#logan reads lilith's brood

[smallhatlogan]

heyyy read Lilith's Brood you gotta read Lilith's Brood you will not regret reading Lilith's Brood

[kurt-wagner-official]

Post #32: UXM Annual issue 6 and UXM issue 168

Full disclosure: this annual, along with God Loves, Man Kills, destroy the timeline of the series. Between the presences of Scott, Logan, and old Illyana, the scenes at the mansion, which they weren't using before the Brood Saga, Xavier not being in a coma like he was at the beginning of that story, Ororo's costume, and a million other little references and clues, there is no place for them that truly works. The best I can come up with is that the Ororo scene in issue 168 is actually a flashback to right after the Brood Saga, and the rest of that issue is after this annual and that graphic novel. I have spent hours trying to figure this out and that's the only way that makes doesn't leave plot holes. Anyway, moving past that: Bob Sienkiewicz, the artist who drew the first Dracula story, is back for the follow-up in this annual. Rachel van Helsing, a vampire hunter from the Tomb of Dracula series, is tracked down and killed by Dracula, who she thought was dead. He turns her into a vampire under his control. At the mansion, Kitty gets a letter from her parents saying that they're getting divorced. She's devastated and very angry at them and at herself for not stopping it. A few hours later, Ororo, who thought she was free from Dracula, has a dream about killing her friends and going to him. When she wakes, she flies off to confront him and break his hold on her. Unknown to her, Kitty is also under his control, and goes after Peter. Peter is writing a history thesis for Xavier, which I believe is the one single mention in the entire series of him being an actual student. She attacks him, and we cut away to Dracula's castle, where Dracula breaks her will and regains control over her. He wants Ororo to steal a book- the Darkhold, a very important Marvel artifact- with a spell that could destroy all vampires, the Montesi Formula. She enters the castle, which is guarded by security that Rachel and her friends set up. She's attacked by Kitty, who has Peter under her control and claims she wants to restore her sire Dracula, and by two security guards with guns, and runs for her life, captured again by Dracula. He puts her under an illusion of being back in Cairo watching her parents die, and when she wakes she finds herself in a coffin. Scott, Logan, and Kurt arrive to save her at the same time as Kitty and Peter, who are still acting strange, and a big fight breaks out that moves across Dracula's castle. Ororo corners Rachel, who begs her to kill her, but she won't. Kitty finds the book and begins to read the spell, but Kurt stops her. It's a book of evil and using it could claim her soul. She reveals herself to be not Kitty, but Dracula's daughter Lilith possessing the young X-Man. Rachel finally breaks Dracula's hold and joins the X-Men's side, but Dracula causes a cave-in that destroys the castle and gives him an escape. Rachel doesn't want to live as a vampire, and asks Ororo again to put her out of her misery. Logan says he'll do it, and he stakes her while giving her a hug. Lilith leaves Kitty's body and says that Dracula's hold over Ororo is truly broken. Logan and Ororo mournfully watch the sunrise, trying to find comfort in what feels like a hollow victory. Overall, this annual was pretty good, but probably my least favorite so far. I think annuals should feel bigger and more blockbustery than a normal one-off story, and this one was just a little underwhelming compared to the first Dracula story. Also, I haven't read Tomb of Dracula, but I'd hate it if a series I read had a happy ending that was then destroyed in a guest appearance in another book. If you put those publishing problems aside, though, this issue did have some great art and a lovely Logan moment at the end.

Issue 168 starts with Kitty yelling "Professor Xavier is a jerk!" which is the truest sentence I've ever seen, although here she's talking about one of his more rational decisions, demoting her to the New Mutants. Illyana basically tells her to shut up cause it's not that big a deal, which kinda tracks for someone who spent her life in hell. They head off for Stevie's dance class, unaware they're being watched by the dragon who saved Kitty on Sleazeworld. Elsewhere in the mansion, Logan is taking some time off to be by himself. As he and Kurt, who's driving him to the airport, get ready, they discuss Kitty. Logan says children have always been soldiers in war, Kitty's proved herself, and they can't keep a mutant out of danger if they try. Kurt agrees but sees both sides of the argument, saying that her relative lack of formal training in her powers could lead to liabilities in the field. In the Danger Room, Lilandra is coaching Xavier, who's trying to relearn to walk. Since losing his legs, he'd been telepathically turning off the nerves in them to avoid the pain. Now that he has a new body he doesn't have to do that, but the phantom pain carried over so he's in immense pain when he uses them. Most of Xavier's arcs have been about his relationship with the X-Men, and he's usually a shitty person in those stories, so he's been desperately needing a story about his own struggles to get some more audience sympathy. Lilandra tells him that she'll have to leave soon to take her throne back from Deathbird, and asks him to come, but he says that he blames his being off planet last time for the Dark Phoenix incident, and he can't neglect his duty any more than she can. At the studio, Kitty is too angry to focus, and Stevie says the same thing Illyana said: suck it up and act like you deserve your spot back. Sub textually, Kitty has equated losing the X-Men with her parents splitting, and since she can't do anything about the latter she wants to fix the former. She tries every approach she can think of, but nothing seems to work. Meanwhile, Ororo takes a walk in the snow and takes flight, but for the first time, she can't control the wind or her internal temperature, and she falls to the ground shivering. Across the world, Scott visits Lee Forrester. He tells her that his father is going to introduce him to his grandparents, who he lost memories of in the accident that separated them. He says he hopes they like him, which is such a sad thing to worry about. Lee asks if he plans to stay, and he avoids the question. Kurt is also having a romantic reunion, with Amanda in her apartment. Back at the mansion, Kitty is still frustrated with Xavier, and decides to walk it off by investigating a strange lifeform that the mansion scanners picked up in the tunnels. She finds her dragon, who she names Lockheed, and a few surviving Sidrian hunters. Their energy beams interfere with her powers, so she uses Logan's training to take a few out until Peter arrives and helps her. Xavier is impressed with her performance, and offers to reinstate her provisionally. In Alaska, Scott has left Lee behind to meet up with Alex and Christopher at the airfield waiting for a plane that'll take them to their grandparents. They're all shocked when they meet their pilot- Madelyne Prior, who looks exactly like Jean. This was the first downtime issue in a while, and it's another one of my favorites. Kitty gets most of the focus, and once again she responds to change by lashing out. Eventually she'll get to know the New Mutants, and some of them will be her best friends, but right now they're just "the X-babies," a symbol of her being left behind by her family. The uniform she used to be proud to wear is now standard issue for the class, and she feels like her role in the X-family is being taken away from her. At the end of the story, she hadn't really learned anything, and neither has Xavier, which fits his pattern. She has regained some of the self confidence that's been waning over the last few arcs, which is good to see. What's most interesting to me is how she seems less affected by the Brood trauma than the rest of the team. I think it speaks again to how her greatest fear is change. She's said in the past that she's okay with the danger of being an X-Man, and what really terrified her last arc was the realization that she wouldn't die as a member of the team, but as a Brood. Now that her eventual fate is back to what it was, she's much more focused on fixing this latest change in her life. Peter and Kurt get very little to do in this issue, and Logan gets only a little more with the brief exchange about his need for space. After a physically and emotionally exhausting mission, he needs to ground himself back on Earth and in his identity. We'll see how that turns out in his miniseries that's about to begin. Ororo is having a similar problem, although it's only hinted at here. Scott, now home safe with more family than he ever dreamed, is forced to grapple with his commitment issues and self image, which is complicated by the appearance of Madelyne. It's a struggle that's been a long time coming, and it all comes to a head in the Paul Smith run.

[smallhatlogan]

Fascinating to read reviews and reponses to Dawn that are like "That was soooo horrifying and disturbing and everything about that ship and the aliens was freaky" but what really made the more disturbing aspects work for me was that the ship, oankali society, their values, and the ways they do genuinely help people are naturally appealing to me. I think they could convince me into buying into (though not participating in, I'd be one of the guys who just spends the rest of their life hanging out on the ship) their plans for humanity. (Also by comparing them to sea slugs they sound sooo cute even when their ethics are fucked)

[smallhatlogan]

So incredibly normal about these books

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Nikanj is so fascinating in Imago. Real “I’m a healer, but…” character here

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