Professor Xavier realizes what he does in the shadows, while the implications of Krakoa Atlantic’s new home are explored in Immortal X-Men #17, written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Juan José Ryp, colored by David Curiel and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Mark Turetsky: Happy American Thanksgiving, Austin! Are you thankful for anything this year?
Austin Gorton: Happy Gobble Gobble Day to you, Mark! This Thanksgiving, I am thankful to not have a demented Victorian-era geneticist living rent free in my genes and controlling my body every time I go to sleep! How about you?
Mark: I’m thankful that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over, that we’ve secured a good deal, and I can finally get back to writing about current Star Trek that’s on TV, just in time for all of the series to be done for the year. But I’m not here to talk Star Trek, I’m here to talk X-Men!
Now And Forever. And Ever. And Ever…
Austin: Thus far, every issue of Immortal X-Men has been built around a central POV character — at first, it was a different member of the Quiet Council, but as the, shall we say, structures of Krakoa have cumbled, the pool of POV characters has widened. Immortal X-Men #17, then, is ostensibly the Jean Grey issue. Yet, given that Jean is technically dead and actually stuck in some kind of transitional plane of existence that may or may not be the White Hot Room while a representation of her form is also in the White Hot Room and under the control of a manifestation of Apocalypse (comics!), the majority of this issue’s POV “schtick” comes in the form of Jean dialogue excerpted from previous stories.
How did this work for you, Mark, as both an expression of the series’ established form and within the context of the issue itself?
Mark: So, first things first: Not only does each issue have a central POV character, they also never repeat (There are two Professor X POV issues, #10 and #14, but it was the Red Diamond version of Professor X in #10). Given that the only real players in this issue have all had their POV issues, with the big exception of Mother Righteous (whom I’m sure is being saved for the finale next month, just look at that cover!), it had to be Jean. And, as you point out, Jean’s dead/undead/comatose/something, so Gillen’s taking advantage of the White Hot Room being outside time and space to pull dialogue from all over.
Gillen likens it in his newsletter to how Al Ewing uses text from previous Marvel comics, but I also see some similarities to issue #14 of Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s The Wicked + The Divine, which was made up almost entirely of reused artwork from previous issues (plus Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s porn parody from Sex Criminals). It works fine as a formal exercise, down to letting us know this is old text by putting it in all caps, rather than the mixed-case text of the rest of this series (though it’s slightly fudged in the case of borrowing text from the Grant Morrison run, which was also mixed case). But I think it really only kinda sorta works to propel the action forward. A lot of the time, it seems like it would be easier to just have Jean tell us something, rather than piece narration together from decades-old puzzle pieces. There are some fun moments, like repurposing a speech bubble about a plant and an offhand use of the word Destiny, but overall, things just don’t quite work.
Austin: I’m pretty much right there with you. I love a formalist exercise more than most, and an exercise that leads to a journey through old back issues is certainly my jam, but this feels more like something Gillen came up with because he had to (in order to maintain the form within the limitations of the current available cast) and less the best possible way to spotlight Jean.
The juxtaposition of the “I am fire and life incarnate” quote against the image of Hope manifesting Phoenix wings and saving Exodus is the moment that works best for me, and interestingly, it’s also the only one we see from Jean’s perspective (in Jean Grey #4), in which she speaks the quote as a way to power up Hope.
Mark: On the other hand, it does a lot in terms of commenting on how Jean Grey stories tend to go: Jean can’t escape being the Phoenix. The captions even point to the story that retcons the Dark Phoenix saga to absolve Jean of the genocide that she committed, but no matter what, the same refrain gets repeated: “Now and forever, I am Phoenix.” Forever is a long time. It treads similar ground to Gillen and Francesco Mobili’s A.X.E.: X-Men one-shot in that regard.
Austin: Jean Grey #4 also established that, unseen to readers of this issue, there is a second Jean observing these events (as well as her own chained up … body? Avatar? Clone? … that is being held captive first by the Apocalypse manifestation and by issue’s end, Mother Righteous). It’s not clear in either issue what the relationship between these Jeans is and how it might impact whatever Mother Righteous is planning to do with the chained up Jean, so while Immortal X-Men #17 does a lot to move the plot along, there are still questions to answer.
Mark: I took it to be Jean’s consciousness existing outside her body, seeing what poor shape she’s in. Did you know there’s parts of your brain that spatially locate your concept of “you” within your body? And also, that it can be turned off, making you feel like you’re experiencing yourself from somewhere else, leading to “out of body” experiences? Maybe that’s what’s going on here. Jean’s not doing so well, you know? And she’s a powerful telepath, so this kind of astral projection is right up her alley.
He Lives. We Sleep.
Austin: Meanwhile, on Krakoa, last issue’s cliffhanger reveal that Xavier is still “infected” with Sinister gets further elaboration. Turns out, the lingering infection is the result not of Sinister’s meddling with the resurrection protocols as before, but stemming from his earlier manipulation of a younger Xavier’s genetics as part of the Black Womb project, a reference to a mid-2000s Mike Carey X-Men Legacy story that has had surprising staying power.
Mark: Ever since the start of the Krakoan era, the presence of Sinister has signaled that we’re in for a good time. Gillen’s reimagining of the character, elaborated upon by later writers like Jonathan Hickman and Zeb Wells, has been a delight to read. But here, we get the darker, almost nihilistic side to this version of the character. As Xavier puts it, he’s nothing more than “bad jokes. Memes.” He’s “barely a paper mask.” I was really excited last month that Sinister was coming back, but a story that’s mainly about Sinister trying to convince Xavier not to commit suicide lacks, well, a certain joie de vivre that we’ve come to expect from the character. It’s not out of place or anything, but it makes for a dour issue.
Austin: There’s a dash of Gillen’s Sinister humor here, as when Sinister laments his inability to hide things from Xavier or complains about Exodus being allowed to be Exodus while everyone wants Sinister to change who he is, but you’re not wrong that much of the material is heavier on the “dark” than the “humor.”
I’m also not a big fan of how Sinister is rendered here. With Lucas Werneck off working on the big Fall of X/Krakoa finale, Juan José Ryp hops over from Wolverine. For the most part, his work is fine, but Sinister (who exists only as a figure within Xavier’s mind at this point) ends up looking like Obi-Wan on Dagobah trying to convince Luke he didn’t LIE lie to him, and given the darker material, it’s jarring.
Mark: Also, the revelation that Sinister takes over when Xavier falls asleep is reminiscent of early Hulk stories (as revived by Al Ewing in The Immortal Hulk). But even more than Hulk, it recalls the Jekyll/Hyde relationship between Essex and Sinister in the Victorian-set Immortal X-Men #8. And Xavier tying that transition to the sunset in this issue calls back to issue #14, which features Xavier watching the sun set on Krakoa and (unbeknownst to us at the time) being taken over by Sinister when he confronts the Orchis agents showing up on the beach.
Austin: The Jekyll/Hyde association is also fun just given Sinister’s origins in that era. Speaking of which, Sinister reveals to Xavier what readers of Sins of Sinister: Dominion already know, which is that he was beaten to the punch of Dominion by one of the other Sinisters, whom Sinister refers to here as “homunculi.” This seeming disdain for Stasis, Orbis Stellaris and Mother Righteous (whose identity Sinister is unaware of) is interesting. It makes me wonder if part of the climax of this whole story will be the re-centering of Sinister Prime as the One True Sinister, and the deaths of the other “suited” counterparts.
The other interesting thing Gillen does in this sequence is underscore the parallels between Sinister and Xavier. Red Diamond Xavier obviously was very Sinister-esque, but here, “regular” Xavier — firmly established as being free of Sinister’s influence — still has similarities in common, in the way both attempted to achieve their goals (achieve Dominion, safeguard Krakoa) through fist-clenching control, a level of control both now recognize as a failed method.
Mark: And Sinister rightly points out that Xavier is a fool if he thinks the only alternative to exerting too much control over Krakoa is to kill himself and let the kids fight the ascended techno-god. He can still help out, even if he’s not controlling everything. It was also funny to be reminded that Sinister still doesn’t know about Righteous. It’s one of those things that Gillen is really skilled at as a writer: not only keeping track of which characters know what, but also using that to create the most potentially tragic of outcomes. The biggest thing hanging over this is that Xavier still believes he sent all of those mutants to their deaths (Of course, given that they’re in the White Hot Room, maybe he kinda did, but not in the way he thinks).
This part of the issue ends with Sinister and Xavier heading off to Muir Island. Has anything been done with Muir Island in this era? I know Sinister’s secret lab was in his lost city underneath Alaska, but considering this whole shebang got kicked off through revelations about Moira, going to Muir Island seems to complete a circle, at least thematically.
Austin: To the best of my recollection (which, admittedly, isn’t what it used to be) Muir Island has been curiously absent from the Krakoan Era (despite Moira’s prominent role and her long ties to that locale), popping only up briefly as Moira’s escape point at the end of Inferno. Regardless, there is a definite sense of thematic conclusion, of “going back to where it all began” to Sinister citing it as the first stop in their efforts to stop his brethren.
Cashing Out
Mark: Meanwhile, back at the ranch Atlantic Krakoa, Mother Righteous feels the hammer coming down with the return of Jean and decides to kill Destiny. Unfortunately for her, though, she decides to monologue (She is a Sinister, after all), and Destiny says a few tantalizing things. When Righteous tells her they’re in the White Hot Room, outside of time and space, Destiny says to herself, “It can’t see me.” The implication here is that she’s aware of the Dominion and has been keeping information from it since Sins of Sinister. She’s always held her cards close to the vest (originally because she was aware of Sinister’s save-scumming), but now she’s free to speak. The first thing she does is acknowledge she knows Righteous is a Sinister. Was she keeping that from the Dominion? Or was that just the prelude to the revelation she didn’t want the Dominion to hear about? My guess is the latter. She also chooses to take off her mask. Why? And even after Righteous has begun stabbing her, she still seems to believe there’s hope to recruit Righteous to take on the Dominion. Does she know who the Dominion is? What does she know that we don’t?
Austin: Those are all great questions that I don’t think we have enough information to even intelligently guess on, but I always love it when we get to see Destiny surprised. I mean, I don’t love that she gets stabbed, but she’s usually so in the know it’s fun to see her get put on her back foot. Whatever it means, the revelation that they’re in the White Hot Room means something.
Thankfully, Mother Righteous doesn’t make an entirely clean getaway, thanks to young Kafka and Chekhov’s Tubers, which lead him to interrupt just before Righteous strikes the killing blow. Which doesn’t stop her from animating Atlantic Krakoa against its residents on her way out the door, and I kinda love that two different issues set on two different worlds/planes of existence both end with attacks by sentient islands.
Mark: And her stealing off with Jean Grey … that can’t be good. Optimistically, she’s going to use the Phoenix power that Jean’s connected to in order to destroy the nascent Dominion. On the other hand, she might be using it to become a Dominion herself. So … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still, the image of Jean, chained, being led by different characters, all so they can do something with the Phoenix power is such a metaphor for different writers taking a crack at writing her. They each inherit the character, and they always reach for that third rail. It’s tough to be Jean Grey.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- For more on the Jean quotes littered throughout the issue and what issues they’re from, check out Mark’s annotations.
- Looks like Exodus has read Ewing and Javier Rodriguez’s Defenders: Beyond #3, which is where the White Hot Room was associated with the Kabbalistic concept of Tiphareth.
- The reference to Black Womb as well as Sinister noting that he should have stayed Apocalypse’s science lackey show Gillen does his homework, as if we needed more proof.
- The “previously on” recap blurb refers to the White Hot Room as the mutant afterlife, which while not inaccurate, is a way of describing it that I’m not sure has been used before.
- Wolverine hunted Hope in the first third of the “Avengers vs. X-Men” event, while Bishop hunted her across time and space for most of her childhood.
- Mother Righteous’ spell is “Thank you, Mother Righteous,” spelled backward.
- In hindsight, Destiny’s power not working because she’s in a place outside time is one of those things that should have been more obvious. But I guess that’s true of most clues once you finally know the answer.
- Sinister’s “I was compelled. I sometimes feel I didn’t have a choice” comes dangerously close to Sinister realizing he’s a character in a comic book. Maybe messing around with godhood and the fabric of reality is what brought him close to that revelation.
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Mark Turetsky
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
