The Sorrorowful Tale Of Piotr Rasputin: Reviewing ‘Immortal X-Men’ #12

Waiting six months/issues in order to get some sort of conclusion to a comic story is tough. Two years is tougher.

Yes, it was over two years ago, in X-Force #24, when metal-skinned gold-hearted (sometimes) Piotr Rasputin was a traitor. Well, sort of at least. Turns out that he was being controlled by a mutant writer with reality powers called The Chronicler. At the behest of his pretty terrible brother Mikhail Rasputin. Putting a twisted spin on sibling rivalry.

Against his will, this naïve, honest, heroic, simple farm boy was betraying the nation of Krakoa. Also, he brutally murdered and hid the body of his girlfriend, in a pretty gross modern character fridging moment.  This still-hidden betrayal got juicer when Piotr was voted onto the Quiet Council because of his trustworthiness. It promised that some shifty stuff was going to go down with this dark secret behind that organic steel exterior.

And then we spent most of the last two years not really getting any more information or moments.  Numerous big events, shifting titles, and status quo shifts took up a lot of the bandwidth. At long last though, this is a plot line finally (sort of) being addressed.

Unfortunately, it’s in a way that I’m on the fence about. Let it be said first that Kieron Gillen is a great writer and the perfect one to tackle this. Normally good character secretly being wickedly bad before his friends while still hiding being “the greater good” is solid stuff. Gillen makes it all work.

Had we gotten to this sort of plot well before the current moment, it might have worked even better. Right now it’s just one of a whole bevy of betrayals, crumbling systems, and threats circling around Krakoa. Every single book has some hand in things coming down for the Mutants of Krakoa and it’s a bit overwhelming. Also, very disjointed.

Lately the X-Line, while still good, has felt like there are too many cooks in the kitchen throwing in too many, sometimes conflicting, ingredients.

None of the books are really truly on the same page about the overall status of things. They’re all in various periods of relatively the same time span (or are they?), yet there are things that should affect them all that aren’t addressed. Three titles paused for Sins of Sinister while the rest of the line carried on. Beast is causing mayhem under the flag of Krakoa and only Logan is dealing with that. Plenty of other things that could be mentioned here for sure.

Now, to be fair, that does seem to be somewhat the point of what leads to Fall Of X. Krakoa crumbling from within and from outside, as their foes take advantage and strike. It just overall feels like the line went from very collaborative and structured to more everyone just doing their own thing headed to the same destination. Some took the freeway, a few surface streets, and one or two went extreme off road in a family sedan.

Conceptually this is a really well done issue and is fun, but also feels too little too late. What could have had even more punch had we gotten it previously, feels somewhat lost amongst the noise. Piotr doing shifty stuff at the same time that Beast is. Orchis is being shady, and Genesis is coming to war feels like too much. Colossus, of all people, in this situation should hit hard, not just feel like dangling paperwork that needed a finish. Again, Gillen writes the hell out of this, it just doesn’t hit how it would have two years ago.

We’re privy to a very tense council meeting (as if they all aren’t in their own way) with Colossus machinations. Per usual with this crew, their interactions run the gamut of emotion, and even involve powered fisticuffs. It falls once more to Lucas Werneck and David Curiel to bring it all to life.

Werneck is very good at being able to bounce between moments and emotions at the drop of a hat. Capturing them all in such detail, with the energy radiating off the page. Every panel has a lot of depth and lived-in feeling to it. We believe that Krakoa, and this chamber at least, are truly places one might visit. These characters are larger than life and they feel that way here.

Above I spoke a lot about time and timing, and that comes into play here too. I must wonder if there was perhaps a time crunch on getting some of these issues out. Sins Of Sinister just ended and Fall Of X is right ahead and there is little room between for these issues. I wonder this because there are some of the faces and moments that are uncharacteristically rushed looking here. It’s not like Werneck to have some of these beats be a little less detailed and even a little off overall.

The vast majority of the pages are up there with the work that he delivers each time and is stellar. My bet would be that the timetable on this issue was tight so some panels got a bit less detail. It’s not bad, not even close. It’s just noticeable compared to the rest but doesn’t take away from the issue at all.

Curiel sets the mood quite wonderfully in this issue. Many of the pages are overly bright and lit well, mirroring the light the council is trying to project. Yet, it easily gives way to the lurking and expanding darkness within. Each of these issues is so vivid and bright but not in an overwhelming way. It’s a lusher and somewhat toned down but still popping sort of way. If that makes any sort of sense.

We see this duality played out so well in this series time and time again. Krakoa is meant to represent hope and a new life and future for all Mutantkind. Yet, those that are leading the way are tainted, full of darkness, and crumbling apart. So, we feel that hope as we gaze upon the colorful beauty of Krakoa and its spaces. Only to see it ripped away with shadows and stark sharp bloody reds and other harsh colors.

Speaking of setting the tone, I really like the way that Clayton Cowles does exactly that with the Piotr-centric caption boxes. They are not just standard caption boxes that we’ve seen in the series before. I mean they are shaped the same and use the same color scheme, black on white, but the font is different. It’s thicker and in a way to me screams like a novel/book type of font which makes sense with the Chronicler controlling him. His thoughts trapped in his own head read like a story, the story that he cannot tell anyone right now.

Key to this is how they are written in third person, rather than the first person we normally see. Because Piotr is not in control to be able to fully think in that sort of way. He’s trapped and we’re reading about his being trapped in this issue therefore the captions reflect that. It’s a perfect way to do this and kudos to Gillen and Cowles for conceiving and executing it flawlessly.

It all flows perfectly with how well Cowles handles all the other lettering, and this is a dialogue-heavy issue. It all flows and hits the right notes. Allowing us to sit in the feelings even as we must move on to the next because so much happens.

Immortal X-Men #12 is now available from Marvel Comics.