Warning: Major Spoilers for Children of the Atom #4!
The teenage heroes from Marvel Comics' Children of the Atom have fallen into the clutches of the U-Men, a forgotten group of X-Men villains who made a bold if not grotesque impact on comic readers back in 2001.
Though the Children of the Atom team may be a relatively new lineup in Marvel Comics, the U-Men are not, having been first introduced in writer Grant Morrison and artist Leinil Francis Yu's New X-Men Annual from 2001. The brainchild of wealthy author and entrepreneur John Sublime, the U-Men were initially created to serve as a species between human and mutant on the evolutionary scale. Rather than follow in the footsteps of past oppressors and attempt to eradicate his planet's population of Homo superior beings, Sublime accepted mutants and saw in them the potential for self improvement and profit. He strived to turn himself into a mutant, and deployed his U-Men in the hopes of achieving this goal. The U-Men were composed of several armed battalions with the sole purpose of harvesting mutant organs in the hopes of gaining mutant abilities themselves. With the mutant parts transplanted, Sublime and his group of Homo Perfectus (a.k.a. self mutated) could potentially gain abilities, from microscopic sight to immunity to attacks from gifted psychics.
Children of the Atom #4 from Vita Ayala (New Mutants) and Tom Muller (House of X) sees the titular band of young superheroes coming face to face with this nefarious group of villains from the X-Men's fabled past. While conducting a straightforward field test in New York City's Brooklyn borough, teenage vigilantes the Children of the Atom are massively outnumbered and captured by the militaristic faction of enhanced fighters known as the U-Men. Rather than the U-Men efficiently terminating each member of the Children of the Atom, the young mutant hopefuls are taken to a remote research facility by their fearsome captors, to await a fate far worse than death itself.
While original founder John Sublime may no longer serve as the organization's figurehead, the mission of the U-Men remains well intact. Following in the footsteps of Sublime's original agenda, the villainous Dr. Barrington and her troops are bringing forth the U-Men to terrorize as well as maim another generation of mutants. While these U-Men continue to harvest and implant mutant parts for their own purposes, the less appealing body parts are disposed of accordingly. Barrington and her entourage seem to have absolutely no qualms about endangering the lives of children, who may not even possess inherent mutant genes, all in the name of science and evolutionary development.
While the U-Men are a creative set of villains that bring further dynamics to the X-Men mythos, their reintroduction comes with a grave set of repercussions to the Children of the Atom ongoing comic title. A band of supervillains who literally harvest the organs of mutants in the hopes of gaining their abilities is not quite the material one finds from an easy-going coming-of-age book. The U-Men storyline aside, Morrison's entire New X-Men run is a slightly darker and contemporary take on the X-Men lore in comparison to the zany fare of the past. Though it cannot be denied that the U-Men will provide the Children of the Atom, who have taken up the New Mutants' former title of "X-babies", with a worthy challenge.
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June 29, 2021 at 12:17AM
