The time has come for All Hallow’s Eve, and this Halloweek finds Prodigy haunted by the ghost of the Krakoan Dream in NYX #4 from Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Enid Balám, Raúl Angulo, VC’s Joe Caramagna, and Annalise Bissa. David Alleyne has been a Young Avenger, X-Factor investigator, and one of the final X-Men elected by the people of Krakoa. However, the hero seems to have retreated to the privileged shelter of academia thus far in the “FROM THE ASHES…” status quo. But David’s mutant name is Prodigy for a reason, and this installment peels back behind the front that Professor Alleyne has been presenting to the world.
More than any other book in the current X-line, NYX is dedicated to exploring the questions and contradictions at the heart of daily life for the Krakoan diaspora. Does teaching non-mutants about Krakoa, about mutant history and culture, combat ignorance and misinformation, or does it facilitate further exploitation and appropriation upon mutantkind? This is the dilemma posed towards Prodigy since the series’ first issue. Desperately trying to escape such a binary way of looking at his life, David’s lecture notes narrate his internal conflict until he ends up in fight against Hellion.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Prodigy’s role has been decidedly passive in this opening arc considering the passive nature of his mutation. David’s specialized form of telepathy involuntarily accesses the knowledge, emotional experience, and (in recent cases) entire memories of those in proximity to him. He’s one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet, but this vast amount of data seems to have resulted in choice paralysis, leaving David to accept a cushy-yet-tokenized tenure at NYU and an easy home life with a non-mutant, non-super-powered boyfriend. The facade of his comfortable life only breaks at night, when Prodigy is finally alone. When his need for a new way forwards bursts free.
While the step forward in his academic career is quite predictable, David’s passion manifests in his second gig as an anonymous graffiti artist. Scaling skyscrapers and hiding from city lights, Prodigy has been the source of the spray painted murals on display through each issue of NYX. His largest piece was to memorialize Shay, a 26 yr old mutant killed in a hate crime. Prodigy doesn’t have many things in his life that are just his, and his passion for being a scholar is often undermined by those who misunderstand his mutant gift. As an artist, David can create without his audience assuming that his X-Gene made the art rather than using his own skill and imagination. The specific choice of graffiti, an art whose modern form is inherently tied to Black people in the United States and radical defiance in the face of oppression, adds even more to David’s character and his specific crisis as the token Black, queer, mutant face of academia.
Marvel
But David’s actions of resistance can no longer live in secret, in the dark. His art is inspiring, but anti-mutant community organizers are now targeting it in an effort to establish a new ghetto for New York’s mutants: the previous attempt at this resulted in the Alphabet City ghetto that the original NYX was named for. Thankfully, the Morlocks have carved out their own secret bit of Krakoan/Arakki territory underground for mutants at risk. But, thanks to some excellent superheroing by Ms. Marvel, David is also burdened with the knowledge that Hellion and his Quiet Council are making their play to conquer all of Manhattan Island. Materially and mentally, the walls are closing in, and Professor Alleyne has to make a choice. Putting his entire new life at risk, Prodigy chooses to dog-walk Hellion, saving Ms. Marvel as well as the rest of the city.
In case you missed the image above, Balám and Angulo are doing great work on this issue. Balám’s portraiture keeps every face unique and instep with the look established by Francesco Mortarino in earlier issues. It’s a noticeable increase in quality from Balám’s other recent Marvel entries such as Spider-Gwen: Smash or New Mutants: Lethal Legion–which were already quite well done. Angulo’s colors add to the experience, balancing the gloom of a rainy Manhattan day with lovely bursts of contrasting color.
If I had to pick at any flaws, I’d be hard pressed to find anything substantial. I will say, Prodigy’s new boyfriend is more of a story prop than a full character, meaning that he is interesting insofar as what he represents about David’s current desires as opposed to a more fully fleshed out character. His boyfriend is also a Black queer man, which is a shared experience that Prodigy has never had with a partner. At the same time, his ex is a bi superhero who likely also has emotionally charged memories of Krakoa. It might have been interesting to tease out a bit more of what David has found in this relationship that he couldn’t when he dated Speed. Again though, this is more of a hypothetical addition rather than anything the issue itself is deficient in.
NYX #4 continues to remind us why this book is one of the best X-books around. For those of us who still mourn Krakoa and loved X-Men: Red‘s blend of superheroics and building out of mutant culture, this book is for you. Prodigy’s spotlight issue finds him in a place familiar to so many, and it’s inspiring to see him fight to dream a new dream in the face of a world telling mutantkind that their only options are to regress or die. Don’t miss this book!
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