#from the ashes critical

[rei-ismyname]

TFW an Iron Man comic has better Krakoa continuity than the X-books

Tony is dealing with the aftermath of Feilong and ORCHIS acquiring his company, with most of the board being his appointees. Obviously not happy about the Stark Sentinels situation. Jesus, he even calls back to 'where were you when our babies were burning?'

Feilong again, and the explicit mention of anyone working for ORCHIS being a collaborator. A lot of AIM joined ORCHIS and they've learnt from the experience of being junior partners.

Emma Frost shows up too while he's being magically assaulted, and their situationship/alliance actually feels like a recent thing. It matters.

It's done in a way that's self explanatory and doesn't require having read a single Krakoan issue. It's really not that hard, but the X-Men books aren't really trying to achieve it. I'm getting used to that, but seeing an Iron Man book of all things pull it off smoothly I just shake my head.

ALSO, West Coast Avengers featured Firestar truly struggling nearly a year on from the end of her undercover stint at ORCHIS. Of course she's a mess! She had the toughest job of anyone and she did it so well she fooled everyone but Night Thrasher. Six months of constant anxiety and exposure to atrocity rewires your brain. These 3 panels tell us so much about where she's at and the support she's not getting. Angelica has always been more Avengers-affiliated than X-Men, so it's understandable it's here instead of there - but this highlights what FTA is dropping the ball on. I get a clearer and more genuine picture of trauma than Wolverine's sulking in the woods or Cyclops' panic attack.

Tearing down the Krakoan era itself is banal, good stories are about people.

[blizardstar]

Me when Ashton Greymoore is denied honorable and meaningful self-sacrifice, and now must face the reality that they MUST keep living after it’s All Over

[eyeofthenewt1]

Ashton, sketchpage

[rei-ismyname]

FR. I also find it very difficult to believe that A) some mutants wouldn't just bail to Arakko. B) Humans would be way more worried about Arakko than Earth mutants, most of whom are harmless. How is the entire planet not at Defcon 1?

Ever since Krakoa ended, I've been saying Mutantkind's only logical act of recourse was outright world domination.

6 Months into Fall of X, I continue to be proven right every week.

We are in a status quo where Hellion and four-fifths of the Stepford Cuckoos are the only sympathetic characters, and we're supposed to see them as villains.

[dent-de-leon]

Brennan: "A towering colossus with eyes of lightning turns, and meets your gaze directly. Speaking with a voice of thunder that you feel rumble in your chest, 'Are you afraid?'"

Alexander: "He puts Starmian on the ground. 'Y-yes.'"

Brennan: "Will you flee?"

Alexander: "...would it help?"

Brennan: [Chuckling] "'You are tired. From carrying yourself?' And you see both of the little kids turn to look up at you in this moment, who have ben riding your back for days. 'It is your own weight--or the weight of another--that has tired you so?"

Alexnder: "He looks down at the kids."

Brennan: "'That is what strength is for...We are leaving. Forever.'"

Alexander: "'Okay.'"

Brennan: "'You witness the final miracles...You will need to be strong. You will need to stand, and lift up those who cannot life up theirselves. Our age of doing so is at an end. I hope you will be strong.' ...As the mist clears at your feet, you see there is a thick leather belt, with two clasps of dragon ivory at the buckle, on the ground, at your feet."

Alexander: "I pick it up. 'Belt...Is that a god? Wild.'"

CroKUS ASKSLFDKHH--

I love that he had no idea who or what the Stormlord is, and Kord still met his gaze and tried to reach out. Told him to be strong and to keep taking care of others, still gave him a vestige even though this age of gods walking alongside mortals is at an end--

[ria-the-camel]

and nothing traumatic happened before nor after

[nikalaeva]

I'm so tired of "shadow daddies"

I'm not against this trope. Light and dark, the temptation of darkness/evil - it's a classic fantasy theme, and the contrast of "good girl" and "bad boy" in romance stories is attractive. It's my guilty pleasure. The problem is with authors who don't even try. Apparently, they all use same instruction:

Step 1 - dark hair, very pale or tanned, muscles and tattoos (to taste)

Step 2 - mysterious, gloomy, the most powerful and dangerous; shadows user

Step 3 - triple-digit age, but looks no older than 30

Step 4 - tragic past: scars/sexual abuse/slavery/all of it; family: an orphan/parents died early/brutally murdered

Step 5 - becomes a weakling because of the FMC, who was the only one in centuries to see his real personality.

Done. Gongratulations, you are mediocrity!

I swear if you put Rhysand, Azriel, Dorian, Xaden, Darkling, Casteel, Nyktos, Hades next to each other (these immediately come to mind, and there are others), you won't be able to tell them apart except by their looks, 'cause they are all handsome guys with shadow powers and, you know, "morally gray". Ugh 😮‍💨

You know what's most disappointing? Only these characters are written by six different authors. The lore in their books is DIFFERENT. But they all have the same magic. So in the world, where magic is more science than miracles, in worlds with fairies and dragons, and in worlds with gods and demons, they all use the same power?

You can say the darkness is the same throughout the universe. This is a fantasy, you know, another universe. The author knows that there are other characters with similar magic, but still does not use his brain to make his unique. Shadows always are scary, deadly and powerful, that's all. No flaws, no side effects, no specific weaknesses (to Leigh Bardugo's credit, the Darkling is the best shadow old fart). All aesthetics, no imagination (in fucking fantasy books).

Let the shadows feed on the soul, meaning their user will disappear after death. No afterlife, just emptiness.

Let the user get shadows from others, and when he take them, the people disappear. Not die - DISAPPEAR.

Let the user feed shadows on human flesh or virgins. Let them be parasites that reproduce like Alien - using humans as an incubator.

Let the shadows be jealous, not letting anyone near their master, and hurting even his woman 'cause she is the third wheel.

Let the shadows be at least a little UGLY, ABOMINABLE AND VICIOUS.

[mcytegg]

Bacon: Just come like— just come like, vaguely close. We're not gonna jump you!

Ro: Somehow, I don't believe that! Trust— trust is hard to build and you have lost our [Ro and Planet's] trust.

[sexygayvampire]

i’ve only been into dragon age for like. checks calendar. two and a half months. and the amount that my opinion on veilguard has changed after playing the other games is crazy

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

look i was doing fine until i realised he's been telling himself this every single day since he met the hells

sometimes you have to get up and make the same mistake again and again

[rei-ismyname]

Logan tried to murder Chuck. What then?

After the sun set on Krakoa and the dust settled, Charles Xavier surrendered himself to 'human authorities.' He was being transported to his super prison built by Reed Snitchards and Tony Nark when...

Logan came to kill him in a very unsubtle way. Surely those guards died or at minimum suffered serious permanent injuries. What little we get of his motivation is an objection to Chuck's time as Sentinel X - killing a bunch of humans. Logan Behavior, basically. Certainly hypocrisy.

Pretty stylish entrance though, The Shining style. He's just about to gut him after Chuck declines explaining himself or speaking at all. Keep in mind resurrection Protocols just phased into another dimension - Logan is aiming to kill Xavier permanently (comic book permanent obviously) here despite the fact he's going to prison for life. He'd actually be subverting punitive state justice here.

I hardly need to say that this is pretty extreme for Logan. He's killed countless people, but for the last few decades he's worshipped the ground Charles walks on. After AvX, when Chuck committed suicide by Phoenix, Logan appointed himself the custodian of 'the dream' and ran the school (though he renamed it after Jean because he's a creepy and petty man.) Cyclops is often held up as Chuck's heir, but I think Logan is just as much. (Though Jean and Storm beat them both out and surpass him.) Maybe this is a hypocritical broken pedestal moment.

Magneto objects, freezing him in place and proclaiming 'no more martyrs.'

Did you know 9/10 failed murderers say 'cripes?'

Then he yeets him out of the prison and levitates it so he can't get back in. Mags and Chuck have a chat and we see nothing of Logan until Wolverine #1.

These people all need therapy. Emotional intelligence so low.

That murderous unilateral motivation seems to have cooled - 'Charles doin' what he did' is third on his list of things that took their toll. Not to minimise his pain, but everyone else has experienced those things too. Many had it worse. Scott, for example, was tortured for six months with his eyes sewn shut and a broken back (which... healed somehow.) If someone else was doing this he'd call them out at best, more likely he'd tell them to get over it. This is #Logan Behavior, though it's weird he doesn't mention Daken's death.

Brief aside - was he truly needed in the pack? I can't see what use a throng of wolves would have for a naked guy with opposite sleep patterns, very different dietary requirements, and the inability to breed with them. His presence got them killed. He was tolerated at best, more likely an imposition. Kevin Costner motherfucker.

I'm 99% sure this is next chronologically. Scott says Logan was 'in the area so he asked him to investigate' - 'the area' being Santo Marco, a fictional South American country that Magneto briefly conquered in 1963. The X-Men answered his distress call.

No mention of Chuck here, and he greets Scott warmly. No thank you though. They patch him up back at the Factory. Looks like he does have use for X-Men.

Wolverine can absolutely give up. It's his thing.

From 'I never should have left the woods' this has to be after Wolverine #1, but before Uncanny X-Men #1-4, because that takes place over a few days and the phone call between Rogue and Scott implies so. We only get the end of this conversation, but it's very safe to assume it was a soft recruitment offer and assumption of a family relationship. No mention of Chuck here either. He claims he's done, citing Krakoa as a loss. It is a loss, but it also bought back the 16 million Genoshan dead and established a mutant paradise in a heaven dimension - one he could have gone to.

Also, Logan didn't build shit. He had nothing to do with Genosha, in fact he opposed and obstructed it. He bailed on Utopia and the narrative kept genocidal threats away from the school. He had little to do with building Krakoa itself and while he went on the missions he was asked to, he remained a skeptic the entire time. He didn't trust the island and lived on the moon in a polycule. Anyway, he tells Scott not to come looking for him. I promise you he wouldn't say that to Jean.

Sure, stay in the woods, idiot. Get more wolves killed.

She's right, they're not strategists.

Looks like he's fine hanging out with Rogue and Gambit. Rogue seemed fine with joining Cyclops and co, but doesn't argue at all when Logan (who is hours away from leaving and has no intention of staying) shoots it down for... reasons? They were X-Men enough when they rescued him from Santo Marco, ingrate.

Neither should struggle to imagine a community 'run' by Scott Summers. Logan has been living with him for at least 3 years and he wasn't everywhere when Logan and Jean were banging. Rogue was on a Krakoan X-Men team with Scott and he and Jean prepped new leaders and stepped back. They all considered themselves Krakoan and Scott 'lived to serve.' How does it end this way? The Chuck question answers itself, though Logan doesn't say 'I wish Magneto didn't stop me killing him' or something. Scott? Uhhh, you took this misanthrope's grumbling as gospel. Go to Alaska and say hi! Or maybe he'll call you. Kate? Uhm, she just told you. She broke in Fall of X, you know this.

Interestingly, Logan uses the term 'fill Chuck's chair.' I thought he was quitting the parts that don't work? 'Why do you even want to?' should be self explanatory. Rogue receives a phone call after this from Scott, and she says he's 'the last person she wants to speak to.' Maybe Logan is right and he shouldn't be around people. He infected Rogue with Scott haterism very quickly.

The Outliers show up and less than a day later he leaves, heading for the nearest forest. Even the swamp hag that guts him thinks he's a whining bitch. Logan is aware that Rogue's group are planning a prison break, that children are being hunted, though it doesn't stop him leaving.

Put all this together and it paints a very human portrait of a traumatized person pushing everyone away, albeit in the most immature way possible. This is what Magneto referred to when he said Logan Behavior, and he's right. If I was talking about a real life person it'd be unforgivably callous, but I'm not. I wrote this piece to interrogate his continuity from Krakoa to FTA, and I was expecting it to make less sense to be honest. As I said, this is textbook trauma response. It portrays that well, but the whiplash of Logan going from 'murder Chuck no matter the collateral damage' to 'Chuck did bad things but Cyclops is worse - don't be friends with him, Rogue' is severe and unsatisfying.

Uncanny #700 was one of the last things written for Krakoa, so it's likely that information wasn't available for FTA writers. Except Logan and Kate had both sworn they'd kill Chuck with plenty of notice, so I don't think that deserves a pass. Is anyone surprised by this? Maybe I should just write a post that says 'From The Ashes doesn't care about smooth continuity and has clumsily broken up these teams by fiat. Just ask Havok, Polaris, Angel, Storm, Omega Red, Jubilee and Shogo, etc etc. Also, it's pretty fucking mid' and pin it on my Tumblr.

That's no fun though. Even when it sucks, when it's safe and nostalgic, when everything you loved has been swept away and replaced with cardboard cutouts, when it's 'fine I guess', and even when it's great; the play's the thing. I love the X-Men and fans have as much ownership of the story as anyone. Not entitlement, just the right to be a part of the narrative, close to the characters. I find it fun and if I ever don't I'll stop (or spend a few years covering Krakoa). I hope you do too. Importantly, you should be critical of the things you love in good faith. As for Marvel the capitalist entity - all bets are off. Fuck em. They do it for the money, we do it for the love.

[danwhobrowses]

Well another week of Tal and Ashley putting Callowmoore through the emotional ringer. I'm kinda okay with where it's at right now (okay less kinda but I can still see an end goal for them), of course it wasn't the most ideal direction I thought up in my head but it rarely ever is. There's time, there's room, and maybe in 2 3 (again guys? mental torment for 3 again?) weeks time - because no show on Thanksgiving and then Candela Obscura - Tal and Ashley will pull the trigger and not leave me an anxious mess like they have the last month and a half every Friday Morning when I have to work XD

[eyeofthenewt1]

chronic pain

[hand-of-devotion]

One of the funnier underrated things to happen last night was the entire party (especially Tal/Ashton) struggling SO hard to figure out what the hell they’re even supposed to do with the shard.

Only for Matt to push an arcana check to get Marisha/Laudna to remember they have a device specifically used for siphoning power out of artifacts and into someone waiting for them.

Then Laura’s immediate response to the revelation being “OH WE’RE IDIOTS!”

[danielnelsen]

while only being able to reach level 11 as a wizard sucks a little, it's definitely funny every time i get a cleric prompt. i made mystra his god, obviously, and like.....you're really calling on her protection right now? i wonder which of you is more uncomfortable with this arrangement...

[eywaseclipse]

If anyone wants to get allegorical with me I wouldn’t hate that. Because right now all I can think about are the parallels between Neytiri and Lucifer becoming fallen angels….

Defeat, acceptance, then rage. (My favorite song!) lol (also read the tags too)