Marvelous X-Men #1: Every Utopia

Let’s start with the quote that ends the issue, ‘There is a tyranny in the womb of every Utopia’, written by French philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel. The implications that this quote has for the world that Thomson and Nadler are building are clear: in attempting to create a world that is free from all the ills we know, X-Man has crafted a place of exquisite (velvet-gloved) terror. But why rush the journey? Let’s take a look at the positives of this utopia.

Each man and woman has their own space, their own home which is perfectly suited to their needs and tastes. Colossus’ house is dedicated to painting (was that Lockheed, on that canvass?), Nightcrawler’s chateau is filled with framed scenes from his many, many films (is there a reason that he sounded like he was speaking only in lines from bad B-films? Was that a lack of socialization showing?), Storm (who is now, apparently, a goddess of the domestic variety) contented herself with the laundry, Laura (whose personality reads like her father’s, in a lighter vein) worked on Home Repair and Magneto (whose house is made from sheet-metal) dabbled in the culinary arts. X-Man, for his part, meditated alone.

That’s the point, it seems; that’s the centre of X-Man’s philosophy. By his reckoning, conflict arises from the idea that we can ever be anything but fundamentally alone. Two lonely hearts join in romance, and both are broken by the breakup. Families sprawl into tribes, and then into nations, which go to war. By eliminating human connection (by banning families in the larger world, by moving the X-Men out of the mansion and into the panopticon structure of the neighbourhood) X-Man believes that he’s broken the circuit which leads to human conflict.

I am a dedicated introvert (I’m a poet, for god’s sake) and that idea still gives me the shivers.

This world is incredibly well thought out. All of the pieces fit. The authors have crafted a society which could believably function (in the context of the Marvel Comics Universe) and they’ve asked how these massive changes would have affected these characters. The story is set some time after ‘the revolution’ when Hope, Cyclops, and Wolverine ‘fell’. Human families and breeding have been forbidden, though people are still allowed to be ‘friends’. Nature Girl (who was born in a hatchery – setting this about fifteen to twenty years after ‘the revolution’ — unless her memories have been altered as well) had to ask Jean what ‘romance’ was. Jean (who has never developed much beyond Marvel Girl, in terms of powers or personality) replied that it was an ‘old idea’ which had to die for humanity to evolve.

The hatchery and Nurseries were cheerfully dystopian — like the ‘bottle rooms’ in Brave New World, down to the subliminal programming tapes pumped in over loud-speakers. There are benefits to all of these changes. No one in this world seems to live in poverty. Environmental protection is seen, by the X-Men, as important as the preservation of human life.  The X-Men only rescue people now (Storm’s getting out of practice in her powers) instead of fighting supervillains and they all repeatedly said that they’re glad the fighting is over. Jean referred to this as a brand of Individualism, but that doesn’t really hold any water since that outlook would refer to a state where there is no objective moral standard for them to conform to, and that’s sort of the opposite of what’s happening here. It is telling that no one, in the text, has used the word ‘free’.

There’s another, slightly longer, quote by De Jouvenel which adds a twist to the world that Thomson and Nadler are building. It’s from On power, its Nature and the History of its Growth:       

Where will it all end? In the destruction of all other commands for the benefit of one alone – that of the state. In each man’s absolute freedom from every family and social authority, a freedom the price of which is complete submission to the state. In the complete equality as between themselves of all citizens, paid for by their equal abasement before the power of their absolute master – the state. In the disappearance of every constraint which does not emanate from the state, and in the denial of every pre-eminence which is not approved by the state. In a word, it ends in the atomization of society, and in the rupture of every private tie linking man and man, whose only bond is now their common bondage to the state. The extremes of individualism and socialism meet: that was their predestined course.

And that’s exactly the sort of world that X-Man has built — and which he plans on maintaining. No matter the cost.

But the cracks are showing. Laura regained a fragment of her memory (and her rage). Apocalypse and Kitty were able to break through Jean’s defenses (because she has been purposefully kept weak) and bring news of their resistance. The plot is moving forward, as it must, and even in its beginning we see intimations of its end.

Before I close this review, I must say a word or two about the art. Marco Failla and Matt Milla have crafted a world of 1960’s style that’s almost clinically chic. The aesthetics are absolutely spot on, recalling as they do an era just at the cusp of change, where prosaic exteriors (the whitewashed heart of televised America) hid horrors just beneath the gleam. I’ve spent a lot of time unpacking the philosophy and the writing of this issue but neither would be nearly as effective without such creepy, beautiful work bringing it to life. This whole event looks like it will be exactly as impressive.  

Reviewed by Bethany W Pope