X-Force #4 - "Le Pew"

[laughing_tree]

"The other interesting thing, when you get into inventing new characters from other countries, is trying to avoid really clunky clichés. Like... say you're inventing a character from Norway? What does everyone know about Norway? Vikings! Norse Gods! So let's put him in a spiky helmet and call him Edda!

"Orrrrr we could be less lazy and rubbish, put him in a sensible outfit and call him Captain Top-Of-The-Human-Development-Index-Charts, or Expensive Beer Guy, or Sergeant Fjord Cruises, or Problematic Whaling Policy Man... or... or...

"Anyway. I digress. Just a personal bugbear of mine. People very rarely define themselves according to the ancient history local to their nation -- I don't imagine many heroes and villains would either." -- Si Spurrier

Comments

[sagrada]

I can almost SEE how much better this would be without the killing. It's like an albatross dragging a passably interesting story down. So frustrating.

Anyway lolleFrançois, lolgubmintsupes. Hooray for making Fantomex actually kind of interesting for a while there.

"You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[drtechnobabel]

Ok digital phantom lady, that plan is great and all, but what happens when Fantomex tries to kill someone who's better at murder than he is? I don't see this plan being feasible or ending well for him in any way, is what I'm saying. Then again, he's probably at least somewhat insane, so I guess it makes perfect sense to him.

Re: "You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[shadur]

Yeah, I think dis iz turnink into vun ov dose plans...

Re: "You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[terrykun]

Goot ting masked shmot boy isn't vearink a hat.

Re: "You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[md84]

Nah, he's perfectly sane...by the standards of engineered human weapons. By the standards of normal human beings (which he very much isn't), yeah, he's cuckoo for cuckoo puffs nuts.

Re: "You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[tugrul]

It only won't work because the plans not thought up to not work. Digital phantom lady just has vile machinations.

Can anyone tell me whether Digital Phantom Lady is MeMe or just a different appearance altogether?

Re: "You're simply going to have to murder everyone who's better than you."

[ruthk]

No, she is not MeMe, she's EVA who actually is a part of him.

[espanolbot]

Hey, the French superheroes from Ben Grim's Civil War Adventure, neat! :D

[arilou_skiff]

"People very rarely define themselves according to the ancient history local to their nation"

He's obviously not spent enough time with balkan nationalists on the EU4 forums.

[wizardru]

Soule took a bunch of jerks in Thunderbolts and made an interesting, compelling story. Spurrier takes a bunch of formerly likable characters and turns them into sociopathic assholes. Not my cup of tea, personally. It appears well written, but I really, REALLY don't like WHAT he's writing.

Also, that quote makes him totally slamming down on these French heroes even worse, IMHO. It's like: 'look, non-US heroes should be unique and good, so that when one of your pet characters takes out ALL OF THEM IN COUPLE OF PANELS, MOSTLY OFF-SCREEN, they'll seem authentic'.

Why are they after and eventually murder the cat lady? What exactly is this new X-Force doing, other than acting haughty about how they'll make the hard choices or whatever?

[sagrada]

I may be losing some of the nuances, but remember his big rant a few issues ago, about weapnized mutants, anti-mutant policies, all that stuff fhe X-Men just, just have no POSSIBLE interest in? He is trying to solve that by shooting all the problem people. My guess is that cat woman here has something to do with either tracking down or trafficking the young mutants. Eventually, if he kills enough humans, he should eradicate any chance of humans trying to exploit his people. Shouldn't take long.

And I agree with that first sentiment. It's skillfully told, but an ugly story about ugly, sick characters.

EDIT: Re-read the pages, noticed that Cable was apparently trying to get information on some other memeber of the Bureau Discret. Presumably so he could kill THEM.

[tugrul]

I would like to add the cat lady isn't dead, only seems dead, because of the suspended animation bullet.

[laughing_tree]

They were after the cat-lady to draw out her teammate in the Bureau Discret, Le Necrogateur, who has the power to read dead people's minds. And they're after that guy because they need to read a dead person's mind. And they need to do that because the deceased has information on Volga, the big bad guy they're after.

[cainofdreaming]

So, all of this can be filed under "Stuff that could be avoided if only their mothers had taught them to ask politely"?

[starwolf_oakley]

I know Fantomex isn't "really" French, but his whole first appearance was confusing. (It was written by Grant Morrison, so par for the course.) Even follow up appearance in the Frank Tieri Weapon X series had Sublime tell him "We do all these things to create you, and you go Faux French!"

[chrys]

This title took a bit to hit its stride but when it did, it just compelled you to go back and re-read the beginning. It got so good - too bad it's selling badly.

[ruthk]

It's actually all part of a rather complicated bigger plan, but neither the Cat Lady nor her teammates are killed.

[bruinsfan]

My takeaway from this creator rant is that I now really, REALLY want to see Captain Morgan as the ghost-pirate national superhero of Jamaica.