#max mccoy

[qualitymoonsuit]

Last night, I finished reading Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, by Max McCoy. This afternoon, I started reading another Indiana Jones book by Max McCoy. It is called Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth.

[thatstormygeek]

Merchan’s in an impossible position in regard to Trump. There is simply no way to deal with his contempt that doesn’t involve treating him with more deference than any other defendant.

I'm glad to see this recognized in this piece. I have no strong feelings about Merchan one way or the other, but I have been following the case on a couple of law blogs. I understand the frustration folks are feeling with how Trump is still obviously getting different treatment than even other wealthy defendants.

However, with the Weinstein thing still fresh, I'd hope y'all could appreciate how hard this judge is apparently trying to appeal-proof his decisions. Unfortunately, this means exercising a ridiculous amount of lenience when it comes to Trump because yes, our "justice" system is anything but equal. Personally, I'd much rather him be given an annoying amount of lenience now (as long as it's not getting into intimidation territory, which the proxies have been jumping into feet-first, so...) and have the potential conviction stand instead of throwing the book at him and getting a reversal on appeal.

And we all know that he'll be appealing any conviction and that every tiny thing that happened in the courtroom is going to be picked apart by teams of folks looking for any possible wiggle room.

So while I appreciate being fed up, I just want other folks to appreciate that this judge is doing an impossible job while his daughter is being actively targeted by elected officials in this country. Maybe give the dude a bit of a break, is what I'm saying.

[deyageka]

.

.

No srsly I can’t believe they’ve actually done this:

(+)

[platossoulmates]

he may be a terrorist but at least he’s a cunty terrorist like look at that signature 😭

[0livdocx]

Gay sex-men ready for our gay sex missions

[siderains]

i love it when any x men media ends up with YES those freaks are a beautiful and caring FAMILY and they LOVE each other yes

[neil-perrys-reincarnation]

just named my little brothers stardew valley chickens ‘spock’ ‘jim’ and ‘bones’ :333 im so smart heehee

(it’s a strange new world)

[magnetostits]

i’m absolutely loving how unhinged max is in the new xmen series

[ddosq]

The First officer never fails

[luaalz]

Eu estava assistindo DOFP (de novo) e parei pra reparar nas cenas do Mercúrio (de novo também), e cara, ele com o Erik---😭😭❤️‍🩹

I was watching DOFP (again) and I stopped to notice the scenes with Quicksilver (again too), and man, he's with Erik---😭😭❤️‍🩹 no

Também não me canso de ver a forma como Logan parece ter uma grande consideração por Peter (sempre gosto de imaginar que eles foram grandes amigos no futuro).

I also never tire of seeing how Logan seems to have great regard for Peter (I always like to imagine that they were great friends in the future).

(It's in Portuguese, but I think you already know this scene, lol)

[qualitymoonsuit]

This morning I woke up early to finish reading Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku, by Randy Ribay. Now I'm reading a book called Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, by Max McCoy.

[thatstormygeek]

What is happening at Eagle Pass is not a political stunt, nor are the actions by red state governors to send the National Guard there as “support.” It is a manifestation of a kind of democracy death wish by state supremacists to militarily challenge the federal government. These are the election (and reality) deniers who would trade democracy and the will of the majority for authoritarianism and oppression by the few — or the one. On women’s reproductive rights, immigration, diversity, and gender and economic equality, the rallying cry of these provincial prefects is “state’s rights,” just as it was 164 years ago. Do not forgive them, for they know what they do. “Those justifying their embrace of authoritarianism as the future of government in the twenty-first century say that democracy is obsolete,” writes Heather Cox Richardson in “Democracy Awakening,” her 2023 book. “Some argue that popular government responds too slowly to the rapid pace of the modern world and that strong countries need a leader who can make fast decisions without trying to create a consensus among the people.”

We have today a powerful phalanx of politicians who would deny us that right to choose for ourselves how to live — whether we are writing from a book-filled room on Constitution Street in Emporia, or wading to an unknown shore toward the promise of a better life, drawn by the lamp of liberty. To deny the humanity in others is to deny the humanity in ourselves. A sweeping statement, I know, and I can already hear the howls of my critics. Fentanyl! Human trafficking! Gang violence! Foreign acquisition of farmland! Yes, there are criminals among undocumented immigrants, but studies show they are less prone to crime than U.S. residents. Foreign purchase of land? Not a significant threat. And while immigration presents a considerable challenge in this era of political, cultural and climate-driven displacement, we must always remember that we are dealing with fellow human beings. ... Who constitutes a human being has been the overwhelming question driving the American experiment. We have gotten it badly wrong at times, from counting Black people as three-fifths of a person to denying women the vote. The definition of who deserves the inalienable rights guaranteed us by the founders has always been what threatens to break us as a nation. Until recently, we moved in fits and starts toward a definition that is progressively more equal and inclusive. Yet, the current authoritarian impulses of a minority of Americans is threatening to undo us and plunge us back to the pre-Civil War days when your freedoms were largely defined not by the federal government, but by the state where you lived.

[fun-k-boards]

New X-Men: Evolution plot idea part two electric boogaloo

"Charles Xavier, Ororo Munroe, Logan, Hank McCoy, you're all charged with child neglect and endangerment, how do you plead?"

Then Magneto kills the court gayly or smth idk

This all started because the kids realised they'd been given more missions than usual

They start a union the next week after

[platossoulmates]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNW8RbHW/

this is so important to me i could write an entire thesis about how the slight differences in their ideologies shape the entire series

[comicwaren]

From X-Men Vol. 7 #001, “Fire-Baptized Species”

Art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Marte Gracia

Written by Jed MacKay

[positivelybeastly]

From the Ashes Infinity Comics #15: Pygmalion, Part 1

So, for those who are not aware - Infinity Comics are online-only comics distributed through Marvel Unlimited, their subscription based app and browser collection of comics. Regarded as 'inessential,' but still very much canon, the raft of Infinity Comics coming out of From the Ashes have been quite good, but I haven't seen fit to comment on them for a bit, until now, because . . .

Let's go.

For those not aware, Pygmalion is a famous novel by George Bernard Shaw, detailing the attempt by a phonetics professor called Henry Higgins to 'elevate' a Cockney flower-girl named Eliza Doolittle.

Intrigued by a bet that he could pass her off as a duchess through careful schooling, he decides to take her on, and though he succeeds, she ends up feeling marginalised and overlooked, treated as an object of gambling and curiosity rather than an individual in her own right, and though the play is best known for the 'culturing' of Eliza Doolittle, it is as much about the arrogance of Higgins, who is a thoroughly unpleasant and rude individual, in thinking that he has any ownership over Eliza for his education of her. He may have 'created' her, but he does not control her.

The Factory that the X-Men are living in at present must have really good central heating for Cyclops to be wearing basketball shorts and a crop top that short.

Beast is currently investigating some kind of issue with Magneto's chromosomes - to put it succinctly, he appears to be ageing rapidly, and does not have access to his X-gene at present. This is a continuation of the storyline in the previous Infinity arc, which focused on Magneto.

Something worth noting - this is the first acknowledgement of the fact that though Hank's body may be of roughly the same physical age as his original, his mind is considerably younger, situated at some point in his mid 20s. For someone who was always the oldest of the original X-Men, this is fairly significant.

Also worth noting - Hank joins the ranks of superheroes who are actively seeking therapy for their problems! Good on you, Hank! And good on you, too, Scott, for suggesting it. Though, perhaps, given recent developments in the mainline X-Men comics, you should take your own advice . . .

The fact that Hank refers to himself as the only one left seemingly confirms that X-Force took care of the Beast clones who Beast Prime planted around various landmarks as part of the Ghost Calendars arc. Though they were defeated in their respective future timelines, I wasn't quite sure if they had been taken care of in the present as well. This seemingly confirms that they were.

Hank's therapist is Dr. Andrea Sterman, a supporting character from Jed MacKay's Moon Knight run, and a member of the Midnight Mission. Given that the writer, Alex Paknadel, confirmed on Twitter that he talked with Jed MacKay about making sure all the details for Hank's storyline would line up with the mainline X-Men book, I can only imagine this was done as a rather fun continuity nod.

Hank also refers to a Shi'ar warship, an avian alien race that the X-Men deal with on a regular basis. This makes sense, given that Hank was beamed aboard the Shi'ar imperial flagship during the events of Dark Phoenix Saga in 1981 - ancient history for us, but relatively fresh in Hank's mind, given his memories come from 1985.

Hank, naturally, does himself a disservice here. Dark Beast was, assumedly, abducted at a relatively young age from his human parents, and indoctrinated by Mister Sinister as something of a protege - a protege living in perpetual fear of his mentor. He probably didn't have a chance to develop any kind of moral code divorced from the social Darwinist hellhole that is the Age of Apocalypse.

That being said, Hank probably lacks that context, and Dark Beast is unique among Age of Apocalypse denizens, not just for his unerringly cruel nature, having never shown any altruistic tendencies (unlike, say, AoA Cyclops or Nightcrawler), but also for his resilience. He persists, even now - though last seen in Immortal X-Men #9 as a head in a jar, he has come back from the dead at least twice before, and it is unlikely he is gone for good.

Fun fact - his appearance here is based on the costume he wore during his scrap with Emma Frost's X-Men team in a confrontation with Spider-Man and the Lizard. Though the X-Men naturally encountered him after this point, it's fun that this appearance by Dark Beast is considered iconic enough to be the 'definitive' look for him by this comic.

Hank's final remark, about 'Henry McCoy plus time equals atrocity,' is a sentiment often repeated on social media boards, and it's interesting to see it being internalised by Hank himself, given his unique perspective on the events that created his future self and the other potential timelines the X-Men files likely refer to.

Mm. A lot to unpack here.

Hank's relationship with his X-gene has always been complicated, and the way he views it here, as essentially morphing him into a shape that he finds abhorrent, predatory, and beyond his control, is consistent with how Hank seemed to see himself during his feline mutation, which lasted from 2000 to 2013.

Though his feline phase is not referenced in this comic, beyond the 'over time, and with a little help, these became more pronounced,' (probably a reference to Sage's jumpstarting his secondary mutation) it assumedly would be in the files Hank has been using to catch up, and one has to wonder if he's been repeating some of the thought processes that made feline Hank such a uniquely neurotic version of the character.

It's also nice to see a canonisation of my long held fanon that Hank's X-gene is actively attempting to craft a form for him that is best suited for survival, a belief that Hank only hinted at back in Morrison's New X-Men, but which made sense, given the circumstances of his mutation in X-Treme X-Men.

That being said, Hank's own mind seemingly strays back to the night his furry mutation first manifested at the Brand Corporation in Amazing Adventures, where he flew into a berserker rage and nearly killed Carl Maddicks, which always seemed a little incongruous with how Hank was written in subsequent appearances in Avengers and Defenders, but which now seems to be retroactively made an expression of the brutality he was capable of during his feline phase.

The 'violent upheavals' Hank refers to here are likely his initial secondary mutation, and then his near-death experience when said mutation randomly destabilised in All-New X-Men. It could also be a reference to his numerous genetic troubles during X-Factor volume 1.

His opining that he found refuge in the life of the mind is very reminiscent of Hank's desire to find meaning in poetry, literature, art, humanity, in the wake of the changes in his body in both X-Factor and New X-Men. X-Factor #33 and New X-Men #117 both specifically reference his delight in the freedom to think, in opposition to the clouding of the mind that came with his Pestilence inflicted dumbing down, or his newly awakened predatory impulses.

Ironically enough, Magneto is, aside from Simon Williams, the character with whom this version of Hank has shared the most panel time and dialogue, between his conversations in X-Men and previous From the Ashes Infinity Comics. It would appear that Max's need for a cure for his condition are fostering a necessarily stronger bond than Hank and Max have ever shared before in canon.

Precisely where the rest of the team is during the course of these events is unknown. If I had to guess, it's possible this might be set during the events of X-Men #2, where the rest of the team was attending to a mutant rescue in San Francisco, accounting for the lack of availability of the Marauder and a reliance on an old Quinjet.

Quite how Hank got his hands on said Quinjet is unknown, though it's possible it might be a holdover from Hank's Defender days, where he would regularly borrow a Quinjet from the Avengers, for purposes ranging from actual superhero missions to attending Patsy Walker's wedding.

Though this Hank's memories originate in closest proximity to the Defenders, and though that team did enjoy some degree of notoriety under Hank and Candy Southern's stewardship, the Avengers have always been where Hank was most popular in-universe, and he has had a habit of using that association to smooth things over in mutant related books, such as in X-Factor volume 1 and the 90s X-Men run.

Unfortunately, mutant rights are in a more dire state than ever before, with things having seemingly gotten only worse for them since the 1980s, and it's likely Hank didn't expect this level of hatred from normal civilians.

I have, unfortunately, run out of images, so I'll be posting the last of this issue and my final thoughts and predictions in another post.