warning! Sabretooth & The Exiles #3 revealed ahead! X-Men villains are no strangers to using gruesome methods to destroy all mutants, but the sinister organization Orchis has recently added to its depravity by tearing apart all mutants. a base from the pages of HP Lovecraft. Oftentimes, the X-Men’s enemies have gone to great lengths to destroy mutants without being held back by limitations like empathy or basic humanity. Many of Orchis’ crimes against humanity are often the result of their belief that mutants are not human. Orchis’ past efforts include creating the robotic Legion of Sentinel and gruesome medical experiments to create mutant energy-suppressing implants.
Orchis has also recently gained a foothold in the Astral Plane, hoping to use its resources to any advantage. Saber Tooth and Exile #3 Victor Lavalle and Leonard Kirk ushered in the adjacent X-Men team in the previous installment, throwing themselves into the astral world. The team’s mystic, the Third Eye, takes desperate measures, as he believes that bringing the Orphan Maker into the realm will delay his full manifestation of power and create caused an explosion that caused global extinction. While their astral form hovered in the air, the Exiles made a startling discovery: Orchis managed to build a mining station in the Astral Plane defying some of the laws it had. The third station sprouts from the carcass of the native creature, literally digging it for intermediate energy. The oil rig-like structures through the intermediate body look impressive, if eerie sightings that give ominous indications of Orchis activities.
Orchis’ third stop is a surreal nightmare
This also sheds some light on recent events X Army #9 By Si Spurrier and Netho Diaz, in which Orchis launches an attack on Krakoa and the Altar of the Legion through the astral realm. It seems that the third station played an integral role in this operation and the attack X Corps It shows that Orchis’ actions in the Astral Plane are bearing clear, terrible results. A combination of the organic celestial structure and the man-made structure of Orchis exists inside Station Three. Amid yet another gruesome collection of eyes and mouths, the exiles make another startling discovery: an emaciated, dying replica of their self-appointed leader, the Saber-toothed Tiger.
Astral’s look is influenced by classic horror movies
As the Third Eye muses, there is “no single way” to see the astral world, which he himself says is reminiscent of the way Lovecraft describes realities outside of us. Like the outer god Yog-Sothoth of the Cthulhu Mythos, Astral exists in a state beyond the full comprehension of the human mind. The way it’s perceived isn’t how it actually looks, it’s just that the finite human brain is trying to make sense of impossible invisible forms beyond our comprehension. For Yog-Sothoth, this often results in it looking like a mass of tentacles and eyes or spheres, while the Third Eye voluntarily approaches how he sees the astral world: down to the tentacle mass and fleshy eyes. Interestingly, the Third Eye seems to be showing his Exiles friends his interpretation of the Astral Plane, with Sabretooth commenting that he doesn’t like the look of the dimension. However, the Orchid agents who built the Third Station may have had a different view of the Astral Realm, and for them, their defilement of the Astral Realm may not have resulted in the distorted image that the third eye would have. see.
For now, Sabretooth and his exiles remain on the Astral Realm, and the mystery of the Third Station will only continue to deepen. One thing’s for sure: Combined with the Third Eye’s “classic” view of how the astral world came to be, Orchis’ Third Station was a nightmarish vision that popped into HP Lovecraft’s mind, and not never knew it was going to happen in X. What terrible thing happened– man.
Saber Tooth and Exile #3 Now available from Marvel Comics.