X-Men: Inferno

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #239-243

by Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Marc Silvestri (Illustrator)

Originally published in magazine form as X-Men #239-243, New Mutants #71-73, X-Factor #36-39.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, X Men, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 1997

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

After years of planning (and weeks of me reading all the warm ups and crossovers!) Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson collaborated to give us readers a genuinely epic tale. The major demonic alliance of Sy'm, N'astirh and Goblin Queen conspire to break down the barrier between limbo and NY and cause an Inferno that is so big it crosses over to many Marvel series! ... and at the same time Mr Sinister and his deadly Marauders are thrust into the fray because of Madeline Pryor's Goblin Queen-isation.

A tale that results in the loss of a major New Mutant; the introduction of the wonderful creation of the wheelchair bound mutant Taki and the X-Terminators; X-Men and X-Factor finally meeting; the full exposure of Sinister's machinations and a significant and endearing sub-plot with Nanny and the Orphan Maker; and it all ends with the resolution of the Dark Childe saga, the identification of the cause of the Mutant Massacre, two funerals, the X-men possibly changed forever; and it all relates all the way back to X-Men #1, a significant reveal of the past of one of X-Factor! Outstanding! Outstanding!!! This was when Claremont was buzzing! Four Stars -8.5 out of 12

2010 read

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inferno was X-Men story that ended up crossing over into entire line of Marvel comic books at the time. It made sense, Manhattan was the center of a demonic spell that turned the entire island into the realm of Limbo and almost all of Marvel's superheroes call New York city home. However,this reader opted to read only the core story in the X-Men and related titles which alone was already fifteen books plus two epilogues. This reader read all of the the chapters on Marvel Unlimited based on this handy guide from uncannyxmen.net.

The core Inferno story was actually two arcs, with a Mr. Sinister battle shoehorned in. The first arc involved the younger mutant cast members of the New Mutants and X-Factor's wards, the X-Terminators. The story was about how the Inferno spell came to be cast and the fall of Limbo's former ruler, the New Mutant Magik. This story was all done by Louise Simonson who was the writer on New Mutants and on the X-Terminators miniseries. This story culminated two major plot threads; the Illyana Saga and the teen X-Terminators joining the New Mutants.

This reader couldn't wait to finish this section and move to the X-Men/X-Factor team-up. I just don't have any affection for the New Mutants and their ilk. Plus, I really wanted to see how Marc Silvestri drew the X-Men at his peak and I wasn't disappointed when I did read those issues.

The second arc was the X-Men/X-Factor team-up. A little context, the original class of X-Men became X-Factor and left the mansion while the X-Men died, were reborn and were covertly living in Australia. The X-Men also thought that X-Factor sold out and became mutant hunters; so there was definitely sparks to fly they meet and they did. It also dealt with Maddy Pryor wearing a new slutty witch outfit as the Goblin Queen and the man who held the strings behind the Jean Grey clone, Mr. Sinister.

As I said, I wasn't disappointed. Marc Silvestri was doing the art on X-Men and he was at the peak of his powers. Walter Simonson did the art on X-Factor and it was wonderful as well. The X-Men and X-Factor were my favorite to read because of the great art teams that were on both at the time.

Still, after having read all of the pertinent chapters and enjoying some of them, the story couldn't escape criticism of reducing the character of Maddy Pryor into a crazy version of herself and her eventual death as a villain in order to absolve Marvel of its most disturbing plot thread; that of Cyclops leaving his wife and child in order to join up with his ex-girlfriend on X-Factor. This may have relegated Maddy to the dustbin of concluded plot threads but it cemented Cyclops as a grade A jerk.

This was how I read the individual issues and my thoughts expressed as briefly as I c0uld.
Uncanny X-men #239 - the prologue
X-Terminators #1-#3 - This part was boring, featuring that I don't care much for and don't exist anymore.
New Mutants #71 - I'm impressed that this book has Al Williamson inking it. This issue made it easy to see why the fall of Magik was tragic for the fans of this book.
X-Terminators #4 - Some characters that I didn't care for redeem themselves.
New Mutants #72 - This book showed the events of X-Terminators #4 from the New Mutants point of view.
Uncanny X-men #240 - The X-Men payback the Marauders with interest.
Uncanny X-men #241 - Maddy completes her transformation into the crazed Goblin Queen.
X-Factor #36 - X-Factor enters Inferno ground zero.
X-Factor #37 - The Goblin Queen confronts X-Factor.
New Mutants #73 - The Fall of Magik. Nuff said.
Uncanny X-men #242 - X-Men versus X-Factor; in glorious Silvestri art!
X-Factor #38 - Goblin Queen versus Jean Grey!
Uncanny X-men #243 - Mr. Sinister invades the X-Mansion.
X-Factor #39 - The combined forces of the X-Men and X-Factor versus Mr. Sinister!
X-Factor Annual #4 - Epilogue; starring the Blues Brothers?
X-Factor #40 - Second epilogue, Maddy funeral and the fate of the sacrificial babies.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it not aged much well, but this mutant series crossover celebrating 30 years of X-Men stories and ending (for that time) the long Claremont's Maddie Pryor and the Illyana/Darkchilde storyline-plots is still one of my most favourite ones ever.



Loved the storyline and the tie-ins on almost all Marvel comics (The Amazing Spider-Man one by Jerry Conway and Sal Buscema was an amazing and scary horror tale), Mr Sinister and his Marauders still are the top X-Men villains for me, and the artists drawing this volume are just very good ones: Marc Silvestri (I had a crush for all his Manara-style X-Women), Walt Simonson and Brett Blevins, a comics artists dream team for this old Marvel-Zombie.



A very good classic crossover still deserving a re-read.

'Nuff Said

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inferno has a lot of things going on. Illyana's arc, Madelyn Pryor's downfall, Cyclops' character redemption ( somewhat), Mr. Sinister's grand plan and many more. But when a lot of things are crammed in one storyline, things are bound to get convoluted. Such is the case in X-Men: Inferno.

Although, Inferno is an essential storyline of the X-Men mythos, going through thousands of pages of storyline that cross-over to almost every Marvel title is hardly worth the effort.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This culminates a few of Claremont's longest running plot threads. Madelyne Prior finally gets resolved (though to Claremont it was resolved a long time ago, and others came on to complicate things), as well as Magik finally lives out the promise/curse that had been given upon her doubling of age.

Well the Madelyne issue is an interesting one. Basically when Bob Layton created X-Factor, he messed with a lot of things with the Jean Grey/Phoenix retcon. It also made Cyclops a failure as a husband and father. So when Louise Simonson stepped on to try and fix all the problems Bob Layton created she had to start reassembling Cyclops integrity. Inferno is kinda built with this as a backdrop. Parts of the story are evidence of writing for the sake of cleaning up and rectifying things that are broken as opposed to telling a story that works or fits.

And on the other side, Magik's ongoing struggle with her evil side/kingdom finally breaks open. And the demons of Limbo invade Manhattan. This is obviously not the most intuitive X-Men story. It is far more entrenched in comic lore and not as accessible to the general audience. Not to mention the book being the culmination of so many different ongoing stories.

There is also a side story that you don't get in this book, though it refers to it often. The X-Terminators (X-Factor's young charges) series kinda helps give a bit more of the ongoing story for Inferno though I don't think you will feel like you are missing too much. And you aren't. (except perhaps the enlightenment that Bogdanove actually did some good art before X-Tinction Agenda)

The three New Mutants issues stand separate from X-Factor and Uncanny fairly well. Colossus just crosses over to be a part of his sister's battle for her soul. Also the X-Terminators story ties in with the New Mutants, cause you knew the young ones had to all meet up at some point. I like this story if mostly because I like the character of Magik. I wanted to say the conclusion went weak at the end, but I actually think it may have worked just right.

The X-Factor and Uncanny storylines interweave to the point where they begin to trade off the storytelling. This is more focused on Madelyne and brings in the hidden player that has been moving things for some time in Uncanny, Mr. Sinister. He's Claremonts attempt at the ultimate big bad. I think it would have been better if he'd gotten to make his appearance alongside his big play as opposed to getting brought into the open by someone else's attempt at glory. Oh well.

As for art, Bret Blevins really grew into New Mutants quite well. His cartoony style worked well for the youth of the New Mutants book.

Marc Silvestri did his normal work for the Uncanny books. I remember enjoying his art much more in my previous read through... Oh well. It is quite consistent and very quality work. I just am not enjoying it as much as I would have hoped. Maybe I'm just burned out.

And for Walt Simonson on X-Factor, I think I unfortunately got what I asked for... He went much deeper into his own style and he just went too far. I think he saw Frank Miller's progression in Dark Knight Returns and thought he'd try to loosen up some more himself. And it was just uninteresting or ugly too often. And I had been starting to like his art...

Another unfortunate momentum killer for these books is the requisite retelling page(s). With all the crossover events, not only does the writer have to tell the reader what happened last issue, but what happened in the other titles that have any bearing on what you are reading. It was tiring before. Much worse in this book.

In all, I still enjoy this book regardless of the fact that I probably shouldn't. But it has big events with the characters I enjoy. Sometimes I have simple taste in comics. Those satisfy them. But in summary, the New Mutants concludes the Magik storyline, in mostly satisfying form. Uncanny and X-Factor wrap up their present loose ends so as to move on.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally released in the late 80's, Inferno was one of the first major X-Men crossover events, and was one of the longest. Ostensibly, Inferno was supposed to be about the fallout that occurred when New Mutant Magik unwittingly opened a gateway from Limbo right into New York City, unleashing a flood of demons to terrorize the populace. The focus soon shifts to the real reason this story matters in the long run - the truth about Jean Grey, Phoenix, Madelyn Pryor, Cyclops, and Mr. Sinister's role in manipulating them all.

The overall storytelling by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson works pretty well. I thought there was way too much time spent on the power struggles in Limbo, and the initial clash between the X-Men and X-Factor was less than believable (don't any of these characters believe in talking before fighting?), but the Madelyn/Sinister storyline was very compelling. Claremont's dialogue was ridiculous as usual, with characters issuing paragraph-length monologues, explaining the nature of their powers every other page, and conducting complex psychoanalysis in the heat of battle. Several plot threads were cleaned up in this series (most importantly X-Factor knows that the X-Men are indeed alive, and the X-Men know that X-Factor really isn't persecuting mutants), but just as many are created. I think the Jean Grey issues are still ongoing 20 years later!

The art in this volume is hit-and-miss (mostly miss). Marc Silvestri, who made a name for himself with his creations Witchblade and the Darkness, handles the penciling chores for the Uncanny X-Men issues, which are by far the best illustrated of the bunch. Walt Simonson, whose work on Thor was absolutely breathtaking, seems completely out of place here. His work on the X-Factor issues is serviceable at best. Bret Blevins' work on the New Mutants is the weakest of the whole collection. Fortunately there isn't as much New Mutants material in this book.

Overall, Inferno is a very interesting X-Men crossover event, and marks an important chapter in the X-Men continuity. It's a flawed series that could have been a lot better (and perhaps a lot shorter), but it's still a fun ride that most serious X-Men fans owe it to themselves to check out.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

In some ways, the Inferno issues of X-Men are an extension of the Dark Phoenix Saga that Claremont had written over 100 issues previously. Using an exact clone of Jean Grey who previously had provided little value to the X-Men continuity, Claremont again revisited the question of how the Jean Grey character would react with a sudden exposure to increased power. The Inferno storyline is almost a 'What If' scenario, in the sense that the humanity of the Madelyne character was eradicated, which could easily have been written into the Dark Phoenix storyline for Jean by a less talented writer than Claremont.

However, Claremont is careful not to re-create the Dark Phoenix storyline, choosing instead to distance the reader from Madelyne emotionally in order to toy with the character and play out the events of the story. The core of the Inferno story was, as with the Dark Phoenix saga, fundamentally human played out in the context of mutants doing battle. Madelyne Pryor was a woman scorned, and in the end her acts of atrocity were born of the vengeance sought by so many real people who have found themselves in a similar position in their relationships. However, any empathy felt by the readers for her vanishes by the end of the story, as Madelyne fully embraces the dark aspects that power has brought to her in a way the few real people in similar circumstances would.

Again, the build up to the climax was extremely measured - Claremont planted the seeds from Madelyne's first appearance about 80 issues previously - but the pay off at the end was worth it.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

New York becomes an Inferno. Limbo gets taken over, Maddie becomes a goblin queen, and demons want to take over the world. This covers all X-men titles within the Inferno storyline, this brings it a lot of depth in both characters and story. Personally, I think Maddie was treated terribly by Cyclops and was well within her rights to feel angry. I felt sorry for her in the end, Jean made it all about herself, not about Maddie, and that wasn't right. It also finishes off a lot of story threads from all the titles. A very good read.

[Rick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Inferno remains one of Marvel's worst crossover events. It was ill conceived, poorly developed, badly orchestrated and horribly executed. It also inaugurated the collapse of anything resembling coherency in Marvel's mutant themed titles. While single issues by authors and artists are good, the narrative as a whole is an unmitigated disaster and spotlights the editorial collapse at Marvel that reigned until well past the millennium.

[ShamNoop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to take a long break from X-Men comics now

[Leonardo Costantini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crossover spettacolare

[Shawn C. Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a 13/14 year old, I read this as it came out monthly. I’ve re-read it several times in the intervening years, but this most recent read is the first in at least a decade. 100% holds up as my favorite X-story and the only mega crossover I will give the time of day to.

[Jamble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly dumb story, a mix of cool and dumb designs, some great and terrible artwork, and some horribly plodding segments. Some great character moments, great bouts of teamwork, some complete idiocy, you get my point. I loathed soem of it, loved other parts, but the last third or so was really enjoyable and that kept it slightly above average for me. Definitely the weakest major X-Men event I've witnessed in my attempt to read through all the X-books.

[Jeff Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of my least favorite X-Men crossovers. It's a classic by many people's standards, but Madelyne Pryor going crazy, the X-Men fighting X-Factor, Mr. Sinister waiting in the wings, and demons raining down on New York City do not make a winning plot for me. To each their own, I guess, but this is one that I'm perfectly fine with just checking out from the library and never rereading.

[Matthew Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this massive crossover back in the day. Reading it in its full collected form some 25 years later gave me the same excitement and emotional reactions. It may be all about limbo, demons, darkchilde and Mr. Sinister but for me- at its heart- it's about the tragedy of Madelyne Pryor/ the Goblin Queen. Misunderstood, hurt and ultimately consumed by pain. I loved revisiting this epic.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe the best from the 90s era !!!!

[Marco Cian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inferno is a strange story.

See, it's one of those big crossover comic events, where multiple comics told specific chapters of a larger, connected story. You had Chris Claremont writing X-Men, Louise Simonson writing X-Factor, New Mutants, and X-Terminators, and other staff writers writing tie-in stories for their respective titles.

However, even though the three X-Books were supposed to be one big story, they have wildly different tones and characterizations, which make the reading experience jarring. The biggest difference is between Claremont and Simonson and how they characterize Scott and Madelyne (the storyline is all about the dissolution of their marriage).

Claremont presents Madelyne as a tragic victim who was jerked around by Scott before being abandoned once Jean Grey got resurrected (the dream sequence where the demon S'ym gets her to unwittingly sign a pact remains one of the best bits of Claremont's entire run, it's hauntingly beautiful). But Simonson presents Madelyne as this jealous, catty bitch who stands in the way of Scott and Jean's twu wuv, and who needs to be put down like ole space yeller.

Even more jarring though is how in the titles Simonson is writing on her own, characterization can shift. N'astirh goes from a genuinely terrifying demon in New Mutants to a bumbling Skeletor-type baddie in X-Terminators (and what's even weirder about this is how X-Terminators focuses on N'astirh's quest to find 13 mutant babies to sacrifice, so by rights it should be the darkest of the titles).

I bought the Inferno TPB because it was easier than trying to track down all the individual issues that made up the storyline and reading them in the proper order. But now, after having gone through the TPB, I don't feel like the whole story was very cohesive.

But at least X-Men #233 is really good. Seriously, you should all check that dream sequence out.

[Jacob Rayburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inferno (1989) is a crossover event that promises to tie up loose ends and give resolution to seeds that have been sown since before the Dark Phoenix Saga (1980). Demons are planning to invade New York, characters are coming back from the dead, and the city itself seems alive and hostile, but who is secretly pulling the strings all along? This story follows several groups of mutants (X-Men, X-Factor, X-terminators, and New Mutants) as they try to figure out why trains seem to be sprung to life, they hear cackling in the dark corners of an alley, and faces that were thought to be gone show themselves once again. This story is a story that will constantly keep you guessing and just as you think you solved the mystery some new revelation occurs that throws a wrench in every mutant's plans. Here we see the ending to many stories from Dark Phoenix Saga, Darkchylde Saga, The Mutant Massacre, and Fall of the Mutants, all of which wrap up in some of the most amazing and satisfying ways that they can and leave room for future writers to explore even further (which they have). I honestly do not want to say much more about this, but any person that wants to read X-Men comics, even if they only go over the "Milestone Collection", will not want to skip over this. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, X-Men: Inferno is just a must.

Overall Rating: 10/10

https://rayburnreading.blogspot.com/2...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent story, but not quite as good as I remember it. The New Mutants storyline is completely separated from the X-Men/X-Factor one, except for the X-Terminators sort of bridging that gap right at the end. The city going bad was fun, but the X-Men going bad was just weird and never really explained. I honestly think it was all just to help justify Havok's terrible decisions through this whole episode. And the pivot-turn Madelyne has where she wants her baby, only to turn around and decide to kill him out of spite for Scott made no sense at all.

In a lot of ways, this was a classic storyline that finally tied up a bunch of threads Claremont had been building for years, both with Madelyne and Illyana. But there were several points at which the characters made decisions that just left me scratching my head. And with each of the major bad guys (Madelyne, Sinister, Sym, Nastrith) out for themselves, the constantly shifting alliances just gave me whiplash.

[Tuni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad Magik was able to make a return, because this just wasn’t the ending she deserved without getting to have a final confrontation with Belasco. That being said, I think the sacrifice of her powerful self and return of her younger powerless self was a really good plot beat.

It’s also interesting to reconsider some current day decisions of the Krakoan council in regards to Maddie. Given the change to resurrect her right after the events of Inferno, I would say a hard no. Not because of what she did, but because it seems to be made clear she is just a small (more interesting) part of Jean as a whole. Not her own fully formed consciousness separate from Jean. But now? I think there is more distinction between the two.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad to have finally read a classic.

There's some great stuff here, but there's also a ton of stuff featuring characters I don't even slightly care about. I skimmed through the X-terminators stuff before skipping it completely, and I skimmed most of the New Mutants, but since I'm not attached to any of those characters, the story did nothing for me.

The parts focusing on Scott, Jean, and Madelyne were solid, but then there's a lot of stuff with Dazzler and Longshot as well (Claremont's clear favorites at the time) that I just. didn't. care. about. Scott blowing up Sinister was a great panel.

Ends very, very abruptly.

[Roybot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I remembered, but still pretty good. The New Mutants arc is definitely the weakest, which seems to be a trend with these rereads and crossovers. The X-Factor and X-Men arcs are pretty good, although things go a little off the rails once the teams are all brought together. There's a lot of inconsistent abilities and powers at play, especially for the villains, and some wildly inconsistent artwork, especially for the New Mutants, but it's a pretty classic story arc, and there are some striking moments. Not bad.

[Lilli W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-MEN '97 INSPIRED READING #8

The show condensed this story down into one episode, and I liked it a lot, but the full story is very epic. I liked the tensions between X-Factor and the X-Men, and Illyana's corruption arc in the New Mutants. Very fun!

[Optimism · Rating 2 out of 5]

next in the major events, and boy howdy did this one feel bloated. could've easily been better if it was just the x-folks, but weaving in every other main storyline really dragged it down for me. the main plot was fun tho, we always love a good demonic invasion.

[Vasilis Fotsinos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a mess.

[actuallymynamesssantiago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zzz.

[Justin Biondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was very worth the hype

[Shannon Boreham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everytime I start thinking I should cut Scott and Jean some slack I re-read this and it renews my dislike of them 😅
A fun, but messy episode of the X-Mens adventures from the late eighties.

[Scott A. Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demons, Mutants, and Mayhem! What's not to love?