Warning: contains spoilers Nyx #3!!Since the X-Men’s creation, the team acted as the beating heart of mutantkind. They have been its greatest defenders, ready to rally and face the endless stream of catastrophes and threats, but not every mutant dreams of living life as a combat-ready soldier. With the departure of Krakoa, the Morlocks are striving to provide a new safe haven for mutants and a way of life that the X-Men cannot offer.
In Nyx #3former X-Men Anole follows Caliban underground to discover the Morlocks’ hideout. They welcome him with open arms, declaring him to be one of them. Like the Morlocks, Anole’s distinctly “mutant” appearance makes it impossible to blend into the human society into which the fall of Krakoa forced them.
The Morlocks live in a world apart – rejected by humanity, but uninterested in the life of combat and fighting that the X-Men offer. Anole’s conundrum is faced by many other mutants. Being one of the X-Men is about fighting, but the Morlocks offer a way to simply live and do it with pride.
The Morlocks offer freedom and an alternative to the X-Men
Nyx #3 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Francesco Mortarino and Raúl Angulo
In the years before Krakoa, the X-Men provided a refuge for mutants. Most mutants with an X-Gene could find a home among their peers, but the X-Men never escaped the necessity of battle, and their students trained in combat and defense. Krakoa offered everyone a different way of life. After the mutants proved this, many, like Anole, were not interested in playing soldier again. They want to live their lives normally – whatever that may be – and that’s impossible with the X-Men. The Morlocks offer a different path, and as Caliban told Anole, there is no need to ask permission. Mutants should live on their own terms.
Before Krakoa, Morlocks were castaways and outcasts, often with strange or grotesque mutations. They were the most easily identifiable as “mutants”. This is still the case, but there’s a sense of peace and pride that even mutants with less identifiable abilities crave. The group is building and continuing a culture, even introducing mutant funerals that didn’t exist on Krakoa, and with the slightest encouragement they are willing to leave behind their hiding place to go proudly above ground. The Morlocks offer a new kind of hope for mutants that the X-Men no longer capture.
The X-Men’s focus on combat is driving mutants away
Morlocks offer a way to live proudly without fighting
Anole isn’t the only mutant to express frustration with the constant expectation of fighting. Even veteran X-Men like Kitty Pryde have distanced themselves from the team, as they struggle to see a reason to continue as they did before. The leaders of Mutankind, especially Cyclops and Rogue, cannot agree on the right path to follow. In short, mutants searching for guidance struggle to find it, while also mourning the loss of their lives and the culture they created on Krakoa. The X-Men were once the center of mutant life, but that’s no longer the case.
There is a distinct need for a safe place where mutants can feel free to be themselves without putting their lives at risk. Anole, and many like him, are looking for a way to be themselves. He doesn’t want to thrive in a human world, but “in a mutant world” and the Morlocks are becoming the key to that path. They were once forgotten mutants hiding underground, but now they are choosing to walk in the sun and inspire others like them to do the same. THE Morlocks offer what X-Men I can’t: unconditional acceptance and a life lived on each mutant’s terms.
Nyx #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.