#sad for cyclops and jean and madelyn

[x-mensirens]

[artsy-hobbitses]

Just finished watching X-Men 97 Ep 7 (I love having a series to look forward to on a weekly basis again! Excited to get a good dinner and sit down for half and hour of getting WHIPLASHED by all the new reveals and emotions. It's such a nice thing to look forward to inthe mid-week slog as well)!!!

Thoughts and spoilers below!

They REALLY went all out with Gambit's funeral, and it was nice seeing Nightcrawler carrying out priest rites for the brother-in-law he could have had. Jubilee's anguished anger at Rogue not being there HURT

Holy shit ROGUE. VERY Rogue-centric episode, and it's pain pain PAIN evbery other minute. Her absolute disdain for Captain America not wanting her to be on his team to check out Gyrich because of the tense situation/'optics' is 100% understandable, I stand by women's rights and Rogue's Wrongs in this case. Also her backhanding him with the "America's Top Cop" label, she taking no prisoners this week.

Beast gently but sternly calling out Trish the reporter about how 'tolerance' simply isn't enough anymore and it was a low bar to set for mutant-human relations to begin with, and how he's aghast at the idea of having to give a calming/professional sound byte or something to try and quell mutant protests and demonstrations worldwide after what happened, after MILLIONS OF THEM DIED is. Very relevant. To certain current events. He's been trying SO HARD to be the sweet, professional one, but he is tired and he is sad and he doesn't have it in him to ask for the bare minimum anymore or tell his people they don't have the right to feel the way they do.

We get Diamond Emma! No clue as to whether the massacre has changed her outlook on life since her appearance was during a brief rescue moment where Cyclop's hopes that Madelyne could have survived (Jean said she could feel a telepath under all the rubble) got crushed, but hopefully that'll be answered in the next ep!

Sunspot finally coming clean to his mum about him being a mutant! She seems like a very sweet lady who clearly loves him and takes it VERY WELL, but immediately she's like "Our family is established and in the spotlight, your father's business can't afford this sort of publicity. The world won't accept you, especially given what happened, so we have to find a way to hide this from the public, and that includes cultivating a list of people you can associate with". Which feels like it could be relevant to today's queer acceptance where it's like "On a personal basis I love you and accept you for who you are, BUT..." as an evolution from the X-Men movie's "Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?"

There is a LOT of talk about 'optics' in this episode, which feels VERY TIMELY. And VERY POINTED. How President Kelly apparently wants to send aid to Genosha, but doesn't do it to the fullest extent because he's worried about the political optics from 'normal humans' who are now afraid of an all out human-mutant war, and argues that he's doing his best here and that he needs suppport to stay in office to ensure a 'worse' person for mutant advocacy doesn't step in (I'm not going to lie. Very Democrat argument for why their man should stay in office---look at the boogieman who might be there if they aren't, instead of dealing with issues head-on) . And Cyclops's civil but seething rage at that because this is NOT a time for subtleties or politicking MILLIONS OF MY PEOPLE ARE DEAD.

Nightcrawler comforting Rogue and letting her just bawl openly in his arms during Day of the Dead ;; My heart.

Rogue kills a man. Or, helps him to his death, I'm not sure how you categorize this when Trask was already attempting to jump off a building out of guilt anyway, and she stepped in to stop him, only to let go when he said he had no other info for her (she had initially told him to help them to redeem himself). Again, 100% understandable, I support Rogue's Wrongs, and I LOVE how dark they're taking this, watching our girl step closer and closer to the abyss from her rage and grief and just plunging into it. Also her screaming that Trask deserved it for killing a great man, "MY MAN!!!!!". Whoof.

KNEW Mags wasn't dead. Going to be fun seeing WHAT Bastion plans to do with him now.

Again, STELLAR episode, a good 9/10 from me!

[racefortheironthrone]

Greetings! I'm asking the reverse of a question from a few weeks ago.

Who would be each ASOIAF character's favourite X-man, or mutant if you prefer? Obviously there's a lot of ASOIAF characters, only whoever strikes your fancy of course.

Thanks!

I could have sworn I had done this years ago, but I think I must have gotten a draft or something eaten back in 2018 when I did the reverse of this. In order to make this a bit more manageable, I'm going to stick with ASOIAF POV characters only.

Bran - Xavier. A morally ambiguous disabled psychic. Kind of over-determined, really.

Catelyn - Madelyne Pryor. A wronged wife with red hair granted dark powers to wreak revenge.

Daenerys - Jean Grey. A woman of immense supernatural power who literally walks through fire? C'mon.

Eddard - Cyclops. Honorable warrior respects honorable warrior.

Jon - also Cyclops, but only after the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Arya - Laura Kinney or Gabby. Not sure which.

Sansa - starts as Firestar fan (justice for Lady Butterrum!) ends as Emma Frost stan.

Tyrion - this is more a deep cut, but I think Tyrion would be a huge Whiz-Kid fan, especially his S.W.O.R.D era incarnation.

Theon - I think Theon would be a Quentin Quire fan; something about the combination of great potential and raging insecurity.

Davos - Gambit comes closest, but I could see an argument for Storm, especially Storm's depowered era.

Melisandre - Rachel Summers. Fire, Mother Askani prophecies, the whole shebang.

Jaime - big fan of the Fenris twins. Just kidding. He's super into Angel/Warren Worthington III, and has confused thoughts about whether Warren is better off with Candy Southern or Psylocke.

Brienne - super into the Captains Britain.

Samwell Tarly - I think he'd be a Beast fan, but Percy's X-Force would make him very sad.

Aeron Greyjoy - Exodus is another predetermined choice.

Victarion Greyjoy - doesn't see why Sabertooth has such a bad reputation.

Asha Greyjoy - big Laura Kinney fan.

Arienne Martell - I could see her being an Emma Frost stan.

Barristan Selmy - Cable. Again, white-haired grizzled soldier who protects children of destiny. Not a hard pick.

Quentyn Martell - has a soft spot for Beak.

[vicky82gargoylesfan]

My Thoughts on X-Men 97 Episode 5 Remember It

Wow this was a fucking awesome episode, It was so Intense, shocking and emotional and I still haven't gotten over it, even watching it a few times hasn't helped but I do love it. I'm certainly going to remember this episode for a very, very long time.

I was actually planning to watch it on my break at work, but I forgot my iPad and as I didn't want to look at spoilers, I just watch tv and didn't even look on my phone. It was good thing I did watch it when I got home, otherwise I wouldn't been able to concentrate.

Spoilers

I didn't realise how dark this show was going to become, it took me by surprise. I thought the matureness would be a bit less than Young Justice season 3 and 4, I was totally wrong.

I knew that there were multiple massacre and genocide events in the comics. Watching it on TV, especially an animated show, hits you differently than reading it in comics and it mirrors real life tragic events, it was very shocking.

It was such a brilliant well written episode, it delivered some powerful dialogue. The shift in tone worked brilliantly.

Loved the animation, some of it was breath-taking.

The voice acting was brilliant, A.J. LoCascio, Lenor Zann and Matthew Waterson were amazing. Lenor Zann deserves an award.

The score was breath-taking. I loved the Ace of Base song, Happy Nation, it's now stuck in my head. I never even heard this song before, the only 2 songs I know from Ace of Base is, I Saw the Sign and All That She Wants. I've now downloaded this song.

When I rewatch this episode, it makes me sad seeing all these mutants being so happy and free, not knowing about to turn tragic later.

It was great seeing Nightcrawler again, I also liked seeing cameo's of other mutants. Dazzler, Bomb Bomb, Arc Angel, Marrow, Multiple Man ect, (sorry I'm not clear on other mutant names).

So on the council, is Emma Frost, Shaw, Moria, Banshee, Calisto and Madelyne. I just love Emma's bitchy remarks throughout the episode.

Jean kissing Wolverine didn't feel awkward to me, as it does happen in the comics, so I'm not going to make a big deal about it.

I do hope that Jean and Cyclops do sort there issues out, they are my favourite couple. Scott and Maddy's psychic rapport moment was definitely a reference to Scott and Emma's psychic affair in the comics.

I love Beast's reaction, when Scott and Jean were arguing.

I do love that Scott was concerned for Jean when she had that psychic attack.

I like the flashback, how Rogue met Magneto. Luckily it was confirmed, she met him when she was in her 20s.

I do feel for Rogue and can understand what's she's going through, she wants skin to skin contact but can't do that with Gambit.

I do feel sorry for Gambit but he was mature and respected Rogue's decision to be with Magneto.

I didn't notice The Watcher, on the first watch.

I know a lot of people think that Val Cooper is Mystique but unless Wolverine lost his sense of smell in the 1st two episodes, it can't be her.

Very powerful lines:-

Valerie Cooper "Most other nations don't allow a terrorist become their leader" Magneto "Yet so many allow their leaders to be terrorists"

I thought Rogue was really pretty in that dress.

Magneto and Rogue steamy dance and kiss did feel awkward at first but I got used to it when I watched the episode multiple times.

Rogue realises she loves Gambit and rejects Magneto and she understands what Gambit said to her that 'Some things are deeper than skin'

Ok this is the moment that I knew something bad was going to happen (I didn't notice the Watcher). Madelyne had her psychic attack causing her nose to bleed (and we see Jean's nose was bleeding too). Maddy's vision in the 1st episode was actually foreshadowing this horrific event.

I thought the music being slowed down was a nice touch and felt very haunting.

Great to see Cable again and voiced by Chris Potter, Gambit's voice actor from the original show.

When he said 'not again' does this mean this wasn't the 1st time he's tried to warn everyone about the upcoming attack.

When Madelyne realised Cable is her son and Cable disappears back to the future, saying he was sorry, that was pretty heart-breaking.

Wow that 1st attack, that blast, poor Maddy, she didn't stand a chance.

That blast caused Rogue and Magneto to be thrown quite far out

I just love the animation and sounds when Rogue was regaining consciousness.

I was bit surprised by the amount of blood and cuts on Rogue. Magneto didn't have any injuries at all, until later.

Rogue's and Magneto's reactions was perfect, they were shocked and confused at what was going on, they just stood there watching, you can even here the fear in Rogue's voice when she sees Banshee being vapourised. Kurt had to risk his life to save them.

OMG!! I actually thought Kurt had died, I was relieved that when Gambit checked his pulse, he was still alive.

Rogue, Gambit and Magneto, were absolutely brilliant, Gambit and Magnet were both badass.

When Rogue and Gambit went to save the Morlocks, the score gave me goosebumps. Seeing them side by side was great.

Magneto starts having these flashbacks of death and destruction, including a flashback of the concentration camp, he then goes on a rampage and attacks the Wild Sentinel using a train as a whip.

Gambit saving the Morlocks, was obviously a reference to the Morlock Massacre when he betrayed them but this time he saved them. The music made me think, everything was going to be ok but it was all false hope.

When the wild sentinel detected a omega threat mutant, was that at Leech?

I just love that Magneto protected Gambit and Rogue, used metal debris to cover them.

I just love the way Rogue and Magneto were looking at each other.

Magneto telling Leech 'don't be afraid' in German, was gut wrenching.

I was in shock when Magneto and the Morlocks were vapourised. But I do have a sliver of hope that they might have survived.

Then I see Rogue that I've never seen before, there is no score, just hear a heartbeat.

She's in tears, full of rage and fury and she wants revenge but she not thinking straight and goes she to attack the Wild Sentinel.

Gambit knows she won't make it and has to save her, he throws his charged up bike into her, to get her out of the way of the Wild Sentinel blast.

The Wild sentinel then targets mutants at the Gardens and Gambit has to save them, so he goes after the wild sentinel but then he's impaled and I almost scream, I was in shock.

What I love about Gambit that he still has his sence of humour and he uses his power to blow up the Wild Sentinel, saving the suvivivors.

Then we cut back to the Mansion with the others watching the events on the news, all in shock.

Then back in Genosha, Rogue is crying and cradling Gambit in her arms, then it fades to black and we hear Rogue say 'I, I can't feel you'. I was in tears.

Even the end credit score was very sombre

What was even more sadder, is that Rogue never got to tell Gambit, she chose him over Magneto.

I love Rogue, she's one of my favourite female characters (next to Jean) so seeing her like this was heart braking. I hope she will be ok, I'm going to be really worried about her.

I know that a lot Marvel characters don't stay dead, so I do have some hope that Gambit and Magneto ect will be alive by the end of the season, keeping my fingers crossed.

So the death list is Maddy, Banshee, Marrow, Shaw, Moira, Dazzler, Callisto, Gambit and possible Magneto and the other Morlocks. I assume Emma survives using her diamond form.

I do have a feeling that Bastion is responsible for the genocide on Genosha.

This was only the 5th episode!!! and apparently just warm up, something even worse is going to happen in the last 3 episodes. What could be worse than a genocide on Genosh and major character deaths??????

The next episode, Lifedeath part 2 won't be much of breather episode either, apparently it's going to be scary and creepy.

I have to say this episode has dethroned The Red Wedding.

[moonstone27ls]

X-men 97 thoughts so far...

Gonna give one spoiler warning....

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Why? Because if reviewers haven't spoiled it, most youtubers have dozens of dozens of clips. Literally no point in me saying it much....

Sooo... that pretty much it....

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.....Spoiler warning....ends.......

............................................now....(Also warning I do not have a Disney+ account. I'm on a budget I'm relying on clip unfortunately)

So my thoughts initially when I was hesitant to really look at it. Not so much because Disney owns this now. Its just been a long time. I kinda quit watching the original cartoon I wanna say before the last two seasons.

First ep didn't really grab me. At first the animation turned me off. I can't give a definitive reason why. Just something about when they first talked. And also.... did everyone suddenly get paler? oO No I'm not accusing them of whitewashing Storm. I'm referring to in general. I mean even Magneto looks a bit bleached.

It at best seemed decent. Ep 2 was shown and I was intrigued to see Magneto was apparently in Charles will and just gave him everything. Either he loved/had faith in Magneto more than he showed or just dang he pulled a 180 as they say. Lol I kid, I do think Xavier did all that out of good faith.

That one grabbed my attention a lot more. To see Magneto struggle against what he's use to. To try and be better for Xavier and the X-men. I admit seeing Storm lose her powers was a shocker. But I don't believe she'll stay human forever.

As hard as it is sometimes to see the other side. The show did actually attempt to show a pov for humans. (And no not referring to friends of humanity group). Its just a youtber pointed it out, that although Storm was protecting Magneto, yeah through a humans' eyes the powers could look more terrifying. And although it was stupid of the doctor to refuse aid to Madelyne (Jean's clone, sorry warned earlier on spoilers).

I've watched enough hero shows to see... the doc had a point. DC's Ace accidentally killed her parent as a baby. Cyclops has had accidents. So the fear wasn't totally without cause. Still cool though that Rogue could absorb medical knowledge and the nurses complied.

Enjoyed Wolverine's face when she said the baby was coming. Baby Nathan was cute. And the monologue Magneto gave the UN was really well done.

Ep 3 came and well wasn't entirely shocked the Jean, Cylcops had a baby with would turn out to be her clone. I dunno if it was everyone guessing or the comic reference. Hmm for me it was her face in the background. I swear Madelyne looked more angry than shocked.

And also dang that was good moment to show us they could let go of some restraints. Besides the excellent animation in both their fears being shown and Goblin Queen's fight with X-men and Magneto. And I'm gonna say it... Jean's talk with Wolverine. Very sweet moment, it made me a Jean/Logan shipper. And I recall as a kid I wasn't really into it.

Though will it happen... dunno. Probably not. But I wouldn't be entirely against it. Especially watching that whole ep. Just neither one can remember when they got switched. Just awkwarddddddddd. And while it was sad Cyclops had to say goodbye to his baby, granted I had not read the comics but was told enough to know it was gonna happen. Changed obviously but cartoons does their own thing.

Ep 4 was okay, Jubilee's okay but stuff with Mojo was never my thing. I just enjoyed it when her and Roberto finally became an item. Super cute. Though surprised that the X-men just basically bent over when Magneto said "no" to Jubilee's birthday wish. I mean granted yes he owns their group?/or home. But they all literally wanted to enjoy/and give Jubilee a birthday party. Just surprised not even Wolverine offered to take them out.

Storm's arc was so far ok(waiting for part 2 to full give opinion). Felt sorry for her the entire time cause she clearly missed her powers. And was a bit surprised Forge made those weapons... (dunno if thats a direct ref to the comics).

Then on to ep 5... the one I think so far has clearly blown our minds. I'm not gonna lie part of me saw what happened with Genosha coming because I follow people who explain comic history. So moment the place was mentioned I thought "oh boy what are they gonna do". I am a bit surprised Cable attempted to stop it. Or warn others of it? Sooo... is Madelyne dead? Went to fast to show if she survived.

Action scenes were intense to say the least. Not gonna lie I will be super pissed if they killed off Remy just so Rogue can run back to Magneto. Yes I know what the robot said and everyone's all "Magneto's dead".... but considering how this ended I wouldn't be surprised if he's shown alive later. Guess just a bit surprised people died in general. I mean its not Invincible level but you get the idea still surprising.

Any personal notes... okay what I liked. Voice acting's good, glad they got back the original actors, animation, music even pretty good, some of the story has done fairly well. I like some of the new characters.. I mean I guess.. its been 5 episodes I can't say there's been a lot. All of the cameos and easter eggs.

Anything I don't like...the love drama. Cyclops love rectangle(had to add Wolverine). Not sure were the writers are planning to go with this. And Emma Frost is here, as a character I dunno. But her role with Cyclops I DO remember. Please people don't add more. Lol. After this ep I can already see his variables. One, Madelyne's alive and he choses her. Two, Madelyne's dead and he wants Jean back as a rebound; though she's clearly in my opinion should be given space instead of being asked to choose whom to love right now. Or three she's hurt and he drags his feet in between both. Which sucks.

Honestly although I know Logan turned Jean down. I would prefer Jean go "I need space". She finds her space and she just asks Logan on a date. Just to see where it goes.

Then there's the one I REALLY didn't ask for Rogue/Magneto/Gambit. Yes I know this was in the comics but even then I didn't like it. But onto the show version. Don't like it cause there was no hint of it in the series. And secondly felt like the story was trying to give us Rogue/Gambit as a couple. So to see them trying to find their footing and then shoehorn this love triangle in was EXHAUSTING. I mean I love Magneto as a character both hero/antihero and villain. But I don't ship him with Rogue. He's old enough to be her grandfather and the animation doesn't really do well of hiding it either. He's a cool grandpa but still grandpa to me.

AND yes I know this is a revival. But even their attempts to give it justification felt off. Their background made it more awkward. I'm giving my opinion to be clear. You don't like it don't read it. From what I can tell Rogue was kicked out as a teen. And according to the wiki she was 13.

She met Magneto (according to this revival ) sometime after Mystique took her in. What time? I admit it doesn't say. Given how she's in her mid 20s in the show. We still have to assume she was still a teenager when they met.

Again can't give a precise age besides the fact that it was vague on purpose. Secondly, the animators made her look her 20s age even when she met Magneto. And I'm not buying that. I get it they're attempting to not make this triangle so out of the blue.

But doing it like this now and then I'm gonna be blunt watching his actions/and that dance felt wayyyy more predatory than it did romantic. At least Wolverine wouldn't put Jean on the spot so he could get into her pants. I mean come on writers Magneto could literally have ANYONE else without making it feel predatory BD;.

I'll say it again, I will be PISSED if Gambit is killed and Magneto lives. And just so we can push a may/December romance NOBODY asked for. And at Gambit's expense.

Thats it. I'll write my opinions when the rest of the eps are shown. Later till then!

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

CW: Ignorant white guys from America writing native East Africans (immense cringe, definitely racism).

Uncanny X-Men #198- LifeDeath

Last Issue Recap- Kitty Pryde and Colossus were forcibly volunteered to help protect Arcade from Dr Doom. Cyclops left his wife Madelyn Pryor to temporarily rejoin the team and help an ailing Professor X. Storm's not dead!

From cover alone, you can tell this is going to be a different sort of story. The art here is gorgeous and that'll continue throughout the issue, all drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith. I haven't heard of him before, but I think I'm going to check out more of his work now. I love the rich colors and the textured shading. An interesting piece of foreshadowing as well: usually, the portraits next to the pricing while show headshots of the whole current X-team, but in this cover, it only shows Wolverine, Jean Grey, Professor X and Forge.

Issue proper starts with a beautiful panel of Storm tossed by the winds of the East African... desert? Yeah, the location panel states that Storm is in the vast dune desert part of Serengeti National park. Y'know. The desert. In Serengeti National park. That famous East African desert. Because East Africa sure is a region known for vast deserts! Seriously, Claremont, if you're going to be so pretentious as to name this issue "LifeDeath-From the Heart of Darkness" you could at least have the decency to do basic research on the place your portraying. Then again, this entire issue is very trippy and unreal in art and story. So I'm going to be nice and assume this is an intentional choice as a delirious Ororo is mixing up her current environment with her memories of growing up in Egypt or something.

(Side Note: If someone who has actually read The Heart of Darkness could tell me whether anything in this issue is an actual reference to Conrad's work or if this subtitle really is just a pretentious bit of nothing, I'd appreciate that.)

As Storm stumbles across the "desert," she begins to hallucinate her people from her past, starting with her once-love Forge.

I'm super happy to see him back, I really enjoyed Storm and Forge's doomed romance (TLDR he's a technopath mutant who was commissioned/forced by the government to build the technology that took Storm's powers away in the first place, he helped her recover after the attack but when she discovered what he'd done she throughly dumped him). It was flawed in a good way, a beautiful blend of melodrama and real emotions that I hadn't seen in an X-romance before and I haven't seen since. Forge is a good character and certified badass who deserves more pagetime.

Storm rejects Forge a second time, crying out that his sweet words are a falsehood and he, just like everyone's she's ever loved, has hurt her. She is than attacked by a pit viper (symbolism?) and, convinced she's been bit, crawls into a cave to die and face her next hallucination.

I find it pretty interesting who shows up in this hallucination, or, more accurately, who doesn't. This are clearly the X-men who Storm feels closest too, so I wonder why Banshee isn't here as well. Yes, he hadn't been part of the team for a long while, but when Sean was an X-men I personally saw him as the emotional rock of the team. It feels like the writers have just totally forgotten about him and that's sad.

Just as the cover foreshadows, only Jean, Wolverine and Professor X have conversations with Storm. Jean helps Storm grieve her death in Dark Phoenix Saga. Wolverine, in his usual blunt manner, offers Storm death to force her to confront that she still wants life. Professor X yanks her out of self pity with blunt truths, albeit in a smug, self-agrandizing way.

Even in dream form man is a still mildly a dick.

The X-men disperse and Storm, who wasn't bit after all, crawls out of the cave, confronting the pit viper again. This time goes much better because Storm has finally begun the process of reconnecting with the Earth and with herself. I really wish she'd spent more time in the cave. Partially because there are more X-men I think should have been given their moment to speak (um, hello? Kitty Pryde, Storm's protege who she loves like a daughter?! Kurt and Piotr, her peers who she never truly could connect with?! Scott Summers, rival team leader who she clashed egos and ethos with?!), especially because I feel like what happens next is pretty stupid.

Storm quickly finds a bus wreck and rescues the only survivor, a pregnant young woman named Shani. Supposedly the wreck was source of the heat and smoke smell in Storm's hallucinations, and this is where the comic claims the story switches from largely taking place within a delirious Storm's head to fully real but I don't believe that. There's still plenty of unexplained weirdness here (I'll compile them all at the end).

Also, we've reached the part of this comic that contains some very stereotypical depictions of native Tanzanians. I do not know enough about the people of Tanzania and their culture, religion or history to be a good judge of how offensive this is. I mean, it's definitely racist but somebody more informed than me will have to whether this is seething rage inducing or blazing rage inducing (update: oh no, its for sure blazing rage inducing).

So, Shani is returning to her home village from the city (Which city? Its never named!), where she went to find a better life but instead ended up poor and abandoned by the baby's father. As stereotypical and kind of infantilized as this character is, we at least get some lovely snippets of character for Ororo. As the pair camp for the night, she reflects on her admiration for Shani's life choices, risky and selfish as they may be, as Storm has spent so much of her adult life distancing herself from her own emotions and desires to be the goddess and hero people expected her to be. She realizes that the vision of Professor X is right, she was afraid; afraid of her own humanity, and the flaws that humanity brings.

The pair make their way through the ruined farmland and wrecked equipment around Shani's village. It turns out the desertification of the region isn't natural, but the result of over-farming. As they enter, they're greeted by Shani's tribe, including her parents, and the village elder Mijnari.

Oh boy, straw mudhuts and loinclothes. From some cursory research the housing in this village does somewhat resemble those of the Maasai tribe, which are indigenous to northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya, but the clothing doesn't resemble Maasai traditional clothing at all, so I'm going to assume the semi-accurate houses are not on purpose. Also if these people had the technology and resources for mass agriculture until very recently, surely they would have also had the technology for, like, electricity and shit. Also, Shani and the rest of the tribe all have the dots and slashes on their faces that I think are supposed to be scarification marks but I'll be damned if they remotely resemble Maasai patterns, or any other sub-Saharan scarification types.

Like, I'm pretty sure this is just some made-up bullshit right here. Which is so fucking offensive because scarification usually has deep spiritual, religious or symbolic meaning in the cultures that practice it.

Mijnari welcomes Shani back into the tribe, and the rest of the people follow his lead. Ororo collapses. When she awakens, Shani has gone into labor, and there are complications. The village has responded by... oh for God's sake, dancing around a fire to "propitiate the spirits". I just. I can't even.

Even this supposed in-universe explanation still doesn't explain why Ororo has to do the lion's share of the work in the delivering the baby and resuscitating it when it comes out stillborn. Are you telling me there's really no damn midwives in this tribe?! Nobody has any basic knowledge of childbirth?! We've got this page of close-up panels of Storm delivering the child interspersed with the naked tribal dancers and am I taking crazy pills or is this racist even for the 80s?! Like, this feels more like a scene out of something written in the 40s. A forgotten draft of Jungle Drums (1943) or something. Holy shit this is awful.

So, the baby lives, yay, happy ending, and then Mijnari commits ritual senicide by walking off into the wilderness to die to maintain the tribe's population which is definitely a real fucking thing and not an awful uneducated and barbaric depiction of indigenous Africans and their cultural practices oh my god I want to smack something, preferably the upside of Chris Claremont's head. He gives this speech about the how the tribe misused the technology imported from more industrialized areas and forgot the old ways or whatever and the importance of balance and the folly of hubris and its a metaphor for mutants or whatever and its just so pretentious and racist and stupid and I don't fucking care. Anyway, it allows Storm to self-actualized and realize her purpose as the bridge between mutants and humanity or whatever and love her life even without her powers, yay, oh my God, can we please move on and never speak of this again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, why do I think the second half of this issue is still a hallucination?

The sheer coincidence of Storm finding an overturned civilian passenger bus in the middle of Serengeti National Park. Unless we're to assume that Ororo somehow managed to walk all the way to a road in her state.

We see some of the bodies in the buswreck half-hidden in detailing of a panel, and one the bodies in a picked-clean skeleton. From context clues like the smoke and the state of Shani (she's described as mostly healthy and only suffering from superficial injuries), we can assume the wreck happened quite recently, so there's no way any of the bodies should look like this. (CW: corpses, I wish I could spoiler images for y'all)

3. The farming machinery Shani and Ororo pass are huge, they tower over the landscape and I can't imagine how these things could possibly be operated, let alone be efficient for farming.

4. Again, a desert in East Africa. You can't even be like "oh actually this is the result of desertification because of overfarming and drought and stuff" because in X-men #197 we quite clearly see Storm waking up in a savannah, and not only that but a savannah in the middle of Kilamanjaro National Park. Are you telling me either A) somebody allowed commercial agriculture in an ecological treasure or B) Storm managed to stumble all the way out of a 652 square mile park delirious and with her head cracked open?! It doesn't add up.

5. This is supposedly Ororo's homeland but save for the mystical tribal chief (🙄) who somehow knows everything about her, nobody recognizes Storm as the goddess they used to worship. Hell, nobody even talks about that like "gee I wonder where that mysterious goddess with the white hair who used to protect us from natural disasters went." It'd only been 10 years real time, which is probably more around four to five years in comic time since she left. People ought to have remembered her. I guess either Claremont forgot that plot point ever existed or he was ashamed of it (as he fucking should be because that's hella racist) and wanted to quietly sweep that under the rug.

This comic feels completely different than anything the X-men have done before. Did it pay off? Well... I thought the first half with the hallucinations was great. The second was super racist, and pretentious to boost. At least the art was consistently gorgeous, the lines flow like wind and the posing is dynamic (the expression work is sometimes lacking but that's a common issue with many comic book artists). The coloring I take some issue with, though; all the African characters save Ororo have a greenish/greyish hue to them. So, I applaud Claremont for taking such a big risk, but I also flip him the bird whilst applauding. I am very dextrous.

Please God, let the next issue be something I don't have to put a trigger warning for racism or pedophilia or whatever in front of. Please God let it be normal because otherwise I think I'm going to just quit this series and only read Wayne Family Adventures for the rest of eternity just to cleanse my fucking palette.

[popculturebuffet]

So what is the worst, or top however many if you can't decide one, example of a Marvel Hero turning evil?

OKay first off happy to get a marvel question secondly I needed to think... Beast: This one is complicated as it's a case of salvaging bad writing: See Hank probably COULD'VE been turned back from a self righteous jackass who brought the past versions of the original x-men into the present in a half assed plan to "Make cyclops less evil", that no one thought was good idea. Brian Micheal Bendis, flawed as he is and as bad as all new x-men is, at least left the door open for that. Instead.. his next bit action is to try and not let his own people save themselves from the inhumans, and to continue being a smug dick. So I more hate it because Hank could've been snapped back before Krakoa took him over the moral event horizon, but I can't blame BeN Percy for feeling at this point this is who Hank was, nor writing it well. Evil Hank isn't badly written i'm just sad it had to come to making him a full villian to still make him viable as a character. Madelyn Prior: This is another one tha'ts complciate din that the writing for the stories isn't bad and she's gotten her redemption.. it's more what caused it: editorial wanted Scott Summers back with Jean Grey and thus wanted his wife killed or something. Basically it was just stupid status quo is god bullshit that it's a miracle the writers made into a decent story with inferno. It didn't help there was a full on evil version of her lurking around a while. Captain Marvel: This is a weird one in that Carol didn't TECHNICALLY turn evil on paper, but in practice she turned full jackboot during Civil War 2: A lot of this was tie ins, but the main book didn't help: Even after being toled her precog she was using for this wasn't 100% accurate.. she kept going with her minoirty report bullshit. IT took a while for the character to recover from it and pretty much every ally she had rightly turned on her ass. Iron Man: One reminded me of the other. Tony during civil war did some entirely AWFUL stuff in the main book alone: setting up a prison camp for his friends in a dimension that makes one's mental state worse, helping make a fucking clone of thor, buryin ga black man in chains, and as a result every writer, for better or worse, made him into their punching bag for everything wrong with the registration act, piling on attrocites and weirdly not being a skrull. It was only sheer luck that Iron Man and the acompaning phenominal solo run from matt fraction helped repair his reputation.. and some brain surgery. Tony still has a habit of relapsing into ass but still. Hank-Pym Ultron: This isn't so much making a character evil.. but whoever thought grafting hank to his second worst mistake for no good reason and never freeing him was a good idea needs a quick punch to the gut.

There probably are more, but I just don't have any off the top of my head.

[galacticrambler]

This week’s episode of X-Men ’97, “Bright Eyes”, was wild! The journey in this episode pushed the boundaries in what I was expecting from this show, and I loved it.

The episode opened with the funeral of Gambit, and it was sad. The conversations at the funeral between Jubilee, Wolverine, and Beast were excellent. It’s wild to think that this is just a continuation of the ridiculous kids cartoons of the ’90s.

Let’s skip to the end. The reveal that Bastion is behind everything is a fun twist. He’s a villain that I know literally nothing about, so it’ll be fun to learn all about him. And, OF COURSE, Magneto did survive. Never thought he was gone.

I really love everything that they’re doing with Cyclops and Jean Grey. This story is wild and engaging, and I’m really into it. Cable’s line to Jean that “You’re not her.” was intense and, obviously, true. Despite everything, he knows that Madelyne Pryor is his mother, not Jean.

Let’s talk about Rogue. She’s sad. She’s angry.

She killed a guy.

Look, I don’t care that he was already more dead, machine man than living, human man at that point. Rogue didn’t know that. And she liked him.

I was shocked. I was basically Nightcrawler in that scene. I also get it. She’s going through it right now after the death of Gambit. She’s struggling to keep it together, and it’s in full display.

Also, how cool was that Captain America appearance?

The final the episodes of the season will be telling one long story. I can’t wait to see how this season ends.

[berkeleyplace]

Uncanny X-Men #243 and X-Factor #39 (1989): Inferno

Uncanny X-Men #243 and X-Factor #39 (1989): Inferno

Honestly, I had kind of forgotten that the whole architect of Inferno was Mister Sinister, since we haven’t seen much of him throughout this big event.

But with Madelyne Pryor and N’astirh dead (and Cyclops sad), and S’ym defeated, Sinister is what’s left.

He smashes through Jean Grey’s psyche and starts destroying the elements of Madelyne’s psyche that were merged with Jean’s when the Phoenix…