Let's Talk About Powers Of X #5- SPOILERS

Hi, I’m David Harth, and this is our weekly Hickman’s X-Men pow wow. We’ll be looking at Powers Of X #5 in this one. You know, seeing as how it’s the issue that just came out and all. I mean, I think it would be cool if I could talk about comics that haven’t come out yet, but I’m not precognitive. Or particularly entertaining, so let’s get to the part where we talk about the comic and not just me rambling on, firing out some lame jokes.

So, when it comes right down to it, not very much happens in this issue. We learn how Cerebro got to be a machine that can download mutant minds. We learn about the Quiet Council, the Krakoan governing body, but most of the members of the group haven’t been revealed yet. We see that the only mutant to reject Xavier’s offer is Namor and his reasoning is, well, it’s very much Namor.

I know that Namor went more villainous in Avengers lately, but I stopped reading that book waaay back in issue 6 (I never thought I’d say this about a Jason Aaron book, but I just didn’t care about anything that was happening, and the book didn’t grab me at all), so I don’t know why. However, villain Namor and hero Namor are pretty much the same character- arrogant and condescending, sure of his superiority. The only difference is what he does. Hero Namor beats villains up while talking down to them. Villain Namor tries to invade the surface world and beats heroes up while talking down to them.

Namor is so great, and I will fight people who don’t think so. And while I’m doing it, I will talk down to the people I’m fighting in honor of him.

Anyway, his thing with not coming to Krakoa is that he believes that while Xavier is giving everyone else the impression that he’s finally abandoned the idea that humans and mutants are equal, Namor knows better. Namor has always believed he was superior to everyone else, both because of royal pedigree and his status as a mutant, but he doesn’t believe that Xavier has genuinely embraced the superiority of mutants over humans. He believes that Xavier has realized that humans will always hate mutants, but not that mutants are superior. Which, let’s be real, they are. It’s how evolution works.

That said, this little revelation sheds a whole new light on a lot of Xavier and Magneto’s actions in these books. Magneto actively antagonized ambassadors from human nations in the first issue of House Of X and Xavier has been very creepy throughout both books, but Namor casting doubt on Xavier’s motives puts what the two of them are trying to build into perspective. It would be easy to look at Krakoa as a danger to humanity, and that’s definitely what a lot of nations will do, even if they are trading with them and ostensibly supporting them. Xavier and Magneto aren’t building that kind of nation, though. They seem to want to give the impression that’s what they’re doing, though. That said, does Magneto completely agree with Xavier? Mags has always been a mutant supremacist. Even when he’s a member of the X-Men, he’s always believed in the inherent superiority of mutantkind. Personally, I don’t think Hickman is going to do the whole “Magneto has secretly been plotting against Xavier the whole time” thing. It’s cliche at this point.

Yes, I know I did think that at one point, but things change.

The Year One Thousand stuff is still pretty opaque to me. I don’t really know how Hickman is going to tie the whole thing with what he’s doing in the present day. My last theory that Nimrod will join with the Phalanx and take them back in time to destroy mutants is still something I kind of believe in. The revelation that the Phalanx are related to black holes could make that a possibility since Nimrod also brings up the theory that black holes could be wormholes through time and space. However, Nimrod also brings up the Phalanx’s masters, and that’s… intriguing. I don’t really have a theory about them, actually. I just find it interesting that the Phalanx could have masters and what they could be. Hickman also brings up a parallel to Galactus with the Phalanx. They need the energy to run their civilization, and the best source of that energy is the planets they assimilate.

I’m kind of waiting for Hickman to unveil a Phalanx infested Galactus. That would be so awesome.

I also think that the Phalanx thing is going to inform Hickman’s X-Men book. That book is bringing in Corsair and Vulcan, Cyclops and Havok’s father and brother, respectively. Both of these characters have spent most of their time with the Shi’Ar. Back in the ancient 90s, I was a wee bairn (I’m not Scottish, I just like to use slang from the British Isles) and I read Uncanny X-Men religiously. The Phalanx were introduced in these ancient days, and one of the stories involving them had them attacking the Shi’Ar. Joe Madureira drew some of it when he wasn’t missing his deadlines. It looked great. The story was… okay. Anyway, maybe the Phalanx in the present are going to be attacking them again and Corsair and Vulcan come to Earth for help, having put aside their differences (if they still have any; the last time I read about either character was in Ed Brubaker’s Uncanny X-Men story The Rise And Fall Of The Shi’Ar Empire, and Vulcan became Shi’Ar Emperor and killed Corsair). That’s all I got for that one.

This issue was kind of light on stuff to speculate on. I’ve been trying to figure out some of the other members of the Quiet Council, but I’m kind of drawing a blank on who they could be. Moira is probably one of them. Cyclops is probably one, too, seeing as how he was once the leader of mutantkind. Jean should be. Storm as well and I would put Wolverine in there, but I’m very much biased when it comes to ol’ Wolvie. That said, I don’t know if Hickman is going to be so evident with that sort of thing. We’ll see.

So, that’s that. Join me next week, when we break down some spoilers for the last issue of House Of X.