Comic Review: Immortal X-Men #4

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Michele Bandini
Color Artist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen

Immortal X-Men continues to astound. Michele Bandini’s linework is sublime and David Curiel’s colors are both vivid and textured. Immortal X-Men is a book you very much want to touch, if not unbound and use as wallpaper.

A pattern for the series has taken shape, with each issue focusing on a member of the Krakoan Council. Immortal X-Men #4 focuses on Emma Frost, one of the most fascinating and complex characters of the Krakoa era, but also a character who has made rash, questionable decisions in recent times.

The issue begins with an extended inner monologue based around the fact that Emma has taken to sleeping in her diamond form on Krakoa. I’m tempted to simply present the entire passage; Kieron Gillen’s script is both pained and poetic, without overstepping into flowery melodrama or psychobabble.

“I have to be untouchable perfect, which means that I never will be. To achieve perfection, one must be touched, and touched profoundly. And I’m aware that when I’m touched, I am hurt.”

Oh, Emma.

The issue does not thoroughly explore Frost’s previous actions of exposing Xavier, Magneto, and Moira–massively destabilizing the political landscape of Krakoa in the process. That said, it no longer feels like an outstanding plot thread. “I will not let my children suffer harm.” That is Frost’s mantra, and she no longer trusts that Charles and Magneto feel the same–if she ever did.

However, her own words turn against her in a memorable scene. After a foreign dignitary inquires about the mutant secret of immortality, Emma essentially spits in his face, stating she must watch over her own children before humanity’s. Ambassador Mingyu is unruffled: he doesn’t care about children, he cares about himself and other leaders. Important people. The ambassador reminds Emma she has already made similar agreements, forcing an ugly internal confrontation. “I’ll talk to the council,” is all our verbal spartan can manage.

Despite the heavy focus on Emma, Immortal X-Men continues to advance a weighty plot, and with pace! A council session shows a increasing split among mutants who view humans as a species deserving of sympathy and empathy, and those who view humans as a species at best.

A major twist ends the council prematurely and catapults Mister Sinister and his incomprehensibly twisting, galactic scheme to the forefront. In comics, a war is always coming. And precogs can’t help but provide vague, unhelpful visions about said war. But as has been the case with almost all X stories the past few years, I simply cannot wait to see what comes next.