Avengers Assemble, the 10-part finale of Jason Aaron’s 80-issue-plus Avengers run that began in 2018 finally came to an end in April. More than the end of his run, it was the culmination of a longterm build that began early on his run and, then, specifically in Avengers #50 (or, if you’re inclined to count it, Free Comic Book Day 2021: Avengers/Hulk). The focus of Avengers and the launch of a spinoff Avengers Forever directly led to this finale with multiversal Avengers, traveling through time to thwart Mephisto’s schemes, and, generally, feeling like the book was on a treadmill until the real story could actually begin. Which is why, when Avengers Assemble finally began, it felt so underwhelming. Over a year and 23 issues (not to mention the pre-issue 50 issues that set up various elements of the story through subplots in Avengers) the payoff is a meandering, inconsistently paced story featuring bad guys that won’t stay defeated despite looking quite dead for… ‘reasons’ until Deus Ex Machina and good guys win! At least, that was my first impression. [Read more…] about The Final Architect: The End of Jason Aaron’s Avengers and a Marvel Era
Reviews
“Sins of Sinister” Part 10: Nightcrawlers #3—in Review!
“The Sacred Heart”
Credits: Si Spurrier writes; Lorenzo Tammetta and Phillip Sevy draw; Rain Beredo colors; Clayton Cowles letters; cover by Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Gho
I’m very pleased Si Spurrier’s Nightcrawlers mini ended up being the most event-essential in its final entry, and it’s the one that had the most detailed world-building—with its contributions on the mystic side of things baffling some readers who couldn’t see how any of it could ever fit into the main thrust of the narrative. Whoops!
Not only is this issue one of the most event-critical—we get some fun surprises along the way! Right away, fans will be mystified by what appears to be Galactus possessed by a Spirit of Vengeance. The last entry from Spurrier for this event goes down swinging, and it’s a sight more impressive than the other entries for Year 1000. That’s no small thing when the friendly competition is Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing.
SPOILERS AHOY
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Magneto (Krakoa Era) Reading Order & Analysis!
The Krakoan Era of X-Men comics has done tremendous work invigorating, resetting, creating, and returning characters. Magneto is the only major character in the franchise to die a Permanent Death. How could one of Krakoa’s founders and a principal X-Men character be taken off the board indefinitely? Moreover, why?
Magneto’s journey across this era mimics a full day. House of X & Powers of X are the dawn of his new epoch. He awakens, rinses himself clean of his past, and heads out into the world as a New God. From there, he spends the bulk of the daytime adjusting to Krakoa and its ramifications for his people, his family, and himself. During the daytime of his Krakoan story, Magneto tries to “build something…A great work. The great work” as he later tells Fisher King. That day at work is hard, harder than he imagines and, as dusk settles in, Magneto is left “shattered to pieces.” The evening of Magneto’s tale sees the breakdown of his triumvirate with Moira and Charles, the Trial he endures with his family, and the loss of trust between himself and his fellow Mutant. At night, Magneto lays down to rest but “[he does] not fear a life that ends” because he has raised up a new generation of political leaders to carry on and improve his legacy should he not wake from his sleep.
He did not wake.
That is how Magneto was taken off the board, but the reason why is more subjective. The Krakoan Era has revealed a lot about the three “traditional” leaders of Mutantkind that form the Autumn Seats of the Quiet Council: Apocalypse revealed his true self, [A], and the deep Mutant history that comes with him; Xavier has allowed power and secrets to reveal the depths of his narcissism and egomania; and Magneto struggles between his classic self (vicious, egomaniacal, and grandiose) and his best self (familial, heroic, and commemorative). His best self wins out in the end.
Since his story has come to a close, for now, I wanted to develop a comprehensive reading order for Magneto. Each issue below characterizes Magneto and his relationship with various characters. To that end, I have marked each issue with “thematic signifiers” to help guide reading. “Founders” marks issues that focus on Magneto and Prof. X and/or Moira X. Often, these issues demonstrate Magneto out front as statesman with Prof X., working in the shadows with the founding triumvirate, or both. Issues marked “Family” illuminate the complex familial relationships between Magneto and his relatives. Over the course of the Krakoan Era, his relationships with his daughters are an absolute treat, highlighting the importance of healing intergenerational trauma, and demonstrating the diversity of familial relationships people may have. While not family, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, and eventually Legion and Hope are marked as “Heirs” to Magneto’s name. They aren’t simply leaders of Mutantkind like the Quiet Council, but Mutants who take on Magneto’s legacy by charting their own course and developing new blocs and movements within Mutant politics, specific to the Krakoan Era. Interactions with the current leaders of Krakoa are denoted as “QC” for the Quiet Council.
Similarly, “GR” marks interactions with the Great Ring of Arakko. These two thematic signifiers often demonstrate Magneto’s political maneuvering, for better or worse, and tend to be ripe with exquisite banter and charm. Frequently paired with “GR” is “Brotherhood” for the Brotherhood of Arakko. The “night” of Magneto’s life cannot be understood without seeing him building the Brotherhood of Arakko with Storm and giving his legacy and the legacy of a “Brotherhood of Mutants” to her and Sunspot. “Community” marks the issues that demonstrate what Magneto means to his people and show him interacting with the broader community, negatively or positively. Lastly, “Illuminati” designates important interactions with the Illuminati. While never a member, Magneto is clearly of their caliber in the Krakoan Era and outright challenges their positions and authority in a time of Mutant ascendancy.
Here is the Krakoan reading order for Magneto:
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“Sins of Sinister” Part 8: Immoral X-Men #3—in Review!
“Our Nine-Hundred-Years-and-Counting Mission”
Credits: Kieron Gillen writes; Alessandro Vitti draws; Rain Beredo colors; Clayton Cowles letters; cover by Leinil Francis Yu and Jesus Aburtov
A millennium into the Sinister Era—or rather, 900 hundred years into the Exodus Dominion (speaking only in the religious sense)—and our plucky heroes, Mister Sinister and his devoted servant Rasputin IV, are winding dramatically toward the conclusion of their centuries-long star romp, whose grim relentlessness must surely echo in tone the source of this issue’s epigraph, literature’s most embittered picaresque, Voltaire’s Candide. The 1759 French novella is most pointedly a rebuttal of Leibniz’s belief that our world must surely be the best of all possible worlds; this is actually the opposite a “multiverse” theory, since Leibniz was saying only one world is, it is this one and since God made this one world, why, it must surely be the best there could possibly be—so, Candide’s cast parades through a sequence of real-world horrors, which they mostly happily rationalize as simply integral to God’s miraculous natural order. And if our reality is so great, what does that say about the lesser options that might have been? Here’s an answer:
Welcome to Sinister X-Men: Warhammer!
Imagine the most loathsome anti-life tendencies of religiosity multiplied throughout the galaxy via Prayerworlds, each a world engine of mindless devotion wrenched from tortured meatpuppet prayerbots to feed a giant Exodus—whose greatest enemy is the next closest Exodus on his own Prayerworld. Warhammer goodness, indeed. The Warhammer universe Emperor is somewhat akin to what we see here from Exodus, in that each day, a thousand souls are sacrificed to sustain his immortality and thus his endless war against heretics, and even mutants! There is no individuality left in this war-ravaged reality (A few years ago, Gillen himself wrote a Warhammer title for Marvel).
[Read more…] about “Sins of Sinister” Part 8: Immoral X-Men #3—in Review!
Doom Patrol by Rachel Pollack: They Liked My Powers But Couldn’t Handle Me
“The ones who return are the ones who suffer. Live as if you’ve never lived before.” – Niles Caulder receiving a message from his subconscious. Doom Patrol #73. “The Dream Patrol: Return of the Windowmen,” written by Rachel Pollack.
In his introduction to The Vertigo Tarot, Sandman creator Neil Gaiman mentions the surreal experience of accompanying author Rachel Pollack on a visit to an esoteric shop in Camden to pick up a Tarot deck. This resulted in Gaiman, “feeling like I’d just gone into a record show with someone who, to my surprise, turned out to be one of the Beatles, as Rachel modestly admitted her identity to the lady behind the counter, and signed autographs.”
Last month, Gaiman wrote again about Pollack, but this time under heavier circumstances. “I am writing this at the request of her wife Zoe,” he wrote on his Mastodon account, “to let her friends know that the end is soon, and to let the obituarists know too.” [Read more…] about Doom Patrol by Rachel Pollack: They Liked My Powers But Couldn’t Handle Me