At The End Of Everything, Only The Sinister Remain: Reviewing ‘Immoral X-Men’ #3

The USS Enterprise 1701 famously went on a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations. That’s nothing compared to the mission of the spacefaring ship known as the Marauder and its now crew of two, as Sinister and Rasputin IV’s 1000-year mission nears a conclusion.

Anyone that has watched television for a good portion of time over the years surely has seen or is at least familiar with the idea of a clip show. Generally, those were episodes where the production saved a bit of money by reusing a ton of clips from previous episodes with some sort of present-day framing device working to ‘organically’ lead into the clips. These clips often had some sort of emotional connection (whether funny, sad, happy, etc.) for the audience since they remembered these episodes and followed these characters for however many years at that point.

Why do I bring this money-saving television experience into a review of a comic book? Well, that’s because a clip show might be the exact way to speak about the overall situation we’ve gotten with Sins Of Sinister so far.

Conceptually everything about this mini-event is hitting. It’s building off of plotlines that have been threaded through the X-books for years now and allows writers like Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing to take wild-ass swings with characters and concepts which is part of what makes them great writers. The other part of what makes them great is their attention to character depth and moments, their work is always rich with character beats. Therein lies the issue with this event as a whole right now.

Because we’re jumping from time period to time period with each issue (ten years, one hundred years, and one thousand years) there is a ton of blank space between them without a lot of that emotional connection. Essentially, it’s the comic book equivalent of those clip shows I mentioned above (see, I brought it all back around!). These are all flashes of wild things that could happen (but won’t per se since the world will be reverted & Marvel comics never move this far ahead on their own) but without all the build up to see how they got there it comes off as a bit hollow. Awesome moments sure and some great wild concepts but they don’t have the same resonance as we normally get in a series like Immortal X-Men where a lot of the moments can simmer and cook in that tasty character drama and emotional interactions.

I’m not saying that the story is bad in any way, on the contrary, I love it when Gillen gets to just cut loose and go wild with ideas. What I am saying though is that I wish, and this is a weird thing for me to say about an event, we were spending more time with this event. Yep, I said it. I wish that this was a longer story so that these moments and the journey to them felt more compelling and we could connect to these moments more than just as clips of what could but won’t be.

A thousand years have passed and there is a strangeness about the galaxy now as (sinister) mutants rule all (but are warring against one another essentially because conflict is eternal), as well as a very rough sort of feeling to everything. All of that is reflected in the artwork that Alessandro Vitti brings to the page. Our protagonists look and feel as haggard as they would be at this point, while the sharpness and roughness present in the artwork really gives it all a well-worn and abnormal appearance. We’re dealing with massive Exodus clones, Colossus sentinels, Xavier brains in ships, Emma Frost as the living gem of Cyttorak and tons of other bizarre things, and Vitti nails that feeling.

Just like how Rain Beredo’s colors are really toned down here in a way that allows for strong flashes of color with the shadows and darker tones in full control. Most of the spaces they are in (including actual space itself) are quite naturally lit in a darker room since they are darker rooms, outside of Emma’s throne room. So, the heaviness of the colors feels correct. There are flashes of spaces where the amount of light increases which makes certain bits and pieces stand out compared to others, emphasizing their absurdity and how far removed they are from the world we know at this point, allowing for some flares of more unique color to flourish even in this space.

In a way, all the darkness and sapping of vibrancy speaks to the fact that with everything being Sinister at this point there isn’t really any uniqueness left in the universe and everything is just a grimmer ever-devolving copy of itself running in eternal circles.

While the title is immoral currently there are still slivers of its immortality on display which include the lettering work that Clayton Cowles is still doing quite superbly. A lot of this issue is Rasputin IV’s internal monologue/captain’s log/internal thoughts sort of situation, meaning we get lots of caption boxes. Cowles makes sure to alternate the size and amount of font within them, allowing the boxes to slip and slide around panels and pages to best accompany the other artwork but also help guide us naturally/logically through the pages. Just like the colors, there is something unifying that can be felt and seen through the lettering on display.

There are various little bits that showcase volume and tone still but there are not a lot of distinct visual flairs or elements that help showcase different personalities. Because again, at this point the universe is Sinisterfied and there is a sameness to everything and everyone even if they are on different wavelengths and fighting one another. Sinister got the world he thought he wanted of everyone being like him, but instead that has done the opposite of what he had hoped to accomplish.

Immoral X-Men #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.