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thecorteztwins · 7 years

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“Mutant Empire: Sanctuary” Chapters 15 & 16

Tagging the people I think are still reading along with me: @malakhvent @hexiva @muffiewrites @magnetician @magnet-dad ... how about you, @ofbecomings and @taintedhero, you want in on this too? I’m doing a read-along of the Mutant Empire, a trilogy of X-Men novels (comic verse, not movie) in which Magneto takes over Manhattan and turns it into a mutant society/sanctuary he calls Haven. I tag people I know will be interested in the Magneto (and sometimes Charles) characterization! You can catch up (if you’re interested) by reading the “mutant empire” tag on my blog :) Okay, so this is pretty much the end of Book Two. There is a Chapter 17 after this, but nothing in there I think I’ll be posting about. There’s actually nothing much about Magneto in Chapter 15 either, but there is some Xavier stuff, and I know at least two of y’all will be interested in that, plus just some mutant politics stuff. After that is Chapter 16, which is where we come back to Magneto. Okay, let’s dive in...

CHAPTER 15 At one point when things are looking grim and so is Xavier, another character says he’s ruining her image of him as an eternal optimist, and he responds thusly: “That’s one of the biggest misconceptions about me. I’m actually a terrible pessimist. I don’t believe that humans and mutants are such good souls that they can live in harmony simply because it is the best way to live. That just isn’t reality. I dream of a world where humans and mutants live in harmony, that much is true. But I know that if it happens, it will be because the alternative is so terrifying that we have no other real choice.” If that seems too dark for Xavier by your taste or opinion, this bit does get added in the narration right after: “He was rarely so verbose without cause, and even more infrequently so bitter. But he found it difficult not to become bitter with the gleaming Sentinel just over his shoulder as an illustration of how close they already were to losing the dream. And maybe he had lied a bit. Maybe a part of him believed in the innate goodness of people, believed that peace could arise for its own sake. Even if that were true, a greater part of him had begun to grow cynical. He didn’t like it one bit.” Personally, I think that even if he is really an eternal optimist, being momentarily grim when it really does look like the shit has hit the fan is realistic, and I like the idea of him being human, being able to have moments of doubt and pessimism, even while everyone around him stereotypes him on a pedestal as just never-ending hope without waver. That’s a hard role for anyone to fill, and the idea that he struggles to stay that way is more inspiring than if it just came naturally without effort. When he goes into the mind of Gyrich, an anti-mutant government agent, we get this bit, and it reminds me of what you wrote about Xavier and Anne Marie, Hex: “Without desiring to, he began to get a much clearer picture of Gyrich as a person. As he had suspected, the man was not nearly the villain Cooper had always painted him to be. And yet, he was perhaps even more dangerous because he fought for what he believed to be right. Patriots were always more passionate than mercenaries. The greedy were never martyrs.” Then we get to some mutant politics stuff regarding a new Acolytes recruit named Needle, told through the eyes of Acolytes veteran Amelia Voght: “Needle was new to the game, Voght realized. Not much more than a kid, really, a young woman whose genetic mutation had destroyed any hope she might have had of a normal life. Unlike Amelia, who could ‘pass’ for human without any trouble, Needle had changed far to much to ever be considered human again. Her mouth had distended slightly, and was filled with several rows of long, thin, razor-sharp teeth like needles. They seemed to extend when she opened her mouth, and retract within the girl’s head when her mouth closed. It was not an attractive mutation. She had been bitter, angry, despondent. Then Magneto had come along and shown her that the world had a place for her, that she was as good, no, better, than the humans who had ridiculed her. [...] She was the perfect recruit. In it one hundred percent, with nothing to lose and everything to gain. She also illustrated, for Amelia, one of the prime differences in the conflicting philosophies in the mutant community. Charles Xavier touted harmony between the two races. Magneto spoke of conquest. What Xavier would never understand was that, like abused children, mutants like Needle would never be able to rise completely above the past. They could forgive, if they had the heart for it, but they would never forget. Harmony, for Needle, was out of the question. And if it was out of reach of some mutants, it was out of reach for them all.” I love that wham line at the end. As a note, this bit is told from the perspective of Amelia Voght, so if you (as I do) disagree with the idea that abused children can never rise above the past, or that rising above it is defined as being able to forget it, or that Xavier (being an abused child himself) can’t understand this, understand that it’s not meant as objective fact but the opinion of a character, one who herself, despite being able to pass for human, still ended up suffering the loss of her family at the hands of humans (hence why she’s on Magneto’s side too) Amelia is pretty bitter and pessimistic and not without good reasons of her own, basically, so it makes sense to me she’d think like that even if I disagree and think it was a shitty thing to say (I think she’s projecting, personally) CHAPTER 16 Here’s where things come back to Magneto. Many of the X-Men are still his captives, and they are before a crowd of his mutant followers. Beast starts to speak out against him, the Acolytes yell for him to be gagged, but Magneto says to let him speak. I’m not gonna summarize the speech and go through each bit and what I agree/disagree with, I simply haven’t the patience, but at the end, Magneto then addresses them. Beast makes a really unfortunate mental comparison of him to Hitler and oh the tragic irony and could we not? Anyway, Magneto tells them that they are going to give two or three days respite, then expand the borders of what is now called “Haven” beyond merely Manhattan. The crowd cheers, Bishop attacks Magneto, Magneto is like LOL I HAVE ALREADY WON and reminds him how he’s letting the X-Men live in order to witness his victory and hopes that they, as “honorable men and women” will come around to his side, but maybe he should make an exception for Bishop. He fires some magnetic force at him, Bishop runs the opposite way and frees Storm, which is when the shit really hits the fan. Firstly because IT’S STORM and secondly because she is SUPER PISSED about the “locking her in a car trunk to use her claustrophobia against her” thing, like she feels SUPER violated by that and understandably so, especially since she knows Magneto knew EXACTLY how awful it would be for her.

Basically this is BIG TIME PERSONAL Magneto yells for his followers to kill her if they have to, and Storm thinks that this reveals his “true colors” but we actually see that he's “saddened” by the idea when the book shifts to his POV. Before that shift, though, we get Storm absolutely TEARING SHIT UP. There is thunder, there is lighting, there is fog, there is wind, people are LITERALLY BLOWN AWAY by 110 mph gales, there is sleet and hail and ice and snow, IT IS CRAZY, SHE IS AMAZING like this is some Grade-A Weather Goddess stuff right here, y'all Then the POV shifts to Magneto, who is in awe as he should be. And “for the first time” he wonders if she's the most powerful X-men of all. Uh for the FIRST time? Really? Yeah I don't buy that...okay, maybe he considered Xavier the most powerful, I guess. Anyway, he starts to think holy shit she actually might end my plans altogether SHE'S THAT BADASS. One of the Acolytes asks him how they can kill this woman, Magneto answers “How indeed” and thinks how “despite his words, he did not want Storm dead. He had always had more respect for her than for most of her comrades, and this display only heightened that respect. Storm could be of great use to him in the future. Of course, if she forced his hand, well then he would have to kill her.” Magneto uses his powers to force his way through the fog and wind and hail that rages all around him, which takes far more effort than his usual levitating and shielding, because DUH HE'S IN A FUCKING HURRICANE THAT IS PERSONALLY ATTACKING HIM SPECIFICALLY but then he makes it to where he has her in his sights. He thinks “how beautiful she appeared then, in all the glory of her mutant power. She was a shining example of the magnificence that was the genetic x-factor, the reason why humans must give way to mutant rule. There was a grandeur about her that took his breath away.” Even Magneto gushes over how great Storm is, if only in his head, and I LOVE IT. Storm catches sight of him and attacks hi shield with lightning, his shield can't take it, he begins to fall, his body in pain, he hits a malestrom, and as his breath begins to leave him, he speaks into his comm unit for the Sentinel he now controls to seize Storm. Excuse me, seize “alpha mutant designate Storm” Hell yeah she's an alpha mutant! (Note: This was before Grant Morrison invented the concept of the “omega mutant” basically there's never been any consistent canon way of classing mutants and it varies by writer) Then he's tossed around in the storm itself, which draws him towards her, and he wonders if he will die, if she will kill him. But as he has “no desire to find out” he summons another magnetic force bubble around himself, thinking how his powers are unmatched in terms of sheer force and devastation, how Storm only survived this battle as long as she did because she had the element of surprise. Sure bro, whatever you wanna tell yourself -eyeroll- He thinks how if she doesn't surrender, he will destroy her and make an example of her to other rebellious mutants by impaling her on the spire that drops the New Year's Ball. And yet, even as he's thinking these smug, vindictive, brutal things, “Magneto found himself a little saddened by the thought.” of doing it. I really love the mix of emotions, especially such diametrically contrasting ones, going on in Mags at the same time, I feel like that’s really fundamental to him. Anyway, they fight for another two pages and I won’t bore you with a blow by blow but this would make a GREAT movie scene. Then the Sentinel shows up, Storm looks and up and sees it, and the last lines of the chapter are “Realizing she had lost, Storm attempted a retreat. She did not get very far.” There is one more chapter and an epilogue in the book after this but there’s no Magneto stuff and it doesn’t really change much, besides that the other half of the X-team is back from space so I guess they’ll be joining the Magneto plot in the next/third/final book. Which is fine with me because I didn’t care about the space plot besides Cr+eeee you should all love Cr+eeee

#xmen #x men #mutant empire #magneto #marvel #X men novels

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