X-Men: Hellfire Gala – Fall of X
by
Gerry Duggan (Author), Joshua Cassara (Artist), Marte Gracia (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer), Javier Garrón (Artist), Morry Hollowell (Colorist), Travis Lanham (Letterer), Adam Kubert (Artist), Luciana Vecchio (Artist), Matteo Lolli (Artist), Russell Dauterman (Artist)
And so we come to the beginning of the end for what I would call the Empire of the Mutants… the Nation of Krakoa has shaken up the world ever since the new island home for Mutant-kind was created during the seminal House of X/Powers of X storyline by Jonathan Hickman in 2019 that completely upended the status quo of mutants in the Marvel Comics universe.
The Hellfire Gala has been an annual event since then that was a declaration of Mutant sovereignty, a show of power and a bit of an extravagant soiree for Krakoans to mingle with the upper echelon of human society and the powers-that-be. Until now – because as the full title indicates, this is not a happy party in the end. Last year the humans of Earth were thrown into a tizzy with the reveal that on top of everything else, the Mutants had colonised Mars and now everyone is waiting for the next big thing. Not the least of which is the announcement (as preceding years) where the latest primary team of X-Men is elected and announced.
The atmosphere in the festivities are as taut and tense as ever and everyone is having a great time, as much as they can anyway, while on tenterhooks and the games and machinations are underway. But there are some nasty surprises in store. We start of the issue seeing a strange figure managing to skillfully infiltrate the empty Krakoan tree-house in New Yorks’ Central Park with evil intent; shocking events take place in the U.S Capitol; someone is attacking Avengers and in the midst of all this there are some surprise entrants, including the infamous Sentinels – there is all this and much more as the anti-Mutant organisation known as Orchis finally starts to make their moves and show their hand.
Blood is shed, chaos is created and the proverbial feces hits the fan…
Overall I have to say that the issue was a very mixed bag for me. There are some very good moments and the Orchis chess-moves are devastating to watch unfold. The stakes are raised and characters are forced to make profound and game-changing choices that upend everything that has been built over the last 4-5 years (in our time, not by Marvels’ sliding time-scale). If you were going to end of the Dawn of the Mutant Age, this is definitely one hell of a way to kick that off and more than most things, it was enough to make me want to read the X-books again. Frankly that is what gives it a higher score for me, because as I see with some of the characterisations and some of the dynamics between the mutants that were built in this new Krakoa – particularly after Hickman started to step away – has been less than interesting for me.
Also, the new team of X-Men that was announced at the party… frankly I saw that page and one character aside, I was genuinely wondering who in their right mind thought this was a good idea as anything except maybe a joke? But, that could just be me, some of them are niche-favourite characters so you never know.
This is frankly me restarting reading X-Men comics pretty much after nearly 1 year and I was playing catch-up to get to this book. By that point, it was a few titles like Marauders that still kept me engaged, but the multitude of X-books they hit readers with in scattershot were largely forgettable and even with decent concepts behind them, I found them mostly mediocre or outright boring. Being a one-shot that is dense and packed with very high-stakes happenings makes this a more engaging read, but the story-lines that got us here and seeing some of the characters themselves is still not really all that interesting and carries some lingering bad-taste from what got us here – the Orchis organisation remains the most intriguing thing as a concept. That and watching the now-fugitive Wilson Fisk (after the events of Devils’ Reign) just quietly do his thing in the midst of all the big-bang ongoings.
The art is solid like many Marvel books and the action and look is pretty good (for the most part) but there are panels and pages where it felt perhaps rushed or the look was just… eh… though thankfully that was limited. The art was overall a stronger point for this one-shot than the story itself, which was clearly really trying and was a step up from what I consider the recent morass-feeling X-line of books, but none of it was great.
Would I recommend this? Perhaps as a potential jumping-on-point if you want to see the inevitable chaos that is about to hit with the Mutants being hit hard and what is the fall of the nation of Krakoa that is inevitable hereafter. If you’re, like me, a fan of X-Men comics but have struggled recently, I would say it is worth a try – and if you’ve been someone who enjoyed these comics the last few years, then you will likely find this to be a banger of an issue.
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