This scene, from House of X #3, fascinates me. It's basically the first substantial scene that we see between Scott and Xavier since Xavier died by Dark Phoenix fuckery.
(There's actually a quick scene about the mission in Powers of X before this, but it doesn't really get into much beyond "this is what we need you to do" Aside from a really interesting visual parallel to a Scott and Illyana scene much later, there's not much to it.)
But there's a LOT here. (I'm going to put this behind a cut tag, because it is LONG.)
I mean, on one hand, it's almost sweet. We have an Xavier who is openly calling Scott his son, who is offering comforting reassurance to his fear.
On the other hand, Scott didn't ask for this reassurance, did he? He's afraid, but he's putting on "a brave face". Something pretty standard for the kind of soldier Scott's always been. And Xavier calls him out, puts him on the defensive, and gently applies the pressure. "What matters is that you overcome it -- and you do so for your family."
It's not clear to me exactly when resurrection becomes known on Krakoa. It seems implied that the deaths on the Master Mold mission (the one Scott's going to embark on, in which there will be no survivors) are the first public resurrections at least. Scott SEEMS to believe that death is a real option here. And they carefully keep their reassurance very metaphorical. Immortality in memory, not in fact.
There's something interesting to me about how Krakoa is set up. Because Scott is NOT on the Council. And it seems like he'd be an obvious choice to be up there, right? Certainly other characters have commented on it, periodically throughout arc. Both Forge and Emma have said things that implied they thought he was kind of shirking a duty by not being there.
There's this ever present idea too, of the Summers family as a kind of "Krakoan Royalty". It's why Abigail Brand puts teen Cable on SWORD, figuring that he lacks any real experience or influence, but as a means to manipulate his parents. Gabriel's manipulated with the idea of said royalty on Arakko. It seems to mean something.
But WHY? At this point, Scott is either the Captain Commander of Krakoa - a field general role expressly subordinate to the Council, or the leader of the X-Men, which have asserted some independence, but are primarily Earth based and have no role in governing anything Krakoan.
They may mean Jean, since she was on the Council and is certainly powerful enough to be terrifying. But that's not really the impression I get.
There is a point where we see Scott specifically offered a seat on the Council. That's just after X of Swords, when Scott and Jean have their slight bloodless coup and basically reform the X-Men.
(X-Men #16)
The funny thing about this is that I don't get the sense that they'd ever offered Scott a seat before. And again, that seems surprising. For better or worse, Scott's was the head of the entire mutant race at one point. And even after his fall from grace, his time as a mutant revolutionary, he was still bizarrely influential. There was a Rolling Stone cover, remember?
(And isn't it kind of fascinating how this version of Cerebro rather looks like a blue, metallic version of Scott's post AvX mask?)
It's only now, once Scott and Jean have enacted their own bloodless coup to reform the X-Men and rescue their son and friends, that Scott's asked.
But I could be wrong. Maybe Scott WAS asked. But if so, there's a very obvious reason why Scott wouldn't have taken it.
Mister Sinister is on the goddamn Council. There is no fucking way that Scott would ever, I believe, be able to sit on a Council across from Mister Sinister. And there's no way that Xavier wouldn't have known that.
On some level, Charles Xavier chose Mister Sinister over Scott Summers, and while I don't think this is the literal cause of the fall of Krakoa, I think the fact that he COULD make this choice was an indicator of the failings that doomed them all.
It will forever frustrate me that, as far as I know, we never actually see the reunion of a resurrected Charles Xavier with the son who, under the influence of the Dark Phoenix, killed him.
But I do remember one part of that scene:
(Avengers vs. X-Men #11)
And I start thinking again about how, in Krakoa, Xavier is very open, very content to call him his son.
A prince, an heir, but not a rival or an equal. The man who cast Xavier out from the X-Men, twice. The benign dictator of Utopia. The face of the Mutant Revolution. Xavier has made sure that this won't happen again.
It's interesting though, especially light of the From the Ashes Infinity Comic that digs into Xavier's motivations for his actions during Fall of the House of X.
And there are a few bits that stand out:
So this little story arc establishes a few important things.
a) Xavier didn't actually kill the crew of the ship, he had them replaced with mindless drones made by Sinister.
b) Xavier planted clues based on Arthurian Legend, specifically hoping SCOTT would find it and understand.
c) And Xavier has been pretty active in telepathically influencing other people away from conclusions he doesn't want them to draw. But he can't be really subtle - it causes a nosebleed.
And it's fascinating, I think, that Warren gets a nosebleed HERE. When he thinks about Xavier's role in Krakoa. And then he thinks of Scott's.
Later, Xavier will explain to Sally that he chose his actions because of Scott's trial. And I find myself wondering, is it because Scott's in danger of death (which would be funny as Xavier actually ends up sabotaging their best hope of rescuing Scott by calling Rasputin IV to him, WHILE they were in place to extract him, so she can serve his purposes instead). Or is it because, scapegoat and target or not, Scott Summers has suddenly become the face of Krakoa after all.
But now, Xavier's "the Butcher of Krakoa."
In AvX, before the Phoenix Five start fraying at the edges, Scott challenges Xavier, suggesting that part of the reason he has a problem with what they've done is because Scott did it. Not Xavier.
I think maybe there's some truth to that. And it will be very interesting how much, if anything, gets addressed in Raid on Graymalkin.