"Inferno" trade paperback
I need to be rather blunt about this. When it comes to Limbo, demons, the Soulsword and all that jazz . . . I feel like it has zero place in the X-Men's world. It's a hard fit, it's far too silly, and it's just not something I feel like the X-Men (and co.) should face down.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed "Inferno." But it wasn't because of the conflict, though. It's because of the fantastic character arcs.
There are two basic aspects to "Inferno." The first is the resolution of the "Illyana" sub-plot. The other is the resolution of the Maddie/Jean/Phoenix relationship. In many ways, this story wraps up an era that stretches back to "From the Ashes."
Without a purpose in life and seeking revenge on both Cyclops and Mr. Sinister, Maddie becomes the Goblyn Queen (because "Goblyn" with a "y" is so much more evil than with an "i") and goes to serve Limbo-demons Sym and N'Astirh. Meanwhile, Illyana is tricked by those two into being an "evil Illyana" and opening a portal into Limbo, releasing tons of their little Ghostbuster-esque minions. Luckily, Colossus helps his little sister and the minions are mostly defeated.
With the Limbo-demons on the run, the X-Men and X-Factor are reunited to battle it out with Maddie and N'Astirh. As the two teams take down N'Astirh, the truth about Maddie's existence is revealed.
Turns out that Maddie is a clone of Jean. She was created as a duplicate of Jean to mate with Scott and produce a super-powerful Mutant offspring. This was done in the absence of Phoenix/Jean. Phoenix, as it turns out, upon her death gave Maddie her memories. Sinister's plans were going well. With Jean out of the picture, he tossed Scott Maddie and the two had a baby. But then Jean, it turns out, came back and Scott left his wife and son. Sinister swept in, tried to kill Maddie, steal Nathan, and wipe out all existence of Maddie and Nathan.
So yeah, Maddie has gone crazy and wants to kill her son so as to release Limbo once again. The X-Men and X-Factor stop her as loyalties are bent against them. In the end, Jean recovers both Maddie's and Phoenix/Jean's memories and Maddie dies. The X-Men and X-Factor then go the mansion and battle it out with Sinister and the Maraduars.
Despite the complicated Jean/Maddie/Phoenix story and the story elements themselves, the heart of this crossover are the characters. You reall feel bad for Maddie. Scott (as I mentioned before) was a terrible husband and if he had stuck around, all of this would have been prevented. Jean, too, shines very nicely as a woman who is suddenly battling her own evil twin-thing.
Colossus and Illyana also serve as great emotional anchors. Dazzlor, Longshot, and some of the newer X-Men seem to shake things up with X-Factor. Despite that, however, the interaction between both teams is fantastic.
It's cool to see all these long subplots that have only really been touched on finally come to a massive conclusuion. A lot of stuff since "From the Ashes" - "Mutants Massacre," esspecially - to now have finally reached their ending point. And while the story itself is not the best, the characters are solid gold.
~W~
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