WARNING: Spoilers for X-Men #7 ahead!
The last page of X-Men #7 reveals that the Quiet Council, leaders of the mutant nation of Krakoa, have developed a truly horrifying new communication technology that uses the harvested brains of telepaths to function. What started as a simple desire to increase communication capabilities between Krakoa and the newly terraformed Arakko turned into yet another disturbing state secret for the new nation, further cementing Krakoa as a nation with dubious ethics and morals.
The data page in X-Men #7, which were first developed by House of X architect Jonathan Hickman, delves into a new Krakoan technology called the “Earth-Arakko-Relay,” created by the infamous mutant inventor Forge. Forge, a Native American from the Cheyenne nation, was first introduced in The Uncanny X-Men #184 (1984) as a government weapons developer who had the mutant power of vast technological creation, and was most known for a long time as the inventor of a device that removes a mutants powers (recently used in the explosive Inferno event). His latest invention has created a powerful way for Krakoa and Arakko to communicate, but once again has a morally dubious secret aspect to it, with the E.A.R. using sections of brain harvested from clones of Professor X.
X-Men #7—written by Gerry Duggan with art by Pepe Larraz—features a plot that is seemingly unrelated to the new communication documentation. It follows Scott Summers as he is killed publicly in combat, forcing him to retire his old name Cyclops for his new Captain Krakoa identity. However, communication between Krakoa and Arakko is essential to the continued ascension and progress of mutantdom, and several upcoming plots throughout the various X-Titles may be impacted by the development of the Earth-Arakko-Relay system. The E.A.R. uses a system of 10 satellites deployed throughout space between Krakoa and Arakko (formerly Mars) which makes it so that, “The broadband speed in Port Genosha is as good as anything the humans have on Earth.” One important point of note is that Beast, the leader of X-Force, was not informed about the deployment of the satellites, most likely because of his recent history of abusing his power.
The data page reports that the E.A.R. system is not a secret to the mutants, with both Krakoan and Arakki citizens being able to use it, but what is secret is the use of telepathic brains to facilitate the technology. Each satellite comes equipped with a bank of telepath brains, apparently essential to mutant communication, but Forge discovered that all that was needed was, “…multiples of telepathic left hemispheres that governed speech and language from a single volunteer.” After The Five, masters of Krakoa’s Resurrection Protocols, expressed discomfort in using their cloning abilities to harvest brains, Professor X volunteered himself as the harvest volunteer, meaning that E.A.R. is essentially a giant connection system of Charles Xavier brains. The data page reveals that the only people to have knowledge of the use of Xavier’s brain in E.A.R. are the X-Men, the Quiet Council, Forge, and the Krakoan telepaths.
With the upcoming X-Men Red, featuring Storm, Magneto, and Sunspot fighting for mutant freedom on Arakko, communication between the new planet and Krakoa is going to be of the utmost importance, so there is a chance that E.A.R. may play an essential function in the X-Men Red team’s fight on Arakko. Similarly, an upcoming X-Force story will focus on a rogue sentient-Cerebro machine, Cerebrax, taking control of the X-Force team, meaning it could also take control of the E.A.R. system to wreak havoc on the two mutant nations (thankfully Forge installed a self-destruct feature in the E.A.R. satellites in case of a breach just like this). To read the full data report on the newly created Earth-Arakko-Relay, make sure to check out Marvel Comics recently released X-Men #7.
