Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 - Review/Spoilers

[Agent Grayson]

For all his foibles and his Sinister obsession, I rarely say this about Gillen's work, but this issue just felt poorly written.

• Having not read Nightcrawlers, I was pretty lost about what was going on for a lot of the issue and there wasn't really an effort to make readers who haven't read every part of the event feel in the loop. Even the recap page didn't fill in the blanks. I get that the story can't be over-explaining all the time, but given the structure of the event - three disparate minis - I expected a little more latitude for those who haven't read every issue.
• All of the gravitas of the earlier stages of the event was gone. Sinister and Moira bickering over resetting the entire universe didn't feel cute or quirky, it just undermined the stakes.
• The 'look, it's this character but giant!' schtick got old pretty quickly. For an event full of some really creative choices, it felt lazy...especially when repeated. And when there was an interesting use of powers - Ironfire being enhanced by Iceman - it happened almost entirely off-panel.
• I don't think I'm alone in suffering from Sinister fatigue. It's bad enough that this event wasn't a conclusion to his storyline, but the Dominion reveal and Mother Righteous' prominence at the end made it clear that there's still a significant role to be played by the Sinisters. At this point, is anyone asking for this? We've had months of build-up, of every plot twist being that someone else is a Sinister, of an event based around him that took us way from the main universe for months...and there's still more to come.
• Any shock or emotion from Professor X, Emma, Hope and Exodus going into the Pit was robbed by Mother Righteous' stilted exposition. Not only was it so complicated and convoluted that it was nigh impossible to understand, it wasn't engaging enough for me to want to try to understand. Worse, Storm and the rest of the Council were so quick to trust and thank her that we're back to exactly where we started - characters being written and ridiculously naive so that a Sinister looks good. It's hard to root for heroes who make the same stupid mistake over and over again.
• There wasn't nearly enough Rasputin IV. I am glad she's in the main universe and it'd be great to see her and Kitty working together.

I think this event had some real bright spots, but it ended badly and has left me with no interest in seeing where Sinister's story goes next. Gillen had an uphill battle to keep me interested and this issue did nothing to grab me.

[ZephyrSurf]

I still don't know the point of Rasputin IV beyond wanting to milk a nice design.

[captain Qball]

I'm surprised by some of the negative thoughts on this, I thought it was great. I almost felt like there was too much emphasis on Xavier attacking, since we already knew it was down to Sinister and Moira.

I'm intrigued by there already being a Dominion. There's some wonky unanswered stuff about Dominions, but my understanding is that if it was a villainous Dominion, it would have already won?

I'm hoping this sets Moira on a different path, not necessarily redeeming, but perhaps turning her away from 'destroy all mutants'.

I thought Gillen did great, and Sinister was really turned down in the far future. I'm excited to see where this goes. I do think Mother Righteous is a bit too convenient, with an easy way to gain power over people and being supercharged to super villain very quickly.

[gonnagiveittoya]

For all his foibles and his Sinister obsession, I rarely say this about Gillen's work, but this issue just felt poorly written.

[LIST][*]Having not read Nightcrawlers, I was pretty lost about what was going on for a lot of the issue and there wasn't really an effort to make readers who haven't read every part of the event feel in the loop. Even the recap page didn't fill in the blanks. I get that the story can't be over-explaining all the time, but given the structure of the event - three disparate minis - I expected a little more latitude for those who haven't read every issue.

"I skipped a third of the event and didnt understand all the stuff about the parts I skipped, what the **** Gillen"

[charliehustle415]

"I skipped a third of the event and didnt understand all the stuff about the parts I skipped, what the **** Gillen"

To be fair if it was required to read all three minis, why have different titles and numbers?

Why not just have Sins of Sinister #1 - #11?

You would only know they're required is the indicia within where it says what part of the story it is.

[Triniking1234]

With the knowledge available in this thread, the only thing I have to say is that Eva Bell can solve all this **** so easily I don't even know why this was an event.

The only way this event justify itself is if Tempus is the villain.

Also, why she isn't in the Omega list?

Word.

Storm: Eva, please go back to after Judgement Day and shoot Sinister in the balls before he kills Charles and Hope.

Eva: Yes, Goddess.

[Triniking1234]

If Sinister is unable to clone Jean, how was she resurrected all the times she has been. Did the resurrections simply become clones after being sinisterized. Was it the amount of them? because according to previous data pages they should each be their own experiences and new self. Same for Hope, reborn several times but now it's just a clone. I mean the chimera thing makes sense but the clone thing been weak this whole time.

Not sure what you were reading if you think the Five's resurrection process is similar to Sinister's cloning process.

[sunofdarkchild]

Word.

Storm: Eva, please go back to after Judgement Day and shoot Sinister in the balls before he kills Charles and Hope.

Eva: Yes, Goddess.

After the response to Mikhail trying to kill Xavier in the past was to send Logan's mind back in time through movie BS rather than calling Eva or Magik to use their long-established time-travelling powers, why would they start using any mutants who can time travel in any logical manner now?

[Viteh]

Pardon me, but is this true or sarcasm going over my head? lol. I have to admit, there's a whole swathe of the current era I read through with one eye open.



This was certainly the case, but I'm still left...unconvinced? I don't know. The way I see it, Ororo would have thanked and put some subtle pressure on her. I pictured her saying something like:

Maybe Storm didn’t want to let MR know she didn’t trust her that much. She did agree with Shaw that they should look into her. Storm letting MR think they trust her lets her lower her guard. Also Storm had no way of knowing just thanking her is bad.

[JB]

Not at all lol I feel like the odd man out for actually enjoying SOS. And I'm not even really a fan of sinister but rather I'm a fan of just chaotically evil villains. And as much as I understand that people are tired, especially of Gillens Sinister You got to give it to the fact that sinister is unfortunately the only charismatic X-Men villain on the board right now. Orchis may be the big threat but as far as a central antagonist, they're thoroughly lacking.

After some thought I've come to realize what has exhausted me most about diamond Sinister is him being on the council. The perpetual playing of games became old. I'm actually looking forward to seeing Stasis step in the spotlight a bit because he's a classic evil murderer, a type of villain I enjoy.

Mother keeps me guessing so I'm good with her for now. As for Orbis, I just have trouble taking that naked old man in a gold ball seriously.

[yogaflame]

Goddess be good, enough with these Sinisters. One was bad enough, now there are 4? Ughh!

This story did not work for me. And as neat as her character design is, Mother Righteous doesn't work for me either. Let's wrap this up and let the next big writer shake things up. Let Ewing take over the whole thing and start fresh.

[Agent Grayson]

"I skipped a third of the event and didnt understand all the stuff about the parts I skipped, what the **** Gillen"

I refer you to what charliehustle415 said in the quote below. You even quoted the part where I said "given the structure of the event - three disparate minis". If you want to make every part essential, don't split it into three mini series telling standalone stories and then have the final issue entirely tied in to the ending of one of them.

To be fair if it was required to read all three minis, why have different titles and numbers?

Why not just have Sins of Sinister #1 - #11?

You would only know they're required is the indicia within where it says what part of the story it is.

[5cents]

Sinister is doing a lot but does anyone have an idea of his endgame? I know he wants dominion but what does that look like?

[Sutekh]

Word.

Storm: Eva, please go back to after Judgement Day and shoot Sinister in the balls before he kills Charles and Hope.

Eva: Yes, Goddess.

Tempus (explicitly an Omega time-manipulator), Tempo, Timeslip, Kiden Nixon, Lacuna, Sway, etc. Plus all those other mutants who can time travel, if they really want to, like Magik, Forge (has built a time machine!), Rachel Summers, Cable, Trevor Fitzroy, etc.

There's no shortage of guns smaller than Moira's big gun for resetting timelines.

[Mercury]

Are you confused?

Mother Righteous is a magic user and she basically has a constant "deal with the devil" type of enchantment in effect. Every time you thank her you give her power of you but so far everyone has been absolutely blind to it including Ororo at the end.

Evidently, I was, which is why I begged the question, "Is this true or sarcasm going over my head?" In any event, thanks for the clarification! That sucks.

The bigger question is how was he able to clone so many Jeans before Krakoa was even a thing?

Sinister has cloned Jean before but ineffectively. Something about her genetic and perhaps psionic makeup prevents her from being precisely duplicated. I have a theory that this is why she has only been classified as an Omega Level Telepath, even though she has always been categorized as both an Omega Level Telepath and Omega Level Telekinetic. As for her psyche, I have another theory: Jean has survived the death of her body multiple times and lived on as "an entity of pure thought," and I think it plausible that she has consciously or unconsciously done the same during this era. However, as with most things, we will just have to wait and see.

Maybe Storm didn’t want to let MR know she didn’t trust her that much. She did agree with Shaw that they should look into her. Storm letting MR think they trust her lets her lower her guard. Also Storm had no way of knowing just thanking her is bad.

Oh, I would love for this to be the case! In fact, now I'm hoping this will be revealed in Immortal X-Men #11. It would be fantastic. And to your other point, I'm not blaming Ororo—it isn't her fault. I just think either Gillen doesn't get her or he has something similar to your idea in mind and is drawing things out. We'll see.