This week’s X-Men #20 set up a heck of a tease for X-Men fans by announcing that “Inferno” is coming soon. That is, Inferno, the epic and beloved 1989 crossover.
The original Inferno was set ablaze when Madelyne Pryor — a clone of Jean Grey and Cyclops’ ex-wife — made a deal with a devil, transforming her into the Goblin Queen and New York City into her own hellscape, all for the goal of taking revenge on the man who’d abandoned her and her baby, the woman he’d replaced her with, and all of their friends.
This Inferno has been simmering since the beginning of the Dawn of X era, and will doubtless have its own twists and turns, but it still has the rage of a woman wronged at the center of it: Mystique wants her wife, Destiny, resurrected. And if she can’t have that, she’ll burn Krakoa to the ground.
What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)
X-Men #20
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See, Krakoa is all a part of Professor X and Magneto’s plan with the reincarnating mutant Moira MacTaggert, who holds a grudge against Destiny and all precognitive mutants. They’ve quietly prevented any mutant precogs from being given the gift of mutant resurrection. And apparently the only mutant precog that anybody cares about enough to push for is Destiny, the late wife of Mystique.
Furthermore, Destiny warned Mystique that someday people would refuse to resurrect her. And when they did, Mystique should do everything possible to destroy their works. It seems like this fall, possibly in the new Jonathan Hickman-written but still-unnamed X-Men series coming in September.
Made in Korea #1
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According to Korean-American writer Jeremy Holt, Made in Korea is his way of casting his own exploration of self in the clothes of science fiction. The first issue is big on world building, outlining a setting in which couples no longer have biological children, but the privileged can drop big cash on never-aging android children. These parents, however, have become the accidental recipients of a fully sentient model.
Black Panther #25
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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 50-issue run on Black Panther came to a long-delayed end this week, with many threads tied up in bows — you can read about a bunch of them in or expansive interview. And that included new incarnations for all of the Orisha, Wakanda’s gods, including their chief goddess, Bast. Daniel Acuña does a heck of a job with her new design.
Something is Killing the Children #16
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Something is Killing the Children is kicking off a new arc with a brand new focus. We’re flashing back in time to see Erica’s childhood as an inductee to a secret organization of traumatized monster hunters, the House of Slaughter.
Batman Black & White #6
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If you read Batman Black & White #6 for one story, make it “Like Monsters of the Deep,” in which Batman recruits Clayface to help take down a group of sex traffickers. James Harren kills it with this art.
Dragon Age: Dark Fortress #3
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Dragon Age fans are dying of thirst in a desert perpetually, so I thought I’d let any reading this know that Dragon Age: Dark Fortress wrapped up with some hints at the red lyrium idol that seems to definitely be a big part of the next game. We’ll see!