NYX #8
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNYX (Vol. 2) #8 is the Hellion-centric installment of the series' rotating point-of-view structure, and it functions as the most sustained character study Julian Keller has ever received in his two-decade publishing history — a long-overdue reckoning with the accumulated trauma of M-Day, the loss of his hands, the Crucible, and the fall of Krakoa. By placing the reformed terrorist known as the Krakoan across from Laura Kinney and forcing the two former Xavier Institute students to confront their complicated shared past, Kelly and Lanzing reframe Hellion not as a flat villain but as a post-Krakoan analogue to Magneto: someone whose grievance is legitimate even as his methods are not. The issue also delivers a pivotal plot revelation — that Julian never actually killed the six politicians he claimed to have murdered while operating as the Krakoan — which recontextualizes the entire first arc of the series and marks a turning point in his path back toward heroism. Critics at AIPT and ComicsXF independently called it the strongest single issue of the run, praising it as a meditation on how anger can mask a cry for help.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
NYX Vol. 2 was announced by Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort at a South by Southwest panel and launched in July 2024 as a cornerstone of the X-Men: From the Ashes publishing initiative — Marvel's post-Krakoa relaunch of its mutant line. Writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing structured the entire series around rotating point-of-view chapters, with each issue titled by a character's human name rather than their mutant codename, a deliberate thematic choice the writers described as reflecting the pressure on mutants to navigate a human world after the fall of Krakoa. Francesco Mortarino, who drew the series' opening arc, returned as artist for issues #8 through #10 after guest artists Michael Shelfer (#6) and Enid Balam (#7) had handled the middle stretch. Lanzing noted publicly that the creative team knew in advance the series would end at #10, which allowed them to build toward a planned conclusion rather than an abrupt cancellation.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 19, 2025 (cover-dated April 2025) by Marvel Comics as NYX (Vol. 2) #8, part of the X-Men: From the Ashes initiative.
- Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing; pencils, inks, and art by Francesco Mortarino; colors by Raúl Angulo; letters by Joe Sabino; edited by Annalise Bissa.
- Hellion (Julian Keller) serves as the point-of-view character, consistent with the series' rotating-narrator structure where each issue is titled by a character's human name.
- Issue includes flashbacks to Julian's participation in the Krakoan Crucible — the ritual combat that allowed depowered mutants to die and be resurrected with their bodies restored — revealing how he regained his prosthetic hands.
- Key plot revelation: Laura Kinney uncovers that Julian, despite his claims as the Krakoan, did not actually kill anyone; the six missing politicians were hidden, not murdered, exposing that he had been lying to his own Quiet Council allies.
- The issue dramatizes the long-running relationship between Hellion and Laura Kinney (X-23/Wolverine), a dynamic that dates back to their Academy X days in New X-Men and has been described by critics as one of the more nuanced romantic subplots in that era of X-Men storytelling.
- Hellion (Julian Keller) was originally created by writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir with artist Keron Grant, first appearing in New Mutants (Vol. 2) #2 (2003); his alias 'the Krakoan' debuted in NYX (Vol. 2) #1 (2024).
- Variant covers for the issue were provided by Sara Pichelli, Mark Brooks, and Annie Wu; Sara Pichelli also served as the series' primary cover artist throughout its run.
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Reprinted in NYX #2 (2025)
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