[To]X-Men: Magneto Gives A Speech, Apocalypse Eats Gazpacho In X-Men #4

Magneto, Apocalypse, and Xavier have lunch with diplomats, while Cyclops and Gorgon ensure to harm comes to them in Jonathan Hickman, Lenil Francis Yu, Sunny Gho, and the late Gerry Alanguilan’s X-Men #4.

Chris Eddleman: Rob, even after the miss that was the last issue of this book, I’ve been craving some X-Men. The main book has experienced some delays which are putting you and me sadly behind. And since we moved straight from weekly coverage of HoXPoX into coverage of X-Men, I’m starving for content after a whole entire month. Plus, I am incapable of lying about this—I’m excited about this issue since seeing it in solicits. Mutants at an economic conference? Political intrigue? Apocalypse in a suit? Let’s do it.

Robert Secundus: Apocalypse in a suit calmly discussing his role in plunging humanity into darkness while sipping on a spoonful of habanero-infused gazpacho is literally all I want from comic books all the time. So yeah, I have also been looking forward to this issue.

Mutants On the Big Stage

CE: In general, this issue reminds me a lot of the Magneto section of House of X #1, almost to the point of repeating a few beats from that. Not quite though. First of all, the mutants arrive via VTOL-style aircraft instead of a gateway, leaving Switzerland, the location of this conference and in fact, the entire issue, as a neutral nation yet again. Considering the dangers that humanity has posed thus far, they arrive rather light, eh Rob?

RS: Well, seemingly light, to the humans—only two bodyguards, though we soon see that they pack a heavier ordinance than is apparent. Really, the only person I felt was missing here was Emma (though her absence is forgiven, given the great Emma Content in Marauders this week).

So, this was in some ways a breather issue, a quiet issue—mostly it was devoted to a dinner party where three characters talk to world leaders about the economy. It was, by a long shot, my favorite issue of X-Men so far. Chris, what did you think of their conversation?

CE: I really enjoyed this issue as well. It’s pretty rare to get a superhero comic with this much “talking heads” but, this is kind of Yu’s strong point? In our reviews, I often call his art “static” but, he get some really excellent craggy stern faces in this book that really show off his style. I liked that Magneto got to do most of the talking with Charles chiming in as an occasional benevolent figure, and Apocalypse just imposing over the entire proceedings. This is an extension of the “We are your gods now” Magneto, right?

RS: Yeah, there’s a straight line from the Magneto we saw in HoX #1 to the present. I think that framing—the new Gods—is clearer than ever in this scene, where they aren’t (for the most part) doing anything other than sitting, eating, and talking—and yet there is such an immensity, a presence, surrounding each one of them. Even Charles’, as you put it, benevolence is tinged with, if not menace, some kind of frightening power. He still has a dream of harmony, but now he knows how to impose it. If they’re gods, Charles may be benevolent, may be offering grace—but it’s not the sort of grace the limited, human will can resist.

CE: It’s not even an offer that can be refused, it’s not even an offer. Magneto and crew are laying out the indisputable terms that Krakoa’s existence imposes, and tells all the others to deal with it. Rightfully, the humans are terrified with the possible exception of the Wakandan attache. He also isn’t aware of the foul play we’ll discuss in a moment. I think this has a two-fold purpose. He needs to be from another advanced nation, and as such understand the unique position that Krakoa is in as ridiculously advanced power, and also he needs to be a good guy. Marvel, especially in the past year, has positioned Wakanda as “good guys” especially in titles like Avengers. Meanwhile though, the big economic powers are not amused by Magneto throwing his weight around, which leads to some trouble.

RS: Before we move on, I do think it’s important to emphasize one more time that they are specifically economic powers here. This issue makes for a nice companion piece to The Black Monday Murders, and, I think (and I’m very aware I’m making assumptions about a series which is extremely unfinished) expresses both the same problems and solutions to global capitalism. The problem: it’s a monstrous enterprise, an evil system, controlled by cruel people. The solution: people seizing power over that monstrous system for themselves. We’ll see what control of that system does to these men and their souls in the future, I assume. [Ed. note: The X-Men said “eat the rich” and I’m here for it.]

Fighting in Suits

CE: Because we can’t have the humans simply concerned about the economic reality of a super pharma provider with portals to every nation on Earth, we have actual physical bad guys to fight. Finally, though, our mutants are prepared. It seems like throughout Dawn of X, we’ve had a bunch of moments where even though mutants are immortal and powerful, they seem to get surprise-attacked all of the time. It’s nice to see them on top here.

RS: Absolutely. I didn’t love the opening arc of X-Force, but that arc established the sense that, for a few weeks, the X-Men were kind of floundering with this whole running-a-nation business, which made this feel so much more fun, seeing them finally come to the table prepared. And you know what? I love superheroes in suits. I love Cyclops running around blasting people in a coat and tie. I love a suit-wearing samurai. More superheroes in suits please. Costumes are cool, but so are outfits.

CE: It gives it a more spy thriller, kind of Mission Impossible vibe to have everyone in their dress clothes rather than superhero suits. It codifies the genre of this issue artistically. It’s a very smart choice that really makes great use of the medium. Plus they fight “quietly” in hallways between panels of Magneto eating his dinner. It’s not as sinister, but reminded me a bit of the climax of The Godfather.

RS: I also gotta say, there seems to be a mandate at Marvel that every issue of their comics must involve a fight scene. [Ed. note: The first superhero title was Action Comics and that mindset has never gone away.] And you know what? This issue is textbook how to a mandated fight scene not just not distract from the actual good stuff in the issue, but elevate it. The fight scene is used kind of like the text pages: it helps establish the pace of the issue, and also serves as a nice visual parallel or contrast to the plot as it proceeds.

The Dark Age

RS: The discussion of Dark Ages brought for me one of the most interesting thematic additions to this ongoing story as well as one of the most fun moments so far—but it also set off one of my major pet peeves. Chris, there is a reason why the term “Dark Ages” has fallen out of favor among Medieval Historians, and it’s not out of fear of offending King Arthur, should he emerge from the cave where he lay sleeping, healing, and lead Brittain again. No, it’s because it’s a reductive term born out of Enlightenment era Classicism Worship and I WON’T STAND FOR IT! The Middle Ages were a time of strife, suffering, chaos—but also a time of beautiful architecture, poetry, even scholarship. Where does superstition end and science begin? Well, you can draw a line from folks like Ockham and Bacon back on down to Albertus Magnus and his magical robot head. OK. Rant over. Chris, what did you think of this turn in the conversation?

CE: Well, first off, I completely agree with you. It’s also a very Eurocentric term but, Magneto has often spoken in that fashion before. There are a FEW things that Europe lost from Roman times but, honestly people act like we’d have interstellar colonies if Rome hadn’t fallen. Anyway, Magneto bringing up humanity’s cycle of destroying themselves over and over again was a pretty great burn. It also leads to the conclusion of Magneto’s argument: that mutantkind is going to stop war by owning the world, in no uncertain terms. Plus, we get the knowledge that Apocalypse ended the Bronze Age (which frankly to me is more of a Dark Age than the actual Dark Age).

RS: That panel—what a perfect panel. What a perfect moment. We could get a miniseries documenting the first time Apocalypse broke the world—or it could never be mentioned again. And either way it would still be great. On a broader level, I like that we’ve introduced the idea of historical cycles to this story. Not because I think they’re a good way of looking at history—I think a lot of Bad Stuff gets justified by this kind of thinking [Ed. note: go see Heroes of the Fourth Turning, for example], but because we began this new era by breaking the idea of a cycle, of the X-Men story, and forging a new path (in part literally through the power of a woman who cycles through her life and has to find a way to break that cycle if she wants any of the good she does to stick). But are Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse just going to be stuck now in a bigger cycle? Now that they’ve elevated themselves to this level, are they going to be able to break out of this bigger story?

CE: I think if you ask Moira—probably not. At the end of HoXPoX, we saw a lot of uncertainty on her part. However, that is the mission statement that we are getting, underscored by a moment where we finally see Charles’s face under Cerebro. Sorry, lots of fan theories getting dashed! It’s tough to see if this is going to end in tragedy for our heroes but, delivering a vicious economic and rhetorical smackdown to their former oppressors while two of their combatants wreck several squads of surprise attack soldiers was a necessary victory in a title that has been slowly introducing ideas and foes with little victories as of yet.

I thoroughly enjoyed this issue of X-Men, our slight Dark Age quibbles aside. The story is still continuing in a one-shot style but, I think this was an important touchstone of story as we move forward. We get mutantkind’s full strategy and ultimate endgame, delivered soliloquy-style by the most arch member of mutantkind. The moment towards the end with the shot of Cerebro (definitely trying to be an instant classic panel already) and the rebuke of the actions of humankind (even the “good ones”) was a fantastic touch. I like to see our mutants on top especially after being wrecked by some botanists in the last issue. Granted, you should not mess with botanists. Economists maybe, but not botanists.

RS: Again, this was my favorite issue of X-Men so far. I also think it’s one I’m going to be coming back to a lot. It really felt like it was not just reiterating but also expanding how this story sees things like oppression and power. That final rebuke you mention especially—I imagine that speech will echo darkly into future issues.

X-Traneous Thoughts

Thrilled that we as humans won’t have to figure out how to pronounce Apocalypse’s mutant name, which is an abstract character
That’s the second Huxley shoutout in an X-Men comic this year! (The previous being in Age of X-Man: Omega)
Gorgon as the silent but lethal protector of the Autumn Council is a very cool idea.
We see that the Commanders represent factions of Krakoa
Ilyana as the Commander of the youth is also very good. I hope we get to see some of that soon.
“I cannot be killed. Not like that…and not by the likes of you”
Rob saw Cats (2019) on Christmas and he cannot stop thinking about Cats (2019) but he could not find a way to smoothly integrate this triumph, this torment into the article so just know that he thinks Gorgon is the most Cats (2019)-like character of this issue’s cast and Scott is the second most (they are Mungojerry and Rumpleteezer, respectively).
Krakoan reads: Serafina [Ed. note: AHHHHHHHHHH]
Last week we lost inker Gerry Alanguilan. Let us remember him the way he’d want to be remembered.