#-- GOD LOVES: MAN KILLS. | MAGNETO.

[dalekofchaos]

As much as I love X-2, I feel the need to say that taking away William Stryker being an evangelical preacher and the Purifiers took away what made Stryker so effective and scary in God Loves, Man Kills.

The 97 animated show is just showing how effective and terrifying it is to portray ordinary bigots arming themselves up as psychotic cowardly vigilantes.

Showing Stryker and the Purifiers as this fringe and monstrous Evangelical movement would've just been as effective. But I feel like Hollywood was too cowardly to show Stryker as the monster he was in God Loves Man Kills and just settled for the military scientist.

[marvelstars]

INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CLAREMONT BY by Fr. Niko Bekris about God Loves, Man Kills and Magneto

FN: In your introduction to God Loves, you mentioned that one of the greatest quotes to inspire you was Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and being judged on the content of one’s character. I love how you incorporated the imagery of that into “Xavier’s Dream”- tolerance, living together, loving those who hate us. That’s always been something very powerful that I’ve loved about the book during your tenure on it. It’s been speculated that when Stan Lee first created the characters, he included a notion of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, but when you came on board was when we started hearing more about “Xavier’s Dream,” and of Magneto as a Holocaust survivor.

CHRIS CLAREMONT: So I thought that, if Begin found it in himself to make that change, why not Magneto? And if Magneto could find it, again from a dramatic perspective, you’re left with a character who is plagued by fundamental guilt and fundamental conflict.

If Charlie’s dumping this responsibility on his shoulders has the desired effect, he then has to look back on the portion of his life where he was a villain and deal with the guilt and ramifications of that, but he can also be plagued by his doubt-

“Am I making the right decision? Have I made the right decision?

If I use my powers the way I used to just this once, that’ll be okay, right? I won’t do it again, just this once. It’ll be easier.

It’ll resolve the situation quickly, efficiently, no one will know. I can get away with it… but should I?”

That as a dramatist, is a lot more fun to play with.

The idea was to bring the conflict into the foreground, but in the process, make him the more empathetic and dramatic character.

Regrettably, corporate policy wanted him as a villain.

Source: https://christcoffeecomics.com/2015/06/24/interview-with-chris-claremont-part-1/

While Claremont got inspiration from the history of Menachem Begin, it wasn´t his zionist ideas the thing that Claremont related to Magneto but rather his capability to change his pov, his methods and in the end seek a benefice of all parties involved.

Claremont´s intention on the X-men was to try to reflect how the polarization in society often leads to both parties having opposite povs that end up fragmenting society, just like Charles and Magneto´s ideological fight ended up fragmenting mutantkind cause.

In the end Claremont wanted Magneto to change, to take over Charles X-men leadership, lead by example, have doubts over his former actions as a radical defensor of mutants and worry about both humans and mutants, constantly taking care of not using his old methods that cost many lifes in the past and honestly it´s a great narrative that goes beyond the ideological pov and goes right into the light and darkness inside human nature.

He was forced to change his story in the end, Marvel needed a villain but that´s why this aspect of the character always comes back because it´s foundational.

[notes-from-sarah]

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Marvel Graphic Novel #5 - God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont

[popculturebuffet]

House of Claremont: Mutant Month: Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Comission Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy muties and welcome back to Mutant Month, my celebration of those mighty mutants of marvel. After a bit of a rough start with the X-Men's first animated appearance, i'm proudly taking a look at one of the X-Men stories ever,God Loves Man Kills.

This review also relaunches a feature on this blog that will likely exist as long as this blog does. It was supposed to be a full retrospective of Chris Claremont's 186 issue, 16 year run on Uncanny X-Men, also throwing in his 12 annual issues, various mini series, and other x-ongoing New Mutants. It was an ambitious idea brought about by me having collected almost EVERY issue of Claremont's run and various associated minis on comixology, with only a few stray issues and a few trades left to complete it. Thanks to that i'd seen what a deft, well crafted masterpiece this run is: while it has it's flaws, down periods, and various things that haven't aged well, it's a glorious nearly two decades long epic with lush character arcs, brilliant ideas, and tons of twists and status quo changes to keep things from getting too stale. While the run begins and ends at Xavier's School in between we have Thunderbird's tragic death, Jean becoming a living god before it consumes her and her apparent death, Scott leaving as a result and only returning on and off before leaving for good, one of their sworn enemies who'd done something truly unforgiable to a friend of theirs joining the team in desperation (More on that next week), Storm's slow change in personality and temproary (though still YEARS LONG ) power loss, the arrival of Rachel Summers from an alternate future, Rachel's departure coinciding with half the team being brutally decimated in the morlock massacre and Storm forced to rebuild the team from almost scratch, said new roster dying to save the world and being reborn in secret, and the ENTIRE TEAM scattered to the winds, leaving the book to focus on the individual members as wolverine slowly pulls them back together and Forge forges a new team to replace them, and finally the team merging with x-factor to create two new teams of x-men. And that was just what I could squeeze in reasonably A lot of great stories both noted forever and forgotten to the sands of time by all but those who read them in the 80s or read them all now are squeezed int his epic.

And that very reasoning.. is why I ultimatley coudln't do it. I tried streamlining the run and summarizing.. but at the end of the day i'm a man who likes to really analyze stuff. And make goofy jokes, but while I could do the latter as good as always it became clear the run was just too massive to quickly summarize it all and do it full justice, and doing it piece by piece in order would possibly take a decade. It's the double edged sword of relying on commissions and patreon reviews: it allows me extra money each month and comes in handy quite a bit, and allows me to meet nice respectful people who love my work enough to do it... but it also means I sometimes have to delay things I personally planned to do on my own time. And given my venture bros retrospective has already been a victim to this quite a bit, I decided an even LONGER project. There's also a simple fact: While I love this era of x-men and it's easily one of the best if not the best, no question... there are tons of OTHER great x-men and mutant stories out there and other retrospectives to do from peter David's masterful noir run of x-factor (and not to shabby government and corporate runs), to Leah Williams own great sadly short lived take recently, to the various epics currently spinning out of the krakoa era and into the fall of x from Hickman, to Gilleon to Ewing to Duggan to williams, and even OTHER x-books from the 80s and early 90's with Claremont's phenomenal new mutants, interesting excalibur, and Louise Simonsons deft work on X-Factor and later also New Mutants. There's just too much X for one lifetime of review work to spend most of it on one run.

So this is my compromise: instead of a long retrospective looking at it in order, i'll be taking ocasional looks at stories I like, and maybe the one or two I don't, here. Both on my own, with one of my faviorite parts of the run planned for next year if I can squeeze it in

And on comission's like this. If ther'es a stretch of this massive run or another x run you want me to cover i'm down for it.

And I was paticuarlly down for this one for two reasons: the first is God Loves, Man Kills is not only one of my faviorite x-men stories.. but probably the best of Chris Claremont's run. And given he had PLENTY of good work before and after this, the run of issues I just teased above was also happening around this time, that is saying a lot.

The other is the person who comissioned it: Kevin is both the first person to comisson work for this blog and the one who does it the most and has become a good friend. But while he's many things: great with duck triva, obessed with a lesbain owl, the #1 molibby shipper, and a great guy to work with... he's not really an x-men fan. Spider-Man yes, it's how I was able to spend a glorious half a year reviewing spiderman and likely will again in the future, both with a video game review planned later this year and tons of other stuff for the future. But when it comes to the strangest heroes of all he usually just shurgs and this month was something he wasn't really involved in at first. Which is fine, I don't do this blog just for one person and he dosen't have to like everything I do.

So it meant a LOT to me when he asked if I could cover God Loves Man Kills. He was curious after I mentioned this theme month coming up and looked into some famous x-men stories, thought this one was interesting as it's both rightly hugely aclaimed and still has echoes to the state of the world today. And since he watches and reads what he commissions it also got him to read some classic x-men and hopefully more eventually. He also has another one coming at the end of the month and much like this one it's a story I was bound to cover eventually. But you'll find out about that one later. For now join me under the cut to dig into one of the greatest x-men stories of all, a tale of frightingly realistic prejudice, tyranically faith, and perseverance in the face of overwhelming hate and a doubt if your dream will ever come true.

Purity: God Loves Man Kills comes to us from the Marvel Graphic Novel series, another thing i've been wanting to talk about. Marvel Graphic Novel was the brainchild of Marvel's Editor at the Chief at the time Jim Shooter. I'm not a huge fan of Shooter as while he WAS EiC during one of marvel's biggest boom periods, he was also a giant prick who was not great at the actual writing part most of the time but insisted on giving himself books, was a homophobic shithead who refused to let gay characters into his book (it's why Claremont had to imply as hard as he could Mystique and Destiny were a couple), and being behind famous writing debacles like Hank Pym's mental breakdown, the hobglin's true identity and of course the previously reviewed avengers 200. Aka

I'll be covering the followup to that next week, thank god. But for all the guys faults and serious lastingly damaging fuckups.. he still had his moments. For instance with X-Men itself he had Chris break up Kitty Pryde (14) and Colossus (19) which was both better for both characters in the longrun but the fallout of said breakup ended up being some of Chris' best work.

This is one of those moments: With Buisness picking up at the tale end of the 60's, Jim decided to capitalize on the "Album" format from European comics. So we go the marvel graphic novels, super sized stories following marvel's best characters, though usually not involving the main book's creative team for time purposes. We still got powerhouse names like David Michlinine, Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, JM Demattis, Larry Hama, Mary Jo Duffy, Ann Nocenti, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern, Doug Monech, Mark Gruenwald, Alan Davis, Jim Starlin, Bob McLeod, Walt Simonson, Jackson Guice, Mark Silvestri, John Byrne, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones, John Bucschema, Denny O'Neil, Bruce Jones, Mike Mingola, Paul Gulacey, and Ross Andru. And i'm sure I missed some. The books were a lot of things. They were a way for creators to work on characters they normally hadn't, to serve as an additional piece to big runs, or to launch less superhero oriented stuff and creator own books. Yes marvel actually did creator owned books at one point, something I never would've known without my good twitter friend Belle (Not caling it X, probably the only time something named x wasn't for me in any way shape or form), and was part of the reason for this line. It's also thanks to her getting me curious in this line again that I found out about oddities like an adaptation of willow by Power Man and Iron Fist's real mom Mary Jo Duffy, a full roger rabbit adaptation.. or a full SEQUEL to Roger Rabbit that I'm DEFINTELY looking at one of these days. It was mostly a marvel vehicle though.

Despite their isolated nature, most of these books are fully cannon to the main marvel universe and many of them had a lasting impact: New Mutants introduced the team to the marvel universe and took Donald Pierce out of the hellfire club, Spider-Man: Parallel Lives dealt with the revelation that Mary Jane had known peter was Spidey all along and showed her past with that new perspective in mind, Dardevil Love and War continued the vanessa fisk subplot from dardevil, the inhumans once shot introduced Black Bolt and Medusa's Son Ahurua, Dazzler: The Movie outed Allison Blaire as a mutant to the world, and the classic Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: triumph and torment finally ended the longstanding subplot about Doom saving his mother's soul from mephisto.

So that makes it a surprise that this story wasn't strictly considered canon till 21 years after the fact. Part of this is the standalone nature: while the book DOES have some important steps in Magneto and Kitty Pryde's character arcs, it's pretty much the ONLY comic chris wrote he didn't somehow later factor into his x-men run. That's not hyperbole either: X-Men and New Mutants regularly impacted each other, with Xavier's departure leading to Magneto becoming their teacher, Selene being introduced fighting the New mutants before becoming a thorn in the big kids side, and Betsy Braddock, the future Psylocke, ending up at the mansion and eventually on the roster thanks to a new mutants annual.

Beyond that , Chris loved bringing in characters from other books he worked on: Jean Grey roomed with Coleen Wing and Misty Knight from his book iron fist, Jessica Drew Spider-Woman guest starred in an x-men issue then later in one of her comics found Banshee's daughter Siryn. And not stopping there many characters chris created for other books became mainstays of uncanny x-men: Mystique started out as Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers) arch enemy, Arcade was a one off villian in an issue of Marvel Team Up and Wolverine's arch enemy sabertooth started out as an iron fist villian. Most notably, and something we'll talk about next week, after the disaster that was avengers 200, Chris was so pissed off he took carol and added her to x-men for some time via avengers annual #10.. and in the process also introduced Rogue. Chris used everything he had so the fact this story just.. happened with so much fanfare and two big character moments and never came up is odd.

The other problem is that Chris kept a very tight order of events and had a lot happening... and as a result WHEN this happened is nigh impossible to figure out. It's down to the roster; The roster in this book is Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Kitty Pryde. Cyke is the first issue as after Jean's death in the dark phoenix saga he was in and out of the team for a while: he left right after to find out if he even WANTED to go back, but this being the life of an x-man ended up stranded on Magneto's spooky elder god island he found and made into a headquarters, because I mean.. what else are you going to do with a spooky elder god island. After a fight with Mags in which he realized how far he nearly went and fled to parts unknown, the X-Men took the base for their own while the mansion was in the shop before Cyclops peaced out again to spend time with his dad who just got back, from outer space. To make matter's somehow even more complicated, the x-men were then kidnapped to space by the brood. Cyke would leave the issue after this adventure to go spend time with his dad and meet his long lost grandparents before he had to go back to space again and be a sexy mustache space pirate as earth had become too alien to him peter quill style.

And that issue is the other problem: the issue before that, after Xavier got his alien clone body.. he bumped Kitty Pryde, the x-men's cool teen who met the team during Dark Phoenix Saga and joined right after, down to the New Mutants. This is a problem as the only real window for this story to happen... is when she was busy convincing Xavier to repromote her.... and during that Window Logan implicitly left for his homeland of Canada before heading to japan to pick a fight with his girlfriend's abusive fiancé and even more abusive dad, who he of course murdered in a samurai duel.

So it' SEEMS impossible for this story to fit. And that's because it is. trust me I tried my best.. but going to x-men 168, aka

Logan leaves for the candian rockies.. and has Kurt drive him to the airport... taking Kitty and her bestie and colosuss sister who was aged up when she was kidnapped by a demon man on Magneto's Spooky Elder God Island, with them.. while Kitty was still campaning to join the x-men. Not only that Xavier's space girlfriend Illandra and the new mutants themselves are absent from the story, just to make ti clear

So yeah this story is canon , but fits nowhere really in canon.. and in an interview in the extneded cut (which I turned to to try and find out if it added anything to explain why it dosen't fit, which no it didn't it's just got some added wraparounds in the present day at the time continuity), that was by design. Chris wanted to make this story one that could be read by anyone, one and done. If you wanted to read more x-men great. if not , you still got your money's worth and got everything these characters were about.

The story itself came from the times: It was the time of Ronald Regan and a new wave of conservatives trying to bring back "the good old days" and morals and all the usual smokescreens "for when things were a lot WHITER and STRAIGHTER and we didn't have to reckon with our actions. " This call for moral panic nicely dovetailed into the rise of Evangelical Preachers, using tv as a means of indoctrination and trying to paint anyone against them as not in god's will and anything they didn't like as "not TRULY of god". Naturally given Chris wrote a book about a disenfranchised, if fictoinal group that happened to have a christian (Nightcrawler) and jewish (Kitty Pryde) person in their ranks and an arch enemy who lived thorugh the holocaust, the story was perfect.

To chris this kind of purity of purpose coupled with narrowmindeness was dangerous as hell, and made for a good story speaking out against it.. one that continues to resonate on as narrow minded assholes who GENUINELY think their doing the right thing by hurting and suppressing people and who they are haven't exactly gone away, simply changed shape. Heck while this still is mostly a one off story, the themes of someone trying to legislate opression and make it sound resonable were already in the main book with days of future past (which shows a nightmare world where this DOES happen.. and also gets hyjacked by giant robots), and would continue to be a key theme of the x-men to this very day.

So now the stage is set, we can finally begin a battle.. not one of the usual claws, optic blasts and thunder bolts.. but of survivial. Of ideas. Of one group trying to do the right thing in the midst of a direct call for them to be trotted out and murdered. To be wiped away in the name of some "higher purpose". It's a battle of faith. Let's see how it plays out shall we?

Not the First, Far from the Last:

The opening to God Loves Man Kills.. is one of the most chilling scenes i've read in a comic. And it's chilling simply because it could happen anywhere: Two black children are running for their lives.. but sadly don't make it, as their soon cornered by the purifiers, three people in black tactical gear. And why are they hunting these innocent children? Why have they already killed their parents?

It's an utterly haunting sequence. The fact the children are black isn't a remote coincidence, but to simply hammer home that this kind of shit happens. To draw parallels to the same sort of shit racist have done: killing innocent people.. then displaying the bodies as some sick trophy to show exactly WHY they just slaughtered innocents: they were not what these butchers considered a person and to them, they deserved to die. Thankfully before the Purifiers can get their intended show of stringing up the bodies, each with a sign saying "Mutie" on them, someone else comes along to take this horror show down so these children's bodies can at least have SOME dignity in death instead of being used as as sick prop

I love the small touches i'm only noticing now as I review this: the true PAIN on Erik's face after seeing this, him gently going over the body. It also speaks to his history: he's seen countless children die around him in his childhood in a concentration camp.. and saw his own daughter Anya die tragically simply because Mags himself was a mutant. It says a lot about who he is and that behind the vengeance, behind the vow of "Never again" he swears right after.. is a man whose simply seen too many of his peopled die... and will not let this happen again. And god help those who did this.

We then meet our main antagonist, Reverened William Stryker. Like the above.. this intro is brilliant. Stryker, head of his evangelcial "Stryker Crusade" is reading the bible in his office, before preparing to review some files and having some dinner sent up to eat while he looks over them. Said files are also a really neat way to show off the current roster of x-men and what they can do, with some really great art added. Stryker already has plans for them, but first he has to be at the studio: he has a show to put on.

We cut to Stevie Hunter's dance studio. For those less familiar with her Stevie was a major supporting character during Claremont's run. When Kitty joined the school, Charles, wanting to make sure she had a well rounded life outside of academics and surviving the experince, enrolled her in dances classes hosted by Stevie, a former professional dancer whose career was cut short by injury. He'd later do the same for the new mutants, and it's a nice character thing: it shows as gruff and standofish as Charles can be.. he wants what's best for his charges and wants them to have some normalcy in a life where that will be hard to come by.

Starting here , and with Kitty, isn't a coincidence: as Chris said in the aforementioned interview, the younger characters provided a vital viewpoint: the future and what exactly to do with it when it looked so bleak.

It's also a great way to start as once again Claremont makes sure things are well and grounded as Kitty.. is beating the shit out of some asshole named Danny.. to the point she's sent him out the door. He only gets a hit in once Peter, aka Colossus, mother russia's finest and kitty's crush, shows up distracting her. Kitty's held back by her bestie and borderline love intrest Illanya. Seriously why haven't they been a thing. Questions for later. For now Stevie comes out wanting to know what the hell is going on, her exact words. Kitty admits to starting the violence portion of the evening.. but only because Danny was talking about all the GOOD the stryker crusade is doing and how swell it is they want to commit mutant genocide. Peter suggests they end it there.. which is code for "You've said enough little bigot, just try me". It's also notable that peter is so angry: one of his defining traits is how he's a gentle, kind young man and abhors violence. He fights because he has to and because it's the right thing to do, not because he wants. So to get him angry takes a lot. Danny backs off.. but whispers once peter's around it's on because he has the self preservation of a goat. We also coincidentally never see him again. Maybe Logan gave him a talking to and he wisely left town after voiding his bowels. Who knows.

Stevie isn't pleased with Kitty and we get that moment I was hinting at the one part of the comic that dosen't entirely work for me

Now I GET what chris was going for and Kitty's point: that just because it's word's.. dosen't mean someone saying intolerent bullshit, ESPECAILLY since in this case the dipshit was advocating genocide, is something to just ignore or brush off. And it's MEANT to be a spur of the moment thing a teenager would say, hence it not ruining the scene.. but Chris STILL really shoudlnt' of had a privilaged white teenager say the n word to a grown black woman whose probably been through a LOT of this shit and has gotten used to having to ignore it. Even for the time the n-word should not have been used especialy in refrence to a fictional minority. The rest of the scene works.. but this REALLY dosen't and sticks out like a sore thumb in a work that otherwise holds up.

Kitty and Peter return home just in time for something on TV, greeted by

and Nightcrawler, everyone's faviorite sexy demonic looking christian. I LOVE Logan and Kitty's talk here too

I love everything about this. How casual logan is, how fatherly he comes off to her, and Kitty showing that Stevie's fears of her using her training unfairly were unfounded: Kitty was holding back and wouldn't use it on a civlian no matter how much he deserved to be ground into the pavement.

Turns out the show their all watching is the same one Stryker was preparing for: A debate with Xavier over mutant kind. And Xavier looses pretty badly as best summed up by this panel

It perfectly sums up hate groups like Stryker's best weapon: couching horrifying, nightmarish notions.. and making them sound ALMOST resonable. it's something I saw a few years back when JK Rowling tried to defend her transphobia; her "apology' letter TRIED to sound resonable.. but underneath you could see all the transphobia couched in her arguments and all the hate clearly there. It's just to some, sadly.. the argument is more pursasive and that's where the danger is: not in us who can see it.. but that some of us may not or may be indorcianted otherwise.

Kitty is understandably even more pissed after all of this and decides to break some stuff, so we get a few pages in the danger room. It's a fun sequence. I"m mostly glossing over it as story wise it dosen't really have a lot of function, but it's a nice way to slip in some more typical superhero action without undermining the story: the context of the heroes needing to work out how aggravated and scared they are with a good distraction makes it work, it's only a few pages so it dosen't take up much of the comic, and it has a fun solution: the heroes are all given individual assignments.. but only accomplish them when they help each other out, a clever exercise. IT's one of the reasons I love the danger room: it's a neat way to show our heroes training, something most superhero comics don't have time for and a fun way to interject action sequences into issues that may otherwise not have them.

Back at the Studio Stryker's preparing for his first attack on the x-men... and conviently Xavier brought Cyclops, team leader and certified badass, and Storm, also team leader and certified badass about to get even more badass during this time period with her awsome mohawk and change in character, with them. Xavier's already on edge as he noticed Stryker has Psy Screens.. which means he KNOWS Xavier's a mutant.. but sadly can't warn the rest of th eteam as they get ambusehd and Scott and Ororo are seemingly gunned down. It's part of what makes Stryker such an effective antagonist: while he does indeed have an evil over the top super villian plan... most of his methods are mundane. Simply using guns , subterfuge and careful cordinated strikes. Basic military tactics and espionge. He has fancy sci fi stuff to block xavier's mind reading and what not, but he uses pretty mundane stuff. It underlines that this is at the end of the day just a normal guy who happens to have a POWERFUl cultish following.. and that despite the powers, despite the training the x-men are as vunerable as anyone to a military strike.

We cut back to the mansion where Nightcrawler gets a night caller telling him the professor, jean and scott died in a car crash. The next scene is effective; Kitty mourns, and is baffled that something mundane as a car crash could take out her surrogate big sister, a genius tactician and her mentor.. and also Scott and Xavier. Turns out though Illanya isn't just there to comfort kitty.. and ask kitty about her crush on her brother Peter.. but to point out a weird survelnce divise. Kitty's response is clever as hell and speaks to how despite her age she's every bit an x-man: she disables the thing, then plans to wait to ambush whoever set it up.

At the scene of the accident Logan confirms Kitty's suspcions: the scenes for the bodies found at the wreck are all wrong and the wreck itself has all the halmarks of a staged accident.. a nice way to use Logan's CIA past as he admits to have done a few of these himself. He was also smart enough to have Kurt do survielnce.. and find the purifiers watching them ready to attack. It's a nice little show of Wolverine as leader: it dosen't come up a TON in this run early on, but under Ororo he's second in line to lead the x-men , wether he thinks he can or not.

The x-men turn the tables and ambush the purifiers for a change, in this case some goon Wolverine easily yanks out of a car and Anne, Stryker's right hand who tries ramming Nightcrawler with her car.. which fails horribly since you know, he's a teleporter and she should know this and colosus totals the thing with Nightcrawler saving her life with one heck of a line

Unfortuantley for our heroes not only does said attempted marytr escaped.. but she had some goons with her in powered armor who easily down colossus. Before they can get the rest of the x-men though.. they get some unexpected help.

It's one hell of a scene. Before this set of our heroes can react though, we cut back to kitty and yana. The goons arrive and Illyana is understandably scared: at this point, outside of the time in a demon realm, she's mostly a normal teenager and hasn't yet trained in her powers. So when Kitty goes to investigate and the purifiers find her, it's utterly terrifying to see.. and worse to see Anne shoot an unarmed girl. Her point blank shot somehow.. stuns Yana?

Thankfully not depriving us of one of the best new mutants... just kidding their all the best. It's hard to choose.

Kitty hides in the trunk, but turns out the Purifiers have sensors and spray some knockout gas in there.

Back with the X-men logan is using his usual charm and tact to interogate one of their suspects

Left one's charm, right one's tact, middle one's grace. Magneto suggets an alternative.. and procedes to somehow use magnetics to make the guy tell them what he knows

I love Magneto's line afterwrods too

It's a brutal line and sums up magneto in one line. Truly perfect.

While nightcrawler worries sinking to their foes level makes them no better we cut to

As you can imagine this scene confused the hell otu of Kev. It works thematically for me: Stryker is trying to brainwash xavier and is thus framing his students, his family, as murderous monsters. It's part of a brilliant and horrifying psychic ploy: their torturing Scott and Ororo, the only reason their still alive, right next to him so he feels their pain, but have doped Charles up so much he dosen't realize their not hurting him, letting his own inner guilt rationalize why they'd hurt him. Scott is especially a good pick for this: as I mentioned since Jean's death he's been questioning his place in the world and, after all the training Xavier's given him, if he can even LIVE a life outside the x-men. He's as much Xavier's son as his real son who he dosen't know about yet and thus his betrayal would sting the hardest while for Oroo he took her out of an innocent existence away from strife as a goddess to the harshness of the real world. His own fears of what he's done to his children, how he's weaponized them and the two he's lost.. .are the greatest weapon of all.

We then find out Stryker's back story.. and it is... utterly horrifying. Stryker was a decorated army guy who was driving home with his pregnant wife. She gave birth to their son and well...

That shot of the knife.. is haunting. It's something I never really focused on in previous reads.. and i'm not sure i'll be able to forget now. Stryker was so convinced his baby was an abomination, so unwilling to accept his child for what they were instea dof what he thought they were.. he murdered an innocent baby then SNAPPED his wife's neck for no good reason. All because in his eyes they were just a monster and the one who created. It breaks down Stryker and shows what he REALLY is inside: while he tries to frame this a sa crusade, that the birth of his child was God showing Stryker his new purpose in life, hence his founding of the crusade. But at the end of the day: he's a bigot. He saw his child was diffrent and stabbed him to death and instead of dealing with kiling his wife and child, instead of acccepting he acted on his worst instincts and did something truly horrible.. he convinced himself that no, GOD told him to do this. God told him this was the right path. and he should kill more, hurt more, do more. It's the real, pure danger of crusades like this: the absolute conviction that the horrible things your doing are right. People who just side with bigotry for their own self intrest are bad.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie what their saying who are the most dangeorus. To use JK Rowling the reason she's so dangeorus to trans people is that she GENUINELY thinks she's helping women. That she THINKS she's resonable and can convince other people.. and that like stryker she has the money and resources and influence to do real harm. It's easy to stop a hypcorite, just show them as they are to their followers if their not brainwashed enough. it's harder to stop someone who GENUINELY belivies the hate they speak and cannot be talked down or beaten with logic. The only way to beat them is with public opinon and that's a harder task than it should be.

We get a truly chiling ending to the scene as Stryker coldly orders Anne to execuite kitty and Storm, a surrgoate big sister to the girl can only wail in horror.

Lucky for kitty, she managed to phase the escond the gas hit, but some still got her.. so she escapes her execution.. but is still being hunted by Anne. And whiel she TRIES to get help.. she instead finds a gang who fully plan to assault her. Her only salvation is that Anne shows up and the gang is too busy with her and Anne's too busy killing them all for being in the way for either to notice her escaping. Kitty BARELY calls the school for help in time and even then all she can do is hide in a subway.. and watch as a police officer takes a bullet for her, the purifiers glad to let him die and blame it on her. Thankfully like her fellow x-men, Uncle Erik is here to save the day...

The x-men quickly clean up the rest of the Purifiers and Kitty's shocked to see Magneto on their side. He quickly proves his nobility though, saving the officer and giving the x-men a magic car door ride to go get the guy help

While he's showing them the world, shining shimmering splendor, he explains whose after them to the officer.

We then cut back to xavier whose finally been convinced to kill Scott and Ororo.. and stryker's plan becomes frightingly clear.. now he's capable of killing his two faviorite children.. what would he do to any other mutant?

Meanwhile Kitty and Kurt confront the guy who indocrinated Xavier, Doctor ramsey. I guess doug has a racist uncle? Anyway Nighcrawler gets some poetic justice, using his frighting facade to scare the crap otu of the racist. What I love about this is while the art makes kurt look terrifying.. we know him well enough, even just in this tsory to know he's bluffing. We saw earlier he was horrified with Magneto and Wolverine fully willing to toruture a guy. But this guy dosen't know that. And he's still wiling to mildly choke the guy, not at all sympathetic after all he's done. Kurtmay be one of the most noble souls ever put to comics.. but this scene is a nice reminder: he kicks ass for the lord.

At Stryker's headquarters, his goons and anne plan to take Scott and Roro to be cremated and Illayana to be examined.. but by now you know the bit: magneot is awesome, yanks the elevator out. His constant saves COULD get tiresome.. but they work as a show of power and the gap that still exists between him and the x-men: sure we get to see them all be awesome.. but these moments remind us WHY he can take on the whole team by himself, WHY he was such a threat.. and why him joining them is such a big deal. He could probably handle all this himself.. but despite being on opposite sides, despite having opposite approaches... he respects them. Okay sure he shoved them into a nanny robot prison a while back, but after they nearly sank him in lava he got respect.

He then proves the point by reviving scott and ororo. Turns out subcocnoiusly Xavier rebelled and thus only put them in a deathlike coma. Scott.. is naturally a bit nettled to see his arch enemy in front of him after he just nearly died, which leads to one hell of a speech from Mags.

Something that's really easy to forget, especaily after that.. is that Magneto started out.. as a pretty awful character. He was a bully, a dictator who wanted to conquer humanity because he could, cowed his subordinates into submission and kept Scarlet Witch in the brotherhood purely out of obliggation to him for saving her and pietro from an angry mob. And early on while Claremont had him as a BETTER villian, more intimidating and a larger threat, especially since two of the x-men were now weak to his powers, he was still a bit of an ass who decided the best way to get his revenge was to strap the x-men to chairs where they couldn't move and have a nanny robot feed them which gave me nightmares as a kid

It's only in his next apperance did Magneto shift from "Dr. Doom Clone" to "one of my faviorite characters in all of fiction. With I Magneto we not only found out his backstory as a survivor of asuchwitz but his next attempt to conquer the world, boosting his powers and giving the world an ultimatium: surrender or perish. And it's this version that's been the basis for the character ever since: a broken man defined by tragedy whose determined to conquer a world that hates and fears him so the tragedies of his past NEVER happen again. Never again.

It's this conversation that especially highlights that: Magneto asks WHY fight for people who hate and fear you, when he can change the world by force. It's a question superheroes in general struggle with and many mock superhero media for: how much should they do. Should they take the choice away from a humanity that's often misused their choices? And the answer is... no. While you can see WHY Max wants to do this, why he wants so badly to force a better world on everyone, to force a better future because he sees humanity as simply INCAPABLE of anything but hate and self destruction.. it's not the way. Humanity.. is fucked a lot of the time. True. But there's good in us and simply asking someone to fix all of the problems we, especially our goverments, should be working hard to fix isn't fair.

And as Cylclops points out it's just.. not sustanible. Even with Magneto's dream of the x-men joining him and following in his footsteps... what happens if someone decides to overthrow them? or take this world from them? And more importantly.. is it REALLY worth giving up all freedom and self control for a better tomorrow? It's why superheroes fight.. and it's why the X-MEN fight. The world their in is fucked up with tons of racists, multiple genocides and currently a giant hive of bigoted jackasses trying to wipe every last mutant out. But what makes the x-men so special.. is they fight on anyways. Against everything humanity does, against all their bigotry.. they fight for a better tomorrow. Even in the Krakoa era where they basically bribed their way to a homeland.. many of them still dont' abandon humanity, try to work with them and try and help. They may deserve a home after everything humanity's done.. but they don't deserve to be abandoned because of bad actors and hateful dipshits. It's why the x-men fight for a world that hates and fears them: because even if the dream's never been fully achived.. it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world. A dream that's always worth fighting for.

Magneto makes a point though: While this debate is engaging... they have bigger issues to worry about. Anne warns Stryker.. but his ego once again flairs up. "They're a handful of children annie and i'm a servant of the world. What can they do to stop me?" As I said before fraudsters, grifters, conmen.. their dangerous sure.. but it's the people who TRULY belivie their doing the right thing while advocating to destroy an entire people that are the most dangerous.

Stryker begins his sermon advocating for genoicde, with many other evangelicals apparently getting antsy according to a handy newsmans exposition. Granted it's likely less because they disagree with him calling for genocide, they just want him to say the loud part quiet again.

It's during this sermon Stryker's plan activates. And if you've seen x-2, which largely adapts this storyline but changes Stryker from preacher to soldier, you've likely figured it out: use Xavier to commit full on genocide of the mutant race. It's stronger CLOSER to him, so Nightcrawler's able to help a boy close to it.. but it's very clear if they don't do something SOON their going to die and the rest of mutantkind after. Wolverine poitns out the issue: they CAN attack but it'll make them look bad. And just to prove rule of three can suck his dick, Magneto once again saves the day, swooping in to confront stryker.. and thus providing a diversion. And to make his point for once Magneto .. dosen't attack. He breaks the roof to get in and make a minty fresh entrance, but he repairs it as poitned out by a sentator. Stryker,, high on his own hype, has Charlie strike him down. We get a really nice moment as Magneto has a revelation about his foe: all this time charles.. was holding back. And he's now seen just how dangerous his old enemy would be if he wasn't. Some protestors try to mob magneto, but some police break it up before they can win a collective darwin award for beating up a guy who in his previous appearance LEVELED AN ENTIRE CITY and a nuclear sub.

While the X-Men try to figure out how the hell to get to Charles before he kills them all, Annie goes to the reverned.. only for her ears to be bleeding like the other mutatns. She too is one... and instead of saving her like she begs for...

It's the final sign that there is no good left in Stryker, that even those loyal to him, even someone who tried their best.. must die simply because he says so. Not god. HIM. He killed a woman who did nothing but serve him faithlly and was wholeheartedly on his side.. and who he casts aside instead of even TRYING to save. After all if he would slaughter his own child.. why would Anne be saved? What makes this death all the more chilling.. is that after all Anne's done, her horrifying hate crime at the start, her attempted murder of kitty, and god knows what else we didn't see on panel... there's no catharsis. no joy in her death. There's no peace to be had. Just the senseless waste of her life doing nightmarisht hings in Striker's name, and the horrifying sight of her snapped neck. A life wasted in the name of a man who claims to speak for god.. but as our title tells us God Loves. Man kills.

We then pivot to one of the most awesome things Cyclops has ever done. So with so many people on the cusp of death, Wolverine feels they have no choice: they have to play it his way.. which means he teleports in and puts an end to the man who gave him a better life: to prevent charles from becoming everything he hates, Logan has to become everything he's tried to grow past. Thankfully.. Cyclops had a way around that.

And just to underline it right after, when Wolverine points out how close it is... Cyke explains his logic: He knew.. and also knew if his timing was even the SLIGHTEST bit off Charles might sense one of them too early. As for why let Wolverine attack it was simple: Charles is usually a non combatant. He doesn't have the countless hours of training nor the field experince and thus Scott correctly figured a two pronged attack would catch him off guard. If one side failed the other would succeed.. and Scott was FULLY aware that if Wolverine had to do it, his mentor would be dead. So to recap Scott pulled off a massive amount of precision ricocheting, with a backup plan that could kill his surrogate dad, all betting that he could both hit it and with the knowledge that if this failed everyone would be dead... and pulled it off without a hitch and with the utmost confidence. Just.. remember this the next time you hear someone call cyclops boring. Unless it's the movie version.. or the 90s animated series.. or wolverine and the x-men.. okay maybe just the comics and evolution.

So the day's saved right? Well normally yes. The villains foiled, Stryker outright killed someone on live tv. But in another awesome moment.. Scott notes.. it's not over. Ther'es one last thing to do.

It's the hard truth: in most other superhero stories, The X-Men already won.. but here if they back down now Stryker's message continues and he just picks it up, possibly even tries genocide again. Even if he gets arrested for Anne's murder i'ts not going to stop his message or him from preaching it. And I love how every x-man falls behind scott with not the slightest hint of hestation. Their walking right into an angry mob, no intention to use their powers, simply because walking away would let a bad man triumph and hurt other mutants. Because walking away is the easy thing.. but it's not the right thing and it damn well isn't what an x-man does.

So our heroes walk in.. and make their stand.

It's one last moment in a trilogy of awesome for Scott: tearing the fuck out of Strykers rehtoric and getting down to the core of most prejudice; Stryker thinks their less than human, that they don't deserve to exist.. and like any human .. they do. Their here. Their real. And he can't accept it. He'd rather destroy them. And when Stryker tries to fall back on the fact Nightcrawler simply looks diffrent.. someone steps up.

Now this moment's great on it's own, Kitty defying his trying to unperson kurt and standing bravely, pointing out what makes Kurt so awesome: he had every reason to turn in on himself after all the shit life's thrown at him: a mother who abandoned him, a step brother he was forced to kill in self defense, an angry mob nearly staking him before Charles saved his life... yet instead.. he's a jovial jokester. He loves, he lives, and he's a gentle soul. He's one who fears turning into his enmies, one who tries to take the righteous path. And like Stryker.. he believes in god. Nightcrawler is every bit as relgious.. the simple diffrence.. is that he dosent use his faith as a thin justification to slaughter everything he hates. To cast out what's diffrent. He uses it as faith should be used: to help others, to enrich his life, and to be kind.

What makes this moment for me beyond that though... is it pays off a long character arc for Kitty. When Kitty first met kurt.. it wasn't exactly a great relationship. She ran in fear the first time she saw him and even after finding out , no this is a good guy, she was still nervous around him for some time, gravitating more to the more human passing Roro and Peter. And yet over time.. the two became friends. They bonded.. and she felt ashamed, realizing Kurt.. is just a bit marshmellow. A kind soul who only wanted to be her friend. And this is the payoff for that: her going from a scared kid jumping to her assumptions about a man hwo just looks kinda spooky.. to being BEST FRIENDS with the guy and willing to take a bullet for him. Thankfully.. that blam we heard.. wasn't stryker's gun

The ending of this story.. speaks to it's tone. While our heroes still beat stryker morally and with words, they still won the battle.. what ultimatley strikes him down.. is a regular police officer. A cop simply not wanting a child to die. A normal person doing the right thing. And a ray of hope that maybe just maybe our heroes words got through to some people.

Said ray... dosen't last long as Magneto makes a valid point back at the mansion... and for once.. Charles listens.

It's a moment of weakness.. Charles accepting that maybe his dream isn't enough.. and it' smost fitting that the one to snap him out of it.. is the first person he brought that dream to. His son. And he makes the point I did earlier: this fight can't be won by brute force. This can't be won by FORCING people to accept them.. it has to be won through hard work. It may get worse (And it will), the tims may be tough.. but it's a dream worth fighting for. A better world not paved in blood... but in hope and hard work for a better tommorow. Is it idealistic? Perhaps. Unrealistic? entirely. But it's a noble ream: of a world of accpetince, kindness and love.. and one Scott and the others aren't willing to throw away. And as long as they aren't, charles realizes he can't either.

Naturally Max's response is to call them all fools.. but it's his last few words that really leave an impact

It's a nice touch that Kitty, who magneto nearly killed last time they fought not realizing she was a child and whose near death drove him to realize how far he'd fallen, is the one to speak up. And it's telling for where Magneto's arc is going under claremont.. that he relents a little. He can't fight for a cause he dosen't belivie in.. but he WISHES he could. He's gone from hating the x-men.. to badly wanting to be one of them.. but knowing his heart just isn't in it. From just seconds ago calling them all fools.. to deep down hoping they win. Showing that even if he still thinks eventually they will fall and it'll be his turn.. that maybe just maybe.. he won't have to. That maybe there's a future where he can fight for a better tommorow instead of forcing it.

So we end with Xavier tearfully thanking his students, and Ororo congradulating Scott for what he ddid. he tells her it's what he woudl've done for any of them and at the end o fthe day... it's love that drives this. Love for each other.. and hope for a world ran by love and not hate. But we're not there yet. But maybe... maybe someday.

So if it wasn't obvious.. God Loves Man Kills is a masterpiece. And having to go over it painstakingly for this review.. I stand by waht I said. This is the best x-men story ever. A story that sums up everything the x-men stand for in a neat package, pits them up agains ta unique an dhorrifingly real threat, and says a LOT. All in 60 bneautifully drawn pages. I ddin't mention him much in this review but Brent Anderson's art in this comic is next level stuff. Gorgeous, evocative, and hitting all the right notes. IT's some of the best art in comics and fits well with one of the best stories in comics. If you haven't read this one, do so immediatly. Even if you don't normally read x-men... this is a heck of a good way to start. Thanks for reading.

Next Time: We see the start for one of the x-men's greatest as she... steals an avengers powers and punches iron man in the face. So a bit of a mixed bag all things considered.

[bestangelofall]

God Loves, Man Kills #2

[beaniebabyidiot]

Here is part 5 of me watching all the x-men movies in order with commentary from when I was texting my friend about it

fifth: dark phoenix

(ps i was told not to watch it but i made a commitment, I WILL watch all the x-men movies)

charles her parents just DIED and ur promoting ur school? i mean i know u want to help but give the girl time to process man

"it's a gift" SHE JUST KILLED HER PARENTS IDK IF SHE IS REALLY FEEING GIFTED

WHY IS HANK NORMAL AGAIN COME ON

oh nvm i guess he's blue again

mystique looks so much worse her wig and her makeup do not match what she looked like previously

why did kurt need a helmet and jean didn't? she is literally in the vacuum of space she should be dead rn

bro charles and raven are sooo out of character based on the previous movies, why did they just switch motivations and personalities???

oh hey dazzler!

i truly do belive that charles is trying to help jean and the other students, he just goes about it horribly

one thing i do like abt this movie is charles characterization, he comes off as really wanting to help and being a genuinely good person, he just can't admit his faults and SERIOUSLY messes up a lot

bro i know all of these actors can be good why are they acting so poorly?????

did the director just choose their worst takes??? like what??

so Jean is a God now?

girl i don't think they are afraid of u be ur so cool and powerful but because you killed a woman

WHOA SCOTT AND MAGNETO ARE SWEARING SO MUCH

HOW CAN THEY DO THAT

bro who are these side villains?? і gotta admit the guy with the dreads he can move is pretty cool but who is the girl lookin like negasonic teenage warhead???

THESE EFFECTS ARE SO WILD

WHATTTT IS HAPPENING

the effects of jean making him walk were so gross i literally had to fast forward a bit they look so bad and uncanny

i know that's kinda the point but i cantttttt

jean i wouldn't trust weird alien lady if i were u

yoo charles admits he's wrong for once in his life!! let's go!!!

i do love all the beast content in this movie

THAT WAS SO AWESOME

KURT JUST DROPPED HER IN FRONT OF A TRAIN

YES!!!

i know he seems all innocent but in these movies he was in the fighting rings

he has DEFINITELY killed someone before

i love him so much

overall this movie is bad but this fight scene is SICK

LIKE ERIK JUST CRUSHED A TRAIN CAR THATS SO COOL

"i had a change of heart" erik we all know you are just down bad for charles and you will do anything if he asks u really sincerely

you can't fool me

charles and jean are so father daughter core

i mean he's not a great dad but they sure have the dynamic

CHERIK COFFEE SHOP AU YEAHH

bro do u know what the name of that cafe is

the french says "vieux copains"

THAT LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO OLD FRIENDS

THEY ARE AT THE CAFE OF OLD FRIENDS

well that movie was... bad

there were some good parts

but overall it was not good

it wasn't even funny bad like origins wolverine

this movie was NOT funny and if i'm being honest i only watched it for that scene at the end cuz i saw gifs of it on here

[growingstrong2019]

Seems appropriate after episode 5 of 97. Don’t fuck with mutants while magneto draws breath.

From God Loves, Man Kills. By Chris Claremont, Brent Eric Anderson & Steve Oliff.

[spottheantisemitism]

"what if the X-men were black?" is a racist, antisemitic and anti-intersectional screed that 2013 tumblr fell in love with

Published in 2013 this made rounds of OG tumblr and made Bobby of Pencilscratchins draw all her Jewish X-men characters as brown.

Erik because he has Romani heritage (which is realistic and based and accurate to some comics).

Anon go kick rocks with your colorism! YOU read holocaust testimonies!

Also fun fact Nazi Germany did not understand black and brown the way Americans do so it was based on ethnicity and not color, a brown Jew and a pale white passing Jew were seen as one and the same to the Nazis

Guess which article she linked

It's this one!

But said Kitty was Latine because "the quintessential X-girl of the 70s shouldn't be white"

Kitty already is a queer woman of color because she's Jewish. Jews are POC. Bobby what the hell? Are you implying she's only coded non-white because she's Jewish or Mutant? what the hell?!

(BTW Bobby left Tumblr around Covid but if you send her hate asks because of this essay you'll end up on spot-the-antisemitism blocklist for harrasment)

Where did she get this "Jews are white and should be race lifted?" stuff? Why from Orion!

Top paragraph is fine!

antisemitism is written the gentile way that supports a racist eugenicist, off to a bad start.

Sexism is not covered? OH explain Storm's arcs of misogynoir or Jean's and Maddy's arc of going insane because she has the power of a god but is forced to be housewife and marry her sweetheart and have kids

Ableism is not explored? I'm sorry what about XAVIER'S ENTIRE ARC OF ABLIEST SELF HATRED AND OVERCOMING IT IN THE PREQUELS? The first class all being rich talented codedly disabled kids going to a prep school for the gifted. Disabled people really liking non human passing characters like Nightcrawler (and hating Xavier since he's too assimilationist to many). I'm sorry why do people fall for such blatant lies? the mentor of the X-men is literally canonically disabled and Orion has the GALL to claim ableism is not explored.

_ Genosha is half fall of south Africa Apartheid and half the establishment of the state of Israel hence why the metaphor is so messy and problematic

_ Yes that number is deliberately "like the holocaust but worse" because Morrison likes their holocaust appopriation

_ Why didn't you mention it's an allegory for Gay conversion therapy torture because Bryan Singer is gay?

_ Yes Legacy Virus is Mutant Aids good job on your media literacy finally kicking in Orion

It's racism AND antisemitism but your "antisemtism doesn't exist in america" ass doesn't get that

I do hate "mutie" as slur and the way Kitty thinks it's comparable to antisemtic and anti-black slurs and USES them to make a point, so yeah something Orion and I agree on.

The sequence used is of Stevie Hunter the human ally character who like Xavier started teaching after she became disabled. She IS used as prop here to say Kitty is right in calling her the n-word (Claremont is racist sometimes).

But Orion can't tell her apart from Storm. Buddy if you can't tell the ONLY two black women in this comic apart, you're the racist.

OK they're both props but it proves you never actually read the comics or you can't tell fictional black women apart neither of which is a good look

(Cole also points out the Kitty and Magneto are not White but Jewish he is dogpiled and called a fake fan for this (see below))

Keep Shyminksy out of your mouth you racist fake fan

OH NO! I hate this!

So you decided to go with the colorist idea that the man is darker and the innocent girl in need of protecting is lighter. Gross colorism worthy of a Hollywood action movie where the black guy dies

"Local black man can't related to white disabled teens facing ableism and makes it about racism so he can relate to it" is giving gamergate chud energy to me

If you can't see why a Russian man is almost killed by a mob of xenophobic red blooded Americans and HAVE to make this about anti-black racism that's on you and your misunderstanding of the way Russians were hated during the cold war.

Oh you are race swapping x-men while shitting on Psylocke who the result of basically the same idea? How hypocritical

Dwayne McDuffe does have a point but your quote does not utilize his point in any way.

Then DON'T raceswap Wolverine if he becomes the angry black man. Think before you can X-men racism and tokenism WORSE with your race-swapping

NO THEY DON'T strawman rejected

Ah yes! Magneto, famously a very white man whose childhood was full of white privilege/ Sarcasm

One of the co-authors of the website has the gall to double down on calling Magneto white:

"as a REAL fan you're fake fan, antisemitism doesn't exist and Holocaust survivor Jews are white" - this racist defending his token black friend's racist screed because some guy called Cole DARED call Orion on his bullshit

*"I didn't like that the X-men were about white passing and invislbe disability so I made about anti black racism" also "judiasm is just a religion" canard

**Again leave Shyminksy and Morrison's good takes alone

***Yeah you get Luke Cage, that's how you get the racism of bad Luke Cage comics. You ain't inventing the racist wheel here

Orion I hate your take, I hate your misunderstanding of antisemitism and ableism that makes the two main factions tick, I hate your self centerness, I hate your racist and antisemitic co-writer making excuses for you and I REALLY hate that this did to the 2013 X-fandom what Lily Orchard did to the 2019 Steven Universe fandom and we can still see people using your bullshit arguments today

Oh and Cole? thank you for your service you're the real hero of this story, hated and feared for daring to call out the establishment

[rmemebrt]

Venus and Mars

I'm making another album analysis because Paul Mccartney is a devious vagrant, and no one else will count his sins.

You can check out the one I did on McCartney II here

Side One

Venus and Mars – Very much a blend of old and new musically, Venus and Mars are alright for now

Rock Show – He looks like a guy you knew way back when??Madison Square and long hair? alright buddy

Love in Song – You notice a lot of wanting, yearning, looking at the past here, The Homeland, remembrance, the love that once was there

You Gave Me the Answer – As it live here, this is a Linda song, however, it's structure, it's themes, it seems to suggest it would have been a John song, if given the chance, remembrance, also Granny Music lmao

Magneto and Titanium Man – Who among us will be strong enough to make Paul McCartney's marvel oc real?

Letting Go – This song is super John coded, it sounds like Beef Jerky, along with that we also get the mention of divinity, and Mother Nature

Side two

Venus and Mars (Reprise) – Wanting to go away on a trip, Running into a good friend

Spirits of Ancient Egypt – Okay we start with Baby and Love, making it seem pretty classicly Linda core, however! longing and yearning, spirits and the past coming over the phone? and "I know", okay pal

Medicine Jar – drugs!!! <3

Call Me Back Again – Certified mclennon classic, we all know it, we all love it, if you pair it with Tell Me What You See and I've Just Seen A Face you'll be sobbing for an hour

Listen to What the Man Said – We are right out of the gate with New Orleans mention, that classes this immediately as mclennon, ♥ love ♥, the ending is very late beatles

Treat Her Gently – Lonely Old People – A sweet song, also some yeahs in there, pretty Linda Coded as all things go, but could be a little mclennon-y if you want it

Crossroads – A nice outro and way out, Venus and Mars have met at the crossroads, but crossroads are meant for passing

I'd say overall, the original Venus and Mars is a very mclennon coded album, there are elements in the songs that you can feel were for John, and also just some great music, it's definitely really good.

Now let's move on to the other additional tracks!

Junior's Farm – Time to seek inner peace by going to a farm in the middle of nowhere and also kill Richard Nixon!!!

Sally G – But going to a farm to seek inner peace reminds us of the past! Like what caused you to come to the farm the first time! Big Gay Divorce reference!!!

Walking in the Park with Eloise – Something nice for his dad :)

Bridge on the River Suite – B-side to Eloise, a nice instrumental, a little melancholic

My Carnival – carnival? like carnival of light!!! No, but it's nice to see him get to act ringmaster, if you wanted you could spin this to be about The Big Gay Divorce

Going To New Orleans (My Carnival) – This being right before Hey Diddle is just sad, like dude, you are not going to see the girl, her ass is back in NYC

Hey Diddle – I wonder who he could possibly be yearning for in this, who in the world could Linda be reassuring him that "next time around she will be here"

Let's Love – The piano, the style, this for sure was going to be a John song, the asking to spend this brief time together, the references to phones, oh my god, the ending notes sound like Dear Friend

Soily – Fun, whimsical, no value to the fag theory, but fun nonetheless

Baby Face – More whimsy and fun, Granny once more

Lunch Box/Odd Sox – the b-side to Coming Up, so, gay by proxy, not as much whimsy, more so melancholy

4th of July – bro... "you came in with him again/and suddenly, I knew it wasn't my day" what the hell

All in all, it's really gay, it's gayer than McCartney II could dream to be, it holds more weight because it's the sessions where John was supposed to be there, but couldn't, and that is reflected in most of the songs.

[tomodachi-to-koibito]

at the very core of my person I am more than willing to eat crow, beg for forgiveness and say "Beau deMayo you weren't leading us on after all!"

buuuuut-

the shitty way Jean has been mishandled aside (and the snipped and rushed storylines for a few things)

I just can't get over the show runner saying baiting stuff like how Gambit x Rogue is the otp of the series and then proceeds to bring in the worst love triangle of the x men run and rub it in the noses of Gambit fans let alone Romy fans.

the fact that he's gleeful about perma killing Remy and says bullshit like how he needed to give him a crop top to make him likeable!???

HAH.

Gambit is always likeable and x men the animated series made him a fan favorite!

like-

It's okay for deMayo to have SOME favorites and boost em a little (that's a bonus of running a show right?) but with how some of these storylines have converged just to get to this point has been done so badly it's hurting my brain and now when somebody asks him what his five year plan was he brings up that HORRIBLE arc for Rogue where she marries Magneto and gives him a baby???

i mean-

my dude, my guy,

you're clearly super freaking biased to Magneto and for some reason ship him with Rogue to the point of torpedoing what was happening in the original series and is currently canon in the comics!???

Gambit and Rogue are McMarried, BEAU. and while you might NOT be McLoving it a LOT of people do

matter of fact-

WAY MORE PEOPLE THEN THE FEW WHO WANT ROGUE TO BE THE TROPHY WAIFU OF A MAN MORE THAN TWICE HER AGE IN A SHIP THAT IS WEIRD AND MAKES HER ACT LIKE A FROSTY BOSSY ASSHOLE

I read Age of Apocalypse! It had some really insane and cool stuff but it was also horrible for me as a Rogue fan!

She doesn't have to BE with Remy but for the love of GOD stop trying to make her into a stoic gurl boss. She's much more human then that.

i don't trust you, demayo. at all. and I'll gladly apologize (a little) if I'm super duper wrong and you aren't trying to force Rogue to make out with your favorite weathered GI Joe dolly. 🤡

[evilwickedme]

So I finally started my magneto readathon and. God he's such an interesting character. I'm on god loves man kills. Claremont is such a good writer too. I am looking forward to the more modern stuff like magneto testament and analyzing genosha and hox/pox from a Zionist perspective, it's going to be really interesting. Anyway yeah updates maybe to come here's my favorite bits so far

Both from uncanny x men 150

[jinlintai]

what are your favourite xmen comics that feature magneto? i really love him as a character but so far my only engagement with the xmen is through the movies and xmen ‘97. i want to read more about him in the comics but idk where to start </3

what era you should read first depends on what type of magneto you like and what's familiar to you; magneto's basically got a new thing every decade. but, since you're just starting i'm gonna suggest some things that are easy to read or fundamental. i know that starting to read comics can be intimidating with all the different series, crossovers, and writers.

i think the easiest place to start after having watched x men 97 is reading the one shot "god loves, man kills". it's the quintessential x men story.

if you're looking for a more shallow, modern read just to admire the curve of magneto's ass, you can read the miniseries magneto: not a hero. you could also read magneto (2014) issues #1-8. (imo, these are not necessarily the "best" magneto stories, but he is the focus of these comics and it can be understood without the baggage of previous comics.)

if you're looking for magneto backstory, read uncanny x-men issues #150 & 161 and classic x-men issue #12 (b story). you could also read magneto testament. it's a holocaust story, not a superhero story.

if you're interested in reading longer comics, i talk more under the cut.

if you're interested in reading about x-men and don't know where to start, i recommend reading uncanny x-men (1963) starting from issue #94. that's when claremont starts writing with some of the "classic" cast of x-men. stop whenever you want.

if you only care about magneto, i recommend starting uncanny x-men (1963) from issue #149-150, then skipping to #196. at #200, start simultaneously reading new mutants (1983) from issue #35. stop whenever you want.

if you want a more detailed recommendation list of magneto comics, you could probably find one online, or i could make one. it'll take a bit of time though, since i'll be rereading the issues as i add them :)

i read all my comics on readcomiconline.li -- it's free, but don't forget to use adblock/ublock origin!

as for my favorite magneto comic... i can't think of favorite comics specifically but my fav eras are: the 1980s headmaster era, the 2000s-2010s utopia era, and the 2010s mutant revolutionary/o5 teacher era. these are all heroic magneto eras haha. it's kind of complicated to start with these but do what you want. feel free to talk to me about which comics you end up reading!

[docgold13]

Hey me and my friend were talking about Magneto, as we are wont to do. He was saying that the X-Men movie first revealed him to be Jewish. I thought he was a Jewish holocaust survivor since the 80s. I think since God Loves, Man Kills. I already knew that Magneto started out as a generic villain. They added his backstory later. My friend was saying Magneto was revealed to have survived the Holocaust as a Romani person before it was then revealed he was Jewish. I think Claremont wanted to make him Jewish for a while but was worried making a villain Jewish was offensive. I'm so confused about this. Also I've never understood if his name is Max or Erik. Do you know how to navigate these X-Men retcons?

You are correct.  Magneto was first revealed as a Holocaust survivor in the pages of 1981’s Uncanny X-Men No. 150.  Although it was implied that Magneto is Jewish in the issue, the matter was made clear in the subsequent story in Uncanny X-Men no. 161.  

These matters were further explored to in the 1982 Marvel Graphic Novel, X-Men: God Loves Man Kills.

Chris Claremont, who wrote these stories and much of the X-Men tales of the 80’s and 90’s based Magneto on a combination of three figures, Israeli opposition leader Menachem Begin, the Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane, and the American civil rights leader Malcolm X.  

Magneto has always been Jewish, although his former wife Magda, was Romani.  Back when Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were Magneto's children (prior to the terrible retconning of this away) their mother was Magda... meaning that the twins were both Romani and Jewish.

Anyways, Magneto's birth name was name Max Eisenhardt and he took on the alias of Erik Lehnsherr to hide aspects of his identity following the second world war.  He referred to himself sometimes as ‘Magnus’ kind of like a ‘mutant name’ (kind of similar to how Malcolm Little changed his name to ‘Malcolm X’ as a means of shedding a surname that was originally that of the white slave-owner).  

While there have been various retcons and variations here and there, The 2014 miniseries, X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico serves as the primary basis of Magneto’s backstory as it exists in canon today.  

[popculturebuffet]

X-Month I! (aka Mutant Month)

So last year as a celebration of all things x-men and my entirely normal attitude towards all x-men media

I, with the help of some of my patrons, reviewed a bunch of x-men and mutant adjacent media. And with this tradition continuing this year, I thought it was the best time to collect all 4 reviews, all linkeed here in one post for my fellow muties. Last time I took a look at that time the x-men subbed for the fantastic four in their first animated apperance, the utter showstopping classic god loves, man kills where the x-men have to thwart an exestitinal threat to their society while Xavier gets cruicifed in a hallucionation set on the world trade center, Rogue debuted in a story with great plot and less than accceptable art, and finally we all took a trip to the first annual hellfire gala as mutantkind strutted their stuff and also colonized mars.

[lunarspiral1127]

X-Men 97 episode 5 *SPOILERS*

The interviews

The reporter seemed nice and doesn't act like a typical controversial one. And, seeing Beast blush was adorable. But, Scott's interview was a doozy. What he said when he lashed out, well....he ain't wrong. I just thought Magneto would be the one to say those things, not Scott. Still, not wrong.

Jean/Scott/Madelyn/Logan drama

UGH! I hate love triangles that bring out so much stress and drama. And, I'm worried that Jean and Scott will break up because of the crap Mr. Sinister pulled. I wasn't expecting Jean to kiss Logan, and it was HIM who told her to go talk to Scott. Despite his feelings, he's still trying to be respectful to their relationship. But, seriously, Jean, why did you kiss him?!

Then apparently, Scott and Madelyn were checking up on each other telepathically, which I get why Jean would be mad at that. But, Madelyn during her time at the mansion WAS Jean and Scott thought that was her! They're the same! At least they were? Then again, they're in contact for a month and Jean kissed Logan once....UGH! I hate this drama. SINISTER THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

Genosha

Beautiful. It was a paradise for mutants. They deserve this. The gala looked pretty, I liked the statues of Charles and Magneto, I was not expecting the Hellfire Club to be a part of this council cause I don't trust them (especially the crap they pulled in the previous show). Lots of cameos from other characters that I couldn't keep track on, but the place was lovely. It's a shame though on what happened later on....

Nightcrawler

This lovely, precious German Christian man. 🥰 I love Nightcrawler and I'm glad to see him in this show. The original voice actor who played him in the previous show still does a great job voicing him. And, he approves of Gambit and Rogue (adopted sister) being together, so that's extra bonus points. He got a new look compared to his previous one, but I still like it. Then when the massacre happened, I was so worried that he was gonna die. Thank goodness he survived, but I hate seeing him so hurt.

Gambit/Rogue/Magneto drama

I hate this love triangle SO MUCH! We get an explanation on how Rogue and Magneto got together, and I'm questioning how old she was when they first met and whether Magneto was influencing her in a bad way. Either way, still don't like this ship. Even when them dancing looked good animated, I STILL don't like it. Plus, it still doesn't make sense cause they've been against each other in the previous show, where there was no signs of the two having that past relationship.

Anyway, I'm glad Rogue finally told Gambit the truth, and I feel so bad for him. But, he knew what she wanted and how much it hurt, even going as far as to distance himself, which he showed a lot of emotional maturity, so respect to that. But, that thing where he'll lead Genosha if Rogue stays as his "queen"? DA FUQ?! Look, I like Magneto, but I did not like that. Still wish Rogue could've gotten one of those collars to nullify her powers so that she can touch Gambit. Would've solved a lot of drama, just saying.

I was SO relieved though, that Rogue said that he was right, and rejected Magneto, but I wish she could've done that without kissing him right where Gambit can see it. Either way, it seemed like she'll choose Gambit and not stay with Magneto in Genosha, THANK GOD!

So, you think this would be the end of that love triangle right? Well, yes and no? Cause what happened afterwards hurt like hell.

Genosha Massacre

So, a giant Master Mold thing showed up, killing mutants and destroying Genosha. It was cool seeing Cable again trying to stop it and seeing his mom after so long, which is a glimmer of hope but I'll get to that later. So, many people died. Sebastian Shaw, Calypso, Banshee, Marrow, pretty sure that was Dazzler or Moira not sure, and three more that hurt me so much.

Magneto. Okay, I may not like that love triangle, but I didn't hate the guy. Dude was fighting that Sentinel with a train as a whip, that was pretty cool. And, he tried to protect the Molocks. He tried to protect Leech! He got Rogue and Gambit out of the way. What hurt the most was he told Leech not to be afraid IN GERMAN! Again, didn't want him to die. Although, I wished he could've used his magnetism to push the Molocks away like he did with Rogue and Gambit, but nope. They all died!

Leech. Precious innocent Leech. He was just a kid, man! And, he got to hang out with other mutants his age. He was making friends. Only for this to happen. And, not a lot of people talk about Leech and what happened to him. But, I liked him, and that hurt.

And, finally, the one that hurt the most.....Gambit.....Remy.

He went out like a hero. He sacrificed himself to destroy that Sentinel from killing even more mutants. "The name's Gambit, mon ami. Remember it." Well, now we know why this episode is called Remember It, cause it was Gambit's last words. And, if that wasn't enough, Rogue holding onto him, crying over his body, finally able to touch him....only to not feel him.

THAT. FREAKING. HURT. SO. BAD!!! 😭 Gambit was one of my favorite X-Men characters, and I legit was crying seeing that end. It really hurt to see that happen to him, but at least he went out saving people. However! There is that slight glimmer of hope! Cable. He tried to go back to stop this, who's to say he won't try again? Time travel shenanigans will happen and he can team up with Bishop and the rest of the X-Men to prevent this from happening. It happened many times before, it can happen here. And, maybe, just maybe, Gambit, Leech, Magneto, and all those people won't have to die. This may the denial talking, but I'll be so pissed if Gambit's dead and he Rogue won't be together for good anymore, cause that would be bullcrap.

God, how am I gonna be okay when we're getting Storm and Forge vs. The Adversary next week?! And, jeez, if things keep up like this, Storm is gonna return to the whole mansion on fire. I can't imagine what her and everyone's reactions are gonna be when they find out about Gambit and even Magneto.

Anyway, good episode. Much better than last week's. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go find a way to cope from all of that.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Given your evident love of magneto what are your thoughts on the man who arguably began his more modern interpretations Chris Claremont? I’ve hard a decent amount of criticism on how often he used kitty pride to say the N word.

I think Claremont was wrong for having Kitty say the N-word outright and I think as a non-Black man his decisions to have the word be used and make a direct comparison between the oppression Black people face and the oppression the fictionalized mutants face were misguided.

It's one thing to make an allegory, it's another to make a one-on-one comparison when Claremont himself is not Black. Claremont is Jewish, and therefore his explicit comparison of the oppression mutants face in his universe to antisemitism is something he is at liberty to explore. He does also makes many explicit comparisons to the Holocaust in his runs, and as a Jew I don't really have an issue because he is a Jewish man and the comparisons were made my Magneto, a Jewish character.

This is one of the incidents of Kitty saying the N-word, in Claremont's hit story "God Loves, Man Kills":

The context of this is that Kitty got into a fight with some other teens because they were espousing anti-mutant rhetoric. Stevie Hunter, her ballet teacher, tells her to calm down. Kitty, being a teenager, got fired up at Stevie's passivity, and tries to make a point.

Of course, we as readers know that as a Black woman, Stevie knows from experience to keep her head down, but to Kitty Pryde, a white-passing person who had only discovered her powers (and new marginalized status) mere years before, is not used to this new marginalization. I say "new marginalization" because Kitty has always been a marginalized character even before her mutation, being Jewish. Kitty, especially in the runs under Claremont, is drawn as not just openly Jewish with her Star of David necklace and numerous references to her Jewishness, but also racialized as Jewish with her thick, dark curly hair (a stereotype of Ashkenazi Jews). But as a light-skinned generally white-passing Jew from the suburbs of Chicago, it's likely she didn't experience as much antisemitism as much as Stevie faced antiblackness.

I think the real issue is less of Kitty saying the word but rather in the next panel Stevie saying that she was right to make that comparison. In the X Men universe, the mutants are a marginalized class, but so are Black people. I think Claremont was trying to shift the themes of the X Men narrative as being not just an allegory for the Holocaust, but also for Civil Rights (Indeed, the opening scene of God Loves, Man Kills, is of two Black children being lynched by a religious extremist mob), but he did so rather clumsily by our standards.

The time Kitty did say the N-word intentionally as an insult was in Uncanny X-Men #196:

This exchange occurs after Kitty overhears Phil and his friends plotting against other mutants. She barges in, and they turn on her (they end up knocking her out and kidnapping her). I do not think it was appropriate for Kitty to use the N-word in this way, and I don't think Claremont should have written her as saying such, but in the context it is one marginalized person calling another person a targeted slur, and the other person responding in turn. Not appropriate, but in the scene it is an emotionally charged moment where both sides of the exchange are in the wrong.

The final instance I can think of where Kitty uses the N-word is in conjunction with a bunch of other slurs to give an example. She is giving a speech at a school where one of the students committed suicide because of the anti-mutant bullying he faced. While I did censor the instances of the N-word in the previous two images, I'm not going to do so for this one because it's in conjunction with a bunch of other slurs, and if I censored each one, the context would be lost.

Kitty calls herself a series of slurs and insults (notably, an antisemitic slur. Remember, Kitty is a proud Jew). She then lists off other slurs, which includes the N-word, but also an anti-Latino slur, an anti-Italian slur, an anti-Asian slur, and the F-slur. She also uses "Mutie" again, which is an anti-mutant slur in the Marvel universe. To our modern ears (or rather, eyes), this is inappropriate, but this was published in 1983 and the ideas we have today about not saying slurs even in non-targeted ways weren't the same.

I think Kitty's usage of the N-word (and other slurs) is used to make it obvious to the readers that the mutant narrative is an allegory for other narratives in our world, namely racism, antisemitism, and homophobia, but it isn't done perfectly. If it was a Black mutant character making these comparisons, just like Magneto is a Jewish mutant making direct comparisons to the Holocaust, it might read a bit better. I don't know for sure, and I'm not Black myself, but perhaps then it would be slightly more appropriate. Kitty was written to be a very outspoken character who says things as they are, but it wasn't her place as a non-Black person to make those direct comparisons, even if she herself is marginalized in other ways.

As for Claremont himself........I think he is a legend and despite his controversies, the X Men, and Magneto especially, wouldn't be the icons they are today. Claremont took the X Men from a run-of-the-mill superhero team and Magneto from a run-of-the-mill villain and made them inherently political and an explicit allegory for other issues present in our world. This tradition that Claremont started has only continued with other Marvel writers drawing parallels between queer issues and mutant issues, and fan speculation about parallels with disability rights (which I would love to see tackled in canon). Claremont's contributions to the X Men canon are invaluable, and I loved what he did with Magneto. Is he perfect? Of course not. You'd be hard pressed to find a writer who is. I think he tried to tell a story, and sometimes stumbled just by virtue of his own inexperience with the identities he was trying to depict, and suffered from trying to make too many explicit references to real world events and issues (Which many comic writers in his time struggled with). And, notably, he hasn't continued to make those mistakes in more recent publications, which I think is significant.

[id in alt text]