Warning: Contains spoilers forNyx #3!!Since theX-Men’screation, the team has acted as the beating heart of mutantkind. They’ve been their greatest defenders, ready to assemble and address the endless stream of catastrophes and threats, but not every mutant dreams of living life as a soldier prepared for combat. With Krakoa gone, theMorlocksare stepping up to provide a new safe haven for mutants and a way of living the X-Men can’t offer.
InNyx #3, former X-Men Anole follows Caliban below ground to discover the Morlocks' hideout. They welcome him with open arms, declaring that he is one of them. Like the Morlocks, Anole’s distinctly “mutant” appearance makes it impossible to blend into the human society that Krakoa’s fall forced them toward.
The Morlocks live in a world apart - rejected by humanity yet uninterest in the life of combat and fightingthe X-Men offer. Anole’s conundrum is one that many other mutants face.To be one of the X-Men is to fight, but the Morlocks offer a way to simply live and do it proudly.
The Morlocks Offer Freedom and an Alternative to the X-Men
Nyx #3by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Francesco Mortarino, and Raúl Angulo
In the years before Krakoa, the X-Men provided a haven 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. Once mutants tasted it, many, like Anole, weren’t interested in playing soldier again. They want to live their lives normally - whatever that looks like - and that’simpossible with the X-Men. The Morlocks offer a different way and, as Caliban tells Anole, there is no need to ask permission. Mutants should live on their own terms.
Pre-Krakoa, the Morlocks were the castaways and rejects, often with strange or grotesque mutations. They were the most easily identifiable as “mutant.” This is still the case, but there is a sense of peace and pride that even mutants with less identifiable abilities long for. The group is building and carrying on a culture, even introducing mutant funerals that did not exist on Krakoa, and with the slightest prompting they are willing to leave behind their hideaway 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
The Morlocks Offer a Way to Live Proudly Without Fighting
Anole is not 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 carry on as they did before. Mutankind’s leaders, especiallyCyclops and Rogue, can’t agree on the right path forward. In short, the mutants looking for guidance struggle to find it, all while mourning the loss of their lives and the culture they created on Krakoa. The X-Men were once the hub 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 on the line. Anole, and many like him, are searching for a way to be themselves. He doesn’t want to thrive in a human world, but “in a mutant one” and the Morlocks are becoming key to that path. They were once the forgotten mutants, hidden away underground, but now they are choosing to walk in the sun and inspire others like them to do the same. TheMorlocksoffer what theX-Mencan’t: unconditional acceptance and a life lived on every mutant’s terms.
Nyx #3is available now from Marvel Comics.
X-Men
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
