David Bowen

“The Lives of Moira VI”

Credits: Kieron Gillen writes; Lucas Werneck draws; David Curiel colors; Clayton Cowles letters; cover by Mark Brooks.

It’s the Kate Pryde Sinister issue (again; no (serious) complaints)!

My only frustration here is that, given the formal expectations of the rotating spotlight each issue, I expected Kate to do something clever with her phasing power to brush off at least Sinister’s tenth and final attack, even if that meant he escaped at issue’s end—which of course he does. But there’s absolutely nothing distinctive about Kate’s presence here in relation to the other councilmembers, except insofar as she gets to lead the surviving cast with her restrained righteous rage on the hunt for the finally outed Sinister.

Granted, they still don’t know about his secret Moira farm—but surely they’ll be paying his creep lair a visit now.

Even Sinister’s data page rating the threat level of various councilmembers shows how low he rates Kate, which I thought was set up for her surprising Sinister and getting the better of him. Nope!

However, Kate does get a brief moment to shine in her difference from the rest of the councilmembers when the issue opens on a council discussion of the merits of the Jean Grey-helmed Phoenix Foundation, which, per A.X.E.: Judgment Day Omega, will oversee Krakoan-sponsored resurrection for those humans deemed most deserving—primarily, the impoverished and those criminally underserved by human society. Now, one would think that would remind someone steeped in Christianity of who Christ valued most, but Exodus is, unsurprisingly, oblivious and disdainful. Kate’s calling him out on this here clearly emphasizes Exodus’ righteous apostasy in becoming a haughty religious extremist in the name of mutantkind alone (and really mostly just himself and the version of Hope cast by his mystical infatuation).

But hey—stiff old Bennet is at least speaking more these days. Put that down to Gillen’s knack for transforming previously cardboard characters (see above all, of course, 2012’s Uncanny X-Men #1-3, “Everything Is Sinister”). Exodus is no longer the “silent” type, which can only be a good thing for story.

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