X-Men, Sins of Sinister, and the blessing of continuity
One of the X-Men's latest comic events knows most of its consequences will be ignored, and is all the better for it
Comic book canon can be a tricky narrative device to work with. On one hand, it gives a creator a large tool box of characters and events to draw on to make their story. On the other, the iconic nature of many of these characters means that lasting change can be hard, if not impossible, to implement. There is an expectation that, eventually, these superheros will snap back, like elastic, to their most recognizable state no matter how much a given storyline might try to twist and turn them.
But, with a little imagination, the assurance of a return to normalcy can be a fantastic excuse to tear down absolutely everything in a setting, with a sly little wink to the readers since we all know that none of this is going to last.
The assurance of a return to normalcy can be a fantastic excuse to tear down absolutely everything…
That’s basically “Sins of Sinister,” a 2023 X-Men crossover story by Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Si Spurrier (on writing duties), and Paco Medina, Alessandro Vitti, Lorenzo Tammetta, Phillip Sevy, Andrea Di Vito, Lucas Werneck (on art). Long-time X-Men villain and mad scientist extraordinaire Mister Sinister finally succeeds in conquering the world, by infecting the leaders of mutantkind with his own narcissistic, sociopathic personality. With some of the world’s most powerful people behind him, Sinister is quickly named the leader of this new world and things go swimmingly for him for a few years…until, of course, all the other powerful mutants that he made as egomaniacal as himself decide that they could do a far better job running the world.
The McGuffin at the heart of this story is mutant-gene powered “engine” that Sinister has created, which allows him to reset a timeline to a certain point of his choosing, letting him record all the knowledge he has gained for his past self to use on his next attempt at world conquest. The story uses the analogy of Sinister creating a video game-like “save point” that he can “reset” to if things go wrong. And, wouldn’t you know it, someone has gone and stolen Sinister’s device, literally leaving him trapped in a hell of his own making. (Admittedly, that’s the simple version of the story – if you want to know what you should read to get the whole plot, check out “Read This,” at the end of the newsletter.)
So, it’s a crazy set-up, but like I said, it’s all for the purpose of telling one of the most delightfully bonkers stories I’ve read from Marvel in some time. There is never any doubt while reading it that the timeline will eventually be reset, putting all the characters back to their previous status quo, which gives the series’ creators free reign to be as ridiculous and unhinged as possible in this world of amoral, overpowered mutant villains. In the first issue alone, Mister Sinister offs Thanos by piercing the Mad Titan’s skull using a specially made cannon designed specifically to fire a miniaturized Juggernaut. A few pages later shows the newly corrupted X-Man Magik literally slicing Asgard in half with a gigantic magic sword. And with no one to stop his mad research, Sinister introduces new “chimera,” clones of mutants that splice together multiple mutant powers, giving him a steady supply of efficient (and remorseless) killers.
And as the story continues to stretch on, covering 1,000 years of the “Sinister Era” before its inevitable reset, things just get wilder as the “Sinister-ized” X-Men leave Earth and begin conquering the rest of the universe. We see Storm, one of the last remaining heroic X-Men, lead a ragtag group of rebels across the galaxy attempting to thwart the evil plans of Sinister and her former allies. A group of Nightcrawler clones, created by Sinister to be a “secret police force” for Earth’s new mutant overlords, regain their free will and become a group of holy thieves, stealing rare artifacts from Earth’s remaining heroes in the hopes it will let them fulfill a mysterious prophecy. And a millennium in the future, the mutant Exodus, whose power grows proportionate to the faith of those around him, resides on a nightmarish planet filled with imprisoned, mass-manufactured clones whose only purpose is to endlessly chant his name.
As the story continues to stretch on, covering 1,000 years…things just get wilder.
It’s a grim future, even for a series like X-Men that has about a dozen different dystopian timelines to choose from. But knowing that Sinister’s magical reset button is built into the plot makes it a lot easier to enjoy the ride. Because that’s the thing about comic book continuity that “Sins of Sinister” embraces – everything will go back by the end, so there’s no reason not to write a story that takes such huge swings. And having everything snap back neatly means there’s very little messy hand-wringing in the epilogue about how “everything is changed forever now,” which usually only lasts as long as the next event. (And to be clear, while I love big superhero events they can be pretty rote at times.)
In creating a story in which continuity very specifically does not matter, the creators of Sins of Sinister did something that strict adherence to maintaining continuity usually thwarts - a story packed with page after page of surprises.
“Hey Bob, how do I read Sins of Sinister?”
Well, getting a copy is as easy as going to your local comic store and buying the individual issues or collected trade; I’d recommend the trade, as the series is actually made up of 3 separate mini-series (“Immoral X-Men,” “Nightcrawlers,” and “Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants”) that are all meant to be read in a specific order, and the trade puts them all in the proper chronology.
But if you mean “what recent X-Men story events should I read before starting ‘Sins of Sinister,’” then I’ve got you covered!
First of all, this series is part of the recently concluded “Krakoan Age” of X-Men stories, and to read any of the stories from this period you really should read the mini-series that kicked the era off, “House of X/Powers of X” (which, again, is technically two separate mini-series put into handy chronological order by the collected volume). HOX/POX, as it tends to be called, is well worth reading on its own, though it can get a bit heady and philosophical, especially if you go in expecting a story about a straightforward superhero brawl.
After that, to fully understand “Sins of Sinister,” you should read the first two volumes of “Immortal X-Men” (issues 1 to 10). This is a really solid series that takes a close look at each of the political leaders of Krakoa, though it does also have some “crossover” issues with the 2022 “Judgement Day” event (which is also very good, but if you haven’t read that series the context for some of the stories will be lost; short version, members of the group of immortals known as The Eternals have gone bad and declared war on Krakoa and mutantkind).
And if you want extra credit, you can read the 2022 “X-Men: Inferno” mini-series, which wraps up some of the plot points from HOX/POX while paving the way for a new “season” of Krakoa stories, including “Sins of Sinister.”