In an interview about Marvel Comics' upcoming Legion of X series, creator and writer Si Spurrier dives into Nightcrawler and his new mutant justice X-Men team and explores how the Law and Order-esque task force will keep mutants safe from internal threats. Spurrier discusses how Legion of X—with gorgeous art by Jen Bazaldua—will be partially inspired by police procedurals but will move past the conventional outdated idea of simple "Law and Order" to explore the very real ramifications of a newly established justice system on the fledgling nation of Krakoa.
Si Spurrier is already reassuring X-Men fans that Legion of X will not simply be a police procedural but will instead examine and investigate the role that "peace keeping" has in a nation that houses hundreds of beings with immense (sometimes god-like) powers. Of course, Legion of X will also have a bunch of amazing action sequences and involve the team solving mysteries, protecting mutant citizens, and taking down "bad guys." Speaking of "bad guys," the series will also surely dive into what exactly makes someone a "bad guy," considering that fact that Krakoa has many citizens who are former supervillains. Legion of X spins directly out of Way of X and the Onslaught Revelation event, with Legion using his reality-warping powers to plant a Krakoan Gate seed in his own mind, allowing Nightcrawler's new team to use his inner Astral Plane as a headquarters.
In the exclusive interview with CBR, Si Spurrier had a lot to say about the forthcoming series, the perspective it will take on mutant justice, and how it will elevate the "police procedural" aspect of the series above a Law and Order-type show into a true reflection on the values and principles of Krakoa and mutantkind's future. It seems in some ways that Legion of X will continue Way of X's trend of showing that Krakoa is not the mutant paradise some folks like Charles Xavier make it out to be. Restorative justice is not necessarily the bedrock of the new mutant society, and while Nightcrawler will hopefully be thoughtful in his creation of a mutant police force, just the fact that they are needed speaks a lot about the nation as a whole. Spurrier has this to say about the foundation and positioning of the new series:
"Yes, it's about policing, but it's not about policing at all." It's about the reality of having, for the first time in the Marvel Universe, this exciting setup, where you have a dense population of super-powered individuals, all of whom have the tendency to be quite dramatic in their interactions. [laughs] Any of them could lose their temper and have a bad day. The consequences of that could be anything from a brutal barroom fight to accidentally ending the universe. So, it follows that when you've got this crucible you need somebody to keep the peace...
Then there's Nightcrawler, who thinks that keeping the peace actually means finding ways to stop these explosions from happening. It's not enough for people to be happy. If you want people to be happy you just take away all of their freedom and then they're just happy little zombies... All of this is a long way of saying that Legion of X is very interested in interrogating different ways of keeping the peace in the most explosive, dramatic, delightfully weird, and wonderful population imaginable.
So, inevitably you have to indulge in some fun NYPD Blue style precinct stuff, but that's where the similarity ends. That's because in this story the precinct is a Wild West sheriff's office inside a bubble universe afloat in the Astral Plane—all of which is contained within Legion's head."
Beyond the contemplations on the philosophical and ethical implications of Nightcrawler and Legion's new team, Spurrier also dives into many of the characters and plots in his interview:
"Yes, one of the first things that happen is Nightcrawler gets summoned to the Great Ring of Arakko on what was formerly Mars. We've met all the members of their Great Ring except for one, who I came up with. She's called Ora Serrata, and she is their idea of a chief of law... She needs Nightcrawler's help because there's a fugitive who's on the run from Arakko and is hiding out on Krakoa. It's a god.
Another of our core mysteries involves a "Skinjacker." They can leap into your body and live your life for a day. They can talk to your friends and get up to all sorts of mischief while they're borrowing your skin. That's horrifying. It's a real violation of identity, freedom, personality, and all of the things that we sort of take for granted in the western world. And yet, they're not breaking any of Krakoa's three laws: Make more mutants, Kill no man, and Respect the sacred land. What do you do?
Doctor Nemesis is endless fun. He's all my most cynical, skeptical tendencies with Frasier Crane's voice and a silly haircut. He's in this a little less than he was in Way of X because the approach I'm taking is to have four or five core characters: Nightcrawler, Legion, Pixie, and Juggernaut, and a rotating cast of secondary characters."
Spurrier teases that the series will also feature ForgetMeNot, a partner of the Juggernaut whose power causes everyone to immediately forget him, and the preview images given with the interview hint that the series will explore the romance between Legion and Blindfold, two characters who have interacted intimately before. It seems as though the first major mission for the Legion of X team will be finding Mother Righteous, a god-like being from the Astral Plane, and appears to be Arakki born but is stowing away on Krakoa.
Recently, the X-Men books have been able to more explicitly emphasize and highlight the real life struggles of vulnerable communities, like people of color and trans folks, something that the X-Men titles have always been known for, and hopefully Si Spurrier will continue this progressive trend by exploring what a peace-keeping group could look like in a "paradise." With the Quiet Council already creating a Krakoan prison for mutants, after promising they wouldn't, and that blowing up in their faces, it is clear they continue to need the guidance of Nightcrawler who is, "interested in finding creative ways to make life better—preventing horror, chaos, and the bubbling up of hatred and division in this population that he loves." Make sure to check out Legion of X #1 by Marvel Comics when it debuts on April 20th to see Nightcrawler's new peace-keeping organization and how writer Si Spurrier lifts it beyond a simple Law and Order-style procedural.
Source: CBR