In Marvel Comics‘ Immortal X-Men #17, Xavier is dealing with Sinister, while the rest of the mutants are dealing with Apocalypse. Yikes!
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Immortal X-Men #17 Review:
Written by Kieron Gillen with art by Juan José Ryp, Xavier has realized he can’t get rid of the Mr. Sinister bits that are inside of him — leading to a surprise revelation about what comes next. Meanwhile, Jean Grey is back in the White Hot Room, and so are 250,000 other mutants.
Spoilers here, but the Sinister who is infecting Xavier is not from the recent “Sins of Sinister” event — it’s from a time the villain did the same thing, decades earlier. Host Alex Zalben said it was “wild that they’d bring that back.” But ultimately, he added, “I love this book.”
He did note that while he usually loves Juan José Ryp’s art, this felt perhaps a little too “smooth” in this issue, possibly over-inked or over-digitally colored. That said, he thought the moves with Xavier were “really interesting” and called the fight between Exodus, Hope, and Apocalypse “killer.”
“There’s so much danger for absolutely everyone,” Zalben said. “I love everything that’s going on here.”
Pete LePage, on the other hand, disagreed with “everything that [Zalben] said,” with his main points of contention being that Charles Xavier doesn’t look good in a beard, and Jean Grey being turned into “slave Leia” because Mother Righteous has her in chains walking through a desert.
“I don’t like what’s happening,” LePage added. “I don’t recognize any of the characters and what’s happening. Maybe I need to walk away from X-Men for a while… Maybe I don’t have the continuity or the education to read these things.”
On that last note, Zalben did add, “Immortal X-Men is the most deep dive X-Men title that you could read right now.” From the White Hot Room, to the ties to “Sins of Sinister,” if you’re not familiar with those concepts/events, it’s definitely hard to hook into the story.
However, Zalben, “really liked the character study of this issue… Taking the time to bring Charles Xavier to his absolute lowest point. And having Mr. Sinister of all people being the person that sends him on the upswing to ultimately become a hero again, and retake what he needs. To fight back with his fellow X-Men, I think, is a really interesting place to put him.
“In terms of Jean Grey, a character that to be frank, I don’t really care about too much… It is inevitable that she is going to be resurrected… I really really liked Louise Simonson’s series, I thought that was very, very good… But [here] Jean Grey, similar to Charles Xavier… This is the place that X-Men should be at is, they are always on their back legs. They’re always losing. How do they get out of this? I don’t know. But the second they fight back it makes the situation worse for them. That’s always where I want to see them, is always fighting no matter what. And right now Jean Grey is losing, she has lost, she doesn’t know who she is. How will she get out of this? I think she will, and I’m excited to see that happen.”
Immortal X-Men #17 Official Synopsis:
X MY HEART! Xavier swore he would stay on Krakoa and defend its memory. He’s leaving. There must be a good reason to leave one doomed island for another – and the dark secrets that await beneath Muir Island. Meanwhile, something is very wrong with Jean…or is it something very right?
