Review by Frank Plowright
Jonathan Hickman’s relaunch of the X-Men franchise was bold and ambitious, packed with interesting thoughts about the place of mutants in society, what they could achieve, and what might happen as events played out. However, his planned rise and fall arc was scuppered by Marvel prioritising profits over quality. As they saw it, while half a dozen X-Men-related titles building on Hickman’s ideas were selling well, why cancel them to tell a finite story? Hickman’s consolation was two hundred pages to tell one final X-Men story. It’s a gem.
What it isn’t, though, is your standard X-Men story. There are moments of action, but they’re brief, so think of this more as a complex spy thriller, just set in a world of super powers. However, there’s little guesswork involved as motivations are clearly revealed. Multiple extremely powerful people have agendas working at cross purposes, and the ruling council of an all-encompassing mutant community isn’t going to change that by offering those formerly seen as villains a seat at the table. Key to Inferno are Moira MacTaggart, who has lived multiple lives and remembers them all, Destiny, who can see the future, and Mystique, her shapechanging partner.
Two primary ongoing threats beset Krakoa’s mutant community. Orchis is a loose alliance of those who fear what Krakoa might become if left unchallenged, and they’ve created an advance intelligence known as Nimrod, which it is believed will eventually embrace a destiny of wiping out all mutants. Hickman presumes most readers of Inferno will be familiar with his starting point House of X/Powers of X, so while the bigger matters are explained, smaller ones aren’t, so you may wonder about eccentric old women talking about rice pudding.
As noted, Inferno is no action thriller, so Valerio Schiti’s skill at ensuring the conversations look fascinating is essential. He can’t use action poses, or not with any credibility, and it’s novel to see Magneto just walking around. Schiti uses a full selection of directorial techniques for variety. He’ll change the angle of the viewpoint, move it closer in, pull it out, all in the service of the story, and you’d never notice if you weren’t looking, although occasionally he’s aided by the presence of eccentric people. You will notice the emotionally rich cast, and occasionally, such as a sequence about Krakoa’s transformation, there’s the opportunity to be eye-catching. The final chapter has pages drawn by Stefano Caselli also, but merged very well, with the colour consistency supplied by David Curiel helping.
Stories dealing with alternate possibilities, foresight, and prophecy are complicated by their nature, and it’s the belief in them supplies their power, something Hickman addresses in passing. Secrets provide a parallel theme, and whether or not they’re best revealed can never be accurately ascertained, all that can be done is to make a choice and follow a path, and the path followed here leads into Immortal X-Men.
Despite the continuation, there is a complete story here, one that’s dense, intelligent and compelling, and in reconfiguring the mutant world it’s a better story than Hickman’s launch.
