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let-me-write-shit · 4 years ago

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Somebody To You: 9

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New chapter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

WARNING: LOTS OF FLUFF and mentions of situational depression

Word Count: 3,880

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CHAPTER NINE:

She tried. She really did. After Harry’s unexpected surprise for her sister, Zoey was in better spirits. And the phone call she got at work that night from Katie who was gushing about how great the show was and how well Harry treated her and her sister’s friend and made sure they got home safely meant the world to her. But it was just a distraction. By the next morning, the depression hit her again. She made the mistake of checking her social media accounts for the first time in weeks and was instantly bulldozed with dozens of posts and tagged pictures from old high school and college classmates making ‘I miss you’ posts. Needless to say, she didn’t respond to them.

Instead, Zoey went right back to barricading herself in her room. Nancy and Rory began to worry and started checking in on her a little more frequently throughout the day, which she actually appreciated. Andy tried his best to distract her at work and even had her take a few shots with him to ease the stress. Brett had backed off a little, not texting her as much and he had taken a little break on coming over to hang out with them, but still kept the normalcy of shamelessly flirting with her at work.

And Harry. Poor Harry. She knew he was going through a lot right now with his tour and Rory and trying to write a new album. It was always in the back of her mind with every text she left unanswered. ‘I hope he doesn’t think I’m abandoning him.’ It was a silly thing to worry about. She knew he wouldn’t blame her for her silence if he knew. But he didn’t know. She couldn’t tell him. Because to say it or to write it down would make it more official - more real. She was okay with pretending that she was living in some sort of fantasy. One where her best friend was simply back at home. It was plausible. There was no way that she would be living in LA, pulling hot, successful men’s phone numbers nightly, and be friends with Harry Styles in real life. Being in a dream-like state or alternate universe made more sense than Jessica having been dead for a whole year.

She just couldn’t talk to Harry about it. She tried, drafting a few texts to him. But she deleted them all before she got the courage to send them. She didn’t want to cry. She needed to keep it together. She had gone this long without crying, she just needed to get through to Wednesday. Because she knew that once she started crying, she wouldn’t be able to stop. And Harry would have said something sweet or profound and she would have lost it. Better to ignore Harry and just get through this.

But it was lonely, and being alone during this scared the crap out of her. She could feel her grasp on reality slipping. She could feel herself falling deeper into the hole she dug herself in a year ago. How did anyone cope with losing a loved one? Especially as suddenly and unexpectedly as she did? She was with Jess when she died. They were laughing together when the impact happened. Jess was one room over when she was pronounced dead. How could Zoey have gone a whole year having, arguably the best time of her life, without Jess?

She hardly slept after work on Monday. If anything, she just went into a deep state of zoning out, because the next thing she noticed was the sun rising behind a thick layer of dark clouds. Seemed fitting that it would rain today.

Her phone rang several times, missing calls from her parents, her sister, her ex-boyfriend Michael, and Harry. She was half tempted to answer Harry’s call, but she lacked the energy to speak. She just felt drained and numb. It reminded her of how she felt when she heard the news. There was no emotion she could register. Not sad, or angry, or confused. Just numb. But she had the overwhelming urge to be held, desperate for warmth and the pressure from being squeezed. Something to make her feel safe and comforted and to ease her pent-up anxiety.

The longer Zoey stared out the window, the busier the streets below got. Rory had already poked her head in to say goodbye before she left for a meeting. She knew that any moment now Nancy would be knocking on her door to offer her some breakfast for the sixth day in a row, and Zoey would, once again, respectfully decline. Like clockwork, a soft tapping sounded. Zoey rolled over in her bed to face the door and she uttered, “Yeah?”

Slowly, the door creaked open and a tall figure in gray sweatpants, a black t-shirt, and a black beanie with curly brown hair poking out from the bottom came into view. Stubble lined his upper lip and chin, his lips were turned down in a sort of frown, and his big green eyes stared down at her, concern, sympathy, and care was etched thick in his gaze and in the creases of his eyes. Seeing Harry standing in the middle of her doorway was all it took. With one look, he had managed to make her not only come to terms with her emotions but also allow her to push through the numbness to feel her emotions. By just a mere look, Zoey’s face screwed up, her lips tightened and turned downwards, and she began to cry.

Harry quickly closed the door and was by her side in an instant, slipping under the covers and pulling her close to his chest, stroking her back and just allowing her to let it out. He didn’t even flinch when she gripped onto his shirt and sobbed into his chest. He knew she must have been hurting, but he couldn’t get a good read on just how much until that moment, and to see her in so much pain twisted a knife into his heart. He couldn’t help but get emotional as tears stung his eyes, holding his friend tighter.

Eventually, her sobbing slowed as she began to run out of energy, but neither of them said a word. They just laid there with Zoey’s face in Harry’s chest, gripping onto his shirt, until she eventually fell asleep. He didn’t dare move in case he woke her. He could tell it had been days since she’s had a decent night’s sleep. She had bags under her eyes, her hair was barely in a bun with chunks of hair dangling sporadically every which way. He had half a mind to wake her up and yell at her for bottling up her feelings instead of talking to him or anyone for that matter. But he didn’t have the heart. At least he was here now. He’d take the heat from his management for leaving later.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours until Harry, too, fell asleep. By the time they came to, Zoey’s phone was ringing. Harry rubbed his eyes and yawned while Zoey stirred awake, reaching for her phone that was wedged in between their legs on the top of the bedspread, turning it to see that someone named ‘Mikey’ was calling. She pressed a button to silence the ringer and stared at the screen until the name disappeared. Harry noticed the dozens of missed texts she had gotten before she tossed the phone to the end of the bed and he couldn’t help but recognize that she was probably screening his calls like that, too.

His attention flashed to the window seeing the sun high in the sky and figuring that it was probably around noon when his stomach growled. He sat up and looked at her, eyes still puffy and hair still disheveled, but looking more relaxed.

“Are you hungry?” Harry asked, “I was going to go make some lunch.”

Zoey shrugged, “A little.”

“What would you like?”

“Whatever you’re having is fine, thanks,” Zoey avoided eye contact, seeming embarrassed.

Harry nodded, pushing the covers off of himself and dragging his feet out of the room, touseling his hair. He made it to the kitchen when he realized he was no longer wearing his beanie and that it must have fallen off while he was sleeping. There was a note on the counter that had quick scribble written in sharpie that read: “H and Zo, running out to a meeting. Be back around dinner. Text me if you need anything. Love, Nancy”.

He grinned, rummaging through the fridge for something to eat, thinking back to a year ago. There was a point in time just before he met Nancy and Rory when everything seemed to be going so well for the singer, he had amazing success in his solo career, he was able to see his family more frequently and take breaks, surrounded himself with great people, but somehow he still felt alone and down. He was missing something and he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Then he met Nancy and Aurora at a charity dinner and they seemed to add a sense of comfort and true friendship in his life that he was missing on the west coast.

But Zoey was the missing piece. When he met her, he felt like he understood what a soulmate was, which was weird, because he wasn’t sure he totally believed in soulmates and always figured that a soulmate was something to romanticize. And maybe in certain situations it was, but for him, it was something completely different. For him, it was someone whom he could tell absolutely anything to without judgment or fear of abandonment. Someone he could sit in complete silence for hours and be at peace. Someone whom he didn’t have to impress or put on an act with. Someone whom he could love with every ounce of his being, even just platonically, and whom he could share every bit of each other’s pain or happiness.

He knew that sounded crazy. They’d only been friends for a couple of months, but he felt it in his bones. He had met someone who would be in his life, through any trials and turbulence, for quite possibly the rest of his life. He was certain of it. He saw it in flashes while he dreamt. She would be there when he fell in love. She would be there when he got his heart broken. She would be there when he found the one, and when he would fall in love all over again when his children are brought into the world. She would be there through the tough parenting trials. She would be there for his future family during the lengthy, lonely tours and business trips, and celebrate the endless nominations and awards, and he was grateful to have met a friend like her. He could only hope that she felt that way, too.

Harry finally decided on making some grilled cheeses for himself and Zoey, grabbing a couple of bottles of water before carefully carrying them back to Zoey’s room. He heard faint muffles from the other side of the door, and when he pushed it open he saw Zoey sitting up, phone pressed to her ear, a tear rolling down her cheek, and her free hand fidgeting with his beanie. Her attention snapped in his direction when she noticed him walking in and she scooted over a bit to let Harry back into the bed while responding to the person on the phone.

“Not tonight. I’m off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” she said. After a pause, she continued, “No. Thankfully I made some pretty great friends over here who are keeping me company. She would have really loved them.”

Harry looked down at his food and smiled, knowing she was talking about him as she finished the conversation.

“Of course, no problem. Thank you again for this opportunity, it’s been more helpful than I ever thought it could be. Okay, love you both. Bye.”

Zoey ended the call and wiped the tear from her cheek, looking up at Harry with a soft grin. She had fixed her hair, pulling it to a neater messy bun, and her eyes weren’t as puffy, though still bloodshot. She must have read his face because she informed him, “It was Jess’s parents.”

Harry’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and he nodded, “How are they holding up?”

She shrugged, “It’s hard. They were going through old pictures of us when we were younger when I called. They said I’ll always be family and they’re happy I found some good friends out here. Thank you, by the way.”

“Oh, no problem,” Harry held up half of his hot grilled cheese sandwich, pulling a corner of the triangle piece to his mouth, “it’s technically your food, I just put it together.”

She snorted, “I meant for coming. I thought I could handle it on my own, but I guess I was wrong. I didn’t realize it until I saw you.”

Harry put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her into his side, “Zoey, I don’t know how many times you want me to say it, but I’ll always find a way to be there for you. You just lucked out that I’m off during this.”

“How pissed are your management?”

“...I’ll probably get an earful l when I go back.”

Zoey laughed and asked, “Do Nancy and Rory know you’re here?”

He nodded, “I called them when I landed. I just missed Rory. She had apparently just left before I got here, but I talked to Nancy for a little. She just left a note for us to let us know she was going to a meeting. She said she’d be back tonight.”

Zoey nodded, taking a small bite of her grilled cheese. The clouds from the storm were so dark that it cast a gray light into her room, making her more relaxed as the two pulled Zoey’s laptop between them and played ‘The Sandlot’ in the background while Zoey talked, finally saying everything that’s been on her mind for the past week. It was hard at first, trying to control her emotions. But the more she talked, the more she understood that she didn’t have to control her emotions. In fact, Harry didn’t want her to control it, he wanted her to feel how she needed to feel.

“Don’t bottle it up. That’s not how you get better. Lean into it. Cry if you need to. Scream if you feel it. But don’t hold it back. It’s just you and me, you’re safe,” he told her.

And she felt it, too. Safe. She wondered how she ever went through life before knowing him. How she ever felt safe before him. Whatever she thought safe was before him was something else entirely. He provided her with a sense of comfort and belonging she never thought existed. He never made her feel inferior or silly beyond the sense of joking. It was hard to imagine that just a few short months ago Harry Styles was just some famous, hot, British singer on the radio and in magazines who didn’t even know she existed. Now, it was hard to picture him as anything more than, what she would consider him to be, her best friend.

Hours had past and the movie had long since been over as they continued to talk and she found herself finally starting to laugh and smile again. Her phone went off a couple more times, noticing another call from her ex-boyfriend and one from Brett, but she was finally feeling a little bit like her old self again and she didn’t want to ruin that right now. Instead, they talked about Harry and his tour, stories of life on the road, and a few fan encounters.

“I don know how you do it. How do you feel safe?”

Harry shrugged, “I guess I’m just used to it. You never really fully let your guard down. You’re always cautious, but you don’t really think about it after a while.”

Zoey nodded, “I guess the attention isn’t all that bad. Especially for a single guy. But...what’s even going on with that? Made any decision yet on what you want to do about Rory?”

Harry pushed out air through his nose in a sigh and relaxed his shoulders, dropping his head, “I have no clue,” he groaned, “Honestly, I’ve been avoiding thinking about it and just pretending like that conversation never happened because I liked the way things were when we were just TALKING. It was easier then. And it kind of feels like we’re getting back to that, too, so I’m hoping she just forgot about it.”

Zoey shook her head, raising an eyebrow, “Harry,” she warned, “girls never forget. Don’t wait too long or you’ll lose her.”

He huffed, “I know. I just need more time to think. One thing at a time. Right now I’m focusing on you.”

Zoey chuckled, “Well, thank you, but don’t forget to focus on yourself, too. And maybe don’t tell her that. I know you mean well, but no woman wants to know that you’re focusing on another girl, even if it’s just a friend.”

Harry laughed, ruffling his hair, “Yeah, maybe not the smartest thing to say.” They settled when Harry asked, “What do you want to do tomorrow? It’ll be just me and you.”

Zoey shrugged, “I really want to go to the beach, but we definitely can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Zoey looked at him as though he grew five heads, “Hello? Did you forget you’re famous? You’ll definitely be recognized.”

“I can get away with it in big crowds. Too many people are distracted. You just have to keep moving.”

“And your tattoos won’t tip them off?” she pointed out.

“I can just wear a long sleeve shirt if it’ll make you feel more comfortable.”

“It’ll be a trillion degrees!”

Harry waved her off, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. We’re going to the beach.”

Eventually, there was a knock on Zoey’s door. She called for whoever it was to come in and Nancy poked her head in, holding two dome-topped cups filled with chocolate milkshakes, Binx scurrying in behind her and leaping onto her bed.

“I brought these for you,” Nancy warily chimed, edging in.

Zoey smiled brightly at her, scratching the top of Binx’s head and taking hold of hers while Harry grabbed the other, “Thank you, Nancy,” she said.

Nancy grinned, happy to see her friend in better spirits. “I just got off the phone with Rory. She’s on her way back, but we were thinking about getting some Chinese for dinner if you want any.”

“I actually just ordered some postmates,” Harry informed her, “should be here any minute. But thank you.”

She nodded and excused herself from the room when Zoey’s phone rang again. She held it up to see the screen and sighed.

“That’s the fourth time this Mikey person called today. Why do you keep ignoring it? Is it some weirdo stalker from your work not getting the hint or something?”

Zoey shook her head, “No, it’s my ex-boyfriend.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “Oh.”

The phone screen went blank and she groaned, “I should probably talk to him, shouldn’t I? He’s probably having a rough time with Jess, too. He WAS there when it happened, too.”

Harry shrugged, unsure of what to say. Zoey thought for a moment before pressing the ‘Return Call’ button, listening as the phone dialed out, feeling bad that it had taken this long to reach out to him. He didn’t have anyone in his life that knew Jess that well. Zoey was lucky that Harry was here, she couldn’t imagine how she’d feel right now if he weren’t, so she could only imagine how Michael felt.

“Hey,” Michael answered, his voice low and sullen.

“Hey,” Zoey greeted, feeling Harry’s eyes on her, “How are you feeling?”

She heard Michael sigh, “I don’t know. Pretty shitty. Left work early today. But now I’m by myself and this sucks.”

“I know,” Zoey soothed, “What about your friends? What’s Dan doing? Can he come over to keep you company?”

Michael huffed, “He’s with Becky. But I wouldn’t want him to come over anyway. He’d just try to make jokes or play video games and I’m not in the mood for that right now. I wish you were here.”

Zoey frowned, “I’m sorry, Mikey. I would if I could.”

“Can’t you come back and visit? Just for a little?”

“I can’t. I’ve got a job. I’ve got friends here. I can’t just leave.”

There was a moment of silence before he spoke, “You really made a whole new life for yourself out there, didn’t you?”

“Mikey…” Zoey cautioned, looking at Harry who she was pretty sure could hear the conversation as his eyebrow raised and his head tilted.

Michael stammered, “I know, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. It’s just...hard for me. We were together for four years. I can’t get over you that quickly. I just miss you.”

“I know, I miss you, too,” Zoey responded, looking down at Binx who was nuzzling his head into her lap, a little embarrassed as this phone call was a lot more intimate and personal than she expected, feeling sorry that Harry had to hear this, “Well, it’s late there. Try and get some rest. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay. I love you, Zoey.”

“I love you, too. Get some sleep.”

Zoey ended the call and gently tossed her phone to the side, hesitating before she looked up at Harry, his expression all sorts of confused.

“Sorry,” Zoey blushed, “Conversations with him lately are usually like that, I was just hoping that this one would be different.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrowed, “I’m confused. Are you guys broken up? I thought you were seeing Brett?”

“Brett and I are a different story, but yes, Michael and I are broken up.”

“But you still tell each other I love you?”

“I mean, yeah,” Zoey shrugged, looking Harry in the eyes, “I was with him for four years. He was there with me during the most traumatic moments of my life. And he’s always been good to me. I’ll always love him. I’m just not IN love with him.”

“So you don’t want to be with him?”

Zoey laughed, shaking her head, “You seem awfully confused for a guy who’s still friends with practically all of his ex-girlfriends.”

Harry’s eyebrows relaxed and his lips twitched into a smile, laughing, “True. But I don’t tell them I love them.”

“But you do,” Zoey quipped, “Just because you fall out of love doesn’t mean you don’t still have a love for that person. There will always be a piece of you that loves them, it’s just not as great as it once was. That’s why you’re still friends with them. Because you still care about them on some kind of level.”

Harry stared at her for a moment before smiling his perfect, toothy smile, “You’re too wise for your own good.”

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Hickman’s X-Men One Year In: Part 2: The Dawn of X

And we’re onto part 2. Since it took me a while to talk about Hickman’s Series outside of Giant-Size and the setup here, that’s in part one if your curious, I split this little retrospective into two parts, with this part here talking about the rest of the books. This isn’t to say they aren’t great, many of them are, it was just easier to do this as a two parter so with HIckman himself out of the way how did his hand picked batch of talented writers handle the lofty status quo he set up?Find out under the cut. Pax Krakoa baby.

Mauraders Okay just to get this out of the way this is my second faviorite x-book running, after X-Men itself and it often equals it and far and away the best tile of the run and restored my faith in Gerry Duggan. Duggan is not a bad writer and I blame the messy finish of his otherwise awesome guardians run with infnity wars on marvel trying to cram other characters into it and then a weird mash up idea that while cool, kept the guardians out of their own damn event and from confrting a now mad gamora, but that and deadpool made me forget the guy is a good writer and can do great things. Maruaders however won me back to him with intrest. A unique concept, the x-men as pirates helping ferry goods to krakoan allied states and ferry trapped mutants from hostile ones, is fucking awesome. The only thing missing is nightcrawler and it’s clear hickman has other plans, though I still feel he shoudl’ve been on the boat as he has both the relation to kitty pryde and pirate pedgree that fit in perfectly. Speaking of kitty after years of writers misusing her due to having a crush on her as a kid and shoving her into half baked romances with peter quill and her ex peter rasptuin, the latter failing so badly that marvel pulled the plug on their wedding because fans clearly didn’t want it, and battling my own reluctance ot see her front and center again, Duggan makes good use of her again: Kitty is given the unique hook of the portals not working for her and no one, even her old friend Doug after he gets back, being able to figure out WHY. Though I do hope Doug does show up here and explain it more, as him being kitty’s best friend once is rarely brought up since he got back and it’s silly it hasn’t been. But rather than take this on the chin Kitty strikes up a crew consisting of big sister Storm, first class graduate x-man, badass gay and kitty’s friend and ex iceman, bishop who reluctantly joins as her bishop more on that in a second and the best of them by a mile: Pyro. The original, finally brought back and given some intresting backstory: he was the first mutant brought back and felt good about it..t ill he realized that despite sacrificing himself to save a, if your familiar with the various cartoons this will be baffling but trust me, reformed senator kelly as Pyro himself was dying from the legacy virus, only to find out they did him first because they considered him expendable basically and naturally was upset over that, drunk a bunch of the liquor kitty smuggled in, for logan naturally, and passed out and then joined in on the rescue mission that formed the team because why not and stayed because it was a great offer. Speaking of offers with a new purpose, Kitty accepted her old enemy Emma Frost’s offer to be red queen, which includes a seat on krakoa’s council and was basically emma’s way of saying fuck you to her old cohort who she was forced to bring back on to handle the seedier side of Krakoa’s dealings via his underworld connections, sebastian shaw. Emma is the fincical backbone of krakoa, having the shipping connections to get the flowers in and out and now having kitty to handle the stuff she can’t and do some of the shipping, as well as again tell Sebastian, who naturally wants both gone and is pissy at Emma being so far ahead of him, wants gone. And while he’s seemingly succeded with kitty I not only have every expectation that while ressuection is failing to work on her she’ll be back, but that trying to murder one of the most beloved x-men whose consdiered family to among others three of krakoa’s captains, bishop after this series, four of their council, five if you include Doug whose best friends with both his left arm which is also a deadly space robot and the very place they live on. The only reason he’s not going to die 80 times in increasingily horrifying ways is because the five can’t take on that kind of workload and one murderous ass beating from half of krakoa and krakoa itself is close enough.

Emma is easily one of the books best parts, being written back as she should: An anti hero who while quick with a cutting quip, truly cares for her charges, and mutantkind as a whole and has grown from the monster she started as or even the kind of person who’d use a therapy session from a desperate man having issues opening up emotionally after apocalypse used his body as a rental car to convince him to fuck her. And yes that’s how things started with Scott and Emma and yes it’s really fucked up and yes the story treats it as such, though I still wish Scott would get actual therapy, but as Linkara recently pointed out in his House of M Review the Marvel and DC universes weirdly lack therapists for the most part and thus it was left on my mind the last two weeks.. and yes I know DC tried but when your final product at trying to serious tackle mental health is heroes in crisis.. I award you no points and god have mercy on your soul. But while Emma and Kitty get the lions share of the focus the rest of the group is enjoyable, well done and intresting, if not given many arcs to themselves, but still have enough character moments to counterballance that. The standout of the rest of the crew is easily Pyro, taken from “why is he still dead despite being super popular and used in a heavy role in X2 that’s garnered fans of that version to this day and bafflement he became a foot note in the next movie and used in every adaptation” to fun side character with a skull on his face and a love of booze and setting things on fire. He’s finally given the respect he deserves sorta and while I hope more is delved into his ressurection angst, he’s a ton of fun and it again makes me wonder why it took 20+ years to bring him back, but i’m glad the right person did it. The rest of the crew are fun with Bishop being another standout. That being said part of the reason there isn’t a lot of focus is simply because in additoin to our brave crew the book is juggling a LOT of characters.. the morlocks and calisto, both given a proper treatment after wya too long, jumbo carnation a minor character from morrisons run who was introduced in the same issue he died is emma’s designer, shinobi shaw and christian frost, the latter I question why a main relative of one of marvel’s a-list mutants who was one of marvel’s earlier gay characters hasn’t been used in a big way till now but no time like the present, Sebastian and the people he shares his big bad spot with Homines Verde aka those tweens who ran the hellfire club during jason aaron’s run because the man is nuts and who I only seemd to liked, brillinatly revamped as a racist replacemnt for the hellfire club and so far a clever threat. The book is just stuffed iwth good characters, beautiful art, and a great tone that combines spectacular humor with really good story and worldbuilding. It’s also a nice contrast to hickman’s stuff: don’t get me wrong I love hickman’s writing style but it’s nice to have something JUST as good.. but with a cheerier tone and less weariness to it, while still not lacking weight. I can’t wait to see where this goes.. it’s a pirates life for me.

Excalibur: Like most of the dawn of X-Line outside of fallen angels, more on that in a minute and even then that had an intresting new directoin for betsy braddock, I was pumped for this one. A team I loved: While I struggled to find a run I loved with Claremont’s run having Brian Braddock be a raging dick whose terrible to his girlfriend and gets away with cheating on her and Claremont not really bothering to explain Saturnyne or other characters and their history with Brian well to us yanks who never had the chance to read those tales.. though why stories by alan moore and chris claremont haven’t been republished properly or in epic collections is beyond me. Warren Ellis, who I now loathe for being a scheming weasel who treated women like garbage, had a decent run with plenty of warlock, in a weird phase where he thought he was doug, Moira and Wolfsbane stuff I loved.. but also had 30-40 something pete wisdom shacking up with 18 year old at most kitty pryde, with Pete at the time being basically Warren Ellis badass self insert character, and given recent revelations i’m pretty sure he damn well knew kitty was just 18 and even if he didn’t having his own fanfic character deflower her is just all kinds of EWWWWWW. He also had Colossus, fresh of being a villian for a while for understandable reasons, nearly beat pete into a coma in a jealous rage over the ex.. the ex he dated while she was still a minor, and left because HE , and editorial, was uncomfortable with it for damn obvious reasons. I can see why fans like to see her as bisexual and pair her with Illiayna.. I mean why the fuck not? They have better chemistry than most of he hetrosexual intrests and are paried because of that and not because the writer wanted to make out iwth kitty as a teenager and forgot “oh yeah she’s fictional and i’m 40!” Christ thank god for Gerry Duggan. But yeah moving on from that I was still pumped as a magical x-men book with Besty Braddock now captain freaking britan, and apocalypse on the roster. And rictor and jubille? nad rouge and gambit I guess.. I don’t knokw if they fit but whatever. Sign me up. The actual result is a mixed back. I do like Tini Howard’s work here to a point: Betsy gets good character stuff and theres actually good tension from the fact that the new captain britan is no longer primarily a british ctizen, and the book brought back a character I felt marvel needed to do more with: Jamie. if you don’t know, Jamie is betsy and brian’s, her brother and the former captain britian, older brother who went insane due to his powers and thus just goes around in his underwear convinced reality isn’t real and he can do what he wants and the tension with Jamie refusing to have anything to do with his brother for no good reason is really good. Rictor and Apocalypse are likewise good sensable additons: Rictor turns out to be a natural to being a druid which is a nice twist and makes sense given when he lost his powers the biggest issue with that was loosing touch with earth after having a connection to it be a vital part of him for years. Apocalypse as an ominus chess master slowly securing magic for mutantkind with some goal we’re about to get answers to is really investing and adds a layer to his character, that much like doctor doom he’s as much sorecer as he is scinetest and given the guy’s immortal, it dosen’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere. The problem is the other half of the cast.. dosen’t really work. I fucking love Jubilee, a faviroite of mine as an xman despite not being a huge 90′s x-men cartoon fan, just feels kinda shoe horned in. Her son becomes a dragon and she worries about him constantly, but her worrying about her son possibly not being a mutant on mutant land could be done in any other x-book, and fraknly I feel her personality would fit better with the maruaders, and it’d be intresting to see kitty and her on the same team since both really haven’t interacted. Here she just feels like “well tini wanted jubilee and no one else did soooo I made her son a dragon to justify getting her”. I feel more could be done and hope Tini has better plans for her. Rouge is one of my faviorte x-men and All New X Factor and Kelly Thompsons work with him and Rouge made me like Gambit again, and I DO love their marriage and it was a way better idea than the one Guggenhiem had planned.. but while the idea of Rouge being reborn is intresting and all, she still dosen’t really get to do much and like Jubilee just feels weirldy out of place while Remy has that plus he’s annoying, as while he’s the only one rightfully supscious of apocalypse he also won’t shut the fuck up about it for five minutes. Ig et where he’s coming from but it dosen’t make him less annoying. These aren’t bad characters, but sof ar they just feel weirdly out of place in a magic based book and unlike Rictor tini hasn’t made any of htem but Rouge feel in place.

That being said I could ignore that more.. but the villians are also week. So far at least, as the return of Satyurne has given the book it’s first good antagonist.. but what I feel drags the book down the most from it’s potential is the bad guys; Morgan Le Fay is the first antaognist, being mad at apocalypse’s intrusions and corrputing Brian.. but her motives are just so boring: She wants power and to rule, she hates mutants... while “hates mutants” is a qualifier for every other antagonist so far, she just feels bland.. Tini just dosen’t make her feel like a good antagonist and it’s a shame as mutant hater or not she’s something DIFFRENT from the throngs of mutant hating conspiracies, mostly from russia in the other books... she’s just so bland it dosen’t work. And after her is Cullen Bloodstone who as far as I can tell is written out of character.. haven’t read his book but I had both a friend confirm it and having read his marvel wiki entry, it just seems like an odd turn to have him be a racist asshole. But even with all my problems and underwhelm here.. I still WANT the book to get from okay to amazing, and feel it genuinely has the potetial. I’ve seen books sharply improve after a rough first arc, Duggan himself showed me that with his Guardians run. Sometimes it just takes time for something to truly blossom and I have a feeling even with my issues, with x of swords coming up howard’s going to flip it all on it’s head and leave me standing there gasping like a moron. I have hope for that. And if nothing else the book is at least UNIQUE. And not in a trainwreck way: by giving mutants a piece of the magic pie and having them tackle far weirder threats, it’s at least doing something new and it probably lands for other people if not me, and if nothing else it does brian 80 times better than the claremont run did. not a high bar but I do like the character and it’s nice to see him take such an intresting path, and the same goes for Betsy. Tini’s still got magic to do, and I have a feeling it’s going to take me by storm very soon.

Fallen Angels: Now for the other half of the coin as it were. Some fans weren’t happy about Betsy getting her old body back, and yes Psylocke wasn’t orignally asian but a white british woman bodyswapped iwth a japanese assasian and yes that’s as ludicrious and unteitonally offensive as it sounds, because horrible implications of said Body Swap or not, Psylocke was one of the few asian superheros of note. So to compromise , Hickman and co decided to split the diffrence: Betsy would come back and get a rank up to captain britan, while Kwannon, said assasian, would take over as Psylocke. Hence Excalibur above and fallen angels here and I was excited about it. The Body Swap thing went on a decade too long and this way fans got the character they knew as Psylocke in another book while the face they recognized would finally get some fleshing out. I was excited about that and while probably the least excited about this book of the intitial 5, it did have an intresting lead, two characters I did like (Kid Cable I grant was only under hickman who turned him from that brat version of cable who killed the one I really love to a good character in his own right), and an intresting antagonist in a sentient machine. In practice it was okay. The best I can say is that writer Brian Hill DOES do a great job taking a mostly minor x-character and really fleshing her out and making her engaging and Kwannon’s quest to save her daughter is really compelling.. but the premise of those who don’t fit with krakoa dosen’t work with the roster given. Laura Kinney is not only sticking with the x-23 name after dropping the wolverine mantle for no reason previously, something Hickman fixed as soon as he realized how fans felt for her apperance in the main book, while Cable feels nothing like the far more fun version from Hickman’s X-Men and later Duggan’s Cable. Add in Husk and Bling who do deserve to be on a team but feel out of place here, and it just.. is okay. The book has an intresting angagonist and a great lead, but just dosen’t work as a team book and would’ve been better off being JUST about kwannon herself, who is far and away the best part about the book and i’m glad she got fleshed out. Not TERRIBLE but nothing special and it’s a shame given the antagonist, whose name I can’t even remember at this point, is intresting and ties into mutantkind’s greatest enmies being man and machine accoridng to house and powers.. basically a decent concep twith a flawed execution. Maybe hill’ sbatman and hte outisders run is better. I need to get on that. That being said the premise and idea is so far being done well in Hellions which we’ll get to, even if I’m being cautious really getting into the book with Zeb Wells track record. But more on that in a bit.

X-Force: Time to make noise, bad guys leave us no choice.. you know the rest. But yeah X-force. The concept here grabbed me, having X-Force rather than just be the black ops squad but be literal black ops for krakoa, was really great and fit the brave new world.. what worried me was the writer, Benjamin Percy. Now a lot of x-fans probably knew him from the much beloved “Wolverine: The Long Night” podcast, which i’ve heard is utterly fantastic as is it’s followup.. but I hadn’t heard it, and had only heard of Percy from DC comics where under his belt was an okay teen titans run and a not very good and politcally unsubtle green arrow book. And i’m not against politics in comics it just wasn’t done at all well there and the “oliver queen looses hif ourture due to a shadowy conspiracy thing” was already done better by jeff lemire. So yeah I was going to give this a chance but figured like those books it’d start strong and then peter out. I. Was. Wronnnnggg. X-Force is easily one of the best of the dawn of x and uses said premise well. It started a bit roughly, mostly becasue the first arc idnd’t make clear x-force didn’t exist yet but was a great origin story: a squad of military commandos working for a shadowy consirtum who become x-force’s big bad, plunge onto Krakoa and massacre a bunch of mutantas and assinate charles xavier. He comes back, though it’s trickier for obvious reasons, but it’s clear from this, and from wolverine and kid omega’s sucessful investigation and finding domino, that this can’t go on and thus X-Forces is formed; The intellegence and black ops arm of Krakoa and the one arm of it’s goverment exempt from the ‘dont’ kill humans rule”. What followed was nearly a years worth of fast paced adventures with good character stuff: Wolverine is in his element, kid omega, while I had my doubts due to quinten being way overused , turned out to be a perfect choice basically being a more compitent teenage sterling archer, cocky and loving this but also really good at his job, while Domino gets a great arc dealing with her trauma over her mutalation and having some of her power stolen by the shadowy masked dickheads while Colossus deals with his trauma over what went down when he rescued some Russian mutants, with the book slowly building up new threats and towards a showdown with Russia, something that’s also been built up by conflicts in Wolverine and Mauraders, which again makes the world of x feel more like an actual world instead a bunch of comics in one cast herd. Jean Grey is good for intellegence, though by now seems to have noped out as she couldn’t take the toll, it’s not for everyone and most notably after 5 or 6 years of being treated worse and worse and written worse and worse and becoming a bigger and bigger piece of shit Beast is FINALLY put in the right spot: his darker turns aren’t ignored but he’s back to being an actually intellegent hero as X-force’s director, still a bit greasy but now for good reason and without a god complex or some such bullshit and with a tiny bit of his humor back. Not much else to say really, X-Force is well paced, enjoyable and gritty, getting the spirit of the team at it’s best down right while doing something fresh with it.

New Mutants (Ed Brisson) Last one, New Mutants is the odd duck of the dawn of x line in terms of how it was launched. Fallen Angels ended up being a mini series both due to Hill being busy and it’s cast being needed elsewhere but will presmibly get a follow up later, but it’s not the ONLY mini series in the line with Fantastic four/x-men, the giant sized one shots and now Empyre: X-Men all debuting in wave 2. New Mutants however is the first book to change writers and said writer STARTED in the middle of hickman’s run, partly due to scheduling delays but even before that it was partly by design and those issues haven’t been collected yet, with hickman’s short run being collected first. So you have a run that builds off what Hickman started but with it’s own ideas that started insidei t and suprisingly it .. really works. While I do think there are better books in the line Brisson’s new mutants is enjoyable, combining humor and character work. New Mutants focuses on the sextant, which was first brought up in hickman’s run, the series of habitats for younger mutants on krakoa that the new mutants look out for, and while the original new mutants are in space, Armor decides to try and bring some old friends in to join in paradise with the help of Glob Herman, that big pink guy with a visable skeleton and eyes, and Maxine and Manon, who in the tradition of layla miller were created for an event and not great htere but turned out amazing under the right writer.. who I think also wrote that event but whatever, a pair of empaths and telepaths who have trouble grasping the right ethics for using their powers. The four go to get one of my faviorite x-men back: BEAK! I missed him even if he’s weirdly suddenly repowered. Beak and his wife Angel only haven’t joiend in with their kids because his dad’s sick, and things soon escalate when a bunch of criminals try holding them all hostage and it’s up to boom boom, bored since everyone left her alone, to save the day! After that we deal with Magik rangling them and the team’s new mission statment: not wanting ot mess up again like she did with beak, who did join them but not without loosing his dad and then his memory of his dad thanks to the twins misguided efforts, Armor still wants to try welcoming new mutants in with the vetrans help, and thus we have our puprose: focusing both on how these younger mutant 20 somethigns of various ages from early to late work together to make a better world nad help their own get back to this world. it’s intresting.. I’m not in love with it like mauraders or x-force, but it’s still pretty good and their first big foe so far, DoX, a blog that well.. doxes mutants that haven’t arrived yet, seems to be intresting. Not much to say just pretty good and and better at mixing comedy and character stuff, and getting the cast right. Ed Brisson had already proven himself on old man logan, but this cements him as one of the hottest new x-writers around and i’m glad he was given a book here. He’s also succeded in making me actually like Glob Herman so that’s a plus.

Fantastic Four/X-Men The first title of wave 2 and easily one of the best, right up there with mauraders nad probably JUSST behind it and ONLY because i’ts a mini series, giving the X-Men their first real step into the rest of hte marvel universe. Sure the 4 had cameoed in the first issue and there’s been mentions of krakoa in other books and one off issues but mostly Krakoa really hadn’t impacted anything.. but that first issue also set things up with Scott’s conversation with Sue Richards

Yeah and in case those who haven’t been aware of what’s going on with the FF lately and either remember franklin as a 6-11 year old or wondered why the hell he was suddenly a teen when they read this crossover, it’s actually simple; At the end of secret wars the Richards family was put on a bus, also so marvel could shove the ff as a proper team out the door due to the whole fox rights thing, and when Dan Slott had brought them back.. and cleverly had more time pass for the richards than for the 616 proper, so he could age Franklin up to his late teens and Valeria up to her early ones, allowing the richards children to actually age since Franklin’s age always had to stay vauge due to marvel’s vage and wobbly time scale. This way they get both consitant ages and more agency. But the return also came with a price as Franklin, who if you didn’t know is so powerful he can create whole universe and shape the sturcture of the universe, had his powers break saving his family, and thus since he came back, he’s onlyg got so much of them left in the tank before they run out entirely, and it’s been an issue for him in Slott’s run as he worries about being the normal human in a fantastic family and comes to a head here, though rather than Hickman himself, who as mentioned last time has a marvelous track record with the family or FF series writer dan slott Hickman choose a wild card for this, though had both Hickman and Slott’s permission to do whatever he wanted: Chip Zdarsky, a modern marvel for marvel who’d writtne the four in marvel two in one but for some reason didn’t get the main book and this book makes me hope whenever Dan Slott bows out he gets his turn and while this is his first x-men work, Zdarsky proves he’s just as good here as is in most of his work on Howard the Duck, Jughead and Star Lord.. a weird selection I know but all classics.

With this power outage, Franklin is worried his dad is, at least subconciously, not really trying to help him and to make matters worse teh x-men show up to offer their help.. and Franklin his birthright. The arguments made by both sides are great and I will be covering the series in full soon but in a nutshell the four dont’ want to give up their son/nephew, Reed dosen’t trust Xavier and feels he wants to use his son’s powers while the x-men feel it’s franlin’s choice and he’s old enough to make it, he belongs with them and he’ll be safer there. It also works because Franklin understandably isn’t swayed by either as neither is reallyt alking to him more at him, especially his parents .. and only tries the gate when Kitty Pryde, the two bonded back in the 80s and a young franklin stopped her from comitting suicide long story but really moving, is the only one to tell him it’s his choice. This dosen’t go quite well though since Reed Richards, father of the year, decided to make a device to mask his son’s mutant gene and no one, including his own family, is happy about htis. Naturally Franklin, with Val’s help, runs away.. and then as if it couldn’t get worse DOOM shows up wanting to help so now it’s a three way dance between them for hte fate of franklin. The series has gorgeous art form the dodsons a really damn compelling story and great setup for further stories for both lines and feels like the best of both franchises. It’s the x-men’s first huge impact on the rest of the marvel universe,a nd it feels like it with the ending showing that and showing this might not be the last time both sides crossover. It’s everything you could want from a crossover and i’m only being so brief because I want to review it soon as a huge fan of both groups. Easily one of the best x-men stories of the line and one of the best stories for both groups period.

Wolverine: We’re onto the final two, and Percy’s second book and the first solo.. and it’s logan again! Makes sense though: Wolverine only just came back from the dead, and while both is daughter and alternate future self carried the woverline banner for him, the original hasn’t gotten his own ongoing in some time. And so far.. it’s pretty good> the first issues a bit messy due to it’s lenght, but overall the book is intresting and has Logan graple with being the best at waht he does and if he can be better or if he deserves paradise while also delivering a compelling solo mission teaming Wolverine up with a federal agent who resents mutants. it also does some good world building, explaning why Krakoan drugs have things like wait lists (they want to control production closely both to avoid having the flower taken away and for quality control), and expanding the russia subplot while using Dracula of all people as a major antagonist, which is clever especailly since this isn’t his first rodeo with the x-men. Just a fun book wiht loads of promise.

Hellions: NOt much to say here as it’s hard to judge after two issues, buti f nothing else this series brought back the delightfully batshit Nanny, who just with last weeks issue offered to nurse Greycrow (who had his name changed from scalphunter because of course marvel did why wouldn’t they) and falling down. It combines humor with an odd but well thought out cast and makes Alex Summers intresting without making everyone else assholes, a hard but earned feet. If it continues to be good.. I dunno, especially since i haven’t been impressed by any of zeb wells other works especially his new mutants run, good god that one’s am ess, but so far he’s winning me over with a clever concept and roster full of deep cuts. Final Thoughts: I won’t be covering Empyre: X_men, though I did enjoy it and i’l save that one for next time. For now this has been a hell of a year of x-men comics, with even the weaker books still having something intresting and none being outright terribule and only one had a bad grasp on some of it’s cast and for a line this big and expansive, that’s a gold medal achivment. After YEARS of stasis the x-men have finally risen again better, bolder and stranger than ever. IS every book A+ gold star etc etc, no, but what’s important.. is that it’s all DECENT. There’s enough standout books to make it work but as i’ve made clear what isn’t the best of the best is still good or decent. There’s nothing bad, no one phoning it in or not giving an effort, everyone is trying thier hardest and succeding on SOME level even if not completely and that.. that’s truly amazing and I look forward to more of it as this line continues. Pax Krakoa and hopefully i’ll see you again.

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