a big part of why I like Hellions so much is it's very much NOT about the myth of equal oppression? difficult discussion incoming

so I'd start this by saying this isn't an anti-Krakoa rant, I've made my feelings on Krakoa known but at this point there's no fighting it and we'll just wait for the knife in the back where Darci says "I told you so" being right is its own reward

no I'm talking about how much of the Krakoa national ethos is built around an idea of equality through oppression IE because all mutants are marginalized/oppressed they are defacto allies, that's functionally how Magneto INTRODUCES Krakoa to the reader

"mutants don't enslave people or participate in genocide" is his creed to the assembled readership, it's a desire to boil the experience of oppression down to a single axis- we're all mutants, it doesn't matter if you're black or gay or trans these white men are just as oppressed

now I also want to be clear I SUSPECT this is intentional? Hickman knows his shit real well and I don't see him throwing that kind of verbosity into the story lightly, I'm very much choosing to read this as a deliberate set-up for Magnus & the Council

ESPECIALLY because Hellions is launched almost entirely in defiance of this claim, John Greycrow only needs to be on the Hellions because he participated in a literal massacre against ANOTHER group of mutants, a massacre arranged by one of the council members

I'll admit A LOT of this sticks out for me with Crucible, the thing where Council mutants, the people who run the country, won't call you by the name you want unless you let them murder you

another area in which this all comes into stark clarity, where Xavier & Magneto, the fonts of "we are all equal in our oppression" are kinda standing in the way of a lesbian marriage for the "greater good"

like I'm aware there's worldbuilding stuff involved with them refusing to resurrect Mystique's wife Destiny but A LOT of this to me comes off like the affluent white cis gays who fought for marriage equality so they could then totally abandon everyone else immediately after

and again this isn't meant as a critique of THE STORY, I am 100% positive this is all intentional & meant as a critique, it's just an intention I don't feel like I see brought up very often in discussion of it

see also stuff like the revelation genocide actually IS totally fine in the mutant bible so long as it's against robots