The X-Men have faced many foes before, but their battle against 3K —commanded by one of the X-Men’s greatest villains: Cassandra Nova — has led them to a foe they never thought they’d face: the X-Men. X-Men #16 is an action extravaganza, as 3K makes it’s latest attack against the X-Men. 3K is basically a combination of ideas from New X-Men, the greatest X-Men run of the 21 century; they’ve learned to create mutants out of adult humans, combining ideas behind John Sublime’s U-Men with the presence of Cassandra Nova. This has made them one of the more dangerous forces around right now; mutants are in a very tenuous place and people randomly developing extremely dangerous superpowers out of nowhere is exactly the kind of thing that would cause more chaos at a time when everyone wants to blame mutants for everything.
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3K has finally made their move, and it feels very familiar to longtime X-Men fans, and not just because X-Men #16 wears its rehashes on its sleeve. The X-Men battling another team of mutants under the control of a bald person has happened before, in the late ’90s story called “Children of the Atom”. X-Men #16 has a big time “Children of the Atom” feel, and much like that story, there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
The X-Men Have Learned Their Lessons Battling Teams Called “the X-Men”
“Children of the Atom” was a two part story — Uncanny X-Men #360 and X-Men #80 — that served to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the team. The story took place in the aftermath of “Onslaught” and “Operation: Zero Tolerance”. The X-Men had lost Xavier — he was arrested by Operation: Zero Tolerance and disappeared after they were defeated. OZT also released feeder nanites in the X-Mansion, eating up everything. However, one thing escaped — Cerebro, which had gained sentience. Posing as Xavier, Cerebro went out and gathered a group of mutants that Xavier had picked out as possible X-Men. Cerebro-Xavier sent his X-Men against the current group of X-Men, who were just going through a roster change-up from the sprawling line-up of mutants that had been hanging around the X-Mansion in the ’90s. The two groups of X-Men fought with each other, and the real X-Men were able to defeat the Cerebro X-Men. The end of the story revealed that Cerebro had converted the team into energy, which would have allowed the robot to use them whenever it needed them. However, Cerebro’s team would barely show-up in the sequel to “Children of the Atom”, the underrated classic “Hunt for Xavier”, and haven’t shown up anywhere else since.
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There are a lot similarities between the 3K X-Men and the Cerebro X-Men. Both groups work for an enemy who has much more evil things in mind than just fighting for mutants. Each team seems to have members whose powers were tailored to fighting the X-Men. 3K and Cerebro have very different ideas on what they want out of their attacks — 3K is yet another scheme by Cassandra Nova to ruin the lives of mutants in an attempt for revenge against her twin brother Charles Xavier. Meanwhile, Cerebro wanted to find Charles Xavier, in order to meld together with him and become a new organism with the power of Xavier and the information and sensory attributes of Cerebro. These are obviously very different reasons for attacking X-Men, but each of them is all about two teams of mutants being manipulated into battling the X-Men for reasons that aren’t even close to altruistic. It seems like the 3K X-Men have at least an inkling about their true motives — they definitely feel like they want to destroy the X-Men, with Cassandra Nova bringing a massive kaiju mutant to attack the X-Men’s base.
Can the X-Men Survive 3K’s Assault?
The X-Men have been tangling with members of this team of X-Men since the first issue of the “From the Ashes” era. Team leader Schwarzschild had his arm cut off by Magik, with Nova and former Alpha Flight villain Wyre assembling the team with the destruction of the X-Men in mind after 3K’s early failures. The two teams seem pretty evenly matched with Schwarzschild revealing that his team wants to prove that they’re the true X-Men.
The two teams tangle, each one using their powers to trump the other side, which is especially impressive considering that Cyclops is the best field leader in the Marvel Universe. Their initial fight ends with something of a draw, and will more than likely continue into the next issue, when Nova and her kaiju battle a Magneto controlled Sentinel. Things are about to get wild, and it will be interesting to see the next salvos fired by the two groups.
What do you think about this new group of X-Men? Sound off in the comments below.
