X-Civics 101: 13 Things I learned From " X-Men: Second Coming"

1. Murder And Torture Ennoble The Murderer And Torturer As Long As It's Cyclops That Wins The Day

"Maybe Captain America, Iron Man and Thor will come arrest us. That'd be funny, actually. I'd go to jail with a smile on my face. Because I'd do it all again." declares Cyclops at the end of "Second Coming", illustrating how self-sacrificing and noble a character he is. Yes, he's been responsible for murder and torture, but it's plain that we ought to admire him, because he's willing to suffer himself for the sins he's been forced to commit for his people's sake. Indeed, he's quite ready, as he himself declares, to go to jail for repeatedly breaking not simply the law, but the very principles which underpin modern Western society too. Of course, his willingness to serve time is in principle somewhat undercut by his refusal to actually own up to what he's done, by his decision not to suffer the legal consequences of his behaviour. But if a group of superheroes more powerful and more influential than himself should stumble by chance upon his sins, then of course he'll go to jail. Until then, he's relieved, as all good men driven temporarily to necessary extremes would be, to close down his assassination bureau and bravely walk into the future as the undoubted leader and indeed saviour of the mutant race. As he says, "It's a new day."


His victims may not see things that way, but they were bad people and their opinions don't count.

For there's no doubt that the text of "Second Coming" wants us to view Cyclops as the tragic hero of the piece. Others may disapprove of him, he may feel lonely and betrayed, he may be spoken badly of in public by a few old team-mates, and even his threadbare conscience may wince on occasion, but his policies of torture and murder and deception do win the day. "We were right." smiles the weary but cheerful Cyclops to Emma Frost at the tale's end, and he obviously was, because, look, little babies with super-powers are being born; what better proof of the rewards of virtue could you want?


2. Murder And Torture Are The Sensible Middle-Of-The-Road Policy Choices Of The Mutant Leader Caught Between Two Even Less Acceptable Political Extremes

"Second Coming" makes it plain that the constant violations of legal and human rights by Scott Summers actually represent the most sensible, the most practical, political option for mutants on Marvel-Earth. A temporary descent into barbarism was absolutely necessary, and, after all, once victory is won, Cyclops does abandon the use of X-Force as a "Black Ops" agency.

Cyclops, being a good man, knows when to stop killing bad people. Wolverine, lacking the deep moral principles of Scott Summers, has secretly reformed X-Force as a truly covert death squad independent of any authority but his own, meaning that Scott Summers by contrast appears something of a moderate, a brave bulwark against extremism. He only tortured and killed when it was completely necessary.


And to the left of Summers lie the liberals, the ineffective opposition of the elitists, such as Storm, and the intellectuals, such as the Beast, who moan on about decency and responsibility without ever showing the slightest sign that they can win wars like Cyclops can. For all that these few dissident voices are heard in "Second Coming", the text itself always shows the torturers and killers in the most heroic light. And so, between Wolverine and his brave and rather gritty X-Force, killing people without even the slightest slither of oversight that Cyclops previously offered, and those few unrepresentative losers whining on about principle while the mutant race is threatened with genocide, Scott Summers and his policy of selective and necessary murder and torture definitely seems to be the most moderate and sensible option.


3. Mutant Assassins Make Very Sexy Super-Heroes

The double page spread of the new X-Force standing alluring and determined, armed to the teeth with excesses of weapons and nobly focused on their brave task, surely both excites and inspires everyone that sees it. Killing is heroic, and admirable, and very attractive. Let's never forget that.


4. Torture And Murder Work While The Process Of National & International Law Doesn't

There is obviously no alternative, when trying to survive as a small but genetically-distinct community, but to fight alone in isolation from all national and international organisations. The peoples of the world at all levels are at best uncaring and at worst complicit where the genocide of the mutants is concerned; Cyclops is right to rely on no-one but his own. After all, it's clear that no attempt can be made to work with even the government of the United States Of America, let alone any of the other sovereign nations of the world or the various international agencies they belong to. It simply wouldn't work. We know that, and it doesn't even need to be discussed.

And as an extension of that point, we're all agreed, I'm sure, that small, illegally-constituted states are quite right to resort to terrorism in order to survive whenever they see fit, and it's just as well that the mutants did so, as "Second Coming" shows us. Why, even President Obama's government would have obviously left them alone and helpless in the face of all that evidence that genocide was underway; it's a good job they declared themselves free of his dictatorship and resisted any urge to trust him. Indeed, it was a wise decision for neither "X-Nation" nor "Second Coming" to show Cyclops or any of his people trying to pursue any diplomatic options which might have provided the mutants with safe haven, military support or even the financial backing to develop their defences.

We're on our own in this life. Load your rifles, lock up your daughters, the others are coming.


5. The United States Government Is Not Only Hostile and Useless, It's Also Invisible And Doesn't Even Make A Token Effort When Its Citizens Are Attacked

Thank heavens for the super-heroes who can take control of world-threatening situations and ensure that the state and all its people always survive super-villain attacks. Because if it wasn't for the likes of the X-Men, The Avengers and The Fantastic Four, no-one would be around to try and help citizens cope with disaster. After all, not a political representative, not a member of any of the armed forces or the emergency services, beyond a few silent and ineffectual police officers, or even a member of a local neighbourhood committee, makes a single attempt to offer the slightest assistance in "Second Coming", even when San Francisco is being destroyed.

People are not to be trusted. We're on our own. It's up to the super-heroes now.


6. Non-Mutant Super-Heroes Always Turn Up When They're Most Needed, So Let's Not Expect Them To Be Pro-Active When They've Better Things To Do

"This is the violent end of the mutant species in toto." the Avengers are told by Doctor Nemesis when they arrive in San Francisco to investigate "a dome of impregnable energy" sealing off the city. "Not on our watch." replies Captain America, speaking no doubt for the hundreds of Marvel superheroes who've been waiting for a dramatic moment just like this to show solidarity with their fellow super-heroes of the X-Men. To have been actively monitoring the situation and to have been pro-active about the defense and support of the new X-Nation was obviously quite unnecessary. Far better for all involved to wait until the violence has begun before acting.

Furthermore, it's moments such as this, when Marvel's superheroes actually turn up too late to affect the outcome of a battle, despite it being on their "watch", that show how clever Cyclops was not to try to build alliances with the various super-powered individuals of the world beyond Namor. Even given the trials caused by the inexplicable rise to power within the state of Norman Osbourne, there were always opportunities to forge close links and mechanisms for mutual support between mutant and superhero communities. But the late arrival of the East Coast elite as San Francisco is attacked merely proves that Cyclops was right to follow a separatist agenda, relying on assassination and "futurist" planning to win the day instead.


7. Survival At All Costs Is The Only Cause Worth Serving

"Second Coming" is absolutely clear on the point that we must measure the worth of a society by the ends it achieves and not the means it adopts. Cyclops and his mutant state succeeds by foul means and fair in winning their punch-up with Bastion and securing their own survival, so we should self-evidently be happy for them and the rebirth of their race regardless of how they might have achieved such a victory. Their survival, after all, obviously couldn't have been secured according to what liberals might in their contemptuous tones call moral means. The only criteria for judging heroic worth is noting who wins and then cheering accordingly.

"This had better be worth it." shouts Wolverine at Cable and Hope after the burial of poor Nightcrawler, showing that Logan quite correctly measures the worth of his actions according to whether his side comes out ahead or not. What's most admirable about Logan's stance is the implication that if the plans of Cyclops don't work out, Wolverine will make somebody other than himself pay for their failure. This is of course the most laudable form of ethical behaviour. Wolverine will murder on the orders of an unelected leader lacking any kind of civil authority in contradiction of America's laws, and then, if things don't work out, he'll blame the man who gave the orders and the people the orders were designed to help in the first case.


8. Authoritarian Government Is The Only Way To Protect A Society Under Threat

The unwritten constitution of the X-Nation is a perfect example of the kind of government which protects a people under threat of their very existence from both foreigners and the American enemy within. The state of Utopia, where the rule of the United State of America quite rightly doesn't run despite it being well within its territorial waters, is perfectly adapted to protect itself against all comers through the efficiency and competency of its benign dictatorship. Having a well-meaning tyrant operating without limitations or oversight is undoubtedly the best way to cope with an extinction event, and having the nice tyrant Cyclops undertake the defence of his people in a secret manner is undoubtedly the best approach. After all, he was never going to be killed or rendered useless in the coming combat, as so many of his fellows were, so there was no risk that his various complex and covert schemes would collapse because he'd been taken off of the board. Nor was there a possibility that other plans of action would work better, so why should anybody be shown as anything other than that which they they undoubtedly are, the political and military underlings of the X-Men's own Caesar, Scott Summers, who, when they disagree with him, are plainly shown to be simply wrong.

Why, I'd certainly trust Scott Summers to be running X-Force and a secret underground prison operating without any reference to the rule of law too. He'd get my vote if he were the kind of leader who required a popular mandate, but then, thankfully, he isn't.


9. Their Killers Deserve Death, Ours An Honoured Place In The Ranks Of Our Comrades

The presence of Magneto in addition to that of Cyclops and X-Force in the front ranks of Mutantkind's defenders helps establishes the principle that it's not what you've done, it's whether you're on our side or not that counts. As Roosevelt once supposedly said of the brutal dictator of Nicaragua, Somoza, he "may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch". In embracing the morality of Magneto in principle if not scale, the X-Men and the community they represent have established themselves as single-minded practitioners of real politik, as brave freedom fighters who may have, as in Magneto's case, occasionally tried to wipe out the whole human race, but who come good in the end.

This is, of course, another important guide to recognising right and proper moral behaviour. A hero wins battles regardless of cost and consequences , and looks thrillingly brave and determined when they do so. All those namby-pamby leftist voices, which might be concerned about the X-Men were it still a bestselling book and better-read these days, would surely have missed the key point that brave Magneto, a mass murderer in the eyes of some of the reality-based community, is clearly shown getting up off of his sick bed, his sick bed, to help save his fellow mutants. Good old brave Magneto!

10. The Best Way To Help Vulnerable And Abused Teenagers Is To Enlist Them As Killers & Then Throw Them Out Without Compassion Or Psychological Support


One can only admire how both Cyclops and Wolverine have helped X-23 to cope with the fact that she is an abused and disturbed young woman who will kill at the pop of a claw. Cyclops was quite right to authorise her membership as an unofficially official tracker and assassin protecting the good mutants of the X-Nation; young people need discipline and the good example of older killers to help them adapt to their own private suffering. And Wolverine was quite right to sack his daughter from X-Force at the end of "Second Coming" with an almost complete lack of affection and a character-building cry of "You want orders? You want a mission? Give 'em to yourself for once." It's obvious that the only way to help such a damaged young woman is to coldly cut her loose from any social moorings and expect her to find her own way through with a display of plucky individualism.


11. Warriors Who Loose Limbs In Battle Are Within Days Happy-Go-Lucky Jokers And All The More Admirable For That

It's good to be given an old-fashioned exploration of heroism in "Second Coming". The two young amputees in the X-Nation's hospital following Bastion's fall are up and making jokes in no time. "You said it was going to be sexy ..." declares one as she's presented with a mechanical leg, while the handless Hellion is seen making jokes about not being able to scratch and needing a good bidet. Real heroes, of course, bounce back bravely immediately, and showing a few examples of plucky good humour and no sign of suffering beyond a little scowl is the most responsible way of giving out the message of how battlefield amputees respond to traumatic loss.


12. Being Massively Powerful And Yet Feeling Powerless Is Not A Mark Of Insanity, It's A Virtuous State Worthy Of Our Sympathy

It might be thought the entire premise that "X-Nation" and "Second Coming" are based upon is nonsensical. Having the X-Men believe themselves to be a persecuted and powerless minority even as they isolate themselves more and more from the help that might be secured from national, international and super-heroic allies could be seen to be a ridiculous business. It might be presumed that no-one but an idiot, surely, could ever imagine the X-Men, with Namor's people by their side, constituting anything other than a massively powerful army capable of taking out a coalition of most states on the face of the Earth. But what such criticisms miss is that it's not how powerful a nation is that its government needs to concern itself with, but how powerful it feels itself to be. The mutants on Utopia deserved our sympathy because they felt hard-done by, even as they squandered opportunity after opportunity to build friendships and alliances. They felt their own pain, as it were, and we ought to sympathise with them. Expecting the mutants to recognise their own strength and act accordingly is to show a lack of empathy for their emotional needs. Individuals such as X-23 must of course be treated cruelly and told to get on with their lives without assistance, but the mutant community as a whole needs its sense of victimhood recognised and validated.

The X-Men are victims and victims deserve the right to feel persecuted and to lash out accordingly.


13. If You Disagree With A Superior Who's Following A Policy Of Murder And Torture, The Only Choices You Have Are (1) To Do What They Suggest Or (2) Run Out On Your Friends Because You're A Traitor

Say what you like about the Beast, Nightcrawler and Storm, all of whom as individuals complain about Cyclop's policies of assassination and torture, but they didn't rock the boat. They neither refuse to fight nor go to the national or international authorities afterwards and denounce their former colleagues for a constant and flagrant policy of breaking just about every ethical and legal principle short of sexual abuse there exists in the modern West. And that's admirable, because whistle-blowing is a despicable business, and only self-obsessed and traitorous individuals serve a wider principle at the risk of hurting their friends.

It's the presence of such ethical role models in "Second Coming" that I ultimately find so admirable.


In Conclusion - A Brief And Somewhat Personal Plea

Marvel, please hire somebody to work with your editorial offices to check how your books might be read before they're put out. Please. It doesn't matter if some or all of the above issues are or have been qualified or even contradicted in other comic books, "Second Coming" exists as a discrete product, a single book carrying its own rather disturbing meanings separate from whatever else might be going in the MU. More worryingly, the meanings of "Second Coming" merely reinforce those of a previous collection "X-Nation"; together the two books read as if they were designed as a deliberate comic-book assault on the American Constitution, let alone one targetted at those various treaties and declarations of human rights that help define moral life in the 21st century. Torture, murder, false imprisonment, even an unconstitutional secession from the Union; Cyclops is showing instigating it all and he's portrayed as a hero for doing so. So, given that New York City is knee-deep in well-respected academics and cultural commentators, why not just pop out from the corridors of Marvel and bring one or two on board? It'll help side-step media storms such as the matter of the Tea-Party in Captain America, and it might assist in managing franchises like the X-Men too. At the very least, it would mean there was someone on board whose job it is to say "You do know what you're saying here, don't you?". If there is a message that's been created deliberately rather than by chance in a Marvel Comic, if the X-Men office really is arguing that torture and assassination is a necessary and rather noble business, then Marvel can at least knowingly support such a brave stance and be forewarned about what might be coming in terms of criticism. And if there's a disturbing message that's been placed in a book by accident, then the work can be managed to remove any unwanted politics before the printing presses and digital distributors place any unnecessary controversy out into the public domain.


But Marvel has always been a humanist organisation, from the very first days of Stan Lee's revolution in the early Sixties, and "Second Coming" stands in direct opposition to fundamental humanist principles. It's a grand mistake created accidentally, I believe, through a variety of influences, such as the need to create a sense of doom for the X-Men and a desire to emphasise their independent status within the Marvel Universe, but the end result has been a profoundly undemocratic comic book. I'm truly sorry to say so, I do so with a feeling of disloyalty akin to whistle-blowing on old, dear and much-respected friends, but there it stands; there's a great deal that's very wrong here.

Or is my hidden-even-from-myself mutant super-power the ability to completely misread, and mis-re-read, the meanings that "Second Coming" carries?



My best to any kind reader who's reached this point of the page. I wish you a splendid day! Stick together!


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