Immortal X-Men #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:
- A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
- Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
- Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
- Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
- Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
- Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
- X-Men Red Jean Grey
- Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
- Another Jean too small to identify.
PAGE 2. Data page. Another of Exodus’s idiosyncratic bible translations. In the past, we’ve seen his versions of the Book of Exodus. This is described as his version of the Book of Apocalypse; specifically, it’s a loose version of Revelation 2:11-12. The Authorised King James Version reads:
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live – where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives.”
So:
- Jean Grey is the Holy Spirit.
- The “churches” have become “the people”.
- The “second death” or “final death”, in the original, is the final death of the damned on Judgment Day (as I understand it). Here, the allusion is to Krakoan resurrection.
- Krakoa is Pergamum (or Pergamon), which was a city in Turkey. Chapter 2 of Revelation mentions it as part of a list of seven major churches of the time. Broadly speaking, the writer is not very impressed by Pergamon compared to the others, and seems to see it as having fallen prey to heresy. What the original writer meant by an “angel” is a matter of dispute.
- The “sharp, two-edged sword” is usually a reference to the Word of God.
- Apocalypse is Satan.
- “The days of Antipas” have become a reference to the Days of Future Past storyline. Antipas was a martyr and saint who (so the story goes) was the bishop of Pergamon and was put to death by one of the Roman emperors.
PAGES 3-4. Professor X and Mr Sinister.
Professor X clarifies for us that he has figured out that Mr Sinister is only controlling him while he’s asleep. Sinister’s demeanour is much more calm and earnest than usual – either because he’s trying very hard to persuade Professor X, or because he’s genuinely chastened by learning about the Dominion in “Sins of Sinister”.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits. The tag line “No future in Krakoa’s dreaming” references “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols.
PAGES 6-11. Exodus and Hope fight Apocalypse.
Kind of, because we know this is a symbol rather than the real Apocalypse.
We saw a version of this scene in Jean Grey #4, from Jean’s perspective. That scene already has the following dialogue:
APOCALYPSE: Now you know. You are the mutant chalice where the future will be wrought. You must pass – or else all ends.
HOPE: Okay, Exodus. We’re in the White Hot Room. What does that mean?
EXODUS: It is a higher realm. Spiritual. I have often thought it akin to Tiphareth, from the Kabbalah. We’re in a place of primal creativity, of ideas made flesh.
This version adds Exodus’s line about Jean’s connection to the Phoenix, and her being “disassembled” – I think he means that being in the White Hot Room has caused her to be disassembled, whatever exactly that involves.
The scene then continues with Hope recapping that everything has been created from Hope’s perceptions of Wolverine and Bishop hunting her, and Apocalypse as a Satanic figure; and Exodus fighting Apocalypse to limited success. Then Hope gets the flaming sword, which we saw in Jean Grey #4, and we know is due to Jean trying to assist.
Jean’s narration. Continuing the format of Immortal X-Men, Jean Grey is the Quiet Council member who gets to narrate this issue – she hasn’t been on the Council for a while, but she’s close enough. While Jean Grey #4 tries to provide some form of resolution to Jean’s experiences in the White Hot Room, this issue plays her as still being mostly confused and caught up in garbled versions of her memories. Hence, all of her narration comes from old issues. Luckily for me, ComicsXF has already assembled all the references. So I’ll confine myself to giving the quick references here, and you can head over there if you want a bit more detail :
- “Now and forever, I am Phoenix” is from Jean’s debut as Phoenix (or vice versa) in X-Men #101.
- “I thought I was dead” through to “Something’s wrong” is from the opening of X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong #1. I have to admit I’d have been searching for hours before it occurred to me to check that one.
- “What kind of school is this, sir? I have a right to know!” is Jean arriving at the school for the first time in X-Men #1, and of course predates the retcon about Jean having known Xavier for years.
- “My consciousness ” through to “dormant emotions and memories” is not Jean, but Phoenix, in the back-up strip in Classic X-Men #8 (which expands on how Jean becomes Phoenix).
- “You guys make me sick” through to “wiped from the face of the Earth” is from X-Factor #1; Jean is unhappy that her fellow founding X-Men have left the team in her absence.
- “The fires of the Phoenix” through to “every deception” is from New X-Men #139, when Jean is lashing out at Emma Frost are discovering her affair with Scott.
- “No longer am I the woman you knew” through to the end of the page is X-Men #101 again.
- “I can’t screen out everyone’s thoughts” to “attractive” is Jean reflecting on her corruption by Mastermind as she scans the clientele of a dive bar in Uncanny X-Men #130.
Jean gets out one line of actual dialogue before her speech descends into quotations as well:
- “Jean is the house where I live – and I am the house where Jean Grey lives. The White Hot Room is where the Phoenix lives.” The line “Jean is the house where I live” is the Phoenix speaking to Professor X through Jean in New X-Men #128; the rest seems to be new, so it changes the emphasis somewhat.
- “You’ll learn more about me, boys, in time!” and “I hope I wasn’t too rough” are both from the scene in X-Men #1 where Jean demonstrates her powers to the boys.
PAGES 12-17. Professor X and Mr Sinister.
Mr Sinister has been in the Pit (which he calls “the Hole”) since Sins of Sinister: Dominion.
Forge’s cure was used to purge Sinister’s influence from the other Quiet Council members in issue #11, but Forge acknowledged that he wasn’t completely sure it was right.
The Black Womb Project was a secret genetic research project at Alamagordo, in which Professor X’s father was involved. (To some extent, it was a sliding timeline retcon: Alamagordo was a nuclear testing facility, which was obviously what Stan Lee had in mind when he first mentioned it in the 1960s.) Sinister was also involved in the Black Womb Project, and used it to try and take over Professor X back in X-Men Legacy #211-214.
“The homunculi” are Orbis Stellaris, Dr Stasis and Mother Righteous (though Sinister doesn’t seem to know that Righteous is the fourth one). Professor X understands them to be “hardly the real thing you are”, which is apparently how Sinister views them, but we know that all four of them are copies of the original Nathaniel Essex. Presumably this is a genuinely held wrong belief on Sinister’s part, rather than a fault in Xavier’s mind-reading.
Sinister implies that all four of them are compelled by their creator to pursue an ascent to Dominion status.
PAGES 18-19. Mother Righteous attacks Destiny.
Mother Righteous knows that they’re in the White Hot Room, but seems to view Jean’s arrival as an unwanted problem that requires action to be taken against Destiny.
She mentions to Destiny that her powers aren’t working because the concept of the future doesn’t apply in the White Hot Room. What Destiny seems to be realising is that the basic problem with defeating the Sinister Dominion was that it existed outside time and space; in the White Hot Room it no longer has that advantage over them and can, potentially, be averted. Destiny also seems to think that becoming a Dominion is something that Righteous would actually want to avoid, if she was fully informed.
Kafka sees Righteous stab Destiny, and Righteous decides that since she’s been exposed, she needs to cash in all the magical hold she acquired over Krakoa when the Quiet Council thanked her for her intervention in Sins of Sinister: Dominion.
The narrative caption at the start of the scene – “Our paths will cross no more. My destiny lies in the stars.” – is Dark Phoenix bidding farewell to the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #135.
PAGES 20-21. Mother Righteous turns Krakoa against the mutants.
The captions on page 22 are from Uncanny X-Men #136, where Dark Phoenix demonstrates her power to her parents by turning a pot plant into crystal.
The captions on page 23 are from Dark Phoenix confronting Jason Wyngarde in Uncanny X-Men #134.
PAGE 22. Professor X and Mr SInister leave for Muir Island.
PAGE 23. Mother Righteous takes Jean Grey into the desert.
Or rather, lets the addled Jean lead the way. The captions are again from X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong #1, where a fragment of the Phoenix was hunting for a host.
PAGE 24. Data page: another of Exodus’s takes on the Book of Revelation.
This is Revelation 2:19-20, from the part directed to the angel of the church in Thyatira. Mother Righteous has been subbed in for Jezebel. Tactfully, Exodus says that Righteous has led the mutants to commit “abomination” – the King James Version opts for “fornication”.
Also, Exodus says that Righteous has led the mutants to “provide one to be sacrificed to a grand idol.” The Bible verse actually accuses Jezebel of leading the people to eat food had been sacrificed to idols.
PAGE 25. The Krakoan reads HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
So I was wrong- the Sinister Dominion isn’t Xavier. Now I’m wondering which of the Sinisters is the Dominion. Mother Righteous seems too obvious at this point but who knows?
And now it makes sense why the Sinister controlled Xavier didn’t attack Iron Man when he came to the island- the Orchis goons might turn Sinister over to Shaw or Stasis but Tony was trying to find a way to stop Stasis.
Also, I guess Sinister can control Xavier’s telekinesis better than Xavier can and that’s why Xavier couldn’t use it to save the humans at the Gala but Sinister could use it to kill the Orchis goons.
Sinister talks like he saw the Dominion in the Sinister timeline but Moira specifically destroyed that memory before he could view it. He also acts like he’s got no idea that Mother Righteous is a Sinister even though Moira revealed that to him in Sins of Sinister 1.
I’m not sure the homunculi are the other Sinisters.
When Charles contacts Emma, why doesn’t he warn her that Stasis is plotting to become omnipotent? Since she and the X-Men she’s with are fighting Orchis, that’s something they need to know.
The one thing I thought was great about this issue is that when Sinister explains that one of the other Sinisters will become a Dominion, Xavier doesn’t panic like Sinister or Destiny did. To Xavier, it’s just another “omnipotent” threat like the others the X-Men have defeated time and again. It seems to be Gillen acknowledging that despite all of Hickman’s and his buildup, the Dominions are fundamentally no different that any of the other “all-powerful” beings in the Marvel Universe.
Interesting that Destiny seems to have suspected that Mother Righteous was a Sinister all along. I guess that she didn’t want to say anything because she was worried the Dominion was listening.
I don’t think Destiny was necessarily saying that becoming a Dominion was something Righteous would want to avoid- I think she might have been saying, for example., that Righteous dies in her attempt to become a Dominion.
Mmmm… this one actually raised the possibility for me that the Sinister Dominion IS Xavier!
I didn’t take it that Destiny was implying that Righteous would want to avoid becoming a Dominion either. I took it that she was warning that one of the other Essexes may be the Dominion.
Another discrepancy was that I felt that at the end of Hickman’s “Inferno”, Xavier revealed the entire truth about Moira’s revelations to him to the Quiet Council. Both Xavier and (I assume) Sinister should have been familiar with the concept of the Dominion before, but in this issue, it seemed as if Sinister only became away of the existence of Dominions during the “Sins of Sinister” timeline.
@Chris V- That’s not how I read Sinister’s dialogue in this issue- I read it as Sinister had been aware of the existence of Dominions for decades- what surprised him during Sins of Sinister was that one of the OTHER Sinisters actually succeeded in becoming a Dominion.
@Michael
“He also acts like he’s got no idea that Mother Righteous is a Sinister even though Moira revealed that to him in Sins of Sinister 1.”
I don’t recall Moira telling him that. She just described Righteous as his “rival,” which can be taken many ways.
I’m fairly confident the Essex Dominion is the ascended form of the original Nathaniel Essex, who is the crown that lies above the four clones.
Nathaniel imprinted the idea of Dominion and the compulsion to achieve Dominionhood into the four Essex clones he released into the world. These clones would outlive him and work on Dominion from four different angles (mutantkind, posthumankind, aliens and magic). If any of them should succeed, it’s likely that there is an imprinted ‘hidden mechanism’ that will funnel the power of the resultant Dominion back in time to Nathaniel Essex. We see this implied in the scene depicting Essex’s Bedlam ‘death’ in Immortal X-Men 8. Essex’s mind is harvested into a higher power even as his body dies.
Since Nathaniel Essex predates the four clones, his Dominion comes into existence first and can prey on any subsequent attempts at Dominion made by the Essexes.
We saw Mr. Sinister’s attempt at Dominion in SoS – he partially succeeds before the preexisting Essex Dominion robs him of all the power he had harvested. Now we’re seeing Mother Righteous’ attempt at Dominion by harvesting mutant worship. The same fate likely awaits her. This is what Destiny tried to warn Mother Righteous against before she was stabbed. We might see Dr. Stasis and Orbis Stellaris’ own failed attempts at Dominion in Rise of the Powers of X.
Gillen’s take on Essex is that he is the personification of the evils of Imperial Britain. He is a man who will exploit anything and anyone to make himself an Emperor. This includes exploiting his own clones.
@ylU- the screen clearly showed a heart on Mother Righteous’s head but that might have been the artist not being on the same page as Gillen.
Similarly, when Moira says she used the machine to take a reading of her Sinister’s mind, there’s a picture of Sinister kneeling, I have a feeling it was supposed to be a picture of Sinister encountering the Dominion but again, Gillen and the artist were not on the same page.
Michael > I guess that she didn’t want to say anything because she was worried the Dominion was listening.
The idea presented here is that Destiny knew about the Essex Dominion all along – she can presumably sense its presence with her precognition. However, she cannot reveal its presence to anyone else because the atemporal Dominion will interfere to protect itself.
This goes some way to explain the opening scene of Immortal X-Men 1. Irene Adler meets Mr. Sinister in Paris 1919 and reveals the rigged nature of the game to him. But the moment she does, Sinister was psychically attacked by the Essex Dominion to prevent him from acting on what he learned. “You’re a ghost, you’re a ghost, you’re a ghost…”. The Essex Dominion is the ghost that haunts this timeline. Irene refused to tell Raven what she told Sinister because she was afraid Raven would also be attacked.
Chris V > It seemed as if Sinister only became away of the existence of Dominions during the “Sins of Sinister” timeline.
I think Mr. Sinister has been aware of the Dominions since his very beginning, though it may have been a subconscious awareness. The idea is that all the X-Men cloning storylines we’ve Sinister involved in over the years was him taking another step towards achieving his ultimate goal.
What Sinister became aware of at the end of ‘Sins of Sinister’ was that his goals were futile because he had already lost the Game of Essexes. Even when he won, he had lost.
@Michael
“The screen clearly showed a heart on Mother Righteous’s head but that might have been the artist not being on the same page as Gillen.”
I’m not sure that *is* a screen. It could just be an actual flashback, and Sinister’s not actually seeing any of it.
Wow, I really really enjoyed this book and I haven’t enjoyed much of Marvel’s output in recent years. I sincerely hope Marvel continue to back Mr Gillen, it’s such a weird contrast to the work of Mr Duggan which is seriously underwhelming.
It’s cute you guys are so interested in figuring out who becomes the Dominion, I’m happy to let the mystery be and hopefully Gillen will surprise most of us!
Thanks Paul for your stellar work, as always
Despite the just ok fill-in art, this is one of the best issues so far. The use of past dialogue as Jean’s narration was so clever and expertly employed. All the lines he picks define her so well (while still relating to the current story); I feel like he really gets her. I would have loved to see Gillen write Jean on the Quiet Council. It’s interesting to think what Fall of X could have been if Immortal X-Men was kept in place as the core title over Duggan’s book, and Gillen played a larger role in shaping the overall narrative.
Duggan’s X-Men continues to operate as a vehicle to stall the plot until it’s time to move it for the publishing schedule’s sake, middling even as it’s bolstered by 2 other titles he’s writing. Invincible Iron Man is to me his only successful and relevant Fall of X title; Uncanny Avengers was billed as integral and yet feels divorced from everything else.
Why is the fall of Krakoa centered more on Ms. Marvel and Rasputin IV and Tony Stark than it is on the dissolution of the Quiet Council?
It’s the fall of Krakoa, Immortal X-Men was THE Krakoa book, why is Duggan leading this over Gillen if he has nothing to say about the fall of Krakoa? Or is that actually the remit he’s been given – shuffle the deck chairs for a few months.
At this rate I expect Orbis Stellaris will be a loose thread that doesn’t get tied up before Brevoort’s reboot. I actually wouldn’t hate that as long as we do get satisfying payoffs for Mother Righteous and Doctor Stasis.
I’m jealous of everyone’s excitement over this. The whole thing leaves me absolutely cold. None of it — the Dominions and Sinister clones and evil Moira — feels at all connected to what I’ve looked for from the X-books over the years.
Still love Paul’s writing about it all, but that’s about the best I can say.
[…] X-MEN #17. (Annotations here.) It may not quite match up neatly with Jean Grey‘s final issue in terms of Jean’s state […]
@Matt Terl: Same here. I appreciate that Gillen is trying to give the Dominions some grounding with the Sinisters, and I know Ewing is doing his best with the Arakkans over in X-Men: Red, but none of that stuff connects with me. It’s just too huge and/or bland to really matter.
I certainly don’t begrudge people their enjoyment of the current X-lineup, but I can’t wait until it’s over. I’m hoping for something a little smaller in scale in 2024.
I’m with Matt and Thom – I couldn’t be less interested in all the Dominion stuff or the Life This and Life That stuff. It bores the pants off me.
Up until very recently, I’ve been an X-book completist. Every title, every guest appearance, every cameo. (Pretty much have them all other than Hulk 181 and that Strange Tales with Angel from the early 60s. But my mom recently passed, and my huge collection sterotypically resides in her basement. I’m cleaning the house out to sell it and have no place to store a massive collection, so I’m trying to figure out what to do about that. I’ve curtailed my buying some, even skipping some X-Men appearances, and I’m considering going digital. But the truth, which I would have found unthinkable a few years ago, is that after 40+ years of weekly comics hauls, my interest in the X-books and in Marvel’s current output in general is dwindling to almost nothing.
I’m trying to ride out the Krakoa stuff, but like I said, the big conceits hold no interest for me and the characters are mostly unrecognizable. Maybe the Brevoort status quo will hold more interest, but I’m getting closer to the end of an era, it seems.
“at the end of Hickman’s “Inferno”, Xavier revealed the entire truth about Moira’s revelations to him to the Quiet Council”.
I wish they’d revealed that to the readers.
@Jerry Ray: I’m in the same boat. Except for a mini-series here and there, my comics buying is limited to back issues from the $1 bin. Unless something pulls me back in, I might not be buying new comics anymore past early 2024. I feel kind of sad about it, but maybe it’s for the best.
I really enjoy and appreciate the commentary here and at a couple of other sites. That’s enough to give me my comics high for now.
So sorry about your mom’s passing. I hope the home sale goes well and that you’re able to find a place for your collection.
@Thom: Thanks, l appreciate the kind words!
It does make me kind of sad to think about not going to the comic shop every week, or digging through back issue bins at cons. It’s weird to break a pattern that’s been ingrained since I was basically 10 years old.
I may try to weed out a bunch of the stuff I bought just to read and stick in a box from the 90s onward and see what that leaves of the 60s-80s stuff that I really care about, that seems like a place to start. Luckily, there’s no real time pressure on me.
I’m curious what the digital experience is like. I’m a physical media guy, though I’m having to let go of some of that so I don’t fill up my house with stuff that was just hanging out at mom’s for so many years. I’m not interested in paying full price for digital comics, but I may need to get smart on Unlimited if I do want to keep reading stuff.