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Great issue and I really liked the comparisons set up here - Beak backs out of going all the way with Angel; Scott does go all the way with Emma, albeit telepathically. The Omega gang, who've been set up as the clear villains of the story, murder some U-Men; meanwhile Xorn singlehandedly kills more U-Men, having possibly know they would show up, suggesting he is the real internal threat.
Emma and Scott's psychic affair raises many questions - such as the ethics of telepathy, and their fitness to be leaders/teachers. On the former point, is this really an affair? - Sure it may outrage the X-Men fanboys but as a poster on another said their psychic affair is like cybersex - it poses the question are your fantasies just fantasies when you can act them out without the need for physical contact?
On the latter point, Morrison shows how divided the X-Men are - they've never had more responsibility, the Institute has reached a landmark opening to mutants and humans, and there's a riot brewing - yet two of the staff are preoccupied with their own fantasies. Meanwhile Xavier, who seems to have taken his eye off the ball basking in his own hype, thinks all he needs to do is give Quentin a good talking to. He just doesn't understand that this generation of students is very different to their respectful predecessors. In contrast Quentin, while he may be a drug addict, is incredibly focused and his gang are firmly united. As for the Cuckoos, yes they're wary of Quentin, but they're also preoccupied with Emma and Scott - they know exactly what's going on. (Was it just co-incidence their hair looked like Jean's in the last issue?)
Notice also how QQ mentions to Xavier "You wanted to see me professor?" - showing that he must have been telepathically evesdropping on Xavier. And how QQ addresses the captive U-Man as an ape, recalling Xavier's comment about "chimpanzee politics" at the end of the Fantomex story.
The assault on Xavier also mirrors the one he suffered back on Claremont's first run in the mid-1980s. Back then, when he was teaching classes at New York University (correct me if I'm wrong) he caught a stray thought that some of his pupils were planning to commit murder. He was subsequently hit over the head and left for dead by some of his human students. He was healed by one of the Morlocks and then asked Rachel to psi-probe the campus to try to locate the potential killers. But some of the students have planted a telepathic trap in his office, which Rachel's psi-scan triggers causing her to blow up the room in shock with her telekenisis. Subsequently, Xavier leaves with Lilandra, his former enemy Magneto takes over the school and Rachel becomes the Phoenix believing she is the only X-Man powerful enough to protect mutantkind with the professor gone.
Now there are too many similarities with what happens in NXM 136, for this to be just coincidence. This time, Xavier fears that some of his mutant students have already murdered humans. But he does nothing to find out whether or not they have - e.g. by psi-probing them. He subsequently gets hit over the head in his office by Quentin's gang and is then restrained in a telepathic trap. Meanwhile, Lilandra leaves, breaking ties with Xavier and the X-Men. A former enemy, Emma, has joined the school (acting as headmistress in Xavier's absence). While Jean, displaying Phoenix power levels again, states in a vision that she is the last hope (... for the X-Men, mutants or maybe even the whole world).
The double standard of Xavier taking action when humans might murder someone and not taking action when he suspects mutants have murdered several people becomes pretty clear contrasting the two stories.
I like the point that Xorn is the best teacher on the team. He sets up this expedition, knowing they will run into danger (and knowing he can deal with it), as a result the Special Class bonds, works together to overcome danger, and each student feels better about themselves.
But then there's Angel. Now maybe she does have more respect for Xorn seeing how powerful he is, but it's a respect shaped by fear. Is she really going to tell anyone their "secret" knowing that Xorn is quite prepared to calmly and clinically incinerate those who oppose him? His philosophy - playing God - could well prove more of a threat to Xavier's deam than QQ.
But what is Xorn implying that Angel dreams of? Affection? Intimacy? |
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. The Xorn scene was pretty creepy and I'm still trying to work out what exactly the secret was between him and Angel, that he arranged the whole thing ?, or is something more sinister at work ?.