Marvel Comics and X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1 Spoilers and Review follows.
A Mutant Massacre Begins The Fall Of X! Plus G.O.D.S., Ms. Marvel, Firestar and More!
X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA 2023 #1
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • KRIS ANKA, JOSHUA CASSARA, RUSSELL DAUTERMAN,
ADAM KUBERT, PEPE LARRAZ, R.B. SILVA, LUCIANO VECCHIO & MORE! (A)
Cover by PHIL NOTO • X-VOTE VARIANT COVER BY FRANCESCO MANNA
VARIANT COVER BY GEORGE PEREZ • VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY GEORGE PEREZ
ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
VIRGIN ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
RETRO ANNIVERSARY VARIANT COVER BY J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
STORMBREAKERS VARIANT COVER BY LUCAS WERNECK
HELLFIRE GALA VARIANT COVER BY MASHAL AHMED
HOWARD THE DUCK VARIANT COVER BY TBA
X-MEN 97 VARIANT COVER BY DAN VEESENMEYERTHE FALL OF X BEGINS HERE!
The Hellfire Gala is always the biggest event of the season…but this year’s will change everything for Krakoa. What is meant to be mutantkind’s biggest night becomes their biggest nightmare as the Fall of X begins! All your favorite X-Men are going to be left reeling after this one – shocking revelations, stunning betrayals, horrifying tragedy, impossible deaths…and of course the most glamorous looks of the year, all in one CANNOT-MISS package!
80 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$8.99
In addition the main cover and solicitation above the title has a few variant covers below.
X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1 Spoilers and Review follows.
The opening parts of the issue were spoiled prior to the issue being published.
First, with the news that Ms. Marvel was returning from the dead using the mutant resurrection protocol?!
Resulting in her own new series called Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant.
Second, the preview for this issue included the opening pages focusing on Ms. Marvel as seen here.
We learn in the issue us that Ms. Marvel remains an Inhuman, but she’s also now at least half mutant.
Ms. Marvel wonders if her Inhuman side have her the embiggening powers could she have some new mutant related powers too?
In advance of the new G.O.D.S. series, that promises to change the cosmology of Marvel, we get some of the G.O.D.S. characters debuting at the Hellfire Gala this year.
There’s also lots of death in this issue.
- First, while a new X-Men team debuts emerging from the recent fan X-Men vote, most are quickly killed by Nimrod!
- Second, the Astonishing Iceman is seemingly killed by Nimrod too.
At the same time, the Stark Sentinels descend on the Hellfire Gala for Orchis.
Third, is the long painful one involving Jean Grey offed by Moira MacTaggert / Moira X.
Moira then makes Professor X Charles Xavier submit and stop resisting the attack of a Doctor Stasis (in Mister Sinister skin with the clover on his forehead), Moira and the forces of Orchi.
The terms of the X-Men’s surrender is having all the mutants on the globe walk through the nearest Krakoan portal to leave Earth.
This comes after the machinations of the villains that poisoned the medicines that the mutants have given to humanity among other elements of sabotage putting the mutants and in poor light across the globe.
Then we see as Jean Grey is purported to be dying, despite what I would presume is still the resurrection possibility, we see her meet with Firestar in the mindscape.
Jean Grey convinces Firestar, Angelica Jones, to infiltrate Orchis as a mutant spy; Grey and Jones create a backstory that Grey implants in the minds of key figures in Orchis and the X-Men so the former believes she’s on their side while the latter believes she’s a traitor.
Charles Xavier reluctantly sends a message to all mutants on the globe to walk through their nearest Krakoan gate, essentially controlling them, promising to explain the why’s and the what’s in due time.
Professor X mourns the passing of Jean Grey even as her spirit visits an injured Cyclops to see good-bye and as she frees Wolverine from the mind control of Charles Xavier.
Destiny willingly walks through a Krakoan gate while Professor X’s mind control leads to Destiny’s wife Mystique committing suicide in a pretty bloody way.
Orchis’ M.O.D.O.K. uses his tech to see that Krakoa seemingly is no longer reflected on his digital map while at the same time a handful X-Men, who had been trained by Charles Xavier to resist or R E S I S T mental attacks, snap out of it and flee despite Moira X’s efforts.
Wilson Fisk fka the Kingpin is among the spared Hellfire Gala X-Men, but their teleporter also dies in the process injured by Moira MacTaggert.
The resisting mutants now no longer can use the Krakoan gates for travel as Doctor Stasis orders the deaths of the humans who were guests at the Hellfire Gala a fate Professor X was trying to avoid by surrendering and agreeing to his terms.
Moira X gloats to Charles Xavier noting that today will forever be known as the Mutant Massacre, but before she can kill him too, Rogue saves him and whisks him away quite literally.
The gravity of the situation is revealed by Professor X to Rogue.
All the mutants, that Charles Xavier forced to go through the Krakoan gates, are dead.
Orchis had sabotaged the gates for this purpose leaving Professor X the only inhabitant of the island of Krakoa as the Fall of X begins.
Kitty Pryde had not been able to use the Krakoan gates in the past and she was the only mutant with this dilemma.
However, now the the tables have turned as it seems while mutants can no longer use the Krakoan gates, Kitty Pryde can and she accidently lands in the lap of Orchis at the X-Men’s Krakoan embassy in Jerusalem.
The Fall of X has begun.
The Pulse.
A dark way to end the Krakoan age and usher in a new one. A lot going in this issue, with much set-up for the Fall of X age. The hunted or outcast mutant vibe channels the early incarnation of the X-Men. The art teams throughout delivered the emotion and impact of the story. I am intrigued by what is to come, but remains saddened by the Mutant Massacre and curious about the Resurrection Protocol in this new era. 8 out of 10.
