Immortal X-Men #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #7
“Part 7: Red in Blue”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kieron Gillen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler teleporting around.
PAGE 2. Obituary for Tom Palmer (1942-2022).
PAGES 3-5. Nightcrawler is optimistic.
This scene takes place at the end of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #4, ending at the point where the Progenitor (as seen in that issue) renders his judgment and starts trying to destroy the world. Nightcrawler is characteristically optimistic about everything – he has faith, after all. More to the point, Nightcrawler always wants to see the best in people, and fundamentally believes (or maybe needs to believe) that people are decent. Therefore, he expects the Progenitor to be satisfied with humans as a whole.
“Erik is dead, and we cannot return him without disrespecting his legacy.” Magneto died fighting Uranos in Judgment Day #4 and X-Men Red #7. He and Storm deleted their backups in X-Men Red #4 out of deference to Arakkii sensibilities on the subject of resurrection, to make themselves mortal. Magneto reiterated in X-Men Red #7 that he didn’t want to be brought back. Professor X implies here that Magneto could in fact be brought back even without the backups that were deleted, as did Storm in X-Men Red #7.
Eros became Prime Eternal in Judgment Day #4. His “speech” is his address to the Progenitor later in that issue.
PAGE 6. Recap and credits.
PAGE 7. The Council react to the Progenitor’s decision.
Nightcrawler is suitably shaken both by the decision itself and by the fact that the increasingly extreme plans proposed in response seem to vindicate that decision.
The Spark is Nightcrawler’s philosophy over in his main book Legion of X, the idea broadly being that creativity and experimentation are wonderful things and that resurrection leaves mutants free to take more creative risks than ever before.
PAGES 8-9. Nightcrawler questions Destiny.
The working of Nightcrawler’s powers is a bit hazy where this stunt is concerned. The traditional rule is meant to be that he appears with the same speed and direction that he had when he teleported. In theory, that should mean that if he’s already falling at terminal velocity then he can’t use his powers to save himself by teleporting to the ground (though presumably he could teleport to reach a rope or something to swing on). However, there’s also a long-established workaround, specifically referenced in the 80s Official Handbook, about making short upwards teleports to reduce the inertia. How that’s supposed to make a difference, given the general rule, I’ve never understood. But there it is.
Anyway, Nightcrawler is getting Destiny to tell him the complex and specific route to potentially saving the day, which he proceeds to put into practice in the rest of this issue and in Judgment Day #5.
PAGES 10-12. Nightcrawler arrives in New York City.
Chuck used to be specifically Wolverine’s way of annoying Professor X, though it’s become more affectionate over the years. Nightcrawler has been increasingly at odds with Professor X in Legion of X, disagreeing about the whole philosophy of justice, rehabilitation and the like; the Professor is a largely unsympathetic figure in that book.
Orchis are, typically enough, assuming that the Judgment Day thing will (or may) get sorted out, and proceeding with their own agenda in the midst of it all. I think this may be the first time we’ve seen them openly using the Orchis name in public, though?
Captain America is having the conversation with Jada that we saw in Judgment Day #5. That version of the scene ends with Nightcrawler approaching Cap to enlist him in the plan, and has dialogue that we don’t see here.
The sequence of Nightcrawler teleporting Captain America to the North Pole also appears in Judgment Day #5, but the bit about Nightcrawler taking a blood sample and passing it to Magik is new – it explains where the mutants get the sample with which they resurrect Cap at the end of Judgment Day #5. Obviously, if it had been included in the original version of that scene, it would have been a spoiler.
PAGE 13. Cap and Nightcrawler are killed.
The death is another sequence from Judgment Day #5, shown in cut down form here. Nightcrawler’s resurrection on Krakoa is also shown in Judgment Day #5. This version adds the information that Nightcrawler was being deliberately backed up right to the moment of his death so that he can recall his death. (Doesn’t he recall his death at the hands of Bastion in “Second Coming” already?)
The Judgment Day version of this scene continues with Jean telling Nightcrawler that the world is becoming more focussed as a result of Captain America’s sacrifice, and giving a defiantly optimistic pep talk to Wolverine.
PAGE 14. The Celestial kills more heroes.
This is the mass slaughter from Judgment Day #5.
PAGE 15. Hope addresses the Krakoans.
Hope asks for volunteers to stay behind on Krakoa after its evacuation and let the Progenitor kill them as a decoy. For whatever reason, she’s flanked here by Professor X and Nightcrawler. It’s understandable that Hope is giving the speech, since (1) she’s the person with the greatest responsibility for resurrection, but also (2) there’s a degree of religious fervour around the Five on Krakoa, at least among the background characters, which is something Kurt slightly glosses over in terms of seeing it as a sign of heroic self-sacrifice. It can be both, of course. Xavier is presumably there in his “father of the nation” role, and Nightcrawler as a nice, reassuring X-Man from the Quiet Council – the least threatening person there. This wouldn’t be the time to wheel out Mystique, and let’s assume Storm is otherwise engaged on Arakko.
PAGE 16. Egg agrees to stay behind as a sacrifice.
The logic is that since Egg’s role in resurrection is complete on making the egg, he can create a stock before his death, and then be resurrected by his colleagues. We already established in Judgment Day #1 that this works.
PAGE 17. Destiny and Mystique die with the island.
For whatever reason, Destiny’s prophecies make clear that this only works if she goes down with the island. The suggestion seems to be that in timelines where Destiny flees, the Progenitor figures out that it’s a trick (though quite why that matters isn’t entirely clear yet either).
PAGE 18. Mr Sinister tries to reset the timeline.
We established in earlier issues that Sinister had a bank of Moira clones, and that he was uploading his memories to them before killing them each time he wanted to reset the timeline – meaning that his past self gained access to all his memories of what had happened in the aborted timeline. Destiny knows that Sinister is up to this, but he apparently hasn’t figured this out yet. Quite obviously, someone has sabotaged Sinister’s equipment and Destiny or Mystique are the obvious suspects.
PAGE 19. The Five resurrect Captain America.
This overlaps with the closing scene of Judgment Day #5. In that version, Exodus objects to resurrecting Captain America, both because it’s a waste of eggs, and because the resurrection of a non-mutant is a heresy; Nightcrawler responds by arguing that it is merely against custom, and customs should be changed. That issue ends with Captain America emerging from his egg (complete with shield, presumably provided by Proteus).
This version adds Hope getting Exodus to back down by invoking his belief in her as a messiah figure (an Immortal X-Men plot which would just have cluttered the Judgment Day version).
PAGE 20. Data page, basically recapping the main strands of this phase of the crossover. The efforts of The Machine That Is Earth to resist the Progenitor’s instructions are covered in A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #3.
PAGES 21-25. Nightcrawler enlists the aid of Orchis.
Nightcrawler apparently makes a series of suicidal raids on Orchis (echoing the X-Force raids in Inferno #1)
Moira is “more scared of true death than anyone I’ve ever met” because she’s used to the idea that her life resets every time she dies, but she’s now lost that mutant power and is in a robot body. Nightcrawler also makes sure to intimidate her by mentioning that Destiny is involved; Moira hates Destiny because she was murdered by Mystique and Destiny in a previous life, in House of X #2.
Nightcrawler apparently figures that Orchis are the best placed experts to help the Machine. Death to the Mutants #3 ends with the Machine being reset to factory settings and losing its eccentric personality, but the Machine itself still exists.
PAGE 26. Trailers.
Paul Professor X implies here that Magneto could in fact be brought back even without the backups that were deleted, as did Storm in X-Men Red #7.
Again, that’s what the Waiting Room’s for. Magneto even brought it up in the scene where he destroys his & Storm’s backups, noting (as he later did in his death scene) that you have to WANT to come back to do so that way.
Paul The working of Nightcrawler’s powers is a bit hazy where this stunt is concerned. The traditional rule is meant to be that he appears with the same speed and direction that he had when he teleported. In theory, that should mean that if he’s already falling at terminal velocity then he can’t use his powers to save himself by teleporting to the ground (though presumably he could teleport to reach a rope or something to swing on). However, there’s also a long-established workaround, specifically referenced in the 80s Official Handbook, about making short upwards teleports to reduce the inertia. How that’s supposed to make a difference, given the general rule, I’ve never understood. But there it is.
The hops upward are “upside down” – i.e., he bleeds off speed by falling “upward”, I’d guess.
I had completely missed the news of Tom Palmer’s death until I read this issue’s obituary. May he rest in peace.
Paul: This version adds the information that Nightcrawler was being deliberately backed up right to the moment of his death so that he can recall his death. (Doesn’t he recall his death at the hands of Bastion in “Second Coming” already?)
I don’t think it is the experience of dying that he needs to remember. It is everything that he tried to infiltrate Orchis just before dying. That way he doesn’t waste time trying the same thing more than once, and instead accumulates knowledge. It’s a very small scale version of what Moira did with her lives, or what Sinister is doing with his Moira clones.
” Quite obviously, someone has sabotaged Sinister’s equipment and Destiny or Mystique are the obvious suspects.”
I assumed it was the Progenitor that stopped Sinister from killing the Moiras, not Destiny or Mystique. Note that Sinister tries to SHOOT the Moiras and it also doesn’t work.That seems to imply it was something that the Progenitor did.
Best Nightcrawler story/issue in the last few…decades.
I didn’t get how Sinister was being foiled, so I hope it’s the Progenitor. Otherwise, there should be tons of ways he could kill one of the Moiras (pulling tubes in the container, for one).
“Once more, I’m not getting through judgment day. At least this time I’m going to give myself a few pointers” – Was Sinister referring to some other metaphorical judgment day? If he meant this situation specifically, shouldn’t he already have his pointers?
Why didn’t Destiny want to ‘walk the path’ that’s the only way of surviving?
As Dave said, this was the best Nightcrawler solo story in forever. Gillen understands that, above all else, Nightcrawler is a performer. He is a fundamentally decent person who takes heroic risks with a smile on his face. I loved this issue.
I’m also glad they addressed the Jokes clone reset plan. I’ve asked before, can’t Sinister just reset everything with a Moira clone? He could, and did – recall the data pages from an earlier Immortal X-Men issue in which Sinister revealed that he had gone through realities that included Judgement Days- but now he can’t. Someone, maybe Destiny, sabotaged his lab. I know Sins of Sinister is coming up. I suspect the Judgement Day epilogue will reveal how Judgement Day leads to that event.
Sinister’s experienced Judgment Day and reset reality at least once before. He alluded to this in IXM 4 before he got kidnapped by the Eternals. From Destiny’s map of the future in IXM3, we know that Judgment Day has to happen for The Empire of the Red Diamond to happen. Presuming that this is his end goal, it explains why he doesn’t completely circumvent Judgment Day and instead keeps trying to find a successful path through it.
Given that he’s managed to reset reality before, what’s stopping him this time? It’s possible that his current attempt is at a much later point than his earlier attempts so the Progenitor is strong enough to stop him. But I prefer the theory that Destiny and Mystique sabotaged him in some way. This book is about Destiny vs Sinister after all. Next issue is a flashback issue showing how Destiny and Mystique met Sinister for the first time.
Looking back at the Destiny mind map in IXM 3, there were 15 different futures there. Given that Judgment Day did in fact happen, we can discard 11 of them leaving us with 4.
2. NOW >> Judgment Day >> Nimrod Extinction Event
3. NOW >> Judgment Day >> The Empire of the Red Diamond >> The Storm System
4. NOW >> Judgment Day >> The Broken Sword
5. NOW >> Judgment Day >> A New Krakoa
I suspect that future 3 will be the story of the upcoming Sins of Sinister crossover. Post ‘Judgment Day’, Sinister destroys Krakoa and Arakko and takes over the Solar System with his army of Chimeras – hybrid mutants controlled by Sinister. His ‘Empire of the Red Diamond’ lasts for a thousand years into the future. Eventually, Storm and her Brotherhood, along with other rebels, manage to depose Sinister leading to ‘The Storm System’.
Then, the rebels kill the relevant Moira clone to reset the timeline to the post-Judgment Day period while ensuring that Sinister can’t create his Chimeras anymore. With no Chimeras, future 3 is no longer viable so future 2 will happen instead. ‘Nimrod Extinction Event’. This is presumably Duggan’s Fall of X event staring with the Hellfire Gala 2023 next Summer. ORCHIS vs Krakoa, with Nimrod leading the charge.
Mike Loughlin> I suspect the Judgement Day epilogue will reveal how Judgement Day leads to that event.
A.X.E. X-Men 1 gave us a strong hint. Sinister jokes about plundering Celestial resources but I think he’s being quite serious. If I recall correctly, the last time Sinister mutilated a Celestial, he used it as an energy source to mass produce clones to take over San Francisco.
If we think about the number of Chimeras Sinister needs to produce in order to take over the world, it makes sense that he would require more Celestial resources to make that happen. His clone farms need to be powered by something after all.
So he needs Judgment Day to happen because he needs the Frankenstein Celestial to be created. It’s just that he also needs to find a way for himself and his cloning facilities to survive Judgment Day before he can enact his endgame plans.
Didn’t a double of Magneto walk off with Nate Grey at the end of Age of X-Man?