Two answers/paths are given/explored. Chamber (aka Jon Starsmore) is a former member of the group Generation X and is in London, on his own. No longer a student after the dissolution of that group as the students go their separate ways, he’s alone in the world, staying at a crummy hotel, and finding himself in the company of the biggest popstar in the world, Sugar Kane. Casey is riffing on stories of Leila Chaney and Dazzler, while giving it a twist with the popstar not being the mutant. Instead, she’s intrigued by the tall, dark stranger in the leather jacket with the lower part of his face and chest spewing energy. Before ever taking the gig, Casey was asked by Wizard magazine once, for one of their specials, what his X-Men team would be (along with a bunch of other yet-to-write-the-mutants writers) and Chamber was his headliner. The cool visual, the inescapable nature of his powers, the fact that he’s somehow still treated as a bit of a broody teen heartthrob... you can make the argument that he’s the ultimate mutant star, the next step from Scott Summers and Sam Guthrie... The cover of this issue is a full-in shot of Chamber, energy chest/face taking up most of the image, his eyes just visible in the top left corner. While he’s our ‘star,’ the man is secondary to the mutant.
The unstated situation that Chamber finds himself in is that, upon leaving the ‘safety’ of Xavier’s school (or one of its offshoots in his case), what does a mutant actually do? What life specifically is Chamber suited for, particularly if he doesn’t have a strong desire to be an X-Man? There’s no hiding who he is. The moment he enters the comicbook, protecting Sugar Kane from the onslaught of fans, everyone knows he’s a mutant. He faces nothing but whispers and shouts and rude comments. His the walking embodiment of feared and hated, unable to pass as human no matter how he tries. As the Poptopia arc progresses, it becomes apparent that Sugar Kane is only using him to generate headlines and add a bit of controversial edge to her image. He’s the token mutant in her entourage until it becomes too controversial. Are those his only choices? Token mutant or X-Man?
The other option given is what the trio of Nightcrawler, Archangel, and Iceman encounter when they go seeking the source of a mutant spike that Cerebra (mutant-detecting technology at Xavier’s) pinged them to: a group of homeless mutants living underground ala the Morlocks in New York. These are the mutants that can’t pass for human who have ‘powers’ like acid-sweat, or gills, or one giant eye (the Cyclops). They live in squalor and fear, and immediately treat the trio of X-Men like outsiders even though they’re also mutants. These people do whatever it takes to survive, including killing intruders. This is what the world outside of the Mansion is for mutants... and Nightcrawler is a total loss of how to handle the situation. The X-Men are superheroes and students and teachers... but social workers or humanity relief workers? Particularly when this group of mutants doesn’t want their help. These former students taught to use their powers and help mutants encounter something that isn’t theory or easy ‘punch the bad guy in the face’ and they don’t have any idea of what to do. The conversation between Wolverine and Nightcrawler is enlightening as Wolverine is the stand-in for the wise old professor who’s got a ton of real world experience and is now passing on that knowledge to the next generation, and all he has is “MAYBE IT’S ENOUGH OFFERIN’ UP AN ALTERNATIVE. MAYBE HELP ‘EM GET OUT OF THE CITY...” before he moves on to the question of Chamber. Because it’s easier to avoid the real problems when you can focus on the simple stuff like a former student on his own in the world...
As an introduction to the idea of the X-Men operating out in the world, it’s all about putting up contrasts between what mutants and humans experience. The issue ends with a stark, brutal example where a human calling himself Mister Clean enters the underground area where the mutants are living and attacks them with a flame thrower. It’s panic and violence and death with the big reveal being that he looks like an actor straight out of an action movie. You could almost picture a movie doing gangbusters in this world where Arnold or Tom or Sly play this ‘Mister Clean’ killing all of those evil freaks as the hero.
It’s pretty obvious why a brand new era of X-Men comics centred on showing just how ineffective the X-Men actually are didn’t quite catch on. It worked for Wildcats, because that wasn’t the flagship title at DC (or even Wildstorm) by that point. It could be the quiet book about this group of characters finding their way through a life that was no longer familiar to them. Here, Casey is paired with Ian Churchill, an artist best suited to big bombast and action, yet is trying to write a comicbook meant for his Wildcats collaborator, Sean Phillips (who would draw future issues of this run). Sometimes, when the writing and art work at crosspurposes, that juxtaposition can produce something greater and more interesting; others, it sinks the project through no specific fault of anyone. Welcome to the real world... welcome to the show...
