Kicking off the kind of alternate dark future storyline the brand is known for, Sins of Sinister begins the X-Men crossover event that focuses on the evil machinations of longtime villain Mr. Sinister whose plans of gaining control of the mutants of Krakoa beginning with Charles Xavier and Emma Frost, and later all of Earth including it’s mightiest heroes.
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Kicking off a four-issue mini-series, a group of heroes are brought together to investigate an ominous prophecy involving a student at the Strange Academy. Some are brought by the vision, some are at the school as guest lecturer, others are recruited, and one shows up on their own. By the end of the issue, however, we have a bit of a motley group assembled for what’s to come.
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Kitty Pryde captains a new group of Marauders whose adventures kick off here with the rescue of a new mutant out of control in Wyoming followed by an encounter on Krakoa involving the mystery puzzle box that leads Pryde to Cassandra Nova (Professor X‘s demented twin sister). Despite her concerns, Pryde adds her to the team whose other members include Psylocke, Tempo, Aurora, Akihiro, Lucas Bishop, and Somnus.
Marauders, using the odd reliable X-Men trick of taking a couple beloved characters and filling out a roster with random others, is an odd comic in terms of style with the art bleeding over into anime at times. The results are weird, but still fun. The team’s first mission may be their last as they fly into Shi’ar Galaxy looking for answers about the First Mutants, secrets that apparently the Shi’ar are willing to kill to protect.
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Making a pun out of the X-Men’s home on Mars, Marvel Comics relaunches X-Men: Red as an assortment of mutants are gathered together to keep the peace on Mars, now known to the mutants living on the terraformed world as Planet Arrako. It’s an X-Men comic with Magneto (now back to his traditional costume), so it got my attention, but for someone with only a passing interest in a minimal of recent X-Men stories there’s quite a bit of confusing plot that assumes the reader knows exactly what’s going on.
We are introduced to various entities on the planet who each seem to have their own agenda. Storm, who beat some kind of doppelganger, is now the Queen of Mars (but only sort of wants to be), Magneto is looking to be left alone. Abigail Brand is looking for a mutant police force, Sunspot is running some kind of disco casino, and Vulcan and Thunderbird are looking to cause trouble.
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A tie-in issue to The Death of Doctor Strange ongoing Marvel story arc, The Death of Doctor Strange: X-Men/Black Knight is more an issue to flesh-out Jacks Chopra than anything else as both daughter and father work out their trust issues in the middle of a battle against demons.
Doctor Strange is dead and the mystical barriers he had erected to keep Earth safe have fallen. London (and the X-Men) have been swallowed up and Jackie joins the fray. Unfortunately, the X-Men have all been turned into demons by Necromon the Netherking and Jacks is out to prove she doesn’t need any help to save the day. On the plus side, some back up does arrive in Excalibur’s wielder Faiza Hussain whose prescience does allow Dane to come up with a ridiculous plan based on the visions of Merlin he sees from the Ebony Thone.
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