X-Men Hellfire Gala #1

[superboyprime]

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

...

If nothing else, one has to respect the EFFICIENCY.

[numeronone]

...the tone of this entire book was nothing if not entirely childish. Spiteful, cynical, mean, sure. But all in that childish way - the way of the toddler who kicks down a tower of toy bricks just to get everyone paying attention.

When Morrison killed off a bunch of mutants, it was annoying. When Bendis depowered a bunch? Also annoying. But at least those times there was some dignity to it.

[morallyambiguousscience]

It's also like, while it's trying so hard to push that the stakes are huge and krakoa has completely lost, very obviously none of this is going to stick simply because of future solicits we've seen.

[dianakingston]

This actually reminds me a lot of "No More Mutants" - arbitrary, simplistic storytelling that happens "just because". Nimrod literally drops out of the sky (I guess the entirety of SWORD was on vacation?), Charles just meekly does what the plot requires him to do, it's all so pointlessly passive.

I'm no huge Hickman fan but even that one data page at the start of Inferno had Krakoa engaged in long-term, adaptive warfare against ORCHIS - this is just rote storytelling, from A to B to C.

[onsokumaru]

Oh, that's not even the worst that happened.
Kyle & Yost and Rosenberg are still up there in terms of indignity.
At least this time some big name X-Men got gruesome deaths too. Although of course they are the ones who will 100% be back, whether or not the resurrections are still on the table.

[icon_uk]

Just noticed you've dleeted your account so wanted to say "Thank you for your many contirbutions to discussions. Sorry to see you go, but know you'll be welcome back anytime"

[justsotired]

In the words of the sage L. Simpson - "Meh."

[numeronone]

Surely you mean Lisa S.?

[icon_uk]

What a depressing and unpleasant way to kick off the storyline.

Much of the art was perfectly decent, though there were a LOT of pencillers for a single issue, which is rarely a good sign, but the writing... so much just jars about it, like a bad toothache,

The fact an issue so utterly grim in overall tone is used to resurrect Ms Marvel as a mutant. That HAS to have been editorial mandate, right?

An interesting and powerful new X-Men line up announced and then literally wiped out in seconds, for the irony.

Brutal and graphic depictions of murder anound.

A lot of focus on a very few characters in a storyline involving dozens of major players, so a lot of perfectly competent mutants seem to have been casually wiped out off panel.

After all this time, I still get no purpose for Orchis beyond "Kill all mutants in grotesque ways because we're evil and like killing mutants", no philosophy or interesting principle behind them just murderous intent, and so after this then ... what? Are we supposed to think this bunch of monsters just says "Okay, that's done. Take a day off to recover and then back to regular science and macrame" ? They exist in this story to kill mutants and that it.

There are clearly loopholes aplenty in this for the eventual reversal (because the scale of this makes it too utter a rout to be sustainable), but when your event starts with the apparent deaths of a couple of hundred thousand mutants on Krakoa and who knows how many more around the world, how can this leave anything but a sour taste in your mouth?

Also have to note that the image of "lining every mutant on earth up and marching them through the gates to their death" is a singularly grotesque historic parallel to use.

[laughing_tree]

"when your event starts with the apparent deaths of a couple of hundred thousand mutants on Krakoa and who knows how many more around the world, how can this leave anything but a sour taste in your mouth?"

Because they probably aren't actually dead and even if they were, resurrection is such a huge part of the Krakoan era.

[remial]

"Wait, how did I die?"

"stupidly."

[scorntx]

"Kamala, if I told you you were killed by someone called "The Scribble Man", would you honestly want to know more?"
"Uh... no."
"Alright, then."

[super_fly]

So will they erase Peter Parker's memory of her death or will the leave his manpain intact?

[dan_ingram]

Haha

The idea that Marvel would take any pain from Peter.

You are comedy gold.

[lordultimus]

Uh, did they just give Kamala internalized mutantphobia so they white woman could lecture her about being racist?

[tcampbell1000]

Mmm, I don't think so. I don't think it counts as a "phobia" to have believed you're not a member of a minority yourself, and not to just immediately fall in line as soon as evidence to the contrary crops up. That seems to me more like a sense of one's own identity, and if Kamala didn't have a strongly developed one of those, she wouldn't be worth reading about in the first place.

Xavier's take on it seems pretty valid. She'd been told she was a mutant, what, ten minutes before Emma started characterizing her resurrection as a "coming out"? I don't think Emma's meant to be in the right there; she comes off as pretty cold and insensitive in those opening pages, even by her standards. It's maybe excusable in light of the political pressure she was feeling even before the attack on the gala started, but if anything it makes Kamala more sympathetic.

[remial]

bx, Xngr snyyvat guebhtu n tngr znqr zr yby

cool to see Fisk make a Heel / Face turn.

Jean is dead... again... how long this time?

[akodo_rokku]

Presumably just until they can get resurrection up and running again.

[mazway_75]

I'm guessing there's a lot in this issue not in the scans.

But admit, that's a nice outfit for Kamala.

[mastermahan]

Damn it, and I would have loved to read about that X-Men lineup. Thoughts:

Bs pbhefr gur K-Zra grnz jvgu guerr Oynpx crbcyr qvrf va gur arkg cnary. SSF.

Bu ab, Zbgure Evtugrbhf fgbyr Xenxbn'f Ngynagvp nepuvcryntb! Jung qb lbh zrna, jung Ngynagvp nepuvcryntb? Gur bar zragvbarq bapr va Ubhfr bs K naq arire rire ntnva. Ubj pbhyq abg lbh abg erzrzore fbzrcynpr fb vzcbegnag?

Jura gur uryy qvq Xnznyn yrnea gur erq gevnatyr qrsrafr? Qvq Knivre grnpu vg gb ure orgjrra cnaryf?

"Xenxbn. Cbchyngvba: Bar." Jung, qvq Knivre chyy Fvavfgre naq Sraevf bhg bs gur cvg fbzrubj?

In conclusion: Meh, but at least I'm interested in the Firestar plot.

[laughing_tree]

I will once again remind folks that most superhero stories are essentially chapter X of a much larger story and it makes no sense to engage with them as if they aren't. If a bunch of the leads in a TV show seemed to die *without even bodies shown* in the end of a mid-season episode, nobody would seriously engage with it as if they're actual deaths. And I don't mean they wouldn't be fooled by it. I meant they wouldn't even regard it, narratively, as deaths in the first place because, the way it's structured and presented, it's obviously just a cliffhanger and meant to be interpreted as such. It's the equivalent of Ethan Hunt seeming to be caught in a building explosion, only to be revealed to have escaped in the next scene.

[dianakingston]

Nobody needs that ever-so-slightly-condescending "reminder" - the criticism here isn't that the massacre happened, it's how it was done, the tone of it, the way Duggan wrote it.

And even if it was, after Rosenberg and IvX and Decimation and Genosha, it's perfectly valid to say that mass mutant extermination is well-trod ground at this point.

[deh_tommy]

Ms. Marvel’s gala look is really pretty.

[zachbeacon]

Poor Kamala's parents' memories must be swiss cheese at this point. They don't deserve this.

[blues32]

Grk... She can't be half Inhuman and half Mutant! Mutants dies when exposed to the terrigan mists! Inhumans get powers when exposed to terrigan mists. Yet she has no adverse effects to the mist whatsoever?

I wouldn't want to "come out as a mutant" either, considering how confusing that would be to everyone. It wouldn't make sense to ME, how is it going to make sense to anyone else? I'd have just said, "Thanks for bringing me back. Welp, see you later."

[deh_tommy]

Um, ackshually, I think it was the Terrigen mixing with the Earth’s atmosphere specifically that turned Terrigen into pure poison for mutants, not inherently Terrigen itself.

And to be fair to the story (at least according to the preview pages I’ve read) they do say something to the effect of “we didn’t think someone like you was even possible”. The last time they tried addressing mutant-Inhumans hybrids it was with Quicksilver and Crystal’s daughter, where it was said one set of genes would effectively cancel the other out leaving them as a mutant or an Inhuman but not both, but with the revelation that Quicksilver was never a mutant it’s debatable if she counts.

[cygnia]

Is it just me or did they age Kamala up to look more "adult" when she got brought back?

[nyadnar17]

The first thing Hickman said about the X-men line was "we have to stop all this killing mutants all the time nonsense" so of course this shit goes write back to the formula that almost devalued the brand to nothing.

"But they will be back!"

So why even do this shit? Did anyone feel anything reading this? Holy shit its the wife beater Pym crap all over again. Find a new story beat.

[laughing_tree]

"So why even do this shit?"

Two reasons:

1) For the same reason you show Batman plummeting off a skyscraper even if everyone knows he'll find a way to save himself (or be saved). Because the interesting question isn't "Will he get out of this?" (of course he will; he has a dozen books with his name on them!) but rather "How will he get out of this?"

2) For the same reason you do a Wolverine-in-the-sewers-underneath-the-Hellfire-Club "Now it's my turn" beat. Which itself is just one of the more well-known variations of the popular beat where there's one hero left standing while all their teammates are down, and now it's all up to them against overwhelming odds. Because even if all those mutants didn't die this issue, they're still now off the table and unable to help, which means it's all up to our remaining heroes who must find a way to save the day on their own, without the support they typically rely on. And there's an interesting story in how they go about doing that. Again, not so much about "Will he get out?" as "How?"

[shadowpsykie]

so i am guessing most of the dislike is with the apparent mass murder and not the resurrection... so just to be clear... is Kamala "pretending' to be a mutant, or is she actually half mutant (i hope its the latter as it;s a much more interesting story).

also... loving the looks....

[deh_tommy]

Turns out she’s actually half-mutant and half-Inhuman.

[agharta75]

Uh, Emma, can you use your mutant gift to wipe this whole Kamala storyline?

[blues32]

That would be a mercy, yes.

[donnblake]

Well, setting aside the discussion of stuff not in the scans above... Scott's outfit this year looks pretty dope, albeit a bit sinister (small s!)

[nyadnar17]

Its my favorite so far.

Whatever happens I hope Marvel keeps the Hellfire Gala or something like it going. This costume designs are amazing every single year. Can't wait to see Captain America....both of them.

[shakalooloo]

Even on the same page, Moira can't keep straight whether she says 'ye' or 'you'. Bleh. And with the increased telekinesis Prof X has - noted by Forge in an X-Men issue DUGGAN WROTE - shouldn't he be able to easily get away from Moira? He did, after all, disassemble Nimrod WITH A THOUGHT, WITHOUT HIS HELMET in Inferno! Couldn't he, wearing Cerebro, just done exactly what Jean had been threatening to do moments before? On a smaller complaint, since I'm sure no-one remembers it, Mystique being almost impossible for Prof X to find/target without her permission was a big plot point of her solo series.

So much of this smacks of needing to be wrapped up quickly, without addressing every possible snag that the baddies thought up. The Magik thing was foreshadowed, sure, but we'll handwave the dozens of other things that need to Go Just Right for the whole house of cards to fall.

Oh, and Dr. Stasis said 'oh, crap'. Suuure.

[scorntx]

Well, in fairness to the first part, back in the Claremont days Moira's accent could go fae "ye" to "your" to "yuir" (but fortunately never "yeh"), often within a single issue, sometimes a single page.
But not usually a single paragraph.

[shakalooloo]

When did Ms Marvel get red triangle training?