Things are growing even more complicated for the Quiet Council of Krakoa as not only are dealing with an internal struggle but must now respond their achievement of mutant resurrection has been revealed to the public. This was revealed just as Emma Frost is ready for this year’s Hellfire Gala to happen. With the mutant resurrection secret now public how will the Quiet Council respond? Let’s find out with Immortal X-Men #4
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Michele Bandini
Colorist: David Curiel
SYNOPSIS
The night before the Hellfire Gala Emma Frost reflects on why she uses her diamond form to sleep and how unlike Jean Grey she could only commit to the control aspect of the telepathy power. She goes on to think of what she is doing to protect her children and mentally prepare herself for the Hellfire Gala.
The next day, at the entrance to this year’s Hellfire Gala Ambassador Mingyu wants answers why Krakoa’s answer to immortality can’t work on humans. Emma responds by remind the ambassador of how humans have cheered as their Sentinels have killed over sixteen million mutants, many of which can’t be brought back, so she is of course prioritizing her children. Ambassador tries to strike a deal with Emma but is disrupted by a protestor who dumps a bucket of blood on Emma.
The day after the Helllfire Gala, the Quiet Council hold a meeting where Emma reveals to everyone that Cyclops discovered that Dr. Stasis is the original Nathaniel Essex much to everyone’s surprise, including Mister Sinister. Mister Sinister is able to avoid capture by duplicating himself in order to get to his lab.
In his lab Mister Sinister gets ready to kill Moira MacTaggert clone to reset the timeline. He is stopped by Destiny’s words about being a coward. Mister Sinister then decides to purge all his personalities and cleanly install a fresh version of himself since he now believes only one Nathaniel Essex counts anyways.
Mister Sinister then exits his lab ready for the Quiet Council’s judgment. Just as the Quiet Council order Mister Sinister to be sent to The Pit he is teleported away into space by a mysterious force.
Later that night, Emma thinks how Destiny did not give them a full answer about the upcoming war that she saw in her vision. Emma then reflects on how the thing with telepathy is she can trick anyone but herself. End of issue.
REVIEW
Immortal X-Men #4 acts as a compliment to the events in the Hellfire Gala. Since this year’s Hellfire Gala was done in a one-shot rather than a full blown franchise event this is something it very much needed. Especially considering that outside of Emma Frost’s reaction to Scott Summers decision we didn’t get much of a dive into the Quiet Council.
Keeping the perspective of the Quiet Council’s side of what was learned in the Hellfire Gala on Emma Frost was the right call. As the one organizing the event and having a main focus in the Hellfire Gala itself it gave us more of an opportunity to dive into her character. As we see with the opening Kieron Gillen did take the time to focus on what is driving Emma from multiple levels. From how she views herself to those around her we got to get a firm perspective on where Emma Frost is at this point in her life.
What made Emma’s characterization work so well is that even Gillen doesn’t make her current status quo about one single thing. Even when she thinks about how she views herself in comparison to Jean Grey or the relationship she has with Scott Summers that isn’t her focus. Everything that Emma does goes back how she has used her powers to maintain control of herself and the situations around her. At the same time, she’s used that control to make sure protecting those she views are her children is her priority.
That works well into the Emma’s conversation with Ambassador Mingyu when she is confronted about the mutant resurrections. Emma stands firm on what her and Krakoa’s position is. Using all the events that have taken place in the X-Men franchise that have shown humans through various means killing mutants and destroying what mutants built was great to see. This is something we’ve all seen throughout Marvel’s history as mutants, whether they are X-Men or not, believe even more in how Krakoa has handled things, especially with the reaction they’ve already received.
Going from here to the Quiet Council meeting after the Hellfire Gala was a bit awkward of a transition but what it did accomplish worked. On her end, Emma was careful not to reveal everything that Cyclops told her as they, along with Jean Grey, made an agreement to work together. Even in revealing the details about the original Nathaniel Essex being Dr. Stasis she didn’t go into everything Scott told her. It was just enough to get the Quiet Council to place there attention on how they had to deal with Mister Sinister right away.
Mister Sinister’s own reaction was as you expect. Even how he escaped was Mister Sinister being full of himself. His immediate instincts being that he will use the Moira MacTaggert clone to reset the timeline while keeping all the data he learned worked in everything we’ve seen the character do at this point. It made his decision, backed by Destiny calling him a coward, to realize that there can only be one Nathaniel Essex.
This all builds into how Orchis is a threat that the core X-Men team won’t be the only ones dealing with. Especially with what Moira X did during the Hellfire Gala it is time for the Quiet Council to be active in dealing with Orchis plot. Nathaniel Essex being Dr. Stasis, effectively making one of their own as part of their greatest enemy, even a greater priority for the team.
The ending of Immortal X-Men #4 with Mister Sinister being taken by the Eternals worked to tie the events of the Hellfire Gala and A.X.E.: Judgment Day. The Eternals targeting Mister Sinister showed that they already knew a key player on the X-Men side of that they had to take off the board right away. Taking the first shot in the war makes how the X-Men and Avengers will respond the Eternals doing this. It positions the Eternals as the antagonist, even if Marvel wants you to think of them as protagonists.
Michele Bandini did a great job with showcasing how much is going on with Emma Frost throughout this issue. In her solo moments we see how much is weighing on Emma from her own personal events to the bigger things going on with the Quiet Council. Then when things are switched over to the Hellfire Gala Emma stands in a position of authority as she does not back down when confronted over the Immortal X-Men story. The same goes for how Bandini drew Mister Sinister as we got a full spectrum of what kind of character he is.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Immortal X-Men #4 works as the connecting point between the Hellfire Gala and A.X.E.: Judgment Day events. Those ties create even greater interest in how both events are a key part of the X-Men franchise. Emma Frost taking the lead in all of this effectively showed why she is one of the most compelling characters that Marvel has.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10