#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.

[kierongillen]

HEY GILLEN!! i have a few questions for you, if you don't mind answering them! what was in your mind for S.W.O.R.D's ending? abigail brand is one of my favorite characters and i just need to know what you had planned for her and beast -- and unit too, honestly.

also -- which pheonix host is your personal favorite? if you have an opinion on that!

It's hard, as the things which got us there never happened and so the emotional through line isn't there.

Excuse the roughness of this. There's a lot more, and I'm always aware whenever I describe a half idea, what's missing is the craft in executing it.

The final scene would have been Brand with UNIT back in his cell, while Beast has packed his bags and is leaving SWORD forever.

The context: UNIT had escaped, as another UNIT turned up, and been the big bad. The story seemed to reveal that our UNIT was actually a penitent war weapon who wanted to be punished, while this other UNIT was the real unrepentant monster. UNIT and SWORD have to stop him, and they do.

In the moment when the other UNIT is defeated and is killed, there's a mind to mind conversation between the UNITs - where basically the other UNIT reveals this is all about buying the original UNIT cover. They'll trust you now. This is all for the greater good. These two UNITs were old lovers (for those who have read the battleworld SHIELD mini may see what I was riffing on there - the idea of SHIELD was, in part, me doing fanfic versions of stories you never read. Me writing a happier ending for the two UNITs)

In short, for the greater good, UNIT forsakes his great love. Anyway - Brand and Beast had split up, because Brand was always putting the work first, and generally pushing Beast away. There was a whole lot along the way (the basic plot of the book was it was beauty and the beast - but Beast is the beauty and Brand is the beast.) She was closing him off, at every chance we got, as she had to protect the earth.

When this meeting is going on, Beast is leaving SWORD, out the station, back to Earth.

Brand and UNIT are doing a normal meeting, and everything is by the book.

At one point, UNIT just breaks off from the serious briefing and tells her: It's not worth it.

This throws her. She doesn't understand what he means. Your whole thing is about the greater good, UNIT. What do you mean?

To sacrifice love for duty? If you were an immortal being like I am... perhaps it's worth it. The dividends are larger. But your life is very short, Agent Brand. It's not worth it.

So it's a big moment for UNIT in terms of that awful bittersweetness of him clearly thinking he's made a mistake... and also for Brand. This robot, which she still distrusts to some level, who she views as a cold and calculating thing... is telling her this.

Unit is basically her. She is turning herself into a robot. She doesn't want to be a robot. She doesn't know it, but senses the truth - even the robot doesn't really want to be the robot.

It gets through to her.

She runs through the Sword Station.

We have the full "stopping Beast boarding the plane" scene, and we end on the big kiss.

Aww.

I think of that Beast and Brand a lot. There was a fork in the timeline for them, and I didn't realise when writing SWORD we were already past it - the Beast who became a genocidal monster was already appearing in another thread of Marvel's tapestry. I think that timeline as the one where Brand influenced Beast more than Beast influenced Brand - or maybe better phrased as the SWORD timeline was one where the relationship made them better, rather than making them both worse.

(I sort of allude to this briefly in Immortal X-men issue 1.)

They were great stories - Brand and Beast were two of Krakoa's greatest villains - but I'm still a little sad for them. Brand and Beast were the first couple in the MU who were briefly "mine", so I can't pine a little for that timeline where they kissed.

[dewyatt]

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #2

I loved the work Schultz did with Laura in Deadly Regenesis. It's the most in-character Laura was written the entire Krakoa era, and along with X-Terminators was the only real bright spot for her in the period. So I entered the new series with high hopes.

The first issue IMO got off to a strong start. It wasn't "safe" like All-New Wolverine, but Laura still sounded like Laura. The second issue preview was a little rockier, but I still had a lot of faith. Unfortunately, the issue itself failed in that regard.

I think the best way to express it is a response I left to a post made about the issue by Schultz on her BlueSky:

I loved your work with Laura in Deadly Regenesis, and the debut issue of LKW was very strong. But I honestly have to say as a long-time Laura Kinney reader this episode was a let down, and it's all to do with characterization.

The one bad thing that's happened with Laura since she took the Wolverine name is that she's lost her own personality, and started to be written AS Logan.

When she first appeared, Laura was pretty much the anti-Logan. He was gruff and snarling, Laura was quiet and laconic. If Logan was a machete, Laura was a scalpel. Logan was a brawler, but Laura was Simone Biles with knife hands. Logan was a tank, but Laura was swift and agile. Seeing her liken herself to an axe while waxing about Elektra's elegance rings false when Laura HERSELF was presented as more of a dancer.

She could absolutely be impulsive, (see Mercury Falling) but she never did anything without a plan. She was someone who Hopeless described in Avengers Arena as being able to walk into a room and immediately reason out the most expedient and efficient way to kill everyone inside it. She was a calculating strategist who even at her most reckless didn't take an action she didn't think through first, and have reasons for doing that at least made sense to her (this got her into trouble with Logan on X-Force when she let Wolfsbane get kidnapped because protecting her would jeopardize her mission).

Ironically, the shift into what many of her fans have pejoratively dubbed "Logan With T**s" began under Hopeless himself. In his All-New X-Men run, Laura spends most of the first issues asking, "WWLD?" and would proceed to throw herself head-first into fires and the Blob without thinking of the consequences. It's later revealed this is Laura ACTING OUT, and she's doing what she is because she THINKS it's what people expect of her.

Unfortunately, as later writers picked up her character, it seems that this part of Hopeless's characterization was missed: Laura stopped to being the reserved, focused, calculating person

she was introduced as, and became just as snarling and grumbling as Logan himself. And this is unfortunate, because it takes away what set Laura apart and made her distinct from Logan.

And sadly, this is the Laura we seem to get in LKW #2. She charges through the whole issue mindlessly snarling at anyone who gets in her way. When Elektra tries to patronize her or brush her off as a kid, Laura's "I'm not a teenager" reads as a tantrum. Laura is going off like a rank amateur, when this is someone who has been on superhero teams since she was 16 (New X-Men and X-Force) and had been one of Marvel's most dangerous assassins from the age of ELEVEN. She's not someone who needs a lecture on how to be a hero, and this sort of patronizing also rubbed many of her fans the wrong way when Kwannon tried to "mentor" her in Fallen Angels. Even though Laura was racking up a body count in the four-digit range for people like Kingpin during a time Betsy was wearing Kwannon's body as a meat suit, and Kwannon was dead.

And that's the Laura we get here: She treats herself like a blunt tool, not the surgical instrument she was debuted as. She acts like she's never worked with another hero before in her life, and makes blatantly rookie mistakes. There's no thought or strategy in what she's doing, she's just bulldozing through one confrontation after another.

I think Laura is a very difficult character to write. She's an introvert in a medium and genre dominated by bombastic personalities, almost as a necessity to tell the story (I do love your use of narration boxes to show her thought processes, as that's an ideal solution to how to write a character who doesn't like to talk at length, and still show their thought processes). And I entered the series with incredibly high hopes precisely BECAUSE your work in Deadly Regenesis demonstrated you "got" Laura's character in a way that few other writers captured. After almost a decade of seeing Laura written as Logan, in DR I saw the Laura that made me a fan: Quiet, thoughtful, reserved. She wasn't quipping or snarling, or the frothing berserker. The Krakoa era was NOT good to Laura from a character standpoint, and DR and X-Terminators were the only books in that period that I could pick up and Laura actually SOUNDED like Laura, not just Logan wearing a DLC skin.

Anyway, I'm sorry to go on at length, but as a long-time fan of the character it's incredibly frustrating to see her turned into what she wasn't by making her more like Logan, when she was created to be as different from him as possible (and as an introvert myself, it's incredibly frustrating to see yet another introverted character treated as if this is something that needs to be "fixed," not as just something she is).

Thank you for (hopefully) reading to the end. I loved your previous work and meant this with all due respect, I just needed to vent a growing frustration.

No idea what, if any, sort of response I'll get. Schultz does seem to actively engage with fans on BlueSky (she did respond to me once asking about a possible TK Fastball in the future) so we'll see what happens.

I do still have hopes for the series because I KNOW Schultz gets her better than this, but there's been so little genuinely GOOD content for her lately it just makes these slips even harder.

[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.

[pacing-er]

Krakoa Era Reading List Cherik Version (part 6)

17. Immoral X-Men, Storm and the Brotherhood, Nightcrawlers

All Sinister stuff, tbh I lost interest pretty fast when I found out that Charles wasn't going to have a big part in it all. Each title has 3 issues, skipping forward 10 years, then 100 years, then 1000 years. I think some characters from future timelines shown in House of X Powers of X are shown, which is cool I guess. It's all pretty complicated but basically Sinister creates this timeline where everyone has a bit of his personality quirks and the mutants quickly take over the earth. There are small factions of resistance which fight against the odds to take down the sinisterified mutants, including Sinister himself who hates living amongst a bunch of Sinisters who won't listen to him. He instantly regretted creating this timeline and tried to kill one of his Moira clones to reset it, only to find that they all had been stolen by Destiny. Cue 1000 years worth of hijinks and plotting. I did find the subtle changes in the characters with the Sinister infection to be interesting, since they retain their primary personality traits but with looser morals.

This is one of the few Cherik crumbs we got 😭😭😭 it's a pretty good one though! He's hardly in these issues at all, but I also liked this Charles scene:

Evil softie 🥰

18. Sins of Sinister: Dominion

Direct continuation of the previous issues, but with more Xavier this time! It's cool to see how much of a threat he still is after 1000 years. Also we get this cute scene where an Arakki replicates Erik's helmet, which shocks Charles enough to catch him off guard. 1000 years since Magneto died and man is STILL pining XD

It ends with a timeline reset, puts us back at the end of Immortal X-Men #9. The key change is that now Sinister knows about the newest danger to mutant kind but his warnings fall on deaf ears, until Mother Righteous (another sister clone but different ig) intervenes and informs them of everything that has happened in the previous timeline. The council is compromised by Sinisters DNA, and the four affected by it are to be sent into the pit including Xavier.

19. Immortal X-Men (Issue #11-13)

Surprise! They aren't going into the pit after all. Worth noting that this is the point in time that X-Men Red issue #11 takes place during, in case anyone was wondering. That one had good Cherik bait. Whole lot of Quiet Council drama in this one, ending in an agreement to disband the council since they've all become too corrupt. They plan to announce it at the next Hellfire Gala, which Irene ominously predicts is a terrible mistake as Doug is dragged into the depths of Krakoa. This leads directly to The Hellfire Gala (2023). There are some good Charles scenes and he talks some more about missing Erik lmao poor guy!

20. X-Men Before the Fall - Sons of X

Big developments happen here. Mother Righteous reveals her goal to become a dominion, which she can only accomplish with the help of David's powers. With her assistance he is able to locate and save Nightcrawler, who was being held captive by Orchis. She kills the legionnaires and attempts to absorb David but David activates his fail safe and disappears, taking the (now empty) Altar with him. After resurrecting Nightcrawler's horns are gone but he is left emotionally damaged and decides to leave Krakoa. I thought David and Kurt's bond was sweet so I'm sad to see it go, though from some spoilers I saw this is not the end.

21. X-Men Before the Fall: Heralds of Apocalypse

Part of the post-sinister series of comics but Charles and Magneto aren't in it so I didn't read it and don't care. Apocalypse-centric.

Some good stuff in these ones! Finally we are at the Fall of X, I'm going to make that series of comics its own post. See the rest of my krakoa reading list under #krakoa era reading list

[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 . . .

[pythi-the-drawing-writer]

Welcome back for part 2. They weren't kidding when they called this Giant-Sized

Let's Talk About:

Giant-Size X-Men; Issue 1

And so we begin chapter 2 and I'll be able to cover the rest of the chapters here too. So we begin with a frankly beautiful full page illustration. I love love love these kinds of things where the artists just get to go all in on a single piece. It's beautiful to me.

And side note on the narration... Is Xavier just that multilingual or do his psychic powers just auto translate for him somehow?

Oh and that's a very fun detail. The red dots on the visor are where his eyes are. Because like... I don't know my stuff but from pop culture osmosis... His eyes are just constantly firing lasers and the visor blocks them right? So you can still sorta see the lasers firing even while being suppressed, that's cool

Anyways. To summarize Cyclops' story. Some new incredibly powerful mutant popped up on the Mutant Radar. The original X-Men consisting of Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, Havoc, Marvel Girl, and Lorna Dane went to the island of Krakoa to check it out. They were ambushed, Cyclops' suddenly was back on the jet and couldn't control it as well as having his optic blasts temporarily disabled. Once back at base the blasts came back and were uncontrollable, Xavier goes to find more mutants to help find the missing X-Men and here we are.

And here we finally get the proper codenames for those who didn't already have them. Peter as Colossus, Ororo as Storm, Kurt as Nightcrawler, and John as Thunderbird. Note I am... most likely gonna be using these names completely interchangeably whenever I feel like it. Also for the mission we've been split into teams of 2. Sunfire and Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Banshee, Storm and Colossus, Thunderbird and Cyclops. Speaking of

Thunderbird you've been the most argumentative the entire freaking time.

Anyways, the party splits for their brief one offs, facing strangling vines, giant enemy crabs, aggressive boulders and eagles with the temperaments of geese. All the while arguing or bonding along the way, depends on the pair. But everyone has one location in mind a mysterious temple that rises above the trees that suddenly appeared when everyone had landed and sure enough they all arrived at around the same time too.

And after some... Concussive maintenance we break in and find the rest of the OG crew tangled up and with vines and tubes sucking something out of them. Rescue, temple comes crashing down and we finally reveal what the fuck is going on.

Tbh I love this as a concept. A whole ass living island that has mutated. This is some Kaiju shit and I LOVE Kaiju shit.

But anyways unfortunately for the X-Men. All living things have to eat, and apparently radiation makes islands carnivorous so we gotta take that down. A fun fight is had with even Xavier joining in for a mental assault from halfway across the globe. And we finish out with Krakoa being sent into fucking space via the power of magnets thanks to Lorna getting a super charge from Ororo. But after all that and with some celebration the day is saved and my first X-Men comic is over.

This was very fun frankly. Just a big old wild ride with some bits here and there to catch the eye or provoke thought. Fun designs, cool powers, very engaging to read dialogue and narration. Yeah I need more of this shit. Sooo thanks for getting me in here Nitpick, I'll see what's up with the rest of the comics.

[rei-ismyname]

From The Ashes - Mystique

So, Mystique has her own book once more with issue #1 dropping on October 16th. Given the state of the Marvel world at the moment (or at least the X-books, everyone else seems focused elsewhere while mutants are being slaughtered and imprisoned... again) it really feels like Raven Darkholme's time to shine.

Looks cool but feels like something's missing

She hasn't had a solo book since 2004 - 20 years - and a lot has changed since then. She was quite the breakout character during the Krakoan age - she got her wife Destiny back, she found a sort of understanding with their son Nightcrawler (and we all learned the truth of the retcon in a pretty slick way), and perhaps most importantly we got a sense of her interiority. I'd be remiss in not mentioning Rogue, but they weren't really in each other's orbits until Fall of X. YMMV, but she became sympathetic for the first time ever. We got to see her interact with almost everyone as an uneasy ally while still being her bad bitch black ops self. Not friends, but on the same team with the overarching investment in keeping their shared home working. There was a foundation of connective tissue there right until the end.

Be Gay, Do Crime?

Alas, the wheel has turned again and Krakoa is no more. The connective tissue is gone. However, out of the three people she was closest to narratively - Destiny, Kurt and Rogue - the relationship I'm truly invested in seeing more of is her and Destiny. The book isn't called Mystique and Destiny, and she's not in any of the solicits or preview artwork, but surely they wouldn't do a Mystique book without her, would they?

My favourite sapphic terrorists

Yeah, I think they would tbh. Destiny is a very complex character to write and she was so entwined with Krakoa from the start in HoxPoX due to the nature of her gift - seeing possible futures. As the narrative pulls away from Krakoa, as we look for those pieces of connective tissue, as character growth is left by the wayside or undone, the world and stories are getting much smaller. Destiny had reached the promised land and her gift was focused on survival - of the married couple and Krakoa itself. I'm just not sure where she'd fit in a From The Ashes world.

Such a strong partnership too - Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler.

The elephant in the room is that the pair are very popular and I'm pretty sure the Mystique-buying demographic would have something to say about Destiny being absent. I'm thinking the Magneto treatment is likely, some contrived way of keeping her in the margins of the run or even depowering her. We know Mystique is going to be more of a face than she's been in the past, 'protecting mutants.' That is a good thing as her motivations were often baffling pre-2019. Her behaviour was often handwaved with 'craziness' which is not good for any character, especially a woman.

Destiny in her distinctive mask is visible in this header, although...

This was somewhat explained in Fall of X that Xavier's (consensual) memory tampering knocked something loose, for lack of a better term. I'm hoping the growth we saw sticks, and I don't think that's unrealistic, it's the rest of it. What prompted me writing this was the AIPT review of the first issue. It all sounds exciting but the only other character mentioned is Nick Fury, nothing on Destiny. Any reviewer worth their salt should have a sense of expectations, and the absence feels meaningful.

Obviously this is all speculation, which is fun, though I'm not going off nothing here. I'm trying to be mindful of being the 'Krakoa was the best and this shit sucks' person, but Krakoa WAS the best and I really don't want From The Ashes to suck. I don't have any control over that, though I do have control over my expectations.

Bling! knows what's up, leaning on the fourth wall.

The last thing I think needs consideration is that the couple got the Wedding Special very recently. It was pretty good, though I thought the best parts were the Claremont interview and Anole's ongoing protest. But it was popular!

Mystique would LOVE that. Bisexual Menace for life.

He ended up putting it on a t-shirt. I need one!

As fun as it was and as much hype it got at the time, remember that it was a Pride Month thing. Ever the rainbow capitalists, Marvel picked a winning focus but I don't think they'd have done outside of Pride Month. Sadly, that might apply to their relationship as well. I think it would be a miscalculation, but the signs point to it being a solo book. As I often say in my doomsaying posts, we shall see and I hope I'm wrong.

They're just too iconic and work so well together. Don't get me wrong, good writing can make anything work. Aside from my ongoing mourning of Krakoa, WLW rep is important and for all their faults they deserve love like everyone else. Maybe a Sisterhood of Evil Morally Ambiguous Mutants is on the cards?

[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….