Warning: SPOILERS for A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6!ORCHIS proved to be a key player in Earth surviving A.X.E.: Judgment Day, and now the The events of Judgment Day have seen the villainous organization take its first steps out of the shadows, just in time to capitalize on a public relations gold mine. Suffice it to say, the ongoing fight to maintain mutant sovereignty just became all the more complicated.
Although ORCHIS is a relatively newly minted villainous organization within the Marvel Universe, they have quickly positioned themselves as the foremost threat to Krakoa and mutantkind. Made of a wide array of former SHIELD, AIM, and Hydra operatives, ORCHIS combines the scale of global superspy operations with experimental super-science for its anti-mutant agenda. Although posing as a human supremacist response to mutant sovereignty, Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel secretly lead ORCHIS in service of their true goal: to eliminate both human and mutantkind for the sake of AI dominion. Now that Moira X has fallen to their side, the synthetic triumvirate's gambit nearly worked too well, as ORCHIS helping to spark the events of Judgment Day nearly led to the eradication of all human, mutant, and artificial life on Earth.
While ORCHIS is slowly developing their off-planet operations, the organization is still heavily dependent on Earth. That, plus their Forge station being obliterated from solar orbit by the Progenitor, is sufficient motivation for a bit of emergency collaboration between ORCHIS and the X-Men. A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6 by Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, Ivan Fiorelli, Marte Gracia, VC's Clayton Cowles, and Tom Brevoort documents the climactic final attempts to save the Earth from the Progenitor. By shoring up the defenses for the Machine that is Earth's artificial intelligence and physically attacking the Celestial with a final fleet of AI soldiers, ORCHIS' efforts are key to providing the small Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals squad enough time to save the day. Aside from some troubling anti-mutant propaganda, ORCHIS' first true step into the global public eye is as the last line of defense against total annihilation. From the average human's point of view, ORCHIS has proven themselves to be heroes.
The X-Men and ORCHIS Needed Each Other Once, But Now The Truce Is Over
With the establishment of Jean Grey's Phoenix Foundation offering resurrection to a small percentage of humans who are most in need, the X-Men are doing quite well after Judgment Day. Feeling a tad less hated and feared, the mutants aren't the only ones with cause to celebrate either. It’s clear that ORCHIS is taking advantage of some newfound popularity as well. At the Treehouse and reflecting with Jean on all that's just occurred Cyclops laments, “I wish it wasn’t a win for ORCHIS too.” In the same a kid walks by happily wearing an ORCHIS t-shirt with a Nimrod balloon in hand. Wasting no time, ORCHIS is capitalizing on its new status as a heroic organization and only further complicating their conflict with mutantkind.
Although losing the Forge is a major hit, could lead into next year's Fall of X.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6 is available now from Marvel Comics.
