scans_daily: Something I flailed over way too much this week

Kingston C. Rockwell (

scans_daily,
@ 2011-03-17 08:55 pm UTC

Entry tags:

char: beast/hank mccoy, char: hope summers, creator: jamie mckelvie, creator: kieron gillen, publisher: marvel comics, title: generation hope

Something I flailed over way too much this week

Team Phonogram reunites for this issue, with Hope and crew having a quiet day on Utopia. Towards the end, she gets a letter.

Haaaank ;_;

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	no subject icon_uk 2011-03-18 08:12 am UTC (link)
	Hmm, unfortunately, Hank's one word summation is TOO concise to be useful. He could mean "Get the hell out of Dodge before the shit starts flying", "For your own good get out of there and become your own person" or "Just go away" (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 13 comments) (Show 13 comments)

	no subject fifthie 2011-03-18 09:56 am UTC (link)
	I think one and two are both pretty strongly indicated! And three both wouldn't be in keeping with the tone of the rest of the letter and, also, I'm not sure how it applies since you can't really tell someone to "go away" from a place you, yourself, aren't at! (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject icon_uk 2011-03-18 10:10 am UTC (link)
	you can't really tell someone to "go away" from a place you, yourself, aren't at! You certainly can, if you think the person is doing more harm than good by staying where they are. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

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rallamajoop
2011-03-18 10:29 am UTC (link)

It's also rather too concise to give her any concrete reason why she should accept the advice of someone she's never met, where she should go that has any chance of being safer (VERY IMPORTANT when you consider that Hope's newly arrived in this century and everyone she has any reason to trust lives on Utopia), or how she can be sure she's not inadvertently bringing this mysterious 'hidden danger' with her when she leaves. It's a very nicely written letter going purely from dramatic effect, but in terms of conveying practical advice it's about on the level of your average mystical prophecy.

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	no subject icon_uk 2011-03-18 10:47 am UTC (link)
	Exactly, Hank would never be that terse in communicating such a definite sentiment, he would explain WHY he thought that it would be better if she left, and most likely an alternative course of action. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 5 comments) (Show 5 comments)

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rallamajoop
2011-03-18 11:06 am UTC (link)

The more I think about that letter, the more obvious it is that he's not trying to convince her, rationally, that she should leave. He's trying to scare her into leaving. That's the only reason to leave out so many relevant details. That might make sense if he's got some reason to believe that knowing the specifics would put her in more danger, I guess - he doesn't know her personally, he may be worried that if she knows what the danger is she'll try and take it head on. But even then it's a major omission not to so much as suggest where she might be safer. Hope's knows the whole world's out to get her. Way to make the poor girl even more paranoid.

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	no subject jetwolf 2011-03-18 05:49 pm UTC (link)
	I haven't read the issue yet, but it could also perhaps be a strategic move on Hanks part considering Scott sleeps with a telepath. The less Hope can think about, the less chance Emma could pick up on it and give Scott the heads up? (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

	no subject icon_uk 2011-03-18 07:55 pm UTC (link)
	Interesting idea, but that still doesn't explain why Hope would take a letter from someone she's never (or at best, barely) even met as anything worth paying attention to. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

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jetwolf
2011-03-18 08:29 pm UTC (link)

No, true. I was thinking more about Hank's lack of details in his letter though.

Why would Hope listen? I dunno. It's not like she's not looking for reasons to kinda hate on Scott since Cable died, so this could be just One More Thing.

Speaking of, what was Cable's opinion of Beast? If he ever spoke highly of Hank, then "Henry McCoy (PhD)" might be all Hope needs to at least consider what he's saying.

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	no subject rallamajoop 2011-03-19 02:42 am UTC (link)
	That's true, I could buy that except that it requires rather a lot more lateral thought about the problems of living around telepaths than you usually see in comics. I'd be surprised if that's what the writer had in mind, but it does work as a kind of fridge logic explanation. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject kingrockwell 2011-03-19 05:43 am UTC (link)
	Hank and Hope actually have met, if briefly. He was around for most of Second Coming, popping in just after she made it to Utopia, and they appeared on panel together at least once in the epilogue issue before he took off again. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

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rallamajoop
2011-03-19 06:26 am UTC (link)

I don't know, I took the "I'm sorry to write to you without a proper introduction" as a sign they haven't really met, or at least not more than very briefly. It does make sense that she's seen him around or would have heard of him in passing, but at the very least she knows him far less well than most of people he's telling her to get away from, and he's really not giving her much in the way of a convincing argument as to why she should take his advice over theirs.

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	no subject kingrockwell 2011-03-19 07:36 am UTC (link)
	I think it's most likely that he's assuming (correctly) that she's been around Utopia long enough to have plenty of reasons to ditch it. As someone who's been in that position, he's decided to go ahead and point to that as the favorable option. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

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rallamajoop
2011-03-19 07:55 am UTC (link)

Mm, yeah, I can probably buy that one. I guess the thing I'm still really stuck on even through all the other good points raised up thread is that he gives her no idea where she should go instead. Given how new Hope is to the 21st century and how little time she's spent anywhere but 1) in Utopia, 2) traveling on brief trips outside in the company of people from Utopia or 3) being hunted cross-country by mass-murdering cyborgs bent on her destruction, the lack of even a general hint as to where else she's supposed to bloody go seems like a major omission. Hence why the letter still reads far more like an unsubtle attempt to scare her off Utopia than give her any real practical advice.

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