Immortal X-Men vol. 3

Yeah, I know.  This volume has been out for a while, and the issues collected within have been out for even longer.  So much so that a lot of what this volume has set up has come to pass and we’re not just moving into the “Fall of X” era, but past it as well.  To the very end of the Krakoan Era with the debut of the first issues of “Fall of the House of X” and “Rise of the Powers of X.”  All of this is just me wondering aloud as to whether the work done here is still worth reading, and still entertaining now that we know where it’s all going?

It’s written by Kieron Gillen.  Of course both things are true.

This is the case as the first issue reaches back even further, to address the fallout from the “Sins of Sinister” storyline.  What happens here is probably the one positive side-effect of waiting so long to read the issues in this volume as the characters that were put into The Pit at the end of that event are brought out of it.  Forge has found Sinister’s DNA payload and has developed a method that he believes has excised it.  He’s not 100% sure, however, which means that while Professor X, Emma Frost, Hope, and Exodus, are out, they don’t have any votes on the Quiet Council.  Oh, and Mother Righteous provided some home movies of the crossover’s events so that EVERYONE can know what awful things they got up to there.

As is the case with every issue of this series, it’s narrated by one of the Council members.  Storm is the focus here and she’s one of the few characters with morals that haven’t been compromised to the point where she can’t stand in judgment of her peers.  It’d be an exercise in precisely calibrated sanctimony if the characters being judged didn’t feel like they needed to be, or if they were so believably unaware of their own failings.  Storm gets judged as well, courtesy of Emma, which also keeps things in check. There is some overlap here between the issue of “X-Men:  Red” where Storm and Xavier have it out, but there’s still enough new ground covered here to keep things feeling fresh for those of us who have read both issues.

Storm also realizes her failings in the events that led to “Sins of Sinister” which is why she designates Colossus as her proxy to vote in Council matters when she’s not available.  While this has been mentioned earlier in the series, Piotr Rasputin has not been in control of his actions for a very long time as a result of events occurring in “X-Force.”  In short, he’s in thrall to a reality warper working for his brother Mikhail who is eager to see Krakoa fall.  Which is why Colossus’ only hope here is that at least one of his friends stops giving him the benefit of the doubt and starts calling him out on his actions.

Seeing Colossus suffer like this could’ve been downright excruciating to read as it’d be twenty straight pages of a character doing the worst things for mutantkind against his will.  That it’s not is because Gillen finds a clever way to realize this as while the character’s actions are played straight on the page, the caption boxes detailing his thoughts read like a novel.  It conveys both the idea that he’s not in control of his actions while expertly detailing his struggle for control of them.  Honestly, I really liked how this device conveyed Piotr’s struggle in a way I wasn’t expecting, and his desire for someone to realize that he wasn’t acting like himself was imaginatively realized.

Next is the “Before the Fall:  Sinister Four” one-shot, which only features three versions of Sinister, and spends the vast majority of its length focused on two.  That would be Doctor Stasis and Mother Righteous, and the official reason they’re meeting together here is that the former is sussing out whether the latter can be of use to Orchis.  The unofficial reason is that as Stasis is a version of Nathaniel Essex, he’s fascinated by Mother Righteous as she was created to be in the image of his late wife Rebecca.  He’s looking to rekindle the flames of their old romance, even as they both know Essex’s wife died cursing his name.

This is a more useful character study for Stasis than it is for Righteous.  While it’s nice to see some vulnerability in the magic user, it really sells the idea that Orchis’ post-human scientist is the man Essex wanted to be.  Both in his scientific ambitions, presentation, and capacity for love as well.  He plays it all very well – arguably too well as he does come off seeming like a romantic fop for a good portion of the story’s length.  It’s this story’s end, though, when the mask comes off and you see how much of an upper-class bastard he is that makes me want to see where this is going.

Vol. 3 wraps up with a focus on the unofficial member of the Council, Doug Ramsey.  He’s never had a vote, but as Krakoa’s translator, he’s been present for everything that the governing body has done on the island.  It’s because of his relationship with the sentient island that he’s well aware of the malaise at the heart of it.  As things continue to go wrong for mutantkind both within and without, Doug believes that it’s up to him to find the right words which will finally convince the Council to do the right thing.

Doug’s issue is less successful as a character portrait than as a summation of the moral rot on the Council and how it has to go if the island is going to survive.  That point is made quite clear throughout the course of the issue as a fight between Storm and Exodus threatens everyone there, even as the latter makes some good points about who can be governed here.  Gillen also makes a good effort towards squaring Xavier’s lifelong dream of mutants and humans living peacefully together with how he’s acted during the Krakoan Era; though, the best surprise is saved for the end of the issue as one member of the cast is “saved.”

Illustrating the issues here are Lucas Werneck on the “Immortal” ones and Paco Diaz on “Sinister Four.”  Werneck does the same quality job he’s been doing on this series from the start.  Which means all of the character drama is just as engaging, if not more so, to see than the superhero action bits.  Which he does get a few standout moments of to draw here that are filled with their own kind of drama.  Diaz’s work is solid as well.  It’s just that his style has always felt more at home in the superhero genre than anywhere else.  Which is why the opening scene in Victorian England can’t help but look a bit “off” even though there’s enough weirdness in the subsequent parts of the issue to compensate and allow the artist’s work to feel more natural.

Much as I liked this volume, I will note that it did have some shortcomings.  The fall of the Quiet Council happens very quickly over three issues.  Gillen’s writing can occasionally be on the nose when making a point.  Did no one realize that Colossus’ voting to put THAT person on the Council was a sign of mind control?  These things didn’t bug me as much as I would’ve expected them to because Gillen did something really impressive here:  He took a series of issues where the heroes do nothing but lose throughout and made it interesting rather than despairing.

With the whole X-Line moving into the “Fall of X” period, it was a given that things weren’t going to end well for the characters in this volume.  Instead of delivering an obvious bummer run of issues where these losses were highlighted, the writer found interesting ways to present them here.  Whether through interesting bits of characterization or clever plot devices, I was genuinely invested in seeing how bad things were going to get rather than put off by them.  Which is a good sign given Gillen’s involvement in the final act of the Krakoan Age.