Summary
- Marvel’s freshly relaunched
X-Men
#1 introduces the team’s new base, a former Orchis hideout and Sentinel factory in Alaska. - This new home for Marvel’s premiere mutant superteam reflects the X-Men’s desperate need for a place to belong, after the fall of Krakoa.
- The X-Men’s appropriation of their enemies’ former base, where they manufactured weapons of war to try and destroy mutantkind, symbolizes the team’s ultimate resilience and adaptation in the face of great adversity.
Warning: Spoilers for X-Men #1!The newest HQ for the X-Men is undoubtedly their most disturbing yet – as Cyclops’ new mutant squad moves into the base of their recently defeated enemies. More disturbingly, rather than just a former Orchis hideout, this new home is a factory deep in the trenches of Alaska that used to be dedicated to the production of mutant-hunting Sentinels.
X-Men #1 – written by Jed MacKay, with art by Ryan Stegman – officially introduces the team’s new home base, which they have taken over following the definitive defeat of Orchis, the anti-mutant hate group that plagued Marvel’s mutants throughout the Krakoan Era.
There are highs and lows to the X-Men claiming the Orchis base of operations for themselves, but above all else, it shows just how desperate the team have become for a place to belong since the fall of Krakoa.
There have been a number of locations over the years that the mutant squad have called their home. The majority of readers will be most familiar with the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, or its equivalent, Jean Grey School of Higher Learning. For the past several years,
the ancient island of Krakoa
was their paradise.
The X-Men’s New Home Is A Grim Reminder Of What They Have Lost
X-Men #1 – Written By Jed MacKay, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, & Marte Gracia
At night, the X-Men are laying their heads against the place where these rivals plotted their destruction and built weapons to enable their fall.
A perennial threat during the Krakoan Era, the ending to the epic past five years of X-Men storytelling witnessed Orchis orchestrate mutantkind’s near extinction. The Krakoan invasion of Orchis was truly hell for the X-Men, but following the conclusion of the Fall of the House X arc, the X-Men miraculously overcame them. Orchis was destroyed, but the era of Krakoa was over. The X-Men needed a new home, and there happened to be a vacancy at Orchis’ factory in Merle, Alaska where the mutantphobes built their Sentinels and weapons to fight the X-Men with.
The X-Men’s new home base is certainly a reflection of their new reality, as they try to pick up the pieces following the fall of Krakoa. It’s a bittersweet reality in that, as they went from having the perfect, heavenly sanctuary to living in the hardened world of their enemies, moving in the house of their former oppressors. At night, the X-Men are laying their heads against the place where these rivals plotted their destruction and built weapons to enable their fall. It shows just how low on resources they are and how desperate they’ve become.
Not only is Orchis itself no longer around, their house is now a home for mutants, something its founders would surely hate.
“From The Ashes” Of World War Orchis
On the flip side, there’s something oddly inspiring about seeing the X-Men having everything taken from them – only to take everything from Orchis in return. Not only is Orchis itself no longer around, their house is now a home for mutants, something its founders would surely hate. Cyclops’ X-Men appropriated what used to belong to their oppressors. To loosely quote Audre Lorde, the master’s tools may never dismantle the master’s house, but they allowed the X-Men to temporarily beat Orchis at their own game, taking their enemies’ house for themselves in the process.
X-Men
#1
is available now from Marvel Comics.
X-Men
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
