What A Difference A Day Makes

Just sleep on it.  This statement suggests that a single session in a state of slumber is sufficient to solve most any situation.  For the mutants of the 616 Marvel Universe one night has turned their lives into a nightmare.  This in turn has left the world susceptible to another group’s dream.  In Children of the Vault #1 Bishop must look towards the Dayspring if he intends to get everyone to wake up.  

Children of the Vault
Tomorrow’s Children

Marvel Comics

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Color Artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

With Orchis handling the official narrative of the mutant massacre there hasn’t been an accurate account of when Krakoa actually fell.  However in Children of the Vault #1 X-fans get an indication of the moment when one of the products of the mutant paradise begins to wither.  Deniz Camp takes readers through the cellular degeneration of the Krakoan plant system which Forge set up to contain the Children of the Vault back in X-Men # 15.  Now, with the Krakoan technological trap malfunctioning and its maker missing, the Fall of X opens the opportunity for the Children and the City to claim control of Earth – without the obstacle of the Children of the Atom.   

Well almost all of them.  

Among the many mutants to RESIST Charles’ prompt to enter the Krakoan gates at the Hellfire Gala was Lucas Bishop.  As Captain Commander of Krakoa, Bishop was in charge of defending the island from threats.  Now with the island gone the Red Bishop has a list of 1,743 Orchis facilities that have his full attention.  Unfortunately the arrival of the Children of the Vault complicates this matter.  This isn’t simply because Lucas knows of the Children’s true motivations. The troubling thing is he can’t fathom why everyone – including himself – is accepting the Children’s offer of assistance to humanity. That’s because in Children of the Vault #1 the group’s introduction as the Children of Tomorrow to the rest of the 616 Universe is another opportunity to remember the beginning of the Krakoan Era. 

Over the past week(s) in Marvel Comics there have been numerous references to Charles Xavier’s worldwide psychic statement from House of X #1.  Both Dr. Stasis and even the gatecrashing G.O.D. Wyn made mention of it during the Gala.  So it is quite shocking that society accepts a similar scenario from Serafina in Children of the Vault #1.  Her technique isn’t as intrusive as Charles, but then again the structures springing up around the world seem like Krakoan gate’s?  Not to mention that several members of this “iteration” of the Children look completely inhuman.  Evolving during their periods of dormancy in the Vault, artists Luca Maresca and Carlos Lopez deliver the most advanced versions of the Children to date.  Even if Captain-204 could be mistaken as “human” Lopez doesn’t shy away from showing the shimmer against Serafina-187’s shiny surface. 

Serafina isn’t the only shiny object in the series, though Cable is missing it at the moment.  Despite his reservations Bishop knows the Children of the Vault are more than he can tackle alone.  When his Orchis intel leads to the facility Cable is held in Lucas rescues the son of Summers. When we first see Cable in this issue Maresca’s lines on the soldier’s face emphasize the enormous energy he is using to avoid Orchis probes.  Held in stasis looking more meditative than military, a result of choosing to tap into his Askani training, you could mistake him for his older sister Prestige.  This might have made a more interesting partnership for Bishop – or again Forge – since another meeting between these two allows their tenuous history to be dredged up, again.  

Not that their history of hatred towards each other has been all about Hope.  Actually, it was Cable’s tendency to operate on his own terms that led to Lucas, along with Logan, tracking him down in connection with the shooting of Xavier in Uncanny X-Men #294. So with Cable, and the Children, Camp creates a crucial commentary that coincides with the conflict that culminates in what mutantkind just experienced; one that our world continues to let occur.   It highlights the high and mighty and the hypocrisy they hype.  When is one one sin less sinister than another.  

Did Serefina delivering her statement of salvation technologically versus telepathically really make that much difference?  How can the world trust the Vault’s medicines after the revelations about Krakoa’s ?  

After years even Xavier realizes Magneto was right.  Will Cable one day say the same of Bishop?  Bishop’s main objective in eliminating Hope was the prevention of the mutant concentration camps he grew up witnessing.  To prevent future mutant persecutions, which by the way are presently occurring, Lucas went to war with his fellow X-Men.  He believed he knew better than them.  Meanwhile, Cable later captures the Avengers to keep Hope safe due to a vision of the future.  One team has forgiven one mutant for their actions.

Even in this issue of Children of the Vault there is an obvious indication of the disparity between the treatment of these two mutants.  While Bishop has his back against the wall, waging his war on Orchis solo while sleeping in back alleys, once he allies with Cable he gains all the soldiers’ spoils.  Bishop can’t help but comment on what he could have accomplished if he had access to Cable’s privileges.  

Taking advantage of the vacuum created by the Fall of X, humanity now meets its next step. One, that at least for now, it is embracing. However, taking a step back makes it obvious to only the most oblivious they are no different than the mutants. The Children of the Vault are doing the same thing, in virtually the same way as the mutants.  The only thing that isn’t so obvious to humanity is the reason why.  Why the Children are offering this help and why the world is willingly accepting it.   

Children of the Vault #1 takes advantage of the tragedy befalling mutants to present Bishop’s plight since arriving in the present. Writer Deniz Camp capitalizes on the comparisons that are present between humanity’s various “people” of tomorrow in the series. Since his arrival from the future Bishop’s methods were more volatile than his fellow X-Men. The same could be said of Cable. Like the mutants and the Children there is a major distinction between the treatment of these two time displaced mutants.  This was even more apparent once Cable was “fathered” into the X-Men.   But isn’t it truly in keeping with the way of X to look beyond the way things appear. The illusions of acceptability or the prejudices they produce.  To examine the intentions of the individual in an effort to understand their motivations.  

In order to save the future, what will you look past?   

Score: 8.4