#i am behind on so many mutant comics too

[sparkoflena]

I do not need to restart my Marvel Unlimited subscription while I am trying to save money

I DO NOT

NO

...except I kinda wanna reread Young Avengers comics now

[wraenata]

Awesome fics for @heckitall

These are the fics I am reading/have read in my subscriptions on ao3. I'm a little behind unfortunately. I would link everything in my bookmarks but uhh, theres 699 fics there. So many incredible fics I have yet to read! Also, all of these fic authors have tumblrs except one (Below the Surface).

I'll make a separate post for comics au blogs to check out.

A Tale of Spirits: The tmnt get transported to the atla universe. It's awesome.

all the ashes in my wake: Leo gets Ella Enchanted. ANGST ensues.

Below the Surface: Post movie fic. I really love this one.

Change of Perspective: Body swap fic but ANGST.

hollow mind: Leo gets chased by the EPF. I LOVE THIS FIC.

I May Be Invisible, But I Still Look Good: Leo is cursed, never to be seen, never to be heard, never to be felt. THIS FIC IS AMAZING.

Like Father Like Son: Whoo boy. My first rise fanfic I read. Probably wouldn't still be here without it. It's amazing. Draxum kidnaps Leo and forces him to be his soldier to destroy humanity. ANGST ANGST ANGST.

Peepaw Multiverse

At My Worst: F!Leo's spirit gets tossed back in time into his younger self's body and now he has a second chance to stop the apocalypse.

Ghost in the Shell: SAINW Donnie from 2k3 gets transported to the rise universe to look after the boys. (Has not read yet and I hate myself for it). Ghost didn't make it to second place in the Peepaw tournament for nothing though. I know it's amazing.

Last Grain of Sand in the Hourglass: Instead of saving Leo from the prison dimension, F!Leo is accidentally pulled out. Now it's a race to save lil Leo before it's too late. AMAZING INCREDIBLE EATS IT ALL.

Mutant Ninja Midlife Crisis: Peepaw Leo goes back in time. Incredible fic. Very action packed.

not quite kintsugi, but close: Peepaw Leo goes back in time. So very wholesome. No angst. Very lovely fic.

Odd Man Out: Peepaw Leo goes back in time. Slice of life.

too lucky to count: Peepaw Mikey goes back in time. Leo has a problem with this.

Trial And Error: Peepaw Leo goes back in time. Very focused on the relationship between Leo and Peepaw. And world saving.

we'll meet again soon: Let's save everybody! Very comforting.

Separated Aus

Red Rover Red Rover Send My Brothers On Over: Raph was raised by Splinter and the Leo, Mikey, and Don by Draxum. Mostly hurt, not a lot of comfort.

[fulcrum46]

Fulcrums Comic Reviews, Part 1

I have an addiction, and one I’ve been struggling with for years. It all started a little over 10 years ago, when my aunt bought me my first comic. Since then I’ve had a hunger, an insatiable appetite for what can only be described as men, women, and the third one in spandex doing things no human could or, perhaps, should do. Now, because I am once again bankrupt of ideas, I decided to pull the old “do a Letterboxd but for books in an evil way”, a move that no one has ever done or even thought of before, so there’s no reason to call it old. This one’s gonna be known colloquially as tonal whiplash cause I’m gonna go from saying things I actually sincerely enjoyed to utter and complete nonsense. It’s up to you to decide which is which. Review time!

New Mutants Classic - Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod

The New Mutants were a team I had long been intrigued by, though one that I wanted to read from the very beginning, which, for the uninitiated, is hard to do, at least if you want to do so physically. However after seeing it in a comic shop one day it was an instant get for me. To my surprise, the book immediately became a favourite of mine. The writing feels shockingly unaged, especially considering it was released over 40 years ago. The struggles of the teens in the book felt relevant to today, be that Dani Moonstars issues with grief and trying to stop vaping, Sunspot being bullied by the kids at his school for his skin colour, mutant ability, and his Fortnite account having no skins. The one that resonated with me the most, however, was Cannonball struggling to fill the role of leader as well as trying to quit always being on he dang phone. However, New Mutants is not without its flaws. Its age shows in the last 3 issues, which consist of the new mutants taking a backseat in favour of Marvel editor in chief at the time Jim Shooter being illustrated into the comic in an off puttingly realistic art style with far too many wrinkles and pleading directly to the reader to “please buy these stupid action figures of characters that we made up only to make action figures of them, they aren’t selling and if we don’t sell 80,000 units we’re gonna have to cancel one of Chris Claremont’s 8 books that he’s writing simultaneously” a move that despite my praise for the book, even I can’t defend. That said, I all of a sudden really want to buy an action figure of hit character R. U. Reddy and play with him till I can’t no more.

Batman: Hush - Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee

Despite being (to my recollection) the first Batman comic I’ve read, Batman Hush immediately shot to the top of my ranking of Batman comics and DC comics. It pulls from every corner of The Batman mythos, his childhood and origin, his rogues gallery, his complicated relationship with other heroes, and whatever he’s got going on with Catwoman and serves as a fantastic introduction to the character and the world around him. There is a glaring issue however. When someone whispers in comics, the speech bubble becomes a dotted line and the text inside of it becomes small. Now, I respect a dedication to an artistic vision, but significant text alteration makes me irrationally mad. The choice to have every character whispering was one that should have been vetoed by the editor, despite the name of the book being Hush. It undercuts emotional moments, when Batman is chasing down the Joker after he believes he’s just murdered *redacted for spoilers*, his thought process behind letting the Joker live after everything he’s done is truly one of the best written moments I’ve read, I just wish I didn’t have to break out my magnifying glass and do a Sherlock Holmes cosplay (because how else would one use a magnifying glass) to read it. The art in this book is another thing cementing it as an all time great to me as Jim Lee has long been a favourite artist of mine. In this case I’m almost glad the text is so small, as it allows for a greater appreciation of this art. It’s a double edged sword though as when I was marveling at this art, I absentmindedly held my magnifying glass too close to a sunbeam and it lit the page on fire, resulting in that page being destroyed, so I suppose I’ll never know why Bruce Wayne became Batman because I refuse to google it and there is no other media in which his origin is depicted.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight - Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappucio

Marc Spector is dead in this one, though the messages and tone of his solo series are continued in an exemplary way in this follow up book, which revolves around the now beloved new Moon Knight supporting cast. All the characters that were written so well and often even introduced in the 2021 series are maintained here. I struggle to even mention standouts as all the characters are written exceptionally well. Even Soldier gets something to do. However, as I mentioned, the aspects of this story that I enjoyed so much originally are emphasized here. With Marc gone, Tigra takes on the role of the self pitying character who won’t ever be loved (by the way she’s got a kid that hasn’t been mentioned in like 20 issues is he like ok?), Reese the one avoiding her feelings and most importantly, like Marc, all the characters depicted come to the realization that therapists are evil and are either supervillains or being paid by the government to spy on you. I look forward to volume two where we will be getting an entire issue dedicated to 8-ball, the former supervillain with a literal giant pool ball for a helmet who Marc almost killed but gave a second chance, the grieving fourth incarnation of Marc’s archnemesis, and Marc’s sentient house that tried to eat him. Only one of those isn’t real. You can guess which one but I’m not spilling you have to read Moon Knight 2021 yourself cause it slaps.

Canary - Scott Snyder, Dan Panosian

I read the last few panels of this with The Ecstasy of Gold from the good, the bad and the ugly score playing and it was transcendental. The way the artist on this one draws skies was weird cause every time it’s a solid colour and is never blue which I just think is a weird thing to do. Very Blood Meridian coded, if you like cowboy time or horror time I highly recommend this, severely underrated

Wonder Woman: Earth One - Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette

Too woke.

Spider-Man: Kravens Last Hunt - JM DeMatteis, Mike Zeck

Why is it called Kravens LAST hunt if he has a hit movie that comes out after this comic in the SPUMC (Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters) that provided us such hits as Madame Web, Venom, and Morbius in which he will presumably be hunting? Is DeMatteis stupid? This cemented Kraven as a top 3 Spider-Man villain for me and when Sony inevitably bungles that movie I’ll never forgive them.

Wowee! I’m not even done with my stack of comics so there’s gonna be another one of these, hope you’re excited! Also the last part in the New Mutants one is like barely a joke. They derailed the last 3 issues and put in a motorcycle gang called Team America who went off and fought people who hadn’t been in the book up till then cause editorial mandated a crossover story with them to sell more action figures. It didn’t work and the action figure company went out of business. The New Mutants appeared once every five pages or so just so they could still say it was their book. Jim Shooter was a weird guy. R. U. Reddy is also the actual name of the main member of Team America.

[soothingmelody]

Video Essays, Jealousy, Melancholy and Lies

Have you ever found yourself living a lie?

This question has been stuck in my head ever since I started therapy earlier this year. And I don't mean it in some grand way of being a kind of double agent or stringing an elaborate web of lies to trick your childhood friend into playing sudoku to save your past self from burning down in an incinerator, but... Something much more mundane. 

I guess I should start from the beginning, cause otherwise the title of this post won't make too much sense. 

It is interesting how much we can experience through communication. Be it a Discord message, a Tumblr blog post like this, a tweet or a meticulously put together video essay, finding out about other people's experiences has been one of my favorite things throughout my life. I find people endlessly fascinating. I love it when people talk about their lives and their life experiences, so to me, the long winded, sort of pretentious format of the video essay is right up my alley. 

So, this morning, while enjoying a bowl of instant-ramen with some haphazardly cut green onions and a creamy eggy broth, I was watching this one video essay that one of my good friends had recommended to me the night before. Said video essay was about the appeal of Elfen Leid and the video itself, I found quite entertaining and very interesting. But, it did leave me feeling a tinge melancholic and I realized that this is far from the only video essay that has had that sort of effect on me. 

Growing up in Ukraine, a land ravaged by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of uncontrolled capitalism, where you could easily find syringes behind a children's playground and your average neighborhood screamed "Half-Life 2 Level", I was a pretty quiet kid, despite my extremely extroverted nature. I do think a lot of these issues start here, which is why I wanted to mention this. I was bullied from a pretty young age, disregarded by people I found important to me and disregarded by people I called friends. To me, it was always a feeling of being not "cool enough". I wasn't into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I wasn't into Transformers, being "girly" for a "boy" such as myself was seen as disgusting, was met with slurs and even more bullying. And in this environment, I was just a quiet kid, with a big heart, who'd sit at the back of the class and draw his funny Sonic the Hedgehog comics.

All of this is to say that I grew up in a pretty cynical place, where cringe culture was way more commonplace and I could only find respite in the internet, mainly the russian Sonic forums of the era, where plenty of judgemental people remained still. That cynicism has really seeped through me and followed me through so much of my life. There were so many times when I would do something that felt natural to me, that didn’t hurt anyone and I would be shut down even by people I trusted the most and I would once again retreat into my own shell. 

This constant environment led me to not really participate in many subcultures actively in fear of being seen as weird and cringy, this constant environment led me to not stand out to much, to not take opportunities that would’ve led me to a more interesting life and left me with barely any skills to express myself, besides music or art. It made me afraid of my own queerness that I had to come to terms with and understand for many many years, dealing with my own toxic masculinity, finding out that I was not really straight or that I am not even truly a “man”.

And now looking back, when I am more mature and have changed and grown so much, that I finally managed to open myself up somewhat and “be cringe and free”, honestly, there is a strong melancholy there. There’s a regret. I wish I’ve done so much over my teens that I sadly cannot turn back anymore. To please those people that were holding me back, I gave up so much. That I am having my self indulgent phase when I am in my early 20s and not my early 10s. And I am still a work in progress, I have no idea if I am still living some sort of lie, cause that is stuff you admit to yourself down the road and figure out with hindsight. But I am happier today. But, for how sad this all may sound, I wanted to tell you, the reader, that it is never really too late to change and open up a bit.

It is however interesting, that even with all of this said and this regret that I do bear, I consider that my experience was still rather valuable. I met many people, I developed in my own way and now I love who I am. Maybe that regret, a desire for a better teenage life is yet just another lie, me trying to conform. But, that will be for future me to decide in hindsight. 

If you relate to anything I’ve said in this little self indulgent post, please remember, that no matter what, if you are not hurting anyone, you should be free to do whatever you want and nobody has the right to take that away from you. If they laugh, let them, you are the master of your own life, so go and be cringe. Go buy that anime figurine. Go write poetry. Go ask out someone you like. Do something that will make you happy today and maybe you won’t be stuck writing long Tumblr posts. 

Stop living a lie. Be yourself.

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

If you were the director of the Raft and had the choice to pick out members for your own version of Thunderbolts, who would you pick?And why?

Any of my Marvel knowledge is about 12 years out of date now.

First, I'll acknowledge that the question posed is "who makes sense" as opposed to simply "who do I like", so I'll try and ignore my inane need to have Grizzly in every comic.

Songbird always screams as the obvious candidate to lead any team.

Team-wise, since my larder is Raft inmates I'll immediately remove the past members that were "heroes" the last time I really was invested in the universe (Atlas, Abe, Radioactive Man, Jolt) even though they pretty much all were made evil again in the comics. I'll also try and steer clear of too many repeated members - as much as Blizzard, Amazon or Boomerang have potential to be better... they didn't manage it the first time, so I'd be a wishful fool to make a team of people who showed some promise but then as much as gave up. With that said, I am keeping two from The Raft era because they plain work on this format of prison reform team and... well, we'll get to her.

I think Juggernaut always makes sense. Keeping him on the straight and narrow by way of Thunderbolts is only beneficial for everyone. As a member of the team, and previously the X-Men, it was shown quite clearly that offering him the chance to contribute and giving him clear focus effectively removes his inclination to waywardness. His temper and the ease to manipulate him need to be worked on or taken into account.

Next up, might as well keep it rolling with the X-Men's rejects so we have Mimic. Mimic is and has always been directionless but shows capacity to both recognise the right thing to do and even the desire to do so. Away from the X-Men and any feelings of inferiority or being a copy, he can find some inspiration from Songbird and his team-mates to be the hero he thought he could have been instead of hiding behind an attitude and apathy. Mimic's powers alone make him beyond useful in any situation, but they also present an opportunity to adapt and plan in advance. (I'm going with the Exiles set-up of him being a mutant allowed to copy 5 mutant powers at a time and they are only half as powerful as the original - because that made the most sense and didn't make him completely OP)

Ghost. Like Juggernaut, the team takes him out of the running to be a future potential enemy. He has a skillset and expertise that is valued and the team helps Ghost better himself allowing him to interact with others and come to develop human connections and feelings which he has otherwise denied himself. Manipulating Ghost or keeping stuff hidden from him will only make him a nuisance or a threat - instead allow him a mixture of respect (for his abilities and intelligence) and don't give him any reason to feel misled or paranoid.

Sylvie Lushton, the Enchantress from the Young Masters, is still young and could be set on the right path. She's not yet a broken toy, her moral compass is simply undeveloped with her attitude still being that of any spoilt high school girl - shallow, fickle and vapid. Her greatest asset is she already has some finesse with aspects of her magic (teleportation) and potential to tap into even greater spellcasting than she has so far displayed. Essential to accommodate her relationship with inmate Melter, no use in removing one of the few things that present possibility for her to feel or care for someone. (Melter isn't unsalvageable either but I think he would benefit from serving his time - for manslaughter, I think that was his only crime? Although come to think of it I'm not sure Sylvie even committed any crime?).

In what I already suspect is a bad decision, I think Tiger Shark too could be rounded into, at least, an agent. He has attempted to turn over a new leaf before and his erratic motivations and even physical appearance seem to be the result of an imbalance of oxygens similar to that which also affected Namor. With appropriate treatments, Tiger Shark may again be susceptible to the idea of reform. On the Thunderbolts, he offers two great advantages - a second tank to stand beside Juggernaut and then someone uniquely suited to any aquatic elements.

Continuing the trend of poor choices... let's finally get to the obvious - Moonstone is insubordinate, she can't be trusted and she is unlikely to really accept or even ideate the notion of personal redemption again. However, it is much easier to include her as a team-mate than ever have to count her as an enemy. Active involvement in the team mollifies and reduces her threat to others significantly - however, preparations and contingencies should be made for the possibility of flippant betrayal. Her manipulating any of the team to her own ends should also be anticipated, expected and combated as best as it can be.

Lastly, what the team is lacking is someone who doesn't rely on strength or big powers, so we round off the team with Crossfire. He is a highly trained combatant, an excellent marksman, a master of battle strategy and has intuitive technological proficiency. He has no interest in atonement or bettering himself, no desire to be a good person or wash the blood from his hands... but he is a professional. Simply allowing him the chance to use his abilities to work off his sentence or work towards gaining a clean slate for past crimes could provide incentive.

All I can say is, I hope Graviton doesn't murder them all.

[sushigal007]

Verrrry cautious. The only spin-off media I've even remotely enjoyed has been the Zuko prequel comic, which surprised me because the movie sucked, and the rest of the comics sucked, and the only reason I might have watched LoK was to see what happened to the adult gaang, but I found out before I watched it and decided not to do that to myself. Which also means I'm not going to watch the adult gaang show that's in the works, because, well, I already know how they ended up, and I'm not remotely interested in seeing that happen, I want to remember them all happy friends together in Ba Sing Se. So basically, in conclusion, the only thing I liked was the original show. So on the one hand, if they stick to that and don't make too many changes, I might enjoy it? But on the other hand, that was what the movie was supposed to do, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you again how much it sucked. But on my third mutant hand, a teeny tiny part of me is hoping that if this one does well, we might get that rumoured S4 that was cancelled for the movie. But if it does suck, am I willing to keep going even though this is a thing I completely made up in my own head right now and will almost certainly not happen? I mean, sure, the guys behind the comics and LoK have backed out, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Netflix writers are automatically going to be any better. They could quite easily be worse, and I don't know if I want to risk being disappointed again. I don't know. I just don't know.

What I do know is that the trailer includes Suki, which automatically makes it better than the movie, so it's got that going for it at least.

As always please reblog. @zuko-always-lies

[westofwonder]

Pull List (10/18/2023 & 10/25/2023)

Action Comics #1058 Alan Scott: Green Lantern #1 Amazons Attack #1 Avengers Inc #2 Batman/Superman: World's Finest #20 Captain America #2 Cyborg #4 Daredevil #2 Dark X-Men #3 Detective Comics #1075 Ghost Rider #19 Green Arrow #5 Hawkgirl #4 The Immortal Thor #3 Jay Garrick: The Flash #1 Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #113 Minor Threats: The Alternates #2 Moon Knight #28 Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #3 Radiant Black #26/#26.5 The Sensational She-Hulk #1 Steelworks #5 Superman #7 (Legacy #850) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #144

Action Comics - I'm not really jazzed that Aaron looks to be taking over soon. I think this direction needed more time to cook.

Alan Scott: Green Lantern - Alan's got a book; I'm excited to see what happens.

Amazons Attack - DC! Stop naming things after Amazons Attack - it's not funny! Mary Marvel team up with Nubia and Yara, let's go!

Avengers Inc - Ewing Avengers book I'm going to be interested in it.

World's Finest - I don't even like Kingdom Come but still intrigued on what Waid and Mora are going to be doing.

Captain America - First issue was very familiar for a Steve Rogers story. I think it's working so far.

Cyborg - Kick their asses, Cyborg!

Daredevil - Matt's a priest! Don't know how I feel about that.

Dark X-Men - I just wanna see this team do more things.

Detective Comics - Francavilla on interiors alright!

Ghost Rider - I like Talia.

Green Arrow - I'm just here for Green Arrow shenannigans.

Hawkgirl - Um, when did T+ become 13+. Skimmed through because I'm behind and I'm a little surprised some stuff got approved. Not that I have a problem, just surprised.

Immortal Thor - Ewing Immortal book and Ewing Thor book - I'm going to check it out.

Jay Garrick: The Flash - Jay is a dad can be good, but I'm a little apprehensive.

JL vs. Godzilla vs. Kong - This is so stupid but I am so here for it.

MMPR - I don't care for Death Ranger. Lot of things trying to be accomplished here with too many characters. This is MIGHTY MORHPIN power rangers - not a lore book. Wanna do a lore book - do a lore book! Also, Matt still sucks.

The Alternates - More Minor Threats world-building.

Moon Knight - 8-ball as a supporting character is still funny. Sabbatini still makes this book stand out in my opinion.

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant - More of Kamala's mutant romp.

Radiant Black - Might drop after Catalyst War. Depends.

Sensational She-Hulk - More Jen! That's nice!

Steelworks - They're fighting a giant robot! Heeheehee!

Superman - Dropped for now, might pick up again at a later date. More of me needing to drop something.

TMNT - What a wild ride!

Reiterating - I was flu-ish last week and I had errands to run yesterday. Next week's list is way smaller.

Happy readings!

[ghostoftheyear]

It occurs to me that I’ve never really talked a lot on here about the Felids despite sporadically posting art of updated designs and mentioning a “series”, so I thought I’d ramble a bit about it for those who might be interested. I’ll keep it under a cut so you can scroll on by if you want.

So, the Felids! This is a project that started way back when I was in my early teens, inspired by -- you might have guessed -- the Thundercats cartoon. The original one, mind: I am very old. Marvel’s junior imprint (Star Comics, I think?) ran a series that expanded on the universe a bit and included some new characters, and I was so enraptured by this that I started creating my own. The first was Siam, with her tragic backstory and twin children; after them came Tigreer, and then I started making more in earnest. Marx and Daman were soon created specifically to be Tigreer’s mates; I remember I was penpals with someone at the time who was also doing the same thing -- I might even have written to her from a letter in the mailbag column of the comic? At any rate, polyamory somehow because established in my head as a natural thing from a far too early age, even if I didn’t have a word for it then. But that’s beside the point.

At some point I realized I had to make these characters their own original thing (aka their own property, though I wasn’t thinking in those terms) if I wanted to ever actually do anything with them, so they became Felids -- Homo felidae, to give them a proper classification -- and for a time I fannishly placed them in the Marvel universe, though they were definitively not mutants but their own thing. I had kept creating new characters to the point where many were just a name and a costume, but I wanted to do something with them, so I decided they lived in a secret compound in the Colorado Rockies named Sanctuary. This came into focus in college, when my RPG group had adventures set in the far flung future of 2003 (I told you I was old; I started as a freshman in 1990). We had a superheroes game and Sanctuary turned into part of that, with my explicit permission. A former friend who is no longer with us did a lot of creative work with various Felids, though it never came to fruition; I still appreciate the stories he came up with.

Many of the roster of Felids are also creations of friends, from that group and later on. The idea of Sanctuary became more fleshed out as a place where Felids lived in peace, safe from the world that mistrusted and hated them. A few safehouses appeared here and there, with missions going out to rescue Felids who had been identified as endangered. Some actually chose to stay where they were, feeling safe in their communities, while others mistrusted Tigreer’s ideal of keeping every Felid safe.

Eventually, I established a history for them. Felids were randomly born to standard humans all over the world, but very rarely -- or at least very rarely known of -- until the 1990s or so. Tigreer, whom I’d decided now was the leader of the community, wanted nothing more than to bring them all together. She’d experienced violence and danger herself and didn’t want any other Felid to have to go through that. Eventually she’d come across first Marx and then Daman -- each one of them taking on a name for their society as it was established, rejecting or at least leaving behind their time in the human world.

That’s pretty much as far as I’ve gotten in terms of story for them. Most Felids at present live in Sanctuary; Tigreer is the leader, but the governmental system is pretty ad hoc (needs work) and she delegates responsibilities to quite a few people who are in charge of departments such as sanitation, child care and education, medicine, weapons and defense training, and so on. Mostly it’s just a place for them all to stay right now. The webcomic I started putting together several years ago has about five pages done and a bit more script written, but I got stuck on an action page and have yet to do more with it. Someday, I hope.

Anyway, that’s basically the rundown. I’ve never really had a clear idea of what I want to do with these characters, but they’re always there in the back of my mind, waiting. Watching. Getting the occasional short story. And getting art, bit by bit.

Oh and when I’m referring to the “Felid series”, what I mean is the collection of drawings/portraits/designs or whatever you want to call them. I did one run-through between like 1997-2001 or so, and then later thought I’d do one more final set. Ahahaha. There’s something wrong with me. I started this new “series” in 2009. 2009. When I started, I was using colored pencils and ink on sketchpad paper. During that time I’ve transitioned to sketches on paper-->scan-->ink and color in Photoshop, then to full digital art, beginning to end. It’s been a journey. One I am never doing again.

[jinxthejubilee]

SAVE RISE OF TMNT!! 🐢 💖

Look, I know this is a little late, but I just binged the first season of the show and watched movie, so I NEED to talk about it!

This movie is gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous! And so is the show. I never thought that I would ever describe fight scenes as beautiful, yet here I am.

I'm ashamed to admit that I was one of the many people who didn't give ROTTMNT a chance when it first came out, but allow me to present my reasoning:

Teen Titans Go! 😑

I'm pretty sure everyone between 2016-2019 would agree that we were all pretty burnt out on this show.

Honestly speaking, I didn't hate TTG. It was funny at times, and even though it was mostly a parody of a show that I deeply enjoyed, I never took it as disrespectful. It was just that, a parody show.

However! The people running Cartoon Network milked this show waaaayyy too dry. It was everywhere!

I present to you all as evidence: The Cartoon Network Schedules (There are no dates, so let's say that these were between 2017-onwards).

And these idiots wonder why their network was slowly dying off...

But aside from this! The second reason for folks disliking the show at first was also due to the fact that TMNT 2012 ended only a year after Rise started airing.

So suffice to say, this show wasn't given the warmest welcome.

BUT! It was wrong of me to misjudge this show, because it is a GEM!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles formula is all mixed up here! From the characters themselves and their distinct designs, to the beautiful worlds they explore (seriously I can't express to you all how pretty this show is), and the comedy aspect is handled really well.

The same goes for the movie. You can tell that the people behind it really put their heart and soul into what they made.

As for the turtle brothers, I appreciate how realistic their brotherhood was. You can really feel that familial connection they all have. They all love each other, they know that, and they bounce off of each other perfectly. Just like real brothers do.

I encourage all of you to watch the show and movie on Netflix if you have it.

Unfortunately though, Netflix has once again screwed us over by not have each of its seasons. I have yet to find a website that has all the episodes of Season 2, but if you do, please let us know!

Now, onto why this is important...

Well, the creators have told us...

If the movie does well...

WE GET ANOTHER SEASON OF RISE!!

AND. We get more characters! Including a certain female turtle who has not been given a chance to shine until she debuted in the IDW comics.

Yes. We might get Venus De Milo back. And maybe Jennika. We'll see.

So please! Watch this movie! I beg of you!

But that's just my two cents! I hope you all have a fantastic day, and I'll see you later! Byeee! 💗

(I'll put a few different tags for this so we can get more traction for this movie/show. Hope that's alright!)

[belle--ofthebrawl]

Behold My Interests That I consider Foundational To Me (under the cut. Too much yapping).

Thank you for the tag Miasma! Tagging @coffeeghoulie @mac-and-thefox and @stuffikindalike and @ghnosis well as YOU reading this if you really want to do it but can't wait for a tag. This is it. This is your tag.

Death Note - Creative enjoyer. I had so many friends on Quizilla before it went down. I was also constantly cosplaying L since the baggy shirt and jeans made it easier to deal with everything going on with my body at that point in time. Matt too, my poor idiot. But now his death makes me laugh. "You won't shoot" (proceeds to die of hundred bullet wounds) I wanted to fuck mello and also be him but I was too Catholic to understand or even have the language for these feelings at that point in my life. (Death note yaoi did in fact significantly change my way of thinking.)

Xxxholic/Reservoir Tsubasa: Passive enjoyer. Loved yuuko.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro and Soul Eater (they aren't related): passive but really wanted Neuro's hair/Soul Eater's outfit. Mom said no and also what do you mean it's a demon detective and also what are you doing when I'm not looking and also I am installing a block on the computer. (Opening songs still slap a decade and a half or so later)

Cirque du Freak: passive enjoyer. We don't!! Talk!! About!! The Movie!! I loved Cirque du Freak. It destroyed me and ground the pieces to ash. You should also read cirque du Freak.

Fire Emblem Sacred Stones: creative enjoyer. I wish my mom hadn't tossed my tote bag of notebooks filled with godawful fics about this game. I was so obsessed with it. 

Golden Sun/GS: The lost Age: creative enjoyer. See above note concerning tote bag.  There's so much I could say about these two games. I still have my old GBA color...I really want to play them again. Collect all the djinn. Make Felix and Piers swap stat boosting rings and pretend they're married. The story telling might not be the greatest but goddamn it Weyard was and still remains the home of my heart. monsters and weird Alchemy nonsense no withstanding. There's a third game but I'm not interested in it. I sunk so many hours into TLA...navigating those damn whirlpools...

Final Fantasy 15: Passive Enjoyer. Prompto was My Boy. but since my copy is loooong lost my interest died down. Still have my favorite fics bookmarked though. Should give them a re read.

Homestuck: creative? I think? I had so many Aspect tshirts...a friend made us matching Dreamer jammies. There's more I could say but honestly it highly involves my personal life that I've put behind me. I'm just glad I have the good memories still. (I was NOT involved in any of the horror stories that gave the fandom a bad name. Need to say that, for my own peace of mind.)

Skyrim- creative enjoyer. I have been writing fic about this game since it came out twelve years ago but it's all in my head. I only just started putting it to paper with my dozenth reiteration of my beloved DB. My brother and I really bonded over this game too, and when he decided he was "too old" for videogames, I took the character he made for our universe and I kept the story going. A very exhausted single father has one child that will save the world and another who is convinced it's all a dream and isn't real so why bother at all?  By extension, this includes other games in the elder scrolls universe but since I insist on having physical media, they aren't as readily accessible. Soon, though...soon. (stares at Morrowind with obvious and barely concealed lust)

TMNT- Passive enjoyer.  I watched the old 80's cartoon a lot whenever we visited my grandma and the first and second live action movies with the puppets were pretty much on repeat at home. The third one does not exist :). I do want to get started on the comics but I don't know if I can emotionally handle The Last Ronin. I really enjoyed ROTTMNT. Didn't get a chance to see Mutant Mayhem in theater. I enjoyed the Bay movies for what they were: explosions and easy laughs and also my childhood crush on Megan Fox.

Transformers: Passive enjoyer. I read all of MTMTE/LL a few years back. Didn't like how it ended. We deserved better than that. See above IRT live action movies and again, Megan Fox. 

Bioshock: Passive Enjoyer. I still get a weird feeling in my chest when I think about the good ending with the Little Sisters where you adopt them as your daughters instead of using them for your own purpose.

Dune: Passive Enjoyer. Help. Why does Duncan Idaho keep coming back. 

Kushiel's Dart: Passive Enjoyer. Phedre's books are phenomenal. Not interested in the other series. Would like to get her Marque as a tattoo somewhere.

Discworld: Passive Enjoyer but in the most passionate passive way ever. I am collecting all of the books. I have a yearly re read of Night Watch (may 25th) and Hogfather (December 24th/25). This portrayal of Death made me less afraid of dying and also less suicidal. "Lord, what can the harvest hope for if not the care of the Reaper Man?" can make me tear up if it catches me in the right mood. I want a tattoo of the  Guarding Dark. I base my Cirrus off of Adora Belle Dearheart (kind of). If I go into the ways Pratchett (GNU) and Gaiman have changed/saved my life we will be here forever. Look up a reading guide and decide which Discworld series you might be interested in starting with. I recommend Death and Witches first, google will tell you which books are in those series. The City Watch is good too. Don't start with Rincewind unless you want to start with Rincewind. It has a lot of Early Installment Weirdness. Lots of one off books too in case you don't want to start a series: The Truth, Monstrous Regiment and Small Gods are highly recommended. 

Ghost: idk, I just started listening to them but I think they might be really big you guys. You should check them out.

𝕱𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖒 𝖙𝖆𝖌 𝖌𝖆𝖒𝖊 ✨

I saw this little fandom game thingie on another site and I really liked it, so I decided to bring it over here to tumblr while my apple pen charges. I’m also going to change up the rules. I’m going to list the fandoms I’ve been in, and classify them by:

Passive enjoyer = simply enjoyed it and the fan content made for it OR Creative enjoyer = actively made art, fanfic, cosplay, etc etc etc.

I’m going to tag people here but no pressure if you don’t want to do it! @miasmaghoul @lonelymentality @copiasjuicebox @iamthecomet @thediktatortot Also if you see it and want to do it, feel free.

Game under the cut since mine will be long<3

Harry Potter - creative enjoyer - My very first. This shit was a family affair in my house. I went to watch parties, themed parties. I cosplayed shittily, wrote shitty fanfic, and my walls were plastered floor to ceiling in teen magazine posters. Went to the Exhibition. Every second movie would come out in July so I would pretend it was like a birthday gift to me.

Twilight - creative enjoyer - Jfc. Don’t get me started. I still have my Edward action figure whose now missing both hands. Used to write self insert fanfic on quizzilla.com. RIP you beast of a website

The Walking Dead - passive enjoyer - This was also a family affair. Every sunday we would all gather round our shitty TV for the newest episode. I was more of a liveblogger than anything else. My dad has a bit to this day that ‘Hershel isn’t dead. He’ll be back.’ Yeah, sure dad.

Legend of Zelda - creative enjoyer - For most of my childhood I was passive, only really doodling Twilight Princess stuff sometimes. Then BOTW came out and it all changed.

Lord of the Rings - passive enjoyer - I look at Legolas and Aragorn. That’s enough for me. I don’t need creative works because I just need to look at them.

Marvel (Spider-man and Loki mostly) - creative enjoyer - I’ve been drawing these guys since birth, for better or for worse. MCU can suck my nuts but so can Loki franchise /sex DC (Batman) - creative enjoyer - Batman the Animated series did something bad to me. Now I draw Joker sometimes. Watch out, stay safe out there

Sherlock and Doctor Who - passive enjoyer - I’m putting these two together since I never really made fan art or anything, but I did attend watch parties for both on several occasions.

Supernatural - creative enjoyer - Sighs. Sighs even harder. Somewhere out there, deep in the depths of fanfic.net there’s miles of really really really bad fanfic. Somewhere…. Final Fantasy VII - creative enjoyer - Sighs far more dreamily. My favvvvv my ultimate fav. Sephiroth is my fictional other and LOMF. Many, many arts of him throughout every sketchbook I own. Also some fanfics IIRC.

TF2 - creative enjoyer - I used to draw Medic and Pyro kissing<3

Homestuck - creative enjoyer - War flashbacks. Not only was I a semi-well known fanartist, I was also a semi-well known cosplayer in my city. I was a ‘friendleader’ in my cities Homestuck fangroup and attended events, dances, etc etc etc. I was on a cosplay gif blog here on Tumblr. I ran the second most popular groupchat on MSPARP.com before it was MXRP.com. I had beef with mods. Most of my relationships at that time were forged in the fires of LOHAC. I still see my art of Dave in MCR black parade uniform around sometimes. Dramatical Murder - creative enjoyer - To no ones surprise. Yeah. I like the yaoi dissociation game. Dream Daddy - creative enjoyer - SHOUTOUT DREAM DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Evil priest Joseph lovers rise UP. Didn’t do much, but there’s some art floating around out there.

Voltron: LD - passive enjoyer - Thank GOD I never made anything for this. However, I was active in the kin community so thats a huge L. I also ate uppppp stuff about it and sheith still fucks.

Overwatch - creative enjoyer - Sometimes you’re a Genji main and the world is so so hard for you. That’s how I used to live my life, then I got better.

Final Fantasy XV - creative enjoyer - Second LOMF. My old art blog is stocked full of chocobro content, mostly fanart of the boys and meme redraws. Also used to cosplay Noctis CONSTANTLY! Here’s an old tiktok

The Band Ghost and Sleep Token - creative enjoyer - (((((((: Hi guys

[earnestly-endlessly]

Hi! Do you have any Cherik Army AUs? I've managed to find just 3.

Hi Anon, thanks for the ask. I found some good Army AUs, though some might not quite fall into the category of 'Army AU'. There are, surprisingly, few Army AUs that I have found, whereas there are several military and war AUs, but those don't necessarily involve an army. I did include a variety that involve an army in one way or another, though some fit the bill better than others. I hope you find some that you enjoy!!

Cherik Army AU

I Want to Guard Your Dreams And Visions – luninosity

Summary: I was reading Barbara Hambly’s Abigail Adams mystery novels, and then Erik/Charles American Revolutionary War AU happened. Little snippet in which they share a tent, drink coffee, and provide support to each other.

The Eggnog Riot – Sophia_Bee

Summary: 1826. The American Military Academy in West Point. The day after Christmas. Cadet Erik Lehnsherr wakes up naked with a certain cadet Xavier sprawled across his chest. He can only blame the eggnog.

No Man’s Land – ikeracity

Summary: It's 1914 in Ypres, Belgium. British soldier Charles Xavier has been in the trenches for four months of endless artillery fire, bone-deep cold, and constant fear of the enemy. But on Christmas Eve, the gunfire falls silent, and they climb out of their trenches for a Christmas truce. Charles, of course, meets Erik, the German soldier across the way.

My Land’s Only Borders Lie Around My Heart – pseudoneems

Summary: WW1 Christmas truce of 1914. Opposing soldiers Erik and Charles meet.

Le soldat – Iggyassou

Summary: Erik is in the trenches, trying to survive the war so that he can go back to Charles, his young lover waiting for him back at home.

Names – Squeegee

Summary: In the summer of 1917, British soldier Charles Xavier finds himself taking cover in a shell crater.

Not sure if the 'graphic' tag applies or not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Quell a storm with pen and ink – patroclux

Summary: Charles had spared his life. That was not something he could easily repay.

They wrote letters to each other for two years, until Charles was pulled out of the war from a sudden illness and Erik remained to fight for a cause he didn't believe in. One that ultimately had no effect; one that stole away four years of his life.

Traumatized and persecuted, Erik applied for a post at Janus, a lighthouse in the middle of the Irish Sea. He thought being alone would do him good.

Despite the letters and despite the love, Erik didn't expect Charles to find him.

Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage – MonstrousRegiment

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a spy in the SS, and his British liaison is strategist Charles Xavier. Their relationship from the moment they meet to a year after the end of the war.

Theme and Variations: War – ninemoons42

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a musical prodigy and a man destined for great things and great stages. But his life is shattered by a terrible accident that leaves him blind and trying to find his way back to his life, his music, and his place in the world.

Then he meets Charles Xavier, an agent of Section 8 of the Military Intelligence Directorate of Providence, and he finds himself listening in to clandestine radio transmissions and clicking Morse code, and these sounds are part and parcel of a war that can only take place in the shadows and the hidden places of history.

Strib nicht von Mir – ravenoftheninerealms

Summary: A squad of Allied Forces, led by Charles Xavier, liberates the Nazi concentration camp where Erik was being held prisoner.

Cold foxholes, warm hearts – oddegg

Summary: Basically, this is Band of Mutants. A little slice of life in Bastogne.

Photographs and Memories – tirsynni

Summary: When war-battered Erik Lehnsherr met Charles Xavier, the man kneeling in the dirt and whispering to a lost refugee child, Erik feared his days of running from his deviance was done.

Marching Home – Quietbang

Summary: For a prompt on the meme asking for fic dealing with the fact that, in comics canon, Charles served in the Korean war.

War meant something different to this generation, Charles knew.

Crash on the Levy (Down in the Flood) – Quietbang

Summary: “This is much bigger than you think. You're in the middle of a war, and you don't even realize, do you?”

He pauses, and answers his own question.“No, of course you don't. How silly of me."

The Knight and the Dagger – Dow

Summary: A Lieutenant in the Soviet Army, Erik Lensherr had no other goals than to find the man that killed his parents. But when a discovery yields a little boy with wings like an angel, Erik is shocked to realize that he isn’t alone. There are other people like him, both dangerous and alluring.

Lifelong Service – Pookaseraph

Summary: Erik thinks he should be the one to teach their recruits hand-to-hand combat; Charles makes a persuasive argument to the contrary.

Footsteps of uprooted lovers – ninemoons42

Summary: Against a turbulent backdrop of artistic, social, and political upheaval, the playwright Charles Xavier and the photographer Erik Lehnsherr find themselves meeting under less-than-polite circumstances, but part rather more amicably than they'd met.

When they find each other again in a Barcelona that is falling inexorably toward war, they find themselves taking up arms, each in his own way, and together they join a struggle for freedom, for love, and for their very lives.

Dear Soldier – Lindstrom, ToriTC198

Summary: "Dear Soldier,

I pray that this package finds you well. The organization gave us a list of odds and ends that you might need, but I thought that a person so far from home might appreciate something more than soap and tube socks."

When Charles' school decides to send care packages to the soldiers fighting in Vietnam, he chooses to also include a letter and a few personal touches. When Staff Sergeant Erik is the recipient of that particular care package it will spur a relationship that will change them both.

Fortunate Son – blueink13

Summary: he days leading up to and during Alex's deployment in Vietnam. Everyone handles it in their own way. Some handle better than others.

You’re Here – Deshonana

Summary: Everyone decides its a good idea not to tell Erik when his boyfriend comes home from the military.

Welcome Home –  loveydoveyecstasy

Summary: It's been two years since Charles was deployed to Afghanistan, and Erik can't wait to pick him up at the airport.

When Secrets have Secrets – ximeria

Summary: The arguments that take place in General Xavier's office when General Lehnsherr has a bad day are legendary. Quite frankly, no one really knows what's going on and if the two men have it their way, no one ever will.

Quiet Company – Sophia_Bee

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is always on the move. He's spent the last many years going from war torn country to war torn country telling the stories of the people there through photographs. Then one of his pictures is selected as a winner for the Pulitzer Prize and Erik finds himself stuck in London for longer than he wants. He ends up with an assignment to photograph Charles Xavier, a wealthy philanthropist who is intrigued to find himself working with a Pulitzer-winning war photographer. Erik is far less intrigued by someone he considers privileged and out of touch. Both of their lives are about to change in ways they couldn't imagine.

The City is Ours – RedStockings

Summary: Erik felt his heart racing with excitement, lightened, and for once felt joyful. Charles had looked at him, really looked at him, and there had been something there, a knowing of a kind. As the soldiers laughed amongst each other, and joked each other about who would succeed in marrying the boy, Erik made himself a silent vow. Charles was going to be his, and nothing would keep him from having him. He’d marry him, and he’d save him, and Charles would love him for it.

Not even the war could keep them apart... right?

Sign of the Times – dsrobertson

Summary: Casablanca-ish AU.

Charles Xavier meets Erik Lehnsherr in Paris, 1937. They spend the next two years with one another, stupid in-love, until war comes heavy in September 1939. Erik leaves for Poland and the Resistance movement there, promising to return. Charles is left in Paris, where Nazi jackboots march in, Summer of 1940. He becomes a member of the underground French Resistance, publishing illegal newsletters, leaflets, until news comes through in February 1942: Erik is dead. Charles throws himself into more dangerous work, meeting with Communists, helping derail a German train, and he does too much, goes too far. His friends find him safe passage out of France, out across the Mediterranean, to Morocco, Casablanca. It is here he finds Erik, alive.

The Waste Land – nekosmuse

Summary: The White Queen and her Shadow King sit on their throne, safe behind the psionic shields of the Walled City. The armies of Genosha batter uselessly at the gates, a war locked in stalemate. Magneto, camped in the frozen mud, receives word the Citadel intends to send a telepath to the front lines. The same telepath he met two years ago, who sat across a carved wooden chess set and offered Magneto the first friendly smile in a lifetime. The same telepath who still haunts his dreams.

Winter Comes With a Knife – RedStockings

Summary: It apparently came to no one’s surprise that the war-mage Erik Lehnsherr took up residence in the Dark Keep. I knew he was going to choose my sister, Raven, to be his apprentice so why wouldn’t he let me go? What did he want from me?

My name is Charles Xavier, I can read minds and use magic. I’ve met Kings and Queens, mages and magic users. I’ve travelled through lay-lines and jumped through the Dark Void… but none of that really matters.

I am leading an army into war, I am scared and I never wanted this. I’ve come to realise that what I want, rode into my life when I was still a child. Now he’s out there, ready to charge into battle. Ready to die for me.

Polaris – LastAmericanMermaid

Summary: Charles Xavier is 19 years old, doe-eyed and soft; Erik Lehnsherr is 24 years old, steely-hard and bitter. One is a soldier, the other a refugee. Both are mutants. There will be pain, oh yes.

(An AU in which Charles is a wounded British soldier, Erik is the German hiding in France who nurses him back to health, and the contents of this fic are best read to the soundtrack of Atonement.)

Note: Unfinished

MEDIC! – paladin_danse

Summary: A British airborne medic finds himself alone and afraid behind enemy lines. When he decides to save the life of an S.S. German officer he finds wounded in the snow, he has no idea the choice he has made will alter the course of the war—and their lives—forever.

Note: Sadly unfinished

Suicide is Painlesss – weethreequarter 

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr did not become a doctor to pick bullets out of children. Unfortunately the US Army had other ideas.

Stuck in the middle of the Korean War, Erik and his fellow civilian surgeons have to battle not only the war, but also weather, mud, and boredom. And that's without mentioning Major Sebastian Shaw who thinks war is the best thing that's ever happened to him and never should've been allowed to pick up a scalpel, or Colonel William Stryker who may or may not work for the CIA and probably doesn't even know himself.

Throw in new arrival Captain Charles Xavier, and Erik is in for a very interesting war.

Note: Unfinished

A Light That Never Goes Out – R_Cookie

Summary: It was meant to be the war to end all wars; these two men were never supposed to meet. One a German Jew, the other a British surgeon. The odds that their paths should cross were next to none - but War defies the expected. It always has, and always will.

From the beaches of Dunkirk to the treacherous slopes of Monte Cassino - this is their story.

WWII AU.

Note: Unfinished

[thepumpkinthingart]

Ok, you got me curious. What are your headcannons for Alex and Hank? -btw really nice to see new Mcsummers content-

I been waiting for this moment my whole life-

So I won't dig into the depth of too much just touch base. Cause I would love to draw for some of these and show some of these situations instead of just explain them. Also shall touch on what is happening right now in my little universe bubble.

First of-

Alex

My interpretation of Alex is sort of a mixture between the comics and the Fox movies. So this means-

Alex and Scott's parents passed away in a helicopter crash, both a young Alex and Scott had to witness the flames and put into foster care. So here is your scoop of PTSD

Alex is the older brother in my interpretation and just for a sake of some kind of timeline- Alex went into foster care, at some point the 'accident' happen and he was jailed for it. Lead into X-men first class, and then drafted. Once he was out of the military Alex comes and adopts Scott out of the foster care system. Being his baby brothers support and parental figure. During this time and bleeding into apocalypse Alex is working on college courses.

Eventually- after litteraly dying and coming back cause multiverse- Alex will end up with a PH.D in Geophysics like in the comics.

Current Alex is working on his emotions, although having tamed his flaring temper quite a bit and is much more laid back he is still working through the trauma of his parents death, Foster care system, death of his friends like Sean and Drawin, time in the military, trying to be the best brother he can he and oh- Apparently he died?! Because He did another spur of the moment decision???

In summary. Alex needs a hug.

But he shall become a Gym couch and Professor of Geophysics at Xavier's

Also hah- big gay feelings. "I died, I am some how alive- might as well confess to Bozo"

Hank

Pretty much the Hank we know from the Fox movies but touch and go on some things

He doing his best

Hank works off and on, on a permint cure. It's not something he can easily let go. Being litteraly Beast isn't exactly ideal..

Professor of Biology and Mutation research at Xavier's

Hank definitely has a thing for pretty blonds with blue eyes. Of course Raven is pretty in her normal skin as well.

The death of Raven, Alex- Jean- it's just been a lot on him and of course everyone else.

Hank especially felt some time of responsibility over Scott slightly. Alex is gone and he brought Scott here for HIS help and now were else is the kid post to go-?

Things just got worse- Peter is gone and well Charles is on the panic after what has happen so many already. Oh hey Alex and Raven are back- ALEX AND RAVEN ARE BACK-

Hank isn't good at expressing feelings- neither is Alex, but Alex is on a 'hell with it' trip and is the one to open up about his feelings for 15 dam years or- 20? Wtf is age when you been dead for a bit

Eventually it's Alex that convinces him to push aside even a temporary cure.

Both

Alex is a sap, like- sure he is crude and the worst boyfriend of all time. But he is also the sweetest and is the one talk Hank down from his panic sessions and is also the one the threaten the life of anyone who wants to comment on Hank's appearance

Alex is also the one who gets Hank to leave the mansion time to time. As much as Hank hates being in public, Alex is happy to at least convince him date nights are not the same surrounded by 100+ hormone driven mutant childern

Alex has a lot of weak moments now that he doesn't constantly hide it behind anger. But that's ok cause Hank is happy to listen and talk or even just be a comforting presence to a very hurt Havok.

Hank was more then thrilled to watch Alex finish out his degree. Alex isn't stupid, he never was. He just chooses to use his brain more then his anger now. Which Hank and Scott can not be more proud off.

Hank only has a proper bedtime because Alex will actually force him to bed or so help him-

Alex is not at all afarid of public affection, Hank suffers for it

Alrightyyyy

Hope you enjoyed my taste of some headcannons- of course I got plenty more but likeee I would love to draw some and such. I didn't really consider myself a ask blog but like--!!! I will happily do so ;; so if you got ask for them I be happy to draw it!

[aliaslua]

Right to live

Chapter 02 of my on going series: In broad daylight

Chapter summary: Michelangelo has a productive therapy session after his interview. April and Casey announce their wedding and in a jealousy crisis, Donatello has his first one-night-stand. Warning: This chapter contain light smut (mature, not explicit) if you're a minor please DON'T INTERACT. TW: Trauma mention (nothing too graphic or descriptive, but it does contain a short account of a panic attack).

Michelangelo started therapy after his first panic attack.

It was - maybe - the worst night of his life. At that point in time he didn’t even knew what a trigger was - and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to identify or anticipate his reaction. If felt like he was dying in a literal, visceral sense. It was like having a bomb growing inside his shell, the beating counting down to a heart attack, he felt his lips cold, his head heavy and the touch of Donatello’s hand in his shoulders felt cold against his skin for the first time in his life. He could still remembers his brothers calling to him and his inhuman effort to look them in the eyes, just as he gazed into the house he grew up in and didn’t recognize the color of the new floor tiles.

The rest was a blur.

Dr. Miller was April’s last effort to persuade Leo and Raph that Mikey needed professional counseling. At this point, Mikey didn't have enough will to have a strong opinion on his treatment, he didn't have the will to do anything, really. All his days were spent sleeping by day and having terrible night anxiety, followed by an earth-shattering cry until morning, when he went back to sleep.  Despite their best effort to care for and protect the younger sibling, all of his brothers knew that he had become impossible to handle - and more important than that, his emotional and physical dependency got so intense that it was perfectly clear that there was nothing they could do: Michelangelo need help, professional help.

On the first day they entered Dr. Miller’s office, April had reassured everybody she had send the therapist recent photos of Mikey and explained all his possible triggers in detail. The clinic would open two hours early so that they could have privacy and that this first encounter would include Mikey, his brothers and Sara Miller only.

Mikey was so nervous he felt like this situation alone would end up triggering his next attack: his hands were sweaty, his chest heavy and the feeling in his stomach made him realize that maybe he would throw up all those recent pizza slices. When the door to her office opened, he felt an immediate relief upon looking at her.

Sara (as he would start calling her later) was a 67 years old black woman, wearing a knitted cardigan and a puffy ponytail. She looked at him with eyes free from any king of judgment: any kind of feeling at all, actually, it was very… neutral. After gazing at him and his brothers she had smiled lightly and then calmly said:

"Good morning. I am Dr. Miller. Are you Michelangelo?" Mikey just nodded " Welcome. Please, come in.”

So he did, on that Monday morning and all the next yet to come, for two years straight.

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

“Did you see the interview?” Mikey asked just as he entered her office, not even worrying about greeting Sara.

“Yes I did.” She answered with the same peaceful deep voice, unbothered by the absence of a greet “You looked very handsome.”

“I sure did!” The mutant turtle seated at the large red sofa, his body melting in the comfortable cushions, he grabbed one of the small pillows behind him and held it tight against his chest “Ugh! It was so fun!”

Sara smiled. She always gave him a kind of smile that made Mikey feel like she was the perfect embodiment of a fairytale grandma and for the first time, Michelangelo actually considered she might actually be someone else’s grandmother.

“I am glad to hear that. Did you do the exercises he practiced?”

Mikey hummed “It helped. But what really made all difference was that Leo was there. And April. Oh, April is getting married!” He announced “She and Casey told us about the engagement just after we all saw the interview air. It was a great night.” He stopped for a minute and laid his head against the couch, focusing on the abstract painting that always caught his attention since the first day he sat there, he knew his voice let out a sadness he was trying to hide. He didn’t need to pretend there.

“It was… Weird, I guess… Like, I should be happy for them, right? Casey is a nice man, he treats her right, they already have a life together, an apartment with a huge TV and an aquarium… I can’t argue with that, right? Right?” Sara didn’t answer, Michelangelo laid his head completely on the couch, staring at the sealing “She was my first love…. Or something like it. I feel so attached to her and…” He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, trying to measure all the feelings filling his chest “...I think I… Should I feel happy for her? Because I felt… Huh, I felt betrayed.”

“Do you feel resentment?” Dr. Miller finally asked, gazing calmly at him.

“Yeah, I guess… I didn’t know what I expected... and I don’t want to marry April. Not anymore, I mean. She is like a sister to me. No! It’s more than that… She’s like… I- It just.. it was all so fast! Everything is so fast right now, and she decided to announce just as the interview ended and I felt so… I felt so overshadowed!”

“You felt it was your night.”

“It WAS my night. And I don’t mean to sound selfish, you know? I just… Wished they had waited.”

Sara looked at her patient making a conscious effort to avoid giving away her own feelings, the enormous man in front her had a gloomy expression and tired eyes.

“Mikey, is not the first time you mention feeling like this.”

“Like what?”

“ Overshadowed .” She quoted him.

“Yeah… I guess it's something I’ve been feeling for a while.”

“You mentioned once that you felt… Smushed, is the word you used.”

“Yeah. Smushed between my brothers.”

“Hmm” Sara nodded “What about that?”

“Well, you know about that… They are all special in their own way. Leo is the leader, Raph is the muscle, Donnie is the genius, I am the… Comic relief?”

“You sound like you are all characters of a cartoon.”

“We look like it!” Mikey said, humorous. Sara did her best  to contain a tiny smile that formed in her cheeks.

“Well, you are your own person, Mikey. You don’t have to fulfill an imaginary role you fantasized for yourself.”

“Yeah I feel like you’re always telling me that.” He sighed “What this has to do with April?”

“You were telling me about her engagement…”

“Yeah. It was crazy… I mean, me, Leo and Raph kept it together but Donnie just… Bolted.” A nervous laugh escaped him “She told the news and he just… Left. I guess it was too much for him. You know, April was the only person we knew for so long… It was only natural to fall for her, right? She’s so nice, kind, and after the expected first meeting shock she treated us with… Dignity is the world Master Splinter likes to use... But then we all grew out of it.”

A long silence followed before he complemented:

“I guess Donnie didn’t”

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

Donatello felt his feet too tight against the leather shoe and considered for the third time on that evening that maybe this was a terrible idea.

Ignoring his own better judgement, he knocked.

Alicia Ellis awakened in him two utterly contradictory and madding feelings: disgust and lust.

Many times he had tried - and succeeded- at disguising the amount of attention he paid to her body, especially since the context they first met didn’t allowed for flirtatious endeavors and despite knowing his physical body was searching it’s hormonal peak, Donatello proud himself on being utterly respectful: an effort that he felt he was making alone. Ellis never even tried to hide her indiscreet wants, playing with their encounters just enough to not be considered harassment, but clear enough to not allow ambiguity. Was that even possible? Donnie asked himself. Did it even matter now?

He felt disgusted mostly towards himself, actually, knowing full well why he had come to her apartment after that eventful night, just as the women he thought he could win over announced her engagement to the man he honestly felt he could one day surpass - pathetic, he beat himself again, cringing at the mere fact he once imagined a possible future for them, together. What a pathetic, emotional, delusional monster you are, dreaming about the pretty girl that once held your hand… And now you surrender to your most selfish desire, luring this woman who will be stupid enough to let you in.

This is going to ruin you. Was the last thing he thought before she opened the door.

She was astonishingly beautiful, with her thick luxurious wavy hair and round plump figure, pressed against a tight outfit he didn’t have enough interest to notice in detail.

“Took you long enough.” She said in a malicious tone, grabbing him by his belt. The apartment was warm, had a delicious floral smell and it was lit in subtle yellow light that mimicked candles. It was sexy, inviting and terribly scary, just like her.

This is going to ruin me . The feeling echoed towards Donnie as he willfully closed the door behind him.

It wasn’t hard for him to understand why a woman like her would take interest in being with a man like him, the internet had allowed Donnie to have a very indiscreet access to the human world - especially since people seemed really comfortable in sharing online things they wouldn’t even tell a best friend - and he knew way before they even came out to the surface that most probably wouldn’t be difficult to find someone willing to share a bed with him. Alicia was just a part of a very niche - yet not so small as one may think - group.

The thought brought him a small relief and a strike of courage that he much needed at that moment.

“I didn’t think you would come.” She said, bringing two glasses of a clear-yellow liquid. What an inappropriate move to bring a glass of white wine to a young adult not-yet-of-age , his better judgment told him as he accepted the glass, but wasn’t he 21 yet? Yes, he was... Maybe it was just judgment.

“Me neither” He answered after a sigh, too honest for his own sake.

“What changed your mind?” She mischievously asked, crossing her legs in an angle that brushed against his knee.

Donatello considered for a minute to said the truth, my heart was broken and honestly I really want to have sex, how would she respond to that? Was there a polite way of saying it? Instead, he said: “I’ve decided to change my approach on things.”

“Oh, really?” She smiled honestly “...And how’s that gonna happen?”

I will take every opportunity that life gives me, irrespective of its consequences, “I’ll stop sabotaging my wants…” He turned his body a little bit in her direction, he had planned a second sentence to follow but it seemed like he had already said all she needed to hear.

She slid her knee between his legs to climb his lap, brushing the space between the buttons of his shirt lightly. How quickly she hopped on top of him and how quickly his body responded to the feel of her warm perfumed breath against his neck. “That’s great to hear.”

It wasn’t Donatello’s first kiss but the tension of feeling the soft lips of a woman he barely knew nothing about added to the oh-so-suggestive friction of her thighs against  his zipper made it an entirely new experience. If he granted himself a moment of reason, Donnie would most likely find her too hurried and eager - but again, what was his experience in this field? Wasn’t this how the encounter should go? What else was he expecting? Independent of what his reason may have considered, the friction of her palms against the now prominent bulge in his pants added to the delicious sounds coming from her throat made every single indecision go away.

He felt his head light and dizzy as their tongues danced against each other and the urge to feel relief made him bold. She answered the squeeze he gave her bottom with an audible moan that gave Donatello’s stomach a cold wave of shock along with the first visible stain in between his paints. She felt the thickness of his fluid against the fabric and smiled against his lips.

“Such a passionate… response.” She said in what sounded like a performative tone - well, she was a journalist.

He took her incentive and slide her tube dress above her ass, stoking it as he lowered his lips to her neck. Her skin was soft and the way it reacted to his mouth - the small flinches of her body and the building pressure between his legs could only compare to the amazing feeling of her silk soft thigh skin. She used her hands to guide his head further down, lowering the piece of garment herself, he instinctively took one of her nipples in his mouth, enjoying the contrast between the soft skin of her breasts and the beaded texture of her nipples.

When Alicia laid her body against him on the couch, he followed her moves and felt the soft pillow against his head, the discreet but unmistakable sound of his zipper being opened followed by her stocked gasp at his member followed by “Oh I’m gonna have fun tonight!”. Donatello held her waist closer to his own, trying to reach her lips again, wondering if he could say the same. The warmth between her legs and the delicious feeling that jolted through his body and she aligned him to her entry - and the irresistible pleasure of feeling his tip tease her plump lips - made him think that the most likely answer was yes .

...And what an unnecessary concern the wine proved to be: he didn’t even get to drink it.

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

“...you know, Raph made a friend.” Mikey had stood on his feet and now looked through the squared window. He had a regular habit of standing up during the sessions, usually as they were reaching the middle of the appointment. Sara it wrote down anyway, before adding:

“Really?”

Mikey hummed “...It’s a complicated story - but he left to buy a bear, this old man didn’t want to sell it to him, so he got really angry, so someone threatened to call the police, so he started to freak out and then this… girl appeared!”  He was switching his body height between his legs “Clara. What a name! Heh- I don’t get to say that, huh? Well, her name was Clara and he said she looked like an anime version of a character from Fresh prince of bel air … Can you imagine?” He turned to look at her. Sara just nodded.

“Wanna hear some really crazy stuff? Raph told me that they were talking and she told him she saw my interview… and she said she was in love with me!” He offered his therapist an incredulous happy smile “ME! Can you believe it?”

Sara hummed and made another note.

“I know she was kidding, I don’t think she loves me. But saying it like this sounds like… Like I am a celebrity! Like she would like to know me… Like…”

“Like you have been seen.”

“HELL YEAH!” He exclaimed, sitting down on the couch again grabbing his trust-worthy pillow “... And that sucker didn’t even got her number…” A deep sigh followed silence. Very discreetly, Dr. Miller checked her watch.

“It doesn’t matter, really, it just made me realize… That I wished I had someone…”

More silence.

“-I know I already have someone, if that's what you’re gonna say… I know my brothers are my care net and that I have friends and confidants, and bla bla bla”.

“Well I wasn’t going to…” She said peacefully.

“ I want… A lover . Someone to be my special one. Someone to cherish and spoil and share my life with! Someone who can say they’re in love with me… For real.”

More deep silence.

“... And why don’t you?” She finally prompted. Michelangelo turned to look at her with a impatient expression:

“Are you kiddin’ me?”

“I am definitely not.”

“You can’t be that cynical!”

“I am not.”

“Sara…” He sighed uneasily “... not this again.” she heard pain in his words.

“You have the right to live, Mikey.” She gazed at him with the same kind eyes, letting her strong words get to him “...Just like anyone else.”

This time, that was an anxious silence. Michelangelo rubbed his hands together as if he was facing a cold storm “What if it happens again?”

“Then you will do what we practiced.” She waited for an answer that didn’t come “... Do you wanna remember it once again with me?”

He simply nodded.

“I am more…” She started.

“...than people perceive me.”

“I’ve the right…”

“...to occupy space.”

“No one…”

“No one can deny me my right to live.”

“That was great, Mikey.” Dr. Miller said kindly.

He squeezed the tears away from his eyes, not even realizing they were there. “...Yeah… Yeah, it was.”

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

It was certainly.... Memorable , Donatello thought, staring at his brand new shoes as they made the path back to the lair. How was it again that he found himself in that situation? That sad looking, empty feeling, walk-of-shame. Oh, yeah, Alicia Ellis.

Something felt terrible wrong about that whole endeavor. He tried to think about the details, to analyze the facts: it has been clearly consensual, sober, communicative sex. So why did he feel like some part of him had been left behind in that apartment? Was it his clear shyness when they finally consumed the act or her generous overlook at his even clearer lack of experience? Had him fail his mission? Factually not! He performed… Fine - it was hard to measure, but she seemed pleased enough. He was also pleased… Physically, at least.

So why did he feel so… Empty?

He walked among the streets of New York without the concern his older brother seemed to carry. Donatello was always really good at not carrying - just as he was good at carrying too much . Oh, yes, his overthinking nature was still going to kill him, no matter how hard he tried to pretend like it didn’t matter at all.

Nothing mattered, everything mattered. What a contradictory and childish state of mind. Could he ever find balance? Would he ever be able to take risks and still be prudent? To be disappointed and not lose all faith? To love deeply and move over from it, stronger and ready to love again? Did he ever truly love her ?

He remembered her ring shining against the light, mocking his defeat. A zirconium, Casey Jones…  Can’t even buy her a real diamond . He muttered to himself and the night, kicking a small rock in the path.

The worst part, the real strike of the devil - was the fact that she looked immensely happy. Heartbreakingly happy. And there was nothing, nothing in this world that Donnie could think that could justify taking this away from her - not even the fantasy that she could be happier.

He took a deep breath and grabbed the keys in his pocket. That was no way out of it: we would have to get over her. At least now he knew that running away to unknown women’s homes was not a viable solution.

[hellyeahheroes]

Let Molly Punch Wolverine: Why I’m worried about X-Men appearance in Runaways

I want to preface this by saying that I have strong trust in Rainbow Rowell and while I am behind her series due to financial and pandemic related reasons, I trust her to deliver the best story she is allowed to. The worries I express below come from the fact I do not trust X-Men editorial and Jonathan Hickman enough to believe they will allow her to tell the best story.

The way I see it, Runaways are the quintessential Millenial comic in that it perfectly captures Millenial generation’s disillusionment with world and society built by Baby Boomers. A disillusionment that was to be expected in face of failiure of American defenses to prevent 9/11, the government and mass media wholeheartely embracing islamophobia and homophobia in it’s wake and American war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of myriad other problems that were already present in the 00s and only got worse as we went ahead. 

This is not seen just in the core premise of the original series, the idea that the parents kids are taught to respect and look up to are actively evil and damning the world for their own benefit. But also in the general potrayal of adults and adult superheroes in the series, who are mostly useless or outright malicious in case of Doc Justice. Sole exception being somewhat Spider-Man, who himself is portrayed as having gone through what Runaways have and so having insight and empathy other adults lack. 

While that theme has become more gray over the years, as Runaways managed to gain a good footing with teachers and students of Avengers Academy alike, and Nico and Victor were on Avengers offshot teams, even then it was clear that the older heroes are not these perfect ideals too look up to, but flaved in their own way. Entire Avengers A.I. is about fixing one of Hank Pym’s screwups and A-Force’s premise is the team doubles as a support group, every member having gone through traumatic experience in the past and being on different stages of healing process (not to mention how it crashed and burned due to mistakes made by Carol in Civil War II). Even X-Men themselves started as outright antagonistic to Runaways under BKV. And then uder Yost went into the mutual “MAYBE they aren’t THAT bad” relationship with Runaways. Every meeting so far had Molly punch Wolverine.

In current series most of the team moved from teenagers to young adults and their experiences still reflect those of late Millenials. There is this feeling in current series of powerlessness, Runaways making it to the adulthood only to find all it gets you is more problems and all ability to fix the world have been systematically wrestled from your hands by the very people who broke it just so that you cannot fix their mess. It is a story about trying to live in a messed up world with that realization and how your found family can help you carry on whatever it will throws at you. I think in this way is why I can turn a blind eye on things like Nico in Strange Academy - it makes sense she would want to at least try to help kids who are going through what she did to not have as much a hard time. And, you know, Strange didn’t invite A NAZI WHO ACTUALLY WORKED AT AUSCHWITZ WITH MENGELE to help him run the school.

I do not beleive X-Men editorial can play along with that. Right now X-Men and their fandom are at the height of drinking their own kool-aid, portraying their stupid sex island as the msot perfect and best thing ever, to the point they ignore the blatantly fashy things happenning like making up new minority groups (precogs and clones) to oppress, or abovementioned inviting of Nazis, mass murderers and islamophobic crusaders who want to “take back Jerusalem”. They are so into the “mutants are a minority” metaphor that they outright demand that every other book touching on it portray negatively anyone who does not immediatelly bows down at their feet. Something we have seen in X-Men interactions with Fantastic Four, where Sue Storm’s legitimate complaints about X-Men’s current position are caricaturized to cast her in a “uniformed homophobic mom” stereotype just to keep the metaphor working. Even in Fantastic Four’s own book. In wake of this I can somewhat see why the infamous “Franklin is not a mutant” retcon took place.

I cannot beleive that current X-office could allow X-Men to be shown in a way that adheres to themes of Runaways. I mean for Pete’s sake, look at their treatment of New X-Men Academy X - another Millenial at heat series. And another one that tackles disillusionment of that generation with Baby Boomers’ run world with its own 9/11 equivalent in form of a terrorist attack that killed many of its students and traumatized the rest. It is a known secret editor Jordan White considers this a “mistake” because it made old X-Men look bad. And under him in particular X-Books had a history of undermining and derailing NXM kids to show them as inexperienced, dumb kids who never had any hardships and do not know what it really takes to be an X-Man, who see it as all the glamour and no work. All in spite of the fact they may have suffered more than all their elders except Karma, writers’ favorite punching bag. Now the books are outright lobotomizing the surviving kids while bringing back dead ones not to explore any stories with them or how such return could affect the ressurected and their friends alike and maybe allow a possibility to heal. No, this is done solely to erase that massacre from ever happenning because it make Jordan White’s heroes look bad. 

I’m supposed to believe this editorial will allow Cult Sex Island to be shown as imperfect or not a place that would “obviously” be much better for Molly? That it will allow Runaways to not be cast as “bigots” for not wanting to handle Molly to “real family” (as determined by genetics) same way X-Men treated Fantastic Four? As things stand now X-Men, a franchise and fandom that is ever entitled to special treatment to the point it cried Marvel wants to bury them when having “only” four books a month. One that has demanded for Kamala Khan to be handed over to them and made a mutant just to spite Inhumans over some perceived slights. A fandom that has wished death members of every superhero team with a mutant who refuses to hand the mutant over and celebrated brutal murder of a kid with a reprogrammed Sentinel. This blind entitlement is not jsut a fandom thing but also infects creatives working on it. Need I remind you how Jason Aaron made a big deal out of making Firestar join the X-Men? He took a character who canonically didn’t care much for the team and wanted to do her own thing and retconned her to be a total fangirl who dreamed of joining but was never before truly “worthy” of this “honor”. Right now we have more and more evidence every franchise interacting with X-Men needs to bow down and play a secondary role to it. but the respect here is a one-way street, Jonathan Hickman outright complains about having to adhere to work of other writers. I have absolutely zero trust that editorial will not try to force the story in Runaways to also be worshiping the ground X-men walk on. Worst case scenario they insert themselves like they did with Fantastic Four, becoming recurring plot thread and casting rest of Molly’s family as evil for not wanting her to join what is effectively a cult.

I wish I’m being wrong here. I do not want Runaways to become a glorified advertisement to a bigger franchise that has become souless and vile and whose fans turned into bullies. I have faith in Rainbow Rowell but that faith is outweighted by my distrust in Jordan White and Jonathan Hickman and their egoes. I hope I’m wrong. All I want is a story that ends with X-men fucking off and Molly staying with her real family, the Runaways. And of ocurse, her punching Wolverine. Which I do not trust White and Hickman to allow either.

PS: Some of you are probably already typing some sort of “if you don’t like the X-men, just don’t read them” response. To you I say: I would be glad too. Too bad they keep forcing themselves into things I actually like. Like a mold. Which is a good metaphor for what this old, gross thing the franchise has become.

-Admin

[shellyseashell]

ALL THAT MATTERS

Read on ao3

SCARLET LOVED HER husband, she really did, but sometimes his obsession with tomatoes was a bit annoying. Sweet, sure, it was a testimony of his love. They had first met over tomatoes, and he wanted to honor that. Still, when she came downstairs one morning after she realized Wolf (it was still hard to call him Ze’ev, though she tried her best, her mind sometimes defaulted to his street fighter name) was no longer in bed — as he usually woke up last — and came downstairs to find the kitchen counters covered in tomatoes, she seriously started reconsidering a few things.

Namely, why she had agreed to grow tomatoes in their garden.

Scarlet rubbed her eyes and blinked, as if the fruits would disappear and this was just some hallucination. “Er — Ze’ev, what are you doing?”

Ze’ev looked up from behind the counter, flashing a smile that shouldn’t have been as cute as it was with his sharp teeth. He was still in his sleep clothes, and his hair was messy. He clearly hadn’t been up much longer than she had. “I got us tomatoes!”

Scarlet entered the kitchen fully and leaned against the counter, resting her chin on her hands so she was staring right into those bright green eyes she loved so much. “I can see that. There’s a lot of them. Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why so many? I know you like them, but this —“ she motioned to the many, many tomatoes invading their kitchen “— feels a little extreme.”

Ze’ev’s smile grew. “It’s the anniversary of when we first met! You told me what a tomato was and got in a fight, remember?”

Scarlet did remember. Usually, she tried to forget about that time of her life, as there were just as many bad memories as there were good — such as her grand-meré’s death, which she hadn’t been able to properly grieve until the war ended.

She should have known Wolf would remember it. He had an insanely good memory that she always blamed on his genetic mutations, and would take something as small as their first meeting and turn it into something so . . . cute? Annoying? Endearing?

That time, though, had more good memories for him — at least, during those few days. His first taste of freedom in stars-knew-how-long, meeting Scarlet, joining a rebellion against the Queen that had taken so much away from him.

“What exactly were you planning to do with them? We leave tomorrow for Kai and Cinder’s wedding. As much as I appreciate your dedication to our relationship, I don’t think buying so many tomatoes was such a good use of our money.”

Ze’ev frowned a bit. “I got them from our garden.”

Right. They lived on a farm (Benoit-Kesley Farms, Scarlet had so smugly renamed when her and Wolf had gotten married a year prior). Hadn’t she just mentioned that?

“Well, that sure gives me an excuse to not go into town today.”

Ze’ev’s shoulders sank. “Were those for your delivery?”

Scarlet’s expression softened, and she rounded the counter. “They were. But who needs those tomatoes? Not whoever that new cook is. Doesn’t appreciate the hard work we put in here.” She dropped her voice in a mocking tone of the new cook at the Tavern and waved her hand for dramatics. “‘You are a war hero, there shouldn’t be a SPECK of dirt on those tomatoes.’ ‘I expect more from my clients’. How stupid is that?”

“Very.”

“Exactly. What were you planning on doing with them anyway?”

Ze’ev’s shoulders sank even further, and the look was almost comical. Looking down at his feet, he muttered, “I was hoping you would have ideas.”

Scarlet laughed, and wrapped her husband in a hug that was quickly returned. She nestled her head in his chest with a sigh. “What am I going to do with you?”

Ze’ev squeezed her tighter, and she almost made a remark about needing to breathe before she heard him mutter “Don’t leave me ever again” and the protest died in her throat.

Even after three years, nightmares still plagued him — plagued her, plagued all of them — about the war. There were times when he woke up in the middle of the night to make sure she was still there. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, thinking there was a mutant wolf attack.

But they had each other, and that was all that mattered.

“I won’t leave you again. I promise.”

She could practically hear him smile.

“I bet I can eat more tomatoes than you.”

—

SCARLET REGRETTED MANY things in life. The list was never ending, but still, eating nearly half of the tomatoes Ze’ev had gotten topped the list.

Wolf, with his seemingly never ending appetite, laughed as she groaned, sprawled out on his chest as he laid on the couch. “Finally learned your lesson about trying to win bets you me?”

“Never.” She nestled her head against his chest. “I’m still a better shot than you.”

His chest rumbled with laughter, a sound and feeling that made Scarlet smile. “You probably are. You’re also prettier, more confident, and smarter than me.”

“You’re plenty pretty. And it takes a lot of confidence to stand up against Levana and your Thaumaturge when they could’ve easily ended you. Smarter than you? Yeah, I probably am, considering you didn’t know what a tomato was until a few years ago.” Her tone was teasing on the last part, and Ze’ev snorted.

She readjusted her position so her arm was draped over Ze’ev’s stomach, her other curled against her chest. Wolf’s arm held her against him and kept her from falling off the couch. “We don’t have any last minute plans for the wedding, do we?”

Ze’ev shook his head. “No. Kai and Cinder said how important it would be to them to have their official wedding be televised, with Cinder being cyborg and Lunar and the Eastern Commonwealth’s soon-to-be Empress, so we don’t need to bring anything for that like they did for us. We’re mostly packed, and we have wedding gifts and transportation figured out.”

“Thorne isn’t reliable with the Rampion. He still isn’t that great of a pilot. Even after retraining himself.”

“You could always fly.”

Scarlet hummed. “I could.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Scarlet said, “Tell me a story.”

They did this a lot. Scarlet loved hearing Ze’ev’s stories of growing up on Luna and as a Special Op. He didn’t seem to get the appeal, but she loved learning more about his home and past — even if they had been cruel at the time, things were steadily improving on that rock. Scarlet, too, would tell stories about growing up on a farm, anything from learning to fly to that time she got in a fight with a few delivery boys. (“They called her crazy, which I wouldn’t stand, so obviously I had to break his nose.”)

“What about?”

“Anything.”

And so Scarlet fell asleep in her husband's arms, listening to his soothing voice recount a story she had heard many times before, and yet, it never got old.

Because it was him, and that was what mattered most.

[popculturebuffet]

New X-Men Xtrospective Part 1: E is For Extinction “They Will Need Us”

I am SO fucking excited for this one. As might not be obvious to ALL of my readers but should be obvious to some, I fucking love the X-Men. They are one of my favorite superhero teams period as are several of their spinoffs such as X-Factor (All versions), New Mutants, and Marauders. I love the wide cast, the hugely vast universe within the already vast and wonderful marvel universe, and the sheer amount of GREAT stories. I own all 11 movies, have several action figures, and two posters from Jonathan Hickman’s current and utterly dynamite run right above me right now as I work, as well as a marvel 80′s themed poster behind me that’s at least half x-men for good reason. I love this gang of mutants and I have not talked about them enough. 

I”ve done some X-Men stuff sure: I’ve talked about hickman’s time as head writer of the books a year in earlier this year, I did a few scattered reviews back when I did single issues of comics, and then we get to the one I beefed big time: covering ALL of X-Men evolution. While it’s a noble endeavor I freely admit to overexerting myself: I recapped the episodes way too closely, gave myself no real schedule and did so while I was already covering two shows a week at the time. My point is it was a good idea, but the timing was REALLY fucking bad and if I do it again, I intend to do it right and iwth a proper place in my now properly paced schedule. I also planned to do the movies which, unlike evolution, I have solid plans to do once I clear out some of my projects. Point is I burned bright and then exploded and took a whole projecet with me phoenix style. 

I had until this moment yet to do a really big x-men project, something digging into the comics, something that could help fans both of the comics and not get familiar with something really good, and help me dig into both the good and bad of something. I jsut needed the right start. 

Then Christmas gave me that spark, that project that gave me the idea for a butload more x-men content on here and was the perfect starting point for some. See my friend Marco lives in Honduras, and so since i couldn’t afford to send him anything for christmas in the mail, as i’m not exactly rich, I instead offered him three reviews of anything.l He still hasn’t taken up two of them, nor one I gave him for graduating college, but the first one was a doozy, something he hadn’t read due to not liking the art, which is fine as I have some art in comics I don’t like everyone has diffrent tastes, at least for the first arc, and something VITALLY important to x-men as a whole and that’s the backbone of hickman’s current run: the first arc of new x-men, e is for extinction. And given New X-Men is one of my faviorite comics of all time I not only lept on it.. but decided fuck it I’m covering the whole thing. So every so often on here from now until I finish, i’m going to be covering Grant Morrisons ground breaking, mind shattering, status quo destroying run on the children of the atom. This.. is going to be fucking awesome. Buckle up. 

New X-Men came about in 2001. Stop me if you heard this one: The X-Men, once marvel’s best selling title and one of i’ts most beloved, had been set adrift in a seal of editorial bullshit, bad writing, bad storylines and a stale continuity where not much could change or grow and things always reset to about the same place it was last week. If this sounds familiar it’s because it somehow happened AGAIN thanks to Ike Perlmutter’s bullshit, hence the current hickman run, but we’ll get into all of tha tsome other time. Point is as it was in 2018, so it was in 2001: The x-men were in bad straits and marvel reached out to a host of various creators to swing for the fences and find a new direction, something to bring sales and life back to the book. To my shock they actually took a LOT of diffrent pitches in before Morrisons won and from huge names: Geoff Johns, who had not yet returned to DC never to leave, Alex Ross, Keith Giffen.. all huge creative types. but in the end the best man won.

For those unfamiliar with him, Grant Morrison is a gloriously batshit scotsman with a long, storied and delightfully insane history in comics, mostly at DC before and after this comic. This is for good reason: DC scouted Morrison specifically because of his early work at 2000ad. See at the time Alan Moore had hit it really big with Swamp Thing, taking a d list, so so book and making it into an utter masterpiece and giving it thoroughly interesting mythology. Given it was a blockbuster hit that’s still widely loved and discussed, as it should be today, DC decided to repeat the strategy of asking British indie comics creators to come do the same to another property. This same experiment is why Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman exists, so.. yeah it was actually a great strategy and naturally Grant had their first big hit with Animal Man, a metafictional take on a b-list hero that made him a loveable family man, while also putting him through hell and playing with the medium and dc’s vast history, the last two being Morrison’s trademark from then on out.

 They’d next go on to reinvent one of my other faviorite teams: THE DOOM PATROL!  The patrol are a bunch of victims of strange accidents who got powers out of them that are basically curses... and Morrison solidified that concept, taking over after a weak run that ironically enough was trying to imitate the x-men’s success at the time. Instead Morrison just went all out with his weird shit for the first time and made them a team of broken but likeable people with weird powers fighting just the weirdest most incomprehensible shit, a run i’ll likely be digging into eventually along with the team as a whole. It’s also, along with Gerard Way’s recent run, the bedroock for the current and utterly masterful doom patrol series I need to catch up on. They also apparently once wrote a satrical comic starring and lik mocking hitler... a fact I somehow JUST learned but naturally doesn’t surprise me at all. 

Morrison’s career at dc, after doing some creator owned stuff there when Vertigo opened up, hit it’s peak in the late 90′s as they were given the go ahead to reinvent the Justice League, with the wildly successful and awesome JLA, another book I probably need to take a look at that put the big 7 back into the team.  And by now your probably getting the point of me covering his career pattern.. besides giving morrison the praise they deserve, and they’d have some really great runs after this.. and some terrible ones but no one’s perfect. My point is that at this point in their career Morrison’s greatest skill was taking something that had grown stagnant or been forgotten, blowing it up and reworking it into something glorious and new. Taking what worked, scraping away what didn’t and on the whole making something fucking glorious out of it. So here we are. The X-Men needed a new coat of paint and uncle grant had their lcd laced psycadelic paint bucket and brush shaped like a pidgeon at the ready. And for better, way better and admitely sometimes here and there worse,they changed the x-men for good. Some changes were rolled back out of spite, others finally got their chance after said rollback recently, and some were just outright thrown on the grown and smashed with a hammer. But for the most part Grant left a huge impact on the x-men and i’m here to show you why, warts and all. To me my x-men, this is new x-men.  Now naturally there’s even more exposition but i’ts more in what COULD’VE been. Originally while Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Professor X were all part of the team the other two members of the slim roster for this run, Beast and Emma Frost.. weren’t. Originally Morrison was going to have Colossus and Moira Mactaggert, long time team ally, token human until very recently, and now thanks to hickman one of the most important x characters peirod and long before that a fan favorite of mine, on the team, with Moira taking over for beast. 

This.. didn’t pan out since Marvel apparently either didn’t give a shit about their plans or already had things in motion as the climax of the longtime legacy virus storyline killed both off. Colossus until Joss Whedon, bastard he may be, brought him back for his terrific Astonishing X-Men, and Moira SOMEHOW stayed dead until House/Powers of X. See this speaks to one of the big roadblocks morrison faced: Jonathan HIckman currently has absolute power and all his writers working in concert, a new way of doing things comic companies shold honestly copy en masse as it’s really working wonders. Grant.. was just one of many writers and one of three main x books the others being Chris Claremont’s XTREME X-MEN, basically “let the legend do what he wants since he can’t get freedom on the main book” and another writer on uncanny... before eventually chuck austen took over and I will tackle that horrible mess some other time. Point is while Morrison was setting the tone, costume style and making the big waves, they still didn’t have full power and thus had to play nice with eveyrone else.  So their next idea was Rogue, making mer more like her x-men evolution version.. except Chris wanted her, so that was out, though being a decent enough guy he willingly gave up Beast since the moira thing meant Morrison needed a science person. As for Colossus replacement, as it turned out a fan had suggested Grant do something with Emma Frost since Gen X was canceled and while Morrison had zero intention for it clearly Emma clicked with hthem and she was soon both a main part of the cast and one of their biggest contributions to X-Men as a whole.

As for what I think of the needed changes.. they ended up being for the best. I do like Moira... but Hank ended up being a much better fit for the team dynamic wise and power set wise, while Emma was the same. While Colossus, Rogue and Moira are all fantastic characters, I think what we ended up with was just a better mix overall. I DO think the team is incredibly white, but that’s a general x-men problem, even with having an assload of diverse and intresting characters, so it’s not entirely his fault. All in all it’s a fantastic roster: four of the x-men’s best, their leader in the field for the first time in forever, and a new and intresting wild card. IT’s a nice ballance of characters and we’ll get more into it as we go. Now all the expositions done, we can finally dive head first into new x-men. I hope you survivie the experince under the cut. 

After an utterly gorgeous and striking cover, the one used up top, we get one solid page to introduce us to Morrison’s mission statment, how  they feel and how good Frank Quitely’s art looks

I cropped it best i could for tumblr but this one image immidetly says a lot. Our heroes are just.. easily taking down this sentinel, an old model... the same one we’ve seen a dozen times. What were once the grim, possible destroyers of an entire race of beings in days of future past and devistating killing machines in the present.. had become stale easily defeated murder bots There had been noble attempts to really make the sentiinels work again like the horrifying omega sentinels, humans forcibly converted into sleeper agent killing machines, during operation: zero tolerance, but otherwise they were mostly just a prop for the x-men to knock down. And that.. really is morrison’s whole point. Lampshading and mocking the fact the x-men had grown stale, things hadn’t really progressed.. and that it was time to move on. But to Uncle Grant’s credit, they not only uses this as a mission statment but it’s plot relevant: this mission will both be explained soon and explains why Logan and Scott are out and about enough to end up where the plot will soon need them. It also helps, via the sight of the syndey opera house establish something Morrison made a staple of their run: the X-Men going global. While the x-men were never really NOT global post claremont, Morrisons run has them handling rescue missions and what not worldwide far more often than most runs before it sans Claremont, and really made it feel like they weren’t just another super team but a global force of good with a specific goal and mission. More on the global aspect next time, as that’s where it really comes in but I felt it was important to show it was there for minute one. 

So yeah before we move onto the first full scene of the run, let’s talk about the costumes. 

We’ll talk about Emma’s later since she’s not introduced to the story for a while but yeah. There’s a sharp, obvious and immediate change just in the outfits, which take after the movie’s more military look, having the x-men not only look more like a unit but more like a professional orginization. Someone to come and help when needed. While this would take on more siginifigance in a bit, we’ll get to it, it also fits Morrisions own views that the x-men were less of a traditional superhero team and more something different on the edges that fought things out there, sorta what like he did with doom patrol. And it’s honestly a valid interpretation as the x-men are often seen as outlaws and misfits by society for beingn well.. mutants. Not as trusted as the avengers. So having them adopt this look played into that: Having them look more professional and focused as The X-Men have a less blanket mission statement than the avenger.. but also mildly threatning. Something to alarm the humans. It’s an utterly brilliant look thrown best together by the big yellow x’s, still giving it a nice flash of color to show off and show this is still a comic and this is still damn colorful.. this just isn’t your AVERAGE supherhero comic or the x-men your used to. IT’s a real shame the only fox x-men movie to use it was fucking dark phoenix.. a film where it didn’t even fit as xavier was getting flashier and more reckless so why wouldn’t he have more garish and colorful and more traditional superhero outfits. They did look good in their variants in first class though. Props there. Point is this is a classic, utterly stunning look, and tha’ts coming from someone whose fine with goofy superhero outfits and perpetually bitter hawkeye is almost never allowed to wear his actual comic outift and is instead stuck with shades instead of you know.. a mask. Or anything resembling an actual good looking costume. This though this is how you do a less superheroy costume: practical and realistic, but still cool looking and comic book friendly. 

We cut to a mysterious lady, we’ll come to know her as Cassandra Nova and while I know her origin... i’m saving it for later as the comics themselves explain it eventually, and a simpering dolt she brought with her, Donald Trask, a distant relative of the creators of the sentinels who, via holograms she’s showing cro magnons slaughtring the neanderthal. Her point is that Mutants are going to do this and she’s clearly fearmongering him and trying to talk him into genocide: to wipe them out before they wipe out humanity. And it’s here we get one of hte most important plot points of Morrisons run and one of the most intresting: according to cassandra’s research Humanity will be no more in 4 generations. Mutankind is on it’s way to overtaking them at last.. i’ts still a few decades off.. but it’s coming. It’s sometihing that the whole decimation nonsense sadly snuffed.. and John Hickman has thankfully brought back. I’ll get to his run once i’ts complete in a few years, but point is it’s an utterly marvelous plot hook: Humanity, whose already attempted genocide a few times, is now in real danger of what their petty, racist, fearful attacks have been about: being replaced. It’s one of the central themes of the work the other two being “Just what IS mutantkind and what will it be”. WHat are they as a people? We’ll dig into these as we go but the threat of exctincion is the backbone of this arc... and will lead to something truly ghastly. 

It’s then we get our title page.. which nothing really to add it just looks really good and helps show off who are cast is and what they can do with striking simple art. 

And since we’re already talking the art of the book, let’s take a moment to discuss an intresting detail of this run: despite it’s short length there’s quite a few diffrent artist, who we’ll talk about of course as we get to each one. The most common and notable though is Frank Quitely. Frank Quitely is one of Morrison’s closest and best creative partners, having a unique, squishy art style.. i.e. the one my friend didn’t like which is why i’m covering this. And while I like the art style quite a bit, I do get why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea: His art is squashed, weird, and admitely some faces can be good god no incaranate. But it’s also why I like it: his characters feel unique, each body and figure feels like it was custom made and thus feels.. real. Like this is a person before you. And given comics can often surrender to having everybody look the damn same, this is nice. His faces may sometimes look similar but his bodies are where the action is. But while having a realistic feel his work also has a weird alien quality that perfectly fits Morrison, and thus his run on x-men. I will say while I love All-Star Superman, his art fits less there in the more hopeful silver agey story, so he’s not an artist for EVERY STORY OF EVERY TYPE.. but when it comes to sci fi weridness, he fits it like a glove so i’ts unsuprising he and morrison are practicaley soul mates, nor that his art sets the tone perfectly for the run: this is something new, diffrent and strange.. and what says x-men at it’s best more than that?

So after our opening titles we cut to the mansion where Hank is showing off his latest and greatest invention: Cerebra. Cerbebra is a massively upgraded version of Cerebro, aka Professor Xavier’s iconic helmet that allows him to track mutants to help them out.. and covertly backup their conconousness for his long game plan, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone yet that’s not going to be retconned in for a few decades. Though i’m damn certain if Morrison has heard about the current era of x-men and how it both builds on what he built, shatters the status quo and is incredibly weird, he’d be damn proud. As for how it’s diffrent Cerebra not only has a large dome around it but said dome allows the machine to amply Charles powers to a global reach. He can now see mutants all over the world anywhere in the world, something I didn’t realize wasn’t ALWAYS a thing because it seems so simple. It’s also likely to bring it more in line with the movies. And while marvel has done TERRIBLE with bringing things in from the movies or in line with them in recent years, i.e. making star lord more like his movie self while forgetting that’s how he already used to be in canon before later writers thankfully did hte better step of merging the two, Hawkeye’s outfit, Cap’s outfit or Nick Fury Jr.  But for every mistep there’s also been tons of times it’s worked out really well such as here, as well as bringing hulk into the avengers for the first time since the founding, making tony stark more like the mcu version and less like a nightmarish self righetous dicktator who rightfully gets beat up and called out a lot, making Scott Lang prominent since he became prominent in the MCU, Wakanda being a major force in the marvel universe as it always should have been and various titles that have popped up to tie into movies, often bringing back a team or property that hadn’t had a book in some time like Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Shang Chi just to name a few. It’s not always hawkeye looking all jeremy renner is what i’m saying.. though thankfully comics clint isn’t that uninteresting. Hopefully the series will change that. 

So yeah along with a bigger shinier cerebro we’re also introduced to a big change in Hank whose taken on his lion form rather than his classic gorilla with a weird haircut or his return to that except bald. Here he’s more like aslan in a human body and I.. love it. It looks great, helps sell hanks delima of being brilliant while looking like a beast and makes sense: he kickstarted what was likely his own secondary evolution by drinking the potion that made him bestial, so it only makes sense his body wouldn’t be all that stable even if it took years to change again. And even that makes sense as hank was breifly turned back to his original hairless ape mutation during x-factor, easily one of the books.. worse decisions honestly and one that louise simonson thankfully later undid. That probably bought him some time hence why it’s only mutating further now.  It also adds an intresting wrinkle which the run will explore further: how far does this go? Will he regress? and how much hank will be left? And how will society treat his new form? 

For now he’s actually extatic. While he’s going through hormonal changes, and giving out some excellent banter with Jean

Which also includes one of the greatest lines in comic book history, one that’s been in my head for decades and made me absolutely love henry mccoy. 

He’s just great is what i’m saying. As you can tell it’s stuff like this why i’m glad Moira fell through. While I love her.. Morrison’s hank is just a delight and one really questionable subplot aside, we’ll get to that, he’s one of the highlights of this run with an intresting internal struggle, and great chemistry with EVERYONE. And that is the main reason i’m glad Moira fell through as his history with everyone but Emma, who he still has a great raport with, means each interaction has weight. He’s close friends with both scott and jean and thus serves as their needed confidant, while still being able to buddy and banter iwth good old weapon x, and speak with his mentor charles as an equal. While I love moira... Beast just fits into the cast too perfectly and I 100% suspect Morrison was only using her because, while she’s awesome, Claremont wanted her and thus gladly snapped her up when he no longer had a science person. I’ll get into his Jean soon enough but she’s likewise fantastic and easily my faviorite version of the character.. not that until very recently there was much honest competition. 

So Cerebra fires up showing a massive cloud of mutants, showing just how much of a huge spike theirs been with Xavier wondering what it all means.. and Hank seeing a weird flare on the mointor for just a second with his special eyes. But since Xavier isn’t stupid and isn’t the kind of idiot who just dismisses it as a fulke, and since Scott and Logan are in the field, he decides to confrence call them in to see if they can go take a look. 

And naturally we get to see what their up to and get context for what the hell happened in the first page. Our heroes were on a rescue mission to save Ugly John, tha’ts what people called him, a three faced mutant who ends up passing out as they head out of the atmosphere for a second. Wolverine is regenerating and smoking out of his neck becaue he could still smoke back then before marvel decided “he’s setting a bad example”.. in a comic meant for teens and adults. 

I mean I get it on some level as the x-men cartoon was a huge thing in the 90′s and Ben Grimm is basically a giant children’s toy with the mind of a surly 40 year old jewish man from yancy street, but stilll it’s just.. why. I may not like smoking but it’s not like it was SPIDER-MAN saying

It’s a grown man.. whose not a sterling roll model and who Claremont went out of his way to have Logan point out his healing factor means it really dosen’t hurt him in the long run and when Kitty, an actual teenager, tried one of his cigars she choked. I know it’s a weird thing to get hung up on but while i’m all for keeping kids from smoking, this was a really clumsy way to try and hehlp that that made no sense and will never make any sense. 

One tangent later we find out that Cassandra was showing Trask a simulation on a flight to, unsuprisingly, south america, to a sentinel blacksite. Between covertly funding civil wars as they do, the US Goverment naturally founded an experimental sentinal project, and a second master mold during the production of the first line... when larry trask asks where it could possibly be well...

Subtly was not the trasks strong point.. or common sense... or.. not realizing their creations would dominate humanity too or not dying. 

Anyways we then cut back to the x-men, as their having a psychic zoom meeting with Charlie giving one of his patnted big speeches.. and like a lot of this comic it’s too damn good not to use 

The reason I couldn’t should be obvious: This one speech sums up the x-men, why their great and why their necessary in a nutshell: in a world full of prejucided morons.. there’s plenty of scared kids who NEED the x-men to protect and guide them, and with a surge in the mutant population, their needed now more than ever. We also get a good explanation in universe for the uniform change: Charles had them in the superhero outfits hoping humanity would accept them if they were packaged as something they know. Since that clearly hasn’t worked he’s trying new ways to reach out and thus going with a diffrent more rescue team approach to the uniforms. He assigns Wolvie and Cyke to go check out the flair as you’d expect and the meetings over. On the blackbird we get our first hint at a subplot as Logan noticed Cyclops couldn’t wait to get out of there, and is being a tad distant to his wife. He actually has reasons for being kind of cold for once instead of just bad writing as he just came back from being possed by apocalypse. Yeah that happened. So the experience has rattled our boy some what. More on that as we go. But Jean ducks the subject with hank but does breach the fact that Charles has been going kind of crazy with the spending, new uniforms and ambition lately. Hank explains it perfectly: After all the death, suffering and misery the x-men have endured lately, the aforementioned deaths I talked about that took Colossus and Moira off the roster, have lionzed Charles to make sure it was all worth something and look towards the future. 

But enough hope time for horror as Cassandra makes her first direct move, trying to take over Charles brain , make his body her own and use cerebra to kill lots and lots of mutants. We then get one of the best moments of Morrisons run with Charles response to a horrifying monster trying to take his brain

While it is shocking to find out Charles has a gun..it’s a grim but kind of understandable precaution. The guy once got fully taken over by a brood, assembling the New Mutants in part because the brood wanted to create more of i’ts kind with more super powers. You’d be paranoid too if some of your beloved students were brought together partly due to your good intentions and partly because a space monster wanted to make more space montsters out of helpless teens, and even horribly gaslighted one of them. We’ll get to that some day. Point is Charles brain is one of the greatest weapons on earth and if the wrong person got a hold of it, it’d be the end of said earth. Thankfully Charles does not need plan gun, as Jean yanks Cerebra off him but the sheer HATE Charles felt from Cassandra, the sheer power has rattled him.. and also told him she’s in Ecuador and his X-Men need to be warned NOW. It’s a great way to set up just HOW powerful Cassandra is.  Speaking of which as our first issue of the arc ends, we find out two things: Cass faked being int he government but really just used dead soldiers as prop.. and just what kind of sentinels are out there.. wild sentinels. Easily my faviorite variant of the old killing machines and one that’s barely used despite being really damn awesome. Their adaptive killing machines, designed to mutated just like their pray and take tech from around them, as a result they look like a jumble of guns and parts.. but not only does it give them a unique, cool look.. but it makes them ten times deadlier as instead of being big bricks of robots that while intimidating, the x-men know how to kill... their unpredictable variable killing machines. You can figure out how to kill one sure.. btu the next might be entirely diffrent. They are one of morrisons best creations and I hope someone uses the idea again.. aka hickman. Please use it jonathan I know your focused on nimrod but come on. 

And we end on one of the best lines of the entiire run as we close out the issue

Yeah it goes without saying but i’ll say it anyway; Morrison is really damn good with dialouge and being damn quotable. 

So we open with another great quote “When I got up today I didn’t expect to kill 20 million people”... and Cassandra being aware Wolverine and Cyclops are on their way and sending the Wild Sentinels to dispatch them. Also our heroes brought Ugly John along while while a dumb move, Wolvie does point out how dumb it was to divert to Ecuador with a civlian in tow.. after the plane crash of course. As for “wait what plane crash’, the sentinels attack and start picking it apart... and since letting them have such good tech is a terrible idea, Scotty blows up the damn plane. So to recap our heroes are stuck in ecuador, surrounded by murder machines, and oh look their there and knock off cyclops viser. Fantastic. So yeah our heroes are fucked. And naturally captured by the enemy.

The rest of the x-men are doing SLIGHTLY better. While beast makes a note for his girlfriend, more on that later on, Charles is in bed, half alive, explaning the rationale I gave for why he has the gun with Jean refusing to let him get back out of bed and you know.. put on the device that just nearly killed him. But when beast announces they lost contact with our boys.. yeah that ceased being an option. 

Back in the Ecuadorian Genocide Factory, Cassandra does the obvious and kills donald trask as his real purpose..was to stick around and be stupid for a bit while she copied his dna so she could have full control of her new murder toys.She soon uses them, having a horrifying death chamber slaughter john.. or at least flash fry him. Wolverine takes it how you’d expect and since the sentinels need to “perserve trask dna”.. they can’t fire on him without killing her. Scott escapes.. and in a heart wrenching scene mercy kills john.. before getting badass. 

To anyone who says Scott Summers is boring, unintersting, or a stupid asshole idiot head I present exhbit shut the fuck up. Morrison gets scott just right, deconstructing his emotional suppression, while showing him off as a dedicated, companionate man who gets the job done and who seconds after tearfully having to mercy kill an innocent mutant whose death was partially his fault, wastes no time making it painfully clear to the person responsible she WILL die if she tries that again. Logan however realizes she’s already won in some fashion as she’s grinning.. and yeah never a good sign when a genocidal madwoman is grinning like a loon.. and when we find out why.. it’s even less good>  We cut to Genosha. A lot of you probably know what happned to Genosha but in case you don’t know what it is it was once a horribly racist country that genetically enslaved mutants and used them for slave labor. It was freed, but still struggled to truly move on.. till Magneto showed up, took the country for himself and made it a home for all mutants. When we last saw him he once again tried to take over the world leading to Logan seemingly killing him. Right now though Emma Frost finally enters the scene teaching some mutants.. when a young one named Negasonic Teenage Warhead.. yes that one and yes she was entirely chosen for deadpool for her name, reveals, via precognition, that their all going to die.. right as the sentinels attack. 

Genosha.. is gone. In an eyeblink 16 million mutants are dead, a possible future gone, and one of their greatest leaders is no more. Yeah Magneto WAS alive.. but paralyzed so he could do nothing when his island was utterly slaughtered. Only a handful of mutants will be revealed to survive. Humanity had done a lot to mutants before .. but for once.. they’d succeeded in wiping a massive chunk out. What was an x-men location for DECADES at this point.. was now a smoldering crater. A what could of been that would hant the x-men ever after, even now into utopia it remains the darkest day in mutant history outside of hte decimation. It is a truly horrific moment.. and if the changes already hadn’t made it clear this is morrison saying “NO character is safe, nothing is safe, and nothing will be the same and I damn well mean that”. In one act of hate the world has changed. And it hasn’t finished changing yet. 

Issue Three opens hammering in things, as Jean and Beast are in the ruins of genosha, with Xavier having found ONE surivor among the rubble, and our heroes sturggling to find even them, though Jean eventually picks them up and uses her TK to sift through the rubble. 

They find Emma who emerges from a bunker in shock, clutching NTW... and not realizing she’s dead until later and revealing she now has diamond skin, her own secondary mutation. Secondary Mutation was a birlliant idea, new powers sprouting up within established mutants.. it’s just morrison barely used this great idea as did hardly anyone else. Only X-Men Blue ever really dug into it and those were artifical at that. IT’s a great idea..it’s just barely used and at most heavily implied to explain changes in powers like Jamie Madrox Multiple Personalities later on or Doug Ramsey’s vast increase in power. Disapointing. 

While Charles takes in the tragedy and the fact his old frienmie is dead, the x-men wonder what the fuck Cassandra is and what to do with her.. why did she kill 16 million people, and what the fuck is she. I mean I know, but as I said i’ll explain that when the story does.  IN the other room Beast tends to Emma who wants none of not fucking killing Cassandra.. and is utterly right. Bitchy, because i’ts Emma, but right: she killed 16 million people. Say what you want but while it may not be up to the x-men to kill her.. she shoudln’t be living much longer. She commited genocide. Emma decides fuck that and prepares to leave summoning a cab and making peace with being a glorious living fabrige egg. Emma did apparelty change in generation x.. but Morrison is responsible for returning her not only to being a bitch, but a gloriously delightful one And really I don’t think they reset her character entirely: she’s not the heartless monster she started out as: she has empathy, grace, and caring.. she just buries it under a lair of absolute bitch and after you know, surviving a fucking genocide who can blame her? And honestly.. I love their verison of her. She provides a nice contrast to the more idealistic, even logan, x-men and a nice contrarian voice in the room without being obnoxious and her style and sacrastic swagger makes her endlessly entertaning. Thanks to morrison she’s stuck around to this day and went from a pretty good character.. to a great one. And what makes her this way, or as jean puts it “such a bitch?”

With that settled, Hank explains what Cassandra is: a competing species. As he puts it sometimes evolution takes a quantum leap forward.. and Cassandra is the result. Thus she wants to wipe out the compettition and is so far above humanity, she dosen’t need them... especially since she knows what Hank now knows: humanity is at an end. As hank puts it we have an E Gene, one that basically shuts off a race.. and thus the x-men now know what we learned earlier and that cassandra wasn’t lying: in 4 generations there are no more humans and something has to repalce htem. And Cassandra wants it to be her. 

Before Logan can do what he does best, and asks why she looks like charles, Cassandra escapes, and Scott briliantly urges them to fight only on instict as she’s a telepath. A damn awesome fight insues including Cassandra donning Charles Psoonic battle armor, Scott being put in his black bug room and the general good looking chaos you’d expect from a superhero fight. While this goes on Emma has an ephinany and realizes she likes to teach, the x-men have a school.. and she shoudln’t give up on helping kids just because of what happened and turns around. 

Cassandra is near victory, slipping her way to Cerebra.. and planning to kill only one mind before getting to the millions she wnats, a horrifying slug manifesting around her.. only...

So the x-men accept this and cassandra rises.. seemingly saying “I am charles” Huh... and then charles uncaracteristiacally shoots her saying things must change

We’ll get to what all of that means next time as we close on Jean and Scott in bed. Scott explains why he’s been so distant as what I said earlier: fighting off apocalypse stripped away a lot of illusions about himself and he’s having a hard time walking back from that but Jean is willing to help.. but before they can resolve their  issues.. charles has an annoucnment to make and grant has one last whopper of a suprise to end his opening arc on, and just like genosha...it’s a game changer of titanic proportions

No longer is Xavier’s School hidden. Their walking into the light now and so is charles. Hope they surivive the experince. Obviously this move is brilliant: while it removes the veil of saftey the x-men had it also brings on tons of new possiblities and unlike secondary mutation, this one not only stuck but would impact the x-men for good: no longer would they hide and cower.. their mutant and proud.. and their here to stay.  E For Extinction is one of the best x-men stories period. Blisteringly paced, full of great character, great concepts and utterly terrifying and terrific moments that would impact the x-men all the way to present day. It’s beautifully drawn, well paced, and a masterwork. I highly recommend it and it’s a great kickoff to a great run. Shame the run couldn’t of ended on this kind of high but.. we’ll get to that. For now this is a masterclass in how to start a run and if you haven’t read it do so NEXT TIME ON NEW X-MEN: A bunch of weirdos try to harvest mutant organs, the x-men get a brain in a jar and a new teamate, and Scott maybe cheats on his wife. Until then, goodbye goodbye goodbye.