#and everyone went to krakoa

[x-mensirens]

"Remember it."

[cultofthepigeon]

went to twitter and am happy to report that at least some x-stans are realizing Firestar is actually cool

[sparklingelectricblue]

From the Ashes: Marvel Infinity #13

For those who don’t know, Marvel has a subscription service where you can read back issues of comics digitally. This service is called Marvel Unlimited. I really enjoy it. I’s nice to read comics without handling my comics or comics that I have not yet gotten ahold of.

Another part of unlimited is their infinity comics. These are short weekly comics that are online only. They tend to be silly short stories or they explain some missing back story from a main comic book. This week’s issue focuses on Magneto and is meant (I think) to fill in some back story on how Magneto went to young and powerful after being resurrected and fighting Orchis to now old and wheelchair bound.

I know not everyone has access to this so I thought that I would write up a summary about it.

There’s not going to be a lot of screenshots because the comic is meant to be read on a tablet where you scroll down through the story. It makes it so that it’s hard to capture a whole scene. But I’ll try to add some good ones. Plus, I don’t want Disney coming for me. I'm not going beat by beat but I do the major points. Anyways, I talk too much…

We start with this image:

Only to see Max scream “no” as he wakes up. He was having a nightmare. He looks over to the hover chair that he has been using in the new X-Men series. The helmet sits on the chair and seems to be daring him to wear it. “But he is Magneto… …he dares.”

Next scene, Max is hovering around in the chair as Hank is bouncing around him, asking Max if he plans to going Merle. Max confirms, “not that it’s any of your business, but yes”. That’s when Hank asks him if he could not go wearing his helmet and floating chair.

Max has a good response:

Honestly, I just love that Max calls his helmet gaudy. Hank responses that the helmet sends a signal that might be distressing given Max's "checkered" history. “At least try to put our new neighbors at ease.”

Next scene is Max in town in a normal wheelchair sans helmet. He compares the townspeople of Merle who worked or ignored the sentinel factory to the “neighbors” who willingly ignore the concentration camps outside their towns or the trains that passed through during the Holocaust. Honestly, a pretty fair comparison. “And so he will never trust a “neighbor” again.”

At this point someone bumps into Max causing him to drop what he was holding. The person is saying sorry but Max is calling him an idiot. A random girl picks up what Max dropped and gives it to him. Girl: “Here you go Mister Magnet. You dropped your pretty hat.” The art makes the girl look preteen but the dialogue makes her seem younger.

Max responds like this:

The girl’s dad says to her, “Don’t worry about it Anna. That old man’s probably just having a bad day.” Anna responds, “*sniff* he seems so sad, Daddy”. None of that seemed sad to me. Just angry and cranky. Maybe justifiably cranky given how things have changed for both him and mutant kind and he is stuck in a town where people worked towards the eradication of mutants. And it's cold. And someone bumped into him.

Maybe the writer was trying to reference that scene in Son of M where Luna says that Max is not a bad man, just sad.

But look at this face! It just makes me laugh.

Why does Max have a kippah? He’s going to a temple. Maybe the dream made him decide to go to temple.

Once inside, there’s a person who approaches him, “I was wondering when you’d drop by”. Max says he's been busy and that Merle was the last place he expected to find a temple.

The person is Rabbi Rachel Sagan and she offers Max a cup of coffee and to listen to him. She calls him "Mr. Eisenhardt", which I didn't know Max's real name was public knowledge or not. I guess it is now.

Max takes her up on it and over coffee he lists all the various places that he's seen destroyed: "Asteroid M. Utopia. Avalon. Genosha... Oy, Genosha. And now Krakoa."

So Rabbi Sagan asks how this brings Max back to temple.

It's really understandable why he would feel this way and everything he's been through.

"When Genosha fell, I looked out over the ruins and I knew we only had one or two chances left to marshal our factions together in the pursuit of a common dream. That chance will never come again."

Rabbi Sagan compares Max to Moses, leading his tribe though the wilderness. Max states, that was Charles. "The bald schmuck with the eyebrows? No, he never saw himself as an instrument. You can tell. It's you. It's always been you. But there's a problem..."

The show Rabbi Sagan put her hand on Max's, "Moishe was a humble man, Max. Are you?"

Pfft! No! He's the Master of Magnetism!

Max responds. "I... have been humbled. Over and over."

Rabbi Sagan says that's not what was asked, and prompts him to remember his Torah; how Moshe was was commanded to climb and was told him he would not live to cross the River Jordan.

Max: "What are you insinuating, Rabbi?"

Rabbi Sagan: "I'm suggesting that your fear is a consequence of your pride. Do you really fear that there is no promised land for your people, or do you fear that they will not be able to reach it without you?"

Max doesn't respond well to this.

Everyone has probably seen the scene where Max is then zooming out on his wheelchair while stating, "This was a mistake. I should never have come." so I'm not going to include it here.

The next scene is him outside in the street. He's angry about what the Rabbi said. A caption box says, "The Gall! Why if he was still himself, he'd..." . When suddenly, a truck sliding at full speed in the snow with a loud "Skreeeeee". Someone yells, "Billy, get outta the road! It can't stop!" and Max is surprised.

Bam! The truck hits him throwing him from his wheelchair before hitting a telephone pole and bursting into flames.

There is a close up of Max's face with blood on it. A caption box says "Yes, in dreams, he is a founder and feller of nations."

Then we end on this scene.

What's going to happen? We'll find out next week!

[bikenesmith]

haven't had much to say for The Death March of X, primarily bc it was mid + ultimately felt like a futile exercise outside resurrection of magneto . but the krakoa finale-funeral pissed me off. im too exhausted by the whole thing to muster emotion about what i and everyone else has discussed ad nauseam for months (corporate interests squashing creative storytelling, frankly insulting attempts at appeasing a mourning audience).

i'd already given up on squeezing any thematic cohesion out of this very slowly sinking ship but i wanted a crumb of cherik reunion, a crumb of old man yaoi, and they couldn't even deliver that!? copy-pasted/adapted from my twitter...

charles sold his soul for an idea he ascribed himself to because he and erik were doing it TOGETHER. but erik "deserted his post" & it all went to shit. yet here erik wrings his hands over choices his absence enabled + is somehow surprised that charles dgaf anymore? ridiculous

the split between krakoa cherik was not just about ideology itself. it was about emotions, and the emotions that krakoa wrought them. the guilt, pain, loss, exhaustion, the unbearable weight of responsibility... but no, please do waste the first pages they've had together in well over a year on erik blandly rehashing Xavier's Dream 2.0/This Is How Xavier's Dream Can Still Win

charles + erik are just people. they are not myths or paragons, no matter how often they pretend otherwise. they are not ideological idols or effigies. they are just flesh + blood — & they are their MOST fleshy + bloody w/ each other. i saw little of that in this issue.

ironically the exchange that seems the most "real" to me also aggravates me the most.

its like erik is on a complete other planet than charles here. how does erik not KNOW that yes, that IS all he has left??? it's a far cry from erik's implicit understanding of charles in x-men: red & resurrection of magneto

erik, who recognized the "no-place in [charles'] heart" long before anyone else did, is surprised to find said no-place swallowing charles up. and does nothing about it.

what did he mean by being "on his way"? on his way to do what? say nothing of substance + let charles lobotomize himself? LMFAO.

(despite dropping the ball on erik as well as erik in relation to charles, we did get some great solo charles moments.... this sums up so much about him perfectly, and also feels very connected to the ROM panel shared earlier. "desperate desire to be loved"....)

anyway i hope for better writing when charles is inevitably broken out of mega-prison and woken up from his mega-coma. that's really all i'm interested in w/ this blatant return to the status quo beyond storm's solo and jean's solo, which actually seem poised to be legitimately groundbreaking for both characters.

[scarlet--wiccan]

have you seen the news about david&tommy breaking up? the reasoning seems so flimsy and i feel like tommy is going to be used even less now, tho hopefully they’ll bring him into wanda’s stuff again sometime. but what was the point of canonizing that ship for basically no content or storylines besides brutalizing david for shock value?!

I'm gonna let you guys in on a secret-- canonizing the ship for basically no content or storylines besides brutalizing David-- and traumatizing Tommy with his mom's corpse -- WAS THE POINT. Everyone is talking about how this was the ship that fans shipped so hard, it became real, but no one wants to acknowledge that that is textbook fanservice. Leah Williams was doing fanservice, and she didn't even bother to justify it with substance or care-- Tommy just became one more ~quirky queer character~ in her parade of unfunny tumblr dialogue and unearned, often racist brutality.

They weren't even a proper couple-- the whole time, they were being written as non-committal friends with benefits. There is no real romantic content or relationship development between them in an any actual comic book. The only time they had any degree of substance was when non-X-Men writers squeezed it in to Unlimited comics and Pride specials. The first and last time they were actually called "boyfriends" was Tommy's cameo in Scarlet Witch, which is now effectively a post mortem on their relationship.

I'm not trying to be a hater, but I need everyone to get serious and admit that this pairing was not what y'all have been pretending it was. These writers have been treating it as a disposable afterthought the whole time. NYX was the perfect opportunity to actually change that-- it's a street level book about mutants rebuilding their lives after Krakoa. It would have been very easy to bring Tommy in as a consistent supporting cast member now that mutants are mingling more freely with everyone else. David just went through a traumatic death that had a big impact on Tommy as well-- giving them room in a book like this to unpack that would be an organic, seamless way to deepen their bond and cement their partnership.

But that is not what Lanzing and Kelly are doing because they do not see this relationship as worth preserving. They have other things in mind for David, and his relationship with Tommy is inconsequential enough that they're just going to brush it aside, and for some reason, everyone's acting like the writing hasn't been on the wall since day one.

[thatawkwardmoth]

I had no power during a tropical storm so I wrote a bunch of shit by candlelight, like a Victorian ruler. So I'm sorry for the spam posts but...

Enjoy I guess.

Let's start with one thing that has been on my mind for a while; if Emma had been able to raise the Cuckoos from day one, she would've put an emphasis on them all being different, not just a hive mind. She maybe would've stuck with the matching outfits but she wouldn't have let anyone group them up. They had names. It's something I see in a lot of twins or parents of twins (being a twin myself) is that eventually, you want to be different. And the Cuckoos were all different at one time, two dead, three dying their hair. But then the Krakoa era started and I understood in a way why they all went back to looking the same. They were a complete set again.

But I think that if Emma had raised them, they'd all be individuals in their own way. Even their rooms, which are important to any kid, are your first chance to portray and discover your interests and a safe haven for you. In the White Palace, they share one room, by choice. And I think they would do that in any universe. They want to be close and probably never slept separately until Phoebe and Sophie (? I think) died. So I think they'd have one room together. But they'd have different decors and aesthetics if they were only allowed to have a character arc outside of being evil, dead, or a hive mind. More than just a few interests shown or spats between them.

I would imagine they'd get to decorate the space by their beds and that would be that. Kind of like the og X-Men dorms, if you've seen that panel, where it's the boy's dorm and everyone has a section of the floor and walls to decorate to their tastes (and sadly, Scott's is empty and barren). But their room would have that vibe.

And Emma would be so organized with them. She's a good mom. On top of her shit, not like Hazel. Not overbearing and with unreachable standards that her father. Everything would be in certain folders, certains baskets, certain bags, their names on each thing. Or even just their initals. Her assistant would have to keep with all of their after-school activities just as well as Emma does because the driver shoulder never be late. Emma would have a fit if her daughters ever thought she forgot. Meaning every dance practice, gymnastics competition, swim meet, beauty pagent, whatever the Cuckoos wanted to join, had to be put in the calander next to Emma's meetings and such. Only the best private schools but Emma is not afraid to pull them out if they want, unlike her parents when she was telling about her being the outcast, or letting her girls pass because of how much money Emma gave the school to improve.

Just let Emma be a mom. Not just an at-arms-length mom.

(The Emma mini-series in the comics really is one of my favorite things, despite the weird teacher thing. It was a wonderful insight into her character and why she acts the way she does with her students/children. Mainly because of how her parents were. I also think Emma enjoys seeing how close the Cuckoos are as sisters because the only sibling she's close to is Christian and all her sisters tried to kill her and they never recovered from it.)

[docgold13]

On the Scale of 1 to a Villain's Circus themed torture chamber, the amount of unnecessary, painful and contradictory loops taken by the retcon for Nightcrawler's origins goes beyond that limit. Because Azazel cannot do a single takeover without Nightcrawler existing as both his biological child and a mutant with his exact teleportation abilities. You remove any of those things and Azazel's plans can't come to fruition whatsoever (he really needed him for both a possible one on earth and the one in Heaven). So literally making sure Nightcrawler or someone like him doesn't exist would have made none of Azazel's takeovers happen (which is easy because none of Azazel's other bio kids have his powers or even look that much like him and Kurt was literally the only one that did)... It also doesn't help that every time Nightcrawler did stop Azazel, he needed his blood ties to him to pull it off (no really, every magic seal required his blood to work). To even be part of the first takeover and "stop it", Nightcrawler had to be related to Azazel too because Azazel had to bring all of his children in one place which was easy because he has mindcontrol powers that only work on them. To pull the Heaven one, Azazel used Nightcrawler's soul (which he is tied to as his father) to pull himself up there and he found him right away because he has a passive ability that helps him know where his children are (and who is his bio child too, it keeps him from accidentally thinking someone is his child when they're not and has always worked). The icing on the stupid cake is, Azazel is just a mutant, who was even on Krakoa since before the laws were made there and they only allowed mutants back then. The last time Nightcrawler stoped him, he put a power nullifier on him... And it was all over. He would have went to Rikers island and be sentenced if he didn't break out of his transport vehicle and Mystique didn't give him a job

And then you have Mystique and Destiny's first canon X-Men story which is Days of Future Past where, after they assassinated Senator Kelly, they created a dystopian future for mutants that has them near extinct... And Nightcrawler is one of the first to die in it, right after Kelly's assassination actually. He also already died in 616 protecting Hope Summers and stayed as such for years while they were ready to sacrifice baby Hope to save Rogue right after M-Day, which would have doomed Mutants. Then you have Age of Apocalypse where Mystique raised Nightcrawler since birth and did it all as a single mom after picking his father for his fuzz, where he never met Destiny until he was in his 30s and where Azazel never did a single takeover because a lot of other components were missing to pull it off (and you know, APOCALYPSE took over and killed almost everyone). Then you have Cardinal, a Chimera made from Nightcrawler's DNA (+ three other mutants) which makes Kurt Wagner his bio grandfather, who just looks like Azazel with red hair and red eyes so all of Azazel's traits were passed down in Kurt's family line. Then you have the fact any of Azazel's takeovers happen years after Destiny dies in 616 (they would have taken much longer if Nightcrawler didn't exist, if not never happened at all) yet she appears in the vision of his takeover. Then you have characters like Doctor Doom, Jean Grey and the Scarlet Witch as part of the people Azazel managed to defeat (Scarlet Witch depowered 99% of mutants with a few words and can scramble powers on a whim in an average day, enough said). Then you have the fact the only reason Azazel is even on Earth is thanks to Margali Szardos getting him there so literally convincing her not to do that would have meant Azazel would not be at the point he was in 616 (the retcon has it that Destiny made a deal with Margali to KIDNAP Nightcrawler from the spot Mystique left him at under a tree in a SNOWY forest, since she never threw him to his death to save her own skin in this take even tho Azazel remember that happening), ...

Unnecessary loopholes doesn't cover it : We're on an essay's length in tomfoolery

TL;DR - The X-Men's Nightcrawler has a very complicated backstory. Efforts to retcon and streamline his origins have been clumsy.

No offense to readers out there who are fans of Azazel, but the best option moving forward might be for the X-men comics to never mention him again and just move forward.

[newx-menfan]

Honestly…

*I am biased* but…I think Hellion might be the best “new” villain(-ish) that X-Men has dropped in a while…

I found Mother Righteous SUPER disappointing and actually thought Liu’s version of “Miss Sinister” was way cooler (I may have some negative feelings towards Liu but I will die on the hill that Liu wrote a really great villain!)….

Hordeculture started out good but quickly went to shit with Nature Girl’s weird “heel turn”…same with Orchis….

Moira went to shit quickly….

Evil Beast…was a “thing”….

Honestly I felt like Marvel needed to replace Sebastian Shaw with someone else (Hellion, Empath, Shinobi, ect…) just because his dynamic with Emma has gotten pretty boring….

Villain Hellion (in my opinion) is great- because he actually has depth and is sympathetic and doesn’t JUST feel like a “Magneto Clone”.

Hellion is both intelligent enough and consistent enough for the heel turn to make sense and to make him a realistic threat, along with knowing EXACTLY how the X-Men work after years of being on the X-Men….

I know some people are disappointed- I did really like Hellion remaining “honorable” too…the guy with an unbreakable moral code despite always being labeled as a “future villain”…

But I also think the X-Men have totally “Lost the Plot”- Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma, Jean, Xavier, Magneto, Rogue- have all just frankly lost the ability to reliably lead anymore. No one really knows WHAT to do anymore. They’ve all waffled so much, that it just makes sense ONE of the X-Men would be SO sick of failed leadership.

It makes sense Krakoa was the last straw; Xavier fumbled the ball pretty terribly with that one…

the Council was, in my opinion, a total mistake. It just made everyone look bad, including Emma and Hope, for going along with something so easily corruptible from the get-go.

The X-Men politics “behind the curtain” has always been bullshit. It’s always been “power plays” hidden behind equality. It was bullshit during the “Hope” era (when Hellion lost his hands and students were basically child soldiers), it was bullshit during the Rightclops/Wolverine pissing match era, and it was bullshit with “the Crucible”/Council/Reincarnation….

I really hope Marvel DOESN’T MESS IT UP- because I think Hellion could EASILY be the best villain of the new era.

[sign-seeker]

Genuinely fascinated by the way that the From The Ashes era of X-Men comics is openly telegraphing that it's going to do "the exact same thing all over again but everyone's taken their head out of their ass regarding Scott Summers". It almost feels like a hard reset to a very similar status quo from the Bendis-Era Uncanny X-Men: The X-Men are divided into 2 camps regarding how to handle themselves, and one group is run by Cyclops, running around making Humans nervous, operating out of an abandoned Anti-Mutant facility in a snowy wilderness, being very demanding about people leaving Mutant concerns up to him. He even still has Magneto & Illyana on his crew, all that's changed is they moved sideways from Canada to Alaska.

What's turned it on it's head is the contextual view of this: the meta narrative of the Bendis era was that Scott had gone off the rails, that he was over-reaching, that the wheels were going to come off the ride sooner rather than later, but the thing was... He was right.

His people were being backed into a corner, the things he was doing were helping keep Mutants alive, and society was blaming him for the death of Xavier, conveniently pretending that they had always loved him now that he was dead, when it was very apparent to even a casual observer that the whole fuck-up with the Phoenix Five quite simply would not have occurred without the Avengers sticking their noses into matters that didn't concern them. Everyone wanted Scott Summers in a cell, even the other heroes, even the other X-Men, and he was right the whole damn time.

And now, with the Fall of Krakoa, Scott is once again running his little crew of violent and powerful miscreants out of an abandoned winter-bound hate-factory, thumbing his nose at the government, except the entire tone has shifted, with everything from the colour palette to the costumes to the staging to the dialogue saying "this is the good shit. This is a superhero story again". Everything that happened during the Fall of Krakoa has publicly vindicated everything Scott warned about: the Mutants went away and did their own thing away from everyone else and Humans still went and burned it the fuck down: no one can say Cyclops was in the wrong anymore because history has just stamped a big fucking sign that says CYCLOPS WAS RIGHT in massive red letters across the world. And as a bonus, the world has decided it hates Xavier, so no one can be mad at Scott for killing him that one time.

So now he's doing exactly what he did before, but the narrative no longer has to pretend he's in the wrong. People are saying this is derivative and boring after the wildness of the Krakoan Era, and it's possible that those fears will come true, but I have hope that "second verse, same as the first but played in major key" will turn out to be an interesting time.

[sensacetionalshady]

@summerstrash

god, I can't remember all of it because I had an intense brainrot session about it like 2 months ago and never again, but basically the plot kinda went like this (keep in mind that I still haven't actually read Alex in the Krakoan era, but I read some stuff in the wiki and extrapolated from there):

Alex goes to therapy after being all depressed and moody in the Summer house after all the Limbo business and Rachel tosses some clothes at him with a business card for some kinda pro-mutant therapist she trusts; after a few session he realizes some of his more toxic/problematic behaviors are bad and that maybe he should be single for a bit longer (and maybe even forever bc I WILL make everyone aromantic) while he apologizes to his exes and also comes clean about his feelings of inadequacy to Scott and etc etc etc basic therapy stuff yk?

He's doing better and growing his hair out as a symbolic way of showing his growth as a person (and also because his therapist suggested he try to do some permanent modifications to his body by his own choice to make him feel more grounded in his own body, he's very hesitant because he wants to be seen as normal, so he starts out easy with the hair [later on definitely gets some tattoos and piercings and goes to a leather bar to realize hey this is actually fun]) when he gets accidentally referred to as ma'am by some of the younger mutants that don't know who he is and something in his brain *clicks*; he goes home and starts googling what the fuck is going on, asks himself if he's a woman, but doesn't know how to answer that so he goes to his lesbian niece to try and parse these feelings; Rachel suggests he try out some pronouns with her and other trusted people (punches Alex's shoulder and says "At least your name is already unisex, auntie." and Alex actually does really like Rachel calling her aunt)

Anyway, she takes an impulsive leap to go on estrogen to force herself to do a slightly more permanent body mod like her therapist said and, slowly over the course of some months, actually becomes pretty happy about what her body looks like on E; she starts being a little more social and confident and standing up for herself around others and eventually everyone in Krakoa kinda knows that she's Cyclops' sister now

Cut to the 90s X-Factor team having some kinda villain do some wibbly wobbly time shit that brings the whole team from the Krakoan Era back to their time, but it scatters them around the country. X-Factor puts out a government APB for "people that match our exact description except older" to try and get them all in one place so they can send them back into their own time; Lorna and Jamie make their way to X Factor HQ themselves, Guido and Rahne go to Guido's parents' place and then the HQ from there, while Alex has decided to plop herself in a leather bar because while she /could/ go to the HQ, she doesn't know if it's the best idea to show her younger self what she looks like (hell, she wouldn't show herself to who she was half a year ago) and besides, it's not as if they would believe that she is who she says she is

The whole team minus Alex is in X-Factor HQ, the old team is kinda marvelling at how they look when they're older and someone (probably Jamie) points out "alright, now we just need old Alex and you guys can go back to your own time" and the Krakoa team collectively inhales through their teeth and are like "yeaaahhhhhhh about that... there's a reason you haven't found h- ... /Alex/ with that description."; old team is very confused but they refuse to clarify; the time displaced guys take it upon themselves to go and find Alex because they can't exactly give a description without her permission because they would be outing her

I think Lorna would be the one to find her sulking and frowning at a newspaper just reminding herself what happened during this time; she convinces Alex to come to the HQ so they can all go back to their own future, but Alex knows that if a younger her saw the tattoos and hair and clothes and most noticeably boobs that it would seriously disrupt the timeline, or at least /her/ timeline; Lorna agrees but remarks that they can just put some makeup on her and cover her up with clothes and Alex just sighs because she /just/ got to a point where she can be herself freely but now she has to go back to being that insecure and self-censoring man

They probably have like... some telepath (preferably Emma but idk if she's a good or bad guy at this point) come and erase the memories of seeing older Alex after they've sent everyone to their own time. that or the Krakoa era guys convince like.. Hank or someone else to take them back. I don't know, I can't remember the ending

This idea mostly happened because I had a brainstorming session of what trans Alex would actually look like and then it devolved from there. I'm doing some sketches today and will share them once I stop travelling and get wifi because I'm on a bus rn lol

[salarta]

Posted this elsewhere, posting here too.

There's a definite trend within official Marvel and X-Men product of liking things that Lorna's had, but feeling she doesn't deserve them and handing them off to "more deserving" characters.

At its core, the problem starts with Lorna's very first issues getting immediately undermined. She was introduced as a more feminist type of woman compared to how Jean was written at the time. Even while she was presented as Magneto's daughter, the emphasis was on how powerful and dangerous she could be in her own right. She was called things like "M-II" and Queen of Mutants specifically for that reason. As someone who was seen as capable of taking on her father's mantle.

But then editorial didn't like that. So daring to be the first powerful feminist woman character led to her being punished for it not just by severing the Magneto connection, but by gradually turning her into a clingy damsel in distress girlfriend for Havok.

She paved the way for other female characters - Jean, Storm, etc - to have more accepting treatment. And elements of how Lorna was originally introduced went to those other characters over time, while Lorna herself was treated like she was worthless and only good for the sad tropes forced on her by sexism.

Claremont had an opportunity to fix that. He didn't. Instead, doubled down on the idea of Lorna being that clingy damsel, AND in the process of trying to turn her into an entirely different character, literally had Zaladane steal her powers. In short, he didn't think Lorna was deserving of those powers, and felt Zaladane was more deserving while Lorna should be reduced to a combo of old tired powers and a hate bullseye thing that was literally just an excuse for Claremont to write everyone wanting to abuse her and Lorna nonsensically acting like she deserved it.

At one point, we had Lorna's flinging Krakoa into space from Giant-Size X-Men #1 falsely attributed to Jean. Whether it was accidental or deliberate, I don't know. Doesn't change that a big moment for Lorna was claimed to be something done by a "more deserving" character.

Then we have all the Magnus family stuff from Children's Crusade to shortly after the Magnus family retcon on the twins. We had a House of M portrait redrawn to replace Lorna with a rando character. We had Enchantress getting played up as Wanda's visual counterpart, not simply a matter of history and personalities, but in the sense of trying to make Enchantress look more like Lorna (including a variant cover that recolored her hair green). Post-Axis, we had the attempt to replace Lorna with Luminous as the twins' "sister."

And now, we had Jordan White trying to make Kitty/Kate Pryde the focus for Genosha storylines toward the end of Krakoa, while bending over backwards to act like Lorna has no connection to Genosha at all. And the X-Men 97 cartoon, where Lorna was completely left out of the whole story of the Genoshan genocide and gave all elements of it to Rogue because Beau DeMayo doesn't respect Lorna outside of being Havok's girlfriend on 90s X-Factor.

The bottom line is, Lorna getting screwed over like this isn't new. People working on Marvel stuff seem to love the idea that key elements of who she is and her history should go to other characters that they like more. When fans of X-Men 97 or other characters act like it's no big deal, what they're really saying is they also don't value Lorna, and think it's appropriate to treat her poorly and perpetuate this cycle that has its roots in sexist punishment of the first female character who stood out with a more feminist approach to her.

[binkywinky]

wait, wolverine has been in love with more than just jean grey? and he was in love with hercules??

I'll address the second point first - yes, although the "being in love with Hercules" plot was with a version of him from an alternate reality (think his name was "Howlett"), not the main universe (616) Logan.

And to your first point, oh yeah... that man has been in love with so many people - at least 6 come to mind off the top of my head. His love interests typically fall into three categories:

Obsessive/Unrequited/Toxic: Jean Grey is his most famous in this category. Sorry to any Jean/Logan fans, but they are most definitely toxic (she even said so herself). He's also been with Mystique so you know... yeah.

Genuine Love Turned Tragic: Logan experiences a lot of "I fell in love with X and it ended horribly when she died because of me" relationships. Strangely enough, these also feature most of his relationships with Japanese women... hm. His most well-known relationship in this category is with Mariko Yashida, but there are others like Itsu, Atsuko, The Native, etc.

Friends to Lovers: He's had a few relationships like this (ex. Yukio - love her). Storm was his best relationship in this category (and IMO just his best relationship all-around). They went from tolerating each other as teammates to being very close friends that love each other and engaged in an on-again/off-again sexual relationship to fully committing to each other and now back to very close friends (who in all likelihood will go back to being friends with benefits once the Krakoa era wraps up if they're both single for a stretch).

This is honestly why I hate the way X-Men are portrayed outside of the comics. You would never know how rich and extensive these stories and relationships are because they just retread so much old shit all the time. They got people thinking Jean is Logan's only romance when he's notorious for being with damn near everyone and has very strong relationships with SO MANY others (both in and outside of the X-Men).

[positivelybeastly]

Is the krakoan era X-Men the most unlikable interation of X-Men?

"I - don't think that's fair to say about them. From what I understand, they put all of their hopes on the establishment of a new country, joined everyone together under one roof, and then . . ."

He'd never seen anything like it. The sheer amount of carnage. He didn't even know most of the people he'd seen being torn apart in the footage, but that hadn't stopped him wanting to throw up when he'd seen them being . . . God, and then, when Bobby . . . he'd dragged his hands down his face and wanted to wail.

Who could do that to Bobby of all people?

The short, glib answer is that Chuck Austen's run of X-Men continues to exist, so by default, no-one can be as unlikable as them.

But the long answer is that the Krakoan X-Men aren't really the X-Men for a lot of that era, and, in their hurry to enjoy the fanfic-esque tropical island paradise setting that Krakoa presents, the fandom forgets just how . . . weird, and culty, the island actually is.

Hey, do you wanna know something semi-embarrassing about me? I only read House of X yesterday. I've only ever read the finer details on other Wiki pages and the occasional plot synopses, never actually read the issues themselves, and . . .

It's fucking creepy, man.

I had an instant negative reaction to the weird shit to do with resurrection, and I just, was not comfortable. The way Cyclops was all creepy about Franklin Richards, acting like they have more claim on him than his actual birth family? I'm sorry, dude, that's fucking whacked out.

Like, I'm sorry, I think that mutant sovereignty is an absolute must and a mutant nation is a narrative necessity, but Krakoa's been fucking creepy and weird and cult-y since moment one.

The weird rituals about resurrection, the whole dying in combat to earn your powers back bullshit, the vilification of Scarlet Witch, everything that went down in LaVelle's Sabretooth books, the Quiet Council and X-Force (full stop, just - in general), the casual sex leading to popping out babies you just LEAVE ON THE FUCKING GROUND?

It's a fucked up society. It's dystopian. You conquered death, and guess what? That never ends well. Suddenly you have to redefine life's meaning, and they chose to make it just fucking around and being weirdos, and, like, sure, that's a mood, but it's also not particularly heroic, and it's very significant that it takes a while for the X-Men to reform as an actual hero team because, well, they decided to give up on protecting a world that hated and fear them for a bit there.

But that's in-universe. Out of universe?

They just aren't putting in the time to service the relationships between the characters properly, and a lot of the time, when those moments do happen, it's become extremely clear that almost everyone on Krakoa is a self-obsessed narcissist with increasingly toxic levels of coping with it.

Think about Kate Pryde just completely fucking flubbing her chance to spot that Piotr Rasputin was under mind control, think about Storm just fucking off to Mars and abandoning everything on Earth, think about what happens to Orphan-Maker at the end of Hellions, think about LITERALLY EVERYTHING to do with X-Force - this is not a healthy society.

And that's a good story.

But it feels like at some point, they just kinda forgot about the fucked up shit and decided nah, this is just paradise, this is great, let's sand off the edges. Like, when Jean tells Firestar to just throw X-Force Beast under the bus to make her cover better during the Hellfire Gala, it's read by so many people as this girlboss OMG SLAAAAAAY moment, but . . . you . . . guys do realise that, like . . . that's fucked up, right? You do realise what that moment means?

"You should invoke Beast's reputation as a butcher of humans and a genocidal maniac and a massive lying piece of shit, WHICH I KNOW ABOUT AND HAVE DONE NOTHING ABOUT, and in fact, I'm going to validate his work because it's useful to me now!"

Like, X-Force Beast would tell Jean that she did EXACTLY the right thing in that moment, would welcome it, compliment her on her cunning, and if that's not a sign that you fucked up, that your moral priorities are completely and utterly fucked, then I don't know what to tell you, man.

[fennelockley]

Exodus in Immortal X-Men #13

Gillen has always done absolutely fantastic with Exodus - and if I'm to be honest, I only discovered Exodus through his works - but you can tell Exodus is a favourite of his with how brilliantly he's been portrayed; and this issue is phenomenal.

This is basicly me just dumping all my thoughts because I loved every moment and I want to dissect it all! Obviously major spoilers below!

The only thing I'd love more than what they're currently doing, is if they'd listen to him here. Let him at Sinister, that'll be a cat fight for the ages!

And I find it funny that Kate completely glosses over his threat and talks of action and just seems... "you want Sinister out?" Whether this is her mistrusting him because of the Sinister strain, or this is one in a very long line of comments where the council keep glossing over Bennet and just assuming he's stupid.

Speaking of council members being dismissive to Exodus. Whether Destiny can ~obviously~ just see ahead and/or she knows Bennet is capable of reading subtext and also has the same motives as her. It's interesting that by the end, Destiny and Exodus have generally shared the same view points.

Quite possibly the absolute best panels for Exodus ever. Selene isn't just any old foe, she's extremely powerful and been around 10x longer than Exodus has. But Exodus doesn't flinch. The writers are really developing Exodus Omega abilities, he's a master of telekensis and the comment about taking her apart molecule-by-molecule is extremely interesting.

Exodus has been hugely underused as a powerhouse previously, but he's an incredibly formidable person that is well aware of his capabilites - and nor does he have the morals to hold him back from showing them. And while it's not evidently in play here, he's stronger the more there is belief in his powers - and that includes his own belief in himself.

And it once again proves Exodus is a man of action, want something done? He's going to do it, even if its not ethical or pretty.

Storm stops him, and its Omega v Omega, Exodus little telekentic bubble shield is so cute.

And I might be blinded by my own fanaticism of Exodus, but Storm blindly stopping every form of conflict is detrimental to Krakoa. Exodus is right, he's protecting Krakoa from a major threat.

Once again another council member that just sees him as a power loon, but Krakoa is exactly what Exodus fought his whole life for, if anyone is going to protect it, its going to be him.

This is it. The absolute pinnacle of this issue and Exodus arc as a council member.

Magneto originally said he placed those on the Winter table as a way to saite and keep an eye on the most powerful individuals that are most likely to cause problems. I assume him and Xavier thought they didn't notice.

Exodus did.

With Exodus' compliancy, they forgot what he was truely capable of and assumed they had him under their thumb. They forgot that Exodus accepted because he wanted to, he was compliant because he decided to be. Krakoa is ruined, there's no reason for him to be compliant anymore.

I'd like to think this is a thinly veiled threat. Exodus went along with them even though he despised them and their beliefs, but he has no reason to do so anymore. Now what path will he take? What will he decide to do now he's on his own?

And there's the mental breakdown. Exodus is an interesting character because a mutant utopia is ALL he wants. He doesn't have alot outside of fighting for his goals, and then maintaining Krakoa. The others will disperse back to whatever they originally did or otherwise did - but Exodus? This is his ENTIRE reality, there is nothing else for him. His entire reality and reason to fight has completely shattered before him - he's left floundering.

Something that's particularly bad for everyone else. Exodus is notorious for taking the reigns if no one else will fight for what he thinks is right. Regardless of his methods.

Will he accept that the council has decided to disband and allow a democracy rather than a ruling cabinet? I can see him perhaps appreciating letting mutant kind as a whole being able to decide their own future, but where does that leave him?

I'm incredibly excited to see where it goes for him. And they better not just never mention him again Exodus could lead a very interesting path now, where does he fit in with society now the only purpose he's ever felt he had has been removed?

Absolutely stunning issue, the level of detail on Exodus' character is astounding. And the art work is as beautiful as ever!

[currenthyperfixationcherik]

The Catsuit.

Cherik bingo fill: Embarrassed.

Just a little heads up, I haven’t read the comics so this is me and my limited knowledge of Krakoa.

The new suit was… something else. Charles liked it, he felt good in it, he was free to move, and the fabric was comfortable enough, so no complaining. This was the first time he decided to wear it in public to a meeting with the rest of the quiet council, no one has seen him with the suit on, not even Erik.

Charles was curious about Erik’s reaction, he would love to hear his thoughts on it.

He arrived first, so he was in his seat waiting for the others. After everyone gathered, he finally stood up and walked to the center of the room, making his introduction on what they were supposed to discuss.

As soon as everyone’s attention was on him, he began to regret his fashion choices. He didn’t expect to hear all their surface thoughts about him.

Some thoughts were nice, flattering, and not that informative.

“Charles looks great, I mean, the muscles are kind of a surprise.”

“I don’t know how to feel about this, but he looks cool.”

“How does someone live enough to look so good in a catsuit? Maybe I can pull that off too.”

Some others were… Charles wonders if his face is red or if he will be able to look them in the eyes.

“Did Xavier really decide to go around wearing that? He’s pretty fit, but I’m not commenting on that.”

“And everyone seemed to have an opinion on my suits. They’ll eat you alive, Charles.” Emma directed her thoughts so Charles stuttered as he was talking to his obviously inattentive audience.

There were snarky thoughts too, at this point he had no idea if the meeting would continue, or maybe he was getting overwhelmed by everyone.

Everyone except Erik, for some reason.

“Erik’s face is priceless.”

“Oh my, the man is dead.”

“I bet he isn’t even listening to what Xavier just said. Not that I am either.”

“Maybe Erik influenced that decision, I know the kind of looks they give to each other.”

“We all know Xavier is a closeted tease, right Charles?” Emma was having fun with his growing embarrassment, he knows she has been reading their minds too.

Erik’s thoughts weren’t available to him or Emma for all he knew, so he was a bit curious, especially when the thoughts began mentioning him as well. It was no secret that they have something going on, the mystery was the kind of relationship they have. Friends? Friends with benefits? Rivals who occasionally share a drink and a bed? Two people that love each other and cherish every moment, every kiss, every touch- Oh right, he stopped talking.

Everyone is staring at him.

He's blushing now.

What was next?

“So, the ground is all yours.” Charles said and quickly returned to his seat. He felt vulnerable and sweaty, even if no one was paying attention to him anymore, he felt eyes looking at him from time to time. During the first half, he felt very self-conscious about his clothing, but thankfully as the meeting progressed, the awkwardness went away.

Or so he thought, as Emma kept teasing him. “The number of people surprised about your muscles in this room, like, wow.” “Mystique is wondering if you lost a bet to Erik.” “Kurt is wondering if he could ask you for a similar suit for him, he seems pretty serious about it.”

“Would you please stop?” Charles was very uncomfortable and couldn’t even concentrate on what everyone else was talking about.

“No. Wouldn’t you like to know what Erik has to say about you?” Charles tensed. “I know you are curious, but you are right, I should stop now that I have piqued your interest.” Emma, that fucker.

“...make more mutants.” Charles was suddenly aware of the reunion, he saw Erik struggling with keeping it together as the suggestions for their principles were being discussed. As Charles took Kurt’s words to make them more appropriate, he finally rested from Emma’s teasing and everyone else’s thoughts.

The rest of the meeting went smoothly.

After the meeting, the other members went away. “Good luck with your boyfriend, Charles.” Emma left the room and Charles was annoyed with her. He looked at Erik, who was standing up. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of unintentional feedback I received on my suit.” Charles complained as he tried to start a conversation on the suit.

“I can imagine.” Erik said as he began to approach him, he had a certain tone, “Not everyone is as good as me hiding their surface thoughts.” Erik kept approaching Charles and Charles was backing off. “I don’t know if anyone thought this yet, but this suit of yours,” Charles’ back hit the wall, and Erik cupped his face with one hand. “It leaves almost nothing to my imagination.” Charles knows where this is going and he smirks, “Oh… so, you liked my suit? Or were you busy doing your job?”

Even if Charles' eyes were covered by a giant X, Erik was able to see the look Charles was giving him. Yes, Charles was embarrassed to hear what others had to say about his clothes, but he was looking forward to experiencing Erik’s reaction. “Charles, you can’t expect me to actually concentrate when you are wearing that,” Erik smirked as he caressed Charles’ lower lip. “But as much as I like it, I’d rather get that thing off of you.” Charles chuckled and as he pulled Erik into a kiss, he answered “Well then, the council room is all ours.”

Bingo Masterpost here

[orangedodge]

I'm going to guess tentatively that no one who evacuated Krakoa has actually died, and that the cliffhanger’s resolution will be that Darwin and/or Warlock redirected the gates to a safe location. And that wherever everyone went, it's just too far out of Xavier's range for him to detect. I think that would be a good way to pay off Darwin becoming one with Cerebro--and promising Forge it would help everyone later on--and with Warlock surviving on inside of the machines to help his friends.

That Destiny thought it was the right call to accept exile and fight another day, and was so sure that Manifold had the ability to save everyone, tells me that they weren't all just marching to their deaths under Xavier's control. They’re somewhere in a real place, where Eden will still be able to discover them. I think also that all of the set-up we’ve had so far has been oriented around the idea that the mutants (and ordinary humans tbh) are in dire straits, but that they haven’t lost yet. We also already know that Magik, Mirage, and Mary made it out alive to star in their own book in Otherworld, though I guess it's not really clear if everyone else is with them or if the survivors have all been split up.

(It’s also possible that Stasis and Moira just actually kept their word and let everyone escape to somewhere the X-Men can’t reach, but I don’t think so since Duggan is the event’s lead writer and he’s leaned so hard into the idea that the mutants vs machines war only persists because Orchis are lying genocidal maniacs.)