While i was reading this, i couldn’t shake the feeling that mutants were building a goddamn Israel. Like, seriously, maybe i’m missing something, but i’m not the only one who’s got questions on this, ain’t i?

And i’m not saying it’s poorly written. Not at all. What’s interesting to me is a series of huge problems the size of this entire country

# What the hell is going on here?

First of all, I understand that Hickman set up Krakoa to self-destruct under the weight of tons of small and kilotons of huge problems

Starting from the obvious:

• Who thought that using Mr. Sinistor as the backbone of the state’s structure was a good idea? (See XKCD 2347)

• Why are the fundamental laws of an entire state written, seemingly for sake of having laws? IN THE MIDDLE OF A TRIAL?

• Aristocracy as the foundation of the state.

• Ethnic-based nationalism, as heard from Magneto, who personally survived four genocides, one of which was a very real Holocaust by the way

• And in general, is it really okay for everyone to call themselfs Homo-Superior?

And here’s my main problem with this book. NO ONE REALLY CONSERNED BY THIS IMPLICATION OF THE SUPREMACIST ETHNOSTATE?!? Seriously, I’m willing to believe a lot of stupid shit, but what the hell are these people thinking with? Apparently, it’s their reproductive organs, since “Make more mutants” is written into the fundamental laws of the country

And I don’t give a damn that they’re making themselves out to be a separate species. Homo-Neanderthalis are just as human as Homo-Sapiens, so making themselves out to be a separate species is pure nonsense.

# Speaking of local laws

The Krakoan Constitution(it’s not formally called that, but in fact, that’s what it is) consists of three laws, I quote verbatim:

• Make more mutants

• Murder no man

• Respect this sacred land

No details will be given. These three points were determined on the spot by 12 aristocrats calling themselves the “Quiet Council”. No voting, no consultation with the people; don’t expect democracy here. Power rests within a small group of people who, strictly in accordance with Plato’s Republic, will make decisions for the majority of the plebeians. But at least Plato had mechanisms for rotation of the power, whereas here they got no formalized mechanisms of open governance; everything is done by handshake agreements. After all, there’s no formal protocol was recorded in the meetings

I don’t know, maybe I was spoiled by my good friend who wrote a whole constitution for his project, but Hickman still could’ve done more work in here. Especially considering how much detail he included in the rest of the book

# Resurrection

Anyone familiar with long-running comicbooks knows that death means absolutely nothing in them. But on this wonderful island, death is now completely not a thing :|

It works according to a simple mechanism: a mutant dies, their body is cloned, and a backup consciousness is uploaded into it. This whole miracle is managed by six absolutely definetly irreplaceable people.

Oh no…

I’m probably just overthinking it, but isn’t this just cloning? Like, every biologist in any comicbook universe had been doing the same exact thing (Comrade Creepy alone has been confirmed to have at least 50 simultaneously living clones). Is this really resurrection? Because in the Marvel Universe, let me remind you, there’s a very real concept of the Soul, which is replaced here by the basic installation of a backup consciousness into a new body

So here’s the question: how many copies of Jean Grey are currently sitting in the afterlife, sharing a slightly smaller number of copies of Cyclops?

# Moira

Oh, flork, Miss Moira MacTaggert needs a separate segment. Firstly, turning a character whose main point was to be an ordinary human among superhumans into yet another superhuman is a really dumb trope, especially in the context of X-Men… but if i continue this sentence the way i’m want to, i’ll be in jail :3

Secondly, at least they gave her an interesting ability; Jonathan did a great job there. Her life is one big Groundhog Day, which is something i’ve never seen before

Thirdly, she’s lived 10 full lives (some of which lasted for centuries) trying to craft the perfect plan to save mutantkind, and THAT’S her best plan? I understand a couple of millennia of existence and anyone can get a bit crazy, but is making the same mistakes humanity has made since the Roman Empire really a good plan?

# But in the end of the day, i liked it.

If you leave out all that mutants been turned from metaphor of all the oppressed, into the allusions to very real bad real-life things, it’s a pretty good story. I hope, of course, that the racial superiority cult vibes will be dropped in the future, because it really interferes with any reasonable perception of the Multiply Symbol-Men as good guys.

Yes, I gave this book 3 stars, but I wouldn’t write such a long text without liking the damn thing. I have a lot of questions, and I want to know the answers. Because even before reading, I caught one very important spoiler for the correct understanding of this plot: Krakoa is a very big thing, and it will be a very hard fall