Guardians of the Galaxy #7: I was planning on canceling this series, but I have to say that Cates really held my interest here. He not only brings back the Universal Church of Truth as an amped-up threat from the future, but he reveals that J'Son, Peter's father, is the Patriarch. After J'Son manages to entrance (verb, not noun) everyone else, Groot and Moondragon flee the ship. Cates and Smith do an amazing job making their panicked escape feel like a horror movie. Cates even goes one better: Groot and Moondragon go to a dying Rocket as their last resort, finally answering the mystery of his absence. In other words, I'm definitely hanging in here.
House of X #1: If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I dislike Jonathan Hickman. But, I obviously need to get past that, because I'm a happy camper with what he does here. The highest compliment I think I can pay to Hickman after reading this issue is that the amazing innovations at the center of this series is just the beginning.
First, the innovation: Professor X uses "Krakoa flowers" as a deus ex machina to solve several problems that the mutants have long faced First, he creates yet another island nation for mutants, somewhere in the Pacific. But, it isn't the usual rigamarole on this front. The flowers also create habitats around the world that serve as extensions of the island itself as well as gateways that mutants (and only mutants) can use to travel between them. Perhaps even more importantly, Xavier uses the flowers to synthesize three drugs for humans: L, which extends human life by five years; I, which serves as a universal antibiotic; and M, which curses mental illnesses. Xavier offers these drugs to the nations of the world in exchange for amnesty for all mutants and the soveriegn recognition of Krakao.
I just have to say that it's all remarkably clever. It truly creates a believable justification for considering Hickman's run a reset of the brand. First, mutantkind is no longer scrambling for a home. But, Krakao isn't just another Asteroid M or Genosha or Utopia. The mutants finally have leverage in the form of the drugs; they're not just feared now, but needed. As we've seen over and over again, fear was never enough to keep them safe; the drugs may be. The combination of the homeland and the drugs puts them on steadier ground than they've possibly ever been. Some unhinged security official always used to come after them, and no one in the U.S. government really cared all that much if he killed a bunch of mutants. With the drugs, it's different this time.
But, the greater innovation is the Orchis Protocol. We're used to mutants having to think outside the box and innovate. How many times has the X-Men's status quo and modus operandi changed? But, here, the humans are also innovating. Dr. Alia Gregor has put together a team pulled from some of the most advanced "strategic organizations" in the Marvel Universe (S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., etc.) to protect humanity. She activated the Protocol when she realized the extent of Charles' plans. It's the yin to Charles' yang: Hickman is reminding us that Xavier isn't the only one fighting for his species' survival here.
To that end, Gregor has created the Forge, a high-tech spaceship built around the head of a Mother Mold Sentinel orbiting the Sun. (I originally thought that it was a Celestial's head, but Hickman later reveals that it's a Mother Mold's.) While the machines that created the Forge are mining Mercury for resources, Gregor and her team prepare for more humans to arrive. Hickman goes to great lengths to show that Gregor isn't a racist. She started developing the Protocol after she studied the Genosha genocide. Her research found that mutantkind would've displaced humanity within ten years if not for Genosha; she now reckons that they have 20 years left.
The Orchis Protocol is important because otherwise this issue would have no dramatic tension. Just as the mutants step up their game, humanity does, too. As Magneto says at the end of the issue, it's clear that humans have new gods now. The quote at the end of the issue -- about humans needing to speak Krakoa's name with reverence -- perfectly underlines the religious aspect of this rebirth. Also, we're talking about a literal rebirth here. We don't have all the information yet, but it's clear that Xavier -- if it is Xavier -- has used Krakoa to resurrect dead mutants, as Vulcan appears to be one of the mutants emerging from the pods that we see at the very start of the issue. (His name is also listed on the interstitial page of Omega-level mutants later in this issue.) In other words, the mutants now enjoy territorial control, financial power, and a standing army. You can understand why Gregor activated the Protocol.
But, the Orchis Protocol seems to exist outside Xavier's cognizance. Moreover, it isn't like humanity outside the Orchis Protocol is going to go without a fight. Scott's interaction with the Fantastic Four here has an edge, as he essentially announces mutantkind has finally drawn a line in the sand when it comes to its relationship with humanity. Hickman also doesn't stop with humanity existing as the only threat: in one of the interstitial pages, he tells us that Krakao seems to suffer from something called No-Space, a part of his consciousness he's unaware that he has. In other words, rebirth or no rebirth, it's still the X-Men: to paraphrase Milhouse, it may not yet be smooth sailing for the mutants.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #26; Star Wars #69
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