298: Utopia (and Dark Reign)
- Matt Campbell
- 11 hours ago
- 13 min read
What’s Covered?
Uncanny X-Men Annual vol. 2 #2, Dark Reign: The Cabal #1, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3, Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1, Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #513 - 514, X-Men: Legacy vol. 1 # 226 - 227, Dark Avengers #7 - 8, Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1, Dark X-Men: The Confession #1, Dark Reign: The List - X-Men #1, Dark X-Men # 1 - 5
Roster Watch
Synopsis
Dark Reign
Uncanny X-Men Annual Vol. 2 #2: Shaw’s Bad Namor Idea
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Mitch Breitweiser, Daniel Acuña
Years back, Sebastian Shaw is desperate to lock down a new White King, so he goes fishing for power and pride in the worst possible place: the ocean, where he finds King Namor. The Sub-Mariner laughs him off, so Shaw pivots to the most dangerous persuasion tactic imaginable, sending Emma Frost to “negotiate,” which quickly turns into a steamy, complicated mess. Then Shaw proves he’s not just sleazy, he’s suicidal, by sending Sentinels to wipe them both out. In the present, Emma circles back with a promise of revenge, giving Namor a psychic “gotcha” so vicious he thinks she decapitated him… before revealing she’s actually got him boxed up and imprisoned in San Francisco.
Dark Reign: The Cabal #1: Monsters’ Row, Mutant Edition
Writer: Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Kieron Gillen, Peter Milligan
Pencils: Adi Granov, Daniel Acuña, Max Fiumara, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Tonci Zonjic
Namor decides to play ball with Doctor Doom, and the vibe is immediately “everyone here is planning to stab everyone else.” Emma, meanwhile, isn’t just showing up—she’s arriving with receipts, grief, and a spine made of adamantium-level resolve after everything she’s endured (and everyone she’s lost). She looks around the room—Doom, The Hood, Emma, Loki (female version), plus Namor—and decides she’s not the victim in this story. She’s the survivor. And if the Cabal is where the sharks swim, Emma’s done pretending she isn’t one of them.
At this point I was thinking "are we really going to have another story where Emma appears to be evil???" I guess there are some stakes though because while I expect it to all be an elaborate ploy, there is always the chance that one of these days she goes back to being evil and Jean comes back. This is the thrill of truly reading these comics for the first time and having no idea what happened in this era.
Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1: Osborne Builds a “Better” X-Team
Writer: Paul Cornell, James Asmus, Shane McCarthy
Pencils: Leonard Kirk, Jesse Delperdang, Ibraim Roberson
Norman Osborn decides he needs an X-Men brand he can control, so he starts assembling his own mutant-flavored strike team with Namor at the front. The irony is thick enough to chew when the whispers hit that Norman apparently destroyed Atlantis, and yet Namor is still standing there like, “Sure, sounds legit.” We also get a grim peek at Mimic, whose life is a messy cycle of diagnosis, instability, and repeatedly crawling back from death like the universe won’t let him clock out. And then there’s Dark Beast, who hears “authorized to experiment on mutants” and basically sees fireworks in the shape of a lab coat.
Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2: Recruitment by Temptation and Trauma
Writer: Paul Cornell, Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Rob Williams
Pencils: Leonard Kirk, Michael LaCombe, Paco Diaz
Osborn expands the roster by dangling “freedom” like candy. Cloak and Dagger get baited with the promise of fighting the drug war globally without cops breathing down their necks. (It's acknowledged that they aren't mutants, but they have a meta moment when it's mentioned that no one really knows and gets confused by this anyway. Then the manipulation gets uglier: Michael Pointer (Omega Weapon) is pushed into the team after Osborn and Dark Beast engineer a situation where innocent people become mutants temporarily… and Pointer starts killing by accident. It’s recruitment via guilt grenade, and it works because this whole operation is built on people’s worst days. Daken (Wolverine's son) joins up too, but doesn’t play the part Osborn expects—he’s not a frothing savage or a cackling lunatic, just cold, sharp, and terrifyingly in control.
Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3: Emma Digs In, Norman Pushes Too Far
Writer: Paul Cornell, Jason Aaron, Simon Spurrier
Pencils: Leonard Kirk, Jock, Paul Davidson
Emma takes a risky stroll through Namor’s mind and finds something she didn’t expect: under the anger and ego, he’s signing up because he genuinely wants to be a hero. Osborn, still running his team like a sleazy job interview, recruits Mystique in a bar with two irresistible hooks—revenge on Wolverine and a chance to connect with his son. Then Norman tries his usual control-freak routine on Aurora by triggering her darker side with a device and attempting to force her onto the roster. It backfires spectacularly—Aurora keeps flipping personalities to outmaneuver the tech, beats Osborn down, slaps the device onto him, and walks away like, “Thanks for the demo.”
Utopia
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Marc Silvestri, Michael Broussard, Eric Basaldua, Tyler Kirkham, Sheldon Mitchell
Simon Trask kicks things off with a rally that turns into a full-on panic event when footage hits showing “mutant teens” beating down humans. The optics are perfect for Norman Osborn, so he unleashes his shiny, nightmare PR machine: the Dark Avengers. The roster is basically a police lineup—Bullseye cosplaying as Hawkeye, Venom, Daken pretending to be Wolverine, plus Sentry, Ares, and Karla Sofen playing Captain Marvel. Then the cherry on top: a “Professor X” shows up to declare he’s in charge of mutants now… except it’s Mystique posing as him, and everyone’s about to pretend that’s normal.
Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #513: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Terry Dodson
Fake Xavier and Osborn sell the public a neat little “peace” narrative, but it’s the kind of peace that comes with a boot on your neck. Cyclops is on the run, watching the chessboard while the Dark Avengers play riot cop with a supervillain payroll. Out in the open, Venom throws down with Colossus, because nothing says “order” like a street fight with a symbiote. Emma Frost refuses to be anyone’s puppet… until she’s reminded there’s nanotech in her blood meant to keep her “compliant,” which is just Osborn’s way of putting a leash on a queen. She goes public anyway, delivering a speech that sounds like obedience while the mutant community (and random bystanders) immediately start gossiping about whether she and Scott broke up and whether she’s gone full fascist—because of course they do.
X-Men: Legacy vol. 1 #226: Utopia
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Dustin Weaver
Pixie drags Rogue, Danger, and Gambit straight into the Warzone, because apparently “let’s stay low” is not in the X-gene. In the chaos, Rogue pulls off one of her best tricks: she steals a taste of Ares’ power, and suddenly she’s got god-of-war energy humming under her skin. It’s a huge, reckless advantage—exactly the kind of borrowed strength that can save lives and ruin your day at the same time. And with everything spiraling, it feels like everyone is choosing sides whether they want to or not.
Dark Avengers #7: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Luke Ross
Osborn’s pet “Dark X-Men” start corralling the rogue mutant kids—Hellion and his crew get subdued as the crackdown becomes official policy. Meanwhile, Cyclops goes full action-movie and uses a jet pack to get face-to-face with Norman, because subtlety is dead and diplomacy is wearing a rocket harness now. Emma’s patience hits the wall and she demands access to all the mutant prisoners, refusing to let this turn into a disappearing-act pipeline. The tension is brutal because everyone knows what Osborn wants the story to be: mutants as the enemy, his team as the solution, and any resistance as proof he was right.
Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #514: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Terry Dodson
Cyclops quietly sends out a special-ops style mission with Dani Moonstar, Domino, Psylocke, and one of the Stepford Cuckoos—because if you’re going to survive a PR war, you need a shadow war too. Trask escalates from “rally guy” to outright monster by flipping a switch that turns humans into Sentinel/human hybrids bent on causing maximum havoc. Cyclops also assigns a team—Pixie, Colossus, Armor, Iceman, and Northstar—to keep tabs on Emma’s “X-Men,” because Scott’s trust comes with footnotes and surveillance. Magik joins Domino and Warpath to go get their people back, because Illyana’s version of negotiation is usually “we’re doing this now.” Also: Ariel (from the original Fallen Angels series) randomly enters the chat and scoops up Trance from Gambit like we all didn’t miss that cameo coming.
X-Men: Legacy vol. 1 #227: Utopia
Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Dustin Weaver
Trance can’t be teleported out, so she’s stuck in the city while her powers keep detonating the situation around her. Rogue—still juiced with Ares’ power—tries the softer approach and talks her down, going “please breathe” while holding the energy of a war god in her hands. It’s one of those X-Men moments where compassion is the only thing between “incident” and “mass casualty event.” Then Captain Marvel shows up looking for another fight, because the universe refuses to let Rogue have a quiet day. The whole issue feels like a pressure cooker: help the kid, survive the politics, and pray the next punch doesn’t start a war.
Dark Avengers #8: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Luke Ross
Dani goes big and asks Hela for a boon—because when your enemies are building Sentinels out of people, normal plans stop working. The real X-Men finally spring the mutant prisoners, and Warpath and Wolverine don’t just fight Dark Beast… they stab him, which is about as subtle as a chainsaw. Emma and Namor finally stop playing Osborn’s game and switch sides, tipping the balance at exactly the moment it has to happen. They even push Cloak and Dagger to do the right thing too, because “we were tricked” only buys you so many minutes in an active warzone. And then Cyclops does the most Cyclops thing imaginable: he raises Asteroid M from the ocean and declares it a mutant haven (Utopia)—basically planting a flag that screams, “We’re done asking.”
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1: Utopia
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Mike Deodato Jr., Terry Dodson
Osborn’s crew throws everything they have at the mutants, and it turns into a highlight reel of personal grudges made physical: Colossus vs Venom, X-23 vs Daken, and Namor vs Sentry like the ocean itself wants revenge. Bullseye and Ares get their own chaos, while Pixie and Armor jump into the brawl to keep people alive and upright. Xavier helps Emma mentally subdue Sentry, but it costs her—she ends up with a piece of the Void stuck in her, like trauma made literal and lodged under the skin. One by one, Osborn’s narrative collapses until Cyclops outplays him on live TV, tricking him into publicly committing to mutant genocide… and suddenly Norman’s “peace” mask is just a smear on the floor. Osborn retreats, but the line in the sand is carved deep, and everyone knows the next time won’t be contained.
Dark X-Men: The Confession #1: Utopia Aftershocks
Writer: Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils: Bing Cansino
Scott and Emma finally do the thing they keep avoiding: they tell each other the truth, out loud, with no spy-games and no speeches. Cyclops admits what he’s been doing with X-Force, and Emma admits her own dirt—joining the Cabal and playing in the same mud as monsters. It’s not a cute apology scene; it’s two people acknowledging they’ve both crossed lines and still deciding to stay on the same side. They forgive each other, not because it’s tidy, but because the alternative is falling apart right when mutantkind can least afford it.
Dark Reign: The List – X-Men #1: Utopia Aftershocks
Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Alan Davis
Norman doesn’t just take the L and move on—he escalates in the cruelest way possible by turning Marina into a giant creature that starts wiping out Namor’s people. The X-Men honor their agreement to help, but this isn’t a clean superhero fight—it’s a disaster where every second costs lives. In the end, Namor makes the only call that matters to him: he physically grabs Marina and flies her into the sky, choosing his people over everyone’s comfort. It’s a brutal reminder that alliances in this era aren’t friendships—they’re temporary ceasefires held together by rage, necessity, and the next betrayal waiting around the corner.
Dark X-Men # 1 - 5 : Dark X-Men Backstory
Writer - Paul Cornell
Pencils - Leonard Kirk
Dark X-Men #1: Dark X-Men
Writer: Paul Cornell
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Norman’s “mutant diplomacy” plan is exactly as stable as it sounds: send Mystique, Dark Beast, Mimic, and Omega Weapon to represent the cause, and pray nobody commits a felony in the first five minutes. Spoiler: everything goes wrong immediately, because this lineup is basically chaos with matching jackets. Mystique runs the mission while wearing the face of “Jenna Gray,” trying to keep the whole thing from turning into an international incident. Instead, she collides with something far stranger—an essence/echo of Nate Grey (X-Man) lingering at the edge of reality. And the second Nate’s presence is in play, you can feel the series pivot from “bad PR” to “oh no, cosmic-level problem.”
Dark X-Men #2: Dark X-Men
Writer: Paul Cornell
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Nate isn’t fully back—he’s a psychic presence trying to claw his way into the real world, learning the rules as he goes. Osborn, meanwhile, chooses this moment to escalate into comic-book body horror: he sends the team to a conclave where every non-mutant psychic is mashed together into a single grotesque “psychic brain” mass. It’s not just unethical, it’s a power source… and Nate immediately recognizes it as a ladder. He hijacks that brain-ball, siphons the power, and fast-forwards his understanding of everything he’s missed. By the time he’s done, Nate isn’t confused anymore—he’s caught up, and that’s when he becomes truly dangerous.
Dark X-Men #3: Dark X-Men
Writer: Paul Cornell
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Nate comes in hot and goes straight for the fake-hero infrastructure, throwing down with Osborn’s “Avengers” like he’s tearing down a stage set mid-performance. He gets inside Sentry’s head enough to convince him to leave, which is basically Nate removing the biggest bomb from the room before the fuse hits. But the violence doesn’t stop—it just gets mythic, with a major clash between Nate and Ares that reads like a god punching a storm. Then Nate pulls the slickest move of the run: he fakes his death… and slips into Osborn’s identity, turning the enemy’s face into his disguise. The mission stops being “fight the Dark X-Men” and becomes “figure out who’s even real.”
Dark X-Men #4: Dark X-Men
Writer: Paul Cornell
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Inside Osborn’s mind, Nate expects to dominate—because who out-psychics Nate Grey, right? Except Osborn fights back from within, and Nate’s genuinely surprised by how strong and vicious Norman’s mental defenses are. The rest of the Dark X-Men lean into the gross psychic-tech angle and use the brain-ball to dive into Osborn’s head, like a bargain-bin Cerebro heist. What they find isn’t just paranoia and ambition—it’s a presence with teeth. Deep in there, the Green Goblin persona is waiting, not as a metaphor, but as a lurking thing that can grab the steering wheel. At this point, it’s clear Norman isn’t just lying to the world—he’s lying to himself too.
Dark X-Men #5: Dark X-Men
Writer: Paul Cornell
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
The final turn is pure Osborn: the Green Goblin persona doesn’t destroy him, it joins him. Instead of a clean split, Norman and the Goblin partner up—two flavors of the same sickness deciding they’re stronger together. Nate, for all his stolen power and psychic dominance, gets caught by the one thing he didn’t fully account for: Norman’s madness isn’t a weakness, it’s an ecosystem. Together, Osborn and Goblin overwhelm Nate and shut down his play for control. The series ends with the Dark X-Men proving the point they were built to embody—when the people in charge are monsters, even victory feels like the world losing.
My Connections and Creators
Boring or Great?
I am giving this an 8/10, but since there are sooo many comics covered, I need to break it down.
When it comes to the "Dark Reign" side of things, I think it's mostly a miss, but not all. A big part of it is probably Norman Osborne. On one hand, it's nice to see a completely different villain (not Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, etc.) with so much gravitas. On the other hand, I think they could have done more with him. I think they were going for a feeling of "Is he truly reformed or is he plotting something?" However, it was poorly executed. It was pretty damn clear that he had bad intentions and I think they could have played that closer to the vest a little longer. Now, he's more of a non mutant villain and Dark Reign was going on in many other issues which I didn't read, so I probably missed too much.
I'm also disappointed in the treatment of Emma. I mentioned earlier that it was a bit annoying that they once again tried to make us think that she went evil again, only to be like "she's been good all along." However, they didn't need to remind us that she was slutting around with Namor. Claremont went out of his way to show us that she used her sexuality to give her power over men. She isn't truly a slut. Now we see her and Scott having a shitload of dirty sex (well don't really see it,) but there's been consistent storytelling that she truly loves him and has been loyal. And not to get in a battle over feminism (I'm a dude,) it's ok for a woman to have an ex lover, but if they (the writers) are trying to temporarily make us think she's gone bad, but show us that she slept with Namor to manipulate him, that actually does some permanent long term damage to her characterization. I think they should just cut out all this crap of pretending that she's bad again. Just stop! Also, I might be getting anxious because I KNOW that Jean is back alive and with Scott again, so eventually this truly is going to fall apart and I'm not ready. I'm genuinely liking them together. Maybe more than Scott and Jean. Wow, I didn't realize I felt that way until now. Heavy.
I also think it's nice having Namor around. I have read very little Namor comics, and he's clearly a dick, but to have an immortal mutant hero(ish) running around with the X-Men, that's been a successful way to shift things around. I just wish it didn't happen at the expense of Storm.
The Dark X-Men (and Avengers) are pretty weak. At first I was super interested because I like new characters, but then when I saw who it was, I quickly found it lame. Mimic is the worst, however it wasn't too bad learning that he's bi-polar. I guess I'll give them credit for that. Is it me or am I learning how I feel about this as I type?
Utopia itself is a cool premise, but I'll wait until we get to Nation X before I dive deep into that.
Thoughts on Art
Between Daniel Acuña’s slick, modern mood work and Adi Granov’s polished, high-gloss intensity, the “Cabal” material feels like power politics shot under harsh studio lights. The “Dark X-Men” chapters lean into a dirtier, street-level grit—Leonard Kirk keeps faces expressive and tense, while Jock brings that sharp, edgy atmosphere that makes Osborn’s whole operation feel like a trap even when everyone’s smiling. Overall, the art sells the same point the plot does: this isn’t superhero recruitment—it’s predation with a logo.
Silvestri and Deodato bring that big-event punch where every page feels like it’s trying to kick down a wall, while Dodson’s work makes the character acting (especially the Emma/Scott optics circus) land with extra bite. Weaver’s Legacy issues are the standout “mood pieces” in the middle of the brawl—clean storytelling, emotional clarity, and Rogue’s power shift feels heavy. And Alan Davis finishing off “The List” gives it that classic, almost-too-pretty polish… which somehow makes the horror of what’s happening feel even meaner.
Leonard Kirk’s pencils are doing heavy lifting here: the action stays readable even when the plot jumps from diplomacy to psychic-horror to full identity-theft insanity. He also gives Osborn’s “two minds” vibe real presence—when the Goblin shows up in the mental landscape, it doesn’t feel abstract, it feels like a predator entering the room. The overall look fits the premise perfectly: sleek superhero surfaces with something rotten crawling underneath.
Larger Impacts and things to keep an eye on
How long will the X-Men live on Utopia?
Is Utopia like Krakoa!?
Will Norman Osborne finally stop being relevant to mutants?