Prologue Poetry in Motion in AXE: Eve of Judgment #1

‘Twas the night before Judgment Day, and plots were a-brewing.
Look! Stuffy old Domo, and sly grinchy Druig.
The bomb was sent to Krakoa with care,
In hopes of a genocide, right then and there.
Phastos was nestled all snug in th’Exclusion,
With visions of torture and nuclear fusion.
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
It’s the gang in Lemuria, but fresh out of cheer.
Now, Sersei! now, Thena! now Sprite and Ikaris!
On, Kingo! on, Kro! Go save Glob and Polaris!
But I heard one exclaim, like a surly old trucker,
“Guessh it’sh going down… Judgment Day, mother#@$%##!”

AXE: Eve of Judgment #1 is written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Pasqual Ferry, colored by Dean White and lettered by Clayton Cowles.

Mark Turetsky: Here we are, on the cusp of Judgment Day, but in the grand tradition of big Marvel events, there’s the pre-event issue, largely there to get readers up to speed with what’s going on. Still, it’s nice to see our old friends from Gillen and Ribić’s Eternals still kicking around. Their series has ended, but it was only so they could get involved in bigger and better things, right?

Rasmus Lykke: Bigger, definitely. Better? Eh … I guess it depends on which of the Eternals we’re looking at. As long as we don’t start with someone evil, who has schemed for millennia to be in a position of power and who is now willing to do anything to hold onto that power, I think we’ll be fine.

So who’s the first Eternal we follow? oh… It’s Druig? Oh no.

A Cunning Plan

Mark: First off, I want to say I love the way Ferry draws Druig. The style is expressive in a slightly exaggerated way, but this is a story about a couple of scheming immortals plotting to send an antimatter bomb to destroy an island nation while craving British Columbian diner eggs. It doesn’t need to be subtle.

Rasmus: Agreed. Ferry does wonderful work throughout the issue, with every character taken to a suitable heightened degree, which makes it very clear what their whole deal is. And with lines like “I want to annihilate the mutants in time for evening drinks” by Gillen, it becomes very clear what kind of asshole Druig is. Though it’s a line that also lets the readers know just how powerful the Eternals are, that the idea of annihilating the mutants in one swift move isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Mark: We’re also reintroduced to our fun, funny and unreliable narrator, The Machine. The Machine drops some enticing hints about what’s to come, specifically in two areas: 1) It hints about Excluded “E” and 2) mentions that there are 101 Eternals on the list (never mind that, as Karen Charm pointed out in our Slack, Gillen seems to have left Sprite off the list, whoops!). 

My personal theory is that one explains the other: What if Excluded “E” is Eros? When the Eternals series explored Thanos’ origins, it curiously left out any mention of Eros, Thanos’ younger brother. While Thanos was dismissed as an abomination and excluded from access to The Machine and the powers that come with it, you’d think A’Lars and Sui-San having another child would raise the same objections, but there’s no hint that that happened. The Machine further hints that he’s being kept for “what he could be used to do.” The last time we saw Eros, he was swallowed by a black hole after his body was taken over by the mind of Thanos (in Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw’s Guardians of the Galaxy). I think that would certainly qualify as something bad that he could be used to do.

Rasmus: That is not a bad take at all, Mark. I think it’d also fit with Excluded T being Thanos and Excluded H still being a mystery (unless there’s someone obvious I’m missing here). We even see a shadow of Excluded E in the issue and while it might at first appear to be horns on his head, it could be — and probably is — Eros’ characteristic hair. Very interesting.

Mark: It’s depressingly realistic that Druig is committing to a mutant genocide for purely political reasons. He doesn’t hate the mutants. He doesn’t really care about mutants. But he realizes he’s a weak leader and needs to rally his people around vilifying a boogeyman. Which, (gestures broadly at the world). Whether it’s mutants, trans and nonbinary people, people of color, Romani, Jews, Muslims, the list goes (bleakly) on, finding that (imaginary) boogeyman is right out of the fascist playbook. 

Rasmus: The one bright part about this is that we can be pretty sure it’s going to come back and bite him in the ass. I know it’s just the prologue to the event, but I’m pretty confident that even at this early stage we can say that the bad guys are going to lose in the end. The days of “Dark Reign” or Hydra Cap are over at Marvel, and thank god for that. There are certain principles that superhero stories follow, just like there are Eternals.

Mark: I find it interesting that it’s very clear to Eternals when The Principles apply. We saw it in the Eternals series that just ended, we see it here. It’s a biological compulsion, either to “correct excess deviation” or here, where Druig and Domo are foiled because they need to “protect The Machine.” And yet, despite knowing that their principles haven’t kicked in, Druig decides that it would be in the spirit of the principles to kill all the mutants. Why, Rasmus! It’s almost as if these politicians are ignoring what their law plainly says and applying it in an unintended way simply because it’s politically convenient to do so!  

Rasmus: I, for one, am shocked! Only in fiction!

It’s Never Sunny in Lemuria

Mark: We also get reintroduced to the gang of expat Eternals living among the Deviants in Lemuria. They’re penitents, rebuilding the Deviant homeland after it was attacked by Thanos. Mind you, they were there to protect Lemuria during the attack, but they also feel the weight of the millions of years of conflict between their people, and the amends they need to make. As far as heroes go, or at least protagonists, they’re starting in a very low place, both emotionally and geographically.

Rasmus: It’s certainly an interesting place for them to be, and it’s in sharp contrast to where we find the Avengers and the X-Men at the start of the issue. These are characters that have a lot to prove and a lot to atone for. As the scene with Druig at the start shows — and Ikaris’ fight reinforces — they’re certainly powerful characters, but they’re not happy, or even content. 

Mark: These exiled Eternals are seeking to do what they theoretically shouldn’t be able to do: to change, to find a new way of being. While on the one end of the optimism spectrum, Ikaris is determined to do whatever it takes to make amends and change, on the other end we’ve got Sersi. She’s been privy to the Eternals’ dark secret all along, and despairs of ever being able to change. Let’s see, an immortal being who tries to grow into something new, while all the while despairing that their efforts might be pointless. It’s a familiar theme for a Kieron Gillen comic, no?

Rasmus: Sure is! From Emily Aster, David Kohl and the rest in Phonogram, to Loki in Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers, to … several characters in The Wicked + The Divine, it’s a theme he’s returned to several times. Both “Can we change?” and “Should we change?” are themes he returns to. The answer is usually “Yes,” but how that answer is given is always interesting and it’s certainly going to be a key part of A.X.E. 

Mark: I guess that would depend on if A.X.E. is the end of Gillen’s Eternals story, or just a transition point, if you want my guess as to whether those questions might get answered.

Do You Want To Build A Celestial?

Mark: The common thread tying the issue together is Phastos. Druig hands him over to the priestly Eternals, Ajak and Makkari, as a political gift (and then they let him go and he returns to Lemuria). It’s always good for the petty dictator to make nice with the religious powers-that-be, even if he doesn’t personally believe.

The Makkari and Ajak thread from Eternals: Celestia and the second arc of Eternals was a fascinating one. Where they started out very much at odds with each other, to finding a détente in their attack on the Avengers base, to finally here, where we see them united by their purpose. Look at how Ferry draws them, usually facing the same direction, often sharing the same pose. They are downright simpatico here.

Rasmus: On the note of how Makkari is depicted, I want to highlight Cowles’ lettering, too. Her balloons are not only given a different color and shape, the tails all lead to her hands, instead of her mouth. A subtle way of letting us know she’s mute and using sign language to communicate.

Mark: And to complete their mission, they’ve kidnapped Mr. Sinister (Wait, that happened over in Immortal X-Men #4, out now)! You know, I get the feeling that Druig might have been wrong to dismiss Ajak and Makkari out of hand, don’t you?

Rasmus: Very true. And as scary as Druig and his anti-matter bomb are, I feel like Makkari and Ajak are even scarier. The Celestials are rarely good news, and a homemade one is probably not much better. 

Mark: Of particular note is a Celestial named Arishem The Judge. It’s his job to stand in judgment over whether a civilization will live or die. But I’m sure this won’t be a factor in … (checks notes) “Judgment Day.” 

Oh my.

Rasmus: Oh my indeed!

Naturally Druig’s plot in this issue fails, as Krakoa proves to be an important part of The Machine, so the Eternal Principles forbid Druig and Domo from destroying the island, which sucks for them. Almost as much as missing out on their plan to celebrate with toasted muffins. Druig is big on planning celebrations. Not ready to throw the towel in the ring yet, he turns to Uranos, infamous genocidal Eternal. Good on him for not giving up. I mean, awful for mutantkind, but easy come, easy go, even for immortality apparently.

Even as the issue focuses on the Eternals, there’s plenty of hints at how everything is going to come to a clash in the main event series, which incidentally is Gillen’s first event series. He’s done everything else at Marvel, really. It’s high time he headlined an event. I, for one, am excited to see how it turns out.

Minor A.X.E.s to Grind

• Krakoa seems to be a constant party! Reminiscent of the Jonathan Coulton verses, “We got drunk and loud under a thousand million stars / Someone played Steve Miller, someone set some stuff on fire.”
• Honestly, reading this issue, I (Rasmus) can see why Druig doesn’t like the mutants. We see them twice. The first time Gambit is playing guitar, while Wolverine is drinking a beer in a hammock. And the second time Nightcrawler and Magik are laughing while Hank is reading to them, not a care in the world. All the while the Eternals’ world has been turned upside down, and Druig has just gotten everything he’s ever wanted and is smart enough to know he’s about to lose it, too. It’s not easy being Eternal.

Mark Turetsky

Mark Turetsky is an audiobook narrator and voice actor who sometimes writes about comic books. Originally from Montreal, Canada, he now lives in Northern Louisiana.

Rasmus Skov Lykke

Rasmus Skov Lykke will write for food (or, in a pinch, money). When not writing, he spends his time with his wife, their daughter and their cats, usually thinking about writing.