Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Speculator Corner | Tagged: empyre, FF #6, inhumans, jonathan hickman, Speculator. Corner, spoilers, x-men

Speculator Corner: Does FF #6 Shows How Jonathan Hickman Brings Inhumans Into X-Men Empyre? (Spoilers)

Once upon a time, Jonathan Hickman wrote the Fantastic Four. A part of a long-running storyline that continued into his run on Avengers and into Secret Wars, that included this scene from FF #6, with Black Bolt.

Which was rather mirrored in this week's X-Men #8 with Vulcan.

Which is underlined with reports on Marvel history, with a Krakoan Update (that's what the Krakoan says, anyway).

Okay, so. Black Bolt was killed at the hands of Vulcan after having taken over the Shi'Ar empire, as part of the War Of Kings event… hey, let's have Hickman tell it from the same FF #6 intro.

But as we saw, Black Bolt survived.

Vulcan is, in Marvel lore, an Omega-level mutant with the ability to psionically manipulate, control, and absorb vast amounts of energy. In addition to traditional energies of the electromagnetic spectrum, Vulcan has displayed control over the likes of his brother Cyclops' optic blasts and magic.

Having escaped from Shi'ar control, Gabriel Summers was found by… oh of course, who else… Moira MacTaggert with little or no memories of who he was or where he came from. She took him as her ward and instructed him in the use of his nascent powers. He claimed his name was Gabriel, but he chose the code name of Vulcan from a book on Roman mythology, and Charles Xavier recognized his mental imprint as being related to Cyclops. Vulcan became part of a team of X-Men formed by Petra, Darwin, and Sway that attempted to rescue the original X-Men from the sentient island Krakoa. Viewing Vulcan as a menace, Krakoa sent a human-shaped volcano to deal with his team, killing the two women and leaving Darwin and Vulcan for dead. With the help of his dying teammates, Vulcan was able to survive. Reawakened in modern days by M-Day, he returned from his space exile to get revenge against Professor Xavier and reveal the truth about what had happened to them in Krakoa, and how Xavier had mind-wiped everyone to forget them, Vulcan remaining on Krakoa, inert until now.

Leaving Earth for the Shi'ar Empire, where he was born, he sought revenge for the death of his mother, eventually declaring himself emperor of the Sh'iar, and starting a civil war, eventually launching a war on the Kree, now ruled by Black Bolt and the Inhuman population of Attilan. He finds Black Bolt with his T-Bomb. Believing the Inhuman intends to destroy his empire, Vulcan engages the silent king. They both apparently die in the resulting explosion that tears a hole in the fabric of space and time. With the revelation that Black Bolt did not die but was instead trapped in the fault, Vulcan's fate remained unknown.

In House Of X #1, it was revealed that Gabriel Summers was a living Omega mutant. And in X-Men #1 he returned to the series, living on the moon with the rest of the extended Summers family, in the Summer House. including the also-resurrected  Sway and Petra.

Where he had this specific dream as seen in X-Men #8, mirroring Black Bolt's experience in The Fault. But it turns out he wasn't resurrected like everyone else, he never died in the first place. And he has this same dream every night.

Just as Darwin survived within Vulcan, and had to be expelled, could an aspect of Black Bolt have taken up residency in Vulcan? Or did Vulcan take up residency within Black Bolt? Was that what Hickman originally planned in FF #6, explaining that eye flash? And what, if anything, might this have to do with upcoming event Empyre, the Skrull/Kree empire, the Inhumans and how Krakoa relates to the rest of the Marvel Universe, currently on a collision course with Earth?

Look for Empyre: X-Men in May to offer a few answers… and for FF #6, currently selling for pennies as part of job lots, to be worth a lot more suddenly.

X-MEN #8 DX
(W) Jonathan Hickman (A) Mahmud Asrar (CA) Leinil Francis Yu
The New Mutants are back from space, and they've brought intergalactic trouble with them! The Brood! The Shi'ar! The Starjammers! The Imperial Guard! Rated T+In Shops: Mar 11, 2020 SRP: $3.99

EMPYRE X-MEN #1 (OF 4)
(W) Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard (A) Matteo Buffagni
Plant people from outer space have come to Earth and, wouldn't you know it, they just happen to be here when millions of mutants rise as undead creatures hungry for human flesh. The X-Men return to Genosha in a tale so crazy, it's taking the entire writing crew of the X-Men line to tackle it! In Shops: May 13, 2020 SRP: $4.99

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