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

Xavier's Confession in X-Force #6 [X-ual Healing 1-29-20]

Published Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:30:23 -0600

by Jude Terror

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Four X-books hit stores last week. Five if you count Deadpool: The End, which normally we would, but there's no recapping that issue which was just one long series of meta-jokes. Kudos for wrecking DC's Batman Who Laughs nonsense though. Anyway, we're recapping X-Men #5, X-Force #6, New Mutants #6, and Fallen Angels #6. Which will win the coveted Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week? Not Fallen Angels, that's for sure.

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, but thanks to a corporate merger and a line-wide relaunch, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

X-FORCE #6 DX
NOV190824
(W) Ben Percy (A) Stephen Segovia (CA) Dustin Weaver
DEADLY CHOICES CARRY DARK CONSEQUENCES!
First, Domino and Forge have to pick up the pieces as the team faces a major setback! Then, Beast takes matters into his own hands when a piece of new technology threatens the safety of the nation.
Parental Advisory
In Shops: Jan 29, 2020
SRP: $3.99

What happened in X-Force #6?

The recap page informs us this will be a Beast-centric issue. An X-Force team consisting of Domino, Kid Omega, Jean Grey, and Wolverine battle evil tree people in the country of Terra Verde while Beast and Sage monitor the operation from Krakoa. Beast narrates, and he's as pompous as ever, having learned nothing from all the previous times he's f**ked up.

X-ual Healing — Just look at that stupid, smug blue face.

A prose page titled Xavier's Confession seems to indicate Xavier orchestrated his own assassination, or at least allowed it to happen, to motivate Krakoans, comparing it to Pearl Harbor. Ruthless. And interesting. Now we flashback a day, where Xavier (guarded by a very eager Black Tom Cassidy) meets with the president of Terra Verde, who is about to sign a treaty with Krakoa. But before he can, some people in the crowd turn into trees and attack. Black Tom fends them off.

Later on Krakoa, Beast and Sage analyze the attack and learn that the president's large adult son was kidnapped, and now the president won't sign the treaty. Beast and Jean visit his bedroom at night, extract information about the kidnappers from his mind, and mindwipe everyone but him in the palace. The tree people are weapons developed by the Terra Verdan government.

Now we return to the battle from the beginning of the issue, with X-Force killing tree people on their way to rescue the president's son. Beast reminds Jean to kill all the tree people because they're similar to an organic version of Omega Sentinels, no longer human and an extreme threat to mutantkind. X-Force murders its way to the top of a pyramid where the president's son is, but he's actually the leader of the tree people. They capture him.

Later, on Krakoa, Beast reprograms the tree genes to attack their host's mind. He returns the president's son, but with his mind a wreck, so the president doesn't have to know his son is a traitor and will blame the revolutionaries for the damage caused, which will get him to sign the treaty. That part works. But as Beast gloats in the caption boxes about how smart he is, we see the president's son mutate into a tree person and escape out the window. Once again, Beast's arrogance has created something that could destroy mutantkind.

Was it any good?

Man, I am a sucker for comics which expose Beast for the total dick he is. Inventing a mutant cure, bringing the time-displaced X-Men to the future, and now unleashing an omega-sentinel-like organic threat on mutantkind. Will Beast ever learn? Probably not, he'll just find a way to blame Cyclops. Screw you, Beast.

Of course, the most interesting part of this issue was Xavier's confession. His confession frames his actions as necessary to steel the hearts of mutants, comparing his assassination to Pearl Harbor or the sinking of the Lusitania, but really isn't it more similar to the Gulf of Tonkin? Xavier is manipulating everyone to prepare for war against humans. He's way far gone, and he will be the villain the X-Men need to put down in the final act of Hickman's epic. Good stuff.