Generation Hope 13

[outlawpoet]

So, is anyone else kind of... unnerved by Hope?



So in the latest Generation Hope, things are strange. I'm not sure how they intend it to come off, but everybody on "The Lights" team seems kind of out of control. It's twisted enough that I'm not really sure of authorial intent.

They have a bit of a punch up for fun, until Zero seemingly tries to kill Magneto, by jamming flesh tentacles into his eye sockets and mouth. When Magneto defends himself, they all get mad at him. Which is... something. I guess they all expect stuff like this from Kenji? They repeat that his mutation expressing itself killed a lot of people in Japan.

Then Hope goes to meet the Cuckoos, and is really really rude to them. For laughs I guess.



Lots of people fantasize about assaulting you girls, because you suck! Or something. Hope is distracted by the mutant detector showing a mutant she isn't aware of. When the Cuckoos try to explain, she isn't interested.



She assaults one, steals their telepathy, and storms out without ever getting the explanation, because why bother? Everybody else sucks.



They teleport directly to the location of the unidentified mutant signature. Which is in a random town in Pakistan near the border. Note, she hasn't explained to them where they're going or what they're doing until after they are there. She also doesn't know if anything she's saying is correct, since the Cuckoos didn't get to explain what they obviously knew about this mutant. For added skeeviness, note Transonic again having an abrupt and bizarre turn of opinion, referencing the low level mind-control Hope has over the lights.

Then things proceed to, surprise, not go very well. Communication problems, no plan, and then sudden violence when they find out the town contains unexpected protectors.

Maybe being raised by Cable has left Hope really contemptuous of things like context and planning? Why bother when your dad can destroy everything in a five mile radius if anything goes wrong, and you never stay in a time period long enough to care about consequences, right?

Or is it just me? Its just not clear exactly why Hope has been entrusted with the well-being of these kids. She's making really questionable decisions all the time. And its not as if they're hidden, Kenji tries to kill Magneto right in front of Cyclops, and Hope tells them off in the aftermath for not "controlling their team".

Maybe I'm reading it wrong.

Comments

[crabby_lioness]

Where's your pics?

And yeah, it's really weird. Especially when the Cuckoos start acting strange around her.

[outlawpoet]

Strange, I can see them, its a fresh imgur account and newly uploaded pics, maybe it takes a bit to settle?

Messiah? Or... Mess I- aaah!

[blue_bolt]

I think I get it... but I really don't like the implications of what I'm thinking.

Jean Grey: Defined by whom she dates. Unable to control her abilities and often influenced by psyhic entities.

Hope Summers: Defines her "lights," able to help others control their abilities and connected to a psychic entity (the Phoenix). What if Hope's sort of the anti-Jean? Instead of the perfect Phoenix host, maybe Hope's the perfect avatar of the mutant race. Whereas Jean's the "ultimate mutant" (I'm excluding Mad Jim Jaspers cause he's nuts and Wanda because of 'magic') maybe Hope as someone said is a sort of reverse "voodo doll" just as Jean IS Phoenix, Hope IS Mutant.

[darkknightjrk]

I haven't read any of these, but from what I'm seeing, Hope's pretty much a shitty individual and leader, who thinks she's hot shit because some idiot proposed that she was a messiah.

[blackruzsa]

Hope was a good person from what I've seen, and wow she's really stepping out of line here.
BUT for the first bit, I can imagine it was defending her friend--but with really wrong choices of words.

As for the rest.... it feels like she knows something bad that the others don't.

[brilliantnova]

broken pic links?

[outlawpoet]

relinked, any joy?

[nightauditguy]

Isn't having a disembodied brain on the team a liability?

[long_silence]

She's a telepathic brain that can track other mutants and possess enemies. Also she's not under Hope's thrall. This team needs as many mutants with free will as possible.

[drmcninja]

Why is it that my least favorite member of Generation Hope is actually Hope? How does that make sense?

[darkknightjrk]

From what I've seen/heard about this book, probably because with the exception of Idle, all the other characters are kinda bland.

[crabby_lioness]

When the least disturbing part of the issue is Kenji flirting outrageously with Martha, it's pretty disturbing.

(Granted, Shaw blowing himself up wasn't disturbing. On the slight chance that it works, the world will be a better place.)

[nemryn]

Based just on these pages, it doesn't really look like they were getting ready to explain things to her.

[long_silence]

So she had the right to assault another mutant, steal their powers and take her team on an unsanctioned mission they weren't briefed on and had no time to prepare for?

[rallamajoop]

It's definitely not just you. The most charitable interpretation I can come up with is that the writers want to make us hate Hope, but even if so, that still doesn't explain why the rest of the X-Men are letting her get away with all this. Is everyone under her mind-control powers now? How is that supposed to get anyone interested in reading this stuff?

Good god, someone get poor Pixie away from that nutjob. I don't give a damn about the rest of her team, but I like Pixie!

[batman]

I've been reading Hope as a villain protagonist for a while. It has to be intentional. She's been pretty horrid since that conversation with Professor X blowing off the work he's done and the issues I read since pretty much suggest that Hope is horrible.

[rallamajoop]

You know, I could probably buy that - it would fit in with the whole thing where they've been teasing the possibility of her going evil since the day she was born. Only thing is, if that's the case it makes a mockery of all the time and effort so many people (Cable especially, not to mention the rest of the X-Men) have put into keeping her alive this long. It just seems like an incredibly poorly thought out direction for this story arc to take.

[practicalcat]

So, bets on who they're going to kill off as a result of Hope's "leadership" to force her to realize that she can't just do this kind of thing? (Also, Pixie, you don't take orders from Hope. Teleport everyone home!)

[outlawpoet]

It is weird, it's not like anybody there has any military experience, why would they use paramilitary "orders above all" strictures anyway? None of the other X-teams are based on a strict hierarchy that I recall.

[suzene]

I think Cable would be embarrassed that Hope's doing such a sloppy job at soldiering, myself. No forethought, no tactics, just charging in chin first.

I'm guessing this book has until the Phoenix stuff wraps before it's axed.

[outlawpoet]

its just really jarring is all. I had been extending Hope the benefit of the doubt up to about Generation Hope 12, on the assumption that she had spent a lot of time with Cable fighting for her life, preparing for her role. And if anybody could teach her how to be a messiah, it would be him. But she doesn't really seem like she's been prepared at all.
And worse, she either doesn't have any Aksani mental training or she's abandoned it. She's really unstable.
How could Cable not have noticed this and taken steps against it? He knew she would have to survive on her own someday.
I would /like/ to say that with Cable's return soon, we should see some of that shake out well, including maybe some of his contingency plans, but his comeback is being written by Loeb, so I'm guessing we'll be lucky if all the continuity matches up.

[biod]

So, is she completely high off her own power now, or just mostly?

[salinea]

For records, I don't see no pics either.

[schala_kid]

I haven't read much of this comic but how does Hope influence the others? Does she have some weird mutant power that makes people do what she wants or something?

[long_silence]

Somehow her presence on Earth has restarted the mutant race. Humans who weren't mutants before are having powers activated. But they're mentally and physically unstable. Some of their powers are killing them or are uncontrollable or are driving them crazy. And the only way to stabilize the new mutants is for Hope to physically touch them, at which point they get control and Hope gains a sort of low level mind control over them.

It's mostly just the Lights under her thrall (though I've heard arguments that she's also influenced Rogue, Cable, and Cyclops to a lesser degree)

When they're around her they act differently, they act and think the way she does. They can't say "No" to her either, she can order them to do things they don't want to against their will and they can't help but obey.

And they all seem to share a psychic connection, one the 7th Light committed suicide before she could reach him and "fix" him, Hope and all of the Lights felt him die.

[cainofdreaming]

So, can I take my "Bishop was ri... *ZORCH!* We Are the Generation Hope. Resistance is Futile. Prepare to be Assimilated." t-shirt out of the storage yet?

Not seeing the pictures either.

[cainofdreaming]

Actually, looking at the source code, it might be an issue about the placement of the "alt" tag. Isn't that usually after "img src" rather than in the middle of it? I've always thought that "img src" is a single html tag, not two tags in conjunction. Dunno if that's right, but anyways.

[brooms]

#bishopwasright

[brooms]

i hope the laurie having a crush on kenji thing is being played for a short-lived joke, btw. laurie deserves better.

happy martha is on the team, though, because as stated by someone above, this team needs someone who isn't under hope's influence.

[nyadnar17]

I was really upset about how Bishop was treated. He is one of my favorite X-men and he deserved better.

Ill-treatment of Bishop aside I like how Hope isn't perfect, how she has the skills, the drive, and the power but obviously has some learning to do. Anyone remember Surge's from the New X-men's learning phase? I am interested in seeing her grown.

Also so hope that stuff with the Cuckoo's is going somewhere. I kinda ship Prodigy and the Cuckoo's and would like to see them get some more screen time. Are the New X-men getting their own book again anytime soon? I miss Prodigy, Surge, Rockslide, and Annole.

[long_silence]

The New X-Men got split up. Most of them moved back to Westchester, so they'll probably only get featured in Wolverine and the X-men, if they get featured anywhere.

Surge, Prodigy, Dust, Pixie and a handful of other students stayed on Utopia, but it there isn't really enough of them left to warrant a New X-Men book.

[abriel]

Yeah can't say I'm crazy about Hope either from the things I have seen.

She's really fucking up here but since she has red hair and her last name is Summers I'm sure all will be quickly forgiven by the X-Men.

[nyadnar17]

Do any of the other X-men even know about her minor-mind control thing she can do to the lights?

[v_various]

"Lots of people fantasize about assaulting you girls, because you suck!"

Omfg, for real? Grossed out forever right now.

[schmevil]

Am I supposed to find her horrible?

[outlawpoet]

That's all I can assume. Previous to Generation Hope 11 or so, I assumed that she was supposed to be a hero, but I've been increasingly skeeved out by the series. It's not clear to me whether the author even recognizes how crazy some of her actions are, because everybody else is going along with her. Messiah or not, you'd think Cyclops would stop this.