WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men #17 by Jonathan Hickman, Brett Booth, Adelso Corona, Sunny Gho, Tom Muller, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
The X-Men have spent a lot of time in space over the years. And with recent stories reasserting the importance of cosmic concepts like the Shi’Ar Empire and the Brood, the door could be open for any number of other cosmic X-Men characters to be reintroduced into the current landscape of the mighty mutants.
Since the X-Men came together with Marvel's other mutants on the island nation Krakoa, they've been busy re-establishing the mutants' connections with the Marvel Universe’s cosmic side. While long-forgotten aliens like the Sidri and Wraiths have popped up, this could be an opportunity for another long-absent team to return, the mutant Skrull team led and assembled by Xavier and known as Cadre K.
Making their team debut in Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet #1 by Kurt Busiek, Jerry Ordway, Will Blyberg, Paul Ryan, Jason Wright and Richard Starkings and in 2000, Cadre K is a ragtag group of mutant Skrulls brought together by Professor X.
Consisting of 6 mutant Skrulls, the team’s members included; Fiz, who can increase or decrease his size; a telepath named Z’Cann; the energy-absorbing Spunje ; Nero, who can elongate and stretch his ligaments to surreal depths; R’Tee who can extend spikes from his body; and the mysterious Goroth. Led by Xavier, Cadre K’s primary purpose was to end the inhumane slaughtering of their kind (K-class Deviant Skrulls) at birth and fight for mutant rights in the Andromeda Galaxy, specifically the Skrull Empire.
It’s later revealed that some of the team members were enslaved by Apocalypse during one of his rampages and were forced to help him acquire the powers of the Twelve. Apocalypse was obsessed with the Twelve, a group of powerful mutants who were part of a future prophecy. Apocalypse believed that the Living Monolith, Magneto, Polaris, Iceman, Storm, Sunfire, Cyclops, Phoenix, Cable, Bishop, Mikhail Rasputin, Xavier and Nate Grey's X-Man were the key to unlocking his final design. Apocalypse thought these 12 mutants would grant him Celestialhood and absolute dominance over the cosmos if their powers were harvested and fused. Shortly after Apocalypse’s plans were foiled, Xavier took in six of the freed mutant Skrulls and trained them. Professor would leave Cadre K and return back to earth to assist in researching the Legacy Virus.
As time went on, Cadre K was then believed to have made a return to the Skrull Empire. But, it was discovered that the team was actually inhabiting a ranch in South Dakota where they escaped being executed by the Skrull Empire for following the words of Professor X. Soon after being discovered, Captain America and Cyclops approached the team of mutant Skrulls during the events of a Gerry Duggan and David Yardin story in the A+X series to help them fight off Dr. Doom. Currently, Cadre K hasn’t appeared in much outside of the occasional cameo or reference, but soon that could change.
With the X-Men continuing to grow their Krakoan population and strive to make Krakoa the mutant haven the galaxy so desperately needs, now could be the perfect time for the return of Professor X’s mutant Skrull team. Due to the events of Empyre, the Skrull Empire has since evolved into the Kree-Skrull alliance. After being rescued by Storm, Cyclops and Marvel Girl, Xandra and the Shi’Ar Empire have opened their doors to the mutants creating a possibility for Cadre K to be called upon once again by Xavier.
As one of the most politically charged portions of the Marvel Universe continues to expand, Xavier is smart enough to realize that he can utilize his history with the mutant Skrull team to his advantage. Seeing as though Xavier has always been the poster boy for mutant rights and, more recently, mutant independence, it would make a lot of sense for Professor X to reach out to Cadre K. By doing this, Xavier could utilize Cadre K to foster a better relationship between mutants, the Kree-Skrulls, and the Shi-Ar Empire in the near and long-term.
The possibilities are endless, and if there were ever a moment to reach deep within the Marvel mythos and reintroduce obscure characters and plotlines, that moment would be now. With the X-Men continuing their galactic expansion, recent crossover events including commentary on the state of Skrull politics and another iteration of S.W.O.R.D expounding upon the cosmic X-Men landscape, bringing Cadre K into Krakoa's orbit could help to establish the mutants further cosmic ties in an act of diplomacy.
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