X-Men #19

[laughing_tree]

Comments

[lordultimus]

And then Laura is brought back without any of her Vault memories.

[shadowpsykie]

why don't she have the vault memories?

[lordultimus]

She died in the Vault, and Xavier only had the pre-Vault memories on his back-up.

[donnblake]

To elaborate a bit, Xavier/Cerebro regularly backs up the memories and personalities of mutants, and it's by implanting these backups into newly grown mutant bodies that Krakoan resurrection functions. While Synch and Laura were in the Vault, they experienced subjective years due to time dilation effects, but those experiences weren't stored and backed up by Cerebro (whether this was due to Cerebro being unable to reach them in the Vault entirely, or simply that due to the time dilation effects meaning that the next instance of backing-up hadn't occurred yet I'm not clear on, but given the premise of 'sending in a strike team that walks into a trap,' it seems reasonable to assume that the ability of psychic powers to reach into the Vault is limited).

It's an interesting take on 'how to do meaningful stakes in a world of limitless resurrections.' Laura can come back after heroically sacrificing herself, but the self who comes back has notably lost something of the self who died, and in a way a bit easier to put a finger on than "Yeah, Gorgon died in Arrako and was resurrected. He's totally a different guy now. Wildly different characterization that the one he had before, we promise."

[tinygaylaura]

Indeed in a world where the heroes can come back from the dead with ease, it's a smart way of adding stakes to a story as even if they can get their life back, they can still lose something when they die

On a related note I'm kind of surprised they haven't done an Altered Carbon style mystery yet where someone hires X Factor to figure out who murdered them because their memories were backed up before the moment they died

[tinygaylaura]

But it ends with him thinking it will be worth trying to romance Laura again now they're out of the Vault as he does remember their romance so maybe they'll get together again

And he's right

Especially when Laura looks THAT good after several centuries

[lordultimus]

"Hi, you don't know me, but I love you."

*door slams*

[tinygaylaura]

Well I'm hoping he'll try an approach that comes off less stalker-y than that XD

[donnblake]

That's the advantage of living on Fully Automated Luxury Queer Poly Communist Mutant Island. They can start slow with a date in the Magical Disappearing Swimsuit Hot Springs or at Volunteer Gladiator Fight Club, and just see how things develop.

[tinygaylaura]

I would go for that first option myself, like you had me at "Dissapearing swimsuit"

[donnblake]

It's a magical place.

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/8905623.html#cutid1

I mean sure, you could argue that Jean just took her top off in between panels, but I choose to believe it's made of special Krakoan fibers that dissolve when a certain level of mutual hotness-to-trot is detected.

[tinygaylaura]

Just one more example of how far ahead of us mutantkind truly is O.O

[thezmage]

That's actually a common application of unstable molecules that hasn't really come up before

[donnblake]

Reed Richards has much to answer for.

[tinygaylaura]

I mean, making clothing that disappears when you get horny sounds like something that would be a good step in him atoning for the many other horrible things he's done though

[nyadnar17]

If he didn't know he would get that reaction with that opening.....look I try not to judge but

[mastermahan]

*knocks again*

"So you know how your slowed aging means you're doomed to watch any long-term romantic partners wither and die? I can age at the same rate you do, and when I do age, I can guarantee I'm going to be a buff as hell silver fox."

"...how buff are we talking?"

"Mike Colter as Luke Cage."

"...you can pick me up at 7."

[arilou_skiff]

This just reminds me of how weird the aging is in the MU, not that people dont age slowly or so, but the weird thing is how people seem to age at different speeds. (and sometimes seemingly regressin age too...)

Like, it sometimes feels like some of the New X-men/Academy X kids have aged past the New Mutants...

[obsidianwolf]

It really is rather arbitrary some characters are eternal teenagers and others are allowed to become adults who are just younger than other adults. Hell sometimes some characters will pass others and some thanks it being their iconic form will keep getting de-aged constantly.

Like Jubilee for example who one time I counted and at the time had been 18+ at least 3 times only to end up a 13-16 year old eternal mall rat again. Honestly making her a vampire was probably the best thing for her since she managed to keep hitting eighteen then get demoted to thirteen for example the first time to star in Gen X and to be the same age as Paige Guthrie only for Paige to manage to make it to adult hood and stay there while she went back to being a teen for a short lived solo series.

[tinygaylaura]

Both Paige and Jubilee are canonically adults in current continuity neither of them have been de-aged

I mean

They're not as old as they SHOULD be logically but it's comic book time, no one ages normally

[obsidianwolf]

Yes I know that, doesn't change the fact Jubilee reached adulthood only to be a kid again multiple times before getting stuck as a vampire teen for a while.

In fact i wouldn't even be surprised if she doesn't end up a teen again at some point. Especially after the mutants appear in the MCU eventually and the more iconic status quo is most likely restored.

[tinygaylaura]

God I really hope you're wrong about us going back to the "Iconic" status quo because I have got literally zero interest in that

Like

None at all

Either way I'm glad that with any luck we've got a good few years before the MCU gets the chance to try and ruin any of the X-men characters yet

[arilou_skiff]

I liked Jubilees solo series, if only for the time she called Wolverine and he was having a conversation while fighting ninjas.

[tinygaylaura]

I haven't read it yet but that sounds cute :)

[mastermahan]

Not shown: Darwin using his powers to evolve into the ideal throuple partner. If he can evolve teleportation, he can evolve into a unicorn.

This was the stuff

[martiniphilosph]

This was the stuff I was hoping to get more of from the reboot. The fun, mind-bendy what's actually happening around mutants that the House of X seemed to be promising. Instead we get rewrites to tread water when the pandemic broke out leading to the distracting Otherworld arc and our space mutant team being distracted by being tied into King in Black events.

Can we get back the idea of a mutant oriented religion and what that would mean to a world of non-mutants? Or the fun of a rogue squad of globe trotting trouble-shooters rescuing & recruiting their brethren from downtrodden lives in terrible places? Or the politics of being handed cures to every major disease on the condition that you have to recognize mutant's right to life?

Seriously, what happened to all of those fascinating topics and why did they get booted for claptrap?

Re: This was the stuff

[obsidianwolf]

It's a recurring problem with Hickman being in charge. For good or ill Hickman has ideas he considers very big but they unfold at a glacial pace so any one else working on the line whose not in on what the final hickman plot will look like has to tread water to avoid adding too many plot holes to the story Hickman wants to tell.

Add in that Marvel just got back full control over the x-franchises and wants to give them the first real push they've had in a long time it leads to lots of titles where not much happens.

ETA and tie ins with the latest event are just a fact of life in the one event after another to artificially jack up sales comic sales model

Re: This was the stuff

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, this is the kind of thing that I loved about HoX/PoX and have been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see more of since the relaunch. It only took them what, a year and a half and one bloated crossover event to finally get to it. I know that the whole vibe of the initial relaunch couldn't really carry over multiple ongoing series, but it's just nice to see something that seems like it's finally connected to the transhuman stuff I found so fun.

Re: This was the stuff

[alliterator]

Boy, howdy, are you probably going to enjoy Way of X.

Re: This was the stuff

[mesmiranda]

Can we get back the idea of a mutant oriented religion and what that would mean to a world of non-mutants?

Yes! Thank you! One of my biggest gripes with the new X-Men status quo was that we don't have a lot of evidence of mutant culture/mutant identity yet (aside from the weird culty shit going on), and it hamstrings a lot of the "we're making a nation for ourselves." Give us mutant art! Mutant music! Mutant cuisine! (In-universe) mutant books and plays and stories!

More fundamentally, I really want to see mutants' daily lives--not just the X-Men and the globe-trotting troubleshooters, but the regular people who have no interest in being superheroes and just want to be doctors, or lawyers, or teachers, or cooks. Give me all the worldbuilding!

Re: This was the stuff

[arilou_skiff]

I like the idea of exploringa mutant religion.

I just think Kurt is just... Absolutely the wrong person for that (and its almost offensive that they use him for it) exploring religion among mutants? Sure, but his catholicism is such a core part of him that having him go "Well, I guess its time to have a new religion" is just... Eww.

Re: This was the stuff

[mesmiranda]

Oh, absolutely agreed. It feels like they just looked around and thought, "uhhh, well, Kurt's religious, give him the religious stuff to deal with! Yeah!"

(I mean, heck. There could be a really great story in Kurt trying to reconcile his Catholic beliefs with a new mutant religion.)

Re: This was the stuff

[tinygaylaura]

I definitely agree about wanting to see more worldbuilding about what mutant culture on and around Krakoa looks like

But

I keep seeing people saying that Krakoa is "Cult-y" and honestly apart from whatever weird shit Exodous is doing off on his own that doesn't seem to be the case

And well

Exodous has always been a weird fuck. He was making cults long before Krakoa, that's just what this dude does it's his hobby

Some people paint Warhammer figurines

Some people collect Funko Pops

Exodous starts cults

Re: This was the stuff

[mesmiranda]

Some people paint Warhammer figurines

Some people collect Funko Pops

Exodous starts cults

As one does.

Off the top of my head, though: is the whole Crucible thing still ongoing? Is the island-wide moratorium on Scarlet Witch's name still up? (And I'm still stuck on what "diseases of the mind" Xavier's magical Krakoa drugs are supposed to cure...)

Re: This was the stuff

[tinygaylaura]

They canonically cure things like alzheimers

For instance there's a character in Marauders whose mom is now free of alzheimers completely and able to recognise her children and live the rest of her life free of this terrible disease because of them. So yeah, Mutantkind cured one of the worst diseases on earth and then offered the cure to humanity for the very reasonable price of Stop Being Racist

There has never been any island wide moratorium on Scarlet Witch's name, come on now let's not tar real writers with the same brush as JK Clownshoes and her barely literate scribblings pretending to be a book series. Exodous is still being a weird fuck and calling her "The Pretender" though but I think it's kind of understandable why some mutants would still be pissed at Wanda. I think its stupid Marvel did this to Wanda but until Marvel retcons that bollocks and says that someone was mind controlling Wanda or it was a Skrull that's not going away

Crucible is still a thing and I do agree that it's a weird way to deal with the issue of "What if a living mutant wants their powers back but the only way for that to happen is if they die and get brought back to life with them" but I don't get how it's culty?

No one's forced into doing it. Non powered mutants are welcomed on Krakoa and never forced or even peer pressured into doing it. In fact Callisto had to talk Storm into helping her do it because Storm really DIDN'T want to be part of it.

I mean I grew up a Star Trek fan so maybe I'm just more down with the idea of a non-human culture having wild and wacky traditions. If mutants HAD to take part in Crucible or there was some social stigma against mutants who didn;t yeah sure that would be culty

But we've seen Crucible brought up all of three times and in all three of those times every other mutant that the mutant taking part in it knew was stressing to them "Hey you know you don't have to do this" and like that to me doesn't exactly scream "Cult" to me. Honestly, as someone who grew up in a Catholic family, the bullshit we did at church was more cult-y than anything I've seen going on on Krakoa

Re: This was the stuff

[mesmiranda]

All of this is fair and I'm 100% willing to concede that Krakoa is more along the lines of "growing society with some troubling elements" than "cult." Possibly after years of reading the X-Men (and Genosha and House of M/Decimation), seeing an actual mutant paradise feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop--this is one of the reasons why I really want to read more about the day-to-day life of non-superhero mutants, who aren't involved in the flashy cool stuff but building the economy and culture and history from the ground up. (That would also deal with the issue of the Crucible for me--more people who are going "nah, you guys go fight to the death and get in contests with The Fair Folk, I'm going to stay here and open my pirate-themed bar.")

There has never been any island wide moratorium on Scarlet Witch's name, come on now let's not tar real writers with the same brush as JK Clownshoes and her barely literate scribblings pretending to be a book series. Exodous is still being a weird fuck and calling her "The Pretender" though but I think it's kind of understandable why some mutants would still be pissed at Wanda. I think its stupid Marvel did this to Wanda but until Marvel retcons that bollocks and says that someone was mind controlling Wanda or it was a Skrull that's not going away

(Unrelated, but any time Wanda comes up--and especially in Wandavision--it's like, Marvel. Please. Marvel, there is an entire group of the population who goes to school for many years so they can talk to people and help them feel better. Sometimes they hand out medication and exercises, Marvel. Marvel.)

Re: This was the stuff

[tinygaylaura]

I'm really hoping that Hickman is telling the truth when he says that there is no" Other shoe" that is going to drop here, that this is genuinely just the new status quo for mutantkind now and it's not going to be revealed as anything sinister or bad at any point in the future

Because this has got me interested in X-men again after years of the comics being just downright awful

I definitely want more scenes of world building and us getting to see more of what things are like on Krakoa and more of mutant culture here. I'm hoping for some of that in the Hellfire Gala and in the X Corp book when that gets started as well.

And yeah honestly what happened with Wanda is mainly the fault of the Avengers and Charles and Erik who apparently all just forgot that psychiatrists and medication are things which exist. Wanda isn't completely blameless but what happened happened when she was in a bad place and she regrets it and it could have been avoided if everyone else in that story weren't acting like idiots

House of M is pictured in the dictionary next to the words "Idiot Plot"

Re: This was the stuff

[deh_tommy]

That’s a Hickman book. The ingredients are all pretty much laid out for his classic “hard men doing the hard thing causing their own downfall and bringing disastrous consequences on everyone caught in the crossfire” plot.

Re: This was the stuff

[deh_tommy]

The Way of X previews show being called Wanda is a demeaning insult and Magneto over in S.W.O.R.D. was barely hiding his distaste for even hearing her be mentioned at all.

Crucible is culty because you’re treated as lesser for the crime of having something bad happen to you, you’re treated as incomplete and wrong for having lost your powers, they’re saying you are not worthy of walking the hallowed ground of Krakoa unless you literally kill yourself.

Re: This was the stuff

[deh_tommy]

Crucible is still a thing and Wanda’s still a Platters song. The Krakoan drugs have been shown to treat neurodegenerative diseases like dementia.

Re: This was the stuff

[deh_tommy]

Don’t be stupid, non superhero mutants don’t exist, let alone non X-Men mutants

From what we’ve seen thus far, Krakoan culture consists of drinking, partying, casual sex and navel gazing about how mutants are awesome and humans suck. There’s canonically no institutions like school or something similar and I’m pretty sure Multiple Man is used as hard labour, so everyone’s left to their own devices for good or for ill. Mutant art, music, etc. is mainly just stuff that happens to be made by mutants (and I think that was only ever brought up in Fantastic Four).

Re: This was the stuff

[tinygaylaura]

A life of drinking, partying and casual sex all sound pretty damn good to me

I'd be jumping through the first gate to Krakoa the second I heard about it

[scorntx]

It is scientific fact that all the best romances take place entirely off-panel.

None of that pesky development or build up, just skip to the good part.

[jgeils]

So is Darwin still trapped in the Vault? That sounds all shades of a very very bad thing.

[tinygaylaura]

Nope, Darwin and Laura both died in the Vault

The Vault were experimenting on Darwin though and yeah it seems like it's not going to be a good thing

Well obviously it's not a good thing because of what Darwin went through but also it's not going to be a good thing for everyone else going forward