The X-Axis – 1 April 2012
Tonight’s Wrestlemania preview? One post down.
This weekend’s podcast? Two posts down.
Alright, now to run through this week’s X-books! And it’s quite the eventful week, with one cancellation, one new creative team, and the lead-in issue for the big summer crossover.
Astonishing X-Men #48 – The first issue by Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins. We talked about this on the podcast, and for my money it’s a mixed affair. There’s an obvious difficulty for any of the secondary X-books in trying to find a separate identity for their title, and to some extent Liu succeeds in setting a different tone for her book – even if it’s one that bears little resemblance to the sort of stories that have appeared in this book before. The title is now aligned with Wolverine’s side of the split, but steers clear of the school in favour of doing stories about some of the staff hanging out in New York over their weekends along with Manhattan residents Northstar and Cecilia Reyes.
Reyes is rather oddly positioned as some sort of romantic interest for Gambit, despite the fact that X-Men Legacy has been positioning him in a romantic subplot with Frenzy. This doesn’t feel like it’s setting up a triangle; it just comes across as if the two books aren’t co-ordinating very well. Northstar, meanwhile, comes equipped with a partner who I’m not sure we’ve ever seen before, but who feels suspiciously as though he’s here to get tragically killed in chapter three.
If the basic idea is to get some of the second-tier characters from the east coast faction away from the zaniness of the school and do something a little more grounded, that’s maybe not a bad idea. Whether we really need another book with prominent roles for Wolverine and Gambit is another matter, and it also has to be said that this first issue is very talky. If you’re a fan of well-appointed Manhattan flats, it’s very much a comic for you, though, because there’s eight straight pages of people having conversations in them. The story kicks in near the end, though not to the point of actually establishing the hook.
It’s alright, and it’ll probably pick up in later issues once it hits its stride, but it’s not a particularly great debut issue.
Avengers vs X-Men #0 – Ah, zero issues. Always thought that was an odd way of labelling a prologue. Kind of makes sense when it’s added later as a prequel, but if it’s simply the first issue of Avengers vs X-Men, doesn’t that just make it issue #1?
Well, anyway. What this issue actually contains is a Scarlet Witch story by Brian Bendis, and a Hope story by Jason Aaron, both with art by Frank Cho (who, in fairness, dials back his usual cheesecake tendencies quite considerably in this issue). The Scarlet Witch story sees her returning to being a superhero and taking on MODOK, and some of the other Avengers trying to bring her back into the fold, only for the Vision to refuse to talk to her. That’s basically it, and much depends on how far you think the Vision’s reaction is out of character. I think it’s more or less acceptable; but then, I’ve got no terribly clear sense of what the Vision’s personality is even meant to be these days, since god knows he’s done nothing terribly interesting in years.
Perhaps the more pertinent question is why Avengers vs X-Men is opening with a Scarlet Witch story at all, when most of the hype has been about Hope and the Phoenix. I can only assume that this is finally heading to the question of whether Hope does “save” mutantkind by reversing M-Day, and since Wanda was important to the original story, they need to find a role for her here. We’ll see how that goes.
Hope’s story involves her wondering about her connection with the Phoenix, which nobody will talk to her about, and taking off her frustrations by beating up low-end super villains in San Francisco, despite Cyclops’ grumblings that she’s too important to go off on her own like this. I’m not quite sold on this one; Aaron’s take on Cyclops and Hope’s relationship is logical enough, but doesn’t really match up with the way they’re being written in other titles. If Cyclops was that desperate to keep Hope out of harm’s way, would he have put her on the Extinction Team in the first place? And other stories haven’t really established Hope as somebody who takes out her frustrations by going off on her own to beat the crap out of bad guys. The whole thing feels a bit out of character to me, I’m afraid.
Daken: Dark Wolverine #23 – The final issue, and Daken makes his last attempt to go out in a nihilistic blaze of glory. And yes, Daken dies. Not in a way that would cause immeasurable difficulties for anyone who wanted to bring him back, granted – Daken says he deliberately wants to leave a bit of doubt in everyone’s minds – but that’s hardly the point.
For once, this may be a storyline improved by cancellation, since the chance to kill the character provides the opportunity to do an intriguing anticlimax. Daken wants to go out with a bang in a grand gesture that will leave everyone remembering him as the nihilistic mastermind he believes himself to be. And in a purely physical sense, everything goes as planned. But ultimately, nobody really cares. Instead of treating him as a brilliant manipulator, everyone else just sees him as a rather boring psycho with daddy issues. The key moment in this issue is when Daken asks “Don’t you want to know why I did all this?”, and Wolverine simply replies “No.”
Daken never reforms, never escapes his hang-ups – instead, his drug-induced moment of realisation is a brief glimpse of understanding of the heroes, and a recognition that he’s just an empty character obsessed with his father. He achieves some degree of self-awareness, but only in time to realise that he was never the man he thought he was. And while Wolverine’s left to reflect on where his son went wrong, the bottom line is that Daken’s series ends with him dying a failure, as his first person narration resignedly acknowledges his real motivations. In a strange way he comes to terms with who he is, but too late for it to matter. He wants to be acknowledged as a great man; he goes out, even within the context of his own series, as a curio in superhero history.
It’s the ending Daken deserves, but it’s not the one you’d expect Marvel to give him. In that sense it’s quite a brave direction, and it will be all the stronger if Daken’s story really does end here. Once Marvel stopped trying to sell us on the idea that Daken was the coolest thing ever, and started running with the angle that he just thought he was – which was pretty much when Williams took over – there was something there. But that direction logically leads either to this point, or to a well-trodden story of redemption. Leave it here. It’s a better story that way.
Uncanny X-Force #23 – The art seemed to have improved with the previous issue, but this month we’re back to sketchiness, missing backgrounds, inconsistent line weight, and wonky colouring that wavers between bright primary colours and murky greens. Somewhere in here, there’s an interesting story trying to get out, though the sudden twist that the bad guy is a future version of the reformed Jamie Braddock – who can thus only be defeated by killing the present day Jamie – feels like it comes out of nowhere. The subplot with the Skinless Man feels disconnected from the rest, the stuff with cutting off Fantomex’s face feels way over the top and out of tone with the rest of the story… yeah, it’s not good.
That said, the climax works. Brian can’t bring himself to kill Jamie, so Psylocke steps in to do it for him. That’s pretty standard; what’s more interesting is her complaint that Brian just wanted to remain the hero, and leaves her to take the responsibility. I like that idea, and I think it kind of works for Brian’s character.
But after the very strong previous storyline, this Otherworld arc has been a disappointment.
X-Men Legacy #264 – Christos Gage begins his second storyline, with the arrival at the school of the Mimic and Weapon Omega from the Dark X-Men. Weapon Omega’s not very well, largely because he feeds on the energy of mutants and he hasn’t had many around yet. So bringing him to a school full of mutants to get help isn’t a very smart move. But the Mimic is, well, not the sharpest tool in the box.
I’ve never really cared for Weapon Omega, who’s basically a plot device with no personality. Gage doesn’t really solve that problem in this issue, though in fairness, since the plot calls for Omega to be a raving lunatic for much of the issue, there’s not much opportunity to do so. The Mimic gets a better deal, with Gage picking up on the angle from Dark X-Men that he’s not such a bad guy, and kind of well-meaning in his way, but a bit of a loser and hopelessly out of his depth. Still… it’s ultimately a Weapon Omega story, and I am yet to be convinced that I want to read about him.
Northstar’s partner was prominently featured in the Alpha Flight mini/series/mini. He didn’t die there either.
Kyle, Northstar’s boyfriend, was introduced when Fraction joined Uncanny. He was glimpsed in one of those anthology books, visiting Northstar on Utopia. Most recently, he factored heavily into the short-lived Alpha Flight revival.
He’s definitely been around.
That’s nice to know. He does read like a bit of a generic sacrificial partner in this story, though.
To be fair, most non-superhero partners tend up looking like redshirts. Wolverine’s current girlfriend being the exception to the rule, of course.
I liked the use of the peripheral characters in Legacy. We get a nice bit of discussion with Sam (even if Rogue does turn a discussion of Cannonball’s powers into a discussion on her issues in record time) and Chamber’s scene is probably the best use of the character in ages.
My biggest problem with Gage’s ‘Legacy’ is its waaay too talky. Its actually rather Claremontian in all it’s characters monologing about their feelings and relationships and whatnot. I already miss Carey’s far more subtle characterization via themes and moments. Gage is just a little too ‘on the nose’ about the points he’s trying to convey.
If you didn’t read it, the Avengers (New Avengers?) point one issue this week with the Vision might also be required reading before the cross over starts.
Regarding the argument between Cyclops and Hope: the way I see it, Cyclops has Hope on his extinction team because a) he realises that she brings both considerable power and valuable combat training/experience to the table, and b) more importantly, he sees it as the best way to keep her under his watch and guidance. His issue with her in AvsX is with her running off unsupervised and risking herself fighting C-list villains and muggers; it still makes perfect sense in that regard.
The Vision being dead for about seven years has probably impeded his ability to do much of interest, to be fair.
Regarding Cyclops and Hope, there’s also the factor that her powers (as shown to date) depend heavily on what other mutants are around, so fighting solo in her case is a really bad idea.
I imagine it was easier to kill Daken once those other plot devic–I mean, children showed up in the main Wolverine title. I never quite enjoyed the character, so I can’t say I don’t applaud the meta-narrative of his exit.
About X-Force, the one thing that really puzzled me about the whole storyline, and I think this is a failing of the combination of both story and art, is what exactly Psylocke’s Lady Britain persona is supposed to be. The first part of the run seems to heavily imply that it’s a complete reversion back to Elisabeth Braddock, or rather the original Caucasian version, and the color palette for the character throughout the run seems to suggest it. It really doesn’t seem like it was the actual case, but I was really curious about this one. It is a bit of a shame, though. It might be too much of a repeat since Angel had the reset button pressed, but that might really have gone a long way towards removing a lot of the cruft that has been hampering the character for the last decade or so.
Well, presumably they won’t kill Kyle off in chapter 3, given how much they’re advertising the marriage for chapter 4. Or it’s going to be a very weird one.
Pete, Cyclops let’s her lead her own team in her own book, one tasked with a pretty important job, so his behaviour is a tad off. And besides, Cyclops gave Hope the file on Shaw so she should already know about the Phoenix. Heck, it wouldn’t be hard to find out about it even if he hadn’t. The scene makes sense only if you ignore the past few months worth of stories. I suspect this 0 issue was written a long time ago.
Hey Paul – I’m sorry if it was covered or addressed elsewhere, but will you be doing a recap of Avengers: Children’s Crusade since it finally dragged its sorry butt across the finish line a few weeks back? Not technically an X-Book, but one that featured the X-Men prominently – although, given how completely out of character they behaved even in the current climate it’s debatable if it can be considered an actual appearance by the characters featured in the X-books themselves.
Again, my apologies if you did cover it and I’ve just managed to miss seeing it.
@JD
They haven’t specifically said that it’s going to be Northstar and Kyle tying the knot in #51, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. What’s the other option? Iceman being forced to marry Warbird at swordpoint? Hope I’m wrong, though. I actually like Kyle from what I’ve seen of his previous appearances, but it still seems way too soon for them to get hitched and, frankly, marriage feels a bit too assimilationist for someone as eternally contrary as Northstar. But Liu’s got another 44 pages to convince me it could work.
As for AXM #48, there was that “Jean-Claude” business that detracted from my overall enjoyment (apparently none of the five sets of eyeballs that went over this issue caught that repeated mistake), but I liked it alright. I do enjoy character-driven books and this has a different feel from the rest of the X-line both in focus and in art. Wasn’t exactly happy that you get more context for what’s going on with the plot in this issue from interviews and the solits than the issue itself, but it’ll hopefully pick up next issue. I’ll be here for the first arc, at least.
Legacy was worth the cover price just for the Chamber cameo, IMO. Weapon Omega continues to be everybody’s victim; I don’t much care if he blows up or not, but watching the scramble should be fun.
Person of Con: that’s an extremely good point, and one the story should have flagged up (if only because it would have helped set up the character for Avengers fans).
I think the art hurt the Otherworld story too. But the climax was amazing, best Betsy/Brian moment in decades.
Honestly, I feel strongly that the horrible art is what hurt the Otherworld story in X-Force. I’m actually pretty annoyed by it. The title has had some really good luck scoring good artists and I guess it was time for a misfire, but geeze. This could have been a lot better and some of the weaker plot points could have been easily glossed over if the art was stronger. I mean, in some places it was good, but it’s mostly been a mess and wildly inconsistent. Imagine how much more powerful the conclusion could have been if you were able to tell what was going on at least half of the time!
Has anyone from the Bendis Avengers run actually stayed dead? Wasp? Agatha Harkness? (Wikipedia reckons Jack of Hearts is alive, for the 3 people who care).
Pretty sure Agatha Harkness reappeared somewhere like Marvel Knights F4. Hmmm… Yelena Belova came back too…
Sentry’s still dead.
@JD you never know…since Marvel Zombies won’t die….how long till we get the Marvel Zombies wedding issue?
Northstar: Even in death…I still love him…
Kyle: Soooo hungrrryyy
What I really enjoyed about X-force was the conclusion of Betsy’s worrying about telling Brian she was on a team of killers. She forces her brother to kill the other with his bare hands. In the end I’m left wondering if he always knew she was a killer. great stuff.
I think Aaron’s Wolverine reveal blunts the end of Daken along with the fact he is alive in Deadpool.
The horrible art was definitely the main problem in the Otherworld arc of Uncanny X-Force, but I think there was some uneven writing here too. There’s a lot going on – the Captain Britain corp (who are kinda obscure, maybe you Brits are more familiar with ’em, but I didn’t know anything about them beyond “oh yeah Captain Britain is Betsy’s brother”), Psylocke changing uniforms, Fantomex’s trial, the Skinless Man, the Goat Demon, the sideplot with Wolverine/Deadpool/Nightcrawler, etc… lots of moving pieces that aren’t quite set up properly. At first it seems like the trial is the important part, and the Goat is a sidenote, but the Goat ends up being pretty important.
And a lot of problems just get easily solved – Psylocke grabs some poison and defeats the Skinless Man in a couple panels, and Fantomex just puts his face back on(!?)
So yeah, while I liked the climax, I didn’t really like how we got there.
I get the impression that Remender had a lot of good ideas and ended up having problems meshing them all together. He certainly had the room to do so in the amount of issues he had, so I think it’s a good point that a lot of it didn’t come together well, regardless of the art. The Skinless Man came out of left field, entirely, and I feel like Wolverine, Deadpool, and AoA Nightcrawler ended up gaving largely forgettable roles even if this arc was sort of meant to help awaken AoA Nightcrawler’s inner hero.
Then again, part of me gets back to the art. Maybe this was meant to be kind of a bum-rushing, over the top, ultra violent storyline we were supposed to be dropped into all of a sudden, but we just didn’t feel the effects of it because the art was such a mess? It really is difficult to judge a story when the means of telling it (the art) is so compromised.
In regards to the Children’s Crusade request, does Paul even do the retrospective storyline reviews anymore? Was there an announcement made, or did Paul just quietly stop doing them?
(And I only read Avengers these days… who is Wolverine’s new girlfriend?)
Zero issues can serve two purposes very well: as a primer or a quick, cheap tease.
I remember Blackest Night issue 0 did both, setting up the status quo for new readers (or people who just weren’t sure whether Aquaman is alive) and, hey, it was free.
An example of the latter was Ellis/Ryp’s Black Summer 0, which was a $1.00, sixteen page prologue. It COULD have been folded into an extra long issue 1 (and the reprint issue was) but for a smaller publisher like Avatar, the preview probably made fiscal sense.
The Vision being dead for about seven years has probably impeded his ability to do much of interest, to be fair.
I’m a little disappointed that they brought the original back, as I always thought theree was potential in the younger Vision being on a team with “sons” he remembers — having absorbed the original’s memories — but to whom he has no emotional connection. Oh well.
Sentry’s still dead.
Let’s hope he stays that way. Ye gods, what a lame duck of a character.
Wow, I continue to be baffled by the lousy reviews the Otherworld arc in Uncanny X-Force has been getting. Though Greg Tocchini’s art hasn’t been as stunning as on ‘the Last Days of American Crime’, and has been hampered by some fairly atrocious coloring, I still think there’s more than enough to like, with virtually every page featuring at least one pose, image or detail that is absolutely gorgeous to look at. I hope the X-office keeps him around for a long time to come.
As for the story, I enjoyed it. To me, it seemed just about the first Captain Britain story that feels like it’s set in the same eccentric, slightly warped corner of the Marvel Universe that Alan Moore’s (and to a lesser extent, Jamie Delano’s) Captain Britain stories inhabit (Excalibur, for all its merits, was way too wacky, and mostly played CB as an oafish, scolding straight man). Plus, I like that Remender, aside from playing with all the late ’80s/early ’90s toys I dig (from the Reavers and the Siege Perilous to the AoA and Apocalypse’s gigantic ship), also seems to be making an effort with every storyline to add new villains and characters, such as the Goat and the Skinless Man. So if you ask me, X-Force remains the best X-book on the stands, month in month out.
“I think Aaron’s Wolverine reveal blunts the end of Daken along with the fact he is alive in Deadpool.”
I just assumed the Deadpool story takes place before the last arc in Daken.
The parts with Spider-Woman in AvX 0 have an amusing – and probably unintentional – subtext if you read Avengers 24.1 first.
When Hawkeye mentions the name “Wanda” in Avengers, Spider-Woman doesn’t know who he’s talking about and he has to explain that she’s the Scarlet Witch.
Then Spider-Woman’s first words spoken directly to Wanda in AvX are “Killer save Scarlet, you still got it.” So it’s fun to imagine that Jessica’s only awkwardly pretending to remember this whiney woman in red.
I didn’t think the art in X-Force was nearly as choppy as the story, which lurched very quickly from “Fantomex is on trial for his life!” to “this goat thing is attacking the Captain Britain corps!” to “here’s a creepy villain from Fantomex’s past!” to “here’s some last-minute family drama with Psylocke’s brothers!” There never seemed to be a solid narrative throughline for any of these – the goat demon and his monster hordes were too generic a threat to carry the story; the Captain Britain Corps’ threat to erase Fantomex seems so over the top and crazy that it demands an explanation by ulterior motive, one that’s hinted at but which never arrives; the entire episode with the Skinless Man comes out of left field, ends in an anticlimax and doesn’t even attempt to explain how Fantomex can just put a sliced-off face back on his mutilated, skinless head; no groundwork is actually laid for the last-minute twist that the goat demon is actually Jamie, so it feels like it comes out of absolutely nowhere, and the emotional resonance of that conflict and its resolution depends entirely on our having read a bunch of Captain Britain comics – which is to say, the relationship between Betsy, Brian and Jamie isn’t shown or believably established within the actual X-Force storyline, but simply assumed to be understood as background on the part of the reader. Worst of all, there’s no space to develop any of these story ideas, because all of them are crammed in there. It’s a mess – and an unfortunate waste of the last arc before Avengers v X-men comes along to presumably muck up the status quo.
Is AvX going change up the status quo? Didn’t the X-status JUST change? (errr… again??)
Avengers vs. X-Men #0 – that wasn’t a preview issue, that wasn’t a prologue, that wasn’t an anything. It was very clearly filler – two throwaway stories with only the most tangential connection to the story (hey, this person’s an Avenger! this person’s an X-man! maybe they’ll fight in a couple weeks, when everyone’s all versus?) cranked out as more Marvel stock to clutter the shelves.
I’ve been assuming AvX HAS to shake up the status quo. If it didn’t “change everything,” it wouldn’t be a crossover, would it?
Did anyone else’s shop have Avengers Vs X-men for sale already?
Mine had the 0 and issue 1 and sold them at the same time.
I’m not one of those that hates how Bendis writes The Avengers, but I don’t think he gets the Scarlet Witch at all. It didn’t feel like Wanda in that story. I get her feeling guilty, but Wanda has never been driven to be a super hero – do good maybe, but certainly not go out to fight super villains. If she was going to do something to right her wrongs, it wouldn’t be battling Modok in the streets. And Cho’s art didn’t help – he took a woman who has generally been portrayed as exotic or gypsy-esque – certainly European – and made her the pretty but plain girl next door.
I’m also a bit stumped by all this talk regarding Vision and Wanda being husband and wife. I honestly don’t remember their marital status, but they haven’t been a couple in years and yet everyone keeps referring to them as if they were together up to the point where she lost control. It just seems like a contrived way to wring some melodrama from it all.
“Has anyone from the Bendis Avengers run actually stayed dead? Wasp? Agatha Harkness? (Wikipedia reckons Jack of Hearts is alive, for the 3 people who care).”
Well, if anyone cares, at the end of the Avengers Forever miniseries from 1999 Wasp and Jack of Hearts are both seen alive in a version of the Avengers that is still yet to be, when Songbird is an Avenger in good standing (and also Genis-Vell/Captain Marvel’s girlfriend). So according to that, they have to return to life at some point, though I don’t think there was ever any question that the Wasp would eventually.
I always found it kind of amusing that a story that was intended to clean up a lot of the continuity problems that had piled up over the previous 35 years went ahead and introduced a few continuity issues of its own.
@Mike
I don’t know about the Vision / Scarlet Witch thing either. I don’t think they were together at all after they came back from Heroes Reborn, were they? That’s been a long time ago.
I think this is just an unfortunate way to steamroll through years of continuity and bring people up to speed. A similar thing is going on in AvX, for example. Captain America and Wolverine make multiple mentions of Jean Grey actually being the Phoenix back in the original saga, which, as we know, was not exactly the case. Cyclops says the same thing in the same issue. It’s not the first time, either; I remember Wolverine talking to Jean in Morrison’s X-Men about how “the last time she lit up like this, the world peed its pants.” Except that it wasn’t her. It’s a tough situation, I guess. Honestly, the whole thing about Jean being at the bottom of the bay the whole time while the Phoenix impersonated her was pretty contrived in its day, let alone twenty odd years later. Most younger or newer fans might not even be aware of it; they may just assume that there’s only one Jean and she was the Phoenix and eventually got better. How do you explain a story like that now? Probably best just to push past it and move forward, annoying as it may be.
This stuff is tough. For ages, Marvel was reluctant to make any further mention of characters like X-Man, The Dark Beast, Joseph, Kaine from Spider-Man, etc. because of their extremely muddled histories (and those characters weren’t even ten years old at the time! Quite less, in some cases). They seem to have gotten over it and all of those characters are back in circulation now, but I always wished they would have filed Jean or at least the Phoenix in the same list.
The Otherworld arc does seem to be trying for the right sort of tone, I agree, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the plotting is at best extremely choppy. It’s got the first act of a Fantomex On Trial story, the second act of an invasion story, a seemingly irrelevant detour with the Skinless Man, and a finale that suddenly decides it’s really a story about the Braddock siblings. (Which is a good scene, but would have been even better if it was better connected to the story that preceded it.) At best, Remender’s been trying to cram way too much stuff into this arc, and only bits of each idea have made it through.
AvX: Kang vs Maddy Pryor which one has a more convoluted history.
If you read Avengers #24.1, it deals with the Vision’s status directly following his return from the dead. The idea is that learning about his use as a weapon and then murder by his “wife,” as well as his return from the dead after several years, has been a pretty traumatic experience for him. And it’s still very fresh.
As far as AvX #0, Hope and Wanda are meant to be the two central characters in the conflict. So I don’t think it’s fair to call it filler, especially for some who didn’t read Children’s Crusade, or who isn’t caught up on X-Men.
It felt like this arc of Uncanny X-Force needed another issue just to breathe a little bit. Also, I took the Skinless Man as something of an introduction. I know Betsy poisoned him and all, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him appear further down the road (like the planned Brotherhood of Evil Mutants).
@Dan: I get why they don’t reference Phoenix impersonating Jean anymore just for the sake of streamlining, plus that plot point was a retcon to begin with. It’s easier just to say Jean was always Phoenix and play into the “rebirth” angle of the Phoenix mythos. With those other characters, it’s just as easy to streamline so long as you accept things like alternate worlds (i.e. Dark Beast is a warped Hank McCoy, X-Man is from another world who doesn’t want to see our world turn out the same way, etc…).
Paul, where’s the February 2012 Marvel sales analysis!? I love your work on The Beat
As for Uncanny X-Force, Remender said that the Skinless Man is gonna be akin to Fantomex’s Sabretooth, so he decided to introduce him in this story so he got that out of the way. Still, I agree with all the anti-climax comments, like the poison and the face being put back on like nothing happen.
As for the status quo, UXF is changing itself around issue #27. A member dies, a new person joins, and big consequences come out of the storyline(which is “Final Execution”, a big 9-issue epic starting in #25). I’m hoping UXF goes back to doing what it did best, with its darker high-concept stories, backed by strong character work and great art. All the interviews by Remender point to that, especially with the return of Jerome Opena in the second half.
Next issue has Wolverine/AoA Kurt/Deadpool taking on AoA Iceman, drawn by Phil Noto, so I think we’re off to a good start later this month.
@Steve
I agree, but I think this automatically raises the question of why they just didn’t do some Phoenix rebirth thing with Jean in the first place. I know, it was a long time ago, and these sorts of things weren’t the cliche they are today, but in retrospect it all seems so unnecessary. Couldn’t the Phoenix just have wiggled its beak and cosmically resurrected Jean in time for X-Factor?
It’s funny (and I bitched about this a little last week), because after years and years of writers figuring out how to bring dead characters back, they’ve recently done a 180 and just simplified the hell out of everything. Psylocke? Jamie Braddock felt like it. Cypher? Selene raised a bunch of dead and he stuck around. X-Man? He came back because he felt like it. Legion? See X-Man. Joseph? He’s just back. Sabretooth? He’s just back too. Cable? Also just back. See? Nice and easy and no need for cosmic clones. Lol.
The reason that Jean had to be under the bay rather than simply being reborn from the phoenix, as I recall, was based upon an editorial mandate. The marvel offices of the time refused to allow the writers to resurrect someone who had murdered a planet and treat that character as a hero. Put plainly, in order for the X-writers to bring Jean Grey back from the dead, they could only do so if Jean was not Phoenix.
Eventually the whole thing became muddled when a fracton of the phoenix bonded with the real Jean after Madelyne Prior died and then grew from there until it culminated in Jean’s death at the end of Planet X.
I was always amused that this wasn’t that far in time from the point when Magneto started playing headmaster for the new mutants. Apparently, the editors were fine with attempted genocides becoming heroes, one only gets blacklisted if one actually succeeds. (Though different editors may well be responsible for the two occurrences, I may be conflating the two time periods far more closely than they truly were.)
@Joseph
Pretty much. Is Magneto off the grid now? Is he technically still a fugitive? Who knows. Xorneto may have absolved him the the New York massacre in Planet X, but there’s still some nasty baggage for the character. The submarine that he sank and rose again in X-Men v2, did he ever answer for that? I remember he pretty much used his abilities to clear himself the second time he went on trial, but I think there’s probably a lot of nastiness still out there that makes him hard to reform. Maybe he should have just slept with She-Hulk like Austen’s Juggernaut did.
The cosmic clone business was indeed to bring Jean back and not have her saddled with the baggage of the destruction of an entire planet.
The 90s cartoon got around this by having Jean’s host body be released by the Phoenix after the shock of death on the moon, and then resurrecting Jean using a portion of the X-Men’s life force. Basically, it kicked the story into touch, and absolved Jean for destroying a planet. The Phoenix itself (it appeared as an actual character and spoke to the X-Men) then just flew off, achieving redemption by delivering a monologue about how she lost her way, and then bringing the host back to life. A little tidier as far as muddled continuity goes, at least.
“I may be conflating the two time periods far more closely than they truly were”
Magneto became headmaster after the climax of issue 200. Storm beat Cyclops of leadership of the X-Men somewhere between 201-209 (i think 204, but I’m not 100% sure) and then X-Factor started not long after. Uncanny 210, and X-Factor 9 both serve as prologues for the Mutant Massacre x-over, so the return of Jean and Magneto becoming headmaster happened about a month apart, if that…
@originalMatt
I remember that. Actually, in that version, I’m almost positive they made a point to specify that the world she consumed was uninhabited. It was a dead planet anyway but the Shi’ar were flipping out because “if it had been inhabited, holy shit” or something. That show had its ups and down, but I remember the episode with the Phoenix battle on the blue area of the moon to be pretty solid, actually. The whole saga was handled pretty well, so long as you could get past Cyclops’ constant pleas of “Fight it, Jean!” 🙂
@originalMatt
The Storm/Cyclops duel was in #201– also the same issue that baby Cable first appeared.