Immortal X-Men #14-15 - "Sympathy for the Scarlet Witch"

[laughing_tree]

If folks haven't added "smug manipulator finally gets rug pulled and then gets stomped on and humiliated indefinitely" to the list of well worn tropes in Gillen-y stories alongside classics like "stories are powerful, so well scary" and "hand claps in pop records are nifty!" you probably should. -- Kieron Gillen



















#15 --







Also, apologies for going completely off-topic, but I'm still looking for more beta readers for my 6-page comic script. If anyone's willing to help, please drop me a line.

Comments

[nyadnar17]

Man imagine if Beast had actually bothered to do his fucking job instead of his indulging his morality fetish or whatever the fuck he was up to.

[blues32]

Speaking of Beast...shouldn't he be DOING something by now? Sinking Shaw's boat would be a lovely start.

[scorntx]

That would require him to actually be useful for once.

[blues32]

He can be useful. Like when he stabbed himself in the eye. Incredibly useful.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Yeah, where is he now, anyway?

[donnblake]

Is Sage undercover again, or does Shaw just name all his assistants Tessa?

[scorntx]

The second one.

[donnblake]

Not out of character, tbh.

[super_fly]

That derelict Sentinel looks like it's about to drop some fresh beats

"I'm a businessman... I pay people to do that for me!"


Thousands of mutants in one place, most of their powers useless? I'd have to call bullshit on that one, even if their power was over actual bullshit.

[bruinsfan]

Didn't they build the entire infrastructure of an island nation in record time using the powers of its resident mutants? Hell, four omega mutants terraformed Mars with their powers. Gillen is telling us they can't cobble together a mutant circuit capable of generating a hospitable city-sized environment with this many to work with? A quarter million power-sets and only the ones of a handful of named characters are of any use? That's just bad writing.

[beyondthefringe]

Okay, so at least the story is taking a little time to address the logistics of 250k mutants trying to survive in the desert. I'm less annoyed now.

[shakalooloo]

Eye Scream exists, so there's at least a fair chance of one mutant amongst that huge numbe rbeing capable of producing manna from heaven, or something.

[remial]

see, kicking Shaw out of the Hellfire Club is a dumb move IMO.

better to let him continue to be there, as a guest. Let him have most everything he wants, and include a note saying "Courtesy of Wilson Fisk". have anyone who waits on him say that as well.

but make it clear that he is a guest. no manhandling the help. no ripping their heads off, no throwing them off buildings.

[nyadnar17]

My head cannon is that its Fisk being petty/courting favor from the white queen by being a dick to Shaw.

Also probably made Fisk instantly more popular with the rank and file, something Fisk actually understands is important.

[morallyambiguousscience]

not the pages I would have shown from 15 to be honest, Selene and Shaw continuing to pathetically fail to kill Xavier was far less interesting than the reveal that the population of Krakoa is in Mother Righteous's pocket dimension and she's using the second krakoa she stole as their "paradise"

[mastermahan]

Well, they only posted 3 pages from that issue, and the limit is 4.

[donnblake]

While I sometimes enjoy her shenanigans, it's nice to have the reassurance that Mother Righteous is probably up for her own turn under the wheel sooner or later.

[mindsweeper]

My assumption is that we’re in for four Essex stories. Sins of Sinister was first. Dr. Stasis gets Fall of X. Mother Righteous next. And then we’ll get Orbis Stellaris as a Dominion, which they’ll need the Phoenix to handle.

[blues32]

I'm not sure the Phoenix would be enough. By becoming a Dominion, they are, will be, and always have been a Dominion. Their past self could die and they would still be a Dominion. Time has no meaning. And I remain confident that the Dominion isn't any of them. It's the real Nathanial Essex. The entire point of creating them was to get them to create the means for him to ascend.

[mindsweeper]

Well, I'm going off of Hickman's definition of a Dominion, which is that the only two things it fears beyond universal abstracts who don't care about them are Galactus (which has no connection to X-lore) and the Phoenix (which does). I know Hickman is long gone, but it seemed to set up a point where the return of Phoenix would be the only thing that would save the day.

You could be right that there's a fifth Sinister, the original.

[deh_tommy]

With all the talks of the “Powers That Be”, do you think the D in G.O.D.S. could stand for Dominions?

[bruinsfan]

Ewing's Defenders Beyond series posited the Phoenix occupying a much higher plane of reality, above that of the Beyonders and basically any incarnate beings we know of. I would imagine that on its home ground it is timeless and eternal. Now, whether its hosts down in the material universe/multiverse can overcome a nigh-omnipotent enemy outside time and space is another matter.

[mastermahan]

MOTHER RIGHTEOUS: I tricked you.

SEBASTIAN SHAW: *surprised Pikachu face*
---
SELENE: I never supported Krakoa because I'm evil and like to eat people.

CHARLES XAVIER: *surprised Pikachu face*

[gnarll]

Selene is so out of character, its like it is a different person. Not that Selene ever cared much for human lives, but the out and out lazy hedonism is completly off.

[blues32]

She's an ancient immortal being. They need to change things up every now and then or go mad with boredom. Like Mister Mxysptlk in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" where he reveals he spent a thousand years being good, a thousand years doing absolutely nothing, a thousand years being a mischievous imp, and was preparing to be evil for a thousand years...and then probably feel guilty for the next thousand.

[deh_tommy]

All that time pretending to play ball, not building up cults and eating people must have been torture, I can cut her some slack.

[blues32]

So Shaw doesn't even know the mutants AREN'T on Arakko? I feel like that's something Emma should have told him. That he has absolutely no idea what he's done and for so little. All he's got to show for this betrayal is an island he can't get near. That's just FUNNY.

[aperturedreams]

Shaw knows, that's made clear on another page

[scorntx]

Not broadly familiar with enough of Gillen's work to know whether "smug character getting their comeuppance" is something he uses often, but I shall try to remember that he always said that.
Though it's more the fact that while they do tend to get their fully justified comeuppance, they're just so dang smug in the mean time.


Stuck in a mysterious desert with Hope, Destiny and Gillen!Exodus.
"Let the sand worms eat me! It's quicker this way!"

[deh_tommy]

I just hope Mother Righteous’ comeuppance comes sooner rather than later. Maybe with Selene outmanoeuvring her in some way since they basically share the same M.O.

[shakalooloo]

Orchis should just get someone to work on mass-producing Magneto helmets, stat.

[scorntx]

They already committed to the "A.I.M. but in red" look, and it's clearly far too late to change that.

[icon_uk]

All they needed was an AIM end of season sale, and roughly a metric tonne of red fabric dye, or possibly ten thousand gallons blood from adorable puppies, because EEEEEEVIL!

[mindsweeper]

Well, they did give them psi-blockers. However, they're also henchmen dressed in red shirts. From the line of dead dudes on the beach, it turns out the trope is more powerful than the telepathy suppression tech.

[bruinsfan]

I do recall Charles being powerful enough to get around psi-supressing equipment in the past, but I like the idea of the redshirt narrative trope being their undoing.