The promise of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men inspired me to dip my toe back into Marvel Comic’s after a long layover. The House and Powers of X series were brilliant and seemed to be a jumping-on point for the comic line. Hickman reintroduced high concept storytelling to the X-Men and also presented fresh ideas that went well beyond the constant rehashes of popular storylines that were overdone a decade ago.

After a year of a meandering and stalled storyline, I felt myself checking out of the X-Men again. It was pretty clear that something had gone wrong in the X-Office and that the core concept of Hickman’s House of X had been warped. I don’t want to get into the rumors swirling about the creative direction of these books. It’s relevant but I’d rather focus on the titles themselves on this platform.


Inferno intends to resolve the longstanding plot thread involving Mystique and the resurrection of her Wife, Destiny. Inferno #1 reveals that Destiny is still alive. Inferno #2 reveals how it was done without Magneto or Xavier’s knowledge. The moments between Mystique and Destiny are awesome and easily the best-written parts of the issue. The problem here is that many of the best parts of Inferno #1 are the scenes that were literally written years ago in House of X.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book is held back by posturing between factions and a lot of faux political intrigue. If you’re reading X-Men for the Game of Thrones - Quiet Council elements. This issue may be great. If you’re like me this stuff is a chore to slog through. It’s also a huge pet peeve for me when a comic ends in the exact spot that it opens, at a council meeting.


The meandering aspects of Inferno are the reason I dropped the X-Books from my pull list in the first place. Inferno #1-2 could have easily been compressed into a single setup issue with #2 dealing with the fallout from the revelations presented here.

Aside from the Quiet Council elements, there is a developing plot by Orchis and the human faction. It appears that they are gearing up to attack the Mutants on Mars. It also appears that Moria, Magneto, and Xavier are about to be exposed to the rest of Krakoa. The series hit’s at a few high profile deaths and resurrections at the start of the series. Inferno touches on a few decent plot points but ultimately, nothing happens here. The scenes that seem to deserve more attention are blown past and we keep ending up in Quiet Council meetings.


I was excited to see how Hickman completed his run on X-Men and so far there’s a lot of hype and no substance.

In Short: Inferno over promises and under delivers…so far.