All-New X-Men vol 7 – “The Utopians”
The final volume of Brian Bendis’ All-New X-Men is a bizarre affair. If you were expecting Bendis’ final volume to build to anything in particular, you’re going to be disappointed. This grab-bag of stories feels more like somebody who’s running down the clock. If anything, these stories – and their counterparts over in Uncanny – seem to be mainly concerned with setting things up for whatever comes after Secret Wars.
What you actually get in this volume is five rather random issues – a single issue story from issue #37, the Utopians two-parter from issues #40-41 (if that can really be called a story), and sandwiched between them, parts 4 and 5 of the thirteen-part “Black Vortex” crossover. It’s hard to imagine that people reading the series in the trades will be thrilled about this, nor should they be.
“Black Vortex” does have some material which is important to the series – Cyclops rejoining the cast, and Angel getting his inexplicable fire wings – but I’ve written about it before, so let’s talk about the other three issues.
Issue #37 is an Emma/Jean spotlight issue, with Emma taking Jean to Madripoor to train her in doing more with telekinesis. The token mission involves her breaking up the Blob’s MGH operation, which is fair enough; he’s at about the right point in the pecking order to pose a threat for a few pages without being an unreasonable choice for a training mission.
It’s a good issue. The story is basic but fine for what Bendis is doing; Mike Del Mundo’s painted art is lovely. It’s surprisingly traditional, in fact – you can easily imagine Claremont doing the same plot – but I suspect it’s the discipline of keeping it to a single issue, together with the advantages of a very small cast, that give it the focus that’s often lacking in Bendis’ team stories. And it has a point, which is to position Emma as a viable mentor for Jean going forward, and make the argument that Xavier’s approach to training her didn’t necessarily work out all that well, what with her winding up cosmically genocidal and ultimately dead.
At the same time, the story bends over backwards to stress that Jean should not be afraid that embracing her power will put her on the road to becoming Dark Phoenix again, because Dark Phoenix is ultimately something that happened to her from outside, not something that was inherent to her nature. This looks to be an attempt by Bendis to free the character from the long shadow of Phoenix and clear the way for future writers to try something else, which is all fine. (Nor does it entirely close the door on other readings. After all, Emma Frost may insist that Jean has nothing dark in her nature, but it’s easy to argue that Emma’s idea of darkness is a bit more lenient than some people’s.)
Issue #40 is notionally the first part of “The Utopians”. In practice, that’s just a prominent subplot, in which a bunch of minor and forgotten characters have set up shop on Utopia and are fighting off anyone who tries to disturb them. Utopia, incidentally, is now a wrecked island floating on the surface, which is nice, because it was at the bottom of San Francisco Bay in Storm #8. Let’s be charitable and assume that Damage Control have been busy.
Anyway. Nobody cares about that, because the main focus of issue #40 is the scene where Jean tells Bobby that she knows he’s gay, which of course also has the side issue of establishing him as gay.
The idea that Iceman might be gay seems to have taken hold with fans somewhere in the mid-nineties after a Scott Lobdell issue where Emma Frost said something snarky to him about a possible interest in interior decorating. I’ve always thought that was reading way too much into the issue, given that Emma made that comment in the context of him having just filled her office with ice. Given the lack of follow-up, and the level of subtlety Lobdell brought to bear when he outed Northstar, I remain extremely sceptical that he intended any such reading.
But, looking at matters in 2015, there’s a pretty good case to be made for this decision, especially from a meta standpoint. Both Marvel and DC have a similar problem: their superhero universes are dominated by characters created in the 1960s, plus a smaller number from the mid-70s and a handful of hardy perennials from World War II. Inevitably, those characters reflect the attitudes to diversity of their eras, which are very, very different from those prevailing today.
Yet redressing that balance within the existing Marvel and DC Universes is an extremely difficult task for a whole range of reasons. Many of those reasons relate to publisher motivation, but Marvel seem to be coming round on that one. That still leaves the reality that to truly bring about a more representative Marvel or DC Universe would require either introducing a large number of new characters to balance out the existing ones – which is extremely hard given how few new characters of any description have successfully taken root in the last quarter century – or changing the characteristics of existing ones. That latter approach can work when reinventing characters for a reboot such as the Ultimate Universe (e.g., Nick Fury), but is hard to pull off as a revamp within an established continuity (e.g., Nick Fury).
The one major exception where you can plausibly change an existing character without outrageous convolutions is sexuality. For that reason alone, it makes a lot of sense to find a workable candidate and do it. And Iceman is about as good a candidate as it gets, largely because the character has done so little over his fifty years. Pretty much every other candidate has some character-defining romantic relationships or, for the likes of Tony Stark, at least a history of inveterate womanising. Iceman does have a string of relationships too, but it’s not like any of them could seriously be claimed to be central to his character today. He’s arguably the blankest slate remaining from Marvel’s Silver Age creations, and thus the best available choice.
Now, all that being said. There’s been some criticism of this particular decision for ignoring the idea that Bobby could simply be bisexual, and you can see where that’s coming from. And it’s not entirely clear how Bendis is trying to square the two versions of the characters. At some points in the scene, he seems to be suggesting that the older Iceman was shaped by an era when coming out was a less attractive option. But the story also seems to assert outright that the older Iceman is straight – Bobby makes this claim explicitly and Jean agrees with it. That’s getting into the territory of asserting sexuality as a choice, which is at the least contentious. Probably simpler to run with the idea that both versions of the character are gay; I can’t see this particular concept leading to anything but problems.
It’s also a scene that arguably underplays the implications of Jean simply reading Bobby’s mind on this. But Bendis set up long ago the idea that this is nothing new with the All-New version of Jean. In that sense you can see a reading where Jean feels it’s ridiculous to keep pretending that she doesn’t know, given that the general idea that she lacks self-control has been well established. Perhaps it jars more because the scene casts her (maybe by default) in the role of the wise elder sister; but in his understandable desire to distance Jean from her conventional role as the X-Men’s saintly mother figure, there’s something to be said for bringing that side of her back into play. On balance, I think he gets away with it.
Anyway, the Utopians. Remember them? Bendis gets to them properly in the final issue, which pretty much consists of the X-Men going to Utopia at Maria Hill’s request, having a little squabble with them, and bringing them back to their base. (Which they’re now occupying on their own, since everyone but Magik has given up and left following recent events in Uncanny.)
The Utopians are one of those teams who seem to have been assembled from whichever off-cut characters were lying around – Random, Masque, Elixir, Boom Boom, Karma, and Madison Jeffries. Last time we saw Elixir, in Death of Wolverine: Logan Legacy, he was looking a bit dead, though in fairness the issue didn’t say so outright. Still, you’d think we could expect something more than him just showing up again.
At any rate, the basic hook for the Utopians seems to be that they’re trying to withdraw from the world and live in peace, though quite why you’d go to the wreckage of Utopia for that purpose is difficult to fathom. The X-Men’s offer of a place in the New Xavier School in the middle of nowhere seems a better suggestion in the circumstances. But for Bendis to introduce all this in the final issue of his run makes no obvious sense, unless it’s setting up something for the next writer. Even on that basis, it’s a strange way to end the run.
This is a very odd collection, presumably dictated by the need to fill a page count rather than by any particularly narrative logic. It’s impossible to recommend, since nearly half of it is taken up by middle chapters of a crossover, and a third issue is banal character-shuffling. But issues #37 and #40 are among the more memorable issues from Bendis’ run. You’d be better off getting them individually, though.
“It undermines previous stories. It actually completely destroys some recent ones (like the Kitty romance subplot and all of the Doop miniseries that bent over backwards to break up Kitty and Bobby when his retconned homosexuality would have done it with a lot less effort).”
No it doesn’t. They’re saying past Iceman is gay, not present one. And if current Iceman is also gay, so what? Many gay people grow up thinking they’re straight. It represents many people’s experiences.
You’d think someone who posts under the name “Dazzler” would have more sympathy for gay iconography.
“With Iceman we have had 60 years of history and yes”
Ehem . . .
“Uncanny X-Men, originally published as The X-Men, is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963”
@ Billy
Did they explain how Young Jean was aware though about Young Bobby’s orientation?
I agree with Jaime. There’s no reason Big Bob cannot have been gay all along.
I disagree with Chris, and the following comment:
a Bendis story published in 2015 should never detract from an old story published long ago.
If you want a new story retcon to cast an old story in new light, that’s your business as a reader.
It doesn’t “detract” from anything; in a few cases it sheds a new light, but there’s no detraction.
When I re-read X-Men #1, I definitely don’t read it with the Jack O’Diamonds Cyclops origin in mind. For example. When I re-read the first few issues of Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm is not an old friend of Reed from college but the poor guy that was hired to fly the ship and got stuck with them in his mutation…..
When you read the Proteus Saga, is Logan still a mutated Wolverine? When you read Giant-Size X-Men, do you refuse to see him as 150 years old? Do you insist to this day that his name is “Logan,” and not James?
When I read those old issues now, Logan’s long history certainly changes how I see the character. I’m glad he’s a more complex character than he was when he first appeared, and part of that is his long back story. The tone of those early appearances aren’t always completely consistent with who he became, but I can overlook that.
The same is true for Bobby’s new reveal (if indeed that’s what’s coming).
But, you know, your tastes may vary, as they should.
Yep.
“Of all the characters to thrust into this role, a member of the original X-Men actually makes the least possible sense. He’s been a member of this hippie mutant commune since puberty, sandwiched between telepathic friends and foes, none of whom has ever implied anything about his sexuality in any way, shape or form. It would make much MUCH more sense for them to reveal that Steve Rogers has been gay this whole time. Not someone who’s been a student of Xavier’s since he was a kid. Makes no sense. It would have come out at SOME point before this.”
This is a bit like why I can’t suspend my disbelief for the twins (re-)retcon: It asks you to believe that in all the years they were believed to be Magneto’s mutant children, there was NEVER any kind of DNA test that proved they weren’t. Like, Beast never checked up on it (even when trying to determine if Joseph was Magneto or not); They never got compared to Polaris; Pietro wasn’t thoroughly checked out after House of M took his powers – even though they weren’t even really mutant powers.
I’ve never understood how there’s any problem with Psylocke having an Asian body. She had her mind/body swapped/messed around with. That’s it.
“This is a bit like why I can’t suspend my disbelief for the twins”
Then don’t. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to keep buying it. Read the old comics and have a blast. No one’s stopping you except you.
“When you read the Proteus Saga, is Logan still a mutated Wolverine?”
He wasn’t a mutated Wolverine in the Proteus Saga.
Where in the Proteus Saga was it said that Wolverine was a weasel mutated by the High Evolutionary?
“a Bendis story published in 2015 should never detract from an old story published long ago.
If you want a new story retcon to cast an old story in new light, that’s your business as a reader.
It doesn’t “detract” from anything; in a few cases it sheds a new light, but there’s no detraction.”
It detracts if you, as a reader, let it. It casts new light, if you, as a reader, want it to.
I really don’t watch Star Wars thinking that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker or that Leia is Luke’s sister. I could. But I don’t. I haven. But I won’t.
“When you read Giant-Size X-Men, do you refuse to see him as 150 years old?”
I like 85 years old, give or take. Maybe 110 now, since the 85 years old thing was fed to me in the nineties.
Who is James? Is that from Origin? I found that story forgettable.
I’m old and cranky. I have a fairly deep and wide knowledge of Marvel canon but I tend to keep to a personal canon when I actually read the old stuff.
Not much X-Men canon after Morrison/Whedon. No Chuck Austen comics. The Avengers are a blank between just before the crossing nad Busiek…. and Bendis ain’t canon.
and Spider-Man definitely does not make a deal with Satan to save his ancient mother from certain death to merely the brink of death
Logan’s origin as a mutated wolverine was stated way back in the first Claremont-Cockrum run, and wasn’t explicitly repudiated until decades later when he was shown being born human. Technically, during the Proteus Saga, a reader might still have taken that to be his origin; but clearly nobody does (and probably nobody did back then either).
Basically you’re just picking and choosing retcons to accept, which is fine. We all do it. You accept that Wolverine was 85 years old at the time of GSXM #1, which is retcon, and changes how you read that issue and all of Logan’s early appearances. But you decline to accept that Bobby might be gay.
Why do you distinguish them? Is it just preference? What’s your preference based on?
And do you really watch A New Hope refusing to see Vader as Luke’s father?
@Dave:
My problem with Psylocke having an Asian body isn’t one related to continuity. Continuity-wise, it hangs together with the same preposterous logic as any other character transformation in comicdom. That admittedly makes a fundamental aspect of the character very difficult to summarise in a concise manner, but that’s a problem for the movies (to probably ignore), not the comics.
But the same way the LGBT community may want to be better represented in the media, so may Asians. When one of the more popular Asian characters at Marvel isn’t really Asian, it makes it feel like false advertisement.
What’s worse, her body switch story with Revanche inadvertently tells a story where the “outside Asianness” of a character is cool, but only tempered by her moral “inside whiteness”. The body’s true “inside Asianness” held by Revanche is a stereotypical maniac who kills people and excuses all of her sociopathic awfulness with a barbarian code of honour. It’s just comic book craziness, I know, but when you’ve grown up in an environment that keeps telling you Asians look respectable on the outside but are garbage on the inside, and accuse you of being a “banana” the minute you do something decent (because being decent must mean I’m imitating white people), the whole thing rings really, really frustrating.
Now, before anyone gets on my shit on this, I am fully aware that this was not Chris Claremont or Fabian Nicieza’s intention when they wrote those stories. By the same token, I’m sure Bendis just wanted to open the door to some more diversity with the Bobby story. All three writers can be celebrated for this.
But at the same time (and to bring it back to topic), if a gay reader tells me that the Bobby retcon frustrates them because it inadvertently makes them feel like the whole struggle of living in the closet has been dismissed in favour of a cheap retcon device, well, who the hell am I to argue that their feelings are wrong?
Different readers are going to have different reactions to stories like this. And I found it interesting that one of the points made against my general position on the matter was something I could relate to. That is all.
I decline to accept that Bobby might be gay because I decline to accept that the entire Bendis run has any entertainment value to me.
I also decline to accept that one of the original X-Men nakedly boned one of the Generation X members above her watching family.
I know when and where the idea of Wolverine as a mutated animal surfaced. I read the comic… with the leprechauns.
But they never confirmed that origin in later stories and no one brought it up during the Proteus Saga, so it wouldn’t have occurred to me to matter while reading it.
And no I seriously don’t see Darth Vader as Luke’s father when I watch Star Wars. The two characters barely interact. At all. Over the course of that story.
Now Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, I’ve read that two different ways. But usually still without the later retcons…. it’s just frikkin fun picturing the first real encounter between Luke and Vader.
Also… it’s not particularly interesting.
The B-level writers seemed to actually be taking the characters into directions.
And then Bendis craps on it.
Guardians of the Galaxy all over again.
“The B-level writers seemed to actually be taking the characters into directions. And then Bendis craps on it.”
It’s a shame he’s forcing you to read all his books.
“It’s a shame he’s forcing you to read all his books.”
You mean it’s a shame he cancelled the few books I read and replaced them with books I find too boring and aimless to read.
well, to be fair, I didn’t read Uncanny X-Men anymore anyway. It seemed directionless before Bendis.
“Then don’t. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to keep buying it. Read the old comics and have a blast. No one’s stopping you except you.”
You’re being very presumptive here – for the sole purpose of repeating for the umpteenth time your mantra of ‘Marvel doesn’t have to do what you want’. All I said was that I don’t buy the retcon, and why. If you’re not going to even try to refute any part of what I said, then what’s the point of replying?
“You mean it’s a shame he cancelled the few books I read and replaced them with books I find too boring and aimless to read.”
And yet here you are, complaining endlessly about them. Guess they weren’t that boring for you after all.
Nothing like complaining about complainers!
I love complainers. We’re dissatisfied fans because the thing we enjoyed reading or watching was more or less yanked out of our hands for reasons other than audience size or creator dissatisfaction.
Guardians of the Galaxy got taken away from two glorious writers and given to a meandering scribbler that turned the galactic strike force into a wandering gang of aimless hoodlums that fly around earth a lot.
To think I got all those issues of Marvel NOW GOTG…. really gives flesh to the old adage about the fool or the fool who follows him. I’m the bigger fool; the lesser fool I followed got paid. How foolish could he possibly be? He got paid.
“We’re dissatisfied fans because the thing we enjoyed reading or watching was more or less yanked out of our hands for reasons other than audience size or creator dissatisfaction.”
That’s adorable, but it was never in your hands to begin with. As a fan, you have ownership over nothing. Well, except a massive case of butthurt, apparently.
Don’t worry, Chrissy. Nobody’s going to take your butthurt away from you.
Is butthurt the new version of calling someone gay as an insult?
So we’re a website celebrating being a fan of stuff and I’m mocked because I’m being a fan of stuff and annoyed that the stuff is no longer being made?
yeah.
I’m going to ignore the ignorant person.
Butthurt is a word invariably used by trolls, in place of a coherent argument. Once they get to the ‘you’re butthurt’ stage, you know it’s pointless trying to reason with them.
“I’m mocked because I’m being a fan of stuff and annoyed that the stuff is no longer being made”
No, you’re mocked for your endless fan entitlement. Marvel owes you nothing. You are not special as a fan. You’re a (clearly mindless) consumer and nothing more.
On the Psylocke thing, wouldn’t it be easiest for a new continuity (either comics or films) to just make her British Asian?
Disclaimer: I’m a straight white guy so I obviously don’t have much experience from which to draw on here. I can understand the issue with her, mainly with the “exotic beauty but don’t worry she’s still white and not foreign and all” factor. Is that made better or worse if she were just naturally Japanese-English?
Obviously “Japanese-English mutant” is far better than “British mutant who was brainwashed and placed in the body of a ninja assassin.”
I’m entitled to what I was promised and to what I purchased.
So I’m a mindless consumer because I don’t buy what doesn’t entertain me.
And only spend money on what does.
You’re such a Mindless One Dormammu erected a force field to seal you in the Dark Dimension.
@LiamKav
If Marvel indeed plans to tweak its continuity, I think it would be an ideal solution if they made Psylocke British-Japanese, since it would allow the character to retain her original cultural heritage and look the same as she’s been drawn for a quarter of a century now. Plus, very little would have to be changed in the character’s history. Instead of the body switch, Spiral and the Mandarin would have “uploaded” part of Revanche’s psyche into her. The rest of her journey remains the same.
Of course, there is the matter of her being the sister of Captain Britain, whose Anglo-Saxon heritage strikes me as fundamental to the character, so I guess she’d have to be adopted or a half-sibling (making her lineage half-Japanese, half-British).
That’s my two cents anyway.
Dimitri: Does she *have* to be Captain Britain’s sister though? It’s not like they have all that many stories together. They probably haven’t shared a major plot in over 30 years.
“I’m entitled to what I was promised and to what I purchased.”
So then . . .
“We’re dissatisfied fans because the thing we enjoyed reading or watching was more or less yanked out of our hands for reasons other than audience size or creator dissatisfaction.”
What the fuck do these two statements have to do with one another?
I’ve been away for a while, but just want to touch on a few quick points:
1) The name Dazzler should indeed give you the sense that I’m not anti-gay. I’m totally queer friendly. In fact, part of the reason this whole thing offends me is that it’s using sexuality as this mutable thing and as a gimmick.
2) May as well wait until adult Iceman’s coming out scene is (eventually) published, but I suspect it will disspell the notion that Iceman is supposed to have been confused about the nature of his own sexuality. The other main reason this offends me is that it makes no sense in the context of what’s come before, which I’ve already explained. Marvel’s editors are being pretty clear about the idea that Iceman has always been gay; it just happens to make no sense when you re-read his entire history.
3) Plenty of gay people are pissed off about this change and how it’s been handled.
@Taibak
That’s a good point. I guess I was just trying to minimise the changes to continuity without really thinking why.
Mind you, I’m a big fan of Remender’s Uncanny X-Force run, which I view as an externalised Psylocke story. In it, Brian served as an important foil: the moral self she holds as an ideal but can’t reconcile with her true nature. I wouldn’t mind if Marvel kept the sibling relationship, if only so that future writers can bring back the dynamic Remender set up.
“it’s using sexuality as this mutable thing and as a gimmick.”
It’s actually being used as a story. It’s a bad story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a story.
Dimitri: Huh. Didn’t know Brian was in that. Although the thought of using him as a moral ideal seems a bit strange.
Prior to that though, what was their last story together? When her body arrives in England during X-Treme X-Men? The guest appearances in Excalibur – where she didn’t do anything interesting? When they fought Mojo with the New Mutants?
@Taibak
Yeah, I’m drawing a blank too. It’s surprising they didn’t interact more when she was in Exiles, given the “alternate reality” gimmick.
Oh, and rest assured: Brian comes off like a jerk in Uncanny X-Force. Psylocke just doesn’t seem to notice (and I kind of like that).
Well, it’s not that Brian is a jerk – a bit self-centered, but not maliciously so – but rather that he’s not particularly good at being a superhero and doesn’t fit in with that culture. At least that’s how I’ve always seen him.
Well, and he tries to sentence Fantomex to death. I think that qualifies him as a jerk.
@Jamie:
My friend, you are giving everyone involved FAR too much credit here. Don’t forget, Bendis had this idea and dropped it into a book a few issues before he was scheduled to depart, without consulting anyone. Maybe the new writer makes a story out of it, but the guy whose whole idea this is won’t be around to write that story.
Bendis can’t possibly have had a story of his own to tell or else he would have introduced this change at a time when he could actually write stories about gay Iceman. He didn’t hire the next guy. He’s just trusting that the X-office and the new writer will take this story element and turn it into something other than a gimmick. And placing that kind of trust in Marvel is just absurd.
Also, as I’ve said before and as has been said by many, this new development makes no sense in the context of the character. Give me a gay Steve Rogers. That’s a story. No reason he couldn’t be gay. Plenty of reason Iceman being gay this whole time makes no sense and ruins a decent number of stories, to say nothing of what a mess future writers are almost certainly going to make of it going forward.
“My friend, you are giving everyone involved FAR too much credit here.”
No, I’m not. I said it’s a story, which it literally is, and a bad one, which gives credit to no one.
“Don’t forget, Bendis had this idea and dropped it into a book a few issues before he was scheduled to depart, without consulting anyone.”
Oh, I’m glad you work at Marvel and aren’t just pulling that claim out of your ass.
“Bendis can’t possibly have had a story”
Oh, I’m glad you’re a mindreader and not jsut pulling that claim out of your ass.
“And placing that kind of trust in Marvel is just absurd.”
Says the fanboy buying their books.
“Give me a gay Steve Rogers. That’s a story. No reason he couldn’t be gay. Plenty of reason Iceman being gay this whole time makes no sense and ruins a decent number of stories”
Such logic!
Let me apologize if i was too aggressive in my previous posts, i was angry with something completely unrelated and channeled the anger on this topic.
That doesn’t mean I like the Iceman thing, it could have been handled in so many better ways. For instance, if Jean did this to Old Bobby and then they were trying to find a way to tell Young Bobby would be more interesting and maybe even somewhat acceptable. But I insist, something like that is best in a new character or someone who is slowly discovering their sexuality, not outright telling someone “boom, now you’re gay”. The way it was handled is wrong in too many ways imho.
Jamie: I did not pull that story from anywhere but Bendis’ mouth and the mouth of the editor whose name I can’t remember. Bendis wrote the scene and dropped it into the script. This is a fact. He didn’t know if it would get through editorial or if it would get nixed. The editor called him and they discussed it, and the editor left it in. Look it up. There was a whole big article on I think CBR.com about it. The idea that I would invent this and try to pass it off as the truth is ludicrous, but I guess we’re on the internet so you can never be too careful.
But that is the exact specific way this plotline materialized. Go find the interview. Bendis plopped it into a script because he felt like it and was able to convince the editor to run with it. If this was an actual storyline that had been developed in another way, I would be less skeptical about it.
And to reiterate: Bendis put that scene into the script without consulting anyone. The editor first learned of the story by reading the script. Then Bendis talked him into letting it stick.