#isn't magneto Jewish?

[xuanelle]

goyim really will go out of their way to defend the mcu's bad casting to the point that they'll say being jewish doesn't matter to every character.

and like I think if you think being jewish isn't important to the guy who is literally a golem and whose character was based after his jewish creator, the jewish holocaust survivor who's experience in the holocaust radicalized him and shaped the rest of his life, the son of an orthodox rabbi who's upbringing as an orthodox jew shapes the person he grows up to be, the guy who is a reform jew and who had a jewish wedding and the girl who literally wore a star of david in her first appearance who constantly talks about how proud she is of being jewish, you should do some self reflection and realize you're just antisemitic

[beforetimes]

personally i don't want an x-men reboot. they got the cherik gay tension down right the first time in a miraculous turn of events (considering this was a comic book movie franchise) and i don't want to see disney fuck it up the way they have been marvel movies the past few years #tbh. call me selfish if you must

[wisteria-lodge]

What do you think leads some people to prefer fictional villains and anti-heroes to the good guys? I've had this preference ever since I was a little kid watching Rugrats, thinking Angelica was the best. My favorites usually have that "edge" and it isn't based on sorting. Loki, Vegeta from DBZ, Jayne, Draco, Magneto, the uncle in Teen Wolf, Zuko, the Phantom, etc. Sometimes when a character is redeemed (Itachi, Zuko), I actually lose interest. If it matters, I think I'm a Snake Bird.

This is a big question, with a lot of potential answers. I'll throw a few out there, see if anything resonates.

Structurally, villains tend to be more active. The villain does a thing, and the hero reacts to it (tries to fix the problem, restore things to how they were, etc.) Since we like watching characters who want things, do things, and make decisions - that can make the villain a lot more fun to watch than the much more passive hero. Also, there's a lot more structural pressure on the hero to be - relatable, likable, able to carry big emotional beats. This can (unfortunately) lead to heroes who are kind of Bland, Generic Everymen.

Related to this - if you yourself are not your culture's idea of an Everyman, then chances are the villain might actually be a lot more *relatable* than the hero. A lot of the guys you listed are a disenfranchised minority of some sort. Magneto is Jewish, the Phantom is disfigured, Zuko is a poltical exile, Loki is an ice-giant (which counts.) Even Draco is honestly quite femme-coded, unlike Harry or Ron.

I think villains work really well as power fantasies. I *like* Superman as a character, but being him seems exhausting and unrelatable. But being that charismatic, powerful asshole... there's so much *freedom* there, it's fun to think about. I honestly think is why characters like Rick Sanchez and Walter White get such disproportionate amounts of love and identification from their fans. I think this is why a lot of people loved BBC!Sherlock, who is SO much more of an asshole than the original Sherlock Holmes.

Things like pettiness, cowardice, vanity, pride, short-sightedness, cruelty.... like these are such an important part of the human experience, and when they're explored in art it's often through the villain or antihero. You see a good performance of a villain in a Shakespeare play, and it's very - oh shit, I recognize those impulses, that's me and my grimiest and stickiest. Engaging with that can be a really cathartic, really rewarding experience.

[wizardbracket]

Round 3: Match 14 of 16

Why they deserve to be the ultimate wizard according to YOU:

Magneto:

Vanquished (so far): Doctor Strange, Zatanna

"Bisexual Jewish Holocaust survivor who later hunts N*zis. His exploits include dropping a stadium on Nixon, turning a Republican senator into a puddle of slime, and colonizing an asteroid"

"magneto is 100% a wizard (source: i like him)"

"Magneto isn't what science would define as a wizard, but he definitely fits the vibe. He's dramatic as all hell, too. he's just got more 🤌🏾🤌🏾🤌🏾"

"Gotta give it to the gilf"

"magneto all the way babyyy get that old man to the TOP"

"Cool hat, cool outfit, does magic. He qualifies as a wizard"

Ms. Frizzle:

Vanquished (so far): Fujimoto, Peter Grant

"i must choose the woman who wholeheartedly embodies a wizard in every aspect of her life"

"i WILL die for her"

"She's magic. That's all I have to say."

"She's the most wizardly woman with modern style that ive seen as of yet ... a wizard will lean more heavily into the "pursuit of knowledge" aspect of magic often to their own detriment manifesting in antisocialism. Often. Not always. Miss. Frizzle is very obviously all about that sweet sweet pursuit of knowledge but avoids the downsides of research-rabbit-holes by conducting her research with and for her class. The sheer publicity of this would get her closer to sorcerers than anything but the very backbone of her use of magic is academia so she's very securely a wizard"

[bambiraptorx]

Since you decided to change Splinter from a rat to a ferret due to racism than what are your thoughts on Draxum being a racist caricature of a Jewish villain? If you were to list every single racist Jewish stereotype that Draxum has never mind winning Bingo! every hole on the card would be punched. Everything from being a red head to looking like a goat to having the same motivations as Magneto from the original X Men movies (to turn humans/Non Jewish into Yokai/Jewish against their will to prevent conflict) to even being a Penny Pincher paints Draxum as a racist Jewish caricature much like Splinter’s Asian Caricature.

To be completely honest, I don't think I'm qualified to answer this question. Part of my reasons for redesigning Splinter specifically was that his canon design was hard for me to draw, and that I've seen multiple Asian people explaining how Splinter as a character is (and has been since his inception) problematic as an Asian-coded rat. I have not seen Jewish people having similar issues with Draxum. That doesn't mean it isn't a very real issue, obviously, just that I've missed it if it's the case.

Any Jewish followers that want to give input, please do.

[evilwickedme]

So I did just block the anon who told me to get help bc of my magneto was right title which, more than anything else, tells me they're not familiar with the comics

But also. Trying to tell me, a Jewish comics fan who specifically specializes in the Jewish history of comic books, that Magneto is antisemitic, actually, because he was made into a Jew by a "gentle" in 1975 (which isn't even true), is so wildly a misrepresentation of what his character means in fucking 2023 that it baffled me. Like I considered answering the ask because it was like, ok this is a teachable moment. But like also fuck that guy so.

But here's the thing about magneto is that obviously he's wrong, in that killing people is wrong and in some cases he's basically represented as a terrorist. But he's also obviously right, in that it's literally been proven in the house of x storyline that mutants will never be accepted, will always be hunted and hated, and mutants can and should defend themselves against that. I'll remind you that, although genosha was far from a success, the basic idea of mutants having their own island country is essentially the exact fucking same as krakoa, which is the current wildly successful x men storyline!!!!

And that's ignoring the fact that the magneto was right slogan was born when magneto was dead, and wasn't meant to support any particular action he made, but rather general ideas as I presented them above, and then beyond that, the fact that many Jews in particular identify with the slogan because we've been persecuted and hated for being different for three thousand fucking years, and that in 2023 in particular, after seven years of an increasing rise of antisemitism, having that as the title of my blog is just pointing out the fucking obvious

(this also leaves out the context of when I, in particular, started using the title, and the content of my blog at the time, and the fact that I've had this particular pfp for about as long, and the way all three of those tie in together, but I have no doubt that the person who sent me this ask is not a long time follower of this blog. About two thirds of my followers either already followed me or followed me because of that phase in my life though, and the rest have most likely seen me refer to it multiple times, so that context is not lost on most of them)

Basically. Magneto is a character who, at first, was not very complex. But no character can stick around for sixty years without becoming complex and taking on meaning that was not necessarily intended by the original creator. At this point magneto has been a Jewish Holocaust survivor for nearly five decades, as this anon themself pointed out. He's been handled by Jewish and goyische authors alike. And pretending he's purely an antisemitic character rather than one that many Jews actively cherish and identify with and show in so many ways that you, yourself, are not Jewish, and don't have any idea what you're talking about just so you can send anonymous hate my way...

Well. Point is. Magneto was right.

[agentoffangirling]

I'm surprised some of y'all still care about the whole "Wicanno should be played by a Jewish actor" when marvel clearly never gaf about getting those things right. None of the actors who played Magneto were Jewish, Elizabeth Olsen obviously isn't romani nor jewish (I'm pretty sure they even changed her whole background from the comics) so the whole criticism/hate for Joe Locke makes no sense.

Just bc Marvel doesn't care about getting things right doesn't mean that we as a public should just accept that. Yes, Marvel has never cared and I am well aware they continue to not while parading around the idea that they're progressive

And majority for the criticism of Joe Locke's casting has not been toward Locke himself. I do believe he should've denied the role, though to be fair, most Marvel actors don't know they're auditioning for Marvel, so I cut him some slack for that part. It would be nice to have him say something at the very least once he researched the role and realized that him playing a Jewish character when he himself is not Jewish is a point of contention (at the simplest level). Majority criticism comes toward the casting directors themselves, who they above all should know these sorts of things

But for Locke to say that all the criticism is just bc he's playing a campy gay character is wrong. He knows it's wrong. 80% of the criticism is the fact that he shouldn't play Wiccan since him being Jewish is a massive part of his story. Either he's not paying attention to the real stuff or he's playing dumb. Whatever it is, it's so off-putting and reeks of privilege

The answer to all of this is to keep campaigning. Keep speaking out, keep pointing fingers at Marvel and Disney so that they actually start (considering) changing things. It is not hard to stay true to a character's cultural backgrounds, and the more we call them out for it the more they take notice

[angelfirstclass]

Magneto: Justified or Over the Edge?

Post Episode 8, Magneto has declared war with humankind and has been driven to the brink by his capture, torture, and the death of many of his mutant friends and compatriots. He was wary of human kind before all this and now knows that his wariness and disdain for humans were justified. Humans were the mindless mob who were driven by fear and prejudice to distrust the chosen few. It is important to note his Jewishness and Jewish identity which is so fundamental to his character.

As a Jew, he was seen as an outsider and a threat, while being part of a small tribe of people that saw themselves as God's chosen people. This group were a lot like mutants in that they were few in number, but gained power and wealth as a group due to being and thinking differently than Others. They were persecuted, but they also got their hands dirty and had some members within their tribe that used their power over Others in a negative way. Being a minority or given special status sometimes may bring out jealousies and distrust in others, but also breeds fear and tribalism within the group.

That said, Magneto may be taking it too far, but we all agree that it was Bastion's fault, right? Magneto uses force to fight against anti-mutant forces that are currently killing, and torturing mutants, but he isn't out here promoting human torture or experimentation or enslavement. Bastion on the otherhand talks a big game about the potential dangers of a mutant controlled world and future implications of what that looks like, but is only stoking the fears of humankind and willing to kill and experiment on humans themselves. All Magneto wanted was a separate state to live in peace and thrive which was Genosha and got attacked by outside forces jealous and fearful of becoming extinct. Magneto now has a choice to defend mutantkind within reason and boundaries or devolve into becoming an aggressor and exactly turning into the Monster that everyone feared in the first place justifying the prejudice and hate accumulated over the years for even *existing*.

[sepal-sea]

was anyone else kinda weirded out by the portion of magneto's speech to the judges when he talked about the holocaust and stuff? I think it's trying to be a statement condemning discrimination and genocide and whatnot but it did seem weird to

1. imply that the holocaust only happened because of jewish religion (when magneto said "calling god by a different name" or something like that), which wouldn't be a problem except that nazism was very much focused on racial purity and nazis would not have been happy if jews all converted to christianity or something. Implying it's only based on religion ignores the fact that nazis targeted jews and many other groups like the romani based on ethnicity as well as religion (and also disability, ideology, homosexuality, etc.). This point isn't that bad, because I think xmen 97 was only trying to simplify their ideas and definitely didn't execute it well, but probably still didn't intend harm or misinformation by it

However, what's a lot worse is point 2. where magneto said that after he realized he was a mutant jewish people worked with nazis to hunt him down???or at least that was the impression I got? I know they're trying to make a statement about oppressed people being capable of becoming oppressors (which is very true and valuable, by the way), but the fact that this is brought up so casually and that it twists the events of real-life tragedies in order to make a point about fictional superpower discrimination is super bizarre. I think this is something that just happens every once in a while in xmen media, where writers get too sucked-in and forget they need to deal with real-life historical discrimination with more care than fictional discrimination -for example, I've always found it kinda insensitive whenever a mutant character will be talking to a character of a real-life marginalized identity (often a marginalized racial identity, and the mutant character will often be white...) and will use the real-life plight of that marginalized identity to convince them that the mutant plight is worth fighting for, or when a real-life marginalized group will discriminate against mutants and be made villains. like, I understand what they're trying to do but it still reduces the problems of irl people to make center the problems of fictional mutants.

Idk, I still really like xmen 97 and that episode in particular, and I think xmen 97 carries on themes of discrimination really well otherwise (what the executioner said about hating them whining, the other parts of magneto's speech, sunspot's convos with jubilee about his powers, storm's speech to jean about finding family, jean not being able to get medical assistance due to bigotry, etc.) and I think all the good outweighs this small spot of bad, but I would still like to see the writing improve around invoking real tragedies.

[synergysilhouette]

Remaking "X-Men" (2000)

Over a year and a half ago, I made a two-part post remaking 6 X-Men movies based on the direction Fox had for them, but I thought I'd plot out an alternate universe where I say what direction the films go in. And to note: this isn't like "X-Men: The Animated Series" where I'm gonna be 100% faithful to the source material. It's moreso giving me standards and parameters for how to do this. And to avoid confusion, let's say the cast is the same for all the characters (though I could do a fancast on another post). Disclaimer: despite XM being my favorite comic property, I'm NOT an expert on them in and out, with my first intro to them being Fox, "X-Men: Evolution," and "Wolverine and the X-Men." And my ideas/characters may be too much for a 90-minute film, so there's that. But I tried to tone it down to 3 main points.

The Xavier institutes' inhabitants include Professor X, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Beast, Iceman, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Angel, Havoc, Banshee, Colossus, Dazzler (sometimes), Shadowcat, Jubilee, Sunfire (sometimes), and the New Mutants, which consist of Cannonball, Karma, Mirage, Magik, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Cypher, and Magma). However, only the first 8 names listed get the spotlight in this film, along with Rogue, who is the main character and is taken up by the Brotherhood after the prologue, which I actually really loved from the Fox movie. Everyone gets individual costumes here rather than uniforms (if they have any). The key idea here is family, highlighting how the O5 and Professor X are the closest with each other, as well as how Storm, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine, despite being newer, have come to feel like family as well. Those 3's stories are highlighted the most, though Scott's concern about being the next leader, along with his relationship with Alex and Jean's And to note: since the actors for the O5 are different ages, they couldn't have formed a team with professor X when they were teens; they were simply all found by him at the same time, roughly a few years ago, and have thus have mostly been training and never had the opportunity to be into the fray. This contrasts with some of the other mutants, who have had to develop their powers on their own.

2. The Brotherhood of Mutants here is led by Magneto (who Rogue grows attached to as a father figure given her own relationship with her dad; doing a romantic storyline feels to weird to do in live-action with Anna and Ian's age gaps; she later creates a father-like bond with Logan when she joins the X-Men), and the main roster includes Polaris, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Mystique, Sabertooth, Toad, Pyro, Destiny, and Mastermind. Rogue is easily taken in by Magneto's ideals and goals, though she is eventually disillusioned by the less noble mutants who simply want to dominate and destroy, as well as how Magneto's trauma has had a generational effect on his children, particularly Pietro, who feel used and abused by him (counting Polaris as one of his kids even if it wasn't confirmed in 2000). The idea of family is a central theme here as well, only the Brotherhood represents a fractured and toxic family, making Rogue realizes that Destiny and Mystique don't aren't as caring as she had hoped they were.

3. God Loves, Man Kills is the storyline here. If you recall, that was pretty much the inspo for X2, but I feel like it's good to hit the ground running with an adapted arc here. However, they don't change Stryker to a military scientist; the complexities of religion and ideology are explored here, and is particularly poignant for Magneto as a Jewish man and Nightcrawler as a devout Catholic. It'd also be a nice parallel to have the realization that Mystique is Nightcrawler's biological mother, and how he handles this is eye-opening for Rogue, since her time with the Brotherhood has mainly been about anger and pain fueling them, while Kurt is guarded by forgiveness and love. As usual, it's a triad of perspectives: the tolerant and peaceful approach of the X-Men, the defensive and superior attitude of the Brotherhood, and the fear and hateful attitude of the humans (at least the antagonists, anyway).

Lemme know what you think! I know it's not much, but I tried to be concise. I think the next film would focus on Mr. Sinister (NGL, as a film, I'd skip over the "Inferno" saga and probably give Scott and Madelyne's relationship to Jean and Scott since their story is too early to deal with that--plus I wanna put Emma in the mix later, and that would feel redundant if I included Madelyne), setting up an emotional break for Jean that makes her the Phoenix, removing the Phoenix Force concept, and eventually doing a storyline that combines elements of "Gifted" and "Lifedeath"--though that could change based on how I feel.

[snotsloth]

Probably one of my better quotes from my chat with @physicalvocalist today, "If I had a nickel for every time Marvel gave me a skinny white* boy who could change the fabric of reality itself, I'd have at least three nickels, which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it happened THRICE!"

We were of course talking about the narrative parallels between Franklin Richards, Quentin Quire, and Wiccan. Phys is a huge F4 fan and I have X-Men brainrot. So, of course while discussing Franklin's currently suppressed powers, and the "he is/he isn't" back and forth about his mutant status, I had to also bring up Quentin and Billy.

Just, the fact that there are three of them, relatively close in age, that are all so overpowered that Marvel continuously has to nerf or sideline them during major events because at full strength any one of them could just FIX it is just wild to me. AND they all have a different flavor of power. Wiccan is Magic, Quentin is Celestial via the Phoenix Force, and Franklin is Science via Mutation.

I think they all definitely have some Icarus DNA to them, a young boy is given an amazing gift and warned not to take it too far, too high, or he will fall. Each of them have been warned in one way or another not to express the full range of their powers for fear of failure/corruption/ironic unforseen consequences/etc.

On top of that each of them also struggles on a more personal level with identity. Billy early on struggles with his queer identity, but also with the fact that he started life as a figment of his mother's imagination that gained sentience. He fears becoming like his mother and causing more problems than he fixes.

Quentin constantly struggles with his own hubris. His powers set him apart even from other mutants and he struggles to connect with his peers on a personal level, which only drives him to be more standoffish and egotistical. Plus there's all of his subtextual gender shenanigans. I won't go into detail about it here because this post is already long enough, but I HC Quentin as a stealth trans boy (and I have so much textual evidence).

And then there's Franklin, who literally had his Mutant identity ripped away from him just as he reached adolescence, the period of life where you build much of the foundation of your self-image. He has artificially aged himself once and then reverted back to his original age. He met a future version of himself that time travelled to save the universe. He knows he will most likely survive the destruction of this universe and witness the birth of the next one. As of the most recent retcon, he has suppressed his mutant powers and abilities to the point that even he remains unaware of them except for one night a year where he basically does a check-in on the overall state of the Universe and then goes back to sleep and forgets it all again. So his sense of identity might be the most convoluted of the three.

Basically, I think they should all hang out and save the universe or something. They'd have a lot to talk about and Quentin would drive Billy up the wall in frustration. I know the last thing Marvel needs is a major event centered on three skinny miracle boys but I think there's a lot of potential in actively making them foils to each other.

*EDIT! Billy, as an anon very politely reminded me, is not white. He's of partial Romani and Jewish descent (depending on the current retcon status of whether or not Magneto is his actual grandfather). No matter how much most Marvel artists whitewash both him and the rest of his family, Billy isn't white.

[skylights422]

Time for my second post before the new X-Men 97 episode: opinions on The Plot of the first three episodes!

Overall, I've been having a ton of fun with it. The first episode had a lot of fun parallels to Night of the Sentinels and worked well as a sort of re-introduction to the team. The second episode was intense but juicy. (I do understand the critiques I've seen of Magneto's speech - there are certain parts I think were done well, and I did automatically go 'oh hey they're talking about his Jewish background!' when he started talking so I don't think they...fully...removed it, but other parts of it were confusing and kinda lost the plot and yeah, I agree with what others of have said about the original speech being a lot more direct and powerful) I DO think they are mostly doing Magneto well in that his intensity, his drive to protect mutants, and his relationship with Charles are all still well done and those were all present in the original cartoon as well. Sometimes I almost wanted him to go villain mode more lol just because it's always impressive and sometimes the human characters are KIND OF ASKING FOR IT. I do wonder if he will stay on the hero side from now on or if he'll eventually end up a villain again - I could see it going either way for this show!

For episode 3, it was a RUSH but it was a fun rush! The horror was spooky, the action solid, and there were some really cool emotional beats as well. It...definitely would have worked better as a 2-4 episode story arc, because some of those plot beats would have been SO GOOD with more room to breathe. And it definitely ran into my pet peeve of 'the only explanation to some of this is "uhh well it happened in the comics"' which I never like - why was she called the Goblin Queen in this version? It's a pretty specific title that didn't have anything to do with her powers or motivation or anything. Or was there a reason she chose the name Madelyn Pryor in this version? Who knows. I do think if you HAD to fit a whole arc into one episode, this was the best it could be done, but I still wish they simply had more episodes in the season to tell their story (like, 24 instead of ten). Because yeah, each episode has felt like a one-shot almost, but not in a normal bottle episode way, in a 'each episode is one arc unto itself', with just certain character threads carrying over.

This isn't a huge issue for me since when I first heard there was ten episodes in the season I went 'oh yeah, this is gonna be a huge mess'. xD So my standard is 'if it's a FUN mess I'll be fine with it, since I love these characters and am excited to see more content with them - and maybe if it's big enough future seasons could have more eps'. And it has definitely been a fun mess so far!

ALSO I AM EXCITED TO SEE A STORM ARC. Her losing her powers is UGH, but I know it's gonna be a whole Thing and so it will be cool to see her get more focus. I also really liked seeing her friendship with Jean! There was not enough varied team friendship duos originally for me, and what they got going seems really nice.

AND MISTER SINISTER IS BACK. I do think he's a very intimidating villain, so I am curious to see what they do with him and what kind of character dynamics it brings out in the heroes. :O

All in all, I have my critiques and quibbles, but I am HYPED and still having a good time!

[demoiselledefortune]

Character meme: Magneto 2, 7, 8, 22, 25

Oh Magneto! It's been so long since I got to ramble about him, thank you for asking :)

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

The time he spent as a hospital orderly in Haifa. There's something so humble about it and it stands out in his job resume.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Most of the fandom loves exploring his relationship with his family and with jewishness in a way the canon doesn't do enough of (last time i checked, i haven't read comics in a while). I love that they do both those things because they're two of my favourite aspects of his character.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I hate when fandom draws exclusively from X Men First Class and the following films. I liked that movie at the time (less so the following ones) but it's also very flawed and it's a very specific version of the character that doesn't fall into line with my favorite bits from the comics character. For details about his experiences during the Shoah for exemple, I much prefer Greg Pak's Magneto : Testament as a source. Also I have some issues with Fassbender.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

I feel this converges with the previous questions. Another thing I like in fics is how often he's drawn as a queer character. I feel canon is very close to doing that with Xavier and Erik's relationship but definitly not quite, and in this case, I think it really adds a great dimension to him! Especially in old fanfics which envision Ian McKellen as Magneto, there's a quality to exploring the history of queer identity through him (and Xavier too) which is often fascinating in fanfics.

Something I don't like is when fanfics forget he's Jewish! You'd think it wouldn't happen, but people want to write fluffy Christmas fics about Jewish characters all the time.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

It's kind of hard to remember because my first meeting with the character was from the old '90s cartoon. I remember about him and Xavier hanging out in the savage land during what seems forever. I was very intrigued by him because he was a villain (or at least introduced and drawn as one) yet he always seemed to end up on the side of the good guys by chance. That really drew me to him!!

Now I think very similar things. I think he really manages to be one of the most iconic anti villain of modern culture in a way that isn't always flawless but is striking and fascinating. If modern comics didn't betray that either, he's also singularly a character who used to be a villain who now stands as a more complex and shadowed role without usually being drawn as fully "redeemed" but definitly hasn't been a proper antagonist either for a very long time. And that's awesome. Also I just really love him as a character, his voice, his gruffness, his tendency towards grandiose statement and his sarcasm. He's just one of my favorite character of all time!

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hi, I hope this isn't a stupid question. But I felt like you were the best person to seek advice from. I'm trying to write a fic about the mcu and I kind of want to center it around Wanda. But I was wondering if it would be possible to rewrite how she is in the mcu while keeping her Jewish Roma roots? I was hoping to get suggestions and literally anything helps, thank you! And I also want to thank you for shedding so much light on how problematic Marvel has been in handling her in the mcu, it definitely helped educate me more on the topic.

Personally speaking, I do not feel that the M C U version of this character is salvageable. I don't like her backstory, I don't like her motives or actions in Age of Ultron, I don't like the lore surrounding her powers or the Darkhold, and I do not like the way that her character and storylines were written in Wanda//Vision or Multiverse of Madness. She's a very poor adaptation, and I think that those poor adaptational choices become even more egregious when you try to retrofit them onto a character of color.

The fact that she willingly and, without ever expressing remorse, became a HYDRA asset and allowed herself to be experimented on by literal Nazis, pretty much ruins the character, right out the gate. There is no acceptable way for you to put a Romani character in that position. And before anybody asks, making an unwilling victim isn't any better, because this is a very real historical trauma that I just don't think you're equipped to handle.

I know that Wanda and Pietro's retconned backstory in modern comics isn't very popular with the fans, and I understand why, but if you really want to write a version of the Maximoffs in a more modern setting with no mutants, no Magneto, etc., it's a good place to start. There is still a human experimentation element, but I think it's abstract enough that you can talk about the impact and context without crossing boundaries.

Magic in the M C U frankly sucks, and the way that Wanda comes into her powers is particularly depressing. I can tell that the lore around chaos magic, the Darkhold, and witchcraft is only going to get worse and more racist in the upcoming Agatha series. So, I really don't have any advice except that you need to watch better movies and just read comics if you really want to consume superhero media.

[wqintraining]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 3, EPISODE 5

We open in the Egyptian desert in the middle of the night, holding on the barren sand and night sky. 

Suddenly, a gust of wind blows the sand in every which direction as someone flies over it. 

That someone is revealed to be a light-skinned Sofia in a hospital gown, scared out of her mind. 

Chasing after her, with a smug look and engulfed in his aura, is Exodus. Fast as Sofia is, the Omega is faster and gets in front of her. 

EXODUS: "Quit this foolishness at once, Wind Dancer. Lord Apocalypse has graciously returned to you your lost weapon. Submit. And serve."

SOFIA, sneering back: "I learned about Apocalypse in school. Not a very nice man." 

Sofia blows a sandstorm at Exodus, and while it's one he can easily deflect with his telekinesis… 

SOFIA: "A sandstorm is a terrible disaster…and not the only kind I can create."

Exodus screams as, well preoccupied with the sandstorm, a tornado forms around him. He screams as it carries him away. 

Sofia doesn't stick around for him to get out, and flies off.

SOFIA, panting: "Okay…now…where am I?"  

In the headmasters' office, Hellion has been sat down in front of Scott and Emma, appearing not to care about what he's being told. 

SCOTT, irritated: "Julian, are you listening?" 

Julian, in a grouchy mood, tells him that yeah, yeah he's listening. So his grades have fallen a bit. So what? 

EMMA: "Your grades, my little Hellion, have fallen below Noriko's." 

SCOTT: "You agreed to the same deal Laura and Surge did. If you want to stay on the team, you have to maintain a C-average."

JULIAN: "I can't believe we're even talking about this right now. I helped save the world last month, and now you want to bench me because I'm failing algebra?! And Laura? Laura's not here anymore! I should be out there looking for her!"

EMMA: "You mean like you've been looking for Sofia?"

Julian slumps over. Emma commends him for his dedication to his friends, but he needs to focus on himself. Whether he accepts it or not, his grades, and being a normal student, are important. He can't keep flying off instead of studying. 

JULIAN: "So I should just give up on them? I'm not giving up on Sofia. She isn't dead!" 

"I certainly hope so." 

Julian, Emma and Scott are all shocked as they see who's standing in the doorway: a perfectly normal looking Sofia. 

SOFIA: "That would make me standing here pretty weird." 

Emma and Scott turn to each other in confusion, knowing what Quentin said about her, but still unsure how he knew about any of this. Julian's face meanwhile lights up like he's seeing an angel. 

JULIAN: "Beautiful?"

SOFIA, smiling back at him: "Hello, Julian." 

Julian speeds across the room and hugs her, holding her right. She gently hugs him back. 

JULIAN, eyes shut: "I never gave up hope. I heard you were dead, but I knew you'd be back." Scott and Emma are even more surprised. "I promise, I'm never letting you go again, and I will find a way to get your powers back." 

Emma, amused: "Umm…Julian." 

Julian opens his eyes and sees he and Sofia are hovering above the floor, not through telekinesis, but through wind. 

Julian laughs with happiness as Sofia sets them down. How is this possible? 

SOFIA: "I don't know. The last few months are all a blur." She turns to Scott and Emma, her face becoming more serious. "But I think it has something to do with Apocalypse." 

Scott, Emma, and Julian all grimace at that name. 

We cut to a Jewish deli, where Magneto is not in costume, but still completely overdressed in a three-piece suit. Erik impatiently checks his watch and eats some bread as he waits in a booth for the rest of his party to arrive. 

A waiter comes up to him and asks him if he’s ready to order. Erik politely tells him that he’s actually waiting on his children. It is at this exact moment that Pietro speeds in, putting an arm around that shocked and terrified waiter. 

PIETRO: “That group tragically includes me. Moscato, please.” 

The terrified waiter runs off. 

PIETRO, sitting down: “I don’t care if he’s afraid, but I hope he still gets me that drink. Hello, Father.” 

Erik sighs. 

ERIK: “Pietro. I trust you’ve been well.” 

PIETRO: “As well as one can when they had their own prosperous country and now spend their days putting up with the Avengers.” His tone becomes more mocking. “You and your “X-Men” took Cannonball so they needed a new fast guy.” 

ERIK, a little amused: “The X-Men carry Genosha’s torch. We had our own country and, one day, we may again. But for right now, continuing the fight and enjoying life’s small pleasures is all we can do.” 

PIETRO: “Easy for you to say when you weren’t the one who had to pick up the pieces.” 

“Pietro, be nice.” 

A mystical portal opens up and out steps, the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, making her first proper appearance. 

WANDA, kissing Erik on the cheek: “We can at least try to act like a family, can’t we?” 

Pietro rolls his eyes as Magneto’s lovingly smiles in response to Wanda’s arrival. Erik tells Wanda that she looks well, with Wanda sitting down and saying she’s actually pretty tired. Some outer gods were just trying to break into the multiverse and she had to stick the trashcan lid back on them. 

WANDA: “I love Betsy, but I wish she was capable of aiding me with these types of threats, and not just those from within the multiverse.” 

PIETRO: “Yes, maybe then you’d be able to use that god-like power of yours to actually help us for a change.” 

WANDA: “You’re not dropping the attitude, are you?” 

PIETRO: “I see no reason to.” 

“Maybe so we can actually enjoy yourselves.” 

Dramatic music plays as a normal looking Lorna approaches the table. 

LORNA: “Sorry I’m late.” 

 We cut to the snowy Canadian wilderness. Laura has isolated herself here, and she can handle the harsh elements, but she’s hungry. Sniffing around, she finds what she’s looking for. She dashes into the trees, staying above ground to go unnoticed, until she finds a bear. She’s going to jump down at it with the element of surprise and make it a clean kill, but the brand she’s on snaps under her weight. 

Laura falls to the ground, and the very angry-looking bear notices her. 

LAURA: “Uh…hi?” 

The bear jumps at her, prompting Laura to wrestle with the beast. 

LAURA: “Sorry. Tried to make this painless.” 

The bear manages to bite off a chunk of her before she gouges its eyes out, sticking her claws through its eyesockets and brain. 

Laura falls back, rubbing her half-bitten off shoulder. 

LAURA: “Never eaten bear before. Hope you’re tasty.” 

Laura picks up the bear’s corpse overhead, and as she turns around, sees a normal looking Japanese man, who the audience recognizes as Death, standing there, all bundled up in hiking gear, with a shocked look on his face. 

LAURA: “Um. I. Um…” 

DEATH: “You down to share that? I’ve got wood, but I’m so lost.” 

Laura casts her eyes up at her lunch, then back down at the stranger. 

LAURA: “Make the fire quick.” 

DEATH, unpacking his bag: “Thank you SO much. My name’s Ken by the way. Yours?” 

LAURA, dropping the bear next to where the fire is being started: “X-23.” 

DEATH: “No way. Really? Huh. I’d hate to have your parents.” 

Laura grimaces, as Death mugs for the camera. 

Back in the school’s common area, Cessily and Roxy squeal at the surprise the gang has been assembled for, running up to and hugging Sofia. They can’t believe this! 

SOFIA, hugging them back: “Believe it. I am back.” She shows off her returned powers with a light breeze through Cessily’s hair. “And I am here to stay.” 

Cessily and Roxy groan in pain as they pull back. Sofia asks if they’re alright and they hesitantly confirm, yes, they’re still just recovering from something that happened recently. 

Sofia smiles and promises now that she’s back, she won’t let anyone hurt them again. 

BRIAN, coming over to high-five his returned friend: “That mean you’re back on the X-Men too?” 

SOFIA, casually high-fiving Brian hard enough to hurt his wrist: “I hope so.” 

As Sofia hugs Sooraya, Soo mentioning that she prayed for this, she turns her attention to the newcomers: the Cuckoos and Quentin. Sofia is happy for the Cuckoos making nice with everyone, as she knows that couldn’t have been easy for them. The Cuckoos are happy to see her too, though Celeste does question if the rule about Sofia not being allowed to win queen at this year’s dance is still in place, hoping to win herself. 

As for Quentin…

SOFIA: “I can’t say I ever expected to see you in the group, or dressed like that, but I hope we can be friends.” 

QUENTIN, leaning intentionally dramatically against a piano: “Am I the only one here without short-term memory loss? You’re all cheering on and hugging a girl who spent two months spreading anti-Mutant propaganda. With her following, do you think that didn’t get *anyone* hurt?” 

The mood sours at that, everyone having, indeed, momentarily forgotten about that. 

SOFIA, distraught: “I…there is no excuse for that. For any of what I put out there. I was alone and in a dark place, but that didn't warrant such an awful response. I'm so sorry. I hope you can all forgive me.” 

To her relief, none of her friends are mad. Cessily knows Sofia would never really want to hurt anyone, Sooraya is a general believer in forgiveness, Roxy snarks that everyone here is seemingly bound to do something extremely shitty eventually, the Cuckoos have no room to judge, and Brian is just weirdly quiet. Quentin rolls her eyes. 

Sofia thanks them all. She won't let them down again. 

SOFIA: “Now, where are Nori and Laura?”

Cess, scratching the back of her head, somberly tells Sofia that Laura is gone; ran off just like her. And Nori…um…

Quentin cackles. 

We cut to Noriko and Julian panicking in a broom closet. 

NORI: “I am so happy she's back and alive and that that War bitch was full of shit, but we are SO screwed!”

JULIAN: “Already talked to Ms. Frost. She told everyone not to say anything so we could come up with something ourselves.”

NORIKO: “What are we supposed to do? We just started dating for real, and I don't wanna quit again, but also I'd rather kill you with my bare hands than hurt her.”

JULIAN: “Same! We haven't even done it yet.” 

Julian freezes. Noriko is confused why. Julian explains he was kinda expecting her to slap him or taze him again. 

NORIKO: “Eww, no. I'm your girlfriend, not your fuckbuddy; I'm not gonna hit you anymore.” 

JULIAN: “I…okay. So what do we do?” BEAT. “Would you be down for me dating you both?”

NORIKO: “Do you WANT me to go back to hitting?”

There's a banging on the door to the closet, freaking the two out. But, on the other side, it's just Redneck. 

REDNECK: “Hey! Some of us need brooms around here. Can you open up?”

HELLION AND SURGE: “No!”

Redneck sighs as he walks off. 

Redneck: “Freaking X-Men thinking the world revolves around them.” 

Julian and Noriko shrug their shoulders, still in complete uncertainty. 

Back at the deli, Erik puts in orders for the full table, ordering a laundry list of food for himself, Pietro, and Wanda, and finishing off with “and a house salad for my youngest.” 

LORNA, as the waiter walks away: “Thank you, Father.” 

ERIK, pleased with himself: “I remembered all your favorites.” 

PIETRO, mockingly: “You see that? What’s 35 years of neglect and manipulation and attempting to mold us into supervillains next to remembering our preferred brunch orders?” 

ERIK: “I am trying here.” 

PIETRO: “You could have tried harder when we needed you most. Or did a space birdie render the mighty Magneto completely helpless?” 

The tension between the two men is palpable, and Wanda elects to simply sidestep it for the time being by putting on a big smile and asking how Lorna has been. 

WANDA: “I haven’t seen you since the memorial.” 

LORNA: “I’m surviving. The same as any of us. I went to see Alex–” Her father and siblings all groan in disgust. “I know. I know. The Goblin Queen was equally unhappy about this. She told me to warn you she was coming for you soon, sister.” 

WANDA: “Charming.” 

LORNA: “Since then, I’ve just been back in school. A PhD program may not be as glamorous as being a princess was, but looking at and thinking about rocks all day is a better way to avoid thinking about what we lost and those we failed than the alternatives.” 

Wanda tells Lorna she’s glad she’s looking after herself like that; she’s sure she’ll be a great doctor when she’s done. Erik agrees, and is proud of her for continuing to pursue greater heights, in spite of the hardships she faced. 

ERIK, toward Pietro: “Unlike some people.” 

Pietro sneers back. 

Lorna thinks that that’s what they should all be doing. Reaching for new horizons and taking care of themselves. With that in mind…

LORNA: “I am feeling refreshed, Father is home and has regained his bearings, and Wanda is more powerful than ever.” She smirks evily. “I believe it’s time for the House of M to rise again.” 

The others look at her with concern, as a purple gleam passes over her eyes. 

 Out in the wilderness, Laura and “Ken” sit around the campfire cooking the bear Laura killed. Laura is staring into the fire, angsting, and idly wondering if she’d even feel it if she stuck her hand in the flames, while Ken is being obnoxiously upbeat, bouncing on the log he’s sitting on and whistling show tunes. 

This goes on for a little bit, until Ken notes that the meat looks like it’s almost done. And it smells delicious! 

KEN: “So what are you doing out here, X-23? I’m guessing this is a Mutant thing? No offense, but you clearly are one.” 

LAURA: “Don’t wanna talk.” 

KEN, as Laura reaches for the meat: “Come on…” 

KEN, the camera focused on his lips: “...I insist.” 

Laura’s headaches. As she prepares the meat, she tells Ken everything, giving her whole backstory, and explaining why she came out here to be alone. 

LAURA: “Huh. Felt good saying that.” 

KEN: “It’s a Hell of a story! I hope it has a happy ending.” 

The two dig into their meal. Both hum over how good it is. It’s gamey, but they both like that. 

LAURA: “What about you?” 

KEN: “Ah! A good question. I’m actually out here looking for something. My lady wants it, so my lady will have it.” 

Laura isn’t sure what he could be looking out here; she specifically chose the middle of nowhere. Ken says that’s true, but rare treasures can be found anywhere. 

LAURA: “Must love her a lot to be willing to deal with the cold.” 

KEN: “I’m not sure love is the right word. But I’d do anything she asked of me.” 

Laura actually cracks a smile as she snorts. 

LAURA: “You sound like a friend of mine. Guy named Hellion.” 

KEN: “Really? I wonder if our ladies also have anything in common.” 

The two eat in silence for a few moments. 

Death smirks evily as he hangs his head. 

DEATH: “X-23, could you please stand up, turn around and pace five steps forward?” 

Laura’s head spins as she complies without argument. 

LAURA: “Who…who are you?” 

DEATH, stripping: “I told you my name is Ken. It’s actually short for an old, annoying nickname. Sorry about that. I couldn’t be sure if your father had ever told you my birth name.” 

As the music swells, Laura is jumped from behind and tackled to the ground. 

DEATH, with Laura pinned, only wearing  shorts, and with tattoos all over him: “And I couldn’t just tell you my real name is Death.” 

Laura sneers as Death grins. 

In the Mission Room, Dani welcomes Sofia home with a big hug, Kitty pats Sofia on the head, telling her it wasn’t the same without her. Sofia’s happy to see them both as well; she’s sure she’ll need their help getting the hang of her powers again. 

Scott and Emma are also present, as are the Cuckoos. The headmasters explain those powers are something they’re concerned about. They need to know everything Sofia knows about how she got them, and about Apocalypse. 

EMMA: “For instance, were you aware that Apocalypse nearly succeeded in wiping out humanity last month?” 

CYCLOPS: “Or that his Horsemen murdered Archangel, depowered Storm, and massacred the Morlocks?” 

SOFIA: “No! Of course not! You stopped him, right?” 

KITTY: “We did, but his Horsemen are still out there. We don’t even know who three of them are. Only one we do know is–” 

SOFIA, haunted: “Exodus.” Everyone nervously stares at her. “I don’t have any memories of the last six months. The last thing I remember is waking up in some creepy lair, and him telling me my powers had been restored so that I could serve Apocalypse. I managed to escape and came here as fast as I could but…he’s a telepath, isn’t he? Could he have stolen my memories?” 

Emma confirms that’s a possibility and that that’s also why she’s called her girls here. She wants their assistance in traveling inside her mind; anything she knows, they’ll know. 

The Cuckoos giggle to themselves with curiosity over finding out Sofia’s deepest, darkest secrets, while Dani stands her ground and tells Emma…

DANI: “Hell no! A scan is one thing, but you’re not playing inside her head!” 

SCOTT: “I’m not a fan either, but what choice do we have? Leaving aside that there must be a reason Exodus wiped her memory, possibly pertaining to the identities of the other horsemen, well…” 

SOFIA, hanging her head: “...I showed up suddenly after 8 months of no contact with my powers restored, after having turned against Mutantkind and in possession of knowledge of our enemies.” 

EMMA: “Yes. That. And I’m afraid the story you’ve told us doesn’t quite work for me. You are remarkably talented, but you claim to have escaped Exodus. I find that difficult to swallow.” 

Sofia nods and tells Dani it’s fine. She consents to Emma and the Cuckoos going in her mind; she just hopes they don’t judge her for some of the terrible thoughts she had immediately after losing her powers. 

Emma assures her she understands being in a dark place, and thanks her for her cooperation. 

Just as Emma and the Cuckoos are about to start, Surge races in. 

NORIKO: “Hey, Princess!” 

SOFIA, face lighting up: “Noriko!” 

The besties hug and reunite, Nori calling her a pain in the ass for making her worried and look all around the world for her, with Sofia shooting back that all that traveling at least gave her chances to find a boyfriend. 

SOFIA: “Wait, are you dating anyone? I haven’t been online since I woke up.” She looks mortified. “I haven’t been unplugged this long since I came to America.” 

Before Nori is forced to answer that question, Scott offers an “Ech hem”, and reminds them that they’re in the middle of something. With Kitty pulling Nori away for a moment, Sofia braces herself for her mind-guests. 

At the deli, a concerned Erik asks Lorna what she’s talking about. Lorna explains that they’ve all been taking care of themselves, and that’s a good thing, but their family is meant for more. 

LORNA: “At this moment, the only thing we need to do to ensure Mutantkind’s future, not just its survival, but its ability to thrive, is to ally ourselves with the Horsemen of Apocalypse.” 

Wanda shows concern for her sister, while Pietro sneers. 

ERIK, sitting up straight to evoke confidence: “I know times have been hard, but I also know that their ends are not something you’d ever desire.” 

LORNA: “You don’t know what their “ends” are. You defeated Apocalypse, and with what he tried to do, I’m glad you did, but they’re under new leadership now. Lady Akabba’s goals are entirely different.” 

PIETRO: “And how would you know that?” 

WANDA: “Have you been speaking with them?” 

LORNA: “Yes…but I’ve done more than just talk .” Lorna’s skin turns blue, shocking her family. “I’ve already taken the step forward and joined them.” 

Lorna asks them all to please not freak out and just listen. They actually all feel comfortable doing that, easing up and resuming eating their bread and coleslaw, assured in the knowledge that any one of them could take Lorna down, should the need arise. 

Right now, without Father, the X-Men are weak. They only number six outside the ones with training wheels on. No Jean, no Storm. Their biggest gun is the second dumbest man she’s ever dated. 

WANDA, crunching a picking in her teeth: “Haven’t you only ever dated the two?” She frowns. “Eww. Sour.” 

LORNA: “That’s not the point.” 

PIETRO, buttering bread: “You hear Bobby’s gay now?” 

LORNA: “He sent me the virtual card. It was very cute. The point is that no man, mutant, or machine on Earth could stand against the seven of us. There would be conquest, it would be bloody, but needless suffering is not what we seek; only salvation. It would be like what you once sought after, Father, but with the strength needed to nip all opposition in the bud. If you cannot see the difference between that and Apocalypse’s desires, then I cannot help you.” 

The other three members of the family think about this carefully, Wanda and Pietro still chewing on their food as they do so. Eventually, Magneto speaks. 

ERIK: “It is different, yes. But I have already chosen where I stand. And I will move no further. I believe in the X-Men. I believe that we can make my old friend’s dream come true.” 

With Pietro and Wanda still uncertain, Lorna groans as she sits back in her seat. 

LORNA: “That sucks. Without him, even if you two did join us, I couldn’t count on you not backing out. Ugh.” 

Wanda is about to open her mouth, but before she can say anything, Lorna perks up, grinning manically, and takes her hands. 

LORNA: “Actually, we did have one more idea. One even quicker and more painless than Apocalypse’s, with none of the drawbacks. And all we need for it to work, Wanda…is you.” 

Wanda’s face morphs from concerned to battle-ready as Lorna grins manically into her eyes. 

In the school’s foyer, the gang, minus Quentin, is being let outside by Sofia. She’s relieved that Ms. Frost and the Cuckoos didn’t find one weird thing in her head, just the same blankness she has, and she wants to celebrate returning to the school and the return of her powers, with a return to the Grindstone - her treat. 

Everyone cheers. Julian squirms uncomfortably and forces a smile as Sofia gently takes his hand. 

Sofia giggles, before belting out a ghastly shriek. She grips her head and bends over. Through a static filter, Sofia sees herself being gutted like a trout by Apocalypse, blasted into the desert sand by Exodus and Polaris, and screaming at the top of her lungs, bleeding from cracks all over her body as she sits inside Celestial tech. 

Sofia returns to reality, catching her breath, and Julian has caught her in his arms. Everyone wants to know if she’s okay. 

SOFIA: “Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.” Sofia turns around and squints at the Cuckoos. “You girls didn’t bump into or break anything in my mind, right?” 

The other four Cuckoos all turn their glares toward Mindee. 

MINDEE: “Oh this is SO typical.” 

Noriko hooks Sofia’s arm around her own and leads her further down the path, and away from Julian. They can talk to Ms. Frost about that later. Right now, they have so much to tell her! 

Sofia perks back up. Julian takes a deep breath. Over with the Cuckoos…

MINDEE, telepathically: “I really didn’t do anything wrong. I swear.” 

SOPHIE: “I believe you. Stay quiet and observe.” 

In the wilderness, Death laughs as he squeezes Laura’s wrists cracking them, keeping her pinned on the ground. 

DEATH, skin turning blue: “I have waited so long for this…Sister.”

Laura throws Death off of her, growling, leaps up to her feet and draws her claws. 

LAURA: “Horseman. What do you mean, “sister?”

DEATH: “Ask Father.” Death draws his own, much larger claws. “Tell him Akihiro says hi.”

Akihiro dashes at Laura, fast enough to catch her by surprise. The two fight, with Laura clearly at a disadvantage, as she's immediately forced to give it all she got, while Akihiro looks like he's barely even trying. Akihiro soon manages to deliver a fierce kick to Laura’s face, knocking her away. 

Aki laughs. Is that all she's got? No wonder War defeated her so easily. 

Laura picks herself back up, snapping her chin back into place.

LAURA: “Tell me.”

AKI: “About what? Who I am? Who she is?”

LAURA: “No. I don't care. Tell me if she lied to me. Did she really kill Sofia Mantega?” 

Akihiro laughs. Laura clenches her fists. 

AKIHIRO: “No. No, she was just manipulating you. It's what she's best at, bless her tiny, black heart. That little bitch just escaped us, actually.” Laura’s eyes widen and her heart pounds. “But Famine is working to correct that.” Aki notices the change in Laura’s face. “You wish to see her? She's back at your school. All you have to do to see your friend again is get through me.” 

Laura doesn't even let him finish that sentence as she rushes in to take Death down. 

The gang arrives at The Grindstone and is welcomed in by Luna, who offers an extra welcome to Sofia, happy to see her again. 

CESSILY, whispering teasingly in Julian’s ear: “You two ever tell her you almost chose to let her die?” 

SOFIA, whispering: “You did WHAT?” 

Julian nervously laughs, as Noriko says they’ll tell her the full story, but the important thing is they *didn’t* do that in the end. 

As the gang sits down in their booth, Julian is about to sit down next to Sofia, but Noriko gets in between them first. He glares at her, getting a little annoyed by this. 

Sofia’s missed this place but for more reasons than just nostalgia. She was working as a waitress while she was gone, and the people were great, but the diner wasn’t nearly as nice as this place. 

NORIKO, ready to laugh: “YOU were a waitress?” 

BRIAN: “What, did being a racist grifter not pay?” 

Everyone laughs and Sofia smiles and nods along; she deserves that. 

SOFIA: “Enough about that embarrassing chapter of my life. What have you all been doing?” She smiles at Julian and Noriko. “I already know about you two.” 

The two nearly have conniptions as they stutter over their rapid words before Sofia elaborates that she’s so proud of both of them for becoming X-Men. 

NORIKO, still mildly panicking “Ah! Yeah!” 

JULIAN, the same: “You knew it was only a matter of time.” 

Sofia’s glad they were able to fill in for her. Cyclops and Ms. Frost still need to speak with Magneto, but they said since things are looking alright in her mind, she should be able to fight alongside them as an X-Man. 

SOFIA: “Do we LIKE Magneto?” 

Everyone groans, “Ehhhh” with one exception. 

BRIAN: “He’s been doing this longer than anyone. Knows what he’s talking about.” 

Sofia turns to Brian and asks about him. 

BRIAN: “Nothing new with me. Same old, same old.” 

SOORAYA: “He has a crush on Quentin.” 

EVERYONE ELSE: “Ooooh.” 

BRIAN, embarrassed: “Soo, why?” 

Sooraya shrugs. 

Julian tells Brian he’s too good for that geek, and he should be trying to steal Dallas or Victor, with the Cuckoos jumping in to point out that Quentin is hardly a geek anymore. 

SOPHIE: “HIs transformation has been…most impressive.” 

Brian shoots a stink-eye at Sophie, wondering if she may actually reciprocate Quentin’s feelings now. 

Sofia moves on to the other girls. Bling! Immediately jumps to hyping up Mercury. Yeah, they got kidnapped and tortured, and her parents are paying for a very good therapist for them both, and what happened to Laura was even more awful, BUT Mercury totally managed to beat Laura and it was awesome. Cessily blushes, trying to be modest, and point out it wasn’t really “Laura” she fought, and Roxy figured out what she needed to do, but no one accepts that and Sofia tells her she isn’t even surprised. 

Luna brings water over to everyone, and asks if they know what they want. The Cuckoos elect to save time by reading everyone’s minds and beaming their orders into her head. 

PHOEBE: “And make it snappy.” 

Luna is frazzled by the info dumb and attitude. 

LUNA: “Do…NOT do that again.” 

Luna walks off, still shaken. The Cuckoos giggle. They stop as everyone else glares at them. 

SOPHIE: “She is literally dating a telepath. She shouldn’t have a problem!” 

Noriko tells the Cuckoos that she thinks they need to have another talk about boundaries, while Sofia whispers flirtatiously over the wind, asking Julian if she can talk to him alone, outside. 

Julian looks at Noriko nervously, before turning to Sofia, who’s smiling seductively at him. He can’t help but grin back and fly off with her, Sofia telling everyone they’ll be back in just a minute. 

Suddenly, no one cares about what the Cuckoos were doing, and all eyes are on Noriko. Cessily and Roxy are worried about her, while the Cuckoos are enjoying the show. 

SOORAYA: “She wants her boyfriend back.” 

NORI: “I got that, Soo!” 

Sooraya shrugs again. 

Behind the coffee shop, Julian nervously asks what Sofia wants to talk about. Sofia doesn't actually let him finish asking, however, as she blows them both against the brick wall, and makes out with him. 

Sofia pulls back, both of them grinning. 

SOFIA: “I am sorry. I should have asked but…I figured it was best if we just skipped the “will we/won't” dance again. I'm a little sick of it.” 

JULIAN, laughing: “Yeah. Same.” 

Sofia slides her hands down Julian’s chest, as he tries to say there's something he needs to tell her, but he's too enraptured by her to spit it out. Sofia takes his hands. 

SOFIA: “Fly with me?”

JULIAN, knowing what he SHOULD be saying: “Always.”

Carried by their respective methods of flight, the two soar into the sky. With Sofia taking the lead, the two use their abilities to make their flight into a zero-gravity dance, twirling and flying around one another. Eventually, Sofia winds up back in Julian’s arms. 

JULIAN, Sofia’s head against his chest: “What Cess said before was true. Nori and I really did almost help end humanity.” 

SOFIA, concerned: “You were killing people?”

JULIAN: “No. Apocalypse had this plague we needed to stop, and we thought it might not be a bad idea to let him use it. Just because we were so tired of humans…baselines and their crap. Ms. Pryde talked sense into us, but we almost messed up big time.” Julian pulls back and holds Sofia’s hands. “I could never hold what you did against you. Our lives are messed up, and we can't blame ourselves for every bad thought.” 

Sofia wells up with joy, holding his metal hands tight. 

SOFIA: “I don't think I ever got to say how much I liked these.”  She grins. “So…we’re together? Finally?” 

 JULIAN: “Y-yeah! Of course we–!”

Julian is cut off as he's hit by a pink telekinetic blast and sent crashing toward the ground. 

SOFIA: “Julian!”

Sofia isn't able to go save him, as her throat is gripped by a large hand. 

EXODUS: “You shouldn't have run, Wind Dancer.” He laughs at her terror. “It's time for us to return home. Do not worry about your friends. They're being tended to.” 

In a van outside the Grindhouse, we see a woman who comic fans will recognize as Trinary. Inside the coffee shop, the kids’ phones short circuit and the Cuckoos’ minds ache as the front door bursts open. 

Firefist, Random, and Avalanche stomp in, led by a face only briefly seen before: Frenzy. 

Luna, her staff, and all of the human customers start panicking, Sooraya checks on the Cuckoos to ask what's going on, and, without hesitation, Surge leaps to her feet, ready to fight. 

Frenzy looks around at the Mutant kids and all the human employees and patrons. 

FRENZY: “Kill em all.” 

Back at the deli, Wanda hesitantly asks what Lorna’s idea involving her is. Pietro slaps Lorna’s hands off of Wanda. 

LORNA, rubbing her hands: “Professor Xavier put you on his “Omega List” because he doesn’t understand you. Your hex blasts are impressive, but your true strength? That’s all the chaos force, all magic. You beat back elder gods before brunch and reshape worlds around you with a flick of a wrist. I do not understand anything about the ancient technology that Apocalypse had access to, but I know that Lady Akkaba does, and I know just how powerful it is. If you were to be enhanced by it like us, you could transform the entire world; you could make the world what it should be.” 

ERIK, not about to put up with this: “A world dominated by the strong?” 

LORNA: “A world dominated by Mutants. No killing whatsoever. Just a paradigm shift to put us on top, and humans at our feet where they belong.”

ERIK: “Enough! Not one more word of this. I am sorry that I was not present to help you through your grief, but succumbing to hate and rage is not the answer. You will tell us at once where the Horsemen are based so that we stomp them out and return you to your normal self. Am I clear?” 

Lorna mockingly curls her lips at Erik before turning to Wanda. 

LORNA: “Does he speak for you? You aren’t his clone or his puppet.” 

WANDA, squinting her eyes: “No. I’m not. I was a hero long before he was.” 

Wanda quick draws and catches Polaris by surprise, hitting her with a hex blast. WIth an additional wave of her arm, Lorna doesn’t fly into other customers, but through a portal. 

Polaris lands on a stone island surrounded by pulsing red energy. Scarlet Witch, Magneto, and Quicksilver emerge from another portal. 

WANDA: “And I know my sister.” 

Lorna, on her knees, looks up at her family, shocked that they’d attack her….before at long last dropping the bit. Lorna cackles manically in a voice not her own, as her eyes turn purple. 

“POLARIS”: “You know I had a feeling I was slipping, but a girl can only keep up a performance that boring for so long.” She cackles again as she stands up. “My master calls me Pestillence. But you may call me Malice.” 

In the wilderness, Laura fights her hardest against Akihiro, but there isn’t even the appearance of this being any kind of fair fight, as Death just wails on her, kicking her around and slashing her up. 

AKIHIRO: “My turn to ask you a question: aren’t you supposed to be the ultimate killing machine? I know what happened at the Facility, I know what happened with you and your friends, but if you’re going to be emotionally weak and give in to what Kimura said about you, then you should at least have the physical strength to back it up. Otherwise, what good are you?” He shrugs. “Just something to think about from your big brother.” 

LAURA, shaking with rage, her priorities once again not where Aki would expect: “You were with Kimura. You helped her torture Mercury and Bling!”

AKI, finding her attitude curious: “Yes, I did. It was unsightly, not nearly as fun to watch as you squirming, but they’ll thank me for it one day.” He laughs. “I’m sorry, I was just expecting some more personal heat here, but all your fire is just about those friends of yours.” Laura stands firm, not saying anything. Aki laughs and quietly whispers. “I see why she likes you.” Akihiro picks his head up. “Alright! Let’s just finish this then!” 

Akihiro retracts his claws and starts coughing. It’s a disturbing sight, and one Laura is confused by, but Death coughs up his sword, pulling it out of his mouth. 

AKIHIRO: “Behold my sword…Muramasa.” 

Laura, staring down this clearly strange blade, and knowing she has to do something different, thinks about the friends she’s worried about. About Sofia and Cessily and Roxy. And she thinks back to them all dancing without a care. 

Laura retracts her claws, and takes a stance that makes it look more like she’s ready to dance than fight. Aki licks his lips. 

In the sky above NYC, Exodus strangles Sofia.

EXODUS: “I know I shouldn't be saying this, but you truly have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy this.” 

Sofia gasps, asking him what he's talking about. Exodus responds by telepathically assaulting her. Sofia screams. 

Through a static filter, she has more visions. This time, she sees herself sword dueling with Apocalypse, killing someone, unseen, with a knife, with blood splattering all over her, and herself, in her War armor but her face exposed, sitting on Apocalypse’s lap on his throne, with a sultry smirk on her face and her arms stretched out with her hands behind Apocalypse’s neck. 

In reality, Exodus lets go of Sofia and ceases her assault. Sofia’s eyes are wide in terror. 

SOFIA: “What…what was that? I don't understand.” 

EXODUS: “How could you? You aren't even real.” 

Exodus reaches out to her again, with Sofia slowly backing away in fear. Before Exodus can grab her again, Hellion, screaming and surrounded in his aura, body checks Exodus to knock him away. 

Sofia is relieved to see him okay, but notices that his right arm has been completely mangled. 

JULIAN: “It's fine. I don't care what fancy title he gives himself. If I've got you, I only need one arm to beat this creep.”

Exodus laughs. This just got even better. 

In the coffee shop, Surge stares down Frenzy and her men, standing between them and everyone else. 

Surge lights herself up, and tells the crowd not to worry; she’s an X-Man. They may continue talking crap about her and her friends behind their backs once she’s saved them. 

Random laughs. He's so been looking forward to getting another shot at her. 

SURGE: “You really think it'll go any different? Aren't you guys supposed to be in SHIELD cells?”

FRENZY: “They were. As was I. Lord Apocalypse liberated us.”

Surge is annoyed. Summers and Frost never tell her anything. 

Frenzy tells Surge that Lady Akkaba has ordered them to kill her and her friends. Surge, however, is distracted by the flashing green and pink lights shining through the window. 

Checking her dead phone, seeing Luna and everyone else scared, and the Cuckoos heads being messed with, she's at least able to smile as Dust, Tag, Mercury, and Bling! come to her side. 

ROXY: “No way we’re letting you fight all these goons alone.” 

AVALANCHE: “Enough talking!” 

Avalanche starts lightly shaking the ground, building up to a full quale. Surge smirks, before turning her head to Tag. 

SURGE: “Brian!”

Brian tags himself and disrupts the tremors, as Frenzy and her men are telepathically compelled to runaway from the Grindstone. 

The crowd is a mix of cheers, and people telling them to scram next. 

Nori elects to ignore that, and tells Roxy that, actually, they're the ones fighting them alone. 

The non-X-Men are confused, but Surge points out that Exodus is here, and fighting Hellion and Wind Dancer. This monster beat Storm and Iceman, and they've cut off their ways of contacting the team. She has to go help them herself. 

She super speeds over to the Cuckoos and electrocutes them, getting them out of their funk while also making their hair stand up. 

SURGE: “And I need you all to come with me so we don't all die the second he decides to stop playing around and break our minds.” 

SOPHIE, groaning: “Thank you, Surge. Yes, we will help.” 

PHOEBE: “Thank you for clearing our heads. We should try actual shock therapy.”

ESME: “I still feel gross.”

MINDEE: “Wait, oh god…”

CELESTE: “Our hair! 

Nori rolls her eyes at them. 

SURGE: “Dust!” Sooraya is caught off guard. “I'm counting on you here. I know you can't like getting orders from your favorite idiot, but you've been holding back as long as I've known you. Time to show out.” 

Sooraya’s eyes are afraid in the face of this responsibility, but they quickly fill with confidence. 

DUST: “I won't fail.”

Surge continues to smirk, as she and the Cuckoos hold hands. 

SURGE: “Don't any of you assholes die in me!”

Surge and the Cuckoos disappear in the blur. Dust nods with confidence at her three remaining teammates. 

In Wanda’s pocket dimension, Magneto demands to know who “Malice” is and what she’s done with his daughter. 

MALICE: “I’m sure she’d be thrilled to know that you care. It’s a few months late, but that’s actually pretty good time for you.” Wanda, getting pissed, engulfs Malice is red energy that pains her. “And, as for what I’ve done with her, isn’t it clear? She didn’t want to live in her head anymore, so she graciously gave it to me.” 

Malice cackles. Wanda increases the amount of pain she’s putting Malice through, demanding that whoever, or whatever, she is, she leaves Polaris’ body immediately. 

WANDA: “However you came to be in control of her body, I will not allow you to use her in the name of her atrocities. It is true that, with external aid, I could rewrite the laws of reality. But even if I wished to, the risk is too great for anyone to try.” 

Malice just mocks her by repeating the last thing Wanda said in a squeaky voice. She’s no fool. Lorna’s family isn’t going to do anything to actually hurt her. 

MALICE: “Truth be told, I wasn’t a fan of Apocalypse and I’m even less a fan of his successor, but I will get what I deserve.” 

A stern Magneto asks Wanda if she has enough of an understanding of what’s happened to separate Lorna from Malice. Pietro jumps in to add to ask if she can do it safely. They don’t know if Malice can jump bodies casually, and they cannot risk her taking Wanda. 

Erik asks Wanda what she thinks, and isn’t sure. She can definitely feel that there are two minds, two souls in Lorna’s body, but they’re so entangled, and she isn’t a telepath. She wants to bring Betsy in to help, but Malice tells her not to do that. Truth is, she’s a Mutant. One without a body to call her own. And one who can fry the brains of any body she inhabits with a thought, at no harm to herself. 

 She goes on to mock Magneto specifically as the two men grow more and more frustrated. Why does he even care so much? Did failing to save Genosha make him decide to finally start giving a damn about his family? 

ERIK: “I have always cared! My children ruled Genosha alongside me!” 

MALICE: “Yes! The polished prince and princess perfect for your image. Tell me, how many times did you speak outside of work? How much time did you spend with them? Wanda, Pietro? Don’t bother actually answering. I already know the answer. And it’s embarrassing.” 

Wanda’s face falls and Pietro sneers at Magneto. 

Erik shoots back that his children are all adults.  They all had their responsibilities. 

PIETRO: “And what about when we were all children, hmm? What responsibilities did we have then?” 

MALICE: “Yes! Exactly! Thank you, Quicksilver. The one person to stand by Lorna!” She pauses for effect. “Except for when she was alone and grieving and needed you most. She was used to being abandoned by her father and sister, but you? What even were you even doing?” Pietro vibrates furiously. “With family like you, it’s no wonder she was on the verge of drinking herself to death. With family like you, it’s no mystery why she so willingly gave herself over to me. It may have also helped that I told her it would be painless. Oh, such a nasty lie.” 

Magneto and Quicksilver both snap and attack her, knocking her out of Wanda’s grip. This was just what Malice wanted as now that she’s free, and the family is all out of step, she’s able to unveil the power of Pestillence. A red eye grows on the palm of her hand and she shoots an arrow out of it. One that hits Wanda dead on. 

MAGNETO AND QUICKSILVER: “No!” 

Wanda falls, her skin turning gray, as her pocket dimension disappears around them, leaving them back in the middle of the deli. Malice immediately uses Polaris’ powers to devastate the restaurant and hit the distracted Erik and Pietro in the heads with tables, before blasting a hole in the ceiling. 

MALICE: “Please try taking better care of that daughter than you did of this one. We’ll still be needing her.” 

Malice flies off, as a scared Erik and Pietro huddle over Wanda’s sickly body. 

Out in the wilderness, Akihiro and Laura pace around each other. Aki asks if she really doesn’t care at all about who he is, what his story is, and how they’re connected. 

LAURA: “You’re a Horseman. I’m an X-Man. That’s all that matters.” 

AKIHIRO: “An X-Man? I thought you were X-23?” 

LAURA: “Maybe I am. But acceptance can wait till my friends are safe.” 

Akihiro laughs, before roaring as she charges at Laura once more. Laura, flashing back to Sofia and Cessily dancing in combat, closes her eyes and mimics their movements to dodge the Muramasa blade. 

Laura cracks half a smile as she continues to dance, thinking back to good memories with her friends and positive moments she’s had as a hero. 

Waiting for and finding the perfect moment to strike, Laura sees an opening, pops her claws back out and aims for Akihiro’s face…

…only to be bisected as the waist, cut in half as easily as a chunk of butter by the Muramasa blade. 

Laura, just a head, a torso, and arms, gasps for air as Akihiro stands over her. 

AKIHIRO: “If it were up to me, I’d finish the job. But I’ll just have to save that for dear old dad.” 

Aki, not caring at all about anything left at the campfire, begins walking off. 

AKI: “Go back to school, Laura. You little teketeke. We’ll save you all, soon enough.” 

Laura, still refusing to lose, tries crawling after Death, but she doesn’t get far. She pounds the snow with her fists. 

In the sky above New York, Hellion, already cut, bruised, filthy, and bleeding all-over fires off a massive, one-handed tk blast at Exodus, but it fails to do anything against his TK shielding. Exodus tells him to give it up. There isn’t a single thing this boy can do with his powers that can touch him. Now, maybe with a few more decades under his belt and some tutelage from a true telekinetic…

EXODUS, looking at the also badly beaten Sofia: “You can bring him if you wish. He may join the rest of our servants.” 

SOFIA: “I am not going with you!” Wind Dancer raises an arm, bypassing Exodus’ shield by popping the air inside his ears. “I make my own decisions! No one will ever control me again!” 

Exodus bends over, writing in pain. Before the thick-headed Hellion can question if that move seems at all familiar, someone even more thick-headed shows up, as Surge kicks the distracted Exodus in the face. It doesn’t do much much piss him off though. 

SURGE, propelling herself in the air with electricity: “One of you steady me?” 

Wind Dancer nods, but it’s Hellion who uses his TK to keep her airborne. 

Noriko tells them how, unless the other X-Men spot them, they’re on their own. No problem for them. Julian asks about the others in the gang, with Noriko telling him the Horsemen have pals. Including jerks they’ve already beaten like Random. 

HELLION: “You wanted to put me on that same level as that chump? You are so dead.” 

Exodus, recomposed, scoffs. He doesn’t have time for bronze medals. He attempts to telepathically assault Noriko, but she’s covered as, on a nearby rooftop, the Cuckoos are once again providing telepathic shielding for their friends. It clearly isn’t easy for them though. 

SOPHIE: “Why is it…”

CELESTE: “Every time we fight with you…”

ESME: “It’s against one of the half dozen telepaths on Earth…” 

PHOEBE: “Actually stronger than us!” 

MINDEE: “So annoying!” BEAT. “Our hair is looking better at least, right?” 

Exodus sneers, as Surge, Hellion, and Wind Dancer exchange smirks, the old big 3 ready to put down the first horseman. 

On the streets below, the other kids battle Lady Akabba’s minions. 

First, Bling! Vs Avalanche. Roxy is firing off diamond shards at him, but none of them can hit him because of the seismic energy he’s applying around them, sending them off track. Bling! questions if this guy wasn’t one of Magneto’s lackeys. Shouldn’t he be working with the X-Men now? Dominikos proclaims that he serves only the Mutant cause. 

AVALANCHE: “And, also, Mystique told me to join up.” 

Next, Mercury vs Random. The two shapeshifts cycle their arms through various forms, including swords, hammers, and guns (the latter of which Cessily has never tried before, but finds she can pull off just like Random), as they clash. A pissed Random tells her he may have lost to the baby X-Men, but he’s not about to lose to just any random baby Mutant. 

MERCURY, unafraid: “Heh. Is that all you think I am?” 

Tag vs Firefist! 

This being Brian’s first time in a real fight, he is nervous and shaky. However, that isn’t enough to hold him back, as all the time he’s spent on hand-to-hand combat training has paid off, as he’s able to dodge and perform impressive flips around Firefist’s attacks. 

FIREFIST: “That trick before. Making us run. Was that all you’ve got?” 

TAG, continuing to dodge: “So what if it was?” 

Firefist looks at the other battles going on, particularly up at the sky battle. He laughs. 

FIREFIST: “You really need to jump ship.” 

TAG: “Say what?” 

FIREFIST: “In Lady Akabba’s world, all Mutants besides herself and her horsemen will be equal above humanity. The X-Men somehow win and you’re still with them? A loser like you will be dropped just as quickly as I was.” 

Brian falls over as he screws up a flip and burns himself. 

TAG: “You…you were an X-Man?” 

Finally, Dust vs Frenzy. 

Dust attempts to push Frenzy back with sandblasts from her hands, but Frenzy is strong enough to run right through them. She attempts to knock Sooraya’s head off, only to learn that Soo can’t be killed like that, as her head just disintegrates into sand on impact. While Frenzy is off-guard, the rest of Soo’s body turns to sand, as it circles Frenzy and solidifies around her, entombing her, as Dust forms a new body for herself. 

DUST: “Who are you? Why do you seek to hurt so many people?” 

FRENZY: “My friends call me Frenzy. And honestly? You’re the last person I’d think I’d need to tell that.” 

Back in the sky, all protected by Hellion’s personal forefields, he, Surge, and Wind Dancer power up their auras and face Exodus. Nori tries to rush in and take him hand to hand, but even with both her own power and the boost from Julian, punching Exodus a hundred times in a second isn’t enough to break through his forcefield before he tosses her aside. 

Hellion and Wind Dancer attempt a team attack, Julian firing off a concentrated beam and Sofia giving it a spin with her winds to give it extra speed and power. It nearly catches Exodus off-guard, but he enhances his shielding at the last second. He is caught by surprise, however, by Surge, who hits him from behind with a full-power blast. It doesn’t do much but singe him a little and mess up his coiffed hair, but it’s still the most damage anyone’s done yet. The assault isn’t done yet, as the Cuckoos take this moment of weakness on Exodus to strike back at him psychically. 

The Cuckoos giggle. 

SOPHIE: “When your hair is as bad as his…” 

PHOEBE: “A bad hair day is even worse.” 

ESME: “Take that, @#$%^&!” The others all glare at her. “Oh, don’t get all sensitive on me just cause we’re playing hero.” 

Exodus has had just about enough of this. As the three X-Men regroup to hit him all together, Exodus roars, shutting down and knocking out the Cuckoos telepathically, and lighting up the entire sky in pink energy to blast the three X-Men away, with no hope of dodging, The last thing we see as the three kids scream, before we cut away, is each of the girls taking hold of one of Julian’s hands. 

Back on the ground, Bling! knows she needs to change tactics, so she stops firing projectiles and races toward Avalanche. He tells her that’s a bad idea as he shifts his tectonic waves toward the ground. But as everything shakes..

BLING!: “Baby, switch with me!” 

Random tries to smash Cessily with an anvil-arm, but she shields herself while also putting on a perky smile.  

MERCURY: “Sorry, gonna have to leave kicking your butt  to my girl.” 

Bling! Is tripped over by Avalanche’s tremors, but falls right onto Mercury who’s melted herself down and stretched herself as a path across the street. Before she’s shaken away by the tremors, she delivers a surprise punch from the goop to Avalanche’s balls, as she rolls herself back up like a fruit roll-up, Roxy inside. Random shouts at Mercury to re-form and fight him, only for Bling! to pop out of Mercury, coated in armor made of her, uppercutting him as Mercury does the same to Avalanche, knocking out both villains. 

Cessily starts to re-form over by Bling!, with Roxy unable to wait to kiss her before she’s done. 

Firefist picks Tag up. He tells him that used to be part of a team called the X-Terminators. Trained by Cyclops, just like him. 

FIREFIST: “There were five of us. Me, Skids, Wiz-Kid, Boom Boom, and Rictor. Those two last they might have actually told you about. They got to be real X-Men.” Firefist tosses Brian back on the ground. “But they never told you about me! And I bet they never told you about the ones they let die.” He lights his hands aflame, ready to kill Brian. “If you survive, but still won’t join us, then at least remember: you cannot trust them.” 

Brian is left wide-eyed and frozen as Firefist moves in for the kill. However, while Tag braces for death, he’s saved at the last second by Dust, who still has a struggling Frenzy trapped, and puts out Firefist’s flames, and knocks him out, with a single blast. 

BRIAN, his life having just flashed before his eyes: “Thanks, Dust.” 

SOO: “Do not mention it.” 

Dust turns back to Frenzy and tells her that she of course understands the evils of humanity. As well as the evils of Mutants. It is merely her job to keep people safe. And it is the job of someone far, far more powerful to pass final judgment and punishment. 

Frenzy thinks Dust is full of it. Lady Akabba told her her story. Their first kills were the same. Defending themselves from evil men, and losing control. Only she didn’t have Cyclops and Wolverine to come to her rescue. She was left all alone, with nothing but her strength . 

FRENZY: “You may think being a “hero” is enough, but a time’s gonna come when you learn how the real world works. And when you do? We’ll be waiting.” 

Dust takes a moment to respond, before telling Frenzy she pities her. That sets Frenzy off, who busts free from Dust’s prison and tries to hit her again, but Dust just travels down her throat momentarily to knock her out via suffocation. 

Soo says a quick prayer in Arabic for her. 

On a high floor of an office building, civilians stand around, worried about the three teenagers who just crashed through their window - and by whatever put them through it. 

Hellion’s force fields around the three flicker away. He and Surge are conscious, but just barely, the two firmly holding onto each other’s hands. Wind Dancer, meanwhile, finds the strength to stand. Exodus floats outside the shattered window, prompting all of the office workers to run away. 

EXODUS: “Your last chance, Wind Dancer. Come with me, and I will spare them.” 

Sofia takes a fighting stance with clenched fists. Exodus smirks, pleased by this final resistance. Exodus charges up another attack, ready to finish them, but as he fires it off, Sofia gets one last hazy vision through static. This time, she sees herself sparring with Apocalypse and Akihiro, dancing around attacks fired off by Exodus and Malice, and killing Archangel. 

Sofia, her body moving ahead of her mind, steps forward into Exodus’ attack and blows it apart with her winds, splitting it down the middle and shooting the two half-blasts through the side walls. In one swift motion, she keeps racing toward Exodus after deflecting his attack and leaps at him to fight hand-to-hand. 

Wind Dancer and Exodus fight evenly, with Sofia’s punches actually hurting Bennett. Exodus questions how that’s possible, when he still has a forcefield around himself. 

SOFIA: “I…don’t know.” 

Exodus backhands her, knocking her down. 

EXODUS: “That was a rhetorical question, little girl.” 

With a telepathic wave, he finally knocks out Julian and Noriko, before stomping on Sofia. She struggles, and tries to blow him away, but she can’t. 

SOFIA: “What did you mean before?! When you said I’m not real.” 

EXODUS, grinning, turning to make sure no one else has shown up, before looking back down: “A Mutant is their immortal soul, not their body. I know the face of your true soul. It is one I loathe. You? You’re nothing but a husk. A tool.” 

Sofia is shaken to her core, trembling and unable to move, as Exodus picks his leg back, charging it and ready to go in for the kill…but then he doesn’t. 

Exodus laughs. 

EXODUS: “I will see you again soon…my lady.” 

Exodus laughs maniacally as he flies away. Sofia curls up into a ball on the floor, crying and having a panic attack. 

SOFIA: “I’m real.” She sees herself kneeling before Apocalypse, his hand on her head. “I’m real.” 

Back at the school, Magneto and Quicksilver stand in a spare bedroom, Wanda still looking sickly and laid out in bed. 

Magneto solemnly reports that the good news is that, according to Danger, Wanda is in no danger of dying. However, she also has no records of any sickness like this, so that could change with time, and, worse, she has no idea how to cure her, or even wake her up. 

QUICKSILVER: “This is your fault!” 

Pietro shoves his father. Erik tells him now is not the time for blame, and, if it were, that would fall on Malice, Apocalypse, and the External’s heir. Pietro disagrees. 

PIETRO: “Everything Pestillence said was true. You have never been there for us when we needed you, but you’ve always expected us to drop everything, everyone, when our presence was convenient. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Genosha, it’s always the same story. If you’d ever actually tried being a father, Lorna wouldn’t have fallen to the point of giving over her body, and you wouldn’t have been attempting today’s pathetic attempt at normalcy.” 

Erik keeps his head held high. Pietro is right. But he won’t insult him with an apology. No words can make up for how he’s failed them all. Pietro snorts, approaching Wanda and gently brushing her hair out of her face. They know the Horsemen’s new plan needs her, and while this school has a tendency of getting blown up, it’s still the most fortified location to protect her. 

PIETRO: “I know it will be hard for you, but try not to fail her again.” 

Pietro starts walking away. Magneto tells him he should stay here and help protect her, but Pietro says he can’t do that. 

BEAT 

As Pietro puts his hand on the doorknob, Magneto asks something. 

MAGNETO: “It’s her, isn’t it?” Quicksilver cringes. “The reason your time was divided. The reason you weren’t able to be there for her. It was her.” 

PIETRO, taking a deep breath: “My loyalties don’t just belong to Mutantkind. Or this family. They can’t.” 

Pietro speeds off. Magneto falls to his knees, taking Wanda’s limp hand.

MAGNETO: “I’m sorry.” 

In the headmasters’ office, Cyclops and Emma congratulate Dust, Mercury, Bling!, and Tag. They’re sorry they weren’t there to help, Emma believes Exodus was blocking their perception of the attack, but they’re nontheless proud of the training squad for stepping up. Mercury and Bling! have both shown immense progress in their recent battles, Tag failed to win his own fight, but was still able to get his feet wet, and, in both attitude and power, Dust is clearly almost ready to join the X-Men. 

DUST, muttering to herself in annoyance: “Almost?” 

EMMA: “A shame Quentin couldn’t join you, but his presence was required elsewhere.” 

Brian gulps. 

DUST, still mumbling to herself: “Do you think I’m less impressive because I don’t scream my head off?” 

Cessily asks if the others are doing okay. Scott confirms that, thankfully, they all survived Exodus’ attack. Hopefully once they’re up and about, they’ll be able to get an answer as to how - preferably from Sofia. 

In the medical bay, Sofia lays awake in bed, haunted eyes on the ceiling. She’s at least able to smile with relief as Hellion and Surge wake up, although the Cuckoos are all still down. 

SOFIA: “You’re awake!” 

SURGE, rubbing her eye: “And more importantly, alive.” BEAT. “How are we still alive?” 

Sofia tells them it wasn’t easy, but just like before, she was able to fend Exodus off. Apocalypse must have given her more power than ever. Not that she’d ever want to thank him, but it came in handy. 

Julian laughs. That’s his girl! 

Julian and Sofia make googly eyes at each other. And Noriko’s had just about enough of this. 

NORIKO: “Julian and I are dating!”

Sofia’s face falls as Julian cringes. 

SOFIA: “what.”

Nori tells her she’s sorry, she’s sorry to Julian too, but she needed to know. Sofia softly asks Julian if this is true. All he can say is a pained, “Yeah.” 

As a breeze carries through the room, Nori tries to tell her that they never wanted to hurt her, and they both spent so much time looking for her while she was gone, but they didn’t know if they’d ever see her again. The two of them got closer, and they couldn’t wait forever. 

Sofia feels like an idiot. This is why the two weren’t fighting all day like normal. 

She goes quiet. Julian asks her if she’s okay. 

SOFIA: “I thought you were my best friend. I thought you loved me.” 

NORI/JULIAN: “I am!/I do!” 

SOFIA: “Then break up! Break up, and let things return to normal.” 

It kills them, but Surge and Hellion can’t just do that. Sofia doesn’t like that. 

SOFIA, blowing equipment over with the wind: “You backstabbing traitors! Is there anything else you haven’t told me?!” 

Right on unfortunate cue, Danger enters, pleased to see three of the children awake. Julian and Noriko both cringe as they realize they neglected to tell Sofia about her, as well. Sofia, terrified, asks what “that monster” is doing here. Danger says it’s a long story, but she works for the school now, Cyclops having resolved things between them peacefully, helping the children like she always has. She’s so sorry about what happened to Sofia, and hopes she can– 

Danger doesn’t get to finish that though. Sofia’s winds intensify and blow everyone and everything away. 

SOFIA: “Traitors! All of you!” 

Sofia flies off, not listening at all as the others tell her to wait. She flies through the halls, blowing everyone she flies past against the walls, until she makes it outside. She flies above the school and curls up into a ball. 

SOFIA: “Julian doesn’t care. Noriko doesn’t care. Laura is gone. The X-Men trust the monster who broke me more than me.” Her eyes appear cold and empty. “I hope I’m not real. I have nothing.” 

Sofia’s eyes jolt open wide as memories flood her mind. 

Some time ago in Lady Akabba’s throneroom, Sofia, on her throne, speaks to Exodus, Malice, and Akihiro. Since meeting Selene, she has been thinking. She was right. The X-Men defy the principles that govern the world; no matter how many times the X-Men face opponents who should have them completely outmatched, such as Lord Apocalypse, they always win. They cannot defeat them by being stronger than them. To defeat them, they must break the X-Men apart. 

SOFIA: “Selene asked me what made me special. And the answer…is me.” 

Sofia Mantega, the weak girl known as Wind Dancer, was beloved and trusted by everyone at her old school, teachers and students alike. Everyone’s favorite X-Man and dance queen. She will return to her old home, and with that love and trust, she will destroy the X-Men from within. And while she’s at it, she will continue to make her old friends stronger by making them suffer, just as she’s already done for Wolverine, Mercury, and Bling!. Speaking of, she will need Death to bring her back to the school. Akihiro bows, telling her to consider it done, and complimenting her plan of attack. 

Exodus, meanwhile, is all too happy to point out the glaring flaw of this plan. That school is crawling with telepaths, including one even more powerful than himself. Her psychic defenses stand no chance against Frost, and her true identity will be revealed immediately. 

LADY AKABBA: “No it won’t. Because you’re going to remove all of my memories from the past six months. And you will only return them when little Sofia realizes how lucky she’d be to be anyone else.” 

Various, blurry images from the past six months flash, until we return to the present. 

“Sofia?” 

Sofia pulls her hands off her face…but it’s not Sofia. Lady Akabba is back. With a sinister smirk on her, Sofia uncurls and cracks her neck. Looking down at the pathway to the school, she sees a stunned Laura. 

Sofia puts her best “Sofia” smile, and cheers at the sight of her old friend. She swoops down and hugs her; she’d heard she’d left!

LAURA: “I…did. But I heard you were back, so I called Magik.” 

SOFIA, pulling back: “You came back just for me? Why did you even leave?”

LAURA: “It's a long story. I just needed to see that you were okay. That you were better.” 

SOFIA, grinning like the sun and taking Laura’s hands: “Oh Laura, I'm better than ever.” 

Sofia leans in and kisses Laura, completely shocking her as her eyes widen…but she isn't about to complain about what she's dreamed of for 2 years. 

Sofia pulls back, as the two pant with pleasure. All the anxiousness and pain has been wiped off Laura’s face.

LAURA: “I don't understand. You don't like girls.” 

SOFIA: “And for a time, I was powerless. Things change. And the longer I thought about the horrible things I said to you the last time we were together, the worse I'l felt - and the more I've wanted to do that..” 

Sofia giggles while Laura remains shell shocked, going in for another kiss…just in time for Julian and Noriko to arrive on the scene, the two having chased after Sofia. Julian’s heart breaks seeing this, Nori can tell that it has from the look on his face - and that pisses her off. 

The episode comes to an end as Sofia pulls back and grins evily. 

[evilwickedme]

So if Superman is Moses and Captain America is David, do you think that Spider-Man is Job?

He's always miserable, with suffering piled upon suffering and loss piled upon loss. But he always has faith in the goodness of humanity and the righteousness of his duty. He maintains his faith throughout all of his trials, and that's what makes him a hero.

(I was thinking about how Judaism and Xianity see G-d differently, and more specifically how they see faith and obedience to G-d differently. In Judaism faith isn't about obedience, and G-d is often an allegory for the world just as the world is often an allegory for G-d — at least that's how I interpreted the fact that 90% of our prayers are thanking G-d for creating a specific aspect of material reality. So if the story of Job is, from a Jewish perspective, isn't about unwavering obedience to a single entity but instead about having unwavering faith in the goodness of the world, then it fits Peter Parker almost to a T, right?)

Wow ok I am SO pissed off that I wrote the answer to this for a full hour and now it's just fucking gone because Tumblr decided not to publish it when I hit post. What the very fuck. So I'm going to try to shorten what I wrote a little and hopefully it'll still make sense. But this is a great ask, for real.

Anyway. I feel like something that's been lost in my most popular posts is that my central thesis when it comes to the Jewish nature of superheroes is not that there's a 1:1 between every hero and a historical, mythological, or Tanakhi figure. The central thesis is, instead, that the very concept of heroism as presented in comics is tied to the Jews who created the genre; it's just very easy to demonstrate these kinds of concepts with direct allegories that have such clear parallels. I actually have a third secret parallel that'll probably never see the light of day, between Magneto and Aher (and like, does anybody even know who Aher is? he's not exactly a well known figure).

One of the reasons I haven't posted this comparison is that it is largely thematic, and therefore requires considerably more explanation, especially for goyim or those who aren't familiar with Aher's story (אלישע בן אבויה fyi if that means anything to y'all). But that's sort of my point - it's much easier to point that Superman is literally Moses and Cap and David serve very similar purposes as characters than to talk about the fact that superheroism is based in Jewish values and traditions: the very idea that heroes are meant to make the world better through action as opposed to sacrifice, the value assigned to every single life (he who saves one life etc), characters becoming better people over time rather than going through dedicated redemption arcs, etc (I can't remember what I wrote here and it's driving me nuts thank you very much for asking).

I gave a lot of context here to the difference between Golden Age and Silver Age writing here but honestly again that took forever and I don't feel like typing it all up, so I'll just point out the basic facts which are that the people creating the comic book industry in the late 30s and early 40s were desperate Jews trying to save their people across the ocean, and also were only about ten or twenty years removed from having lived in the Old Country themselves. Their life and culture was intensely Jewish, they'd grown up in specific Jewish tales. By the time we get to Spider-Man, the situation is entirely different. It's been 25 years of comics (Superman debuted in '38, Spider-Man in '63), and the Jewish foundations of comic books and heroism are already baked in to the genre. Yes, the industry is still overwhelmingly Jewish, but now the separation from a purely Jewish upbringing and Jewish separatism in the Old Country is forty years old. The attempt now is to specifically make stories that haven't already been told - for Spider-Man, the main concept was that there had never been a teen hero before who stood on his own - one that wasn't part of team like the fantastic four, or, more typically, a sidekick.

All these differences actually mean that the coding of these characters is very different. Superman being Moses was intentional; Cap was created as anti-Nazi propaganda. Spider-Man was and is Jewish because he is such a pure example of what Jewish heroism is. He's flawed, he's angry, but he can't help himself from trying to save... Well, everyone. It is, however, important to note that he debuted a long while before Magneto was confirmed Jewish (I don't actually know if he was the first, bc I'm having trouble finding that kind of info easily on the internet, but he's certainly one of the most notable Marvel Jews ever, and he was confirmed as a Holocaust survivor relatively early); it was a whole before Marvel realized you could make somewhat prominent characters Jewish, let alone heroes, and by then Spider-Man was one of their best selling characters, and they're still afraid to this day to alienate readers by confirming him as such.

But moving onto Job - I think I have a very different read of the Book of Job from you, but that's not surprising to me; the Book of Job is incredibly opaque, and I doubt that any two people will interpret it exactly the same. Also, I was raised Orthodox, and I often have very different perspectives on various Jewish things than the typical American Jew. Here's how I view it, though.

Firstly, Job absolutely does not maintain his faith throughout the entire story. Yes, initially he's presented as the most pure person ever, one who has never even been tempted to do a chet (חטא, closest translation is sin; another word would be aveira, which would best be translated as a transgression). And, indeed, it is not his deeds that lead to him losing everything; it is instead Satan who argues to test his faith by taking everything he holds dear away from his - his money, his cattle, his children, his health, his wife.

It's noteworthy, for any goyiche reader, that Satan in Judaism is not the Christian Devil who rules hell. He's an adversary, for sure, but he's more like an opposing counsel; his role is to argue for every human's guilt, especially when someone has committed a terrible aveirah. Forgive me for saying this, but he's essentially a devil's advocate. He can be viewed as the manifestation of yetzer hara on a wider scale (yetzer hara and yetzer hatov are the two natural impulses we all have in ourselves, the first to be selfish or to commit bad deeds and the other to commit good deeds and help others; this is a neutral fact rather than a condemnation of any person, and also I'm massively oversimplifying things here). Also, he's a tattle-tale.

Anyway, back to Job. Yes, at first he does maintain his faith, through the loss of his property, his children, even his health; his wife, before she dies, begs him to curse God, and yet he doesn't. But when she does die, he spends a chapter lamenting the day he was born, regretting that he wasn't stillborn. At first this doesn't look like a direct accusation at God, but it absolutely is, as God is in charge of life and death, but also evidence by the following:

So Job does lose his faith, because as far as he can tell, he has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and yet he has been cursed to grieve everything he has ever had, and he won't even die.

Most of the book is dedicated to dialogue between himself and three of his friends, who come to the common conclusion that he must have done something wrong to deserve this treatment. But Job remains adamant: I did not deserve this.

The general lesson that many people take from this book is that God works in mysterious ways, blah blah. But like... We know, in fact, exactly why this story happened. We saw it! We saw Satan advocate to try Job! So what's the point of the book?

The point is the Job keeps asking "why". The point is that Job hears that God won't forgive his friends, despite the fact they blame him for his misfortune, and he still chooses to pray for them. The point is that he refuses to take what has happened to him quietly. Not accepting that what happened to him was just, but not accepting others' injustice either.

Ugh. I phrased all of this way better in the first draft. I really truly hate this.

Anyway my point is that Job, despite being far richer than the average Jew by the standards of his time, actually is meant to represent a very common situation: what do you when bad things happen. Do you blame yourself, or do you blame God? Do you let other people beat you when you're down, or do you stand up for yourself?

And the thing is those themes are universal, but they're not really related to Peter Parker in particular. In the shallowest sense, the kind I used to compare Cap and David or Superman and Moses, they do not have similar stories or backgrounds. Job has everything, and he loses it all, and he mourns all of it, including the property and money; Peter Parker is working class, has never had enough money, but we see again and again that he views it as a tool rather than a goal in and of itself. Spider-Man's origin is about learning to battle your yetzer hara, your darkest impulses, and we see Peter again and again trying to do his best even though he's often being pulled by his instincts to use his power for selfish purposes. Job does not ever have to learn any such lesson; he never did anything wrong.

The one thing in common between the two stories is that they both believe that every life has value - well, if Peter is being written by a competent authors at least - with Job praying to save the men who are literally called the "resha'im", the evil ones, and with Peter being the little man's hero. But that can be said about most heroes, especially the notable ones. Hell, there's an entire double page spread dedicated to the concept in Batwoman: Elegy. This is more of another indication of Jewish values making their way into the foundations of superhero comics than it is a similarity between Job and Peter.

Also, I feel like I need to be clear. Our prayers thanking God for creating something? Traditionally are simply thanking God for creating something. I'm not saying you can't interpret it as a metaphor for the world if that's what works for you, if that's how you see God, but God was very literal to most Jews for thousands of years, and I could talk for ages and ages about the schools of thought regarding God and the world and Maimonides and shit.

Speaking of which, we need to discuss the fact that Job is literally just some guy. Like he's not a prophet, he's not a leader or a judge, he's just some rich dude who lost everything, mourned it, and then got it all back. I've talked about this before, but one of the foundational ideas of my thesis is that the similarity between prophets having powers (such as Samson but also really any judge being considered a higher authority despite not even communing directly with God) and superheroes invokes Maimonides' claim that the first degree of prophecy is the need to act for the better good, being unable to ignore the ills of the world and doing your best to fix them - that people who incapable of ignoring that urge (and Peter, despite his occasional selfishness, often prioritizes Spider-Man in his life specifically because of that urge) are possessed by the spirit of God. Literal prophecy, communing with God, cannot exist without this base level. So, in effect, Peter is significantly holier than Job.

Anyway. Again, I've definitely missed some points because of Tumblr's fuck up and I intentionally skipped most of the history lesson that gave a lot of context which I didn't feel like typing up again, but this is most of it. Sorry if this wasn't what you hoped for, but this was a really interesting thing to talk about anyway, and I'm very grateful you gave me the opportunity to think it over.