Man-Made Disaster at the Start of the Century
The repercussions of last year's Mutants issue are still lingering.
Thanks to the inauguration of new President George W. Bush and the support of Congressman Robert Senator Kelly, the Mutants Beast Hank McCoy entered the U.S. government and became a formal official in the Mutant Office.
This marks another formal, official collaboration between Mutants and the CIA since the 1960s, when they formed X Division. Unlike previous collaborations where only a presidential hotline was established in Professor X's office, and the two sides only communicated through phone calls, this one is more formal.
The Mutant Registration Act, of course, came to nothing. This was partly due to Magneto's actions last year, which nearly turned world leaders or important representatives into Mutants, greatly shocking the U.S. government.
The authorities are well aware that if all of humanity were to become Mutants, it wouldn't be a matter of racial evolution, but rather the collapse of the existing order. Therefore, until a countermeasure is found, the United States dares not further oppress Mutants.
Since the device had been destroyed and the reagent had been completely dispersed, leaving only a few remnants on the inner wall of the vial, it would be too much to ask United States scientists to find a countermeasure in a short time based on these incomplete remnants.
Therefore, the U.S. government is actively trying to find the designers of this device and drug in order to prevent more similar devices from being manufactured.
However, Magneto took all the blame, including being named the designer of the Mutant Conversion Device. His refusal to reveal the original design and the drug's formula greatly angered the U.S. government.
If it weren't for the X-Men keeping an eye on things, Magneto would probably have been deprived of his human rights and subjected to all sorts of torture. Now, the U.S. government has no choice but to believe Magneto's testimony, regard him as the designer of the conversion device, and keep him under strict surveillance.
With the X-Men having publicly demonstrated their merits, the U.S. government couldn't immediately renege on its promises, so official hostility towards Mutants has once again subsided. However, the social atmosphere will not return to the more tolerant environment towards Mutants it was ten years ago.
Since the collapse of the Red Empire, the United States, which had been invincible for nearly a decade, was actively searching for its next enemy. This decade of experience had taught them that without an enemy, the United States was more prone to internal problems.
Starting with the Los Angeles riots of 1992, protests in response to the events led to unrest of varying sizes in Las Vegas and New York that same year.
The Waco Siege of 1993, the Florida racial riots of 1996, and the North Hollywood Shootout of 1997.
The 1999 Michigan State University riot, the Woodstock music festival riot (which actually took place at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in New York State), and the Seattle WT0 protests.
Of the nine major upheavals that occurred in the United States in the 1990s, four were related to racial discrimination, one to religious issues, one to a confrontation between criminals and police, two to idle college students, and one to anarchist anti-globalization movements.
This reveals what the biggest problem facing United States society today is.
In an attempt to deflect internal pressure, the U.S. government previously mistakenly targeted Mutants.
Although Magneto's operation was unsuccessful, and some X-Men among the Mutants sided with the authorities, can this not also be seen as a warning that Mutants themselves were playing the good cop/bad cop game?
To avoid the pressure from exploding internally, the United States can only seek out external enemies to divert the pressure. In fact, such actions did not begin in the new century; there were signs of them long ago.
However, none of the enemies created before could instill the same sense of anxiety in all United States as the Red Empire, thus uniting all ethnic groups against a common enemy.
Whether it's out of fear of a two-power structure or because the United States in this era doesn't believe anyone can be a truly equal opponent, it's unclear.
This group of high-ranking government officials, whose main beliefs are Protestantism, Catholicism, and other derivative religions of Christianity, have set their sights on their long-time adversaries: the Middle East countries, whose main religion is Islam.
On the one hand, the victory in the 1991 Gulf War further enhanced the United States' international standing and strengthened its ability and confidence to intervene in international affairs. This made the United States unable to resist eyeing the exploitation of Middle East countries, showing a determination to fleece them relentlessly.
On the other hand, the Middle East is rich in oil, a form of liquid gold, which is something that United States financial groups cannot help but covet.
In modern society, where it's impossible to eliminate the state or occupy its territory, the United States ' consistent tactic is to cultivate pro-American agents. Therefore, the CIA's intervention is essentially a hands-on instruction to certain opportunists, hoping they will gain influence from within and become more aligned with the United States.
It is said that where there is oppression, there will be resistance. The United States ' persistent actions have finally brought about a turning point.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial airliners.
At this time, the U.S. government had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter, and only presumptuously believed that this incident, like previous hijackings, was simply for financial gain and had nothing else to do with it.
At 8:46 a. m. New York time, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into One of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, also known as the North Tower.
Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a. m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into Building 2, the South Tower.
Because it crashed into a towering skyscraper, an apartment on East 49th Street could see the terrifying sight of the skyscraper billowing black smoke from a distant location, provided the angle was right.
Meanwhile, Catherine Hepburn was preparing to take Kitty out for a walk. The obvious chaos on the streets made her and Henry abandon their daily walk plans.
Henry, who had been mentally prepared for this, actually harbored a sliver of hope. Perhaps this terrorist attack wouldn't happen within the Marvel Universe.
There are so many supervillains and superheroes in this world. Do terrorists, these low-level criminals, even deserve to cause any real trouble?
As it turns out, in a world of billions of people, it's not just a handful of supervillains who commit crimes. Even with Professor X by his side, the X-Men, these champions of justice, seem powerless in the face of events of this scale.
The Kryptonian's current thoughts were similar to his handling of the tasks from Russia —neither the schadenfreude of revenge nor the sorrow of human suffering. He was seriously considering how to proceed.
"Henry," Catherine Hepburn called to the silent man staring at the news screen on television.
"How are you, Kate?" Henry, regaining his composure, gave a reassuring smile, trying to comfort the 94-year-old grandmother.
"Can you help?" Catherine Hepburn asked, pointing to the news footage of a skyscraper emitting smoke.
"Help?" Henry was taken aback. He had been thinking about how to find a good reason to take everyone far away. Helping was not an option for him.
Although she didn't know the cause of the incident, Catherine Hepburn didn't intend to stay out of it. She said, "Maybe I should prepare some first aid supplies, food, and water and go there. Maybe someone will need them."
Henry smiled wryly and said, "Kate, at your age, you shouldn't have gone over there and caused trouble. You're just adding to other people's problems."