#like hes not even a mutant and hates them even but magnetos just 'well. i could probably use you for incredibly niche purposes.'

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Cain/Juggernaut: ...So you and my stepbrother huh?

Erik: ???

Juggernaut: I'm referring to Charles. You're exes, aren't ya.

Erik: Ah. So you're the bitchass mfer he mentioned that one time.

man who hates his brother charles xavier because he's a mutant meets man who hates humankind for hating mutants and is in love with charles xavier Surely This Meeting Will Go Well

[lazywrites]

Gravity

Kurt wagner x fem!reader (2k) Reader is a villain, suggestive, bad writing, i wrote this practically asleep.

Par 2 of Nemesis

After a few meetings, Kurt doesn't know what to make of his new friend or what to do about his feelings towards her.

Who were you really? A lost soul looking for guidance, that was what Kurt had heard when he first passed by the square, a fearsome terrifying villain, a powerful mutant, a terrorist, a simple woman made to be an outcast in a society she helped build.

But then, he had also been called many things in his lifetime, most of them unpleasant as well. And if the likes of Magneto and the Hellfire Club could be considered heroes by the population, why not her? Nemesis used to be an just entity that existed in this world more than anything else, uncontrollable and mysterious, a powerful mutant of unknown origin, who could bend the Earth and stars to her will.

The power over gravity, it pushes and pulls, a careful balance must be kept. Come close and you might end up bent out of shape, too far and you might be lost forever.

Nemesis has always strived to live in balance, her hands are light and helpful and her heart is as heavy as a stone, That was most of what he got by talking with the others. In truth, Kurt had invited everyone he could, well liked or not, religious or not he didn’t pick and choose when announcing to them his invitation, it wouldn’t be right, he had heard a story of her before, from his sister Anna no less, Of the somber night the terrible villain Nemesis halted the movement of the stars on the sky for a few hours, affecting the tides the weather and everything in between, and was defeated by the X-men, saving the whole world and even then he had wondered why, why would she do such a thing? It seems illogical even from the perspective of pure evil.

A few days after their fist meeting he reminded himself to ask, and she simply looked down towards him as always.

“Because i could.”

And it did not make sense to him, He had to admit, it was hard to merge the two images he had of this woman into one, and Kurt found that he became disappointed in himself, the simple act of even trying is foolish. People have many sides to them, some that are full of hate and lust for power, and some that will hold your hands tenderly and pull you closer, looking to make you smile.

Both sides of this woman haunt him at night, Nemesis and Y/N.

Nemesis stands over his bed at night and smiles down at him like a shark, dark and scornful in a way that makes him freeze, unable to move he is completely powerless against her as he’d probably be in a fight, but they’re not fighting. And her tongue is mean but oh so sweet in his mouth, she does not spare insults to his virtue in those moments and he is completely at her mercy, hypnotized and helpless to resist her pull. Like a black hole she steals all the light from his room and the breath from his lungs when she presses up against him, sometimes it’s one of her boots, sometimes its her body against his but the result is always the same.

It depends on what kind of nightmare this is meant to be, Some nights his body and hers are so entwined that it’s hard to distinguish one from the other, she’ll whisper close to his ear and demean him until he can’t take the teasing anymore. Nemesis will simply step on him and declare that she wants ‘to see him squirm’, he’ll be well acquainted with the sole of whatever she was wearing that day when they talked, and it’s agonizing and euphoric at the same time, a bittersweet nightmare.

And he knows it’s wrong, wrong and honestly embarrassing but he’s been caught by her more than once looking down at her shoes.

Y/N is there too.

In his sweetest dreams she comes to him, but not to stand over his bed, she lays with him and her presence electrifies his body in opposition to Nemesis. And the need to move makes him shudder, the need to touch her and run his hands all over the object of his desire feels right this time, she’ll bring her face right next to his until they breathe the same air and Kurt will finally be able to see it again, the soft interior beneath the hardened shell of her persona. It’s not like he has any difficulty getting to this side of her, but in his dream, it’s more present than ever before and he can touch her and kiss her as much as he wants, the real her.

Waking up is the hardest part, ever since they met Kurt knows that his sleep schedule has worsened considerably, some days he’ll want to sleep until he can’t anymore, to continue living in his imagination just a little longer, he’ll look himself in the mirror and tell his reflection to stop having these fantasies, that his new acquaintace is dangerous, just like everyone else tells him. It won’t work, despite his doubts Kurt admits to himself only in his head and nowhere else that he is fascinated by her, that she has his full attention whenever they see each other even if in passing.

He doesn’t know her, but somehow he does. It’s strange but he’s seen her real self, and he knows her real name now, there is no reason to be afraid of Y/N, she was genuine that night, and he remembers the warmth in her eyes every hour of every day.

 “why are you messing with my head, Meine Liebe?”

He’s being pulled towards her, and it’s hard to resist his newest temptation.

Ultimately he doesn’t think of anyone else he’s met like he does you, they all have many facets to their personalities sure, but the difference between what he’s heard about her past and the present is confusing, He doesn’t know what to do with her, with you, his friend.

And what if he asks you about it? What would you say? Probably something bold.

“Because i can.”

You’ve said it before, you won’t ever ask for forgiveness, maybe that’s why the answer he got that day was so nonchalant, in the end it doesn’t matter, He should focus.

After that day in the rooftop you two met again, and kept meeting over and over, you never joined the others in their reunions but if he looked up towards the rooftop of Genosha’s makeshift church you’d always be there waiting.

Kurt didn’t dare to climb up to the rooftop and preach for you to come down, so he joined you, for the better part of 3 months you two meet every week up in the roof and just talk, or sit next to each other in silence, staring at the moon. And he enjoys it for more reasons than he can put into words, you never say it but he can also see it on your face that you enjoy spending time with him, he wants to know more about you and ask all about the questions that have been brewing in his mind for more than a month, he wants to know why you did what you did, wants to know if your time together is helping, wants do know if you think of him as much as he thinks of you.

The doubt in his mind never really leaves, but Kurt doesn’t mind when he can focus on staring at your profile, he wants to commit to memory the way your eyes gleam when you stare at the moon, like it belongs to you, and in a way it does.

“You’re staring again.”

He blinks, you wait for him to answer without even turning to face him.

“You look good, i mean-You’re in your element, it looks good.” A slip of the tongue, and he hopes you won’t notice.

“Hmm” You turn towards him with and arch an eyebrow “Yes, i like staring at the moon, from here it feels like i could reach out and grab it.”

It seems you haven’t noticed how flustered he became under your stare, Lucky.

“Yes, you’re right, i do wish i could touch it sometimes.”

You smile at him, a mischievous smile.

“I could get it for you.” and don’t wait for him to react “You would be touching it, but only once.”

He smiles back at you “I’d rather just look then.” And directs his gaze to the sky, to distract you so you can look and he can turn back to watch you again.

You don’t take his bait, not yet.

“I’ll take you flying someday.”

It’s a nice thought, so nice it makes him feel guilty, for doubting you and questioning your intentions, and for fantasizing about you, as much as Kurt wants you to be vulnerable he can’t help but feel guilty when you are, even if his guilt comes from things that he can never tell you.

He can’t express with simple words how that makes him feel, so for now a smile will have to suffice.

“Actually i’ll let you pick the day, since i��m in a good mood right now.” And there you are again, putting him on the spot.

Kurt opens his mouth and forces his tongue, which seems more like an useless weight on his mouth at the moment, to form a few words that are comprehensible at least.

“You want to go out?”

“Yes.” You don’t even blink.

“With me?”

You’re still staring at him and he feels oddly exposed, almost indecent, but his heart is beating fast, so fast. Just like when you stand over him in his dreams, when you lay beside him and whisper how much you want him.

You lean into his space a little, just a few centimeters but Kurt feels like you are closer than ever, and then you plant one of your hands on his bicep, an action that should by no means seem as seductive as it does in his eyes.

“Yes, i want to go out with you.” And he just can’t leave you hanging.

“I want it too.” He hopes you won’t notice the slight tremble in his body, it’s not like you haven’t held him close before, you did it on the first day you two met, but this is different, it feels like you could read his mind and peer into his darkest secrets with just this simple touch.

“Just say when.” The power your half lidded stare has over him is undeniable, and Kurt knows that he can spend the whole day telling himself in the mirror that this meant nothing, it is real, not one of his midnight fantasies, you’re real and you’re waiting for his answer, for him to tell you that he wants you.

He takes in some of the cold night air and his tongue is once again an useless weight on his mouth, but he has to try. “Tomorrow then, Ja?.”

You nod. “Tomorrow.” And then look down towards the streets below “A member of the council out with me, people will gossip.”

“Let them gossip all they want, it is only natural for us to be seen together.” You arch your eyebrow again, questioning what he means “We can say that it was a battle for the ages.”

And you laugh for a moment before your face goes back to its normal state, a little moment that makes his heart beat faster for the rest of your time together. It’s hard for him to come to terms with it, his desire for you, his love for his new friend and fear of the fearsome foe you could become.

But for now this is enough, it is enough when you’re there. By the time he’s back home and in bed, he’ll crave your presence desperately, and by the time he wakes up full of guilt for his thoughts he’ll want less of you poisoning his mind.

But the knowledge that you’re there, and that you’ll be together with him again tomorrow is enough to keep him grounded in the moment, grounded, orbiting you and hoping you won’t bend or break him.

He’ll most likely never touch the moon, but just admiring it with you is enough, for now it has to be.

[rei-ismyname]

X-Men/Mutant Dynasties

Something I've always felt uneasy about is when offspring of Marvel mutants basically inherit their mutant gift 1:1. The X Gene (though I don't love that either) is supposed to be a naturally but randomly occurring thing in humans that causes them to develop a strong mutation. In many cases, a superpower as opposed to six toes. I'm sure people experience such minor mutations as well but it's not due to the X Gene.

A character that exemplifies the my dislike of this is Raze, the alternate reality/'future' child of Wolverine and Mystique. Them existing in a pretty ridiculous era with a constant nostalgia recycling is a factor too.

This idiot. He literally just has both parents gifts - shapeshifting, claws, and a healing factor. Keep in mind those are metal claws too - something Logan doesn't have biologically. Maybe it's a Mystique thing and she's like a ditto in Pokémon breeding because her kid with Xavier is this chump.

It's just Charles Xavier again! I'll admit part of the dislike is them featuring in such mediocre, unimaginative stories, and they're pretty transparent Nostalgia bait. Has it lead to good stories? I don't think so, not as a critical element. Could you honestly tell me what either of these idiots' motivation is without looking it up?

Also, I think taking the randomness out of it just leads to eugenics and bioessentialism - a place the x books should not go, or at least not have nominal heroes doing it. Leave it to Mr Sinister.

Mutant trait inheritance has been around since almost the beginning. Polaris has Magneto's powers but weaker, Siryn has *similar* powers to Banshee, Nightcrawler looks like Mystique (though that makes sense through retcon. Shit, maybe she IS a Ditto.) On the flip side, there's even more Mutants that inherited none of their parents' mutation.

IRL Mutation is supposed to be, well not random per se, but the result of damage to genes. In our universe it's neither a good thing nor bad thing. In 616 it's pretty muddled tbh. I'm not a scientist - I'm a writer, so I'm not going deep on something that doesn't have internal consistency. I'm always going to dislike thin characters trying to evoke familiarity through mashing two iconic ones together, but it's more than that. What's the source of my discomfort then?

Yeah, it's the eugenics. HoxPoX actually took it further, revealing that Moira and Charles intentionally sought to breed reality warpers, to the point of researching partners that would give the desired result. They were successful too, resulting in Proteus and Legion, two of the most powerful mutants alive. The ethics of these actions aren't editorialised but I think they're meant to be read as horrifying - especially when you consider the context of the 'pairings' and the lives these poor kids have had. Maybe it's not so surprising Xavier views David as a weapon and Moira seems to hate Kevin. It makes Chuck and Moira look terrible.

Pic unrelated, I just wanted to break up the text and what better than Beatnik Namor?

The superbaby schemes never come to light and they're not really punished for being shit parents. Certainly not socially. I'd love a book where they were, but the time has kinda passed. Maybe the fairy tale morality of big two comics doesn't have the framework or the desire to explore it, though I think that if you're going to put eugenics in your fiction you probably should.

I've been sitting on this draft for months because I feel like I don't have the knowledge or vocabulary to explore it properly. I'm probably missing something. I've decided it's been edited and rewritten enough and I'm posting it as is, so if you have any thoughts on this I'd love to hear them. Join the conversation!

[base-and-co]

During a round of late night thinking, I encountered an intriguing idea about Deathbit and how we can play with it. (I blame Woodkid - To Ashes and Blood for making me think at all) (Arcane why do you do this to us writers)

TLDR: Gambit is not brainwashed and is working for Apocalypse willingly.

We all know about the "came back wrong" idea, it being the main one in the fandom as I see it right now - after an unreasonable amount of torture from Apocalypse because of course there's torture like the boy hasn't suffered enough already (HE BURNED ALIVE). But you know, what would've been even more interesting?

If he came back right.

With all his smiles and accent and powers - just boosted - and he still calls X-men his "amis" and laughs like it's just one big training session in the Danger Room and like his hair isn't white and like his skin isn't ashy gray and like there's no Apocalypse who gives him orders. Moreover, he reacts to those orders with another round of wits and jokes - like it's no ancient and probably the most powerful mutant in history but just Scott or Chuck. And when shit hits the fan and he needs to kill someone, X-men see that he doesn't want to but he does go for the kill. They stop him and it looks like he let himself be stopped but then he knocks them out and flees.

And he still wears his smile like it's the only mask he has and there are tears in his eyes and they see it's HIM it's GAMBIT and they can't understand why doesn't he just stop completely and go with them and let them help.

And for a while they think that he's brainwashed or mind controlled but it's painfully obvious he isn't and X-men just don't know what to do. They think maybe it's some kind of sick trick of his, maybe it's his revenge for letting him die, for not preventing Genosha or accepting Magneto into the team (he jokes about that fuck up of theirs during fights more than once) or something else.

And when the team inevitably get him cornered and maybe even collared, he panics. Not because they might hurt or kill him - and they actually might, at this point Death/Gambit caused a pretty big amount of injuries, but none of them were more than they could handle and that alone is suspicious - and they DEMAND to explain what's happening, he's borderline having a panic attack and he pleads to let him go. It's out of character for him more than they can think and they press further and further until he screams

"REMY TRY TO PROTECT YOU!"

at the top of his lungs and he's scared and everyone are dead sure he's not scared of them.

And they ask again (probably Storm), this time calmer, trying to see if Gambit is even aware of where he is and what is happening - and he is. He's damn sure of where he is and what he's doing and he hates himself for it, but

"it be de only way t' keep him away from you."

And he looks up at them and tells them that he made a deal with a Devil. As long as Remy serve him - loyally, consciously, fully understanding what is wanted from him - Apocalypse won't touch the X-men. Unless they bother him too much, that is. He tells them that Apocalypse wanted to get his hands on Storm and Wolverine and Rogue and for some reason he decided to ressurect Gambit first and Remy couldn't let his friends and loved ones become Apocalypse's pawns. And Remy's been doing his best to keep them occupied so that they'd not meet with his 'master' as well as keeping tabs on Apocalypse's work at the same time. He had no chance to do anything with it because he was scared about what his interference may cause. And Death is afraid of Apocalypse shitless. Yet he keeps working for him - "it's not de first time Remy sold his soul. Der's nothing to sell anymore. Just let him do this for you so you don't have to."

We know that when Gambit died, he didn't see his sacrifice as anything heroic. He never called himself a hero - at least being serious - and that he full on believed he was the worst amongst X-men (well before Erik showed up). And this would be him bargaining himself again.

There is actually so much intresting dialogues and scenes and the sheer confusion and dramedy is amazing. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that (comments or smth).

[s10127470]

My X-Men Hot Takes

As I'm sure many of you who have been following me have seen, I'm a pretty big fan of The X-Men.

However, I do have some reservations with them.

And with their ongoing resurgence in mainstream popularity, I've decided to share my hot takes/unpopular opinions I have on the team.

Admittedly, I have some takes that are pretty commonly agreed by a majority of X-Men fans.

But still, I have a lot that would probably piss a lot of them off.

So without further ado, let's get started.

-Mutants have become less interesting/The X-Men have WAY too many characters.

This is basically a two-in-one, but I decided to do them together since they essentially connect with each other.

Mutants have just become a lot less interesting due to the writers keeping them largely huddled together in recent years.

What made mutants so cool was that they were widespread and that not all of them were connected to the X-Men.

Which just made the world feel a lot bigger and fleshed-out.

But over the last few decades, Marvel has developed this mindset that EVERY mutant needs to be connected to the X-Men.

Hell, it was the reason for arguably the worse thing to happen to the team.

This unfortunately has led to the issue of the X-Men just having.....way too many characters.

Like, remember when there were spin-off teams?

X-Factor? The New Mutants? X-Force? Excalibur?

Even though those teams are still around, they have the issue of being too connected to the X-Men now.

And this need to have all mutants to be connected to The X-Men, has lead to another major issue with mutants....

-Retconning mutant heritages.

Over the last decade, Marvel has infamously went out of their way to retcon the mutant heritage of several mutant characters who weren't all that connected to the X-Men.

The most infamous examples being in the case of The Maximoff Twins and Franklin Richards, the latter of which was the most notable example of a mutant that's not connected to the X-Men.

Once again, this makes the world feel somewhat smaller and makes the mutants a lot less interesting.

-For the Love of GOD! Stop with the romance/relationship drama!

Romance/relationship drama is one of the hardest parts of writing.

Largely because it's rarely ever done particularly well and often become incredibly annoying and usually makes the people involved look pretty bad.

Usually since it relies on stuff like cheating, infidelity, unfaithfulness, etc.

Which anyone with more than two brain cells would know isn't a good thing...

It's even worse when they try to make these actions actually come off as good and acceptable.

Which like....

But anyway, since the X-Men are essentially glorified soap operas, you better believe they have romance drama!

It's one of the best/worst examples of this I've seen in media.

They have it all!

Cheating. Unfaithfulness. Infidelity.

And since we're talking about the X-Men, we can't forget about their staple....

Love. Triangles.

Seriously, nobody in the X-Men are all that faithful to each other....

Except for Gambit weirdly enough.

But anyway, please just keep these guys in actual fucking stable relationships.

I cannot take ANOTHER FUCKING love triangle....

-The treatment of Magneto.

I like Magneto, but even I have to admit I cannot stand how he's been treated in recent years.

Over the last few decades, there's been a lot of favoritism towards him.

And I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, it's borderline dick-riding.

Like, if we're had to make a list of the most dick-roded characters in the fiction.

Magneto would be at least in the top 5 alongside Bakugo, Severus Snape and even The Joker.

A lot of this comes from people believing that his mindset and actions were actually justified.

Leading to the infamous phrase that was founded by incel Quinten Quire....

*sigh*

"Magneto was right."

As you could tell, I'm hate this phrase.

For two reasons.

It's been ran into the goddamn ground. Like, I've frequently check out the X-Men subreddit, and I swear, I still seen people saying that Magento was right. Even on Twitter, I see this! Which, after seeing it and hearing it so much and so often, you can't help but just go....

2. It's led to this habit of writers constantly painting Magneto as this savior who's always in the right and that his mindset and methods are truly the way to go for the sake of mutantkind. This also led to the effect of trying to make him seem like he was always secretly a good guy. Even retconning events from the earliest X-Men stories such as him stealing missiles from the base and saying that he was actually doing this so that the X-Men actually had an enemy to fight. Like, prior to all this, Magento was depicted as being a villain. Even when the legendary Chris Claremont took over and gave him more depth and made him a sympathetic villain, he was still depicted as being kind of a terrible person who has done legitimately terrible things. What really made Magneto such as great villain was that he was a tragic one as well. Not just because of his backstory, but because of the fact that he became the very thing he hated: a bigot who wants to subjugate an entire group of people, no matter what. But in a way, I know this is gonna sound insane, Magneto is even worse than the Nazis! They were trying to subjugate a group of people, he's trying to subjugate an entire species! They needed an army and forces to do all that, he doesn't. Magneto is literally a one-man army. Now don't get me wrong, they're both REALLY bad. But remember, Magneto is literally threatening like, half the life on the planet. And although him finally becoming a good guy was the way to go, I'm still not a fan of it. Largely because he never really gets a redemption arc. We never see him actually show any regrets towards his past actions, or realize that he was wrong. Because they did, then he wouldn't be right. And GOD FORBID Magneto could be wrong about anything. I'm sorry man, but you're never gonna be him....

-The mutant metaphor has become a bit of a problem.

Now this gonna be a real controversial one.

The mutant metaphor, while obviously well intentioned, is not exactly good....

99% of X-Men fans reading this:

When you really think about it, it doesn't really make much sense.

For starters, there's the obvious aspect about how most super-powered beings in the Marvel Universe tend to get a pass, but there's just no exceptions with the mutants.

Despite the fact that to the eyes of the average civilian, most of them could qualified as a mutant.

There's also the fact that having the mutants being a stand-in for minorities is kinda awkward given that most of the core members (not all of them mind you) are primarily white....and American.

I do think them being a stand-in for social outcasts does work, but even that's kind of an issue given that many of the core X-Men are incredibly and conveniently attractive.

Like, don't you dare even try to deny it!

I've seen you people simp for these guys!

So have I!

But the reason I say the mutant metaphor is problem is because there seems to be this mindset that this is all the X-Men are good for.

Just being an allegory, and nothing else.

And in all honesty, that's just incredibly restrictive from a writing standpoint.

Heck, if any of you've read my X-Men fanfic series, "X-Men: The Mutation", you'd probably noticed that the mutant metaphor, while there, isn't as present as most other adaptations, or even fanfics of the X-Men.

And that was because I wanted to focus on other aspects of the team and didn't want them to just be a walking allegory.

-The Fox X-Men films are not that good.

While the reception of these films seem to be mixed nowadays, I've never really cared for these films.

Since I'm among the group of people who actually look at adaptations as, well, adaptations, as such, the X-Men films are quite pitiful.

The films never captured the appeal of The X-Men.

That being The X-Men themselves!

Like, The X-Men are literally an afterthought in their own film franchise.

Largely thanks to Fox constantly focusing on one member solely and hardly anyone else.

First it was with Wolverine, and then it was with Mystique.

There's also the fact that they hardly pulled from source material, largely because they were embarrassed by it.

Like, they were not being subtle about that at all.

Do I need to even play that line again?

The only films in that franchise I would consider good would be the Deadpool films.

Because....

They were actually good

They wore the comics on their shelves rather than being embarrassed by it

They were the most disconnected from the X-Men films

Speaking of which, this franchise is infamous for its absolute clustefuck of a continuity.

You know things are not that good when they can't even keep a consistent timeline.

-The characterization of Cyclops.

Just like with Magneto, I really like Cyclops, but I'm not a fan of how he's been written for nearly 20 years.

Yeah, I'm not exactly big on Revolutionary Cyclops.

Apart from the fact that he emerged during the X-Men's roughest era, there's also the fact it's had quite the effect on any discourses surrounding the character.

Fans seem to believe that Cyclops can only be portrayed as a revolutionary in all forms of media.

Literally nothing else.

Hell, it's so bad that people are already begging for '97 Cyclops to become a revolutionary!

Look, I get that Cyclops wasn't too many people's favorite, specifically during the early years.

And the Claremont era didn't exactly do him too many favors since he would be slowly phased out along with the rest of the original X-Men.

But I feel like he really came into his own during the 90s.

Plus, '97 and Evolution Cyclops showed that Cyclops doesn't have to be a revolutionary in order to be a. engaging and interesting character.

There's also a few more issues that's arose from his characterization.

The last near 20 years have really highlighted Cyclops' skills, to show why he's the leader of The X-Men.

I get that you want to show that he is a competent fighter and leader.

However, it's gotten to the point where fans seem to believe that Cyclops can beat anyone in general, no matter how crazy powerful they are, with his ridiculous amount of plans and back-up plans.

Starting to sound familiar?

There's also that fact that fans and even the majority of X-Men writers seem to believe that Cyclops always has to suffer just to be interesting.

Essentially, he suffers the same exact problem as another major Marvel character.

And just like what people have said about him, Cyclops constantly suffering has gotten incredibly repetitive and stale.

You can only do it so much before it starts to become boring and tiring.

And lastly, him being the leader of all mutantkind and the one to unite them all....

I don't like this.

He should be ONE of the leaders, but not THE leader.

Is there literally no one else that could co-lead?

Also, with him being the leader and unifier of mutantkind.....

I wouldn't say it's white saviorism or a Messiah thing, but it does feel somewhat adjacent to that.

I kinda feel like all this was done as a form of compensation for how much of a punk the character has been portrayed as in just about every major X-Men adaptation of the last near quarter century.

Bar a few exceptions....

-COLOSSUS IS NOT A PEDOPHILE!

So over the last few months, some fans have discovered about the infamous age gap between Colossus and Shadowcat during their early years with the X-Men.

Colossus was like 19 at the time, while Kitty was 13 to 14.

Which, for anyone that isn't asking to be on a list, isn't good.

However, people have taken to claim that Colossus is actually a pedophile.

But here's the thing people seem to forget.

He was written by John Bryne.....

For anyone who doesn't know, Bryne is infamous among comics for his habit of pairing underage girls with grown men.

He did this with Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, revealing the latter met the former when she was 12 years old and he was in college.

He had Superman kiss a 14-year old on the lips.

And perhaps most infamously of all, having Peter Parker lock lips with Mattie Franklin, a 15-year old.

While he himself was not only in his mid-20 around this time, but also still a MARRIED MAN.

(Fun Fact: This was one of the earliest attempts of Marvel trying to get rid of Mary Jane for.....obvious reasons)

(Also, I hate this panel with every fiber of my being. And I typically I don't like to wish death upon people, but I'm making an exception. Bryne needs to get drug out into the street and shot, because I'm starting to think he may possibly be the EDP445 of comic writers. Like, you can not write this shit and not expect people to notice a pattern and raise a few eyebrows)

But besides that, it seems that since the 2000s, they've quietly retconned all this (for obvious reasons) to have Colossus and Shadowcat be much closer in age.

The Summers Family Tree has become a problem.

Just about everyone knows that the Summers family tree is an absolute mess.

Like, there's only so many alternate reality children, alternate future children, and clones that you have before it seems to become old and tiresome.

There's also Mister Sinister's famous obsession with them.

Like dude, I understand that they're powerful.

But like, are just not any other powerful mutants you could be obsessed with.

What about Storm?

Iceman?

Hell, what about Magneto and his kids?

The treatment of Xavier.

This is basically the opposite of how Magneto's been treated.

Whereas Magneto's been depicted as a secret hero, Xavier's been depicted as a secret villain.

I get that Xavier is not perfect, but the dude has been so villainized over the last 20+ years and revealed to have done a lot bad things, he might as well be called Satan.

And frankly, it's become tired.

Like, how many times have they done the "Xavier has done something terrible" shtick now?

The most recent was in The Fall of X.

At this rate, why is he even still here?

Since he's apparently never done anything good for anyone, he should just leave already!

There's also the fact that apparently his dream was always bad and never what mutantkind needed.

And to that I must say.....

While he may have not approached it in the best way, his goal was far more noble and frankly, what mutants really needed.

Showing that humans and mutants can peacefully co-exist with each other.

Maybe not all of them, but still, being able to show that it is possible.

And in general, this would be a future where everyone wins.

Whereas Magneto's, wouldn't.

This would be the most obvious in the case of the humans.

But even for the mutants, there would be a bit of an asterisk for them.

Magneto has proven he's not as accepting towards all mutants as he lets on.

Like remember Toad?

He fucking hated him and treated him like shit!

The X-Men and their relationship with the much greater Marvel Universe needs to change.

To wrap this all up, we'll be talking about a big one.

Ever since the 2010s, the X-Men comics have become infamous how they characterize other major heroes of the Marvel Universe.

That being.....not in a flattering light.

Most of these guys are portrayed incredibly poorly, not acting like themselves at all.

The only exception to this is Spider-Man.

But then again, he gets written with more respect in every other title than his own.

This is obviously done in order to make the X-Men look good.

Plus it's pretty apparent there's a great bias towards them.

But however, I think this has the opposite effect.

All it does it make the X-Men look like egotistical, self-serving assholes who would gladly screw people over (no matter how disastrous) if it meant they got to survive/thrive.

"Yeah! I love seeing my favorite heroes being portrayed as selfish cowards!"

There's also this....

These panels are from the X-Men relaunch, and they've been quite infamous for....obvious reasons.

And apart from that, it just makes the X-Men also look like self-victimizing douches.

Basically saying that they're the only ones suffering, and that nobody else in the entire damn world knows what it means to struggle.

And as you can tell, they'll usually say it to people of color.

You remember that panel from Ultimate Spider-Man when Spidey cursed out the X-Men and called them out on their bullshit?

Yeah, can we get that for these versions?

They really deserve it.

Also, I recently saw a comment that said that X-Men comics are the only place where white writers can fulfill their fantasies of yelling at people of color and then cry about how THEY'RE oppressed.

And after seeing these panels, I wholeheartedly agree.

Well that's all I have for now.

These were some grievances I've been having with the X-Men for a while now, and I wanted to finally get them out.

I really hope that anyone who reads is able to respond to this in a civil manner and possibly not call me a racial slur.

But I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

I have a few more of these, but these were the ones I could only do for now.

And I'm planning do something similar to this for undoubtedly the biggest Marvel character of them all.

But until then, I'll see you guys around.

[lunarspiral1127]

X-Men 97 episode 6 *SPOILERS*

Shi'ar Empire/Space

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see them and get an update on Xavier in this episode cause I thought this was gonna be the full Lifedeath conclusion, so more focus on Storm. But, I think it's nice to see how he's doing.

This is the first time we see Deathbird AKA Lilandra's sister in the X-Men animated series, and I like her look.

Gladiator is such a stoic bad@$$. Ngl, after seeing him fight after so long, Superman popped into my head. I think it was the powerset he displayed.

Ronan and the Kree! I wasn't expecting to see them cause we never had the Kree mentioned or shown in the previous show, so this was a nice surprise. Aldo, it's so refreshing to see Ronan the Accuser in his more comic- accurate outfit. Cause, I've only recently seen him and the Kree in their MCU outfits, so seeing the classics was nice.

Noticed Vulcan during the beginning....kinda awkward cause he's Scott's other brother. Dunno if they'll do anything with that, but then again, they didn't do much with Havok in the previous show.

It's good to see Xavier healthy again, but why hasn't he checked up on the X-Men during that year? Why didn't he let them know that he's okay? Is it because of that black hole?

Didn't know Xavier was interested in being Lilandra's....pet....psychics be kinky.

Xavier talking about Magnus....oh god, when he finds out what happened to him....

Man, even in space, mutants can't catch a break! Xavier gonna be emperor along with Lilandra, and these sunsofbeeches hate it cause he's Terran AND a mutant. Like, can the mutants EVER get anything nice?!

Xavier was willing to forgo his memories on Earth and of his friends and family. Just to be with Lilandra....god dammit, this show really is a soap opera.

Xavier educating the Shi'ar council, Deathbird, Gladiator, and even Lilandra on their system and why it's bad was pretty funny. Dude was going back to being a teacher. And, I thought he was succeeding until....

The vision. Now, he knows what happened to Genosha, and he gotta go back. Good, cause they need him more than ever. I just wish it didn't have to break him and Lilandra up. Like, can we have a good relationship that doesn't end in a breakup, death, or have way too much drama, please?!?!

GAMBIT!!! 😭 It still hurts! But, the vision could also be foreshadowing that he'll become Death of the Four Horsemen. And Magneto wasn't there, so does that mean he survived?!

Storm, Forge, and the Adversary

Storm called Forge "my love". She was mad at him earlier, but I guess despite the anger, she loves him too and understood that he tried to help her despite what he did.

The Adversary is spooky. I didn't get how they appeared, but from what the show says, the demon appears to feed on the self-loathing, so they sensed Forge AND Storm and came to them.

Storm's fear of tight spaces comes into play. The Adversary used her fear against her which almost worked. First time Forge was able to banish the demon, despite being poisoned, and the second time, Storm overcame her fears and doubts and got her powers back.

Oh yeah, MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENTS IS BACK!!! 🤩 She even got her iconic black outfit with the tiara! I'll miss her classic white outfit, though. And she got her long hair back! No offense to the mohawk.

Shoutout to @stormandforge for talking about how she got her powers back cause I was so confused and sleep-deprived. What makes the most sense was the machine Forge used worked. It's just that she had some kind of mental/psychological block going on with her powers and had to overcome it to reactivate them. Kinda like how Peter lost his powers in Spider-Man 2. As for how she got her outfit, well, Storm, in the very first episode in the previous show, used her lightning to change outfits. So, I chopped it off to that. Yeah, lightning doesn't work like that, but she looks beautiful! The hair was actually what I was most confused about cause she had a mohawk, and suddenly, her hair got long again? I thought some parts of her head was shaved. So how did her change? Same way as the outfit?

Forge is cured, so fingers crossed these two will be together and not end poorly and messy as it did in the comics. Please, I just need one good relationship in this freaking show that isn't gonna end in tragedy.

And she knows about Genosha. God, I really hope she doesn't get survivors guilt over this. But, we need her and Xavier more than ever with what's to come.

The rest

Y'know, it was one thing for Trask to be involved with the massacre, but Mr. Sinister? I wasn't expecting that. I thought it was the FoH or Apocalypse or maybe Nimrod. Either way, I'm mad now that I know who's responsible cause how dare them kill Gambit, Magneto, Leech and the others, and hurt Nightcrawler and Rogue! I really hope that they find a way to finish him off for good and make it hurt like hell!

NIGHTCRAWLER GOT TO BE PART OF THE INTRO!!! 🤩 Does that mean he's gonna be finally part of the X-Men? Will we ever get him using his swords? Cause they keep teasing that!

I just wish it wasn't at the expense of Magneto and Gambit's intros. Man, I was bracing myself, and they had to do that and the recap! UGH, IT STILL HURTS! 😭

The episodes have really alternated with multiple storylines in this show. The previous one usually focuses on one story at a time.

So, that's pretty much it. Good episode. One more episode left until even more trauma will be inflicted on us cause 8-10 are gonna be a doozy.

[kalinara]

So, I saw someone else's post pointing out the weird inconsistency with the way the Uncanny X-Team and the regular X-Team interact. How it starts out fairly pleasant but then, kind of out of the blue, the Uncanny team starts acting really hostile toward Scott and his team.

(Including a really nasty comment from Logan, and it's like, dude, weren't you fucking on the Moon, not that long ago?)

Meanwhile, on Scott's end of things, he's basically being polite, civil, and trying to adjust his plans to accommodate them.

I don't disagree with that post at all, but I didn't want to hijack it with my own thoughts, so this is my little bit of meta.

I admit, I've not caught up on a lot of the Krakoa stuff yet, but I definitely agree that this is inconsistent with the dynamics that I saw in those issues.

But it is definitely consistent with everything BEFORE Krakoa. And bizarrely, that makes me a bit optimistic. I remember, a long time ago, writing this rant about how consistently inconsistent the in universe treatment of Scott Summers was prior to his death. How everyone, under the pen of multiple authors, in multiple lines, seemed to fairly consistently believe the worst of him when his behavior would be completely opposite to their expectation.

I said then that it really did seem like it's building somewhere. And I'm cautiously thinking that it might still be. Rosenberg's X-Men, which I enjoyed very much despite its general pre-Krakoa bleakness, started out with Scott and Logan in a surprisingly okay place but things seemed to fall apart pretty dramatically and for not a lot of reason.

And honestly, I still can't quite get over Jono basically telling Scott that he hated him while he died. That was intense and singularly horrible.

But then everyone reunited and we pretty much got Krakoa right after that, and everything was different and good and bad and fucked up in all sorts of brand new ways. And I figured, okay, I was wrong, it really wasn't going anywhere. It was just weirdness that, if it ever had meant something, doesn't apply now.

But we're back to basics. We're back to the old patterns. We're back to Wolverine and whatever team represents the school and the "Xavier style" of mutant ideology against Scott's black ops "Magneto style" aggressive protection. And again, we have a Scott who doesn't seem to buy into that conflict while everyone around him does.

I had a theory briefly that the sheer irrational reaction of everyone around him was because Scott, as the Phoenix, right after killing Xavier, somehow mind-whammied the world to feel exactly what he did: a deep love and idealization for Charles Xavier that, while occasionally disappointed, never truly faltered, and a deep and complete loathing of one Scott Summers.

I still think that theory works, and might well explain why no one seems to remember that they were pretty fucking mad at Xavier at the end of the Krakoa stuff (with Logan actually trying to kill him.)

The other theory I have is simpler though, which is that Scott ends up being the focal point for all of his fellows grief, despair, and helpless, pointless anger because they think he can handle it.

If Charles Xavier is the spirit of the Dream, then Scott Summers is the embodiment of the X-Men. (I think there's even a point in one of the Captain Krakoa issues where we're told that "I am the X-Men" was basically his campaign speech at one of the Hellfire Galas). And as such, he's always going to be there: strong, implacable, steadfast and invulnerable to whatever they send his way.

And that leads to something really interesting, because as we've seen in X-Men #3. He's NOT. And that's not really surprising, it's not like Scott has ever been a paragon of good mental health. But the panic attack is new. And assuming that it's actually a panic attack and not some indicator of possession or powers going out of control or something, then it's a vulnerability that he might not be able to hide.

And that makes me think we might, FINALLY, see an actual resolution to this decades long thread.

And if not, well, if I didn't enjoy watching Scott Summers suffer, I wouldn't be reading X-Men comics.

(Also, Jean's actually alive now. She's in space at the moment, IIRC, but I really don't think she's going to tolerate this bullshit for too much longer, if and when she finally notices it happening.)

[a-roguish-gambit]

Turn of the century au thoughts: mail call

It's occurred to me that after mutants are outed to the world via a newsreel of the whole sentinel fight, and eventually the X-Men's name is cleared via a combo of teddy Roosevelt and a secondary News Reel of them fighting and taking down juggernaut, the X-Men are probably going to get a lot of mail from random places in the country and maybe even all over the world. There's definitely a lot of hate mail because people are awful and Logan, Jean, and the professor are having to make sure nothing dangerous in any of the packages or mail letters there being sent, and ororo is specifically filtering Evan's mail cause she is gonna protect her nephew from any and all assholes personally and track down anyone who sends him so much as a threat. Still it gets absolutely bonkers because at the time people still did do shitposting and trolling they just did it via the mail system. Not only were chain letters a thing but putting your mailing list out for any reason, and there were a lot of reasons to have a public mailing list, was a gamble because you could have random people sending you extremely random letters. People would send randos their stream of consciousness thoughts or pretend to be someone they aren't via mail. The owner of Sears and robucks would frequently get letters from people asking for advice about who they should marry and stuff like that for example.

The institutes address is probably out there for business reasons, and even if it's not totally public it's only a matter of time before people find it or figure it out because the institute is a public address, so yeah there would be lots of very random mail being sent to the X-Men kids malicious or otherwise.

I can see the international kids getting sent letters from people they do not know claiming to be family members trying to make some money off these kids because they assume that because these kids have fame they also have some kind of wealth which is not true at all a lot of them don't and are there because Xavier himself is wealthy and is willing to spend a lot of money on kids who aren't even his, and to them it's very very obvious and they make fun of it all the time.

Roberto got a letter in Spanish and he's laughing at it with Sam and Amara who read it out to him, where the person is claiming to be his long lost uncle from brazil and it's so obvious this person knows nothing about anything, because his whole family speaks Portuguese not Spanish, because, ya know, they are actually from Brazil. Amara notes that the Spanish is incredibly bad as well, so it was probably some random non latin American who wrote this.

Scott keeps getting letters from people telling him he's wasting his talent and what he should actually use his lazer eyes for x thing like they know how his powers work, or telling him how to fix his eyes, one guy is claiming he can cure Scott by waving magnets over his body. Jean is doubled over laughing when Scott reads that one to her. He's just like "if all it took were magnets to fix me I think all the fights with magneto would have done something by now..."

Jean keeps getting preachers telling her she needs to "renounce her satanic ways and turn to God for power," because apparently these people think her psychic abilities are devil magic. She ignores them but Scott keeps writing angry letters back to these people telling them to leave his girl alone.

Kitty keeps getting letters telling her it's improper to phase through walls, and that a young lady like her should be in an etiquette school not a school teaching her to phase through walls. she is absolutely baffled by this. The girls just come to the conclusion that "people will police women on literally anything". She gets a few offers from suffragette groups though too asking for her help, same with jean.

Ororo has been heavily filtering Evan's mail making sure he doesn't end up reading anything from a weirdo or a racist, but he has gotten interesting mail none the less. He got requests for interviews by several black publications for the perspective on being a mutant of African American descent, which has been fun. Some of the other kids are jealous, as he got a letter from W. E. B. Du Bois at one point, and Booker T Washington's widow and Lady principal of the Tuskegee institute, Margaret Washington, sent one about him potentially visiting the campus some time. But those kids are also getting good mail they are just also seeing some of the ridiculous stuff too.

Rogue seems to get two kinds of mail, one is people calling her a witch, and the other is marriage requests of all things. A lot of them claiming they can "fix her" (ew). A lot of men saw the news reels and apparently had gambit's same thought process about her dark looks. Remy is none too happy about these men, but rogue assures him she hasn't the slightest care for any of these men. They munch on the chocolates and other goodies they send her as rogue writes letters back simply saying "1. I have a lover. 2. My touch kills men. Leave me alone."

Kurt gets some of the wildest stuff: People trying to mail him exorcisms, people accusing him of turning their daughters into Satan worshippers because the girls want to meet him, letters from said daughters wanting to run away with him, people thinking he's the anti christ, with some demanding he leave the country and some asking for his orders to command them against the establishment, actual demon worshipers asking for his hand in marriage, A letter from Aleister Crowley himself, people asking if this is the true form of Germans, people asking him to curse their enemies, kids sending him letters telling him to make sure the krampus does not bother anyone this year, and so on and so on and so on. Poor boy is overwhelmed.

[marvelstars]

I can see and understand given the last mutant crossover for some fans to get the idea Magneto is closer to Lorna than to Wanda and Pietro because he is likes her more but I disagree with this perspective because for me this isn´t quite like that acording to comic canon.

Magneto spend a long time looking for Magda, his wife and Anya´s mother after she left him and try to convince her to come back to him only to discover she basically prefered to let herself die to avoid coming back to him. This send him in a deep depression so he travelled to Israel to become a voluntary in helping a mental clinic for holocaust survivors and later he went on to combat hydra but that´s another story.

Magneto didn´t know for a long time Magda gave birth to Wanda and Pietro until they were young adults who hated him for his treatment of them when they were part of the brothehood of evil mutants, at the time he was most mentally unstable. So while he tried to make some amends, contact them and be present during their parties, the truth is that their initial relationship had too much negative baggage for him to get closer to them and for them to trust he had good intentions with them, so him staying away from them is his way of protecting them given his personal mission with mutantkind but also agree to their wishes to keep their distance from him.

HoM was an exeption because Magneto went for Wanda to the Avengers mansion knowing her friends were going to reject her after she attacked them in her grief for her children and the impact her powers were having on her mind and the way this crossover ended just put more venom in his relationship to Pietro in particular and now they are not even supposed to be biologically related anymore, which honestly was the only thing that keep them together so while the twins celebrated, Magneto decided to keep even more distance from them.

So he does love both of them, would like to spend time with them but also knows some things can´t be solved or changed as much as he would like to and probably they are better off without him acording to his own logic.

Lorna is a whole different matter, she was born from his affair with her mother, he didn´t know she was born until tragically Lorna used her powers as a baby provoking an accident that killed both her parents. Magneto helped her bury this memory and send her to live with her maternal aunt. They meet again when Lorna was an adult and he asked her to live with him on Genosha and help him rule it, he also asked Pietro, he used to be ambassador there, but Lorna had to discover for herself he was her father, right before Genosha was destroyed by sentinels and she thought he died for a while until they meet again as X-men members living on Utopia and later Krakoa.

So while his relationship with Lorna does have it´s issues as well, those are less severe than the ones he has with the twins and so it´s easier for him and Lorna to interact in amicable ways.

[evilwickedme]

So I did just block the anon who told me to get help bc of my magneto was right title which, more than anything else, tells me they're not familiar with the comics

But also. Trying to tell me, a Jewish comics fan who specifically specializes in the Jewish history of comic books, that Magneto is antisemitic, actually, because he was made into a Jew by a "gentle" in 1975 (which isn't even true), is so wildly a misrepresentation of what his character means in fucking 2023 that it baffled me. Like I considered answering the ask because it was like, ok this is a teachable moment. But like also fuck that guy so.

But here's the thing about magneto is that obviously he's wrong, in that killing people is wrong and in some cases he's basically represented as a terrorist. But he's also obviously right, in that it's literally been proven in the house of x storyline that mutants will never be accepted, will always be hunted and hated, and mutants can and should defend themselves against that. I'll remind you that, although genosha was far from a success, the basic idea of mutants having their own island country is essentially the exact fucking same as krakoa, which is the current wildly successful x men storyline!!!!

And that's ignoring the fact that the magneto was right slogan was born when magneto was dead, and wasn't meant to support any particular action he made, but rather general ideas as I presented them above, and then beyond that, the fact that many Jews in particular identify with the slogan because we've been persecuted and hated for being different for three thousand fucking years, and that in 2023 in particular, after seven years of an increasing rise of antisemitism, having that as the title of my blog is just pointing out the fucking obvious

(this also leaves out the context of when I, in particular, started using the title, and the content of my blog at the time, and the fact that I've had this particular pfp for about as long, and the way all three of those tie in together, but I have no doubt that the person who sent me this ask is not a long time follower of this blog. About two thirds of my followers either already followed me or followed me because of that phase in my life though, and the rest have most likely seen me refer to it multiple times, so that context is not lost on most of them)

Basically. Magneto is a character who, at first, was not very complex. But no character can stick around for sixty years without becoming complex and taking on meaning that was not necessarily intended by the original creator. At this point magneto has been a Jewish Holocaust survivor for nearly five decades, as this anon themself pointed out. He's been handled by Jewish and goyische authors alike. And pretending he's purely an antisemitic character rather than one that many Jews actively cherish and identify with and show in so many ways that you, yourself, are not Jewish, and don't have any idea what you're talking about just so you can send anonymous hate my way...

Well. Point is. Magneto was right.

[co-mixed]

Magneto was...

X-Men ‘97 has already become sort of a cultural phenomenon. I think it’s fair to say even outside of our cozy comics bubble. But the show has given so much to so many. Not for a single second it shies away from what the X-men are truly about and its social commentary avoids ambiguity. 

But the thought that’s been bugging me for years now is of course “Magneto was right” or rather, the question of whether he indeed was. 

Bear with me, because I’m completely throwing away all plans or structure for this text, it’s not a clever article, it’s just my interpreting process in which I’m dissecting my thoughts on the concept. 

The phrase itself has been reimagined in the show. Val Cooper says this phrase about the fear and hate that humans will never stop experiencing and expressing toward mutants. It’s about them never changing their ways to accommodate others, it’s about human nature. And while we clearly see that it’s not entirely true and some are actively working to change that, at its core, it remains a true and sad reflection of what we see from the most powerful elites that control public opinion and ultimately, the world. 

It’s funny to me that Val, the same person who got in bed with Bastion and Sinister, was the one to spell it out. Both she and Trask state that they never expected a genocidal catastrophe of Genoshan level and frankly, I find it unbelievable. You knew you were dealing with a fanatical maniac. You knew that this is a possibility and you certainly had the same goal. You wanted to do it with clean hands and you didn’t want to see the result. You wanted mutants to be killed in alleys one by one. It’s all the same thing. 

And this actually conveniently brings me to Remender’s X-Force and Dark Beast’s homeworld where the war had been won by mutants and humans were the ones hunted and killed. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, humans made a call to replay the three most famous words uttered by Wanda.

Meanwhile, the most prominent example of how this phrase has been interpreted before is  Quentin Quire. In his young and radicalized view, Magneto was right about both the ends and the means. All he saw was violence and he chose to respond in kind (but not in kindness.) 

The show stepped away from the storyline that played out in the comics (and I absolutely love that btw). But Magneto in that story was not sympathetic. The things we know about him by now are not all flattering, especially the way he turns on his own if they stand in his way and ask him to rethink and reevaluate his position. 

Magneto is often portrayed as a dictator, like most villains. And like most well-written villains, he has a cause that he believes in fanatically which, let’s be honest, after him receiving a backstory, made all the more sense and drove compassion. But he will always go too far. 

But let’s again go back to X-Men ‘97. What happened when Magneto turned off… everything. Everything from life support - off, nuclear plants - off, trains, planes, and ships, all have to travel blindly if at all. Chaos, obviously. But while that brings in casualties, was that his intention? Because simultaneously, he saved thousands if not more of mutants. They were hunted by prime sentinels right that moment and remember, not all mutants are X-men or even have an active fighting power. So while he took away something humans needed desperately, but he saved every mutant in mortal danger. So should he have done that? 

I don’t know how to answer that. If I hadn’t thought about that before (and I’m ashamed to admit that) now, after Ep.9 it’s clear that the Earth can’t handle the blackout, so Magneto simply decided to pick up mutants he likes and sod off on his newly (and I’m pretty sure poorly) built asteroid into his Utopia. All while everyone else is left to rot. 

Not that heroic, huh?

And then there is Charles. Magneto’s way is impossible to review without Charles’s on the other scale pan. And damn, nothing shakes up Charles’s idealism like time and age. We do actually live in an era where his view has become outdated. I recently called Charles a pick-me mutant, I stand by that statement. He wants to be liked and there are so many things he overlooks and ignores. His goal is to have mutants serve for approval. This isn’t equality and this isn’t being proud of who you are. He can live knowing that some of them live in sewers, he accepts that as their choice. Again, I say that a lot, but Charles was very well depicted in X-Men The Dark Phoenix. Regardless of what you think about the movie, they showed Charles in all his glory, risking the lives of his students who hang on his every word, to score some points with humans. 

My only regret is that writers never take it far enough and make it final. Yeah, no I know he died and came back, who hasn’t (what’s up, Jean?) But let’s be real, Charles could easily fully retire and stop attempting to bring his vision to life. It doesn’t work. 

When we look at the comics, the hybrid version Magneto+Charles didn’t exactly work either. And that’s in part due to Moira’s betrayal, some writers’ magic, and the fundamentally incorrect political approach. I already wrote sheets and sheets about that. But it would’ve failed either way because we can’t have nice things i.e. a successful mutant nation won’t go well with bigots. And given clever public opinion manipulation, almost anyone can become a bigot. It won’t be allowed to exist, because they would still be expected to step back and play nice and limit themselves to avoid upsetting anyone. 

Now that I mentioned Moira, I remember the “race traitor” thrown by Magneto at Charles. Honestly, both are guilty of that. Charles for the reasons I stated above and Magneto, for continuously representing mutants as a danger to everyone. 

That’s a lot of words and thoughts that I had to dig through to finally ask the question, was Magneto right? And if he was, what was he right about? Right is really an idealistic concept in and of its own. So I’d say his actions in that moment were justifiable. As much as I want to stand with heroes and condemn him, in a post-Genosha world, I can’t. He asked them to “not make him let them down”  and that’s exactly what they did. Exactly, because some of them knew what they were getting into, I also mentioned that above. 

Is his view of humans right? Yes, without a question. It's awful but it's true. They'd do it again and again. And they will hide their eyes and claim they didn't know.

I will gladly talk about the whole season after the season ends but right now I’m honestly just happy to come to some personal conclusion. I’m not sure I can take this opinion and apply it to the real world because that would require a whole other conversation with myself.

[brw]

Do you have any criticism towards the Magnus Family fans?

Anon, all I got is criticism, I'm a full time hater ❤️❤️

Okay unironically though, if you're looking for specifics, well my prevailing feeling about Magnetfam folks is that a lot of them feel like Batfam people who got lost. By that I mean it feels like a community built around fanlore and fan material, as opposed to actually engaging with the text itself, or if they do engage with the comics, it's often being read with those fan interpretations in mind. You see this with people making House of M to be this great AU thing that makes them a royal family, and not the deeply ableist, misogynistic, racist storyline that it is.

Equally, and I want to make it clear that there's no wrong way to get into comics, and this conversation is much more about how movie characterisations keep them from engaging with comics on their own, but a lot of them appear to have gotten into comics via the X-Men movies, and specifically via the prequel films, which offer a very warped view on Magneto, and especially one on Pietro, not that you can call that character Pietro in a meaningful way. It's in the way the focus is primarily on Magneto, with Wanda and Pietro (especially Pietro) being more accessories to him than actual characters.

Look, I hate the retcon as much as the next person, but Wanda and Pietro's mutant identities, while important, have never been a defining aspect of their characters, and you can easily make a recognisable Pietro and Wanda without making them children of Magneto. But then they wouldn't be related to the X-Men, and you can't expect us to read something that isn't the X-Men, right? It's interesting, because the bulk of the comics that discuss Wanda's mutant identity and her experience of being a Rromani mutant witch are Avengers comics, but those don't count because X isn't in the title. Pietro makes more sense to be related to the X-Men (he was in two different volumes of X-Factor after all), but even then, his character journey can never be contained to just what he does in X Books, and I feel like a lot of people ignore this because of the preoccupation with Magneto. It isn't a bad thing to have a favourite character–but it feels weird to position yourself as a fan of the whole "family" while Wanda and Pietro's relation to the family is only an nth of the total comics they've been in.

Also, I get frustrated with the blanketing of all the interesting dynamics in the family to be the same, "I choose you and I love you" relationship they seem to have now. This is going to be a controversial statement, but I don't think Lorna and Wanda should necessarily get along. I think they respect each other a great deal, but they have never grown up together in any way, and they've never enjoyed the same experience of being on the same team and building a solid dynamic like Lorna and Pietro. And that isn't a bad thing! As someone with family members I was estranged from my whole life and only met as an adult, sometimes you never gain the same level of intimacy and love that you do with people you've lived your whole life knowing, and sometimes you just don't really get on. And that's okay too! It's an awkward situation, but that's just family as a whole a lot of the time, and I would have appreciated seeing the different ways different people in those situations react to suddenly having an entire sister they never knew about. Plus, it would be an interesting spin on the norm, which is that Wanda is much more approachable and social than Pietro, but with Lorna she's suddenly the one struggling to make friends. I dunno, I just think a lot of the complexity of family dynamics gets sucked out and that's a big shame to me because one of the most interesting parts of this side of the Marvel Universe is the exploration of navigating new family as an adult, which is a difficult experience I rarely see represented in media.

Finally, and this is completely a me thing, but I don't like the way Vision and Crystal are excluded from the family. Regardless of your opinions on the healthiness of their respective relationships, objectively speaking they are incredibly important to the family as the reason why Wanda and Pietro each have children. There is no Tommy, Billy or Luna without Vision and Crystal, and it kind of shows how the emphasis really is on Magneto and Magneto alone, because everyone who doesn't have a relationship with him is excluded. As I've discussed before, Wanda objectively loves Crystal as a person, and she should be far more prominent as someone Wanda values as a sister in law than she is. Additionally, Vision and Pietro have a much closer and more mature relationship than they are depicted with in fanon, because people saw that one panel of Pietro calling Vision a watch out of context and have never read anything of them together since. Vision and Crystal ARE a part of their family, and if you can't accept that then I think you need to get into something else.

[tobiasdrake]

And here is where it all shits the bed. Let's talk about that third act and its open embrace of the idea that mutants should be suppressed.

Like. Right from the get-go, The Last Stand sets up a conflict that leaves our heroes in a very uncomfortable position.

The X-Men are here to reinforce a military force armed with genocide blasters designed to ethnically cleanse their race, in order to protect the "mutant cure" from Magneto's assault.

Y'know. The cure created by that guy who tried to coerce and even violently force his own son into conversion. We're defending him.

That's not even an exaggeration, either. A portion of this act is dedicated to protecting him, specifically.

Yay! Warren saved the life of the guy who created a way to purge mutation, and who tried to coerce him into chemical conversion for the sin of being a mutant. A lot of people are going to get fucked here. Even his assistant was killed. But that guy gets to take all the hate in his heart and fly off happily into the sunset with the son he scorned, taught self-hatred to, and ultimately rejected.

What a heroic moment!

The film made a big deal earlier about how the government immediately weaponized the cure. But that was just Magneto's opinion. These guys have cure missiles that can ethnically purge hundreds of members of the mutant race at once, but the X-Men are on their side so I guess that's a cool thing to have. Hooray for weaponized ethnic cleansing!

Magneto calls the X-Men:

And. Like.

Is he wrong? We are now fully acting as Warren Worthington II's private security team. Right down to embracing his methodology. The film has two major antagonists and this is how it resolves them.

How do we deal with Magneto? Well, the X-Men notice some Cure Darts lying on the ground from one of the weapons Arclight destroyed.

And they're like, "Fuck yeah, let's go purge some mutations."

Enjoy being stripped of your race and identity, fucker! Should have been more responsible with it and maybe that wouldn't have happened to you! We're the X-Men! We believe in suppressing mutations we don't like! That's what Xavier taught us!

Speaking of which. Jean.

Logan tries to talk Jean down, but then our boys we've been protecting show up and shoot Cure Darts at her because of course they do.

Much like with Xavier, Jean gets violent in response to violence directed at her. She's just been standing there in the back and hasn't participated in this battle at all. But once they attack her, she starts fighting back.

This is supposed to be the big "Jean Loses Control" moment as her powers are unleashed in their totality.

But, again, this is a direct response to being attacked. This doesn't hit me as Jean's powers taking control of her; This feels more like deliberate retaliation. She is attacking everything in her immediate surroundings because they attacked her first.

She was fine up to this point.

Nonetheless, this winds up being the final statement on Jean. Magneto recants having ever sided with her to begin with.

Jean begs Logan to put an end to it.

And Logan kills her.

I guess she really did just have too much telekinesis all along.

So the final statement is that actually Warren was right all along. Sometimes mutants are just too dangerous and must be purged.

Magneto? Too dangerous. Had to be purged.

Jean? Suppressing her mutation was a good thing, actually, and if Xavier isn't around to control her then she must be destroyed.

Warren? Flying off safely into the sunset with the son he despises. He gets to live and be free and happy because I guess he did nothing wrong.

Oh, and don't think I forgot about Rogue. Here is Rogue's entire character arc.

I mean, she could have said that she, Rogue, has wants and desires of her own and this isn't just about Bobby. But no, Rogue hates herself because all men are sex fiends and she can't deliver.

Then she sees Kitty and Bobby ice skating together and holding each other for stability, after Bobby did a really nice thing to get Kitty out of her sadness spiral.

They do at least fix the cock-up of that first scene at the end, so that's a plus.

So that's Rogue's journey. She hated herself on Bobby's behalf because she's bad at girlfriend stuff, but over the course of the film she learns to hate herself on her own behalf. And then Warren purges her mutation for her.

Isn't that great!?

In fact, the X-Men do such a great job protecting Warren's mutant-purging business that it ends racism.

Now that Magneto's gone and the President has guns that can erase any mutants he likes, there's no longer any racial tension and we can all live happily ever after.

God, what a net-positive for the world the ability to suppress people's mutations is! It's the answer to Magneto, the answer to Rogue, the answer to systemic persecution of mutants, and it was the answer to Jean until Xavier lost control of her. Purging mutations is the best idea ever.

The end.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Questions 3, 8, 16, 17, and 20 all for Magneto, your tumblr namesake. Wanna see your hot takes. (I paraphrased a bit for the questions) Wasn't sure the acceptable amount of questions to ask so I settled on five but totally understandable if you only ask a few.

3) Least favorite canon thing about this character?

8) What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

16) Least favorite ship for this character?

17) Ship that you don't hate but it's not your favorite/you're fine with it?

20) Which other character is the ideal best friend for Magneto?

3) Least favourite canon thing about Magneto:

It's gotta be the Marvel canon retcon that Pietro and Wanda aren't his biological children and aren't mutants. I think it's stupid and Marvel needs to stop retconning famous mutants as non-mutants. I guess another canon thing I don't like is. Well. Obviously the fact that he killed Pietro that one time lol.

8) Something the fandom does to Magneto that I despise:

I notice the fandom has this tendency to either woobify him and make him out to be this paragon of progressivism and leftism, the saviour of all minorities and oppressed people, incapable of any prejudice, etc etc.....or completely demonizing him and making him out to be an unredeemable monster. He is a very complicated character and so many people just are incapable of nuance.

16) Least favourite ship for Magneto:

I mean. There's a lot of canon pairings in the comics that are Questionable, just, the writers tacking on some female arm candy for him to have just to make him that much cooler, but honestly I don't consider them "ships" because they never went very far. My least favourite ship and canon (although alternate universe canon) pairing is Magneto and Rogue. It's just. Why. I think Magneto if anything would have a more paternal relationship with Rogue, seeing in her what he experienced as a child. But a romantic relationship that even culminated in having a child with her???? Yeah. No.

17) Ship that I don't hate but isn't my favourite and am fine with:

Magneto and Storm. I think they have a *super* compelling relationship and they are just *so* powerful together, it's like their powers were made for each other (Electromagnetism and meteorology? They are so intertwined). I see them more as having a very strong platonic relationship, maybe having dated once but deciding not to pursue it further. But if it was made canon of their relationship being romantic (which I honestly see as happening given recent comics), I would not be unhappy and honestly they are a literal power couple, whether it's platonic or romantic.

20) Which other character is the ideal best friend for Magneto:

I honestly really miss the dynamic Magneto and Kitty Pryde had under Claremont, I wish we could have seen more and had it developed more. Like. When Kitty died a couple years ago we barely got any mourning out of Magneto, and it was Kurt who gave Kitty her Magen David necklace back after she was resurrected, when I really think it should have been Magneto. They had such an awesome intergenerational friendship and I'm sad that it seems to have been forgotten by recent writers.

[yangvik]

x-men and zionism

i wanna stay this post by saying i am a lifelong marvel fan (art, not corporation of course) and that i am anti zionism. if you’d like to argue with me on why palestinians are sub-human and should all be forced out, don’t bother. this post is more questions about artistic intention and other peoples’ analyses than an analysis of my own, and questions as to whether or not the intentions of certain writing decisions stain the whole franchise. this post is directed at fellow anti-zionist comic readers. i also talk shit about the last of us towards the end, by the way.

my introduction to x media was x-men evolution, and little me took its themes as a simple, monster high esque “be nice to people who look different and be proud of yourself”. as i grew up, i was always led to believe that the x-men acted as a metaphor for the civil rights movement, with xavier representing a more “respectable” approach and magneto representing a more militant. so imagine my shock when i recently learned that chris claremont lived in a kibbutz and based his interpretation of magneto on israeli pm begin (i’ve seen claims that xavier is based on ben-gurion, but i haven’t found him saying this). he says he based magneto’s redemption on how begin went from being a terrorist to winning the nobel peace prize- which is frankly quite confusing narrative wise because begin never stopped being a zionist, while magneto eventually abandoned his ideas of mutant separation and supremacy. i found all of this so particularly surprising because to me, if we applied zionism to the x-men, it seemed as though magneto served as a metaphor for someone leaving zionism. when he hurts kitty, he realizes that he has become as violent as those he claims to hate and instead devotes himself to teaching. this seems to send an anti-zionist message, but claremont’s seeming continued support of israel greatly muddies the waters. to further complicate things, claremont wrote storm as an orphan of the suez crisis and the first to confront magneto post his epiphany. based on all the evidence above, it seems claremont condemns the hostility between the state of israel and egypt. regardless of his intention, the story comes off as being against violence in the name of isolationism, something antithetical of zionism. basically, i’m super lost.

claremont stopped being the principal x-men author in the 90’s, and this brings up my first question. has the influence of other authors altered the characters significantly enough to divorce them of their strange zionist origins? usually i can brush off all the weird shit claremont and byrne did as being claremont and byrne, since i am unfortunately very used to misogyny in comics (i was quite disgusted to read claremont saying he was inspired by gun culture to make female superheroes, considering his female characters have become some of the best in comics with the help of future writers). but i think this is more than something that can just be brushed off, as magneto’s past affects the story so deeply. has he grown past claremont’s interpretation? has he become something better than a comparison to a butcher? does this stain the whole franchise as zionist, or does the collaborative nature reduce the impact of claremont’s contribution? does the fact that it can be interpreted as anti-zionist make it okay, even if the creator meant something else? how does this affect adaptations (ie- x-men 97) as well as the continuation of 616? does the fact that other writers did not share this intent, but were inspired by claremont’s character, bring the idea forward?

i would like to go more into the story- how israel is directly criticized in the beginning of the krakoa era (despite also being the setting? magneto defends krakoa by saying it was not founded on colonization, and he says this in israel occupied territory, which reads like a liberal condemnation of zionism made by hickman), how i thought krakoa was going to be a clear criticism of ethnostates because of the problems they cause the very people they claim to represent (some authors did pull on this thread, others did not), the complicated history of genosha and how it would be hypocritical to condemn apartheid in south africa while still supporting israel- but i think that’s for another day. i’ll be honest, i’ve been pretty emotionally torn up about this for days. some x-men characters are my favorites of all time, and i often thought of the series as a political fantasy more than a reflection of real world geopolitics. i don’t want to support a series that promotes zionism in its very plot. sabra can be written out of marvel, but i don’t see how this can be erased. i can see how it can be altered; they can have magneto specifically criticize israel as an ex-settler (he does claim he will fight on behalf of all oppressed people, and i dream one day they’ll explicitly include palestine). this sort of goes back to the question as to whether the authors who came after claremont have made the story evolve past its origins.

when the last of us television series was airing, i became aware of druckmann’s gross intentions behind the second game. oddly, claremont doesn’t seem to mention palestinians or the violence against them at all, unless one were to interpret kitty as a stand in for all victims of israeli violence. again, extremely hard to tell what is being said there. the lack of glorification of violence makes it feel less repulsive than tlou, but not completely free of any potential bad messaging. i know sabra is the primary goal of the bds pressure on marvel, but i don’t think we should stop there. i think it’s important that if they’re to keep such a beloved series going that they acknowledge its past wrongs.

again, i am open to discussion with fellow anti-zionist comic readers, if anyone should even see this post. i would ask people more directly, but i don’t exactly feel comfortable going into someone’s dms and demanding they explain their political relationship to art. and for the time being, i think it’s best that people stop saying “magneto was right” so often.

[spongebobafettywap]

Here's the ultimate truth about Margali Szardos and Azazel that these fans need to realize and make peace with because it's been 40 and 20 years already : These two are the only characters in Nightcrawler's cast and family tree that were specifically created to be part of it from their inception.

Mystique was originally just a Miss Marvel villain that was going to be revealed as an alien : Dave Cockrum designed her himself but her final colouring was randomly decided by his coworkers during lunch break so her being blue with yellow eyes like Nightcrawler ? A pure coincidence. Her being a mutant and possibly related to Nightcrawler ? Came way later.

Destiny was just a mutant villain part of Mystique's Brotherhood who wasn't even a co leader or that close to her. That came later. Same with Rogue having been raised by them.

Rogue was much older and a totally solo player before it was changed to her being a teen, part of Mystique's Brotherhood and her adoptive daughter.

Azazel and Margali never have had any intermediate step to their character before being made part of Nightcrawler's relatives. Removing them from him out of spite would be like removing Polaris from Magneto's family tree : It defies the entire point of their creation.

Yes you're right Azazel and Margali were both designed as his family members so it makes far less sense to remove them than anyone else.

What is the source for her intended as an Alien? Because I've heard seen sources showing her intended to be revealed as a young Mutant woman (around Nightcrawler's age so couldn't be his mother) rather than an ancient Mutant but never anything about her being an alien. I'd also be interested in seeing the source for her colour palette being chosen by someone other than Cockrum.

That's true about Mystique, Destiny and Rogue's relationship as a family having come far later into their characters stories rather than being something that came from the start.

Funny you should mention Polaris because Marvel did EXACTLY that well Claremont did at least. For some reason he really hates Polaris and wrote her in a really sexist way no connection to Magneto being used as a way to make her just a submissive partner who only exists for Havok's stories and then later making her a She-Hulk rip off because you know Super Strength is SUCH a unique Superpower compared to Magnetism even though I can only name 3 Characters across Marvel and DC who can use Magnetism.

It also seems like these fans just love endless amounts of retcons for characters it's almost like they think "more retroactive story changes means a better story!!" Even though that is just objectively wrong lmao.