Good Witches and Bad Witches Both Enjoy Devil's Reign: X-Men #1

Unfortunately, the eviction notice for vigilante superheroics comes to Seneca Park as the X-Men come face to face with Kingpin’s Thunderbolts in Devil’s Reign: X-Men #1 written by Gerry Duggan, drawn by Phil Noto and lettered by Cory Petit.

Christi Eddleman: Unfortunately for everyone, and especially me, I can only sing some Staind as I sit down to write with you, Chris, because IT’S BEEN AWHILE. The Crossover Couple REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD. Oh thank goodness, now it’s Peaches & Herb in my head. But as I understand it we’re here to talk about the most exciting X-comic this week, right, dear?

Chris Eddleman: Duh, not like any other new event or something is starting this week. Who cares about claws and time travel when we have a tie-in to the newest Marvel event?! Anyway, we’re chatting Devil’s Reign: X-Men #1 as we take a look at how our favorite mutants are handling the Kingpin being mayor of New York City.

House of Lourdes

Christi: We begin with a flashback to an unspecified past where both Elektra and Emma Frost are in service to Wilson Fisk. But before we dive much deeper, we need to address why Emma was working for the Kingpin. This tie-in miniseries has some seeds sown in Duggan and Matteo Lolli’s Marauders #22. After Emma fakes the death of Lourdes Chantal, she agrees to extend her contract with Fisk to secure Lourdes’ protection and new identity. While it’s unclear if this flashback is before or after this event, I’m hopeful we’ll see Lourdes’ storyline fleshed out a little throughout this mini.

Chris: I suppose we’ll see. I remember convincing you to join me on this little conversational jaunt with the promise that Lourdes was going to show up, but she’s not really spoken of in the slightest, so far. Anyway, Elektra and Emma are presented here as two sides of a coin, or as Emma puts it, “a good witch” and a “bad witch.” In our flashback, Emma psychically convinces a theoretically harmless man to give Kingpin whatever he wants, as Elektra does a pretty gruesome murder on someone for whom Fisk no longer has a need.

While this is pretty clearly set in the past, I think presenting the women this way is interesting. Emma prior to joining the X-Men was about as arch as they come, at least in the fairly early appearances in which this feels like it’s set. Elektra is a ruthless killer, that’s what makes her a good and distinct foil for Daredevil. But she’s always seemed more somber, maybe not full of regret. Elektra is the nuclear option, while Emma is the diplomatic one, it seems. Christi, there’s a famous bit in Daredevil where Bullseye kills Elektra, and he says “…you’re pretty good, but me? I’m magic!” before catching her in the throat with a playing card. It’s hard for me not to recall that with the usage of the word “witch” here.

Christi: I enjoy that it’s Emma’s that gives us the witch comparison in a grand villain soliloquy of sorts. It gives an ominous tone to Noto’s muted colors. Opening on a blood-covered, nude Fisk in a steamy sauna, surrounded by corpses, was unsettling enough, but Noto’s juxtapositioning of warm and cool lighting during our “bad witch” sequence was fantastic. Elektra’s assasination goes noticed by a young girl bathed in a warm glow (Props to Noto for having this child drawing a horse on panel), and as the warmth surrounding the young girl disappears, Noto shows us just enough for us to know it did not end well for her. Coupled with Emma’s line of “Pray you never see the bad witch … because that means you’re dead” brilliantly paced on the page by Petit, this moment brings just enough heartbreak without being overdone.

As someone who despises the death of children depicted in comics, this worked for me. We do not see her death, and the pathos is not pushed upon us. We’re left almost with a question, but we know the truth, if not now, then by the end of the issue.

Tree’s Company

Chris: Our other sequence involves Fisk attempting to kick the X-Men out of their cool treehouse in Seneca Park, which is also a fun place for people to hang out in front of. Frankly rude. Anyway, before we get into it too much, I have a confession. Even though Devil’s Reign feels very much the same to me as Dark Reign (when Norman Osborn was in charge of superheroes so they were operating in secret), this is the kind of status quo I absolutely love. I think superheroes are often, through genre conventions and just some general conservatism, upholders of the status quo. They punish people who break our current laws. However, I think they work even better when villains are in charge, so the heroes kind of have someone to rage against. I think superheroes work best on their back foot as anti-authority figures, so I was pretty excited for that temporary status quo. This also clashes against the current X-Men status quo as a group of people who literally have their own little “perfect” country and get to be awesome all the time. They are very much NOT on their backfoot regularly, so this was kind of a fun change of pace for me, even if it’s pretty light on actual revolutionary action.

Christi: While raging against the status quo seems par for the course for the X-Men, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen vigilantes criminalized and hunted, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Fisk’s declaration outlawing anyone with powers that they could use as a vigilante from simply existing in New York City seems like a bit of a stretch, but I’ll bite for the sake of a story. I agree that seeing our heroes fight unjust systems carries a level of satisfaction that can’t quite be matched by the likes of fighting ecoterrorists. It offers a catharsis for those of us that feel powerless against our own unjust systems.

If there’s someone who can be a figurehead for all of the worst things about government and law enforcement, it’s U.S. Agent. He confronts the X-Men in all of his punchable-faced glory as he leads troops that seem frankly ill-prepared to take on the mutants. The nonchalance in Noto’s Polaris conveys the absolute pointlessness of U.S. Agent’s shield. They sure brought an awful lot of metal to have done their research.

Chris: True! Polaris manages to get a little drop on the oh-so-hateable U.S. Agent before the rest of the X-Men decide to suit up as well. Scott (who still has his Captain Krakoa disguise) is prepared to relinquish the Treehouse, but things come to blows as Kingpin’s Thunderbolts show up. Boy, does that Thunderbolts logo look awfully fashy, and somehow this is the first time I’ve really gotten a look at it. I think having a “Thunderbolts” version of Cap is jarring to say the least, given our heroes’ past villains. But anyway, things start to come to a lovely end as we get an Emma-Ex-Machina. She shows up having designated the Treehouse as a consulate. Poor Fisk is gonna have to let it stay there.

Now, ordinarily I’d complain about the very neat ending courtesy of Emma, but this is a #1 in a series and we know this is only round 1, and also this feels more like an Emma story than an X-Men team story, so it still felt like our protagonist got things done. It would have been cool to see a little politicking from Emma, but there’s only so much 22 pages nets us. How do you feel about it, Christi?

Christi: I do appreciate that Fisk seems to have an ace in the hole, the case file for the young girl who had the misfortune of witnessing Elektra post-murder. While I’m uncertain in what ways this might be used against Emma or the X-Men, this is definitely the preview of what round two may have in store.

We’ve seen Duggan use Emma similarly throughout Marauders, most often pitted against the machinations of Sebastian Shaw. It’s a role she fills well, outwitting the evil man. The story is well executed artistically, but between Emma’s familiar placement and the outlawing vigilantes, it doesn’t break much new ground.