X-Men: Marvel Comics’ New Mutants Gives Readers a Big Connection to Powers of X Data Page
Phillip Pratt
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House of X and Powers of X was more than just a summer crossover event meant to be forgotten once it was done.
It not just tossed up the ally-oop for the Dawn of X line of books, it seeded ideas and plots to be explored. There was some belly-aching about the data pages that came with the issues, but they weren’t there just to add girth.
I was able to appreciate them for what they were and not @#@$& about not getting more pretty pictures. However, some stood out more than others.
The Sinister Journals were cute. All the international political intrigue was engaging. Though there was one piece of information that caught my attention.
In Powers of X #1, we learned that 100 years into the future (Moira’s 9th life) mutant-kind has been pushed not just off of Earth, but out of their home solar system.
With Apocalypse and his horsemen the only mutants left in the Sol system to combat humankind and Sentinels, the rest fled into deep space. Numbering only about 10,000 they settled in two settlements within Shi’ar Empire Space.
2,000 of them absorbed into the Imperial Guard and housed on Chandilar, the Shi’ar throne world. As part of the agreement to live within their boundaries they were used as ‘warrior stock’.
The remaining 8,000 mutants were allowed to use a converted transit station, named Benevolence as their new home.
Interesting name. Benevolence is defined as ‘the quality of being well-meaning.’ It’s also likened to words like ‘kind-heartedness,’ ‘goodness,’ and ‘humanitarianism.’ That’s strange given the dire situation the mutant-race was in and what was then offered to them.
20% of their population was conscripted into military service, presumably their most powerful and combat-ready, while the rest were sent to an unprotected space station. This wasn’t a state-of-the-art installation like the one seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Benevolence was originally created as a storage facility for hazardous material and dangerous items that the Empire didn’t want near its more sensitive interior territories. It was also closer to Brood space than anyone should be comfortable with, especially because that area can expand and contract depending on the species’ breeding cycle. Having to deal with the Brood while missing a sizable chunk of their fighting force- living upon Benevolence probably felt more like punishment than the fruit of a humanitarian effort.
There wasn’t much more information on the PoX data page outside of rumors that Lillandra may have long planned to use mutants as ‘seed stock for repopulation’ after conquering Earth.
New Mutants #1 has shed some more light on Benevolence as well as giving us our first look at it. Members Karma, Dani, Magik, Mondo, Chamber, and Wolfsbane, being led by Sunspot, make a ‘pit stop’ on the station with the Starjammers while en route to visit their teammate Cannonball on Chandilar.
Corsair initially described the station as an intergalactic mid-point governed by a tyrannical religious leader that imprisons people for the smallest of infractions. Due to the danger involved, he instructed Sunspot and his team to stay put while they conducted business on the station.
Not ones to pass up on the opportunity to free prisoners, the young mutants defied Corsair’s orders. When they infiltrated the station, it’s anything but what they were told. It’s as advertised. A deep space storage facility, not a space-ghetto. There were no signs of any prisoners or a space-dictator. The team is caught off-guard by Shi’ar troops while the Starjammers retreat with a stolen piece of equipment.
While New Mutants continues to be written by Ed Brisson and Jonathan Hickman, it will most likely continue to deal with aspects of what was alluded to in Moira’s 9th life. Possibly even begin to seed a future similar to what we saw in it.
What do you think about this latest development? Let us know below!
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