post, unless Immortal X-Men #8 warrants a post as another epilogue to the event, one that actually encourages the reader to keep buying more comics. If so, I will do that first and, then, sometime after, the reading order post will go up. And, then, be on the look out for the continuation of these posts in January 2023 in a new series on the Sins of Sinister story. That will begin after Immortal X-Men #10 comes out where I will write about it and issue nine together as the prologue issues. Thanks for reading these, hope to see you again for what comes next.)

Them Guys Ain’t Dumb 14 (Judgment Day #6)

It’s hard sometimes to remember where Jack Kirby’s Eternals ended and where the Marvel Universe Eternals began. Less than a year after Kirby’s series ended, Roy Thomas brought the characters into Marvel’s continuity via a Thor annual. From that point on, Thomas and a variety of writers integrated the Eternals, Deviants, and Celestials into the very core of Marvel’s history. Most people who are aware of those characters probably have never read Kirby’s original comics, especially now thanks to the Eternals movie (which owes shockingly little to Kirby’s comics). I’ve thought about the distinction between Kirby and what came after quite a bit since Kieran Gillen and Esad Ribic began their Eternals run, one that added and clarified and refined quite a bit about the Eternals, alluding back to Kirby’s original vision seldomly, but still seeking to somehow honour it while bringing to fore what makes his creations distinct from every other superhero.

In Kirby’s Eternals series, the idea of the Eternals and Deviants as enemies is shunted to the side fairly quickly. When the series begins, there is animosity in the cold war state that the two sides share, and that is put aside as the Celestials return to the Earth as the Fourth Host. Under Arishem’s watchful eye, the people of Earth have 50 years before judgment will be rendered on their survival. Immediately, Eternals, Deviants, and humans begin to shift their focus as a core group representing each race works to bring them all together in harmony, theorising that that is the only way that they can possibly survive judgment. Before Eternals became something akin to ‘just another superhero book’ seemingly under editorial pressure, there’s a few issues where the hard work of cultural exchange and understanding is underway. A shared threat and a vague hope that peaceful harmony is all that will save them has three races take the first steps towards putting aside generational conflicts. A god that unifies rather than divides. Man, Kirby was a little nuts sometimes, am I right...?

Judgment Day is basically the same idea with a few twists: the addition of mutants as a fourth race despite an effort to conflate them with Deviants; the Celestial in question is created by Earthlings; the judgment is only a day; and we get to see the judgment and get a possible understanding of the criteria. In some ways, it’s possible to read Judgment Day as Kirby’s Eternals on fast forward – and with more death, destruction, and hitting.

That is to say that, before we get into things, I enjoyed Judgment Day quite a bit. In the broad strokes, it is very much an Eternals story with the X-Men and Avengers grafted on. But, like the greatest event writer of all time, Jim Starlin, the additions to the core plot are so well done that you don’t notice/mind that they are extraneous. You can quite clearly see how this began as an Eternals story and was expanded into an event and I would argue that that is partly what makes it great. Many events feel like stories that come out of nowhere and are forced upon the characters; this one grew out of a series to such an extent that it enveloped the others.

And I have a feeling that I will have a chance to touch on that particular idea in greater depth when the Omega issue comes out...

*

There’s a point about halfway through Judgment Day issue six where it felt like things had gone too far. Like so much had been done to stop the Progenitor from destroying the planet that it seemed like a foregone conclusion. Now, the Earth was not destroyed. In fact, everything was restored to before the judgment began and the Progenitor died, having never been created, in a sense. The entire issue hinges on that moment where the end seemed certain and, then, the day was saved. Since reading the issue, I’ve quietly been pondering that moment and if it actually works for me. That delicate balance of pushing things to the brink and, then, pulling them back... did Gillen pull it off?

In a structural way, yes. Three people speak to convince the Progenitor to stop killing the planet and restore things: Ajak, Jean Grey, and Tony Stark, in that order, which is the reverse order of the three one-shots that bridged the gap between issues five and six. That it was these three characters addressing the Progenitor feels organic given their central role in the one-shots leading to this issue – after all, why did Gillen choose to highlight those characters rather than, say, Wolverine or Sersi or Sinister?

More than that, each of them pose a question to the Progenitor that comes directly from their judgments in those issues. After the Celestial says that everyone deserves to die, Ajak agrees and asks “...but do you deserve to kill us?” while Jean Grey acknowledges that she destroyed a planet as the Phoenix: “Once you’ve done this, it’s done, and you have to live with it. Can you?” After the Progenitor begins to waver, Tony addresses its concern that it may be too late by telling to do what he does: “I get out of my depth? I try to make amends? What can you do? Do that!”

Three questions borne from the Progenitor’s judgment of these three people that turn everything around:

Is the Progenitor qualified to make this judgment?

If so, will the Progenitor be able to stand by that judgment after the sentence is complete?

If not, what can it do to stop?

Each question leads to the next and, in a sense, leads the Progenitor to sacrificing itself to put everything back. When I first read it, it seemed too elegant and smooth in how the scene moved from Ajak to Jean to Tony with the Progenitor seemingly swept up in the current. It’s like once Ajak asked her question, the Celestial’s will to act was undone with the other two moving it into a specific position. Intellectually, it made sense and is quite well done; emotionally, it left me cold and unsatisfied. But, that was then. Walking through it now, the elegance is still there, while the emotional core hits harder.

“Who are the heroes here?”

This is the scene that answers that question. (Or Immortal X-Men #7.) That was the question posed back in Judgment Day #1. It was the main question of the series. It was never about the justification of existence (even though it was). This is a superhero event comic. It was always about superheroes. Heroes aren’t the folks who always do the right thing necessarily. Here, the heroes are those that fall short of their moral codes and make mistakes, and keep going, trying to make amends, make things better. Ajak admits the god she created is an unworthy, flawed one; Jean admits that she killed a planet, will never be able to make amends, but will never stop trying; Tony knows that he fucks up again and again, but each new problem is a chance to come up with another solution; and the Progenitor realises that it is a flawed god, maybe not a god at all, unable to carry out its judgment, and, instead, gives its life to undo its mistake. It sacrifices itself to save the world.

Ajak fails the Progenitor – and it accepts that judgment. Based on the criteria we have seen until this point, the acceptance of that judgment is its specific point of failure. Up until that point, the Progenitor remained true to its moral code. It judged the people of Earth and found them unworthy of further existence. All efforts to stop its judgment failed or were about to fail. That feeling of inevitability that I spoke of was the Progenitor passing its own test. The words of Ajak, Jean, and Tony prompt it to second-guess itself and begin to waver. At that point, the Progenitor fails and becomes unworthy of living further. It narrates about not being a god and Gillen, wisely, refrains from stating something best left unsaid in the comic:

The Progenitor fails godhood by choosing to be a hero.

Despite its moral failings, it tries to save as many people possible and gives its life to do so. It does this despite the immense fear and shame it feels. It does this despite every natural instinct telling it that it should kill the planet and be done with all of this.

“Who are the heroes here?”

I’d argue that the Progenitor is one by the end.

*

At some point in this event, I kept thinking about “All Good Things...” the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A double-length episode, it features three timelines where Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s conscious mind seems to jump between his bodies in each of these time periods: just before the first episode of the show, the current time in the series’s run, and a potential future. Near the end of the episode, the efforts of Picard to save humanity from a spatial anomaly that moves backwards through time, growing bigger the further into the past you go, seem to fail. Throughout the episode, he’s been helped/hindered/taunted by Q, a godlike being that Picard first encountered in the first episode of the series when he and members of his crew were put on trial for the crimes of humanity. At the end of that episode, it seemed like they had proven humanity’s worth despite Q returning throughout the series to torment/toy with them, Picard especially. When it seems like the efforts to stop the anomaly that will prevent life from Earth from beginning have failed, Picard finds himself in Q’s court, head in his hands, and Q talks to him. It becomes apparent that Picard managed to save humanity and says that he hopes that this is the last time he’s in this court, to which Q responds, “You just don’t get it, do you, Jean-Luc? The trial never ends.”

“The trial never ends.”

Those words just kept coming back to me when it became obvious that the judgment was still going on despite the Progenitor saying that it was finished and the planet will die. They were practically ringing in my ears as I read the final pages of this issue as the Progenitor narrated over Ajak Celestia greeting the dawn and holding her thumb in a position of judgment. Despite the event acting as the whole of Kirby’s Eternals in a condensed form, once again, the judgment of a god hangs over the planet. Be it Arishem, the Dreaming Celestial, the Progenitor, or, now, Ajak Celestia, the trial never ends.

It’s both a fitting way to end the event – and an honest one. Despite everything, little changes. Sersi is dead, Ajak is a god now, the Eternals are the new mutants in the hated and feared sense, the mutants have won a bit of goodwill but so have Orchis... there is progression, but, largely, much is the same now as it was when Judgment Day began. And that’s fine. It’s fine. Even the promo blurb for the Omega epilogue issue seems to get the joke: “After events, we make promises. ‘Nothing will ever be the same again.’ For the Eternals, it’s a lie. It’s always the same and always will be.” That could have been a larger statement about superhero universes. The details change; the larger concepts remain frozen in place. And, as I just said, that’s fine. That’s a feature not a bug.

The idea that an event has to change everything and leave every character in a brand new place is a misguided one. My favourite event, The Infinity Gauntlet, did the exact same thing that Judgment Day does. Almost everything is put back into place and the core characters that the writer is interested in are left in different places. That event killed half of the universe and, by the end, the only things that had really changed were Thanos was a farmer and Adam Warlock had the Infinity Gauntlet. This event killed most of the planet and, by the end, the only things that have really changed are Sersi is dead and Ajak is a god.

The important things are that it felt like it could change everything and that it was a good read.

That’s the way you do it.