"It was -- it felt good for you, too?"

[crabby_lioness]

I hoped someone else would post the amazing femslash in Uncanny X-Men 526 so I could post Heinberg's Magneto scenes, but as no one else has stepped up to the plate, here I am.  I'm pretty oblivious when it comes to subtext.  Most of the time I just don't see the slash unless it's canon couples, but these pages just screamed "Femslash!"

We start with a young woman becoming a mutant in Vancouver.  All she knows is that she's incredibly sick, her hair is falling out, and her skin is hardening for no apparent reason (although they're all symptoms of terminal illness, so she has reason to worry.)  The X-Men are keeping an eye on her, but not making contact to ease her fears and tell her what's going on until she bolts for the rooftop.  Only then, after she's in full blown panic mode, do they introduce themselves and tell her she's probably becoming a mutant.

She freaks out even worse.

So unless I'm mistaken that's adolescent body horror followed by a controversial labelling, rejection of the label, flying-as-a-metaphor-for-sex and some dodgy poses, followed by acceptance and a public declaration of love.   Anyone else seeing the subtext?

ETA 
 

This is my first post so I'm not sure how everything works.  I think these are the tags:

Comments

[stolisomancer]

There's an earlier scene that wasn't included here that goes further into detail about her problems. She's an overachieving, highly driven young woman who, instead of preparing for a successful freshman year of college, is losing her hair, living with constant pain for no obvious reason, and has apparently been having a nervous breakdown. Further, no one on that roof actually knows her as a person; even Bobby and Warren have only been observing her to see what's going on, and haven't actually made contact.

When Hope touches her, the pain immediately goes away and is replaced with powerful euphoria and dramatic personal evolution. It isn't making light of suicide at all, from where I'm sitting; it is instead indicative of what Hope is capable of and of the power of the change.

Granted, the last scene is quite rushed in comparison with the rest of the issue, including the art, which makes me wonder if Heinberg's tie-in piece was inserted into this issue at the last minute. It does seem like she changes her mind remarkably quickly, but you know, when the girl with the vast and unspecified mutant powers causes a vast and unspecified reaction, I'm pretty comfortable suspending disbelief.

[rallamajoop]

Yeah, I know - like I said above, these scans aren't the first time I read the issue. Her issues were touched on, but IMO, really rushed through, and there's nothing to suggest they've been happening for more than a few days, or that she's tried seeking medical advice, or done anything about it but panic and throw herself off a roof.

The comic as a whole seems to be presenting committing suicide as a natural reaction to getting sick, and then gives us a miracle cure to all her problems a second later - and the whole event isn't even worth dedicating more than a few pages of subplot to. So yeah, that still does seem to me like they're making very light of the issue.

I do think it would've made a big difference if they'd just allowed a page of two more to develop what was going on, or to let the characters express some kind of surprise or concern or anything beyond Hope's "Yay! Who's next!" You may buy that Hope could cause that kind of reaction, but surely someone in-universe should at least have noticed it, y'know? I could easily buy that the fact she reacted so badly and the fact her mutation came from such an unusual source are connected, and I hope that's going to come up in the next issue, but given how it was handled here I'm not counting on it.

makes me wonder if Heinberg's tie-in piece was inserted into this issue at the last minute.

Excluding the tie-in, there's still 22 pages of comic, isn't that the usual length? I think the problem is more likely to be that there are so many different plot threads getting touched on during those pages that this one got the short straw.

[stolisomancer]

The comic as a whole seems to be presenting committing suicide as a natural reaction to getting sick,

It's not her natural reaction to getting sick. It's her natural reaction to being in constant, obviously delibitating pain for no particular reason, when she's obviously enough of a everything-in-its-place control freak ("I got a 1590 on my SATs!") that this is an unacceptable deviation from her meticulously planned routine.

Don't confuse a specific situation for a generalized commentary. This scene doesn't say anything about suicide in particular or about all those who attempt or complete it: it says something about Laurie herself and about Hope's powers. If you try to turn it into "Well, obviously, this means that Marvel/Matt Fraction/the X-Men editors think that people commit suicide for simple, foolish reasons," then you're simply flat-out wrong.

[rallamajoop]

Okay, I could have phrased that better, but I don't read anything here as saying she's in 'constant, obviously delibitating pain'. She mentions pain briefly (and I'm sure it's not helping her state of mind), but the idea she's a 'freak' seems to be what she's focused on - to the point that she won't even consider accepting any help. And as I indicated, it's the miracle cure that bothers me as much as the reasoning behind the suicide.

It's obviously not a generalised commentary, but it is being used as a throwaway plot device to give an excuse for a flying scene, and that's what I'm uncomfortable with. Even if I could buy that she's got enough going on in her life that what's happening to her could push her over the edge (possible - we don't know much about her) and even if I could buy that Hope could have that effect on her (also possible - we still don't know much about her either)... shouldn't Hope or someone standing around have experienced some moderate surprise at how easily the situation got resolved? Or isn't that at least worth an extra page or two to set up and deal with?

[crabby_lioness]

I don't read anything here as saying she's in 'constant, obviously delibitating pain'.

That's what the first two pages were showing.

And as I indicated, it's the miracle cure that bothers me as much as the reasoning behind the suicide.

cessation of constant pain usually results in euphoria in the young and healthy

Even if I could buy that she's got enough going on in her life that what's happening to her could push her over the edge (possible - we don't know much about her)

We know she's an over-achiever, and over-achieving teens do sometimes over-react the first time they hit a major stumbling block, including commit suicide.

shouldn't Hope or someone standing around have experienced some moderate surprise at how easily the situation got resolved?

Hope has too little social experience to know what "normal" is; Cypher also is in no position to comment; and as Nemesis has often said, mutants have a very weird biology.

They're relieved, okay? But they can't say anything more for sure until they get her into the lab Utopia, and they all know that.

[rallamajoop]

I think we're interpreting those first two pages differently. I apologise here if I'm misremembering, since I don't have the comic available to double check right now, but I read them as indicating that the fact something is happening to her that she can't control or understand is bothering her far more than the pain. Warren makes a comment to the effect of (IIRC) "she's still crying to a god who can't hear her [...] this is the face of the next wave of mutant-kind". If her primary concern in those pages is terrible physical pain, then his comment comes across as horribly dismissive, if not outright cruel - hence my assumption that the pain isn't meant to be the focus.

As I keep saying, if she'd jumped off the roof yelling "I can't deal with the pain anymore", then your interpretation would work for me. She doesn't. She jumps off the roof yelling "you can't help a freak like me".

[crabby_lioness]

Over-achievers are quite often control freaks. Having something going on in her body that she doesn't understand and can't control is going to scare her as much as the pain.

Y'all say you want creators to "show not tell", and when they do you complain they didn't tell you blatently enough...

[stolisomancer]

don't read anything here as saying she's in 'constant, obviously delibitating pain'.

She's on her knees alone in a darkened room screaming about why this is happening to her as her hair falls out in clumps, and then later on she mentions being in pain. Two and two makes four.

shouldn't Hope or someone standing around have experienced some moderate surprise at how easily the situation got resolved? Or isn't that at least worth an extra page or two to set up and deal with?

That's what the next issue is for, isn't it?