X-Men: The Trial of Magneto

Everyone had a great time at the Hellfire Gala, right?  Well, everyone who wasn’t the Scarlet Witch.  Her body was found at the end of the event and the identity of her killer was a real mystery.  After X-Factor does a bit of investigating at the start of this miniseries, a prime suspect emerges real quick.  Not only was Magneto the last person to see Wanda alive, but her hands were apparently bound with some kind of metal.  Case closed, right?  If it were that easy, then this storyline wouldn’t have been spun off into its own miniseries.  In addition to Magneto being his usual obstinate self, we also have the Avengers showing up to deal with the death of one of their own, as well as both of Wanda’s children.  It’s a situation that’s rife with drama even before we find out that the Scarlet Witch isn’t quite as dead as everyone thought she was.

This miniseries was originally meant to be an arc of “X-Factor” before Marvel realized that they could get better sales from it by making this its own thing.  So you’ve got the writer of that series, Leah Willaims, teaming up with Lucas Werneck (and David Messina pitching in on a couple issues) to sort through all of the chaos involved in the Scarlet Witch’s murder.  It’s a setup that’s perfect for a superhero whodunit.  Unfortunately that’s not what we get here as the plot quickly becomes a stew of angry outbursts, simmering resentments, crazy fake-outs, teary resolutions, and a surprise resurrection or two.  A mess, in other words.

I think it was around the time the magically-powered kaiju started attacking Krakoa that the plot finally lost me.  Reading this, you get the feeling that Williams was trying to do something more than deliver a satisfying mutant murder mystery.  While I can’t fault her ambition, I can certainly fault her results as while there’s a lot going on here, nothing really connects on an emotional level.  Or even on a plotting level, as seen when the murderer is revealed with the storytelling equivalent of a shrug.  Werneck and Messina do serviceable work here, but they can’t save the story, let alone elevate it all that much.  At least what happens here doesn’t look like it’ll have any longstanding consequences for the overall storyline of Krakoa, so feel free to skip this and not suffer any consequences.