…the ending of John Byrne’s Next Men saga?

Well for those fans out there who haven’t been living under a rock for the last 6 months you’ll be aware that John Byrne has returned to completing his magnum opus for the Next Men.  However, it’s been a long time coming and since I couldn’t wait, the below was my interim attempt to come up with my own resolution to where I thought he was going to end it.

Did you ever consider that President Hilltop “lives to well over 100 years of age” due to the android Mark Ivey having usurped his identity by this stage?

If M4 is an android what’s he been doing since being president?

Did he perhaps go on to become the richest (and busiest) man in the world, Silas Van Damme from 2112?

Given Van Damme’s speech to Tommy about purging chaotic forces in 2112, does this suggest the underlying story is about the android Van Damme opposing the mutate Sathanas, meant to draw parallels to his comments about order vs. chaos?

Was it this thinking that lead Silas to create androids and replace biological humans with synthetics in an effort to maintain order by purging the threat of potential mutations?

Hence John sets up the whole downfall of Thomas Kirkland so he takes the place of Agent Red, gaining access to his files where he discovers what his “uncle” has been up to all along.

He therefore travels back in time to assassinate President Aldus Hilltop who he believes his uncle has fled to the past to become in his shape-shifting android body of Mark IV.