The X-Men Just Repeated Their Greatest Sin | Screen Rant
Warning: contains spoilers to Hellions #7!
The X-Men may have some of the world's most powerful superhumans within the mutant population, but that doesn't make them perfect. In their long history, they've come across those who've enslaved other mutants, forcing them to use their abilities for a host of horrible agendas, each of which they've shut down with prejudice. But despite being aware of that history, it would appear that the X-Men have more than once repeated it themselves with another burgeoning group.
The team of unstable mutant wildcards called the Hellions are the latest to repeat this sin when they destroy the obedient AI given to them on their latest mission, a statement of displeasure to their untrustworthy and manipulative leader Mr. Sinister that's just the latest in a long line of abuses mutants have perpetrated against machines.
In Hellions #7 by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia, all of the Hellions are resurrected on Krakoa after their disastrous mission in Arakko. All, that is, except for Orphan-Maker, whose particular mutant abilities make him a danger to everyone without his armor. Mr. Sinister tasks the Hellions with retrieving Peter's armor from a heavily fortified stronghold in Arizona. Although the team suspects Sinister's involvement in their deaths, he is protected from them by Psylocke and encourages them to take his scramjet, equipped with a special AI named "Clive" that Sinister spent months training. While the team continues to sort through their feelings following their last mission, Havok's conversation with Psylocke provokes her into setting the plane on a fatal trajectory, a statement to Sinister who has to watch as his beloved ship and "Clive" are destroyed.
The destruction and enslavement of "Clive" by the Hellions brings to mind the Astonishing X-Men storyline "Dangerous" by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. The X-Men are attacked by a mechanical enemy with intimate knowledge of the famous mutants, their weaknesses and powers. After the entity calling itself "Danger" fails to destroy the X-Men in the ruins of Genosha, Colossus confronts a grateful Professor X about the truth regarding Danger; an AI consciousness spawned from the Danger Room, whose presence was known and ignored by Xavier so he could use it to train his X-Men.
Given the recent Robot Revolution in Marvel Comics, it's more apparent than ever that the mutants have an issue with artificial life. Though many spent their early lives being hunted by programmed Sentinels, they've carried that grudge over to the "species" as a whole, distrustful of the Cerebra AI introduced in Jeff Lemire and Humberto Ramos' Extraordinary X-Men, and using only biological machinery in their home nation of Krakoa.
"Clive" was a polite and helpful program who only sought to serve the Hellions as per the request of his master Mr. Sinister, and he dies pleading for his life so one group of mutants can make a statement to another. Readers have seen in the Powers of X series from Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia, that the evolved Sentinel Nimrod will eventually become the galaxy's dominant lifeform, enslaving the final mutants as pets. Considering how the X-Men and Hellions continue to treat artificial life as a whole, it's beginning to look more and more like the machines could be acting in self defense.
Hellions #7 by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia is in stores now!