As always, there will be spoilers, and page numbers are going by the digital edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PAGE 1 (COVER):<\/strong> Professor X, wearing Cerebro, surrounded by the floating heads of various X-Men from the present and “Year 100” timelines. Most of them are recognisable, and perhaps the others are more of the “Sinister line” mutants from Year 100 (Rasputin and North are both there, for example). The solicitation version of this cover shows that the guy partly obscured by the logo is orange and has a fin on his head, so I’m drawing a blank there. None of this has anything much to do with the story inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGE 2:<\/strong> The opening epigraph is another Professor X quote, not taken from anything in the issue. The significance isn’t clear, beyond the obvious point about making difficult choices driven by need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n PAGE 3:<\/strong> The credits. The story title is “Something Sinister”, which is self-explanatory. The small print in the bottom right reads “Sinister with the cape”, referring to the (familiar) version of Mr Sinister who replaces his predecessor in the course of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGES 4-9:<\/strong> “Year One.” Professor X and Magneto visit Bar Sinister – an entire island community of Mr Sinisters – and try to get him to focus his efforts on mutant DNA. A “Sinister with the mutant gene” kills the previous Prime Sinister, takes control, and agrees to a partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Year One: <\/strong>We’re back – more or less – to the format of the earlier issues, which went through the “Year 1”, “Year 10”, “Year 100″ and Year 1000” time frames. But there’s no Year 100 section in this issue, presumably because the X-Men of Year 100 died last issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mister Sinister:<\/strong> Right, deep breath. Mister Sinister is one of the A-list X-Men villains, and is generally portrayed as an amoral scientist obsessed with genetics in general, mutants in particular, and the Summers family most of all. His name and costume are, obviously, wildly over the top. By all accounts, Chris Claremont’s original idea was that Sinister was an eternal child (both physically and mentally) and that “Mr Sinister” was the body through which he interacted with the outside world. In other words, he was meant to look a bit wrong. But writers in the 90s took him at face value, and eventually the Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix<\/em> miniseries (1996) gave him a proper origin story as Victorian scientist Nathaniel Essex, who becomes obsessed with evolution and gets powers from Apocalypse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hickman’s version of the character, however, draws primarily on Kieron Gillen’s stories in the Utopia-era Uncanny X-Men<\/em> (2011-12) where Sinister became interested in creating multiple Sinisters and creating an entire hive-mind species that was basically just versions of him. This was presented in Gillen’s stories as a new direction for Sinister, but Hickman appears to have Sinister doing something essentially similar much, much earlier. A key plot point of Gillen’s stories was that creating all these extra fully-powered Sinisters required a vast power source – as in, a Celestial or Phoenix – so if Sinister is producing an entire community at this stage, he must presumably have access to a pretty impressive power source. Hickman used this version of Sinister in his Secret Wars<\/em> series, and of course it also fits with the hive-mind theme of his story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gillen’s Sinister was notably more eccentric and flamboyant than other takes on the character (or at least, he was eccentric and flamboyant in a less conventionally supervillain-ish way), and Sinister’s behaviour here follows in that line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bar Sinister:<\/strong> Sinister’s island – one of an awful lot of islands in this series. A version of the island, looking much like this, appeared in Secret Wars<\/em>. It seems to be made of red crystal – presumably the ruby quartz that (per retcons) a disguised Sinister supplies to Cyclops to help him control his powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Bar sinister” is a faux-heraldic term supposedly coined by Sir Walter Scott and intended to imply illegitimacy – it’s a play on “bastard” and “bend sinister” (which is<\/em> a real heraldic term).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xavier’s wheelchair: <\/strong>For some reason, Xavier is in the floating wheelchair that he didn’t start using until 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sinister’s library:<\/strong> Sinister’s obsession with cataloguing the world’s DNA comes up from time to time. Most recently, Hunt for Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda<\/em> (2018) claimed that he had actually completed it somehow. Xavier seems mainly concerned to have a comprehensive database of mutant DNA from which (presumably) to clone new mutants when needed. We’ve seen mutants emerging from pods in the start of House of X<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I have seen the future and this cause – mutantdom – is yours”:<\/strong> Magneto is referring to the role that Sinister played in cloning mutants during Moira’s ninth life – although the data pages have strongly implied that far from making mutantdom his cause, he betrayed the mutants. Although Xavier and Magneto probably have a better plan than just relying on this obvious flake to co-operate, Sinister is<\/em> likely to complete the database simply for his own obsessional reasons. But trusting the entire database to him seems, er, bold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’ve played around with introducing that aberrant gene into my superior genetic structure… and let me tell you – I didn’t like the results.”<\/strong> We’ll come back to this when we get to the data page. We don’t find out precisely what the undesirable “results” were, though – is it something to do with Sinister’s mental state?<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Sinister with the mutant gene.”<\/strong> This Sinister is dressed in the original, 80s\/90s Mr Sinister supervillain costume. He’s Sinister Classic, in look if not in personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I need you to forget why you’re doing it … until the day I tell you to remember”:<\/strong> This sounds a lot like a device to explain why the massive retcon isn’t reflected in people’s’ thought balloons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGES 10-12:<\/strong> Two data pages (plus more of the wisdom of Stan Lee) in the form of a gossip column from Mister Sinister. The “Red Diamond” title refers to the symbol on Sinister’s forehead, and the Krakoa letter at the top is just an S. Most of these, I suspect, are foreshadowing for points much later in the Hickman run. But the small print does read “lies”, so maybe we shouldn’t take it entirely at face value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #1”:<\/strong> This looks<\/em> like it’s just gibberish, but who knows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #2”:<\/strong> Probably a reference to Jumbo Carnation, the mutant fashion designer who was seemingly killed by muggers in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men <\/em>#134 (2003). He was a bit part character, but he’d be one of a number of characters to inexplicably return from the dead in this series. He was also an early example of a character presented as creating a specifically mutant culture, which would fit with Magneto’s stated aims for Krakoa (and probably Professor X’s too).<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #3”:<\/strong> The “deceased redheaded pretender” who “made a pact with the devil” is Madelyne Pryor, Sinister’s clone of Jean Grey. Her deal with the devil – or more accurately the demon N’Astirh – was the plot of 1989’s crossover “Inferno”, in which they led a demon invasion of earth. Madelyne did die at the end of that story, but she was later restored by Nate Grey in X-Man <\/em>#5 (1995). I’m not quite sure why Sinister thinks she’s dead – perhaps he doesn’t regard the revived Madelyne as real. So far as I can tell, the “real” Madelyne Pryor – as opposed to a counterpart from another timeline – was last seen in X-Men <\/em>#12 (2014), a Brian Wood story where a bunch of other villains raised her from the dead again, and she promptly wandered off to become a dropped plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, House of X<\/em> #4 also used the very specific term “pretender” in reference to another redhead, the Scarlet Witch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #4”: <\/strong>Foreshadowing. Something washed ashore on Bar Sinister and we should look out for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister secrets revealed!” <\/strong>Sinister says that where he got his mutant gene isn’t interesting (though do we believe him?), but that the identity of the mutant is: John Proudstar, the original Thunderbird. Thunderbird joined the X-Men as part of the big shake-up in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men<\/em> #1 only to get killed off in the X-Men’s next mission, although his younger brother Warpath did go on to be a major character. Thunderbird isn’t an obvious choice for Sinister, given his mundane powers. Depending on when these Year One segments are happening, though, is the implication that Sinister had done something with Thunderbird before he even joined the X-Men? <\/p>\n\n\n\n For completeness: there’s already<\/em> a story which shows Sinister getting additional powers after acquiring a sample of mutant DNA. It’s Gambit<\/em> #14 (2000), in which Gambit and Courier go back in time and meet an early Sinister, who keeps a sample from Courier and apparently uses it to get his shape-changing powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #5”: <\/strong>“He’s the best there is at what he does” is obviously Wolverine, who’s had that tag line attached for years. Wolverine is apparently having an affair with a married woman, who has a child, and whose husband is having an affair too. Way too early to guess who those might be, if it’s anything more than a red herring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #6”:<\/strong> The “progerian” (i.e., prematurely aged) mutant is the X-Men’s student Ernst, who made a secret deal with Sinister in exchange for his promise to clone a new body for No-Girl, as seen in the 2015 miniseries Spider-Man & The X-Men<\/em>. Through Ernst, Sinister acquired “a DNA sample from every student and faculty member of the Jean Grey school… a nearly complete genetic catalogue of the next generation of the mutant race”, or so he claimed. Apparently he still has it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #7”:<\/strong> The “two brothers [who] jumped out of a plane” are Scott and Alex Summers, the future Cyclops and Havok, who parachuted together from their parents’ plane to escape the attacking Shi’ar. See e.g. the flashback in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #144 (1981). Sinister himself first hinted at the existence of a third Summers brother in X-Men<\/em> #23 (1993), and X-Men: Deadly Genesis<\/em> (2006) finally established that a third Summers brother, Gabriel, had indeed been born after their parents’ abduction. Gabriel became Vulcan and went on to appear mainly in the Marvel cosmic titles, though chances are we’ll be seeing him again. Sinister hints here that there could be even more siblings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #8”:<\/strong> Completely straightforward: Apocalypse has routinely surrounded himself with Four Horsemen, and he’d happily go back to the originals given the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #9”:<\/strong> Something about a “non-couple couple” who’ve been “apart so long” that “friends are expecting … fireworks.” No idea who he’s referring to there, given that Rogue and Gambit are now married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secrets Revealed”:<\/strong> Another mention of the Inferno crossover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sinister Secret #10”:<\/strong> Sinister is claiming to have replaced somebody with a pawn at an early stage. This looks like another massive retcon in the offing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGES 13-20:<\/strong> Year 10, and “months ago” Professor X brings Cypher to Krakoa to introduce them. Cypher uses his language powers to talk to the island, which tells its origin story. This is the set-up to House of X<\/em>, but there’s a lot to unpack here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professor X is not<\/em> wearing the Cerebro helmet here, the first time we’ve seen him unmasked in the modern time frame. This does indeed seem to be him – though that in itself raises questions, since he was in a different body when he returned from the dead in Astonishing X-Men<\/em> #6 (2017). His safari outfit here is worryingly reminiscent of Cassandra Nova’s outfit in her first appearance, New X-Men<\/em> #114 (2001). How he got back in touch with the X-Men, or at least Cypher, remains a mystery. Cypher was most recently seen hanging around in the supporting cast of Daredevil<\/em> during the Charles Soule run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Krakoa:<\/strong> We’ve seen plenty of Krakoa already in this series, but there are some points here worth noting – again, there are discrepancies here with established history. Cypher calls Krakoa “the secret island where mutants come to die”, which was indeed its role in Giant-Size X-Men<\/em> #1 (1975) – but that story ended with the X-Men firing Krakoa into space. Other Krakoas showed up later, presented as having grown from seeds or cuttings or so forth, but this Krakoa seems to be positioned as the original. Perhaps Hickman is relegating the Giant-Size <\/em>Krakoa into an offshoot, like some of the others we’ve seen. The X-Men had a pet Krakoa on their grounds in Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em>, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that on page 15, the plants Cypher is touching are infected with the techno-organic virus in the following panel. But we know from the Year 100 scenes – if it’s the same timeline – that Krakoa ends up absorbing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Krakoa can “speak”, but only at a very broad and general level. X-Men: Deadly Genesis<\/em> retconned Krakoa into being a dumb monster, and Wolverine and the X-Men <\/em>made it more like a pet; Krakoa’s intelligence level here is broadly in line with that take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The origin of Krakoa: <\/strong>And now, Hickman goes completely off the reservation, continuity-wise, giving us a story in which Krakoa is one half of the primeval land Okkara, which was torn into two – Arakko and Krakoa – by some sort of demonic\/magical invaders. Those invaders then get repelled by Apocalypse and the first Horsemen. Okkara, Arakko and Krakoa are all anagrams of each other, and none of the names seem to have any inherent significance. (“Krakoa” was presumably meant to evoke the Indonesian island Krakatau. “Okkara” is a craft brewery in the Faroe Islands, but I’m pretty sure Hickman’s not thinking of that…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not Krakoa’s established origin story, which has usually involved hinting that it was mutated by radiation from nuclear tests – see most recently Journey into Mystery: The Birth of Krakoa<\/em> (2018). But those stories can be read – with a bit of squinting – as involving Krakoa being altered or awoken by the bomb. This also seems to fit with various references in earlier issues that implied Apocalypse was older than previously suggested – though we’ve yet to find out how that would square with stories depicting his childhood in ancient Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGE 21: <\/strong>A data page on “Current Krakoan systems.” We’ve already seen the involvement of Cypher, Sage, Trinary and Beast. Black Tom Cassidy is normally a villain, but a low-level one – he has a part-wooden body, which probably explains why he’s been selected for a role interfacing with Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGES 22-27: <\/strong>The Year 1000 time frame. The mutants – who can’t be assimilated directly into the Phalanx – have come up with the idea of downloading themselves into machines so that at least a copy of them can become immortalised in the great collective. After establishing that it works, they wait to find out whether the Phalanx will accept it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s an obvious question of why it has to be a machine intelligence to be uploaded, and what’s wrong with the techno-organic virus – which Hickman made a point of showing us with Cypher earlier in the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sequence:<\/strong> Apparently just a string of words used to test whether the mutant persona has been successfully uploaded. But presumably it has more significance than that: “There was a city on the mountain, and behind it the sun shone brightly as it expanded to consume the city, the mountain, the world.” This seems like it might have something to do with the Mother Mold being dumped into the sun in House of X<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Phalanx:<\/strong> These far-future Phalanx are said to be the “forerunners” (whatever that means) of a galactic empire that is “believe[d]” to dominate the known universe. The speaker acknowledges that this is all very vague and metaphorical, and so it must be if there’s some doubt about the very existence of an all-encompassing empire. The implication seems to be that the Phalanx are all-pervasive and that the lower species are “free” of their empire simply by being beneath their notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGE 28:<\/strong> Another quote from Xavier, similar to the opening one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PAGES 29-31: <\/strong>The reading order, and the trailers: “NEXT: SOCIETY” and “THEN: FOR THE CHILDREN”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As always, there will be spoilers, and page numbers are going by the digital edition. PAGE 1 (COVER): Professor X, wearing Cerebro, surrounded by the floating heads of various X-Men from the present and “Year 100” timelines. 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