Hellions #14 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #14
“Don’t Look Back Part II: The Judgment of Angels”
by Zeb Wells, Rogê Antônio & Rain Beredo
COVER / PAGE 1. Tarn holds the Hellions in his hand.
PAGE 2. Opening quote from Tarn, the mad sadist. Tarn is obviously a counterpart of Mr Sinister as Arakko’s mad scientist. That said, Tarn seems to be a scientist for the purposes of sadism, while Sinister seems more of an amoral scientist.
PAGES 3-4. The Great Ring of Arakko.
The Great Ring are Arakko’s equivalent of the Quiet Council, first described in a data page in X-Men vol 5 #16. They’re meant to sit in groups representing Dawn, Dusk and Day. There’s also a hidden “Night” grouping who don’t appear here, but the room layout shown in X-Men #16 suggested that they might not sit at the table, in which case they could be behind the camera in page 3 panel 2. From left to right, these characters are:
- Sobunar, standing beside his chair for some reason. Identified as a member of the Day group in X-Men #16, he appeared in Planet-Size X-Men #1.
- Storm, apparently appointed to the Ring after becoming regent of Arakko/Mars in S.W.O.R.D. vol 2 #6. Since there are Day members either side of her, she’s apparently taken one of the Day seats. (The name of the third Day member was blanked out in X-Men #16.)
- Lactuca the Knower, another Day member, and also seen in Planet-Size X-Men.
- Isca the Unbeaten, from the Dawn group, who appeared extensively in “X of Swords”.
- Idyll, the prophet who was mentioned occasionally in “X of Swords” and its lead-in. Another Dawn member.
- Tarn the Uncaring, also in the Dawn group.
- What seems to be an empty chair.
- Xilo the First Defender, the caterpillar. Xilo appeared in Planet-Size X-Men #1, and is apparently sitting as a Dusk member. However, the Dusk members listed in X-Men #16 were Ora Serrata, Stulgid and Lodus Logos, so apparently something has happened to one of them.
- Someone with blue skin in a white robe, who isn’t named, and is presumably one of the aforementioned Dusk members, making their debut.
“The one who stole the sacrilegious blood of myself and my followers.” Tarn is referring to Mr Sinister’s mission to Arakko in Hellions #6, under the cover of “X of Swords”.
The final gag with Tarn feigning surprise that Idyll doesn’t trust his word is very much a parallel with Hellions‘ version of Mr Sinister.
PAGE 5. Tarn gets a blade fish.
This is the same one that Mother Rapture uses on page 13.
PAGE 6. Recap and credits.
PAGES 7-9. The Locus Vile stand off against the Hellions.
From left to right in page 7 panel 2, the Locus Vile are Hex Butcher, Sick Bird, the hulking Amino Fetus, Mother Rapture and Mudgear.
The Locus Vile cultists are apparently offended that three Hellions who died fighting them in Arakko (Wild Child, Nanny and Orphan-Maker) have been resurrected. Presumably the Arakkans don’t have resurrection – it certainly doesn’t seem like the sort of thing they’d be particularly interested in. Then again, Mother Rapture says later on that “The Locus Vile do not fear death as we know Tarn.” Does she mean that death is not the end for them, or simply that they’re a death cult?
The Hellions don’t remember what happened in Hellions #6 because Sinister killed the survivors as soon as they made it back to Krakoa, meaning that they were resurrected from their last Krakoan memory backup, with no knowledge of what happened on the mission.
The clone Sinister led the Locus Vile here and seems to think that he has some sort of influence over them, but they show no sign of having any interest in what he has to say, despite his claims.
PAGE 10. Data page from … some scientist or other, most likely the Beast. The claim here is that when Nanny, Wild Child and Orphan-Maker were resurrected following their deaths in Amenth, they weren’t merely changed by being more focussed, but rather “evolved” so that their new bodies and lives would be better prepared to defend themselves against what happened to them last time – i.e., the Locus Vile.
PAGES 11-12. The reincarnated Hellions fight the Locus Vile.
The clone Sinister suggests that if you get too close to Amino Fetus then your powers are lost (presumably temporarily). It’s an odd comment to make about Orphan-Maker, since he doesn’t use his powers at all – his armour is designed in part to prevent him from reaching puberty and having his powers emerge, due to their supposedly dangerous nature.
PAGES 13-17. Tarn arrives.
Tarn is able to summarily reverse Wild Child’s transformation, restoring him to the previous state of dependency on Psylocke. Presumably he can also reverse what happened to Nanny and Orphan-Maker. It’s less likely that he can restore Rockslide or Gorgon, who died in Otherworld proper, since their issues are rather different. Tarn is clear, though, that the changes to Wild Child and co were not intentional on his part.
PAGES 18-20. Tarn reveals to the Hellions what happened.
This is the Hellions learning the ending of Hellions #6. It’s not as if they trusted Sinister that much to start with, but the Hellions understandably draw the line at this. Assuming they all get out of this alive, where does that leave them in terms of going to the Quiet Council and demanding to be reassigned away from Sinister?
PAGES 21-24. Sinister unveils his other clones, then flees with the original clone Sinister.
So the Hellions will have to fight the Locus Vile after all. Or take their chances with Tarn.
Sinister is taking his patchwork clone to the facility he seized from Arcade in issue #11. Mastermind reported last issue that the “payload” there had nearly finished incubating. Sinister describes his creation here as “chimera”. In Powers of X, the chimeras were hybrid mutants with traits of multiple characters who had apparently been lab-grown in one of Moira’s previous lives (her ninth, to be exact). In Powers of X #6, Moira said that the mutant-gene version of Sinister’s own body was already his first chimera, and that he had produced it decades early. If Sinister has produced other chimera at this point, then history is accelerating – whether that’s in line with Moira’s plan is another matter.
PAGE 25. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: BITTER BETRAYAL.
It wasn’t that Moira had a problem with the Chimeras.
It was that Sinister was in charge of creating the Chimeras through genetic engineering.
The Chimeras were actually starting to turn the tide in the mutant/machine war, until Sinister sabotaged the clones.
The final generation of clones were Omega-class Chimeras. They developed a suicidal hivemind.
While their decision to destroy Krakoa was part of Sinister’s plot, it’s not acknowledged if their developing a hivemind, in and of itself, was against Moira’s plan or not.
In this life, Moira found a way to resurrect dead mutants so that Krakoa wouldn’t have to rely on Sinister to keep the mutant population viable.
Also, remember that Moira didn’t want Sinister on Krakoa, and it was Xavier and Magneto who decided to recruit him to catalog every mutant’s DNA for them.
Has there been any reason given for why Krakoa and Arrako have the same unlikely form of rule? Even down to the mad scientist? Most of this Arrako stuff goes straight over my head.
I’m sure there will be some sort of major reveal about a time-travelling Moira going back in one of her lives in order to attempt something similar to Krakoa with Arakko.
Since the timeline resets itself to the moment of Moira’s birth when she dies, I assume that if she travels back in time to make changes before her birth, those changes would then become a permanent part of the Marvel timeline in each of her lives.
I’m just sad it came to this.
My impression was that Arakko adopted the same ruling structure as Krakoa when it arrived on Earth after the “X of Swords” crossover, although I don’t think that’s ever been spelled out explicitly.
The alternative would be that the structure of the Quiet Council dates back to before Krakoa and Arakko were split apart, which would suggest a secret history of Krakoa that Moira, Xavier and Magneto are keeping to themselves.
I forget who suggested it, but I agree that it looks increasingly likely that we’re getting a line-wide refresh after Inferno (except maybe X-Men and SWORD). I hope there’ll be a new book for Zeb Wells, who has done an excellent job with a deeply unpromising remit here.
That was ME! It was ME who said that! Mwa-ha-ha!
Si Spurrier’s interview about the cancelation of Way of X seems to point to, not a relaunch exactly, but a change in direction which will change the need for the remit of the majority of the X-titles.
Spurrier made it sound as if it was due to Hickman’s plan that Way of X was canceled so soon, rather than due to law sales.
He said he would be writing another book after Way of X, which wouldn’t be exactly the same book.
Plus, all the ads for “Inferno” state it is the culmination of Hickman’s vision for Krakoa. Hickman’s work on the X-books isn’t ending yet.
Taken all together, it sounds as if Krakoa isn’t going to exist as an island nation anymore after “Inferno”.
I suspected that X-Men and SWORD may continue because X-Men involves the team operating in the human world, while SWORD takes place in outer space.
My guess was that if Krakoa falls, then space is the likely location for mutants post-Krakoa (similar to life nine).
Having said that, I recently read the current creative teams talk about writing a “Hellfire Gala” every year, which seems to imply that Krakoa is going to be the new status quo maybe even beyond Hickman.
Maybe this is just corporate talk to throw readers off the surprise at the end of “Inferno” though.
So, who knows?
@Ben Johnston- I doubt Hellions is ending anytime soon. We’re no closer to finding out why Havok went crazy or what Peter’s power is than we were at the start of the series. And Alex is no closer to resurrecting Maddie and curing her of being the Goblin Queen then he was in issue 4.
Paul> There’s also a hidden “Night” grouping who don’t appear here, but the room layout shown in X-Men #16 suggested that they might not sit at the table, in which case they could be behind the camera in page 3 panel 2.
My reading of X-Men 16 was that the identity of the Night members aren’t known to the Arakkii public and they don’t actually attend these meetings. Otherwise, they would not be a ‘rumor’. They probably get briefed on the developments in secret.
If we compare the Great Ring diagram in X-Men 16 with the Quiet Council diagram in House of X 6, the Night members are where the Captains of Krakoa are, and the Captains don’t attend the Quiet Council meetings either.
Paul> Since there are Day members either side of her, she’s apparently taken one of the Day seats. (The name of the third Day member was blanked out in X-Men #16.)
Yeah, I had always suspected that Storm was the blanked-out name in X-Men 16. The details fit: she was leaving Marauders, she was an Omega mutant, she has African ancestry, … I got a bit confused when Xilo was revealed in Planet-Size (why blank out the name in that case?) but now that he/she is in Dusk, that makes a bit more sense.
Paul> Idyll, the prophet who was mentioned occasionally in “X of Swords” and its lead-in. Another Dawn member.
There seems to be some confusion over the character of Idyll amongst the readers. There are actually two (or rather three) Idylls in this story. The first Idyll was Summoner’s crib mate. He prophesied that the towers of Arakko will fall to Amenth, and so they did hundreds of years later. If you look at X-Men 12, he was not on the Great Ring, and probably was not an Omega mutant either.
This Idyll had a son Idyll II, who isn’t relevant to this story except for having a daughter Idyll III. She was around when the walls of Arakko fell. She made that prophecy in X-Men 14 regarding the reunion of Krakoa and Arakko, which came true during the Hellfire Gala. She was then silenced and imprisoned by the Vile Schools, hence her dynamic with Tarn here. She was also an Omega mutant so she was invited to join the Great Ring when it reformed after X of Swords.
In general with the Great Ring, they are probably going to be regular cast members of S.W.O.R.D., so we’ll learn more about them there. Al Ewing has this to say about them in a recent interview:
—————————————————————————-
INTERVIEW SPOILERS
AIPT: So then is it safe to assume we’ll be learning more about The Great Ring along with other aspects of Arakko culture in the pages of S.W.O.R.D.?
Al Ewing: Yeah, you can bet on that. I’ve already written one gigantic in-house document about it, which I’ll probably make more tweaks to — for reasons that will become apparent in time, I’m doing a lot of work in that direction and I think it’s yielding some good results. S.W.O.R.D. #8 will have all the hitherto-unknown details on The Great Ring that I can cram into one data page.
END OF INTERVIEW SPOILERS
—————————————————————————-
That sounds quite promising. We’ll probably get some details on how the Xilo / Dusk and the Night stuff works and establish Storm’s dynamic with the Ring.
Speaking of that prophecy again, I think the obvious candidate for it at this point is the formation of planet Arakko during the Hellfire Gala.
Only under the black moon will the two become one. A white light will judge them, and a red land will see them split forever.
‘two’: Krakoa and Arakko
‘one’: Krakoa-Arakko union
‘white light’: Saturnyne, the White Light of Otherworld
‘judge them’: Tournament of Swords
‘red land’: Mars
The only wild card is the ‘black moon’ bit. I think someone here previously suggested that this was a pre-pandemic holdover from when the Hellfire Gala was to be published in December so it would have fallen on the Winter Solstice instead.
@Michsel: “I doubt Hellions is ending anytime soon. We’re no closer to finding out why Havok went crazy or what Peter’s power is than we were at the start of the series…”
I wouldn’t put it past editorial to cut Hellions short for sales reasons or just because Hickman says so. See X-Factor and Way of X as examples. /cynicism
Paul> Sinister is taking his patchwork clone to the facility he seized from Arcade in issue #11. Mastermind reported last issue that the “payload” there had nearly finished incubating. Sinister describes his creation here as “chimera”.
This also pays off the plot threads from Incoming!, where Sinister sought to bend the no cloning rules by ‘making something new by using something old’ and Sinister Secret 60, where Sinister claimed to be studying the DNA his clone stole from Amenth. These new Chimera are likely to be Krakoan-Arakkii hybrids, so we probably get to see the mutants we know mixed with some monstrous upgrades.
Also something interesting in this scene is that Sinister has figured out how to grow No-Gates (last seen in Powers of X 1), which are gateways cut off from the Krakoan consciousness. How long until he learns how to grow No-Place habitats?
Michael-I am pretty sure that the Havok story and the resurrection of Madelyne will be finished by “Inferno”.
Sinister has his own cloning facilities again, and the event is called “Inferno”.
I think Hellions will end up playing a big role alongside the “Inferno” mini-series, which will bring the book to an end.
As far as Peter, as Thom points out, yeah, some plots will just be left behind as a cost of Hickman’s grand plan.
With each reveal of the Arakkii, they seem more and more reminiscent of the Neo…just more fleshed out. The Neo had a similar violent, tribal culture and just showed up in stories with no build up. Certainly there’s been in-universe build up, but not really in their appearances outside of Hellions.
Not saying it will be, but this feels like a book with about two or three more issues left.
Overcome Tarn, follow Sinister(s), rescue/sacrifice Kwannon’s dumb computer kid, Chimera reveal, “We’re a real family now” moment, someone dies, pyrric victory, over.
“My impression was that Arakko adopted the same ruling structure as Krakoa when it arrived on Earth after the “X of Swords” crossover, although I don’t think that’s ever been spelled out explicitly.”
No, the data page about the Great Ring mentions it has history, and Isca claimed it had been around thousands of years.
We do know Moira encountered them in a previous life, so my No-Prize guess is Moira modeled Krakoa’s government directly on Arrako. They’ve survived millennia, and it probably made Arrako’s alliance with Krakoa smoother.
Despite Tarn and his minions coming across like bad Outlaw Star rejects, I’m still really enjoying this title.
This book has really been a pleasant surprise, and I hope it sticks around.
Seems like an Omega-level precognitive in Arakko’s government should be the kind of thing Xavier, Magneto and Moira would worry about.
I think Moira is mainly concerned about Destiny, who knows to look for Moira.
She just told Xavier “no precogs” in order so that she didn’t have to explain to him about her past with Destiny from an earlier life.
Otherwise, Moira still hasn’t explained why she cares about a mutant knowing the future.
I’m not usually into all the Arakko/fantasy stuff, but Wells really sells it as kind of threatening and kind of ridiculous. I appreciate that.
This is probably my favorite of the Krakoa-era books at this point. I hope Segovia returns soon — I like his art better than the fill-in.
Surely can’t be an issue or two left? Empath still needs a character beat, beyond ‘very annoying, gets killed in comedy fashion each issue’. Unless… That is the beat??
Interested if there have been sales figures released for this, Way of X, X-Factor etc. Would give an idea of cancellation based on editorial fiat Vs sales.
X-Factor was the lowest selling not yet canceled X-book.
I don’t know sales figures for all the titles. Last time I checked, Excalibur was now the lowest selling book not yet canceled.
Way of X was selling higher than Excalibur at that point.
Spurrier’s interview said that the book wasn’t canceled by Marvel editorial due to low sales.
Empathy is portrayed as a complete sociopath, I’m not sure what character beat he can have beyond the slightly more team oriented version we’ve gotten in the last few issues.
It’s not like he’s a jerk who can learn to be a nice guy.
He’s a serial killer level monster.
Hellions is solicited out to #16, the same month as Inferno #2, and while the copy doesn’t point to that being the ending at all, it is following up one of the main remaining major subplots. I could easily see this wrapping with #18, the same month as Inferno finishes. At the very least, they’d do a relaunch and a new #1 since “these characters do missions for Mister Sinister” is a pretty dead premise as of this issue.