X-Men #2 (2019) - "Summoner"

[laughing_tree]

I had been gone for a couple of years and then I was sitting around and Dan Buckley called me and wanted me to come back and one of the things that we talked about was how do we make the X-Men the giant X-Men that it was most of my life, right? And so I came up with what I thought was wrong or tired or needed changing. And you know, in the same way, that Brian [Michael Bendis] repositioned the Avengers during “Disassembled” and all that kind of stuff. What is that version of the X-stuff? And we came up with this. What needed changing? A lot. What did we change? A whole lot. But it feels like the X-Men is the important thing. It feels like it was the book that we read a long time ago but it’s not. It’s this new thing. -- Jonathan Hickman

Comments

[lordultimus]

Makes me wonder where all those Krakoa clones over the years are now.

Also, are island baby's called "islets"?

Also also, something something "I lava you".

[shadowpsykie]

"for the sake of expediency lets just say yes. I love a single someone" (more proof to the polyamory! )

oh jesus cable, really island sex is the WEIRDEST thing you've ever seen?

[lordultimus]

I'm all for the orgies (especially when they cut down the shipping wars), but part of me can't help but wonder if that is helping with the "accidental cult" atmosphere. Cults are infamous for using sex to make themselves more enticing.

[rainspirit]

It's right there with Nightcrawler's decree. "Make more mutants." Absolutely it's got cult stuff going on.

[doodleboy]

I guess the most questionable parts is Nightcrawler's "Make more mutants." line, and for some reason the resurrected X-men not being given clothes before being paraded to the rest of the island.

Well... as long as Magneto or Xavier don't use their position to course sex out of people... which is generally what cult-leaders do.

Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine is less... culty, triad polycules exist. It's a relationship that'd might be interesting as we don't see a lot of it.

[lordultimus]

I was more talking about the implicit "everyone can trade sex partners with anyone else" bit that comes with the orgy coding.

[zachbeacon]

Hickman is really feeding those shippers.

[scorntx]

So what the X-Men needed was to be reinvented as an incredibly creepy not-cult of smug isolationists?
... okay then...


On the one hand, I could grumble about Rachel being a pointless jerk towards Kid Cable (even if he kind of does deserve it, not just for being a twerp here) rather than getting along...
But it is nice to at least, for the moment, have a story with Rachel which isn't just her suffering horribly yet again.
(Weird that she's not over in Marauders having pirate adventures with Kitty, but... all things considered, it's a smart move. Kitty's bad for her.)

Also, Cyclops having Dad Adventures is great.

[qalchemist]

Siblings are often jerks to each other. ;)

[zachbeacon]

Can confirm. Very few comics siblings read as actual siblings to me. Sure occasionally you get good ones like Ms Marvel (Kamela) and her brother or Blue Beetle (Jamie) and his sister but mostly you get arch-enemies and/or incest.

Actually I think Scott and Alex are among the better examples of siblings in X-Men comics.

[cainofdreaming]

Hey, they even include islands in their orgies. That's not so isolationist.

Also, re: Rachel/Kid Cable situation - he did kinda murder/suicide her brother.

[scorntx]

But it's a Mutant island. Would they include an Inhuman island in their weird sex cult?


Oh, like Old Cable's going to stay dead for long.
And he rescued Ray from being a Hound again.
(Even if he is a twerp.)

[deh_tommy]

I mean, Black Bolt was pretty much single-handedly responsible for creating an entirely new disease that wiped out a good chunk of the Mutant population, the Inhuman-X war is still fairly recent in people’s memories, and all of that kind of contributed to a wave of anti-Inhuman (Attilan or otherwise) prejudice on Mutantkinds’ part, and “Xavier” all but insulted and threatened both his former allies and every other Sovereign nation on Earth, AND the Summers subsequently turned the Inhumans’ old safe space into a holiday home (and this happened after the whole Vox fiasco where the Royal Family’s subjects were violently murdered).

I don’t know how amicable they’d be with any Inhuman or how amicable or how amicable Inhumanity would be with this new Krakoa.

[agharta75]

Uh, the Inhumans "in people's memories"? "Who are the Inhumans?", Marvel editorial says now ...

[mastermahan]

I mean, the Utopia X-Men were a mildly creepy not-cult of isolationists who sometimes treated figures like Hope Summers as a messiah. It's not that much of a reinvention.

I'm not sure Kitty is bad for Rachel in general, but Red Queen Kate Pryde is definitely not healthy.

[lordultimus]

I think the Utopia X-Men were less "cult" and more "military dictatorship".

[lordultimus]

Well, Marauders introduced an actual-cult of mutant-worshipping humans.

[bruinsfan]

Is Rachel still connected to the Phoenix Force in some way, or is she back to being a telepath/telekinetic based on her own genetics?

[scorntx]

Pretty sure the connection was severed way back before War of Kings, and then, far more recently, Phoenix Resurrection happened, so Ray's not been connected to it for some time.

Pretty sure...

[joetuss]

I honestly love the "isolationalist" "cult" thing going on with the Mutants now. I really don't know what everybody expects them to be after surviving genocide after genocide. Why should they continue begging for a place at humanity's table? Am I missing something?

[qalchemist]

I'm with you, honestly.

[joetuss]

Yeah, I mean, this does seem like the natural progression of things. Im really curious as to why people on here would have mixed to negative emotions about this?

Mind you, I’m only following Excalibur which is a bit critical of this new development, but...

[deh_tommy]

Because cults are uncomfortably real and people have lost themselves and/or their families to such things.

Because they’re apparently trying to get everyone to abandon their humanity despite the fact that they are still ultimately human.

Because supremacism and sense of superiority in anything is inherently toxic, dangerous and scary.

Because this rhetoric has been espoused by people both in comics and in real life for decades to justify cruelty, violence and dehumanisation of the other (and they specifically single out people like Scarlet Witch not because of the whole “No More Mutants” clusterfudge but because she was a “pretender”).

Because every Mutant HAS to go to Krakoa. Even if they’re presented Krakoa as a choice, they’re heavily encouraged and manipulated (and, in the case of Franklin Richards, poached and possibly indoctrinated) into going.

Because Krakoa has never exactly been the best place for Mutants before.

Because decades worth of X-villains, mostly unrepentant or unreformed (in fact current Xavier seems to subscribe to their ideologies now more than anything), now rule X-society.

Because Professor X and his current entourage have a history of mental manipulation and mind control, so who knows how much of this new status quo people are actually for and how many are subtly brainwashed into accepting this.

Because that’s kind of depressing to think the best thing for Mutants, who have long been stand-ins for minorities and the oppressed, is to faff off to their own little corner of the world and make their own society with blackjack and hookers.

Because Moira spent like two miniseries...es showing she’s not exactly the most trustworthy or the most moral person alive, and this sudden shift in attitude came about almost entirely due to her.

Because the characters have spent almost their entire histories fighting for the opposite.

Because Mutants have family, friends and loved ones who aren’t, weren’t or never will be Mutants, and that’s kind of weird to see so many of them leave them behind for the sake of something that’s rather suspect at best.

Because we’ve seen time and time again, historically and in-universe, how such a thing ultimately falls apart at the seams unless important changes are made to patch over the flaws said thing has.

This whole thing is fishier than Innsmouth.

Re: Mind you, I’m only following Excalibur which is a bit critical of this new development, but...

[joetuss]

Because that’s kind of depressing to think the best thing for Mutants, who have long been stand-ins for minorities and the oppressed, is to faff off to their own little corner of the world and make their own society with blackjack and hookers.


This is precisely what I hitch my wagon to. Why is it Mutantkinds fault that they feel like they need to separate themselves from humanity? Isn't this the same thing Wonder Woman's Amazon's did to keep themselves from being brutalized?

Re: Mind you, I’m only following Excalibur which is a bit critical of this new development, but...

[thehood]

Yeah, the "every mutant has to go" bothers me. I wonder if one decided they didn't want to go.

Re: Mind you, I’m only following Excalibur which is a bit critical of this new development, but...

[deh_tommy]

Then they probably won’t go if they don’t want to. They’ll probably get a lot of stuff about how totally super duper awesome Krakoa is, though, and if they’re Omega level then someone will come to personally guide them into the fold and show them the error of their ways.

[mindsweeper]

They’re not isolationists, though. That word gets used, but they’re very active in the world, creating trade partnerships, seeking global recognition, being part of the UN, and providing medication to the world. People come and go all the time.

[joetuss]

I know that, I only used the word because that's what people here decided to label them with.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Huh, I thought someone said they were on the moon now or something.

[scorntx]

Nah, Cyclops just built a house on it.
As you do.
(Not like anyone else was using it.)

[lordultimus]

Nick Fury the Unseen: Am I a joke to you?

[arilou_skiff]

Yes, yes he is.

He is not even a real Watcher!

[zachbeacon]

Okay, I keep saying I miss Old Cable. Now I miss Smart Cable too. Young Cable is an idiot.