The X-Axis – w/c 26 May 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #23. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Diaz & Clayton Cowles. Well, it’s a fight issue, but it’s a fight issue that also has the task of selling us on the revamped “Mutant Salvation Front”. The original Mutant Liberation Front always had some memorable character designs going for them – something that was genuinely one of Rob Liefeld’s strengths. But conceptually they’ve been more generic. This pared-down version of the group aren’t so much anti-human as pathologically pro-mutant, throwing themselves into a utopian vision of a restored mutant society. Using Wildside in the leader role seemed a weird choice at first, but Seeley actually makes a good case for it here: Wildside’s power is to create hallucinations, but there’s a thin line between a hallucination and a spiritual experience, which is how he can resposition himself as a preacher. That actually makes sense, complete with the suggestion that Wildside may not literally believe his visions but does believe in the importance of inspiring hope in his followers. And for the core group, sure, why not these three? Forearm is highly recognisable. Reaper is also highly recognisable, but now claims to have a higher perspective on the world because he’s also been to other universes. Which is true! He was in the Ultraverse Exiles for a while, and nobody remembers that. But as a guy who’s had weird experiences that he thinks make him open-minded… that works. And… well, okay, Strobe’s an odd choice because she was one of the more generic designs. And that design has been reworked here anyway, quite well. But sure, Strobe. Why not. Anyway, I like what Seeley is doing with these characters – they’re underused and this legitimately gives them something to do.
UNCANNY X-MEN #15. (Annotations here.) “Dark Artery” has been the strongest arc of the series so far, though this is something of a middle chapter issue. I assume the flashbacks are heading towards how Henrietta wound up as guardian of the Artery, and since the suggestion is that she’s looking for one of the Outliers to release her from that role, it’s an interesting reversal from her ultra-sympathetic role in the flashbacks. I’m looking forward to seeing how we pull that off next time. As for this issue, I like the way Deathdream is handled, and obviously David Marquez can sell the atmosphere of the Penumbra. I’m not so sure about the goth costumes for everyone, though I guess they help prevent the vibe of the Penumbra being polluted by too many bright colours, so they serve a function there.
MAGIK #5. (Annotations here.) End of the first arc, though we’re obviously not finished with Liminal, since the book’s only supporting character is tied to him, and Magik’s very upset about that. The main purpose of this first arc is actually to reconcile Magik to her Darkchild persona, which is a fair enough way of taking the character forward. It’s a stronger issue if you couple it with a re-read of the whole arc, since in isolation, the centrepiece of this issue is a rather on-the-nose exchange between Illyana and the Darkchild in which Illyana finally figures out that the Darkchild is not an outside influence but rather her own defensive reaction to trauma. The arc as a whole, though, builds to that very nicely with hindsight, by having everyone (except Cal) act as though Darkchild is a massive threat even though she never actually does anything beyond express delight at being let out, and carry on fighting the bad guys when she’s in control. So viewed in the round, there are subtler things happening. The understated art helps it too. This is one of the strongest books in the line right now.
DEADPOOL / WOLVERINE #5. (Annotations here.) Well, I gave this an annotation post because it’s an ongoing and the reveal seems kind of important but… I don’t honestly understand it or care very much. All the possible explanations of what’s going on seem to involve this being an alt-timeline Apocalypse, so whatever. More to the point, though, what’s the point of a Deadpool / Wolverine team-up series where they spend the whole first arc taking turns to be mind controlled so that they barely ever actually interact as characters? Are we trying to do delayed gratification here (even though Deadpool / Wolverine team-up stories are ten a penny)? Or are we just trying to avoid writing scenes where they have to interact because it’s not actually very interesting (which it isn’t, but the premise of a Deadpool / Wolverine book has to be that it is).
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. By Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Adam Kubert, Laura Martin and Clayton Cowles. So this is a de facto miniseries about the timeline getting screwed up by Legion – or rather, the bunch of stray personalities left behind after David moved on to the White Hot Room at the end of the Krakoan era – and Ms Marvel going back in time to visit key moments from X-Men history. I’m not sure there’s really a point to this beyond doing a reprise of the greatest hits as a 50th anniversary celebration of the original Giant-Size X-Men #1, and I suppose that’s reason enough if you’re not expecting anything more than that. I can’t say it grabs me as anything more than a gimmick, though. I suppose in theory you can do something with Ms Marvel as the latecomer to mutant culture getting to see the parts of history that she’s only heard about, but I don’t think it works in practice – it winds up doing more to lampshade how awkwardly Kamala has been shoehorned into the X-books. It’s nice to see Kubert again, and I guess it’s nice to acknowledge that this Cyclops has met Ms Marvel before in Champions – though the bit about memories being suppressed is glossed over and it undercuts the idea that she’s an outsider to these events. I don’t think that trying to square off the original story with the later reinterpretation of Krakoa really works either – the story has to acknowledge that it doesn’t fit but doesn’t really have a clever angle on what to do with that fact.
There’s a back-up by Al Ewing, Sara Pichelli and Federico Blee, retconning in an obvious villain who rejects Professor X’s offer to join the X-Men, and that’s a bit more interesting – assuming that it’s heading somewhere – but it’s not a reason to pick up the issue on its own.
CABLE: LOVE & CHROME #5. By David Pepose, Mike Henderson, Arif Prianto & Joe Sabino. Final issue of the miniseries, and this certainly benefits from being re-read in one sitting, since it winds up looping back to the start, so it really helps if that first issue is fresh in your mind. Self-cancelling time-travel stories can be tricky to pull off, but this is a nice little self-contained affair about Cable meeting his soulmate in a future timeline and winding up having to delete their relationship in order to give everyone else a happy ending. This being a time paradox story, the actual mechanics of all that are decidedly wavy (shouldn’t there be two Cables at the end?) but the thrust of what it’s trying to do is clear enough, and it works. Admittedly, a re-reading also brings out that the book keeps coming back to a very odd line about Cable choosing “the bigger picture over the greater good”, which surely doesn’t make any sense because they’re the same thing? But Henderson’s art is fantastic throughout, with a great take on Cable’s techno-organics. And this is the sort of book I was pleased to see from the current line – something completely detached from everything else and just doing its story and going home.
ROGUE: SAVAGE LAND #5. By Tim Seeley, Zulema Scotto Lavina, Rachelle Rosenberg & Joe Caramagna. Well, I said at the start of the series that this was less T&A than the covers suggested, and so it remains – and hey, Ka-Zar’s there as a guest star for the equal opportunity loincloth. Beyond that, it’s a bit meh, and to be honest, it doesn’t get much better from a re-read in one sitting. The main plot is Zaladane’s scheme to take over the Savage Land, which of course is the story that was underway when we picked up Rogue’s thread in Uncanny X-Men #274. So you can see why this book has to deal with that… except it’s not a Rogue story. At a push, it’s a Magneto story, since Zaladane has more resonance with him. The other problem is that the story can’t properly resolve because, well, it’s still going in Uncanny #274. In lieu of that, there’s a lot of Savage Land types running around, of varying levels of familiarity, none of whom are all that interesting either. There are some nice character beats in there, it looks nice enough, and it’s generally okay on a scene-by-scene level, but it doesn’t really make for a memorable Rogue story.
WOLVERINE & KITTY PRYDE #2. By Chris Claremont, Damian Couceiro, Carlos Lopez & Ariana Maher. On the whole, a perfectly decent little continuity implant series. Couceiro’s art helps a lot by giving it some boldness and energy and downplaying the nostalgia angle, and I do appreciate Claremont doing a little more with Kitty and her father. The cliffhanger is a bizarre left turn, though, and suggests a worrying swerve into the wider late-Claremontverse, with a version of Ziggy Trask from his X-Men Forever showing up, along with a bunch of human-size Sentinels from the 2013 X-Men Gold one-shot. I’m not sure how any of that fits with the parts of the book that have been working. But the book has been good enough so far, so we’ll see how it goes.
I’m half wondering if Giant-Size X-Men is supposed to be an illusion created using Kamala’s knowledge of the original story. Cyclops remembers her even though he shouldn’t. Krakoa speaks Krakoan even though they shouldn’t. There’s no sign of Moira’s X-Men.
Either that, or it’s really lousy editing.
I immediately suspected lousy editing. It would be a nice surprise if these were actually clues/plot points.
I wonder about the backup. Why would Al Ewing be introducing a new villain when he’s not writing an x-book at the moment? Is there an announcement on the horizon?
Re: Giant- Size X-Men 1:
Jackson explained Scott remembering Kamala in Aipt’s X-Men Mondays feature in the following way:
Jackson: I have always been excited about getting Kamala back to a place where she can have a conversation with her friend Cyclops. I always think that the core relationship between her and teenage Scott from the Champions days is a fun little artifact of that loop. But one of the things that Scott left behind was a little trigger in his brain that, whenever he encounters Kamala, he can treat her like a friend. He can remember enough to know what’s going on there.
The problem is that Scott doesn’t JUST remember Kamala. He seems to remember the Champions as well but for some reason, he doesn’t remember Ororo or Logan from his time in the future. It’s ridiculously arbitrary.
Xavier claimed that the Kamala can’t be at the Mansion because it’s only a place for mutants. But human friends and family of mutants have always been welcome at the Mansion. I guess Xavier was just trying to get Kamala out of there because ehe was worried about a time paradox.
So Kamala is officially 16 now? She seemed like she was 18 in NYX.
This issue gets Krakoan wrong. Kamala is able to get Krakoa to understand her by talking in Krakoan, since Krakoa taught the Krakoan language to Doug. But Krakoan ISN’T the language Krakoa taught to Doug. It’s a seperate language Doug invented. Doug was the only one who could communicate with Krakoa. When Doug was missing, they needed Sinister’s cloning technology to duplicate Doug’s power so they could communicate with Krakoa.
Kamala convinces Krakoa to fly away. Since when does Krakoa have the power to fly?
It seems like Kamala will get control of her mutant power in this series.
When I first saw a picture of Forearm way back around the time of his debut, I thought “huh, someone gave Barbarus a shave”. As Vertigo ended up on the Marauders, it seemed reasonable that another Savage Land Mutate would have left and found themselves on a team fighting the New Mutants. I still feel that’s kind of a better setup. Or we need an 8-fisted battle between the two.
Regarding Superior, her ability is the power to duplicate a person’s power, only more powerful. This issue she’s able to use it to overpower Xavier, even though MacKay established Xavier as an Omega and Omegas have no limits. I guess it’s like Gurenwald wrote in that old issue of Quasar- “There are different levels of infinity”.
Numerous readers wondered what would happen if Superior encountered Isca or Synch.
Bleeding Cool’s Bestseller list is out. Giant-Size X-Men 1 came in at number 5. Magik 5 came in at number 8. Uncanny X-Men 15 came in at 9.
Magik continues to perform very well.
Even though Magik just barely beat Uncanny X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men might beat Magik when the final numbers come in, it’s not a good sign that Uncanny X-Men, one of the flagship books, is struggling to do as well as Magik.
@Krysziek- Marvel’s claimed that Superior will be making “her exciting return in a current X-Title later this year”. So she’s definitely going to appear in a current book, not a new book that’s going to be created.
I’ve seen a couple people speculate that Superior is the Chairman but that’s impossible since in the preview for X-Men 17, Wyre refers to the Chairman as “Mister”.
It’s possible that Superior wasn’t Ewing’s idea. Steve Foxe will be writing the backup in Giant-Size Dark Phoenix that reveals the bare bones of the “Grand Unified Theory” of Scott’s and Jean’s relationship but that was Breevort’s idea, not Foxe’s.
Although I do wonder why Ewing and Foxe would be selected to write these stories if it wasn’t their ideas.
Xavier was never considered an Omega prior to MacKay. Quire and Jean were considered the only Omega-level telepaths prior to MacKay. In fact, MacKay would then have Quire (the established Omega-level telepath) defeat Xavier, which would certainly seem to put into question if Xavier could be considered Omega-level. I think they were just trying to soothe Xavier’s wounded ego now that he was no longer a dictator by consoling him with this Omega talk.
That’s probably how Superior defeated Xavier. She duplicated Xavier’s power, but then upgraded it to Quire or Jean’s level.
X-Men- Before he actually had the X-men title, I was truly enthusiastically impressed by Mackay’s Moon Knight run. I had expectations for great stories coming from him. This run has been quite the let down, one incoherent mess with a few good moments. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better. X-Men is apparently more than this otherwise skilled writer can handle. I am actively hoping for cancellation.
Uncanny X-Men- Speaking of skilled writers… I knew THE Gail Simone would find her footing even after some early weird mischaracterizations. I am glad that she is mostly ignoring Jubilee and Kurt. They are not familiar enough to her, and is outside of her wheelhouse. What she is doing that I quite like is making sense of the Mutant metaphor in the past without having to recon anything. Orlando wanted to make the statement in Marauders that LGBTQ have been forever, and so he wrote the story that Kate traveled to before humanity evolved (before the Celestial intervention too) to claim Mutants were first. Okay, even if it seemed an odd choice of time-travel it had positive vibes. Here Simone is not ignoring the intersectionality of oppression. Is this a story about Black experience in the United States? Is it about the patriarchy and oppression of women? Is it about Mutants who Orlando planted were first. Apocalypse, Selene, and Namor were already established as being before any atomic testing and the children of the Atom. So yes, yes, yes she is making it about all those things at once while showing us that the Orchis-minded predated Orchis and their oppression create the erasure of the history that makes Mutants seem to be a new phenomena. This works! So long as she continues to ignore Jubilee and Kurt, she is well suited to writing the kids at Ann Nocenti level quality.
Exceptional X-Men- This is the BEST of the current line, and hands down the best team oriented comic book currently. It holds up decently even without the caveat of comparison within the F.T.A. Ewing is not just rehabbing Kate, she is rehabbing the stupid R-LDS into plausibility. Nice character work, consistent pacing and as far as I can tell the biggest knock readers have is that there aren’t enough fight scenes. This story has stakes without world ending doomsday scenarios. Ewing seems to share my viewpoint that the X-line works best as a soap opera. She makes the tea to my taste.
Giant Sized X-Men- What a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t quite good, but how could it be? It was unexpectedly competent, better than expected, and had some nice interactions. I interpreted Scott’s recognition of Kamala as that the memory suppression was partially lifted due to seeing her. Hand waving of if Xavier reinforced the suppression later, off panel, seemed reasonable story telling. My mind only lingered on Moira and Lorna’s lack of involvement. Did Krakoa fly? Do we simply not see Lora’s actions? Could Krakoa speak Krakoan before Doug? I would compare this with Godzilla vs, the X-Men. It was also an obvious story created not out of love, but because marketing and sales demanded it. Nicieza brought enough craft and experience to make it better than one could reasonably hope for given it’s remit.
Rouge: Savage Land- This should really be titled “Zaladane-the explanation,” Originally it was quite confusing whether Zaladane was related to Lorna and Magneto. It was a weird mess left untouched until now. My biggest disappointment is that it is now canon that Piotr is a knowingly dead beat dad. Before, I was left thinking that there was a joyful surprise for him in the future. Nope. It is now on panel that he knew, told Rogue and never returned for his son. When Colossus started with the X-Men under Wein and Claremont he was written as an anti-trope. Instead of Russians as caricatured evil so commonly at that time, he was depicted as thoughtful, kind, and loving. X-Men as world wide representation, and Piotr was kind, nice and the embodiment of hope for a less antagonistic world. Then the 90’s happened. Now it has sunk to dead-beat dad status, Ugh.
Wolverine & Kitty Pryde- Man, I love Claremont. Yes, he has quirks and has had some clear misses but this is delightful.
Storm- I have finally figured it out! All you have to do is read the first issue’s first page, then read the second issue’s last page, the third issues 12th page, Go back to the first issue’s second page… it all makes sense now. Lovely art and the writer seems lto be a lovely person as well. It just isn’t my fan-fic. It is a collection of fantastic artwork.
Phoenix- After a colossal disaster, Philips is finally writing decently again. While having a lesser reputation than Gail Simone, she has done some solid work. As irritating as I find Brevoort gave her a mulligan. I doubt the readership will increase after what came before, but I am rooting for her.
Laura Kinney: Wolverine- Schultz is doing a wonderful job of sewing the character back together after Duggan. I just want Leah Williams or Tom Taylor’s Laura back in, and the fish-nets gone.
Magik- The best solo title of the line. It is so refreshing. I want more of this! Also, Dani done right!
@Chris V – The only person that claimed Xavier was an omega was Xavier. He only did this in the context of fighting an actual omega who is always overcompensating for a sense of insecurity.
Okay, enough for one post. Thank you Paul!
*
“As irritating as I find Brevoort, I am happy that he gave her a mulligan.”
Giant-Sized X-Men was a mess. The characters’ actions didn’t make much sense, especially Legion’s. If he’s so powerful, I don’t know why he didn’t do much of consequence in the story. Kamala time-hopping isn’t the worst plot, but her time with the X-Men felt rushed. Adam Kubert’s art was fine (although he still can’t draw a decent Nightcrawler), but the storytelling was choppy and scenes didn’t connect well on a panel-to-panel level.
The back-up was better, if barely-there. Anyone else remember the DC character Paragon? He appeared in an issue of Justice League in the ‘80s written by Kurt Busiek, and returned in Busiek’s 2000s Superman run. Superior has the same “anything you can do, I can do better” power as Paragon (not suggesting anyone copied the obscure older character), and I think that could be a good fit for the X-books.
Xavier was called the most world’s most powerful telepath for years, long before Omega level mutants were a thing. I was surprised he didn’t make the Omega list, but have no problem with others surpassing him.
How can Superior outdo an Omega mutant? By the power of “all this is made up nonsense, just go with it.”
That’s the qualifier, Xavier was the “world’s most powerful telepath”, but the implication was always there that there was an upper limit to Xavier’s ability, which was his being human. In the universe, there are minds superior to Xavier’s telepathy. Jean and Quire both surpassed that limitation, as there is no upper limit to their potential, with both being shown to be able to surpass the limitation of being human (as per Morrison).
Of course, that means that Xavier is no longer even this world’s most powerful telepath, but Quire wasn’t introduced until Morrison, and Jean was a youngster who was thought to only have telekinetic powers until more recent years. So, even that level for Xavier is outdated.
“I’ve seen a couple people speculate that Superior is the Chairman but that’s impossible since in the preview for X-Men 17, Wyre refers to the Chairman as “Mister”.”
I’d be extremely impressed if it’s revealed that the Chairman is Superior, who is a trans man. In all seriousness, I think it would be amazing.
“Xavier was the “world’s most powerful telepath””
Keeping in mind that Hawkeye is the “world’s greatest archer”, despite any number of characters with super strength and enhanced senses who’d probably be able to fire arrows through tank armour. Or to put it another way, it’s not the size that matters, it’s how you use it.
According to Justina herself, she not only gets powers but also skills at a higher level. So even if she could only match someones power because it was already maxed out, she would be better at using it.
Hey, what if this Superior lady, who copies powers but at a superior level, met the Masked Raider, who becomes the equal of an opponent? She’d become better than him, but then he’d equal her, so she’d get better again, and he’d equal her, ad infinitum.
The way I see it, Superior’s power just highlights how senseless the idea of an “Omega Mutant” is (something that I have already pointed out in the past).
The current prevailing interpretation seems to be that somehow certain mutants are Omegas, meaning that it is literally impossible to surpass their power levels in their respective specialties.
Nice for putting on a frame and hanging to the wall, I suppose. But it makes no logical sense whatsoever.
For instance, it is currently said that Quentin and Jean are both Omega Level Telepaths. What the heck would that be supposed to mean and how would that work? Their power levels are immutable, supreme and presumably equivalent? That would be odd, given that Jean has been without telepathy for about six years (real time) in the first volume of X-Factor. We know that other people did not lose their telepathic abilities at the same time, nor would we expect them to. The implication would be that Omega Level power can be lost and regained somehow.
Also: how would one even know that there are two Omega mutants for the same power? Have they measured their power levels (how?) and found out that they are constantly and consistently equal and above anyone else’s? Do they have the ability to interfere with the other’s power level in some way? If they don’t, then apparently they aren’t both truly Omega level telepaths. If they do, then how and when they found that out?
Elixir and White Sword are also presumably “Omega Level” healers. Ororo, an Omega Level weather controller. And so on.
In practice, “Omega Level” seems to be the slightly more serious “GOAT” of the mutant set. Sometimes it seems instead to acquire an almost mystical connotation, with the label being treated as cosmically significant or prophetically decreed. Yet apparently Shiar technology can detect it (according to Phoenix: Endsong), and Cerebra can as well (according to Deadly Genesis).
Other levels of mutant classification (Alpha, Beta, etc) are rather vague. But “Omega” is actually meaningless, or at least has demonstrably changed meaning wildly at various times in the last few decades.
In short, Omega Level means “plot-convenient supreme for the moment” and breaks down immediately when treated as anything with more substance.
@Woodswalked
Where was it revealed that Colossus has a son and that he knows about it?
Mike Loughlin: I do recall Paragon – it’s a great little story. The Justice League fights someone with an OP power, quickly figure out how to exploit his weaknesses – for example, being a better archer than Green Arrow doesn’t mean much when you don’t have a bow – and trounce him in a single issue.
Giant-sized was a mess, and seemed to continue the trend of Ms. Marvel as the Poochie of the Marvel universe. She can’t really seem to carry sales on her own book long enough, so they try making her a mutant to fit the X books, but without actually integrating her into the mutant community (how many X-Men still keep their identities secret?).
Now we get a series about her upstaging key moments in X-Men history. Feels like if they really wanted to revisit these moments, there are better ways to have done so… I recall a mini back in the 00’s that had Jean, Toad, Mystique and a few others revisiting some key moments, tied into, I want to say, the Stranger?
@Woodswalked: How is Eve Ewing rehabbing R-LDS into plausibility? She just had Emma dismiss it as a possibility.
People say omega mutants have no limits, but Hickman’s definition explicitly mentions the upper limit of the power. he defined Jean Grey and magneto as omegas and wrote them with limits.
There’s no way to tell if an Omega mutant has reached the upper limit of their power. Iceman is an Omega mutant, but what if there’s a mutant out there who can freeze the entire planet by blinking? Guess Bobby’s not an Omega after all. If a writer decides a new character can “out-Omega” an Omega, then the designation is lost.
It’s all made-up nonsense. I happen to like made-up nonsense, I’ll even get hung up on certain aspects of the made-up nonsense not working for me, but worrying about power-level definitions isn’t one of them.
@neutrino- Hickman tried to have his cake and eat it too. For example, he described Omegas as having “an undefinable upper limit” but described Hope as an Omega, even though her power only works within a limited distance.
@Woodswalked- Yeah. where did it say that Colossus told Rogue that Nereel’s child was his son? (I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I just can’t seem to remember where if it did.)
JCG-Did you want to know where it was revealed that Colossus had a son, or was that part of your question rhetorical?
It was officially revealed on the page in the Colossus: Bloodline mini-series, where Peter in the Savage Land was shown reacting along with all other surviving members of the Savage Land.
However, Claremont basically told the readers that Piotr had a son in the Savage Land. In Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Piotr became the chief of the tribe and Nereel introduced her son, Peter, to Piotr. Somehow, Piotr was too naive to piece together that Nereel was trying to show Piotr he had a son with her. Then, in the Classic X-Men #21 back-up story, it showed Colossus having a sexual relationship with Nereel, if it wasn’t explicit enough in the Annual.
As far as Piotr finding out he had a son…I don’t know anything about that.
*Peter was shown reacting with all other surviving members of the Rasputin bloodline, not “surviving members of the Savage Land” as I mistakenly wrote.
“shouldn’t there be two Cables at the end?”
The previous issue had Cable redoing the battle over and over and over again – there should have been an army of Cables but somehow he just replaced himself with every go.
That Cyclops/Kamala memory trigger thing is WEAK. Are they really having to cover a very big writing mistake?
The art was barely recognisable as Kubert.
I’ve been away from the X-books and the X-Axis for several years, with a vague awareness that there’s some sprawling multi-year Krokoa story that happened but having read only one issue of it. I dropped back in with Exceptional X-Men and Rogue: Savage Land.
I don’t know whether it’s the storytelling style that’s changed or my post-Covid brain, but I seem to be cognitively unable to follow the narrative art in these books without backtracking and re-reading several times per issue. I don’t mean I dislike the pacing or the art styles, I mean I keep thinking I must have turned two pages at once.
I’ll write firther thoughts on both these books after I read the final issue of the Rogue mini. For now my question for the comments panel is whether I’m just out of practice or it really is more challenging than it used to be to identify that one of the new color-shifting teen mutants is a mood ring while two of the others just change respectively to a single other color that the mood mutant also sometimes changes to, and that Rogue slipped and fell off a rock.
(I think my beef is primarily with R:SL, but it’s not *not* with Exceptional.)
*further
Some tidbits from Breevort’s blog:
The Bring on the Bad Guys series will be taking place in the past.
And Breevort responds to a question about lack of communication between the Krakoan writers and the From the Ashes writers:
BRANDON GILES: My question is about communication during the transition between Krakoa and FtA. Several writers have expressed that they didn’t know exactly how Krakoa would end even as they were scripting their books for FtA, which is why, for example, Storm’s no longer with Craig Marshall and Magneto (this is one I’m personally disappointed about, ngl) doesn’t appear to be carrying his resolution that he’s going to fight for all oppressed people forward in any way. From the outside, it feels like this is a situation that could have been resolved with a few email exchanges between writers. Was this just something that was overlooked or was it a choice to create more narrative distance between Krakoa and FtA?
TOM: I don’t see as much discontinuity there as you do, Brandon, but that may simply be me being less invested in certain relationships and situations than you were as a reader. So some of what you’re talking abotu is choice, and some of it is the byproduct of a bunch of different people working on stories simultaneously. Remember, we started work on those initial FROM THE ASHES series close to a year ahead of time, so while the preceding editorial office could tell us certain things about what they were planning, even they wouldn’t have quite known every detail of every story that was going to happen between then and when we took over. So it all mostly got dealt with in real time as we all worked. I haven’t gone back and looked or anything, but I’d bet my hat that Jed MacKay had written the script for X-MEN #1 (and possibly an issue or two beyond that) before Al Ewing had finished his work on RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO, so that course had already been set.
No-Prize: what do 616-Jean and 616-Quentin have in common ? They both became hosts for the Phoenix Force , and they both reconstructed their bodies from pure psionic energy (Jean) or dissolved cellular matter (Quentin) . 616-Charles made have already become a host for the Phoenix Force in Fall of X (remember 616-Jean vs 616-OG Sinister/Enigma) , though he never reconstituted his body from Pure psionic energy or dissolved cellular matter (even when he was 616-Onslaught’s host , his original body remained even when he already learned how to transform psychic energy into solid matter from 295-Nate Grey) , unless you count him reformatting 616-Fantomex’s cloned body pre-Krakoa.
Prof. X became a host to the Phoenix Force in X-Men: Spotlight on the Starjammers 2. If you don’t know about this weird, obscure comic from 1990 or so, don’t worry about it. Although it’s (possibly) Dave Cockrum’s last full-length X-comic, guest stars Excalibur, and features an all-out brawl against the Imperial Guard, it’s… not that great.
Ah, but Xavier became the “Bald Phoenix” (seriously), very low on the Sefirot. Everyone knows that it requires flowing locks or crazy ‘dos to truly harness the potential of the Phoenix. I’d say “Bald Phoeni-X” represents Yesod…at best.
@neutrino- “Plausible” within the framework of “it’s all made up nonsense.” By which I am saying that it doesn’t kick me in my suspension of disbelief as hard.
“I realized that each occurrence of the Krakoan regeneration process left minute remnants of genetic material.” “There is nothing in nature, I have come to realize that is exempt from the vanity of a signature. These traces were imperceptible to any who didn’t search for them, they were, down to the level of individual amino acids”
Sinister in Exceptional X-Men 8.
We then are shown, not told, what this means with Axo’s clone falling apart. That I find this less eye-rolling that Brevoort’s direction that it applies to Magneto who was resurrected without Sinister’s involvement.
@JCG- In Rogue: The Savage Land 2 it says… nothing at all that I remembered. My only guess is that I literally dreamed it. This is deeply embarrassing and I apologize.
Loved that Paragon story. Same with Kurt’s Dr. Anarchy JLA story. He had a good but brief run, although the JLA/JSA team-up, featuring perm and headband Supergirl, is not as good as the two aforementioned stories.
@Woodswalked- in Rogue the Savage Land 4 Rogue makes it clear that she knows that Peter slept with Nereel. That may be what you’re thinking of. Of course, there’s a big difference between “Peter knows he slept with Nereel” and “Peter knows he’s the father of Nereel’s son”.
If we take the expanded story as published in Classic X-Men #21 as canon (and we probably should, since it was written by Claremont during his first run in the main title), the continuity implant establishes that Piotr is well aware that Nereel (and Fahé as well) hoped to become pregnant from “being with” Piotr at that time. They tell her as much, very matter of factly. He tries to dissuade them by pointing out that he will be gone soon and may never return. He is told outright that it does not matter far as they are concerned.
What to make of that? Probably that he is technically an absent parent, but I don’t see any grounds for blaming him for that in those circunstances.
You’re right. I don’t remember that part of the Classic X-Men backup. I just remember them talking about sex, but Nereel maintains that the children in her tribe are raised communally, so it doesn’t matter if the birth father is present.
Which makes it weird that Claremont wrote the Uncanny X-Men Annual so that Colossus is too naive to figure out that the women he had sex with, who has a child named Peter, is trying to hint to him that it’s his son. Longshot even figures it out, but Nereel tells him not to tell Piotr.
So, either Piotr forgot a large part of the conversation he had with Nereel that night, or Piotr is pretending to be naive because he is a dead-beat dad…
I’m just fed up at the sheer number of continuity inserts between classic X-Men and All-New. Must we do this again?! There’s so many other interesting points in the history we could do fun things with!
Is it fair to accuse Piotr of neglecting his responsibilities as a parent when he was told outright that he has none?
I mean, you could make an actually stronger case that Nereel is being unfair towards Colossus in hiding that he has a son (although that is a very easy discovery for Piotr to make if he wants to try, certainly).
But, again, he had shown concern that he was not ready to take the responsibility. Nereel has no grounds to feel hurt by his behavior, and by all appearances has no complaints indeed.
So why _did_ Claremont revisit that episode in 1988’s “X-Men Annual #12”? I can only guess, but my guess is that he wanted to show that Nereel is indeed true to her word and so has Piotr.
A certain kind of story would insist in having Piotr grow into the role of parent despite the initial understanding sparing him that need. Claremont was not writing that kind of story. He was not as adverse to showing the actual variation of sexual and social arrangements found in the real world as most mainstream writers, and could be slightly daring on that subject matter.
Yeah. When you meet the woman again and find out that she has named her child after you and is basically screaming at you that this is your son. I mean, Piotr knew nothing about their culture, Nereel might have been lying to get Piotr to sleep with her. Which is highly immoral on her part, yes, but that’s not the kid’s fault. Besides which, Piotr and Nereel were still on good terms in the Annual. It’s not like Piotr confronted her, “Why are you lugging this kid of yours around? I thought you told me raising children was communal here, huh?”.
Claremont could have shown different sexual mores, but he did not. He could have had the confrontation where Piotr realizes it is his kid, and Nereel has the talk where birth fathers abs birth mothers are no more important to children in her culture than any other member of the tribe, and Piotr comes to term with the fact that he is the biological father of this boy, but that means nothing to Nereel’s culture, so Piotr moves on with his life.
Instead, Claremont wrote it so that Piotr is apparently so naive he can’t figure out the kid of the woman he slept with a few years ago, who named her kid Peter, is his child, and seems to have ignored the Classic X-Men story he wrote.
Like Claremont realized that some people would have a problem with the morality of the Classic X-Men story, so he just pretended that Piotr didn’t know he had a kid.
You may also have editorial not wanting Piotr to have a kid out of wedlock (depending on when said story was written).
For people upset about continuity, I encourage you to listen to my pod with Morrison, where he gives the whole explanation about how hypertime was really meant to work. There’s math but it’s fascinating.
Also, listen to the pod before that with Al, including the chat about Zemo that Brevoort discussed in this weeks newsletter, but took out the part where I plugged HTA.
@Mark Coale- It was written in 1988. On the one hand, editorial had allowed Xavier to have a child out of wedlock just a few years ago. On the other hand, editorial had forbidden Spider-Man from having a child out of wedlock just a few years ago.
I’m not sure if the Comics Code might have been a factor. I’ve heard it argued that one of the reasons for the Scott and Maddie mess was because the Code wouldn’t allow Scott to divorce Maddie. (Supposedly the Code only allowed for divorce in extreme circumstances, which is why you had Buzz Baxter turning into an abusive monster who later tried to kill Patsy and allied with the avatar of a serpent demon and Hank Pym attacking the Avengers with an Adamantium robot so Patsy and Jan could get divorced.) The Code might have been reluctant to have Colossus father a child during a tryst with two women.
Seems that Classic X-Men #21 and Uncanny X-Men Annual #12 were published within months of each other.
So the (minor) differences between them are a little strange.
Not as if Clarement would have had time to forget what he wrote.
It prob would have been easier to kill off a character back 8n the day to end a relationship than getting a divorce.
When did Ray Palmer and Jean Loring get divorced? I want to say it was in the 80s, long before Identity crisis. IIRC, she was being unfaithful.
@Mike , youre right , I forgot all about that! That was the one thad the dramatic tearjerker spotlight on the StarJammer’s Creee , of all people LOL (and the last time Hepzibah had her original catears on top of head and huge bushy skunk tail and B&W skunk coloring)
No-Prize: decades of being hit in the head have given Piotr brain damage like all physical fighters who are thus not as mentally sharp as they could be LOL
Here’s my attempt at a No-prize: time passes differently in the dimension that Nereel and Peter were in after the destruction of the Savage Land by Terminus, so Piotr sees Peter and thinks he is too old to be his son since he slept with Nereel years ago.
Piotr can be oblivious for completely reasonable thinking without being stupid. Nereel doesn’t tell him because Piotr would then want to stay and the world needs Colossus to punch things.
@Mark Coale- You’re right, Atom and Jean were divorced in 1984.
All this talk of Piotr and Peter and no mention of Pavel Rasputin?
Claremont brought back the kid from the Savage Land as Kid Colossus in his X-Men: The End series. And then Kid Colossus’s son Pavel turned up in his GeNext series as a third Colossus.
Claremont never gave up on Piotr’s Savage Land child!