#I still miss Krakoa

[duz-achines]

Maybe I've just missed out on a ton of Laura content, but isn't she only an adult in the more recent comics? And only because she grew up since she was a kid when she was first brought to the page. In the movie Logan she was a kid, and I don't know what else she's been in.

In the comics, she was a kid, then a teen in the academy, and now a young adult as Wolverine. I think since 2016's All New All Different stuff. As for sexualization, I entirely agree that she's been way oversexualized--problematically perhaps more as a child than as an adult--when she was brought into the comics. It added a lot more victimization and abuse to her story than the original X-23 backstory.

When OP brought up appearance, I thought they were going to discuss how Laura (I really don't like referring to her as X-23) was VERY EGREGIOUS WHITEWASHED. In Evo, she was most certainly not the white girl she was in the comics, and it's a massive bummer. They gave her a blonde mom and everything.

Anyway, she has plenty of material in the comics if you want to see more of her and, though she's an adult in the most recent stuff, her newest ongoing feature is the new NYX (2024), first issue out July 24!

I feel like the only person in existence to absolutely despise what they've done with X-23 outside of Evolution, they changed basically everything about her, ESPECIALLY APPEARANCE WISE. You can call me crazy for this but I'm a million percent certain they only changed her appearance so much and made her an adult because they couldn't be bothered with her actual character and just wanted eye candy.

Also I'll repeat this until I die but if you don't like it when Kurt or other adult X-Men are seen as teenagers or adapted as such then you should absolutely despise any adult X-23 adaptations. This is because in Evolution, her OG appearance, she's canonically around the age range of a kid / young teenager. It's literally pure hypocrisy and just because the majority of people care more about a character's sex appeal than the actual character itself.

[nthflower]

I missed Kavita Rao again bring her back with fall of X. Kavita come back :(

[kalinara]

(House of X #5)

I mentioned the missed opportunities of Krakoa before, but that was a relatively minor complaint.

But here's my REAL complaint, which I've probably made before, but here we go.

I am still rather furious that, at least as far as I know, we never got the actual post resurrection reunion of these two characters.

Scott KILLED Xavier. He wasn't in his right mind, unquestionably. At that time, he was completely out of his mind, hosting a cosmic being he was never supposed to host (...have I really never made a Jean/Phoenix penetration joke about this? I feel like that was a missed opportunity).

But Scott became a mutant wide pariah because of this.

And moreover, despite all the issues between them before and during AvX, Scott did LOVE Xavier like a father. A flawed father, perhaps, but Xavier was still the man who saved him at the beginning, gave him a dream and a purpose. And he killed him.

Now of course, a lot of things happened after that. Scott died, himself. Came back. Believed the entire team was dead, and decided to try to go out with a last hurrah. And the end of Rosenberg's run was fucking BLEAK. Jono died in his arms, expressing total hatred (and I'm always sad not to see some follow up to that, because that was fucking brutal). Rahne murdered by civilian racists. Alex had just blown himself up. Logan had left in a rage and returned as a cavalry. Emma is at her anti-hero best. And of course, at the very end, the "dead" team returns. With Jean Grey at its head.

Those are a LOT of emotional stressors for a guy whose been mid-nervous breakdown for a couple of decades real time now. And Xavier is BACK. I just can't imagine him taking that revelation without some kind of very justified freak out.

And while I hate Xavier on general principle and try not to care too much about his emotional state, how did HE react to this reunion? Because he does love him like a son, and is far more willing to say that outloud during the Krakoa period than he'd ever been before.

Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there was a reunion on panel somewhere. If so, PLEASE tell me. I have to see it. If not. I will continue to sulk, because while I do understand most of the other missed opportunities, this reunion of the man who started the dream and gave his name to it, with the man who, at various times, has been considered the embodiment of it ("Death of X", I point out, wasn't a mini-series about XAVIER's death), we should have gotten to SEE that.

[rei-ismyname]

Giant-Size Wolverine retcons

Marvel, famously, loves having Wolverine as a cash cow, to the point it has its own entry on TVTropes. This manifests as a LOT of Wolverine #1s being released as well as the clawed-one showing up on deceitful covers and guest starring anywhere they think they can justify it. Less common (but still frequent enough) is Forrest Gumping him into historical events or rewriting events he was there for as a character study cynical profiteering.

Sunfire is still great - 'banal prattle.' You tell em

This is the latter, foregrounding Logan in Giant-Size X-Men to the detriment of almost everyone else. In the original Giant-Size X-Men, Logan sits at the back and says very little. Here he takes charge and uncharacteristically identifies that the new squad lacks synergy and a sense of teamwork. He opens with 'it's your first day as new X-Men, people. I'm going to show you how this works.' Uh, isn't it yours too? Did I miss a meeting?

Poor Kurt. Eddie Munster is just mean

So he starts a fight, telling everyone there's one too many people. Colossus objects for sexist reasons (not objection to killing lol) and Storm puts him in his place. Sunfire and Thunderbird both have little patience for white people or bullshit and Logan catches a fireball...

... and an elbow to the spine. Ororo goes off with electricity and Kurt just doesn't want to die, so he BAMFs behind her and starts choking Storm from behind. Logan turns the tables on Proudstar and drops a one liner about metal conducting electricity. I'm no wizard, but I don't think it interacts well with human flesh, either, especially if they have a metal skeleton. Obviously he takes everyone down and has the biggest dick in the world.

Yeah... about Thunderbird.

Banshee bursts in and reveals Logan is acting against Chuck's wishes. I'm generally in favour of that but I'm not fond of its narrative function at all . He has an open shirt, a toothpick in his mouth, and looks oh so pleased with himself. I'm not some reactionary purist who worships the sacred texts and pushes back against retcons. Quite the opposite, in fact. Additive retcons are fantastic when done well - Magneto being a Holocaust survivor stands as one of the best in fiction.

I don't think that's what this is, or at least it's not successful. In Giant-Size X-Men #1 there's no time for this pissing contest because all the other X-Men need rescuing ASAP. Chuck rounds them up and handles the basics then defers to Cyclops, the field leader of many years. They leave immediately and nobody is getting along. Sunfire leaves then comes back. Scott is all business because he's worried about the folks on Krakoa and there just isn't time. If they respect the chain of command in the field that's good enough. Team building can come later.

What's achieved here besides sidelining everyone to centre edge lord Logan? Not a lot, in fact I'd say it minimises Logan's character arc most of all. He was a grumpy loner who eventually learnt to trust people, came to see the X-Men as family, and committed to the team. Logan knowing half this stuff already and having this degree of social confidence just undermines that, as well as Cyclops' leadership of this ragged band. Not sure what Whedon was thinking tbh.

That wasn't the end of it, though. Interestingly, this is Chris Claremont writing here. Again, I'm not a purist and I'm under no illusion about CC's later X-Men work. He'd worked with these characters for a long time but Giant-Size was Wein & Cockrum, so he's choosing to expand the origin story. Thunderbird is still alive so they're still pretty new here. Anyway, Cyke is running a danger room training session - Storm vs Thunderbird.

After some kinda bizarre ethnic posturing Ororo is pinned.

Unsurprisingly, she starts to wig out due to her claustrophobia. Logan picks it up with his advanced senses and jumps in. Scott owns the mistake and ends the training session.

I find it hard to buy Scott would feel like his authority was undermined here. Logan is being as paternalistic as ever, but Scott blames himself for failures. He doesn't externalise it and he understands he's not leading children anymore. It's Chuck who has difficulty adapting to this specific dynamic. Also, Logan had zero interest in leadership. None. It was Ororo who was a friendly rival to him and ended up succeeding him as leader. He also didn't especially trust or show respect to anyone. Everyone else has problems but the focus and Charles' confidant is Wolverine. That's silly as hell.

Okay, private insecurity and self-doubt, totally Scott's thing. I'm just going to ignore literally everything else that's happening, especially 'damaged goods.' Ugh.

The second story came out in 2005 in Giant-Size X-Men #4. Aside from the Wolverine oversaturation and other weird shit I've pointed out, I feel like there was a concerted effort to bring certain characters closer to their FOX movies counterparts. Chuck started looking like Captain Picard, Scott was Flanderised a bit but moreso deemphasized, and Logan started to look and act more like Hugh Jackman. He joined more teams, regressed in social growth yet became way more important to the X-Men. More important to the very fabric of the Marvel universe.

I get why it happened (capitalism) but I think it was executed poorly in many instances. These are particularly egregious, but Wolverine was and is fucking everywhere - under many different writers. There's always going to be a sense of asynchronicity under those circumstances. I've actually come to really dislike Logan lately. Obviously it's an issue for most long running characters, but his particular regression to the mean every new book bores the shit out of me. He's not growing at all, even when everything around him changes. On Krakoa he was mostly just gruff and stabby, monologuing about hell, beer, time, nature, poison, and being the best he is at what he does. 🙄

He'll usually find someone worse than him to point at and call out with transparency he never applies to himself. Magneto, Scott, Beast, Scott, Chuck, teenage Scott, Sabertooth, Omega Red, Beast, Chuck, and Scott again. Someone please deconstruct this guy! Send him to therapy, break him down to his base components and examine them. Fuck his moping or running naked with wolves or fighting the W-digo - give him a messy boyfriend and force him to get the fuck over Jean Grey.

He can still fight ninjas and mentor troubled teens and sulk about whatever his latest thing is - just have him grow! His books will still sell, people will still cheer when he says bub, and snikt isn't going away. Hire Al Ewing to do it like he did with Loki, Hulk, Magneto, Sunspot, etc. Some of those changes actually stuck and the characters are more popular than ever! Is that too much to hope for? Almost certainly, but one can hope.

Boy I got carried away on that outro, lol.

[honey-minded-hivemind]

It's me still a nervous wreck with ideas that won't go away I did not in fact die of dehydration!

Reader, I um what no I'm not a child! I have an ID!

Gambit, and it was a wonderful fake one really great craftsmen ship! But I knew it was fake from the moment I saw it.

Reader, mother fu-

Gambit, have a welcome to Krakoa gift basket while I get you the really good painkillers.

Twenty minutes later a very drugged reader is looking through the gift basket.

And more ideas because they won't leave my mind

Reader sitting in a Krakoa bar before they leave to find another Mutant, eating waffles

Gambit sits close and tries to convince them to stay, reader asks for an alcoholic drink and hands over their ID which gambit sees and knows is fake from his less then legal past, ladies and gentlemen we got em.

Reader being so confused as to why Gambit seems so happy all of a sudden "you okay dude?"

More ideas that won't go away!

One reader gets better they try and leave but it feels so strange everything seems normal they're in a normal hospital in a normal town and people treat them like a normal teen (ignoring the strange looks and obsession.)

They're confused high on pain meds and have no idea how to leave as they've never been to this part of Krakoa before only staying in towns that have gateways, so they wander aimlessly in a hospital gown and jacket from the gift basket, a kind bakery owner giving them free food and inviting them in while calling the very concerned X-Men who are freaking out at there missing bby.

More ideas! I'm sorry for flooding your inbox!

A court battle ensuing about who gets to adopt this skraggly can't even write their own name bites people who get too close teen.

Meanwhile reader is attempting to escape Krakoa CPS wanting no adoption and to be free of these obsessed people who keep feeding them and giving them pain meds.

Welp imma go buh bye!

Reader: Please help me, I just need to find a road out of here-

The worried shop owner: Okay, okay, calm down, dear, eat your waffles and fries and let me go get you something to drink-

The worried shop owner, actually calling the X-Men: Hello? There's a worried child here who seems so scared and confused, and they're asking to leave- I know, the poor dear seems like they aren't doing so well, they might need a doctor- Yes, yes I'll try to get them to stay put, see ya in a few minutes-

The worried shop owner, back with Reader: So, what about you stay for a few minutes, tell us about yourself, where are you from, do you want to stay for about fifteen minutes-

Reader, now suspicious: Um... can I use your bathroom?

Shop owner: Yes, right that way, dear

Reader: Thank you

Reader: actually leaving through the back door

Reader: Why is everyone acting so weird??

The X-Men, showing up at the front: We are here about a strange child!

Reader from the back alley: D*mn it, they move fast!!!

Reader is going so fast into the shadows and simply booking it to the nearest coastal area, apologizing as they go and sneaky sneaking through the back allies and side streets and avoiding main roads and the majority of people and citizens and heroes and villains-

Only to realize someone is trying to track them, and Reader now has to lose the teen trailing them like a hunting dog or a needy kitten on steroids-

[cornyonmains]

I finally got around to watching X-Men '97. It was better than it had any business being, and I'm just so disoriented.

Episode one. Almost immediately you know they've got someone on the deck who knows how to hide gay shit, because one of the first things you see is Gambit in a crop top.

So, Charles is MIA, but he put Magneto in charge. He rolls up on the mansion looking like a whole-ass Herbal Essences commercial. Him, Rogue, and Gambit spend most of the season in horny jail, and I'm just sayin' Krakoa can have more than one threesome but I digress.

Morph is thirsting hard for Logan. There's a brief scene where they're going to troll him in the shower that looks like something I read on Joe Phillips' website in 2003.

Scott Summers has finally gotten his day. He's still so tightly wound you could use him to launch a cotton ball through Wolverine's skull, but you finally get to see him be as good as he is in the comics. They had him ice skating around with his beams, doing figure eights before he ass blasted sentinels into next week. Bishop was there, he ass blasted them back to the current week to avoid a paradox.

There's a scene where Scott tells Logan not to break Jean's heart. We all know what's going to happen on Krakoa. I did not miss that shit.

Where's Storm you ask? In horny jail with Forge. In the desert. Fighting demons and horseback riding. Jubilee? Locking down a sugar daddy and finally having her powers developed.

And all this isn't even going over the plot, which is genuinely good, and deals with heavy subject matter such as discrimination and genocide in heavy tones that don't condescend, instead of that after school special kind of tone cartoons that aren't specifically geared towards adults often have. The kids watching are going to hate the villains passionately instead of just finding themselves waiting for the X-Men to save the day.

Did I mention Magneto's fabulous hair yet? It looks like what would have happened of Fabio had believed it wasn't butter. Or if Farrah Fawcett found that flower from Tangled. He looks like he's having the kind of sex you read about in dogeared copies of Lost Souls during your teenie goth phase.

I wish I knew how to take things seriously enough to give this show the review it actually deserves, but I'd get two paragraphs in and decide I want to play Scribblenauts instead. Anyways, my point is, watch the show.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Who are Pietro’s friends?

There have been several points in Pietro's history where kinda didn't have any. He's been through enough character rehabilitation recently that I think it's fair to assume he's on okay terms with with most people, at least as far as Avengers go. As far as I can tell, he's never really made amends with any of his old X-Factor teammates (from the 90s/2000s), save Lorna, and things were just rough in general with mutants during Krakoa. He and Wanda have both proven their allyship since Trial, but Pietro hasn't had significant page time with anyone besides Monet. Outside of those groups, most of the Knights are dead and I think his bridges are still pretty burned with the Inhumans-- not that they're ever around.

I think the last time Pietro was on a real team, long-term, was Uncanny Avengers. By the end of that series he was getting along really well with Janet and Jericho, in particular. I also noticed that in the recent miniseries, he and Rogue seemed pretty friendly, which was nice, but surprising. And I guess, for whatever reason, he and Steve get on well now, too.

I know I'm just biased towards this character, but I'm really into his friendship with Jericho. I thought it was so fun and thoughtful that Pietro and Wanda both had a good relationship him, and they clicked together so easily as a unit when Jer and Wanda started dating. All three characters were being refreshed and kinda reinvented during that time, and it was just fun for me. I kinda miss it.

The most important person in Pietro's life, besides Wanda and Luna, is obviously Mr. Dibbles.

[lovecanbesostrange]

Please know that since yesterday I am mentally trapped in these two panels. There is actually a lot I will miss Krakoa for, but I also felt a bit of resentment throughout the era and this family is a big reason why. NOW that we are in the last stretch of burning it all down and the new X-launch is in reach, we'll get this wedding special. And we finally have all four together in a panel. NOW?! I bought X-Men Unlimited #4 in either fall of '94 or spring '95, solely because of the cover. 30 years of waiting. Let me live in this moment for a bit.

Look at what they are doing with the art! Oh sure, Mystique and Nightcrawler are the blue ones. Pair up Destiny and Rogue next to that to make them look similar enough as well. Only for my brain to scream "but the personalities are the other way around!!!!!!!!". Irene and Kurt work on faith and believe in possibilities and reaching out to be better. Raven and Anna Marie typing this out makes me feel weird are the ones who will kill a bitch and say they will darken their soul so others don't have to. Plus there is the element that they both have lived more than one life and their sense of self is distorted .

They've come a long way, okay?!

Yes this is exactly what it looks like. For plot reasons Nightcrawler was too weak to teleport and dangling off a cliff next to Mystique. And of course Rogue could only save one and before she made a decision Mystique said "I make this for you" and let go. I still like to believe she flipped them the bird when she fell. Because she is Mystique. "HaHa! Take this, you think I'm the worst mother ever, but you will have to live with a moment of nobility from me!" (Also Destiny knew this would come, and she fucking knows there is something good inside of Mystique. It just comes out... different. And needs very specific circumstances.)

Apart from X-Men Evolution (and the X-Men Forever alternate history comic with its very special vibes), we have never gotten any bigger acknowledgement of this family. And Irene has been cut out. Either conveniently on account of being dead, or because she's an old lady and clearly just a gal pal, ahem. (It's also very funny to me to go back to their first appearances, where the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has the biggest Three Stooges energy ever. I needed Mystique, Destiny, Rogue, Pyro, Blob and Avalanche to have a drinking contest on Krakoa. That is what Krakoa was supposed to be about!! You needed to give us 200% domestic nonsense, fun and games. So it would hurt everybody when it was inevitably taken away. EVERYBODY needed to find happiness in that place in unconventional ways.)

Sadly not my original thought (I don't have those), but recently I read some comment where somebody said that with Irene being his bio-mother, Kurt should have inherited a type of precog-sense, a sorta spidey-sense for teleportation. A natural ability that he won't teleport into an obstacle. And I would be so on board with that. (Also funny, because Ms Marvel had that type of sense and I could pull up panels where Nightcrawler tried to trigger that in Rogue.) Would it be weird to add that now? Sure. But also super cute and helpful.

My deepest gratitude goes out to the fanartists who have doodled and sketched and painted cute family moments for them out of time. Now canon can catch up. Imagine their dinner conversations. N: "Logan is my best friend." M: "Oh, that reminds me there is this blue furball running around with his and my powers. I don't even remember if we ever had sex or not, we're so close in age and have these memory gaps." N: "Mutter, nein!" D: "You should ask him out, you two would make a cute couple. Trust me." R: "You're setting up Nightcrawler with Wolverine and keep giving me grief over Gambit?" M: "He speaks too much French! Wolverine might be Canadian, but at least he's not a Franco-Canadian!" N: "So I couldn't date Northstar?"

Do not get me wrong though. Mystique and Destiny are horrible people and they will stab others in the back. They have worked for the government, they have plotted assassinations of government people. They have fought alongside and against the X-Men. I don't want them tamed or be reasonable. I want their mess. I want them as anti-villains. Because they don't do heinous things for nothing. They like to create less horrible murder events than what could be... some writers just liked to go overboard with the scheming and forgot the sympathic undertones, which I want to cling to. And we deserved a time of peace on Krakoa. Truly imagine a Mystique who was happy on Krakoa. And the absolut batshit villainous energy when it's burned down against her will... now THAT would have been something. Instead of baking resentment into the foundation.

[stormxpadme]

For the Pride Month Prompts of Scott Summers Events @scottsummersevents, I made an entry for the Mood Board Madness section.

title: Krakoa was for lovers

prompts: Club scene, poly ship characters/ship: Logan/Scott Summers, Logan/Scott Summers/Synch/others medium: comicverse (Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence)

story: Krakoa was for lovers but now that Krakoa is out of reach for most mutants, where does that leave people no longer interested in outdated moral restrictions limiting their love life? Ever since the Orchis war, Scott and Logan have been too busy with their new teams respectively to give much thought to that question, or for finding chances to live out that part of their lives, no longer even sure where they stand with their poly relationship after Jean's left for space indefinitely. But when pride month kicks around and Logan is forced to take a couple of days off after a particularly nasty encounter with inhibitor bullets, he uses the chance for a visit at Scott's new team base and drag his lover out for some much needed timeout in a mutant dance club. Amazingly enough, they quickly find that thanks to the mental bonds still connecting the mutants left on Earth, it only takes the right moment and mood for the old spark of unity and passion to re-ignite. After mentally indulging in a long-missed erotic encounter together with a few of their old lovers like Synch and others, Logan and Scott withdraw to Scott's private rooms in the Anchorage base for another few hours of private tenderness and ecstasy, strengthening the bonds between them before the next mission will call.

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #6

Getting caught up!

Let's go.

Mmm, this is a good page. It's interesting to see Quentin in a kind of melancholy - it's not a state of mind you see him in very often, honestly, and I have to wonder if it's because of what he saw in Ben Liu's head, the fact that Cassandra Nova is on the board now, or just a general ennui about the state of things as an X-Man. Being a teenage firebrand only lasts as long as you're willing to burn, and Quentin's been burning for a while now with very little to show for it.

Also, wow, Idie, you have the eyes of an eagle that you were able to see that girl pulling a Spider-Man tribute - uh, I mean, the Midnight M, or whatever it's called.

Fun fact - this is the first time in this series that someone's directly mentioned Hank's psychotic villain turn from X-Force. Makes sense it would come from Quentin, since he's the only other member of X-Force on the team and he has the most face time with evil Hank, though I have to call bullshit - psycho Beast was a fucking bore.

Cain and Illyana continue to be hilarious bash brothers. I also like Hank being like 'ix-nay on the beheading-ay while the newbies are around to hear you-ay!' while Ben and Jennifer have little shock lines around their heads.

You will not get me to read Marauders volume 2, Jed. You will not.

So, this is a bit early in the run to have a 'this is what you missed in the series so far' scene, though I suppose having new context means they want to put the pieces together in a straightforward way so that no-one's confused going forward. And it's at least being done with character interactions, and not just a rote recitation of facts.

So, you, uh, ever gonna go and be a dad to those Savage Land mutates you fucked around with and made, Max? No? Mmkay.

Really dancing around the hashtag, huh, Scott?

"Maybe if you'd taken better care of your last resident genius instead of treating him like shit and neglecting him, so that he didn't go insane and blow himself up in a homoerotic stupor, you'd be having an easier time of this, but you're stuck with me."

Don't you fucking dare talk shit about quiche, Quentin.

I genuinely love the amount of play Glob is getting in this series. There's such an obvious affection for him that you can't help but be charmed. Also, a rare acknowledgement of Glob's past as a member of the Omega Gang and the fact that he was one of Quentin's very few friends during New X-Men! Love to see it!

There's that patented Scott Summers paranoia.

Also, I have to say, I love what this issue is doing with Illyana and Idie. As far as I know, these characters have barely, or never, interacted before, and there's just such an easy interplay between them that I already want more of - they tease and poke and prod at one another, in a way that feels younger and more vital than the older members of the team, even as Illyana demonstrates what being on a mainline X-Men team for the last 10-15 years does for your knowledge base.

It also really, really makes me happy that Idie is getting as much play as she is. The people who were worried about her being background fodder for this series really couldn't have been more wrong, she's getting a lot of good development and agency here.

It's something that only really shows up when you're reading continuously, but it's visible here - I like the panel composition in this issue, and this series in general, a fair bit. I like the separation of panels to show progression and create distinct scenes while still creating a larger tableau. Good composition makes you notice it, but doesn't pull you out of the experience, it merely serves it.

Also, oh boy, Hank's getting nostalgic again . . . that only ever means he's about to get depressing.

Yeah, that tracks.

Now, I do like this sequence and this conversation, but I have to pick at something that bugs me here, even though I have to wonder if it's intentional or not.

. . . Max, you and Scott were both on Krakoa. You remember that, right? You were dead for a fair bit of it, sure, but you were around long enough to see the start of X-Force. You were a member of the Quiet Council and Scott was the General or whatever of Krakoa.

You had the power to stop him. You don't get to say that you won't allow it when you both already did allow it. It would have been outrageously easy for the both of you to just waltz right up to the Pointe, grab evil Hank by his hair, and kick the shit out of him for being a genocidal maniac, but neither of you did that. None of you did. You allowed him to continue. Worse, you enabled him, you and your little twink 'I Can't Believe It's Not The Maker' Xavier.

And even before that, you hold responsibility for encouraging Hank to loosen his morals and kill people! You were there during the Inhumans vs. X-Men conflict, encouraging him to double cross the Inhumans for mutant gain! And Scott outright told Hank, MULTIPLE TIMES, that the ends justify the means during the Utopia era! Are you going to acknowledge that fact? Are you going to confront the fact that he internalised YOUR methods? Fucking evil Hank's penultimate words before he was atomised were MAGNETO WAS RIGHT, for fuck's sake!

That's why I like that Hank says, 'Of course, of course.' There's a ring of, yeah, sure, whatever to that, that I like. He doesn't say I know, because he doesn't. He's well aware that everyone saw what was happening to him and didn't stop it, that they didn't care enough to intercede, that Scott was too busy fucking Jean and Logan on the regs to care that one of his oldest friends was turning into the lovechild of Josef Mengle and Henry Kissinger.

I need that to become text. I need it. I know that it fucking sucks, Jed MacKay, to have to answer for Ben Percy's sins, but you cannot have dialogue like this and expect it to fly through uncommented on. No-one becomes a monster on their own.

I really do hope that dialogue choice was intentional and that MacKay is willing to interrogate this. Thus far, he hasn't let me down, but I need this to be the first part of a conversation, not the end of it.

Yeah, valid, I wouldn't want to deal with Cortez either.

Hank is very cute here. Like, he's always cute, but he's especially kawaii here. Hims have the teefs.

Yeah, you gotta get on choosing a mutant name quick, or else you'll get stuck with something like Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Hoo boy. Yeah, this is . . . that would be a problem. I can see why Scott's pissed. Then again, valid for Idie going for forgiveness over permission, as far as she knew, Piper might have been being abused, and the info she has here is pretty important . . .

All right, roll on issue #7!

This was a good issue! I don't know that it needed the whole 'here's what you missed on Glee' segment in the middle, but it was at least done with enough character and verve that it wasn't boring, and the rest of the issue giving everyone some shine and interactions made it more than worth it - plus, it feels as though the plot is finally starting to move, which was a little bit of a concern with the previous issues.

Be there or be square . . .

[newx-menfan]

X-Men: From the Ashes Ranked

Honestly as many know- I wasn’t a big Krakoa fan. 

The titles were such a “hit or miss”, I hated the Moira retcon, Laura and several other characters were just horribly written, and after Hickman left the show… the momentum kind of died as well…

Despite bringing dead and depowered X-Men back…Krakoa seemed like we were pretty much only getting the same set of characters featured….

There just WASN’T A LOT that appealed to me.

While I get people’s arguments that this era feels “lost”… many comparing it to Claremont’s “Revolution” era before Morrison; I actually feel better about this era than I have about X-books in a long time. People totally forget that for every good book during Krakoa like “X-Terminators” or “Mauraders”- there was some pretty big STINKERS like “Excalibur”, “X-Force”, “Fallen Angels”, ect…

Honestly as disjointed this era may feel, it at least FEELS like X-Men.

So, after reading several titles, I wanted to rank and briefly review them-

Uncanny- This books is definitely the best of the line! The first arc with Sarah Gaunt was spectacularly creepy and Simone really SHOWS just how much of a comic book pro she is on this book. There’s not a lot of books I would say gets the Claremontian voice right- but this one definitely does! I literally can’t stop singing its praises- if you love the original Claremont, this book is a must read!

2. NYX- While this book ISN’T by any means perfect, I still feel like it has a lot of promise. There really isn’t a book on the rest of the line that has the same young and fresh vibe this one has. The idea of the book is entertaining and when it’s good- it’s fun!…yet, when it’s bad- it’s majorly disappointing. Hopefully the next arc is a bit stronger, because I really DO want this book to succeed! This is the book most X-Men fans WANT.

3. X-Men - While this book definitely FEELS unique in its lineup and fresh… something about it just doesn’t quite work for me. I actually liked the rag-tag lineup but I often feel like it’s bogged down with nostalgia. Remember when Beast went evil? When QQ did kick? When Idie and QQ was at the Jean Grey school?…because this book will definitely remind you! While this book isn’t all bad, my other issue is that it often has the same vibe as Aaron’s “Wolverine and the X-Men” meets Cyclops “Utopia”. There’s a ridiculousness at this point in Scott fixing up another garden and trying to yet AGAIN create another mutant civilization. The book veers into corniness with the jokes and often feels too childish for a main title. While it’s definitely not the worst title… Uncanny is a much more solid book if you want A-List X-Men comic.

4. X-Factor- Is fine. It’s not as great as “Marauders” or some of the other Krakoa titles…but it’s fine as a comedy book darkly harpooning on the 1990’s run of mutants being part of a military force. It’s not anything you’ll deeply care about or even remember, but it’s fine for a quick read. I don’t HATE it…but it’s boring. Even the jokes are pretty outplayed and boring. Also…Lorna REALLY just needs to breakup with Havok and be DONE 😬

5. Exceptional X-Men - Again, I think this book has great PROMISE…Kitty falling from earth and working as a waitress after basically being a GOD... And yet- I don’t feel like Kitty works for this kind of story; it makes SENSE for Hellion to have a chip on his shoulder towards Krakoa and Emma and the X-Men and Anole wanting a “normal life”. Surge would have made sense. Hope would have made sense after being propped up as a “mutant messiah”. They basically did this storyline years ago with Sofia in “New Warriors”…and it made sense then. Kitty… just feels inauthentic and…kind of whiny. I think the biggest problem with this book is it seems like every other title…street title?- NYX is doing it. New students?- Uncanny is doing it. Character bitter after Krakoa is gone?- NYX is again doing it. All these other books are just doing these plot points BETTER. It’s sad because I think this book will survive the chopping  block where NYX might not…which is too bad because I think it’s definitely one of the weakest of the line.

6. X-Force - Oh X-Force. The bane of X-Men fans. I think the LAST time I really enjoyed an “X-Force” title was when KYOST was on the book. While definitely not AS BAD as Krakoa era Percy crackfic levels of crazy… the biggest problem with this book is- it’s boring. Nothing in this title feels greatly developed. Not the villains, not the plot, and not the characters. Everything is “Deus Ex Machina-ed” at the end of every issue. There’s no tension. There’s nothing to keep you in. While you don’t have to fear Beast making murderous Wolverine clones while flying away on a piece of an island or Domino being tortured by a man with a peacock tattoo… you also won’t really remember anything that happens in this book either. While I know sadly it won’t be the first to get cut…because X-Force is historically NEVER dropped no matter HOW bad the writing is…it definitely SHOULD BE.

Overall- I would say “Uncanny”, “NYX”, and “X-Men” were the big winners of “Ashes”…

“X-Factor”, “Exceptional”, and “X-Force” are the rougher titles…

Still I would say again- the biggest problem with most of these are that they’re boring and safe… yet even at their worst I would still say they’re more readable than say “Fallen Angels” or Duggan…

I probably won’t bother with “Phoenix” (honestly I am pretty sick of the Phoenix Force anymore and “Troia Jean” has zero appeal for me)…

Probably won’t bother with Wolverine or Hellverine, unless I hear good recommendations of it online…

I might try “Dazzler”, “Storm”, “Mystique” and “Magik”…

I will definitely read Laura’s solo and review it on here as well”.

But there you go- I really DON’T feel like “Ashes” is as big a failure as people are making it to be online….

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Weird thing, but I miss Alfred.

It's shaping up to be one of the longest "deaths" of a famous, legacy secondary character, at least in modern DC history. And in that way, it served the narrative pretty well, subverting the usual problems with death in comics. Sure, it was all over an ego trip some bad former Editor in Chief decided to have on a whim; King didn't really plan to kill off Alfred so nonchalantly and it wasn't meant to stick. People know that, it's well documented and they even had foreshadowing that he was Clayface being a part of the plan. So the fact that it sticks should be lauded, right? This is, after all, how death works.

And, sure, it made some characters grow. Bruce, specifically, moving to a brownstone and taking care of his son all by himself is a genuinely cool idea and I'm enjoying seeing him bond with Damian in ways he never bonded with the others. Dick as a billionaire philanthropist dedicating his newfound fortune to Alfred, his late sponsor, is a genuine stroke of genius. Actual change and progress in comic books, holy shit. A feast Spider-Man fans don't even remember how it tastes!

Yet it sometimes feels like you're reading a Batman book in an empty house, because Alfred is gone, and it was over nothing. An unplanned death that took him suddenly with no real gravitas or preparation. Not exactly the same -- okay, not the same by a wide margin, -- but it kinda reminds me of how Buffy fans reacted to The Body.

The character was here, and now they're not, and it genuinely feels empty and real in a way you're not really expecting popcorn media to feel. There's no power fantasy or melodrama or anything. Someone broke his neck and threw his body on the floor, and that's the end of Alfred Pennyworth.

And like, yeah, man, people obviously write stories about other versions that are alive and flashbacks. Nobody is literally gone from comics, things don't move forward *exclusively*, Alfred is a brand unto himself and will never be truly gone. It's the same reason why aging up Jon Kent isn't that big a deal; Super Sons will release as long as someone gets the approval, it's just going to be a flashback. It's fine. But to see the world having to move forward without him has been quite something, you know? People have had big personal moments that he's not there for.

Dick and Barbara got back together, Jason moved to the Hill, Tim got a boyfriend -- it's the kind of stuff these kids could rely on Alfred to talk about, or to help out with, or to simply Be There as a zealous figure for them, and he's just. Not. And the story moves on all the same, yet now it feels like there's a panel missing, somewhere.

Albeit they had like two or three individual times when the actual fucking ghost of Alfred Pennyworth came to say goodbye and peace out to Bruce, I still think it's a pretty solid guess that he'll come back before the end of the decade. The nature of comics means sometimes you need a back from the dead story to keep things fresh, and those can be done extremely well -- Resurrection of Magneto might be the best thing released in the Krakoa era, as far as fully realized minis go. But...

Shit, Alfred missed Damian going to school, you know? That's really sad. I miss Alfred. In a way I'll never miss Uncle Ben or the Wayne couple, I really miss opening a monthly and reading the latest wit out of Alfred's mouth at his silly son and his funny crusade. The nature of comic books being infinite until they're cancelled means this sort of relationship just doesn't get cut like this very often, and I can't recall the last time I *cared* when they tried cutting it.

It will be an awkward day when he comes back and it's back to normal business again, honestly. There's now an understanding of what Batman is without Alfred that I feel they don't have a great way of addressing. Don't really envy the writer who gets the job.

[monsieuroverlord]

NYX #1 Thoughts:

It was alright, very Kamala/Ms. Marvel and Sophie-focused. It was a decent set up of the premise, and I'll keep an eye on it.

Spoilers:

The Krakoan is Julian Keller/Hellion as everyone called it. Just in case anyone missed the leaks on Twitter.

Him and the rest of Cuckoos are apparently working with Empath, and the current implication is that he may be amping up and/or twisting their post-Krakoa emotions.

Anole, we didn't see much of, other than he's a bartender now.

Not only is David teaching, but he's also a tenure-track professor.

As someone who works for an American university, I'd be so curious to see how that happened. I mean, at least for the department I work for (very research-heavy stem field), its a LOT to negotiate tenure-track, even with years of experience and a Ph.D. Its like a 3-4 day marathon of presentations, wining-and-dining, meetings after meetings, tours, and a red-eye flight back home. You basically gotta meet everyone in our department and not only show that you know what you're talking about, but also that you won't be an asshole to the established professors (I know this, because I'm the one assisting in organizing everything and making sure the right faculty shows up on time to give a lab tour to the applicant, lol)

I think in some areas, you can get away with an M.S. degree for tenure, but in most cases, its Ph.D.

And that doesn't even mean you are guaranteed to get tenure. There's a whole other review process for that.

Anyway, Sophie is right to call it out here. It does kinda feel like a hand-out. I wonder if that will come into play later?

I'd like to see David's point of view first, though. Maybe there's a secret plot where some of the faculty are evil and its an anti-mutant trap to lure him into a false sense of security. But he's too smart for that and plays them. I don't know.

Or maybe he got his P.h.D. That'd be dope.

I don't trust David's new boyfriend. He hasn't said much yet, but I don't trust him.

This issue is heavily focused on Kamala's point of view, and strongly features Sophie as well. It makes sense, as Kamala is the "newer mutant" in a sense, and serves well to introduce the reader to the setting and potentional storylines to follow.

Sophie and Kamala also have a budding friendship, and I think it's very cute.

I think the next issue at least is supposed to shift to Laura's point of view.

We also don't see too much of Laura, and she didn't appear to be in the college class? Maybe she joins later, or is a guest speaker, I don't know. OR maybe she's going undercover?!?!

We did get this pretty image on the opening page:

Laura only runs into Kamala while she's investigating a mutant terrorist attack.

I love her new look so much. It's very fashionable and actually makes her look distinct from Logan while she's still clearly a Wolverine. Props to the designer.

And now Marvel needs to free Akihiro from Hellverine psuedo-death-ressurection and give him a unique outfit and/or codename too. Thank you.

Laura really only says this though:

I don't know how I feel about her characterization here. I mean, its not the worst thing, but it lacks context for me.

I mean, what is Laura doing? Where is Gabby? Is Akihiro still dead and she's surly with grief? (because Hellverine hasn't finished yet and we don't know how that will end) Does she feel like she has to pick up the pieces and play hero because Logan fucked off to the Canadian Wilderness again?

I have many questions about my girl and her general well-being.

In general, I'm currently on the fence about her characterization. It could go either way.

I suppose we'll have to wait until next issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In summary, it was a decent set-up. I read the X-Men Monday interview, so there was nothing that surprised me. Art is very good.

Also, this is me being a grumpy old bastard, but I hate the QR code pages they're doing now. Just print the damn page. I tried the scanner on both my phone and tablet, and it kept redirecting me to a broken link and I get a "500 Internal Error" message. I have no idea what that page is about. I personally don't like this concept of secret QR code pages and is irritating.

For digital reading, its more okay, but I also buy physical copies. I don't want to have to whip out my phone and/or tablet just for a gimmick to get the full issue. And who knows if the website eventually goes defunt years from now and then the QR codes are rendered useless. Then what?

[rei-ismyname]

X-Manhunt announced - 2nd X-Men crossover event

So the first From The Ashes crossover isn't over yet and the next has already been announced. That's to be expected as ~3 months is normal-ish lead time for something like this. I think it should have waited, however. Spoilers under the cut and you can find more details here.

I wonder who that could be. Harvey X?

X-Manhunt revolves around Charles Xavier escaping from prison and doing something mysterious for everyone's benefit - something about a telepathic plague (sounds like Cassandra Nova to me.) While I think the event has promise, it spoils Raid on Graymalkin, which still has 2 issues to go AKA half the event. Chuck isn't going anywhere until March, severely blunting the stakes and tension of an event that struggles with both already. Xavier stays in prison, Graymalkin remains operational and the bad guys win. Oh yeah, turns out Chuck can escape any time he likes too.

Could they really not have pushed this back 2 weeks? Personally I never thought Graymalkin would be 'broken' as Cyclops declared, and odds were low Chuck would be freed, but knowing that it's 0% just makes me want the event to be over. The Rogue/Cyclops feud has been hyped up and not delivered except for OOC interactions and pointless punching.

How can Rogue and Cyclops become the 'new Xavier and Magneto' dynamic when we know Xavier is coming back in 3 months? Don't get me wrong, I've said that it's a ridiculous notion from the start, but I would have liked to see them try and pull it off. You can't make statements like that and not deliver if you want readers to trust your words.

Another implication of this event is that Xavier is returning, but readers of Uncanny X-Men haven't really had a chance to miss him. When talking with @kalinara recently about Xavier's X-Men Legacy arc, I said I'd enjoy a redux of that (maybe we both said it actually, I like their opinions.) I stand by that, but a caveat was the people he's hurt not letting him off the hook this time. I want Xavier to learn and grow, to interact meaningfully with the recent past. While I remain hopeful on that front, Conductor of X Tom Brevoort has been very open about playing the hits and going backwards from Krakoa.

I'm trying to be mindful of writing too much negativity about From The Ashes books and Tom Brevoort. I don't want to be repetitive and curmudgeonly - but I also commit to good faith analysis and criticism, something you don't do unless you love something. The tension there comes from decisions like this. Explicitly spoiling an ongoing event is just bad publishing practice.

It's good to know that Storm, X-Factor (surely someone likes it, I loved Polaris calling out Havok at least), X-Force etc - the books most likely to get cancelled - will still be around in 3 months. It's even better to know that a line wide crossover event means greater connectivity between books, even if editorial has explicitly said it's something they're avoiding. Those are my thoughts, what do you think about this announcement?

[keepsmagnetoaway]

Giant-Size X-Men 1 (May 1975)

Len Wein/Dave Cockrum

Here we...here we...here we fucking go!

This is the most important X-Men comic ever published: more important than the very first issue, even. This is also going to be a heinously long post, so strap in.

Notwithstanding the last, uh, six months of posts, this is where X-Men really starts, with it re-starting. In the mid-70s, the team had been without a book of their own for years but sporadic guest appearances had kept the characters present in the minds of readers: many of those guest appearances had been written by Len Wein, who in 1974 became editor-in-chief at Marvel and decided to revive the X-Men, but cautiously: he was going to put out a special large-format issue introducing a new team, and then follow it with further occasional large-format issues, maybe three or four times a year. He wrote the first issue, and got Dave Cockrum to draw it, creating a number of new mutants for the team's rebirth and introducing them all in a series of virtuoso sequences. I'm trying to resist the urge to just post this entire comic, but snippets will have to suffice.

Right away - this is page 1 - we see that the issue of prejudice and fear is back at the centre of the X-Men story, where it has always belonged. Not all the characters were totally new, though: one of the had been seeded a few months ago in Incredible Hulk, as we have seen.

Banshee, meanwhile - who, as we know, is canonically a country music freak - was also returning (slight sigh).

That's an interesting start - three characters and none of them Americans - but what about some non-white characters, huh?

So. The introduction and framing of the non-white, non-Western characters in this issue - and in this run of X-Men, to some extent - is obviously, shall we say, heavy-handed.

And yet, here they are - the characters exist, and I think it's important that they are drawn from all over the world: the comic is working hard to emphasise that and in doing so slips over and over into caricature in the interests of foregrounding diversity. It's not great - it's aged pretty terribly, in isolation - but with the knowledge of where these characters (particularly Storm) end up it's difficult to read any of this as actively bad, I think.

Certainly the clunkiest of these introductions is that of John Proudstar, the Apache, and it's surely no coincidence that...well, we'll get to that.

So, there they all are.

And here is someone you do recognise.

This is a long section of set-up, (re)introducing Cyclops and explainign where the others have gone: Jean, Bobby, Warren, Lorna and Alex have all gone missing on a mysterious island that seemed to house a super-powerful mutant (Beast, the X-Man we've seen most of during the hiatus, is now fully off doing his thing with the Avengers and is not involved).

There's so much going on here: we of course are all totally familiar now with the original X-Men, but some reader picking this up in 1975 very likely wouldn't have been, so here they are crammed in and then immediately disposed off. Shout-out also to Cockrum's art here, of which we'll have much more to say as we go on, but it does a huge amount, packing in character designs, costumes, action and plot while still leaving room for effect and emotion that, at times, ism almost Neal Adams-like (here, as you can see, Cyclops was briefly depowered when escaping the island, though he gets them back).

Also, here's our next big theme: infighting, introduced when Sunfire quits and then re-joins the team in the space of a single page. This is both foreshadowing and a sign that this issue was maaaaybe trying to do a bit too much.

But fuck it, this issue is great. Can you imagine the sheer richness of picking this up on a newsstand as a kid. All these characters! All this lore! All this potential! And then we get to the action of the issue, as the team fights its way across Krakoa, which is a kind of pulp nightmare landscape.

Enjoy the drama, the design, the style of this whole page: the looming temple, the strange angles, the sinister greyness of the final panel. Everything here is at the top of its game.

And then the big - if slightly obvious - reveal that the mutant is the island itself. This art kicks ass, and in the meantime introduces another thematic strand in the whole nuclear testing/cold war/mutation angle.

The final action sequence is bersekly brilliant, full of ambitious layout choices and complex storytelling that pulls of the goal of showcasing all the various disaparate X-Men and getting them to work together.

Eventually the fire the entire island into space (??) and the issue finally runs out of room and ends.

So, yeah. This issue was so obviously great, and such a success, that plans changed, and instead of occasional big stories like this, X-Men was revived as a regular monthly book: or rather, because it was still being printed but only with re-runs of original era stories, it was revamped as a book with new stories, starting with issue 94.

That's where this read will go next - and, guided by my trusty reading guide, we'll go right through for about 50 issues with only occasional guest appearances in the meantime, returning us at last to the one long on-going soap opera that is X-Men at their peak. Can't wait!

[munchkinmarauder]

My review of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver #4

I would give it 4/5 stars - lots to like but not without its problems - probably could have used another issue to flesh it out. Spoilers below the cut

I enjoyed it a lot more on my second reading than my first! However I would say this is one of the weaker of the 4 Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver issues. Stronger than the first one but #2 and #3 were better.

Firstly the art and the colours are killing it. I am going to miss Tammetta's work going into the next series. Williams also does a great job with his bold colours.

The summary of this issue following the announcement of the scarlet witch book did get this on the wrong foot for me because it is all about Wanda which I felt was disrespectful for a co-lead 60th anniversary series for both characters. While the last book itself is a little more Wanda heavy it has a much better balance than issue 1 did and Pietro walks away from this book with his head held high in my opinion (and if the Q&A at the end is to be believed he will have more regular appearances in the Sclaret Witch solo as the Giver is still after him as well - good he brings the missing piece to Orlando's books - a lot of fun and someone Wanda can genuinely emote off of and who matches her beat for beat)

How Orlando would write Pietro was one of my biggest worries going in but I have been really happy with his portrayal so far and wouldn't mind him writing Pietro more. We see a good exploration of his powers and his emotional maturity after his growth in Quicksilver no surrender is on full display! He shrugs off the reveal from Magneto's letter to give his sister the pep talk she needed to control her full power, takes out the frightful 400, lands a solid blow on the Wizard and his confrontation at the end with Magneto was a good one - hes so done with his fathers BS and shrugs it off, tells his sister how much he loves her and leaves. I like that his relationship with Monet St Croix has not been forgotten - Orlando and Tammetta were really like - we're going to have a parent say one of the worst things they can to a child so we're gonna get this man laid (Pietro and Monet messy sex marathons was not something I thought would become cannon but I'm happy it did - I hope the comics keep this couple around for a while and explore them - I hope Monet appears in Wanda's next solo cause I want to see her interact with Wanda).

Cthon Wanda was very very cool. I am excited to see what is coming up with the Giver plot however I do feel this mini could have benefitted from an extra issue, cause having to set up the next Scarlet Witch solo does bog things down a bit. The twins don't actually interact much this series, for something that was advertised as being about their relationship I think it really needed a lot more of that - they spend nearly two issues separated so I think we needed more of a moment between them to resolve their fight. Unfortunately my fear that Magneto would overshadow everything sort of happened with his small appearance at the end immediately making it all about Magneto.

Speaking of Magneto the revelation in the letter is one I liked the more I thought about it. It's not a big reveal but it is Magnetos abusive tactics on display at his finest- a clear setting up of a narcissist parent creating a golden child and Scapegoat dynamic. I know a lot of people are taking what he says as him being right at face value and crying about Magneto being character assassinated or this being an affront to Pietro and I disagree. Yes it's a bit over the top considering what we saw in RoM and Krakoa but it is not out of character. Magneto has always been a dick to his children, Pietro in particular - I could go on for days but this review is long enough - but let's not be surprised that the man that murdered his son and was willing to let his daughter be murdered for mutant kind is a good father in any sense of the world. I think the story itself and Wanda and Pietro saying so to Magneto's face that he is wrong about the twins is very apparent. Tammetta emphasises the physical resemblance between Pietro and Magneto to make it clear that Magneto is projecting onto his son and to a degree wants to seperate the twins. A tactic he also used when the twins were under his "care" in the brotherhood.

Pietro and Magneto were done well in that scene, however, Wanda's response is what is off and I believe that is what does Wanda disservice as a character. She sent the Wizard to a hell dimension for hurting her brother but only gently tells Magneto he is wrong when he tells his only son that he should have stayed dead and calls him poison to Wanda. Orlando's finally calling out Magneto for what he is but the way he won't let Wanda herself go at Magneto or yell at him feels out of character for Wanda. Also the fact she agreed with Magneto initially pissed me off (though maybe this was her self blaming) Is this building up to something more? Will we get and explanation for it? I hope so but until then I am not happy with how Orlando writes Wanda around Magneto. She did overall take a back seat to the men in this series a bit, Magneto infantalise her and she takes it, vision talks down to her and is the kne figuring everything out for Wanda (I'm glad the vibe seems to be they're friendly ex's with no intention of getting back together and it shohld stay that way- though we got a forced cheek kiss - two series now which forces a Wandavision kiss but not Wanda giving her brother a hug when he's emotionally vulnerable - all for a racist MCU show it's very dissapointing) and a lot of the really good moments are taken up by Pietro until she has her main moment at the end - however twins dynamic is even,their partners, Wanda has a solo coming up so I think this last point can be forgiven.

Overall to wrap up this long review I have enjoyed and had fun with this series overall but it has it's flaws - the Wanda/Magneto dynamic being a big one and sometimes Orlando gets a bit too wordy (maybe a bit rich coming from me) which derails the pace a bit and makes my eyes glaze over - but I'm really happy with this series and hope it's success means we get more co-lead series with the twins or more Pietro in comics in general (and Wanda to keep being as prominent as she is)