Confirmed: Hickman is leaving the X-Men after Inferno

[jwatson]

And just because you personally enjoy a writer doesn’t mean that everyone has to praise him.

Did Bendis write some critically acclaimed series? Yes. Did he get name recognition in the comic book industry? Yes. Has he also written a LOT of lackluster comics? Also yes. No one should force themselves to like him just because he’s “successful” especially because getting gigs in the comic book industry is often dependent on having the right connection.

spoilers:

Onto the actual topic at hand, I was giving Hickman the side eye when he went over the Moira/ Destiny confrontation again. My guy we got 4 issues to wrap up this whole ting and you were talking bout, “there was absolutely no space for Rogue to react to her mother’s biggest storyline in years”, so we need to keep it pushing. Minor nitpick cause I actually really enjoyed the rest.

end of spoilers

I thought it was just me, i was like damn, he reused like 20 percent of the script.

[Mercury]

I'm 1000% team Moira/Mystique, don't play with the devil if you don't want to get burned.

I can understand your point of view.

Also, where is alanyoung909, who posted the following prescient predictions yesterday:

Alright, I can't seem to find the main Inferno thread, so I'll post this here.
I've had some free time over this last weekend so I went through all the released Inferno art (from unlettered previews, the trailer, the X-Men Monday teases and Valerio Schiti's Twitter and Instagram feeds) to see if I could construct a reasonable breakdown of how the first issue is laid out.

The (potentially only) great thing about having different artists for each issue is that you know all of the art released so far is from issue 1. (Schiti is also doing issue 4, but he just started working on that a couple of weeks ago so it definitely has not been coloured yet).

I think I've done a decent job in cracking at least a third of the issue, as I've detailed down below. Feel free to comment on anything you think does not sound right.

The issue has 43 pages of art. I suspect that there is around 4 to 5 data pages in addition to that.
We start off with:

DATA PAGE:
An opening quote from someone to start off the issue. Probably something about consequences coming home to roost.
Most likely candidates: Moira X, Mystique, Destiny, Professor X or Magneto. Could be an eccentric choice like Nimrod too.

Scene 1 (Pages 1-2): ARBOR MAGNA, TO BE REVISITED
A direct copy of the first two pages of House of X 1 except with Emma in the place of Professor X.
Krakoan pods > Emma stands in the Arbor Magna > The pods crack open > Emma stands above the resurrectees > Emma says 'To me, my X-Men / my mutants / my Krakoans' or some equivalent.
I expect the resurrectees to be X-Force, after their fatal trip to the Orchis Forge. There's a slim chance that it could be Destiny as well.
This scene is just a teaser for Inferno 4, where it will be reprinted, only with proper context. This 'flash forward prologue' is actually a popular Hickman trope, one he's been using ever since he wrote Pax Romana more than a decade ago.

I do expect the discussion around this issue to be dominated by this scene, much like how the discussion around House of X 1 kept returning to the 'clone farm' that Xavier supposedly had.
There'll be plenty of theories and/or complaints on how Professor X and Magneto are dead or in the Pit or something.
As with all of Hickman's flash forward prologues, I expect this to be a quasi-fakeout.
There'll be some element of Xavier and Magneto getting their just deserts in this series, but I don't think they will completely lose control of Krakoa.

Scene 2 (Pages 3-5): THE ORACLE, REVISITED
The point of this scene is to reiterate to readers what the central problem of the series is: Professor X and Magneto have refused to resurrect precognitive mutants on Moira X's orders. Destiny had a premonition of this situation years ago and gave Mystique specific orders to circumvent it.

Now, the likely option here is for the three Mystique/Destiny pages from X-Men 6 to be repeated, only with Valerio Schiti's art this time.
Repeating pages wholesale is another one of the Hickman tropes that he's been using forever.
Otherwise, we could get a new sequence between Mystique and Destiny that effectively conveys the same thing.
There is a panel in the trailer of Mystique kissing Destiny's hands. I suspect that it is from this sequence.

I expect to see the lines 'When those days come, remember these words ... then burn that place to the ground' repeated somewhere in this scene.

RECAP AND CREDITS
INFERNO, ISSUE 1: (insert title here)

Scene 3 (Page 6-X): THE WAR CAPTAINS OF KRAKOA
This is the scene where Storm crowns Bishop with a Krakoan wreath.

According to Schiti's Instagram, the page with the Quiet Council assembled is page 6. Two potentially interesting things to note about this page:

a) The location - I don't think we've ever seen this area of Krakoa before, or if we have, ever seen it depicted this way before. Schiti did say that we will be introduced to new locations in Krakoa, so this is probably one of them. It looks like a caldera with a crystalline island.

b) The council-members - We see Professor X, Magneto (in his black suit), the White Queen, Storm, Mister Sinister, the Red Queen, Nightcrawler and Exodus. The absentees: Mystique, the Black King and Cypher. Cypher's absence makes sense - most artists forget that he is part of the Council anyway. Mystique might have obvious story-related reasons for not being there. But what happened to Sebastian Shaw?

About the plot:

a) The coronation - One popular theory is that Bishop is being invited onto the Quiet Council. I think that this is unlikely but only because Sinister Secret 56 insinuated that the filling of the empty Council seats would be a sordid affair. I'm much more inclined towards the other popular theory that this is Bishop being promoted to being the Captain Commander of Krakoa. Cyclops has now become co-leader of the X-Men, and cannot shoulder both roles at the same time. Another possibility is that this has something to do with the War College that Bishop is presiding over. It was first mentioned in X-Men 11 but it has not come up since. This feels like a good place to bring it back to the fore.

b) The captains - I also believe that Psylocke will be selected to be a War Captain in this scene. The resurrected Gorgon is clearly in no position to resume his role, and Psylocke is as good a replacement as any.

The likely reason for this shuffle in Captains is probably the escalating threat of Nimrod. Bishop will probably pledge to take active counter-measures against that Sentinel.

In terms of teaser art, there is a panel where Cyclops and Storm are having a conversation (her face is reflected in his visor), a panel where Kate is saying something and another panel where Magik is saying something. Magik, Cyclops, Bishop and Psylocke walk out of this location together, as can be seen in the last frame of the trailer.

continued...

[Mercury]

alanyoung909:

Scene 4: QUIET COUNCIL MEETING
A meeting in the Grove.
At the very least, Professor X, Magneto (still in his black suit) and Mystique attend this meeting.
Mystique seems upset about something. This could be Charles and Erik's final refusal to resurrect Destiny that galvanises Mystique into taking decisive action (and kick off the main plot).

I'm not sure of the order of the next few scenes, so I will label all them as X.

Scene X: MAGNETO RETURNS TO ISLAND M
Magneto (now in his white suit) arrives on Island M on some type of ship (why didn't he just take the gates?). This can be seen in a couple of shots in the trailer.
I would normally have said that he is here to collect the Cerebro Cradle that is on this island, but thanks to Leah Williams, it would seem that the Cradle has teleported itself into the House of M on Krakoa.
My alternate theory is that this is where Magneto is going to use that key he got from the sea-witches way back in Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto. That was a Hickman set-up, and I don't see anyone else doing anything with it, so Hickman will probably pay it off as he wraps up.
The key either opens a door to somewhere or it opens a vault or something from which Magneto retrieves something.

Scene X: CYPHER, KRAKOA AND WARLOCK
Cypher and Warlock, both perched on Krakoa's branches, have a three-way conversation.
This is a callback to the Cypher-Krakoa-Warlock conversation that Cyclops stumbled upon back in X-Men 7.

This Warlock plot has to be one of the most incoherent plot threads in the Krakoa era. I think different writers came at it from different directions, until the original plans were completely mangled. Hopefully Hickman can salvage something here and set up a solid path forward for Cypher and Warlock (and the Technarchy stuff).
I think we might get a reveal that Krakoa has been infected with the techno-organic virus here. Sinister Secret 54 sort of hints towards this possibility. But then again, I also thought that we might get this reveal back when Warlock was revealed to the Krakoan public in X of Swords and I wrong then so I could be way off base here as well. You can never be sure with this particular plot thread.

Scene X: MOIRA X GOES TO PARIS
Moira leaves her No-Place habitat and travels to Paris. Paris is probably the 'greatest culinary city in the world' that she mentioned in Powers of X 6.
She has a flashback to her time in [the Muir Island facility?] when she was working with Project: CURE. She still has some of her old notes.
She goes to one of her safe-houses.
According to Schiti's Instagram, the page where Moira arrives in Paris (with a flashback of a burning building) is page 26.

There is an ORCHIS agent in Paris (I don't think that it's Bastion like many have speculated) who is watching Moira from behind some blinds.
There are two possibilities here:
a) This is some ORCHIS agent who is trailing Moira or a random ORCHIS agent stationed in Paris who happens to see Moira walking down the road and is reporting her movements to his bosses at the Orchis Forge.
b) Moira works with ORCHIS and she is coming to Paris to talk to / deliver something to this agent.

DATA PAGE:
A map of the Solar System, showing the Sun, Mercury and Venus at very least. There was a preview of this in the X-Men Monday teasers.
This page probably details the location of the Orchis Forge, the Sentinel City and the Orchis watchtowers.

Scene X: X-FORCE INFILTRATE THE ORCHIS FORGE
According to Schiti's Instagram, the page where X-Force arrives on the Orchis Forge is page 29.

Kid Omega, Wolverine and Domino infiltrate the Orchis Forge (under the orders of either the Beast, Bishop or the Quiet Council).
How they get to the Orchis Forge: well, there is a gate, previously planted by Mystique, that goes from the House of M to the Orchis Forge.
At the end of X-Men 20, Omega Sentinel reports to Doctor Devo that the gate had been booby-trapped by Orchis.
X-Force seem to be fine in the preview, so they either dodged the trap or they took a ship to the Forge instead.

In any case, I expect all of them to die during this mission.
This scene is likely a callback/repeat of the scene in Powers of X 3 where the X-Men infiltrated the Sal-Cen Node, right down to a panel of Wolverine sensing danger followed by the team being attacked by multiple Nimrods.
Only Wolverine survived in Powers of X 3, and even then only long enough to be able to deliver the information the X-Men were looking for back to the interested party. I expect something similar here, where Logan sends whatever they came to find back to Krakoa before dying.
Unless, of course, the mission was to kill Nimrod, in which case they just fail I guess.

The secondary point of this scene (in terms of plot structure) is to spur Nimrod into taking direct action against Krakoa (which should happen in Inferno 3).

Scene X: MOIRA X, PROFESSOR X AND MAGNETO HAVE A CONVERSATION
This is possibly one of the final scenes of the issue.
Moira, Charles and Erik have a conversation, most likely taking place in Moira's No-Place Habitat.
There are several panels of this scene in Valerio Schiti's Instagram.
They probably have a discussion about Nimrod and/or Destiny.
Moira makes a Shocking Revelation, which sounds like a good place to end the issue on.

DATA PAGE:
An closing quote from someone. Once again, someone from the Moira X, Mystique, Destiny, Professor X and Magneto group.

[jwatson]

I can understand your point of view.

Also, where is alanyoung909, who posted the following prescient predictions yesterday:

I meant team destiny/mystique. Lol
As far as moira i cant stand the trope of sidelined woman and she is obviously being petty which makes me think she has aosme ulterior motive. Beyond that she has been free to walk through gates etc so if she is hidden its because she chose and agreed to stay so, so it felt very whiney to me. "Oh poor me and my lives and poor me siting back letting the men run rought shot over me. "Blah.

[Mercury]

I meant team destiny/mystique. Lol
As far as moira i cant stand the trope of sidelined woman and she is obviously being petty which makes me think she has aosme ulterior motive. Beyond that she has been free to walk through gates etc so if she is hidden its because she chose and agreed to stay so, so it felt very whiney to me. "Oh poor me and my lives and poor me siting back letting the men run rought shot over me. "Blah.

I can understand where Moira is coming from, though.

[jwatson]

I can understand where Moira is coming from, though.

Oh i can definitely understand but she still a coward. If she cared so much who is stopping her from stepping up and taking her place. From what i saw there was no guns, no guards, nothing keeping her from following her own convictions save wanting to sit in the cut and worry about things that will come for her personally. this issue i felt it was very clear Charles, Moira and Erik are extremely selfish people.

[Mercury]

Oh i can definitely understand but she still a coward. If she cared so much who is stopping her from stepping up and taking her place. From what i saw there was no guns, no guards, nothing keeping her from following her own convictions save wanting to sit in the cut and worry about things that will come for her personally. this issue i felt it was very clear Charles, Moira and Erik are extremely selfish people.

I can agree with this.

[Vishop]

Yes a mediocre writer who is sought by the big two to write their flagship titles. A mediocre writer who has created so many stories and characters that are now a part of the American comic pantheon.

Just because you personally do not enjoy a writer doesn't all of a sudden mean he's a "mediocre writer period point blank"

What big " two"?

The only "decent" enough runs that he wrote was when he started writing Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil. At his best he is isn't close to Morrison or Hickman.Or even Johns. That guy is the very reason characters got butchered more than "new" characters created. From AVX to New Avengers were exceptionally atrocious.

[loke13]

Yes a mediocre writer who is sought by the big two to write their flagship titles. A mediocre writer who has created so many stories and characters that are now a part of the American comic pantheon.

Just because you personally do not enjoy a writer doesn't all of a sudden mean he's a "mediocre writer period point blank"

Let's not pretend like writing quality is some large factor in Bendis's success. In this business it's less what you know and more who you know. Do I think he's writen some enjoyable stories? Absolutely. Do I think he's a bad writer? Nope. Do I think he's a good writer? Nope. I find most of his works middling, mediocre, etc. But the man sure is well connected.

If you however enjoy his works more power to you. I'll just never put him in the same caliber as Hickman, Gaiman, Morrison and most recently Ewing because his works have never resonated with me on that level.

[charliehustle415]

And just because you personally enjoy a writer doesn’t mean that everyone has to praise him.

Did Bendis write some critically acclaimed series? Yes. Did he get name recognition in the comic book industry? Yes. Has he also written a LOT of lackluster comics? Also yes. No one should force themselves to like him just because he’s “successful” especially because getting gigs in the comic book industry is often dependent on having the right connection.

spoilers:

Onto the actual topic at hand, I was giving Hickman the side eye when he went over the Moira/ Destiny confrontation again. My guy we got 4 issues to wrap up this whole ting and you were talking bout, “there was absolutely no space for Rogue to react to her mother’s biggest storyline in years”, so we need to keep it pushing. Minor nitpick cause I actually really enjoyed the rest.

end of spoilers

What big " two"?

The only "decent" enough runs that he wrote was when he started writing Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil. At his best he is isn't close to Morrison or Hickman.Or even Johns. That guy is the very reason characters got butchered more than "new" characters created. From AVX to New Avengers were exceptionally atrocious.

Let's not pretend like writing quality is some large factor in Bendis's success. In this business it's less what you know and more who you know. Do I think he's writen some enjoyable stories? Absolutely. Do I think he's a bad writer? Nope. Do I think he's a good writer? Nope. I find most of his works middling, mediocre, etc. But the man sure is well connected.

If you however enjoy his works more power to you. I'll just never put him in the same caliber as Hickman, Gaiman, Morrison and most recently Ewing because his works have never resonated with me on that level.

I don't ever think I said that you must adore Bendis, nor did I say he is on the same level as Hickman, Morrison et al

The hyperbole is pretty insane here, a writer who has control of the biggest IP's in human history is only given said control because of connections.

Sure he has written shit, I'll be the first to admit, but to say he's "mediocre" is beyond ridiculous

Nevertheless, I no longer want to derail OP's thread with my shenanigans

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Not speaking on Bendis with this but just noting that mediocre personnel get into prized positions due to connections all the time. That's the point of having connections lol.

[Devaishwarya]

Oh i can definitely understand but she still a coward. If she cared so much who is stopping her from stepping up and taking her place. From what i saw there was no guns, no guards, nothing keeping her from following her own convictions save wanting to sit in the cut and worry about things that will come for her personally. this issue i felt it was very clear Charles, Moira and Erik are extremely selfish people.

...and they deserve every bit of comeuppance Destiny and Mystique gives them. (At least that's how it plays out in my head...the reality may be very different)

[Spiderfan001]

spoilers:

Onto the actual topic at hand, I was giving Hickman the side eye when he went over the Moira/ Destiny confrontation again. My guy we got 4 issues to wrap up this whole ting and you were talking bout, “there was absolutely no space for Rogue to react to her mother’s biggest storyline in years”, so we need to keep it pushing. Minor nitpick cause I actually really enjoyed the rest.

end of spoilers

On point, I feel just showing her looking into a fire and seeing a reflection of Destiny, Mystique just standing there while she's screaming being slowly burned would have taken far less panel time(like half a page probably to one at best) and also showed us how much Destiny left an effect on her to this day after all these lives.And then we can do the rogue thing or anything else he wants to do.

[Mutant 77]

Is it me or... Hickman's run lasted so little? I was expecting to get him on the director's chair for at least 5 years. His run was a true revolution.
Marvel is making another big error. They just hate the X-Men.

[jwatson]

Sometimes its best to just walk away when your legacy is on fire, as in hot, not burning away.