{"id":11192,"date":"2025-07-03T18:41:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11192"},"modified":"2025-07-04T05:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T04:56:14","slug":"x-men-hellfire-vigil-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11192","title":{"rendered":"X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL<\/strong>
\nWriters: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jed MacKay, Stephanie Phillips, Geoffrey Thorne, Gail Simone, Eve Ewing, Alex Paknadel, Jason Loo & Murewa Ayodele<\/strong>
\nArtists: Javeir Garr\u00f3n, Sean Parsons, Roi Mercado, Marcus To, Luciano Vecchio, Federica Mancin, Declan Shalvey and Sara Pichelli<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honestly, I wavered about whether to give this an annotations post at all – it\u2019s 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\u00a0X-Men<\/em> creative teams which are somewhat important to that book. Treating it as a single story doesn\u2019t make sense, so instead we\u2019ll take each segment in turn.<\/p>\n

PAGES 1-5: NYX<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms Marvel attends the New York vigil.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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 \u201ceveryone with an X-gene\u201d, but he can\u2019t possibly mean that literally – particular as he then goes on to say that Mr Sinister and Apocalypse weren\u2019t invited. At least some non-mutant superheroes have also been invited.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s now told her parents that she\u2019s a mutant. That hasn\u2019t happened yet, so I think it may be an unintended spoiler for the Giant-Size X-Men <\/em>one-shots currently in progress.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re told that there\u2019s also a related event in Chicago\u2019s Millennium Park; as we\u2019ll see, this is basically Dazzler putting on a free concert, which isn\u2019t 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\u2019s Axo, and it\u2019s a subplot from both\u00a0NYX<\/em> and\u00a0Exceptional X-Men<\/em>. We\u2019ll come back to it later.<\/p>\n

(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\u00a0Power Man: Timeless<\/em>, also written by Lanzing and Kelly. That story isn\u2019t 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.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-8: X-MEN (1)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019t go because the X-Men faked his death in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #2. Cyclops initially offers excuses about someone needing to be on monitor duty, but then runs through the events of X-Men<\/em> to date and declares that he doesn\u2019t think the mutants have anything to celebrate. He disapproves of the entire event.<\/p>\n

As usual in\u00a0X-Men<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-13: PHOENIX<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a self-contained story. Phoenix is sad that she can\u2019t be at the Gala or \u201csee Scott\u201d, and finds some crystals left by mutants who took refuge in space in the past. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Phoenix mentions \u201cthe reappearance of my presumed-dead sister Sara\u201d, which is the current storyline in her own book – however, this\u00a0could<\/em> happen during the gap between Phoenix <\/em>#10-11 where she\u2019s searching for Sara, so it doesn\u2019t actually resolve any ambiguity about whether Sara is real.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-16: X-MEN (2)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kid Omega doesn\u2019t like Dazzler, regarding her as a \u201ctotal industry plant\u201d. He\u2019s starting to think he made a mistake breaking up with Temper in Wolverine and the X-Men <\/em>vol 2 #6 (2014), but she\u2019s clearly more interested in Ransom right now. Glob mentions that another of Kid Omega\u2019s exes lives in New York – that\u2019d be Phoebe from the Stepford Cuckoos.<\/p>\n

Jen Starkey is delighted to be at a mutant event (this being the first time she\u2019s left Alaska since the X-Men rescued her in X-Men <\/em>#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.<\/p>\n

Dazzler\u2019s repertoire includes \u201cBeauty in the Beast\u201d, which is obviously based on the Beauty and the Beast<\/em> Beast\/Dazzler miniseries from 1984-5.<\/p>\n

PAGES 17-21: X-FORCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an epilogue to the cancelled X-Force<\/em> 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\u2019s always been written – and doesn\u2019t care about the Vigil.<\/p>\n

Colossus obliquely indicates that the point of the Tank persona he used in X-Force <\/em>was to distance himself from being Colossus and to shield himself from further mind control after his experiences \u00a0on Krakoa. X-Force<\/em> did indeed establish that telepaths couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The cosmonaut career of Colossus\u2019 brother Mikhail is long-established, dating back to the 70s.<\/p>\n

Colossus quotes Professor X telling him \u201cI need your help. I need you to fight. For the world. For mutants.\u201d That\u2019s not a direct quote from Giant-Size X-Men<\/em> #1, but the general thrust of Professor X\u2019s original pitch is that Colossus\u2019s power is needed by the whole world and not just the Russian state. There\u2019s a break in the scene where something along those lines could easily have been said.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-26: UNCANNY X-MEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Uncanny<\/em> and\u00a0X-Men<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Temper and Ransom take the opportunity to pair up, building on exchanges between them in the \u201cRaid on Graymalkin\u201d and \u201cX-Manhunt\u201d crossovers. Rogue and Psylocke describe this as a Romeo and Juliet relationship, although the state of relations between the two X-Men teams doesn\u2019t seem at all bad right now.<\/p>\n

Jitter and Calico also run off happily together, hand in hand, building on their subplot in Uncanny<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 27-32:\u00a0<\/strong>EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bronze, Axo and Mel\u00e9e are in the crowd for Dazzler\u2019s concert. Mel\u00e9e 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.<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 33-34: ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019 pledge about being born unworthy (from\u00a0\u201cRaid on Graymalkin\u201d) and makes a point of letting Sean see her.<\/p>\n

In previous issues of\u00a0Astonishing X-Men<\/em>, Sean has been unaware of Siryn\u2019s 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\u2019s in Graymalkin – it certainly wouldn\u2019t make any sense for that information to be withheld after \u201cRaid in Graymalkin\u201d, once both X-Men teams were aware.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s not dressed for the occasion – this is covered in this week\u2019s\u00a0Astonishing X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 35-40: DAZZLER<\/strong><\/p>\n

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, <\/em>and hold the authorities at bay while she finishes her \u201cLast Krakoan Dream\u201d song – which is as subtle as all the other Dazzler<\/em> songs. She references the Green Lagoon bar.<\/p>\n

Dazzler is carted off to Greymalkin, which could use a few more recognisable inmates before it gets shut down.<\/p>\n

O*N*E have access to Blightswill, the poison from Otherworld that can suppress mutant abilities.<\/p>\n

PAGES 41-45: STORM<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019Dar\u00e9, and the other is her mother\u2019s death from the flashback in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #102.<\/p>\n

Storm takes a pregnancy test (presumably in light of her liaison with Wolverine in Storm<\/em> #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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Storm\u2019s daughter Furaha is shown several years in the future (old enough to be at school). She doesn\u2019t directly identify her father, but says that he has black hair and fangs.<\/p>\n

Storm holds her own event in the Storm Sanctuary, attended by characters like Callisto and Manifold who we\u2019ve seen hanging around there in the past. Of some note, Jumbo Carnation is there, despite the fact that he\u2019s a non-combatant and shouldn\u2019t have returned to Earth to fight in Rise of the Powers of X<\/em>. Presumably he chose to stay on Earth in X-Men<\/em> #35.<\/p>\n

PAGES 46-51: X-MEN (3)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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\u2019s 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 \u201creal\u201d X-Men and the true representatives of mutantkind over in X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s not the original. However, it\u2019s not 100% clear whether this panel reflects something that the audience can actually see.<\/p>\n

THE ATTENDEES<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a lot of generic background characters at the vigil and the concert, but here are the recognisable attendees.<\/p>\n