Powers of X [01] : The Last Dream of Xavier *spoilers*

[stormphoenix]

Nah, the people in the reserve are humans. It's possible the shi'ar reclaimed earth using mutants as hinted at in the data pages.

Blue guy is speaking about homo sapiens and keeping remnants of the past.

The Dialogue given by the Blue Guy I thought he was holding Mutants captive. I didn't see the word Homo Sapiens.

[jwatson]

Question.....

I’ve been away from the x universe for well over a decade now. However I’m looking to buy this story just because it seems interesting and looks like it will have some real consequences. That being said, would I be able to pick this up and enjoy it as a stand alone series or would I be completely lost stepping into it ?

It's definitely designed to just be picked up as is and go. It's literally showing you things as they happen, including the flashbacks because it's scenes we've never seen before. So you don't need to read anything else to get into it.

[Triniking1234]

Machines and Mutants aren't actually allied in the 1000 Future. It would seem all the Mutants Ditched Earths Solar System. The people in the Humanoids in that Reserve i'd say are mutants. I don't think there are any humans left since the control of the Man-Machines.

Most likely during the 900 years between "100" and "1000" the Shi'Ar/Mutant army took over the Sol system and Earth and machines decided to align with them.

[CoCoBandz]

She's a flatscan. No one cares.

She's totally boning Nimrod tho.

FLAT-SCANS? Ewwww where?

[FUBAR007]

Just finished the issue. Immediate thoughts (in no particular order):

-Year 0. The Xavier/Moira scene is a retcon. It's just a question of how massive. Either the Moira we see here isn't really Moira, or this is the real Moira, we're meeting her here for the first time, and the Moira we thought we knew from previous stories was just some sort of cover. Or, there's some kind of time travel involved here, Moira has information she didn't have before, and Hickman has changed history.

-Year 10. I'm still not convinced Xavier is really Xavier. At least, not Xavier acting of his own accord. But, then again, perhaps history has been changed, and this is how Xavier is in the altered timeline.

-Year 100. Steel Magik = Rasputin IV. Redcrawler = Cardinal. Clearskull = Cylobel. The parallels to "Days of Future Past" are striking, obvious, and I presume intentional. Cylobel is a riff on Rachel. Rasputin echoes Kate Pryde. The last group of X-Men survivors fleeing the Sentinels experience casualties along the way to get back to another mutant cell.

Making Nimrod passive-aggressive and faux polite makes him particularly loathsome and in need of a severe beatdown. I look forward to Rasputin inevitably cleaving his CPU in twain with the Soulsword.

-Year 1000. Contra other posters, I don't think the Librarian is Xavier, but a new character. Cylobel is still floating in the tank Nimrod put her into in Year 100. Humanity reduced to zoo animals = ugh.

-Infographic: I look forward to Hickman explaining why the mutant leadership was stupid enough to trust Sinister. Hopefully, there's another layer to it, and it was somehow part of a larger plan. Also, I sense that the Breeding Pits and the discussion about the mutant population ties back to Hickman's Twitter comment a while back about mutants and orgies.

-Overall: Marvel will probably deny it, most of the posters here will definitely deny it, but I think this is for all intents and purposes a reboot. Albeit a soft, stealth one. A few continuity references aside (e.g. the Genoshan genocide in HoX #1), this is not a continuation of the X-Men saga as we've known it (and there's no fucking way all of X-history as portrayed credibly compresses into a single decade). Rather, this is a total reinvention of the franchise as high-concept sci-fi, a novel set in the Marvel Universe. One poster mentioned parallels to Asimov's Foundation series; similarly, I see elements of Dune and some of Heinlein's stories.

What Hickman is doing isn't really X-Men as we've known it, but I'm enjoying it. Lots of interesting ideas being tossed around, and the art is pretty solid. We'll see where things go.

[Dante Milton]

Interesting issue, lots of content, Silva's best work to date.

Where is everybody getting that the machines are aligned with mutants though? My reading of the Year 1,000 scene is that the machines are the dominant species, the mutant "bath" program was successful and the mutants have been eradicated and reduced to a data set, and most humans are dead as well, with a small portion living in a zoo. The Librarian character is the young AI that Nimrod the Lesser built to oversee the bath program. The scene about preserving/copying wasn't referring to Cylobel, but to Nimrod the Greater who is apparently breaking down.

The Chimeras in Year 100 almost certainly stole a time machine, right?

[jwatson]

Machines and Mutants aren't actually allied in the 1000 Future. It would seem all the Mutants Ditched Earths Solar System. The people in the Humanoids in that Reserve i'd say are mutants. I don't think there are any humans left since the control of the Man-Machines.

I thought they were humans in the 1000 years story and that the symbolism was adam and even and the cycle would start all over again because they would eventually mate. Like nothing truly ends. Also i assumed the bald person using cerebro was a mutant and was basically saying i hope humans never dominate the world again. Also when the robot and him were talking they said who could have known all this and the robot said humans. Signifying the wars were pointless because no matter what humans did they couldn't stop evolution so in the end they were right but they could fight forever and the outcome would still be inevitable. Mutants win in the end.

[KC]

Despite it mostly being world-building, I found this issue to be exciting. It feels like the start of something big. Something we have never seen before in the X-men comics.

Speaking of world-building, I am not the biggest fan of half the world-building in this issue coming from text pages. But the information they give is very interesting, so I can deal with it.

Somethings feels off about Xavier. The present Xavier has not been shown without his helmet. Which make me think it is not him or he is hiding something.

Mutants joining the Shi'ar Royal guard reminds me of the real-life Varangian Gaurd of the Byzantine Empire, which was primarily composed of northern European groups from outside the Byzantine empire like Norse-Men and Anglo-Saxons.

[FUBAR007]

Question.....

I’ve been away from the x universe for well over a decade now. However I’m looking to buy this story just because it seems interesting and looks like it will have some real consequences. That being said, would I be able to pick this up and enjoy it as a stand alone series or would I be completely lost stepping into it ?

Both. But, the way it's written, you're supposed to feel lost.

Hickman is telling a new story from the ground up and filling in the details as he goes. If you're going to jump in, now's the time.

[RD155]

Thanks for the responses guys. Looks like I’ll be jumping on board this when I stop by the shop today. So this series is basically rebooting the entire x franchise for the future right ?

[jwatson]

Interesting issue, lots of content, Silva's best work to date.

Where is everybody getting that the machines are aligned with mutants though? My reading of the Year 1,000 scene is that the machines are the dominant species, the mutant "bath" program was successful and the mutants have been eradicated and reduced to a data set, and most humans are dead as well, with a small portion living in a zoo. The Librarian character is the young AI that Nimrod the Lesser built to oversee the bath program. The scene about preserving/copying wasn't referring to Cylobel, but to Nimrod the Greater who is apparently breaking down.

The Chimeras in Year 100 almost certainly stole a time machine, right?

Seeing it this way changes my view quite a bit. It's fun being able to see a story two ways because the robot does mention he wasn't built to keep an archive. Though i do still the two in the tank are still human looking at it this way it still makes me feel either way humans were right and mutants win because mutants are born from humans and evolution is forever. So as long as a pair of human remains there will always be the chance of a mutant being reborn. Which would make all the wars pointless, your eradicating yourself.

[useridgoeshere]

Definitely a letdown after HoX 1. I wish there was a poll with this issue, just to see community reaction.

It's everything I am tired of with the X-Men, only missing a Phoenix to make it complete. However, while there was nothing major that we haven't seen before countless times in this issue, I'm hoping that's intentional and it leads to something different beyond presentation and flashy charts. Maybe it's meant to feel incredibly familiar to then subvert expectations.

[Dante Milton]

Also, am I the only one who finds the stanning of Nimrod the Lesser kinda gross?

[Anduinel]

Also, am I the only one who finds the stanning of Nimrod the Lesser kinda gross?

Nope. I mean, I get it. Hickman's messing with the expected a bit. But that thing is just creepy.

[FUBAR007]

Thanks for the responses guys. Looks like I’ll be jumping on board this when I stop by the shop today. So this series is basically rebooting the entire x franchise for the future right ?

See my longer comment above.

And, if you haven't already, be sure to pick up House of X #1, too. That mini-series and this one are two parts of the same interlocking story.