X-Men Legacy #10-11: I am SO annoyed with Si Spurrier

[captainbellman]

Why? Because someone in the MU has finally said what I've been saying for years now, and I didn't get to write it! AND...well, I'll post the scans. 5-ish pages from #10, 7-ish from #11.





In previous issues, David has been trying to be a "Proactive" mutant taking out threats before the "Reactive" X-Men get to them. This hasn't exactly worked out great, earning him the attention of Abigail Brand and S.W.O.R.D. and making him fall out with his sorta-girlfriend, Blindfold. Also, inside the "Prison Complex" of his inner psyche, his various personalities have been preyed upon by a malevolent demon that looks exactly like his dad, Charlie Xavier, with bright golden skin.

Consulting this apparition, who has absorbed (among other things) his precognitive ability, he discovers that his distant future holds nothing but darkness: becoming a disgusting gigantic horror-beast made of millions of mutant minds stitched together, with only poor Blindfold able to destroy it.

To prevent this future, David decides to visit the San Francisco Institute of Bio-Social Studies.







Marcus Glove has been unlucky enough to be at ground zero for nearly every giant disaster caused by Mutants in the past few years. He was on the sidelines when Magik brought hell to New York (what exactly is the benefit of having Magik around, again?); lost his leg and wife when someone tried to start a second sun in Central Park (Onslaught?); had an arm and an eye taken away by falling shrapnel from a sentinel in Alaska; and believing San Francisco to be free of Mutant danger, moved there just in time to lose the rest of his limbs.

Marcus is perfectly aware of David, his powers and his newfound mission - and David is becoming psychically acquainted with Dr. Glove, just well enough to find that there's no malevolent threat bubbling under the surface. He's not aching for vengeance or driven by a need to "cleanse" the world. He's perfectly innocent.

(Also, visually, he reminds me of Mason Verger, of Thomas Harris' book "Hannibal". Especially with that one lens-focused eye. No idea if that's deliberate or not.)





"Something has to be done." Dr. Glove's rallying cry. So, in response to the encroaching threat of Mutants, Glove's organisation has put together X-Cise, aka "The Happy Host": a drug said to be the ultimate cure for a person afflicted with Mutant abilities. Really, all it does is impair cognitive ability; the user not only loses their ability to use their own mutant powers, but becomes a lobotomised invalid. As Glove says, it's little more than clinical brain damage.



And in #11, we get to the bit that simultaneously delights me and frustrates me (mostly because I didn't get to write it)...





David's still looking for a "Big Bad". We see the drug being used on a nervous young man named Clement, who then reverts to an incontinent child-like state. Again, David finds no trace of foul play; Clement volunteered for the treatment of his own free will.



But when he begins to scan "Darwin's Martyrs" for treachery, they collapse, and this is what emerges from their heads...





(Note: when David encountered this red demon before on a date with Ruth, the mysterious Golden Charlie Xavier in his head defeated it - and said that he knew it "like the back of my head".) The Demon warns off David, telling him to take responsibility for his powers and "Be A Man". Thankfully, our boy isn't stupid; sticking to his mantra "I Rule Me", he still demands the pill.







Alas, even when there's some actually sensible and well-meaning scientists in the Marvel U., AND at least one who actually understands how evolution and genetics work...they're controlled by a Nazi Mastermind.

(Luckily, Ruth was watching earlier, and she's putting together a reluctant team to come and hopefully mess up Dave's attempt at de-powering.)

In retrospect, it actually makes the cover to #11 a fantastic visual joke. I'll say this for the Red Skull, though: Nazi or not, he is *very* good at playing hide-and-seek. This is, what, the third or fourth beloved public figure he's impersonated in the modern day?

Comments

[mrstatham]

Still a better cover ID than 'Dell Rusk', which any kid competent with anagrams could've figured out.

That cover *is* pretty great, though - and I'm sure not many people would've seen the twist it practically screams coming, given the Skull's largely Remender's territory at the moment.

Still.. Ugh. I might have to buy this. I'm avoiding the 'major' X-Titles because I generally loathe the current setup, so I'm getting Wood's X-Men in trade.. But Now I might have to get this. It didn't really interest me in the initial pitch, but it's looked increasingly good from what I've seen on here.

[captainbellman]

Glad to hear it. This is the ONLY X-Book I've been buying since the latest wave of new directions and relaunches. The Wolverine book seems too far along for me to waste time getting caught up on the story, and my desire to find out who's winning the Scott Summers vs. Everyone Else Angry Staring Contest this week is only slightly lower than David Haller's.

[mrstatham]

It's a shame because I *like* Bendis, really. I've never been as opposed to his work as some, but it just doesn't grab me on the X-Men. I'll be buying GotG, but I've never been interested in the 'main' X-Books of the day. When Fraction was writing Uncanny, I was more interested in Legacy under Carey, and the same for Gillen on Uncanny and Aaron on WatXM; The 'smaller' books always interest me more, and whilst I don't really consider Brian Wood's X-Men to be a genuinely 'small' book, it's arguably not the book where the main thrust or game-changing elements of the X-Men stories will be taking place. The same definitely goes for this.

But.. Yeah. Definite kudos for posting this; I think it'd be a shame to let this go unseen, and you've certainly won me over.

[arbre_rieur]

Assuming you mean the Wolverine ongoing, I'm curious why you feel that way. Only three issues have come out, and the story's been moving at a fairly leisurely pace.

[captainbellman]

Not at all. I meant Wolverine and the x-men.

[sadoeuphemist]

I dunno, this still seems like really bad science (which is to be expected, since it's coming from a Nazi). How can you define mutants as an artificial species? This is the Marvel universe, you have stuff like the Celestials visiting Earth a million years ago to mess around with our genetic code. How is magic artificial? How is the Phoenix Force artificial? It's historical record that every so often cosmic/otherworldly entities visit the Earth to mess around with it, this is absolutely part of the natural state of affairs.

Dr. Ambrose may scoff at the idea of optical energy blasts, but the fact remains that Cyclops wasn't purposely genetically engineered. He, along with many other people, has a hereditable mutation that gives him superpowers. Likewise,you don't need to believe in latent code for vehicle designing/demon summoning/computer hacking to believe that cognitive capabilities can have some sort of genetic basis. An autistic savant may be able to instantly match calendar dates with days of the week, but that doesn't mean they unlocked some sort of "latent calendar calculation code" in the human genome.

Dr. Ambrose is a neo-Darwinist who believes in gradual evolution, okay, but not all evolutionary theories are Darwinistic. You can be a saltationist and say, "yes, mutants are a massive and abrupt change between generations for whatever reason, but they still pass on their genes, they're still subject to natural selection, this is still evolution in progress."

(defining mutants as "invasive exotics" is self-evidently terrible, I'm not getting into that)

[captainbellman]

What's meant by "artificial" here is changes to the genome that don't develop in order to help humanity survive changes in their natural environment (which is why some would argue that humans IRL aren't exactly subject to natural selection, either). Whether by the Phoenix, the Celestials, John Sublime etc., Wolverine is more along the lines of a hunting hound than the Wolves he emulates.

Natural Selection would be more along the lines of, say, a small population of humanity developing laser-eyes in response to a hard crust forming over most of earth's soil, necessitating the need for a powerful optic blast to get through it in order to clear space for farming. Or large, uncontrollable blue forests developing all over, so that humans had to develop blue fur and latent ape-like abilities.

This is, of course, because your average writer of Mutant books isn't going to think "What sort of power is likely to develop in humankind, naturally?" (though as a fan of Dougal Dixon, I'd love to read and/or write THAT comic). From Lee to Claremont to Busiek to Morrison, they're much more likely to think "What sort of power would look really cool, and/or cause massive trauma to the afflicted person and their loved ones?". Hence the need to justify such changes with in-universe "Writers" - Phoenix, Celestial, John Sublime.

The only problem with this is that even though, as you rightly point out, in the Marvel Universe these things can be incorporated into a larger theory of Evolution...time and again, the X-Men and their kin are referred to as the next step in Darwinian Natural-Selection-type evolution, even though they're plainly not. The closest I've ever seen them come is when they revealed Scott & Emma's alternate-future daughter, who turned into ruby and shot lasers from her eyes, and that's more like Lamarck's theory.

[sadoeuphemist]

Well evolution isn't that specific. The genome doesn't change in response to environmental pressures, mutations are essentially random. It's only if you're lucky enough to get a mutation that makes you more adaptive, then you're more likely to reproduce and pass on your genes. I'd say that in a world where superpowered beings get into fights on a regular basis, shooting lasers out of your eyes is already enough to qualify as a beneficial mutation. The absurd part is considering all mutants as a single species, because what the heck do eye lasers have to do with blue ape fur?

I also don't see how the example of Scott & Emma's daughter is Lamarkian, it just seems to be a simplistic version of regular genetics - she inherits traits from both her parents, they just both happen to be the most obvious ones combined in the most obvious ways.

[captainbellman]

You're right, I phrased that badly - what I should have said is that the genome differs from generation to generation depending on which ones survived certain environmental pressures. Certainly if you count super-battles as being an environmental pressure, then the development of Cyclops, Wolverine etc. makes sense; but on the other hand, it should have taken aeons of super-battles to even begin to develop (again: a concept I would like to see developed, possibly in an "alternate timeline" book).

I agree with you about the counting of mutants as all one species, that's always been a bit of a headache for me.

Where I think "Ruby Summers" falls into Lamarck's domain is in the fact that her powers are so obvious - it seems more likely that she'd only develop certain traits, either the one or the other. Or that her mixture wouldn't be so obviously beneficial - e.g., she has to be constantly in ruby-form to control her optic blasts because (as with her father) she can only focus them through ruby quartz.

An example of slightly "truer" development is the generational progress we see in Morrison's X-Men between Beak and his wife Angel - although he's only developed a few bird-like traits, and their offspring variously inherit them, with or without Angel's wings, by the time of the "Here Comes Tomorrow" alternate future his distant descendant has become fully avian, with an actual "beak" and a proper coat of feathers over fly-like wings.

[donnblake]

My understanding is that, insofar as anyone is able to determine, mutants are an artificial species, in that they're the result of Celestial engineering way back in the day. On the other hand, that seems to be equally applicable to the human race as a whole, as I believe the "uplift" event that separates humans from apes is supposed to have come at the hand of the Celestials as well.

[blunderbuss]

GOD EFFING DAMMIT

I was loving this set-up! We FINALLY had a person who rightfully points out that mutants are a threat to humanity and themselves even if they don't mean to be, and that something needs to be done. Not to mention the idea of mutants being created from an outside source is ingenious, because yeah, evolution does not work that way.

But nooo. Instead of having such a humane antagonist that had excellent points, his cure lobotimizes people and he's secretly the Red Skull.

*face palm*

[sadoeuphemist]

No, I think the "mutants are a threat to humanity" line is inherently bigoted bullshit. In a world full of supervillains, humans are a threat to humanity. Supposedly mutants ought to have ended the world a dozen times over, but how does that compare to Dr. Doom, Red Skull, HYDRA, etc, etc?

[captainbellman]

True; this is a clever trick on Spurrier's part to show how statistics and spin can start a political movement. A similar approach could be created to show that the Y chromosome is humanity's biggest problem - after all, 90-99% of rapes and murders are perpetrated by men - but this doesn't exactly call for a mass worldwide imprisonment of men, nor for lobotomising them to turn them into sperm-donors, ala some ghastly dystopian novel. It just means heightened awareness and the growth of feminism.

[sadoeuphemist]

Yeah, I want to say, I really do like the idea of the IBSS. They're bigots, but they're very open, friendly, seemingly-rational bigots.

[md84]

Those are the most dangerous bigots of all. It's easy to discount loud attention-seeking morons.

[md84]

It's similar to pre-DCnu Lex's claims that Superman is a threat to humanity, which ring hollow given that Lex has a bodycount of Lord only knows how many people while Superman has a body count of about three. Who for the record weren't human but fellow evil Kryptonians from another universe who had just murdered everyone on their Earth.

The aesop is that you don't need superpowers to be a world-ending threat. You just need a functional brain and a good measure of malevolence.

[icon_uk]

Lex's assertion used to be more idealogical (or phrased as such), that it wasn't that Superman had a bodycount, but that Superman's presence was a disruptive and detrimental affect on humanity.

This was mentioned in things like Elliot S. Maggin's "Last Son of Krypton", where even Lois admits that when stuck in a collpasing mineshaft her first thought would be "Where's Superman to rescue me?" rather than "What creative approach to get out of here myself?" (This was the Bronze Age Lois, pre Man-of-Steel)

By pulling our ass out of the fire as often as he did, Superman is smothering us as a species, we should be growing and developing (and failing from time to time) as humans, not humans plus god-level being.

Not endorsing that view of course, just laying it out the way Lex did (at times)

[md84]

Even in that respect Luthor is a bigger threat to humans. Lex doesn't really give a damn about the advancement of humankind. He just wants everyone to idolize him instead of Superman. Heck, his running for President was motivated by a day of him feeling inferior to Superman without even seeing him. He's a massive hypocrite too, since he's had few reservations allying himself with Brainiac and Darkseid, who are actually hostile aliens.

[blunderbuss]

Uh, no it's not. Glove might not be the victim of mutant attacks, but certainly some humans are. There's dozens of mutants who accidentally became threats to people around them when their power manifested. Hell, in the TV series Storm would occasionally have a fit because of her claustrophobia and she was fully trained. When you've got people with the powers to move continents but are still capable of even accidental mass slaughter, humanity has a big fucking problem. Hell, humanity has come close to be turned into cinders multiple times because the Phoenix force is drawn to mutants.

Meanwhile, supervillains are threats because they choose to be and have entirely different causes other than 'being born'. And hey, they DO have a solution for supervillains; people like the Avengers.

Mutants being a possible threat to humanity and themselves is a fact that has been proven many times over. The bigoted part comes in if the solution is 'kill/cripple/depower them all by force'. It's not bigoted to want to come up with a humane solution to protect lives.

[md84]

I've given the issue some thought because 1) I have way too much free time and 2) the off-chance that we do have to answer a question like this in RL.

Problem is, there honestly is no humane solution to this problem that doesn't trample on someone's rights. Depower most of the mutants in the world and ensure no more can be born? That just painted targets on the ones left and caused a bunch of depowered mutants breakdowns. Give mutants their own homeland? It got nuked. And some people might not want to leave their lives to live on some island anyway. Trust them to police themselves? Yeah, the X-men don't have the best track record for that. Lock them up as soon as they appear? So many human rights violations it's not even funny. And this comic's "solution" is to make them brain damaged vegetables? So many problems with that even without taking the Red Skull into account. Kill them all? Horrible and useless since new mutants can be born to any parents.

[blunderbuss]

You're right, and that's the whole crux of the issue. You have antagonists like Glove, who have the best of intentions but rample rights, and then you have the X-Men, who protect rights but then create risks. There is no perfect answer, which is why I hate it when the other side descends into cartoonish super-villainy.

[icon_uk]

And Earth has nearly been destroyed more than once because of threats ONLY the Phoenix could deal with (a fractured M'Krann crystal for example) so there is a positive balance to some extent.

Also, what about non-mutant metahumans? Are the Fantastic Four next? Or Spider-Man? Or those humans who wield planet-wrecking levels of technology?

[blunderbuss]

Okay, good point about the Phoenix.

As for muta-humans, this is why I think that the X-Men ultimately don't work in the shared Marvel universe precisely for the reasons you brought up. Should meta-humans be under the same scrutiny? Of course. But for some weird meta-logic reason they never are.

As for super-technology, that was covered in Civil War and was exactly why it had so much potential. So yes, all people with potential devastating power can cause massive collateral damage and it's not evil to want something to be done about it. The evil comes in with the methods.

[sadoeuphemist]

???

How on earth do you go from arguing that mutants are a threat to humanity and that the X-Men "create risks," to saying that anti-mutant prejudice doesn't make sense in the Marvel universe? They just use the same logic you did!

[blunderbuss]

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what's confusing here? Persecuting mutants is a part of their entire theme as outcasts. Persecuting meta-humans is a special comic event that's brought up once and never mentioned again. So when people asked me why mutants get the 'threat to humanity' label and not meta-humans, comic book meta-logic is why. So I'm not sure how Glove used my logic when they don't realize they're in a comic book that's subject to a lot of contradictory logic.

[sadoeuphemist]

No, here's what you said to me:

"There's dozens of mutants who accidentally became threats to people around them when their power manifested. Hell, in the TV series Storm would occasionally have a fit because of her claustrophobia and she was fully trained. When you've got people with the powers to move continents but are still capable of even accidental mass slaughter, humanity has a big fucking problem.[...]

Meanwhile, supervillains are threats because they choose to be and have entirely different causes other than 'being born'. And hey, they DO have a solution for supervillains; people like the Avengers."

That's not meta-logic, you said that mutants are threats because they are born that way and their powers can manifest unpredictably. Metahumans/mutates must first gain their power from an external source (radioactive spiders, cosmic radiation, generalized technology) and don't share the same problems.

[sadoeuphemist]

"Sometimes mutants will have their powers go out of control and kill people" is not equivalent to "mutants are an invasive species that will eventually destroy the ecosystem." The first recognizes that mutants will have special needs in managing their powers. The second tries to paint mutants as a whole as a problem. Scarlet Witch needs help managing her powers, this is self-evident whether you recognize her as a mutant or not. But so does the Hulk, a genetically baseline human who got zapped by gamma radiation. Meanwhile, a guy like Beak isn't going to have his powers spiral out of control any time soon. Trying to paint the problem as mutants in general is ridiculous, when what you're really talking about is power levels and control, issues which are not in the least limited to mutants.

The IBSS are talking about genetic profiling, while Hank Pym accidentally invented a malicious AI that's tried to subdue humanity a dozen times over. It is absolutely bigoted to try and frame this as a mutant problem.

Also how on earth do you blame mutants for the Phoenix Force, it is a cosmic entity that shows up on its own accord and mutants have no way of controlling it.

[blunderbuss]

"Sometimes mutants will have their powers go out of control and kill people" is not equivalent to "mutants are an invasive species that will eventually destroy the ecosystem."

You're right, but I was specifically addressing the potential bigotry of noticing mutants are a threat to people. The idea that they're an introduced species is an entirely different kettle of fish.

It is absolutely bigoted to try and frame this as a mutant problem.

You've got an excellent point and you're right. But like I said to icon_uk despite the fact that it's entirely logical to cover meta-humans and aliens under the same umbrella, and that I think any discussion about potential threats should include them, they never will because of the bizarre Marvel universe logic. That's why I'm conflicted as to whether it's truly bigoted or not; making mutants the only problem is unfair, but we all know that the X-Men live in their own pocket universe whenever it's convenient and thus subject to different rules. Sort of like how I don't try to think of Batman as incompetent for not snapping the Joker's neck already. I try not to blame characters for following comic book rules.

As for the Phoenix Force, it's not their FAULT that it's drawn to them, but even Scott has said that it seems only to show up because they're there. But I guess that considering the topic, that is unfairly blaming them. I take that part back.

[md84]

Given the number of times mutants and other superhumans have saved humanity from extinction, it could be argued that their powers are a boon to the human race as well as a threat. Double edged sword really.

And frankly, someone like the Red Skull even without stolen psychic powers is a much bigger threat to human life than mutants could ever be.

[deepspaceartist]

Well if you want to count the mutants saving humanity as a good thing, you have to discount all the near extinctions caused by other mutants.

If you remove all the problams caused by mutants in the first place, the X-men do not exactly have a long list of achievements.

[icon_uk]

I was with him up until the "Well, you may be a murdering Nazi bastard guilty of more war crimes than there are names for, and with more blood personally on your hands than most countries entire armed forces put together, but someone else can deal with the imminent and vast threat that you present to countless innocent people because I'm worried about my future."

Sort him out THEN take the cure, the Red Skull is NOT a "grey area" villain. He's a monster, and yes Davey, you may end up being a bigger monster, but if you can change the future enough to avert your own disaster, try averting HIS future first.

[lilacsigil]

Goes double for the Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor who should have a fairly good idea of the kind of things the Red Skull likes to do. I hope they're not forgetting the non-mutant part of his parentage.

[captainbellman]

He is very much in the wrong here, as regards the story - trying to choose the easy way out. On the other hand, given his pro-active approach through the rest of the book, it could easily be a Cunning Plan.

[md84]

If the cure is just a simple pill, there's really no reason Legion can't just rip Xavier's brain out of the Red Skull to depower him before popping the pill.

On another note, it's kind of weird that three major villains in Marvel's NOW run have become creepy ghouls. Red Skull ripped out a guy's brain and fused it with his own. Loki manipulated his own child self into erasing himself so he could take over. Doc Ock swapped minds with Peter and left Peter to die in his own broken body.

[icon_uk]

If the cure is just a simple pill, there's really no reason Legion can't just rip Xavier's brain out of the Red Skull to depower him before popping the pill.

Well, yes there really is, since he'd be facing down the Red Skull, who now has the brain of the world's most powerful telepath backing him up and that would make any confrontation really complicated and tough.

[captainbellman]

The cure is essentially massive brain damage - other "volunteers" who took it were left in a child-like state, and in one case incontinent. If he took the pill after defeating the Skull, it would leave him as a mindless child, surrounded by people in an unmoving vegetative state.

[md84]

Except Legion doesn't mind that outcome. He'd rather be a vegetable than a world wrecking abomination.

[captainbellman]

What I'm saying is that if he defeats the skull, he'll not just be a vegetable - in anything between a couple of hours and a couple of days, he'll be a dead vegetable. And probably have doomed a whole bunch of other people around him to the same state.

[md84]

I keep forgetting. How powerful is Legion compared to Xavier?

[icon_uk]

IIRC as a telepath, he's strong, but not as powerful as Charles.

On the other hand Davey has, amongst other things, multiple personality disorder (Which would make a telepath's life hell) and a vast array of mutant powers which his other selves can access.

[shadowpsykie]

Loki manipulated his own child self into erasing himself so he could take over.

Loki is alittle less creepy because lil loki is kinda sorta still alive in him. (it's complicated)

[namey]

Bandwidth fail?

[captainbellman]

Eh, nothing a little old-file-deleting can't fix. Should be back up soon...

Update: Fix'd!

[md84]

It's actually kind of comforting to know that this whole thing is a Red Skull plot. The idea of perfectly decent and well-meaning friendly people honestly believing that turning other human beings into vegetables is a good thing is way creepier.

[theflames]

The covers are brilliant.

[long_silence]

Best part of an amazing series

[spidermanwashere]

The whole series is brilliant

[thanekos]

I like how Legion has this whole page of " I don't care about you, I'm here for me " and Red Skull's just grinning at him on the next one.

It's like " Right back atcha, kid, right back atcha ".

[sindra]

Bandwidth went down again. =/