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May 13

X-Corp #1 annotations

Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2021 by Paul in Annotations

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-CORP #1
“Simply Superior”
by Tini Howard, Alberto Foche & Sunny Gho

X-CORP. This is the first X-Corp series. X-Corporation was introduced in the Grant Morrison run, specifically in the 2001 New X-Men Annual. As described in the newspaper article on page 34, it was originally a sort of nonprofit organisation which existed to support mutant rights, rather than a corporate business as such. It was largely closed down after M-Day, but we’ve seen it mentioned from time to time during the Krakoan era. (Interestingly, it wasn’t mentioned in the data page in X-Force #4 that catalogued Xavier’s business assets.) Warren and Monet were shown running it in Empyre: X-Men.

COVER / PAGE 1. Well, it’s vaguely pharmaceutical-packing themed, but it’s also got corporate graphs and charts. Broadly, you’ve got Monet and Warren in businesswear, casting a shadow which shows themselves as Archangel and Penance.

With the corporate theme, mock branding and stylised colour palette, it’s very reminiscent of some of the early covers from Wildcats Version 3.0, which also did the superheroes-go-corporate angle.

PAGES 2-4. Warren and Monet film a promotional video.

It’s not exactly clear who this video is aimed at – it’s all vague aspirational corporate-speak, the idea (I suppose) being that we’re meant to take it seriously because it’s Krakoan. But who is X-Corp marketing itself to? The only product it has in this story is Krakoan drugs, and from the sound of it it just manufactures those; if it’s also selling them, what’s Hellfire Trading for? It’s odd that the relationship between those two entities isn’t really explained here – it is the premise of Marauders, after all.

The island is the new X-Corp base, which I suppose is meant to evoke Google-type corporate campuses; it comes across more as a cross between Krakoa and the SHIELD Helicarrier.

Visible in the montage are Forge, Sunspot, Madrox, Jumbo Carnation and Bishop. Sunspot’s been involved in X-Corp in the past but has now relocated to live mainly in outer space (hence, presumably, his panel being accompanied by “reach for the stars” lines). Madrox’s role is addressed later in the issue (and the “best version of yourself” bit is obviously ironic). I have no idea what Jumbo and Bishop have to do with anything, given that they’re so closely associated with Marauders.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits. The recap tells us that X-Corp is planning to move beyond pharmaceuticals into other areas of business, but we don’t really see that in this story, which is all about the drugs. The small print for X-Corp reads “Krakoa is for closers”, riffing on the “Krakoa is for all mutants” line.

PAGE 6. Warren and Penance finish their filming.

Sofia Mantega (Wind Dancer) spent time in the Mojoverse over in X-Factor, and has apparently picked up some film making skills along the way – though the version of the Mojoverse that we saw her in was more of a social media streaming set-up.

Monet’s “simply superior” slogan is understandably not approved by the PR department because it’s clearly just going to annoy people. Part of the tension here is between Warren being reasonably constructive towards anyone who’ll deal sensibly with him, and Monet (somewhat in line with her established character) being rather more superior – on a group level as well as the traditional personal level.

Quite why Monet is in this role isn’t entirely clear. Warren at least has some experience of running the family business, even if he delegated it most of the time. Monet has no relevant experience, but perhaps somebody thought she’d be the toughest negotiator not already tied up in Hellfire Trading.

PAGES 7-8. Warren and Monet meet with Professor X.

Professor X is meeting them in the Council chamber for non-Council business. It’s maybe worth noting that we’ve very rarely seen his private quarters in the Krakoan era, and certainly not with guests.

Again, the dynamic here seems to be that Warren is broadly conventional in his approach, and Monet is much more abrasive and seems to relish aggravating people. It’s good cop / bad cop.

PAGES 9-11. Trinary is recruited.

This kicks off a series of gathering-the-team scenes.

Trinary was introduced in the short-lived X-Men: Red title with much fanfare, and hasn’t done a huge amount since. The crime that she committed in that series was a Robin Hood-style hacking incident of transferring money from wealthy CEOs to ordinary working women; it might have been an idea to spell that out here for new readers, since it makes the point that Trinary is a completely counter-intuitive choice to be on any sort of corporate board. By appearances, Monet selects her as much as anything because she’ll annoy the sort of people that Monet is quite happy to annoy. Warren seems less than thrilled about her recruitment when he learns about it on page 20.

In the past, Trinary was portrayed as simply being able to control technology with her mind. She seems to be less powerful here, able to talk to computer programs but not necessarily control them. She doesn’t seem to regard it as particularly unusual to encounter a program that she can’t override.

PAGES 12-15. Warren meets Jean-Pierre Kol.

Jean-Pierre Kol. Kol is one of the ambassadors who received a tour from Magneto in House of X #1. According to the Stepford Cuckoos in that story, he “actually is an ambassador, but he bought it with his private-sector pharmaceutical money. He’ll agree to Xavier’s terms if we allow him special access to our drugs.”

Kol says here that he was already dealing with Professor X even before Krakoa (and he’s presumably telling the truth, since Warren could easily check). Apparently he was breeding mutant horses or something along those lines. Kol offers Warren a somewhat garbled analogy that doesn’t make a lot of sense: by creating a race that only mutants can win, they also make it boring for spectators, who will go off and do something else instead. And… what on earth is that supposed to mean in terms of the real world? If winning the race is mutant economic domination, then why should they be worried that capitalism will lead the underclass to seek something else? None of this makes any real sense to me.

Apparently Kol sold his business to Xavier, and has now come up with an idea to demand more money by threatening to take the mutants to court. Well, sort of…

PAGE 16. Data page: a request from Noblesse Pharmaceuticals, apparently in the form of a resolution by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, requesting an advisory opinion on whether the Krakoan flower processing facility in the Savage Land is against international law.

Noblesse Pharamceuticals is presumably Kol’s business (or his current business). It was the company in Paris that Warren and Monet were about to meet with in Empyre: X-Men #1, until they got dragged away. The name seems to refer to noblesse oblige (broadly, the idea that the nobility have social responsibilities such as charity).

Article 96 of the UN Charter does indeed allow the General Assembly or the Security Council to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. In the real world, there are various treaties which prevent development in Antarctica. In the Marvel Universe, the Savage Land in particular is now an internationally protected wildlife preserve, complete with gift shop. Honestly. It was in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #22. So, yes, marching in and building an industrial farm there was pretty unambiguously illegal.

The “L”, “I” and “M” drug names were given back in House of X #1, and haven’t really come up since then.

PAGES 17-19. Madrox is recruited.

This actually makes some sense as a choice, since Madrox seems to be directly involved in X-Corp’s actual manufacturing activities, and he can easily be in more than one place at a time. He’s played unusually straight in this scene, though the idea that he’s developed a particular interest in botany comes somewhat out of the blue.

PAGES 20-23. Monet refuses to pay the ransom.

So apparently Kol’s plan, if he doesn’t get paid, is both to blow up the facility and to whistleblow its existence, so that the mutants will get blamed for polluting the wildlife. There’s meant to be a kind of dialogue here between Warren as the conciliator and Monet as the uncompromising one, but it doesn’t entirely work. Warren comes across as a complete wimp – “it’s not extortion” is not a credible reaction to ransomware for anyone. Monet, on the other hand, hasn’t really been positioned in a way to take the moral high ground. And none of this really has all that much to do with running a corporation. This is an X-Force plot, surely?

Brazil is an anti-mutant nation which doesn’t have established Krakoan gates. The idea – which isn’t very well set up in the dialogue – is that Kol has arranged the meeting in Brazil precisely to isolate Warren from back-up.

Having told us that her telepathy doesn’t work in Penance form, Monet continues to talk in telepathic thought balloons for half a page after becoming Penance. She doesn’t seem to get any reply, but nor does she notice. It’s… confused.

PAGES 24-25. X-Corp set off in their new HQ.

It can only teleport to the location of Krakoan gates, so it can’t go direct to Brazil. Monet initially plans to go to the Savage Land, but changes her mind on getting what seems to be a message from Warren. There are storytelling problems here again. I think the idea is that Warren pressed the signal button at the end of page 21; that Monet didn’t notice because she was so busy being angry Penance and trying to conduct a telepathic conversation anyway; and that… for some reason it’s taken another three pages for the phone to start ringing. No, it doesn’t really work.

PAGES 26-27. Kol gloats about his plan.

Again, if this guy is a one-dimensional evil rich guy, why was Xavier dealing with him in the first place?

PAGES 28-33. X-Corp rescue Angel.

They use the gate in the hidden city of Nova Roma in the Brazilian jungle – though again, if you don’t already know that that’s what Nova Roma is, you might find this confusing.

Monet is spectacularly unsympathetic to the deaths of Madrox’s dupes, and even Madrox seems to view them mainly as lost research data. This isn’t really in character at all. Madrox has always taken the deaths of his dupes more seriously than this.

X-Corp makes its big public debut by… just kind of appearing over Brazil, and Warren escaping. I don’t really buy this as being the massive public impact that the story says it is.

PAGE 34. Data page, including some recap that attempts to explain why X-Corp only showed up somewhere during the Krakoan era; broadly, it’s been interposed as the holding company for all Xavier’s interests, perhaps to avoid the awkwardness of the entire economy of Krakoa being owned personally by Professor X.

PAGE 35. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: HELLFIRE GALA.

Bring on the comments

  1. Tom Shapira says:

    “Krakoa is for closers” probably alludes to the “Coffee’s for closers only” speech in Glengarry Glen Ross (the big Alec Baldwin scene).

  2. Matt says:

    “The only product it has in this story is Krakoan drugs, and from the sound of it it just manufactures those; if it’s also selling them, what’s Hellfire Trading for? It’s odd that the relationship between those two entities isn’t really explained here – it is the premise of Marauders, after all.”

    I believe Hellfire Trading is only meant to be their wholesaler? They’re established as an independent entity by Hickman, that Charles negotiated a shipping contract with. That seems to imply that Krakoa sells to Hellfire Trading (presumably through X-Corp), and then Hellfire sells to retailers and consumers.

  3. Derek Moreland says:

    This was physically painful. I stopped reading during the Warren/Kol scenes, and I’ve been a booster for ever Krakoa-era X-title to date.

  4. Matt says:

    This comic was so unreadably bad (I made it about halfway through) that even this recap is painful (your annotations are usually very readable).

    3 x books this week and all 3 were awful – is it safe to say the line has become bloated at this point? Lots of fat to trim.

  5. Chris V says:

    Yeah, this wasn’t what I was expecting. I was hoping this would fill a similar role to the Morrison-era, detailing a ground-level view as to how, exactly, Krakoa becoming the world power has effected the human world.
    Instead, this seems almost like a retread of Marauders.

    Tini Howard writing it was never going to be a draw for me, considering I find Excalibur unreadable.

    Really neat cover though. Too bad Marvel couldn’t get Joe Casey to write this title.
    It could have been a lot more interesting had it read like WildCATs 3.0.

    I’m probably going to be sticking with only SWORD and Way of X going forward, unless another launch catches my eye.
    X-Men is the only other X-title I’m still reading, and I plan to drop that after Hickman (not that I’ve actually enjoyed the series).
    I might pick up Hickman’s new book, unless it is about Arakko, as I have no time for that plot.

  6. GN says:

    Paul > The island is the new X-Corp base, which I suppose is meant to evoke Google-type corporate campuses; it comes across more as a cross between Krakoa and the SHIELD Helicarrier.

    I suppose this accounts for the smaller Krakoan island that was redacted in Way of X 1. Hence, the three Krakoan islands are Krakoa Pacific, Krakoa Atlantic and X-Corporation Headquarters (airborne).

    Matt > I believe Hellfire Trading is only meant to be their wholesaler?

    Yeah, I believe that the idea is that Hellfire Trading only does distribution. White House does the official distribution, Black House does the unofficial one, and Red House rescues mutants while doing additional distribution.

    Chris V > I might pick up Hickman’s new book, unless it is about Arakko, as I have no time for that plot.

    I’m actually about 95% certain that Hickman’s new book will be centred around Arakko, but with the caveat that Storm, who recently left Marauders, will be the viewpoint character. I’ve mentioned this here before but I have a theory that Storm might join the Great Ring of Arakko (specifically the ‘Day’ section) and that Arakko will be leaving Earth to take root on Mars. Here, Hickman will start building on all the cosmic elements of his big Krakoa arc.

    Would you be more interested in the book if this were the case?

  7. Chris V says:

    I thought that Hickman may have introduced the Arakkoans for the express purpose of allowing mutants to colonize space.
    Marvel editorial may have told Hickman that he can’t take a large number of mutants off of Earth, so he created new characters that can pursue that end.

    As for the new series…I am interested with the ideas of mutants needing to expand beyond the Earth, and picking up that thread from earlier lifelines of Moira.

    However, it would depend on characterization and plot.
    Are the Arakkoans going to continue to be so bland?
    Characterization has never been one of Hickman’s strong points.
    Also, what will the cast be doing in outer space? Just terraforming Mars? That doesn’t sound interesting. There aren’t a lot of threats in the solar system, to carry an ongoing series.
    Orchis isn’t powerful enough to challenge the forces of Arakko at this point.

  8. Si says:

    Presumably the whole cheapening of death in Krakoa because of the resurrections would also apply to Madrox’s dupes. They’re even more replaceable than regular people after all.

    I don’t understand Monet though. Isn’t having an invulnerable second form in which telepathy doesn’t work a bit redundant, when you have Emma and the Cuckoos? Also, she’s pretty damn tough alerady, what does giving her a second form actually grant the character, besides cheap pathos?

  9. Si says:

    And also, the idea of a global business venture putting their media marketing in the hands of a teenager because she has a Tiktok is just silly.

  10. GN says:

    I’ll explain my thinking a bit more: Cyclops, Jean and Storm were in the DOX line of books but they were not the central characters of the books they were in. I took this to mean that these were placeholder roles for them until the mega plot has reached a point where their main arcs can kick off. Now, Jean has resigned from the Council and X-Force and will be leading and running X-Men with her husband.

    So, this leaves Storm, who recently resigned from Marauders. Arakko arrived on Earth after X of Swords, but did not merge with Krakoa as expected. Its long term presence will cause a problem. Storm is African, so she has something in common with the Ancient Egyptian Arakkii. She is an Omega mutant, so she is eligible for Great Ring membership. My theory is that she will resign from the Quiet Council and take a ‘Day’ seat on the Ring. ‘Storm’ could fit the redacted name on the Ring data page.

    As for Mars, Idyll made a prophecy back in X-Men 14:

    Only under the black moon will the two become one. A white light will judge them, and a red land will see them split forever.

    I believe that the ‘two’ is Krakoa and Arakko and the ‘one’ they become is Okkara. The ‘white light’ is Opal Luna Saturnyne, referred to as the ‘White Light of Otherworld’ in X of Swords: Creation. The ‘judgement’ is the tournament of swords that she held. My theory is that the ‘red land’ that separates them will be Mars. The ‘black moon’ is the only thing I’m not certain of.

  11. Evilgus says:

    Didn’t pick this up and was waiting for the reviews – couldn’t face more contrived Howard plotting! Seems to be the case here.

    I wonder how long it’ll last, given Angel and Monet are very second string characters.

  12. GN says:

    Marvel editorial may have told Hickman that he can’t take a large number of mutants off of Earth

    Eh, I don’t think Hickman ever intended for the Krakoans to leave the Earth, at least in a permanent fashion. The human-mutant interaction is what fuels the plot of most of the books. But I do agree that he seeded Arakko in HOX/POX so that he could have some mutants he could move off-world.

    Also, what will the cast be doing in outer space? Just terraforming Mars?

    I believe that the terraforming will already have happened in Planet-Size X-Men during the Hellfire Gala. The seeds were planted way back in HOX when Armor planted a Habitat flower in the Garden of Ex Nihilo. It’s simply a matter of expanding that garden to cover the planet. A mutant circuit could do it. Hence, Hickman can launch a series in September with the cast already settled on New Mars, the Green Planet.

    Are the Arakkoans going to continue to be so bland?
    Characterization has never been one of Hickman’s strong points.

    Oh yeah, they are definitely going to sound like robots. Hickman cannot do characterisation.

    There aren’t a lot of threats in the solar system, to carry an ongoing series. Orchis isn’t powerful enough to challenge the forces of Arakko at this point.

    Well, I believe Nimrod will come online in X-Men 20, so the Orchis plot will kick into high gear after that. Orchis has been colonising planets too. They have a new fleet on Venus and a rapidly-expanding Sentinel City on Mercury. This puts them in opposition with a mutant-controlled Mars.

    There is also the case of Brand’s mysterious Mysterium plans, to be unveiled during the Gala, which can suddenly make the Sol System a hotbed of alien activity.

    But I think in general, (if this is indeed the premise of the new book – I could totally be wrong), Hickman might be doing a series of one-shots again – with Storm as the viewpoint character instead of Cyclops – that explores Arakkii society and sets up the space threats.

  13. ASV says:

    It’s almost impressive to produce something this nonsensical when the underlying premise – the Krakoan drugs and associated economy – is such a gigantic contrivance.

  14. Jerry Ray says:

    Yeah, this was not good. The art was amateurish, the plotting and storytelling were muddled, the characterization was questionable. I don’t see any reason for this (or for Children of the Atom) to exist. It feels like a shark has been jumped in the X-line.

  15. Allan M says:

    Prior to Wildcats 3.0, Casey did flirt with the idea of corporate superheroes in Uncanny X-Men, with Archangel buying out the Vanisher’s criminal enterprise instead of beating him up. So there’s (very light) precedent here for Warren. I think the idea has promise in principle, especially with the Krakoan setup.

    But oof, this was bad. Surely, for the launch of a new X-title centred around their business expansion, the plot should’ve involved a new business venture, rather than the one business they’re already in? Especially since Marauders is already about the drug trade? And the resolution to the story has nothing to do with business at all. Casey made a stronger case for the concept back when, by having Archangel solve the problem with money instead of force. Here, they show up in Brazil with a big flying ship, they get shot at, and that advances their business interests somehow, because being shot at is what gets me to invest in a company.

    M shifting into her Penance form when she’s angry is tiresome already. We’re seriously picking the scab of the M/Penance insanity for this? Bargain basement berserker rage/Diet Hulk shit? In service to drawing comparisons to Warren/Archangel dual personas, itself an idea that’s been done to death a hundred times over already? Just a brutal week for the X-books quality-wise.

  16. Andrew says:

    As Allan M (and Paul) both point out, the corporate superhero thing got a bit of a run 20 or so years back during Casey’s aborted run and more prominently through Wildcats.

    I really liked him taking that spin with Angel. It was a great story that clearly he didn’t get to finish or do much more than start. I would have loved to see where he was going with it.

    Wildcats (and its amazing cover art design was a great, great book. I re-read the entire Casey run during lockdown last year and it largely holds up really well right up until Coup De’tat totally derails everything and the corporate superhero stuff is dumped for the all-action Coda War that takes out the final six issues.

    It’s a shame he never got to finish his story and the editorially mandated action story finished it out because it was brilliant stuff.

    I haven’t got to read X-Corp yet but I really love that cover if nothing else.

  17. Dd says:

    Tini Howard….
    Whose writing is like a joke told in the wrong order after being run through Google translate and presented as a fill-in-the-blank test

  18. Rybread says:

    I’m sure she’s a wonderful person, but I do not understand what Marvel see in Tini Howard as an author.

  19. Evilgus says:

    I suspect Howard’s stock is high, as Excalibur is solid seller. But I suspect this is due to a solid foundation of a popular cast of Rogue, Gambit, Betsy-Psylocke, and Jubilee (it’s half the X-Men Blue Team!) which fans would follow almost regardless of writing. And she is something of Hickman’s protégée. I do feel she needed a few more years of training wheels, or tighter editing.

  20. The Other Michael says:

    I’m glad I’m not alone in being underwhelmed by Tini Howard’s work. After following her through Strikeforce, Excalibur/X of Swords and now here, I simply don’t get what Marvel sees in her to keep giving her such relatively high profile work. Her characters always feel “off” and her plotting and pacing are often inconsistent.

    I mean, why the heck is Jamie Madrox now obsessed with growing Krakoan drugs? Is this a new dupe hobby, or a callback to his days as a farmer? Just last week, or so it seems, we learned that his dupes were being used to mass-produce the Hellfire Gala outfits. Is he just the “we need lots of expendable clone bodies” go-to guy now? But honestly, ever since Death of X, Madrox keeps getting shit on by writers who like to pad out the body count by treating his dupes (and sometimes the “original” as cannon fodder.)

    Why is Monet time-sharing with an anger-induced Penance form, when until recently, that simply wasn’t any part of her? (Admittedly, I missed a few appearances, but you’d think that being a flying superstrong invulnerable telepath was already more than enough of a power set for her. This is like getting ALL the creation points for your hero in chargen…)

    Why, in the Marvel universe, is ANYONE impressed by a flying island? They’ve had helicarriers for decades. Asgard floated above Oklahoma for a while. Aliens show up every Tuesday. THIS ISN’T EVEN MUTANTS’ FIRST FLYING ISLAND.

    This is a rough, rough start for what should/could have been a great concept in the right hands. I’d love to see something focused on the X-Corp handling stuff on a business level, competing with Stark, Roxxon, Bain, and all the other businesses that dominate the corporate landscape. (And really, this is where Shaw and Emma, as ACTUAL businesspeople with ACTUAL corporate experience, would excel…)

  21. ASV says:

    Madrox dupes are the Alpha Primitives of Krakoa, despite the fact that are 200,000 mutants we’ve never heard of living on the island.

  22. Jon R says:

    It’s not that anyone’s *impressed* by the flying island. It’s that they know how often those things keep falling out of the sky and so a new launch is important news.

    Headline: KRAKOA LAUNCHES NEW FLYING ISLAND
    Subhead: Oh *(&(E#@ not again
    “Are you in its path? Turn to page 3 for our daily helicarrier tracking paths to know how much danger *you* are in.”

  23. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    Maybe Madrox working on the Krakoan plants/drugs is supposed to be a callback to his years as Moira’s background lab assistant?

    Also, yeah, this was rough. I’d say worse than Excalibur back when it started. At least the magic angle gave it leeway on being kinda vague in (lots of) places. But this was… Well.

  24. Jon R says:

    And more seriously, Monet’s “Oh god of course” realization with Brazil really did her characterization no favors. If there are only a handful of places that don’t have diplomatic relations with Krakoa, wouldn’t you think that officially stepping into one of them for a high profile meeting is something people actually think about? Even if you trust Kol isn’t up to anything, as Warren did, wouldn’t there be a thought about someone else taking advantage?

    Also, that whole rescue scene was… pointless? Angel didn’t need rescuing, and the only thing it did was make headlines and supposedly knock the Savage Land accident out of the headlines. And? That doesn’t stop the fact it happened and Kol can and should still file his complaint. Maybe it gives the mutants a little more time to clean up the accident before any inquiries, but so far it was just treated as a Get Out Of Environmental Exploitation Free card.

  25. Joseph S. says:

    You know, I see the problems here, and Howard tends to have trouble building momentum in the early issues of her runs, but let me offer a dissenting voice: I enjoyed this.

    Angel and M make for an interesting core duo. Despite Warren and Monet featuring in House of X, we haven’t seen all that much of them in the Krakoa era. Warren especially is overdue for fresh take. Both characters were in Bunn’s run on Uncanny a few years back, so they’ve got a bit of on-page history. And they each have a dark side (Archangel and Penance, respectively) which it seems will be played up. IIRC HoX mentioned that M couldn’t access her telepathy in Penance form. I don’t know that her transformation was ever explained on panel, but in Strain’s (pretty underrated) Gen-X series from a few years ago, she turned up to be healed from the Emplate infection she’d acquired during Bunn’s Uncanny, so there may be some link there. We know that this, the “real” M, was also actually Penance from the original Gen-X, with the “M” readers were introduced to revealed to be two children in a trench coat (and Lobdell seems to have confirmed that this was not a retcon but indeed the plan fro the beginning). So a case could be made, at the least, that she’s been able to transform into Penance all along.

    And sure, Monet may not seem to have much on page “real world” experience, but she’s still a logical choice for this role. She was a part of X-Corporation in Paris during Carey’s run, so she does in fact have something on her CV to justify the position. And more importantly, she’s a child of wealth and privilege, at home amongst the 1%, and given her personality, we have every reason to believe that she would excel in this environment. I think her bad cop to Angel’s good plays nicely as well.

    Madrox and Sunspot were also involved in X-Corp, and Trinity is an interesting addition. We’ll see how tightly the book focuses on those 4 character, and how much the Sunspot, Wind Dancer etc function as supporting characters.

    As for Madrox being out of character, I don’t see it. So he’s into flowers now, big deal. That’s Krakoa for you. We know he does well in these kinds of roles. He ran the farm in Kansas by himself, and we’ve seen him in situation like this many times on panel, often on Muir Island. In his earliest appearance, in Giant Size FF#4, he literally declined joining the X-Men to be Moira’s lab assistant. After all the nonsense of the last few years of continuity, it makes perfect sense he might want to retreat to focus on work. (And we can maybe imagine a version of himself is living in peace with Layla and bebe somewhere…)

    Anyway, I really doubt this book is intended to go beyond 6 issues, so I’m willing to give Howard the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe she really has a story to tell, it will probably take a few issues at least to build momentum. But like Children of the Atom, it may not have much time to waste.

    I also don’t think the art is as bad as some commenters have made it out to be. Foche’s style seems a bit removed from the House Style, I don’t think he’s done any Big Two work, and seems to maybe have more an eye on Euro comics, I don’t know. I was reminded a bit of Leila Del Duca, though with less whimsy and energy. Still, it’s not bad. Just maybe not the best fit for this book. Interesting that they’ve set a rather airy tone for this series.

  26. Thom H. says:

    “And they each have a dark side (Archangel and Penance, respectively) which it seems will be played up.”

    I do think it’s interesting that all (almost all?) of the characters in charge of the business side of Krakoa — Emma, Warren, Monet — have second physical forms that exhibit less empathy.

    I don’t know if that’s just a generic “corporations are gonna getcha!” statement or has something more specific to say about Krakoa’s goals with the new drugs. I have to think that the humanitarian slant to the drug PR is a front for something more sinister, either short- or long-term.

  27. Joseph S. says:

    Maybe, Thom, but it’s easy to imagine more charitable readings. One, the Mutants have effectively bought their freedom, which was hard fought and didn’t come cheap. Mutant metaphor limits aside, they’ve always been hated and feared and oppressed. Two, and more importantly from an in-universe perspective, is a kind of opportunity cost argument: look at what can be accomplished when we don’t fight. Juggernaut working for Damage Control is a good example of this (even if he isn’t actually a mutant). My point is just that mutants have extraordinary gifts that can benefit everyone, if only they’re given space to develop themselves. So I’m that regard the drugs are an example of a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship that was deferred by hatred. The mutant circuits are an example of this, and while that synergy may seem to only benefit mutants it is also likely to also benefit the world/universe more broadly. (Well, depending on what Sword has planned. Perhaps that’s more a weapon than a benevolent drug).

    I’m really hoping we do not get some sinister reveal, as it would undercut what seems to be the point of the Krakoan era. The power of organized resistance, transcending old conflicts, working together for mutual betterment. And just in general giving mutants some wins. There’s obviously still plenty of room for conflict, even within Krakoan society, without revealing that they’re all possible people. Something like that might fatally kill the mutant metaphor.

  28. Chris V says:

    I believe the drugs have the purposeful side-effect of pacifying humanity.
    They are attempting to slow down technological progress, so that the rise of post-humanity is halted (for the time being).
    That’s the purpose of Krakoa, to buy mutants time.

    I think that the first two drugs are a carrot, while the most important drug is the one that fixes “mental imbalances” in humanity.

    I don’t think it’s outright sinister, but rather Moira’s goal in place of declaring war against humanity or attempting to use force to subjugate humanity (which Moira learned are failed ideas after her past two lives, when she aligned with Apocalypse or Magneto).
    I think that is the one that is supposed to make humans less likely to want to outcompete mutants.

  29. Thom H. says:

    Krakoa seems set up to fail for less-than-noble reasons (at least to me), but maybe there are some good faith elements to its structure. And maybe the drugs are part of that. I tend to agree more with Chris V’s point of view, but anything’s still possible at this point.

    On a related note, have we seen the drugs actually help any humans? Or heard any positive stories about humans using them? I don’t read every book, so maybe I’ve missed something. But the drugs have been suspiciously off-camera for the most part, which makes them seem a little sinister.

  30. Chris V says:

    Basically, everything involving the impact of Krakoa on human society has been avoided.
    That’s what I was hoping for from this X-Corp book.
    I think it’s because this story is taking place in the Marvel Universe, so it’s going to be hard for Hickman to show changes in the wider society.

    As far as mutants being benevolent, Moira tried that in her earlier life, when she originally aligned with Xavier, in order to attempt to accomplish her goal by using Xavier’s ideology.
    The two formed the X-Men. Mutants were the main superheroes during that lifetime, fighting to help humanity.
    In the end, the Sentinels were still sent to kill the X-Men.
    So, there’s a wider goal than simply benevolence behind the drugs, but I don’t think anything outright immoral.

    Moira stated after the discoveries of life six that she was fighting against time, if she was going to create a future for mutants.

  31. ASV says:

    The drugs feel like just a part of the game board, in the same way that so many characters acting wooden feeling sinister but is probably just Hickman. There are tons of contrivances in the whole Krakoa setup that seem to exist to order to get the HoX #1 status quo where Hickman wanted it, never to be examined.

  32. Karl_H says:

    Now I’m Botany Scientist Doctor Madrox is reminiscent of Suddenly I’ve Always Been an Ancient Wizard Apocalypse (and I Always Had Druid Powers Rictor). And of the Babies’R’Dragons concept for Otherworld. Potentially interesting ideas that come out of nowhere and fit poorly with established history.

    I do think Warren and Monet are a good pair to head this group. I wish I had a clearer idea of what it’s *for*.

  33. Joseph S. says:

    Since the PAD relaunch of X-Factor, it’s been established that Maddox has sent his dupes out into the world to acquire knowledge for him to reabsorb, and again, we’ve seen him as a competent scientist and lab assistant many times, dating to his earliest appearance. Apocalypse as a wizard is a bit more a stretch, admittedly.

  34. Paul says:

    “On a related note, have we seen the drugs actually help any humans?”

    Yes. New Mutants, Marauders and Wolverine have all had unrelated characters verifying that they work, at least for certain conditions. Quite how a sceptical anti-mutant population was persuaded to believe this, given that many of them can’t even be convinced of vaccination, is a whole other question.

  35. neutrino says:

    “Kol offers Warren a somewhat garbled analogy that doesn’t make a lot of sense: by creating a race that only mutants can win, they also make it boring for spectators, who will go off and do something else instead. And… what on earth is that supposed to mean in terms of the real world? If winning the race is mutant economic domination, then why should they be worried that capitalism will lead the underclass to seek something else? None of this makes any real sense to me.”

    It sounds like Howard is awkwardly trying to say they’ll try to become post-humans.

    @Jon R:
    “Also, that whole rescue scene was… pointless? Angel didn’t need rescuing, and the only thing it did was make headlines and supposedly knock the Savage Land accident out of the headlines. And? That doesn’t stop the fact it happened and Kol can and should still file his complaint. Maybe it gives the mutants a little more time to clean up the accident before any inquiries, but so far it was just treated as a Get Out Of Environmental Exploitation Free card.”

    Worse, the meeting was no where near the Amazon basin. (someone said it was almost a continent away.) It shouldn’t have been visible to Warren. They’d have to violate another country’s airspace with a flying battleship. That would have been bad publicity that would dwarf the news about the Savage Land and reinforce it.

    @Evilgus:
    “I suspect Howard’s stock is high, as Excalibur is solid seller.”
    Per the latest Comichron rankings, Excalibur is at 75, above only X-Factor at 84 and Cable at 88, both of which have been canceled.

    @Joseph s
    “So a case could be made, at the least, that she’s been able to transform into Penance all along.” The thing is, she could never transform into Penance. That form was a prison created by her brother and not part of her mutation. Since she got an entirely new body upon resurrection, she should have nothing to do with it.

    As I’ve said about Moira’s plans before, just look at the trend in her livers after the sixth one. She becomes increasingly radical, going from assassination to conquest to decimation. Then she says she’s going to break all the rules, which doesn’t imply moderation. The prohibition against genocide is a rule. Krakoa as it is isn’t halting the development of post-humanity, it’s encouraging it.

  36. James Moar says:

    “Quite how a sceptical anti-mutant population was persuaded to believe this, given that many of them can’t even be convinced of vaccination, is a whole other question.”

    And in the Marvel Universe, ‘evil billionaires are going to implant you with microchips and control you with 5G’ isn’t even an outlandish concern.

  37. Allan M says:

    M turns into her Penance form in House of X #4, pre-resurrection, so this is apparently a thing she can do now independent of Krakoa stuff. How or why remains unexplained. Aside from the Pookas, I’m not sure there’s a Generation X storyline I want to see revisited less than this, but here we are.

    As for vaccination/drug fears, Tony Stark released a “free” app that makes you stronger, healthier, and more attractive in Superior Iron Man, but only after adopting it do you discover that you need to pay Stark $99 a day to sustain that better self. So not only can evil billionaires take over your body nominally for health reasons but with sinister intent in the Marvel Universe, it’s already been done by one of the Avengers.

  38. Joseph S. says:

    Yeah, that totally tracks for Stark.

    Regarding M’s Penance form, maybe it’s a hangover from being infected by Emplate in Bunn’s run. Or maybe she was resurrected off panel before HoX and had the Five make this alteration. Or maybe Emplates original prison was merely trapping her in this secondary mutation, and not a creation of his own. I haven’t reread the back half of Gen X since it was published, and don’t really plan to any time soon, so my memory is hazy.

  39. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    Well, the excuse was that was the Reverse-Stark. As in reverted after Axis. Inverted? Rolled around. He also gave Daredevil his sight back for shits and giggles in the same story if I recall correctly.

  40. Ceries says:

    So like, the threat is that the villain will draw attention to the blatantly illegal way Krakoa has colonized the Savage Land to grow drugs (…there is an indigenous, sentient population in the Savage Land. Did Krakoa ethnically cleanse a region to open up those fields we’ve seen?). And this is why X-corp is violating Brazil’s airspace to grab Warren.

    …Am I supposed to see it as a bad thing that attention will be brought to the massive violations of international law here?

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