It’s no surprise that Marvel Comics wants to keep the magic of the Hellfire Gala alive. On the eve of the Fall of X, the comics giant threw a real-life version of the festivities during San Diego Comic Con. More recently, buzz around the Hellfire Gala was reignited with its extensive inclusion into the hit game Marvel Rivals. Even after spending the last year putting as much distance as possible between the X-Men franchise and the Krakoan status quo, the festivities return from the ashes in X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1. The mammoth creative team behind this book is better discussed regarding their specific contributions, but Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, VC’s Travis Lanham, and Tom Brevoort wrangle these disparate pieces through coloring, lettering, and editing.
In year’s past, Hellfire one-shots were largely helmed by one writer and several artists. However, Vigil harkens back to the first Hellfire Gala, which was chronicled across the X-Line. The result splits the book across several vignettes, each reflecting titles of the From The Ashes relaunch. Notable exceptions to this are books such as X-Factor, Weapon X-Men, Hellverine, Cable: Love and Chrome, and solo titles whose inclusion may have felt redundant: Wolverine, Laura Kinney: Wolverine, Magik, and Psylocke. I’ll give you a rundown of each story individually before returning to my thoughts on the whole piece.
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly team up with Javier Garrón for the cold open. Ms. Marvel is the lead here, and these pages trace Kamala’s mournful feelings as she approaches the vigil. We get a hint about some of the fallout to come at the end of Ms. Marvel’s Giant-Size journey, but this story is more about setting the scene and tone for the evening to come. Though she’s feeling a bit somber, Kamala is quickly re-embraced by her NYX crew as well as her old friend Miles Morales. We also learn that the festivities are taking place both in New York City and Chicago. As a cherry on top, the candlelight vigil/Dazzler concert is being facilitated by a little mutant circuitry to bring back Krakoan gates–for one night only.
The focus then shifts away from NYX and onto X-Men. This is as close as Vigil gets to an overarching narrative, as Jed MacKay, Netho Diaz, & Sean Parsons’ entry is presented in three blocks across the issue. Cyclops gets to voice the frustration that many fans likely felt when Vigil was announced, but Psylocke’s defiant counter reveals how much the night means to her and many of the other Alaskan X-Men. Beast and Jen Starkey continue laying the groundwork for their romance while watching Dazzler. Phoenix has her own story in space, but she also pops down to Earth for a tender moment with Scott. Sadly, 3K takes the end of the vigil as an opportunity to ruin the fun, teasing dark plans in store for humankind.
I mentioned Phoenix had her own story in the issue, and it’s an odd one. Stephanie Phillips and Roi Mercado do briefly mention the current arc of Phoenix as well as the Earthside festivities, but Jean engages with neither. Instead, psychic ghosts of mutants who fled Earth in centuries past call out to Jean. Phoenix follows and ends up in a small belt of crystalline asteroids, an impromptu shrine in the depths of space where the ghosts dwell. Make of that what you will.
The Beast portion of MacKay’s story wedges between Phillips’ entry and that of X-Force‘s Geoffrey Thorne and Marcus To. Thorne and To’s button on their FTA run focuses on Wraith and Colossus–the final addition to the cast and the teammate who was disguised for most of the book. It’s a nice opportunity to revisit these characters since they were not as central as some others were across X-Force‘s 10 issues. After imparting his words of wisdom, Wraith dips out, and Magik arrives to chauffeur her brother to the vigil, and it seems that Colossus’ future remains in flux.
New X-Couple just dropped
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This leads us to Gail Simone and Luciano Vecchio’s Uncanny X-Men vignette. Rogue and Psylocke get to chat while things remain cordial, if not downright friendly, between the Louisiana X-Men and their Alaskan comrades. Kwannon and Deathdream have a cute moment as Psylocke briefly serves as Hotoru’s dance tutor, a cute nod to his recent appearance in her solo. This story shines even more as the focus turns to Ransom’s vigil date with Temper. Vecchio’s restyle of Idie’s hair is glamorous, and the two make a cute couple. Valentin even floats the idea over to Ms. Okonkwo that she could consider joining the Louisiana contingent if she’s worried about dating long-distance. Their date is definitely one of Vigil‘s high points, and hopefully this leads to more stories.
The following installment also teases potential cast changes, but this time it’s for Exceptional X-Men. Mutant gamers Axo and Cuckoo take their online friendship irl. Eve L. Ewing and Federica Mancin certainly leave the feelings behind the moment up for interpretation. But, in comparison to the more overtly romantic moments in Vigil, Sophie and Alex’s hug reads much more platonic. Think gamer girl and gay guy besties, you see it right? Maybe she’ll stick around Chicago a bit, looking for some motherly guidance. Speaking of, Emma Frost also has a nice moment to give a rousing speech to her fellow mutants. Meanwhile, Iceman and Kate Pryde miss out on the party, but the entire Exceptional squad misses out on meeting anyone from the other two flagship X-Men books.
Following this comes the first print outing of the new Astonishing X-Men. Alex Paknadel and Declan Shalvey use their limited page time to their advantage. Instead of trying to cram a story in where it won’t fit, they highlight a single dramatic moment. This functions as a tease for the ongoing arc of the Astonishing Infinity Comic. The return of Siryn is shocking, and her stated opinions are even moreso. I’m not entirely sure I buy it since its such a radical departure from the pro-mutant terrorist she began as, but I’m willing to see where it goes. Above all, this story marks the only entry (time of writing) that’s consciously worked the vigil into the ongoing title it’s pulling from. It’s a low bar, but I’m glad they cleared it.
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Vigil also doubles as a second encore for Dazzler–the first encore being Concert of Champions. Now, I mentioned before that Phoenix’s vignette was a bit odd, but these next two stories are downright head-scratchers. Jason Loo and Sarah Pichelli’s story about Dazzler sees the mutant singer caught by Warden Ellis, presumably to be tortured like the inmates and trustees of Graymalkin Prison. Lila Cheney, Allison’s teleporter on standby is subdued by Ellis’ goons. However, despite Northstar, Aurora, Nightcrawler, Pixie, and Magik all being in attendance, Dazzler doesn’t call on anyone, let alone a speedster or teleporter for backup. She just gives up. Not only is her arrest simply carried out in front of dozens of X-Men and hundreds of mutants, the vigil apparently resumes just after Dazzler is moved off stage.
Aside from the final X-Men beat from MacKay and co., the last entry is from Storm‘s Murewa Ayodele and a returning Luciano Vecchio. I remain a fan of Ororo Munroe’s ongoing solo title, but I found this story confounding. The pacing jumps across locations and times at a high clip that strongly clashes with the vaguely linear events of the wider book. On top of that, the exact events at play remain unclear. What we do know for sure by the end of the story is: 1) Storm is not currently pregnant, and 2) Eternity granted Ororo a moment with the daughter she would have had if she was currently pregnant. Her name is/would have been Furaha, which is a Swahili word with roots in Arabic meaning ‘joy.’ Likely this is a nod to both Storm’s Kenyan heritage and her childhood in Cairo, where Egyptian Arabic is the most commonly spoken language. Based on previous issues of Storm and the physical traits Furaha displays (lighter skin than Ororo, large canine teeth, and black hair), it’s implied that Logan is/would have been the father. What remains unclear is why Storm thought she was pregnant, if she actually was pregnant at all, and if so, did Eternity prevent the pregnancy from progressing? Is the vision meant to be a consolation? More than anything this story raises numerous questions that bear little to no connection to either Vigil or Storm‘s larger stories, so it’s unclear how invested we’re meant to be.
I’ve already started to pick at aspects where the issue doesn’t work in some of the individual stories, but it’s the sum of these parts that made the experience hollow. Think about it like this. There are three key components to at play in the Krakoan Hellfire Galas. One, everyone gets new fancy outfits, often in relation to a theme or to test drive updated design elements for costumes moving forward. Vigil accomplishes this well, even if a staggering number of outfits are regulated to cameo or ensemble shots. Two, the casts in attendance mingle, impacting the events of the ongoing titles and possibly reorganizing the casts across the X-Line. I highlighted the meetings between Temper and Ransom & Axo and Cuckoo because of how much those moments shine, but outside of that almost every story silos these characters off with the people they already costar with. Three, each gala came with at least one concrete shift in the status quo of the entire franchise. Year one gave us the terraforming of Arrako. Year two saw the secret of resurrection leak to the public. Year three gave us the Orchis invasion. The vigil, if anything, gave a vague warning about the year 3000.
X-Men: Hellfire Vigil #1 is not a bad comic, but it is a bad Hellfire event comic. Trying to balance the first Hellfire Gala’s crossover format with the page limits of the following two galas, the Hellfire Vigil becomes a mishmash. The feeling it leaves behind is that Marvel Comics wanted to have its cake and eat it too. It wanted the fan engagement of a Hellfire Gala without putting in the time to build a book worth the moniker. The result reads like a series of rushed, disparate stories that are confusing and contradictory at times, sprinkled with far too few satisfying story beats. In a sense, it’s a very accurate reflection on From The Ashes as a whole.
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