t-boycyclops - Tumblr blog

t-boycyclops · 4 months ago

Text

(X-Men Red #9)

So my tangent in this post suddenly reminded me of this scene.

On one hand, I'm suddenly really interested in the fact that Scott is okay with what Xavier's trying to do with/to Gabriel here, comparing it to an information download. Alex, on the other hand, thinks it's a repair job, making it sound a lot more like repairing Scott's brain damage through resurrection would be. That's something Scott has categorically refused over and over again.

It's very rare that I say this: but Alex is right here, and it's a fascinating point of hypocrisy for Scott.

But the real reason I hunted down this scan is the reveal that Emma, rather than Jean, is the one who tends to be involved in Scott's resurrections.

I know Alex says he's not "dissecting" that one. But I find it fascinating.

So in the other post, I was thinking about the general lack of sexual jealousy that Scott tends to display, even in the midst of multiple love triangles. Even when Emma admits to having slept with other men. His one moment of territorialism ("they don't know you, not like I do") is emotional, rather than sexual.

It's interesting to relate that idea to what we see of their respective dynamics in Krakoa. It's never clear to me whether Scott and Emma actually sleep together in Krakoa. It definitely could have happened, I think. They've exchanged some flirty comments, at the very least.

But I feel like, ultimately, the real draw of their relationship to one another is emotional more than sexual. (Which doesn't mean they weren't banging! They don't necessarily have to be, though.) And that part has definitely held true. I think about the time when Scott and Jean have their little mini-coup in Swords of X. The most morally upright members of the Council all immediately volunteered to abdicate their positions and go with them. That wasn't surprising.

What WAS a bit surprising was when Emma offered to come too. She'd already put so much work into the Council, and honestly, a LOT of Krakoa's successes in terms of PR as well as economics pretty much came from her direction. The Autumn Council had loftier concerns. The Supervillain table was busy snarking and scheming. The hero table was busy disapproving and spreading themselves too thin. And even at her own table, Shaw was a hinderance more than a help, while Kate was more rebellious minded: a good guerilla rescuer, but not a politician.

So the fact that she was willing to give that up in that moment was significant. As was the fact that Scott immediately understood what she was offering and just as significantly let her off the hook. Because what she was doing and the work she was doing was significant.

And it makes a strange kind of sense that Emma's the one who is involved with his resurrections.

I mean, for one thing, I'm not sure Jean has ever done a resurrection before. I keep thinking I remember her doing one, but then I look back and it's actually Hope. (The problem when your f!sem daughter looks exactly like her "dad". Tangent: I still think that's how Rachel should finally come into 616 proper - let Jean knock up Scott. I feel like he'd be willing.)

It's interesting that Jean doesn't resurrect people though. It seems like she should have the skillset, being an Omega level telepath and all. But then, Quentin Quire doesn't resurrect people, either. Maybe that kind of restoration requires a subtler touch when they're like a sledgehammer.

And well, Jean might not be embracing the Phoenix at this time, there is the fact that she historically has never responded well to Scott being injured or dead. Even without the full space god powers, she could do a lot of damage if she's upset enough.

For all that it's Scott and Jean first and foremost for me, I do think sometimes he puts on a role for her. Like, even now, when you read the Phoenix: they talk about what she's doing while he volunteers very little beyond maybe a wistful question about timetables. Does she even know he's restarted the X-Men? Does she still think he's hanging about in his parents' cabin, recuperating?

She might know! But it says something, I think, that it's equally as plausible that she has no idea and will get extremely irked when she finds out.

I think he's more comfortable going mask off with Emma. So to speak. He finds it easier to express darker emotions and be more raw. Jean is the only one that can judge him while Emma won't ever judge because she accepts her own dark side and his.

...there's an interesting gender swap element with this. This is not an Archie with Betty vs. Veronica dynamic so much as it's one of those YA urban fantasy romance books again. Heh.

What I like about this though is that it's not a matter of one relationship being better than the other. They're just different. Emma likely would have been welcome on the Moon, but I think she'd take one look at that comfortable domesticity and run away screaming. That's never been something she's wanted.

And the decor is so pedestrian, darling.

But that's what makes it work. Scott and Jean are deeply in love, first in their hearts, wanting that life together - whatever that means, with their family (whoever's still alive), their kids (no matter how old they are or whatever dimension they come from), and everything else.

And even though Jean's off doing Space God things right now, there's no doubt that she'll be coming home eventually. And in the mean time, he's made her a "home" to take with her. Utterly unnecessary, given her powers, but comfortable and human.

Scott and Emma are partners. They understand each other on a soul deep level. They don't really make each other better, but they're always good at shoring each other up, being the ballast that the other needs to stand up and move forward.

At the same time, they live in different worlds. Scott would be miserable in her penthouse. He's not particularly suited to running a school that ISN'T also a garrison and we've never really seen him even try to actually teach. She's never wanted to be even step-mom to any of the Nathans or Rachel. She's got her own set of daughters, thank you very much, with their own complications. She hardly needs his.

So that's what makes the Krakoan polyamory work so well, because when it comes down to it, there's nothing really incompatible about these relationships. Jean and Emma aren't looking for the same thing from Scott. Well, I think they'd both enjoy having him tied to their bed, but they can figure out a schedule for that. Otherwise, the only obstacle to these relationships co-existing is the idea that you can only have a deep and meaningful non-platonic relationship with one person.

And Jean and Emma seem to appreciate that too, because aside from a snarky aside or two that involved both laughing, we don't actually see any jealousy from either of the women as well. They seem to have realized that since they both want different things, they've got no reason to compete.

I'd like to think they also bang. It'd be fun. Domme vs. Domme, go!

It does occur to me, yet again, how much of a missed opportunity the Throuple is.

I mean, I never expected much from the Scott/Logan end beyond the little scenes and hints that we did get. (More than I honestly expected, less than I'd like.) It always seemed pretty clear that they were slipping it past the radar and Marvel's cold feet wasn't surprising. I can write up something based on how they see them, but it's based on fannish interpretation, not established canon.

But I'm deeply disappointed at the wasted opportunity that is the Jean/Logan side of the Throuple.

Because this was the chance to FINALLY tell us what these characters see in each other and what they get from each other, and what an established relationship actually looks like between these two characters and we've got NOTHING.

These two characters were in the same book for a WHILE. Logan has a solo running simultaneously. There was room SOMEWHERE to establish what Jean and Logan as a couple actually look like. But all we get is one sex scene in the hot springs. And maybe that time where she telepathically supports him in X Lives of Wolverine, but she'd have done that even if they weren't together!

But it really seemed like the folks at Marvel were too enamored with lone cowboy Wolverine. Which would have been great at ANY other time, but right now, on Krakoa, Logan's got what he's always dreamed of: a romantic relationship with Jean Grey!

And we see almost none of it! (He also has kids, alive on Krakoa, and has so little interaction with them that the point where Laura gives him a world's greatest dad mug in Sabretooth War seems like a passive aggressive dig. Did he even get to meet Talon?!).

Despite a canon romantic/sexual relationship, we still have very little idea of what this couple actually means to each other. The beats that I've picked up: Logan's attraction to "Jeannie", as a girl next door type that inspires him to be a better, more civilized person. That's been established really early on. But we still don't know what that MEANS.

Jean's always seemed drawn to his inner nobility and the sacrifices he makes (it's explicitly what draws her to him in the mini-series set during Fall of Krakoa, and I think it's pretty compatible with what we've seen before.) But is that enough for a relationship?

I can extrapolate a bit here. Theirs is a sort of weird courtly romance. They're both drawn to an ideal that the other represents. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but to flesh that out into a real romance, we need to see it challenged. What does that MEAN?

We know Logan's not suited to domesticity. Jean doesn't really need that from him though since she's got a husband and children.

He is a very romantic figure though. In a way Scott hasn't been and could never be. If Scott ever had that tendency, it got carved away a long time ago. But Logan's survived amnesia and experiments and still goes strong.

I feel like you could do a lot with the idea of them as each other's oasis: kind of an escape from the pressures of their every day life, where they can just be romantic together - all the big gestures, the roses and champagne that's too civilized for him most of the time and too impractical for her.

...THAT's what I wanted to see from them. Sex in the hot springs is all well and good, but I wanted to see them with a candlelight dinner on the beach, enjoying those lovely, deep sensual moments that Logan would never find on his own, and would just bewilder the Scott Summers whose first impulse at finding himself with his wife at an isolated cabin was to suggest they clean it up.

But none of this is canon. It's as fannish as what I'd write up for Scott and Logan. Possibly more so, because at least Scott and Logan have had decades of their weird push-and-pull dynamic to fall back on. Jean spent a lot of that time dead!

The funny thing is, in the course of this post, I've finally discovered an interpretation of Jean/Logan that works for me, but I resent that it's my invention, when the folks at Marvel had a chance to sell us on a CANON interpretation but fumbled the ball entirely.

56 notes · View notes