Inferno #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
INFERNO vol 2 #2
by Jonathan Hickman, Stefano Caselli & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1. Emma Frost, in diamond form, holding the helmets of both Magneto and Professor X.
PAGE 2. Once again, the opening quote comes from Omega Sentinel. She’ll actually say it on page 25, but more generally, it refers here to some of Mystique’s impostures being exposed.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits. The individual issues of Inferno don’t have separate titles.
PAGES 4-6. Flashback: Mystique retrieves a Cerebro back-up from Island M.
This is a repeat of a scene from pages 32-33 of issue #1, with the added revelation that it was Mystique, not Magneto. The art is new, but the three panels of Magneto reaching for the helmet directly copy the layout of the original, presumably to make sure we recognise it as the same scene. It’s not entirely obvious why Mystique actually needs to pose as Magneto, since nobody seems to be around, but to be fair, she didn’t necessarily know the place would be empty. Nor is it immediately obvious how she got past whatever security systems Magneto has – surely he doesn’t just keep this important object in an unlocked room? Again, maybe posing as him helps with that.
(Note: As Douglas points out in the comments, Prestige uses her “chronoskimming” power in X-Men: Trial of Magneto #2 to see Magneto apparently removing his Cerebro helmet from its cradle. That might be intended as the same scene, though it seems to be – incorrectly – set in his Krakoan home the House of M, rather than Island M.)
PAGE 7 to PAGE 8 PANEL 1. Flashback: “Professor X” retrieves Destiny’s DNA from Mr Sinister.
This is a repeat of a scene from page 34 of the previous issue, with the added information that Professor X is actually Mystique. We also get to hear the dialogue this time round, which not-very-subtly implies that Sinister knows perfectly well that he’s dealing with Mystique – as do his comments on page 16. In the original scene, Sinister could be seen smirking.
PAGE 8 PANEL 2 to PAGE 11. Mystique and the Five resurrect Destiny.
Destiny is resurrected in the prime of life, which makes sense. That’s consistent with what happened with Synch and Wolverine (Laura).
Mystique isn’t a telepath, so she can’t use Cerebro to restore Destiny’s mind. Instead he asks Hope to do it for her. Hope claims that she’s never done this before, and seems happy about the result. In fact, we’ve seen Hope do this before in New Mutants #21, when she resurrected Scout. But that was something she did in secret, and in defiance of the rules against resurrecting clones. So one possibility is that Hope is lying to “Professor X”. The other is that these scenes (and the first 35 pages of issue #1) take place before New Mutants #21, which would mean before the Hellfire Gala. That could work too, since as far as I can see, the only scenes in Inferno #1 that clearly come after the Gala are from pages 37 onwards, after the sequence where Mystique recovers Destiny’s DNA.
Note that Mystique gives Hope the Cerebro back-up that she stole from Magneto. That at least ties up the loose end of Mystique having it, but it might be significant down the line that Hope has one of her own.
Mystique claims that this is the age Destiny was when they first met. According to X-Treme X-Men vol 1 #1, they met in the 19th century when Irene (Destiny) hired Raven (Mystique) to help her investigate the prophecies that she’d written down in her Diaries, and which Irene herself didn’t understand. That story doesn’t give a precise age, though it does say that Irene was aged 13 and 14 when she wrote the diaries. But since Irene was in a position to hire Raven, we can probably assume that she’s meant to be roughly 20 when they meet.
PAGE 12. Destiny’s recovery montage.
Destiny takes Mystique to task and asks what she’s become in her (Destiny’s) absence. Although we saw Destiny torture Moira at the end of her third life in House of X #2, that’s a divergent Destiny. “Our” Destiny hasn’t really done anything worse than try to assassinate Robert Kelly, and even that was an attempt to avert the “Days of Future Past” timeline, which was arguably a “would you kill Hitler if you had the chance” scenario. By the time Destiny died, she and Mystique had become members of Freedom Force and were more or less reputable. Some of Mystique’s later stories – such as the “Dream’s End” arc where she’s threatening to release an anti-human virus – are way beyond anything she did with Destiny. Their torture of Moira in her second life was pretty bad… but that’s not something that this Destiny did.
PAGES 13-14. The start of the vote on Destiny.
We’ve now caught up to where issue #1 left off. An obvious question is why Xavier and Magneto haven’t moved sooner to address the vacant seats on the Council, which have apparently left them open to this sort of ambush for a while.
Professor X and Magneto naturally vote against; Storm follows their lead. Nightcrawler hesitates before voting for, which he says is to please his mother. But note that he also rejects a very clear steer from Professor X about how he should vote. It’s not mentioned here, but in Way of X #1, Legion pointed out to Nightcrawler that there were no precogs on Krakoa, and outright suggested that it was a “bit suspicious”. So it’s entirely possible that Nightcrawler’s real reason for voting for Destiny is that Xavier’s reaction to her confirms his suspicions that something very, very dodgy has been going on involving the resurrection of precogs.
PAGE 15. Flashback: Mystique speaks to Exodus.
Exodus’s back story involves him being a Crusader, hence his reference to having been “called a zealot” for “centuries”. Reasonably enough, he accepts Mystique’s argument that precogs are prophets and prophets fit very nicely into his worldview.
PAGE 16. Flashback: Mystique speaks to Mr Sinister.
Straightforward. Sinister will vote for it just to irritate people.
PAGES 17-18. Mystique, Kate and Shaw vote.
Kate naturally follows Xavier’s lead (which really reinforces how striking it is that Kurt doesn’t). Shaw – following a flashback where he seems to be sparring with Forearm – has no strong feelings and votes for it simply to annoy Emma. Once again, he’s being screwed over, since Emma promptly votes for it too.
PAGES 19-21. Flashback: Mystique buys Emma’s vote.
The box that Mystique gives to Emma is the same one that Emma was trying to get her hands on in X-Men #21 (the Hellfire Gala issue), when she was speaking to two people from “the nameless city of your hidden society” and asking for “the contents of the Kara Kutuça”. The box, apparently, is the Kara Kutuça, but Emma only cares about what’s inside. Mystique can be seen listening in to this conversation in X-Men #21 page 18 panel 2, though it was fairly subtly done and looked initially like she was just another mingling party guest. The box guards in the sub-flashback are wearing the same kind of clothes as the Gala guests. We still don’t know what the box contains or why Emma wants it.
Emma mentions an X-Corp transaction coming up urgently, which is odd, since she’s not in the cast of X-Corp. Maybe it involves Hellfire Trading too.
PAGE 22. Destiny wins the vote.
And Mystique finally gets what she’s earned.
PAGES 23-25. The Orchis Forge, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel.
“The Terra Verde Node.” Terra Verde is a location from X-Force, but more to the point, it was the place where the Orchis base from last issue happened to be located. Continuing the parallels with Krakoa, Orchis now has gates of its own. While Killian Devo is obviously positioned in the story as an evil scientist, he comes across as reasonably pleasant to work for by villain standards.
Meanwhile, Omega Sentinel suggests that Nimrod has now evolved to the point where they can have an important conversation, which we will no doubt come back to. This is where she says the line from the opening quote.
PAGES 26-29. Moira learns that Destiny’s back.
Magneto flatly refuses a direction to kill Destiny (which, in any event, would invite awkward questions about resurrection). Again, you have to wonder quite how far Magneto and Xavier are actually on board with everything Moira’s planning – and how far they suspect that Moira’s motivations are tied up with a personal fear / hatred of Destiny.
PAGES 30-31. Data pages. A transcription (from the island itself) of a conversation between Mystique and Destiny. The implication here seems to be that the island itself is recording every conversation on the island, or at least the ones that it finds interesting. Which is… uncomfortable.
Mystique raises here another awkward question, which is why Xavier and Magneto wanted her on the Council in the first place. Officially, she was meant to be stopping Nimrod from coming into existence. But she now thinks that she was just being kept occupied to stop her from Remember, they specifically enlisted Mystique in House of X by offering to resurrect Destiny, despite Moira’s objections to that offer being made. They apparently had some sort of reason why it was important to get Mystique on board, which remains unspecified. Mystique’s theory seems to be that it was simply busy work to justify not resurrecting Destiny… but if so, why make a deal with Mystique at all? Why not just insist that Destiny’s waiting her turn in the queue?
PAGE 32. Another data page. This is Professor X overriding a threat report about the Orchis site in Paris, presumably the same one that X-Force were alerted about in the previous issue. (But not necessarily the same report, given the passage of time.) The suggestion seems to be that Professor X is telling X-Force to leave that particular cell alone. Maybe this ties in somewhere with Omega Sentinel’s reasons for being with Orchis.
(Note: Or, as the comments below suggest, more likely, the idea is that Mystique replaces Sage and makes the edit herself, in Professor X’s name.)
PAGES 33-34. Sage decides to go and look anyway.
The layout of this room – which we also saw last issue – seems intended as another reminder that the island itself is always watching.
PAGES 35-37. Sage sneaks into the Paris Orchis base.
This is a rather confusing scene. What seems to be happening is: The Krakoan gate leads to the building that Sage comes out of in page 35 panel 1. Sage then uses an image inducer to disguise herself as the guy with the beard, pickpockets an Orchis scientist’s ID, disguises herself as the scientist, and sneaks itno the base to learn about Orchis’s weird plan – which seems to involve opening a portal to the sun, or something of that sort. Then we see Sage coming out of the building again. The confusing bit is the final panel on page 37, which seems to show Mystique – in full costume – either coming into or going out of door back to Krakoa. I don’t really get what that panel has to do with the rest of the scene.
(Note: As pointed out in the comments, the idea is almost certainly that Mystique replaced Sage in the previous scene when she went off for lunch, so it’s her throughout this sequence.)
The Orchis ape scientists all have different colours on their lab coats – maybe intended as an echo of the colour coding of S.W.O.R.D.?
PAGES 38-43. Professor X, Magneto and Moira reveal the truth to Emma.
This scene is a callback to a similar scene from Powers of X #5, where Professor X and Magneto recruited Emma into the Krakoan plan. The statue is the same (it’s The Winged Victory of Samothrace), and the psychic removal of the general public at the start of the scene is also repeated. The panels on page 40, showing Emma reading Moira’s mind and reacting, are a callback to the equivalent scene with Xavier in Powers of X #1 and #6.
On page 41, the panels in the background (clockwise from the bottom left) are:
- A schoolgirl Moira meets Xavier. This is from Moira’s fifth life – specifically, page 18 panel 2 of House of X #2. It’s the world where she meets Xavier early and they form a short-lived mutant city.
- Moira in her research lab. Pretty generic – this could happen in several of her lives – but it seems to be specifically based on page 16 panel 1 of House of X #2, which is her fourth life.
- Moira with a gun. This is life seven, where she tries to wipe out the Trask family in the hope that it will prevent the emergence of Sentinels. Specifically, it’s from page 19 of House of X #2.
- Moira by the side of Apocalypse. This is life nine. Her Apocalypse-like costume can be seen on page 23 of House of X #2.
- Moira and Charles kissing. This seems to be based on page 16 panel 5 of House of X #2, and again, it’s her fourth life.
- Moira looking defiant in a chair. This is her about to be killed by Destiny and Mystique in her third life.
- Moira fighting alongside Apocalypse. This is from page 24 panel 2 of House of X #2, and again, it’s her ninth life.
- Moira on fire. This is her being killed by Destiny and Mystique, again at the end of her third life.
Emma is very keen for Xavier to stay away from her afterwards. Xavier and Magneto interpret this as her feeling betrayed by having Moira’s secret kept from her, but it’s possible it’s also to do with some of the things she sees in Moira’s memories. Still, she does see something that leads her to agree that a precog represents a threat, and presumably that’s something more than just Moira’s personal fear.
Emma says she’ll remain involved “for the children” (though note she only promises to “give the matter the proper consideration”). This is the same reason she gave for joining the Krakoan project in Powers of X #5, and indeed it was the title of that issue’s story.
PAGES 44-46. Colossus joins the Quiet Council.
In an apparent attempt to get someone completely trustworthy on the Council, Xavier and Magneto get Colossus on board. The problem here is that, over in X-Force, Colossus is being manipulated by the Chronicler on behalf of Mikhail Rasputin. Professor X showed up at the end of X-Force #24 (the most recent issue) to speak to Colossus – I assumed at the time he was responding to the events of that issue, but maybe he was coming to speak to Colossus about this. If so, this is a disastrous misstep, because Colossus is effectively an unknowing spy.
Note that Destiny has taken Apocalypse’s seat, and is sitting next to Xavier and Magneto. Mystique didn’t actually specify which seat she was nominating Destiny for.
Colossus seems to have been selected to join Storm and Nightcrawler as a representative of traditional X-Men-ness. He’d be a slightly dubious choice even at the best of times, because he’s a sturdy, time-served loyalist, not a thinker or debater. Of course, that’s precisely what Xavier and Magneto are looking for right now.
The vote is seven-four. Professor X and Magneto are obviously in favour of their own motion. Nightcrawler, Storm and Kate all naturally vote for their long-term team-mate. So does Emma, probably for the same reason. She’s been an X-Man long enough. Exodus also votes yes. He and Colossus were teammates in the Acolytes for a while, but also, Exodus is basically honest, and he’s a sensible proposal.
Mystique and Destiny both vote no, with Mystique rolling her eyes – does Destiny know what’s up with Colossus? If she does, she doesn’t explain it. Mr Sinister votes no because “I don’t like the way this one looks”, the joke being that Sinister’s original design from the late 80s was rather similar to Colossus. Shaw votes no – maybe because Emma’s voted first and he’s being contrarian.
PAGE 47. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: NIMROD.
I think the idea is supposed to be that Mystique disguises herself as Sage, puts in the security override to keep X-Force away, then infiltrates the Orchis facility for reasons yet unknown (but presumably relating to her promise to Destiny that she’d burn it all down)
In The Trial of Magneto, when Rachel is chronoskimming, she sees Magneto–or possibly Mystique-as-Magneto–retrieving the cradle shortly before the Hellfire Gala. Which might (or might not) be the same as the thing we’ve seen here and in #1.
Mystique-as-Xavier seems to have a nosebleed (or eyebleed) in the scene where Sinister is turning over the DNA.
Diana: Yes, that must be right. I’ll add a note.
This issue was pretty disappointing.
My best guess is that Xavier and Magneto are already techno-organic beings and are working to sabotage Krakoa.
I was thinking that maybe they infected Emma now also.
That reading doesn’t exactly work with the scene where Moira says something about, “(Destiny) will see through you too.”, which makes it sound like the three are back on the same page.
The other, much more disappointing reading, is that there are two factions arising on the Quiet Council…basically aligning with the “good mutants” and the “evil mutants”, led by Mystique and Destiny.
Moira didn’t want Destiny because if she sees the future, she will see the potential fall of Krakoa, leading Mystique and Destiny wanting to rally the mutants to go to war with humanity.
Something she tried in two prior lives, which led to the hastening of the rise of post-humanity.
In this interpretation, Xavier and Magneto simply look like bungling fools.
They just happened to choose Colossus who is now compromised…? Come on now.
The Omega Sentinel reveal is going to be that she is the one from life nine.
That part was the most interesting aspect to the issue.
The “Sage” that sits down at the end of page 33 is Mystique. The tell is that she has to try twice to get the voice right.
I assume Xavier wants to stop X-Force looking too closely at Paris in case they notice Moira walking around, and that he’s only negligently rather than deliberately endangering Krakoa. The presence of such a major Orchis facility there does raise further questions about what Moira has really been getting up to, of course.
Now Mystique (and presumably Destiny) has better intel about threats to Krakoan security than Xavier. She probably should have been put in charge of X-Force from the beginning.
I also assume that only the scenes of Mystique getting the Cerebro unit and DNA sample from issue 1 took place a month ago, and everything else that appears to happen post-Gala actually does.
I like this book, but I feel like some scenes belabour the point unnecessarily, at the cost of others. That data page conversation between Mystique and Destiny could have been illustrated instead, if we’d spent less time on the aforementioned scenes of the recovery of means of resurrection.
Douglas: I suspect you’re right. That scene *seems* to take place in the House of M, rather than Island M, and certainly the location looks nothing like the same one. But there’s a list of Cerebro locations in Powers of X #5 and it only has Island M listed.
I had to go back and reread the Safe/Mystique stuff a few panels in because I was confused, but yes that’s Mystique after Sage leaves the chair.
It’s an awkwardly drawn transition however.
I took Emma’s echo of “for the children” to be much more menacing. She was horrified at what she saw from Moira.
And I think horrified and enraged by the fact that basically everything else n X-Men history was all based on lies and manipulations to get to Krakoa.
So every awful thing that’s happened, including all those dead kids Emma loved, was entirely hollow and pointless.
The dream was a lie, and Emma’s going to do something about it.
Also a good reminder that the Moira retcon is terrible and basically ruins the entirety of X history.
Re: Destiny’s crimes- Nicieza’s X-Men Forever series revealed that she helped Sinister carry out his experiments, including experiments on children. And Zeb Wells’s New Mutants series revealed that she and Mystique handed over a dozen children to mad scientists to be experimented on. So yeah, “our” Destiny has done some things that are just as bad as anything Mystique did.
Does Hope need to be in close proximity to a telepath to use Cerebro? The idea is that only telepaths can use Cerebro and Hope only has telepathic powers when she’s near a telepath. But in both New Mutants 21 and this issue, she’s able to use Cerebro seemingly without a telepath nearby.
When does Inferno take place in relation to the current Hellions arc? In Hellions 15-16, Kwannon doesn’t seem to be a Captain yet, Emma’s plan to stop Sinister’s scheme to become all-powerful results in the destruction of the only way to resurrect Kwannon’s daughter and the Council covers up Sinister’s actions. In Inferno, Kwannon becomes a Captain but she doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as mad at Emma or the Council as she should be.
I think Hope’s powers are whatever the writer feels like making them at this point.
There are absolutely at least two factions operating on Krakoa now.
Magneto/Xavier and Moira to an extent.
Mystique/Destiny and now maybe Emma.
But it certainly isn’t goodies vs baddies.
I’m very intrigued by Colossus’ promotion to the council. I’m hopeful it gives a character who is so often in the background greater prominence. But I can’t help but feel he’s going to be a fall guy!
I also wonder how he and his metal form might play in against a reality warper, eg, Proteus, Moira’s son… or Moira/Destiny.
Has Omega Sentinel ever been referred to as Karima, or her background with the X-Men referenced?
Great issue overall. It’s all so intriguing!
I’m quite enjoying this story, although I am about ready for some concrete answers to the questions about the true nature of the Krakoan project.
Re: Mystique on Quiet Council, I think Xavier and Magneto decided they needed her skills and powers to have a chance at infiltrating the Orchis station, and that they could string her along with the promise of resurrecting Destiny. The Quiet Council seat was a show of good faith to keep her from pushing harder. Clearly a miscalculation on their part, but that’s consistent with their overall presentation in the Hickman run.
I looked back through Inferno #1 after reading this issue, and this time I figured out that Moira isn’t retrieving her notes from the ruins of her lab. She’s looking at one of Destiny’s diaries, which includes chemical formulas and the names of the scientists who Moira worked with in her third life to create a “cure” for mutants.
Which makes sense — if Destiny’s diaries were written in the 19th century before Moira was born, then when Moira’s powers activated for the first time, she would have reset the universe back to her birth, but she wouldn’t have altered Destiny’s diaries (since they already existed). Which means the diaries should contain details from all of Moira’s lives, although presumably Destiny and Mystique never previously understood what they were looking at. And it also means the fate of the Krakoa experiment may be in those diaries.
By the way, we follow Moira from the ruined lab to Paris in issue #1. She enters her flat there, then there’s a gap in time, and later we see Moira return to her No-Place for a conversation with Xavier and Magneto. That’s definitely Moira, but the character we see with the diary at the lab and in Paris could be Mystique. And page 21, panel 4 in issue #1 is drawn to suggest exactly that — check out Moira’s eyes.
As for Paris…
In issue #1, we follow Moira (or Mystique posing as her) from the ruined lab in Scotland to a flat in Paris. We then get a scene with Orchis where they figure out that there are two gates in the same building, so one of them is acting as a cover for the other to throw off anyone who’s watching. Orchis increases their Paris presence and starts closely monitoring the building.
We aren’t shown exactly what Moira/Mystique is doing in the flat, but it’s probably where the second gate is. The flow of issue #1 invites us to read this as Moira returning to her No-Place, but that’s not definitive.
Orchis’ escalation in Paris is noted by a random X-Force mutant, who reports the buildup to Sage, who duly prioritizes it. This issue, we see Mystique pose as Sage to fake an override by Xavier that cancels last issue’s increased surveillance of Orchis in Paris, so that she can sneak into the Paris Orchis base. She teleports from there to Terra Verde.
So, as far as I can tell, here are the questions that need answering in the remaining two issues:
1. What’s the true purpose of Krakoa that Xavier, Magneto, Moira, and now Emma are keeping secret?
2. Why are precogs such a threat to their plan? Is it so horrifying, most mutants would reject it?
3. Why can Destiny only see a hole in the future when she tries to see where this is all headed?
4. What did Destiny mean in Moira’s third life when she said that Moira might have an eleventh life if she “makes the right choice at the end”?
5. What are the details of Orchis’ plan? (This one we can probably answer… they seem to be trying to teleport solar plasma to Earth in an attempt to burn Krakoa off the map. Hence the title of this series…? Is Mystique going to coopt this technology?)
6. Why is Omega Sentinel working with Orchis at all?
7. What was Moira (or Mystique) doing with the Destiny diary in Scotland?
Apologies to Mathias X, who I see was ahead of me on spotting that Moira’s notebook in Inferno #1 was a Destiny diary. I missed his post in the 96 (!) comments on Paul’s issue #1 annotations.
Michael-I’m pretty sure that Kwannon being promoted does take place after Hellions.
It seems part of the attempt to sabotage Krakoa.
The ads had “Our allies cannot be trusted” and showed Bishop, Kwannon, and Colossus.
Then, Kwannon and Bishop get promoted to “captains” and Colossus gets elected to the Quiet Council.
I don’t think Kwannon seems that angry because she is plotting and realizes she has a level of power to get her revenge now.
Uncanny X-Ben-It does sort of seem that Hickman may be splitting the Council in to “good mutants” and “bad mutants” though.
One faction is being led by Mystique and Destiny and has the seeming loyalty of Shaw, Sinister, and Exodus.
The other faction is being led by Xavier and Magneto and has the loyalty of Emma (to an extent), Nightcrawler, Kate, Storm, and Colossus (without them knowing about the X-Force plot).
Granted, we don’t know what Xavier and Magneto’s agenda is, but it seems like with the X-Men members taking Xavier’s side that Marvel doesn’t want their properties ruined by this Krakoa stuff.
So, I’m thinking Hickman may be moving in a more palatable “superhero” direction for after he leaves the books.
It’s not what I want to see, but seems sort of likely right now.
Evilgus-When Cyclops and Nightcrawler meet Omega Sentinel on the Forge during Powers of X, the two recognize each other and quip with each other over changes in each character.
However, that doesn’t preclude this being Omega Sentinel from life nine. She just might have done her research to fit in with this lifetime.
Uncanny X-Ben> There are absolutely at least two factions operating on Krakoa now.
There are actually quite a number of factions on Krakoa at this point. We have:
Professor X, Magneto and the Quiet Council of Krakoa (the political faction)
Bishop and the Great Captains of Krakoa (the military faction)
Jean Grey, Cyclops and the X-Men (the superhero faction)
Nightcrawler, Legion and the Legionaries (the countercultural faction)
Abigail Brand, Cable and the agents of S.W.O.R.D. (the interstellar faction)
If you take mutantkind as a whole, you also have:
Storm, Isca and the Great Ring of Arakko (the political faction of Planet Arakko)
The splintering of mutant interests is the point. We started out with all of mutantkind temporarily united in a single goal (during House of X 5) and then they started to slowly drift apart over time. Hickman did something similar with the Avengers in his Avengers run.
As to the two factions that are relevant to this miniseries:
Uncanny X-Ben> Magneto/Xavier and Moira to an extent. Mystique/Destiny and now maybe Emma. But it certainly isn’t goodies vs baddies.
I agree with you about this not being about goodies vs baddies but I think the two factions here are (Professor X / White Queen / Magneto) and (Mystique / Moira X / Destiny). This was foreshadowed in the Inferno teasers that Marvel put out a couple of months ago.
I suspect that Moira is going to break away from Professor X and Magneto very soon. Their ideologies have drifted too far away from each other, and they are no longer willing to listen to her.
Emma is going to catch Professor X and Magneto as they fall. The flash-forward prologue of Inferno 1 is of Emma saving Charles and Erik and not of Emma taking over from Charles and Erik as many here have speculated. Emma is upset with them now, but in time she’ll come around to their point of view and save them from the foolish decisions they are currently making (like that Colossus appointment). Obviously, Charles and Erik will have to make some kind of concession towards Emma going forward, if those three are going to be the new secret-keepers.
Moira on the other hand, will drift towards Mystique and Destiny. You might think Moira hates Destiny but to be honest, Moira’s worldview has always been shaped by Destiny (Destiny’s ‘ten lives’ threat against her when Destiny was alive and by reading the Books of Destiny after Destiny was dead). ‘Moira’ means ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ in Greek after all.
There is actually a secret history between Moira, Destiny and Mystique that has yet to be fully revealed. We’ve seen the life 3 parts of it (in House of X 2 and Inferno 1) but we’ve yet to see the life 10 parts of it and I’m quite certain it will be revealed in Inferno 4 (the issue with Mystique looking at Destiny’s grave on the cover). I have a really solid theory of what the reveal is, but it is quite long and I will post it in a separate post. Basically it involves Destiny’s death at the hands of Legion, the Moira golem’s death at the hands of Mystique and the reason why Moira keeps the Books of Destiny with her.
There will definitely be a confrontation between Mystique and Moira in Inferno 4 after Mystique finds out that Moira is alive. I can’t say for certain that Moira will join Mystique and Destiny there, but I think their ideologies will be a bit more aligned after Inferno than it is right now. In any case, team-up or no, they will be opposed by Professor X, Magneto and Emma Frost.
“Has Omega Sentinel ever been referred to as Karima, or her background with the X-Men referenced?”
Kurt recognizes her during the Orchis base attack on HoX/PoX but doesn’t make a big deal out of it.
I liked this issue overall but I’m not entirely sold on the idea of Xavier, Moira and Magneto approaching Emma after the Destiny vote. Xavier and Magneto being blindsided by their own arrogance to Mystique’s calculated movies work entirely well to me, but going to Emma with the whole truth right after admitting her voting in Mystique’s favor was unexpected? Seems a bit of a stretch to me.
I’m not sure how much to read in to Marvel ads, because they wouldn’t want to spoil pertinent plot points.
For example, Bishop and Kwannon seem to have their own agenda, but it doesn’t seem it is any way related to Piotr being compromised by Mikhail.
I thought that maybe Moira would be revealed to have some connection with Destiny, but it doesn’t really make sense since the only reason that Xavier and Magneto were screwing with Mystique was because of Moira’s edict.
If Moira was removed, there is no reason that Xavier and Magneto would have a problem with Mystique.
I do wonder about the fact that we never saw Moira interact with either Mystique or Destiny in between life four and life ten.
I am wondering about the parts of life six that Moira has kept secret. If Mystique and/or Destiny wasn’t involved with Moira in some way during that lifetime.
Re: Hope using Cerebro
How is standing next to Proteus, who is using a husk of Xavier’s body, and that body has the telepathic x-gene.
Do I get a No-Prize??
ChrisV> I’m not sure how much to read in to Marvel ads, because they wouldn’t want to spoil pertinent plot points.
I think the RB Silva Inferno triptychs can be trusted to represent what this story is about.
After all, they are based on the triptych teasers for the old Inferno event, which represented that event very well. Have you seen them? They went something like this:
(Jean Grey / Scott Summers / Madelyne Pryor) – You only think you know the whole story
(Illyana / Magik / Darkchilde) – No one promised a happy ending
(S’ym / Mr Sinister / N’astirh) – Sometimes good planning takes a lifetime
Contrast that with the triptych teasers for the current Inferno.
(Xavier / Emma Frost / Magneto) – Our leaders can’t be trusted
(Mystique / Moira MacTaggert / Destiny) – Our enemies can’t be trusted
(Colossus / Psylocke / Bishop) – Our allies can’t be trusted
I think that they are a good approximation of the plot. As for spoilers, its not like the teasers show the reasons for these groupings. They just show that the groupings might exist.
On the other hand, the ad that I think we should not read too much into is the Mark Brooks one.
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/x-men-jonathan-hickman-inferno-announcement
Unfortunately, that teaser is more popular within online circles and now you have theories like ‘Exodus and Mr Sinister are going to start a war with each other’ (because they are pointing at each other) or that ‘Wolverine, Jean Grey, Gambit, Havok and Polaris are going to die’ (because they are lying on the ground) circulating as speculation.
ChrisV> For example, Bishop and Kwannon seem to have their own agenda, but it doesn’t seem it is any way related to Piotr being compromised by Mikhail.
I don’t think Bishop and Psylocke’s agendas are related to each other either. What’s going on in this teaser is that Colossus, Psylocke and Bishop have all been recently promoted to positions of power within Krakoa.
Bishop was promoted to Captain Commander of Krakoa (in Inferno 1).
Psylocke was chosen as a Great Captain of Krakoa (in Inferno 1).
Colossus was chosen to join the Quiet Council of Krakoa (in Inferno 2).
But in actuality, all three of them are compromised in different ways.
Bishop is secretly working with the Beast (over in Marauders). Hank is the reason Lucas joined Hellfire Trading in the first place and he sends frequent reports to the Beast on what Hellfire Trading is doing (see King in Black: Marauders).
Psylocke is (or was) being blackmailed by Mr Sinister, with her daughter being held as hostage (over in Hellions).
Colossus is secretly being controlled by Mikhail Rasputin and the Chronicler (over in X-Force).
Yes, but Sinister wasn’t aligned with N’Ashirth or S’ym.
So, that doesn’t mean that Moira is going to align with Mystique and Destiny…just that she is somehow an “enemy”.
Kwannon isn’t being blackmailed anymore. Her child is dead. Emma ordered Sinister’s lab destroyed, but moreso, this leave Kwannon in a position to gain revenge on Sinister.
So, Kwannon could use her newfound power to target either Emma or Sinister…or, perhaps she has grander plans.
It just seems like someone is plotting to sabotage Krakoa by just happening to place these three untrustworthy individuals in new positions of power.
ChrisV> I thought that maybe Moira would be revealed to have some connection with Destiny, but it doesn’t really make sense since the only reason that Xavier and Magneto were screwing with Mystique was because of Moira’s edict. If Moira was removed, there is no reason that Xavier and Magneto would have a problem with Mystique.
I don’t think that they have a literal connection, but I do think that Moira has a history with Mystique and Destiny in Life 10 that has not been fully revealed yet. Moira was definitely the origin of the problem between Charles/Erik and Mystique but now that they have denied her so many times and she has outmanoeuvred them, I believe they genuinely don’t like each other now, Moira or no Moira.
Anyway, my speculation is that there will be a reveal about Moira in the next couple of issues that will cause Professor X and Magneto to make a clean break from her. They’ll die during this process and Emma Frost will bring them back to life (as per the prologue). There is a possibility that they might be resurrected without their memories of Moira, but I’m not sure. This will probably be the beginning of the Xavier/Erik/Emma coalition. Whatever’s inside the Kara Kutuca might have a role in this – it might show Emma something.
On the other hand, Mystique will find out that Moira is alive (and survived Mystique’s attempt to kill her during Dream’s End). Mystique and/or Destiny will go see Moira in her No-Place and they’ll talk about what really went down with Destiny in Muir Island (back in Uncanny X-Men 255) and whatever it is that Moira actually plans to do now on Krakoa.
ChrisV> So, that doesn’t mean that Moira is going to align with Mystique and Destiny…just that she is somehow an “enemy”.
I’m not suggesting a literal team-up between the three of them, just more of an ideological shift towards each other. Or maybe not, we’ll see. I fully expect Mystique and Destiny to stay on the Quiet Council after Inferno and for Moira to not come anywhere near that Council, so there’s that.
Also, this literally just occurred to me but now that Destiny has been resurrected in her twenties, Destiny / Moira X / Mystique can be seen to represent the Three Fates of Greek mythology (also known as the Moirai).
Destiny is the Maiden (Cloto).
Moira X is the Mother (Laquesis).
Mystique is the Crone (Atropos).
I was wondering if what occurred on Muir Isle was that Moira set up Destiny and Legion in order for Destiny to be killed.
Moira’s plan was to have both her and Charles breed a reality-warping mutant.
We know that Moira’s son Proteus is vitally important to resurrection.
What was Legion’s purpose?
I have read arguments that Legion has no purpose. Proteus serves the role, so Legion is purposeless.
This does sort of play to how Legion was written in Way of X.
However, I wondered if Moira didn’t have a plan for Legion to eliminate Destiny so she could implement Krakoa.
——————————————————-
I think Mystique and Destiny are staying on the Quiet Council also, but as representatives of “evil mutants” who want to launch a war against humanity.
Something that Xavier, Magneto, and Emma will want to avoid.
The absolute most boring direction to take Krakoa, but I expect that will be the direction post-Hickman.
ChrisV> I was wondering if what occurred on Muir Isle was that Moira set up Destiny and Legion in order for Destiny to be killed.
I don’t just wonder this, I’m 99% sure that this is exactly what happened.
I think that this is the big reveal of Inferno 4 – again, look at the cover for the issue: Mystique is mourning Destiny in front of Destiny’s grave. Destiny died in Muir Island in Uncanny X-Men 255.
You can see the Hickman Symmetry at work:
In Life 3, Destiny got her ‘son’ Pyro to kill Moira for her on Muir Island. (Inferno 1)
In Life 10, Moira got her ‘son’ Legion to kill Destiny for her on Muir Island. (Inferno 4)
I’m also pretty sure that Destiny’s pre-death orders to Mystique is related to this. ‘Burn that island to the ground’ isn’t about punishing the mutants, it means burn Moira (who is hidden on that island) to death. The titular ‘INFERNO’.
I have been assuming that Inferno is largely happening separate from the rest of the line, but it would be a nice bit of synergy if it turns out that Mystique-as-Xavier is the reason Hope was able to resurrect both Gabby and Wanda.
I suppose it depends on when Destiny’s resurrection happens in relation to the Hellfire Gala. It seems like Wanda is brought back to life only a day or so after the gala, and Gabby’s was slightly after that?
I wonder if some of the awkward plotting in Trial of Magneto is about that book trying to work around the story and reveals in Inferno…
ChrisV> Moira’s plan was to have both her and Charles breed a reality-warping mutant.
We know that Moira’s son Proteus is vitally important to resurrection.
What was Legion’s purpose?
I have read arguments that Legion has no purpose. Proteus serves the role, so Legion is purposeless.
This does sort of play to how Legion was written in Way of X.
I think Proteus and Legion were conceived for the same purpose – to fill the reality warper role in the resurrection process that Charles and Moira were designing. Ideally, they would take turns during the process, or one would be the back-up of the other.
Proteus and Legion both turned out to be unstable, but it just so happened that they found a way to treat Proteus on Krakoa by using empty husks. After they got Proteus on Krakoa, Professor X didn’t want to risk having Legion there, so he just never bothered to go look for him or to try and resurrect him.
If our theory about Moira using Legion to kill Destiny comes true, I think this was a case of Moira using someone who was already around to get the job done rather than a case of Moira specifically engineering Legion to kill Destiny.
Legion being in Way of X was because of Si Spurrier. He saw that no one was using him (as of mid-2020) and included him in his pitch for the Nightcrawler book that became Way of X. If he hadn’t shown up in Way of X, I believe Legion might have ended up in New Mutants at some point. In every interview I’ve seen, the New Mutants artist Rod Reis has said that he is a HUGE fan of the TV show Legion and that he has been asking to draw Legion (and Shadow King) for a long time.
Aro> I suppose it depends on when Destiny’s resurrection happens in relation to the Hellfire Gala. It seems like Wanda is brought back to life only a day or so after the gala, and Gabby’s was slightly after that?
The first page of Inferno 2 (Mystique leaving the Oracle) is the same as the first page of X-Men 20. This is the signal from Hickman that Destiny was resurrected around X-Men 20, which was sometime before the Hellfire Gala. When Mystique was rejected yet again by Xavier and Magneto during X-Men 20, that must have been the last straw, so she headed out to go do it herself. This is also why when she impersonates Magneto, she wears the white suit, since that was what Magneto was wearing at the time. Ever since the Hellfire Gala, Magneto has been wearing his black suit due to Wanda’s death (even in the present-day sections of Inferno).
Once Destiny is resurrected, Mystique hands the Island M Cerebro to Hope and then hides Destiny in the Oracle. There must be some kind of telepathic shielding in there (maybe it’s the Destiny mask).
Then, the Hellfire Gala (which Mystique attends alone). Scout and the Scarlet Witch are murdered. Magneto switches over to his black costume in mourning. A few days after the Gala, Hope resurrects Gabby with the Island M Cerebro. Sometime after that, Hope resurrects an old copy of Wanda using the Island M Cerebro to throw the Avengers off the corpse.
The only real problem here is that like Paul mentioned above, Trial of Magneto 2 shows that a Cerebro is missing from the House of M instead of Island M. I think this is an error. There are no Cerebro cradles in the House of M (the five locations are the House of X, the Pointe, the Summer House, Island M and Moira’s No-Place) but for some reason Leah Williams has always believed that there was one there. Take a look at X-Factor 4 page 22 panel 1. The ART shows Island M but Williams captioned it as House of M. Maybe she thinks that they are one and the same. I suspect what happened in TOM2 was that Williams wrote ‘House of M’ into the script, Lucas Werneck got confused and drew the Krakoan House of M into the scene, and the editors were asleep the whole time so they did not notice anything.
Four weeks after Destiny’s resurrection, she and Mystique come up with a plan to install her onto the Quiet Council. Mystique goes around collecting the favours necessary to make it happen. She saw Emma trying to acquire the Kara Kutuca during the Gala so she picks it up for her.
I read Destiny not seeing any future as suggesting that everything is inevitably leading to Moira resetting the timeline again if she doesn’t get her way. This will be resolved by Moira being taken off the board somehow so that Hickman’s narrative arc is wrapped up.
Going by the cover the issue 3, my guess is Mystique erased the orchis report as part of a plan to send Nimrod after Xavier/Magneto which is why they require resurrection as shown in issue 1.
I have to say it was a genius idea at the start of the Krakoan era to always have the list of upcoming issues out, giving a false sense that all the various issues are pulling in the same direction when, as with the case of X-Factor getting suddenly cancelled and Way of X getting a giant sized special to wrap up it’s story, that’s not the case. A possibly compromised Colossus being on the council could be an interesting idea… but I’m fairly certain it’s just chance.
Loz> A possibly compromised Colossus being on the council could be an interesting idea… but I’m fairly certain it’s just chance.
I don’t think it’s just chance – Benjamin Percy has been hyping up the X-Force 24 – Inferno 2 connection for months now. I initially thought the connecting thread might be The Man with the Peacock Tattoo, but now that Inferno 2 is out, it’s obviously Colossus. I don’t think Hickman has any space to actually do anything with Colossus in Inferno after this, so Percy will most likely pick up the ‘Colossus in the Quiet Council’ plot thread in X-Force after this.
Chris V: “I think Mystique and Destiny are staying on the Quiet Council also, but as representatives of “evil mutants” who want to launch a war against humanity.
Something that Xavier, Magneto, and Emma will want to avoid.
The absolute most boring direction to take Krakoa, but I expect that will be the direction post-Hickman.”
I agree that the Quiet Council will likely be dominated by “evil mutants” after this, but I don’t think it’s to set up anything as banal as an argument about a war against humanity.
I think that in order for Krakoa to stick around long-term without destabilising the wider Marvel Universe, it will need to drop all pretence of altruism.
There have already been crossovers where you have to ask why the mutants didn’t intervene immediately to put an end to things. The villain in Curse of the Man-Thing was trivially defeated by Krakoa, for instance. If you have a council dominated by Brotherhood members, the answer is easy – they just look out for their own.
Of course, the X-Men aren’t supposed to think like that. An evil turn for the Council allows them to act against it and appear heroic again, albeit without access to Krakoa’s effectively unlimited resources.
Nobody expects Namor or Doom to solve all of Earth’s problems, because of the kind of characters they are and nations they represent. This allows the Avengers and FF to continue to have things to do. I think Krakoa will end up in a similar situation.
Wow. Hickman is so much better a writer once he decides to add characterization into the mix for the payoff.
I feel that very little that happened between Powers of X #6 and Inferno #1 “mattered” far as Hickman is concerned. While there were some meaningful events in the meantime that play into this story (Nimrod being reborn with a bit of a human personality, Colossus becoming compromised, Mystique finding the motivation, means and opportunity to plot against Xavier and Magneto, and Apocalypse, Scott and Jean removing themselves from Krakoa’s politics and thereby making Mystique and Emma the main challenges to Xavier and Magneto’s wishes) most of it was very exotic but lacking in characterization and substance. A bit of a holding pattern even.
Is Hickman usually like this? Big on plot and light on characterization in Act 1, assorted things happen in Act 2 and not all of them will move the plot forward, and then in Act 3 everyone decides almost of a sudden that they are real characters with goals and stances of their own after all?
That is how I see his X-Men project. It is not a bad structure if one has enough creative control and Act 2 is not overly long (which it was).
So, I was wrong. It was indeed Destiny and not Gimmick. And I felt to sure. I guess I did not pay Hickman enough. Maybe next time.
Sebastian Shaw is not making good showings during this era of Krakoa. He should have at least kept the foresight to realize that Mystique obviously had some sort of stake on the results of the voting and no reason to protect his satisfaction over her own. He comes across as a rank amateur being played around by others at every turn.
@Chris, GN- The problem I have with the idea that Moira used Legion to kill Destiny was that Destiny’s death wasn’t because Legion could bypass Destiny’s precognition or something- it was a matter of chance. Lady Deathstrike killed the pilot of a plane Forge and Destiny were traveling in, the plane crashed and Destiny had to send Forge away because if he stayed Legion would have killed him and Forge dying would have screwed up Mystique’s and/or Rogue’s future. Even with her 9 lives, there’s no way Moira could have predicted that exact sequence of events.
I thought Colossus was an interesting choice – connecting pre-HOX Moira getting the Legacy Virus, Mystique “killing” her and then Colossus sacrificing himself over it – historically he’s continued her work before.
I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with how little of this gets resolved or moved forward in Inferno.
Or ever now that Hickman is out.
Krakoa is just Lost with Beast instead of a smoke monster.
It’s so glacially paced and vague that it invites so much theorizing, but that means there’s almost no chance it wraps up in a satisfying fashion.
Endless mysteries that don’t follow a plan usually never do.
I don’t expect I’ll get much satisfaction reading Hickman, so I’m mostly looking towards those singular moments where he suddenly has an interest in a character and will give them a great scene or two. His Emma had one or two, he’s surprisingly involved in the Mystique plot – and allowing for his bizzare take on Xavier and Magneto as blind egotistical maniacs standing in her way, The Mystique stuff is the highlight of his entire run for me.
The standard by which I measure those singular moments of greatness bubbling to the surface of the Great Plan cauldron is the scene that ends Hyperion’s and Thor’s plot in his Avengers. And it resolves the ‘unworthy’ plot for Thor, even if it’s back in place after Secret Wars. And it’s just an amazing scene, probably one of my favourite in all superhero comics.
That one scene. The rest of Hickman’s Avengers stuff? I can take it or leave it.
Michael-I thought it was revealed that Legion’s powers interfered with Destiny’s powers.
She would always be able to see her death coming…except with Legion.
The actual events of her death may have been random, but I think Moira’s plan was to breed a certain reality-altering mutant for the purpose of being able to kill Destiny.
Uncanny X-Force-There’s only so much that can be resolved by Hickman now, which is why I am very prepared to be disappointed.
The Krakoa set-up is going to continue after Hickman, so there’s only so far he can go with any resolution pertaining to Moira.
If she dies, reality resets, so he’s not going to kill her.
That will also preclude any grand revelation about Krakoa, since the set-up will continue after “Inferno”.
He can’t make any grand changes to Krakoa which would ruin the direction for the books after he leaves.
I fully expect it’s going to be very mundane revelations now.
@Chris V- In Uncanny 255, Destiny, who is blind, clearly knows that Legion is coming to kill her and sends Forge away so he won’t be killed. If her powers couldn’t perceive Legion, then how did she know he was coming before hearing him speak?
Moira may or may not die, but if this winds up being a story about the observer effect (i.e. it’s Moira’s manipulation making everything worse, since the first life where she got old and died of natural causes didn’t seem to feature any apocalyptic events), the easiest way to take her off the table would be to have her receive the “cure” and become the powerless human she only posed as before. That could be what Destiny meant by getting an eleventh life if she makes the right choice, although Moira doesn’t seem anywhere ready to voluntarily give up her power and roll the dice on the future.
@Tim XP- Yeah, Moira claimed that in her first life she was a teacher who never heard of mutants.If she never heard of mutants when teaching, then there must not have been Sentinels killing millions of mutants or whatever. So why don’t Xavier, Magneto or Emma wonder if Moira’s influence is making matters worse?
We don’t know exactly what Moira has revealed to them. We know that she has kept information from them about her past.
Did she even reveal much about her first life (or anything) to Xavier, or did she just show them scenes that would prove her own belief (“mutants always lose”)?
I was expecting that there would be a reveal at some point that Xavier’s dream for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants was occurring during her first life.
I’m not sure if it was ever Hickman’s intent, but if so, I doubt we will see that happen now.
Gotta say that those data pages where Mystique and Destiny are just talking to each other strike me as exceptionally lazy. Like they just wanted to print the script without bothering to draw anything.
I’m all for bringing up some Moira involvement in Legion killing Destiny as a reveal, as I like the character and it always bothers me that he has virtually no involvement in X-affairs even as his father is the patriarch of mutant society. The disconnection annoys me – in the latest issue of S.W.O.R.D, Xandra Neramani shows up on Arakko, and there’s no mention of Xavier there even though she’s his biological daughter and they don’t seem to have ever met. Do either David or Xandra even know that they have a sibling?
I had this horrifying thought that Inferno is Animal Farm retold. Colossus is Boxer the loyal, strong horse who is used and betrayed. The Quiet Council is of course the pigs. I don’t know, if you want to take it further, maybe Moira is Snowball the “traitor”. And the mutants grow to resemble the humans so greatly that the Right AI robots found it was impossible to say which was which.
Probably not, hopefully not, an adaptation of an allegory would be a terrible idea. But it’s an uncomfortable itch at the back of my mind.
“but I feel like some scenes belabour the point unnecessarily”.
Very much so. This issue could’ve been at least 10 pages shorter with the same stuff happening.
I’m really disappointed in this so far. Way too much time spent on adding 2 council members, while little bits of something happen with Orchis. Issue 1 should’ve had Karima’s talk with Nimrod, then the reveal this issue. If the next issue finally gets things rolling, is the last issue triple size or something to wrap up the parts it’s going to wrap up?
Re: Solar gate
Those sentinels aren’t still orbiting the Sun, are they?
All mutants are equal, but some mutants are more equal than others.
Very true.
This issue feels like it was written by Mark Zuckerberg, or someone who struggles with understanding humans and human reactions.
Why were Xavier and Magneto concerned entirely with whether Destiny should join the council and not, you know, how she returned? Or alerting anyone to this? Or addressing how or why this might be a problem? Who cares about council membership?
@Taibak: No, Larry Trask’s Sentinels are no longer orbiting the sun.
They ended up in that situation back in 1969’s X-Men #58 or #59, but came back to Earth in 1972’s Avengers #102 and were all destroyed between that issue and #104.
I’m hoping that Inferno will, at the very least, explain what Moira’s got against precogs. After all, a Mystique psychically connected via Jean Grey to Destiny could have probably successfully stopped Nimrod being ‘born’. The longer we go without any of the team captains even raising it only to have Xavier or Magneto give some excuse for not prioritising it makes it stand out like a sore thumb.
“I suspect that Moira is going to break away from Professor X and Magneto very soon. Their ideologies have drifted too far away from each other, and they are no longer willing to listen to her.”
Maybe I have been skimming and not reading the correct specific issues, but what are their ideologies and how they plan on implementing them? So far it all seems so vague and unrevealed.