Where you hang your hat

[laughing_tree]

X-Men #1 (2019)...

Comments

[lencannon]

My only complaint about this issue is that Hickman's voice for Storm is noooooooooooooooooot goooooooooooooooooooood. But there's a billion x-men characters, not every writer is going to nail them all.

I was loving Vulcan and the dinner party on the moon here, just delightful. Also Wolverine's part of the family and living in a suite of bedrooms with private access to Scott and Jean's bedrooms (the only ones of the type in the home). The future.... is here.

[nyadnar17]

Gonna check this out later, but in the meantime can you tell me is Scott and Jean are officially back together or are they leaving things vague?

[lencannon]

I can't remember anything concrete being said but it feels like they're pretty together. They didn't really have a lot of time together in this one.

[mistersandman]

She’s got a room in Scott’s house. Her room has a door that links to his room... and also Wolverine’s room. ;)

[beyondthefringe]

And we're not supposed to take anything from this... right? Right?

Riiiiight.

[scorntx]

At this point, is there anything left to take?

[lieut_kettch]

Well, there was that party at Krakoa where BOTH Emma and Jean shot Scott these knowing, come-hither looks.

Sooooo maybe it's Scott with Jean and Emma; and Jean with Scott and Logan.

[zachbeacon]

Seems like a dick move to make Scott and Logan pass through Jean's room when they want to ... y'know.

(I will never understand the Jean/Logan ship.)

[mistersandman]

The floor plan in the comic is a little weird. Based on numbering, it seems like Logan's room should be in the middle. He's in room 11 but the rooms are ordered 10-12-11 for some reason. None of the other rooms are arranged this way.

Personally, I kind of hate Jean/Logan. It seemed very one-sided for a long time and he doesn't seem like he would pine for someone that long. Wolverine had much better chemistry with Yukio and Mariko (and Scott). I am glad that they've put the whole love triangle to rest for the time being, so we can start seeing other (non-romantic) dynamics of the three's relationship explored.

[mastermahan]

The problem is that when she's not Phoenix, Jean is not that interesting. Her default personality is nice, but scary if you piss her off. You mention Yukio and Mariko, and both are far more complex. One's a rough, fun, bisexual tomboy ninja. The other is a proper, refined lady with determination of steel. They're far more intriguing matches.

I can only see Jean/Logan/Scott triangle working if Jean's genericness lets her be the audience surrogate.

[shadowpsykie]

well Scott and Jean are said to be married.

From what I can tell. it's a poly relationship with Scott, Emma, Jean, and Logan. the main couple is scott and jean, but could also involve and grouping of the quartette. *though I would never see emma and logan together without any of the others...

[lordultimus]

I'm just saying, Hickman's Avengers started with everyone being all happy and united, and look where it ended.

[thehood]

They're already lying to Mystique and that probably won't end well.

[scorntx]

That Mystique is there at all means it won't end well.

"Welp, Mystique has turned on us literally every single time we've previously trusted her. But maybe she's got it out of her system this time."
"Is that a knife in your chest?"
"... huh."

[dcbanacek]

"Well it's progress. Usually it's in the back."

[xakko]

wasn't Scott in France fighting Fenris during Magneto's trial when his son was born and kinda out of touch?

[shakalooloo]

In one timeline, sure. :)

[obsidianwolf]

It's just one of several retcons in this story. After all now Xavier is the one who figured out Scott's power can be blocked by ruby quartz (like all the non comic media adaptations) and not Sinsiter.

So if Scott still ran away from the orphanage (assuming Scott's past in Sinister's orphanage hasn't been retconned away) he did it either before his power manifested or he was doing it blind.

[panthyr]

So they're retconning the retcons?

[obsidianwolf]

Yep

[xakko]

aw, maybe this Scott didn't run away to New York and leave his wife and child in Alaska then.

especially since, if I read Inferno right, a lot of that behavior was due to Sinister programming him as a child.

we can erase all the distasteful and embarrassing moments of the past in a brand new day.

[mistersandman]

Bringing back Jean while absolving her of the phoenix’s actions/character growth and unceremoniously dumping Maddie (followed by the reveal that she was Evil All Along!) is such a creative misfire in an otherwise amazing era. Jean has been stunted as a character ever since and the “cheating deadbeat lowlife” characterization stuck to Scott a lot more than the more interesting exploration of his trauma as a child soldier that was happening in parallel during that time.

There are a ton of hints in HOXPOX that we’re going to be revisiting Inferno in some way or another, so we may see this soon! I suspect Hickman is more interested in the technarch infused demons and his newly invented horsemen that were dragged into hell, but he clearly loves him some Sinister and Scott, so we’ll see!

[xakko]

Maddie was always a bit of a problem - looking exactly like Jean, surviving a plane crash on the day Jean died. And with a code name like Phoenix, resurrection is just built in. But you aren't wrong - the return in X-Factor hasn't been super great for either of them.

I'm not really on board with Hickman - not really loving the , but I do see that the X-books are generating a lot of positive vibes and that's something that is great to see.

[gnarll]

This Magneto has brown eyes. And the only guy at the dinner who is not a Summers relative is Logan. His, Jeans and Scotts rooms are the only ones that connect. I guess the threesome is official.

Some Summers folks missing though. Corsairs parents.

I wonder... Once this system was set up, what need did Xavier actually have of the originals, except for the resurrections ?

[shadowkat]

And the only guy at the dinner who is not a Summers relative is Logan. His, Jeans and Scotts rooms are the only ones that connect. I guess the threesome is official

LOL!

Well that's one way to resolve the Wolvie/Scott, Scott/Jean, and Wolvie/Jean shipper issue. But what about the Emma/Scott and Emma/Jean shippers -- did they just get left out in the cold?
Maybe they'll resolve that one later?

[lencannon]

Emma Scott and Jean are banging but she's not into Logan and she's not going to move in with them like some sort of LOW LIFE.

She'll have a proper psychic threeway from her mansion, like an adult.

[shadowkat]

Well, I can't blame Emma for that. ;-)

[lordnorj]

How long before the Kree, Inhumans, Shiar, Nova Corps or Galactic Council show up demanding Vulcan be put on trait for war crimes.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So, what's the premise for this book? Something about the "of X" stuff made me check out early.

[lencannon]

"Monster of the week book" with a different task force team led by Cyclops each issue. Probably has Summers family b stories with the next major big bad building in the background.

[shadowkat]

Ah...a Cyclops fans dream come true. Seriously it's like they wrote it just for Cyclops fans.

[wizardru]

As a Cyclops fan....yes, please! More of this!

"I thought....why settle?"

[shadowkat]

Yes! Looking forward to it. Haven't gotten it yet. As a fellow Cyclops fan -- it's been a long dry spell...not helped by the fact that they kept killing him off. (I am admittedly on the fence about Hickman though.)

[obsidianwolf]

Well if your a Cyclops fan who likes Hickman's style.

If on the other hand like me Your a Cyclops fan who loathes Hickman's approach to things it's definitely a mixed bag at best.

[shadowkat]

As a hopelessly die-hard Cyclops fan - who is at the moment on the fence about Hickman's approach. (Haven't read any Hickman until House of X and Powers of X) -- I will have to adopt a wait and see ...attitude. As long as they don't sideline him in favor of Wolverine ( Jason Aaron/Chris Claremount) or have him do weird out of character stuff (Morrison/Gillen)...or kill him off again...it's frigging hard to be a Cyclops fan. I would have been better off if I were a fan of Wolverine -- but Wolverine has been so overdone now....

[obsidianwolf]

Given the whole killed and replaced by a copy is part of the set up Cyclops will probably die from time to time (already happened Once on page) but no chance of there not being a Cyclops walking around at least until the mutant xerox set up is destroyed.

This issue pretty neatly shows what I think is going to be the biggest problem though namely that Hickman is one of those writers who puts his story first characterization, established continuity all of that changes to suit his idea.

Take the fact Scott is claiming his son suffered because he was a mutant implying it was humans who caused it and not the actual culprit Apocalypse who is now part of a ruling Cabal of powerful people making morally ambiguous decisions like Hickman loves to use in his work.

[shadowkat]

This is sort of the reason that I'm on the fence in regards to Hickman. He seems to put thematic structure/ideas before character, and his themes drive the story, not necessarily the character themselves. The characters he appears to be changing to fit the story -- and that tends to annoy me. Although, to be fair to Hickman -- this does tend to be par for the course with comic book writers. They inherit someone else's story and characters, and decide to do their own spin on it. Often ret-conning the characters past history in the process. He's already ret-conned Moira and Charles to some degree. My other issue is going to be the increased focus on humanity as the bad guy. As opposed to say Apocalypse or Sinister who were the villains in Cyclops story for the most part. I mean Cyclops even was merged with his worst enemy. And you are correct -- it wasn't humanity who caused Nathan Christopher Summers to suffer but rather Apocalypse.

[obsidianwolf]

True enough that is definitely a problem I mean sure some variance was always going to be built into the genre. I mean when you've got characters that endure for decades written by extremely large amounts of writers through different cultural eras inconsistencies and need for retcons will always be there. (not to mention adding editorial into the mix)

But for way to many modern writers past writers work are just scrap piles to dig through to play around with and not something to try to work with.

[shadowkat]

Now that I've read it? I'm wondering...the humans weirdly sound more real than the mutants do. Also, people seem slightly out of character. I can't imagine Jean, Wolverine and Scott sharing quarters in this manner -- not from the previous arcs. Also Vulcan's appearance is just odd.

Corsair seems sort of suspicious of this as well.

Also everyone sounds sort of cultish? Magneto and Polaris in particular, as does Storm. There's something off...I haven't read enough of Hickman to know if this is deliberate (ie. it's supposed to sound off) or unintentional.

And I don't think they accomplished their aim in stopping Orchis.

[obsidianwolf]

Some of it is definitely intentionally off sounding cause HIckman loves secret cabals and powerful people and watching it fall apart.

Some of it is also probably HIckman rewriting characterization simply to make his story work.

So basically something is off but most likely some of the weird characterization and altered histories will continue even after what's off has been revealed/dealt with.

I mean personally I'm sitting out this relaunch and waiting till HIckman is replaced because I know from experience I won't care for Hickman's over all story.

[shadowkat]

There's things I like about Hickman -- he's different in style and aesthetic (although I don't tend to care that much about such things one way or the other), and there's some interesting ideas here. But, I don't think I like how he changes characters and ignores things from their arcs to fit his purposes. This feels like a complete reboot of the series -- which they haven't done to this extent before. Morrison came closest and lost a lot of fans, which is why Whedon reverted it back to status quo. The problem the X-men series has always had is it veers between Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/ Grant Morrison/Jason Aaron "the school dynamic of a training of powers/paramilitary group that can find a way of living among humans, and get their approval by helping them" and the Kieron Gillen/Jonathan Hickman "us vs. them" dynamic of mutants and humans trying to kill each other. Both are tiresome after a while. And the tension between those two story lines (Xavier = School) and (Magneto = Us vs. Them) to date has always swung more towards Xavier. Then there's the mix of the two, Whedon, Bendis, Rosenberg, etc.

So the reboot isn't on a thematic level but on a character level -- which I don't think is a good idea. It's also getting rid of some of the soap opera elements and taking it more into speculative sci-fi, which is going to lose a lot of people. I'm not sure Marvel realizes how many people read for the soap opera?

The problem with long-running serials like the X-men, the Avengers, daytime soap operas, Doctor Who -- is the continuous change in writers, and the writers often don't know the source material as well as long-time fans do, or they just happen to interpret it in vastly different and weird ways. So, I kind of handwave it as fanfic or various what if scenarios played out with the same characters. Which is why I love these things -- because I like to see all the what if scenarios for a character.

[lencannon]

Having lived in humanity for a couple of decades, we're definitely the bad guy.

[shadowkat]

Oh true. Having lived in humanity for more than a couple of decades...I'd agree. But from a character perspective, certain villains are more interesting than others. Well, that and escaping from humanity being the bad guys for a bit...

[laughing_tree]

Cyclops is THE true believer. Like any true believer, he has his narrative to push and he'll elide the details that don't help do that. Cable might have suffered most under Apocalypse but as an X-person, he's certainly fought his fair share of anti-mutant baddies too. It's enough for the true believer's narrative.

[obsidianwolf]

Yes that's the role Scott's playing in Hickman's narrative how in character that is. welp that's a matter of opinion.

[long_silence]

To add to this, it's also the book that's going to be closest to a standard superhero series.

Every X-book has its own mission statement: pirates, protectors of magic, space adventures, mutant CIA or outcasts.

This book is continuing the "protecting a world that fears and hates them" angle but with a large rotating cast of mutants who will work together to protect the entire world, not just mutants. We already know that an upcoming arc will involve the Savage Land.