X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #2: An army to fight the humans

[starwolf_oakley]

ALL-NEW X-MEN #10 had Hank McCoy say, "He's putting an army together to fight the humans and he's using Xavier's name to do it." He was talking about present-day Cyclops to time-shifted young Cyclops.

X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM was a late 1999-early 2000 miniseries by Joe Casey and Steve Rude, a "take" on how Charles Xavier gathered the original X-Men together. Which was easy, since Scott, Hank and Bobby all went to the same high school.

And here's how those two things tie together. (With a reference to KINGDOM COME.)



A sniper tried to kill Hank McCoy during a football game. Bobby Drake was in the crowd. Hank did a super-leap to stop the sniper. Leading to confusion and the whole "My kids go to this school" worry from the parents.







To grab a quote from KINGDOM COME: "But you can't have a war without people dying."

I don't think the CHILDREN OF THE ATOM miniseries was referenced again, or seen as a big retcon on the X-Men's origins.

Comments

[wizardru]

I always interpreted it as an alternate take, not so much as the official version. It basically tied all their origins together in one narrative, from the original backup stories that ran in the early X-Men comics. I'm pretty sure it was never referenced as being canon or was almost immediately ignored/forgotten.

It was super, SUPER dark, as you can see here. It seemed a little like Casey and Rude were trying to affect a Moore/Gibbons Watchmen-esque feel, now that I see it again.

[thezmage]

Was Xavier wearing a black speedo, or swimming nude while his body creatively shaded his nether regions? Because it could go either way, I think.

[icon_uk]

A common secondary mutation is the low level manipulation of the Darkforce to prevent embarassment... or in come cases it manifests as a telekinetic ability to manipulate ambient water vapour to create small obscuring clouds or, if they have long hair, to ensure that nipples are covered, regardless of gravity or ambient windspeed.

[drtechnobabel]

So in other words, Cyclops is doing the exact same thing Xavier was doing here, only he's more open about his intentions. If this is still considered canon, it puts a whole new spin on the current X-Men run, doesn't it?

[freezer]

Continue not to be a fan of the "Xavier was secretly a Machiavellian dick the whole time" retcon. This does nothing to change that opinion, dubious continuity or no.

[starwolf_oakley]

Indeed. "Saint Charles" all the time wasn't needed, but they went overboard with the "Charles did a bad, bad thing" retcons.

At least the Spider-Man retcons limit themselves to "Ben Parker was really bad at his personal finances." (According to Dan Slott's LEARNING TO CRAWL, I think.)

[donnblake]

Huh. Y'know, Alphas, which was pretty X-menish to begin with, had a scene early in the first episode where an FBI agent visited the older scientist who had put together a team of super people, where the latter was swimming.

[icon_uk]

Alpha's had the intriguing hook as well that powers didn't always work the way they doing in comics... the guy with superstrength whose circulatory system isn't designed to cope with the stresses, or the woman with hypersenses who had to shut the rest of her senses down in order to be able to focus on the one that was required.

Fun show, rotten it got cancelled when it did.

[thezmage]

I loved Bill and his super powered panic attacks so much. I have rarely identified with a character as acutely as I did with him.

What that show needed was a Bill and Gary spinoff. There's still time, Syfy

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So why was the sniper after Hank? Because he was a mutant? It seems like he had that covered up well before the incident.

Or do some people in the Marvel U just take their high school athletics a bit too seriously?

[starwolf_oakley]

Hank saved Bobby from some bullies. One of the bullies decided to use a sniper rifle on Hank.

You can see why some say AMERICAN HISTORY X had a strong influence on this story. http://www.rachelandmiles.com/xmen/?p=221

[shadowpsykie]

hmmmm i am torn, like most people i had issue with "Saint Charles of the Atom" but got tired of him being a straight up dick. hell at least Magneto was honest...

but this interpretation (and first classes) don't bother me. he had good ideas, and good intentions, but he sucked at the execution (there is an interesting feminist analysis of X-Men First Class: Days of Future Past, that essentially states that the reason they were able to change things was that they taught Charles to respect women http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/05/x-men-days-of-future-past-saves-mutantkind-by-teaching-professor-x-to-respect-women .)

I like charles well meaning but flawed. I didn't mind him joining the Illuminati because it made sense (it sucked that i don't think there was ever any reprocussions from that) but there were other things he did that just DID NOT seem like something charles would do...

[starwolf_oakley]

It must be difficult, trying to find the right level of Xavierdickery. Even Claremont did "Xavier treats the X-Men like they are still rookie teenagers" a few times.

Charles joining the Illuminati did lead to the Hulk invading the school during World War Hulk, just to ask "So, if you had been there, how would you have voted on the 'shooting me into space' issue?" I"m guessing there will be Illuminati fallout in the X-Men ORIGINAL SIN issues.