X-Men Red #2-3 - "Man on Fire"

[laughing_tree]

In a recent X-Plain The X-Men podcast, Jonathan [Hickman] mentioned a plot point he never had time to get around to -- as luck would have it, I'd just managed to work it into the X-Men: Red issue I was writing, so people who listen to good podcasts will have a sneaky spoiler of where Vulcan's head might be. And then there are those three mysterious aliens who turned him into even more of a ticking time bomb than he was already... Like that variant cover, it's an ingredient Jonathan left for us in the communal fridge that I think I can cook into a tasty treat. And -- oh, yeah, one more minor thing -- he was Emperor of the Shi'ar for a while, wasn't he? With the fast pace of galactic politics, it's almost like that's been forgotten -- almost as if shameful periods of Shi'ar history are unofficially memory-holed by the state. -- Al Ewing



















Issue 3:

Comments

[numeronone]

I feel bad for Manifold. His trust is not easy to earn.

[numeronone]

The writers' room synergy continues. Interesting that Ewing having Ororo and Magneto forming the Brotherhood just happens to coincide with Gillen writing in Immortal X-Men that the two of them make perfect teammates based on their combined experience and power levels.

[scorntx]

"I have total confidence we will succeed."
Charles Xavier, five minutes before his brilliant idea gets him killed and Scott's cool moon house blown up.
Seriously. Why do they let him do things?
Sometimes it seems like the best thing the X-Men could do with Charles is ask him to, when he has an idea, go sit down in a room somewhere and write out his plan, then lock the door behind him while they get on with stuff.


It's funny. Back in Secret Warriors, backnotes had Nick Fury saying his Caterpillars were chosen specifically for being easy to lead and dupe.
(Then again, that series also had Nick betrayed by one of those kids, and learning his long term love interest had been Evil All Along, so him being a bad judge of character might've been intentional.)

Good old Progenitors.
No discernible personality beyond "experiment / kill people" and adaptive powers that mean they're exactly as strong as the situation requires.
Very useful bad guy material.

Back just before Last Annihilation, the Progenitors attacked the Kree-Skrull Alliance and all the characters were noting how unusual that was.
At the time, it did look a lot like that might've been Doom, but given he didn't even mention them when he was recapping his plan at the end, and with the reveal of what's going on with their showing up here, it's all looking a bit suspicious.
Very suspicious indeed.

Ordinarily Vulcan being punk'd would be pretty satisfying, but Storm still being on the Krakoa bent... eeeehhh.

Given the Shi'ar's... whole attitude, doubt they unpersoned Vulcan simply because he was a raging nutjob who got them into a war that ended with him blowing space and time a new hole.
If they covered up every sordid and embarrassing part of their history, they'd be there all day.
Probably just did it to hide the fact they were briefly ruled by a human.

[blues32]

Storm isn't so much on the Krakoa bend anymore as Arkkao's. She seems to have embraced their culture in a somewhat alarm fashion, given how violent they can be. I mean, they demand to actually fight any god that tries to get them to worship it. Not all gods are gods of combat! You expect Demeter to throw down? What's she going to do, grow crops at you?

[icon_uk]

As I recall, Demeter basically laid waste to the fertile lands of the entire world until Hades let Persephone go, and not even Zeus could talk her out of it. Plus she left Autum and Winter in place as a reminder not to piss her off again.

So, she may not be a combat heavy deity, but as the antithesis to famine, she's not one to get on the wrong side of either.

[iamrman]

Next issue: Two characters I don't care about fight to the death. It's a win-win either way! :D

[blues32]

See, Gabe? It's all about how you talk to them. You need to ask, not demand.

[blueprintstyles]

I hope Manifold hasn't sworn off all of Krakoa, I think the younger set could really learn a lot from him.

[giraffesforever]

Seconded. Krakoa could use a few more mutants who both know and care what's right and what's wrong.

[shakalooloo]

That's the big drawback to 'resigning in protest'. All it does is allow the target of your disapproval to hire more yes-men.

[morallyambiguousscience]

Spoilers for next issue, but he seems to be getting together people screwed over by Brand.

[arilou_skiff]

Is EVEYRONE an omega level mutant nowadays? It feels like there's been some serious inflation with that title.

[blues32]

Storm and Vulcan fit the bill pretty well. I mean, Storm can create...well...storms the likes of which nature rarely produces on its own. She's competed with Thor's control of lightning.

And Vulcan has taken out spacecrafts with his powers. That's an immense amount of power behind those blasts.

But yeah, the title of omega level mutant is tossed around a bit too much.

[icon_uk]

They've said an Omega Level mutant can only be so for one power, but since Storm's are intrinsically linked, she's an Omega for "Weather control" which is a frighteningly impressive array of powers, including control over ambient humidity, air pressure, winds from "still" to "hurricane" and temperature from near aboslute zero on up.

[icon_uk]

They published a list of current Omega level mutants at the start of HoX/Pox.

[mindsweeper]

One of the things that I like about the new definition was remove the idea that "Omega" means unbeatable. It's more the ultimate version of that specific power.

I liked when one of the writers talked about how they ran through powers, like "what would Omega-level bone claws be?"

[giraffesforever]

I'm all for Storm being awesome and kicking ass, but it's gotten a little ridiculous, no? She's become invincible at everything she does. Secretly has 20 knives on her at all times, can easily handle Callisto in a knife fight, can beat Death in a sword fight, can beat Tarn while depowered, can beat an omega-level shapeshifter and every other Arakki who challenges her with ease, now she can just straight manipulate energy better than Vulcan (whose power is to manipulate energy at an omega level). Hell, she kept pace drinking with Logan. I mean damn, Storm, leave a skill for someone else.

[blues32]

She's been good with knives for quite some time.

[onsokumaru]

So much THIS!
Even in Black Panther's own books, she seems almost flawless and good at everything.

[thezmage]

I mean wasn't she Claremont's self-insert girlfriend? Makes sense that she's got all the competence

[shakalooloo]

Storm leaves the washing-up for someone else.

[blues32]

Wait, who's Anya? I've never heard of Magneto having a human child before Wanda and Pietro.

[icon_uk]

She was Erik's first child with his wife Magda.

Born after the war, they tried to lve in simple isolation, until someone saw Erik using his powers in some minor way when staying in a town, and started a proverbial torch wielding mob who set fire to the house they were staying in. Erik was able to protect Magda and himself with a magnetic bubble, but not Anya (who was about four or five by this point), who died in the fire.

In one of the first major uses of his powers, Erik killed everyone nearby, except Magda, but Magda was terrified (and traumatised) and ran from him, leaving him forever (It used to be that that she later found out she was pregnant with Wanda and Pietro, but I have no clue what the current mess of that whole dynamic is)

[bruinsfan]

Having read the whole of Issue #3 now, the bit with Roberto and Isca strikes me as comically stupid.

[shakalooloo]

Isca's powers as a whole seem pretty stupid. Surely, one has to accept a bet for it to be binding, right? Otherwise everyone can just throw them at her in the street to get whatever they desire. Roberto didn't even say what the stakes of the wager were!

Just shout "I bet you you don't die in a fight against me," and watch the universe implode, apparently.