The Hellions’ latest mission may have some deadly consequences, including setting off a war that the X-Men and Marvel’s mutants are fated to lose.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hellions #8 by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia, David Curiel & VC’s Ariana Maher, on sale now.
Many of the actions taken by the mutants on Krakoa have been done in the name of protecting the future of the mutant race, and finding a way to prevent future generations from ending up cowed and constrained by artificial intelligence, if not fully wiped out. But in the process, the X-Men may have just started their deadliest war ever.
In an attempt to prevent the possible rise of a Smiley-Face descended robotic race in Hellions #8, the Hellions — at the behest of Xavier and Magneto — might have just fired the opening salvo in the ultimate war between mutants and artificial intelligence.
The Smiley-Faces thank the Hellions for their assistance in gaining their freedom, and Havok even seems to quickly develop a bit of a rapport with the lead Smiley-Face, agreeing with the Smiley-Face idea to “differentiate” from humanity and become their own independent group. His support even leads the Smiley-Faces to redesignate mutants as “friends”, potentially creating a robot/mutant alliance. Or rather, it would have, if it weren’t for the Hesiod Protocol. It turns out Psylocke is aware of a secret objective that has been designed by the Quiet Council and psychically communicates with Magneto to confirm carrying it out.
After Sage confirms that the Smiley-Faces are close to self-replication — and therefore flourishing into a potential rival for mutantkind — Psyloke connects the Smiley-Face servers to Krakoa, unleashing a powerful computer virus through their systems. The Hesiod Protocol will in effect wipe out this branch of Smiley-Faces, as it can do to any other AI that approaches self-actualization. Greycrow and Psylocke carry out the order, and Havok can only watch in confusion and horror as his new robotic friends all die around him, with their apparent last thoughts being that the realization of mutants being “friends” was a mistake.