[Dr Kain]

So I finished Inferno last night and overall, it was on convoluted cluster****. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but it was way overly complicated than it needed to be and like I said before, X-Men and demons don't mix very well, especially on a grand scale as this. This storyline should have been centered around the super natural characters like Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange while the X-Men and X-Factor only dealt with Madelynn and Mr Sinister. It also doesn't help matters that they never explain how S'ym came back (Magick killed her before she took on Belasco in her miniseries), what this techno organic virus is, and then N'astirh (can't even pronounce the damn thing) died like 8 different times throughout the series, all in diferent ways.

Breaking the stories down though:

New Mutants - I really enjoyed these three issues a lot. Although, having Magick restored to a child feels like a cop out and throws all every single bit of development she had over the several years leading up to this storyline out the window. In addition, what happened to the old ones that Belasco was using Magick to free? Why do we have N'astirh and S'ym over Dagon and Cthulhu?

X-Terminators - The issues seem to take forever to get through, but I enjoyed them. Taki really had some nice development going from a little selfish brat to legimiately wanting to save the world. I also loved the cast of misfits we had here with Skids, Boom Boom, Rusty, and Rictor. If I recall, some of these characters joint X-Factor when it is created. Although, I don't know if Taki ever shows up again in the series outside of one episode of the animated show. I did like how N'astirh combined technology and organic together. All it was missing was the Key to Vector Sigma. :-p

Now I also really digged the crossover these two series had, but as mentioned above, they both changed how N'astirh was killed, even though it was pointless because he still came back.

Power Pack - I don't care for this comic at all because they are so boring. The Boogeyman stuff dragged on and on, but the ending to it was kind of touching. I guess the way the parents responded to their kids being heroes makes sense, but it seems like they just totally gave up being parents without any effort.

X-Men/X-Factor - It was so strange how only the X-Men issues used the part numbers for the story line, especially when the X-Factor issues were part of the story and you couldn't just read one without the other, but whatever. The X-Men were very out of character and it was never explained why or how. I'm assuming their personalities were under the demon influence, but how? Oh, and Alex just ups and stops caring about Polaris for Madelynn? COME ON!!! Madelynn was a cool villain and I want a Marvel Legends figure of her now, but the highlight to me was Mr Sinister. Although, it was never explained why Scott was the only one whose powers effect him, I guess that will come up in a future story. N'astirh was all over the place here as he died several times again and kept coming back, which was quite vexing. I'm not even sure he actually died died now that I think of it. He just left.

The stuff taken from the X-Factor annual was kind of dumb though. I mean, it has two FBI agents going around trying to get to the truth and then Scott tells them it was a hallucination. Are you kidding me? That was so stupid!!

Oh, and the final issue in the book for X-Factor was good, but they never told me who the hell Nanny and Orphan Maker are. No, I don't mean who their real personas are, I mean WHO they are as villains. Where did they come from? Who are they working for? Why are they stealing children and hypnotizing them? They appeared early on in the series without any background at all. They are just there. Oh yeah, and Cameron Hodge seems to have just been forgotten.

Cloak & Dagger - Why did they choose to finish this series off in a random C&D issue that was already in the middle of a story, and one that ends on a cliff hanger at that? That was down right stupid. It didn't feel like it was a conclusion.

Excalibur - This was an interesting harmless tale. I liked how Captain Britain was turned into an 80s action hero and then Freddy Kreuger. In fact, the movie bit was cool. Phoenix being turned into a mannequin was weird, but my favorite bit was when the gargoyle and Nightcrawler became friends. Megan is my least favorite of the group, so I couldn't careless that they turned her into Madelynn-Lite.

Well, that brings an end to what was in the books. I am saddened it didn't have the Spider-Man issues that dealt with Hobgoblin, but that's okay, I'm sure I'll come across those issues in a Spider-Man collection or something eventually. Inferno itself was entetaining, but as I said previously, majorly convoluted. Way too complicated for its own good with several inconsistencies. I'm glad I did not buy these paperbacks because it would not be worth double dipping later on for the hardcovers. However, there is no way in hell the hardcover is worth $300, so I hope that Marvel will eventually either reissue it or just put it into an X-Men Omnibus (with the letters pages intact), even if they juts do the X-Men/X-Factor storyline in that book.

Now to jump like another 30 issues as I start reading the second Claremont/Lee Omnibus.