𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕙 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕤 𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕤 𝕐𝕠𝕦 ℂ𝕒𝕟 𝔹𝕦𝕪?: X-Men #6

Last issue, X-23, Darwin, and Synch were sent into a place called The Vault to investigate super-powered beings that are a potential threat to mutants. Within this place, time passes and an exponentially accelerated rate and these were the only ones thought to be able to survive. At the end of the issue, we learned that they were sent there months ago in actual time and that inside The Vault over five hundred years had passed. Cyclops then regrets allowing this to happen.

In this issue, Cyclops decides that enough is enough. Come hell or high water he’s getting X-23 or the others out of there. Xavier tells him that there’s no way he can survive, but Cyclops comes up with a plan. He, Wolverine, and Jean Grey will go in The Vault using a translocator that allows access along with Eva Bell who has control over time.  Since Eva Bell is key to the soulless cloning that Xavier calls resurrection Xavier is adamantly against this idea. This leads to a great moment where Cyclops says to Xavier “I wasn’t asking, I was informing you what IS going to happen”.  Xavier then grits his teeth in anger and puts his fingers to his forehead suggesting that he is about to use his mental powers on Cyclops. He attempts to do it but nothing happens. Bewildered Xavier tries again and that is when Jean enters the room…

She then says “it’s over, Charles. I’ve telekinetically disconnected you from Cerebro. So this is useless now”. Jean then uses her telekinesis to rip Cerebro off of Xavier’s head and smash it into the ground destroying it. Jean then says “at some point while most of us were trapped in the reality X-man created The Shadow King completely took over Krakao. Many of the plants here produce spores that make people easier to control. All the psychic energy after X-man’s reality crumbled left all of us with telepathic powers vulnerable and that’s when The Shadow King struck. He made up and entire alternate past for you where Moira MacTaggert was a mutant that lived multiple lives”. Then Wolverine enters the room and says “hate to break it to ya, Chuck, but she’s dead and she was never a mutant”.  He then lights a cigar and adds “good woman though”. Jean then continues with “through her, she controlled you and between you, Cerebro, and the Krakoan spores you controlled all of us. The Shadow King wanted to hurt you in the worst way possible… By making you kill your own dream and make humans hate us more than ever by creating this separatist island run by mutant terrorists”.

The sudden realization sends Xavier to his knees with tears streaming down his face. After several wordless panels, Xavier says “my God… What have I done”? Cyclops reaches down to his formal mentor to lift him up saying “it’s not your fault, sir. We’ve all been weak and vulnerable and strayed from the light… Before any of this, I have much to atone for myself”. Wolverine then chime in “the only way the three of us broke free was through how well you trained us. The stuff you instilled in us, Chuck… Ain’t no power, or spores, or machines that could break that. Lettin’ X-23 go in that damn Vault is what broke the spell for me.” Jean then says “…he forced me to kill people… That snapped me out of it”. Cyclops then add “treating students like cattle… sending them into that place for hundreds of years… That broke me. We can’t fix everything now… We can save Darwin, X-23, and Synch though”. Xavier now on his feet then asks them “what about the Quiet council and all the others”? Jean responds to him with “Forge is in on this too. He created a backup Cerebro that replicates your mind and Cerebro’s power. Everyone else will act as though they are still under your control until it is deactivated”. As the three leave Xavier, Cyclops says “soon it won’t matter”.

In the next scene, we see them along with Eva Bell as they enter The Vault. There’s page after page of incredible fighting that I don’t want to spoil as The X-men go further and further into The Vault while being attacked by The Vault’s “children” as they venture to rescue their comrades. Once they are found and secured Jean teary-eyed uses one of the Krakoa fast travel plants and uses her telekinesis to take everyone including the children of The Vault leaving only Cyclops there. Wolverine screams “no” and as the portal closes Cyclops destroys the plant with his optic blast. Before the portal closes fully, you see a telepathic bubble from Jean that simply says “I love you, Scott”. A voice from The Vault that seems to be The Vault itself asks how he isn’t rapidly aging to death. Cyclops then grins as he tells it “Apocalypse once used my body so now I’m using his”. Cyclops then turns into and Apocalypse-like version of himself. Cyclops holds something above his head and says “this is the heart of Krakoa. This is the life force of the largest mutant on the planet. We’re sorry we pushed people into creating you. Do not worry, your children will be taken care of and rehabilitated. As I destroy this and kill us both know that the threat of the mutant state you were created to stop ends as well”. He then rips the heart of Krokoa in half and he is slowly enveloped in white energy.

As this happens we see captions that end up being Xavier talking about Cyclops as he breaks ground on a new school. He describes Cyclops as his “first student” and an “a great leader, an extraordinary soldier, and an even greater man”. We then see Xavier outside of this new school with all the X-men and many other mutants around him. Xavier then ends his speech with “and so in his honor, I open this, a home for any mutant with no other place to go. A home that offers room, board, and elementary through University level education for any mutant and a place welcome to anyone who believes in peaceful co-existence. This will be the first of many… I formally welcome you to the Scott Summers’ House For The Extraordinary. I welcome all my students, former and new, to the “House Of X”.

… So if you’ve actually read X-Men 6 you’re probably like “okay this guy has finally lost it” and if you didn’t you probably were like “wait this doesn’t sound right”. No, this isn’t what happens in the issue. C’mon, you should know by now this series is just random stuff that doesn’t continue from the previous issue. I figured I’d write all that because this actual review is going to be pretty short because I already explained how the main part of the story to this issue doesn’t work. This issue follows up on the whole thing from Powers Of X #6 where Mystique wants Xavier and Magneto to bring back Destiny but Moira won’t let them. So I’m just going to copy and paste what I wrote there to explain why this doesn’t work. “We learn Moira faked her death to prevent the possibility of her being killed and undoing this timeline. A problem arises as Xavier and Magneto tell her that Mystique as part of the controlling council of Krakoa wants to use their nonsensical ability to bring mutants back to life on her former lover “Destiny”. Quite a few questions come to mind. Among those questions are these two:

1. Why the fuck do they need “Mystique”? There are other mutants with the ability to shape-shift. There are also telepaths who could make people think they look like someone else.
2. If she is needed, why don’t you just used telepathy to make her either forget “Destiny” or not want to bring her back? They obviously have no moral objection to doing things like this.

None of these questions are answered. They aren’t even thought of. “Moira” objects to bringing “Destiny” back because she could reveal that “Moira” is alive. What incentive would she have to do this though? She would probably agree with everything “Moira” is trying to do. Every other mutant seems to. Even very moral and religious characters like “Nightcrawler” are suddenly complete dickheads because this comic makes them be that. Look back at the dickish grin he has in the previous issue when he says “make more mutants” as they try to pass off this cheap cloning as resurrection”.

In this issue, we learn that when the X-men went into space to destroy Mother Mold (an thereby destroy Nimrod), Mystique planted one of Krakoa’s fast travel plants there. After she is brought back to life Xavier and Magneto send her through the portal and she discovers the Nimrod is still being built. Mystique had the opportunity to kill the scientist chick from House/Powers Of X that’s helping to build Nimrod but Mystique doesn’t so she can use that as leverage to force Xavier and Magneto to bring Destiny back to life. We then learn through a flashback that Destiny told Mystique that the whole Krakoa thing will happen and that if she isn’t brought back to life then she should destroy Krakoa. Destiny talks in riddles for no reason during this part but that’s the gist of it. Mystique in present time then goes to some secret area underground on Krakoa we see Destiny’s mask on some kind of rock-like mantle.

As you can see there’s not a lot to this issue and the fundamental conflict doesn’t work and makes no sense. There’s a new artist for this issue. He’s better than Lenlil Yu is but not as good as the artists from House/Powers Of X. The art is not great but above average overall. This probably deserves a C- but I’ll give it a C because Mystique wanting to destroy Krakoa now is interesting and it makes me want to see where that goes.

Recommendation: One Of The Lesser Books You Can Buy