Uncanny X-Men is neck deep in “Dark Artery”, a story that has revealed some dark secrets about the X-Men and their new home base, Haven House. Uncanny X-Men #15 focuses mostly on the Outliers and new mutant Lady Henrietta, as they go through a door in the caves under Haven House that takes them somewhere they never imagined. What Haven House is has been something in the background of Uncanny X-Men, but there were so many other things to deal with — Sarah Gaunt, the machinations of Graymalkin Prison, Sentinel Hounds, Xavier escaping, magical dragons, cursed objects of power — that it sort of got pushed into the background. Gambit brought them there, he had a relationship with and knowledge of Haven House, but other than that, it was one of the groundwork mysteries that make Uncanny X-Men such a magnificent comic.
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Haven House has been a place where mutants brought their dead for over a century. However, that wasn’t all it was. It sat on a door to dark netherworld, one that transformed as time went on. The X-Men learn the truth about their new home, with the main team journeying into the darkness to save the Outliers from the ghosts of vengeful dead racists, and it’s going to have a major impact on the future of the X-Men. It’s also not the first time that the X-Men had to deal with a portal to a hellish dimension on the property of their headquarters.
Haven House Is More Complicated than Anyone Would Have Guessed
“Dark Artery” took readers back to the early 1900s in flashbacks with Lady Henrietta. She was traveling to Haven House, following a mutant transportation network of sorts, all while being tracked by Sentinels — humans hunting for mutants. We learn in this issue that she was bringing the remains of her mother to Haven House, because it was the only place where mutants could bury their dead without humans desecrating the graves. So, Haven House has been related to mutants for well over a century, but there’s even more to Haven House than that. There’s a reason that mutants have brought their dead there, and it’s revealed by Lady Henrietta to the Outliers. The four young mutants have found a door in the caves under the house, guarded by Man-Thing. She told them the truth about the situation under Haven House: it’s the realm of a dark god, one that has made its home under Haven House. The Dark Artery, the mutant graveyard built by the owners of Haven House, is connected to a place called the Penumbra, which was created by a being called Shuvahrak, known as the Voice of Darkness. It is a place where the souls of the damned gathered, humans who have all committed the same crime of racism. Living humans are repulsed by the place, so mutants made it their own.
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So, the X-Men’s base is both a mutant graveyard and a place where the souls of damned racists are gathered in a dark, hellish underworld. Strangely enough, this isn’t the first time that the X-Men have had a portal to a hell dimension near their homebase. When the X-Men lived at the X-Mansion, they destroyed a cairn that led to the home of the N’Garai, a group of demons created by Ch’thon, a dark elder god. The X-Men had to face down the N’Garai several times — check out X-Men (Vol. 1) #96, Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #143, and Wolverine ’95 for the three best X-Men versus N’Garai stories — keeping the demons from invading. The Penumbra definitely feels a lot like the N’Garai’s dimension: created by a dark god, the home of demons and lost souls, that draws evil to it. It’s a cool idea that pays homage to the past, but also gives it an entirely new facet.
The X-Men Could Be Forced to Deal With an Invasion of the Dead
Haven House is one of those interesting pieces of mutant history that takes inspiration from the real world. Lady Henrietta’s trip to Haven House was to make sure that humans didn’t profane the grave of her mutant mother. This has its origin in the real world, as racists in the South in the United States would desecrate the graves of any one they hated. It’s a great little piece of lore. Taking that, and adding in some good old fashioned Marvel cosmic horror ideas like the Penumbra, is a fun idea, both because of what writers can do with the idea and the way that it homages the N’Garai cairn of the X-Mansion.
“Dark Artery” ends in one more issue, but there’s no way that a writer like Gail Simone isn’t planting a seed here. Simone has been throwing some magical stuff into this X-Men book — a shapeshifting dragon with a dark prophecy, a magical object called the Left Eye of Agamotto, a returned horse that could be some dark revenant, and now the Penumbra — and this could lead the X-Men into a great battle. No one introduces something named Shuvarhad and doesn’t have plans for it. The X-Men may be on a collision course with a dark god of death in the months and years to come.
Uncanny X-Men #15 is on sale now.
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Image courtesy of Netflix.
