The best Science Fiction of the Trump Era? It’s X-Men
“While you slept, the world changed.”
The world feels like it hasn’t STOPPED changing over the last few years. “May you live in interesting times” is the phrase that lives in my mind. Any period of historical “interesting times” is fraught with tensions, conflicts, competing ideas, and moments of great joy and great despair. It happens at a pace of change that the human brain is more or less unequipped to properly digest and comprehend.
The Trump era has seen us live through a multitude of “interesting” moments. The time since 2015 has seen the rise of Artificial Intelligence, greater space for marginalized and queer voices in the mainsteam, and a rise in the awareness of self-care’s importance and a work/life balance readjustment on a societal level. The time since 2015 has also seen a failure of elites and “Great Men’’ in the Classical sense to look out for the public welfare, an increasingly atomized society that isolates the individual, climate change, mass violence, global pandemics, and armed conflict not seen since the end of the Cold War.
With so much to discuss and hash out as a society, the question might arise: “Where is the great fiction dealing with the issues of today?” To answer that question, we can turn to a genre with a rich tradition of societal commentary: science fiction. Science fiction as a genre has always been equipped to allow artists of vision and unique viewpoints to share their thoughts about today’s issues in the guise of futurity. And there’s been no shortage of strong science fiction over the last decade!
In fact, there is one major science fiction property that is directly commenting on the paramount issues of the day. It’s a franchise that is wildly popular and impactful on the cultural consciousness, while simultaneously largely overlooked in the mass consciousness throughout the majority of the Trump era. Of all things, it’s the baker’s dozen of unique comic books that make up the universe of X-Men. While the Avengers have spent the better part of the last 15 years dominating the cultural consciousness on the silver sceen, it’s Marvel’s Merry Mutants who are, in the vintage land of newsprint and magazines, the centerpiece of one of the most pivotal pieces of art about the Trump era’s upheaval.
“While you slept, the world changed.”
That sentence is the harbinger of what is known as the Krakoa saga of Uncanny X-Men.
Krakoa is the name of a new sovereign nation in the Marvel Universe, exclusively for mutants. At a small population of about 200,000, it is ruled by the Quiet Council, a 12 seat ruling body. On the council are a mixture of familiar faces such as Professor X and Storm, as well as some head-turning selections, like Apocalypse and Magneto. Why on Earth would such diametrically opposed foes not just sit down together, but work together as a governing body? The answer comes in the form of longtime X-Men supporting character Moira Mactaggart, reinvented as a mutant with the power of finite reincarnation.
Through Moira Mactaggart, rechristened Moira X (representing the amount of lives she’s led), we are introduced to a harbinger of something far more perilous and sinister. Moira presents to Charles Xavier and Magneto a revelation: She is the survivor of a millenia spanning conflict between man, mutant, and machine, in which mutants time and time again are systematically and ruthlessly targeted for genocide and extinction. Through her ten lives, Moira tries everything from diplomacy to global warfare to secure a future in which mutantkind is not utterly exterminated either by man or the artificial intelligence that mankind births in the name of survival against mutantkind. Each of these attempts not only ends in failure, but the absolute eradication of mutantkind from not just Earth, but the entire cosmos. Finally, after several lifetimes of failure, Moira decides the time has come to break all the rules. A radical reinvention of mutantkind and its place in the world is required for survival, and mutantkind cannot weather the storm separated into factions led by men such as Professor X and Magneto. United we Stand, Divided we Fall.
And so Moira, Charles, and Magneto decide the time has come to break all the old rules and conventions, and they set about doing just that. They succeed at uniting all mutants, heroes and villains alike, into a common cause of survival. And by doing this, mutantkind will not just survive, but thrive. A marginalized people now have a home. And with a home comes space, a chance to heal, to try new things, to create art and philosophy, and ultimately into a new way of being. A nation of thousands of super-powered beings, no longer scattered and on the run from hostile governments, eugenicists bent on experimentation, or robots built specifically to murder them. That’s the promise of Krakoa.
Coming together, mutants can perform miraculous works. In exchange for recognition of Krakoan sovereignty, mutantkind unleashes a pharmaceutical revolution that includes cures to diseases such as cancer and alzheimers, drugs that can extend the human lifespan by five years, and adaptive antibiotics that overnight cause most diseases to be a non-factor. Mutantkind also uses its powers to drastically reduce the impact of global warming, upgrade telecommunications on a global scale, and drastically improve the housing crisis in the span of weeks. Secretly, and most miraculously, through a set of extremely powerful mutants known as The Five, mutants can resurrect the dead.
It’s this latter development that is the most uncanny and astonishing feat of all. Through the history of Marvel Comics, Mutantkind, once a subspecies of millions, had been reduced to a population of mere hundreds through systemic and targeted genocide by mankind, often through the vicious and uncompromising Sentinel robots. Mutantkind now has the ability to undo a systemized genocide on the scale of the Holocaust, and give millions a second chance at life. Through this process of resurrection, mutantkind is effectively immortal, and by virtue of this, the undisputed inheritors of the Earth. Mutants are now projected to supplant humanity in a matter of decades.
If these few things feel like they’d upend a lot of the world order of economics, politics, technology, and natural enviroment, you’re absolutely right, and it is not unnoticed by the powers that be. Mankind, feeling evolutionary survival is a zero sum game, immediately begins accelerating countermeasures to mutant dominance. Krakoa represents change on an unprecedented scale for humanity. By virtue of its population all having superpowers or genetic mutations, as well as the complete elimination of the scarcity question that drives economics and international relations, Krakoa, upon recognition by the UN, immediately becomes the dominant global superpower. Not much a nuclear arsenal can do to an island with multiple people who can bend the very fabric of reality and the universe to their whims.
Are mankind and mutantkind actually different species, or one? Can two alpha predators survive in the same environment? What happens when a historically marginalized community overnight becomes the new apex of the world order? And where do questions of natural evolution vs artificial adaptation and evolution come into play in this battle for evolutionary dominance? How could Artificial intelligence factor into this dichotomy? And what does the everyday person think about everything happening in the Marvel Universe with mutantkind? Will the Avengers and Fantastic Four remain allies to the X-Men? Are the X-Men even superheroes anymore if they represent a nation-state? And can any nation-state, even one as miraculous as Krakoa, truly be a utopia? These are all questions that are asked and answered!
The story of the radical reinvention of the X-Men can’t be told without the story of the creatives putting these comics together. The chief architect behind this era of X-Men is Jonathan Hickman. Initially, Hickman, the Stanley Kubrick of comic books, was designated the “Head of X”, a floating title denoting his Kevin Feige-like status as the chief architect of the larger narrative being told in the X-Men line of magazines. In collaboration with superstar artists Pepe Larraz, RB Silva, and the great colorist Marte Garcia, Jonathan oversaw the initial House of X/Powers of X miniseries that kicked off the line-wide relaunch of X-Men to incredible critical and commercial success.
What’s truly remarkable, however, is how the office of the X-Men has modeled the ethos of Krakoa itself. In multiple interviews, a “writer’s room” mentality is attested to. Writers such as Vita Ayala, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Tini Howard, Victor Lavalle, Leah Williams, and Benjamin Percy, alongside artists such as Joshua Cassara, Marcus To, Rod Reis, Matteo Lolli, Valerio Schiti, and Stefano Casseli emphasize a spirit of collaboration and cooperation over an “auter”, individualist style of storytelling. While working on a singular title in this manner is commonplace, extending this ethos across at times a dozen comic books is a tremendous feat of logistics, and a testament to the creatives’ commitment to this Krakoan vision. In doing so, they have created a miraculous feat of storytelling where you can read one comic and get a complete and satisfying story, but by reading all the comics put together, you get a socio-political epic on the scale of a Dune or a Game of Thrones.
Following 2021’s Inferno, which can be seen as the end of the second of four current acts of the Krakoa saga, Jonathan Hickman left his position as “Head of X” in order to spearhead the rebirth of Marvel’s Ultimate line of comic books. There were plenty of fans skeptical that the X-Men line could keep the narrative momentum and focus that Hickman brought to the line without the prestige he lends. But that’s the point entirely. Like Washington, The “great man” who could have stayed in power forever, stepped down in order to allow the next generation of voices take the reins. And these writers have brought new life to the story, exploring new concepts and ideas, making the tapestry richer for their troubles. The team didn’t need Jonathan Hickman in order to remain great. Others stepped up and grew into their roles, and in doing so, made the X-Men line the most popular and commercially successful line Marvel has had in nearly a decade.
If you’re interested in reading this saga for yourself, it’s as easy as picking up House of X/Powers of X, at sale in most bookstores, and reading the subsequent Dawn of X, Reign of X, and Trials of X trade paperbacks that conveniently compile all the individuals issues of the various X-Men titles into a set of volumes in chronological order for the reader. Or, if you’re feeling brave, you could look up your local comic book store, and pick up the newest issue of X-Men for yourself.
“While you slept, the world changed.”
These words are a harbinger of Professor X and Magneto’s brave new world, but it’s also fundamentally the experience of the Trump Era. The world has changed irrevocably due to Donald Trump, COVID, and everything that they have wrought. The rules of politics, economics, and international relations have fundamentally changed. People’s definition of what a “good” life is, is changing. What we want America to look and act like is being contested daily. Some of these changes are bad, but many are good. There are still many challenges ahead, and many of them don’t have clear solutions. But we can use stories to help us think through these issues. And through their collective efforts, the writers, artists, colorists, inkers, letterers, editorial, and the rest of the creatives at Marvel have put together an essential and utterly extraordinary story to help navigate the Trump era of American history, and hopefully, inspire us to think of new and better ways to live together as a nation.
Christián Thrailkill is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and University of North Texas, musician, and columnist. He lives in Dallas, Texas. Follow him on Threads @Wolvie616
