Since the X-Men formed the mutant-led nation of Krakoa, the burgeoning galactic power has dealt with several emerging threats to their survival, but in the lead-up to this summer’s Judgement Day event it has become clear that the X-Men should not have ignored the massive threat the Eternals pose. The Quiet Council has been so focused on destroying Orchis, who are still an immense threat to the mutants’ long-term ascension, that they have not paid enough attention to the tension brewing between the Eternals and the Avengers.
Orchis, the anti-mutant science organization responsible for the creation of Nimrod (a truly terrifying sentient AI dead set on eliminating all mutants), is a huge threat to Krakoa, but is not their most pressing or concerning enemy. In the future of Moira X presented in House of X/Powers of X, readers have seen that Orchis eventually evolves into the Human-Machine Supremacy, leading into the absorption of all civilization into the gestalt cosmic Phalanx entity, but it’s important to note that this is a far flung future taking place thousands of years from now. While Orchis certainly presents a clear and present danger, it seems like the mutants have been so short sighted about what fronts they are fighting on that they have missed a bunch of massive internal conflicts and the growing threat from the Eternals.
Judgement Day #1 – written by Kieron Gillen (Immortal X-Men, Die) with art by Valerio Schitti (S.W.O.R.D.) – debuts in July, but this massive war between the Eternals and X-Men have been building up for months. The Eternals are immortal beings created by the Celestials with the explicit mission of destroying all of the Deviants, and the mutants are recently immortal beings who are quickly establishing themselves as the greatest power on Earth. The Eternals and the X-Men have been keeping massive secrets from the Avengers, and it’s clear that the war between them is going to blow up a lot of the Quiet Council’s public image. In an interview with CBR writer Kieron Gillen makes it clear that the Eternals in this war are not unambiguously wrong, but are explicitly bad:
At the start, I very clearly say that the Eternals are the bad guys. There are good Eternals that are trying to stop them, but as a whole, the Eternals are very much the black hats in this particular scenario. You get to genuinely loathe them.
Gillen goes on to say this about collaborating with Al Ewing on X-Men Red:
His book, X-Men Red involves a major asset the X-Men have — Arakko/Mars, home to like a million warrior mutants. In fact, one of my major sort of through acts involves the stuff Al is setting up with Magneto over in X-Men Red. It’s killer.
In preview pages provided to CBR, the war between the X-Men and Eternals is in full swing, and it is clear that the Eternals know exactly where to hit Krakoa where it will hurt the most. First of all, the evil Druig is seen with the manipulative Moira MacTaggart and she seems to have given the Eternals all the information they need to do devastating damage to the X-Men. Several members of Krakoa’s “The Five” have been slaughtered, including Goldballs and Hope Summers. Each of these mutants are essential for the continued resurrections of mutants, so if the Eternals take out all of the Five there is a chance that mutant immortality will end. While the threat of Orchis is an ever-present fear for the future of mutants, obviously the Eternals destroying Krakoa and the Resurrection Protocols would put an end to that future now.
The reason why the Eternals are attacking the X-Men is because they have apparently discovered that mutants are not the next step in human evolution, but are in fact the next step in the evolution of Deviants, the beings the Eternals are hardwired to murder. If the Quiet Council had stayed in stronger communication with the Avengers, or even if some members had kept updated on the machinations of the Eternals, they could have perhaps been more ready for this assault. To stay up to date on the massive upcoming Judgement Day event make sure to read Gillen’s Eternals and Immortal X-Men as well as the Hellfire Gala special, all of which will lead into July’s debut of Judgement Day.
