One War, One Mutant
“One War, One Mutant”
X-Men #11
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Leinil Francis Yu
Color art by Sunny Gho
This issue is another tie-in with Empyre, after the previous issue and the Empyre X-Men miniseries which concluded last week. It’s interesting to read these in the context of Al Ewing and Dan Slott’s main Empyre miniseries, which has its merits but has struggled to convey narrative momentum or deliver any memorable setpieces. This issue – 22 pages, only 16 of which are directly related to the Empyre plot – presents all the beats of a big event story in concentrated form without feeling rush or as if it’s missing any connective tissue. On top of being a far more entertaining and exciting story, it shows the X-Men easily triumphing over the invading Cotati aliens through their collective power and creativity, which in context of the broader Empyre story make the event’s primary protagonists the Avengers and Fantastic Four look like fumbling chumps.
The Cotati/Empyre stuff is really just a MacGuffin in this issue. The real story is in pushing along simmering plot points from X-Men #1 and #7 – the emerging narrative among Krakoans that Magneto is the nation’s greatest hero, and Exodus making that a major talking point as he indoctrinates the children of Krakoa. The Exodus fireside chat scenes in #7 and #11 have a creepy ambiguity to them. For one thing, it’s strange for one of the heads of the Krakoan state to be hanging out with little kids in the woods at night. But more than that, you see how Hickman has Exodus saying a lot of things fully in line with the Krakoan triumphalism of the Dawn of X period, but always pushing a few steps further towards a radical mutant supremacist dogma. I like that Hickman is presenting this as a slow and insidious shift, starting in the shared joy of the birth of the Krakoan nation but gradually moving towards inevitable ideological conclusions.
Exodus has always been portrayed as a zealot, and as someone in thrall of Magneto as a symbolic figure. The concept of the character has always been strong, but the greater Krakoa story is the first time Exodus has been put in the position to fully develop and reach full narrative potential. Just as other characters in the Quiet Council represent threats from within Krakoan society – the sociopathic Machiavellian scheming of Mister Sinister, the ticking time bomb of Mystique’s justified resentments, the corosive ruthless capitalism of Sebastian Shaw, the egotism of Magneto, the messianic hubris of Xavier, the hidden agendas of Apocalypse – Exodus is the personification of radical nationalism.
Exodus exerts his power through influence, making a point of passing his views to the children, and in mythologizing Magneto in a way that will inevitably bring out the worst of his vanity. Magneto is a hero in this story; we see him at his best as he protects his people in a show of incredible power in tandem. But it’s been pretty clear from House of X #1 that we’re in for a long, slow, and heartbreaking story in which Magneto’s arrogance eventually becomes a big problem. Pumping him up as a great leader and supreme champion seems like a sure path to him making a terrible decision down the line with the absolute conviction that he’s doing something heroic. I have a feeling Hickman’s long game with Magneto is to present him as this heroic figure for a long time before this heel turn happens, so when it comes it’s totally gutting.
Some notes:
• The issue begins with a scene in which some semi-obscure younger mutants from the 2000s meet Summoner, the character from Arrako we met in #2. This is the first we get a sense of his personality – friendly and erudite, but raised in a culture obsessed with strength – and it’s mostly a tease of what’s coming in X of Swords. The best part of this scene is quite subtle, as silhouettes of characters we know to be villains from Arrako in X of Swords promo art appear in the shadowy backgrounds of the panels. The final line of the scene says it best: “Well…that’s ominous.”
• Hickman’s issues have been light on text pages recently but we get a good set here in the form of an official report from Cyclops to the Quiet Council relaying minutes from a meeting of Krakoa’s military captains. As with a lot of the best text pages, this gets across a lot of information that would have been dull as expository dialogue. It also feeds directly into the issue’s plot, as Cyclops discusses the possibilities of mutant powers combining in tactically useful ways, which is displayed in the story as Magneto, Iceman, and Magma work together in the battle with the Cotati. This is a natural progression of Hickman’s concept of how The Five collaborate to resurrect mutants, but it’s also elaborating on a concept going back to the early days of Chris Claremont – the “fastball special.”
• I can’t help but notice that Exodus’ star student, the white kid with a pink mohawk and glasses, looks a lot like Quentin Quire. Which is not to say there’s an in-story connection between the two, but that Quire originates as a student radical in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. Maybe we’ll be seeing him as a deliberate parallel with Quentin as this story progresses.