1
“Well I thought that we all cared
About peace
And I thought that we’d all cry
About love and loss
And I thought that we were somehow holding on
But I’m just standing here”
—“Ballad of Humankindness”
The Dears
I don’t know when I realised that I never understood the
Arakki people and their culture properly. I don’t believe that I’m alone in
that, for the longest time, I thought of them as warlike and aggressive.
Debuting in the X of Swords linewide X-Men event, the Arakki are a sort of lost
tribe of mutants who ventured into another dimension to fight and unbeatable
enemy, living under a code of survival of the fittest. They, at first, seemed
to embody only the most literal meaning of that concept. Warriors who live only
to fight where each victory means the whole is improved by the absence of the
weak. And that’s not wrong; it’s also not true. I don’t know if they were ever
meant to be a lot more than that or if they were simply meant to grow into more
than that.
X-Men Red, written by Al Ewing, has expanded upon the Arakki culture on the new Arakko formerly known as Mars to suggest that they were always more than the most narrow definition of ‘survival of the fittest.’ Yes, they have a power structure rooted in physical conflict. But, they also have an openness and welcoming to all. Early in X-Men Red, the concept of ‘doors’ is dismissed as not in keeping with their culture. Or, as a NASA scientist puts it at the beginning of issue six, “But if someone’s not an enemy, they’re a friend. If you don’t come here to fight them, they don’t want to fight you.” Because there’s no logic in endless conflict. In fact, what we see from the Arakki is a desire to avoid conflict, finally. They have spent so much time in endless conflict, never ceasing warfare, that the chance to build something new and different is appealing.
There are many ways to prove yourself fit.
Not all Arakki are opposed to warfare or undesiring of it. Some conform to that initial view of them, and that only makes the culture richer. It would be false to reject that first impression as entirely untrue. By maintaining that idea that some Arakki are disdainful of outsiders and look only to fight to prove their worth, it gives a breadth of voices. Oddly, it’s that perspective’s lack that I miss in X-Men Red #6. The fools who would welcome the war that Uranos’s machines bring to the Sacred Land. A return to the ways that they know would be a comfort to some, even if when it means slaughter of fellow Arakki. Uranos and his machines would be another chance to prove one’s self fit.
Where are those Arakki?
Maybe they were the first to die.
3
You know things have gone to hell when Captain America
stands in the middle of a riot. If you’ll recall, Fear Itself began that way.
That was the big clue that All Was Not Right. When Judgment Day #4 starts with
a riot and Cap trying to calm things before he’s overrun by rioters who begin
attacking him, it’s shorthand for “Everyone is doomed. Humanity has failed the
test.” If you need to know the end of the issue, you need only read the first
two pages. I don’t know what Captain America ever really expects. I know that
he hopes for better. He always hopes that people will be better this time. That
they won’t give into their worst selves and panic and hate and hurt... but they
always do. They always do. He keeps fighting the same fights and he keeps
expecting them to stop, for people to be better. “He needs to believe the world
is fundamentally a good place,” the Progenitor says. But, if it is a good
place, why does it need him to inspire them to be better? If it were a good
place, why would it need a Captain America?
He may need to believe that it is a good place, but does he actually believe it?
Sometimes, I think Captain America is like a drug. He doesn’t produce lasting change, only a temporary high where people can briefly go beyond their normal limits, do more, be better, save the world. And, then, it fades away and they go back to who they really are. “Avengers Assemble!” is nothing more than a superhero amphetamine to put down the bad guy. See, the problem is that he thinks what people need is a soldier to inspire them to be better.
He is the living embodiment of someone who fights and kills his problems away and he wonders why people keep fighting and killing. I mean, hey, he already failed the test and he’s still fighting, which is admirable, in a way. But, he’s also out there just barking orders and telling people what to do. He’s a man who keeps yelling “Be better!” and he never is. He’s always the same. What does he inspire by dressing in his soldier costume and throwing shields at people? By punching people in the face? You don’t back down from the bad guys – you put them on their ass. He rarely considers that there is no set definition for ‘bad guy.’
At the beginning of issue three, the Progenitor judges him under the guise of himself carrying his original shield, wrapped in the flag, and so optimistic of the future. A future where Hitler, the Nazis, and the Japanese are beaten, and America leads the world, living up to its promise finally. That Shining City on the Hill. And it did all of that. And things didn’t get better. But he keeps hoping. It’s that eternal hope that seems to doom him. Because he always hopes that things will be better, they never get better. “Why do today what can be done tomorrow?” If he really wanted to inspire change, he would change. He would be different, he would be something other than a soldier or a man who hits things, who barks orders, and expects people to fall in line, hoping that things will get better despite all evidence that they won’t.
There’s always hope, there’s always another chance, there’s always tomorrow...
1a
“Every time I think about what I can do
It just slips away
And every time I think that we can make things work well it
Just slips away”
3a
Is it meant to be obvious why Sersi fails? I feel rather
obtuse for not seeing it. Sometimes I miss the obvious in these things. I also
miss the cleverly hidden. I’m the sort of reader who will read a mystery novel
and never try to solve it unless the solution is so obvious that it smacks you
in the face. And even then. But, hey, let’s see if I can rise above myself a
little...
“What have you done, Sersi?” Tony Stark asks before she shrugs off her judgment with a flip remark. What has she done?
Given what we know about the Progenitor and that it uses each person’s self-conception to judge them, I think it may have something to do with her actions to help create this new Celestial. Covered briefly in Judgment Day #2 and, then, in-depth in Death to the Mutants #1, she helped gain knowledge of the Celestials from their slaughter of the Deviants previously. She uses her powers to psychically take that “eyewitness testimony” and provide it to help construct this new god. Seeing exactly what her existing gods did, she first thinks “Our gods did this. The only gods we’ve ever known.” They killed their creations en masse. She sees what they are...
“And then she has two contradictory thoughts...
“‘Why would we make another?’
“‘How could we not try to make a better one?’”
These contradictions betray her hypocrisy. She sees what the Celestials are and she hopes that she and the others can make a better version of that using what scraps they can find of the Celestials. She contributes knowledge of their wrath and their ability to kill indiscriminately. How can she expect to create a better god using the worst actions of the old as a blueprint? She sees what the Celestials are and contributes that to the project! She hoped for something new and better, but didn’t think to change a thing! She has two contradictory thoughts and embraces them both at the same time, hoping it will all work out. If she stood by her convictions, she would have lost all of the data she gathered of the Celestials and tried to make a new, better one without the example of the old ones, seeing what her gods are at their worst. That’s why she doesn’t look surprised when she fails. Most don’t it seems. She looks sheepish and embarrassed, drawn so well by Valerio Schiti, already knowing that she failed in her convictions.
Just spitballing. I could be wrong.
Druig is not judged, that we see, in Judgment Day #4. Not
specifically, at least, given that, at the end of the issue, the entire planet
is judged and fails, which would include the former Prime Eternal. For some
reason, I think Druig would pass judgment. Maybe it’s just my contrarian streak
or my sense that Gillen sometimes shares that same proclivity (you don’t kick
off moral judgments of Marvel characters by having Captain America fail without
enjoying going against the grain a little bit) that makes me think that. He
seems true to himself throughout the event so far, which is that he does
everything to hold and secure his position that he can think to do. He seeks to
unite the Eternals under his strong rule, so he seeks out a war against a group
of powerful Deviants, the historic enemy of his people. He seeks to win that
war decisively with minimal effort, so he unleashes a monster to destroy a
planet that could aid the enemy, while sending an assassin to silently kill the
enemy’s keys to endless resurrection. After that fails to produce the victory
he seeks, he takes the fight to the public relations front before unleashing a
new sort of living weapons to kill the enemy. When confronted with a new god
that challenges his existence, he doubles down on the war, jumps at a chance to
consolidate power, and unleashes the monster again. At each step, he is true to
himself, which is what everyone expects of him and why he is so easy to defeat.
But, he would pass, I believe. Not that that matters, it seems.
1b
“And I can’t believe I haven’t lent a hand
That I’m just standing here”
2a
The closest thing we get to a warrior that glories in battle
in X-Men Red #6 is Isca the Unbeaten, I think. Yet her fighting is a
compulsion, something that she can’t overcome. Her ‘weapon’ is that she cannot
lose, so she fights against her people, on the side of Uranos. Just as she
fought against her people previously. She only gets a single panel here when
Storm briefly takes her perspective as she searches for the right place to be.
The narration is, on the surface, neutral, yet it’s difficult to not read
sadness in the words “I have no choice in this matter. I can never lose.” The unsaid irony is that Isca most likely loses
quite a bit when it’s a conflict between her true desires and her mutant
ability. Her weapon wins every time.
As the Arakki live on Arakko and not Earth, the Progenitor doesn’t judge them (that we have seen yet). We don’t know if they would pass or fail. Frankly, I’m not that interested in if they would or not, for the most part. I think most would pass as it seems like a society built on a decided lack of hypocrisy. You don’t become fit by lying to yourself, it seems.
But, I do wonder about Isca. Her mutant power compels her to act a certain way, one possibly contrary to her true desires. She immediately abandons all loyalty, the ultimate example of ‘survival of the fittest’ where she cannot help but join the winning side of any conflict, forever surviving. We’ve seen her displeasure at that ability being manipulated by others when Roberto ensured Magneto’s victory to ascend to the Great Ring. She seems to chaff against the lack of free will brought on by her power. She never gets to choose her side, never gets to be the underdog who overcomes adversity. She never really gets to prove herself as her victory is always assured. She may as well not even be a person at all.
I’m not sure if that makes her a hypocrite, though. Or a failure by the standards that the Progenitor adheres to. After all, she is literally unable to lose. That lack of agency makes her true desires irrelevant within this context, I would argue. In a similar way to Thor passing because he wields Mjolnir and its inscription says that only those who are worthy can wield it, making it irrefutable that he is worthy, because she can never lose and she always adheres to that idea, she is always true to herself and her moral code.
What that suggests, to me, is that she is the only being alive that doesn’t hope for tomorrow. She knows it is guaranteed and that she will always be victorious. No matter what.
1c
“Well I’m gonna change I’m gonna change
I’m gonna change I’m gonna change
I’m gonna change I’m gonna change
I’m gonna change I’m gonna change
I’m gonna change”
3c
Eros is a sociopath. This is canon. I think. It was
established in Thanos: The Infinity Siblings written by Jim Starlin, creator of
Eros. That graphic novel and the ensuing sequels are the only time that Starlin
spent much time with the character. Prior to this, having Eros, devoid of a
mouth, narrate The Infinity Gauntlet #4, the issue where Thanos kills all of
your favourite heroes, save the ones that he already wiped out with a snap of
his fingers. Not much is revealed about Thanos’s brother in that issue. It
could have been anyone providing the running commentary of Thanos killing hero
after hero in new and inventive ways. Despite creating the Titan branch of the
Eternals, Starlin never seemed to have much use for any of them save Thanos. It
was a surprise when, for his second trilogy of Thanos graphic novels that he
would then turn his eye toward Eros finally. Positioning Thanos as a
psychopath, it makes sense that Eros, the emotional manipulator, would be cast
as a sociopath. A cold, self-serving being who flits through life, unconcerned
with others except for how it relates to him. That was how Starlin wrote the
character in that trilogy and I can’t quite tell if that’s how Gillen is
writing him here.
Freed from the Exclusion at the end of Judgment Day #3 (and expanded upon in Death to the Mutants #2), Eros is sort of the ultimate politician in issue four. He goes from meeting to meeting, listening to what various people want, what they need to come together. The idea is that, if they can get over their differences and become unified, then they can pass the Progenitor’s judgment. It’s his alternative to using his emotional manipulation powers to simply force the planet into harmony... but it doesn’t strike me as much different. The cosmic dandy as Schiti draws him, his body language oozes manipulation and charm. That he’s applying the empathic part of his abilities towards this goal is still using his power to make people do what he wants. He gets everyone on board by making big promises and putting himself in a position of power (the panel where he’s declared Prime Eternal has such an ominous look to it), setting himself up to be the one who makes the impassioned plea to the Celestial on behalf of the world. And all he has to offer is the promise of hope. That they can change. That they can try.
His big speech rings false. Schiti has him overact, ham it up, and I kind of laughed a little. The word seem sincere, but the body language is far from. And the words are the wrong ones in the circumstance. It’s the sort of speech Captain America would make. The “We can be better” speech. The “We can change” speech. The lie. It’s a lie. It’s a bunch of desperate people grasping at whatever straws they can find in the vague hope that it will satisfy an unknowable god that sees through their lies. They pinned their hopes on a sociopath and thought that it would win over this god. Eros lies to everyone, including himself.
“If we can’t pass this test, we deserve to fail. If we don’t believe love can win, what’s the point?” Eros says early in the issue. Yet, what does he do that embodies love from that point? He listens, he makes deals, he assumes power, and he makes a stab to not die for good. Where is the love? There’s certainly self-interest, especially if he is the saviour of the world and the new Prime Eternal to boot. It’s very much the other side of his brother... different motivations, different means, same end goal... the same Eros.
4
Is there anything more shocking in this event to date than Uranos finally getting free, beginning to unleash utter destruction on the world, and, then, immediately getting his ass kicked all of the way back to the Exclusion? That it comes at the hands of people who just beat back his leftover weapons on Arakko makes it even funnier. Taken together, the arrival and victory/sacrifice of Storm and Magneto turns Judgment Day #4 into “The Hour of Magneto Pt. 2” in a sense.
I don’t want to minimise Storm’s role here... but it’s really about Magneto taking on Uranos. The two ugly patriarchs of their respective people facing off. Uranos is the unchanging epitome of the Eternals. “Undying.” Never evolving past a certain point: exterminate all deviance. So focused on his singular revelation of how to satisfy that Principle that he cannot think of anything else or become anything else. He managed to take a single leap beyond what he was and stopped, never to advance.
It’s very reminiscent of Magneto, the dark side of Charles Xavier’s dream, wanting to secure his people’s survival by killing humanity. No coexistence, no quarter given, just exterminate the brutes and be done with it. He spent a long time trying to accomplish that goal, but, unlike Uranos, he managed, over time to evolve. He deviated from his original ideas. Instead of focusing on tearing humanity down, he shifted his focus to building mutants up. And when the mutants of Krakoa made it clear that they were ready to move past his ideas, he went to Arakko to see if he could help build something there. He gave up mutant immortality, preferring to abide by the code of this different mutant culture. He continues to change and seek out new experiences as part of his love of his people.
Uranos wishes to stand alone and only uses others, viewing them as pawns for his own ends. He lies to Druig to gain his freedom and thinks nothing of betraying him. Magneto embraces the community around him, accepting the life-giving assistance of Storm to fight for something more than himself. It would never occur to Uranos to sacrifice himself for his people or his Principles the way Magneto freely does, never wavering on his decision to embrace the spirit of Arakko and forego resurrection. If there’s a brief moment of hope in Judgment Day #4 for the future of the planet, it’s when the Progenitor focuses in on the conflict between Uranos and Magneto, and, while dying, Magneto never calls out to Charles to save him, to ensure that he is reborn and will keep on living.
While he continues to change and evolve, in the end, Magneto is true to himself and his beliefs of the moment. He is nothing if not sincere. But, so is Uranos. They reflect one another better than Charles and Erik ever did. While we never see Uranos’s judgment, it’s hard to believe that he fails except in that he failed. He did not correct excess Deviance.
Yet, in the wake of his defeat and Magneto’s sacrifice, and
Eros’s last ditch plea, the Progenitor decides. Earth fails.
“We’re going to die.”
1d
“No one should have to live all of their life on their own
No one should have to live all of their life on their own
No one should have to live all of their life on their own
