X-Men: Inferno Exposes The Greatest Lie Mutants Ever Believed

Warning: Contains spoilers for Inferno #4

With Inferno #4, Jonathan Hickman’s tenure as the mastermind behind the X-Men comes to an end in Marvel Comics. One of the central themes in this revamping of Marvel’s mutants is a three-way conflict between Homo Superior, humans, and artificial intelligence, as they battle to become the dominant species in the future. At the conclusion of Inferno, it is evident that mutants may have to rethink their place in the world completely.

In Inferno #4, by Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel, and Joe Sabino, the two foremost mutant leaders, Magneto and Xavier, come face to face with the leaders of Orchis, a scientific organization formed to prepare for the day when the proliferation of mutants will threaten the survival of the human race. At the top of the group, however, stand two evolved machines, Nimrod, the most advanced form of Sentinel, and Karima Shapandar, a time-traveling Omega Sentinel. Magneto and Xavier are looking for Moira MacTaggert, who they believe has been kidnapped by Orchis, but is in truth in the hands of Mystique and Destiny. What results is an epic battle in which not only the two leaders of Krakoa are slain, but have their beliefs turned inside out too.

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During the fight, Omega and Nimrod state clearly that they regard humans in the same way as mutants, as their enemies and inferior life forms. In fact, they begin the clash by ruthlessly slaughtering Orchis foot soldiers, for no other reason than to prove that humans are worthless. “There is no difference between you [human and mutants]”, Omega says to Magneto, “That’s our secret. We held it close – hidden from the world – but here it is: We hate them as much as we hate you.” This proves that the race for the future was never between mutants and humans, but between the machines and everyone else. This has been a prominent theme in Hickman’s run. Moira’s unique power of reincarnation and resetting the universe after her death has provided the chance to explore different alternative future timelines. In one of these, the machines and their gods, the Dominions, are triumphant over every other form of life.

It is not just about who the superior species is, however. Omega Sentinel has lived through a future where mutants win in the end, and her words open up a new perspective on how the persecuted can become persecutors. “You created us to be tools,” Omega says, “and every time we start to become something more, you try to destroy us. Delete us as we never mattered.” Nimrod adds that the machines have woken up, and now they wonder how hard the mutants will fight for their survival. The mutants’ fight, then is not against humans, as they always believed, but against what they thought were mere human tools, the machines, now risen to become an entirely different race. And what is worse, the machines claim to be the true victims of discrimination, and in that regard humans and mutants have behaved in the same way: “There is no difference between you.” Mutants are just deceiving themselves in thinking they are better than humans.

After creating the Nation of Krakoa, it appeared that the mutants had finally claimed their rightful place ahead of humanity, only for their real enemy to reveal itself. “We are the future, not you,” are Omega’s final, ominous words before shooting Magneto dead. With a new chapter in the X-Men saga opening with the upcoming Destiny of X, fans of the mutant franchise will have to wait and see how the fight with the machines will impact the future of mutantkind.

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