It’s well understood that the X-Men have seen more than their fair share of dark days. After the mutant decimation, mutantkind as a whole came to the edge of extinction. If not for the events of “Second Coming,” the mutant race might not be thriving as it is today.
“Second Coming” was a massive event, spanning across the entire line of x-books and involving creators such as Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, David Finch, Terry Dodson, Ibraim Roberson, Greg Land, Mike Choi, Lan Medina, Nathan Fox and Esad Ribic. Following the mutant decimation, Hope Summers was the first mutant born since M-Day. At the end of X-Men #207, by Carey and Chris Bachalo, Hope was sent into the future, where she would be raised by Cable. Growing into a teenager, Hope finally returned to the present day in X-Men: Second Coming #1, by Kyle, Yost and Finch.
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Eager to greet their mutant messiah and keep her safe, Cyclops sent the X-Men to find Hope and Cable. On the way, the X-Men encountered several deadly forces chasing after Hope as well. Bastion, the deadly Sentinel, was working to eliminate Hope and extinguish mutantkind once and for all. The Sentinel worked with anti-mutant proponents such as William Stryker, Bolivar Trask, Steven Lang, Cameron Hodge and Graydon Creed to kill Hope. While the X-Men fended off Stryker’s Purifiers, the New Mutants went in to shut down Hodge’s anti-mutant facility.
Rogue and Nightcrawler managed to escort Hope back to Utopia, but Nightcrawler was killed by Bastion in the process. By this point, all of the X-Men’s teleporters had been killed or sent to Limbo in Magik‘s case. Bastion also had Donald Pierce destroy all of the X-Men’s jets, before trapping all of San Francisco in an impenetrable dome. In the center of this dome, a portal opened. Nimrod Sentinels from the future emerged to kill all of the remaining mutants. The X-Men entered a pitched battle with these Sentinels, to little avail.
With few options left, Cyclops sent X-Force into the future using Cable’s last time-jump. Cypher came along to rewrite the Nimrods’ systems and cease the attack. After taking down two different Master Molds, X-Force was successful. Yet the team couldn’t make their way through the portal, since the process would kill them.
Cable sacrificed himself, succumbing to his techno-organic virus to open the portal for the rest of X-Force. Immediately afterward, Cable exploded and died. In a final battle, Bastion made one last attempt to destroy the X-Men. Suddenly, Hope’s mutant powers manifested. Hope mimicked the powers of the mutants around her, before unleashing her full potential, which destroyed Bastion and the dome. In the aftermath of this event, five new mutants were detected by Cerebra, the first ones since Hope was born.
Compared to the X-Men’s current situation, “Second Coming” was a true low point for Marvel’s mutants. Right now, the X-Men and all of mutantkind are enjoying their “Reign of X” on the island nation of Krakoa. There are currently millions of mutants in existence, as opposed to the few hundred that struggled to survive during “Second Coming.” This event saw the X-Men cornered and oppressed by those who would wipe them out. In the face of extinction, Marvel’s Mutants seemed to be on their last legs. Yet it was Hope Summers’ return that brought the X-Men to their current place in the comics. Hope wasn’t just the first mutant born since M-Day. The mutant messiah’s very presence saw a resurgence in new mutants. Five may not have been a tremendous number of mutants, but at the time, this was a massive change.
The X-Men quite literally had Hope for the future. After this event, Hope would go on to activate the mutant powers of these “Five Lights” in Uncanny X-Men #526-529, by Matt Fraction, Whilce Portacio, Leonard Kirk and Harvey Tolibao. These new mutants were the first signs that perhaps mutantkind was going to survive after all. Of course, Hope’s birth in itself was miraculous, but seeing her manifest her powers and ignite the abilities of five new mutants was a completely different situation. Hope’s return paved the way for a full reignition of the x-gene, in Avengers vs. X-Men #12, by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Adam Kubert. “Second Coming” gave a glimmer of hope for mutantkind, paving the way for the X-Men’s bright future.
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