X-Corp #5: Closing Costs

[superboyprime]

"That’s one of the core concepts in X-Corp, that mutants don’t have to operate on the same scarcity level as humans. Mutants are abundant, they’re expansive, they’re becoming their own fourth-dimensional organism — they don’t have to deny their receptionist a raise to give the CEO what he wants. That’s real power." - Tini Howard

Comments

[onsokumaru]

I can understand Selene. She is a proud genocide artisan, working hard with her own hands (and her slave's), so cold, industrial genocide is what she would despise the most.

[numeronone]

Even when it comes to genocide, remember to buy organic.

[jlbarnett]

an Exiles version of her undid a Kulan Gath world conquest cause she preferred modernity

[alliterator]

She likes her kills to be personal and up close. She also remembers everyone she's ever killed (having absorbed their memories, too).

[shakalooloo]

Uh, it's not scarcity that makes the CEO get bonuses while his secretaries remain dirt-poor. If they wanted to, they could totally shift around some of that profit.

[tinygaylaura]

Yep

I mean "Scarcity" in relation to business/money is a fictional concept so of course it isn't

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, read that and thought of empty grocery shelves and footage of farms destroying perfectly good food.

HUMANS don’t have to operate on the same scarcity level as humans

[lordultimus]

Okay, too problems with that quote. First, as mentioned above, super-mega corps don't really have to worry about that (particularly since many CEO's continue to give themselves bonuses even as their company falls into debt). Secondly, if Krakoa really has fourth dimensional resources, this just begs the question as to why are they operating on the rules of capitalism if they're really doing this to help people. (Sure, the real point is making humans dependent on them, but it seems to me that it'd be even easier to do that if they just set up free clinics with "screw the rules, I have superpowers" as their backup.)

[tinygaylaura]

They're operating on the rules of capitalism because that's how the world operates. Mutantkind have influence in the human world now but they aren't its rulers. They don't get to say "Capitalism is over now because we said so"

And mutantkinds goals aren't "Helping people" their goals are helping mutantkind. Capitalism is a useful tool to achieve that goal especially as it can make for a very effective choke chain for anti-mutant humans who need to be taught to behave themselves. It's impossible to stop bigots being bigots but it is possible to bankrupt companies run by bigots, use financial influence to make sure bigots never hold any kind of position of power and so on. All of which are methods I greatly approve of

[deh_tommy]

Selene calling the Struckers out for being nazis and industrialising genocide has the same energy as Doctor Doom crying over 9/11. Heck, the Struckers aren’t really saying or doing much different than our “heroes” have done in both this book and beyond, how come they’re given special attention?

Oh hey, they finally gave not-Symmetra a name! Kind of weird they do that now considering everyone’s supposed to have shirked off their human names and Fabian Cortez was shamed for keeping his real name, but progress is progress.

[tinygaylaura]

"Heck, the Struckers aren’t really saying or doing much different than our “heroes” have done in both this book and beyond"

That statement is quite clearly completely false

Nothing that any of the characters we're meant to see as heroes have done, in this book or any other X-book for that matter, is in any way comparable to being a literal nazi, which is what the Struckers are.

Hell not even most of the characters we're meant to see as villains and assholes are in any way comparable to the nazis. As much of a prick as Beast is and as evil as Sebastian Shaw might be neither of them are on the same level of absolute evil as a nazi is

Saying that mutantkinds actions are in any way comparable to the nazis is like saying there's no difference between Fred Rogers and John Wayne Gacy

[gnarll]

It is in character for Selene.

Just because shes seventeen thousand years old does not mean she enjoys wiping her ass with nettles. Shes always been quite open on the fact that she likes civilization. Creature comforts and some freedom of action for a woman. Rome was the best place she'd ever known.

I can quite see that she'd consider conquering warlords total spoilsports.

Personally, I think she should be Krakoas supporter number one. Its got everything she likes in the world, to a greater degree than seen previously, and she can be open about the lifeforce thing and get it on tap. Also, its new. New should go a long way with her.

[onsokumaru]

Yeah, I remember that time Unuscione, the Kleinstock Bros, Frenzy and some Acolytes decided to do some genetic cleansing by murdering a whole bus of human children. There was a mutant kid among them and at first they wanted to spare him, but then they realized he had down syndrome and tried to "remove" him from mutantkind's gene pool.
You can difficulty do more nazi than that.

[crabby_lioness]

Same objection a swordsman has to an AK-47.

[alliterator]

"Selene calling the Struckers out for being nazis and industrialising genocide has the same energy as Doctor Doom crying over 9/11."

Not really. Again: Selene likes to kill people up close and personal and absorb not only their life force, but also their memories. She literally remembers everyone she's ever killed. So to her, industrialized genocide would be abhorrent.

[silverhammerman]

I feel like the details of Madrox's powers tend to get a little fuzzy, but how is it that Madrox Prime just gets resurrected by the Five when he dies and the dupes have been doing stuff in his absence? I thought it was that either another dupe became the new prime, or all of the dupes simply died along with him.

Still disappointed that this series didn't end with the dupes unionizing (or indeed displaying any characteristic besides being a weirdly enthusiastic servant caste), and overall I'm getting the strong impression from these pages that this series was poorly served by not being a part of the initial wave of Dawn of X titles. Not only was the whole floating island thing completely overshadowed by the terraforming of Mars, but these ideas would have made more sense being explored in the immediate fallout of Krakoa's debut.

I'd get into the weird politics of this book re: representation, commerce, etc, but I think it's clear that everyone is pretty set in their opinions at this point.

Also, Mastermind is 100% torturing that guy. Making someone believe that they're falling to their death for hours on end is extremely close to the stated intent of waterboarding, which creates the sensation that someone is drowning.

[tinygaylaura]

In the immortal words of Ronald "Mac" Macdonald: "Screw that old ****, he's a nazi"

[beyondthefringe]

In the MU, flying islands aren't even anything remotely exceptional. Not when artificial islands are commonplace, Asgard itself floated over Oklahoma, flying aircraft carriers crash on a weekly basis, and so forth. And of course that's not even counting Mars.

Honestly, the entire "we made a flying island headquarters" should have been met with a resounding "And so?"

[nyadnar17]

"...they don’t have to deny their receptionist a raise to give the CEO what he wants"

What's even the point of writing about a Corporation if you are just gonna side-step the basic economic realities. If the story isn't about the trade offs we make and the consequences of those trade offs then this might as well be Future Foundation or something. Thats not a Corporation, thats a charitable org with a magic unlimited budget.

[erikred]

"What's even the point of writing about a Corporation if you are just gonna side-step the basic economic realities."

Perhaps the point is to write aspirationally about the sort of Corporation one wishes we had rather than the sort of late-stage capitalism cesspool that many modern corporations seem to be. Consider Iain Banks' books The Business and The Steep Approach to Garbadale, where the author attempts to posit a corporation that doesn't simply maximize profits over social responsibility.

Ultimately, if it goes in the right, altruistic direction, mutant capitalism will simply be like the basis of Star Trek's Federation economy.

[beyondthefringe]

Instead of recruiting mutants with actual experience and qualifications for running a corporation, they went for people like Mastermind, whose entire resume consists of "instigated the Dark Phoenix Saga before dying of the Legacy Virus" and Selene, an immortal bondage vampire who spent hundreds of years playing pretend Roman goddess before coming to New York.

Warren is best known for running his own corporation into the ground, letting anti-mutant zealots get control of his fortune, and/or being a metal-winged kill-monster. And Monet... *shrug*

Literally the only bar this corporation set for joining was "don't be a Nazi."

Still less evil than many real world corporations.

[deh_tommy]

Sure, you can have committed the same crimes as (or worse crimes than) the nazis with similar if not identical ideals to the nazis (if not embodying them outright) and actually worked with literal nazis or nazi-adjacent groups, but actually identifying yourself as a nazi? Who do you think we are?

[arilou_skiff]

I think Warren makes sense, he might not like, be the most competent guy, but give him some competent sidekick and I am sure the rich WASP-itude that is his secret second superpower can smooth over a lot.

But yeah, the others makes no sense. I mean, i guess they are all Hellfire Club members so they probably have *some* corporate experience, but it's still a weird melange of people.

[zachbeacon]

This is such a criminal waste of Madrox. I hope Jamie stays on the farm with his wife and kid this time.

[blues32]

Okay, I'm confused. How did Warren go from Angel to Archangel again? I thought the death seed was removed from him.

How do they not have some form of surveillance on the Strucker twins? ...then again, they don't bother with Sinister either. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Still...they're LITERAL nazis! Their old man helped found modern day HYDRA! They do know they don't need to resurrect EVERY mutant, right? More will be born and they can keep bringing back the ones they already have. Their power isn't even useful. There's no excuse.

Aaaand the company slogan makes me hate X-Corp even more. Stop saying it, start BEING it! You can start by not engaging in acts of torture and not hiring Nazis. I mean, most human corporations wouldn't hire the Struckers.