Inferno #4 Review/Spoilers

[jwatson]

Now that i think about it i think my overall problem with inferno and hox pox and i've said this in the past. Just tell the rest of the mutants the truth. Like it still drives me crazy because it makes absolutely no sense. In what world are people going to be mad or feel defeated to find out "we always lose so we built this." I mean i feel i would be more motivated. That single deep plot in the end takes me out the story time and time again. Even in this issue with the shadows and Emma saying charles made the right choice it's like "no, he didn't." There is an inherent paranoia and lack of faith in people behind that logic imo.

[JamJams]

This was disappointing.

But after taking a while to think about it. The disappointment is based in me having unrealistically high expectations for a storyline that was always going to maintain a status quo. While it didn't completely reset the status quo back to the Xavier School era it felt like a complete waste of three years of build-up that Moira is the most important person in the Krakoa era.

It also really highlights why so many supervillains shouldn't be on the Quiet Council.

[RamaBird]

Personally I think Occam's Razor is the answer here. Hickman's just not good at the finer points of characterization because he prioritizes big picture ideas and has no problem adjusting motivations to enable his plots rather than using characterization to drive his plots. He's the kind of writer who views characters as being tools meant to be drafted in service to a story, rather than stories being tools to be drafted in service to the characters. Its a choice of priorities and one I feel he makes with clear intent.

Agree with this very much. In that sense, I think he's a better architect than writer.

Love his ideas but didn't like how many emotional/character beats were missed during his time.

You've been on fire with your posts today!

[Habis]

See, I don’t want a fall of the mutants story either, which I keep on trying to make clear, but that conversation always gets derailed because some people do prefer a return to an older status quo, some Krakoa proponents use that to paint any anti-Krakoan critiscism as people not caring about the minority aspects of the X-books or not liking minorities being in power or just straight up being a bigot, and then that conversation derails into if not liking Krakoa qualifies as bigotry and I’m just sitting in the background wishing they’d unfuck the entire turning Mutants into the Great Replacement crap already.

Yeah... I wonder if they realize that many people who don't like the Krakoan arc or who just don't care about the X-Men are minorities. Or that every minority in existence, be a racial minority, religious minority, LGTB minority, people with disabilities...etc., they are all part of the hated flatscan species they think deserve to be punished and wiped out...

I mean, somebody can be a lesbian Afro-american woman, but if she doesn't wholeheartedly support everything White Anglo Rich Guy Xavier does, then she is supposed to be a sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic trash...

[BobbysWorld]

Yeah... I wonder if they realize that many people who don't like the Krakoan arc or who just don't care about the X-Men are minorities. Or that every minority in existence, be a racial minority, religious minority, LGTB minority, people with disabilities...etc., they are all part of the hated flatscan species they think deserve to be punished and wiped out...

I mean, somebody can be a lesbian Afro-american woman, but if they don't wholeheartedly support everything White Anglo Rich Guy Xavier does, then she is supposed to be a sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic trash...

That's definitely been one of the weaker aspects of the Krakoan era and something I'd love to see some writer somewhere address intelligently. Also the inherent danger of having a franchise built on the concept of a marginalized identity be shepherded largely by editors and head writers who...aren't marginalized. Its straight up offensive that some of the current crop of X-writers seem completely oblivious to the reality of stacked marginalizations and intersectionality. Untold numbers of real world humans balance having more than one marginalization without setting one over the other, and its extremely fucked up that its never occurred to several X-writers that Storm having lived her whole life as a black woman as well as a mutant....might care just as much about humans who are black as she does about mutants who aren't black. Or that LGBTQ+ mutants like Bobby, Northstar, Karma, etc, might not be down to turn their backs on LGBTQ+ humans who have been persecuted for their sexual orientations or gender identities just as much as straight cis mutants have been persecuted for being mutants.

[pkingdom]

Hickman wanted to graft a high concept sci fi story a la Foundation onto the X-men, who were the de facto minority allegory in comics. But the 'we're superior to humans' has also been a huge problem with that allegory, and his sci fi story doubled down on it to the point of embracing the Great Replacement Theory. Plus X-men have always been beloved because of its characters and not necessarily its story. So his priorities were a giant misfire and misplaced from the start, in my opinion.

[johnnysv75]

That's definitely been one of the weaker aspects of the Krakoan era and something I'd love to see some writer somewhere address intelligently. Also the inherent danger of having a franchise built on the concept of a marginalized identity be shepherded largely by editors and head writers who...aren't marginalized. Its straight up offensive that some of the current crop of X-writers seem completely oblivious to the reality of stacked marginalizations and intersectionality. Untold numbers of real world humans balance having more than one marginalization without setting one over the other, and its extremely fucked up that its never occurred to several X-writers that Storm having lived her whole life as a black woman as well as a mutant....might care just as much about humans who are black as she does about mutants who aren't black. Or that LGBTQ+ mutants like Bobby, Northstar, Karma, etc, might not be down to turn their backs on LGBTQ+ humans who have been persecuted for their sexual orientations or gender identities just as much as straight cis mutants have been persecuted for being mutants.

Thank you for this! Sums up my main problem with Krakoa perfectly.

[gerlof101]

So Moira is now powerless after being shot by the nulifier gun Forge build and that, in the past, has also been used to depower Storm.

Just a few questions about that :
- So her mutant power no longer works but does that make her human ? Is the x-gene no longer present in her body ? As far as I know it has only been de-activated. I don't recall a depowered Storm suddenly been re-classified as human by the other X-men.
- Storm was depowered by the same nulifier gun. Didn't Forge create something to re-activate Storm's mutant power again ? That (or another new hi-tech sollution) could just as easily be used to re-activate Moira's power.
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[gonnagiveittoya]

Yeah having the X-Men of all people spouting Great Replacement, But Good! stuff was kinda cringe. Luckily they eventually somewhat backed off that angle

[raidensix]

IMO, this series underwhelmed just like Trial of Magneto.

Also the QC has no problems with:

1. A mutant (in this case two mutant members of the QC) removing the powers of another mutant
2. Forge's neutralizer existing. If anything, Storm should have thrown a huge fit when she learned of it instead of agreeing to keep the secret. She lost her powers for a time because Gyrich used the gun on her (though he was aiming at Rogue).

Maybe Doug should have used the neutralizer on Mystique and Destiny.

[jwatson]

So Moira is now powerless after being shot by the nulifier gun Forge build and that, in the past, has also been used to depower Storm.

Just a few questions about that :
- So her mutant power no longer works but does that make her human ? Is the x-gene no longer present in her body ? As far as I know it has only been de-activated. I don't recall a depowered Storm suddenly been re-classified as human by the other X-men.
- Storm was depowered by the same nulifier gun. Didn't Forge create something to re-activate Storm's mutant power again ? That (or another new hi-tech sollution) could just as easily be used to re-activate Moira's power.
\

That does actually introduce an interesting loophole because i reread that story not long ago and while it didn't depower Storm perse what it did was destroy the genetic makeup that allowed her to consciously access her mutation and what he did was repair those and the rest is history. Moira on the other hand never consciously used her powers so are we sure the gun even worked on her. Though i guess one could also say the gun was originally intended for Rogue so in theory it was built to work on a "passive" power.

[JamJams]

So Moira is now powerless after being shot by the nulifier gun Forge build and that, in the past, has also been used to depower Storm.

Just a few questions about that :
- So her mutant power no longer works but does that make her human ? Is the x-gene no longer present in her body ? As far as I know it has only been de-activated. I don't recall a depowered Storm suddenly been re-classified as human by the other X-men.
- Storm was depowered by the same nulifier gun. Didn't Forge create something to re-activate Storm's mutant power again ? That (or another new hi-tech sollution) could just as easily be used to re-activate Moira's power.
\

Moira was able to use the gate to leave Krakoa so I took that implication that she is still a mutant just de-powered. But since her power only activates on death it's questionable if she's even de-powered honestly.

Edit: NVM i went back and humans have used the gates before. But the nebulousness of whether her x-gene was completely removed is still valid.

[Saturius]

Not much more to add than what has already been said. A lot of this stuff just does not add up. The Moira reveal is messy and the more you think about it the more holes you see. A lot of people and their choices came out looking quite dumb in this mini.

I will say though, Doug was looking quite sexy with his hand on his belt when he made his presence known at the attempted Moira murder. Yowza.

All in all, this was horrifically underwhelming but at least the future stories that will come from this are potentially promising.

[Lucyinthesky]

OK. I have read this thing again, to see if I have missed something... and it doesn't make any f***ing sense...

Moira has built Krakoa together with Magneto and Xavier. She has worked on it for decades. She even had a child as part of the plan... Why would she do that, if her plan is to re-create her cure? How does creating Krakoa advances her plan to create a cure without getting killed? And if she has changed her mind... why? WHY?! Mutants are doing better than ever, the only hiccup in the Krakoa plan is that they can't kill Nimrod, but that could be solved by having Magik teleport Magneto, Polaris, Exodus, Iceman, Legion, Vulcan and both Xorns (instead of X-Force or the Brood), and blowing the Orchis Forge to cinders from within...

I thought that maybe they were speaking about the cure she developed during her third life, but if so, why calling her a liar and traitor to her own kind? She has been helping mutankind during seven lives and more than 1,200 years afterwards, she has redeemed herself a million times since she created that cure...

Nope, she must be creating her cure now... but if so... WHAT'S THE POINT OF KRAKOA?!

All I can think is, Hickman is pissed because his plans were hijacked and warped by others, and he crapped a shitty, senseless end for the story arc because he thinks Marvel neither can appreciate nor deserves better from him...

Exactly this is my main problem, the climax of the story doesn´t make sense and Moira is now just a plot device, not a character, let alone the character she used to be, Erik and Charles ended up dying for this feels void because it was a result of them making mistakes they would not usually do, even in the fight, it´s strange Magneto waited Charles to make the decision as if he no longer could think for himself. Doug had a great moment, along with Bei and Warlock, they saved the day and it was a good out for "Moira" but this stills feels like a waste of a promising story.

Not much more to add than what has already been said. A lot of this stuff just does not add up. The Moira reveal is messy and the more you think about it the more holes you see. A lot of people and their choices came out looking quite dumb in this mini.

I will say though, Doug was looking quite sexy with his hand on his belt when he made his presence known at the attempted Moira murder. Yowza.

All in all, this was horrifically underwhelming but at least the future stories that will come from this are potentially promising.

Agreed it gives some possibilities, especially for Inmortal X-men but characterization needs to be addresed for the story to work if they are going to keep Krakoa.

[Writerblog]

Moira was able to use the gate to leave Krakoa so I took that implication that she is still a mutant just de-powered. But since her power only activates on death it's questionable if she's even de-powered honestly.

Edit: NVM i went back and humans have used the gates before. But the nebulousness of whether her x-gene was completely removed is still valid.

Krakoa opened the gate. So it can be any other way. But I guess depowered mutants could still use the gates all this time on Krakoa