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?

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"Passing."

I'm mildly dismayed I was able to spell "gann josin" effortlessly...in 90's Avengers, the Black Knight was, possibly against his will, Sersi's special favorite--er, gann josin, her beloved soulmate, up until he wasn't. Like, for even less time than I would've figured: I would've thought Dane would've lasted until he started showing signs of age. (BTW, The Eternals movie does have Sersi and Ikaris as a couple, although I don't think they ever were in the comics, but the guys playing Ikaris and Dane are really similar, indicating Sersi has a type!) Sersi and Dane (and possibly Adam Warlock) were maybe the last people to see the Ultraverse, too. 

Despite being an altered timeline, the Age of Apocalypse was later seen as its own thing (Earth-295) but it and AoA Kurt were both apparently killed in the X-Termination crossover. Which I hated, but it did what it was probably meant to do; namely clearing the decks: every so often, Marvel will decide there's too many alternate versions of characters and try to pare things back to the core, then remember wait, guys like War Machine or Beta Ray Bill are actually cool...It's kinda the same way DC will every few years be like "no, Hal Jordan is Green Lantern, and that's it," and that'll last like five months before everyone remembers why they liked the other GL's. Anyway, despite being supposedly gone, like so many other timelines it was seen again in Secret Wars, but in an altered form, as Magneto was married to Emma Frost instead of Rogue...for reasons? And AoA Iceman was alive again, despite being one of AoA Kurt's sickhouse vengeance murders in Uncanny X-Force #24. 

So, we'll be playing pretty loose with the continuity, but honestly the sacrifice of AoA Kurt and his world was supposed to be noble but also vague enough to be reversible as needed. And the AoA is kind of like the Inhumans: all the writers have read the core texts, but not every little in-continuity story afterwards, so a lot of them contradict or step on each other. We just got that AoA Gambit figure; and I feel like we've seen him killed a couple times? Cloak might've got him once...

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"Passing."

I really wanted to get across the notion, that the Eternals have known each other for ever, and are maybe pretty sick of each other. That, coupled with the fact they don't deal with humans or mutants much either, has maybe made them stilted and weird. And Kurt's referencing a throwaway bit we did, um, three and a half years back! 

Back when we blogged...ugh...the Draco, we were introduced to Kurt's half-brothers, Nils "Abyss" Styger and Kiwi Black; and I don't think that was all of them, Azazel maybe had a lot of kids. Many of whom he probably ate or something, but still. And, we've also seen Kurt's half-brother on his mom Mystique's side, mutant-hater Greydon Creed. But, with the recent retcon of Kurt's parentage, he's not related to Azazel anymore, so he's not really related to Abyss or Kiwi anymore; which doesn't really matter story-wise since they aren't seen much (Abyss maybe got killed again recently) but Kurt had several adopted siblings and probably would keep in touch as much as possible. (Kurt's Christmas cards are probably a blast! "Oh, look, he went to the Savage Land and Genosha this year.") 

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"Split."

Bit of a transitional one here, I think. We'll see if the Eye of Agamotto meant anything later...maybe! But, you probably remember in Avengers: Infinity War, Strange tells Ebony Maw "You'll find a dead man's spell very hard to break." Would killing him have tied the Eye to him somehow? Or was Strange bluffing? I felt like it was at least some bluff; like Strange at best could've maybe held up the works there. (And of course, it might not work like that in the 616 proper.)

Also, Death's Head did not originate on earth; at least not according to the Marvel Database. I figure he was created for something, but decided "no thanks" and split instead, for the lucrative and rewarding field of freelancing. Why DH needs the money, uh...I feel like he drinks. Maybe not like Machine Man, but still. He can't be spending all his money on capes...  

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Let's see: we blogged #287 in 2019, #290 in 2011, #291 in 2014, and #289 today! Yeah, that makes sense. From 1979, Thor #289, "Look Homeward, Asgardian!" Written and edited by Roy Thomas, pencils by Keith Pollard, inks by Chic Stone.

This feels like the middle of the Eternals storyline, but it would go on, on-and-off, to Thor #300, a book I would need some kind of grant, stipend, large cash prize to even consider blogging. Lot going on in that one, probably too much. Still, here Thor has confronted the Celestial "One-Above-All," who like most Celestials doesn't seem to deign to talk to him, but shows him an image of Odin seemingly bending the knee to Arishem. Thor calls it treachery, but wants to know if Odin has sold out somehow. Instead, Thor and Hero, the Forgotten One, are teleported back to Olympia and the Eternals. (Sersi appears, to utter the epithet "by all the sailors I ever turned into swine!") Zuras, head Eternal, is furious at the reveal of the Forgotten One; calling him traitor. Thor rises to defend him, as manipulated by the Celestials; and it looks like it's going to come to blows before Makkari reveals Sprite's involvement, from Eternals #13...two years earlier? Thor also makes a comment about not tolerating tyrants, and Zuras realizes he's not mad at him...Thena and Ikaris present opposing views to Zuras, who decides to pair 'Hero' and Sprite together, to sort of account for each other.

The Eternals were gathering in numbers, to form the Uni-Mind and face the Celestials. Thor doesn't think even that has a chance, and asks for time to find another option: he's given a day, the time it would take for the other Eternals to arrive. Meanwhile, Odin stops by Mount Olympus, and briefly scuffles with some Titans before facing Zeus. Hercules doesn't want anything to do with Odin, since he knew Thor had been exiled from Asgard for standing up to the Celestials; but Odin proposes an alliance "...to smash any and all who would strive to save Midgard from death and destruction!" Was the All-Father turning heel? Back in Asgard, Balder was still in a deathlike state, as part of a "false Ragnarok" Odin had engineered to stave off the real thing; so there was maybe more evidence against him there. (Herc's mustache appears to have been left off that last panel there!) 

Thor arrives on the Bifrost, but is turned away at the gates of Asgard: even Sif tries to hold him off, since Odin had said he couldn't re-enter Asgard until he returned. Thor is a little steamed at that; like the gathered gods were being condescending. Crying, Sif activates the Destroyer, putting her spirit in it, which gives Thor pause. He's beaten and thrown off the Rainbow Bridge, hurtling towards earth, as Arishem glances upward, judging... 

Gods forbid I ever read this thing in order; with a little luck we'll probably see another chapter sometime in the next five or eight years. Still, a pretty massive cast this issue, and there would be even more characters later, then the plot really goes off the rails around #296 or so with the Ring of Nibelung stuff.

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I feel like this was like the third, fourth time they tried a team with Daimon on it.

That might be because I'm the only one that remembers that Fantastic Four Annual with him, Margali Szardos, and "Mechamage." Here's hoping this issue's better! From 2011, Chaos War: God Squad #1, "Gods & Monsters" Written by Marc Sumerak, art by Dan Panosian.

This was from the Chaos War crossover, which seems absolutely dainty compared to War of the Realms, which appeared to have more crossovers in one month than the entirety of Chaos War! Here, the God Squad teams-up against Chaos King Amatsu-Mikaboshi, and I sadly don't know enough about Shinto mythology to say if this was based on something like Thor and Hercules were, or if he was made up whole-cloth. But, your 2011 God Squad starting line-up: along with Daimon Hellstrom, we get the Silver Surfer, Sersi, and Venus. The latter of whom points out, she wasn't a real god; which I can't remember if Venus was supposed to know or not: she's described as a "sea siren turned love goddess." But, as they journey to find any remaining gods of the far east, they are joined by a legit god: the Panther God of Wakanda! (What, no Khonshu? I don't think he was usually considered 'real' at that time like Thor and Hercules, but I didn't know the Panther God was.)

There are a few fun sound effects, but this isn't real essential, even for the crossover: I had to look up the Incredible Hercules, since I thought Chaos War predated it, but no.

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"The End" Week: The Eternals #19!

I feel like I've brought this up before, and you guys maybe tarred me for it, but I didn't hate the Eternals movie. It maybe bit off more than it could chew, and I don't know if making them all mostly unlikeable space robots was a great idea; and a little friggin' color wouldn't have hurt...OK, I'm not really selling it there; but one swerve was that Druig--the moody prick with mind-control powers who seems to be living in a Jonestown kinda situation--seems like he's going to be the worst but then turns out to be right about a lot of things? I think the character was maybe a one-dimensional nutbag when first introduced, and um, still is today: he was the bad guy in Chasm: Curse of Kaine, probably as an expedient means of setting up a fight. But with all the later reveals and retcons, was Druig maybe right all along? Maybe we'll see: from 1978, the Eternals #19, "The Pyramid" Story and art by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer.

Druig was one of the "Polar Eternals," and man, I always forget how many of those guys there are? It's like the Inhumans, you always maybe see the same six or eight of 'em, but there's whole cities crammed full of more you usually only see in background shots; even though in the Eternals' case even Druig's little toadie Sigmar would have been crazy powerful. This issue, with Ikaris captured, Druig is free to head out to the "Pyramid of the Winds," where he's going to kick God in the teeth. Metaphorically: he's really gunning to destroy a Celestial! Ikaris is against it, saying the other Celestials would retaliate and destroy everything. Druig uses a little ice-sled vehicle to get to the Pyramid, which I thought was weird, since the Eternals can all fly; but the sled had force-fields to protect him from the Pyramid's "killing wind" defense. Unfortunately for him, he then finds a wall of doors marked with sigils, and didn't know the right one to choose...

Ikaris manages to free himself, and cows Sigmar into helping him: Sigmar had maybe been around the last time the Celestials visited earth, or at least had the gist of what happened, and claims they had fought amongst themselves, with one fatality. The Pyramid had been left behind and secreted by the Polar Eternals, but as they fly to it, a Celestial seems to be headed that way as well. As Sigmar leads Ikaris through the back way, Druig figures out the doors: the one marked with Ikaris's symbol! He finds "a pistol made for a giant's hand," a very Kirby space-gat. Ikaris catches up, and fights Druig, who uses flame-blasts here. Ikaris is at a disadvantage, since he was unwilling to murder his cousin; but Sigmar encourages him to disentegrate that fool before he blows up everything. Perhaps as a compromise, Ikaris disentegrates the space-gun, but the release of the energy therein engulfs and seemingly kills Druig.

Carrying the defeatist Sigmar, Ikaris escapes the collapsing Pyramid, but the energy was continuing to expand and destroy. The arriving Celestial stops it; leaving Ikaris to marvel at "an unconquerable enigma--mysterious and majestic among the creatures of the cosmos!" The final caption box, seemingly from the King himself, wonders if man might eventually gain the status to stand with them, and know their secrets. Which seems optimistic as all get out, today.

Still not sure about Druig's motive for Celestial-murder (Celesticide?) from this issue, but was he maybe right? I know I read a bit of Eternal stuff in their crossover with the Avengers and X-Men, but am vague on the details now. And like we said, Druig just appeared recently: it's not a modern classic, but I did like Chasm: Curse of Kaine. Perfectly readable mid-tier superhero book; and I like the notion of broody grump Kaine having to be the adult in the room, while his nutty 'brother' and his hot goth girlfriend play us-against-the-world. Read more!