The latest issue of X-Men introduces a tragic love story between two mutants that pales in comparison to an earlier heartbreaking tale.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for X-Men #19 by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar, Sunny Gho, VC’s Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller, available now.
The X-Men franchise is known for featuring a lot of doomed romances but a recent issue introduced a new contender for the title of most tragic love affair. X-Men #19 showed Synch and Laura Kinney/X-23/Wolverine sharing a centuries-long relationship that was taken away by problems of time and memory. Still, there’s one X-love story that is at least as sad, probably sadder, as theirs and that’s the one between Angel and Psylocke depicted in Uncanny X-Force.
In X-Men #5 by Jonathan Hickman and R.B. Silva, Synch, Laura, and Darwin were sent into a mysterious, advanced civilization to perform reconnaissance on the Children of the Vault and determine what kind of threat they pose to mutant kind. However, time passes very differently in the Vault so when Cyclops and Xavier were shown monitoring the mission, which from their perspective had been going on for a little over three months, Xavier estimated that for the recon team it had lasted at least five hundred and thirty-seven years. Laura would be able to survive that long because of her healing factor while Darwin’s abilities allow him to adapt to survive by whatever means necessary. Synch’s power is to copy those of other mutants so he did so using duplicates of one or both of his teammates’ abilities.
In X-Men #19 Synch finally manages to escape the Vault before some of the Children kill him. Laura and Darwin remain captive inside the Vault and are presumably killed themselves. To make this extra tragic, throughout the issue Synch and Laura were shown to fall in love during the mission, with Synch believing that the extremely large amount of time they spent together makes their relationship much deeper and more meaningful than a normal human one. Since he escaped the Vault before dying Synch is able to retain the memories of everything that happened in the Vault when he is resurrected but the same cannot be said for Laura, and when he looks at her longingly she gives him the same gruff rebuke she greeted him with at the beginning of the mission. Synch doesn’t seem as heartbroken by this as one would expect, as he’s simply relieved to see Laura alive again, but it’s still a very sad twist in a compelling mutant love story.
But the tormented love between Warren Worthington III/Angel/Archangel and Betsy Braddock/Psylocke from Uncanny X-Force still has the Synch/Laura story beat in terms of sheer tragic power. At the beginning of the series the two longtime X-Men had resumed a relationship but conflict soon developed between them. Archangel, Apocalypse’s Horsemen of Death, was attempting to assert greater control over Warren’s mind. Betsy was able to use her telepathic powers to imprison him in Warren’s mind for a time but Wolverine insisted that she and the rest of X-Force train to kill Warren should his dark side completely take over, which brought tension into his relationship with Betsy.
After Fantomex killed the child heir of Apocalypse, Archangel took over Warren and began ascending to his deceased master’s position, leading to the acclaimed storyline known as “The Dark Angel Saga”. He and his forces from Clan Akkaba proved too much for X-Force, even after they received back-up from the X-Men of the Age of Apocalypse, including a Phoenix-powered Jean Grey.
In Uncanny X-Force #18 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña, Betsy was forced to use a Celestial Life Seed to destroy Archangel, aware that it would likely kill Warren as well. After stabbing him with it she used her powers to give Warren memories of an imaginary life where the two of them married, had children, and grew old together. As the imaginary version of Warren lay dying of natural causes Betsy told him “You did enough, Warren. You led a full and significant life. My hero.” In the real world Fantomex dragged Betsy away from Warren to safety, even though she begged to be left with him. Soon after, they found Warren in the snow, but he had no memory and a drastically altered personality.
Warren has since returned to his regular self but with everything that’s happened to them, it’s unlikely he and Betsy will ever return to such a blissful relationship as the one they had prior to “The Dark Angel Saga” let alone what they enjoyed in his mind. On the other hand, X-Men #19 suggests that Synch is at least somewhat hopeful about his and Laura’s future, which is one reason why it’s slightly less tragic than the X-Force story.
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