X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1 - Review/Spoilers

[Kingdom X]

My initial thoughts on the issue:

1. All off mutandom isn’t dead. Manifold was probably able to send them to various places in the galaxy/universe. Destiny wouldn’t have calmly walked through if she knew she was going to die along with thousands.
2. The massacre of the new X-Men team completely turned me off Duggan. Since Marauders he’s had this weird 2 POC quota on all his X-teams, never having more representation than that. Yet the one time it seems like he’s giving us a majority non-white team is also the time he feels comfortable callously and brutally killing most of them off. It’s gross.
3. As I said in other threads yesterday I’m over having a masochistic relationship with this franchise, especially because this franchise constantly benefits from this metaphor of representing the marginalized. So having a writer literally write about the “noose” around mutandom just told me all I needed to know.
4. The plot convenience of this is ridiculous… instead of commanding hundreds of thousands of mutants, Charles didn’t want to try to coordinate a plan with the X-Men to disarm the Orchis leaders? They were dumb enough to have Modok show up to the island with the kill switch so it should have been easy enough to disarm him. I get that Ewing previewed Charlie’s screwing over mutantkind, but this a new level. “I didn’t know they did something to the gates!” You literally did… cause how the hell else they Stasis and Moira walk through them.
5. So let me get this right… we spent all that time brining Lourdes back for her to show up bout three times and die again? As with the rest of this issue… brutality just for the sake of brutality.

[Braxxer]

Most of the stuff was predictable but Jean was the star of the gala even when she was dying.

The idea of using Firestar is great. Angelica gets some interesting and important mission.

Guess Scott was captured but his goodbye scene with jean was kinda cute. Although jean seemed a bit weird. Does she expect they won’t resurrect her and that’s why her goodbyes seem to be more like “goodbye forever”? Because idk why she act like they cant resurrect her.

Destiny tried to play again and again it ended with mystique’s death although I think she survived.

I don’t think mutants are dead. I think gates leaded them to orchis prison which have psi blocks.

Iceman’s fight was good. But nimrod forgot you cant kill iceman in his ice form.

Have the feeling that they wrote gala issue and later added ms marvel scenes because somehow her resurrection didn’t feel so big or important. But reading how Emma or Xavier talk to Kamala was big ick.

New xmen team looked great but sad it didn’t survive.

Curious about kingpin. Seems he becomes mutants ally but is it for real or just a game

Oh well kitty you can now use gates while other mutants can’t.

I’m curious where it will lead Scott. He’s captured, can’t feel his legs, treehouse is burnt, cable will be kidnapped by orchis and jean is dead.

And where are fantomex and manifold?

[JB]

Oh sweet, a bonus episode of Cerebrocast just dropped: Bonus Episode: Hellfire Gala 2023 (feat. Gerry Duggan).

[JB]

So it seems Mother Righteous has all those mutants in her little bauble thing but Xavier can't detect them. Is this a Dominion-y move, having all of those souls now?

The Firestar reveal was brilliant. She went from barely being used to what seems to be a major role in FoX.

[Malachi]

Thanks for the review and spoilers JB

I think I see Gambit in that panel from Hellfire Clubs basement. Does he appear more than that?

[Kingdom X]

Thanks for the review and spoilers JB

I think I see Gambit in that panel from Hellfire Clubs basement. Does he appear more than that?

Nope that’s his only appearance. All things considered… a non-speaking cameo as one of the escapees is blessed considering the fate of most.

[carmoc1234]

So presumably orichis will use that mind control tech from the rogue gambit mini on all the mutants they just captured, setting them on humans so that when they show up to wipe them out they are the heroes.

[Jackraow21]

LET'S GO! WE NEED HIM!

This page… dear God I needed it after all of the preceding horror! It’s giving off big X-Tinction Agenda vibes too…

IMG_7436.jpg

… “right moves, smart orders… you’re good, bunkies… I’m better.” Love seeing Logan take out highly trained bad guys.

But holy $#!t that comic was dark… when Nimrod drops from orbit and just obliterates most of the newly elected X-men squad… my jaw dropped. It kind of gave me “X-Force in Deadpool 2 movie” vibes, but not quite as funny… more shocking, though Nimrod’s dramatic timing of the attack was a bit funny… in a morbid kind of way. And poor Jean! She had a great showing, though. Plus we know she’ll bring herself back in her mini series too.

Personally I loved this comic. Ready for the Fall of X and the X-men as the resistance. Duggan’s X-men seems like where Synch, Talon, Shadowkat, Juggernaut, Ms. Marvel and Logan will be hanging out; so that’s the “must-buy” book for me during this. Along with Children of the Vault too, of course.

[Grunty]

Time to see if the new macro-storyline holds anything interesting, because this whole setup sounds very hollow and dry.

Though that of course depends on how far one can still take the whole situation serious anymore after the past decades or feels the bad guys had "earned" their right to such a victory.

Edit:
Second Mutant Massacre? This? So the 16 million genoshan mutants don't count as the second?

[Viteh]

Thanks for starting the thread king!

My initial thoughts on the issue:

1. All off mutandom isn’t dead. Manifold was probably able to send them to various places in the galaxy/universe. Destiny wouldn’t have calmly walked through if she knew she was going to die along with thousands.
2. The massacre of the new X-Men team completely turned me off Duggan. Since Marauders he’s had this weird 2 POC quota on all his X-teams, never having more representation than that. Yet the one time it seems like he’s giving us a majority non-white team is also the time he feels comfortable callously and brutally killing most of them off. It’s gross.
3. As I said in other threads yesterday I’m over having a masochistic relationship with this franchise, especially because this franchise constantly benefits from this metaphor of representing the marginalized. So having a writer literally write about the “noose” around mutandom just told me all I needed to know.
4. The plot convenience of this is ridiculous… instead of commanding hundreds of thousands of mutants, Charles didn’t want to try to coordinate a plan with the X-Men to disarm the Orchis leaders? They were dumb enough to have Modok show up to the island with the kill switch so it should have been easy enough to disarm him. I get that Ewing previewed Charlie’s screwing over mutantkind, but this a new level. “I didn’t know they did something to the gates!” You literally did… cause how the hell else they Stasis and Moira walk through them.
5. So let me get this right… we spent all that time brining Lourdes back for her to show up bout three times and die again? As with the rest of this issue… brutality just for the sake of brutality.

Number 2 really annoyed me. For a sec I thought "Oh that's a nice subversion of expectations, everyone in the x-men vote actually made the team", and then I realized it was just to kill them off.

[Zoks]

Nope that’s his only appearance. All things considered… a non-speaking cameo as one of the escapees is blessed considering the fate of most.

He's in the background in other scenes too, like the "resist" panels. To be fair a lot of the characters we knew as survivors didn't get speaking roles either.

[Kingdom X]

Time to see if the new macro-storyline holds anything interesting, because this whole setup sounds very hollow and dry.

Though that of course depends on how far one can still take the whole situation serious anymore after the past decades or feels the bad guys had "earned" their right to such a victory.

I’m trying to figure out what about “mutants seemingly extinct and everyone on the run” is SO appealing that I had to be the next phase of this ongoing story. It’s like… the exact setup of Rosenberg’s run. I guess it’s supposed to hit harder because the mutants were finally on a bit of a high, but to me it just shows a lack of creativity.

[davetvs]

2. The massacre of the new X-Men team completely turned me off Duggan. Since Marauders he’s had this weird 2 POC quota on all his X-teams, never having more representation than that. Yet the one time it seems like he’s giving us a majority non-white team is also the time he feels comfortable callously and brutally killing most of them off. It’s gross.
3. As I said in other threads yesterday I’m over having a masochistic relationship with this franchise, especially because this franchise constantly benefits from this metaphor of representing the marginalized. So having a writer literally write about the “noose” around mutandom just told me all I needed to know.
4. The plot convenience of this is ridiculous… instead of commanding hundreds of thousands of mutants, Charles didn’t want to try to coordinate a plan with the X-Men to disarm the Orchis leaders? They were dumb enough to have Modok show up to the island with the kill switch so it should have been easy enough to disarm him. I get that Ewing previewed Charlie’s screwing over mutantkind, but this a new level. “I didn’t know they did something to the gates!” You literally did… cause how the hell else they Stasis and Moira walk through them.
5. So let me get this right… we spent all that time brining Lourdes back for her to show up bout three times and die again? As with the rest of this issue… brutality just for the sake of brutality.

Honestly, my thoughts exactly. I hated this issue, other than every scene Jean was in (Queen delivered) for all of the reasons you listed. I don't care who gets offended by reading this but I'm tired of straight white men writing X-Men. When the new team was revealed I went "Wow! That's like, the most diverse X-Team we've ever had...oh."

[Saithor]

This is moronic. The fall should have been from internal power struggles and conflicts, not Deus ex Orchis. Some people have said this was Hickman’s plan, I contend that Hickman and even to an extent Gillen and Eeing have been following an internal conflicts plan instead up till now.

[Dthirds3]

I'm getting really tired of the whole mass extinction storyline.