Fallen Angels #6
It’s the final showdown with Apoth in Fallen Angels #6, by writer Bryan Hill, artist Szymon Kudranski, colorist Frank D’Armata, and letterer Joe Sabino. This final issue of the series keeps up the quality that has been a hallmark of this book so far.
The team arrives in Dubai and is immediately attacked. X-23 orders the rest of the group to defend themselves, but not to hurt any of the innocents under Apoth’s control. Psylocke goes after Apoth. Cable uses a phosphor grenade to get some separation for the team from Apoth’s hordes. Psylocke confronts Apoth. Apoth boasts that’s there no way for Psylocke to stop since he can go into any mind linked to his Overclock network, but she connects to the network with the Sinister modified Overclock module. Apoth’s soldiers, some begging for death, start to get through Cable’s cordon of fire, and he takes lethal action against them. In the Overclock network, Apoth discovers he can’t link with Psylocke, and they start to battle it out. Outside, Apoth drives his mind-controlled minions towards the flames, but X-23 begins to stop them. The rest of the team helps her in this life-saving endeavor. Psylocke defeats Apoth, and she meets his opposite- since Apoth was trying to make himself into a god, he created his own adversary. Psylocke wonders why this adversary didn’t try to stop Apoth, and it says simply it did- by sending her the vision. Afterward, on Krakoa, Psylocke congratulates X-23 in her leadership skill and says she’s leaving the group. She brings Sinister the Overclock module she trapped Apoth in, and SInister wonders if, in the future, he can ask her for help. She says yes, but only if she believes in what he’s doing.
One of the main themes of this issue is growth. Psylocke fights past her doubt, her own inner pain to embrace who she is now. This allows her to use her ability to manifest psychic energy to manifest butterfly wings and fly to Apoth. This visual metaphor is apt. Hill has been building her character throughout the series, showing her training and the pain of her life. This whole mission for her has been overcoming all of these obstacles. In the final battle with Apoth, he takes on the guises of her cruel master, her lover, and the child he took from her, hoping to use her tragedies against her- her fear of her master, her desire for love, and the promise of getting back her child- but she has gone past those things. She knows they are in the past and that she is more than her old pain.
Hill also makes sure to show X-23 using what she’s learned over the series. She’s a natural leader, giving orders to the rest of her team. When Cable kills one of Apoth’s soldiers, disobeying her orders, she allows before she realizes what Apoth is doing with these suicide strikes- trying to hurt the mutants by making them kills innocents, and she acts- putting her self between them and the flames, putting herself in danger, to save lives. The rest of the team follows her lead. After everything is over, Psylocke commends her on her leadership abilities. Hill has stealthily built up their relationship throughout the series. It was always there, a nice B plot that comes to fruition in this issue.
Szymon Kudranski and Frank D’Armata work together perfectly to knock it out of the park with this issue. The full-page spread of Psylocke’s “transformation” into a butterfly is amazing. D’Armata knows where to use light and shadow throughout the issue, perfectly complimenting Kudranksi’s gritty pencils.
Fallen Angels #6 is a fitting end to a great series. This one has definitely flown under the radar, but it has been a treat the whole time. Bryan Hill had a story in mind for Psylocke, and he told it beautifully, using flashbacks that informed events in the present wonderfully. This issue takes everything that has happened in the last five installments and encapsulates it, showing the power that growing beyond one’s tragedies can give a person. Szymon Kudranski and Frank D’Armata’s art has perfectly fit the tone of the series, and this issue is no exception. Fallen Angels has been the hidden gem of Dawn Of X. More a character study than anything else, it’s fleshed out Psylocke perfectly, taking what looked like nothing more than a stunt- separating Elizabeth Braddock from Kwannon’s body and into her old one, making them two distinct characters- and really making it work. This series leaves the Kwannon version of Psylocke a fully formed character, ready for the trials of the future. In that respect, it is a perfect triumph.
Grade: A
