Out Of The Vault

“Out of the Vault”
X-Men #19
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Mahmud Asrar
Color art by Sunny Gho

• In all the time I was wondering how Jonathan Hickman would depict thousands of years passing in a single issue the obvious thing – the thing he chose to do – never occurred to me: A timeline similar to the way he mapped out the lives of Moira MacTaggert in House of X. It’s very effective in condensing the story while offering some intriguing details, and in keeping the focus of the issue on Synch’s experience in The Vault and the close emotional bond he forms with X-23 along the way. The balance of emotional weight, hard sci-fi, and narrative density is Hickman at his finest, and X-Men #19 is one of his best issues of this volume so far, probably second only to the Mystique-centric story “Oracle” from X-Men #6. 

• Back at the start of this storyline in X-Men #5 when we’re introduced to Synch, we’re reminded in the text pages that his resurrection has put him in an awkward situation as all of his friends from the Generation X comic have moved on with their lives while he’s re-entering life a few years behind them. On the other side of his mission in the Vault he’s in an even stranger situation, having lived far beyond one life entirely removed from everyone but X-23 and Darwin, and now he’s the only one who remembers their time together. It’s a strange sort of tragedy, but because Synch is a fairly optimistic character, the issue ends on a hopeful rather than maudlin note that directly echoes his cautious optimism going into the Vault with X-23. 

Hickman has clearly made it a mission to spotlight characters from Generation X out of personal affection for them, but what he does for Synch in this story goes beyond merely giving an old character from prime airtime. Synch, a character who has been absent from publication for 20 years, is both refined and redefined in this story – the essential Good Dude Romantic Lead elements of his personality are unchanged, but the circumstances of his experience are now unique and fascinating. From here on out he’s an old man in a young man’s body, a seasoned veteran who is now the mutant nation’s living repository of information about what could be their greatest existential threat. He’s now a narrative mirror of Moira MacTaggert, embarking on his third life and carrying the full knowledge of past lives like precious cargo. (Also, like Moira in Powers of X, he owed the extension of his life to borrowing the powers of a Wolverine.) 

• We learn quite a bit about the Children of the Vault in this issue, and get a sense of how a deliberate technological approach to evolutionary development differs from the natural processes that result in mutantdom. It’s all quite advanced and there’s every indication that the existence of the Children and the Vault is part of some larger plan, but we are totally in the dark on whose plan it is. This issue makes it clear that Orchis is not responsible for the Vault, though they are aware of it and have captured and dissected Children. (Serafina of the Children was rescued along with several mutants from Orchis custody in X-Men #1.) 

It seems probable that Orchis may co-opt the Children at some point in the story, but for now it’s a whole other situation. I suspect the mystery of who created Homo Novissima may be equivalent to the mystery of Rabum Alal that runs through Hickman’s Avengers run and culminated in one of the best reveals in that story. 

• Aside from a brief cameo from Cyclops and Charles Xavier at the end of this issue, this two-part story is notable for being entirely focused on post-Chris Claremont cast and ideas. Synch was introduced in 1994, everything else in the Vault story was created in the 21st century. It’s fun to imagine what an X-Men reader in the ‘80s might make of this story if you could somehow send these two issues back in time. The most recognizable element would be a female version of Wolverine! 

• Synch looks great with a bald head and beard, by the way. Mahmud Asrar did a fabulous job in aging him up along with X-23 and Darwin. Asrar did a typically fantastic job on this issue, it’s too bad this is apparently his last issue of the series for the foreseeable future. 

• We don’t really have conclusive evidence that X-23 and Darwin died in the Vault, so it’s quite possible those versions of the characters are still in the custody of the Children and their powers of survival and infinite adaptation will be integrated into future generations of Children. Bleak! 

Into The Vault

“Into the Vault”
X-Men #5
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by RB Silva
Color art by Marte Gracia 

It’s such a pleasure to have RB Silva back with Jonathan Hickman. It hasn’t been all that long since they worked together on Powers of X – and they did make a small Mister Sinister story interlude in the recent Incoming special – but enough time has passed and enough artists have worked in the new X-Men world that Silva and Pepe Larraz designed for it to feel a bit like… coming home… for Silva to show up on this issue. Leinil Yu is still the regular artist for the known future, and while he’s been doing some of the best work of his career on the past four issues of X-Men, the chemistry of Hickman and Silva is so strong that it’s hard to come away from this issue without hoping he cycles into the regular artist slot before too long. 

It’s pretty obvious why Silva was assigned this particular issue. Powers of X proved him as a brilliant designer for sci-fi concepts and particularly good at interpreting and building on visual ideas established by Chris Bachalo. In this story we revisit the Children of the Vault, created by Mike Carey and Bachalo for the “Supernovas” arc in the mid-2000s, and get a look inside The Vault, a construct with accelerated artificial time that pushes human evolution forward. Charles Xavier, with the knowledge of Moira McTaggert’s experience in the distant future of Powers of X with the homo novissima, has identified this machine creating post-human beings, as the top existential threat to humanity. But the X-Men know almost nothing about the Children or The Vault, and need to send a group of uniquely qualified mutants – X-23, Synch, and Darwin – for a reconnaissance mission. 

Silva’s depiction of the inside of The Vault is brilliant – it’s like nothing and everything, a vast digital nowhere with elements that indicate technology and nod towards old depictions of virtual reality spaces, but mostly just comes across like an unknowable dark void. It’s instantly memorable, and the decision to make sure all pages within The Vault are laid out side by side in the print edition has the great effect of emphasizing the enormity of it.  The use of data text page elements merged into the design is also quite brilliant in both conveying information and advancing the distinct visual aesthetic of the line. Given that this issue ends on a cliffhanger with the team stranded within The Vault, it’s pretty clear that establishing this vibe was crucial, and Silva nailed it. 

This issue continues a pattern of every issue by Hickman setting up further story, and is particularly effective in making you desperate to know where the plot is going. It hadn’t occurred to me at all that he’d be pursuing the homo novissima thread from Powers of X so soon or that he’d explicitly tie it to the Children of the Vault in the present day, but it’s quite obvious and works very well. Unless I’m forgetting something marginal, Hickman is the first writer to dive into the Children since Carey left, and as he did with handling the Phalanx in Powers of X, he’s done a very good job of fitting them into his tech narrative and elevating the stakes accordingly.

When Carey and Bachalo introduced this concept it was in some ways a workaround the “No More Mutants” status quo, but posed the question of what would happen if the X-Men had to face a species that was a step beyond them, reversing the usual humans vs mutants dynamic. It’s hard to imagine this story moving forward without the mutants having to confront some incredibly dark notions – like, they can’t possibly consider genocide, right? But then you look at the membership of the Quiet Council and realize if put to a vote, the more ethical and noble members of that body  – Xavier, Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Kate Pryde – are in the minority. Yikes.

Some Notes:

• It’s nice to see Hickman continue to show love for Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo’s characters from Generation X. Synch, a character who has been out of circulation for about 20 years or so, makes his return in this issue via the resurrection protocols. He’s very charming in his scenes, but the text page of his medical file indicates that he’s very rattled by the experience of coming back to life years after his death to find all his former classmates have moved on with their lives. I suppose this explains a bit of why he’d agree to a mission that could go on for hundreds of years. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to him and his fragile emotional state after being trapped in The Vault.

• I’ve never been particularly fond of X-23 – I have a pretty harsh bias against “legacy characters” – but I think having her lead this mission into the unknown is a brilliant use of her that puts her at the center of a major narrative thread while also clearing her off the board for a little while. 

• I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that Hickman keeps showing Storm a bit overworked and rattled, or if this strain and her refusal to take it easy is setting up something for her down the line.