Cross-Brand Thought X-ercise Feat. Distinguished Competition: Black Mercy

[Londo Bellian]

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The moment you saw the last two words in the title you probably know what to expect.

Say that an "Alien Space Bat"/"Random Omnipotent" Being instantaneously pulled a "Black Mercy for Everybody!" on the Krakoans. The Prof, Magsy, Cyke, Jean, Storm, Logan, Emma, Apocy, Sinister, etc, etc.

Which of them do you think will be TRULY, SINCERELY, GENUINELY dreaming of living in an Earth with a successful human-mutant societal integration? Or will they be dreaming about having put Sapiens in their evolutionary place by maintaining a token number in a preserve/reservation? Which characters would be dreaming of living in a successful post-human genocide world, having driven their psychologically-hardwired oppressors to a final, permanent extinction? Maybe there are those Krakoans dreaming 'why stop at Earth when mutantkind can go non-mutant extermination across the universe'? Where would the names fall in classification of their Black Mercy dreams?

1) INTEGRATION aka the proven-IMPOSSIBLE Dream
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2) SEPARATION or the Mutants have their own nation and that's all that's needed; everything's cool between countries
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3) RESERVATION or the preserving of small sapient population as the only mercy mutants can give them
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4) GENOCIDE or the destruction of flatscans until they are but a memory
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5) OMNICIDE aka there is no room in the Universe for non-Mutant lifeforms
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6) Extra Option STATUS QUO (the Black Mercy dream is just like the Dawn of X storyline right now)

7) X-Fan Option aka "Silly butt-hurt Londo, Mutants are immune to the Black Mercy!"

And since the Black Mercy dream is only temporary, what will the Krakoans feel about their dreams when the alien plants fall off them?

[JasmineW]

wtf is a black mercy

[Londo Bellian]

From DC Comics, an alien plant that can parasitically attach itself to any sapient organism, attaching to their brains' pleasure centers and subjecting them to a lengthy mindscape that portrays their "perfect life," one that calls out to their very soul's desire. Aside from the comics it was featured in the "Justice League Unlimited" animated series (adapting the famous Black Mercy story by Alan Moore). When attached to Superman, it made him dream of still living in a thriving Krypton with a family; on Batman it showed his parents surviving the mugging and him living a normal civilian life (the "JLU" episode depicts young Bruce in awe at his father beating up their mugger). Unfortunately, as long as the Black Mercy dreams may last, they'll end when the plant is detached from a person (or they fall off by themselves), at which point the dreamscape snaps back to reality (dream Krypton destroyed, the mugger recovering and shooting the Waynes).



So if a Krakoan has a Black Mercy dream now, will they dream of peaceful integration or a world without humans? Which characters would lean towards the former? Which towards the latter?

[AHRNIHAL]

I saw the episode from JLU,didn't knew the name of the plant.

[Londo Bellian]

It really called out to me when I saw the Black Mercy for the first time on "JLU," and I appreciated it further after getting to see the the original comic form.

So in the Age of Krakoa, in this Dawn of X, if your fave X-Man or Krakoan mutant got the Black Mercy on them, what do you think they will dream of? Integration? Species separation? Sapiens subjugation? Flatscan extermination? Eventual anti-non-mutant Great Crusade across the Galaxy? Magneto's BM dream seems fairly obvious in my disregardable opinion. What of Emma's dream? Apocalypse? Xavier? Moira? And how would they react when the dream ends either because they saw through the cracks or somebody took the Black Mercy off?

[The Thunderbird]

I'd like to say that if Jean got the Black Mercy that she will get the first option for sure. I don't know how she feels about human-mutant relations yet especially before the release of X-Force though Hickman's run hints that Jean still cares about humans. Caring about others is the defining trait of Jean's character.

[jwatson]

I don't get it. The scenario is too rigid and the options too extreme.

[powerpax]

This is not subtle, dude.

[The Thunderbird]

I don't get it. The scenario is too rigid and the options too extreme.

While there may be some agenda behind this topic I like the premise of this topic on what the endgame of individual mutants would look like. I think there should at least be a dominion option where a large human population remains but mutants are in charge. One of the HoXPoX charts hinted at this where mutants will rule over humans despite still having a lower population if not for homo novissima. Magneto's vision would probably look like this as while he obviously aims for mutant domination, he's still a sympathetic character who suffered in a genocide targeted at a primarily human population via Nazi Germany so I don't think he would be interested in outright genocide. At worst, he'd probably just be content with humans under mutant dominated apartheid naturally giving birth to less and less homo sapiens.

[king of hybrids]

Isn’t one of Black Mercy’s things that sooner or later the Dream curdles and twists into something ugly?

[Londo Bellian]

I don't get it. The scenario is too rigid and the options too extreme.

A completely successful human-mutant integration, even in a dream world, is TOO extreme an outcome? As in, you think NOT ONE Krakoan has enough optimism left to dream of things working out even as if by magic? Or you think, the fact that they all heard Xavier declare his Dream a LIE, means such a scenario offered by the Black Mercy will never click with them anymore? NOBODY? Ow.

This is not subtle, dude.

Darn right it isn't. And you don't think a single Krakoan will ever dream of Integration, no matter how fleeting it may be, right? That they can only go with a separate and sovereign state/culture, or a super-powered ruling class (like The Thunderbird's proposed mutant dominion over flatscans), or the reluctance caretakers of a sapiens preserve, or the cathartic executioners of the one righteous and justifiable act of GENOCIDE that can ever be committed from a mutant POV: against humans.

Isn’t one of Black Mercy’s things that sooner or later the Dream curdles and twists into something ugly?

I think that starts happening when the victim starts noticing discrepancies between his dream and his memories of reality. At which point the Black Mercy's grip starts faltering until an outside party removes it or the plant falls off on its own. By which point the dream world twists rapidly as its idyllic circumstances shift towards events resembling the subjects' reality, until they wake up.

And thank you for seeing the merit to my thought exercise, The Thunderbird, about how individual mutants still perceive their perfect dream world in relation to their new status quo. With their isolated yet globally networked Krakoan nation, and currently bending the UN over the negotiating desk while compelling it to pay a bill for every Krakoan cure-all they shove up its collective anus, the X-Men and the mutants appear to HAVE EVERYTHING, the same way the Justice Leaguers felt about Superman when they visited him at his Fortress only to see him in the Black Mercy's grip.

Does the X-Forum think Human-Mutant Integration is too dead a prospect that it will not even be available in a Krakoan mutant's Black Mercy dream? *Spock's eyebrow*

Surrender and be classified as chattel labor. Resist and be classified as foodstuffs. ~paraphrased from Ultimate Magneto

[jwatson]

A completely successful human-mutant integration, even in a dream world, is TOO extreme an outcome? As in, you think NOT ONE Krakoan has enough optimism left to dream of things working out even as if by magic? Or you think, the fact that they all heard Xavier declare his Dream a LIE, means such a scenario offered by the Black Mercy will never click with them anymore? NOBODY? Ow.

Darn right it isn't. And you don't think a single Krakoan will ever dream of Integration, no matter how fleeting it may be, right? That they can only go with a separate and sovereign state/culture, or a super-powered ruling class (like The Thunderbird's proposed mutant dominion over flatscans), or the reluctance caretakers of a sapiens preserve, or the cathartic executioners of the one righteous and justifiable act of GENOCIDE that can ever be committed from a mutant POV: against humans.

I think that starts happening when the victim starts noticing discrepancies between his dream and his memories of reality. At which point the Black Mercy's grip starts faltering until an outside party removes it or the plant falls off on its own. By which point the dream world twists rapidly as its idyllic circumstances shift towards events resembling the subjects' reality, until they wake up.

And thank you for seeing the merit to my thought exercise, The Thunderbird, about how individual mutants still perceive their perfect dream world in relation to their new status quo. With their isolated yet globally networked Krakoan nation, and currently bending the UN over the negotiating desk while compelling it to pay a bill for every Krakoan cure-all they shove up its collective anus, the X-Men and the mutants appear to HAVE EVERYTHING, the same way the Justice Leaguers felt about Superman when they visited him at his Fortress only to see him in the Black Mercy's grip.

Does the X-Forum think Human-Mutant Integration is too dead a prospect that it will not even be available in a Krakoan mutant's Black Mercy dream? *Spock's eyebrow*

Surrender and be classified as chattel labor. Resist and be classified as foodstuffs. ~paraphrased from Ultimate Magneto

No i meant i didn't get it and it was too rigid as in you gave so much of the scenario and detailed expectations i wasn't really sure what you wanted us to do or answer. The Thunderbird's example let me see though that it was just a template and we could give actual reasoning of our own for
things.

I just feel your inflicting too much of your opinion on the overall narrative for it to be fun.

[Londo Bellian]

I felt my scenario templates served more as a gauge measuring where on the scale a Krakoan's ideal world in relation to where humans and mutants stand will fall on. So you say I have railroaded the exercise with my templates? You can offer an in-between scenario instead.

[jwatson]

I felt my scenario templates served more as a gauge measuring where on the scale a Krakoan's ideal world in relation to where humans and mutants stand will fall on. So you say I have railroaded the exercise with my templates? You can offer an in-between scenario instead.

I would suggest recapping Black Mercy, which i personally am not familiar with and then asking us to apply that to the X-world and the characters. Then you could have given your thoughts in the comments which would have felt more like you were apart of the conversation rather than steering the direction in one place and it would have felt more organic in that way. Like Thunderbird said, the premise of the question is interesting but your interpretation mixed so heavily with the premise it felt more like a potential battle than fun discussion. And i'm not sure exactly what the question is.

But looking at it more, specifically i would take out the descriptions of like Seperation etc and just put the words so we can find our own context.

[Londo Bellian]

BLACK MERCY: an alien plant from DC Comics that can subject a sapient life-form into a coma state where they dream an ideally perfect mindscape of their lives, drawing their deepest desire and wishes to manifest a perfect existence in the mind. The Black Mercy was introduced in 1985 on "Superman Annual #11: For the Man Who Has Everything" by Alan Moore, where the alien warlord Mongul ambushes Superman in his fortress and traps him in a Black Mercy dream. Luckily Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman have dropped by because it was Clark's birthday. Cue epic battle while Superman dreams he was still Kal-El living on an unexploded Krypton, with a family.

That was HIS Black Mercy dream, though as he begins seeing through the cracks the peaceful Krypton devolves into a conflict zone until he awakes when Batman removes the BM from him. Then the plant latches onto Bruce, subjecting HIM to a dream where his father Thomas beats up Joe Chill, allowing the senior Waynes to live all through Bruce's peaceful adulthood. Robin removes the BM from Batman and uses it on Mongul, where HIS dream sees him "evade" the Mercy being thrown at him, killing Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman in quick succession, and moving on to conquer the universe.

On the "Justice League Unlimited" adaptation of "For the Man Who Has Everything," only Batman and WW visit Superman that day. The political crisis dream-Krypton undergoes as Kal-El starts fighting the Black Mercy's creation is instead replaced with the seismic upheaval that canonically destroyed it playing out the more Superman becomes cognizant of his situation.

The Black Mercy species will reappear in other DC Comics titles since. On TV, it also appeared on The CW's "Supergirl" with Kara being the victim, and reinterpreted as growing stronger and more attached to its host the longer it remains, instead of the opposite.

And there's your Black Mercy recap. Can you visualize how a Krakoan will dream under its influence now?