X-Men Hellfire Gala #1
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Kris Anka, Russell Dauterman, Matteo Lolli, CF Villa, Rain Beredo, Frank Martin, Matt Milla and Matthe Wilson.
What Happened Before: Mutants have organized and live together now on the living island of Krakoa. Due to the combination of five specific mutants (known as The Five) powers, dead mutants can be resurrected from backups made by Cerebro, effectively making all mutants immortal. This was a well-guarded secret, but Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich found out the secret recently and after a conversation with Cyclops, made the story known to the entire world. The Hellfire Gala is an annual outreach between Krakoa and the various governments, celebrities and people of influence around the world. Last year, the mutants suprised humanity by terraforming and settling Mars. This year, Emma Frost will be busy managing the fallout of Urich's article.
Plot: Jean and Scott have planned for the X-Men to be elected by the people of Krakoa and each year at the Hellfire annual, there will be re-election. (For those interested, the new team will be Cyclops, Phoenix, Synch, Havok, Forge, Magik, Iceman and Firestar.)
Moira MacTaggert, no longer a mutant after the events of Inferno, has joined Orchis, the anti-mutant organisation and infiltrates Krakoa in the body of supermodel Mary Jane Watson.
Emma and Scott exchange information with each other regarding the actions of Xavier and Magneto, Moira's betrayal and the identity of Orchis' Dr. Stasis (who claims to be Nathaniel Essex, the man who has become Mr. Sinister).
The Good: Like last year's Hellfire Gala, it's a chance for some artists to create some outlandish costumes for various superheroes and this time Avengers and other superheroes join in (in story justified by Janet van Dyne being really excited by the whole idea). Clea doesn't get a redesign sadly, she's just there to find out if Krakoa's resurrection method would help her get Strange back.
Duggan writes a good Emma, as I've already seen in his run on Marauders. Emma and Scott interactions are always good.
The new team has potential, but it's a bit been-there-done-that for most members, only Firestar is an outsider (she has been an X-Man before, but right now she's not a Krakoan and Iron Man has told her to keep an eye on the Krakoans.)
There are some fun, small background events at the big gala.
The Bad: Moira has been ridiculously evil since the end of Inferno (she betrayed the mutants in that, but had some motivations there, but since then she has just become completely murderous and apparently revelling in it). Also, Duggan's trying to make Moira sound Scottish at a few points, but it sounds more English or Irish.
A lot of this is setup for other things, but not in a good way like the previous Hellfire Gala was. In the previous Gala we have the mutant settling on Mars, turning it into an intergalactic space port, which openend up a lot of new storylines. This one is, apart from Moira joining Orchis (.. and Orchis is very trusting of her, considering she was a longtime mutant supporter, even if she is giving them a lot of useful information now.), mostly a new X-Men team (with no real surprises as said above barring Firestar) and for the rest characters finding out things that we already knew.
Also not really a bad thing, but really? Has Emma never met Tony Stark outside of his Iron Man armour before? They must have had meetings at social gatherings before.
Overall: Some nice designs for various characters, but at 60+ pages this is packed and expensive and I don't think there's much here that is worth it. Most of the events could easily be handled in the already ongoing series.
