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By Jason Bourgeois
So, with our first year of Grey Matters wrapping up, we turn back to our roots, not that they were ever far from this column, and turn our attention back towards the X-Books, as three little words have changed the face of the Marvel Universe forever. Or at least for the forseeable future.
House of M, which turned out to be a very lackluster event, and was eight unnecessary issues to get to the point where Wanda uses her powers to rewrite the Marvel Universe, and remove the mutant genome from the populace, even to the point of making almost all mutants completely human again, leaving only an estimated 300 mutants left on the entire planet. Some people are citing it as only being 198 due to a series spinning out of these events of the same name. I'm guessing that will only deal with a large chunk of the remaining mutants, and not such groups as those remaining in the X-Men. Thus I go with a slightly higher number.
This leads into the months long event, not so much a crossover as books reflecting a changed status quo in the Marvel Universe, known as Decimation. Not the most accurate of titles, since more than 10% of the mutant population has been removed, and while I understand the complaints at the inaccuracy of the name, I also find them to be, frankly, silly. The word has taken on new meanings over time, and has come to signify a greater tragedy than a mere 10% of losses, and most people are aware of these connotations these days. To nitpick that little thing is just that: nitpicking. It's the fanboy seeking reasons to be upset over something just to have a reason to be upset. But I digress, and swipe from Peter David . . .
More meaningful complaints come from people who rightly realize that eventually, these changes are very likely to be undone. As I've said in past columns, this is certainly a valid point to take, but one should be consistent, and just stop reading comics, since everything will be changed, undone, and redone eventually. Stop worrying about the future, and try to enjoy the ride while we're in the midst of it folks. To judge stories on what may happen, as likely as it is, is just missing the boat, in my opinion.
And frankly, this was the wiser of two courses to go with this problem. Almost everyone reading comics feels there's just too many mutants cluttering up the X-Books. Being a mutant isn't special anymore, because everyone and their brother is one. People have called for years to have some thinning of the herd, and there have been several failed attempts in the past. Most notably, the Legacy Virus. Legacy was a good idea, a mutant plague, and carrying forth the persecution themes that have dominated the title, by giving them their own AIDS virus. It was sadly underused though, and didn't really effect anything, only taking out a few minor characters here and there.
The other downside of a massacre, besides the rather gruesome nature of it (Although I'm not above a massacre, but it is rather dark), is that every character has fans, and they always crawl out of the woodwork when their favourites die. This also leads to exactly the same situation as where we are now. If a character dies, eventually someone will come around and bring them back. And there's nothing wrong with ressurection stories, if told well. But with a mass reduction of the mutant population through the means of death, we would have a lot of ressurections, cheapening the event of death in comics even further than it already is.
With this solution, everyone's favourite characters are still alive, still out there somewhere, living out their own proverbial happily ever after. They can come back any time there's actually a need to use the character, and in the Marvel Universe, there is plenty of ways around not having powers, from weapons, to radiation, etc. This isn't a mass destruction, and still leaves everyone intact, just off to the sidelines for now, while still making mutancy special again, theoretically making everyone happy. But the comic fans never are, it seems.
And this also opens up whole new areas of storytelling that haven't been available in awhile. Especially with Magneto, and his entire family, being reduced to baseline humans. That is rife with story potential. Also, at least Marvel made a few token depowerings amongst the X-Men ranks, such as Iceman, Polaris, possibly Archangel, and a large number of their students. The Sentinels have been brought back on the scene, mutants have gone from the dominant species to being a minority again, and even on the verge of extinction. Things have changed in the world of mutants, and I for one am looking forward to what fun, interesting stories they'll bring.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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