#sins of Sinister

[rei-ismyname]

Nightcrawler on Krakoa - The Spark is not a religion.

During Dawn of X Nightcrawler felt uncomfortable with certain aspects of Krakoa, especially the cavalier attitude towards death. On the day of the first Crucible, Cyclops sought him out to talk through his own feelings on the matter and they discussed it at length. Kurt had no answers, only questions, though he did end the conversation with something definitive. 'I think I need to start a mutant religion.' Contrary to what I've seen many people say, he didn't actually start a religion. This is an exploration of The Spark, Kurt's very secular answer to the personal and societal questions he had.

Melody Guthrie chose to die and be reborn

Since I'm looking to prove a negative - 'The Spark is not a religion' - it would be helpful to have a definition of the term. Scholars, philosophers and theologians have been trying to agree on one for centuries with the mainstream having given up. I'll come back to this, but Kurt's own religious framework is Catholicism. Plenty to work with there.

Florilegium translates as 'book of flowers,' but its usage is the equivalent of 'zine' or 'scrapbook'

Kurt accepted that his feelings of discomfort were in part rooted in his faith, so that's where he began his examination. As shown above, he 'set aside metaphysics' quite quickly - he gave up on 'starting a mutant religion' for many reasons, not least because 'it's not for me to contest matters of faith.' His feelings, that something was missing from Krakoa, remained. An obvious religious marker is the 'The Book of Spark' and the biblic stylisation. As we'll see, it's just Kurt's diary and not a holy text. I speculate that some of Catholic trappings Kurt used during his quest tripped some people up, in the same way the call and response ritual after The Five resurrects someone felt 'culty' to some. I think Hickman was being deliberately provocative, but at the end of the day it's an affirmation of identity before the community and celebration of rebirth - an ad hoc element of Krakoa's nascent culture.

After some soul searching and 'self-distraction,' Kurt was about to give up on the project altogether. There were bigger problems on Krakoa, such as 'The Patchwork Man' (who ended up being Onslaught) and the aforementioned cavalier attitude towards dying. Chuck asked Kurt to investigate because he's better with people, starting with David Haller - Legion - son of Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. After rescuing him from ORCHIS the two formed a friendship based on, among other things, a mutual concern about the sustainability of Krakoan culture.

Importantly, Legion was not a disciple of his father and his didn't take his promises at face value. His loyalty was to Kurt and to mutants in general. An outsider and an agitator, but with only good intentions. He advised Kurt to begin by interrogating the 3 laws, and along the way they met Krakoans who were similarly concerned that they were a nation but not yet a people. Having rejected the whole 'starting a religion' thing, the mission shifted to finding or establishing 'something that makes folks feel like they're all in the same story' - as Stacy X put it. Obviously the presence of Onslaught was a factor in the unrest, but he was feeding off what was already there.

'Murder no man' and 'make more mutants' certainly gave Kurt food for thought, but interrogating them didn't help much with his primary mission. 'Respect this sacred land' did, specifically reinterpreting it to include the people on it. He acknowledged that all the laws were flawed, but this one in particular set him on the path to the Spark. It seems simple in retrospect, obviously Krakoa needs to protect its citizens, but the Quiet Council kinda missed that. It's especially egregious when you consider the scope of the project - all mutants living side by side, including those that have hurt a lot of people and would continue to. Problems like that just don't go away, and with some of those mutants on the Quiet Council (cough* Sinister) people are going to feel unsafe and isolated.

That first line is important - 'this is not a mutant religion'

Needless to say, Onslaught was defeated. Defeated by the lesser known mutants as a large group, creating a mutant circuit inside Legion's head. Legion had the space and Kurt had the idea but the people chose to fight and love and live. They didn't listen to Kurt because of religious or political authority, they listened because they liked the idea.

The Spark is a philosophy, a way of living. It encourages choice, risk, individuality, and seeking happiness as a community and as a people. There's no worship, no reverence of a higher power, 'no prayer or veneration.' Zero exploration of eschatology. It's compatible with existing faith because there's no overlap, except for the community aspect. It's definitely not a bloody religion.

There is one alternate future where The Spark is turned into a religion/faith - the Sins of Sinister timeline. Mother Righteous hijacked it as a tool to control uneducated enslaved clones and drew on their faith and sacrifice to perform deeply harmful magic. Considering SoS was an exercise in perversion and abomination, in corrupting good things into their twisted dark opposites, The Spark as religion/tool of evil should tell us that the real thing is nothing of the sort.

Kurt does love the aesthetic of religion, as you'd expect, which explains why the communal holodeck in Legion's head is called The Altar. Altar is not a strictly religious term, though, and the altar is nothing like a church. Lost and Cortez (of all people) are telling people about it because it helped them with their own pain, given without reservation. You could ungenerously view it as evangelism, but if you do that then you've broadened the term to the point of meaninglessness.

Kurt didn't start a mutant religion, The Spark isn't a religion. Pass it on :)

[pacing-er]

Charles monologue from the Sins of Sinister prelude in Immortal X-Men! He hadn't gotten an opportunity to really showcase his power for a lot of the Krakoa era so seeing what he was capable of in Sins of Sinister was so cool!!

This extra cocky and confident version of him is really cute 🥰🥰🥰

[artverso]

Marco Turini - Emma Frost in “Sins of Sinister” 

[stillnotyourmusebitch]

Just a thought. . .

So reading Nightcrawlers in the Sins of Sinister arc. Seeing the X23 and Nightcrawler clone I can't help but 1. Laugh at the name Wagnerine but 2. I think that would make a better ship name for Logan and Kurt coz Logurt is so bad (like seriously we can do so much better) ((my phone is always trying to autocorrect it to yoghurt))

What do you think??

[illyanarasputinfan]

Davi Go

[sinistermusings]

Sins of Sinister 1 (2023) by Kieron Gillen & Lucas Werneck

Cover: Marco Checchetto (variant)

Sins of Sinister

[emmafrostcovercollection]

Sins Of Sinister #1 (2023) - Artgerm variant

[dailydamnation]

Illyana Rasputin in Nightcrawlers #2

Look at this, this is just fun, crazy scifi-superhero stuff.

Sins of Sinister is a wild and very entertaining story in the tradition of The Age of Apocalypse, but it suffers from its place in the reading order right after Dark Web. Because in Sins, most of the characters are there to fulfill a function in the story rather than to be explored themselves. Which is fine for the right sort of story, but after Dark Web I’m just in such a need to read an Illyana written with depth and respect for her character and history, and there’s no room for that when you’re possessed by Sinister DNA.

[crisisofinfinitemultiverses]

Immoral X-Men 1 (2023) variant by Marco Turini

[baambastic]

Kate: *Sees a combination of Colossus and Magik*

Also Kate, immediately:

[rei-ismyname]

NIGHTCRAWLERS Highlights

Everything is Sinister in a universe filled with misery and abominations...

... even the Legion of the Night! Chimeras with Nightcrawler as the base, led by Wagnerine. BAMFSNIKT.

At least until Vox Ignus tries the Scream of Change with his back to the wall, freeing them from Sinister's influence.

Unfortunately, being in service to Mother Righteous might be worse. Legion certainly thinks so, and tells her so before ascending to another plane of existence. Sweet ability.

The OG Nightcrawler has strong feelings about it too. It doesn't end well for him, but he wasn't having a great time anyway. Sins of Sinister is fantastically grim, but at least the Nightkin have each other.

One of many heists they pull off - disarming Thor and absconding with Mjolnir just before Asgard is destroyed.

Looks like Loki managed to get away, though his time came. Mojo and his cronies were robbed blind by Auntie Fortune (Domino x Nightcrawler.)

After 1000 years of similar, Doctor Nemesis apparently merged with Ego the Living Planet. The players gather for the Big Ending.

Ghost Rider Galactus is also present, briefly.

Mother Righteous finally gets got and Banshee has seen better days. Wagnerine is still standing only for the universe to reset, obliterating the timeline.

Finally, Sinister Chuck in orbit around the Shi'Ar homeworld - bombarding the civilisation with paranoia until it collapses.

[pacing-er]

Krakoa Era Reading List Cherik Version (part 5)

8. X Lives and X Deaths of Wolverine

A lot of rapid fire plot stuff and time travel fuckery. Centers around Wolverine, Jean, Moira, and Xavier and established some essential stuff for the following volumes. There are no Cherik interactions in this arc at all, but it may be necessary to skim through for plot reasons. Thankfully it's relatively short with only 3 volumes, combined into a single omnibus.

After this point the reading order gets super fucky so I'm trying my best 😭 Yes, there are reading guides that go issue by issue but I'm not keeping like 20 tabs open with all the different titles and switching between them.

9. Legion of X (Issues #1-5)

Mostly just Legion and Nightcrawler hijinks. Charles is in a scene interacting with his brother and David in a way I found pretty funny. Magneto does not appear at all in the first five issues, everything after that point contains major plot developments that are covered in Immortal X-Men, A.X.E Judgement Day, and X-Men Red.

10. Immortal X-Men 2022 (Issues #1-4)

The start of Professor X and Magneto's divorce era Krakoa edition 🙃 Magneto became disillusioned with the concept of Krakoa after everything that happened in Trial of Magneto and Inferno. Then a lot of conflicts happen one after the other and everyone's mad at each other. They are separated so not many shippy moments, but the initial breakup is worth reading:

You can read this one up to issue #4, after which I recommend reading all of A.X.E. Judgement Day.

11. Hellfire Gala: Immortal

Charles is in a single panel and that's it. Some pretty big villain!Moira stuff happens but idc so I just skimmed through it. I didn't read it so idk where it sits timeline wise but I think it's skippable.

12. A.X.E. Judgement Day

The entirety of the Judgement Day arc, happy to say that this one is only 6 issues instead of sixteen 🙃 You get a detailed explanation of major developments that are echoed in the rest of Immortal X-Men, Legion of X, and X-Men Red. You can read this one first but you won't get the context for certain things that are mentioned in passing. No Cherik interactions, unfortunately.

13. X-Men Red

Basically what Magneto and Storm have been up to on Arakko after Mag retires from the Krakoa council. Some really badass moments and I found the difference in Arakko and Krakoa culture to be super interesting. You also get to see Magneto's final words to Storm (about Charles), and later on some pretty intense Charles angst as he attempts to cope with Erik's permanent death. Tbh at this point I'm getting pretty tired of going back and forth between different titles so I read this one all the way through. Of the 16 issues only issues #1-11 have Cherik bait, with issue #11 specifically dealing with plot points from Sins of Sinister. I THINK if you want to read in the correct order you can read up to issue #10, read everything Sinister, and then go back and read #11. Everything from that point onwards in X-Men Red is Arakko and Storm-centric.

14. Immortal X-Men (2022) (Issues #5-10)

The conclusion of the Judgement Day arc and the lead up to Sins of Sinister. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Mystique, Destiny, and Sinister. Charles is called annoying a lot and Magneto's death is mentioned multiple times. Then some more unexplained developments are shown which I need to read the other titles to get context for. Great. Don't worry about Dr. Stasis or Nightcrawler's horns just yet, because by issue #10 there's a whole lot more to worry about. After a very cool monologue from Xavier we get a direct lead in to Sins of Sinister.

15. Legion of X (Issues #7-10)

Charles being a bad dad saga continues! Whole lot of twists and mysteries that are not resolved by the end. I think a lot of people will be frustrated by Charles behavior here, but to be fair he is likely being influenced by something/someone as shown in immortal X-Men. I find legion's storyline to be interesting so I didn't skip anything, but there are no Cherik ship bait-y moments aside from Charles generally missing him and being lonely.

Idk where this sits in regard to Sins of Sinister, but seeing as Nightcrawler has horns and Charles doesn't have a diamond on his head, it likely sits somewhere between Immortal X-Men #8-10 on the timeline. Or simultaneously? There's a lot of timeline fuckery happening. I'm honestly so confused.

16. Sins of Sinister

Gotta be honest I didn't expect this one to be such a complicated read. Basically X-Men Red, Legion of X, and Immortal X-Men all build up to this single issue, at which point there's a whole new series of titles to read set in this Sinister-verse. Originally I planned to cover the whole sinister business in this post but it's a lot so I'm gonna cut it here. I think that Sinister is genuinely very funny so I do plan to read it all.

According to this helpful guide on reddit, I seem to be on the right track. There are a LOT of titles going simultaneously for this period in Krakoa history, covering branching plots for Wolverine, the Marauders, Sabertooth, and more. I'm mostly concerned with plots having to do with Charles and Erik, so I'm not going to bother with those (maybe I'll check out Sabertooth idk). The important thing is that I've read all the primary interconnected titles: Immortal X-Men (*only up to issue #10), A.X.E. Judgement Day, X-Men Red, and Legion of X.

Honestly there are a lot of great moments, which makes it even worse that this is such an awfully complicated experience. I wish anyone attempting to read it all good luck and I hope this post is even remotely helpful.

[current-comix]

Nathan Szerdy

[sigma-freud-loves-primates]

reading sins of sinister and omfg i love how much of a drama queen sinister is

like who let this charles darwin rip-off in??

[xmencovered]

Sins of Sinister Event / Published: January 2023 - April 2023 / Artist: Leinil Francis Yu

[illyanarasputinfan]

Rise of the Powers of X #1 (2024) MARVEL

Variant Covers by Davi Go & Ben Harvey