Mutant Empire: Book 1 - Siege, Part I

Coverage of our next book begins here! 

Join Chapman as they brief you on the history surrounding the first book in Christopher Golden's Mutant Empire Trilogy and dive into the first four chapters of "the ultimate adventure that no X-Fan should be without!"

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to SubteXtMen, a podcast focusing on Marvel's merry mutants and their adventures in the literary world. I'm your host, Chapman Blake. And this episode we begin our coverage of X-Men Mutant Empire Book 1 Siege. 

Our author is Christopher Golden, editing by Keith R. DeCandido, cover art by Ray Lago, which we'll take a minute on here. We have an X dividing a circle into four quadrants, and in each of the quadrants is a character portrait. In the top we have Cyclops in his classic Jim Lee 90s look. He is shooting one of his optic blasts straight up into the sky. On the left side we have Rogue, with her fists at the ready and her bomber jacket look, as she flies into the action. Opposite her we have Gambit as he charges up the ace of spades, casting some very cool shadows across his face, keeping in line with his mysterious 90s aesthetic. And in the bottom, we have Wolverine. Lago is doing an homage to Frank Miller's famous Wolverine pose, first seen on Wolverine No. 1, 1982. He is missing his "Come Hither" finger, just his three claws pointing to the sky, and he is sporting the blue and gold look. It's all done in some beautiful watercolors and is really a tremendous piece. A lot of times for the reprints for this book, the cover art has been replaced by the 1991 X-Men No. 1 Jim Lee connecting cover art, usually Magneto or a couple of the figures. Which I'm sure has to do with cutting costs for paying Ray for this work, which is obviously disappointing. But I will, like I said, make sure to have this linked for everyone to take a look at, because it's pretty incredible. As for the rest of the art, we have Rick Leonardi and Ron Lim as our two pencilers for the interiors, and they're both absolutely fantastic as well. And their work is inked over by Terry Austin. So three X-Men regulars, three greats, all contributing as well. 

The book was released on May 1st, 1996. It was published by Byron Price, Multimedia Company. They have their hands in everything from early CD-ROM games to the Dragon World series. So, overseeing the explosion of the comic book novel adaptation is not sort of uh outside of their wheelhouse at this point. This is a company that we'll see a couple times over the course of this show, as like I said, they were putting out quite a few different Marvel tie-in novels, and Byron Price himself has a very fascinating life story, so as he comes up the next few times, we will cover different points of that. 

This book has been reprinted many times over the years, especially as omnibus trades. I myself am reading one of those omnibi from Boulevard Books. It is pretty easy to get your hands on this one. It's also an audiobook released in 2020, read by Nancy Wu. So, plenty of ways to get your hands on this in the year 2026 or whenever you're reading this. 

Now, May 1996 leaves us in a pretty interesting spot in terms of X-Men publication history, as for what is coming out at the same time as this book. We have Uncanny X-Men #334 and adjectiveless X-Men #54, which are two-thirds of the prelude issues for the Onslaught event. If any of you have read that, you know it's the 90s are reaching critical mass at this point. And similarly, the X-Men line is also reaching critical mass. You've got things like Cable, Excalibur, Generation X, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Man, and Wolverine, all in their first volumes, and all of those are either wrapping up the storyline that precedes Onslaught, or they are starting their Onslaught arc themselves. And then of course, as I said, being the explosion of the 90s, you have tons of tertiary titles in the X-Line at this point as well. Things like Askani’son, Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, two X-Men 2099 books, two retelling series, one for the early comics and one for the cartoons, and you also have the ever-important Nightman/Gambit crossover from Malibu Comics. So, there's plenty to sink your teeth into as an X-Fan, and on top of that you have the release of this book this month. All that being said though, doesn't have a huge impact on this story, as it's set earlier in the 90s, earlier in the Blue Gold tenure, definitively before the Fatal Attractions event, but we will return to exactly when, in a couple of episodes, once we've finished up our summary coverage, and I finish off my concluding thoughts. 

And without further ado, let's begin. The book opens with a prologue, in which Magneto stands on the deck of Avalon and watches over Earth. He's soon joined by one of his top lieutenants, Exodus, and as Exodus greets him, he, quote, feels a moment of regret for the day he chose the name Magneto. In his anger, his need to present himself to the world as a being of power, he had abandoned the name his parents had given him, and had set him apart from the humans, made them fear him all the more, but it had also made it easier for them to hate. This is one of those moments, of course, where retcons have sort of rendered something a bit more ironic than intended, as we know that Erik Lensherr is actually not going by the true name Max Eisenhart that his parents had actually given him at birth, but such is the nature of an ever-expanding comics universe. He also thinks about the quote, fear, hatred, and reverence that his acolytes show him, and wonders if he would ever grow used to his acolytes, or to the solitary world they'd built around him. And we're seeing here a Magneto who is stepping into his role once again as the more maniacal presence in geopolitics, a sort of more of a militant force, using his power and his his will to sort of protect mutankind in this moment. For better or for worse. This of course comes off the heels of his time as a sort of reluctant hero when taking over the Institute in Xavier's absence in the eighties. And we see that more human focus from Erik in the ways he talks to Exodus here, trying to really get him to understand the need for the Empire agenda, as well as sharing some of his more intimate thoughts with him. “Whoever followed him, Magneto had vowed, would not do so in ignorance. That was the human way.” This is someone who has gone through witnessing an entire culture blindly follow orders, and has seen what that leads to, and recognizes that his army and his force is one that cannot simply be following him through recognition and through willpower alone, it has to be through understanding and through a common ground. 

Of course, in this moment, Charles and his X-Men, as the sort of main thorn in his side, are quickly brought up by Exodus. And we get the quote, “Xavier is a madman, Magneto said, a strange softness in his tone. What creature ever embraces entropy? How can any rational being live side by side in harmony with the evidence of its impending death?” And I think Eric's time as, quote, Michael Xavier, leading the Institute and taking over Charles' role, is a really important way of understanding that, quote, understanding how it's not simply a blind misunderstanding between the two, but it's a situation in which Eric has walked a mile in his shoes and still can't stomach the ways that Charles has ingratiated himself to and hidden within the global status quo, especially to the detriment of fellow mutants like the Morlocks, like the Genoshans.

A lot of that frustration comes to a boiling point as Exodus continues to question the need for the Empire agenda. While we don't get specifics on exactly what Magneto attends with that plan, the fact that this planet so heavily revolves around Earth and their desire to return to a homeland outside of Avalon, since they have essentially freed themselves from the need to return. Exodus doesn't understand the purpose in going back to dreams of conquest and dreams of inserting yourself into an ecosystem that does not essentially want you to be there, especially as someone as high profile as Magneto, and the amount of space he would need to carve out for himself. However, in response to this, Magneto puts his foot down quite sternly, and we get a quote from him that really sums up his drive for the upcoming trilogy and the true reckoning force behind the events unfolding here, in a way that I feel nineties Magneto is often missing. Quote, “I must try, don't you see? That ball of dirt and water spinning down there is our home, Exodus. We have a right to it, as the next run on the evolutionary ladder. The earth is my home, for better or worse. Every moment of happiness, every ounce of agony sprang from its soil. To abandon it to the new dream of Avalon? Putting my vision on Earth ruled by mutankind on hold for an indefinable time. That may be what is necessary for the vision to become truth. If so, I am prepared for it. But before I am able to reconcile myself to that decision, I have to make one final effort to create a haven for mutants on Earth now, today. I put the Empire agenda in place several years ago for just such an attempt. The moment has arrived. You understand that?” 

At this point, Exodus begins to grapple with what the Empire agenda means to himself and sort of bridge that dream in Magneto's mind of a home for marginalized communities, a space to reclaim that joy in the face of overwhelming odds. To something that is more manageable and more understandable for his own framework. We get that as he begins to exit, with the quote “In his mind of Magneto had been able to make him realize what the Empire agenda meant to all mutants, to have faith. Faith is important.” Of course, faith is the main framework that exodus a crusader from quite literally the era of the crusades, to sort of grapple with that idea of a safe haven, someone who has managed to, despite his visual mutations, make his way through an incredibly oppressive state, an incredibly oppressive time, to sort of wrap his head around defying those larger states, and to reclaim his own way, I think connecting that idea to faith and to a form of hope is the exact thing that he would need. 

As he exits, we are greeted briefly by a cameo from Scanner, everyone's favorite acolyte, as she heralds the arrival of Amelia Vogt. And as most people know, where Exodus is the optimist of Magneto's council, Amelia is often the realist. We see that reflected in the quote, “there was nothing romantic about Magneto and Vogt's relationship, yet there was a certain undeniable intimacy between them. Unlike the other acolytes, Vogt did not worship him as her lord and master. She believed in him, and his vision certainly, but when she spoke to him, particularly without the others around, it was with a familiarity Magneto found refreshing.” Within this conversation, Magneto is promoting Amelia to leader of the strike force that will join him for phase one of the Empire agenda. He briefs her on the reality of working with a team composed almost entirely of loose cannons, as we will see shortly, and she graciously and confidently accepts the position. 

The team is assembled and they teleport down to the force of Colorado. And it is this moment that is depicted in Leonardi's art for the prologue. Now we do get a little peek behind the scenes on how the art may have worked out, with some sort of simple descriptors, character lists, and such, as despite Magneto's insistence on Amelia saving her powers for the actual fighting, and using a teleportation system within Avalon to get them to the ground, Leonardi's art here depicts Amelia Vogt in the center, with her hand up, fingers splayed, as she is surrounded by an increasing amount of Kirby Crackle, Marvel's staple way of depicting energy. Magneto stands beside her imposingly in his classic garb, although he doesn't stand too tall over her, given Amelia's extremely tall heels. As we've seen over the years with Kurt, one of the perks of being a teleporter rather than a frontline fighter is your fashion forward uniform. Beside them in the foreground we have Isaac Havitz, one of the two or three acolytes known for being big and strong, it's pretty much the extent of his powers, as he stands beside Francisco Milan, the technological communicator. Behind them, Suvik Senyaka and Carmela Unuscione, a wielder of psionic energy whips and a projector of force fields, respectively, stand awaiting for orders, while the Kleinstock twins, Harlan and Sven, formerly the Kleinstock triplets, Rip Eric, stand in the very back. The picture does not depict Joanna Cargil, aka Frenzy, arguably the most popular member, due to her multiple tenures on various X teams, though she also joins them for this mission. 

They quickly cross the field and approach a large imposing government building on Vogt's orders, and we are immediately shown that Vogt and Unuscione do not get along. Before the assault on the compound begins, Milan gets a moment to shine. He's shown hacking through a straight-up conversation, one-sided, albeit, with the actual electronics, saying, Quote, “Certainly, I'd be pleased to speak with you again when our business here is concluded. I know how lonely it must get.” All's that to say, I'm a Milan stand now. I think it's really cute that he treats all these different locks and combinations and computer systems as individual personae, I know that comes up with later X-Men as well. Similar to mutants like Blackbox, Network, or most prominently Trinary, in their conversational style. And I always think it's a fun gig. I would love to see him sort of brought back as a man-in-the-chair style hacker. 

Once the facility is broken into, the whole team gets to cracking down, taking out many guards and various scientists. In the initial attack against the soldiers, we see that Carmela, using her force field, quote, “twists, snaps, and folds a captain in two with a sickening crunch,” while Frenzy covers her flank by, quote, “slamming her fist into a soldier's chest, shattering his rib cage, he would not live out the hour.” So, we can clearly see who's out for blood in the collection of acolytes in this first little scuffle here. And we get a moment where, as they're calling their various captives flatscans, Magneto gets pretty upset with the term, and not openly, but just shows an inward distaste for it, which I think is another showcase of how we're seeing a Magneto who is stepping into this role in a way that is much different than 60s megalomaniaca [Magneto], despite how it's portrayed in the first few 90s issues, as you see through the different choices he makes towards the end of the 90s that this is definitely a changed band. 

As the prologue comes to a close, they have rounded up various captives, taken over the base, and Magneto, with Milan's help, begins to go after the true purpose of their attack on this facility, which is to take over the dozens of Sentinels held deep within its bowels. 

The cold open for Chapter 1 throws us into the shoes of an unknown spacecraft as it's being pursued in its journey towards Earth. We then pivot to a peaceful afternoon, where the original five and Charles set up a picnic for themselves. As Bobby and Hank horseplay in the background, Charles thinks to himself how Bobby could use a bit more maturing at this stage. The 90s are a particular interesting time for Iceman, as most folks know, he's dealing with what some folks view as struggles with his powers, what others now recognize as struggles with internalized homophobia, or probably a little bit of both, to be honest. And despite his tenure on various teams like the champions and the defenders, even X-Factor in their independent capacity, his return to the mansion marks a shift in his character to really reflect on his some would argue lack of growth from really even the 60s. And that's understandable given he's not able to inhabit his own skin in a lot of ways. 

In a lighter note, we learn that Scott is manning the grill, and using his certified classic Mad Dog hot sauce, which I will say, as an autistic myself, I too use excesses of particular condiments to turn some foods into safe foods. So, very useful move. And Scott, I see you. Warren swoops in in his Archangel motif, and we learn that he's very much at the early instances of opening up about his traumas. Having pulled through the tenure of X-Factor, gone out of the shadow of Cameron Hodge - while we still will not be completely done with him till the end of Extinction Agenda, of course - he's at a place where he is starting to open up more to, especially the original five. And they try to include him in the joking in order to bolster that progress. On top of that, Jean is left over at the table setting up. She has a moment where she, I hope telekinetically, lifts a watermelon out of Charles' lap, and you know, I'm just gonna move on from there. 

And as the original five sink back into their old roles, we get a quote from Xavier where, “no matter what the future held, no matter how many new names were added to the roster of the X-Men, there would always be something special between Xavier and these five. There was no question that he loved the others just as much, but there was a difference.” I'm gonna be honest, folks, I don't think that difference is particularly good. I have a personal subtext of my own - surprise, surprise - particularly regarding the ways that Charles trained and reared the original five. I know in a lot of instances they were coming to him in their high school years, but I don't think that negates the impact that a mentor figure can have, especially at a boarding school. 

I think in a lot of ways Charles purposely trained and fostered an environment where the original five are meant to work as a codependent unit. There are a lot of ways that each member takes on traits for the group as a whole, especially in the 60s, given that it is a stock group of teenagers, but I think the influence of the mentor has a more sinister impact than, let's say, the Fantastic Fours taking over of various aspects, the sort of found family. I think in a lot of ways, the most obvious one is that Cyclops is trained as the leader first and as human second. His brain is constantly on alert in terms of strategies and tactics and ground logic when it comes to the fight. Bobby is in a lot of ways responsible for the jovial aspects of the team. He is the-the kid, the baby brother, but he's also the way that they release steam, whether it be through his own work or sort of the ways that they can let loose around him. I think Hank is obviously not only the science and the sort of the thinking in that capacity, but I think he's also in a lot of ways the ambition. It's not necessarily the science brain that gets him in trouble, it is the desire to explore and the desire to be the first to discover that leads him down a lot of dark paths, and I think that stems from a lot of the fact that he is there to push forward, he is not there to think about the morals, he is the one to sort of be the driving engine of energy and creation behind a lot of ways in the original five. 

And it's tempered in a lot of ways by Scott's tactical thinking, but I think it's also tempered by Jean's role as the moral guide. She is the one who is responsible for-for being responsible. She is the one who kind of tempers everyone in the human empathic element, not only by connecting their thoughts and sort of circumventing communication in a lot of ways, most specifically with Scott and their telepathic bond, which I think is powerful in a lot of ways and really beautiful, and in a lot of ways is also very crippling for them as a couple and for them as individuals. And I think that leaves Angel as someone who is responsible, surprisingly enough, for the social graces of the group, for the public-facing, outward nature. He is supposed to be the one who is representative both with his wealth, with his public connections, but also visually. I think a lot of ways people talk about how Angel is the most weak of the original five. And I think it starts to make sense when you realize that sure he's not there to be as helpful in the missions. He is there to be the angel that people see swooping in and saving them. He is there as a visual PR move in a lot of ways, as well as a resource to have that fortune. 

So, I think when you start to look at the ways that the original five not only act when they're together, but the ways they fall apart when they're separated, it can stem from an underdevelopment in a lot of core aspects that they offload to other people. I think when Jean unleashes, it's a lot of the cutting loose, the letting wild, the-the passion, the unbridled pursuit of one's desires. But that doesn't negate the impacts patriarchy also has on her story, as that push towards early maturity and increased responsibility on women at an earlier age is a position that young girls are forced into all the time. And then pivoting from there, you can even see it in how Warren's image changes when his beauty is sort of the thing that's taken away from him, when his body is violated, the thing that he is sort of most known for, also being the pretty boy essentially. But also, the ways that Warren's story of transformation plays out subtextually as a story of sexual assault and recovery. Especially how the added layer of a culture around hinging your self-worth on beauty and purity adds a whole extra layer of self-hatred onto an already traumatic experience, and even the healing nature. Of older relationships that come in with assurance that love and care isn't dependent on that purity, like we see with in particular with Jean. I think, of course, Beast has had plenty of missteps to the point where they have repealed him back to a previous version of himself due to all these missteps. And a lot of times it is that blind ambition, it is that that search for more and more that leads him to make these shaky alliances, that leads him to throw people under the bus for science's sake, or what he thinks is science's sake. And I think Scott, you know, he is a-he's, like I said, he's a-he's a weapon first, a human second, and the moments where he really breaks down, where he is unable to kind of break out of that teen who was picked up by Charles. We see a lot of his sort of rebellion and his growth throughout the different comics and stories. And Bobby, as I previously said, he's dealing with the fact that he is not able to take himself seriously. He's not able to take these deep-rooted feelings that he has of difference from society, of difference from expectation, and really sort of reckon with them as what they are, which is these feelings of-of not only immense power, but also of difference in sexuality, of difference in his sexuality. In hyper-masculine spaces, sometimes the only acceptable display of homosexuality is when it's adjacent to humor, to some degree. The most homoerotic jokes and even behaviors come from places like frat houses, but the second that that homoeroticism becomes an actual possibility, the tables immediately flip. The hostility kicks in. Depending on how you read the period of time before and even after Jean's arrival at the school, it's possible that Bobby had quite a hard time deciphering his role between the jokester and between his actual affections for men. These two competing ideas of of this taboo being broached jovially as well as more seriously. And I think you add on to that the reality that even when you do decipher those feelings, living his truth would require him to acknowledge an entirely new avenue of persecution in his life. It's not surprising that Bobby continues to flee into a perpetual adolescence to avoid some of that reckoning, to avoid some of that reality check that comes with accepting yourself, but the realities that unfortunately accompany acceptance. 

But enough about the yuppie crowd, because the cool kids just arrived. Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Wolverine, and Bishop all join. And unfortunately, my earlier prediction that we would continue to get descriptions of Storm, with very sexualized language, does continue in this one, almost 20 years after our last book. Hopefully this pattern is broken soon. I don't have high hopes, but my fingers are crossed. With Scott as our narrator, we do get some interesting insights into his relationships with the various members of the team as they arrive. He thinks about how Storm, with whom he shares leadership duties, was, quote, “grand and blustery as the weather she commanded in battle, yet in calmer times she was quiet, almost shy, which I think lines up with a Ororo that is at times-can seem underserved, but I think people oftentimes don't estimate how much she keeps herself in reveals with-with folks like Kitty or T'Challa. In these moments where she kind of lets that more playfulness out-with Logan. And it's-it's nice to see that Scott can recognize that and also doesn't push in those moments. 

He also thinks about how Bishop's temperament is sort of an interesting mirror to himself, which we see him reflecting on in the quotes, “but nothing, not the most beautiful day imaginable, ever seemed to shake the grimly serious man known as Bishop. Until that moment, Scott had wondered whether Bishop would ever take a moment to relax. Scott himself had often been accused of being far too serious, but he hadn't heard that criticism very often since Bishop's arrival.” I think it's very fun to see a realization of his own behavior in Bishop, and I think it also made me think about sort of the times in which Bishop does relax. Series like District X, where he's still very clearly on a mission, but his purpose is sort of a more community-based role, one that is less sort of a grand, imposing scale. And it also lines up with moments where he sort of is yanked between the various timelines that he has to go through and realizes that moments are not as central as they need to be. Granted, it's all gonna get started back up once House of M kind of reignites his-his paranoia for the-for the persecution of mutants, which is quite valid in that moment, but then takes a very dark turn with the whole hunting Cable and Hope to different futures. So a man of many stages. 

I do, however, find the difference in treatment of their brooding to be at least somewhat racialized to some degree. I think it's not uncommon for Scott's brooding to be seen as very others-driven or very self-pity driven, whereas Bishop oftentimes get written with a sort of driving anger behind his brooding, frustration at the sort of lack of action, which I think is understandable in a lot of ways if you have come from such a horrible future and you're seeing folks not take you seriously despite the ample evidence that you can show them of the horrors literally written onto your face. So, I think it's a-it's-a it's a hard tightrope to walk, but I do think the emotionality comes through really well in the story, in the way uh Golden handles Bishop, and some of the later chapters, especially, when the debate comes up about sentinels. 

We also get Scott's thoughts on Gambit in this moment, how it's very early on into his tenure, having been brought on by Storm, sort of not really vetted through any of the traditional channels or through any of the traditional leadership. He thinks how, quote, “he found Gambit fascinating, and strangely, had never been able to completely trust the Cajun. Though Gambit was an integral part of the team, and Scott was as certain as he could to be of the man's loyalty, there always seemed to be a hidden personal agenda behind Remy LeBeau's actions.” Now I do think unfortunately some of this has to do with the fact that a lot of his character work is done throughout his solo series, especially in the 90s, so a lot of that stuff that does flesh him out, the X-Men just simply don't get to see, as he's running around with people from his past, different thieves, mutants who infect him in the form of green gas, future versions of himself, plenty of other storylines that do sort of show Remy as a more heroic, tragic, deep-feeling character that the main flagship title kind of glosses over at times. 

On the flip side of that relationship, though, Scott reflects on how he and Rogue have quite a lot in common, “how she also too cannot forget the curse of her mutant powers, except for perhaps on a day like this,” quote. And I do like that he recognizes that dynamic between the two of them that is shared, that understanding that they can come to, the ways that their powers are more disabling than a lot of the other X-Men. 

And of course, he reflects on his relationship with Logan, which he knows is rocky, but he also has come to a very deep understanding at this point. Come all the way through the 80s, and they've come out the other side with a deep found respect for each other, even if their limits are pushed a bit at times. He knows that, quote, “he was experimented upon, but they don't know by whom, and of course he was pushed over the edge at times in his berserker fury that they had all witnessed and found so disturbing that it was rarely discussed even when Wolverine was not around.” But I think it's also he recognizes that, quote, “as dramatic as many of his life's defining moments had been, there was not a soul among them who put more energy into having a good time, in his own way, when the opportunity arose.” I think it's a nice way to bridge the gap between early Claremont, carousing, sort of rough and tumble Wolverine, and the later, more honor-bound, fatherly Wolverine is the connection between the revelation in joy, even if it is more animalistic and it is more primal, his desire for love, his desire for passion, his-his quick fleeting romances that he's willing to partake in and sort of keep at arm's length at times. And also recognizing that Scott has an eye on that, has a-keeps sort of the pulse of that in his mind, and recognizes that that is sort of his way of coping with this immense trauma that he's dealt with. 

And with our intros out of the way for our team for this novel, they begin, of course, a classic game of volleyball. Old grudges spark up, taunts and jokes fly from either side to the other, and arguments, albeit jovial, of course have our hat over the various terms of who gets to serve and when. Until suddenly, crashing out of the sky, that spaceship, the Starjammer, comes plummeting towards the lake, which is what Ron Lim depicts in his first artistic contribution at the beginning of this chapter. 

As the Starjammer comes into view, Jean quickly scans it and learns that there are signs of life on it, but they are low and they are fading quick. Scott calls the team into action, getting distracted here and there as he prepares, knowing that this is a personal connection to this mission in particular. And he thinks to himself, quote, “it would benefit no one were he to abandon those hard-won instincts now. The X-Men were a team for a reason, and unlike many of the others, Cyclops never forgot that, even in times of personal crisis.” It's a fascinating aspect of Scott's character because it's going to be the thing that sort of drives his main failures over the next couple of decades of his character development. This desire to sort of put the team above himself to a detriment of the team itself. It's something that has already illustrated many of the different main plot points of the Claremont run. It's something that's going to continue for Apocalypse to be able to sort of prey upon, to sort of bait him into that ultimate sort of taking on responsibility and to sort of break him in those ways and sort of darken him there. And it's ultimately going to be what sort of has that Morrison run a crash out with the cheating where the-it all becomes too much, launches him to Schism where he feels that he can he can do it better in a different way. And so in a lot of ways, I think it's-it's this refusal to acknowledge the personal and to-to always put the team first without ever really taking that time to step away and to think about how it impacts you that is so tragic and is also so relatable in Cyclops in a lot of ways. 

But with those feelings properly pushed down, Scott manages to gather Remy, who has pulled a volleyball net pole to use as a staff, which feels a little large and a little bulky, but good for him, as well as Logan and Bishop to head in and investigate. They head into the half-sunken wreckage of the spaceship, and we get from Logan “Stay frosty, Cyke,” with a quote, “uncommon concern in his voice. Uncommon at least when dealing with Cyclops. Scott and Logan had never been the best of friends.” But like I said, this is sort of the beginning of the moment where their relationship really solidifies into that respect. And we of course hearken back to the disability subtext of Cyclops, with one more passage here as we see, quote, “seen through his visor, everything inside the cabin had a dark, bloody red color to it. It was something about his daily life, his existence, the specter of his mutant powers, that nobody ever considered. Certainly, it was nowhere near the social handicap that Rogue's powers caused for her. It was also not as obvious, more easily dismissed, and painful for that. Cyclops could not remember the last time he had seen any color other than red. His ruby quartz visor focused and controlled his optic blasts, even in his civilian garb. He had to wear glasses made of the same material. He was not the complaining type, so nobody had ever thought to ask what it was like, seeing only in shades of red. He hated it, but he endured it. There was so much else to be thankful for.” Like I said, another moment of Cyclops sort of pressing down that internal experience. I'm sure that if he and Rogue were willing to sit down and sort of discuss their commonalities, I think a really beautiful friendship could form there. But it's also like this is something that he's not uh-he's not wont to bring to the forefront. 

The quartet moves further into the wreckage, and Bishop takes a moment to blast through some of the blocked passageways. Scott thinks to himself that, quote, “what emerged from those hands was not exactly electricity, but something else, something completely different that had been metabolized by Bishop's body and returned in a highly destructive form.” Bishop's power is of course twofold, he's able to absorb energy, and he's able to shoot that energy back out. I always, in my mind's eye, kind of saw it as a at least semi-viscous sort of plasma, and this kind of confirms a little bit my mind. 

As they make their way into the cockpit, they find the currently alive and in fairly well health, Creeeeee, which is a sort of lassie-like alien entity that if you have seen the weasel ball at Cracker Barrel, it looks like that in white. It's basically just two eyes with a tuft of hair behind it that sort of streaks in a weird rat-like all-tail slender snake body. And it is over the body of its master, currently unconscious and impaled, Ch’od, the large space lizard type creature that is one of the main Starjammers. Also unconscious in the cockpit is the heavily damaged and somewhat dismembered Raza, the half-cyborg, half-alien swordster with a Shakespearean vocabulary. And of course, surrounding the cockpit as well are the bodies of many Shi’ar guards. 

The four X-Men prepare to give first aid to the two unconscious Starjammers, as well as removing the impaled Ch’od, which- first aid note: if someone's impaled on something, don't move them! That could make it worse! That's a whole thing. Ch’od is then awoken with a start, and in a labored breath, says “Scott - must get - Corsair before his execution,” before passing out again. And with that, the end of chapter 1. 

Our final chapter of the episode opens with Milan beginning to hack into the mainframe, controlling the dozens of Sentinels looming in the darkness of the silo. As Magneto watches his acolyte in this trance-like state, he quote, “idly wonders what would happen if Milan were to simply be unplugged. Which would, of course, never happen. Magneto would not allow it.” I find this moment of Erik very humanizing as we see him almost have that experience of when one comes up to a ledge and has that monkey brain impulse to jump off, and how that experience and that sort of curiosity, especially when surrounded by yourself having immense power, and other folks who have also immense power, just how that curiosity instinct could kind of get the better of you and how it's kind of a-a constant battle at some point. 

He's interrupted as he listens to two of his other acolytes, Senyaka and Unuscione, talk between themselves. In this moment, Senyaka's kind of a yapper, saying to Carmella, quote, “It's chilling, don't you think? Being here, among them. We've come to take these weapons for ourselves, but they have proven deadly in the past to mutants. Knowing that the sole purpose of their creation was the destruction of our kind, Unuscione, as strange as it sounds, though not a spark of intelligence exists in them at the moment, I feel as though they are watching me, biding their time. It is chilling.” And I just find it very charming that Golden took Senyaka, who is now known to the fandom as the guy who just kind of dies sometimes and comes back to life randomly. Sometimes it's with Selene, sometimes it's just because, and gave him this sort of poetic twist to him. Which I guess if you've spent that many times dying and in between life and death, you probably get some form of introspection. Or you just block it out completely. 

Carmella laughs Signac off at this point, but Magneto thinks that she's mostly holding her tongue, given that they're two of his most dangerous and uncontrollable acolytes, as he puts it. And he does admit that he could not afford to lose them both, should they battle each other. But he also thinks to himself how, quote, “years before, Unuscione’s father, known as Unus the Untouchable, had been one of Magneto's followers as well. The man's mutant powers had eventually killed him, leaving the young woman terribly bitter.” I believe this is a reference in terms of Eunice's death to, at this point, Spectacular Spider-Man #91, and if you know his history, he'll eventually pop up in Genosha, having survived the massacre, post-M Day, all that sort of stuff. But I do think it's interesting that Golden does go ahead and connect these characters that are often theorized to be related in some manner, and fully connects that and then also uses it as a driving force in this moment for Carmela's bruiser attitude and the armor that she physically projects from herself. The force field is not just a physical one but of course is one that she's projecting from that bitterness. 

Magneto then takes a moment to bask in the eerie silence of both the ghost town of silos and Milan's trance. When Amelia Vogt arrives and updates him on the status of the prisoners, how they're being taken care of by other acolytes, and then posits her own questions about the Empire Agenda, now that they have arrived at this stage of the plan. Magneto then reveals that when Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club funded the newly restored Operation Wideawake, which was the initial wave of Sentinels being produced at the beginning of the Claremont run in the early 80s, part of his plan was to install the Empire Agenda Override into their base programming, essentially a password that the Hellfire Club could use to take command of the Sentinels and use them for their own means. I personally love this retcon, as I think it makes a lot more sense as to why Sebastian were to fund this. I think he does, in canon, install a method to which mutants can hide themselves in Sentinels if they're specifically written out of the programming, which is how he hides himself and other members of the Hellfire Club from their scanners, as well as other mutant scanners later on. But to me, it's still not necessarily enough of a checkmate for Sebastian to have gone all in and restart this program if he didn't think that at some point he could take control of it. And so I do enjoy that Golden sort of ties up that loose end there and gives him a much more justified reason to bring those robots back into the fold, more so than just it's time to bring the Sentinels back into the 80s. 

And through this scene we also see another quote from Magneto saying that “he could see that Vogt still did not understand, and though he was loath to explain himself to his acolytes, he found himself making increasingly frequent exceptions for Amelia. She had become, strangely, his confidant.” So once again, ever increasing that relationship and that pairing between them, but I also find it interesting that he's contradicting himself in some ways here, as he clearly does have a desire to explain, at least to his inner circle, people like Exodus earlier in the book, but I also think that echoes the cognitive dissonance that Erik finds himself under a lot of the time, especially through this era. 

We then move across the country to Washington, DC, and follow Val Cooper, as she makes her way to a very important meeting. She doesn't know the exact reasoning behind the meaning, and she thinks to herself, quote, “either her team, the government-sanctioned mutant strike force called X-Factor, to which she was attached as a federal liaison, had completely blown their diplomatic mission in Genosha, or something worse had happened.” So, for those following along, trying to plug in an exact placement, puts this right around when Jamie Madricks contracts the legacy virus. Val finally arrives at the office of the Secretary of State, nondescript in standard Marvel stand-in style, alongside Henry Peter Gyrich. The Secretary soon debriefs the duo on the attack on Project Wideawake. And in true Gyrich fashion, he is, of course, wanting to go in guns blazing. Val, on the other hand, recommends that they contact longtime government ally Charles Xavier, and given Val's past experience when working with Charles on the formation of X-Factor, the Secretary is one over. Upon exiting the Secretary's office, the two begin to throw barbs at each other, with Val seemingly getting the upper hand. 

The scene then shifts to a decrepit tenement building, where Beast and Gambit stalk through the halls. Their unknown combatants are soon revealed as we learn that Rogue and Cyclops are facing off against them in a capture-the-flag exercise. The image for chapter 2 comes from this moment, as Beast leaps onto the street, crashing through a window, and Rogue streaks through the air past him. Both feature determined grins on their face. Towards the end of this couple, Gambit launches off a charged card which manages to hit Rogue directly in the face, pretty close to her eyes. This causes Scott to put a halt on the exercise, as he begins to berate Gambit over his intensity in what was merely meant to be a scrimmage. Remy brushes off the correction and even leaves with a bit of a threat towards Scott. Followed up by Rogue, who says, “You ought to line, Scott. You know Remy wouldn't do nothing to hurt me, and even if he did, I can take care of myself better than most of y'all. It's only because I know your word about your daddy that I don't get mad at you myself. Maybe you should work out alone for a bit.” 

As Hank has watched all this from the sidelines, he then offers to boot up that scenario for Scott and heads up to the Danger Room control center. He's soon joined by Charles, and the pair begin reminiscing on how the Danger Room in particular has changed. There's another bit of unintentional foreshadowing, given future retcons, as Hank thinks how, quote, “still, as merciless as the computer could be, depending on the level of difficulty the program was set to, it can never be truly devious. That took humanity.” And any of you who have read Astonishing X-Men know that that is not quite the case. 

In a surprise to virtually no one, the musings of Hank and Charles too take a bit of a dark turn, especially when it comes to the topics of society, as Hank begins to say, quote, “human society hates and fears us more with each passing day. Anti mutant legislation is part of the campaign agenda for innumerable politicians, and it ensures votes. Even the liberals would prefer to focus on the quandaries of racism and sexism. Mutant bias is too volatile an issue.” I find it interesting that of all the characters to be voicing a sort of anti-intersectionality opinion here is Hank. I think moments like these are very much the points in which Hank gets the rap as a sort of pseudo-conservative. While I do think that there is some teeth to the argument from a leftist focus on identity politics rather than material conditions argument to be made here-I’m reminded somewhat of the images of Nancy Pelosi in the Kente Cloth-but I don't think that Hank is necessarily coming to this issue from that place. It feels much more like a crab bucket mentality, or even that concept of a privileged group losing some of that privilege and viewing it as actual oppression. Him believing that sort of to turn and look at these other issues and to address things like racism and sexism would be to turn away from him as a mutant, and the things that are explicitly and exclusively harming him. 

Before Charles gets a chance to respond to any of this, Val Cooper calls in, giving Hank one more time to well, show his ass this chapter. He thinks to himself, “she was an attractive woman in her way. He had always thought so. Or she would have been, if it weren't for the harsh way the woman's hair was pulled back from her face, and the hard edge of her demeanor.” This passage is so revealing to me in the type of misogyny that Hank inhabits, in that he wields his attraction almost like a weapon. When toe-to-toe with these powerful women, he can't necessarily wrap his brain around being their equal, so I think that he finds ways to justify his attraction to them through ways that he can then control that power-ways that he can fix them and change them. And while women like Abigail Brand or Trish Tilby certainly have their flaws, but women having flaws doesn't justify a man coming in to fix them, let alone Hank McCoy of all men. 

But deeply problematic nature of everyone's favorite blue bouncing beast aside, Val Cooper then updates the pair as well as the rest of the X-Men on the takeover of the Sentinel facility, ending chapter 2. 

And that'll be the end of our first episode of coverage for Mutant Empire Book 1 - Siege by Christopher Golden. Next week is an off week, but we'll be back the following week with a few more chapters. And while I don't want to spoil the book club guests too soon, this group was brought together by someone who is in pretty high DeMAND Around the X-Men space. Once again, thank you for your time this week. And I'll see you in two weeks. 

Thank you for listening to another episode of the SubteXtMen Podcast. I'm your host and producer, Chapman Blake, with graphic design by Seth Christian Martel. You can connect with the podcast on social media at SubteXtMen Pod. Don't forget to rate and review wherever you're listening. If you'd like to read along with the show, be sure to utilize your local library, book exchange, or used goods store first and foremost. We'll see you next time on SubteXtMen!