X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL
Writers: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jed MacKay, Stephanie Phillips, Geoffrey Thorne, Gail Simone, Eve Ewing, Alex Paknadel, Jason Loo & Murewa Ayodele
Artists: Javeir Garrón, Sean Parsons, Roi Mercado, Marcus To, Luciano Vecchio, Federica Mancin, Declan Shalvey and Sara Pichelli
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

Honestly, I wavered about whether to give this an annotations post at all – it’s basically an anthology issue of mostly five-page stories by the creative teams of various X-books, the unifying theme being an anniversary event to commemorate the fall of Krakoa. But it does include 11 pages of material from the X-Men creative teams which are somewhat important to that book. Treating it as a single story doesn’t make sense, so instead we’ll take each segment in turn.

PAGES 1-5: NYX

Ms Marvel attends the New York vigil.

The New York event, held at the Treehouse, appears to be a fairly sombre affair, with characters in mourning dress holding candles. There are anti-mutant protestors visible in the background, but the police are apparently keeping them away. I’ll run through the list of visible attendees at the end of the post, although there are a good number of background generics in there too.

According to Anole, the combined abilities of Prodigy, Forge, Sobunar and Local have created lapel pins that reactivate the Krakoan gates for one night only. Anole claims that they were teleported to “everyone with an X-gene”, but he can’t possibly mean that literally – particular as he then goes on to say that Mr Sinister and Apocalypse weren’t invited. At least some non-mutant superheroes have also been invited.

As usual, Ms Marvel reminds us of her status as the last mutant to be resurrected on Krakoa, who joined the community just in time to see it collapse. She’s now told her parents that she’s a mutant. That hasn’t happened yet, so I think it may be an unintended spoiler for the Giant-Size X-Men one-shots currently in progress.

We’re told that there’s also a related event in Chicago’s Millennium Park; as we’ll see, this is basically Dazzler putting on a free concert, which isn’t my idea of a vigil, but okay. Sophie Cuckoo has already left for that event, planning to meet up with her online friend Tarnishedmoodring; that’s Axo, and it’s a subplot from both NYX and Exceptional X-Men. We’ll come back to it later.

(EDIT: I forgot to mention this originally – the reason why the invitation to Arakko has been ignored is presumably because of the attack on Arakko by Aeon the Knife in Power Man: Timeless, also written by Lanzing and Kelly. That story isn’t on Unlimited yet – it seems to have been generally understood as summarily wiping out Arakko, although Tom Brevoort seems to have denied that it was intended to be read as such.)

PAGES 6-8: X-MEN (1)

Everyone at the Factory except for Cyclops and Ben Liu is planning to attend the Vigil. Most are planning to drop by the Chicago event first, although Magneto, Xorn and Juggernaut are going straight to New York. Ben can’t go because the X-Men faked his death in X-Men #2. Cyclops initially offers excuses about someone needing to be on monitor duty, but then runs through the events of X-Men to date and declares that he doesn’t think the mutants have anything to celebrate. He disapproves of the entire event.

As usual in X-Men, Psylocke steps up as spokesperson for the team, but note that her reasoning seems to be that the X-Men ought to be seen at this event for PR reasons, if they want to position themselves as the face of mutantkind.

PAGES 9-13: PHOENIX

This is a self-contained story. Phoenix is sad that she can’t be at the Gala or “see Scott”, and finds some crystals left by mutants who took refuge in space in the past. That’s pretty much it. She will in fact see Scott later in the issue, but perhaps she draws an important distinction between doing it telepathically and in person.

Phoenix mentions “the reappearance of my presumed-dead sister Sara”, which is the current storyline in her own book – however, this could happen during the gap between Phoenix #10-11 where she’s searching for Sara, so it doesn’t actually resolve any ambiguity about whether Sara is real.

PAGES 14-16: X-MEN (2)

Kid Omega doesn’t like Dazzler, regarding her as a “total industry plant”. He’s starting to think he made a mistake breaking up with Temper in Wolverine and the X-Men vol 2 #6 (2014), but she’s clearly more interested in Ransom right now. Glob mentions that another of Kid Omega’s exes lives in New York – that’d be Phoebe from the Stepford Cuckoos.

Jen Starkey is delighted to be at a mutant event (this being the first time she’s left Alaska since the X-Men rescued her in X-Men #4. She regards Beast as someone who can understand gaining powers later in life, since although he had mutant powers from birth, he did become blue and furry as an adult. The two seem to be bonding.

Dazzler’s repertoire includes “Beauty in the Beast”, which is obviously based on the Beauty and the Beast Beast/Dazzler miniseries from 1984-5.

PAGES 17-21: X-FORCE

This is an epilogue to the cancelled X-Force series, with Colossus and John Wraith having a conversation. Wraith indicates that Colossus has spent too long focussing on his supposed duties as a mutant and not paying enough attention to his own nature. Wraith has no real interest in his mutant identity – which is consistent with the way he’s always been written – and doesn’t care about the Vigil.

Colossus obliquely indicates that the point of the Tank persona he used in X-Force was to distance himself from being Colossus and to shield himself from further mind control after his experiences  on Krakoa. X-Force did indeed establish that telepaths couldn’t detect his mind when he was wearing his Tank costume – Betsy and Rachel wondered whether he was a robot. He defensively points out that it only lasted a few weeks, which is correct in continuity terms.

The cosmonaut career of Colossus’ brother Mikhail is long-established, dating back to the 70s.

Colossus quotes Professor X telling him “I need your help. I need you to fight. For the world. For mutants.” That’s not a direct quote from Giant-Size X-Men #1, but the general thrust of Professor X’s original pitch is that Colossus’s power is needed by the whole world and not just the Russian state. There’s a break in the scene where something along those lines could easily have been said.

PAGES 22-26: UNCANNY X-MEN

The Uncanny and X-Men casts (those who went, anyway) meet up at the Louisiana gala. Deathdream is more or less pressured into dancing by Psylocke, though he seems happy enough about it. Psylocke has met Deathdream before properly in her own book.

Temper and Ransom take the opportunity to pair up, building on exchanges between them in the “Raid on Graymalkin” and “X-Manhunt” crossovers. Rogue and Psylocke describe this as a Romeo and Juliet relationship, although the state of relations between the two X-Men teams doesn’t seem at all bad right now.

Jitter and Calico also run off happily together, hand in hand, building on their subplot in Uncanny.

PAGES 27-32: EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN

Bronze, Axo and Melée are in the crowd for Dazzler’s concert. Melée insists on buying bootleg merchandise on value grounds. Somehow or other, this event also seems to be mutant-exclusive, and a bunch of characters we also saw in New York (such as Anole) are here. Axo and Sophie finally meet up, and seem very happy together.

Kate, like Scott, refuses to go. Iceman decides to stay with her. Emma does show up, and gives an inspirational speech to the crowd.

PAGES 33-34: ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC

Banshee meets up with his daughter Siryn, who has apparently been sent there as a loyalty test to determine her reaction. Siryn recites the trustees’ pledge about being born unworthy (from “Raid on Graymalkin”) and makes a point of letting Sean see her.

In previous issues of Astonishing X-Men, Sean has been unaware of Siryn’s status as a trustee, and under the impression that she just wanted him to leave her alone. Somewhere along the line, Cyclops has told him that she’s in Graymalkin – it certainly wouldn’t make any sense for that information to be withheld after “Raid in Graymalkin”, once both X-Men teams were aware.

Siryn claims to be surprised that Sean has come to this event at all, given how traumatic Krakoa was for him, not least his betrayal by Moira (and his discovery that their relationship was apparently a sham). Sean did indeed have to be dragged along at the last minute, which is why he’s not dressed for the occasion – this is covered in this week’s Astonishing X-Men.

PAGES 35-40: DAZZLER

Yes, this miniseries gets a segment. The Wolfpack Sentinels and O*N*E attack the concert and arrest Dazzler on charges of reckless endangerment (presumably under reference to continuing her world tour in her last miniseries, despite the repeated attacks). The band and security members are all as previously established in Dazzler, and hold the authorities at bay while she finishes her “Last Krakoan Dream” song – which is as subtle as all the other Dazzler songs. She references the Green Lagoon bar.

Dazzler is carted off to Greymalkin, which could use a few more recognisable inmates before it gets shut down.

O*N*E have access to Blightswill, the poison from Otherworld that can suppress mutant abilities.

PAGES 41-45: STORM

This has very little to do with the rest of the issue. It opens with a couple of flashback panels: the first shows young Ororo with her mother N’Daré, and the other is her mother’s death from the flashback in X-Men #102.

Storm takes a pregnancy test (presumably in light of her liaison with Wolverine in Storm #3) and finds that she is not pregnant. Eternity then gives her a vision of her future daughter, apparently on the view that Storm needs some hope to fight on in order that she can serve most effectively as his host in the battle against Oblivion – this is the main storyline in Storm.

Storm’s daughter Furaha is shown several years in the future (old enough to be at school). She doesn’t directly identify her father, but says that he has black hair and fangs.

Storm holds her own event in the Storm Sanctuary, attended by characters like Callisto and Manifold who we’ve seen hanging around there in the past. Of some note, Jumbo Carnation is there, despite the fact that he’s a non-combatant and shouldn’t have returned to Earth to fight in Rise of the Powers of X. Presumably he chose to stay on Earth in X-Men #35.

PAGES 46-51: X-MEN (3)

Phoenix manifests in the Factory to persuade Scott that he ought to attend the Vigil and join other mutants in celebrating what they have. This gives us a montage of the current state of the main characters.

However, Cyclops never makes it to the Hellfire Vigil, because the event gets interrupted by 3K. 3K take the opportunity to make a speech to the assembled mutants, accusing Cyclops’ team of using a Sentinel to fight a fellow mutant in issues #17-18 – they identified this as a propaganda coup at the time. 3K’s pledge to mutants is to deliver the long-term goal of a human-free Earth, renamed New Krakoa, by the year 3,000. Hence the 3K name. All this fits with the idea of 3K presenting themselves as the “real” X-Men and the true representatives of mutantkind over in X-Men.

The 3K speech is delivered by the Chairman, flanked by Wyre, Cassandra Nova, Astra and Joseph – all of whom are clearly visible. Joseph is in his Magneto costume, with no indication that he’s not the original. However, it’s not 100% clear whether this panel reflects something that the audience can actually see.

THE ATTENDEES

There are a lot of generic background characters at the vigil and the concert, but here are the recognisable attendees.

• Ms Marvel, obviously.
• Looloo, from the supporting cast of NYX. She’s handing out candles as Kamala arrives.
• The guy towards the left side of the opening double page spread with the mohawk and the vaguely Japanese costume is presumably Hellverine.
• Doop is near the middle of the same spread.
• Rockslide is to his right. He was apparently restored to factory settings at the end of Rise of the Powers of X, but we haven’t seen him since.
• Cable is just below Doop.
• Deadpool is talking to Cable. It might just be a lighting effect, but he seems to have chosen his light blue X-Force costume and, for once, he seems to be behaving appropriately.
• Exodus is to Deadpool’s right.
• Eye-Boy is just in front of him.
• Emma Frost and three of the Stepford Cuckoos are front-right in the double page spread (Sophie Cuckoo is in Chicago and has a scene with Axo later).
• For want of any better candidates, the guy wearing a crown and a king’s robe is probably Jamie Braddock, who we haven’t seen since Krakoa fell.
• Synch is to Eye-Boy’s right.
• Chamber is to his right.
• Aurora and Northstar are probably the duo with pointy ears to Chamber’s right – Northstar’s suit has his signature symbol.
• Sobunar and Caliban are to their right.
• Prodigy is in front of Sobunar and has plenty of dialogue.
• Steve Rogers, wearing a shield lapel badge, is in the foreground.
• Miles Morales is to his right.
• Bishop is just to his right and behind him.
• The big bald guy in the front right is rather generic, but since he’s standing in the non-mutant superhero group, he’s probably Luke Cage, and the otherwise generic woman next to him is probably Jessica Jones.
• Captain Avalon is behind them.
• Anole has actual dialogue.
• Mystique and Destiny arrive together through the gates during the NYX segment. Mystique seemed to be in terrible health and on the verge of death at the end of her recent miniseries, but apparently she got better.
• Also coming through the gate with them are Shatterstar and Forge (with an unrecognisable guy between them – it’s not Rictor, because he shows up next to Shatterstar in the background of the Temper/Ransom scene).
• Longshot is on the far right of the same panel.
• Wolverine (Laura Kinney) and Kiden Nixon are on the last page of the NYX scene and get some dialogue.
• Magik, Beast, Psylocke, Jen Starkey, Temper, Kid Omega and Glob Herman all arrive together at the first Chicago scene.
• Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Gambit, Wolverine and Rogue all show up at the start of the Uncanny segment, with Calico, Deathdream, Jitter and Ransom a couple of panels behind.
• Beak is standing just behind Temper in the panel where she greets Ransom. There’s a cat-girl in the background of the same panel who looks plausibly like Catseye. If you look really closely, the woman to Beak’s left seems to have an artificial right leg which means she’s probably meant to be Karma – except that’s the wrong leg.
• Two panels later, the woman with multicoloured hair is Tommy from the Morlocks, and the girl with very short red hair is probably Wolfsbane.
• Gentle is sitting at the next table when Temper and Ransom are talking.
• In the panel where Ransom asks Temper whether he can see her again, the green haired woman on the left is almost certainly Polaris, and the duo on the right are obviously Askani and Captain Britain.
• Axo, Melée and Bronze are all in the Exceptional segment, obviously.
• Maggott walks behind them in the first panel of that scene.
• A few panels later, the woman with an eyepatch in the bottom right of the page is Callisto.
• Dazzler is singing, obviously. Shark-Girl is on drums, as in the Dazzler mini.
• Angel  is near the front for Dazzler’s concert as the Exceptional kids push to the front. (Storm seems to be there as well, though she has other things to do in this issue.)
• In the panel where the Exceptional kids hug, Manifold is in the background behind them.
• The front row audience placing their hands on their hearts when Emma gives her speech seems to include Maggott, Dani Moonstar, and three fairly generic women – the one in glasses seems to be Flourish and the one on the right could plausibly be Frenzy. We see them all more clearly later on.
• Husk, Skin, Banshee and Siryn are all in the Astonishing segment.
• Pixie is among the audience members reacting to Dazzler’s arrest.
• The people arriving together at Storm’s event appear to include Callisto again, Flourish, Jumbo Carnation (who ought to be in the White Hot Room, so I guess he chose to return to Earth in X-Men #35), Manifold, Gateway, Dani Moonstar, possibly Frenzy, and a little girl who seems to be being led by Gentle – she might be Abeni, a girl who Storm brought to Krakoa in Black Panther vol 7 #23..
• Magneto can be seen reacting to 3K on the last page. We’re told in dialogue that Xorn is there too, but we don’t see him.