Hellions #4
The Hellions make their final move to take down Madelyne Pryor in Hellions #4, by writer Zeb Wells, artist Stephen Segovia, colorist David Curiel, and letterer Ariana Maher. This issue is pretty good, but some strange little things are going on in it.
As Madelyne tells Havok that the demons are close, the clone Marauders continue their torture of the Hellions… until Wild Child and Psylocke come to the rescue. They’re able to free the team and Greycrow volunteers to stay behind and deal with the Marauders by putting them out of their misery. The rest of the team begins the search for Madelyne and Havok, but find themselves in a waste processing facility where Sinister used to send defective clones and mutant children after he was done experimenting on them. Greycrow finds Madelyne and Havok and shoots her, she says her last words to Havok, touching him with a glowing hand, and he goes crazy, his powers destroying the orphanage. The team is able to escape mostly unscathed, with Havok not remembering what happened. On Krakoa, Psylocke tells Greycrow the Marauders will be resurrected, while Cyclops tells Havok that Madelyne won’t. Havok doesn’t react well, and Mister Sinister watches the whole thing with enjoyment… until Nanny tells him what they found and that she’ll be seeing him about all of the children who suffered because of him eventually.
There are a few weird things about this issue that need to be gotten out of the way right off the bat. In the beginning, Madelyne talks about something that Mister Sinister did at the orphanage that makes it easier for her to summon demons, which kind of doesn’t make any sense- what did Sinister do to make it easier for her to summon demons? On top of that, the issue doesn’t even get to the whole demon thing. Now, it’s not needed, but the entire point of Madelyne Pryor coming back seems to be to have her do some Goblin Queen stuff, which never happens.
However, there’s a lot of great stuff in this issue, too. Wells plays with the characters a lot, and, honestly, it makes up for any deficiencies in the main plot. Greycrow kills the Marauders, not out of anger but because he wants them to get resurrected so they can have a life beyond what Sinister and Pryor did to them. Nanny finding the remains of mutants and her threat to Sinister is great as well; one of the biggest problems with Krakoa is that everyone is giving the villains the benefit of the doubt. Some are monsters and need punishment. Havok’s disassociating and sadness over losing Madelyne are nice little touches that are rife with story potential.
Stephen Segovia does a great job with the art. It would have been nice to see him let loose on the team fighting some demons, but what readers get him from this issue works pretty well, from Psylocke and Wild Child taking down the Marauders to Havok losing it and destroying the orphanage.
Hellions #4 makes some strange plot decisions to do some character work that is arguably better than any demonic invasion. While it is weird not to get the cliches, what readers get is more compelling than what they may have gotten if Wells made more run of the mill decisions. Segovia’s art works for the issue as well. Hellions #4 closes out the first story arc in fine fashion.
Grade: B+
