305: UXM # 526 - 534 (The Five Lights, Quarantine)

May 5
7 min read

What’s Covered?

UXM # 526 - 534, Generation Hope # 1 - 5

Roster Watch

Synopsis

UXM # 526 - 529: The Five Lights

Writer - Matt Fraction

Pencils - Jamie McKelvie, Whilce Portacio, Steven Sanders, Leonard Kirk, Harvey Tolibao

Archangel and Iceman are watching over one of the Five Lights, a 19-year-old woman undergoing a transformation that does not seem to be playing by the usual mutant rules. Meanwhile, Hope prepares to leave with Rogue, Cypher, and Nemesis to search for her roots in Alaska, where she meets her grandmother and learns that her late mother was a firefighter who loved helping people. Cyclops is still trying to keep everything together, even as he admits things have been strange between him and Wolverine since Nightcrawler died. Emma heads out to dinner with Tony Stark, and Scott apparently receives a medal from the president for saving the planet, which feels like the kind of thing that should probably be a bigger deal. By the end, Hope helps the young woman complete her transformation into a blue-skinned flying mutant, while a side story shows Magneto wanting to meet Wiccan and Speed because they might be his grandchildren.

Psylocke and Dr. Reyes head to Mexico to deal with Gabriel, one of the new mutants whose speed has become so intense that he has turned invisible. Tony Stark continues trying to build some kind of peace with mutantkind, which makes his dinner with Emma feel more diplomatic than romantic. Emma also visits Sebastian Shaw in the brig, keeping that unresolved tension very much alive. Wolverine gives Scott a much-needed pep talk, telling him it is time to actually process Nightcrawler’s death and all the other losses that have been piling up. Namor, because he is Namor, hits on Emma again, and Emma, because she has standards and problems of her own, shuts him down.

Storm and Hope go after another of the Five Lights, this time a 12-year-old girl whose mutation causes her to both burn and freeze everything around her. Hope continues to show that she has a strange and powerful connection to these new mutants, stepping into situations that even veteran X-Men can barely control. Back on Utopia, Emma helps Kitty and Colossus communicate mentally, since Kitty is still trapped in her intangible state. The conversation gives Kitty a chance to unload on Emma, and it turns out she has plenty of nasty things to say. More importantly, Kitty knows about Emma’s plan to kill Sebastian Shaw, which makes Emma’s secrets feel a lot less secret.

Emma reaches out to Fantomex for help secretly getting Shaw away from Utopia, which is never a sign that someone is making calm, responsible decisions. Madison Jeffries, meanwhile, asks Danger out on a date, and honestly, good for him for shooting his shot with a sentient murder-room. Hope and the team find Teon, another of the Five Lights, who is acting more like a feral beast than a teenage mutant. He is stalking alpha females until Hope steps in and brings him to heel, once again proving that her role in these new mutants’ lives is not just symbolic. Danger essentially allows Emma to remove Shaw, helping set the stage for whatever ugly thing Emma has convinced herself needs to happen next.

Generation Hope # 1 - 5: the Future is a Four Letter Word

Writer - Kieron Gillen

Pencils - Salvador Espin, Scott Koblish, Jamie McKelvie

Hope, Rogue, and the four new Lights head to Tokyo to find the fifth newly awakened mutant, Kenji. Unfortunately, Kenji’s powers are already exploding out of him in the worst way possible, giving him some kind of control over art while twisting his own body into something grotesque and horrifying. He is not just making a mess either, since a lot of innocent people are dying in the middle of his transformation. It is a brutal first mission for Hope’s new team, and it immediately makes clear that finding the Lights is not the same thing as saving them. Kenji’s arrival gives the book a much darker edge than you might expect from a series about the next generation of mutants.

Hope tries to end things by copying Kenji’s powers, but the experience overwhelms her and she passes out. Gabriel saves her before the situation gets even worse, proving that he is quickly becoming one of the most useful members of the team. With Hope down, Rogue, Wolverine, and Cyclops are forced to fight Kenji directly, which is not exactly ideal when his body and powers keep getting more monstrous. Kenji escalates the whole disaster by transforming himself into a giant kaiju, because apparently Tokyo was not having enough problems that day. It is one of those X-Men situations where every attempted rescue starts looking more like a full-scale monster attack.

The fight with Kenji reaches its breaking point, and Hope once again becomes the only real solution. She touches him, and just like that, the chaos is over. It is a simple resolution on the surface, but it reinforces how strange and powerful her connection to the Lights really is. These kids are dangerous, confused, and scared, but Hope seems to be the one person who can actually reach them when nobody else can. The problem, of course, is that “Hope touches them and everything is fixed” is starting to raise just as many questions as it answers.

Wolverine fights Teon until the beast-like kid finally submits to him as the alpha, which is probably the most Wolverine version of mutant counseling possible. Kitty and Emma welcome the kids to Utopia, while Scott forgives Kenji for what happened in Tokyo. The team also learns that Gabriel is not really a speedster, but a time manipulator, which makes his earlier rescues of Hope even more interesting. Hope kisses Gabriel as her way of thanking him for saving her twice, which is sweet, awkward, and probably exactly the kind of thing that will make this team messier later. The issue is mostly about settling the kids into their new lives, but it still keeps the emotional weirdness front and center.

Hope and Magneto begin growing closer, which is a fascinating pairing considering who he is and what everyone thinks she might become. Hope also meets Professor X and challenges the basic “us versus them” thinking that has shaped so much of mutant history, arguing that people need to stop labeling everyone as mutant or human and start treating everyone like people. Then she decides she is not sitting through Emma’s lecture, storms out, and threatens her, because Hope may have some big-picture wisdom but she is still very much a teenager with no patience for authority. Beast writes Hope a letter telling her to leave Utopia, which lands like a warning from someone who has already lost faith in what Cyclops is building there. By the end, the series has moved from mutant rescue missions to the much harder question of whether Utopia is actually the right place for these kids.

UXM # 530 - 534: Quarrantine

Writer - Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen

Pencils - Greg Land

Emma’s secret relocation of Sebastian Shaw becomes a lot more complicated once we learn why she is doing it. Namor believes Shaw is dead, and if he finds out Emma lied by manipulating his mind, he would see that as an act of war. Meanwhile, Anole catches a brutal flu, causing Cyclops to lock down Utopia out of fear that they are facing a full influenza pandemic. The illness dampens mutant powers and even starts taking down Wolverine, which is always a giant red flag. With Archangel, Pixie, Dazzler, Northstar, and Storm as the only X-Men off the island, Sublime Corp chooses the worst possible time to turn five humans into fake mutants with the powers of the original X-Men.

The Sublime-made mutant frauds start solving crimes, which makes them look annoyingly useful while the real X-Men are trapped and getting worse. Back on Utopia, the sickness spreads, and Wolverine is hit hardest, proving this is not just a standard cold making the rounds. Cyclops is stuck trying to manage a powerless, sick population while also keeping the outside world from panicking. The fake X-Men continue grabbing attention, and the whole thing feels like someone saw the X-Men at their weakest and decided to launch a branding campaign. It is shady, opportunistic, and extremely Sublime.

Sebastian Shaw attacks EVA as Emma and Fantomex’s secret plan begins falling apart. At the same time, the Collective Man, a communist hero turned warlord, shows up in San Francisco and immediately proves he is not impressed by the Sublime knockoffs. He easily beats the fake X-Men, which is embarrassing for them but honestly pretty satisfying. Thankfully, the only real X-Men still available, Pixie, Dazzler, Northstar, Storm, and Archangel, step in and take him down. It is a nice reminder that even a short-handed X-team is still very much the X-Men.

The fake X-Men lead the real X-Men to Lobe and one extremely suspicious party. Lobe hands out a one-day mutant drug to his investors so they can fight the X-Men, because apparently rich weirdos will do anything for a bad superpower experience. While that disaster unfolds, Shaw defeats Emma, Kitty, and Fantomex, forcing Emma to run and rethink how badly this whole mission has gone. Cyclops, realizing they need bodies more than they need clean strategy, decides to send the sick, powerless X-Men into the fight against Lobe anyway. It is not his safest call, but this is Cyclops deep into the Utopia era, so “safe” is not exactly the brand.

Emma tricks Shaw into believing he has killed her, then uses the opening to erase his personality. It is a cold, brutal move, but Emma clearly sees Shaw as too dangerous to leave intact, especially with Namor and Utopia hanging over the situation. Meanwhile, Pixie and Dazzler’s friendship is genuinely awesome, giving the arc a much-needed spark of fun and heart in the middle of all the flu, frauds, and pharmaceutical mutant nonsense. Cyclops’ gamble pays off when the infected X-Men expose the temporary-power crowd to the virus, revealing that those with artificial mutant powers were susceptible to it and could release the cure. One of the five fake X-Men escapes with some of the mutant medicine, leaving the arc with the very X-Men promise that the worst idea in the room will absolutely come back later.

My Connections and Creators

Thoughts on Art

Whilce Portacio’s art gives these issues a jagged, energetic look that works well for the chaos surrounding the Five Lights and their unstable transformations. The guest work from Leonard Kirk and Harvey Tolibao fits well enough into the larger arc, though the shifts are noticeable from issue to issue. The strongest visuals come when the new mutants’ powers are completely out of control, especially with Gabriel’s invisible speed and the young girl burning and freezing everything around her.

Salvador Espin’s work gives the early issues a bright, clean energy that makes Kenji’s grotesque art-body horror stand out even more sharply. The Tokyo chaos and kaiju imagery are easily the visual highlights of the opening arc. Jamie McKelvie’s issue brings a softer, more expressive style that works well for the quieter character moments with Hope, Magneto, Xavier, Emma, and Beast.