Since the start of Bendis' run on the X-titles, he's put Mystique at the center of the mutant community, upgrading her in terms of importance in a similar way that he did with Luke Cage during his Avengers run. She's the head of the Brotherhood of Mutants, she's running Madripoor (even though I'm pretty sure that the money that she used to pay HYDRA for it was burned in her fight with the original X-Men and the Uncanny Avengers), and she's impersonating Dazzler to get access to S.H.I.E.L.D. She's definitely a mover and a shaker. Moreover, she's backing up this omni-presence in mutant affairs with a sort of "Third Way" philosophy, if you will, rejecting Magneto and Xavier's positions and urging mutants simply to use their powers to make their lives easier. She's right up there with Cyclops and Wolverine at this point.
Bendis takes this centrality one step further in this issue, revealing that the future Xavier is present Xavier's child with Mystique. Bendis clearly knows how big of a stretch this revelation is. I think that it's part of the reason why he doesn't confirm or deny whether Charles knew that he was having a child with Mystique or even if he knew that he was sleeping with Mystique herself. This ambiguity buys Bendis time to lay the groundwork for the story that we'll hopefully be able to believe when it's fully told. It's going to be important to get it correct, since, regardless of the outcome of the future X-Men's efforts to change the past, the child is now part of current continuity. (Unless, of course, Logan goes "Age of Ultron" and prevents Charles and Mystique from conceiving future Charles Xavier, but let's not go there.)
However, this revelation isn't the most interesting part of the issue. Bendis not only gives us future Xavier's origins, but also a glimpse into the start of the future Brotherhood. Madripoor is the perfect setting for his dark encounter with Raze, revealed to be his half-brother who murdered Mystique at some point in the future. I'm actually glad to see these characters returning. In a way, it makes "X-Men: Battle of the Atom" retroactively better, making it clear that it was just the first skirmish of a long battle. It still doesn't resolve problems like us not knowing who killed the future Dazzler or why the Brotherhood wanted to send back the original X-Men in the first place, but it seems to hold out the possibility of those answers coming.
**** (four of five stars)
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