What does the future hold for the state of Krakoa after the first month of X-books?
After Reign of X ended in incendiary fashion with the thrilling conclusion of Inferno, the last two months of our lives have been dominated by Logan (what’s new there?) and the further emergence of mutantkind’s next great villain. X Lives / Deaths of Wolverine sated our appetite for ten high throttle weeks, but by early March the anticipation for new titles such as Immortal X-Men and X-Men Red had reached fever pitch. Immortal X-Men #1’s release on 30th March signalled the dawning of an exciting new age: the Destiny of X. So far it has not disappointed.
We are now officially one month in to this new era. First issues of many of the new titles have circulated the halls of X-Twitter many times over, stunning revelations and breathtaking moments capturing our collective imaginations with plotlines setting Krakoa on collision course both from without and within.
So, what have we learned so far and what does the future hold for the mutants? Let’s look at some of the key thematic questions posed by some of April’s issues and their potential implications, specifically on Krakoa’s statehood and the power structures within it.
Gillen’s decision to give Mr. Sinister the floor to provide opening remarks immediately re-establishes Krakoa on rocky foundations. While the fateful threat of human automatons ‘always winning’ looms large, Immortal X-Men is interested in examining how mutants could defeat themselves. Issue 1 ends with the revelation that Sinister has developed a method of retaining memories of the many lives of Moira X through a rigorous cloning regimen. Whilst potentially harnessing untold power, his tendency to surreptitiously play god only for his arrogance to undermine him now threatens the very existence of the timeline and the lives of those within it.
This obsessive proclivity to control through deceit play out throughout the issue. Sinister’s brutally forensic evaluations of each of his fellow Quiet Council members further expose the precarious grounding of these alliances, and his presumed superiority is quickly undercut by Destiny when she confounds Sinister’s expectations in voting against Hope joining the council. Having him as the viewpoint character gives the reader a rare insight into just how loose Sinister’s grasp over power really is as he attempts to keep a cool head.
Another significant factor in Destiny’s vote is that she votes against Mystique. Earlier in the issue, we see Irene and Raven’s love and total trust in one another but their power dynamic is defined by Irene’s precognition. It is necessary, she states, for certain information to be withheld from Raven. That said, the events prior to and during Inferno have evidenced the strength of their commitment to one another so it is more likely that the opposing votes were orchestrated to wrong-foot Sinister and conceal their machinations and they remain a formidable dual force within the council. If only it were the evil schemes of easily identifiable villains we needed to worry about.
Beast’s moral corruption has threatened to destabilise Krakoa for quite some time. Left by Xavier to make decisions on national security which have veered into amoral and disastrous interventions in foreign affairs, Beast’s machinations finally caught Emma Frost’s attentions at the gala. In trying to pre-emptively strike against a fledgling enemy in Terra Verde, Hank’s hubris created an enemy far more dangerous, which threatened to damage Krakoa both physically and reputationally, prompting Emma’s intervention. As a result, an agreement between Sage and Emma had been made behind his back to prevent further disaster.
In X-Force Annual #1, Hank was exposed by Sage for concealing the purpose of a mission to extract information from an Orchis base and called in the services of the White Queen. In this scene, Emma’s diamond form is contrasted with Hank’s evasiveness, signifying the solidification of her position against his degenerating control. Emma has come to hold him accountable and he bristles at the affront to his authority and omniscience. It seems, however, that intervention has come too late. Hank has already handed vital information about combatting telepathy over to Orchis.
As a further symbol of his waning power, Sage’s public concerns become public in X-Force #27 and she successfully challenges Beast’s demands for Omega Red’s execution. Tragically, Beast’s position is unmoved, such is his misplaced self-aggrandising stubbornness. These stories set up a race against time: will Beast be usurped before he causes further and more severe permanent damage?
Between Immortal X-Men and X-Force, the tremors of a seismic power shift are already being felt. Magneto’s departure following the ignominy of the events of Inferno have left Xavier weakened. In Immortal X-Men #1 he swiftly moves to vote against Hope Summers but is ultimately defeated. Sinister hints at Hope Summers introduction to the council spells trouble ahead. Other than her unwitting complicity in Destiny’s resurrection, Hope’s actions so far don’t hint at anything nefarious but her strident speech about providing representation to a greater proportion of the population and explicit acknowledgment of the Five’s power suggests a challenge to the existing Krakoan power structures, which is a theme explored throughout the early stages of Destiny of X.
Quiet Council and the question of representation
With Xavier and Magneto undermining the authority of the council through secretly controlling its fate from behind the scenes, the council is now an opportunity for bad actors to manipulate events to their control. As Sinister points out, even those with good intentions such as Kitty, Storm and Kurt’s priorities lie elsewhere, while others like Piotr have been corrupted by adversaries. With the foundations cracking and the old pillars of power eroding, two fundamental questions must be asked: who was Krakoa built for and who does the council represent?
Immortal X-Men #1 and Sabretooth #3 both examine who the council does not represent. Professor Xavier dismisses the idea of appointing Legion to the council out of hand, viewing him only through a lens of distrust and not affording him the same opportunity of redemptions as others more immediately useful to him. Legion represents a philosophical challenge to the council. His mind is a vessel for celebrating difference and imperfection; a sanctuary where all mutants are completely equal. Xavier perceiving this free and communal way of life as incompatible with the council rather than additive preserves the status quo of all mutants solely seeking community and happiness being excluded from decision making. He does not acknowledge that Onslaught, the threat to these mutants very existence on Krakoa who David saved them from, is derived from his moral failings. Whilst there is historical precedent for his suspicion, the fact that Charles merely views Legion as an unstable entity is what denies him from the capacity to accept new ideas; to reform.
If Legion represents a metaphysical and reformist challenge to the Quiet Council, Sabretooth represents a physical and revolutionary one. Cast out of Krakoa for murdering a human, albeit before the law was constituted, Sabretooth is a complex revolutionary figure. Morally irredeemable, he is an awkward catalyst for revolution on Krakoa for those who feel excluded from matters of statehood. In Sabretooth #3, Melter’s desire to better himself through involvement in leadership on Krakoa is quickly shut down by Xavier. With no connections to pre-eminent mutants to speak of, and no direct usefulness to Charles’ vision, he is immediately removed from society altogether at the first sign of impropriety.
In the issue, we learn that disenfranchisement is rife amongst mutants without standing or usefulness to the council, and the whisperings of revolution begin to form below and in the outer reaches of Krakoa. The spark ignited by Sabretooth seems set to catch fire, but will the ruthless self-serving man dousing the flames end up being what extinguishes the chance of revolution for the forgotten?
X-Men Red #1 and X-Men #10 extend mutantkind’s purview to Arrakko, concerning itself with a race for control between humans and mutants over the recently terraformed Mars.
In X-Men #10, Feilong seeks to win the hearts and minds of humans to celebrate the human achievement of his space station, inviting a school of children to observe its wonder. Meanwhile, Wolverine rescues Lady Deathstrike from an Orchis base, restoring past bonds broken between mutants in defiance of human cruelty.
In X-Men Red Abigail Brand plays the role of manipulator in chief, sowing seeds of dissention between Krakoan and Arrakki mutants through evoking the language of colonialism. She lurks in the shadows, listening into a conversation between Isca the Unbeaten and Storm and propositions Ororo, capitalising on the uneasy relationship they both have with Storm’s designation as Regent of Arrakko. She suggests that the Arrakki are too unruly for self-determination and that the job of a queen is to impose her will on a culture. Her solution: to create an X-Men team charged with suppressing Arrakki power through law enforcement.
But she has overplayed her hand and miscalculated her influence. Storm immediately rejects the notion, proclaiming that subjugation through royal rule is an unjust way to govern people whose experience is not her own, personified through the No Name shapeshifter who haunts her dreams. Sunspot has noticed Brand’s machinations also and the two come together to create the new Brotherhood, reclaiming a name previously used to imprint mutant supremacy and reconstituting it to create solidarity between mutants against forces that seek to tear them apart.
Perhaps Storm is keen to learn the lessons of the Quiet Council, to disavow the actions of Xavier and Magneto in covertly steering events to their will, and to create a society that delivers on its promise to serve all mutants.
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