All New X-men #4 Preview: A reaction to Beast's 'plan'.

[theflames]

Posting 1 page from the preview - read the rest here.



Okay before you react, read the rest of the preview, it's text heavy and insightful. Plus I know this first page might get some fans a little annoyed at Scott. But he's thinking like a strategist, every possibility, nook and cranny.

Though his pining for Jean seriously must stop, seriously.

I'm most interested by the fact that Beast's decision to bring the original team to future to 'stop' Scott is also being portrayed as just a vicious way for Beast to get to him. Not as a be all, end all righteous scheme. I have no real love for Beast, because he can honestly be a horrible, snobbish character a lot of the time and I think what he's done here is just so, so reckless.

Also let's have a round of applause for this art!

Comments

[drmcninja]

This is actually really good. It still seems a bit odd for Beast to be so vindictive, but all things considered with AvX, I can see him finaly just osing it with Scott. He hasn't been happy with him for a long time.

But mentally with Scott, none of it comes off emotional. You're absolutely right, it's strategic. Even the Jean stuff seems more nostalgic than emotional for him. He's basically seeing his first love again at the time they fell in love. You'd have to be pretty cold to not let that get to you a bit.

[md84]

Beast's resentment has been simmering ever since he first heard about X-Force. I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long for him to act on his resentment.

Scott's always been a pretty cold strategic guy. He's got emotions, but his main flaw is that he can't properly express them most of the time. It's pretty jarring when he does let his emotions get the better of him.

[nightauditguy]

If I suddenly encountered my past self, I would be WTF too. Though I probably wouldn't be thinking about shapeshifters, clones or mind control.

[leoboiko]

It must suck, living in that universe. "Weird, my wife always hated mayo and now she wants it in a hot-dog… waitaminute. Could it be a Skrull? Or she's possessed, it was on the newspapers last week. Have I been transported to an alternative reality? No, it's nothing, honey, just thinking."

[greenmask]

Omg, poor Jean.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah this was at a time when her telepathy was pretty strong but she was not in complete control of it.

honestly, this was a HORRIBLE thing for Beast to do to them, forget Cyclops, he's screwing with the past and with his friends' emotions.

[darkknightjrk]

Beast's motivation...on one hand, I think it is fair to say that by the end of AVX, almost all the love Hank had for Scott is gone. Killing their mentor, their father figure, no matter how "possessed" they are, is a hard thing to get over.

On the other...the man is supposed to be this super-genius. I think there was more to his plan, including a way to make sure the five can get back to their own time, but he underestimated his Mutation acting up on him.

[chieflewal]

Beast's motivation... time travel! Science! Awesome!

[shadowpsykie]

I'm most interested by the fact that Beast's decision to bring the original team to future to 'stop' Scott is also being portrayed as just a vicious way for Beast to get to him. Not as a be all, end all righteous scheme. I have no real love for Beast, because he can honestly be a horrible, snobbish character a lot of the time and I think what he's done here is just so, so reckless.

I agree. Beast seems come what hypocritical. He left scott because of X-Force, but when he finds out Wolverine is still runing it, he's like "oh it's just wolverine, that's fine".... i never really got over that....

and conscidering he went to the high evolutionairy, Mojo, Dark beast, AND sinister in order to find a cure for the no mutants thing.... yeah...

[darkknightjrk]

I think the difference--at least in Hank's mind--between the two is that when Scott did X-Force, it was part of his further isolation/militarization of the surviving members of his race. With Logan, he made no bare bones that this was a previous arrangement he had before the Jean Grey school, and it would not involve any of the kids. Also, as I recall, Hank found out about Scott's by accident, and Logan told him shortly after the school was founded.

[protogarrett]

This is outstanding. I have to admit, I still think Scott was right through most of AvX (minus killing Xavier). However, what kills me here.. what KILLS me... is that he could think that about Emma after everything they've been through and that one page later he's simply classified her as "evil turncoat" and gone back to "Jean is the only one."

Dude... fuck YOU.

Emma can do better than you.

[md84]

If people can say with a straight face that the former murderous supervillainess is too good for you, and actually be right, something is very, very wrong.

[theflames]

But read the rest of the preview, Scott says outright - Emma would NEVER do this.

Guys... GUYS!

[wake_the_dragon]

This.

[ablackraptor]

Well, he does say she would never do that later, and he has a point. Emma is, after all, the person who knows his mind better than anyone. She could, very easily, enter it and make him see something like this.

[long_silence]

He's not blaming Emma exactly. This could easily be a telepathic trick and Emma's been incredibly (and justifiably) angry at him ever since he stole her part of the Phoenix and killed Xavier

He's going through all of the possibilities. He also thinks it could be Mentallo or Mastermind or a psychic ghost of Xavier like the Shadow King.

That's what he does as a tactician, he thinks of all the angles.

[auggie18]

Scott, we all know the only reason you are doing the "Jean! Everything I ever wanted!" routine is because you haven't seen her for a while. The only reason you want her is because you can't have her.


Also, that's gotta be a lot of awkward silence before Jean starts doing her mind woogie thing.


I honestly can't see this ending well for Beast. Or really, why he did it in the first place. It's not like it'll change his future, just create a splinter one for these X-people.

[bruinsfan]

Well, in the present day it might shock Scott back to his senses and get him to back off the mutant terrorist angle, which I imagine Hank would think of as worthwhile.

[leoboiko]

I'm not big on Bendis, but I actually like this concept a lot. The cool thing is that I can totally picture it from the other side, as a 60s "time-travel to a dystopic future" story.

[theflames]

Yeah that's one of the aspects I like most in this story really, I mean, let's take a look at what's happened to the present X-men leading up to this point.

- Scarlett Witch in a fit of madness erases the majority of the mutant race from the face of the earth.
- Mutants are in danger of extinction
- School repeatedly attacked.
- Mutant 'messiah' is born supposedly key to returning mutants back to full numbers.
- Utopia is created to give mutants a solid home.
- Magneto is a good guy, Xavier looses rank.
- Schism erupts between two figure head mutants, Scott and Logan.
- The Phoenix returns, causing war between the x-men and avengers, empowering 5 mutants, resulting in the death of Xavier and repowering of new mutants on earth.

This all reads like a dystopian future, at least, relative to the Original young X-men. Which is pretty cool and strange at the same time. Though I'd choose this future over "Days of Future past".

[sir_razorback]

Going to make some long-term predictions with the 5 original X-Men, let's see what happens.

Cyclops and Jean will remain as they are, new full-time characters. Of course they're going to have two full-time Scotts running around, evil-Scott* and classic-Scott. Jean, of course, has no (currently) living counterpart.

Beast and Angel, I think, will wind up outright replacing their counterparts. Beast is foreshadowing at severe health problems, and Arcangel has a pretty screwed-up history that they might take an opportunity to sweep under the rug.

Iceman and Iceman could become Icemen. Just the nature of his' power opens up a possibility of the two of them getting melded together.

This stuff might not happen right away, or at all, but it's hard for me to envision them keeping the Classic 5 around without balancing the books somehow. Marvel's not big on happy heroes lately.

*evil/angst/conflicted/emo insert your favorite adjective here. :)

[ablackraptor]

I'd like that, actually. It'd be interesting to see.

[nyadnar17]

I was completely on board with this, enthralled even, until a grown man in his 30's started gushing over the teenage version of his ex-wife. Does anyone else feel a little skeezed out by that?

Skeeziness aside. Does anyone else find it ridiculous that someone would be enraptured by the teenage version of anyone they know as an adult? When I think about the adult version of myself and my friends the words "naive", "dumbass", and "I can't believe how ______ we were" come to mind. Not beautiful.

[sir_razorback]

Nah, I can see anyone going abit soft in the head over their true passion in life, especially if said person is dead. What matters is how you would act on it.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Back before we knew what the world was REALLY like."

*sigh*

Both Scott and Bendis should know better than to use that hokey line.

[nyadnar17]

Honestly I kinda felt that somewhat out of place line was there to reassure fans of RevCyke that he wasn't having second thoughts about his actions from Utopia-AvX.

Yeah its kinda weak, but given my misgivings about Bendis I appreciated it.

[glprime]

Ouch, yeah, that monologue must suck for the young telepath there.

Also, Young!Scott must be thinking, "the fuck am I doing with Magneto?" on the one hand, but also, "Damn! My trapezius* muscles are lookin' good! Take that, Beast."

*Yes, I googled what they're called:P

[darkknightjrk]

The plus to Scott's future is that ole' Slim definitely fills up as he grows up. :D

[cypherfdp]

Fucking hell, Scott, stop creeping on Jean, she's a teenage girl at this point.

[spacebetween]

Not to mention makes him look a dick because the younger version brings back the feelings that he didn't feel with the current Jean anymore.

[lieut_kettch]

Dammit Scott! You know better than to start broadcasting your emotions in front of a telepath!

[lorriek]

Love Magneto's reaction: "This is an abomination!" No kidding. What the hell, Beast?

EXACTLY!

[steverodgers5]

Beast has totally lost it..