Showing posts with label custom kitchen deliveries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label custom kitchen deliveries. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

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.”

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 11 – Nightcrawlers #3

Well, I was way off, wasn’t I? For those who didn’t read last week’s edition, I dove head first into wild speculation about the grand plans of Mother Righteous in relation to the narration of Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #3. I knew I wouldn’t be right, but why not have a bit of fun and swing for the fences in the art of exposing one’s ass publicly? (To be clear, my speculation that Jon Ironfire killed Lodus Logos is still a valid guess until proven otherwise...) That’s fine. I’m happy to look the fool sometimes. I guess I didn’t expect to be proven wrong by Mother Righteous’s true plan being so less ambitious. I definitely overestimated what she was aiming for...

It’s actually pretty funny how, throughout this event to this point, there’s been a sense that Mother Righteous was lurking just beneath the surface, ready to steal away Dominion from Orbis Stellaris and Mr. Sinister. Building up thank yous and regrets, sinking her hooks in, and amassing magical objects, all to step in at this moment and become Dominion while her ‘brothers’ watch, horrified. Instead, all of her work was to... create a slightly more complicated version of Sinister’s plan...? Well, consider me fooled. I thought that she was somehow a different breed from the other Essexes... something smarter or more ambitious. Nah, just the same sort of simplistic solipsism. Use people in the laziest way possible to get a slight leg up in the next go ‘round and, maybe, after you try that a few hundred times, you may actually get somewhere... You just have to laugh.

What hit home in this issue – and I feel like a bit of a fool for not picking up on it more before this – is how misleading the part numbers given to each issue are in this event. I’ve been so focused on the larger story of the Essexes and the playfulness with Powers of X that the obvious-from-the-beginning connection that I’ve mentioned, but not really discussed so far kept getting overlooked: Age of Apocalypse. If you’re not familiar with AoA, it was a 1995-96 X-Men story that began when Legion went back in time to kill Magneto before he and Charles Xavier had their falling out. He assumed that, without Magneto to act against his father, Xavier’s dream would happen easier. With only ‘good’ mutants in the public eye, the Dream would be achievable. Of course, it all goes wrong and Legion accidentally kills his father. This leads to a four-month period where the entire X-line of books are replaced with the alternate present where the lack of Xavier allowed Apocalypse to rise much sooner and conquer North America. Every book in the line became a new title (Uncanny X-Men was now Astonishing X-Men, X-Men was now Amazing X-Men, X-Force was now Gambit & The X-Ternals, Cable was now X-Man, etc.). It was bookended by Alpha and Omega issues and was a lot of fun. As a 12/13-year old, I loved it. I loved seeing all of these changed, alternate versions of characters that I knew, picking up on little details about their pasts, maybe where each of them veered off from the story I already knew, and I spent a shocking amount of time looking at the map of this new world.

The important part here is that it told one big story through individual titles that each told their own stories that added to the larger story. It wasn’t a linear story where you read the comics in a specific order and needed to read every single one (while my dad read comics and bought the entire line, I only got all of the first issues and, then, focused in on X-Man specifically as the book that I wanted to follow). There were details that crossed over (the Sentinel airlift launched in Weapon X #1 became a major plot point in Amazing X-Men) and there was a cumulative effect so that, by the time you reached that Omega issue, all of the various books’ plots smashed into one another for the climax. Skip some of it and you were fine. Even now, you can go back and read it all in pretty much whatever order you want – read all four issues of each series in succession or the mixed up order that the omnibus has or even figure out your own – because it wasn’t a story told in a specific ‘correct’ order. The actual story of Age of Apocalypse was one of those ‘more than the sum of its parts’ things where it existed outside of the actual comics to a degree. Each reader created their own version of the larger story.

Sins of Sinister is based off that idea... kind of. Unlike Age of Apocalypse, we’re given a specific reading order from the getgo with a much smaller ‘line’ of books participating. Sins of Sinister takes the loose idea of Age of Apocalypse and turns it into a weekly series. There are advantages to that as specific effects are created, like propelling the story forward through specific successive issues (Sins of Sinister #1 ending with Sinister finding his lab stolen leading right into Storm & The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants #1 showing the theft) and creating a sense that every issue is essential to the larger story. But, thinking about it, it’s also misleading in that it implies a much more coherent and structured story than it delivers (or intends to deliver). There isn’t a linear story exactly, yet the existence of story numbering on each issue implies a more coherent story that each issue of the event advances. Some plot points begin in one part and pick up in the next (the +1000 time period is the most cohesive chunk of the event where each issue does lead to the next in a much more direct manner than the previous time periods), but, now that all three mini-series have been released, their specific structures are much clearer. Like Age of Apocalypse, each of these ‘substitute series’ tell their own stories that contribute to the whole:

Immoral X-Men is of Sinister’s struggle to stay alive long enough to regain his lab and reset the universe with a subplot about the progression of the Sinister-infected Quiet Council over time.

Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants is about... well, the titular characters fighting against the prevailing Sinister forces. As the Sinister-infected mutants become more and more powerful (more the status quo), the Brotherhood (with Storm both a part of and apart from the group simultaneously) are the ‘evil’ mutants rebelling and trying to overthrow that new status quo.

Nightcrawlers is about Mother Righteous’s schemes with a specific focus on her manipulation of the Nightkin.

Each of these series tell those stories in shockingly straight forward, linear ways. None stand alone completely, of course, but they come damn near it in a few cases. I don’t know how many titles would have needed to be part of this story to escape the idea that it’s a linear larger story much more akin to past X-line crossovers that has similar part numbering schemes. Five? Six? Enough to break free from the one-a-week release schedule, I suppose. But, with only three titles and each issue numbered as a specific part of Sins of Sinister, the idea of the larger implicit story of the event looms larger than it did in Age of Apocalypse. AoA was so big that, as a reader, you knew you wouldn’t get it all, even if you read every issue. It was a miniature version of trying to keep the ongoing story of the Marvel Universe straight in your head in real time with every week’s new releases. While there are some fools crazy enough to try, most of us know that it won’t happen and accept that we’re only ever going to know a piece of it and move on with our lives, hoping that we know enough for everything to make sense in the end (it never ends).

Sins of Sinister’s structure and release gives the impression of a specific story being told (and the cycling of the order of the three titles in each time period (ABC, BCA, CAB) played into that idea of a very specific order/structure)... and I’m not sure that’s the right takeaway. While there is a story told by Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Si Spurrier, I’m convinced more and more that it’s much looser than we (I) may have imagined. It took until Nightcrawlers #3 and seeing the end goal of Mother Righteous to have that particular bubble popped. If you look at only Nightcrawlers #1-3, then her plans don’t take on the same implied epic scope as they do when you add in her other appearances. Her appearing as a vision to Jon Ironfire or dropping off her book with Sinister... they helped create a larger myth for the character than the self-important fake-it-til-you-make-it false god of Nightcrawlers. Her pettiness is a key limitation of the character and was lessened by her appearances outside of this series... All of which pointed toward a larger plan – a larger payoff. Instead of a race to Dominion, we get a race to remembrance... And, make no mistake, the release structure purposefully downplayed Mother Righteous’s pettiness and made her seem more important with that four-issue gap between Nightcrawlers #2 and 3.

I guess what gets lost in the larger story approach are the little stories that, while not necessarily as prominent in the grand scheme of things (not as... fun and alluring as the schemes of the Essexes). The stories of Wagnerine, Jon Ironfire, and Rasputin IV all play a role in the (for lack of a better word at the point) metastory of Sins of Sinister, but are all much more prominent in their specific series (and, as I haven’t developed the idea but want to get it out there, let me just mention how interesting it is that Orbis Stellaris doesn’t get the same prominence as his siblings... Storm gets that role and that seems important in ways I haven’t thought nearly enough about). Wagnerine (and the Spirit of Variance!) plays a rather key role in thwarting Mother Righteous in this issue... but that seems like a crucial moment delivered by a minor player when you look at the metastory. Read exclusively through the lens of Nightcrawlers as a series, it’s a major moment from a main character! The release structure of Sins of Sinister de-emphasises those series-specific elements in favour of speculation on how they play a role in the metastory... last week’s Custom Kitchen Deliveries is a clear example of reading this event in that manner gone awry.

And, of course, I hit this realisation right before the final bookend issue that will firmly conclude the Sins of Sinister metastory. Alas. Hindsight and all of that.

Next: Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 10 – Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #3

Who is the poet narrator of Storm & The Brotherhood of Mutants #3?

This is the question that vexes me. Done in the font/word balloon and poetic style of Lodus Logos, it sent me hunting for any reference to Arakko’s poet in Sins of Sinister thus far, coming up empty. Perhaps I missed an offhand reference. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t appear anywhere. Any art depicting the fall of Arakko doesn’t include him – rather a mix of the Arakki we know and some of the returned Arakki that were still with Genesis and Apocalypse when this story began. And, right there on the first page, in the second balloon, it states “Sing as Great Lodus sang, in days of old before the Diamond,” suggesting that he died somewhere between the beginning of Sins of Sinister and the fall of Arakko. In Sins of Sinister #1, very little attention is given to Arakko save the Eternals war and its eventual fall to the forces of Sinister. No mention is made of the rejoining of the Arakki tribe that stayed behind. In the previous issue of this series, Jon Ironfire is visited by the image of Mother Righteous who assures him that she is nothing more than a daydream he won’t remember. As he participates in the raid on Orbis Stellaris’s Death Sphere, she asks if he has any regrets, and he responds, “...The Genesis War. I made a mistake – took a life that haunts me still. My faith... it’s a penance. Because I didn’t have faith then. I didn’t trust the Storm.” Maybe you’re ahead of me here, but, as I sought desperately to answer my question and indulge in a bit of diving too deep to make connections, I came to the following conclusions:

Jon Ironfire killed Lodus Logos in the Genesis War. Mother Righteous learns this fact, one that is tied up intimately with his desperate need for faith in Storm to atone for his action. Mother Righteous uses this knowledge to craft “The Song of the End” and engineer both the destruction of the Red Diamond Queen and the downfall of Arakko by intertwining Ironfire’s regret and faith. What we witness is not narration, it is causation.

The first clue that the song/poem narration interacts with the story comes early on when it says “Sing me the Storm System... and the king who ruled there, last of his line, Jon Ironfire his name.” To which Ironfire responds “‘The Storm System.’ How many still know what means?” suggesting that, on some level, he can hear the Logos-esque poetry. He follows this up with a reference to telling Righteous of his one regret... why think of that conversation at that moment? It folds into a discussion of trust with Khora, yet, I wonder if the voice he can vaguely hear reminds him of admitting his regret... before it turns to them discussing putting faith in Sinister in order to bring Ororo back to life.

So much of this issue centres around the idea of Ororo as goddess, an object of faith and worship – in opposition to Emma Frost who, Sinister now for 1000 years, has set herself up as a self-proclaimed goddess of her own empire of subservient worshippers. Ultimately, this issue is a battle of the gods, one secure in her solipsistic belief in herself, while the other is strengthened by the faith of others. At one point, Emma strikes out in rage after hearing Araki whisper “...Ororo protect us,” proclaiming, “You’ve broken my first commandment. Praying to another goddess?” The struggle between the two becomes a proxy battle between Sinister and Righteous despite Sinister seemingly on the side of Arakko. All that Emma draws upon is her self-assuredness and belief in her own supremacy... and that takes her far. The resurrected Ororo, on the other hand, is given all of Khora’s power and is the physical embodiment of Arakko’s last hope, borne out of Ironfire’s memories, an embodiment of a single man’s faith. Ororo is the purest form of the sort of power that Mother Righteous has sought to tap into throughout the story. A pure vessel that faith is poured into... While Emma cloaks herself in a giant robot, something that recalls a living statue, Ororo flies free and without protection, secure in her power and the faith entrusted in her. Emma is an empty goddess propped up by tyranny... something like a pharaoh who declared himself a living god simply because he happened to rule. Emma is a goddess because she says so; Ororo one because others say so. Ororo’s triumph is a clear victory for the sort of power that Righteous covets and seeks to cultivate, while Sinister’s genetic solipsism cannot stand... it’s a lonely sort of power.

All of this happens against a backdrop of a universe divided into kingdoms of faith where Sinister’s genetic empires have risen as singular religions by this point. Each member of the Quiet Council is either powerful enough to stand as their own focal point, acting like a god, or is subsumed into one of the other’s religions. Arakko stood apart and, now, has its own goddess returned only to die (eliminating another rival goddess in the process). After 1000 years of amassing objects of power and planting her seeds of gratitude and faith (and regret), is a universe where the ruling class are indistinguishable from deities what she wanted? In a universe primed for faith, is she poised to take all of that religious energy and redirect it her way, using it to ascend to a higher form of godhood – Dominion?

Her absence in this issue is the other thing that troubled me. While she hasn’t appeared in every issue of this event, her role has grown and her appearances important no matter how small. Despite Orbis Stellaris seeming like the true rival to Sinister at first, she’s been the one slowly and methodically spreading her own sort of influence. Stellaris has been too insular and isolated – so focused on building up his World Farm as the power base to launch his plan for Dominion that, when the Brotherhood stole it, he’s seemingly dropped off the map entirely by the time we reach +1000. Sinister, we know: he’s given up the hope of Dominion in this reality, focused on reaching a Moira and killing it. That leaves Mother Righteous as the seemingly only (obvious) chance for an Essex to reach Dominion.

And that leaves her “Song of the End” as she weaves her magic, drawing upon Ironfire’s regret over killing Lodus Logos to mask her magic as his power... to shape events. Is her song narrating or is it directing? The interplay of words and images in a comic aren’t always clear in this regard. When Alessandro Vitti draws a panel of Ororo holding a lightning bolt, while Al Ewing writes the words “And Ororo readied for the end... and called the lightning home,” are these two occurring simultaneously? Are the words describing the picture? Usually, we read comics that way where overly narrated comics are treated as redundant to an extent – the words telling what the art is showing. But, here, what if the words are telling a story into being? What if this is an act of incredible power and magic as Mother Righteous sings a song that helps shape the reality needed to achieve Dominion? Ororo gives her life for Arakko. Jon Ironfire’s faith is justified, realised in full glory as his goddess, the Storm, sacrifices herself again for the sake of universe. When Sinister (seemingly) shoots and (apparently) kills him... does that faith disappear? Does that form of mystical energy dissipate? Or does it go somewhere else?

All of these questions relate to the larger structure of Sins of Sinister. Everything has been building towards a specific point, much of it playing off Powers of X to some degree. In Powers of X, the X3 timeline of Moira VI was moving towards the assimilation and ascension of homo novissima into part of the Phalanx, becoming a small part of a Dominion. However, in Sins of Sinister +1000, there are no machines to fuse with humans – to be Phalanx – to form Dominion. Or, at least, none that care to make their appearance known (save a leftover non-mutant clone Moira and a broken down Doombot). All that remains is a host of homo superior that exist in such powerful form as to be akin to Phalanx, possibly even Titan. If Mother Righteous can eliminate the figurehead mutant gods and assimilate the cloned masses of followers... will that be the same as uniting 10 or more Titans? Though, in Powers of X, the ascension never actually happened as Moira was killed, secure in knowledge she hoped to use to avoid that fate for mutantkind.

Will Sinister kill his Moira in the nick of time as well?

Next: Nightcrawlers #3.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

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.

Tuesday, April 04, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 08 – Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #2

“My Progenitors. My World Farm. All that computational power... data that would take millennia to recalculate and recompile...”

I find myself torn, unsure of how exactly to approach Sins of Sinister at this point. I keep leaning towards the high level view, focusing on the remaining Essexes and their machinations in the race towards Dominion... and, yet... those elements are but small pieces of each issue. Pivotal pieces, granted... pieces still. It’s overlooking something of the human/mutant-level drama. Each of the three issues of the +100 timeframe are steeped in that sort of personal drama. Actions are dictated by it. Wagnerine, Exodus, Storm... all driven by their personal beliefs balancing against the sheer solipsism of Mother Righteous, Mister Sinister, Orbis Stellaris... and, beyond them, more and more people each with their own motives... it’s what these issues are rooted in. Yet...

My mind wanders to thoughts of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and this episode about genetically modified people. See, they decided to add genetic modification to Dr. Julian Bashir’s character, somewhat out of nowhere. He was always skilled as a doctor, but his skill never stood out as somehow beyond human capabilities, at least no more so than any other member of the main cast of a show like this. In the Federation, genetic modification was illegal due to some rather poor experiences with it; still, it happened sometimes. Once that element of his character was introduced, it was used an excuse to bring in other genetically modified characters, at least for an episode or two. The group that’s brought to the station for Bashir to work with are brilliant, but have other social and emotional issues. After several attempts to engage and failing, Bashir finds an ‘in’ via the ongoing war with the Dominion. Details of the war spark their collective interest and they begin providing reports for Starfleet using various models to predict future events. Eventually, their models show that the best course of action is surrender, using a method that becomes more accurate the further it projects into the future, mostly by ignoring the little things, focusing on the larger movements of history. The actions of individuals get lost in the sea of actions by other individuals until you have something akin to fate, I suppose. That’s where I keep feeling myself drawn. The largescale sweep of fate, following Sinister, Righteous, and Orbis Stellaris with the actions of the Quiet Council and Brotherhood and Nightkin largely cancelling one another out.

This issue makes a strong argument against that idea, mostly by repeating the first issue’s plot. It’s actually alarming how effectively Al Ewing writes a variation/sequel to the first issue centred around the same(ish) group of people trying to steal the same thing. In the first issue, the ultimate reveal was that the entire theft of Sinister’s lab was engineered by Orbis Stellaris; here, there is no grand reveal. Yes, Mother Righteous makes an appearance as an observer, perhaps sinking her claws into a character or two; otherwise, it’s the Brotherhood with Destiny creating and executing a plan to steal the lab again (actually, Orbis Stellaris’s entire World Farm) and inserting themselves directly into these larger forces of history.

My mind wanders to thoughts of Babylon 5 and the final episode of season four, “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars.” Ostensibly the finale of the show before it was renewed for a fifth season, it jumps through time in the form of video recordings. From the ‘present’ to 100 years later to 500 years later to 1000 years later to a million years later, it shows the distortion of time and history on the events of the show that we’ve been watching. The +100 period is of particular interest. It’s an educational broadcast with some historians to mark the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Interstellar Alliance and there’s some debate between the historians that’s meant to seem laughable given that we know what actually occurred as viewers of Babylon 5 the fictional TV show that is the history they are discussing. There’s one spot where one of the historians dismissing the various stories and legends of the core cast as mythmaking, that they couldn’t have done the various things attributed to them. That history rarely turns on the actions of a few people, rather it is largescale movements by hundreds of people that produce true change. We, the viewers, know differently.

Here, Storm is that central figure that changes history. From the beginning of Sins of Sinister, she’s been the outlier, the one person able to withstand the forces of Sinister’s Quiet Council and, despite Mystique’s betrayal, the one able to steal his lab. In a way, she steps into the place vacated by Stasis as that fourth force acting against the interests of the other Essexes. She and the Brotherhood stand in for the lost humanity of this future – lost to the corruptive touch of Sinister and Righteous and Orbis Stellaris. The Brotherhood under Storm is the one group that’s truly free of their influence and control, a fourth possibility for evolution and growth outside of any Essex experiment. Move back far enough and Storm is almost a synthesis of all four: mutant with a deep humanity, believed in as a goddess, and acting as a cosmic-level power. She contains elements of all four and uses them not to further her own ambitions, but to protect and save whoever she can from the machinations of Sinister and Orbis Stellaris (she seems largely ignorant of Mother Righteous). The inclusion of Righteous briefly in this issue serves to highlight how much true faith that Storm inspires – something that Righteous struggles with, if only because she is insincere. Storm’s absolute dedication and sincerity is her true power, it’s what drives those around her to trust in her and give their all on her word. Ewing’s SWORD and X-Men Red have both largely been about this idea. To further set her apart, her final act is one of self-sacrifice, something none of the Essexes could accomplish.

Heading into this issue, the Brotherhood (and Freedom Force) was already a power unto itself, albeit a very minor one in a universe containing two rather major ones. Storm potions herself as an alternative to all four of the Essexes – effectively a synthesis of all of the best parts of their respective ideologies/approaches.

Next: Immoral X-Men #3 and the +1000 time period.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

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.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 06 – Nightcrawlers #2

We jump ahead 90 years to the +100 time period. If you’ll recall, in Powers of X, this was the period of Moira’s ninth life – it was a world where the Earth was ruled by machines, humans clung to scraps and lived in servitude, and mutants were exiles, living under the hospitality of the Shi’ar or the small group on Asteroid K. Immediately, I noticed how much of this status quo played with those ideas.

Mutants no longer live on Earth, but not because they were driven away. No, they live off-world because the Earth was too small and limited for their collective vision. (Sinister)

The Earth is ruled by aliens that attempted an invasion, but found themselves a little late to the party. (Orbis Stellaris)

The true exiles are the Nightking and devotees of the Spark, freed from Sinister’s control, and roaming space on a single ship, the Narthex. (Mother Righteous)

With Doctor Stasis and the possible homo novissima eliminated, things shift and reform, but the basic shape is the same. Mutants head for the stars, mutants find exile in the stars, and mutants are denied Earth. The reformation around the other three Essexes is interesting as, despite not appearing here, Orbis Stellaris remains the most likely opposition to Sinister. Even if Sinister as we know him isn’t at the forefront of mutantkind’s movements and decisions, it’s still Sinister. Mutantkind heads to the stars to crush all that exists in their way, absorbing what they can, killing what’s left. Nightcrawlers #2 suggests a big clash between the two powerful forces of Sinister and Orbis Stellaris without even mentioning the latter, while Mother Righteous remains off to the side, hoping to be the spoiler.

But, perhaps, I am getting ahead of myself. What is it about X-Men comics that encourages speculation and seeing little webs and developing theories?

Despite all of those details sprinkled in throughout the issue, creating a lovely backdrop, Nightcrawlers #2 isn’t really about all of that necessarily. It’s actually a pretty small and personal story for Wagnerine. One of loss. Loss of her faith, of her lover, of her child... and her loss may be a loss for Mother Righteous as well. Sorry, it led right back there almost immediately, didn’t it? That’s the way this event is structured. The small pieces point to the big ones. They suck you in with those personal stories that exist against this large backdrop and that’s what matters. The journey of Wagnerine throughout this issue provides an emotional grounding for the grandscale movement of the Essexes. All of this is the three of them operating on a massive scale as I already indicated. So large that someone like Orbis Stellaris exists through mere allusion and assumption.

The Wagnerine story is one of repetition, in a sense. And revelation. When discussing Immoral X-Men #1, I argued that the addition of Sinister to the Quiet Council added solipsism to each of them. This selfish view that only they are real. That only they matter. In this issue, we see that the same mindset afflicts Mother Righteous and how what separates her from Sinister (and almost certainly the other two) is methodology, nothing more. Instead of genetics, she uses concepts like gratitude and faith to spread herself, all in service of herself. But, like Sinister pushed too far by putting himself in mutants, losing control of the experiment, Mother Righteous’s use of the Spark ultimately puts the Nightkin beyond her control. While she may have put parts of herself – or, rather, her influence, in them all through their gratitude and faith, she also accomplished this task by piggybacking off a concept outside of herself and her control. The rescue of Nightcrawler, his attempt to stop Righteous, and her subsequent killing of him is such a central moment, revealing for all of her followers what she truly is – an Essex by any other name...

This issue is about emphasising that connection. Beyond her simmering self-serving actions to date, that side of her is laid bare at the end of the issue. Wagnerine lays it plain after she escape death: “They know she bears a rod as well as a lamp. That her Spark is a cold fire, not a warming glow. As of today? They doubt.” Righteous losing control of their faith is like Sinister losing control of mutantkind after his genetic manipulation. The addition of the pink tethers and glowing balls to Righteous’s outfit recall’s Sinister’s cape and its high strands. Even the way that the Nightkin all wear headbands showcasing Righteous’s heart symbol over their natural diamonds acts a visual play upon the Sinisters of mutantdom. Her efforts to gather various mystical and magical items is like Sinister’s obsessive collection of genetic material. While we’ve only ever had a suggestion of what a mystically-focused ‘Sinister’ means, this issue is almost a practical walkthrough, pointing to as many elements of Sinister familiar to readers.

(I will discuss his art in the larger context of the entire +100 comics, but I want to call out how overjoyed I was to see Andrea Di Vito drawing another Ragnarok for Asgard. In a comic all about various X-Men elements, that callback to the “Ragnarok” Thor arc that he drew is, by far, my favourite reference.)

While Sinister spread solipsism, Righteous mistakenly spread the Spark. She may be positioning herself as the spoiler between Sinister and Orbis Stellaris, but the Spark so far has been the only effective weapon against Sinister’s spread. The Nightking seem freed from Sinister’s influence by that residue of the Spark within Nightcrawler’s genetic code somehow – like, somehow, the soul transcends pure genetic material. Sinister’s obsession with genetics and mutation isn’t genuine. He’s not really interested in new life or new ways of being. He’s obsessed with bending those things to his will for the propagation of himself. Righteous views the Spark similarly and I’m really wondering if, by the +1000 period, she will find himself playing second fiddle to the Spark and its devotees like Sinister finds himself under the thumb of the Quiet Council. Oh, he holds an important position and role as their chief genetic weaponeer... but that makes him a servant. Will Righteous become a mystical servant for the faithful? Something that they pour their faith and gratitude into and, then, use for their purposes? If this is an inevitable point in the schemes of an Essex... what of Orbis Stellaris and the Progenitors?

Next: Immoral X-Men #2.

Tuesday, March 07, 2023

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.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 03 – Nightcrawlers #1

I don’t know why entirely, but I can’t get over the one non-mutant Nightcrawler Chimera. We see nine of these ‘Nightcrawlers’ (or, more properly, Legion of the Night) and they’re all crosses between Nightcrawler and a mutant (Wolverine, Toad, Sabretooth, Domino, Pyro, Empath, Colossus, and Pixie), except for one: the Spider-Man Chimera, eventually named Wallcrawler. Why is he there? We first saw him in Sins of Sinister #1 and, here, he reappears as one of the Nightcrawlers affected by Vox Ignis’s Scream of Change, freed from the influence of Mister Sinister alongside the Wolverine and Domino Chimera. While Sinister doesn’t necessarily feel confined to mutants in his experimenting, that has definitely been the direction he’s gone, particularly as the schism/differences between the four Nathaniel Essex variations have solidified. The Sinisters have slowly taken over the world via assimilation of mutants and non-mutants alike, yet that’s come across as expediency in a way that Sinister’s obsession with mutant genetics has felt more ideological somehow. After all, part of the plan was eliminating Orchis, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers alongside the Scarlet Witch and other non-mutant threats. The Chimera are specifically stated in Sins of Sinister #1 as having two X-Genes spliced together, something originally stated in Powers of X #1 where the variation generations of Chimera in Moira’s ninth life’s timeline are laid out:

The first generation of Sinister’s experimentation was simple replication of a single mutant. The second generation was the first group of Chimera, combining two X-Genes. The third generation mixed more than two up to five. And the fourth generation involved Omega-level sources and was sabotaged by Sinister in an effort to switch his allegiance to the ruling class of machines. In every case, it was using mutant DNA for his experiments.

Yet, here is a Spider-Man Chimera amongst all of this X-Gene DNA. Is it as simple as a joke going back to the early days of both Spider-Man and the X-Men when the hero thought he may be a mutant? I wouldn’t put it past the trio of Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and, this comic’s writer, Si Spurrier, to include this specific Chimera solely as a bit of a joke. It could be that simple. But, where’s the fun in that? No, if we’re going to read into these comics for the purpose of commentary and criticism, we’re going to overread into these comics for the purpose of commentary and criticism.

Part of the project that the Sinisters roll out is the addition of the X-Gene into homo sapiens. While an effective way to subsume the world, it’s also a direct attack on Doctor Stasis, the Essex variant focused on evolution through augmenting humanity outside of genetic tampering. It’s not just that mutants conquer and dominate the world, they also assimilate humanity into their ranks. By this point, the Sinisters have, for the most part, defeated the true threat of Stasis and his plans: Orchis and, specifically, Nimrod. The subtle, unstated victory achieved in this Sinister World Order is the “mutants always lose” curse of Moira. Homo novissima is cut off. Up until Moira’s sixth life (the +1000 years timeline in Powers of X), she wasn’t aware of the true threat to mutants and the fight for the dominance of Earth. It was both humanity and their machines, interwoven into a “manufactured branch of humanity not restricted by normal evolutionary constraints.” After living long enough to see this branch of humanity – this alternative next stage past homo sapiens – nearly reach ascension into a Phalanx, she reset the timeline with the specific goal of ensuring mutantkind’s victory by stopping the machines, culminating in her ninth life when she learns of the moment that Nimrod came online and entered her tenth life with the express goal of stopping that from happening while building up mutants to a place where they can, maybe, finally win. Of course, she failed. Nimrod came online, her plans were exposed, and she was stripped of her mutant genetic status, prompting her to immediately through her lot in with the likes of Orchis, embracing a homo novissima post-humanity.

And she lost again. Maybe it’s not mutants always lose, it’s Moira always loses.

The man-machine future dominance of Earth has been averted and mutants have won. All that’s left is either assimilation or subjugation or extermination (or experimentation). The assimilation would naturally involve expansion into genetic experimentation involving non-X-Genes. Given their similarities in acrobatic abilities, Spider-Man crossed with Nightcrawler would be a ‘safe’ test. It would be fairly predictable in the results, less likely to produce an unexpected circuit; instead, they would overlap to a large degree with additions like teleportation and Spider-Sense. And, while Spider-Man is not a mutant, his DNA has undergone a mutation of sorts. One wonders if Stasis would view him as one of his own or not. I imagine he would fancy himself more of a Dr. Octopus man as this issue evidences. How inhuman would the likes of Doctor Stasis view someone like Spider-Man? I guess we won’t find out in this event... and what about the Inhumans? He may view this less as a corruption of humanity by Sinister’s genetic manipulations and more an existing part of that threat being aligned closer with reality.

More than that, I think it relates to Mother Righteous, the heart-imprinted Essex variant that has embraced change as deviating further from the Nathaniel Essex template more than any of her brothers and has sought advancement through mystical means. With the Legion of X arc prior to this involving the transformation of mutants into ‘monsters’ and the larger influence of magic along with this issue’s focus on Mother Righteous, I recall the Spider-Man/X-Men story involving Kulan Gath from the Chris Claremont/John Romita, Jr. run where the Conan villain transformed New York into his version of reality, giving us some weird and wonderful classic versions of the X-Men, Avengers, and Spider-Man. In that story, Peter Parker definitely took on qualities of the ‘everyman’ in representing the change to the city. At his core, he’s the character that represents the average person (and Marvel in general) and including him resonates with past stories while also highlighting the importance or largesse of a story. No character is used more effectively in juxtaposition in stories like this than Spider-Man. It heightens the strangeness of things – and, in this case, the complete bonkers nature of the Chimera. We expect combinations of two mutants; but, a combination of the ‘everyman’ and a mutant? Well, shit just got real...

It’s interesting that Wallcrawler is the most devout of the bunch. Connecting Peter Parker’s very Catholic existence and unhealthy relationship with guilt and Nightcrawler’s very Catholic existence and unhealthy relationship with guilt is both obvious and inspired. He is the Nightcrawler to die, because he is the non-mutant. As much as everything I said above is true, this is a mutant story and a mutant dominance of the world, so, sorry, folks, the Chimera with a human stripe has to go. Plus, he likes the stripes. And, in so doing, he both reveals the callousness of Mother Righteous (which isn’t a surprise) and works to further cement her burgeoning faith.

Introduced in Legion of X #1, Mother Righteous doesn’t extend as far back as Orbis Stellaris, and she’s a much more consistent presence over the ten issues of Legion of X than Orbis Stellaris is in X-Men Red. While the space-faring Essex prefers to hide in plain sight, the mystical Essex is flamboyant and obvious, looking to shore up her powerbase by siphoning off from Sinister’s focus, mutants. Her primary focus is Legion, although she does have interests in the likes of Banshee (who she combines with the Spirit of Variance to make Vox Ignis) and Nightcrawler (and even Arakko). She offers power and her only price is gratitude – recognition for her role in the success of her business partner. Her big power play here is to kill off Stasis at the request of Orbis Stellaris for the price of knowledge and thanks – plus, as a bonus, free travel through the Dominion that Stellaris is convinced he can achieve. What exactly she has planned is a bit more obtuse. By the end of the issue, she seems to be positioning herself at the centre of a new religion, one grown out of the Spark concept of Nightcrawler, building it upon the foundation of the freed Chimera who, due to the Nightcrawler elements of their nature, are susceptible to this sort of thing.

What Mother Righteous does in this issue with Vox Ignis’s assistance is akin to Sinister’s efforts to assimilate humanity via his genetic tampering and the implementation of the X-Gene. When he alters their DNA to bring them to his side, Mother Righteous alters their souls. She’s far more dangerous than she appears at first as her hold over people is something beyond physical. The other three Essex variants all focus on a more physical or genetic level of change and evolution, while she doesn’t care about any of that. Human, mutant, alien, machine... any and all are welcome to worship at her feet and give thanks to her gifts. She shows here how easy it is, in a way, to grow her power base at the expense of Sinister’s (regardless of whatever his view of his X-Men is, they are his X-Men). That makes her tough to pin down entirely. A geneticist who alters DNA in an effort to dominate the world is pretty easy to see and understand; as is a technologist that aspires for a human-machine hybrid. But, a Gaiman-esque pseudo religious figure that trades in favours? She may just be the wild card of this whole event.

Next: Immoral X-Men #1.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Custom Kitchen Deliveries 02 – Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #1

My first thought was of X-Men Red #5. The way that it took a moment in Judgment Day #1 and expanded upon it, filling in the untold gaps, is repeated here with Al Ewing telling the story of an untold moment in Sins of Sinister #1. At the end of that issue, Sinister returned to his Muir Island base to kill one of his Moira clones and reset the timeline to a prior moment, undoing all of the work of his resurrected tainted mutants and humans. Only, he found his lab gone and, along with it, his chance to pull the plug on his experiment that has grown beyond his control. That reveal is a bit of a one-two punch with the shock of the lab gone, acting as the primary cliffhanger (of sorts) for the issue with the secondary detail of who took the lab coming right after. Well, thanks to Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #1, we now know what happened to Sinister’s lab and who has possession of it.

Taking place between pages of Sins of Sinister #1 (specifically after Sinister says “How can I not think I’m better than everyone?”), this issue echoes the first Judgment Day tie-in Ewing wrote as well. However, in rereading X-Men Red #5, the differences are obvious. Where that issue was a poetic death tome that doubled as an exercise in precise, controlled storytelling, slowly unfolding the horror of the inevitability of Uranos’s slaughter on Arakko, this one is a quick burst of action adventure. It propels you forward with a group of plucky rebels on a mission to save the universe from a world gone wrong as former enemies work together and overcome adversity to succeed... and, then, comes the doublecross. Not an unheard of twist, it nonetheless comes as a bit of a surprise here as Ewing and artist Paco Medina (who will be drawing all three of the +10 issues) play off the expectations of the first half of the issue, right from Storm and her Brotherhood seemingly showing up Mystique (disguised as Destiny) to the Star Wars crawl. This seems like a comic where the good guys are going to win by taking the lab and... then, we’ll see. Instead, it’s more like the good guys wi—oh, no they didn’t, whoops. And it works.

The Star Wars text crawl and the cast list pages are somewhat redundant, if you break down the contents of the book. The two pages prior to the text crawl are literally a recap and cast of characters plus credits. But, those two pages are key for the tone of the issue: scrappy sci-fi underdogs taking on a seemingly unstoppable foe, with the text crawl heavily alluding to (as I’ve said a few times) the Star Wars franchise, while the cast page is more like a TV series, both done with 3D text to play into that retro feel. Oddly, for a comic that takes place ten years into the future, it’s rooted in retro vibes and influences, right down to Storm’s ‘Queen of Mars’ outfit that looks like something out of Flash Gordon. Of course, as the comic leans into those influences and gets you rooting for the Brotherhood to succeed, it counts on you to forget that things in those stories always got much, much worse before they got better.

Part of that trick is that, much as X-Men Red #5 used the knowledge from Judgment Day #1 that Uranos decimated Arakko to lead to the surprise hope at the end where everyone expected nothing but death and destruction, this issue plays off the reader knowing that Sinister’s lab is stolen by the end of Sins of Sinister #1. When the Brotherhood and Mystique embark upon the mission to steal it, Ewing is counting on us to know that the plan is a success and, then, assume that that means it goes to plan. Hence the light and breezy pacing and tone during the mission – why wouldn’t it be a nice, fun action issue? We know that they will steal the lab! It’s the same trick as his previous tie-in issue, except done in reverse. X-Men Red was slow, deliberate, almost plodding in its poetic destruction, allowing us to languish in the inescapable onslaught of Uranos; this issue is fast, fun, and entertaining... it’s a popcorn flick right up through the betrayal. And Ewing keeps on playing the same trick, right up to the final page reveal that mirrors Magneto not being dead: Orbis Stellaris working with Destiny and Mystique to steal the lab and keep the timeline from resetting. What’s even funnier, to me, is that the final page of this issue is pretty much the last page of last month’s X-Men Red #10 where it was revealed that Orbis Stellaris is an elderly human with long white hair and a long beard, sporting a blade spades symbol on his forehead. Ewing ripped himself off twice in a single page.

(In another world, I would be a bigger Al Ewing guy. I’ve dipped my toes into his work here and there, but SWORD/X-Men Red is the first sustained work by him that I’ve stuck with. SWORD was marked by continual ‘interruptions’ by events and X-Men Red hasn’t been too different. He seems to love events and crossovers, and he would make for a great study of how a writer doesn’t just navigate them, but dives in head first. He has a way of making events and crossovers seem like they function solely to advance his various ongoing plots. In some cases, because he was the main writer of the event; in others, because he’s just damn talented. It reminds me a lot of Kieron Gillen’s history with events and crossovers at Marvel. I’m not sure if Ewing has pulled off anything as impressive as Gillen’s first Journey into Mystery arc where it rewrote Fear Itself in the background of that event as it was happening, but still... This project easily could have been about Ewing in a different world.)

So, let’s talk Orbis Stellaris...

One of the four Nathaniel Essexes, the one that went to space. He first appeared in SWORD #6 as a representative of the Galactic Rim and drops this telling-in-retrospect line: “Humanity is obviously capable of far more than I had previously considered.” He mostly stays a background galactic figure until the final arc of SWORD when he’s responsible for unleashing a group of cloned cyborg terrorists against SWORD and the Shi’ar, seemingly at the behest of Henry Gyrich and ORCHIS, but we learn more due to his own interest and desires. From there, he works with Agent Brand to try to destabilise Arakko and, until the final arc of X-Men Red, most notably appears in issue 4 where he makes an impassioned case against the resurrection of Shi’ar Empress Xandra. Much as the line from his first appearance reads different in retrospect where the surprise that the humanity he abandoned to seek the next stage of life in space could progress this far. Do I detect a note of jealousy that his sibling Sinister succeeded so? If not, it comes through in *ahem* spades when he says “Why can only Earth’s mutants deny the reaper? Where is the fairness? Where is the justice?” At the time, it read like a moral argument; now, it reads like a man jealous of his brother. “Why can Sinister’s bunch escape death and I’ve never managed to figure it out?” And, then, in the most recent arc, many of his plans are thwarted by Cable and company as they take back the techno-organic virus sample that was stolen and leave Orbis Stellaris humiliated in defeat: “The mutants of Earth have requested my undying enmity—my vengeance in full measure—and Nathan Essex is happy to deliver.”

So, that’s the broad view of Orbis Stellaris to this point... not quite the obtuse, inscrutable possibility to be one of the ‘four Sinisters’ once Dr. Stasis was revealed with his forehead clubs symbol (and being the Essex who put his faith in humanity rather than genetic mutations or aliens or...). With his clone armies and slowly emerging status of a possible main villain within SWORD/X-Men Red, many people guessed his true identity long ago. Looking back, Ewing wasn’t always subtle in his hints (SWORD #11 having him admit in his private “after-action report” that he’s originally from Earth) and, well, I guess, now that he’s revealed at the end of Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants #1 as not wanting to reset the timeline despite Sinister’s ever-spreading influence/self, we’re left wondering exactly what his goals are...

The line that the issue ends on (“There can only be one... who has dominion.”) suggests that this is very much a competition between the four to see whose methods can produce a dominion-level society first and Orbis Stellaris looks to use Sinister’s project as something to possibly usurp for his own ends. If we continue on last time’s little metafictional thought exercise that Sinister is a stand-in for Jonathan Hickman, then who could Orbis Stellaris truly be other than Ewing’s stand-in? In the X-titles (and Marvel in general), he’s been the space guy, the one interested in exploring and expanding upon the space side of Marvel. While his most critically acclaimed work at Marvel is the now-marred Immortal Hulk, he’s mostly favoured space-tinged stories and specifically tried to evoke the cosmic feel of Kirby, Starlin, Englehart, and Gerber’s works... and has spent the last two years making in-roads in that respect in the X-line, to the point where he writes the comic about the new capital of the Sol System. If the future for the X-line (and Marvel) is in space, who better to be at the forefront of that? Why, in fact, lean into events and crossovers so readily other than to become as central as possible to the Marvel Universe?

Okay, that sounds a lot more calculated and, well, sinister than reality almost definitely is. But, I want to plant that little extra meta detail now – and you can see where I may look to be heading as we get deeper into this event, though that will depend on the actual comics. We’ll see if this holds up at all or it’s just me going way over the top into wanting to ready an obviously collaborative story as a secret confession of creative in-fighting and power struggles to be the one guiding voice for the X-line (and Marvel in general).

Beyond that, there are two other elements that I want to be mindful of as we move through this event: the use of single artists for each time period and the relationship to Age of Apocalypse. I don’t think we’ve got enough information yet to speak intelligently to either (they may even need to wait for a post-event piece, for all I know). For the latter, something that really needs to be emphasised is that, as much as Sins of Sinister has not been framed as an alternate reality story necessarily, it actually is. Except, while Age of Apocalypse deviated and ran parallel to the regular Marvel Universe, Sins of Sinister deviates from and runs parallel to Powers of X. The influence of Hickman is inescapable...

Next: Nightcrawlers #1.