Warning: contains spoilers for X-Force #38!After nearly 40 issues, the biggest bad opposing Krakoa’s X-Force espionage team has finally been defeated, with the Man with the Peacock Tattoo being killed by his own horrific experiments at the conclusion of X-Force #38.
The Man With The Peacock Tattoo was first introduced as the mysterious leader of the anti-mutant agency XENO – literally short for “Xenophobic” – in X-Force #1, and while Krakoa’s “wetwork” team has faced many villains over it’s 38 issue run so far, Peacock Man has remained the group’s “Big Bad,” particularly for the mutant assassin Domino, who was brutally kidnaped and tortured by him.
X-Force #37 finally reveals the identity of the Man with the Peacock Tattoo, with the man behind the mask established as a clone of David Moreau, better known as the horrific “Genegineer,” from Genosha and 1990s X-Tinction Agenda event. After years of fighting against Moreau’s clone and XENO, X-Force’s Domino and the mutant child Max were finally able to beat the disturbing villain in X-Force #38, written by Benjamin Percy with art by Robert Gill.
XENO Is No Longer A Major Threat To Krakoa
X-Force #1 established XENO as a newly formed terrorist group with an intense hatred for mutantkind and a single-minded obsession with taking down the mutant nation of Krakoa, successfully infiltrating the island and even murdering Charles Xavier after kidnapping Domino and grafting her flesh onto their soldiers’ bodies. The introduction of the Man with the Peacock Tattoo was absolutely horrific, and although X-Force has faced other enemies – including their own villainous leader Beast – the clone of the Genegineer has remained their most dangerous opponent. X-Force #38 saw Domino, Deadpool, and Omega Red infiltrating Moreau’s lab on the island of Genosha – a former mutant nation – while revealing that the true purpose of XENO is to surpass the original Genegineer’s work as a way for Moreau’s clone to get “revenge” on his creator.
Moreau’s clone has been gathering mutant gene samples, as well as one of the Resurrection Eggs from The Five, in an attempt to create a human superior to mutants so that humanity would not be “outpaced by the evolutionary mistake of the mutants.” It was recently revealed that Max, the powerful baby mutant stolen from Krakoa’s Bowery by XENO, has been being raised and artificially aged by the Man with the Peacock Tattoo, who used his impressive telepathy to create the Omega Man chimera – a “perfect” post-mutant specimen, before turning on Max and revealing that he never really cared for the boy at all. To prevent further trauma to Max, Domino stopped him from killing Moreau, knocking the villain out before leaving him strapped to his experimentation table to be murdered by his own horrific “children.” With the apparent death of the Man with the Peacock Tattoo, it would seem that the XENO organization will no longer be a major threat, without the resources or leadership of Moreau’s deranged clone.
X-Force Just Earned Their New Era
Moreau’s reveal that he is just one of many clones opens up the possibility for one to seek out revenge in future, however toppling XENO is still a huge win for X-Force. Additionally, the death of this Moreau clone has led to some much-needed healing for Domino and the return of the mutant child Max to Krakoa, opening the way for a new era for X-Force. With new mutants like Colossus and Laura Kinney’s Wolverine joining X-Force in the near future, the death of the Man with the Peacock Tattoo finally gives the mutant strike team a chance to spend their energy on other threats to Krakoa, like helping Wolverine take down the despicable Beast once and for all.
X-Force #38 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.
