Selene wants the External Gate back, but Xavier is just not in the mood for visitors, and the mutant diaspora finds an unlikely ally in Immortal X-Men #15, written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Paco Medina, colored by David Curiel and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Austin Gorton: Mark, I understand you’ve been a bit under the weather lately; have you run afoul of an immortal mutant demon sorceress who’s been sucking the life from you?
Mark Turetsky: Could be, Iāve been confined to bed for the better part of a week, like Achilles in his tent or Xavier on his island. Lucky for me Baldurās Gate III streams well to my laptop.
Snackin’ Selene
Austin: Immortal X-Men #15 is our Selene spotlight issue. Selene is a trickier character than some for Kieron Gillen to spotlight as there’s not a lot of there there (something Selene herself functionally admits in this issue): She’s a being of fairly straightforward, carnal (or at least base) desires, to feed, to have fun, to more or less do whatever she wants when she wants. She’s not exactly one-dimensional, but even compared to someone like the greedy Sebastian Shaw, she’s not terribly complex. Gillen himself admits as much, saying in his newsletter that Selene is less a focus than a lens for events in this issue.
Mark: Iāve recently read her original introduction in The New Mutants in my readthrough of Claremontās X-Men run. Whatās fun to me is just how much of a presence Selene has been in this series. She showed up in issue #1 looking for a spot on the Quiet Council, she was assassinated by Hope in issue #2, and that seemed like that was it. But in this latest arc of the series, sheās become, well, part of the main cast of this book. I donāt know how much Gillen planned this out or whether he left Selene as a thread that could be picked up later if need be (Who am I kidding, he likely plotted this out), but itās a pretty nice bit of forward thinking. We need an evil mutant with a straightforward motivation, and voila.
Austin: Selene’s motivation here ā in getting back onto Krakoa ā is a desire to reclaim the External Gate (forged by Apocalypse from the bodies of their fellow Externals to create a gate to Otherworld). In perhaps an attempt to add some nuance to Selene, her desire to do so appears to be motivated simply out of sentiment: While she doesn’t particularly care for most beings, the sheer weight of time that bears down when one is immortal has given her some fondness for her fellow Externals. Therefore, she wants to right what she feels is a desecration of their remains.
Whether more is ultimately revealed about her motivations or feelings toward the Externals, this is a smart way to give Selene if not pathos, at least some level of relatable motivations in this issue.
Mark: And letās not forget, Selene and Shaw is a partnership that goes back decades. Sheās nothing if not consistent.
Austin: Gillen pulls a neat trick with the Xavier portion of Immortal X-Men #15, effectively having him dispatch the Orchis assault team ā tricked out in anti-psionic gear created by Shaw and tested by Selene ā offscreen. It both saves page space to be deployed elsewhere, while also showcasing just how powerful and pissed off Xavier is. Sometimes, less is more.
Mark: He doesnāt seem to have done the old trick of telekinetically removing their anti-psionic gear like it was Magnetoās bucket helmet. More just using the bullets they fire at him to his own purpose, like heās Magneto himself.
Austin: Yeah, I’m still not wild about this whole “Xavier has some telekinesis now, too” business, but that’s presumably what he’s calling on here. And the big takeaway is less “the how” and more the sheer ferocity of it.
Mark: And letās not forget his āno moreā is an echo of House of X #4. He may be on a lush island, but itās a desert in the metaphorical (and literal, in that itās deserted) sense: a wilderness of testing.
Just Deserts
Mark: And then thereās the literal desert. Iām glad to see Exodus seems to be having the time of his life here. This is his hole, it was made for him.
Austin: Exodus continues to live his best life, leading a wandering tribe and using his massive power to telekinetically collect the small amount of surrounding moisture to serve as drinking water.
Mark: Thatās Aang and Kataraās trick from Avatar: The Last Airbender! Iām glad to see weāre getting some Krakoans come forward out of the chorus, including Kafka from Giant-Size Jean Grey and Emma Frost and the enigmatic āPhil,ā who seems to be some kind of ā¦ bee-themed druid mutant? He can make glucose and is powered by sunlight, which is a massive advantage in the desert. What was I just saying about finding purpose in non-combat mutants last month?
Austin: It’s great. I wish we’d seen a few more of them hanging around the fringes of the “important” mutants before this, but it’s still neat. When the group’s advance scouts come across Mother Righteous being attacked by a bunch of Wolverines, Exodus helps dispatch them. Mother Righteous, who while playing somewhat dumb, pretending she was forced through the gates like everyone else, leads Exodus, Hope, Destiny and their charges to the Atlantic Krakoa. We know she’s running a con here, as we saw her during the Hellfire Gala actively working to protect the other Krakoa and not being forced through the gates, but of course, we don’t know what her angle is yet.
Mark: Iām wondering if maybe the many tiny mutant powers Hope senses in her come from her controls over the snow globe that all these mutants are being kept in. Maybe Hope is just sensing everyone in miniature, channeled through Righteousā magic. But yes, things are becoming much clearer as to whatās going on, and where this desert is. Whatās her goal, though?
Austin: In the end, it’s revealed that the Wolverine clones are being set upon the wanderers by Apocalypse, who also has a chained-up Jean Grey at his side. Is this the real Apocalypse? Is everyone on Amenth or Otherworld now?
Mark: How did Exodus not see this coming? He literally says the desert is a place of revelation, and į¼ĻĪæĪŗĪ¬Ī»Ļ ĻĪ¹Ļ (apokĆ”lupsis) is just the Greek word for revelation (as we were reminded recently in X-Men Red).
Are there maybe a bunch of Logan bodies on Krakoa Atlantic that are being reanimated by this Apocalypse? Is this the real Apocalypse, because it certainly doesnāt seem like the ārealā Jean is here. Curious.
Austin: Notably, the Wolverines are all wearing the older orange-and-tan Wolverine costume, and the Jean is in her original green-and-yellow Phoenix garb, suggesting they are “older” somehow. But Phoenix’s body would be on the moon, if anywhere.
Mark: Yeah, I donāt think these are the ārealā versions of the characters, but rather some kind of magical constructs. Still, glad our mutant diaspora has made it to a Krakoa and can settle down and chill for the rest of this story arc. No way thereās bad stuff waiting to happen to them, right?
Austin: Turns out it was just a short fall, at least for some of them.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Shaw is overstating things a bit when he said he built Krakoa, but that’s supervillains for you, I suppose.
- Itās like he bought the company and had them list him as its founder. Nobody could be that vain, could they?
- It’s also noted here that wherever the Mysterious Desert of Biblical Allusion is, sending everyone there wasn’t Orchis’ plan; the intent was to send them all to Arakko as they said, which certainly adds some interest to Mother Righteous’ role in the story.
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Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
