A visit at the museum of Mutant History

[salinea]

Since we've had all those spirited discussions about Hope's criticism of Xavier's school; and then contrasted with Dani's criticism of both Logan and Scott's position after Schism; I thought it'd be interesting to post some other scans from Generation Hope; right at the start of Schism, which explores the History of mutants, as a counterpoint:

It starts with Idie being surprised by the idea that stopping Sentinels is the thing to do; since she views herself as a mutants as a monster. Laurie tries to explain that Sentinels aren't really for protecting humans from evil mutants.





I hadn't noticed at the time, but in retrospect with all this discussion - oh, Hope, honey. You really should be more interested in the past.

Laurie and Idie go to the museum, and they find Kenji already here (he came early to see the old Sentinel's design, cuz it's a classic. (Kenji cracks me up, have I mentioned that before? :))



While Laurie and Kenji continue their discussion, Idie wanders in the museum and finds Prodigy in front of a portrait of Stryker, saying: "I know that people like him have to be here. It's part of the story. Doesn't mean I like it much."



And he ends with "but you know the sickest thing of all? It could be worse."





And then the attack against the X-Men at the museum happens and Idie is alone to be able to stop it.


But Hope knew all about that, right?

Comments

[icon_uk]

Yikes! I think that's the most powerful character moment Rachel has had in longer time than I care to admit reading.

And I have to say that the whole "Everyone gets Sentinels" plot to be one of the worst notions the MU has come up with in a long time. Given events in Genosha, it really would be akin to deciding to dress your anti-mutant forces in jackboots and swastika's, and it's not like, Genosha-assault models to one side, that they have much of a track record.

Most governments would be too busy trying to retain some degree of stability in light of the whole "tell the truth" revelations that you know the media would be feeding on like sharks in a bloodbath to install Sentinel programs.

[salinea]

I don't think the Genosha genocide was ever really treated with the seriousness it deserves, both in universe and in terms of comics story focus. Probably because if they did, it would be too huge to properly consider. Which is why I hate doing big mass slaughter for shock value in comics. If you can't properly do the aftermath, it's sheer exploitiveness of the idea of mass slaughter, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[espanolbot]

That's kind of what I liked about the pre-reboot Batman books, when things like the Cataclysm, Clench, No Man's Land etc. happened, you got to see a lot more fallout beyond what's just happening to the main characters.

For example, when Gotham was shut down, a lot of the refugees moved to Bludhaven (at the time Nightwing's hometown), so it effected the crime levels there, before they moved back to Gotham again, where the rifts between those who left before NML and those who stayed also caused a lot of long term conflicts within the books.

I have to say though, I'd feel really bad for those former-Gotham families that left the city and settled in Bludhaven, only for Deathstroke to nuke them a year or two later.

When bad things on the scale of Bludhaven, or the destruction of Coast City, or the annihiliation of Topeka, Kansas, etc. happened, they actually built stories around it beyond "Whelp, that thing happened. Sucks, right?".

I guess that it's just the difference in writing styles between the DCU and the MU, people tend to care more about horrible things on a more human level in the former, while in the latter unless it happened to "regular people", ie like that thing that started off the Civil War, where it's just used as an excuse to exercise the average Marvel citizens unrelenting thirst for the flesh of those who are different from them.

This isn't always the case, I mean in Amazons Attack and during Prometheus' psychic trauma and braindamage induced rampage they barely showed any groundwork in what the heroes are doing to help those effected by it. It's more an event than a change of backstory, if that makes sense.

The difference between the two, until recently, is that if, for example, part of San Diego sank into the ocean in the Marvel Universe, which caused the citizens to mutate into a variety of merfolk that Aquaman now had to lead/help acclimatize/police, the general public would go nuts and burn Namor in effigy. That and start randomly picking fights with water-based superheroes on the basis that they might have foreknowledge of the disaster.

[cainofdreaming]

It's a moment, yes, but it kinda falls flat for me because it just doesn't mesh with how the Hound procedure has been shown to work. When Ahab did it to Scott and Sue Richards it wasn't anything where your mental state would play a factor. Scared, brave... it altered you on a genetic level and remade you into a biological mutant hunting machine.

So... continuity. Eh.

[q99]

-Yikes! I think that's the most powerful character moment Rachel has had in longer time than I care to admit reading.-

Her time as a Hound really isn't brought up much.

[icon_uk]

I just noted that the poster Laurie and David are standing next to is the promo poster for Fall of the Mutants

[biod]

I don't care about the spikes. Let me hug you, Rachel!
It's going to be allright.

[q99]

I wonder how sharp the spikes are. They aren't remotely combat-useful, and you don't want your Hounds to actually hurt themselves, right?

[mullon]

There's something about how big and empty that museum is that bothers me.

[espanolbot]

Well mutants only started making a big impact on the Marvel Universe like ten years ago, in continuity, so it could be that they're being optimistic about the fact that they'll get enough of a future to justify the space they used up to build the thing.

I guess they COULD have wings entirely for the longer lived mutants, like Apocalypse, Mystique, Wolverine etc., but they possibly aren't the best examples of showing what mutatnts can achieve in their lifetimes.

It would be like Superman opening a museum to glorify his heritage and using most of the space to talk about Zod's achievements. Or Brainiac, depending on the continuity.

[long_silence]

Of course a mutant history museum has an entire wing dedicated to Alternate Timelines.

Is there a Phoenix Exhibit?

[causticlad]

Yeah, it's in the Jean Grey Memorial No Wait She's Alive OK Dead Again Are You Sure Memorial Oh Crap She's Alive Again No Wait What The Hell Is A Magnetic Stroke You Know What I Quit Memorial Wing.

[salinea]

Of course a mutant history museum has an entire wing dedicated to Alternate Timelines.
Isn't it wonderful? I WISH we had museums about alternate timelines in our world ^^

[auggie18]

That's a good Rachel moment. I've always liked Rachel a lot and I feel like a lot of writers don't give her her dues. It seems like she gets used as a second-hand Jean a lot, which is kinda doing her a disservice. There's a lot more to her than her powerset.

[icon_uk]

She got royally screwed over as a character when they returned Jean Grey to life for X-Factor, and made the Phoenix a third party entity that could possess people.

[q99]

For all that she's a really powerful mutant, I haven't seen her get a key role in a story since I started reading comic.

Hm... well, I suppose the one she went into space with that Shi'ar guy...

[batman]

I really wish the artist would draw Laurie wearing a bra.

I did like the scene Rachel had here, and the scene that David had with Idie (and finally, an acknowledgement of that time they watched their friends die since NXM!) but my God the way they objectify Laurie has been a turn off for me with this book.

[icon_uk]

It could be her skin is such (since it's presumably immune to the effects of high speed flight), that she doesn't actually need a bra, and only wears such clothes as she does for the sake of public decency.

[silverzeo]

They have a wing to things that supposedly happen but didn't?

[icon_uk]

Well, they have at least four members FROM them; Rachel, Cable, Bishop, X-Man and Widget (sort of), and those are just the ones I can think of offhand.

[salinea]

Wouldn't you?

[auggie18]

They have a wing to things that happened elsewhere. Alternate timelines still exist, they just exist in alternate universes.

[brooms]

the kenji-laurie conversation -

... then people don't understand when i say laurie is my favorite light, "lame" powers, objectification and all.

[batman]

Oh, Laurie's definitely my favourite of the Lights. She's smart, she's perceptive, she's very nuanced in how she does things. She's easily the more interesting to me than the others, because she's less showy about it.

I just wish that the artist would treat her with the respect that she deserves.

[eyz]

So lemme see....
The DCU is becoming a way bit too much like the Marvel U under the New 52 (fear of the powered folks, more hate, gritty, etc. etc.)
Meanwhile, Marvel's giving a "Flash Museum" to the X-men.
Did I get that right?
What's happening?!