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The X-Men’s latest foe has accused the mutants of turning their back on Charles Xavier’s dream, and he’s not entirely wrong.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marauders Annual #1 by Steve Orlando, Crees Lee, Rain Beredo, and VC’s Cory Petit, now on sale from Marvel Comics
The current era of X-Men stories has focused on Krakoa, the nation that serves as a new home to all mutants. This has largely been seen as a good development for mutants as a whole, albeit at the cost of the old standards the X-Men used to hold themselves to. But there’s quietly a major sacrifice at the heart of this development that the X-Men are finally being forced to confront.
Marauders Annual #1 highlighted that although Krakoa’s creation isn’t an attack on humanity, it is quietly an acceptance that Xavier’s original dream of human/mutant co-existence might be dead — and that’s something the mutant nation needs to confront.
Marauders #1 largely focused on Brimstone Love’s plans to rile up anti-Krakoa sentiments among humans and mutants alike. The mutant has recruited a number of followers, heightening their hatred for the current direction the X-Men and their allies have taken. Each of his followers was either mutants themselves or formerly human allies of the mutant population. They now harbored fury for Krakoa, arguing that Xavier had turned his back on the dream that long defined human/mutant coexistence (amplified by Brimstone). But given the recent events of the Marvel Universe, it’s actually not the most ridiculous idea to consider. Krakoa has been a major development for the mutant community and has given them a new level of safety and security, but it’s come at costs.
Among them is the apparent turn against the ideals of peaceful co-existence that Charles Xavier and the X-Men once preached. The X-Men themselves have at least committed themselves to be full-time heroes again, giving them the chance to protect all people, whether humans or mutants. But Xavier himself has largely ignored his old ideals in exchange for a safer mutant community that embraces all mutants above all else. When the Marauders confronted Brimstone to rescue a captured Daken, they made the point that a safe home for mutants is not the same as persecution against humans. But it does mean the mutants have decided to more or less remove themselves from humanity, removing co-existence as a leading ideal. Instead, it is the expansion of Krakoa that defines Xavier’s plans going forward.
Lashing out violently instead of expressing their beliefs peacefully got Brimstone’s audience beaten up by the mutant heroes, but they raised some interesting points. Krakoa’s current status does allow for some humans to venture to the island and even live there, but only in special cases, such as with Northstar’s husband Kyle. Brimstone’s plans suggested that he had allies across the world too, making the point that there are mutants who see Krakoa as a betrayal of the X-Men’s former ideals. It’s an interesting conundrum, as the Marauders were right, none of their actions have impacted humanity negatively. Mutants have offered the world their medicines and their allyship, and many mutants are still major friends and lovers to humans. Warpath has even argued that this should remain a major factor for Krakoa.
But the fact that the mutants have firmly established their own unique nation and expanded it to the point where mutants are now a cosmic-level force recognized by groups like the Shi’Ar and the Kree/Skrull Empire, suggests they no longer care as much about humanity and mutants coming together. Xavier’s dream has become entirely focused on the growth of mutant interests, which could become a slippery slope. The mutants of Arakko were quick to cause problems on Earth, and mutants have expressed some hesitation about being fully open with humanity.
Omega-Sentinel suggested there was even an inevitable human/mutant war coming, which the birth of a mutant first doctrine might help jumpstart. Mutants have plenty of reason to fear and suspect humanity of working against mutant interests, but they’ve largely turned their back on how mutant/human relations were originally supposed to work in Xavier’s dream world — which does deserve to be addressed.
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