Posted in: Comics | Tagged: marvel, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Psylocke Commits a Little Robot Genocide in Hellions #8 [XH]

Published Mon, 11 Jan 2021 14:30:28 -0600

January 6th, 2021 will forever be remembered as the day that Marvel Comics released X-Factor #6, Hellions #8, and Juggernaut #5. Yes, a little invasion of the Capitol and attempt to overthrow the election led by the best friend of Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter and funded by money he made from Marvel Comics which he then donated to Donald Trump also happened that day, but I'm sure we'll all forget about that by the Summer. Right?

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities. Still, thanks to a corporate merger, a line-wide relaunch, and Jonathan Hickman's giant ego, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics for lovers of soap opera drama.

[MULTINAV]

HELLIONS #8
NOV200520
(W) Zeb Wells (A/CA) Stephen Segovia
It was a simple mission: retrieve NANNY'S ship and create a new containment armor for the recently resurrected ORPHAN-MAKER. But the emergence of an old enemy and his deadly warriors make their renewed life a hell on Earth for the HELLIONS!
Parental Advisory
In Shops: Jan 06, 2021
SRP: $3.99

Hellions #8

At the Right facility where Nanny's ship is being held, the Hellions confront Cameron Hodge, who indulges in a typical supervillain monologue before and while unleashing robots to attack the Hellions. While that battle is going on, Nanny and Wild Child go to liberate the ship. Nanny discovers something on the ship that is not revealed to the reader right away.

The robots are acting weird. They seem to have minds of their own. Hodge, still monologuing, reveals that, after being killed, his consciousness lived on in the techno-organic virus, infecting the mutant-killing robots here at The Right and bestowing consciousness on them, before resurrecting his body. Now he controls the robots as slaves, subverting the free will he gave them.

Empath attempts to affect Hodge's mind, but finds it's not there. Hodge strikes a fatal blow, but before Hellion dies, he tells Hodge he has no mind. He's a robot. Hodge doubts it and orders one of his robots, which are forbidden to harm Cameron Hodge, to fire on him. It is able to, ripping away flesh to show robot parts underneath. Greycrow is impressed with Empath's work and softens up toward him a little.

The robots kill Hodge and thank the Hellions for setting them free. They declare their intentions to be friends with the mutants. That's unfortunate because Psylocke intends to kill all the robots because Krakoan laws prohibit allowing AIs to flourish (as an info page elaborates on shortly). Greycrow offers to do the killing, but Psylocke does it. The robots die as one of them is making friends with Havok, who is horrified. But it turns out the thing Nanny found on the ship was a sentient, baby mutant killing robot. Nanny keeps the robot secret from her teammates as her affinity for orphans kicks in and she decides to save it.

If you want to know what someone is really like, watch what they do when they think no one is paying attention. Hellions continues to show us just how messed up Krakoa is by showing what the country's leadership is doing when they think no one is paying attention, as this covert ops team of lost causes murders an entire race of newly sentient AIs, AIs that wanted to be their friends. And that wasn't a secret order from Mister Sinister, but the execution of the actual laws of Krakoa and the will of the Quiet Council.