X-Men: The Hellfire Vigil (Comics) | Review

Two full volumes spent planting seeds and leaving loaded guns on the table. The Hellfire Vigil is where Jed MacKay (Avengers: Blood Hunt, Avengers: Masters of Evil) finally pulls the trigger on more than one loaded gun at once. MacKay arrives at the run's most emotionally complex and structurally confident point yet– and he delivers.

Collecting X-Men (2024) issues 19 through 22 alongside the X-Men: Hellfire Vigil one-shot, this volume functions as a turning point for MacKay's run and a line-wide moment of reckoning for the From the Ashes era– a denser and more emotionally loaded read than what came before.

MacKay writes across all five core entries with the same disciplined command of voice that has defined this run from the very start. The Revelation thread shows him operating at full stretch– ambitious in scope, careful in execution and willing to let weight land hard without softening.

Artwork duties on the main issues fall primarily to Netho Diaz and Carlos Fabian Villa (Black Cat: All Dressed Up, Shatterstar: Reality Star), with Hellfire Vigil drawing on a large rotating roster of artists. Fernando Sifuentes-Sujo handles coloring, holding the visual language coherent across a structurally dense and ambitious story collection.

The story arc's core thread follows Doug Ramsey– now operating as Revelation and positioning himself as the rightful heir to the so-called great work of Apocalypse. MacKay gave him room to develop and the result is the most compelling new addition to this entire run since Robin Cobb.

Doug's evolving story raises uncomfortable questions about whether the X-Men's tolerance for ideological difference has a limit and at what point an ally's ambitions become something they can no longer quietly absorb. MacKay does not answer those questions cleanly and that refusal is precisely what makes this thread work so well.

A second Iron Night arrives with consequences Cyclops cannot walk his way around. The fallout forces a very real reckoning in a team dynamic that has mostly run on mutual trust and MacKay uses it to put long-overdue pressure on Scott Summers through meaningful, deliberate choices.

Younger members of the roster– Glob, Kid Omega and Temper among them– break away from the core X-team to pursue the Upstarts independently. It is the kind of character-driven sidebar that rewards readers paying very close attention to the slower-burn team dynamics MacKay has been building since back in the very first volume.

Cyclops' confrontation with Lundqvist is one of the arc's most satisfying moments. MacKay has been building toward this reckoning from day one in the run and the execution delivers on that promise– measured in tone and carrying real consequence rather than purely theatrical weight.

The Hellfire Vigil special is the most structurally unusual piece of the story. Positioned as a one-year anniversary of the fall of Krakoa, it draws together writers and artists from across the From the Ashes saga to mark this moment through a rotating anthology of short character vignettes–some landing considerably better than most do.

MacKay's contribution to the Vigil special carries the most weight across the story. The segment finds Cyclops refusing to attend– arguing the team has nothing worth commemorating– before Psylocke steps in to reframe what the vigil actually means for the mutants who survived Krakoa.

3K seizes the Vigil as cover for a public power move against the X-Men– broadcasting their own manifesto to the assembled mutants and positioning themselves as the rightful heirs of Krakoan ideals. It is an unsettling set piece and the most explicit statement yet of what MacKay has been constructing since the very first issue of the run.

Beast's situation reaches a definitive point of no return. The offer extended to Henry McCoy at the end of Hostile Takeover finally comes to a head and the choice he makes– or stops short of making– sets up what looks like a very significant reckoning for the team further down the line.

One honest criticism: the Hellfire Vigil special is uneven. Several anthology segments feel thin– brief character check-ins that add broader line-wide texture but contribute little to any ongoing narrative. Only readers deeply invested in MacKay's run will extract the most from this section.

The volume ends with Doug Ramsey arriving at the Factory in a full-page moment that reshapes the run's direction entirely. MacKay has been laying deep groundwork for the Age of Revelation across all three stories and the ending of this one makes abundantly clear that this long build is primed and poised to deliver on its core promise.

MacKay's writing is sharpest when it's deeply personal. The scenes between Cyclops and Magik, Beast and Jen Starkey and Temper and Kid Omega all carry a compressed raw emotional density that rewards close attention– this is a writer who trusts readers to always keep pace with him.

Diaz and Villa handle main issues with a visual style that has grown steadily more assured with each volume. Their work on Beast and Ramsey sequences shows a clear willingness to slow the pacing and let character expression lead panels that a less confident duo would fill with action.

The Vigil special's rotating art roster is mixed by design overall. Luciano Vecchio's work is a clear standout while Fer Sifuentes-Sujo's coloring provides the essential connective tissue that keeps the anthology feeling coherent despite obvious and considerable tonal variation across its many contributing segments and their creative voices.

X-Men: The Hellfire Vigil is the most emotionally ambitious volume this run has. It is not a clean or comfortable read– it asks real questions about ideology, accountability and just what mutant solidarity actually means when tested against people whose methods the team cannot endorse.

Doug Ramsey is the run's standout thread and clearest signal that the Age of Revelation is not a sideshow but the true centerpiece of where this run has always been heading. His dynamic with Cyclops in the closing pages carries enough unresolved tension and real philosophical friction to anchor the following volume entirely on its own.

For readers following at the time of release, all the connective tissue here matters enormously. The Age of Revelation is incoming. 3K has declared itself openly. Beast's situation is one lit fuse. MacKay is not letting up and The Hellfire Vigil makes what is truly coming impossible to dismiss.

X-Men: The Hellfire Vigil earns its place as the third and most layered chapter of a long run that keeps finding new ways to deepen. The Vigil special is uneven– but the main issues are MacKay at his sharpest and the arc ahead looks like the payoff this run has clearly been building toward.

X-Men: The Hellfire Vigil collects X-Men (2024) issues #19 through #22 and the X-Men: Hellfire Vigil one-shot in trade paperback. Physical copies are available through local comic-book shops, bookstores and online retailer outlets. Digital editions can be read across ComiXology, Kindle, Marvel Unlimited and various e-book platforms.