Immortal X-Men #14 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

We get some answers which raises more questions.

We open with the preview pages, X weeks after the gala. Xavier's beard has become unkempt as he stares blankly, replaying the horrifying events of the gala in his mind. He believes he killed all of the mutants he forced through the gates.

We rewind a bit to the day after the gala. Shaw is in an office building in NYC talking with his new assistant, Siobhan. He prefers to call her Tessa. He injects himself with a device that supposedly makes him no longer a mutant, a show of faith to his new partners in Orchis. He asks "New Tessa" how rich he is but when she checks his accounts they are unchanged. He grows angry as she tells him that while he owns Krakoa the island, he does not own the nation's finances. He storms out and then barges into the Hellfire Club. He goes into his secret room where he summoned Mother Righteous previously and does so again.



Hellfire Club guards enter and order him to leave immediately, their guns pointed at him. As he's being escorted out New Tessa tells him that she found out who owns the finances of Krakoa and that it's Wilson Fisk. He spits out the whiskey he just grabbed and Emma (as the classic White Queen) psychically appears, towering over him. She essentially gloats for outsmarting him and says she did it for the children while he did it for the cents.

Emma disappears and he tells NT to start arranging meetings as he wants to begin the exploitation of Krakoa immediately.



Back in the present, Shaw is sailing on a yacht with Selene and NT. He's demanding to know why his plans for Krakoa are stalling and one of the guards explains that so far all personnel that have been sent to the island have seen monsters on it and are too scared to proceed.

Back on Krakoa Emma reaches out to Xavier telepathically. She tells him that he can't keep ignoring her and that she's worried about him. She knows he believes all the mutants are dead but that they can't be sure of that so they shouldn't give up. She's reached out to Strange, Reed, and T'Challa for help with the missing mutants but so far nothing. Xavier tells her their children are dead and to leave him alone. He then starts to hear psychic chatter elsewhere on the island. A group of Orchis soldiers arrives on the beach via a small boat. They don't make it very far before they encounter four huge monsters, running back to their boat terrified. It's Xavier, psychically creating the image of the monsters. His narration box tells us he will not let the memory of the lost mutants be desecrated by those who bathed in blood. "No more. No more. No more."

The final scene takes place in a desert, "nowhere, no-when." Exodus, Hope, and Destiny find themselves in this strange place having just come through the gates. Destiny yells "NO!" and says she can't see the future, that there is nothing but white space. She asks if Raven is there and starts to freak out yelling for her wife. Hope slaps her (for all of us!) and tells her she has to pull it together.

Exodus walks up a dune telling them that there are 250,000 minds present with them. None of them are Mystique nor the rest of the Five. As he looks over the dune we see the population of Krakoa. Exodus confirms that they were all meant to arrive on Arakko but instead they're in this desert. Hope says most of them don't have useful mutant powers, they don't have food, water. She asks what they're going to do as she holds and comforts a crying Destiny.

Exodus calls out to the people, the sun's light behind him glinting off his headpiece. He says they will survive the desert as he did long ago, they will be transformed like he was. He says they are mutant pilgrims and he will lead them to the promised land. "We are the people of Krakoa. We only have each other. We have only ever had each other. And whether we live or die, we will live and die together. This way. Follow me."



The issue ends with a quote written by Exodus, similar to Exodus 16:2. "If only we had died by Orchis' hand! In Krakoa, we sat around pots of plenty and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

[Micabe]

Well, I sure didn't see that coming. Hmm... Wait. Who is that holding Irene's mask?

[Rift]

So Hellion is not among the people, since most of them have useless powers, and he could have used his telekinesis to carry them all out of the desert without conserving energy. Or he's one of the few people there, and just took off with his friends and made it back home.

Either way, Hellion is safe.

[DarkMagnus]

Well, I sure didn't see that coming. Hmm... Wait. Who is that holding Irene's mask?

Irene.

Remember Raven bring her back young

[ExodusCloak]

I'd imagine most of the 250,000 do have useful powers they just need to train.

Looks like three Sinister 4 will all get redemption arcs

[Covetous_One]

Well, I sure didn't see that coming. Hmm... Wait. Who is that holding Irene's mask?

That is Irene

[DarkMagnus]

I'd imagine most of the 250,000 do have useful powers they just need to train.

Looks like three Sinister 4 will all get redemption arcs

all sans Stasis?

[ExodusCloak]

Even if you are only have to lift a pencil in the air or produce candyfloss cotton you are still useful

[sbp1972]

The ego on Xavier. "I can't sense them, so they must all be dead! I'm just gonna sit here and wallow in my own filth!".
Also, how bad must he smell at this point?

[Viteh]

Huh, I wonder why the rest of the 5 aren't with them. Mystique not being there makes sense, since she didn't go through the gate, but the five did.

Even if Mother Righteous somehow stole them, why would she leave Hope? She's the key to their powers. Odd.

I was wrong about Destiny intentionally trying to kill Mystique for some future plan. Which now begs the questions, why did she think Xavier forcing Mystique to walk through the gate would work out well. She probably could have just asked her. The writers wanted Mystique gone from the story for some reason.

In the FCBD issue, she and Destiny leave the Gala, so they retconned that for the actual Gala issue. Mystique being dead (or pretending to be dead since we don't see a body) must factor into the rest of Fall of X.
Screen Shot 2023-08-09 at 7.20.41.jpg

[Kingdom X]

Huh, I wonder why the rest of the 5 aren't with them. Mystique not being there makes sense, since she didn't go through the gate, but the five did.

Even if Mother Righteous somehow stole them, why would she leave Hope? She's the key to their powers. Odd.

I was wrong about Destiny intentionally trying to kill Mystique for some future plan. Which now begs the questions, why did she think Xavier forcing Mystique to walk through the gate would work out well. She probably could have just asked her. The writers wanted Mystique gone from the story for some reason.

In the FCBD issue, she and Destiny leave the Gala, so they retconned that for the actual Gala issue. Mystique being dead (or pretending to be dead since we don't see a body) must factor into the rest of Fall of X.
Screen Shot 2023-08-09 at 7.20.41.jpg

Perhaps Orchis want all the mutants to die off where they sent them and having all the Five their would foil their plans. This also might be the beginning of the end of the resurrection protocols.

Regarding Mystique, I'm assuming Spurrier pitched his Mystique storyline w/ Nightcrawler so they had to find a way to keep her on Earth.

[RAWRlrus]

I wonder when Shaw began working with Orchis, since that was an important part of Immortal 12(?) but Rasputin cleared him. Did he start working after that point or was he able to shield his thoughts from her.

Now I have more questions about the cover of 15. Is Selene going up against a psychic projection of Xavier's (since she has the Noto QC variant)? Or is it Hope (since IIRC it was sanding looking in the cover) and this is where Orchis intentionally sent mutants?

[Grunty]

The last page feels like an appropiate excuse to play David Paich's main theme for first Dune movie.

[Viteh]

Regarding Mystique, I'm assuming Spurrier pitched his Mystique storyline w/ Nightcrawler so they had to find a way to keep her on Earth.

Oh, she's gonna be in Uncanny Spider-Man? That's probably the reason then.

I wonder when Shaw began working with Orchis, since that was an important part of Immortal 12(?) but Rasputin cleared him. Did he start working after that point or was he able to shield his thoughts from her.

My guess is that he wasn't working with Orchis back then. It wasn't until Mother Righteous started working with Orchis that he started working with them.

[ExodusCloak]

all sans Stasis?

Sorry meant Xavier, Hope, Exodus and Emma. But now that you mention it maybe Mutant Sinister