X-Men (General Discussion) Comic Book • Page 13

It's been a long time since I've read anything all the way through, unfortunately. Certainly nothing in the Krakoan era, I just follow along via scans_daily excerpts.

I am curious about this escape hatch you mention.

 

I'm enjoying the Krako era ride. Loved some titles (X-Men Red, X-Men and Immortal at times, Dark X-Men), some are fun, some definitely not great lol. I really enjoyed Fall of the House of X #1. Very curious to see what's next for mutants come July.

 

You REALLY need to at least OCCASIONALLY actually read full comics if you’re gonna keep talking about comics! lol my gosh. Excerpts are a useful tool, but if that’s all you do, you’re not actually engaging with the storytelling medium. Try pirating a couple full miniseries and reading them? I can help give recs.

Krakoan resurrection is based on growing clone bodies and Cerebro backing up memories, plus other comic-book-y steps. This war criminal Beast deleted his back-ups, but kept the classic Avengers, friends-with-Wonder-Man Beast out of nostalgia. The natural endpoint seems to be the recent Beast becoming a new version of Dark Beast and/or dying, and then that back-up returning so the next era’s Beast will have not committed those various loathsome actions.

 

Fall of X was great for the most part. Iceman was terrible though, probably the worst X-Men book since Fallen Angels. Realm of X kinda sucked too, but that’s mostly because I don’t really like Grønbekk’s writing. Everything else ranged from good to tip top Krakoa X-Men imo. Dark X-Men a standout. Children of the Vault was great too

I’m utterly terrified for the relaunch, mostly due to the talent that’s leaving the X Office moreso than where they go with it. Back to the mansion would be a disaster, but I’d still read it if the talent behind the books is good. I do not like Brevoort though, so it’s not starting off well.

 

Didn’t read Realm of X, but Grønbekk’s Red Sonja rules, lol.

I don’t see Gerry Duggan leaving and Gail Simone coming in as anything but promising. (Nothing is known besides Simone writing the FCBD story, but I think she’d be a killer choice on a major ongoing with the right artist & colorist.) And, people are so weird about the mansion these days in ways I do not understand!

I just hope Ewing keeps doing X-books. Giving him another Arakko book after the Krakoan era ends would be fun, though I also wouldn’t mind him doing something different (maybe with Phoenix?) and someone like, idk, Deniz Camp handling that next. Steve Foxe also should stick around imo. And, maybe don’t slide into being so white male driven???

 

I’ve just never taken to Grønbekk. No idea why. I just don’t vibe with her writing. Love her ideas and I enjoyed Might Valkyries but yeah. Don’t know. Just one of those writers than I can’t click with.

Ewing is gone post Resurrection of Magneto. Duggan is fine, I like him more than most. But he’s just fine. Never lets me down, never truly excites me. Foxe is doing X-Men 97 so I’m not sure if he’s sticking around. Gillen is gone. I think Orlando is gone (despite not liking Iceman I’m generally a fan). Simone would be cool but I’d like them to actually announce she’s part of the X Office and hopefully not just doing that one shot.

The Mansion thing is more a fear of them going way back to safe stories. But what I’m fearful of is this relaunch being MCU synergy. The Vellani Ms. Marvel series was great actually, but I’m a bit fearful that they’re going to wrap X-Men up into a lovely little MCU ready status quo that, following Krakoa, is kinda boring. Even if you feel FoX is retreading greatest hits or whatever Dark X-Men, CotV, current incarnation of Beast, Colossus being mind controlled by his brother are fairly (fairly, not totally!) fresh, fun stories. I don’t think books like that have a place in a Mansion led status quo. Idk it’s complete irrational, and I know that. But yeah. I just want X-Men to continue being really good for the most part.

Change is scary lol.

 

Also the greatest part of FoX has been (Uncanny Spider-Man / X-Men Blue: Origins spoilers) finally FINALLY fixing Nighrcrawlers origin

 

Is Al’s departure confirmed? He’s not on Twitter anymore, and I didn’t see it come up on Bluesky, and he’s clearly still in the mix at Marvel. Plus, Avengers Inc is ending after one arc, and he has a history of working with Brevoort.

I feel 100% certain Gail Simone wouldn’t write the FCBD X-Men story leading into post-Krakoa unless she had an X-book, lol. That’s not how Marvel works historically. I could see her having a more standalone book instead of the flagship, but she’s definitely doing something that’s getting a push. (FCBD artists are NOT indicative, unfortunately, but if David Marquez draws her book, it’s an instant buy.)

My problem with the mansion & Brevoort & MCU fears is that, like… Morrison NXM is still my favorite X-Men ongoing, and it’s a quintessential mansion book. And Brevoort is the editor of Immortal Hulk, Hickman’s Fantastic Four through Secret Wars, G.O.D.S., etc. And, these days MCU synergy most often looks like writing to future movie potential, not copying current movies like it was under Axel Alonso (unless it’s a Kelly & Lansing Thunderbolts mini, lol).

Everyone is like, “oh, I don’t wanna be limited by the mansion,” but being limited by anything, including Krakoa, sucks in the long run. Imo the best case scenario is Krakoa leaving and the mansion coming into play again, but ALSO bringing back Mutant Town, & keeping Arakko, & keeping the Limbo embassy, & utilizing Madripoor, etc. Krakoa was always a temporary storytelling tool not built to last, and would be limiting if it stayed the center long term.

I tried to read that (almost bought the Dauterman Mystique/Destiny cover) and bounced off it hard as a standalone comic. Very DC Rebirth coded to me, lol, where it’s a mediocre comic that only exists to do a necessary tweak to canon. I am glad we get to slide into the next era with that being Kurt’s situation, though!

 

Very, very funny to me that, before writing him out, Steve Foxe managed to make me like Azazel. That alone is proof he should get a mainline ongoing X-book before too long.

 

Well, I'm glad there's some sort of escape hatch, but I'm baffled why they did that to begin with. Not that characters can't change and take interesting turns, but... I've never heard anyone praise that direction. Surprised they've ran with it for so long.

As for the rest of your post, I really don't have the time to devote to reading comics regularly, unfortunately. I just like to keep up with events and read what bits get posted.

I do understand that means I'm not getting the full context and thus developing possibly unfair opinions because of that. I don't think that means I can't still engage in discussion though.

I'm just operating with a handicap.

 

I’m just a firm believer that discussing comics based only on scansdaily is like talking about movies, but only ever watching trailers and clips and reading reviews, never watching any full movies.

(Like, I’ve slipped into not following any television series anymore. There are shows I’ve loved and shows I’d probably really like. But, since that’s not a medium I currently manage to keep up with, I tend to accept that and not try to discuss the shows I’m not properly watching.)

I am sympathetic to not keeping up! It’s a lot, I’d argue way too much, lol. But imo, if the medium & genre interest you enough to keep up with broad strokes… you should do yourself a favor and, with some friendly help, read at least the occasional full miniseries. There are some standalone Big 2 minis that you could read at your own pace and have a full, satisfying experience.

…

On the Beast note, actually a lot of people who actually read the books are into the direction, lol. I stopped reading X-Force by the end of the first year because I decided it wasn’t my personal flavor, but I think the craft is solid.

And, looking at the shit Hank has done over the years, it didn’t exactly come out of nowhere; it simply took those preexisting threads and took them to their logical conclusion. The nice thing is, when the dust settles, a lot of that pre-Krakoa messiness will be purged from the character’s experiences, too, making the fan favorite classic version easier to use in some ways.

 

What threads are we talking about? Bear in mind I haven't liked his direction for a long time now, so I don't know how far back you're thinking here.

If there are people who like "Asshole Beast", fine, and I'm sure they exist, but most commentary I've read yearns for the positive, moral, fun Beast.

And I even actually like Dark Beast, but mainly as a counterpoint to normal Beast. Without normal Beast to come back to, there's not really a point to the character.

 

The big one that rightfully gets thrown around a lot is, in the 90s, when he handed the sick & homeless mutant Threnody over to Mister Sinister for experimenting (to try to cure the Legacy virus). Some of his stuff after House of M researching the Decimation was also messy, as was his whole time-displaced X-Men thing in the Bendis era. He also was messy in Morrison, but in a more sympathetic way. Probably a lot of specifics I’m forgetting. I guess you could argue AoA’s Dark Beast and Morrison’s “Here Comes Tomorrow” future Beast are also riffs on there being a darkness in Hank, in spite of not being the “real” Hank.

A lot of that isn’t that far off from what Marvel has done with Reed and Tony over the years. There’s a weird temptation to make scientists evil, lol. I don’t love that Stark has Civil War and the Illuminati in his character history. Hank Pym will never fully escape that bad story beat with Janet. (As much as the post Morrison Xorn retcons are incoherent, they’re similarly necessary in making Magneto usable beyond that run.)

I think this story (if it ends up where I’m assuming it will) is useful in that it creates a new Dark Beast who can carry Hank’s worst impulses. You still end up with good Beast and dark mirror Beast, but good Beast didn’t give Threnody to Sinister.

 

I much prefer current Beast to his normal characterisations. Mostly because I really don’t like normal Beast. War criminal Beast is at least interesting.

 

How dare.

 

https://aiptcomics.com/2024/01/04/greg-capullo-wolverine-x-men/

Greg Capullo is doing Wolverine. I wonder if that means Snyder is writing…

 

a traitor to mutant kind and a disgrace!

 

Capullo Wolverine would be excellent.

I’d assume and honestly hope that Snyder isn’t the writer. Part of me wouldn’t be shocked if it were a Percy/Capullo project, since he’s hinted at not being done with the character yet.

Though, what I’d really love is a great up-and-coming talent (preferably not a white dude) who could get to flex with the mileage Logan in ways they couldn’t with some overlooked 4-issue miniseries. Logan’s a rare character who’s been able to get to a natural issue 50 three times in under a decade: Percy Wolverine, Percy X-Force, and Old Man Logan, lol. We don’t need another established white dude doing that classic Marvel musical chairs, into that comfy Capullo Wolverine seat.

 

I think Percy implied Sabretooth War is his end with the character

 

If the Capullo thing is a miniseries (I don’t think he’s had an “ongoing” since 2016ish), I wouldn’t be shocked if it was one last Percy thing.

Though, I also wouldn’t be shocked if the last Percy Wolverine thing is, like, an annual or one-shot, followed by a new ongoing from someone else where Capullo does the first arc.

 

Oooh I missed that. I’d love if he stayed. I love his X-Force and Wolverine. X-Force is sneakily the most consistently good Krakoa era book. Love that Sage and Domino have been such big parts of it.

Yeah I’d assume Capullo thing isn’t an ongoing unfortunately. I think he’s said before that he doesn’t enjoy doing ongoings.

 

X-Men ‘97 #1 variant

 

Fuck yeah