X-Men: Hellfire Gala in Review! The Secret Is Out

[cover by Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson]

The literally biggest X-Men book of the year so far has arrived! And it’s…mostly decent.

X-Menseries writer Gerry Duggan is juggling a lot of material here, and while it doesn’t entirely gel, he’s probably done the best that could be done given the demands of this special yearly issue, a kind of annual for the whole X line, sort of.

ReadingImmortal X-MenKieron Gillen和Lucas Werneck写的，同一天，就在Gala那一期之后，我立刻注意到每个故事对艾玛的不同角度。达根将注意力集中在她的公众表演和个人形象上，以全世界的目光，以及那些没有变异的超级英雄来关注她，而吉伦则将注意力集中在她的内心深处——这是一种巧妙的表现，比她的角色典型的女性主义描述更强烈。Certainly, Duggan’s work with her in hisMaraudersrun was excellent, but especially compared toImmortal X-Men, it didn’t run deep into her actual thinking and hidden emotions.

We’ll get back to this in anImmortal X-Men#4回顾，但这种对比只是突出了我认为吉伦目前的工作更令人兴奋的地方。Of course, given the nature of the Gala’s mini-event status, it’s perhaps inevitable that with the double-sized issue’s superabundance of characters from across the MU, there’s a dearth of sharp character moments—ones made memorable by the deep focus given to a character or simply expert timing, to make us laugh or even entirely rethink a person or situation (Hellionsexcelled at both kinds of revelatory moment, and Gillen and Ewing also excel here, each in their own way).

[bye-bye, old fogies]

Surprising character moments seamlessly integrated into a narrative with clear structure, vision and motivations is what I come to comics for, along with beautiful art and fantastical sense of wonder. Unfortunately, for this reader anyway, the Hellfire Gala one-shot doesn’t meet any of these criteria—except of course for the stunning work of Russell Dauterman, who draws a merefivepages; we have the excellent CF Villa and Kris Anka for about the same page count each, and the rest is drawn by Matteo Lolli, who was the main artist on Duggan’sMarauders. Lolli’s style is flat, cartoonish and static, with lots of same-face and undynamic figurework; it never pops, leaving readers all too aware that this is a two-dimensional medium.

A Different Gala This Year

[X-Men Gala MC – bold pick, no comment!]

As this year’s Gala is primarily relevant to Duggan’sX-Men, it’s really almost an annual for that title, spinning out from issues #11-12, which dropped a few bombshells that are only beginning to be dealt with in this one-shot and the newest issue ofImmortal X-Men, each of course in their own way. The Gala story begins to deal with the international fallout of Ben Urich’s news article announcing the existence of Krakoan “immortality” (which obviously isn’t an actual guarantee of the resurrection protocols—but tell that to Earth’s billions) while also giving us the first on-page meeting between Moira (whoappearsfully human, albeit with her techno-organic prosthetic mysteriously gifted her by Cypher, but is in fact a killer bot now, Cameron Hodge-style*) and her new Orchis partners Feilong and Doctor Stasis (maybe“始祖”纳撒尼尔·埃塞克斯(Nathaniel Essex)，尽管如此，他仍然是200年前被《启示录》改变的后人类)。

*And perhaps, as theCerebro播客推测，这个莫伊拉不是“原始”版本(再说一遍，不管那是什么意思)，而是一个被上传到武器化的控制论系统中无法改变的意识——大概是莫伊拉思维的静态副本in toto尽管如此，她的愤怒、被困和被背叛的感觉只是一瞬间的快照，陷入了一个恶性循环。Perhapsthere’s a Moira X hibernating in a cocoon beneath Jamaica Bay or something analogous (see below for possible theories involving a techno-organic arm).

This is all quite different from the inaugural Gala last year, where the centerpiece wasPlanet-Size X-Men, where Duggan andX-Menartist Pepe Larraz pulled off the stunning surprise, both in-universe and out, of sending the entire Arakkii population off to Mars, renamed by mutantkind as Arakko.

The two other big moments from the first Gala were Hickman’sX-Men#21, which closed out his run by introducing the new yearly X-Men team, and Ewing’sS.W.O.R.D.在第一期中，团队从现实的面纱之外(白热房间)取回的神秘宝藏被完全揭示(神秘)，以及布兰德对这种新货币的宇宙计划。

Granted, the original Gala should’ve been just a few issues, much closer in page count to this year’s. Overall, there was unnecessary bloat for the sake of showing off one-off couture designs, a distraction from pushing forward the story for each individual title, for the most part (the best issue quality-wise was definitelyHellions#7, by a long shot, its comedy and pathos having nothing to do with the Gala’s own concerns). But following up the above-mentioned issues will continue to be a very tough act to follow each year.

So, it’s better that this year’s Gala is confined to one oversized issue rather than a dozen regular issues—definitely for the best considering how jacked the publication schedule is currently.*

But the comparison is still inevitable: Arakko’s settlement of Mars laid the groundwork forX-Men: Red, and the Council shakeup and X-Men election led directly toX-Men#1 (which promised much more than issue #13 can now), while there was hot speculation about Hickman’s next move (soon revealed to beInferno). What are the hottest expectations spinning out of this year’s Gala?

这个大秘密(克拉考恩的复活)已经公开了，所以Gala这期杂志花了大量的篇幅来放大漫威宇宙的各种反应——或者真的，只是大男孩们(斯塔克、美国队长、里德)和Clea，当然，好吧，这只是一个短暂的笑声，也许?这不会影响《奇异博士》的回归。每个人都是被动的、充满敌意的、偏执的;这并不奇怪，尽管美队在这里的描述是愤世嫉俗的，这与任何非x游戏的角色都不相符。

*The little moments of whiplash are there if you’re reading these ongoing titles as they appear. It’s odd seeing not just Illyana, who’s currently trapped in Limbo with Dani, Xi’an and Rahne (where are they now?) but also the Marauders, the same week the Kate is killed in that title, in the Shi’ar galaxy, before the team is shunted off to the distant past. Obviously, the Gala must occur after these major plots.

这并不是对本周即将发布的这三个问题中的任何一个的批评，毕竟，在供应链中断的时代，这可能只是那些共享宇宙的事情之一。即便如此，与其他正在进行的故事情节相比，这仍然有点让人泄气。嘿，这是伊利亚纳的灵魂之剑，看起来不错，完全没有破碎;麦迪现在一定是地狱边境的女王了，对吧?是的，玩具很快就被放回了盒子里，正好赶上伊利亚娜加入新x战警团队的引人注目的页面，非常整洁(尽管如此，我们至少应该看到西安穿着一些新的热门时装，弥补她去年穿的任何衣服)。

If you followed the vote this year, you already know Firestar won out over Monet, to say nothing of others who would surely have been far more likely picks ifKrakoans themselveswere voting. I mean, maybe they too watchedSpider-Man and His Amazing Friendsas kids, but would they really want a cartoon character representing Krakoa? And don’t even get me started on how strained Emma’s rationalization is here (whether or not you killed the child’s damn horse doesn’t make her X-Men material).

But surely, Duggan et al knew Firestar would win? Naturally, Stark takes her aside and tells the ex-Avenger to be his nark.

The rest of the new team? An odd bunch!

Even more than the last one, though, it will be tough to argue that it will go down among the classic teams of the franchise. After all, they won’t even be around long enough to make a bigger impact than the Year One team that is already receding in memory, before its odds and ends ever really gelled into something truly impressive.

福吉和泽维尔在搞什么坏事。

(Or maybe it will save the nation. But it could still be pretty nasty, with these two involved…)

The Gala’s Revelations: More imminent secrets behind the scenes

1. An Orchis-Eternals Axis?

In terms of completely new development, the big push forward this issue is: Moira possessing Mary Jane, which is a choice (entirelyto do with Zeb Wells being onAmazing Spider-Man), to get into the Gala and—maliciously reveal herself to her son, Proteus. This provided the issue’s biggest moment of suspense—which petered out pretty quickly (oh, dear—unintentional pun!): Proteus’ reaction is surprisingly contained, as he notes of himself, a reflection of his off-panel character growth among the Five, and with MJ fleeing the scene through a Krakoan gate (something to do with Moira’s robo collar?), MJ’s story will be continued inAmazing Spider-Man#9; cue Logan and Spidey exit.

ASM#9 is advertised as a Hellfire Gala tie-in issue, but it’s release date is September 14…!

My favorite moment in this entire issue is the least consequential for Krakoa. It’s when Logan stops Spidey from heedlessly running after MJ, not knowing she’s possessed:

Logan’s terse warning will be cryptic to readers unfamiliar with the classic 1987 Christopher Priest one-shot,Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, where a terminally ill friend of Logan tricks Spidey into killing her, which was the first time he had ever killed anyone (depending on how you come down on what happened with Gwen). Seriously, though, this is still a controversial issue, but it arguably lended some tragic realism to Peter Parker as someone who, while in action, would be truly dangerous to be around (as with any of these superheroes or Hulks and what have you). But this lethal collateral damage has happened only once for the character, and alluding to it here, with MJ’s life at stake, is poignant.

Yeah, that’s my favorite moment this issue, as the pickings are otherwise real slim.

As was heavily foreshadowed inFree Comic Book Day 2022: Judgment Day, robo-Moira has kidnapped Krakoan Medicines spokeswoman Mary Jane Watson.FCBD’s ghoulish cliffhanger sparked much Twittering over whether she’d be wearing MJ’s skin à la Banshee’s (inX Deaths) to get into the Gala. But that was obviously never going to happen with a non-mutant heartthrob like MJ. So, it had to involve possessing her mind in some way—and that’s what happens: Moira’s lops off her own arm to make of it a fashionable if Lovecraftian necklace around MJ’s throat, turning her into Moira’s “meat puppet” (Moira’s own words), with her consciousness intact but buried deep, helpless in her own body.

But wait! Is this Moira’s prosthesis? Of course not. But you thought it for a second, right? Remember inInfernoDoug mysteriously gifted Moira a techno-organic prosthesis made of Warlock’s substance. But then, inX Deaths她偏执地愤怒地把它砍了下来。这可能是达根在这里抛出的一个聪明的线索，精明的读者要么会看到几个潜在的理论都指向一个相似的结果，被证明是正确的，要么这里没有真正的暗示，这是毫无意义的(这是拐弯抹角的赞美吗?)

In other words, maybe the “real” Moira who will get to enjoy her eleventh life after all is being stored in that now severed prosthesis, which was either blown up in a motel inX Deaths#2 or the T-O Wolverine retrieved it from the wreckage. I forget which (and am not going back to look!).

At the close of the Gala issue Moira’s robot arm is back, meaning this last scene, occurring early the next day per the caption, takes place afterASM#9, although we won’t know what the heck happened for two months!

Of course, here at issue’s end, the mystery of Moira’s arm is easy to pass over as readers wonder how the heck she got in contact with the Eternals, specifically Druig and Jack of Knives (respectively, the new Prime Eternal and an exciting Gillen creation, both from hisEternalsrun).

Judgment Day Aside

Unfortunately, the upcoming event that I was initially excited for is increasingly feeling like it’s just forced.

Why is Moira meeting with the most Machiavellian of Eternals? Duh. Because there’s a big event involving mutants and Eternals! Okay, but…why is that happening again? Because Druig’s in charge of his people now and suddenly needs a new direction for them, to reconfirm their Celestial-programmed mission of eliminating “excess deviation.” Why is the usually endlessly subtle snake-charmer suddenly interested in straightforward genocide? Because Gillen was writing Marvel’s best series of 2021, but it was canceled, and since he’s in the X office, he can at least continue the more interesting narrative threads from that title while helming a summer blockbuster that pushes all the right buttons for sales: mutants fighting for their lives against genocidal maniacs; squeezing any remaining audience interest from the recentEternalsmovie; and shoeing in another top-selling property, the Avengers, which will resonate with fans of 2012’sAvX(recalling the Avengers’ attitude there toward mutantkind, which went from diffident to hostile).

Is any of this what Gillen would have chosen to focus on ifEternals没有被取消?谁知道;但是很多明显的卖点并不像他的风格。同样，不幸的是，到目前为止，冲突的设置感觉相当勉强。莫伊拉在晚会上与德鲁伊和杰克见面，告诉他们如果他们想要摧毁克拉科阿，就应该以复活五人组为目标，这似乎只是让这两个完全不相关的团体见面的一个诡计。

而且，拜托，机器人莫伊拉不就是过度偏差的缩影吗?

2. No More Secrets in the Family

这个问题背后的其他秘密是在莫伊拉和她的儿子之间，艾玛和斯科特之间。

1. Nightmare Mum

Continuing with Moira first, her son—to whom, however justified or not (given his dangerous powers) she hadalwaysbeen his jailer (Uncanny#104) and then nearly his killer (#126-128)—has just arrived at the Gala alongside his fellow Five, after they were expressly forbidden by their guardian Magik (she apparently changed her mind, against Council orders)—and Mother, in the “meat puppet” guise of MJ, takes him aside out on a terrace and quickly reveals herself through the knowing venom of her words.

Despite Moira’s shortcomings as a mother, this is certainly the first time she’s spoken in this way to Kevin. Further confirmation that this isn’t the real Moira?! Oh, I can see it now: The true heroine returns, and soon enough, after the emotional embraces, her son asks her if she really despised him so much. Of course, she’ll acknowledge how hard it was, that everything’s always been so difficult, but these negative feelings were merely passing frustrations, not a lasting judgment on her dear child.

Maybe I’d be less cynical if the few possible outcomes weren’t so predictable in tired Marvel/Big 2 fashion. Please prove me wrong, Gerry!!!

Kevin is right, though: The old him would have lashed out violently at his mother’s shocking spite, which means reality would’ve started to get perilously slippery for everyone in the vicinity. Didn’t happen, though! For the young man has indeed matured—because, duh, he’s part of the Five, and they’re like family, yeah? That’s what Hope says. And it must be so, since how else have they been functioning at a critical unit for four years now? Haven’t you been impressed by how far Proteus has come?

Oh, damn, there I go again, being cynical. This scene must be the most Proteus has spoken in four years. And sure, it’s all starting to make sense—we just had to assume until now that he had matured, or that something weird had happened to him, like Xavier mind-control, say. And maybe that’s still true. It’s impossible to guess since we’ve barely spent any time with these characters (except Hope,recently).

Anyway, Moira/MJ runs off, followed by Spidey and Wolvie. Later, she assures her Eternals allies(?) that she’s sown the seeds of Krakoa’s destruction. So, who knows—maybe Proteus will crack yet, and reality will run like psychedelic lava. Whatever’s happening here, nothing in this story has sold it to this reader.

1. Slow Dance Nightmares

As to Emma and Scott, they trade their recent secret discoveries, telepathically, while enjoying a slow dance. Scott’s reveal that Stasis is Essex is followed by Emma’s splash-page infodump on everything about Moira X. Both are pretty shattered, I guess, but they keep their cool. This issue isn’t really about any of this, though, so we move on quickly.Immortal X-Men#4, a wonderful piece of high comic art, follows up on the mystery of Sinister and Stasis, only to explode expectations at the last minute.

Oh, and Synch is aging rapidly, a process triggered whenever he syncs with other mutants at a distance—despite being an omega. He wants Dr. Reyes to keep it a secret, though. Again, this is another tease, there and gone in two pages. There’s so much else going on here, it’s hard to say much else except it’s mildly disconcerting. After all, how many looming disasters can we feel really anxious about at once?

Synch, Forge and Firestar now have their own dark secrets that we’ll see unfold in the coming months, probably well afterJudgment Dayhas come and gone.

But let’s hope it all ends with Stark and Xavier duking it out atop the wreckage, mano y mano, shirtless but helmed in their respective tin hats. I’d pay eight bucks for that.