Inferno (1988) part 1

Inferno part 1

X-Factor #33-36, X-Terminators #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #239-240, The New Mutants #71

Originally released in 1988

Written by Louise Simonson (New Mutants, X-Factor, X-Terminators), Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men)

Art by Walt Simonson, Marc Silvestri, et al.

X-Men '97 recently did an episode that loosely adapted Inferno, so I thought I would look into the original event.  It wound up being spread out over more books than I expected:

-X-Factor: after discovering that Jean Grey was still alive (the Jean who became Dark Phoenix and died on the moon was a copy made by the Phoenix Force, and the Phoenix Force kept Jean safe and cocooned at the bottom of Jamaica Bay), the original five X-Men came together to form X-Factor, a group that was supposedly bounty hunters who targeted mutants, but in reality took them to safety while making the bigots who reported the mutants pay the bill.

-X-Terminators: a group of teenagers and young kids that X-Factor had found and sheltered; they were dropped off at a school in New Hampshire to control their powers and live a somewhat normal life, but circumstances drew them into this event.

-The New Mutants: a team of younger mutants that Xavier put together following the presumed death of the X-Men.  Karma is absent, and Magik (Colossus's younger sister, who was brought to the hellish realm of Limbo and grew older there) and Warlock (some kind of robot) are on the team instead.

-The Uncanny X-Men: Rogue is on the team, along with Psylocke, Havok (Cyclops's brother), and Dazzler.  However, these issues largely focus on Madelyne Pryor (Cyclops's estranged wife and the spitting image of Jean Grey, who he seemingly abandoned when it turned out that Jean was alive) and Mister Sinister, a manipulative geneticist who has been puppeteering events in order to bring about the birth of Nathan Summers, a.k.a. Cable.

Out of these four books, Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor seem like the most essential to following the event, though the reading order on Marvel Unlimited only has one New Mutants issue in the first half.  This is understandable - X-Factor focuses on Cyclops, Uncanny X-Men deals with Madelyne, and this story seems to serve as an incredibly messy break-up between the two. (I'm not sure if they ever properly divorced, though they might have done so between the founding of X-Factor and now)

I wasn't a fan of the new kids on the block, the X-Terminators.  It felt like an attempt at combining the Breakfast Club and the Goonies with mutants, with a bit of Ghostbusters thrown into the plot of these issues, but it lacked the charm that those movies had.  Maybe they'll grow on me as time goes on, but as far as introductions go, I wasn't hooked.

The basic plot is that a bunch of goblin-like demons from Limbo are kidnapping mutant babies in order to use them as a conduit to opening a portal to Limbo, intending to create Hell on Earth.  Madelyne Pryor is helping them out because Mister Sinister kidnapped her son, Nathan Summers, and she's desperate enough to make a deal with a devil to get him back, becoming the Goblin Queen. (and wearing an outfit that even Emma Frost might consider to be a bit much)

Meanwhile, there's a subplot with Angel, who has since become Archangel thanks to Apocalypse.  His college roommate, Cameron Hodge, helped Angel set up X-Factor, but as it turns out, he's a raging anti-mutant bigot, and he secretly established X-Factor in order to spread fear and paranoia about mutants without any of the original X-Men realizing it.  Hodge kidnapped Angel's girlfriend, claiming that she was made "impure" because of her love for a mutant, and rendered her braindead - in response, Angel decapitates him.  Grisly stuff.

We don't learn much about Mister Sinister's grander plan, though it's implied that he used to be a kid who bullied Scott at the orphanage that he grew up in. (Mister Sinister's real name is Nathaniel Essex, and the bully was named Nathan, and nicknamed "Lefty" when the term "sinister" derives from a Latin term for the left hand)  I'm pretty sure it's since been established that Mister Sinister was a 19th century eugenicist, so I'm not sure if that plot point ever went anywhere.  However, the kid kept daring Cyclops to open his eyes, seemingly hoping that Cyclops would hit him with his optic blasts - I'm not sure if that has something to do with Mister Sinister or not.

On top of all of this, the New Mutants goes into Magik's upbringing in Limbo.  As she was a little girl with no powers, it wasn't great.  Time and space work strangely in Limbo, and we learn that at some point in her time there, she killed future versions of the X-Men, including her older brother Colossus and her good friend Kitty.  I'm not sure if those were illusions, or shapeshifting demons made to break her will, or versions of them from an alternate universe, or if there's some kind of Chrono Trigger-style time travel shenanigans going on.  Magik eventually became the Darkchylde, summoning the Soulsword, gaining control of Stepping Discs (interdimensional portals), and leaving Limbo, but she is still terrified of what she became there.

And all of that isn't even getting into the portal to what's essentially Hell that opens up over Times Square, which is where the first half of this storyline ends.  I found some of these stories more engaging than others, and I felt like I was missing some context, but I'm curious about how the X-Men are going to stop an invasion of demons and what Mister Sinister's part in all of this is.