This article contains spoilers for Marauders #5.
Marvel’s X-Men relaunch has just taken a seriously disturbing twist. Jonathan Hickman’s high-profile relaunch of the X-Men comics has raised a lot of ethical questions around the new mutant nation of Krakoa. Are the mutants right to separate themselves from humanity, or will segregation lead to conflict? Should mutants be treated as gods? Will both mutants and humans be superseded by a third evolutionary strand, one driven by science?
Krakoa’s greatest secret is the fact that Charles Xavier has conquered death itself. He’s effectively resurrecting every mutant who’s ever died, using a combination of cloning and Cerebro technology. It’s an incredible feat, and it’s already meant that the X-Men have been willing to run suicide missions, confident that they’ll simply be brought back from death. Naturally, the idea of a world without death raises countless ethical issues.
This week’s Marauders #5 made it all even more disturbing. The X-Men comics have revealed that there’s just one mutant who isn’t accepted by Krakoa, Kate (formerly “Kitty”) Pryde, and it seems her teammates are worried the resurrection protocols won’t work for her either. Kate and Emma Frost have put their troubled history behind them, and in one scene Kate admits her worries to Emma. “The gates don’t work for me,” she muses, “what if the resurrection protocols don’t either? Maybe one day I’ll be the only old woman on the island.” The clear implication is that the X-Men don’t just intend to use their new approach to conquer death; they also intend to conquer ageing.
It’s not hard to understand the temptation to use this new resurrection protocol to conquer ageing, but from a philosophical viewpoint, that should really be seen as an abuse. That’s even more the case for the X-Men, who have always argued that change is the one universal constant; now Xavier is offering every mutant a chance to reset the clock whenever they wish. Rather than experience a mid-life crisis, for example, a necessary part of human growth, a mutant can choose to simply commit suicide and have their memories uploaded into a new, teenage body. Perhaps that’s the real reason Jean Grey is back in the Marvel Girl costume she wore as a teenager; because she wanted a reset.
For now, of course, Kate Pryde’s concerns seem to be some time in the distance. Xavier is prioritizing the resurrection of mutants who have actually been killed, primarily as a result of the Genoshan genocide. But Kitty surely isn’t the only one to be thinking this far ahead - and it’s interesting to note that she assumes nobody would choose to age.
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