The following contains spoilers for X-Force #27, available now from Marvel.
Betrayal is a concept the X-Men have become intimately familiar with over the years. Although many other superhero teams have been stabbed in the back by those they considered allies, Marvel’s premier team of heroic mutants have been double-crossed by acquaintances, friends, and even family members. While many of these breaches of trust were influenced by external forces, the long list of betrayals that the X-Men have endured over the years have gradually eroded the team’s ability to put their trust in others, driving them to become a somewhat insular group in recent years.
Ironically, the X-Men’s trust issues have become even more prevalent in the age of Krakoa, as the mutant nation has been infiltrated multiple times by enemies who wished to sabotage their new society. While attempts to dismantle the nation from within have been thwarted, X-Force #27 (by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru -eFX, and VC’s Joe Caramagna) features a betrayal that catches the mutants completely unaware. In a shocking turn of events, Cerebro, the mutant-tracking supercomputer that has served the X-Men for decades, goes rogue, once again placing the future of the X-Men’s nation into jeopardy.
While attempting to convince the Quiet Council of Krakoa to sentence Omega Red to death, Beast is informed by X-Force’s second-in-command Sage that the Cerebro helmet has mysteriously gone offline. When Krakoa’s resident tech expert Forge investigated, he discovered that the helmet was missing, and he was subsequently assaulted by an unseen assailant. After sensing that blood had been spilt near the cave, Black Tom Cassidy arrived to investigate, only to discover that Cerebro had sprouted tentacles and forcibly attached itself to Forge’s head. By the time Cassidy informed the rest of X-Force about what he’d seen, Cerebro had already escaped with the upper-half of Forge’s skull, retreating into the forest to undergo a terrifying metamorphosis.
Cerebro’s evolution into a mutant-hunting machine is terrifying for a number of reasons. Not only has the helmet already proven that it’s capable of killing mutants, but it has also displayed a level of cunning during its attack on Forge, indicating that it is more than a mindless killing machine. With extensive files on almost every mutant, Cerebro could use its inside knowledge to become a mutant hunter on par with Nimrod, the advanced Sentintel whose arrival has heralded the complete extinction of the species.
The factor that elevates Cerebro’s betrayal into an existential threat is the computer’s role in Krakoa’s resurrection protocols. In the early days of the mutant society, the island’s founders crafted a way to resurrect deceased mutants by uploading copies of their consciousness stored in Cerebro’s database into near-perfect clones created though the combined powers of five specific mutants. Through this system, the mutants of Krakoa have effectively cheated death. While the Cerebro helmet is only one part of a much-larger system, it’s still an integral part of it, and the helmet’s malicious sentience could spread across the network like a virus. If this happens, the X-Men could lose their newfound immortality, something that the team has grown very dependent on recently.
While it’s unclear how the Cerebro helmet has gained sentience or why it seems to be targeting mutants, there are no shortage of potential explanations. The most likely reason is that the technocratic anti-mutant organization Orchis has found a way to corrupt the helmet with some sort of computer virus or malicious artificial intelligence. Having discovered the existence of the resurrection protocols, it’s possible that Orchis is trying to prevent Krakoa from bringing back the many mutants who’ve partaken in suicide missions against them, depriving the nation of one of its greatest advantages.
It’s also entirely possible that the Cerebro helmet developed sentience on its own. It wouldn’t be the first time that a piece of the mutant’s technology turned on them. In Josh Whedon and John Casssday’s Astonishing X-Men, the Danger Room that the X-Men used to train developed sentience and turned on the team. Having been used to resurrect thousands of fallen mutants, it’s possible that Cerebro has simply gotten sick of being used as a tool to defy death.
With the Cerebro helmet on the loose, the mutants of Krakoa may have to start guarding their lives a little more closely. If the helmet’s betrayal does end up undermining the resurrection protocols, death may once again become a threat to the X-Men and their allies.
