#the redoubtable x-23:

[northernmariette]

A Response to my Esteemed Fellow Napoleonic Enthusiast (Part 1)

Yes, my Fellow Napoleonic Enthusiast  (FNE for short) is the redoubtable Josefa vom Jaaga. I posted something longish about the mindset of the Army at the time Ney did his about-face in March 1815 (”Napoleon is back from Elba! Will the Army fight for Louis XVIII?”). FNE reponded longishly. To spare readers of my posts too much scrolling, I will respond in two (yes, two!) separate posts to the many points FNE/Josefa raised.

Just to make things clear from the get-go, I have no idea what the ideal course of action ought to have been for Louis XVIII, who was much influenced by his family’s wishes; but on this topic, René Floriot, the author is was quoting, offers this tidbit: 

"But if Louis XVIII attempted to be benevolent, his family still thought they were at the court of Louis XVI. Neither the King's brother [the future Charles X], nor his nephews, and even less the Duchess of Angoulême [Louis XVI’s daughter], were possessed of the political sense of their ancestor Henri IV, who, knowing the difficulties of reconquering a kingdom, proclaimed: "One must win over one's enemies, even if it means displeasing ones friends."

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3364575n/f24.item , pp. 11-12.

My original post had only to do with the explanation I was seeking for one aspect of the wild happenings of March 1815: why were the troops so eager to rally to Napoleon? In my inexpert opinion, it is far from certain that the Army would have so readily abandoned the King if there had not been such discontent within its ranks. 

The FNE also asks what else could Louis XVIII have done other than to give high ranks to émigrés. I don’t know - except maybe follow Henri IV’s advice until things had settled a bit? I’m a poor debater, especially when faced with the keen intelligence and sparring skills of this particular FNE. I will come back to this in Part 2, but in the meantime I will leave the floor to one more politically acute than I could ever hope to be, the great Talleyrand himself.

According to Floriot, here is what Talleyrand had to say to the King:

Talleyrand recalled the sum total of the mistakes Louis XVIII had made in a letter dated 23 April 1815 from Vienna. Under the disguise of a private conversation with Tsar Alexander, he made numerous observations to the King of France about his domestic policy:

The emperor thinks that the King has the wishes of that part of the nation which has never been anything but passive [...]. But will the other part [of the nation], that which seems to be the entire nation because it alone manifests itself, because it alone takes action, and because it alone prevails, willingly submit?

He continued that when he was in Paris a year ago, everything he saw and heard made him fear that the government would not be able to survive. It struck him as doubtful that the feelings and opinions of the princes would accord with the opinions and attitudes of a generation which had been born during their [i.e. the prince's] absence, and which in many respects had neither the ideas nor the mores of its fathers. But one cannot govern in opposition to the ideas of one's time.

He says that his fears increased when he saw that Your Majesty was calling to the ministries and into his councils men who were no doubt very estimable, but almost all of whom had spent the time of the Revolution outside France or in retirement, and lacked that experience which even brilliant intelligence cannot replace.  He believes that the harm they have done to the royal cause has been very great. He went so far as to claim that the greatest harm came from the share of power which Your Majesty gave or allowed to be taken by the princes [...] 

In other words, Talleyrand was commenting to the King about the causes of Napoleon’s easy return, namely errors committed in the ten or eleven months since Napoleon’s abdication. He was correctly stating that the “princes” had opinions and attitudes no longer in harmony with those of the generation born or raised in the 25 years since the Revolution, and whose ways of thinking had become prevalent. To make things worse, the King was putting into positions of power people who did not really know what they were doing - including in the Army, as we have seen in my previous post -, just because they were high-ranking aristocrats. 

But then Louis XVIII came back to the throne a mere 100 days later or so, and Talleyrand gave it another shot. Unable to tame his concerns about the possibility of renewed errors on the part of Louis Xviii, he enjoined the king to offer guarantees to the people of France. Some of these guarantees would have helped Ney to undergo a fairer trial: 

One needs guarantees; one needs them for the sovereign, one needs them for his subjects. But one would think there are none:

unless individual liberty was protected by law from all infringement;

unless the freedom of the press was fully guaranteed [...];

unless the Judiciary was independent, and therefore composed of irremovable members;

unless the power to judge [was removed from] [...] any jurisdiction other than the Courts;

[...].

Talleyrand lastly reminded the King that "everything had to be forgotten in France, and had to be forgotten without restriction".

He had every reason to be concerned, and in his reminiscences he notes in a disillusioned tone: "Neither this brief nor my words had any effect on the King."

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3364575n/f36.item , pp. 24-26.

[marcuserrico]

'Logan': How the Blockbuster Wolverine Film Matches Up With Marvel's Classic Comic Book (Spoilers!)

Hugh Jackman in ‘Logan’ (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Wolverine continues to flex his considerable muscles at the box office, with Hugh Jackman’s X-Men swan song Logan already closing in on $300 million in global ticket sales in less than a week.

As Marvel fans undoubtedly know, the film is very loosely based on Old Man Logan, an eight-issue 2008 miniseries by writer Mark Millar and artist Steven McNiven.

(Image: Marvel)

The film distills the Old Man Logan story to its essence: Logan, long retired from crimefighting in a dystopian future bereft of fellow superheroes, embarks on a hazardous road trip with an old friend — a journey of self-discovery in which tragedy spurs a renewed sense of purpose. Framed as a postmodern Western, the hyperviolent comic plays with the ideas of family, heroism, justice, and redemption.

The critically lauded R-rated film is much starker and leaner than the comic. “Clearly we drew a lot of inspiration, not only from Old Man Logan, but other sources,” director James Mangold told Moviefone.com. “I think the idea that I wanted to explore further was the idea of being in kind of twilight, of being over it, of losing faith,” he said, noting he relied on Millar and McNiven’s work for “a sense of place and setting.”

Here’s a look at how Logan converged with — and diverged from — the Marvel source material. (Beware, spoilers ahead!)

The Premise

The comic takes place in an alternate universe, in a future where nearly every superhero has been slain. Logan is a broken man, eking out life as a California farmer with his wife and two young children, with no desire to relive his X-Men gory days. But he struggles to support his family and keep up payments to his landlords — the Hulk Gang, the unhinged offspring from an incestuous liaison of Hulk and She-Hulk. So when now-blind Hawkeye shows up and offers to pay big bucks, the strapped Logan reluctantly agrees to accompany the former Avenger on a cross-country trip through hostile territory to deliver a mysterious package to the city of “New Babylon” (the former Washington, D.C.).

(Image: Marvel)

In the film, the retired Logan (Jackman) works as a chauffeur to earn money to support himself and the lone surviving mutants, a dementia-addled Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Caliban (Stephen Merchant), who helps Wolverine care for the professor. Wolverine and Xavier embark on their road trip to deliver Logan’s clone-daughter Laura (Dafne Keen) to a safe zone near the Canadian border.

The Death of Superheroes

The book is set in the aftermath of a superhero holocaust: Led by Red Skull, the entire roster of Marvel supervillains decide to team up and murder their archenemies. Wolverine, under the sway of Spider-Man’s mind-twisting rogue Mysterio, believes his fellow X-Men are bad guys invading Professor X’s school, and he winds up slashing them all to bits before he comprehends what he has done. This drives him to suicide, but due to his uncanny healing factor, he can’t kill himself. He ultimately goes off the grid and settles down, but remains haunted by his actions and vows never to use his powers again, keeping his claws sheathed for decades.

(Image: Marvel)

In Logan, Xavier refers to an “incident in Westchester” in which it’s implied that the mutant mentor, suffering from dementia, unwittingly killed his students (one of the villains notes Xavier’s brain has been classified a “weapon of mass destruction”) and triggered a backlash against the X-folk. Meanwhile, there is a black-ops team that has been hunting down the surviving mutants and harvesting their DNA for experiments.

The Villains

As Logan and Hawkeye tool across the States, we discover that the country has been carved up into different dominions by various villains, including Red Skull ruling Washington, D.C., Doctor Doom dominating a slice of the Midwest, the Kingpin lording over the Rocky Mountain states (after defeating Magneto), and the twisted Hulk family controlling California. Various other baddies pursue the duo at various points in their journey.

Logan strips away all the larger-than-life foes; instead, the trio of Wolverine, Charles, Laura find themselves chased by the mutant-hunting minions of Dr. Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant), the man attempting to create his own army of genetically modified metahuman weapons, led by the fearsome X-24, a savage clone of Wolverine (also played by Jackman).

The Delivery

In the comic, we finally learn that Hawkeye’s top-secret package contains vials of super-soldier serum, which he believes will be used to create a new team of Avengers to fight back against the oppressive regime of Red Skull and pals. But Hawkeye has been set up; he and Wolverine walk into a trap and are gunned down by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working for the government.

(Poster: 20th Century Fox)

In Logan, Wolverine manages to reunite Laura and her fellow young mutants, who escaped Price’s clutches to a redoubt near the Canadian border.

The Turning Point

In the comic, after Logan and Hawkeye are riddled with bullets, they’re body-bagged and dragged into Red Skull’s trophy room (which contains prized artifacts of other slain heroes). Logan’s healing ability kicks in, and he’s finally roused to action, decapitating Red Skull with Cap’s shield. He dons Iron Man’s armor and flies back to California, where he discovers his family had been killed by the Hulk Gang. That pushes him over the edge and he finally unleashes his claws and seeks revenge.

(Image: Marvel)

In Logan, following the murder of Xavier and an innocent family by X-24, Wolverine realizes Laura and the new mutants are being tracked by his clone self. He injects himself with a dose of Rice’s secret sauce that briefly amps up his power, and he goes full berserker to save his daughter and her friends.

The Ending

After eviscerating the younger members of the Hulk Gang, Old Man Logan goes after the big green guy, a vicious monster in this alternate universe. After an epic battle, Hulk swallows Wolverine whole, believing he has won. After a beat, Logan slashes his way out of Hulk’s stomach, kidnaps the infant Bruce Banner Jr., and literally rides off into the sunset, ready to hunt down the rest of supervillains.

The film, meanwhile, sees Logan defeat X-24 with the help of Laura. Our hero, however, has been impaled on a tree and, having effectively OD’d on the mutant juice, is unable to heal himself. He dies, leaving Laura and her friends poised to become the next group of X-Men.

Watch: Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart Break Down ‘Logan’ Spoilers:

Related stories:

Meet X-23: A Primer on Secret Weapon in ‘Logan’

Let’s Talk About That Final Scene in ‘Logan’ (Spoilers)

Four Ways Wolverine Could Return After ‘Logan’