"Secret X-Men" announced

[icon_uk]

Remember when the Hellfire Gala had a vote for the new X-Men team?

There were winners and losers in the vote because it was also a real world social media vote thing?



And the final team did seem a tad, well... predictable? And "safe" And blandly normal-looking given the range of mutants available.

Well, it appears that someone in the X-office had the same idea, because coming in February some of those who were second choice get a team of their own in the one-shot "Secret X-Men" by Tini Howard and Leinil Francis Yu.



So we have... Cannonball, Sunspot, Tempo, Boom-Boom, Marrow, Forge, Armor, Strong Guy and Banshee

Gotta say, that line up already interests me more than main X-Men one does. More loose cannons, a wider range of pwoers, some established firendships and personal conflicts.

Their first mission is apparently to save Xavier and Lilandra's child Xandra from some threat or other... didn't we sort of just see this arc when New Mutants launched? Is Xandra really THAT interesting a character? Oh well, let's wait and see.

 

Comments

[lordy_co]

Eh, let's hope it's better than X-Corp. The lineup seems interesting at least, though it begs the question of who will be the leader.

[icon_uk]

My guess would be Roberto assumes he's the leader, but is smart enough to let Sam manage any field operations.

[tinygaylaura]

Roberto is canonically kind of a genius tho

He took over A.I.M and outwitted S.H.I.E.L.D, the evil remnants of the old A.I.M AND an evil version of Reed Richards with an entire legion of evil super scientists working for him all at the same time

He might not be a super-scientist but he's smart as hell

[lordy_co]

Yeah, I think Beto being a laidback but competent leader would be an interesting angle.

[scorntx]

Odds'd probably be Forge as a mission control type. Roberto (if he'd written as having any brains) or Banshee as the field leader.

Marrow's probably the one who insists she's the leader and refuses to hear otherwise.

Obviously, there's no way Armor would be the leader, because she's just the Token X-Kid for this team, not because of any actual talent she'd bring to the table.

[lordy_co]

Obviously, there's no way Armor would be the leader, because she's just the Token X-Kid for this team, not because of any actual talent she'd bring to the table.
I hate it that you're right.

[tinygaylaura]

I thought X-Corp was okay. Felt very rushed was its biggest flaw. Feels like it was going to be longer but Marvel weren't happy with the sales and canned it and didn't leave the writer much time to wrap things up

[lordy_co]

I went in very optimistic. It featured many characters which I like, it had an interesting idea behind it and it had been delayed so many times that it couldn't be bad.
But turns out it still felt very unfinished, with plotlines coming and going nowhere, Monet being an ass and the villains feeling as boring as white bread. A real waste, imo.

[tinygaylaura]

I liked Monet in it myself

The villains were kind of dull tho I agree

[lordultimus]

Looks fun.

[iamrman]

Always happy to see Sam and Roberto again.

[scorntx]

Also, the plot of SWORD right now is Xandra being in trouble.
Girl's a danger magnet.
Maybe someone should check and see if she's cursed or something...


It's definitely an interesting line up, buuuut... Howard's a turn off for me.

Much as I am jazzed by the simple thought of Sunspot being written by someone, anyone who isn't Hickman.
(It's not, say, Alaya or Ewing, but all the same. Not Hickman. Strange feeling of lightness, like things will work out for the best.)

[onsokumaru]

Well, sitting on a throne usually makes you a danger magnet.
Especially if you reign over the Shi Ar, who are basically the americans of space and have a lot of ennemies.

[dan_ingram]

The Shi'ar are the British of space. Imperial dicks, but polite about it.

[icon_uk]

Not even polite about it, remembering that they pre-emptively slaughtered the entire Gray family line, from seniors and babies, on the off chance they had a genetic link to be Phoenix hosts.

[blues32]

I thought those were Shi'ar extremists.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah, the chancellor of the entire empire who ordered it had no ties to the establishment.

[scorntx]

Hey, it's not his fault if no-one ordered him to not send Death Commandos to murderise an entire family.

[blues32]

Huh. Why are the X-Men still friends with the Shi'ar again?

[icon_uk]

A valid question, not helped by the usual answer being: the former Majestrix was Xavier's lover and the current Majestrix is Xavier's daughter.

[tinygaylaura]

It's probably politically pretty useful to have a space empire willing to do you favors when you need them

And given the kind of maniacs the Shi'ar empire has in it its better than having them as an enemy. Again, one of the nicest people in this empire is called DEATHBIRD

[deh_tommy]

Aw drat, I misread that as Leah Williams. Here’s hoping this one is good and not accidentally rife with unfortunate implications.

[onsokumaru]

That line-up is way better than the one for X-Men.
Also it's about time that Sam and Berto, the mutants who are actually close to the Shi'Ar, are the ones saving Xandra, instead of some Not New Not Different like Scott or Ororo.

I just hope that team is not treated as a joke.

[blues32]

What is that THING Forge has? It looks more bio-mechanical than his usual inventions.

[dr_archeville]

His work's been taking on a more "biotech" vibe since he moved to Krakoa.

[blues32]

Weird and rather unnecessary place to take things. Hm. Maybe they wanted to make him different from Madison Jeffries? Or make him more versatile than Jeffries? I mean, sure, Forge can build just about anything in record time, but Madison doesn't even need to touch something to change it. He turned a car into a deadly robot without laying a hand on it. Adding a biological aspect to Forge's creations gives him a leg up, so to speak.

[beyondthefringe]

Seeing this announced: yay.
Tini Howard writing: goddamit.

She has been consistently one of my least favorite writers of the new era, mainly because she's so inconsistent in her writing and execution. There are so many other writers I'd like to see get a crack at the franchise.

[silverhammerman]

No new sentiments here from me, I agree with the prevailing take. This is an interesting team (a whole team of characters who would normally be the outlier in a standard lineup!) but Howard's writing hasn't been some of the more challenging stuff to emerge from this era of X-books.

[tinygaylaura]

This looks fun!

The team line up has lots of enjoyable characters and I usually like this writers stuff. And it's always fun to see the X-men having some space adventures

I do think the Shi'ar need to get better bodyguards for that kid tho

[icon_uk]

I mean, she literally has the entire Legion of Super-Heroes Imperial Guard AND Deathbird,

Though admittedly quite recently several of the Guard did try to assassinate her to keep Superman Gladiator on the throne, so... (I mean, when freaking DEATHBIRD is the most reliable royal advisor you have, it says something about court politics).

[scorntx]

Bet Deathbird's not enjoying it either.

"I'm supposed to be the evil one! That's my whole thing! Now what am I supposed to do?"
"Try and betray me anyway?"
"No, it'll just look like I'm jumping on the bandwagon..."

[cainofdreaming]

"I'm supposed to be the evil one!"

And suddenly a loud rumbling can be heard coming from D'Ken's gravesite.

[scorntx]

Pfft, D'Ken. Guy hardly ever succeeded at anything.

Couldn't even kill his own siblings.
Whereas Cal actually did.

[tinygaylaura]

Wait did he get a burial

I thought the M'kraan Crystal ate him

[scorntx]

He got a cremation.
Vulcan incinerated him.
(There's always that one person at a wedding who starts trouble...)

[tinygaylaura]

It feels like the Imperial Guard is asleep at the switch these days to me 0_0

[leahandillyana]

Uh, no. Just no. Cannonball and Sunspot belong in New Mutants, they are a found family, and the other characters range from boring (Banshee and Forge) to awful (everybody else).

[blues32]

Not like Cannonball and Sunspot haven't been on other teams before. Hell, they could probably do both. Wolverine was pulling three or four teams at once not long ago. "Multitasking. One of my mutant powers. Don't tell nobody."

[tinygaylaura]

"Ah'm nigh invulnerable when ah'm multi-taskin'!"

[tinygaylaura]

I'm not the biggest Forge fan after some of the way he acted around Storm back in the day but Tempo wanting to atone for her MLF past has interesting potential and I really love Marrow and Boom-Boom, Strong Guy can be quite funny sometimes and Armor is pretty adorable

[blues32]

Does Strong Guy have his soul back yet? He really needs that if he's going to join a team of any kind.