Comic Review: Immortal X-Men #3

Marvel Comics
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colorist: Dijjo Lima
Letterer: VC’s Clayton  Cowles

Kieron Gillen’s Immortal X-Men #3 is a sweeping ode to love. The latest testament of Irene Adler speaks of a confounding, terrifying non-future for all mutantkind. And worse, an inevitable end for Destiny and her world–Mystique. Lucas Werneck’s renderings of Destiny’s futuresight are mesmerizing. But it’s the passion and warmth he brings to every Destiny/Mystique panel that makes this issue sing. At the center, a memorable kiss set against the very fate of Krakoa.

Immortal X-Men is a beautiful book in every sense of the word. The art, the colors, the dizzying, delightfully intricate scale of Krakoan politics. Like X-Men Red, another dazzler, Immortal X-Men is developing compelling, large-scale events stories that will change the course of all surrounding x-books. Hell, Gillen’s put in the work to get me hyped for an X-Men vs. Avengers event!

Indeed, Gillen and Al Ewing are passing back and forth some of the best X-Men stories in years. Gillen’s story and the art team’s design fit perfectly together in visions depicting various futures, including teases of a second Krakoa and potential mutant civil war. Gillen’s exploration of how Destiny reads Nexus events and moves back and forth through time based on these points was interesting, depicting precognition as a true skill, not just a genetic gift.

Destiny is truly a force. Despite being a newcomer to X comics, Destiny immediately reads to me as someone going toe to toe with Charles. That said, the notion of Krakoa’s “dark secret” continue to vex me. I understand the council’s feelings about Charles and Magneto lying to them, but Krakoa is not a promise at this point–it’s real. They did it. 

But now Magneto is gone and the council seems eager to give Charles the boot. But does Kitty Pryde (one of my favorites, mind you) really think Krakoa is better off without two of its greatest heroes and most influential architects? In short, it seems a petty conflict in a book already working with so many galactic and intensely personal issues already at play.

Sinister as a dimensional conqueror ranks as one of the finest future previews in this issue. But Immortal X-Men #3 is not a book of destruction. It’s a tender read.