Whatever humans can do, Marvel's X-Men can do better. Thanks to the new X-Factor team, that includes outclassing real-world tech companies.
The X-Men have long been on the technological forefront of the Marvel Universe. Since the creation of Cerebro, a supercomputer that can track mutants anywhere in the world, team founder Charles Xavier has used his family fortune to stay at the forefront of the Marvel Universe engineering sector. After recruiting mutant geniuses like Forge, X-Men gear got even more advanced; thanks to the biotech leaps on Krakoa, the mutant nation is a scientific superpower. In X-Factor #2 one of those geniuses, Prodigy just outdid the world's biggest search engine by taking it beyond what any real-world company can do.
The Dawn of X relaunch gave mutants a living island called Krakoa that is intelligent enough to help them develop new inventions. Forge has given X-Force plant-based adaptive weapons that can turn into anything they think of; the mutant is also accelerating time to make barrel-aged whiskey in an afternoon. The X-Men have also conquered death thanks to new mutant cloning tech and upgrades to Cerebro. The island even founded a new team called X-Factor to make sure that mutants are actually dead before bringing them back.
In the new issue X-Factor #2, the investigators receive a mysterious package of evidence in a mutant murder. The only actionable clue is a sneaker covered in brand logos that none of the team members recognize. But X-Factor tech specialist Prodigy has an answer: nobody in the universe would recognize those symbols. He figured that out via using a search engine he developed that cross-references websites from other dimensions. The search tool is simply named "Krakoan Search Engine" in the Krakoan alphabet. It registers that the logos come from Mojoworld, an alternate reality ruled by a tyrannical alien TV producer.
The indexing it would take to crawl dozens or hundreds of Internets at once would take a large team of programmers (or one superhuman one) and Google-level computing power. Prodigy has the ability to absorb skills and information from those around him; since he lives on an island full of super-scientists and technopaths, that makes him the smartest mutant in the world. He worked IT support even without his powers, so he is more than capable of making it happen. As for the hardware, Krakoa is an ever-expanding island and Xavier himself has essentially infinite money thanks to his extensive global investments before establishing the new nation. Prodigy could probably set up any internet service he could imagine and have the resources for it. As of X-Factor #2, mutants have a database backing up their minds as well as a social media platform called MutiesUnmuted. What could be next? Is there a mutant Tinder? Do all these new teams go through a mutant LinkedIn? Has Daken set up a mutant OnlyFans yet?
X-Factor #2 is written by Leah Williams with art by David Baldeon, color art by Daniel Silva, and lettering from Joe Caramagna, and is available now.
