X-Men: Hellfire Vigil will mark one full year since the fall of Krakoa. It is crazy to think that it has been one year since the Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X conclude such a major chapter in the X-Men’s history. The first Krakoan Age was a massive game changer that quickly became a fan favorite. With its fall we have seen the surviving mutant population splintered. There are multiple X-Men teams operating in different locations and other mutants just trying to reintegrate with other societies across Earth. How will the mutants first reunion since the fall of Krakoa go? Let’s find out with X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writers: Murewa Ayodele, Eve Ewing, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Jason Loo, Jed Mackay, Alex Paknadel, Stephanie Phillips, Gail Simone, and Geoffrey Thorne
Artists: Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons, Javier Garron, Federica Mancin, Roi Mercado, Sara Pichelli, Declan Shalvey, Marcus To, and Luciano Vecchio
Colorists: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Travis Lanham
X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL #1 SOLICITATION
“One year ago, at the final Hellfire Gala, the dream of a unified mutant nation was forever shattered by a cowardly sneak attack by anti-mutant forces. To mark the moment and to proclaim loudly and strongly to all concerned that mutantkind still stands, the time has come for X-Men of all stripes to come together in solidarity and celebration.
Written and drawn by the creators of the entire X-line, and featuring the meetings and moments that fans have been asking for since FROM THE ASHES began! A keystone moment marking the movement of one era into the next and setting up story threads that will play out across the X-line across the next year!” – Marvel Comics
REVIEW
The Hellfire Vigil really sums up what this last year has been for the X-Men. An unfocused direction as the mutants are at a huge reset point. While that in itself is an interesting direction on paper, when it comes to execution the lack of cohesion causes the direction to fall apart. That is exactly what ends up happening with Hellfire Vigil as each creative team only gets 5 or so pages to tell their segment in this comic book.
Opening Hellfire Vigil with Ms. Marvel really set the tone for what this is in the wrong way. In continuing to treat Ms. Marvel as the outsider she is you as the reader immediately feel disconnect to what this comic is supposed to be about. Just like Ms. Marvel, we are just wandering from one segment to another since, creatively, page limitations were set. There is a vibe that the various creative teams were forced into a box that was tough to tell a cohesive narrative.
From a character standpoint Ms. Marvel is just not the right character to kick off this type of story. Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Javier Garron direction for Kamala’s part in the story really emphasizes this in the worst way. The entire time we focus on her in the opening five pages she acts like she is forced to be at the Hellfire Vigil. And by extension it is a reminder of how Marvel forced the development of Ms. Marvel “always having been a mutant” onto her character once the Inhumans fell out of favor with editorial. It is just continues the road of failure Marvel set-up Kamala as she feels like an Avenger failing to masquerade as an X-Men.
It really doesn’t help that Jed MacKay and Netho Diaz’s segment with the Alaskan X-Men that followed should’ve of been the opening to the Hellfire Vigil. The back-and-forth between Cyclops and Psylocke spoke to not just the importance of the Hellfire Vigil but of current events in the X-Men comics. MacKay does a really good job at presenting both sides of the argument.
Psylocke makes a strong case for why the Hellfire Vigil is an important sign of unity for mutants. Cyclops position is just as strong as you really feel the weight of how the fall of Krakoa had such major ramifications. There is no period of safety right now for mutants as so many enemies are actively hunting them. And unlike the Krakoa Age, there is no central place for mutants to be safe. In a way the Hellfire Vigil was suppose to represent that and you understand why Psylocke pushed Cyclops to help push that idea.
To MacKay, Gail Simone, and Eve Ewing’s credit in particular, the results of the Hellfire Vigil aren’t simply treated as a “Cyclops was right” moment. When MacKay, Simone, and Ewing, who are the current writers of the main X-Men teams, have their segments we get a good idea of the bigger franchise picture. There are many layers to what is going on with the X-Men that there was plenty of good intention to have this vigil event.
Unfortunately for mutants the reality is they do have many enemies. These enemies have shown in the last year they will not hesitate to attack in very public ways. That is shown with ONE attacking X-Factor, Doctor Ellis kidnapping Dazzler at a Hellfire Vigil benefit concert, and 3K making their big proclamation. All of these developments give the three main X-Men team books all something big to deal with.
Unfortunately, it is all the middle things that don’t deal with the three main X-Men teams where Hellfire Vigil falls flat. There are just way to many cooks in the kitchen as writing and art styles don’t all hit at the same level. It is one of the areas where the page count given to each creative team works against the creators.
This is really highlighted with the Storm and Phoenix segments in this issue. Their respective parts in this comic book feel so disconnected from everything else going on. Even though both solo comics are great, there is a feeling that Ororo Munroe and Jean Grey were forced into this story. They had to be here because of they are important X-Men but what they are given to do sadly does not add to the story.
What made the Hellfire Galas so well done was that there was a clear creative vision to the story. But because we had nine different creative teams the Hellfire Vigil quickly becomes a “hey, do you remember this X-Men character” style comic book. In turn, it is a reminder of how many X-Men characters like Synch and Dazzler have been sidelined.
FINAL THOUGHTS
X-Men: Hellfire Vigil is a disappointing wasted opportunity by the X-Office. This comic book simply has way too many creative teams involved that the narrative is a mess. Editorial put each creative team in a box of only having a handful of pages to tell their segment before another team took over. All of the clashing art style further damper the experience that highlights how there was no momentum carried over to each segment. It is an unfortunate result for a comic book that had the potential to reach the heights of the Hellfire Gala at its best.
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 3.5 Night Girls out of 10
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