The X-Axis – 8 April 2012
Well, after all the hype, we’ve finally reached Marvel’s big event of the year. Also available in exciting “augmented reality!” Yeah…
But first!
Age of Apocalypse #2 – I’m still not really sold on this book, but it does have something. In theory, there’s some potential in doing an inverted Marvel Universe where the mutants are all lunatics and in control, while the human villains become the plucky underdogs whose anti-mutant agenda becomes utterly reasonable. And I like the use of the depowered Jean Grey and Sabretooth, who end up stuck with the human resistance – though it’s perhaps surprising that they don’t get more to do, given that they’re among the book’s most recognisable established characters.
Perhaps more importantly, there’s also some sense in this issue that David Lapham is simply having fun with the inverted-world set-up and the casual lunacy of the villains, which implies that the book isn’t going to be the ponderous exercise in mock-seriousness that I’d feared.
On the other hand, it’s still a book with a large cast of mostly interchangeable characters, and that’s a problem. There’s not a huge amount to distinguish the members of the X-Terminated, and Wolverine’s forces are likewise decidedly similar to one another. If the fun of alternate reality stories is seeing variations on familiar characters, then for that to work, the characters need to be distinctive in their own way, and thus far, that remains decidedly lacking. What actually distinguishes Fiend from Deadeye, for example, aside from the fact that they’re wearing slightly different costumes? What does Donald Pierce bring to the cast? I genuinely couldn’t tell you, and two issues in, that’s not a good sign.
Avengers vs X-Men #1 – Or A vs X, Round One, as the cover has it. Personally, if I was positioning this as something to appeal to lapsed readers, I’d be putting the advertised title prominently on the cover, but so be it.
I have a healthy scepticism about the merits of event crossovers. Nor does it inspire much confidence that each issue of the book is being written by a different one of Marvel’s “Architects”, which is surely just a fancy way of saying it’s written by committee. But this was a pleasant surprise. It’s not going to win any Eisners, but it’s a nicely direct first issue which sets up the idea and gets to the point far more quickly than I was expecting.
Nova crashes on Earth to warn the Avengers that the Phoenix is coming. Everyone knows it’s likely to destroy the world. Wolverine tells the Avengers that the host is going to be Hope. Meanwhile, Hope is also starting to manifest the Phoenix effect. The Avengers show up on Utopia to discuss what to do about Hope. Cyclops has convinced himself that when she becomes Phoenix, she’ll save the mutant race. Cue the fight. None of this will come as any sort of surprise if you’ve read the hype (or, to be fair, if you’ve read the main X-Men stories in the last five years). But the book bashes through the set-up swiftly instead of dragging it out in the way I’d expected. That’s fine by me, not least because it means Marvel have actually been hyping the hook of act one, and the actual story remains largely unspoiled.
There are still some issues here. The story skirts over the whole question of why Hope is manifesting the Phoenix effect before the Phoenix has got here, which is surely likely to be a point of confusion for readers new to the concept (not least because it makes little or no sense, even if there’s something of a precedent for it in earlier X-Men stories). And the story seems to ignore the fact that Hope already had the Phoenix effect at the end of the prequel series Avengers: X-Sanction. But on the whole, not a bad start at all. Certainly the strongest opening we’ve had for a Marvel event mini in quite some time.
For those of you with expensive gadgets, there’s also a back-up story in the “Infinite Comics” format (which, to be fair, can be bought separately), and some gimmickry with the Marvel AR app.
“Infinite Comics” turns out to be essentially comics designed for reading in the Guided View format, using many of the same tricks as Reilly Brown’s Power Play – for example, repeating variations of the same pages on multiple pages to take advantage of the dissolve effect, or using the pull-back-and-reveal facility that isn’t available in regular comics. The story is simply Nova’s crash-landing from his perspective, but it is a good use of the Guided View format, and rather pretty to boot.
The Marvel AR thing is pure gimmickry. I dutifully tried it out; it involves pointing your phone at the page and then squinting at some animation while trying to hold your phone steady. I gave up halfway through and deleted the app. It’s a complete waste of time and I have trouble believing it’ll repay the investment in digital content that it’ll require. My guess is, it’ll be dead in six months.
New Mutants #40 – The culmination of the Ani-Mator storyline, as Abnett and Lanning become the latest writers to grapple with the question of how you dramatise Cypher’s power to understand things. Most of this issue essentially consists of the merged Cypher/Warlock fighting the Ani-Mator creature in the real world, intercut with them discussing matters on (I guess) the astral plane. So if you like fighting and you like exposition, this is the comic for you. Normally this wouldn’t work very well, but in this case, it does kind of succeed in conveying what Cypher’s actually doing. And they’ve got Leandro Fernandez on art, somebody who can pull off extended conversation scenes and make them interesting. It helps that he does a decent Warlock, a character many artists continue to struggle to render in their own style.
All that being said, the resolution is a bit hand-woven, with Cypher coming up with a rather new agey solution and it just kind of somehow working. That’s a bit of an anticlimax. But there’s a very nice coda playing up the idea that Cypher’s claim to have come to terms with his fear of the Ani-Mator is all a bit too convenient. Not a perfect issue but there’s more good than bad.
Wolverine and the X-Men #8 – Chris Bachalo returns for an odd little issue that doubles as an epilogue to the “space casino” stuff while also throwing in a self-contained story in which Sabretooth goes after Abigail Brand in an attempt to get under the Beast’s skin. This looks to be driven by scheduling considerations, as there’s a month to fill before the Avengers vs X-Men crossover arc begins – though strangely, the story doesn’t get Wolverine out of his wheelchair in time for the crossover. Presumably that gets wrapped up pretty quickly next issue, as he looked fine in Avengers vs X-Men #1 itself.
The kids going off into space for a second stab at the space casino is a fun little equine, though it actually only gets five pages, in which the main thing achieved is actually to advance the development of Genesis’ character. It strikes me that between Genesis and Broo, this series has two characters on a rather similar arc – nice kid with deeply buried violent tendencies that might end up taking over – and that’s got to be deliberate.
Most of the issue, though, is given over to Sabretooth fighting the Beast in space, as Sabretooth tries to expand his usual modus operandi – kill Wolverine’s girlfriend – to the rest of the team. If the idea is to set up Sabretooth as a recurring villain for this series, it works pretty well, though it’s odd to see Aaron writing Sabretooth as essentially a henchman in this book when he was presented as a new crime lord over in Wolverine just a couple of weeks ago. It doesn’t feel like the same take on the character, unless the idea is that Sabretooth is actually working an angle against his employers in the Hellfire Club – in which case the Wolverine arc makes sense as oblique foreshadowing.
Bachalo’s art is visually interesting as ever. That said, clarity in storytelling has never been his strong suit, and the climax of this issue’s battle suffers from requiring just a little too much effort to figure out what’s actually happening. It’s not impenetrable, but it’s not instant, and that detracts from the scene; by the time you’ve figured out the idea, the momentum is lost. (And this is why “art that makes the reader work” is usually a bad thing in action sequences.) Three characters in identical spacesuits; no very clear explanation of how Hank propels himself back to the space station; it’s not quite right. Still, a decent issue on the whole.
Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega #4 – After a slightly sluggish opening issue, this has turned out to be a rather good series. This is the chapter where the penny drops and it becomes obvious how Brian Wood is going to write Quentin out of the corner he’s been painted into: having gone into the Construct to try and get things back on the rails, Quentin discovers that he’s not as good at this as he thought he was, and his control over the thing is actually rather limited. And now he’s stuck inside, which means he’s going to have to team up with Wolverine and Armor. If they’ll have him.
That seems to point towards a finish where Quentin does something sufficient heroic, or at least apologetic, to redeem himself in part. But the issue also ends with a more interesting cliffhanger in which, having no other idea of how to get out of the Construct, Quentin simply conjures up a giant off switch and invites everyone to press it and hope for the best. It’s a fairly safe bet that they’re not all going to die in a spin-off mini, but that doesn’t stop it being a more intriguing way of getting to the inevitable resolution. Wood certainly gets Quire’s character, as a brat with delusions of grandeur who isn’t fundamentally a bad person, but tends not to realise that he’s gone way over the line until it’s way too late to turn back. There’s a lot to be done with that version of Quire and I’d be happy to see Wood write him again.
X-Club #5 – I’ll have to go back and re-read this mini, since I suspect it’s one of those books that, read in a single sitting, will turn out to have all its plot threads dovetail more effectively than it seemed the first time round. It does manage to bring all of its diverse plot threads to a conclusion and (more or less) link them all together – though the stuff about mutagenics in the sea does feel a bit tacked on, and its resolution is equally casual. I may come back to this for a more detailed review, but for now, I like Si Spurrier’s update of the old mad scientist archetype, and I think he’s the only writer in quite some time to really have a handle on Madison Jeffries character that goes beyond “stuttering weirdo”. His Dr Nemesis is a little over the top even for Dr Nemesis, but the general idea is right, and at least the starfish running gag is kept to sensible limits this month.
As for Danger, I can still take or leave her, and I’m not entirely sold on doing stories about pregnant robots anyway. There are also some rather hamfisted “power of love / power of spirituality” moments shoved into this final issue that don’t quite work, and feel like they’re there to try and redress some sort of argument about science and spirituality that the series wasn’t really developing in the first place. The stuff with Madison and Danger is at least earned by his storyline in the earlier issues; Kavita receiving divine inspiration from looking at waves is rather out of left field, though it would have been an interesting beat in a different story. Still, a fun little series.
Ah yes, the power of love. See if only they had a footnote I wouldn’t have missed that!
I hope the writers have thought this through as well as you have niall. It was a pretty good first issue and there could be an interesting conflict over how to handle ultra powerful beings. Or we could just see random fighting. I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. (Event Comic Reading 101, I suppose.)
And Jeff F, I don’t believe the Hellfire Club was ever shown as corrupting the Phoenix Force. They did corrupt the host (Jean) and unleashed a force that was much stronger than they anticipated.
How is it that Nova – a guy in a rocket suit – got to Earth first?
Nova Corps members can open warp gates in space. At least, Rich Rider could. I assume all members have this ability.
My question is: if it isn’t Richard Rider (who’s dead/trapped-in-an-alternate-dimension) or his brother Robert (and it could be, I guess), then that is an awfully human-looking alien.
You know, I just realized that there’s a new Nova on the new Spider-Man cartoon. This guy could be here to capitalize on that.
> My question is: if it isn’t Richard Rider (who’s dead/trapped-in-an-alternate-dimension) or his brother Robert (and it could be, I guess), then that is an awfully human-looking alien.
More to the point, the ending of Thanos Imperative was clear (and TI:Devastation, the epilogue issue, reiterated it just to be sure) – Rich took the ENTIRE Nova Force with him to take on Thanos in the Cancerverse, depowering the Nova cadets in the process and putting the Worldmind into deep hibernation (since there was no Nova Force to sustain it/her). So where the hell is this Nova getting his power from?
“More to the point, the ending of Thanos Imperative was clear (and TI:Devastation, the epilogue issue, reiterated it just to be sure) – Rich took the ENTIRE Nova Force with him to take on Thanos in the Cancerverse, depowering the Nova cadets in the process and putting the Worldmind into deep hibernation (since there was no Nova Force to sustain it/her). So where the hell is this Nova getting his power from?”
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, comics…
In response to the Bishop / Hope comments, was it ever explained why Bishop had never mentioned Hope previously in all his years among the present day X-Men? I know the real answer is because she hadn’t been created yet, but it always seemed bizarre to just have Bishop go ape shit over what seems to be a pretty important part of his past (and our future) completely out of nowhere. Not only that, but it’s the same damn thing as the X-Traitor which is what he was going ape shit about when he first arrived. I thought THAT was supposed to be the important event? Ugh, makes no sense. And no way would he betray his friends like he did. What a terrible waste of a good character. Go read Uncanny 282 – onwards again; as 90’s as he was, Bishop had some really good moments.
Of course it was never explained why Bishop hadn’t mentioned her. That said, you could make the argument that Bishop never mentioned her because when the X-traitor business wrapped up after Onslaught, he thought his future had been avoided, only for one of the big conditions precedent for his timeline to exist occurred (the birth of Hope). Still flimsy, but it’s not completely beyond the pale.
What about Gambit’s 3 minutes before dawn comment, that tipped Cable off about Hope’s impending arrival? Was that ever explained? We still haven’t got answers about her parents etc?
The Hellfire Club didn’t corrupt Phoenix, per se. Mastemind just basically removed mental blocks Jean/the Phoenix Force subconsciously erected the keep her powers in check, and deny her access to her full powers. The implication being, a human just isn’t meant to wield the power of the Phoenix (or the Phoenix Force posing as Jean wasn’t meant to access it’s own power? Er…). And before she/it died in # 137, she/it does point out that the transition to Dark Phoenix is inevitable and will happen eventually, no matter what.
Ok, pointless history lesson ended.
“What about Gambit’s 3 minutes before dawn comment, that tipped Cable off about Hope’s impending arrival? Was that ever explained? We still haven’t got answers about her parents etc?”
Ugh. What bugged me even more about this whole mess is that no one really seems to wonder how or why Hope will do what she’s apparently supposed to do. How is she supposed to save mutants? Why is she significant? Does anyone know?
Something about this whole House of M / Hope mess has always bugged me. Namely, why do mutants (especially psycho Cyclops) care so much? Mutants are humans with mutations. That’s it. They’ve barely existed for the blink of an eye in the MU (not counting Poccy which still doesn’t make any sense from a scientific standpoint) and the only thing that differentiates them from humans at all is a freaking MUTATION. This is how evolution works, people. Mutations come and go. Things emerge and things die. It’s the way it goes. No, the decimation wasn’t a natural occurrence, but who cares? If the mutations stop right now and there are no more mutants after the next generation, so what? All of the mutants around can still exist, have children (which no one in the MU ever does intentionally or without it being evil / sent to the future) and live their lives the same as they always did. Nothing changes except little Timmy won’t be able to shoot lasers from his eyes, or better yet, blow his entire face off with an internal blast or need a containment suit to live. If a bunch of people had been exposed to radiation over time and started developing some bizarre conditions, would we call them a separate race? That makes no sense. The premise of the X-Men (hated and feared, yadda yadda) DOES make sense because normal humans WOULD be afraid of people who have these powers (unless you’re on one of the other super teams, then they love you). So I get that particular distinction. But come on, militarizing your group on your own little island and teaching your children to fight and going to the ends of the freaking earth to find a way to ensure that future children have the opportunity to mutate into something potentially horrible and destructive? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work. Humans with birth defects are not a new race.
Please, someone set me straight or explain how any of this makes sense, even in the context of the MU. Phoenix needs to burn away House of M and then itself.
Have wondered that for a while. It’s incredibly hard to reconcile the general populace loving the Avengers but hating the X-men on the basis of where their powers come from. It’d make more sense to me if the Marvel U hated ALL it’s heroes. I guess that’s why I liked Civil War?
I always figured the only way to really reconcile it was the “mutants will eventually overtake normal humanity”, but that’s a bit of a retcon because I don’t think that idea really came up until Morrison. And of course, House of M destroyed any reason to care about that. Without the threat of overtaking normal humanity, they’re just outliers, except their powers are caused by genetics instead of drugs or gamma rays.
I think people like Cyclops or Magneto being pro-Mutant and wanting to ensure they survive only makes sense in reaction to the “everyone wants to hunt us down” sentiment. Beyond that it’s just a “we’re superior and deserve to rule” which is the sort of thing only guys like Apocalypse, Sinister or Magneto at his most villainous have espoused. So having Cyclops move down towards that path is certainly a bit strange.
I think the way you need to think about it is that it’s racism and racism isn’t logical. It’s about fear and ignorance and misinformation. Asking why someone would hate a superhero who was born with powers and not hate one who was born without powers then gained powers from exposure to cosmic rays or a supersoldier serum is like asking why someone would hate someone who was born with dark skin but not hate someone who was born with light skin then got dark skin from exposure to sunlight or a tanning bed.
It’s not really about the powers, just like it’s not really about the skin color. Anti-mutant bigots hate the mutants who just look weird and don’t really have powers, just like real world racists hate people of other races even if they could pass for a member of the racists’ own race. It’s about perceiving someone as being born “different” – because they have an “X-Gene” or because their ancestors came from a different place than your ancestors – and fearing things that are different because of some piece of ignorance you came up with on your own or were taught.
Should also factor in one of Morrison’s tangents that mutant were developing their own culture.
Not sure how that would work being that mutants aren’t like a set race with geographical background…maybe more in terms of homosexual/lesbian culture?
Anyway, imagine these mutants were taking the step from being hated and feared to actively celebrating their mutantcy in art, literature etc.
Then bam, Scarlet Witch does her magic and all that is lost, all that hope, all that joy, all that pride is gone in an instant.
It’s sad; I think Cyclops took the only viable option.
Maybe not quite so sold on his unshakeable belief in Hope but since Wanda seems to be editorially untouchable, I guess this is the only route to take him down.
I don’t have a huge problem understanding why people hate mutants, at least in the context of the MU. The true answer is because two opposing concepts exist in a shared universe and there’s not much anyone can do about it as long as that’s the case. It’s like every few years when DC decides to make Batman an urban legend again only to have him parading around in public with the Justice League at the same time. It doesn’t make sense but unless the books are going to be set in their own little universe, it’s unfortunately necessary. We can rationalize and say the Avengers and FF have been public teams forever whereas the X-Men were outlaws until recently (and that makes a bit of sense I suppose), but that’s about it. As Bendis continually illustrates over the years, the citizens of the MU are morons.
But again, the real question for me is why the mutants are so hung up on this. They won’t vanish, their children won’t vanish (unless they’re sent to the future lol), their culture wouldn’t have to vanish… nothing would change except they wouldn’t have powers anymore. If the only reason the X-Men exist is to protect the world from evil mutants, and suddenly no one had mutant powers at all, wouldn’t that pretty much take care of everything? Let the FF and the Avengers stop Galactus. If mutation is or was the future, then boom, everyone will have powers and it won’t matter. If the X-gene was truly erased, boom, no one will have powers and it won’t matter. It’s like they’re fighting to restore their powers so they can protect the world from people with restored powers. Cyclops, perhaps you should just let the river flow and let the universe make its own decisions. What good is hunkering down if you’re just going to piss everyone off and get your own people killed?
Is there an official reason, though? I know it’s because of the shared universe, but is there a reason beyond “because…”?
A mutant’s.powers would have defined their identity. It would have been.something that determined the way they interacted with the world and its inhabitants.
When one looks at the Jews and Israel, mutants reactions to M-day seem natural enough. The Jewish people could have assimilated into any number of Western cultures, but that wasn’t what they wanted.
I agree with DanLichtenberg. I never bought why it would be bad for mutants to be extinct. Beast and others wailing about didn’t convince me it was a bad thing. They kept using phrases like “We’re dying out!” Except…as mentioned, nobody was dying, most of them just stopped having freaky powers or mutations, and none of their kids would. From a fan POV, yeah, it would suck, since no more characters to read about, but from the MU POV, I think it would be a blessing for most characters, though I’m some of them, it would suck to lose the benefit of having a healing factor or being able to fly.
I also don’t buy the whole Jews and Israel idea. Jews have a shared history/religion/set of beliefs. Mutants share being persecuted, but that’s all, there’s nothing else that would unite Kitty with someone like Nightcrawler or the Blob or Dazzler.
Well, in the same sense, there’s nothing that would unite gay people other than common experience.
Actually the best comparison would be to autism. There are online communities of “auties”. Many auties are currently quite exercised about prenatal testing for autism, which the fear could lead to “genocide”. would imagine that overall the world would be a better place without autism, but most “auties” would disagree.
Also “aspies”.
Yeah, but with people with autism aren’t hurting anybody…it’s not like they spit acid or turn people to ash by touching them. Some mutants choose to define themselves by their powers/status as a mutant, others might not, depending on how they are written. Colossus would still be an artist, Dazzler would still want to be a singer, Beast a scientist, Angel a billionaire playboy, etc, even if they didn’t have their powers. It’s the ones like Cyclops, who have no life outside of being a mutant/X-man, that would suffer the most if mutants didn’t exist. Yeah, people like Beast can cry genocide, but their lives would go on eventually.
For the sake of argument:
People with autism cost the state and their parents money. Many have problems with self-injury and aggression. In a large number of cases, they are incapable of living independent lives. Some professionals have argued that there is a link between being a serial killer and having Aspergers.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt57576.html
Aspies and Auties know all of this and yet many would still fight against any moves to “cure” ASD, so I don’t think it is unreasonable for X-Men writers to have presented the reactions of the mutant community in the same way.
Most mutants don’t hurt anybody. Some, have a capacity to injure or kill, and there have been many examples where mutants who have not received the necessary training hurt people accidentally or misused their powers, but there is no automatic link between being a mutant and being a threat.
Beast might still be a scientist if he was not a mutant, but he certainly wouldn’t have specialised in the field he chose. Colossus might still be an artist, but without his experiences as being a mutant, would his work have been the same? Probably not. Their powers define how they interact with society and the physical world.
I think the point of the comparison isn’t whether the groups are comparable, but just that it shows that people can become quite angry about a course of action that, strictly speaking, doesn’t effect them at all. The reaction of the deaf community to cochlear implants is another example.
Despite that, I don’t think it tracks, because what upsets people about this situation is the agency involved. It’s upsetting to them that people would methodically set out to make sure that there are never more people like them. Now technically I guess Decimation was also ‘done’ by Wanda, but I think it’s more comparable to a natural event, because one person did it, and until whatever they just did, there was nothing anyone could do about it. Would autistic people or deaf people be upset if autistic babies or deaf babies just stopped being born and there was nothing anyone could do about it?
Probably not.
Of course, if you’re a mutant in the Marvel Universe and you’ve seen Sentinels and genocide on Genosha, you’re probably going to assume that M-day wasn’t a natural event. It wasn’t just that mutants stopped being born, people who were already mutants died when they lost their powers. You’re going to assume it was planned by the people who have been trying to exterminate your kind for the last half century.
Which, depending on how you interpret Doom’s words in The Children’s Crusade, might actually be kind of true.
@Niall
Don’t the X-Men know why it happened? That was another part of M Day that wasn’t thought out very well. Marvel knew there had to be someone who remembered the whole affair (or at least that Wanda did it) but it was never very clear who. It was supposed to be the handful of people present when the spell was cast (or something like that) but it didn’t seem very consistent and then you had characters keeping it a secret and other characters just assuming the government did it and forming all these little activist groups. I remember X-Factor was pissed for a while because the X-Men had hidden it from them. Is the cause public knowledge now, at least to the X-Men? And that reminds me, was there ever a focus on public reaction to when the High Evolutionary shut off mutant powers that one time? Why wasn’t it assumed that he or one of the wacky X-Foes did it?
There’s been some very interesting arguments here, lots of things I was unaware of. I think those particular arguments coming from the “auties” and “aspies” sound completely ridiculous personally, but I guess I can understand why that sort of thought would exist (although I have to believe it’s not a majority opinion among people with the condition). I think all of this discussion really illustrates two problems with the MU really well:
1) These things are not thought through. As much as I’d like to believe discussions like this one were part of the creative process of Decimation, I just can’t. The story has gone on for so long and has been so ill defined the entire way through that it’s blindingly obvious to me that they’ve been making it up as they go along. I don’t think they originally thought past the “Sentinels are now on the X-Men’s lawn and everyone’s camping out at the mansion” part, honestly.
2) Real-world politics don’t work in comics. This is the big one. Human and mutant relations have always worked as a nice thematic stand-in for racism, and worked well in spite of some of the problems we’ve mentioned already (which, again, are probably inevitable in a shared universe). But that’s really where they should leave it. Every time Marvel (Bendis) tries to go deeper by commenting directly on a political or societal event, it always falls apart. I don’t know if Decimation was in response to anything in particular, but the “Mutants Banned from Breeding” bit certainly was, as was Civil War, etc. Things like this happen in the real world, but they wouldn’t happen in the same way in a world filled with invincible supermen and genius inventors who have access to earth-shattering technology. Give me a break. If they’re trying to draw some kind of parallel to Jews and Israel with the current state of mutant affairs, they can lick me because the parallels aren’t really there and none of it makes sense.
Enjoying this thread too, been some interesting ideas.
Gotta say Marvel’s worst attempt at writing the real world into their comics (barring the 9/11 issue thing) was them touching on the recession at the start of Fear Itself…find it kind of hard to imagine the recession happening in a world with Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy etc.
Just finished reading Avengers Vs. X-Men #0 and #1. I think I might have Bendis poisoning. Man, his annoying tics were in full force in #1.
But worse than that, even, was the art by JRjr. I don’t have any idea what he’s doing – is he drawing with his toes? His “stuff” (buildings, explosions, etc.) are OK, but most of his figures are just LAUGHABLY bad, like some low-budget kids’ comic. Scratchy lines, lumpy heads, crazy eyes, caved-in faces – I’m afraid he’s forgotten how to draw.
” People with autism cost the state and their parents money. Many have problems with self-injury and aggression. In a large number of cases, they are incapable of living independent lives. Some professionals have argued that there is a link between being a serial killer and having Aspergers. ”
Speaking as one of those militant anti-cure auties, it’s worth noting that there’s a very wide spectrum of function levels across the condition, and many of the difficulties you mention are the result of co-morbid symptoms that can be overcome through proper treatment. Also, I’d like to see those “professionals” who’ve legitimately proven that there’s a link between serial killing and Aspergers.
I’d also like to state that a lot minority cultures form around a shared feeling of persecution and solidarity, which is the way many of the autism support groups and activist groups started. Not just by the severe social isolation that comes with the condition, but also with the abuse received from caregivers (all too common, and too often excused because there’s always the assumption the autistics “started it”), the pressures of day-to-day life exacerbated by difficulties navigating social systems, the aforementioned co-morbid cases of depression and anxiety, and the stigma attached to the condition. The X-Men wear their X because they want people to know that they’re mutants, wearing their hated genetics as a badge of pride and solidarity.
To bring it back to the X-Men mutant analogy, it’s like saying that all homo superior should be cured, without any regard for individual circumstances (such as curing Cyclops’ lack of control over his optic blasts, or giving Nightcrawler an image inducer to let him pass– which he heroically discarded!).
The 9/11 stuff in both the dcu and mu is so weird.
I mean, doom crying, for example? As he, or magneto, or the leader, havent killed more people in one time than 9/11 did in its 3 locations?
And why reed/stark/shield/damage control.didnt rebuild the world trade center?
And so on
“To bring it back to the X-Men mutant analogy, it’s like saying that all homo superior should be cured, without any regard for individual circumstances (such as curing Cyclops’ lack of control over his optic blasts, or giving Nightcrawler an image inducer to let him pass– which he heroically discarded!).”
No one’s talking about forcing a cure. It’s already happened. Yes, a couple of them died as a result. But it’s done. And everyone who is left still has their powers and their lives. And they can have children who won’t have to worry about it. I’m still failing to see the big deal here. If you and everyone else in the world maintained their autism for the rest of your lives, but you discovered that no one in future generations would ever have the condition (and you would go on living as you have thus far with it), this would upset you? I don’t get it.
“And why reed/stark/shield/damage control.didnt rebuild the world trade center?”
It’s dumb. I consider it to be pretty loose canon, actually. It got a bunch of mentions in the books when it happened, and the towers are obviously not drawn in the skyline anymore, but beyond that, most books have done their best to (rightfully) ignore it. There’s simply no way to make it work other than some one-shot out of continuity thing (which is more or less what they did). The superheroes either look inept for not stopping such a situation or disrespectfully smug for being able to easily stop a situation that millions who suffered and died couldn’t.
“I mean, doom crying, for example?”
Yeah, that was a really, really, dumb scene.
@DanLichtenberg you pretty much summed it up well with regards to Decimation, and why I never bought the MU’s character’s reactions to it.
@wwk5d
What’s even odder is Beast being one of the bigger reactors to all of it, and he’s supposed to be the smart one! Lol.
Not to mention, under Whedon, he was one of the biggest advocates for the Cure, and was almost one of the first ones to get it…I guess Logan really is one hell of a debater lol
Is it me, or in Avengers Versus X-men, the Morrison Jean Grey/Phoenix revelation is being ignored?
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