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X-Men: The Hellfire Murder (2026) #1
HOMICIDE AT THE HELLFIRE GALA! When an iconic mutant power player is murdered at an exclusive masquerade hosted by SEBASTIAN SHAW, it falls to WOLVERINE and JUBILEE to solve a locked-room mystery that has dire consequences for all mutantkind. Everyone is a suspect. And the party isn't over yet...
Kindle Edition
Published July 22, 2026
About the author
Saladin Ahmed
494 books1,776 followersSaladin Ahmed was born in Detroit and raised in a working-class, Arab American enclave in Dearborn, MI.
His short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, and have appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and numerous other magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, as well as being translated into five foreign languages. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is his first novel.
Saladin lives near Detroit with his wife and twin children.
His short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, and have appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and numerous other magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, as well as being translated into five foreign languages. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is his first novel.
Saladin lives near Detroit with his wife and twin children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 26, 2026
First portion of this book was a bit of a slog. The pacing and intrigue do pick up. The conclusion was a little disappointing. Rogue and Gambit have a nice moment though.
July 24, 2026
The plot was meh but I am mainly here for all the characters getting together and wearing interesting costumes, and this one did not disappoint on that front.
July 31, 2026
What the fuck is with these X-Men "fashion" shows? Sure, comic book fans can like fashion if they want to. But who would be satisfied by this? The reader can't judge the costume's fabric choices or the quality of the stitching. You can't ask the characters about the fit and comfort. It's all just a fucking picture. But, writers and artists keep acting like fans are supposed to ooh and ahh over the opportunity to check out these looks.
I don't care about the fucking looks.
Beyond that, this is a murder mystery. It's fine. It's partly just an excuse to have different X-Men groups interact with each other, partly a way to debut a new Hellfire/Brotherhood team of mutant villains.
Kitty danced with an unidentified woman in a mask. Because we're once again trying to reassure fans that Kitty is bisexual, for real this time! ... I'm just annoyed with how that has been handled up until now. Despite rumors about writers wanting to make her bi in decades past, the first time she actually displayed queer behavior was a few years ago when she randomly grabbed and kissed a female tattoo artist. She did NOT get the woman's consent before she did it, so fans just had this inexplicable same-sex kiss (without Kitty saying anything about her orientation before OR after). Afterward, us queer comic fans felt like we needed to apologize and explain it away to straight people. "No, we don't actually advocate for lesbians grabbing straight women and kissing them against their will. That's not a thing. We think that would be a crime, too."
Sure, Kitty has been dating some powerless norm in X-Ceptional X-Men. ... Difficult to be excited about that, too. That's not exactly a power couple relationship that will have the fans cheering.
I liked Jubilee taking a more prominent role in this issue.
There is always a limit to the number of characters the audience can reasonably keep track of. So, it's understandable why this issue had a cap of maybe 14 or so. But... Why THESE mutants in particular? Crimson Commando is here, as well as fucking Astra and Joseph (seriously?), but not Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Sunspot, Bishop, Polaris, or dozens of other potential X-Men.
Ransom and Idie were invited so they could have a proper date, but why would all the other mutants care about that? Why not just buy Ransom and Idie plane tickets and movie tickets so they could have a private date? And why bother with caring about just those two younger mutants, and not any of the others like Calico, Deathdream, or Glob?
It's a longer issue and I'm glad that Shaw is dead, but there is no way this is getting more than 3 stars. It's really more of a 2.5.
I don't care about the fucking looks.
Beyond that, this is a murder mystery. It's fine. It's partly just an excuse to have different X-Men groups interact with each other, partly a way to debut a new Hellfire/Brotherhood team of mutant villains.
Kitty danced with an unidentified woman in a mask. Because we're once again trying to reassure fans that Kitty is bisexual, for real this time! ... I'm just annoyed with how that has been handled up until now. Despite rumors about writers wanting to make her bi in decades past, the first time she actually displayed queer behavior was a few years ago when she randomly grabbed and kissed a female tattoo artist. She did NOT get the woman's consent before she did it, so fans just had this inexplicable same-sex kiss (without Kitty saying anything about her orientation before OR after). Afterward, us queer comic fans felt like we needed to apologize and explain it away to straight people. "No, we don't actually advocate for lesbians grabbing straight women and kissing them against their will. That's not a thing. We think that would be a crime, too."
Sure, Kitty has been dating some powerless norm in X-Ceptional X-Men. ... Difficult to be excited about that, too. That's not exactly a power couple relationship that will have the fans cheering.
I liked Jubilee taking a more prominent role in this issue.
There is always a limit to the number of characters the audience can reasonably keep track of. So, it's understandable why this issue had a cap of maybe 14 or so. But... Why THESE mutants in particular? Crimson Commando is here, as well as fucking Astra and Joseph (seriously?), but not Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Sunspot, Bishop, Polaris, or dozens of other potential X-Men.
Ransom and Idie were invited so they could have a proper date, but why would all the other mutants care about that? Why not just buy Ransom and Idie plane tickets and movie tickets so they could have a private date? And why bother with caring about just those two younger mutants, and not any of the others like Calico, Deathdream, or Glob?
It's a longer issue and I'm glad that Shaw is dead, but there is no way this is getting more than 3 stars. It's really more of a 2.5.
July 24, 2026
Sebastian Shaw hosts the Hellfire Gala this year back at Hellfire headquarters. Someone gets murdered and Wolverine walks around trying to determine who did it. I have to say it was confusing to remember who everyone was with those stupid masks on. The rest was really no surprise.
July 30, 2026
Meh
It had promise but it got weighed down by so much blabber. Its not really a murder mystery in the classic sense. Just blabber and blabber and blabber and blabber. The art was nice. But not a whole lot of substance in this book.
It had promise but it got weighed down by so much blabber. Its not really a murder mystery in the classic sense. Just blabber and blabber and blabber and blabber. The art was nice. But not a whole lot of substance in this book.
July 24, 2026
Truly enjoyed this murder mystery!
July 24, 2026
Im not trying to offend or hurt those involved. This was bad bad bad.
July 27, 2026
god this was so insanely good. such good art such good dialogue and such a fun mystery. namor/emma relapse is not what i expected but you know what. sure
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews