WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Factor #9 by Leah Williams, David Baldeon, Israel Silva and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The current era of Krakoa has given many of the X-Men and their mutant allies the chance to celebrate more peace and safety than they’ve perhaps ever had before. Even mutants trapped in other parts of the world have been found and rescued by the Marauders, who have strived to rescue people regardless of where they’re trapped. But things have been different for all the mutants who’ve been trapped in the Mojoverse.
And after X-Factor #9, things are about to change for the mutants of the Mojoverse.
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Under the grasp of Mojo, they’ve been forced to serve at the behest of the interdimensional entertainment producer as means of entertaining the people of his dimension. Shatterstar, Adam-X and Spiral have been trapped in this realm and forced to be the stars of some of the dimension’s most popular shows. X-Factor has even been barred from entering the dimension under threat of immediate execution. The team has been trying to find a way to rescue their captured fellow mutants, but the time-table on that mission takes a much higher pace after it’s discovered that Shatterstar is fated to be the one to stop the Morrigan — an ancient death goddess who’s been targeting mutants thanks to her control over Shatterstar’s former X-Force teammate, Siryn.
This results in Northstar deciding to turn to the New Mutants — with the other arm of Krakoa quickly agreeing to help. While a mutant band is formed to serve as the ultimate distraction and statement of intent (with Lila Cheney on guitar, DJ on drums, and Dazzler as the singer), Mojoverse escapee Wind-Dancer uses her restored powers to create a tornado, trapping the citizens of the Mojoverse at the performance. Magik and Wolfsbane lead an offensive directly against Mojo, destroying his clone reserves while Karma and Mirage confront him directly and psychically attack him. The attack is a quick assault and a very impressive one, with the band knocking out one massive song while the New Mutants successfully bring down the cloning lab with their current students.
Finally, Magik is able to confront the long-time villain with a surprising offer — in exchange for no more slavery, no more mutant hostages and no more unauthorized theft of mutant DNA or stories, the mutants will allow Mojo to continue to exist and essentially become a “partner” of Krakoa, potentially giving the mutants access to his wide-array of technological advances while ceasing any conflicts with the dimension. With no other choice, Mojo signs the contract presented to him by Magik. This releases the captured mutants (including Shatterstar, who quickly frees Siryn by killing the Morrigan in a duel), and results in Wind-Dancer being placed in a position of power as essentially the mutant ambassador to the Mojoverse, turning a major threat to Krakoa into a potentially powerful partner.
While Mojo can never be fully trusted to help Krakoa, the mutant race or really anyone besides himself, there’s a real chance Krakoa could use his advancements and inventions to their advantage. On top of turning the media-minded dimension towards improving the public image of mutants on Earth, which Wind-Dancer is already helping X-Corp with, it could allow them to give X-Force a brand new security upgrade that could help isolate and identify threats to mutant safety across the globe.