Rise of the Powers of X #3: Cowardice And Compromise

Writer Kieran Gillen has managed to pack a tremendous amount of both plot and character development into twenty-eight brief pages. Over the span of this issue, we’ve witnessed exactly how bone-deep Moira’s fear of death goes, and why she is willing to burn the planet to ensure her own continuance. 

Gillen’s take on Dominion — essentially portraying Enigma as a demon from CS Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. If you haven’t read that book, the titular demon states that what evil wants, ultimately, is to consume:

We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

Enigma’s revelation that he views the AI lifeforms as, basically, a sandwich is both chilling and also a desire that feels ultimately very true to this particular archetype. 

Witnessing the ultimate corruption of Xavier has been one of the highlights of this series. Once he starts compromising, there’s no end at all to how far down he’ll go, or who he’ll hurt to achieve his ends. Of course, the problem with betrayal is that, eventually, you run out of friends, and when that happens, well, you’d better pray that nobody is holding a grudge.

Every issue of this series has been packed with nods and easter egg references to the Powers of X series which preceded it. The fact that RB Silva generated the architecture means that he knows exactly where to stick the knife in, when it comes to making a reference really stick. The art in this issue is trippy, hallucinatory, but nevertheless lucid and impactful. The characters are never overwhelmed by the world they inhabit, no matter how well-packed the panels become.