X-Force #10: The Deadly Garden

[superboyprime]

"Attention, horny X-fans! The last few pages of this issue of X-Force are hot, hot, hot and sexy." - Benjamin Percy

Comments

[deh_tommy]

No amount of horny can make up for how completely, morally reprehensible this whole situation is. If anything, the sudden horny is fuel for conspiracies that someone or something at the top is screwing with their brains.

[jlbarnett]

yep.

so, off topic to that, does anyone here see anyone at Marvel at some point doing something to connect this story arc to Empyre?

[mastermahan]

Hey, remember how it used to be ironic that Hank McCoy looked like a monster, because on the inside he was a kind and empathic person?

[lonewolf23k]

Starting to understand how Dark Beast became a thing.

[nyadnar17]

Dark Best is a thing every third Teusday. I have never seen any other character trip into so many morally reprehensible acts.

[starwolf_oakley]

Maybe... science?

Henry McCoy has a very fine scientific mind. It just seems the empathy and morality that goes with the fine scientific mind has waved good-bye. (Note: "Science" doesn't mean "no empathy." Reed Richards has his problems, but lack of empathy isn't one of them.)

It started with "I'll bring the original five X-Men to the present so Scott can see how off-the-rails he's going." And then things... mutated. Pun intended.

[cainofdreaming]

Maybe the mutants have started to develope tertiary mutations? Hank's is, clearly, making truly horrid decisions.

[icon_uk]

That would be Hank's primary mutation, secondary at most, given his blue form was the result of some dodgy self inflicted gene therapy.

[cainofdreaming]

Point. Also, did big feet and hands really qualify as mutation to begin with? Would the opposite? Do your former colonial troublemakers actually have their first mutant president?

[gnarll]

I think it started when he was being tortured by Norman Osborne, and Scott for some reason put of rescuing him.

He has clearly had some issues after the torture sessions. Some kind of trauma combined with his well-established tendency to make poor decisions and trust his own intelligence too much.

[deh_tommy]

Almost every awful thing that’s happened in the past 15 years or so can be traced back to Maria Hill in some way.

[icon_uk]

Tony Stark and Reed Richards spring to mind.

Hank Pym did once, but that once gave us Ultron, the gift that keeps on giving.

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, making Ultron in and of thatself isn’t inherently a bad thing since (from what I recall) he didn’t create Ultron with the express intent of screwing over other people. Plus, The Terminator wouldn’t be around for another 15-16 years or so.

[deh_tommy]

Remember when Nightcrawler’s demonic appearance was supposed to be irony because he was anything but, then they retconned out his priesthood and made him the son of what was supposed to be the literal devil?

[tcampbell1000]

There is kind of an interesting tension between Hank's current morality, which can best be described as mutant nationalism absolutely off the chain, and his self-perception that he's still that kind, thoughtful soul we once knew. It's one of the only ways such a smart person can be this stupid. If his ego and superego were in alignment, whether moral or immoral, he would have perceived the danger of his own actions sooner. But he can't, because too much of his mental energy is caught up in trying to convince himself he's something he's not.

Jean's feeling some of the same conflict, but she's trying to convince herself she's a bit worse than she is. I don't think it's accident or coincidence that "the lies are for the humans, not us" is followed on the same page by "can't you see the human cost?"

[scelestus]

"It's like you got measles, but the measles is pockets" is one of the best lines I've read in years.

[shadowpsykie]

Has anyone checked on Leifield? That sounds like it hurt

[tcampbell1000]

Hahaha

[scelestus]

Looking back at it, we really DON'T see Sage's feet in that panel! :)

[cygnia]

Honestly, over in Empyre, I wanna see Black Tom and the Coati interact in some way.

[lencannon]

They're about to in the X-Men Empyre series!

[lencannon]

I appreciate that there's a comic where the thesis statement seems to be "There's on such thing as a good CIA that makes things better" but also I think I'm coming around to the fact that I don't really like Percy much as a writer. I know he hit it big with the Wolverine podcast and they're really leaning into his personal aesthetic of hard people doing hard things.

I think this is a good opportunity to start moving away from "An international intelligence operation is a pragmatic necessity" and start exploring new radical approaches that don't involve emulating the American war crime machine.

[silverhammerman]

It's interesting that little has changed about the whole X-Force premise, which has always boiled down to Hard Mutants Doing Hard Things, but the context of Krakoa has breathed new life into the whole thing. Having X-Force be one part of the complex nation-building effort, and a part which clearly shows the limits of these characters' thinking in that they are just recreating the American war crime machine is vital to showing Krakoa's growing pains. I think that thematically to the whole DoX project, X-Force makes sense for now.

Down the line though, after however many "heroes making compromises" stories, we definitely need to see that shift you talk about. Seeing these characters self-consciously looking for an alternative to black ops murder-bastards when that's their whole frame of reference would be really interesting and keep this series from losing momentum once the Krakoan bump to its relevance wears off.

[sarahnewlin]

Scott or Colossus should have joined

[beyondthefringe]

In the hot tub?
I agree.
I mean, it certainly -sounds- like Logan's had experience with Piotr's large... everything.

Also, I saw it suggested that Jean's bikini was an artistic afterthought, and now I'm convinced that she was supposed to be nude here, but somehow that would have been a step too far.

[tcampbell1000]

I could swear I saw this scene before and it wasn't there. But maybe I'm just memory editing, because you're right: it was very clearly slapped on at the last second.

[cainofdreaming]

Same here, but I couldn't find the original post through the most obvious tags. I have this recollection of there having been just strategic steam tendrils, but, alas, no way of making sure.

Tag your smut, people! It's a service to humankind.