It's A Society, I Guess

I wonder what the endgame is for the whole "Krakoa" set-up in the X-Books. Long-term, I'm sure it all falls apart somehow and mutantkind ends up fragmented, with a certain group of mutants living in a big house in New York State calling themselves X-Men.

But more in terms of what the creative teams are thinking now about where they're sending things. Maybe that's all Jonathan Hickman's ball, but I assume the other writers are at least being consulted, or bringing some ideas to the table.

Krakoa is described by most of the mutants living there as the wonderful place. Mutant utopia. Much better than all those limited human societies in every way they tell us repeatedly.  I don't mean just by the citizens who live there, ignorant of the secret kill squad with absolute authority to do seemingly whatever they want. I mean even the folks (like ol' Chuck Xavier) who are hip-deep in the ethically questionable shit are convinced they're doing so much better while they simply emulate the worst habits of human societies.

The cronyism (how many mutants who died horribly are still waiting for a chance while Pixie gets moved to the front of the queue after encouraging a bigot to blow her head off with a shotgun on a dare). The convenient loopholes ("we said kill no human, but these intelligent beings don't count as human, so murder the shit out of them"). The hypocrisy (Maddy Pryor's a clone so she can't be resurrected, but so are the Cuckoos and they're all running around. Or hell, the fact Maddy has her own entirely unique and distinct memories not shared by Jean Grey should move her beyond simply a clone). Or the bloodthirstiness (why does a depowered mutant have to be killed in ritual combat in front of a crowd to be reborn with their powers?) It's unclear what sort of educational system they have, beyond having the kids work on combo moves (cool, but maybe of limited practicality).

I assume the writers are intending to highlight the faults of the braintrust running Krakoa. The limits of their thinking. They've mostly agreed to not go with the Magneto/Apocalypse approach of wiping out or subjugating all humans. Closer to Xavier's idea of coexistence. But it's always felt like Xavier intended that as mutants living in a combined society with everyone else on Earth (more like Morrison's conception.) Most of the laws and social mores would already be in place, but tweaked and expanded to be more open and accepting to mutants and their perspectives.

They're still doing that to an extent, since Krakoa's leader communicate with other nations' leader, engage in trade and p.r. battles and so on. They seem quite good at capitalism. But having established their own nation, rather than melding into existing ones, they have to put everything together themselves. They don't seem to have any idea how to do that. They've overcome death (or managed a workaround at least), which is very cool. They've mostly ceased the infighting between different philosophies that's marked most of the X-Men's history. Beyond that, I'm not sure what they're doing.

I don't know if that's on the writers, that they can't conceive of a truly new society or way of doing things. Or it's meant to be on the characters. They've been struggling just to stay alive so long they never thought this far ahead. And dying doesn't matter now, so why worry about it? Like the college kid on their own for the first time who decides if no one's going to make them go to class, they're gonna sleep in as much as they want. Also, they're going to eat a ton of Twinkies all the time because they can do that now. 

No, that wasn't my college experience. Well, some variation of the Twinkies thing was at different times, but not the sleeping in thing.

The know they don't want to do education like humans, but haven't devised an alternative, and it's not clear anyone is actually working on one. There were already systems and models to work off before, so there was no need to devise their own. But if they've dismissed those other systems as inferior human crap, then what's left? Krakoan leadership: *collective shrug and shake of the head*

Nightcrawler's supposedly trying to devise some sort of belief system, or maybe morality in a society that sees death (or dying, or killing) as no big deal, but a) he's seemingly working alone, which rather limits perspective, and b) he's not making any headway.

But if the end goal for this whole Krakoa status quo is for everything to collapse because the leaders did such a lousy job building a functioning society, is that really a great look for your ostensible heroes? Hey, you finally created a place where mutants could feel secure and meet humans on equal terms, with equal protection, but it was a mess of a place predicated on suffering, and pain, and bending your own rules whenever it suited you. 

I suppose it could be laid as commentary on the characters. That this is not the sort of role they were created for, and they're poorly suited for it. That, having created this safe nation, they needed to step aside for other mutants with gifts better suited for creating a fair and just society. The issues in stretching certain characters beyond tolerances or sell-by dates. I don't expect that to be the case.

More likely Krakoa is eventually destroyed in some big event thing by external forces. That way the writers can shuffle the X-Men back to more familiar waters, without having to necessarily paint them as big fat failures. The society would have come together if they'd just had a little more time. Darn that Symbiote-Encrusted Thanos-Blood infused AIM Thor!