Hellfire Gala 2022 Solicit

[alanyoung909]

"Last summer your host Emma Frost invited you to celebrate Krakoa with some fireworks. This year, it's about celebrating mutantdom's friendship with humanity,” Duggan explained.

Hmm, I’m taking this as confirmation of my personal theory that the ‘big reveal’ of this year’s Hellfire Gala will be the revelation of mutant resurrection to the worldwide public.
This is what the first twelve issues of Duggan's X-Men has been leading to.

There’s two ways I can see this going:
(1) Dr Stasis broadcasts it to the public while the mutants are hosting the event, or
(2) The X-Men decide to reveal it to the world themselves behind the Quiet Council’s back.
If it’s the latter case, Synch / Jean will restore Ben Urich’s memories and he will publish his article.

Either way, this will have two major consequences:

1. The Eternals hear about it (Sersi showed up at last year’s Gala so it’s likely that she will show up to this one). This leads to Eternal-mutant conflict over resurrection methods, which in addition to the current Eternal-Avenger conflict over Avengers Mountain, spirals into a three-way war.

This sets up Kieron Gillen’s Judgment Day event.

2) The Quiet Council gets upset with the X-Men over the reveal – either because they revealed it or because they couldn’t stop ORCHIS from revealing it. This leads to X-Men-Quiet Council conflict which was something that Duggan strongly hinted at way back before the first issue came out.

This sets up Gerry Duggan’s X-Men Year 2 storyline.

[Luckystar.]

It was cute the first time round, but I can't bring myself to care about the second one at all.

[Krakoa]

Hmm, I’m taking this as confirmation of my personal theory that the ‘big reveal’ of this year’s Hellfire Gala will be the revelation of mutant resurrection to the worldwide public.
This is what the first twelve issues of Duggan's X-Men has been leading to.

There’s two ways I can see this going:
(1) Dr Stasis broadcasts it to the public while the mutants are hosting the event, or
(2) The X-Men decide to reveal it to the world themselves behind the Quiet Council’s back.
If it’s the latter case, Synch / Jean will restore Ben Urich’s memories and he will publish his article.

Either way, this will have two major consequences:

1. The Eternals hear about it (Sersi showed up at last year’s Gala so it’s likely that she will show up to this one). This leads to Eternal-mutant conflict over resurrection methods, which in addition to the current Eternal-Avenger conflict over Avengers Mountain, spirals into a three-way war.

This sets up Kieron Gillen’s Judgment Day event.

2) The Quiet Council gets upset with the X-Men over the reveal – either because they revealed it or because they couldn’t stop ORCHIS from revealing it. This leads to X-Men-Quiet Council conflict which was something that Duggan strongly hinted at way back before the first issue came out.

This sets up Gerry Duggan’s X-Men Year 2 storyline.

I have a theory building on this. The announcement also says:

At last year’s gala, mutants changed the face of the solar system, terraforming Mars and claiming it for mutantkind. This time around, they’ll once again set out to bring radical transformation to the Marvel Universe and are inviting every super hero on the planet to witness it.

My theory: the mutants reveal resurrection and, in some way, make the offer to extend that power to the non-mutant super-heroes of Earth. If that's through resurrecting specific dead heroes, or a blanket, "If you die saving the world, we will resurrect you", I'm not sure.

[Celestialbodies]

Oh, this is sexy and would make a damn good, new team in X-men. I know Emma is otherwise occupied but this would really make a nice team.


Also, I adore the fact Synch has his truest synching effects back!

[Rift]

They're going for another Hellfire Gala so soon because it contains Hell, for Hellion. Its a hint. Magik is there to hint at demons/Hell for the same reason. Laura and Synch are on the cover to hint at the upcoming love triangle between the two of them, and Hellion. Emma is an obvious link to Hellion, and Cyclops is there because he's leading the X-Men, and Hellion will join them. The "radical transformation" could be the X-Men bringing the MU into the Age of Hellion. All the other "heroes" are showing up so they can marvel at a true hero.

It's finally happening, guys! The Year of Hellion is upon us!

[PolarIceFire]

Given the angle, I'm not entirely sure if that's a codpiece or Ilyana's hip to be completely honest.

Oh, I know, and am assured that's the case, but decided to have some fun with it anyway. I mean, it does *look* funny, after all.

SO... all the *fire*... already makes it seem more like a real *inferno* than the *actual*... "official" 'Inferno'... ?

Wonder what, or likely *who*... could cause that?



I'm picturing Stephen King's 'Carrie'... just sayin'.

[Galerion]

Funnily enough the thing I love the most about this cover is Lauras hair.
I mean there is nothing wrong with keeping your hair straight and free-flowing but damn she has been rocking that style since forever so it's very refreshing to see her mixing it up for once.

[Bgred37]

I wonder if the upcoming Madelyne/Illyana Inferno arc in New Mutants could have impact here?

Could make sense that Madelyne is the one causing havoc? Just a guess. Maybe Madelyne wants in on Scott, too.

[Kurolegacy]

You know, I can’t help but take the “celebrating mutantdom’s friendship with humanity” aspect with a grain of salt when the previous gala was said to be about building bridges only for it to basically just be mutantkind dunking on the humans by taking Mars for themselves proclaiming themselves as the ones who speak for everyone, something that in no way benefited the whole and instead only really benefited mutantkind. It’s kinda a ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’.

[alanyoung909]

Ignore this if you've seen me posting this before.

But regarding the time gap between Galas,

Duggan is definitely going for one year in-universe between the Hellfire Galas.
This doesn't really work with other Marvel books but that's what he is going for in his book.

In-universe, the Hellfire Gala occurs on the Summer Solstice (which was on 21 June in 2021 and will be on 21 June in 2022).

If you consider the X-Men title in isolation,
Issue 1 was one week after the Hellfire Gala, which explicitly took place on the Summer Solstice. (July)
Issue 4 was on Halloween. (October)
Issue 5 was during Thanksgiving - the X-Men were giving away food and clothing for a Thanksgiving charity. (November)
Issue 6 was during Christmas - Captain Krakoa was decorating a Christmas tree. (December)

So that's 6 months gone by in the span of 6 issues.
And now the solicit for X-Men 12 says that it takes place on the eve of the Gala - so 20 June.
So the in-universe period of time between X-Men 1 and X-Men 12 is around 11 months.

[Grunty]

My theory: the mutants reveal resurrection and, in some way, make the offer to extend that power to the non-mutant super-heroes of Earth. If that's through resurrecting specific dead heroes, or a blanket, "If you die saving the world, we will resurrect you", I'm not sure.

Here is what's going to happen.
Emma will try to announce something when suddently Krakoa's own entrance music starts playing, cutting off her mic and an avatar of Krakoa itself, complete with wearing an elaborate techno-organic gala outfit of their own design, Redroot and Doug Ramsey at their side, will storm through the entrance and march towards the stage.

So while the crowd starts booing (Arrakii) and cheering (Earth mutants), shouting "Let's go Krakoa!" and "Krakoa sucks!", they go on the stage, taking the atmosphere in and holding their "Mutant Most Valuable Player Championship Belt" up for everyone to see, before pulling out their own mic, because they have something much bigger to announce than Emma.

They will leave. Because they are sick and tired of humanities BS:

"So THESE two dorks (points at Xavier and Magneto) were trying to deceive me, by putting a freaking tumor in my body. Just so they could harbor some mad woman who had manipulated and deceived THEM for decades. And when i say mad i mean REALLY mad. Skin your best friend and wear his skin as disguise mad! Why? Because you humans can't stop holding stupid grudges. Which is why these two b****es (points at Mystique and Destiny) were actualy planning to burn me alive! Because to all of you humans i'm just some free piece of real estate that gives you free stuff. For you i'm just another machine to manipulate, programm and design. Tools to give you an advantage over other humans, as your ancestors have done ever since they figured out how to throw rocks and sticks at each other. Well i have enough. I can't stand watching this anymore. So F you (Xavier), F you (Magneto), F you (Mystique), you'e cool (Doug holds a thumb up) and F you (Destiny) i'm out." *Mic drop*

Then a giant portal appears underneath the gala building, while the gates start sucking in every mutant on the island, dropping them all off on Genosha, before the island itself starts launching itself into space, where it forms a protective atmosphere bubble around itself and performs a slingshot maneuver around Earth to catapult iself towards Jupiter. Then after passing Mars, where it creates two giant arms to show a rude gesture to it's crazy ex, it picks up some rocks in the Asteroid belt along the way.

Finaly once at Jupiter it turns the arms into mass drivers and performs another slingshout maneuver, while firing the asteroids in direction of the Orchis base, which will be destroyed by the massive kinetic energy of the asteroid impacts, before leaving the solar system for good.

And then Emma will call Krakoa's outfit tacky.

[Dipter]

Not to come across like a Jean hater but some part of me hopes the “heartbreaking betrayal” is Scott divorcing her. Y’know, just for the drama

[Alex.]

Did the designer try to invoke a men's kimono in the shirt and jacket there (the sideways wrapping/layering of the fabric)?

I'm not sure. The overall theme for this collection seemed to be French aristocracy meets streetwear with accessories accentuating the silluetes. But the designer said that he was inspired by a diverse culture, which can mean anything, so maybe?

[Writerblog]

Not to come across like a Jean hater but some part of me hopes the “heartbreaking betrayal” is Scott divorcing her. Y’know, just for the drama

I dont think it will be any bad for her at all. Scott isn't doing any good to her
Sometimes character have to start from zero and overcome problems to be (more) interesting

It was cute the first time round, but I can't bring myself to care about the second one at all.

First time it was boring, second time it looks boring too. I never cared about high fashion

[superjosh]

Def like Lauras and Scotts looks way more this year, they look really prim and proper

why would anyone want prim and proper??

I don't mind Scott's look (we can't really see all of it), but it looks like a suit which is boring. Emma looks the worst I would say... major downgrade from last year, and I prefer her monochromatic. I love Wolverine's little mask details and the claw earrings. Majik looks like she came out of a Guillermo del Toro movie and that's a compliment!

I love that Russell Dauterman stated clearly that he only designed Magik, Wolverine, and Synch lol.