{"id":8683,"date":"2023-01-25T21:20:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8683"},"modified":"2023-01-25T21:20:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:20:44","slug":"sins-of-sinister-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8683","title":{"rendered":"Sins of Sinister #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SINS OF SINISTER #1<\/strong>
\n“Everything is Sinister”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Lucas Werneck<\/strong>
\nGuest artists: Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan Jos\u00e9 Ryp, David Bald\u00e9on, Travel Foreman, Carlos G\u00f3mez, Federico Vincentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara & Stefano Caselli<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Bryan Valenza<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Sinister in a central diamond, surrounded by shards with images of other X-Men and Quiet Council members.<\/p>\n

This is a one-shot, effectively an extra issue of\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>, which leads into the “Sins of Sinister” arc that runs over the next three issues of\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>,\u00a0Legion of X<\/em> and\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> – retitled for the interim as\u00a0Immoral X-Men<\/em>,\u00a0Nightcrawlers<\/em> and\u00a0Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Carlos Pacheco obituary.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Opening data page – Sinister’s red diamond logo has replaced the normal symbol. “Hell is other people” – well, “L’enfer, c’est les autres<\/em>” – is indeed a line from Jean-Paul Sartre’s play\u00a0No Exit<\/em> (1944).<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-5.\u00a0<\/strong>10 years into the future, Sinister resurrects some mutants.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a parody of the opening of\u00a0House of X<\/em> #1, the introduction of the Krakoan era and resurrection in particular, with Sinister taking Professor X’s place and copying his “To me, my X-Men” line.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The design retains a lot of Krakoan-era features, but with much heavier use of red. The Krakoan text on the left just says SINS OF SINISTER. The recap is covering events in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“Everything is Sinister.”<\/strong> This was also the title of Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #1-4 (2011-2012), the Kieron Gillen arc that introduced this interpretation of Mr Sinister. In Gillen’s first run, Sinister already experimented with creating entire communities of Sinisters; what he hasn’t done until now is try to subsume other people into it.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister is sent to the Pit.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a reprise of the ending of\u00a0Immortal X-Men\u00a0<\/em>#10.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.\u00a0<\/strong>Professor X, Emma Frost, Exodus and Hope talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

This continues directly from the end of\u00a0Immortal X-Men\u00a0<\/em>#10, and confirms that all of the Quiet Council members resurrected in that issue were corrupted by Sinister. Presumably, the significance of them all being telepaths is that otherwise they’d have been around to sense that something was wrong – although there are enough other telepaths on Krakoa that this is surely still an issue in the long run. That said, these four are all pretty good at resisting telepathic probes, so maybe the bigger point is that they’re powerful enough to keep the other telepaths in line.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-11.\u00a0<\/strong>The Quiet Council agree to extend resurrection to the humans.<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor X, Emma, Hope and Exodus are all acting out their normal concerns. We see later in the issue that they still retain parts of their normal personalities – Xavier genuinely wants world peace, Emma still wants to protect children and so on – but even so, it’s fairly obvious that this is a mock debate, since Sinister’s whole scheme involves his puppets expanding resurrection to the human race and allowing him to take over the world. Of course, the mutant exceptionalism of Krakoa is one of its least appealing features to the traditional heroes, and so it’s hardly surprising that they’re on board; in a sense, Professor X is just proposing a big increase in the Phoenix Foundation programme that was announced at the end of\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

All four can evidently conceal the diamond marks on their foreheads – presumably physically, and not just as a matter of telepathic illusion.<\/p>\n

Mystique and Destiny<\/strong> fled Krakoa near the end of\u00a0Immortal X-Men\u00a0<\/em>#10, evidently because Destiny understood what was going on.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-15.\u00a0<\/strong>In one year, Ben Urich tries to alert J Jonah Jameson to Sinister’s takeover.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve seen Ben Urich on and off in\u00a0X-Men<\/em>, and he’s serving the established role here of the unimpeachable journalist.<\/p>\n

J Jonah Jameson, in present continuity, is working for a tabloid news website called\u00a0Threats and Menaces<\/em>; doing the meet in this way allows that to be kept vague.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the idea is pretty clear: resurrection is being made available to those who willingly take on an X-gene, and Sinister has rigged it so that everyone who signs up falls under his control.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong>\u00a0The Sinisters kill Krakoa and blame Orchis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Forge does have a red diamond on his forehead, although it’s partially obscured by his headband. Hope is\u00a0really<\/em> gleeful about this, and that does seem to be intended as an echo of her normal personality.<\/p>\n

It’s not directly explained why they want Krakoa dead (or at least brain dead), but perhaps Sinister has concluded that it’s just too difficult to subsume into his collective, and too dangerous to have out there without him. Mind you, Forge and co seem to be\u00a0in<\/em> Krakoa, or at least one of its extensions while making their plans.<\/p>\n

“We have a mystical method to retrieve mutant [psychic imprints].”\u00a0<\/strong>The Waiting Room, as introduced in\u00a0X-Men: The Trial of Magneto\u00a0<\/em>#4.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.\u00a0<\/strong>The heroes defeat Orchis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, so much for Nimrod. He normally puts up more of a fight than this. Can it really be this easy?<\/p>\n

Captain America is persuaded to sign up for Sinister’s programme as a show of ideology. It’s not clear whether he’s being manipulated by Cyclops here – certainly Storm isn’t yet under Sinister’s control, and we can’t tell whether Cyclops is. But part of the point is that Sinister is very easily able to co-opt a lot of the ideas that have been established during the Krakoan era.<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.\u00a0<\/strong>Mr Sinister returns from the Pit.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Sinisters might be a collective of sorts, but they do have independent minds – there’s no hive mind here, just a bunch of separate mind which Sinister has forced to be similar.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister returns to his hidden base.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fact that Sinister’s hidden base is under Muir Isle is new, I think.<\/p>\n

Cy-Cat and Professor Plod\u00a0<\/strong>are the tortoise and the cat, who have apparently starved to death and been reduced to skeletons in the time since Sinister was last here. Since these guys can talk, that’s a bit harsh on them.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page. Sinister sets out his basic plan. Basically, as established in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em>, he has learned – presumably from Moira? – that humanity will eventually be consumed by Dominion AI hive-minds. He wants to avoid that, and his solution is to use resurrection to spread himself around the world, as a first step to making humanity into a Dominion first. By using Moira to explore possibilities and then jump back to his save points, he can guarantee that he gets it right.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister continues to explain.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Sinister makes clear, of\u00a0course<\/em> his first idea was to just tinker with the DNA samples so that his takeover would be inherent in resurrection. Apparently, it’s the X-factor provided by Hope’s involvement in the resurrection process that stops this from working – hence the importance of killing Hope.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Hope kills Thanos.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the first of a string of splash pages by guest artists showing how Sinister brutally gets rid of possible threats. In this one, the X-Men destroy Thanos by shooting him through the head with a miniaturised Juggernaut. Note that Hope borrows Domino’s powers to take the head shot – she’s\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>keen on head shots, which might be significant given that everyone’s got a literal target on their foreheads. Logically, surely Domino could just have done it herself. But Hope wants the head shot.<\/p>\n

Micromax\u00a0<\/strong>is a minor Excalibur character with size-changing powers, most recently seen in the “Secret X-Men” arc in X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic<\/em>. He doesn’t normally change the size of other people, though, so an “application of Micromax” doesn’t sound fun.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.\u00a0<\/strong>Namor kills Doom.<\/em><\/p>\n

Explains itself, really, but I assume that “sole remaining Doombot” will show up somewhere.<\/p>\n

PAGE 26.\u00a0<\/strong>The mutants defeat the Eternals.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the narration says, the Arakkii got the right to release Uranos and his devastating weapons for one hour at the target of their choice in\u00a0A.X.E.: Judgment Day<\/em>. Uranos is presumably happy to help because he resents being locked away and trapped by his people. The art shows various Arakkii characters, including Zsen, Fisher King and Khora, defeating Ikaris, Phastos, Druig, Jack of Knives and Zuras. I think it’s the first time we’ve seen Fisher King in combat.<\/p>\n

PAGE 27.\u00a0<\/strong>The Fantastic Four are sidelined.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinister’s techniques “cure” the Thing, who then gets rid of the rest of the team while re-enacting their origin story.<\/p>\n

“Previous psychic manipulation…”<\/strong> Presumably referring to Professor X openly wiping Reed Richards’ memory of how to build a mutant power removal device in\u00a0X-Men\/Fantastic Four<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 28.\u00a0<\/strong>The Avengers are sidelined.<\/em><\/p>\n

The X-Men defeat the rogue Avengers and take their place as the top hero team.<\/p>\n

PAGES 29-32.\u00a0<\/strong>Storm learns the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note that Mystique, Destiny and Sinister have been replaced on the Quiet Council by Namor, Magik and the Beast. We know that Namor is compromised, and Magik has a visible diamond on her forehead too. It’s virtually certain that the Beast is compromised as well, since Sinister explains that Storm has been left out of his plan because she can’t be resurrected. That flows from her decision in\u00a0X-Men Red\u00a0<\/em>to erase her mind from the resurrection protocols in order to prove her mortality to the Arakkii.<\/p>\n

Nightcrawler<\/strong> has turned into a monster for reasons that are terribly vague, but presumably they’ll come up in Nightcrawlers<\/em>. Sinister has covered for his absence by cloning a harmless, cutesy version – though one imagines not an outright parody, if he was meant to fool Storm for any length of time.<\/p>\n

PAGE 33.\u00a0<\/strong>Storm meets Mystique and Destiny.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We must be on the same side.”<\/strong> Destiny has made this comment to Sinister several times during\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t the 1990s.”<\/strong> Sinister spent most of the 1990s lurking around in the background with mysterious schemes of one sort of another – though to be honest, he was even more of a background schemer in the late 80s.<\/p>\n

PAGE 34.<\/strong> Sebastian Shaw is ambassador to Hell.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because of his connection with the Hellfire Club, presumably. I think the term “Infernal Parliament” is new, but the basic idea that the various contradictory Hell-Lords have some sort of forum to meet and discuss things is long established. Shaw has qualified by converting the Waiting Room – the limbo dimension which allows mutants to be resurrected without backups – into a Hell dimension. Presumably Sinister also doesn’t\u00a0want<\/em> people being resurrected through the Waiting Room, as it apparently sidesteps the need for his DNA. (Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible to resurrect mutants from the past, which was meant to be the point of the place.)<\/p>\n

But this also begs a question. Are the resurrected (but corrupted) X-Men still actually the same person? Or are their souls out there somewhere, potentially able to force a return to Earth by fighting their way through the Waiting Room?<\/p>\n

PAGE 35.\u00a0<\/strong>Magik banishes Asgard.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sword that she borrows from Muspelheim will be Surtur’s Twilight Sword.<\/p>\n

PAGE 36.\u00a0<\/strong>Scarlet Witch is killed.<\/em><\/p>\n

“No more Wanda” is a reference to “No more mutants”, the line with which she depowered almost all the mutants at the end of\u00a0House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 37.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister starts producing chimeras.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chimeras – mutants blended from two or more separate mutants – were a feature of one of the timelines seen in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em>, and have been mentioned periodically throughout the Krakoan era as something we ought to be looking out for. Obviously, one of these guys is Colossus and Beast, and another is Cyclops and Wolverine. The other two aren’t so obvious – Sunfire and Rockslide, and Kitty Pryde crossed with someone hard to place.<\/p>\n

PAGE 38.\u00a0<\/strong>Mars is destroyed.<\/em><\/p>\n

The combatants here seem to include multiple Ora Serratas, Storm, Wrongslide, Warpath, Sunspot, Sobunar and… for some reason, the Sugar Man. Again, Storm has her own book in this crossover, so maybe we’ll learn more. The Sugar Man is the guy with the huge head and multiple arms; he comes from the Age of Apocalypse timeline and he’s a mad scientist type.<\/p>\n

PAGES 39-40.\u00a0<\/strong>Foggy Nelson tries to protest.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinister makes sure to tell us that the people queueing up here are not yet mind-controlled; they’re just following the herd.<\/p>\n

PAGES 41-45.\u00a0<\/strong>The Quiet Council show worrying signs of independence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note that Nightcrawler is back in his seat – Sinister claims that he sorted the problem but doesn’t know how he did it.<\/p>\n

The Quiet Council vote to take the fight to the stars in a pre-emptive strike – which is not what Sinister wants. This is supposed to be a Dominion in the making; these guys still have minds of their own. Sinister concludes that he’s run this timeline as far as he can, because the Quiet Council are about to start an unwinnable war… but unfortunately for him, someone (presumably Destiny and co) has stolen all his Moira’s so he can’t go back to his save point.<\/p>\n

PAGE 46.\u00a0<\/strong>Checklist. Again, the Krakoan just says SINS OF SINISTER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. SINS OF SINISTER #1 “Everything is Sinister” Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Lucas Werneck Guest artists: Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan Jos\u00e9 Ryp, David Bald\u00e9on, Travel Foreman, Carlos G\u00f3mez, Federico Vincentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara & Stefano Caselli Colour artist: Bryan Valenza […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8685,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions\/8685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}