A.X.E.: Judgment Day--Week 3

[Note: this contains spoilers for the issue being covered here. I recommend reading the issue first.]

 A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2

Written by Kieron Gillen

Art by Valerio Schiti

Colors by Marte Gracia

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

Over the last couple of months, I read through the entirety of what could be considered the "Golden Age" of X-Men comics--the period from 1976-1991. During this era, the X-Men line became, well, a line, primarily under the guidance of Chris Claremont and, later, Louise Simonson. 

I mention this because the second issue of A.X.E.: Judgment Day hammers home the event's echoes--whether intentional on the creators' part or not--of "Judgement War," an incredibly weird little epic storyline from the latter half of Simonson's X-Factor run (it's issues 43-50, with a guest-penned interlude in the middle). In that storyline, drawn by Paul Smith, X-Factor's sentient Ship was teleported across space by its Celestial creators to bear witness to the space gods' judgment of another world. The X-Factor team went along for the ride, its members separated across a world on the brink of a final, apocalyptic war between two metahuman factions, the Chosen and the Rejects, with the pacifistic Beginagains caught in the middle.

Like much of Simonson's work on X-Factor, "Judgement War" is a very bare-bones story that gets by on its smart premise and themes. All of the weaknesses of Simonson's X-Men writing are on full display--most of the team isn't characterized well and everyone else speaks in the same default voice--but the central conceit of the story worked. Simonson and Smith were, above all else, showing readers a hypothetical: prior to and during the story arc's publication, a few Marvel books (especially those by Chris Claremont) were making a big deal out of the horrors that would transpire if the superpeople of Earth ever entered a state of true war. The story's climax, of the dregs of a superpowered society duking it out with eldritch giants looming over them, ready to pass final judgment on whoever came out alive, is a doomsday scenario that could, if our heroes aren't careful, come to pass on Earth.

It's all the more exciting--and eerie, really--that the worst-case scenario Simonson and Smith cautioned against is actually coming to pass, more than thirty years later, in AXE #2. Like "Judgement War," Judgment Day follows a war between a civilization of elite superbeings with a eugenicist subtext (the Chosen; the Eternals) battling against a civilization comprised of a super minority (the Rejects; the Krakoans), while a third side tries to find a pacifist solution (the Beginagains; the Avengers). That Marvel's human heroes could, now, have their own "Judgement War" scenario in a way that feels organic is a testament to the value and malleability of the new sociological superhero status quo.

In fact, this issue of Judgment Day furthers the sociological angle. The bulk of the event's second issue serves to remind us that we are reading a story set on Earth, watching a war that has human casualties. The Hex's attack on Krakoa, rendered beautifully as usual by Schiti and Gracia triggers a wave of natural disasters--earthquakes, tsunamis--that the heroes need to deal with even as they aren't finished repelling the Eternal monsters. 

Everyone, as the issue's narrator says, is important, and that includes random civilians like those shown in a couple of very noteworthy pages in the issue. They aren't just audience surrogates, though, but more potential casualties, as shown midway through the issue when the Machine That is Earth takes Arjun's life force to resurrect Syne the Memotaur following her execution by Exodus. It's a tragic, scary reminder that every victory on the mutants' part is also a murder (unbeknownst to them). Even Syne is important, beautifully characterized by Gillen as he writes the narrator's recounting of her last words: "please don't," as though she herself is aware of what her death will cost.

Judgment Day, however, is far more interested in the judgment than it is in the war. The X-Men/Eternals conflict comes to a (probably temporary) close this issue, following the requisite big hero moments for everyone involved (special shoutout to Exodus, whose coolness Gillen continues to affirm after his starring role in last week's Immortal X-Men issue). It comes to a close because, uh, the Progenitor, once revived from death by Iron Man, Sinister, and the good guy Eternals turns out to not have the best of intentions. The Progenitor, creator of Earth's metahumanity, declares that Judgment Day is at hand, and that if the people of Earth as a whole cannot prove that we're worth saving, it will destroy everyone.

The Progenitor's unholy resurrection, that unholiest of holies (or is it holiest of unholies? Take your pick) is rendered beautifully by Schiti and Gracia. The page in which it is brought to life is gorgeous--the use of shadows punctuated by a blinding light recalls the work of Mike Mignola, even. It's a god, but also a lurching, Frankenstein-esque thing that should not be, a being that martyred itself to create life dragged kicking and screaming back to life and convinced by its creators and the materials used to create it that its children might just have to be put down. That, the judgment of one of the closest things that Marvel Universe has to a God, is the real crux of AXE's story, not the apocalyptic war preceding its arrival.

All of the above is to say: Gillen, Schiti, Gracia, Cowles and co. absolutely kill it with this issue. Gillen's characterized the first 2 issues of the event as "act 1" of the AXE story, and it shows with a sense of not-quite-finality--the scale at which the big title bout in the issue is rendered by Schiti/Gracia is something normally reserved for finales. The art team really goes all out.

Gillen, additionally, writes many great little character moments throughout the issue. We're shown evidence supporting the Progenitor's claims that humanity has become bickering children--Exodus at his most fanatic; Tony Stark's ego leading to an Ultron scenario on a divine scale; Sinister's, uh, everything. But he also shows us evidence against that in little moments of heroism: Cyclops and Captain America working together in spite of the gulf in their friendship, Daniela comforting people in the midst of a Hex-induced earthquake, Nightcrawler praying for Krakoa with Destiny in his arms.

A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 is a powerful issue and it tees up the much more cerebral second act of this event brilliantly. Gillen has stated that the event's central question is "are we just fucked?" and I'm interested in seeing how he answers. Is this world truly as divided as the faraway planet of "Judgement War?" Or can it, like that world in that old, oft-forgotten story, be saved?

Other observations:

• Mr. Sinister is usually drawn as being pretty conventionally attractive--not so here. Schiti draws him as utterly ghoulish, with a scraggly beard, big creepy eyes, and a bad hairline. It's a great twist on the character's design that serves to make both his moments of black comedy and his genuine awfulness more palpable.

• I'm curious as to whether or not we'll see the Avengers and the heroic Eternals we've been following in Gillen's run take center stage as we move into act two. Maybe each faction will be the headliner of one act of the story?

• Destiny's "We stand alone. We always did." is the latest in an already-long line of excellent beats for the character since her resurrection and, as far as I'm concerned, proves why she should stick around.

• Goddamn, Valerio Schiti.

Up next: week 4, covering A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1, X-Force #30, X-Men #13, and Wolverine #24. Hoo boy. Next one might be a little bit late, hopefully only by a few days. There's gonna be a lot to cover.