New Mutants #24 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #24
“What is Deserved”
by Vita Ayala, Danilo Beyruth & Dan Brown
Hold on, is this book still going? It is! This issue was originally solicited for 1 December 2021 and now ships over two months late.
COVER / PAGE 1. The New Mutants in a sort of stylised snakes and ladders in a Krakoan tree. It doesn’t have much to do with anything in the issue. (However, the actual content of this issue does match the original solicitation.)
PAGE 2. Magik and Rictor in the Green Lagoon.
Rictor developed an interest in magic while studying under Apocalypse over in Excalibur, and is now a rookie magician. He was briefly a member of the New Mutants in the latter days of the original run, though that was after Magik’s time; they don’t really know each other all that well.
“I’m a self-taught infernal sorcerer.” Well, partly. As covered in the original Magik miniseries, Illyana learned magic from Belasco and from an alternate version of Storm.
Generally speaking, this conversation is pushing (not very subtly) the theme of connection. Ayala’s run on this book has always focussed on the idea of groups of mutants being able to use their powers in such a way that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, though, and keeps coming back to stories about people trying to connect with one another with variable degrees of success.
The idea that mutants are somehow better placed to achieve this than humans – “[w]e’re supposed to be united in a way that is not possible for humans” – continues to baffle me, frankly. Of course, Magik’s point here is that mutants aren’t achieving this greater connection, but she still seems to be buying into the idea that they ought to. It’s not at all obvious why that should be so. Of course, psychic and empathic characters are better placed to achieve it, and so are the likes of Cypher, but how do the powers of Cyclops or Blob or Micromax contribute to human connection? If the argument is that they work with the mutants whose powers do serve that function, why are other mutants better placed than ordinary humans to benefit from those powers?
PAGE 3. Recap and credits. Note that although the official story title is “What is Deserved”, it’s paired with “What is Given” as a header for the recap section.
PAGES 4-8. Mirage and Wolfsbane.
Given the pointed ears, Rahne is apparently meant to be slightly in wolf form for most of this issue, though it doesn’t quite come across that way (possibly because the colouring doesn’t suggest any fur).
In page 4 panels 2 and 4, Rahne is remembering her son Tier’s apparent death in X-Factor #256. Rahne’s discovery that Tier was alive, and her desperation to find him, was a major storyline in the run-up to the Hellfire Gala, but it’s been somewhat on the back burner during the Shadow King arc.
Page 4 panel 3 shows the Shadow King looking at Rahne in tears on the ground – this is the opening scene of issue #17, though it’s not obvious why Shadow King is saying “Bring the girl to me” when he was actually there.
“After everything I’ve done…” Rahne was being manipulated into helping the Shadow King from issue #17 onwards.
“You needed me and I wasn’t there…” Again, issue #17 – Dani was off on a mission when Rahne learned that Tier was alive, and wasn’t around to provide emotional support.
“You’re my soul mate.” Dani’s telepathic link with Rahne was a big deal in early New Mutants stories in the 1980s and has tended to be forgotten about since.
“Since I came back…” Rahne died in Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #16 and was resurrected at the start of the Krakoan era.
One thing about Vita Ayala’s New Mutants stories: characters do have a tendency to explain very directly what they’re thinking in terms of emotional connections, mutual understanding and so forth, in therapist language that sounds much more like an authorial voice than the voices of any of the individual characters. “I didn’t hear you before, when you called for me, but I hear you now” is a good example of that. See also page 10: “I was reacting as if we came from the same place and fought the same battles, but we haven’t. I should have listened to what you were saying, and tried to understand what you were really saying.” It’s a very noticeable writing tic at this point.
The montage in page 6 panel 3 shows another image of Tier, Scout from Lost Club (who was killed by Shadow King as an indirect consequence of Rahne’s involvement), the Shadow King manipulating Rahne, and for some reason Dani Moonstar in her Hellfire Gala outfit.
PAGES 8-11. The New Mutants take Cosmar to Masque.
Mutietown. A lot of mutants who didn’t want to live in utopia, mostly former Morlocks, moved into Lowtown Madripoor over in Marauders. The Moira MacTaggert Memorial Public Hospital also comes from Marauders, and is due to be renamed shortly.
“You wee willing to die for the chance to be who you feel you are.” Cosmar asked to be killed in the Crucible back in issue #15 so that she could be resurrected with her normal appearance. Dani refused and gave her a lecture about embracing her mutant qualities. It’s important to note here that (at least as Cosmar tells it) her appearance is not an inherent feature of her powers – it’s the result of her injuring herself with her powers when she couldn’t control them. Cosmar was always in the right in this argument.
“When my powers first came to me…” In issues #9-11.
Masque has been working at the hospital since Marauders #18, and now mainly uses his face-altering powers for legitimate plastic surgery (scar removal and the like).
PAGE 12. Data page. Warpath is still answer the series of questions that Dani gave him back at the start of Ayala’s run.
Warpath’s older brother is, of course, the original Thunderbird, and we’ll be seeing him in the next scene.
PAGES 13-15. Warpath and Thunderbird are reunited.
Thunderbird was resurrected in X-Men: Trial of Magneto #5 after the Scarlet Witch extended the memory banks of Cerebro back into the past. If you’re wondering how that fits with the appearance of Petra and Sway, who died before Thunderbird did, apparently that was a mistake – they were meant to be hallucinations of Vulcan, but the dialogue mistakenly had other people acknowledging their presence. Pretend that didn’t happen.
“I didn’t avenge you…” In his earliest appearances, James wanted revenge on the X-Men for his brother’s death, but he didn’t go through with it.
PAGE 16. Back to Magik and Rictor.
“Look, as much fun as it is to pretend that I don’t have feelings other than berserker rage…” The prevailing take on Illyana for some years now has been to write her as an ironically distant sociopath. Ayala clearly wants to dial that back.
“I couldn’t touch earth for fear of my powers shaking me… apart…” This was Rictor’s status quo at the start of Excalibur.
The Goblin Queen. Madelyne Pryor was resurrected in Hellions #18, but in that issue she was dressed in her flight suit and only appeared in her Goblin Queen outfit when viewing herself in the mirror. Here, she’s just sitting around in the outfit, which is a rather odd look for someone sitting alone at a bar. (It’s not as if Havok wasn’t desperate to spend time with her, but presumably she doesn’t fancy being around him right now. We’ll come back to that.) To be honest, this does read a bit as if there are crossed wires between the Hellions and New Mutants creative teams somewhere.
PAGE 17. Data page – the application for No-Girl to get a proper body.
PAGES 18-19. No-Girl receives her new body and takes the name Cerebella.
No-Girl’s new body resembles the way she appeared in the Shadow King’s psychic landscape in issue #23. Thus, it’s her self-image.
In page 18 panel 1, the characters (from left to right) are Chamber, someone I don’t recognise despite them being drawn
- Chamber
- A generic woman in a generic X-outfit.
- Jubilee, presumably.
- Probably Karma, viewed from behind.
- Bling!
- Gentle
- Anole
In the following panel, the guy in the foreground on the left is Brutha Nature; the girl with the insect wings is Sprite (Jia Jing); and the furry guy with the stripes on his arm is Cam Long.
Daken is apparently being reunited with Scout and Wolverine (Laura) for the first time since Scout’s death at the Hellfire Gala; considering that she was resurrected the next day, that suggests we’re still very close to the Gala in terms of timeline. Even so, something must have happened to keep Daken occupied for this long.
Storm officiates at the ceremony as she did when it was first seen in House of X. This is being treated for ceremonial purposes as the equivalent of a resurrection. The loud proclamation of her name is part of that too.
“A victim of humanity’s worst cruelty”. Martha’s brain was removed from her body by John Sublime and the U-Men prior to her first appearance in New X-Men vol 1 #118.
PAGE 20. Montage. In sequence:
- Panel 1: A much-improved Cosmar, delighted with Masque’s work. (Note that she retains her different coloured eyes and many of the features of her body, though – Masque does face shapes.)
- Panel 2: Magik and Rictor, still discussing magic.
- Panel 3: The Proudstar brothers by the campfire.
- Panel 4: Cerebella is reunited with the rest of Lost Club, and embraces Cosmar. Over in Excalibur, Rictor has indeed been generally a bit lost without Apocalypse; broadly, he feels abandoned and keeps trying to preserve what he sees as Apocalypse’s legacy.
- Panels 5-6: Magik and Rictor agree to work together to teach magic to the young. It seems like Rictor’s “mutant magic” angle is being imported from Excalibur.
- Panels 7-8: Karms embraces a woman with wings. This is Galura, whose only previous appearances were in the Karma story in Marvel Voices: Pride #1 and issue #21, where she was one of the kids that Warpath was training on the moon. The idea that she’s in a relationship with Karma comes from the Pride story and I’m not convinced it’s realistic to expert readers to know who she is or what’s going on here.
- Panel 9: Lost Club… go their separate ways or something? I’m not really sure what’s meant to be going on here. Magik’s dialogue references her work as a guest instructor at Dr Strange’s school, which has indeed been seen over in Strange Academy.
- Panels 10-12: Havok and Madelyne looking miserable, and Madelyne wandering off on her own.
PAGES 21-23. The New Mutants see Amahl Farouk off through a portal.
Farouk’s battle with the New Mutants, and separation from the Shadow King, were covered in the last few issues.
“Farouk has requested that once his treatment is complete, he be allowed to add his power to aid David Haller in his work.” Legion, in other words. Farouk is apparently going through the portal to the Altar, the psychic pocket dimension accessible from Arakko which Legion created in Way of X.
“Ayos ka lang?” “Are you okay?” in Tagalog.
PAGE 23. Magik approaches Madelyne Pryor.
The Othello quote is from Act 1 Scene 3. Broadly, you show your superiority to your tormentor by not letting them get to you.
PAGE 24. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: THE LABORS OF MAGIK.
Martha’s new body also resembles the one Zero gave her (with the exposed brain) and Cylobel from HoX.
On the one hand, the therapist-speak is fairly stilted. On the other, I was very happy that the issue was everyone talking out their angsts, working on personal connections, and resolving to do better. And please do let Illyana being more than Magic Demonic Wolverine Rahrr Stab again.
I don’t buy this touchy-feely Thunderbird.
The man literally went to his death, against the pleading of his teammates not to throw his life away, proclaiming that he was a man and he’d prove it. And as far as he was concerned, *that was yesterday*.
You’d think that a writer capable of lines like “as much fun as it is to pretend that I don’t have feelings other than berserker rage…” would be capable of realising he was a toxic moron, and have Warpath’s interactions with him end with the realisation that he was better off with his brother out of his life, rather than having them hug it out.
The dialogue is most reminiscent of Very Special episodes of 80s/90s sitcoms to my ear.
I’m with Mike D’Angelo: “Nothing is less interesting dramatically than watching people overtly work out their hangups, which is one of the many reasons that Atom Egoyan’s Exotica, in which the nature of Bruce Greenwood and Mia Kirshner’s obsessive ritual is shrouded in mystery, is about a thousand times more affecting and cathartic than Robert Redford’s thematically similar Ordinary People, with Judd Hirsch’s crusty, sweater-clad psychoshaman browbeating Timothy Hutton out of his repression.”
I’m also with Adam Cadre: “Subtext adds richness to a story, but a lot of authors seem worried that the audience might miss it and therefore short-circuit the subtext by blurting it out. Don’t speak the subtext! Stories involving psychiatry are a classic example of this, but sociological stories are also spoiled by having characters sit around and discuss society. You can really undermine a story by telling the reader everything you’ve just shown.”
All Ayala’s therapy-speak is not just stilted – it’s excruciating.
Thunderbird was definitely toxic during his initial appearance but like, I don’t think it requires suspending disbelief that he would love his brother.
The therapy-talk is a little odd, but I was under the impression that Dani was basically giving the original squad therapy sessions so it’s possible that they’re just learning it from her?
Mathias X Thunderbird was definitely toxic during his initial appearance but like, I don’t think it requires suspending disbelief that he would love his brother.
But would he react to his brother starting to cry over seeing him by (a) hugging him until he stopped crying, or (2) telling him to stop being a girly-man, because real men don’t cry, and think he was doing him a favour?
At first, I thought the thing with Maddie was a deliberate bait-and-switch. In Hellions, she expresses anger with Alex, agrees to have drinks with him and then we see her say “I have to get ready” and we see her looking at herself as the Goblin Queen in a mirror The implication was, she’s got something sinister planned for him. And in this issue, it turns out that she just changed into her Goblin Queen outfit and had drinks with him.
Yeah this book has been teetering on the cut list for a while, I think this is a good point to hope off.
The dialogue kills me, the story is glacial, and the unironic mutant superiority stuff has reached a saturation point with me.
The Goblin Queen outfit does look weird to have drinks in.
We really do need a clearer explanation of what’s going on with Maddie. She seems more rational than she’s been since she turned into the Goblin Queen and Illyana seems to think she can trust her. Is the idea that resurrection mostly cured her? Or is the idea that as mistress of Limbo, Illyana can modify the spell that turned her into the Goblin Queen so that she still retains her pre-S’ym loyalties and values?And if the latter is the case, why didn’t Illyana do it years ago? Even if Illyana couldn’t fix Maddie entirely, restoring Maddie to the X-Men’s ally so that she no longer tried to kill or enslave the three people she loved most in the world (Scott, Nathan and Alex) would probably be what the pre-Goblin Queen Maddie would have wanted .
I want to add that all the criticism here about authorial voices and speaking subtext out loud and “having characters sit around and discuss society” has always been my problem with all of Si Spurrier’s writing. And it has been notably Spurrier’s writing tic for far longer.
Re: mutants being inherently better suited for connection: the issue of course is that mutants aren’t inherently better than humanity, but the X-men have largely at this point bought into the supremacist ideologies that used to belong to their enemies only. Now it becomes a matter of trying to apply this sense of chauvinism to themselves. This kind of attempt to find qualities that prove their innate superiority and ending up with what are actually universal human qualities (and then declaring that the inferior races are incapable of experiencing them in such quality as the superior race) is basically standard across any form of supremacist thought.
The page 20 montage I’m guessing should be read left to right across both pages so that panel you’re questioning would be Martha and Scout arriving to meet the Lost Gang following by the panel of them chatting and embracing
I like this comic, even if I get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
1) Therapy-speak: yes, it can be stilted. I would be happy to see it toned down. Once the therapy-speak was over in this issue, however, characters came to an understanding and were able to express their feelings in a positive way. I was more invested in Dani & Rahne reconnecting than turned off by the manner in which they spoke initially. Frankly, when dealing with people in my life going through mental health issues I’ve found myself unintentionally using language that’s come from an outside source.
I disagree that most of the characters are written the same. Dani, Rahne, Magik, Warlock, Warpath, Cosmar, Gabby, and Farouk all have distinct voices and personalities. I’ll grant that Karma is pretty similar to Dani, and the other “Lost Club” members blend together.
2) Thunderbird: he’s had something like 4 appearances. Most of his scenes with the X-Men showed how he interacts with people he had no reason to like or trust. It’s *entirely possible* that those comics didn’t show the entire range of his character. Maybe he’s not going to immediately be a jerk to the brother who looked up to him?
3) This comic is about feelings, trauma, and forgiveness. It explores some of the problems with Krakoa. Ayala & co. show characters apologise for their mistakes, weigh the rightness of their actions, and work through their differences. I’m happy to read one series a month in which characters work on their mental health.
4) I also think there was some miscommunication regarding Madelyn Pryor. Still, I’m eager to see what happens next.
5) Oh man, the art in this issue gave me fits. Some of the people looked like fish. Rod Reis, you can not come back soon enough.
I’m not trying to convince anyone who doesn’t like New Mutants to change their minds, just stating why I continue to enjoy the series. I agree that the pacing isn’t always great. Still, the X-comics can accommodate a wide variety of approaches and I’m glad a comic like this exists.
Ceries-I don’t think the point being made is that mutants are better at “connecting”, but that mutants are inherently collectivist as opposed to the individualism of humanity. Your point is basically accurate, but I’d say the origin is that Krakoa is attempting to find ways in which mutants differ from humanity. Then, they hold up these differences as superior to the other culture. Paul is correct that there is nothing in pre-Hickman X-comics that would point to this being reality. However, Krakoa is a communal society with no money or private property, so this idea may play in to this description of Krakoa.
Having a sort of collective, connected community is one of the few ideas about the Neo that was kinda consistent. Funny how both the Neo and this era have similar ideas about what constitutes the next step of evolution for mutantkind. Shockwave Riders, 2022 is your year. Come back to us.
As for the issue, some bits I liked – the Cosmar and No-Girl resolutions, and I did enjoy seeing John, James and Illyana all being uncharacteristically open and emotional. If John’s going to be back in circulation, he’s going to need a second character trait eventually, and loving his brother is already established (retroactively, of course). So I’m alright with inconsistency with his original depiction. If he’s nice to everyone, not so much, but loving James gets a pass for me.
But I’m definitely in the camp that is tired of the therapy talk, and it’s especially egregious in all the “Dani talks to character X about their feelings” scenes because there’s never anything interesting visually going on. This issue has an extended sequence where a werewolf is talking to a woman who can create telepathic illusions, and it’s all talking heads and a few flashbacks. PAD used to do a thing with Rahne that you could tell her emotional state by how transformed into a wolf she was in any given page and I’d love to see it come back. I’m really starting to miss the artifice of the Danger Room, where characters have have token action sequences so they can actually discuss their feelings.
I do have some hope that Ayala is setting up the mutant supremacy stuff in order to knock it down later (which is basically what she did with Dani telling Cosmar that her warped face was just an expression of her mutantness). That said, it would be less frustrating to read all these characters making these arguments if there had been a single character incorporated into the cast of any X-book who was just some mutant who showed up on Krakoa after Xavier’s message. “We’re inherently connected as mutants! And also we only hang out with like the same 40 people out of the 200,000 on this island.”
>> But would he react to his brother starting to cry over seeing him by (a) hugging him until he stopped crying, or (2) telling him to stop being a girly-man, because real men don’t cry, and think he was doing him a favour?
I would think (a), since that’s his brother and they probably have a more closer relationship than he had with Cyclops and Xavier. Would be pretty funny if his dead brother burst into the room and called him a bitch for crying, but I really don’t think that just because Thunderbird was a dick to Wolverine that means that he will be a dick to everyone he has ever cared about in his life forever.
“Note that she retains her different coloured eyes and many of the features of her body, though – Masque does face shapes.”
Masque can change entire bodies though. They love giving people dozens of tentacles, and once turned Storm into a weird red scaly creature.
I haven’t read this issue, but reading Paul’s review, it sounds like Ayala was trying to make Cosmar fit as a metaphor for experiences of a trans person.
Dani is telling Cosmar that the way she looks is a result of how she was born and she must learn to accept that as her identity, while Cosmar is saying that she wasn’t meant to be like that but it was an accident, now she wants to be the person she should have always been if not for that accident.
I don’t read it as applying to the fact we must all learn to accept, which is that mutants are just plainly superior.
I enjoy this title. It could use about 20% less dialogue overall, and maybe an adjustment of the therapist talk in what’s left (also 100% more Rod Reis), but I’m on board with the trajectories of all those character arcs and I don’t mind the slow burn.
My major nitpick for the issue would be that Ernst should have been there to welcome Cerebella.
Mathias X> I would think (a), since that’s his brother and they probably have a more closer relationship than he had with Cyclops and Xavier. Would be pretty funny if his dead brother burst into the room and called him a bitch for crying, but I really don’t think that just because Thunderbird was a dick to Wolverine that means that he will be a dick to everyone he has ever cared about in his life forever.
I mean, the narration which introduced him in GSXM #1 is literally “John Proudstar is an Apache–and he is ashamed of his people. The Apache were meant to be hunters, warriors–not sad-eyed simpering squaws.”
@Sanity:
“have Warpath’s interactions with him end with the realisation that he was better off with his brother out of his life, rather than having them hug it out.”
This would be a *far* more interesting story beat. Have Thunderbird be overbearing, or arrogant, or disappointed in Warpath. It would also have more to say about death, and people moving on. There’s lots that could be grappled with.
Might also allow some exploration of what “death” actually means here. Do resurrected mutants just feel as if they’re waking up? Does Thunderbird remember his death, since presumably his magically Cerebroed memories would include everything?
It’s interesting to have Thunderbird back, because he was the X-Men’s answer to Bucky and Uncle Ben–the one who died and stayed dead. And once his little brother came into the picture as Thunderbird/Warpath, there clearly wasn’t any NEED for him to come back.
Honestly, Thunderbird should still be the hotheaded, arrogant, impetuous, headstrong “warrior” archetype of his only canon appearances, since as pointed out, no time’s passed between his death and return. Remember, he was basically a Native American version of Wolverine in personality, which is why he was expandable in the first place when they wanted to slim down the cast.
Meanwhile, James has been around for -years- and has matured out of his hotheaded, proud, arrogant youth, and long since gotten over his revenge kick. He should be the mature, experienced, rational, adult of the new dynamic, and it would be interesting to see how that played out.
For so many of these mutant returnees, it’s like time travel where everyone who loved and lost them has had time to process the grief and move on, and now look, here they are again, only they’re years behind you.
I’m not sure enough of the X-Writers have really delved into the actual consequences of bringing some of these characters back from the dead…
Also, I had no idea who Karma’s winged date was and it was really annoying me. Seriously, name the character on the page, people! Especially since IIRC Vita Ayala wrote that story in the Pride issue introducing the character…
Thanks always for your detailed work and passion Paul, I’ve been following your reviews and now annotations ever since I started reading X-Men way back on the newsgroups.
I just wanted to add that I am also on board with the therapy, I don’t see it as a tic, as others have pointed out this is actually how it works within group therapy that often a similar way of approaching or talking about a subject seems to repeat certain ways or expressions. It feels right to me that these characters in particular after all their experiences are now really finding their purpose within the x-world and with the current state of the world, a book like this can serve a wider meta purpose. Personally speaking, this is the kind of comic I need right now and I trust Vita with how this develops.
On a larger point, this book addresses community and that as mutants are still a global minority, like any self identified group there is a presumption that they would find it easier to connect to each other than wider society or humans in this case. I like that Vita points is emphasising this is not the case. Eg I’m queer but often it’s an assumption that the LGBTQIA+ community or spaces are where I want to be or feel safe.
On one point Paul – Rictor was part of Magik’s New Mutants team in Matthew Rosenberg’s 2018 mini Dead Souls.
Thanks again for all the work, and to all the commenters, it always good to come here after I read the books and share ideas with really thoughtful insights.
I want to believe that they are bringing the first Thunderbird at least in part to explore themes of identity and nationalism.
While there are many reasons why John is redundant from a writer’s perspective, those are considerations from a meta level. In a real community of course James would want to have his brother return. We saw very little of John’s personality and precisely for that reason he may easily be developed into his own person, hopefully not as Wolverine Clone #2022-14.
On the other hand, these are indeed fictional characters who have underdeveloped personalities mainly for reasons of writer convenience. It would be quite the challenge to write Krakoa’s society “realistically” even if it did not turn out that the ruling elite has a long history of attempting to kill some of its own and commit various other forms of crimes and acts of terrorism.
In real life, very similar brothers such as James and John of course exist (have we ever learned whether they are identical twins? I believe that John is older, but I can’t tell for sure) but they learn very soon to develop contrasting interests and personalities. It is very unusual indeed for real brothers to be as redundant to each other as a comic book writer is likely to make them appear. Delving into how James and John relate to each other, particularly now that James has had a lot more life experience than John, can be interesting.
Come to think of it, it would be lovely to have some of the early deceased mutants returned in Krakoa seek Steve Rogers at some point and ask for any advice on how to deal with the loss of years and the sudden aging of loved ones.
Which brings me back to my pet peeve about Krakoa: it does not much resemble anything that a real community would be. Well, a real community with fantasy powers, but I think I made my point clear.
It is simply not believable that so few mutants would rather attempt to follow with their normal lives in some place other than Krakoa, particularly since Krakoa is rather short in modern technological amenities and shows little indication of real infrastructure that does not rely on mutant powers.
Come to think of it, Krakoa in many respects resembles far more an ethereal, otherworldly realm of faeries than the recognized country that it wants to be. Have we even heard anything about job creation, budgets, strategic plans for the near future? Any talk of establishing (and accepting) embassies or consulates? Has anyone voiced a desire for having real showers and bathrooms, even?
I suppose there are mutant powers that make viable alternatives to many of those lacks, but that only furthers the effect of otherworldness and disconnect from the real world.
What is a Krakoan expected to do when his or her appendix burts? Jump through a portal with an official license for temporary asylum and a request for medical attention?
Seek Masque or Proteus and politely ask them if it is too much trouble to excise that inconvenience from their bodies? Apply for the speedy transit line for the Crucible (now that is a disturbing yet silly thought)?
It is just not believable that so many questions would stand largely unvoiced and unacted upon for so long.
I don’t see it as a tic so much as as a not very interesting characterization, but I’m getting old and salty.
Well, saltier.
Everyone being very honest and open is just… pretty boring to me?
And it washes away the identities of the characters.
But I absolutely understand why that positivity and openness is attractive to people, especially now during the Dark Time.
I finished the new Joe Abercrombie book this week, and it was such a colossal bummer it had a really negative impact on me mentally and I found it a very read, which I think is partially influenced by how worn down I am by the world currently.
Luis-Krakoa is a post-scarcity, moneyless society. Mutants are living the Marxist dream. Except, instead of the means of production being so fully developed, it is the mutants’ powers which allows for this fact.
I agree that more details about how the society functions should be placed on the page. All the mutants on Krakoa, there are enough mutant abilities to deal with these problems. How many mutant healers are there now?
I’m sure it is easy to show how the society could function, but if it would be functional is another question. Part of that is the problem of Hickman’s writing, as he doesn’t see autonomous individuals but pieces to be fit in his plan. Part of it is other writers’ faults who want to buy in to the dream of Krakoa as a mutant utopia.
The society seems boring. Most utopian fiction ends up hat way (with a few exceptions), but Krakoa more than most. After the common people get tired of the non-stop parties and orgies, get over the high of immortality…it seems like some of them would think, “Gee. I wish my life had some kind of purpose.”
Regarding Thunderbird, there is a Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird one-shot coming out later this year, which should establish John’s new status quo and clarify his relationships.
That one-shot is being co-written by Steve Orlando, which I take as a sign that Thunderbird will join the cast of Orlando’s Marauders after that issue.
Warpath will presumably stay with Vita Ayala in New Mutants. So despite having similar functionalities, the brothers will be doing different things.
Chris V: And Thunderbird is potentially the perfect character to explore that with. After all, it wasn’t just that he was an arrogant jerk, it’s that he was deeply anxious about who he was and how he fit in.
Think about it. In his very first scene, he chased down and tackled a buffalo just to test himself against his idea of a true Apache warrior. When he died, it was to prove that he didn’t need the team to be a great hero. If the writers follow up on that, there’s no way in hell he’s going to be happy sitting around waiting for the Blob to pour him another drink.
It even turns his death into an advantage. He’s been gone so long that he hasn’t seen how the X-Men have changed over the past decade(s). He thought they were soft before he died, what’s he going to make of them now that they just sit around and party all day?
I was pretty happy with this issue delving into various characters and their relationships with each other, especially the scene with Rahne and Dani, even if the therapy speech was a little clumsy… .
I always like to see things overcome typical comic book inertia — things staying the same just because that’s how they are — so Cosmar and No-Girl getting their desired transformations was refreshing. OTOH, there’s absolutely no reason for Madelyne to be wearing what has to be an incredibly… challenging outfit to keep on. Or, really, everyone insistently dressing in full uniform all the time. Illyana’s costume doesn’t really seem comfortable for wearing around at home, and I hope to see Farouk wearing something other than that suit and fez at some point.
Rahne seems to be a character that many artists assume has pointy ears and claws as a default… This isn’t the first time I’ve seen that.
And of course, the reason Ernst wasn’t there for Cerebella is because SHE’S CASSANDRA NOVA (and Xorn was Magneto), and that is the reality I choose to live in.
I have to agree with K and others that Ayala’s dive into therapy-speech this issue was not nearly as egregious as the way nearly every single character Si Spurrier writes sounds exactly the same because they’re purely a vehicle for him to infodump about the stuff he read about while doing research for a given comic and/or mental health and distinctive character voices are for other writers.
I’m not sure from where these ideas about Spurrier are coming. Unless it’s specifically in reference to Way of X. Way of X was one of my favourite books of the Krakoan-era, but that’s a pretty low bar, and it still came across as a disappointing Si Spurrier comic.
While his X-Force was written in an ironic fashion, I found he had a nice grasp of the characters as he was writing them.
His recent Hellblazer featured the best and most authentic John Constantine characterization and voice in over a decade.
His use of Legion in X-Men: Legacy was distinct. I realize it wasn’t consistent with past presentation of the character, but let’s face it, Legion was basically a blank slate before Spurrier.
What if John Proudstar is actually pretty chill, he’d just quit cigarettes the week we saw him and was a bit strung out.
I have to agree with Mike Loughlin above. We simply don’t have enough on panel to have much of an opinion about John Proudstar’s personality.
We saw him being a bit grumpy about being pestered by Charles and suddenly given a lot of responsibility that he never expected or wanted. As part of an ad hoc group of bickering people who did not even like each other.
Really, that hardly even hints at his personality. He is very much a blank slate, except perhaps for an exception that I fully want to disregard.
Claremont later wrote Classic X-Men and there inserted a scene of him wanting to prove that he could make a dangerous jump that Wolverine had already done. But that is one of the many retcons that made Classic X-Men troublesome. Beyond going out of its way to make John foolish and Wolverine better by comparison, it also makes Storm aware of Wolverine’s unbreakable bones a bit too soon. I for one don’t think those scenes count, or should count anyway. They are just too heavy handed and manipulative, and IMO a very uneasy fit to what was actually shown at the time of the stories that they attempt to change.
He’s an indigenous mutant. He’ll be written as perfect from now on, especially by white writers.
One other thing I remembered. I liked that James was drawn to be several inches taller than his brother. Considering how long he was in his brother’s shadow, it was a good reversal and helped sell John’s reaction to him.
“We saw him being a bit grumpy about being pestered by Charles and suddenly given a lot of responsibility that he never expected or wanted.”
Well, apparently he did. No one pointed a gun to his head. He could’ve followed Sunfire out the front door but he didn’t.
Jon R: I liked that touch, too. Since the early ’90s, Warpath has seemed way more powerful than Thunderbird was (at least from what we saw on-panel), and usually drawn as huge. I still remember James fighting Juggernaut in X-Force 3 & 4. He didn’t win, but Cain compared his punches to some he took from Colossus.
Im getting real tired of Rahne whining about her son shes got enhanced senses she could try and track or many other ways like Cerebro but she just sits around and whines all tge time