Random Happenstance

Long-time readers may have noticed I still use the tag "quarterbooks" all the time, even though honestly? The cheap bins haven't usually been a quarter for some time. That said, we might have some holdovers later in the week; but I got a spare copy of this one for two bucks--look, there was absolutely no chance I was leaving it--and we had been wanting to blog it anyway. From 2022, Immortal X-Men #007, "Part 7: Red in Blue" Written by Kieron Gillen, art by Lucas Werneck. Cover by Mark Brooks. I'm already pretty sure this is going to be a longer and more tangent filled one than usual, even for me, so let's see where we go.

This was part of the Avengers/X-Men/Eternals Judgment Day crossover, but Nightcrawler is trying to put a positive spin on things this morning with the Krakoan Quiet Council...that was one aspect of the Krakoa era I didn't enjoy, and you would think I'd like seeing Kurt get his due; but it really felt like he was there as a token with a friendly face, to suggest maybe the option that would hurt the least amount of people and then get immediately voted down by the rest. Friggin' democracy...Still, Kurt felt that the Celestials had been a test, and earth was going to pass. The Black King immediately offers, bet. Kurt is perhaps taken aback, since if the world failed the test, um, they all die? Seemingly shrugging, the Black King calls it "disaster capitalism" but also seems to think the mutants could fight it out if worse came to worst; which Emma seems interested in betting against herself. Mystique hedges her bet, asking Destiny what she thought: "I'm petrified." Immediately, the sky turns red, with a seeming hurricane of energy raining meteors; the Black King asks, that doesn't look like a pass to him. (I don't think the Black King and Kurt had ever had a ton of interaction, but while Emma has the cash for a bet with him, Kurt almost certainly does not!)

The Council makes disaster plans, and Kurt is annoyed when Mr. Sinister comes back with a suggestion: bringing back multiples of the late Magneto and spamming the Celestial with them. This was despite the resurrection rules, Magneto's last wishes, treaty with Arakko, and general decency; Kurt despairs, maybe the Celestial was right. But, he notices Destiny hadn't been telling them anything, and opts to "catch up" with his "evil stepmom," by teleporting with her miles over Krakoa. (Kurt's real relation to Destiny was still coming!) Destiny is pretty sure Kurt wouldn't kill her, and she's right, but he was making a point: the feeling of falling, that you were absolutely doomed--unless someone stepped in and saved you. She admits she can see a path, but had been reluctant to take it. Another aside, since it would come up again this issue: Nightcrawler is usually seen as one of the 'softer' X-types, a pacifist marshmallow, not a killer at all; but somehow he bluffs incredibly well! I think that's just a side effect of his looks and probably not one he's thrilled about, but sometimes...

Step one: get Captain America, who was in New York City, where a crowd of anti-mutant protestors had just died. Kurt glances at one of the Orchis flyers, before crumpling it up and throwing it away; and is again frustrated that the world was ending, but some people were still trying to take advantage of it. He knows, if he fails and the world does deserve to die, all those jerks will die with it; if Kurt was right they all get to live. Complicated. Kurt gets Cap to the North Pole, but also sneaks a blood sample and slips it to Illyana, for plan B and that Cap-smashing-out-of-a-gold-egg-with-his-shield bit later in the series, also briefly seen later here. (100% Rule of Cool there: that didn't necessarily make sense, but looked great!)

Cap and Kurt are immediately killed by the Celestial; a noble sacrifice to bring the world together, that I also think should've qualified as Kurt's audition for the Avengers. Absolutely serious there. I swear, the Professor must've made Kurt sign a non-compete when he first became an X-Man; or hit him with the franchise tag. Kurt immediately respawns on Krakoa, but this was slightly different from usual: it was a "live" back-up. Usually, mutants brought back wouldn't have to remember being killed; but Kurt didn't have time to play catch-up today, so he now had to live with the firsthand knowledge of what getting torn apart molecule by molecule felt like. (I'm guessing, itchy.) Next, the Celestial was going to attack Krakoa, and while they could've evacuated everyone, per Destiny's plan, they could trick the Celestial, if some mutants stayed behind and died. One in ten. Far more volunteer. Hope, tearing up, swears to bring them all back; while Kurt just gets angrier. Goldballs has to stay behind: they needed one of the Five in the resurrection protocol to appear lost, but they had eggs stockpiled, and could bring him back...if they lived. Sinister makes a crack, about breaking some eggs, and Kurt nearly stabs him. Mystique and Destiny also stay behind in the sacrifice play: Destiny still saw that, as their ultimate way through it. Sinister, on the other hand, makes arrangements to bail: this would come up in the Sins of Sinister event, but he had means to "reboot" and take data back with him and try again. Which wasn't working. Ah, technology. (It's a solid joke at Sinister's expense, but also to keep this event from crashing the next one!)

"Plan B" was sidestepping the Quiet Council, breaking a rule to bring back the non-mutant Cap, and Hope has to browbeat Exodus down: was she his damn messiah, or wasn't she? Next, we see Kurt pulling himself out of an egg again, with Proteus remaking his outfit: Kurt notes, the once-horrible Proteus had changed, which was encouraging. Kurt goes back through a Krakoan portal, into orbit, so Illyana could teleport him, giving directions as he did; while Exodus watches, seemingly awed: he had previously thought this plan a "waste of eggs," but was now watching Kurt die again and again and again: Christ only had to be crucified, once. Kurt keeps teleporting into the Orchis forge, facing Nimrod and Moira MacTaggart, amid a pile of his own still-smoldering corpses. Kurt was trying to get past Nimrod to Moira, which had taken at least nine deaths at this point; but really reminds me of the video game Gauntlet. It was a quarter-eater, with a voice chip to tell you warnings like "Elf is about to die" or "I've not seen such bravery!" The latter I think was usually triggered by charging headlong into it and eating a ton of damage, but if you had more quarters it wasn't a losing strategy...

This try, Kurt glances Nimrod's head with his fingertips, just enough to teleport away a good chunk of that damn robot's head: he knows it would self-repair, but too late. (The framing of that panel is interesting: I feel it's like from a classical piece, but don't know enough art history to nail it down.) Grabbing Moira, he gives her a bit of a bluff, slapping a doohickey on her head that he claims would wipe her memories. He's lying, but he also knows "she's more scared of true death than anyone I've ever met," which gives her pause long enough for Kurt's message: a warning from Destiny, that the Celestial was about to destroy the Orchis station. She curses him out while they get to an escape ship, but Kurt knew she wouldn't have believed, or would've tried to outfight the Celestial and failed. Moira fumes, that Orchis and the X-Men would never be able to work together, but in Kurt's eyes, today was much simpler, with only two sides: life or death. Grinning, he advises her to "try something new...don't be such a grump." 

That last bit feels like an extension of a point the Krakoa era seemed to push: that mutants--and ultimately, everyone--in the final analysis, we're all on the same team, right? Sink or swim together? But even if you share goals, sometimes there's no getting around differences of opinion in how to achieve them: was Kurt ever really going to be able to come to terms with how the Black King or Mr. Sinister got results? Should he?...no, they're dicks; but they weren't the only ones. I also had to look up; there's a sequence in the main Judgment Day series where the Celestial, the Progenitor, passes judgment on several characters, and it's interesting who passed and who failed. Cap himself notably failed, since he was meant to inspire America to be better, and...OK, (gestures around broadly) yeah, but I don't think you can pin all that on Cap even if he probably agreed there. We don't see Kurt's judgment, so it's up to you: did he pass? I'd say yes, but of course he's my special favorite that's never done anything wrong; and he very likely could fall into the same Catholic guilt trap that failed Daredevil: you've done a lot, but have you done everything you could?