The House Of X Burns In Inferno #1

Jonathan Hickman’s time on Krakoa comes to a close. Will he burn it all down on the way out? Valerio Schiti, David Curiel and Joe Sabino join him for the crescendo that is Inferno #1.

Chris Eddleman: And so we come to it at last. After the (for some, shocking) news that Jonathan Hickman was leaving Marvel’s X-Men line, we knew that this four issue mini would effectively be the end of his time on Marvel’s Merry Mutants. I didn’t know that would be the case when agreeing to write about this miniseries. It was honestly a little due to vanity. I wrote on the initial House of X/Powers of X write-ups, and I can’t pretend that Hickman wasn’t one of the reasons why. But now it feels like a bit like a Midwestern goodbye. We know it’s ending, we know we’ve got a countdown, and now I’m just slapping my knee and saying “welp.” But I won’t be alone today! I’m joined of course by Eisner award winning editor and writer Nola Pfau, who’s going to be my partner for this delve into the Hickman finale.

Nola Pfau: Hey, that’s me! Honestly, I was really excited to jump into this one because I am a…well, a somewhat strong devotee of the original “Inferno” event. I also didn’t know it would be the last direct Hickman project originally! From the interviews here and there, I really figured he had a couple more years in him, given everything he’d had to say about the line. Of course, who could’ve known at the start of HoXPoX that we’d run into something like a severe global pandemic that would drastically change our way of life and even shut down the entire comics industry for several months? (The answer is experts everywhere, who were warning us about it well in advance. *hard stare directly into camera*)

It’s Just the Same Old Song, But With a Different Beat

Emma calls back to the start of it all in Inferno #1 — Inferno #1 | Marvel | Schiti, Curiel

Chris: So we wanted to start from the beginning (what a concept), in which we see the already twice shown scene of the Hatchery at Krakoa, where House of X started with Charles Xavier awakening Cyclops and giving the line of “To Me, My X-Men.” However, we get a twist, in which Emma Frost is wearing the Cerebro Helmet as a memoryless Charles Xavier is resurrected. I think it’s safe to say that this is a bit of a Hickman Ouevre. And we see it throughout this issue.

Nola: We really do—I like that you’re specifically mentioning starting from the beginning here, because this is a very classic Hickman move, this taking of events he’s already written and filtering through a new lens. From the inversion of Emma being the one to resurrect Charles (am I a little disappointed she doesn’t look like she’s doing a weird little dance, the way he did in House of X? Maybe. I’ll live), to the revisiting of the Mystique/Destiny/Moira scene also found in that event, Hickman loves to build stories on scenes like this, which are either recontextualized or reinterpreted later on. Of course, as beginnings go, it kind of isn’t one, right? Last I remember, Charles was alive…

Chris: Yeah, much like that initial scene back in House of X #1, this one definitely seems out of sequence with the rest of the issue, it likely being a later event that we’ll get context for as time goes on. As a prologue, it’s a real zinger, and it was hard to not be immediately invested. It was nice getting to see Curiel and Schiti getting to show off right away. Now, we’ll get back to what those dastardly Orchis goobers are up to in a bit but, to our original point—I would like to talk about the Moira/Destiny/Mystique scene. Like a good little researcher, I read it next to its equivalent scene in House of X #2, and while in general, the tone of the scene is the same, the biggest thing I noticed was Mystique having more lines. My take is that while the original sequence is from Moira’s point of view, this retelling is specifically from Mystique’s. Am I off-base here?

Nola: Honestly, I hadn’t even considered it from that perspective, but it seems likely! I had figured that a lot of this was information he was holding back originally as a storyteller, just for the fun of being able to dole it out later, as well as to keep the original scene shorter and punchier. I do like that Mystique has much more dialogue here—one of the things that has kind of rubbed me raw about her portrayal in this era is that she hasn’t really had much to say that wasn’t specifically about Destiny. She got to be upset about that (and rightfully, with cause) a bunch, but she didn’t really get to do much beyond that, so to see her in control here, making moves in line with her original goals was really neat. That’s part of the thing I always loved about her, even back in the day, she was all about the mutant cause.

Chris: Yeah even if my little theory is completely crap (they often are, it’s fine), I liked this especially given what we’ve seen of Mystique in this era. I wanted to also hone in on the last words Destiny speaks. In both scenes, Destiny orders Pyro to roast Moira alive as a punishment for her hubris in trying to create a mutant cure. However, in the initial reading, she says “Burn her. And slowly, so she doesn’t forget how dying like this feels.” In Inferno, she states, “…so she doesn’t forget what failing to change feels like.”

I find this difference really interesting and striking, especially given the content of the rest of his first issue. We’re practically beaten over the head with “change” as a theme, and honestly that’s been kind of a signpost for this entire era. Heck, if we wanted to get really into it, this could be a dig at attempts to write the X-Men as a greatest hits. But in this instance, I think Hickman (through Destiny) is trying to portray Moira as someone who has a tendency to become set in her ways, which honestly seems logical given how much Magneto and Xavier tend to just kind of do whatever the heck they want and not listen to the thousand year old lady, but is a distinct character flaw which makes Moira really fascinating to me. But I think this line is going to be important, especially as we see Moira thumbing through that old book with the cure still mentioned.

Nola: What was it she said? “I haven’t slept peacefully for a thousand years.” Mood, Moira. Mood.

I see what you’re saying about viewpoints, though! That change in dialogue really does kind of sell that, because of course Moira, who subsequently had to burn to death and then be reincarnated with the memory of that, might remember the focus being on the death, as opposed to the concept of change that Mystique and Destiny were trying to hit home. For Moira, it’s personal, it’s about the harm and the damage done, and for the other two, it’s about the future, about changing to survive. That’s even right there in the text when you compare the two scenes; in the original, the emphasis is on Mystique saying “Now listen closely…Destiny has a word for you,” but in the version here, that “listen closely” bit not only isn’t emphasized, it’s entirely absent! The line instead is simply “Destiny has a word for you.” It really sells your read of the scene, I think. The other major line change here is that, when confronted with the fact of her eventual permanent mortality, in the original scene Moira asks “How is that possible?” whereas here she asks “How can I die?” It could just be my interpretation, but that change combined with her talk about being a thousand years old really makes me curious if it’s a thing she wants. It’s got to weigh on a soul, living the life over like that.

What’s Your Sign? Oh, Orchis Rising, Krakoa Waning.

Orchis and Hordeculture learn a secret of Krakoa in Inferno #1 — Inferno #1 | Marvel | Schiti, Curiel

Chris: So during House of X, a crack team of mutants was sent to the Orchis Forge, a massive facility orbiting the sun, where they incapacitated a Mother Mold, which would have ended up leading to a Nimrod. Following that, the Krakoans destroyed every Orchis base on Earth, leading them to assume an easy victory. But back on the Forge, scientist Dr. Gregor re-creating Nimrod, and Orchis clawed its way back into power. Right after our cold open, we jump into an action scene as X-Force is sent to attempt to blow up the station, only for them to be absolutely annihilated by Nimrod. We get some fun data pages about the Orchis base locations, but also about all the attempts of the mutants to destroy the Forge, including poor Magneto having an aneurysm in an attempt to drag the station into the sun. [Ed. note: Rest in peace Technet] It seems as though after Nimrod’s activation, things are made in the shade for the human beings. I was honestly a bit bummed that Orchis seemed to fold so quickly early on in Hickman’s run, so I’m glad we’re back to dealing with them. What struck you about these villains being back on top?

Nola: Well, the first thing that struck me is that for a bit I forgot that Orchis’ big station thing was called the Forge, so I thought for some reason there was a data page about the X-Men trying to throw Forge the mutant into the sun. Which, you know, fair, given some of the things he’s done in the past. Ororo may forgive you Forge, but I never will.

I think the thing I keep chewing on here is that I’m intimately familiar with the way that X-Force operates as a team, since that’s been my beat over at WWAC, and even if the insertion team we’re shown here (Wolverine, Kid Omega, and Domino) don’t remember all of these missions in which they’ve died at Orchis and Nimrod’s hands, their missions are always orchestrated remotely. There’s always a constant information flow back and forth between the field team and Sage, who is not exactly a slouch in that role. Not only does she have an eidetic memory and perfect recall, but she’s also a telepath in her own right, a thing that people sometimes forget since Scott hasn’t actively tried to sleep with her. So surely, as much as Orchis thinks they’re not learning, or adapting, something more has to be at play here?

Chris: I find it interesting that Orchis is simultaneously learning about the resurrection process as Ben Urich is back in the main X-Men book. They don’t seem to actively be attacking mutantkind or Krakoa, as they seem to feel the whiff of inevitability on their side. It’s wild how much the simple existence of Nimrod seems to have turned the tide for the villains but, I think the art team portrays him as so incredibly terrifying that it worked pretty well for me. He’s the representation of “adaptation,” which mutants were portrayed as so good at in the beginning of this run. But like a technological singularity, the machines have assisted humanity in lapping mutants. But if I recall correctly, in Powers of X, we learn that machines are only a tool that helps humankind, and that they always win in the end…

We also see Orchis’s bases on Earth, which mainly seem to be glorified listening posts, as they are able to hack into and track the opening/closing of Krakoan gateways. Hickman brought us a little cameo of Hordeculture, our geriatric botanists with ecoterrorism in mind. Plus, the Orchis scientists were apes, because they all TURNED THEMSELVES INTO APES in X-Men #1 [Ed. note: Careful, those apes have PhDs]. This whole scene didn’t add a ton for me other than some interesting flavor but, it was a nice introduction to the lady we all came to see.

Nola: I love how terrifying and unassailable Nimrod is here, partly because my earliest association with the character is the cover of Uncanny X-Men #194, where we see him hoisting Juggernaut one-handed whilst also keeping Rogue on her knees, despite her having absorbed the powers of both Colossus and Nightcrawler. It’s really been a while since he featured prominently, but it’s important to remember just how scary he can be.

My immediate response to those Orchis scenes was, of course, excitement at the return of Doctor Devo, a criminally underused delight of a character. The sheer payoff of his name followed by the “devolution” of his team into apes is just good, old-fashioned comics fun. You’re right in that it didn’t add a ton—I think the biggest point this scene turns on is the discovery of Moira’s secret gate to Paris, a thing we knew about as readers, but that no one else outside of Charles and Erik were aware of until this point. I have to say that I enjoyed the way they got to that reveal, though, the data crunching of their monitoring systems and the way they had to call in outside analysts to track the source of it. I can think of X-Men eras in which we’d have simply seen an ambush at the gate and a surprise reveal that they had figured it out, but here we see them putting in the work, and I love that. Of course, that brings us to the discussion between Moira, Charles, and Erik…

No One Else Was In The No-Space Where It Happened

Destiny returns in Inferno #1 — Inferno #1 | Marvel | Schiti, Curiel

Chris: So, Erik and Charles finally come to Moira for advice after basically saying for the past several years that they totally got all this and that they just need Moira to chill because her simple existence is the most important thing. Moira reiterates that the two scariest things are Nimrod and Destiny, and then immediately STOPS talking about Nimrod and instead reminds them that they absolutely positively cannot resurrect Destiny. I think we see a bit more of the duplicitous nature of these two men, as we find out that they’ve bugged Moira’s very body, and can track her movements. They claim of course, this is for her protection, but it absolutely reeks of paternalistic crap.

Nola: It absolutely does, and when that reveal dropped my immediate response was “THAT’s the Charles I know.” I remember feeling like something felt off back during HoXPoX, I was so trained to mistrust him, and for all that he’s been a little full of himself since, he’s been pretty benign for the most part, but whew, bugging her like that? DIRE breach of ethics and trust, and of course Forge developed the tech. What was it I was saying about him earlier? Throw him into the sun.

The other thing that caught my eye here is Moira’s insistence on getting rid of Destiny once and for all. In the close context of their conversation being part of the same issue, it strikes me that they are discussing these plans as an experiment, and that Destiny specifically invokes that whisper in the back of Moira’s mind about wanting to be on the winning side. It’s not stated explicitly within that scene, but it it absolutely reads to me like she’s intending on being there at the end of it all, to see the conclusion of that experiment, to confer with Moira on it, and whereas the understanding prior was “No precogs,” it now reads much more like Moira is simply not having it. She seems to have come around on helping mutantkind, but she’ll never forgive Destiny in particular, and she wants to make sure her revenge for that scene is absolutely final. Hell hath no fury.

Chris: Moira’s scorched Earth policy hits a fever pitch as we slide towards the end of this issue, with Charles seemingly asking Sinister to destroy Destiny’s DNA and Magneto taking a trip to the Cerebro located on his Octopus-themed island. The lack of dialogue here is interesting to me, I think not all is as it seems. Was it REALLY Charles who came to Sinister? Perhaps someone who can look like whoever they want?

But the real punch of this issue comes after a nice little changing of the guard as Cyclops steps down from Captain-Commander, and Bishop takes his mantle with Psylocke replacing the irrevocably changed Gorgon. Obviously any good(?) unelected oligarchy needs occasional changing to keep ideas fresh, and with Jean Grey and Apocalypse gone, there needs to be some fresh faces. And thus the final punch of the issue, wherein I pumped my fist in glee. Nola, how about that finale?

Nola: I loved the bit of housekeeping with the Captains, because it’s another reminder of the care being taken with these characters. In the times before the 90s, this was the kind of thing that mattered to creators, before the rise of ubiquitous Wolverine appearances ushered in a looser understanding of comic book time. Cyke stepping down here makes sense, both because Jean’s already left the council and because his time is full with the actual field team of X-Men. It also kind of sells that idea a bit more, one of Jean and Scott as a unit who work together, Krakoan politics be damned. I love the addition of Psylocke and Bishop both, too…Kwannon is likely going to need a new role going forward with the way things are going in Hellions, and Bishop is long, long overdue for something like this. He’s always had the skillset and simply never been given the chance before now, which is a real shame.

And as for that final scene…listen. I’m on record as carrying a kind of torch for Destiny. She’s an absolute favorite of mine, because she’s sharp, incisive, and she never has time for everyone else’s nonsense, and that’s before getting into her and Raven really blurring the line between subtext and text back in the day. Her walking into that council meeting is the kind of thing I think we all knew was coming, but it doesn’t lessen the power of it at all—it’s like watching that last domino fall into place (apologies to Domino, who also…erm…fell in this issue). You know it’s coming, but it’s still so, so satisfying to see it happen.

Chris: So my completely dumb self absolutely did NOT see it coming. I think I suspected Destiny’s return would be after some bloodshed, so this revelation as a bit of a blindside for me. It’s exciting though and I think it really highlights what a comic book cliffhanger can look like. I feel like sometimes teams really think of a comic as a part of a trade, but in doing this delightful cliffhanger, we get a little bit of monthly comics magic. Is that me completely overselling it? Maybe! But I can’t remember a last page I’ve liked more in recent memory. I like that the majority of this comic was intrigue, with a slight side helping of punching. I think that level of plotting has been a highlight of this era, and given X-fans who just love some chatting and scheming a really nice proverbial cookie.

I think this issue was a pretty rousing success. Hickman is definitely going out with a bit of a bang, and I’ve honestly been waiting for this storytelling since HoX/PoX ended. I think my one complaint is that largely the space in-between these two stories feels less consequential than I’d like in light of this first issue. We got our Mystique and Nimrod pieces in X-Men, but in some ways this feels like it almost could have been X-Men #1. I dunno, that’s probably nitpicking but, I feel like this is definitely the case of Hickman taking his time. That being said, I loved this issue. I think the storytelling was strong, and the art team brought the thunder. Even in my slowly hardening-against-comics-heart, I can’t wait for issue 2!

Nola: I super agree with that, honestly. I know that the pandemic really affected the momentum of the line, and it took a while to get the wheels spinning again, but this issue really feels like it’s the first thing taking the time to answer the questions we’ve all been asking from the start, and even then, there are still so many! HoXPoX had so much going on, seeded so many things and we’re only just now even getting to some of that elsewhere—take Mars/Arakko for instance, and Sinister’s cloning. We knew it was a thing, but the Hellfire Gala was only a few months ago, and it took until then to actually establish the mutant presence there. Don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of complex, difficult subjects raised in these books, and a lot of it was fairly rewarding, but it all falls away before the questions of Moira and Destiny, the things we’ve been hungry for since the start. I dunno about X-Men #1, but I definitely feel like we should’ve been getting here by X-Men #12 or so. This absolutely feels like a first-year culmination.

That aside, I’m right there with you. This comic excites me, it makes me want to talk about it, it inspires that same feeling of hopefulness and possibility that I felt when HoXPoX was first happening.

X-Traneous Thoughts

The War Captains of Krakoa celebrate a new tradition in Inferno #1 — Inferno #1 | Marvel | Schiti, Curiel

Krakoan reads “Destiny”
Doug’s little morning routine is the greatest thing ever.
Poor Black Tom Cassidy feels like he’s being eaten by a machine? Is that Warlock??
Kurt being unable to sit in a chair properly is all the confirmation I need, thank you very much.
Given the root of the word Orchis and the constant failed attempts to push them into the sun, I’m left to conclude that those mutants just can’t get the balls to drop.
Bishop seems like a shoe-in for Captain Commander, and we hope that we doesn’t languish here like he’s seemed to have done for all of this era.
Curious where Hickman head Robert Secundus is? Well, we couldn’t end this era without a goodbye at our sister site [Ed. note: I legally have no idea if I can say that] Polygon.