Marvel just made Sherlock Holmes one of the X-Men

To new readers, one of the most confusing things about Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men era is that Irene Adler was named.

Better known by her mutant moniker, Destiny, Krakoa’s fate seemed to revolve around her, the question of whether she could be resurrected, and what dire consequences that resurrection seemed to promise. It was an enormous deal. Inexplicably, she shared a name and a 130-year old crime fiction character.

It was simpler times in the early 1980s, at the time Destiny was made. The early 1980s saw superhero comics as niche entertainment. Irene Adler, a reference to Sherlock Holmes’s Sherlock Holmes stories and not an integral part of any Sherlock Holmes movie or TV series, was still largely a secondary character. Without cognitive dissonance, you could name an unrelated character after Irene Adler. To complete the circle, modern comics were needed.

With The Immortal X Men #8, what was once implied is now canon: Mystique, Destiny’s shape-shifting wife, was Sherlock Holmes.

Is there anything else happening inside our favourite comics’ pages? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. It may not provide enough context. There will still be some great comics. This is the latest edition.

A man exits 221 Baker Street exclaiming “The man’s a genius!” “Wrong on all counts,” mutters Irene Adler as she enters to meet Mystique, in her mutant form, but dressed in a Victorian trench coat and a deerstalker hat in Immortal X-Men #8 (2022).

Long-time X-Men fans will be familiar with the fact that Mystique has been portrayed as Sherlock Holmes in comics. Mystique had been living in London when Destiny and Mystique first met. She was an acclaimed (and male) consultant detective and the readers couldn’t help but notice.

In this week’s The Immortal X Men, writer Kieron Gillen and artist Michele Bandini draw the line canonically: Mystique was Sherlock Holmes, and her detecting prowess came directly from Destiny’s clairvoyant sight. Elementary.

“Time to meet god,” says Blue Marvel, to a huge, glowing, androgynous figure who speaks in large, all-caps titles instead of word balloons. “I see through many eyes. I build with many hands. They are themselves but they are also me. I am all-powerful. My only weapon is love. The mystery intrigues me.” in Defenders Beyond #5 (2022).

My hat is off to Al Ewing and Javier Rodríguez for their equally beautiful sequel to Defenders, but it’s double off to Ewing for somehow making Defenders: BeyondHis sequel UltimatesHis Loki, Agent of AsgardAnd even a little coda The Immortal Hulk. That’s called a flex, folks.

“Gentlemen,” says Mister Freeze, striding through the dark in his cold suit, with the round, inhuman lenses of his goggles the only visible part of his face, “The next decision you make will determine the course of your lives,” in Batman — One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze (2022).

I’m a person who’s been reading virtually every Batman comic in the past 20 years and it’s hard to show me something I haven’t seen before or have seen done better. It’s a personal problem, but it’s probably why I’ve found the Batman: One Bad Day books — jumbo prestige one-shots giving DC’s best current creators a stab at revamping the origin stories of his villains — decent so far, but nothing to write home about.

So it should hold weight when I say that writer Gerry Duggan and artist Matteo Scalera’s Mister Freeze story is an all-timer. It’s no true revamp, just a calculated tightening up on Freeze’s revolutionary Batman: The Animated SeriesOrigin is a tale about Batman, but it does not forget to be about Batman. And it’s set during the holiday season! The art is just gorgeous, Scalera’s compositions and color work are delicious, and Robin wears this cold-weather outfit with a yellow hooded cape that makes him look the CUTEST.

Doctor Strange battles several fantastical armored foes, on a detailed, maximalist double page spread filled with warping tile surfaces, huge sound effects, and many panels, in Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise #1 (2022).

I’ve been waiting on Doctor Strange: Fall SunriseTradd Moore has written and drawn the book “The Artist Combination”. I was captivated by this title and its artist combination. Moore delivered a great performance.

“I’m Lee Harvey Oswald,” says a man with a cigarette in a trench coat. “For the last sixty years I’ve been a member of a covert branch of our government called the Department of Truth. And you’re about to reveal all my deepest, darkest secrets to this country in your newspaper,” in Department of Truth #22 (2022).

All of this is to say that The Department of Truth, quietly one of my favorite indie series of the past few years, looks like it’s beginning the windup to its finale, if you’ve needed an excuse to get caught up.

Alicia Masters and Ben Grimm/The Thing get in their truck and drive out of the town of Cedar, talking about a guy named Sandy. Ben says that the fact that they’re here is proof that Sandy either lost his superpower or never used it again, but he’d prefer to think it’s the latter. “A life lived without ever once wishin’ you could go back an’ change things... we should all be so lucky,” in Fantastic Four #1 (2022).

My apologies: Fantastic FourIt was #1 when it first came out, so I had to finish it. The thing that double sold me on the book wasn’t the solid little one-issue story or the hint at a broader mystery. Ryan North, the writer of the book, clearly understood that he is trying to bring the same super-hero ethos as Ryan. Squirrel Girl — that punching and weirdness will happen but many villains are just people who need a little outside help with their problems — to Marvel’s First Family. The FF are often considered as hokey and old-fashioned as Superman, despite the 30-year age gap between them, and if North knows one thing, it’s how to remind the reader that sincerity isn’t boring.

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