By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Nov. 19, 2019 -- “Dawn of X” has arrived at Marvel Comics, and the morning light has revealed the contours of a new world for the X-Men.
Here’s how it began: Back in July, superstar writer Jonathan Hickman launched two related, six-issue miniseries: House of X, and Powers of X. Despite starring the X-Men, both books were pronounced as if the “X” in each title was the Roman numeral 10.
The reason for this became clear fairly quickly. A human named Moria MacTaggert, who at one point was an inamorata of Professor Xavier, turned out to be a mutant. And her super-power was a wild one: She reincarnates as herself in the womb over and over again, essentially reliving her life in a new timeline where she tries to avoid the mistakes of the previous ones.
As it turns out, the current universe we are all living in is (or appears to be) Moira’s tenth life — hence, the Roman numeral 10.
Without changing a single word of what had gone before, Hickman had changed everything. Especially since Moira revealed herself to the mind-reading Professor Xavier — who discovered from Moira’s memories that in every one of her past lives, mutants were wiped out. Wiped. Out. No matter what steps Moira took.
Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, and Professor X and Moira X (10?) set to work. They recruited a number of former X-enemies, including Magneto, the sentient island Krakoa and even Apocalypse, to change the future. Well, all the futures, I guess.
And they created a new reality for mutants which was different from all of Moira’s past lives, one in which Krakoa became the home for all the world’s mutants. Further, the professor and company demanded the world recognize Krakoa as a sovereign nation — in exchange for drugs distilled from plants bred on Krakoa that could cure disease and extend life. These drugs would only be granted to nations that welcomed Krakoa into the community of nations.
Art by Leinil Francis Yu, copyright Marvel Comics
Marvel’s new X-Men book stars Cyclops (center), and will likely include family and friends such as (clockwise from bottom left) Prestige, Corsair, Cable, Vulcan, Marvel Girl, Havok and Wolverine.
But that’s not all. It turns out that Krakoa can grow plants that allow for teleportation. Wherever this … Port-a-flora? Car-Nation? Trans-Plant? — takes root, mutants (and only mutants) can jump back and forth to Krakoa. Which is pretty handy.
Further, Xavier has created a databank of all mutant minds, and developed a way for various mutants to combine their powers to clone mutant bodies. By combining these techniques, Xavier can, in effect, resurrect any dead mutant with all memories intact up to the point where the databank was last updated.
Death had always been something of a joke to X-fans, because of constant demises and resurrections. Virtually any mutant you can name, from Professor Xavier to Wolverine, has been deceased at some point, and revived. Now death is a joke in-story!
And somehow – suspiciously to my mind – all the mutants on Krakoa are 1,000 percent behind this new status quo, with all previous disagreements somehow forgotten or papered over. Even the romantic triangle between Cyclops, Jean Grey and Wolverine has evaporated … with the three of them living in adjoining bedrooms with connecting doors. A ménage à X, if you will.
Art by Rod Reis, copyright Marvel Comics
The latest iteration of New Mutants includes most of the original team, such as Chamber (center) and (clockwise from bottom left) Mondo, Karma, Mirage, Cypher, Wolfsbane, Sunspot and Magik.
This is what I mean by “suspicious.” Are Cyclops and Wolverine really going to get along that well? Are they really planning to, ah, share? That doesn’t seem in character for either of them. Or for Jean, who has always been sorta middle class, and not inclined to … X-periment. (Why do I suddenly feel the need to take a shower?)
Further, how is it that all of the X-Men are perfectly fine with Xavier inviting all of team’s worst enemies to live on Krakoa — people like Magneto, Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister, who have tried to kill them time and again? And are the more spiritual X-Men — Catholic Nightcrawler, Jewish Kitty Pryde, nature worshipper Storm – OK with Xavier essentially extorting/bribing the world to leave them alone?
And does nobody remember Genosha? That was the island nation Magneto created in the ‘90s, assembling most of the world’s mutants there … which made them a handy target for a Sentinel attack, which wiped out 16 million of them. Isn’t anyone the least worried about a repeat performance?
It’s almost as if they’re being … mind controlled. Gee, are there any major X-Men with mental powers that has a vested interest in this new world order? Hmmm.
On the other hand, Hickman is justly celebrated as a “big concept” writer, which this new arrangement certainly is. Characterization, though, is not his strong suit. It may just be that he shoved these questions under the rug as quickly (and implausibly) as he could so he could get on with telling the rest of his story. Only time will tell.
Which it will do in the six new X-Men titles to launch from “HoX/PoX.” Now comes “Dawn of X,” as Marvel has dubbed the re-launch, which includes the flagship X-Men plus some other titles with familiar names: Excalibur, Fallen Angels, Marauders, New Mutants and X-Force. All six return with new first issues, the last of which (Fallen Angels #1) shipped Nov. 13, along with the second issue of X-Men.
While “HoX/PoX” was an exciting, albeit bleak and terrifying, exercise in world-building, the six new titles are pretty much done with that. They exist within the world Hickman has built, exploring different aspects of the new status quo.
Art by Ashley Witter, copyright Marvel Comics
The cover of Fallen Angels #1 is awesome, while at the same time telling us nothing whatsoever about this curious book’s concept. It stars (from left) Pyslocke, X-23 and Cable.
To wit:
- Excalibur looks to be the most upbeat series, reprising the fun-loving book of the ‘90s with a different cast: the new Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock), Gambit, Jubilee, Rogue, Trinary and, for some reason, Apocalypse. This team will deal with problems from other dimensions and of a magical nature.
- Fallen Angels is described as a book that involves characters uncomfortable with Krakoan life, but the first issue focused primarily on Kwannon, the new Psylocke. She was a Japanese assassin whose body Betsy Braddock possessed for years when the British girl was Psylocke. She’s back, and kinda angry, and on some sort of quest, maybe to find herself, maybe to find out where she’s been. She’s accompanied by Cable (the aforementioned son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, who was infected with a techno-organic virus as a baby and sent to the future to survive, but returned as a mature adult, who was recently assassinated by a younger version of himself) and X-23 (a female clone of Wolverine, so named because the first 22 attempts failed, who was raised as an assassin triggered by pheromones). I have no idea what the focus of this book is, but just typing the origins of the three main characters made my day.
- Marauders stars Kitty — excuse me, Kate — Pryde as the captain of a ship that travels the world rescuing mutants who can’t make it to a Krakoan portal. Her crew will probably evolve, but the first issue involved Bishop, Emma Frost, Iceman, Lockheed the dragon, Nightcrawler, Pyro, Storm and Wolverine. Expect adventures of the swashbuckling variety.
- New Mutants stars all of the originals, which is quite a treat — previous reunions were always marred by one or another of the team being deceased at the moment. But thanks to Professor X everybody’s alive again, including Chamber, Cypher, Karma, Magik, Mirage, Mondo, Sunspot and Wolfsbane, with Cannonball on the horizon. The first issue involves a lot of snappy dialogue and bad decisions (kids will be kids), which results in the team being stranded in outer space.
- X-Force has never been a favorite of mine, in any of its many iterations. That’s because it’s usually a sort of black ops book, where various lethal mutants (like Wolverine) sneak around the world murdering threats to mutantdom. That’s not terribly heroic. This book seems to be heading in that direction, and for the first time, I can buy into the premise — as a nation-state, Krakoa has a right to defend itself, up to and including a variation on the CIA, which X-Force is supposed to be. The first issue doesn’t actually establish the premise — it’s early days — but you can see where it’s going, and it will probably star Beast, Black Tom Cassidy, Colossus, Domino, Marvel Girl, Quentin Quire, Sage and Wolverine. If you recognize all those names, you are quite the X-pert – and doubtless have an inkling where the fault lines of this “team” already lie. Frictions exist in any group, but in this one they could be fatal.
- X-Men is main title, which Marvel says will involve Cyclops selecting different teams to solve different problems as they arise. Cyclops lives on the Moon with his extended family, which includes Jean “Marvel Girl” Grey, still his wife; Alex “Havok” Summers, his brother; Gabriel “Vulcan” Summers, his other brother; Nathan “Cable” Summers, his son raised in the future; and Rachel “Prestige” Grey, his daughter from a defunct future timeline. Oh, and Wolverine. (Which, seriously, just skeeves me out.)
Oh, wait – mutants don’t stay dead any more! Or do they? The first issue ends with a shock that may or may not alter the status quo for all six books.
Which is sooooo X-Men. “Dawn of X” is already turning into “Brunch of X,” or maybe “Second Breakfast of X.” If there’s ever a team that never stop changing, it’s Marvel’s merry mutants.
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Replies
I read all six of the first issues, and wasn't really overwhelmed enough by any of them to make room for them in my extremely limited comics budget.
Sounds like Wolverine has a new power: to be in three or four places at once.
I am a dedicated X-Men fan.....but..... This whole revamp seems to be a perfect jumping off point.