The Sins of Sinister event has finally come to an end, and the Marvel multiverse is forever changed. Sinister’s schemes are now clear to the Quiet Council, leaving Krakoa in a strained position. As Professor X, Storm, and the others wrestle with the aftermath of their decisions, they must consider exactly how they’ve gotten to this point.
Yet, while the mutants are indeed dealing with a lot, not everything from the event was executed perfectly. There were a few key plot points that felt underdeveloped or else downright disappointing. With an entire universe to create and only 11 issues, Sins of Sinister had a few weak spots.
10 Introducing A Completely New Timeline
Year 100 of Sins of Sinister isn’t profoundly different from its first year. There are more civilizations gone, of course, but that happens in the Marvel universe. There is constant change. Civilizations rise and fall with every arc. The disappointing part of Sins of Sinister is that Year 1000 should have been better explored. The structure of the event gave only three and a half issues to show how a millennium of Sinister changed everything.
Sins of Sinister shows entire swaths of the galaxy destroyed or filled with cosmic horror. It establishes wars and terror and betrayals on an unprecedented scale. Sins of Sinister fails to portray what that looks like on an individual level. Day-to-day life in the reign of the Sinisterized Council is never depicted, leaving the entire timeline feeling somewhat manufactured.
9 Namor’s Role
Many of the important events of the Krakoan era involved Professor X and Magneto trying to court Namor to Krakoa. They reached out to him when setting up the island and just before founding Arakko. Until Sins of Sinister, Namor refused every time. When Namor finally was forced to join the island in Sins of Sinister, it meant nothing at all.
Namor joins the Quiet Council under Sinister and even commits a few murders, but his actual impact is unexplored. He sits silently in Council meetings and his chimera serve as foot soldiers. That’s all. After so many years of build-up, there really should have been some level of fanfare associated with the long-awaited recruitment. The Council even recruits Namor off-panel. It’s just a missed opportunity.
8 Letting Arakko Show Off
Arakko is a planet filled with warriors. Its people have suffered more than any human culture has ever experienced, and they have learned how to kill with ease. The Sins of Sinister event was the perfect opportunity to show the resilience of Arakko. It never comes.
Where there should have been a horrific and ]desperate fight, Arakko is destroyed in the span of a single page. Everything that X-Men Redhas been building up to was ignored. The Arakkii accomplish nothing, leaving Storm and only a few choice survivors to guard the future. Their potential gets utterly wasted.
7 Making Dr. Stasis A Force Of His Own
Three of the four Sinisters have an understandably large role in Sins of Sinister. Orbis Stellaris plays a massive role in the first act of the story. Mister Sinister and Mother RIghteous control the entire narrative. Dr. Stasis, meanwhile, contributes practically nothing.
Dr. Stasis is already a controversial villain because of his bland and uninventive premise. Sins of Sinister offered an opportunity to really show what makes him special. He could have turned Orchis into a lasting resistance, like Storm’s Brotherhood. Instead, the fourth Sinister immediately burns out.
6 Showing The Horror Of Telepaths
Telepaths are legitimately terrifying. They have powers that allow them to delve into anyone’s minds, tear apart the basic foundations of who they are, and take any information they like. While energy blasts are certainly scary, telepaths are much worse. When Sins of Sinister offers them the chance to show off their potential, however, they don’t do much.
To its credit, Sins of Sinister does allude to the horrors telepaths can accomplish. Xavier has founded an empire of his own, Emma controls entire swaths of the galaxy, and it causes havoc everywhere. However, the two never actually control anyone of note. Ironfire, Sinister, and Rasputin are all shielded. This disappointing role for a potentially horrifying power remains a huge missed opportunity.
5 Making Chimera Relevant
Sins of Sinister did a great job of introducing new and interesting chimera. They all had unique powers and recognizable designs that made them into major threats at a glance. Yet, despite instituting sweeping change around the galaxy, the chimera have little direct action.
Most often, chimeras are foot soldiers sent off to fight the heroes. Just as often, they die immediately. Nightcrawlers makes some effort to give the chimera a larger role, but outside of one or two named characters, they don’t do anything. Rasputin IV is set to be the only one who even lasts, which is disappointing. The concept has a lot of potential, but Wagnerine and Rasputin IV were the only memorable chimera of the cast.
4 Mister Sinister As A Fugitive
For 900 years, Mister Sinister explored the galaxy as a fugitive from an entity that he created. His own genetic offshoots were hunting him through space as he and Rasputin IV desperately tried to find the Moira clones. It was a fun concept that was hardly explored at all.
Sinister would eventually betray Rasputin, but the impact doesn’t really hold when their actual adventures are never put to page. 900 years of bonding and horror feel like a fundamentally life-changing event, and readers don’t get to see it. Sinister needed the time to show how the years affected him, and it would also come a long way to show who Rasputin is now that she’s come to Earth-616.
3 Captain Kate’s Fleet
Some members of the Council are better explored than others in Sins of Sinister. The Sinisterized Kate Pryde barely gets any limelight at all. After the 900-year jump, it’s well established that Kate starts a roving band of pirates that can phase through space. That’s about it.
The pirate fleet is only seen on panel once, and they don’t even do anything. As one of the most experienced leaders on the Quiet Council, Kate should have been leading massive expeditions. Instead, she does practically nothing until the timeline is reset. It’s a disappointing ending for the Pirate Queen.
2 Setting Up Uncanny Spider-Man
With the Fall of X era fast approaching, many Krakoan mutants are getting ready to escape the island for better prospects. The swashbuckling Nightcrawler is one of them. He’ll finally be taking up a secret identity as a mutant and elvish version of Spider-Man.
It will be fun to see a Nightcrawler Spider-Man in action, but Sins of Sinister could have done a much better job setting it up. After all, there was already a chimera version of Nightcrawler with the Spider-Man gene in Nightcrawlers. Had that been explored, it could have been better set up for a character change that seems to be coming out of left field. It doesn’t help that the chimera was only around for a single issue.
1 Lasting Council Consequences
The end of the Sins of Sinister event comes when Sinister is thrown into the Pit. Unfortunately, the Council feels the need to exile four of their own alongside him. As they have been infected with the Sinister gene, Professor X, Emma Frost, Hope Summers, and Exodus are thrown into Krakoa’s Pit.
The actual exile, however, barely lasts any time at all. Within the span of a week after Sins of Sinister‘s end, Immortal X-Men #11 (created by Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, David Curiel, and Clayton Cowles) depicts them released. While the Sinister gene can still possibly return and the Council no longer trusts each other, the Council never trusted each other in the first place. It’s a lackluster aftermath, considering the compelling ending Sins of Sinister initially delivered.
#Wanted #Marvels #Sins #Sinister
