The Master of Magnetism gets a staring role as Ramón Pérez, Jonathan Hickman, and David Curiel continue this unpleasantness of building a nation.
Stephanie Burt: Hi, Ian! What do you think Magneto’s up to on his own? We haven’t seen a solo adventure from him since X-Men Black. Are we gonna get Broody Melancholy Survivor, or Loquacious Ex-Villain Turned Leader? I’m expecting the latter. (So is Charles.)
Ian Gregory: My frame of reference for Magneto in all of Dawn of X is his first speech in House of X #1, so I’m expecting Magnanimous Mutant Master Magneto. These Giant Sized issues have been pretty delightful showcases for both the artist and the character, so I’m really looking forward to how this pans out.
SB: That is some lovely curvilinear everything-looks-a-little-metallic art where the comic sets the scene at the beginning. Pérez and company come closer to Byrne than most other present-day X-artists.
IG: Pérez is almost certainly flexing on us, and demonstrating just how wide his range is. We go from beautiful island landscapes to Emma’s hyper-geometric palace to the squiggly horror of underwater ruins.
SB: The seascapes and the underwater black space just look so good. I want the exteriors in my own daily life drawn by Ramón Pérez and colored by David Curiel, except that then they’d give off an air of menace. So maybe not.
IG: Check out the cloudy sky on the page where Magneto finishes constructing Emma’s island for a perfect mood-setting background. I love the way the clouds whip against the screentone, and Magneto unleashes a powerful T-Pose over the island. We know that the artists got to pick the character they wanted to draw, and I suspect Pérez wanted an opportunity to draw Magneto showing off his powers.
SB: I did not know the artists could pick them! That makes sense. If you draw Magneto you get shiny armor, shiny metal, crystals if you want them (Pérez must have wanted them), plus rocks, water, air, and a guy who can fly. (You also get someone with a standard adult male physique.)
Magneto, Island Connoisseur
SB: Magneto has been collecting islands for a while. Hickman knows the character, and unlike some other key players on Krakoa, he doesn’t need an about-face or a change of worldview to live in the new paradigm: it’s his dream, when he’s at his best. And while I kind of hate white = good guy, dark = bad guy color codes (because racism), that’s how Magneto has historically chosen his wardrobe. His present-day whites are the whites he wore when he brought Kitty (now Kate) back from Whedon’s Giant Phallus [Ed. note: space bullet] in Uncanny X-Men #522. He believes he’s a good guy now.
IG: I think it’s a funny contrast to Emma, who has always worn white out of a purely aesthetic consideration, whereas Magneto wears outfits like a mood ring.
SB: And he makes sense as a focus for stories about the future of Krakoa, about the Krakoan ideology, in a way that Kurt or Pixie or Bishop would not. Not all Krakoa-era stories have to be stories about Krakoa, no more so than all stories set in the US have to be stories about what makes Americans American! But if you’re going to tell a story about Krakoa, Magneto makes sense as a focus.
That said, I don’t think Emma does anything out of a purely aesthetic consideration– she literally always knows how other people see her, and I do think she cares; but she’s got a color code that’s part of her brand, and varies other things (like how much skin she shows, and pants vs gowns vs skirts) depending on the situation. Magneto varies his colors and keeps other aspects of his costume the same.
IG: I like the pairing of Magneto and Emma here, who are two of the biggest powers on Krakoa, both literally and politically. Magneto has something of an ego problem, so it’s always interesting to see how he treats the people around him. He clearly sees Emma as something of an equal, considering the lengths he is willing to go for a favor, and offers Namor much of the same treatment. Perhaps Magneto is simply feeling magnanimous, but he shows some genuine affection for Emma in this series.
SB: He’d better see Emma as an equal now. –When did Emma cut her hair short? She’s fetching as always but that’s a new look for her. Also I’m pretty sure Hickman knows what he’s doing when she asks Erik to “top me off.” I take it she has Scott’s permission.
IG: Magneto looks pretty fresh in his conversation with Emma too. It just occurred to me that Krakoa may provide yet another solution for the eternal Magneto Out-aging His Origins problem – sure he’s actually 90 to 100 years old, but he was just resurrected on Krakoa younger (of course, Magneto would actually have to die at some point, but hey, that’s nothing unusual for him).
Namor Arrives, Screws Things Up
SB: The puffins and skuas, the rocky outcropping overlooking the shiny and turbulent ocean: comics landscape art at its finest. I wonder what Moira thinks, since we’re in the Faroes, which aren’t Scottish but look like some parts of Scotland (they are Danish).Also, well-researched Euro locations in X-Comics are another Claremontism. Is that guy related to Angus McWhirter (the redshirt pilot of Uncanny X-Men #104)?
IG: This whole issue feels like a bit of a callback to Magneto’s old Bermuda Island/Island M from Uncanny X-Men. There seems to be some level of disagreement online about whether Island M from the Silver Age comics is the same as Bermuda Island from the Claremont Comics, but if they’re separate that would mean Magneto found two different islands covered in demonic statues and buildings, which, I mean, you do your thing Magneto. [Ed. note: He’s cultivating a specific vibe Ian]
SB: Hey, it’s King-but-also-Prince Namor! He brings a kind of over-the-top Silver Age vibe to every comic in which he appears: he even says “Bah!”. He has no respect for Magneto but he does remember when he dated, or rather had an affair with, Emma. That’s from the Utopia era; he helped build and stabilize Utopia, too. So he’s hardly a stranger to “mutants need you, King of Atlantis!” And he’s said yes before.
IG: Namor, Magneto, and Islands go all the way back to X-Men #6 (1964), where Namor accidentally led Professor X to Island M. Then, as you say, there was the Utopia Era (yet another island) where Namor, Magneto, and Emma were all part of Gillen’s X-Men. I think Namor must be a lot of fun to write, because it’s an opportunity to have the biggest, most pompous jerk parade around on page. It’s fun to watch him punch things; it’s fun to watch him be punched. Namor and Magneto, two kings of a sort, make for an odd couple in these adventures and it’s fun to watch Magneto play the straight man to Namor’s outrageousness.
SB: Is Krakoa, the nation, like Atlantis, the nation? Does Namor think they’re parallel? Is Namor the old paradigm, the personal ruler, the snooty king, whereas Magneto at this point in his long career wants to take part in the new paradigm, a mutant nation with a council, where no one individual is in charge?
IG: Namor has sat on the periphery of the DoX comics, and I like keeping him outside Krakoa to use as a contrast. In the seminal 2019 series Major X [Ed. note: please do not read this], Rob Liefeld sort-of-accidentally created his own version of Krakoa-before-Krakoa, and their only remaining enemy was Namor and his Atlanteans. Atlantis, a mythical, fantastical nation ruled by a king who is king because he is literally the strongest, definitely provides a natural comparison point to Krakoa. Atlantis is constantly wreaked by civil wars and half-baked surface invasion plans. It’s interesting to see if Krakoa will learn from their mistakes, or if they will repeat them and Namor will resurface to point and laugh.
SB: There’s also a Namor-saves-mutants plot in New Exiles (2008), #2-6, but no one except me cares about New Exiles, I fear. That was in another dimension, and besides, those mutants are dead.
IG: Didn’t do a very good job then, did he?
Anglerfisher King
SB: Are the undersea deeps with their tentacle monsters going to be a venue for simple horror, Lovecraft-style? Surely not, though the kraken makes it seem so. And indeed, beyond the kraken, there are mermaids-Fates-cephalopods-mystery ladies, superintending a parody Grail quest.
IG: This is certainly a lovingly rendered Kraken, by the way. They definitely lampshade the Lovecraftian nature of this sort of adventure (“It’s always a kraken”) but I appreciate that we get a twist here. The Question scene highlights the differences between Magneto’s ego and Namor’s ego – Namor is the kind of king who cannot wait, and who always acts on his instinct (for how could it be wrong?). Magneto, on the other hand, has grown accustomed to waiting a very long time for things to go his way, and gets to make his choice after Namor gets facehugged by a cephalopod.
SB: I love the idea that an educated mutant knows enough to resist a proffered binary choice: so often (except in US elections) there’s a third option that’s better than both. In this case the third option seems to destroy the cephalo-Fates’ power source. That works at the level of plot, but what’s the metaphor? What should Erik’s choice mean?
IG: For me, it’s partly the rejection of the Magneto/Professor X duality – the “good” mutant or the “bad” mutant. It’s the Krakoan choice – to not accept whatever choices society provides and to go your own way.
It’s also a choice made based on survival – clearly, the key that Magneto ends up with has some significance or power. He didn’t choose it based on that, however, and doesn’t care what it does. This is why my first thought in this scene was the Honest Woodcutter. Magneto isn’t here for ancient Atlantean artifacts, and ignores them where offered. Magneto is here because he wants to get out of here alive with Namor so Emma can have her island. That he ends up with the key is the result of his good choices, and gives Magneto a nice little time bomb that will surely come into play later.
SB: Grail quests attract Fisher Kings, wounded rulers of wounded nations, who make the right choices in the feminized mystery cave in order to heal themselves and make their nations whole. Does Erik do that? Does he– does Emma– want this island as an extension of Krakoan territory, more room to house more mutants? Or is Emma building a trap?
Either way, why does Magneto put the head of a disassembled Sentinel into what looks otherwise like a mega-modern mutant conference center? Was it on the ship? Did he just have it lying around?
IG: I was struggling with what Emma could be planning here. I think it’s important to note that this isn’t an island made of Krakoa, and it’s far, far away from where Krakoa actually is. Krakoa is for mutants; this place is for humans. I wouldn’t be surprised if this really is some sort of convention center for humans to come deal with Krakoans (especially given how Emma mentions human reactions to Krakoa), and I suspect the Sentinel head is something of a reminder: you tried to kill us, and this is what we did to your weapon.
SB: That makes sense. Other than “holding cells for humans who break Krakoan laws,” which would be depressing as fork, I don’t know what else it could be.
I’d still like to see Emma– who has a background in education– do something about Krakoan schools: either show us how “all are students, all our teachers” works in practice, or give the younger mutants the structure they need. Not that present-day Emma thinks very much about her school-management history: she’s got other concerns, involving adults.
Is that a digression? Maybe– but the last time Erik came to Emma for advice, he was trying to care for troubled teens. Granted that was a long, long time ago. But I’d love to see callbacks to the era when he was the teacher for the New Mutants, if we’re going to callback-land.
IG: My first instinct was that Emma was building a school as well, but an early Krakoan map showed they already had an education center on hand. Also, I know Emma’s made questionable educational decisions before, but I’m not sure about the optics of putting a big sentinel head on your school. [Ed. note: See The Sextant in New Mutants]
The Krakoan at the end, underneath the picture of Fantomex says –NEXT– FANTOMEX. I don’t know why he’d want to visit the Faroes: I was hoping he could use his skill set (grew up in a pocket dimension with sped-up time) to help Laura handle the Children of the Vault (who also grew up in a pocket, etc.) but previews suggests that the quasi-French guy with the extra brains will be in his own Giant-Size, and that he’ll be– perhaps alas– not in the Vault, but in The World.
IG: Remember when we thought the mutant paradise would be inside The World, and not Krakoa? Good times.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- More than the other Giant-Size issues, this one’s a rising action: it has the feel of a chapter one.
- Namor/Atlantis as the Quiet Council/Krakoa’s double and rival makes a lot of sense, both emotionally and in Earth-616 geopolitics.
- Namor’s armor specifically covers up everything but his abs. Good.
- Emma and Erik should really talk more.
- Saucier is exactly the kind of mutant I want to see more of; one without offensive powers.
- Keep your eyes peeled for a discussion about Magneto and kosher this week.
Ian Gregory is a writer and co-host of giant robots podcast Mech Ado About Nothing.
Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
