Immortal X-Men #9 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #9
“The X Lives of Moira VI”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: Davie Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Kate Pryde, with swords, confronts a gun-toting Mr Sinister.
PAGE 2. Tribute to Stan Lee. He was born on 28 December 1922, so presumably we’re getting this page throughout the month of December.
PAGES 3-5. Kate Pryde attends a Quiet Council meeting.
Kate Pryde is principally a Marauders character, but the format of Immortal X-Men is to do an issue from the standpoint of each member of the Quiet Council. This is another issue where that format gets stretched a bit in deference to the wider plot, since this is mainly about Mr Sinister’s storyline and his abuse of clones of Moira MacTaggert.
Kate’s main role here is to be the one who can see the appeal of the new Phoenix Foundation (from the epilogue of A.X.E.: Judgment Day) from almost everyone’s different perspective, whether that’s compassionate, pragmatic or merely cynical. Exodus – the dogmatist – is the one that she can’t really identify with, and it’s Hope who identifies that the correct angle in his case is to appeal to his religious values. Which is interesting in itself, since Hope seems to understand him increasingly as the series goes on. Anyway, Kate clearly values the idea of all different perspectives of mutantdom being able to unite around something.
Judgment Day. Most of the recent events being discussed here come from the A.X.E: Judgment Day crossover – the death of Magneto, the attack on Arakko, the treaty with the Eternals, the “Reykjavik near disaster” (i.e., the attempt to blow up the Progenitor that nearly took out a chunk of the Northern hemisphere), Orchis acting as heroes, and the creation of a programme to make resurrection available to a small number of the poor.
“No one had any idea about why Kurt had grown horns…” This is the current arc in Legion of X, where it hasn’t yet been explained either.
“I preferred Exodus when he was strong and silent. I mean, I do have a type.” Kate is referring to Colossus; I’m not sure it really applies very much to any of her other love interests, though. Pete Wisdom? Anyway, Kate is right – Exodus is getting rather more chatty. He used to say almost nothing in Council meetings, but under Hope’s influence (and Gillen’s writing, let’s be honest) he’s contributing a lot more.
“Everyone laughed. Well, everyone except Mystique and Destiny…” Apparently that includes Exodus himself, or at the very least Kate seems to think Exodus is intentionally making a joke at his own expense. By his standards this really is lightening up. Mystique and Destiny don’t laugh because they know what’s coming and their attention is elsewhere.
PAGES 6-7. Sinister tries to kill Hope.
Sinister doubtless expects Destiny to intervene – see below.
Doctor Stasis is the apparent duplicate of Mr Sinister with a club instead of a diamond, from Gerry Duggan’s X-Men. Stasis and Sinister both maintain that they’re the original. The previous issue strongly implies that both were created simultaneously (as well as spade and heart versions).
The closing caption – “Moira VI.1 death” – is explained shortly.
PAGE 8. Recap and trailers. The title, “The X Lives of Moira VI”, refers back to the title of House of X #2, “The Uncanny Lives of Moira X”.
PAGE 9. Flashback: Sinister and Destiny.
“Our scheme didn’t work as we’d hoped…” Sinister and Destiny manipulated the rest of the Quiet Council into attacking the Progenitor directly by concealing the fact that it risked a devastating explosion.
“We must be on the same side” is a point that Destiny has made to Sinister repeatedly in this series.
“Did you get judged?” Sinister mentioned twice in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6 that the Progenitor hadn’t got around to judging him. Obviously, he suspects that it might be because Dr Stasis is right and he’s just a copy. Destiny is deliberately playing into that fear – but why? Presumably she has a reasonable idea of what she’s likely to prompt. Sinister claims in the next scene that being ignored by the Progenitor also offends his sense that he’s the most important person in all existence, and he might mean that too, but it’s probably just persona – which he keeps up even in private.
PAGES 10-12. Flashback: Sinister decides to kill the Quiet Council.
Sinister goes from claiming that “This Stasis problem needs a permanent solution” at the start of the scene to deciding that he’s going to kill the Quiet Council. How exactly that addresses anything to do with Stasis is less than clear – is he hoping to seize control of Krakoa as the last Council member standing? Is the aim to get rid of Hope and put a stop to resurrection? His second data page in this issue very strongly implies that Hope is the very top priority.
Sinister also helpfully explains the limits of his Moira Engine. For reasons connected with her unusual powers, he can only clone Moira a limited number of times, and each clone can only reset the timeline ten times. That tallies with Destiny’s claim in House of X #2 that Moira was unlikely to have more than ten lives. Sinister has multiple Moiras because each one acts as a different “save point” (he sees everything as a game), and he hasn’t yet exhausted the resets available from earlier clones. As we saw in issue #1, he downloads his memories into Moira before killing her each time, meaning that the data is available to be read in her memories in the rebooted timeline. Since this new Moira has no memories, he knows he’s dealing with her first iteration.
This time, Sinister is apparently relaying his memories directly to the Moira clone, and has her set up to die if he dies. In other words, he seems to be deliberately anticipating his own death and working through various iterations in an attempt to figure out how he can outwit Destiny and achieve his goals.
Cy-Cat and Professor Plod have been seen wandering around in the background throughout this series, but this is the first time we’ve seen them talk, or given names.
Velocidad was an apparent speedster who actually had time-warping powers, from Gillen’s Generation Hope book.
PAGE 13. Data page: Sinister’s list of priorities. For the most part he’s rated the Council members in terms of their capacity to defeat him in combat, though Destiny understandably merits a high priority. Interestingly, Kate – whose issue this notionally is – is one of his lowest priorities, suggesting that he doesn’t see her (or the equally-ranked Mystique) as particularly significant.
PAGE 14. Moira VI’s second life.
Sinister tries blowing up the Quiet Council with a bomb based on the powers of Boom-Boom from the New Mutants. Destiny sees it coming, and Exodus kills Sinister. As before, Kate asks “What’s going on?”, and her narration of the page reset to “Everything was normal” (more or less her opening line in the issue).
PAGE 15. Moira VI’s third life.
Kate’s narration once again resets, and ends with “What the hell is going on?” This time, Sinister effectively commits suicide by rigging himself to die if the telepaths try reading his mind. Note that it’s Hope who insists on reading his mind by force; Professor X disapproves and Emma apparently isn’t minded to try it either. Maybe she thinks it’s a bad precedent to set with another Council member, or maybe she’s just worried about traps.
PAGES 16-17. Moira VII’s fourth to ninth lives.
Sinister figures out that Destiny must know what he’s going to do long before she actually gives the warning, which means she’s deliberately holding back until the last minute – most likely because if she makes the claim earlier, the very act of doing so will alter the timeline and her credibility will be undermined. This is the window of opportunity that Sinister is trying to exploit.
Sinister’s comment that “When this is all over, I’ll come for you, Irene” is curious. Isn’t “this” meant to include killing her?
Kate’s oblivious (though perfectly accurate) narration continues to reset to the same structure. Not much is changing from life to life. Sinister isn’t making much headway. Life 8 sees Sinister rig his mind so that a telepath’s head blows up if they try to read it, which seems… a risky precedent? I suspect it’s one of those things that’ll never come up again.
In life 9, Sinister appears to have turned himself into a squid monster, given the diamond on its forehead – though of course his cat and tortoise have that too.
PAGE 18. A repeated version of the earlier data page with Sinister’s scribblings. Note the importance to him of killing Hope, but apparently not just her (“No Hope without Hope – her + 3+ others”). His priorities have changed somewhat too. Colossus and Nightcrawler have been downgraded to the lowest priority, as has Shaw, who Sinister figures he can maybe use. This might be an error, but Destiny’s printed priority rating has changed from 9 to 6. Sinister also figures that he can’t been Storm, and the solution is to “distract her” – possibly alluding the point that often comes up in X-Men Red about Storm’s worst failures coming because she’s simply in the wrong place and not there when she’s needed.
PAGE 19. Sinister schemes.
He apparently has the little chess-piece figures so beloved of classic villains.
The Dark Beast turns out to be trapped in a tube in Sinister’s lab. As Sinister points out, given the storylines in X-Force, the real Beast is actually much worse these days. Dark Beast is just a floating head because Magik decapitated him in Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #20 (part of the Rosenberg run). This is the first time we’ve seen him since then, and perhaps explains why he hasn’t been resurrected along with all Rosenberg’s other slaughter victims.
PAGES 20-24. Moira VI’s last life.
“Shaw had gotten a crate of cocktails…” As per his data page, Sinister has tried to engineer things to his advantage by getting everyone drunk and diverting Storm.
“I am nothing like Stasis…” Having finally succeeded in killing four of the Quiet Council, Shaw goes on to a rant about how he feels threatened by Stasis – and also throws in a suggestion that once Moira got driven out of the utopia that she sort-of created, he figures it was only a matter of time before they came for him. He is, of course, somewhat correct that Utopia – and in particular its resurrection systems – couldn’t have been created without his DNA reserves.
“There’re the contingencies…” It seems odd that this far into the Krakoan era, nobody has thought to test whether somebody other than Hope can take her place in an emergency (such as Synch, for example). You’d have thought that was worth knowing. Presumably there’s some reason why it hasn’t been tested – a fear of resurrecting someone in broken form, maybe, or a worry about undermining the cult of worship deliberately created around the Five for cultural reasons.
Kate. Note that after ending all previous scenes by wondering what was happening, Kate’s position changes upon Sinister’s success to “I know what’s going on” – and with Xavier, Hope, Emma and Exodus all dead, and Storm absent, it’s Kate who takes the lead. Perhaps Sinister’s failure to register her throughout this issue will pay off next time.
PAGE 25. Trailers.
My guess is that Pryde’s phasing capabilities are counteracting Moira’s power to some extent, somehow. Maybe because it’s happening in such quick succession.
It’d be interesting if Kate’s powers were doing something there. My initial take was just that the repeated bits were just her take on what happened in that timeline. Like, the first few attempts were just so… pathetic that she was confused. They were definitely the sorts of things he’d only do with the out of Moira to help feel things out.
Going through them…
1. Completely off camera, no remark from Kate.
2. A good Sinisterish way of trying to deal with them but easily foiled. Kitty expects more from Mr. Sinister.
3. Completely sad from Kitty’s POV. Kitty asks what’s going on.
4. Does some damage but definitely *not* his normal MO. Kitty asks what’s going on.
5. Does actual damage but still, weird MO for Kitty. Kitty asks what’s going on.
6. Just.. random failure. Kitty asks what’s going on because seriously, that was random.
7. Less random, still damaging, but he makes a strange (to them) remark as he dies. Kitty asks what’s going on.
8. Less damaging but something much more like you’d expect with Sinister (mad science, not going at them with a gun). Kitty just goes yuck.
9. Very successful attack, but Kitty doesn’t seem to even realize it was Sinister. She gives her WTF but that was pretty WTF-worthy.
10. The first attack where he gets what he wanted and gets out. At this point Kitty doesn’t ask what’s going on because he’s finally lived up to what she actually expects out of Mr. Sinister’s sudden yet inevitable betrayal.
Might be the best comic of the year for me. And hey, not much of the year left to top that.
I had the same thought, that Kate was just playing the role of an uninvolved bystander, narrating each timeline’s specific events, and wasn’t to be read as an active participant. It didn’t seem like there was intended to be any greater significance to her differing reactions, beyond that the desperation of Sinister’s assassination attempts was escalating.
I think it could have made a degree of sense if her powers actually *were* interacting oddly with Moira’s, as has been suggested, but this would be the first sign of anything of the sort happening.
I think in general Gillen is telling a story primarily about Sinister and Destiny, and the X-Men (former X-Men?) themselves are only secondary and tertiary characters in it. They don’t get to affect the outcome of whatever resolution Gillen is building towards, I don’t think. Their fates are already locked in, thanks to Sinister’s time travel and Destiny’s prophesying.
(On that note: it seems as though Kurt Wagner, Sebastian Shaw, Colossus, and Kate just passively stood there, not doing anything, while Mr. Sinister spent an entire page very slowly inserting a bomb into Exodus’ mouth? I know there were other things going on, but three of them have a form of invulnerability as their power, and the fourth can teleport)
@Matt: The members of the council you mention were fighting/ being distracted by flying eyeballs shooting optic blasts. It’s only one panel, but I assume that’s what stopped them from tackling Sinister.
The Dark Beast cameo was hilarious.
I know Sins of Sinister is coming, so I wonder if the council members killed in this issue will stay dead until that event. Does Destiny stand to gain from Sinister’s victory? Or does it secure a future for mutants in a way that Moira couldn’t? She tried to warn the telepaths at the last minute, but who knows if that was for show or not.
Another solid issue from Gillen. If I’m not mistaken, Kate is the only character who is never killed in any of these timelines (except Storm, who is lured away). But what that means is she’s the only character who could serve this observer role. And while I don’t doubt that Sinister could devise a means of killing her, it does suggest he’s underestimated her. And she does takes charge at the end of this issue, so.
” Shaw goes on to a rant…”
@ Paul I think you meant to write Sinister here
Mike Loughlin said: I know Sins of Sinister is coming, so I wonder if the council members killed in this issue will stay dead until that event. Does Destiny stand to gain from Sinister’s victory? Or does it secure a future for mutants in a way that Moira couldn’t? She tried to warn the telepaths at the last minute, but who knows if that was for show or not.
My guess is that it’s for show, and that this is actually about taking Sinister off the board in the end.
Sinister strikes and kills them, with Destiny shouting a last-minute warning. But then they come back, and defeat Sinister.
But Sinister’s defeat only happens if they have a reason to defeat him…such as Sinister killing them and taking over.
So Destiny gets her catalyst — Sinister strikes — but also stays in good with the Council — she tried to warn them.
More generally, the story structure reminds me a bit of Gillen’s Juggernaut story during Fear itself, with all the iterations and plans being tried out to defeat an opponent until someone figures out the additional variables needed to get the win.
I do also like the fact that Sinister seems to be breaking down over this a bit. I think the question Paul raised about how this all actually helps him deal with Stasis is that Sinister’s panicking and leaping into his endgame here. Destabilize and make sure that he’s on top.
From Sinister’s POV “Wait maybe I’m not the real one and I’m just being set up to do stuff by another me and will then be discarded” is a very credible idea. It’s the sort of thing he does! He doesn’t have the information that we have via last issue that suggests that he’s one of four equal Sinisters, and might not have really understood Cyclops’ information suggesting that Stasis is equally in the dark.
Worst case scenario to him, Stasis and he are both pawns of a Master Sinister. Best case, they’re equally real with no one else behind the curtain. And to someone who’s hacked his brain so that he is the only ‘real’ person in his mind, that’s probably an existential bombshell that’s affecting him deeply.
You know, we’ll have the four card suit Sinisters for now – for quite a bit, I expect. But now that I’ve seen you write down ‘Master Sinister’, I expect it’s a retcon just waiting to happen.
…and it would be a way to go back to traditionally villanous Sinister if somebody wanted to do that.
As for this issue – it was fun! Not really a Kate issue, but I like the Sinister/Destiny grand plot and it’s not like Kate is underdeveloped or has been suffering from little page time in recent… decades.
And the Sinister doodles on his Sinister scheme made for the funniest data page yet.
Just, great stuff all around.
I can’t wait until we also discover the existence of four OTHER Sinisters.
Wands/Swords/Cups/Pentacles.
Because Essex was trying to solve some OTHER problem and went with a Tarot theme…
I hope you’re wrong, @The Other Michael, because that would suggest an upcoming Tini Howard event.
btw who drew the Stan tribute? It’s a bit odd isn’t it? Magneto’s expression in particular is really unsettling.
I found this enjoyable, albeit a shame that we didn’t truly get a deep dive on Kate. This far in though, I think the reader knows this book is Sinister Vs Destiny.
I hope that Kate, if she has indeed figured it out, makes some allusion to having experienced multiple realities before. Even an offhand comment writing go a long way! Otherwise.. how?!
When I had initially suggested it I had somehow missed her saying it on the whole double page spread and what not, so I could have been wrong.
If it does turn out, I could imagine a hand-waving explanation that talks about how she wouldn’t normally notice it but because Sinister did in the span of a few hours (from his point of view) it allowed her to.
They could also explain it away by stating that since Moira resets the timeline to many years before Kate Pryde was born, it would have been harder for her to realize anything was happening. She would be living her life, Moira would die, then it would be (what?) more than twenty years into Moira’s next life before Kate Pryde would be born.
A few times, Moira would have died before Kate Pryde developed her mutant powers (or even been born), and in other lives, Kate Pryde would have been dead by the point where Moira died.
Or you could just claim that Kate has developed some measure of awareness of reality shifts for some reason, perhaps due to some experience during her years in Excalibur.
Not a very good explanation, but we do not usually achieve better ones.
For the record, I don’t think Kate is aware of Sinister’s multiple attempts. Her ‘I know what’s going on’ is just supposed to be a cute wrapper on the line repeated throughout the issue.
@Joseph S.
As for the Tribute for Stan, it’s Humberto Ramos, isn’t it? The smiles and the eyes are very characteristic.
Maybe Pryde is doing something similar to whatever it was she did in the movie to send Wolverine’s mind back in time. Phasing through the walls of reality or something.
Agreed, I don’t really reckon the line being reformulated is meant as much more than a charming, blockbuster-feeling cliffhanger for the issue, and as a punchline for Sinister’s failures.
The way I read it was that Kate would have the same reaction to a number of scenarios, except for the one which seems more obviously contrived or unusual from the get go (“Everything was normal… Okay, maybe not.”)
I don’t think Kate is confused at Sinister attacking, at all. I think she’s confused by how arbitrary and ill-planned each attack seems to be, tying into Gillen’s writing of Sinister as a bit of a genius and a bit of an idiot.
Oh, and I do like the idea of a Master Sinister twist. I mean, you have to keep the puns rolling, and it’d be a way to reconcile different aspects of the character.
That last comment @Kryziek Ceran.
I’m not sure Marvel will be able to resist doing Joker Sinister. Gillen probably can, but not Marvel.
“Yes, there are four suits in a deck, but you forgot the *other* cards…”
Even worse, two Joker Sinisters!
thekelvingreen said: I’m not sure Marvel will be able to resist doing Joker Sinister. Gillen probably can, but not Marvel.
“Yes, there are four suits in a deck, but you forgot the *other* cards…”
Even worse, two Joker Sinisters!
And their leader, the nigh-invincible Rules for Draw and Stud Poker Sinister.
I’d like to understand more about what Sinister is trying to accomplish here. In the “Earlier” flashback, so before his first attempt with Moira VI.1, he says:
“Let’s go for it. The FIRST STAGE is a success. We have the Moira Engine. Hope’s on the council… Let’s see if I can get the SECOND STAGE up and running.”
Are we supposed to know what he’s talking about here? Or is this intentionally mysterious?
Pseu42: Pretty sure it’s mostly intentionally mysterious. The only point that’s not is that he’s waited on creating more Moira clones for savepoints until he’s found a path he thinks he likes, since they’re a limited resource. We’ll see what else the second stage entails in the coming issues.
Or if you mean what he means by the first stage, yeah.. we also don’t know why it was important to get Hope on the council, especially since he apparently needed to kill her for next stage? Possibly he just needed her close to kill during his totally expected heel turn, but there could be more to it than that.
Just reading last week’s email newsletter from Kieron — he claims to have drawn some of the art in this issue, which I take to mean the doodles on the data page. Trivia!