Warning: SPOILERS for Incoming #1!
Marvel’s next generation of mutants are being created by Mr. Sinister. Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men relaunch has seen the mutant race gather on the living island of Krakoa. They’re using a combination of Cerebro technology and mutant powers to resurrect every mutant who’s died in the past. So, how will Mister Sinister’s plan affect Krakoa’s growth?
Naturally, Mr. Sinister is heavily involved in the process, and Charles Xavier has placed very specific restrictions upon his activities. Nathaniel Essex has always been known for creating countless duplicates, at one point unleashing an army of copies of his Marauders. But this has now been explicitly forbidden, with Xavier insisting there should only ever be one version of each mutant at a given time.
This week’s Incoming #1 reveals that Sinister has found a work-around. His goal is to create a new, enhanced version of himself, but with his own DNA blended with that of other mutants. Naturally, given Sinister’s ego, he’s particularly interested in the unlimited power of Omega mutants. And there is just one Omega mutant whose DNA he does not yet have access to; Franklin Richards, acknowledged by Galactus himself as the most powerful mutant ever born. The son of the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, Franklin has so far been reluctant to head to Krakoa, but the X-Men are eager to get him to join up.
Hickman’s Powers of X series revealed the future of the mutant race; that Sinister is destined to create a type of mutant he refers to as “Chimeras,” artificially created beings whose genes are a blend of two or more mutants, and who thus possess the abilities of multiple mutants. The most prominent in one future timeline was Rasputin, a woman whose genes incorporated those of Quentin Quire, Colossus, Unus the Untouchable, Kitty Pryde and X-23. The problem is that, in the future glimpsed through Powers of X, the process of creating Chimeras proved dangerously unstable. It ultimately brought down Krakoa.
Sinister has correctly spotted a loophole in Xavier’s rules, but it’s most likely one that is entirely deliberate; Xavier has Moira MacTaggert on his side, a mutant whose power of reincarnation means she experienced that doomed timeline. The Professor presumably believes that the Chimeras are an essential part of the evolution of the mutant race, but he’s playing with fire. Sinister is decades ahead in terms of creating Chimeras, possibly even centuries. If he succeeds in acquiring Franklin Richards, who knows what he could unleash and how the X-Men will be impacted?
More: Yes, The X-Men Are Creating Another Nation Already
