Immortal X-Men vol. 2
Vol. 1 was an entertaining read, no question about it. Writer Kieron Gillen and artists Lucas Werneck and Michele Bandini did a great job telling relatively self-contained stories where each issue focused on a different member of the Quiet Council of Krakora. The only real issue I had was that there didn’t seem to be a larger story tying everything together. This is something which is rectified in this volume as it becomes clear that the creators are aiming to give us the best Mister Sinister story we’ve ever seen.
Before we get to the focus on the man himself, we’ve got one more “Judgment Day” tie-in issue to get through. It’s also the Nightcrawler focused issue as we get to see that the blue-skinned teleporter can make anything into an adventure. Even the impending annihilation of every life on Planet Earth. As this is coming from the writer of that event, it does have more relevance than you’d expect a tie-in to have. So if you’re wondering how they got Captain America’s DNA for that bit in issue #5, or why Orchis showed up to fight alongside everyone at the end, Gillen has you covered.
He also does a great job in showing how everything feeds back into the character’s unbeatable optimism. Nightcrawler is a character who always wants to do the right thing and help people, even if they’re out to kill him. What we get to see in this issue is how it manifests in the face of utter hopelessness and how he struggles with evidence that threatens to shake his worldview. He doubts, gets angry (and lashes out at Sinister), but never lets these things rule him. Kurt is able to let these issues fuel his desire and it leads him to come out on top.
We don’t get an explanation as to why he’s growing horns in subsequent issues, however. For that you’ll have to go check out the second volume of “Legion of X.”
Next up is the Mystique spotlight issue which also involves Destiny and, if you can believe it, is a period piece that involves Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper. If that sounds like too much for one issue to contain, it’s actually about Raven and Irene’s encounter with a pre-Sinister Nathaniel Essex. How did a racist, misogynist scientist become the menace that we know today? While the obvious answer is, “Because he got help from Apocalypse,” the actual answer that Mystique and Destiny find is, “He didn’t.”
It’s an interesting piece of setup that manages the rare feat of making Mystique come off as sympathetic in my eyes. You get to see her struggle here with the love she feels for Destiny and how it forces her to jump through hoops to be with the woman she loves. A woman who keeps lots of secrets from her as a result of her gift.
That being said, this is the one issue that shows Gillen to be quite well-versed in Sinister-related continuity details. There’s stuff here that harks back to Mike Carey’s “X-Men: Legacy” run as well as “The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix” from the 90’s. Knowledge of these storylines isn’t essential to understanding what’s going on here, but I will imagine there are those who will be surprised by how casually Apocalypse’s name is dropped in regards to Sinister’s origin. Readers will also want to pay very close attention to what Destiny says about the character’s back-up plans or else the final page of this volume will make you go, “What the?” instead of “OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!” I’m speaking from experience here in case you’re wondering.
Kate Pryde gets her moment in the sun as the Quiet Council finally finds a moment to breathe after the events of “Judgment Day.” Even if not everything’s going their way, a lot of stuff is and that’s enough for the character to believe that the Krakoan experiment can work. Right up until the point Sinister walks in and Destiny informs the Council that he’s going to kill Hope. At which point he calls her a spoilsport and explodes into a bloody mess leaving Kate and everyone else quite gore-soaked and wondering just what the hell happened.
Surprise! This isn’t actually a Kate Pryde spotlight issue. Rather, it’s one of the most outlandish, and certainly the bloodiest, takes on “Groundhog Day” that I’ve read. Sinister has decided that it’s time for him to pursue his own agenda, and for that the Quiet Council has to die. Just long enough for him to make his escape. Which is as ridiculous, creative, funny, and violent a spectacle as you could imagine as Gillen focuses the character’s intelligence and arrogance on the problem at hand. Out of all the issues in this volume, this is the one where you can really feel how much the writer is enjoying himself as the events unfold.
Finally we come to the Professor X showcase, and it’s an interesting one. The character narrates the issue in a way that’s completely disconnected from the action and the conversations the characters have. Needless to say, the Council is focused on dealing with the aftermath of Sinister’s actions and they waste no time in seeing him brought to justice. While this is going on, we get to hear the Professor’s thoughts on why he’s done everything that he has, and why we should all be glad that he has the abilities that he does, and that they don’t belong to someone worse than him.
He makes a compelling argument. One that’s steeped in a lot of “X-Men” history, but far less laborious in how it goes about addressing it compared to how it was brought up two issues ago. It’s all in service of that final page, however, which is certainly a jaw-dropper – regardless of how closely you’ve been paying attention to the story so far. Anyone wondering how we get to the “Sins of Sinister” from here will get their answer here as well.
Werneck and Bandini continue to do strong work on this series. The former gets to do a lot of the weirder and more interesting stuff as he gives us the Nightcrawler, Kate, and Professor issues. So expect to see lots of globe-spanning action, bloody deaths played for comedic effect, and all sorts of nightmare city defenses rendered with plenty of style. Bandini does get to have fun with the period eras of the Mystique issue while also giving us an Essex who initially appears to be someone you’d never expect – a victim.
Vol. 2 of “Immortal X-Men” does a great job of giving this series some needed focus. While it was great to see Gillen writing Mister Sinister again in the first volume, it didn’t actually seem like the writer was going to build his whole run around him. That’s not the case here as the character’s antics are front-and-center as we get some excellent setup for the “Sins of Sinister” event. The hardcover has been solicited for this September, but I may not be able (or have) to wait that long to see how it unfolds.