#tom Brevoort

[salarta]

I hate Havok/Alex Summers now. Havolaris is now very clearly a completely unsalvageable relationship that always, ALWAYS has an element of sexism (usually subtle, sometimes blatant). And it all comes down to Jordan White, Tom Brevoort, Beau DeMayo, and a majority of Havok fans demonstrating why I should by how poorly they treat and view Polaris/Lorna Dane to promote him.

I’ve been a Polaris fan since 2009. Over a decade and a half. In that time, I used to say one very clear and definitive thing. I used to say that if they kept the Havolaris relationship apart for a decade, focused on Polaris and Havok as their own characters and did enough meaningful with Polaris in that time, they could come back together as a good couple.

This is what happened instead.

Jordan White forced Havok into EVERY depiction of Lorna under his control except Duggan’s run, ONLY because she won the X-Men vote. Something he found distasteful enough to try and dismiss her win as happening only because she was on Gifted. And every time Havok got forced into Lorna’s affairs, it was to frame Lorna as incompetent, weak, or incapable of having any identity outside of being his (ex-)girlfriend.

Beau DeMayo told the Genoshan genocide story without Polaris anywhere in sight, even though she was one of the core survivors in the comics. She had fucking PTSD because of it for an entire X-Men run! She had an issue, New X-Men 132, almost entirely dedicated to finding her in the rubble and her broadcasting Genosha’s final moments! But no. Not even in the fucking background. Instead, Lorna’s only appearances were two reminders of her as Havok’s girlfriend on 90s X-Factor, and a split second animation of her as a future slave.

And we have Tom Brevoort. Who among so many other things I could say, most recently had Polaris repeatedly treated like a weak damsel on the just ended X-Factor with a clear goal of fucking her over just after her great showing in Fall of the House of X all so he could force her back into relationship with Havok.

And then there’s the Havok fans. I know not all Havok fans are the same. But the ones I saw the most of, who I had the most interaction with? They ALWAYS insisted that Lorna “needs” to be in relationship with him. They ALWAYS insisted that any bad treatment of Lorna in any of this came down to Havok being treated poorly instead. That if their woobie perfect cis straight blonde white man just got a little more of the endless opportunities they keep giving him but never Polaris in her own right, it would trickle down to Lorna.

Cause we know trickle down economics works for fiction even though it doesn’t in real life economics, right?

The Havok fans I’ve seen and talked to never want Lorna to be her own fucking character with her own thoughts, feelings, experiences. Her own worth independent of Havok. They want the relationship forced onto Lorna because in truth? They’re fucking afraid that he really is a nobody ass clown and can’t hack it on his own without Polaris reduced to his ever-present manic pixie dream girlfriend. They can’t give her a single second, nevermind ten years, just being herself and building herself up toward a future benefit.

So fuck Havok.

I gave the idea of Havolaris a chance. I gave the character a chance. I gave them a decade and a half of my life to fix this shit. But they’re all just too goddamn committed to fucking Polaris over any time she gets the tiniest scrap of something good. They all love their nostalgia, with its origins of rampant sexism meant in its original time to kill the feminism she had on creation, way too much.

They have all proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Havolaris will never not be sexist self-insert fanwankery, and that Havok himself will never be anything but a fuckboy who always requires making a hot green-haired woman look more pathetic and useless than him to garner any semblance of appeal.

Which still isn’t enough to keep a book from getting canceled cause it sucks shit and the majority of people don’t want to read sexist trash. But hey. That’s apparently what Havok fans want, and what people at Marvel want cause it’s the only place they can get away with being sexist (since they can’t be sexist toward Jean, or Storm, or Emma and get away with it).

Anyone who wants to try to make me think differently, don’t bother. You’re competing against a decade and a half of direct personal experience. You’re not changing my mind with a half-assed bit of gaslighting.

[rei-ismyname]

X-MEN #17 Review

"I am Magneto and I do not give speeches."

The X-Men vs fake X-Men rodeo in the snow continues as Xorn searches for Quentin and the twin rampages on Merle. There stands Magneto, full of gumption and dexies, the only thing between a monster and a town full of ingrates. 3K yap on and reveal the identity of another member, a D-lister Mags knows well. Spoilers for all issues and solicits of adjectiveless X-Men.

RIP The Marauder, probably

Surprise! Quentin ain't dead. I don't think a single person thought he was, but a few minutes rest will be great for his health especially after falling out of the sky. I'm not sure how I feel about technobabble making its way into X-Men, as we get a flashback to Quentin writing 'code' to protect his body when he's unconscious. It's something Jitter in Uncanny does occasionally when her powers give her technical mastery - the mall fight was especially egregious for just shouting medical terms that few readers could understand, let alone The Outliers. I think it mostly achieves the intended effect here, highlighting Quentin's impressive capabilities and the 'levelling up' he's been doing since Cyclops gave him a talking to back in issue #9.

Kid Omega has been yapping about his mighty brain for decades, so I'm happy to call it payoff for all the 'supercomputer/10 million thoughts a second' stuff. As someone who coasted without effort on natural ability then hit a wall hard in high school, it's a bit of a power fantasy to see that potential as unlimited. 'Hey brain, make my body do exactly this at exactly this time' even more so.

X-Men are like communists - they spend too much time fighting each other. The 3K X-Men accusing the real ones of being fake sellouts just makes that hit harder. Honestly I'm over this fight with the amount of combatants standing still. I know it's meant to be a delaying action preventing the X-Men from backing up Magneto, but a team vs team fight lasting 3 issues is decompressed to the point of barely moving. Feels like AvX or similar stalling in an eternal second act.

I figured out what seems off about Magneto - his angles! He's usually chiselled and angular, even gaunt at times. Rounded features looks odd on him. I'm not even nitpicking there, I just needed to elucidate the nagging feeling I've had. In a word, he looks ugly. I enjoy Stegman's pencils in general but Diaz does a better Magneto. Just quietly I'm a little salty that Uncanny is getting Valerio Schiti - they do a stupid hot Magneto and I'd love to see it again. Anyway, Mags sounds like a fool here, as he makes a speech about not making speeches. I hope he's lying, because this motherfucker gives so many speeches. They're one of his best features.

Heard you the first time dude.

Another is that he's a mutant menace, a term that's been thrown around a bit lately. Mags and the twin go at it but he's not trying to kill her and it's unclear if he actually could. Either way, when they speak Mags responds with cutting regret and an implicit challenge. With Quentin still knocked out there's nobody to counteract Cassandra Nova's influence on the twin. Cassandra refers to the twin as a '13 year old girl' so add 'forcing gender binary on a non-corporeal entity' to the list of her crimes.

You used to be somebody, man

It's implied that Nova is laying it on thick here, or otherwise the twin has a really good grasp of race war concepts and rhetoric. If it's the former, I think something is lost by Cassandra Nova giving them a script to follow and basically puppeting them. Mags is trying to appeal to agency - the ability to choose, and they're actually having a back and forth.

The twin repeating Nova word for word raises questions about the degree of agency as they smash Magneto, who was just answering the question. The hope spot of his words staggering them is brief but suggests that this crisis will eventually be solved non-violently. I do have to laugh at Mags getting called out for betraying mutantkind by driving a sentinel to protect flatscans, especially as it's Cassandra Nova saying it. There's a real opportunity to show how this propaganda sits with the mutant on the street, so to speak. These X-Men are very mutant focused yet Graymalkin still stands. They have a history of being establishment lackeys and beating down/imprisoning mutants who step out of line. They failed the Morlocks and Xavier killed Krakoa. It's not that simple but propaganda is a powerful tool especially when life sucks. Cassandra Nova might be the worst spokesperson there though - Genosha was not an act of mutant solidarity.

I love Ben Liu and Beast cheerleading Magneto. Get these boys some popcorn! Ben's finger pointing is unfair but hilarious, 'hooptie-ass sentinel' is not a phrase I expected to hear in the year of our DOOM 2025. Ben running off to help Magneto is a beat that really works, especially if you take Magneto's mentoring allusion seriously. We haven't seen Ben use his powers since issue #2, so anything can happen. The flipside is any kind of success is going to feel a bit unearned, but fuck it - jab my boy with dexies too and get out of the way!

Wyre talks a huge game with not a lot to back it up. I kinda want someone to kill him for being cringe, a sentiment Cassandra Nova seems to agree with. There's a production joke here - Mackay wanted to use Sabertooth for his role but he was killed off in Sabertooth War. Creed is certainly more impressive than this dipshit and Quentin has nightmares about the guy. It's a beat that can work, giving Wyre something to prove, but we'll see how that plays out. Right now he's delivering exposition and stating his feelings plainly like it's 1975. He's not alone in that...

Me too, Astra, me too.

We get a better look at 3K, as the third member is revealed to be... Astra. *sad trombone noises* If you're not familiar she's an old Magneto worshipper and the one who created Joseph, thrice, I think. Bit of a one trick pony, though she does teleport. I can't say that she's particularly interesting or threatening, but I do like her 'clone an army of Magnetos, sorry Josephs, and flip the magnetic poles' idea purely for its unhingedness. The idea that she keeps bringing it up is pretty funny, these meetings must be so tense. Like I said, one trick pony even if it is a great trick. Her being an F lister with minimal development might actually work in her favour, as aside from being obsessed with Magneto she's a blank canvas. That she was last seen in House of X #5 suggests that 3K itself is fairly new. If that's their #1 reason for not inviting Sinister they're idiots. Like there's a very good chance he'll subvert your project for himself even if you don't invite him - MF does mutant science crimes for breakfast lunch and dinner. He blew up the universe with cloning!

More interesting is 3K's agenda - mutant supremacy taken to the extreme end point. It's very blatantly a great replacement conspiracy theory, which is a really uncomfortable idea to put to print. Turning humans into mutants has been done a lot, though the proposed scale is new. Another way to look at it is 'give everyone superpowers, kill the rest' though we don't know why they want to do that. 'Hating humans' is pretty dull but maybe more will be revealed next issue when we find out who the chairman is. I wish they'd just get it out now, this slowrolling is tedious. I'm almost positive it will be the cliffhanger next time, but like, just fucking spit it out! Let's get the plot moving, yo! We've been fighting in the snow for 70% of the run at this point, just tell us who you are and do your thing. Some C-list genetics bad guy from the 90s/00s? Thought so. It took 17 issues to reveal Astra, for fuck's sake, which doesn't exactly hype me for who's under the helmet. At that point, why bother? Just get on with the plot.

Magik's Soul Sword keeps getting wider, right?

In a lot of ways these 3K X-Men and their masters are The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with some ORCHIS scraps and a bigger budget. Extremists coming at the X-Men with accusations of failing mutants is one of the oldest X-Men tropes in existence. It can be interesting, but it needs to have something to say. I want to see a pamphlet on their beef or something, see if they've got anything fresh or if they're just another extremist mutant group. The thing is that a mutant who decided 'fuck humans. I'm done with these genocides' is a pretty reasonable position right now. Fighting the X-Men like every other group before? Not so much. Go destroy Graymalkin or something, you know? If you really want to show the X-Men how it's done, do that. Do their job better.

Ben spearheads Jen flying Piper to her mother, ideally to help convince the twin to cut it out. It's a solid plan, though there's a very high chance she gets reduced to a smear real quick. Mama Cobb is a mutant hater and is culpable for this mess, and she's terrified. We'll see how that wraps up next time, or maybe the issue after that with this fucking pacing. It's great to see Ben and Jen coming into their own, and Beast looks like he'll have to fight Wyre. The greasy weirdo has snuck into their base, and while it'd be great for Beast to fuck him up I kinda hope Glob bonks him with a frying pan or something. Why not both? Solicits have told us that agent fuckface comes to jail Scott in the wake of this second Iron Night, and something about Revelation/the artist formerly known as Doug Ramsey, I think. That sounds fun, I just wish it didn't take so long to get there. Not out of impatience, I just object to the padding and repetition plus slowrolled mysteries that don't land. Or impact the plot/characters even. That's probably not happening, so this book will remain fun but very frustrating.

Also... Why is Tom Brevoort answering all the letters for this book and Uncanny? That strikes me as really weird. Really fucking weird. Does that seem odd to anyone else? We're still seeing letters about Raid on Graymalkin and Chuck Hunt, all answered by TB. If I was writing anything and the editor was handling the forward-facing fan interaction in a book with my name on it I'd be like 'all due respect but what's the deal here? Maybe stay in your lane.' He is the 'conductor of x' but this feels like clearing the orchestra to be applauded solo. I admit I'm super biased against him but it really sticks out to me.

Thanks for reading and much love! 💓

[mikyapixie]

𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 #𝟏 𝐕𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫

[newx-menfan]

Soooo- September solicits are just all “Wolverine”, I guess…???

Tom Brevoort’s plan for the new era is “saturate it to death with Logan” 🙄😐

[fionapplespiano]

Tom Brevoort's whole "Scott and Jean having kids will age them" thing is kinda unfounded. (an analysis)

First of all, Tom Brevoort has stated that he believes that Scott and Jean are 28 years old, the same age as Peter Parker.

However, using the rule that four years our time is one year in the marvel universe, that claim simply isn't true. Scott and Jean debuted a little over 60 years ago, when they were 15-16 years old. 60 divided by 4 equals 15, so 16 + 15 means they are 31 years old as of right now.

But it should be noted that it was said that Jean was 24 years old when she died during the Dark Phoenix Saga, which was 44 years ago. 44 divided by 4 equals 11, so by that metric, Scott and Jean are 35.

So, Scott and Jean are NOT 28 years old, they're most likely somewhere between 31 and 35 years old in the current cannon.

Regardless of where you stand with their ages, one thing we can all agree on is that they are canonically older than Cannonball and Jubilee. And yet, they both have kids...

I mean, yeah, having a kid ages them a bit. But that's because they aren't in their 20s anymore? They were the first X-Men, so they're older than most of the other X-Men.

Also, they already kinda have a kid? In Cable? I mean, he wasn't born to Jean, he was born to her clone Madelyne Pryor. But she still raised him after Madelyne tried sacrificing him to demons.

But the problem is that Cable had to be raised in the future due to some techno-organic virus bullshit (I've never been a fan of the storyline), and they could only raise him until he turned 13.

Cable is 100% Scott and Jean's baby boy. But us Jott fans want them to have a baby they can raise in present day from start to finish.

I don't Rachel really counts, because I think she was around 18 years old when she came to the 616 universe. And I don't think they even remember Nate Grey...the writers certainly don't!

So, since they're already parents, are the first members of the X-Men, and X-Men that are canonically younger than them have kids themselves, how would them having another child be detrimental?

Listen, I get that we all have preferences, and not every couple needs to have a kid. But in the same breath, not every superhero needs to be a bachelor in their 20s, it's okay to let them evolve and let them get married or have kids.

If there's any X-Men couple that should have a child (that they don't have to send to the future) and be the Reed and Sue of the X-Men, it should be Jean and Scott.

Plus, Jean promised Rachel all the way back in the 90s that they would have the 616 version of her. It's rude to keep her waiting!

That's one way of saying you're gonna raw dog it tonight

So yeah, that's my rant for tonight. Scott and Jean are my favorite couple, and I know that I speak for a lot of Jott fans when I say that they should have a kid.

I think it would allow their relationship to evolve in a beautiful way ❤️❤️❤️

(p.s While we're at it, can we give Peter his marriage back? He's allowed to evolve too)

[brw]

Allowing comic book creators to access social media was a mistake. Not even because anyone has done anything, I just think fans knowing Tom Brevoort's opinions has made people absolutely unhinged over a man who is objectively not doing half the shit they say he's doing.

He is the group editor. He is not writing the comics. He is not telling the story here. He is simply facilitating the stories the writers already want to tell. He is making sure that if Laura shows up in say, Exceptional X-Men, it will not contradict anything done in NYX or in her upcoming solo series. He is simply making sure the stories told are coherent, and that the creatives on board are all meeting their deadlines. He's making sure that if an artist has to leave for whatever reason, another one is ready to take the reigns. His overall contributions to the actual narrative of From The Ashes is minor. He could be the biggest Krakoa fan in the world and the overall narrative of From The Ashes would not change because he is not writing the story, he is simply making sure all the books don't contradict each other and are able to be what their writers and artists want them to be. That man is not enemy number one, he is ultimately Some Guy whose job it is to make sure nobody puts Wolverine in X-Force when he's meant to be in Uncanny X-Men. You do not need to scour his twitter, old Tumblr and substack to glean every little detail of the man's life and opinions.

[doctorofmagic]

"Logan is straight" this "Hickman didn't cook a threesome with Scott and Jean" that

So how do you explain when Clea and Stephen invited him to a threesome? 🙄

Jokes aside, it's so obvious Marvel will never let their most popular characters be queer in order to please the ultrababies, we had this conversation over and over. If being bi/pan is already enough of a taboo, imagine when they touch the subject of polyamory.

I watched it live with Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy and it's all subtle, even though Quill is canonically both (which was STILL subtle because I've seen LOTS of comments like "this panel doesn't confirm anything" and it's literally Peter taking a bath with a f|m couple, which later became their throuple, but okay).

Anyways, at the end of the day, these are fictional characters, and while I'd love canon rep, we're talking about a very toxic industry that sells to both queer and ultraconservative readers. An industry so flawed that they're celebrating *checks notes* STRAIGHT ALLIES this year's pride month.

So hmmm, idk, headcanons are free. Have fun.

(this is about Hickman's logan/scott/jean controversy and how Brevoort denied it btw. My instance is simple: I'm old. I can pick subtle queer tones miles away. People complaining or denying it would NOT survive the experience of being baited by both Gotham and Supernatural like I was. I'VE SEEN THINGS)

[shadowwingtronix]

So I Hear The X-Men Went Psycho...

BW Media Spotlight sees Tom Brevoort discuss heroes and killing in So I Hear The X-Men Went Psycho...

I’ve never been a huge X-Men fan. Even the original Fox Kids cartoon didn’t do much for me, so the relaunch didn’t make me miss Disney+. I hope that’s not a theme this week, but I saw an article from Bounding Into Comics where Tom Brevoort, incoming editor to the X-Books took a shot at the “Krakoa era” finale and showed that he may understand superheroes whatever his current political commentary…

[rei-ismyname]

Let's talk R-LDS

R-LDS or Resurrection-Linked Degenerative Sickness was alluded to in X-Men #4 and the Infinity Comics before being named in X-Men #7. We're told that Magneto has it and it's directly caused by Krakoan resurrection/The Five, kinda.

Here's Beast doing some alluding.

In the panels above, we learn that Hank McCoy is the only one working on the problem - the problem being Magneto's loss of his powers and his body breaking down rapidly - his very chromosomes unraveling. He seems quite sure that it could happen to 'any of us' though the lack of quarantine suggests it's not contagious.

The next bit of information we receive is from Magneto and Scott in conversation, reflecting on The Iron Night. They took down a wild sentinel that was attacking the town and Mags lost control over his powers immediately after, requiring Scott to knock him out for safety's sake. Scott is no scientist, and while Magneto is a genius polymath autodidact (with plenty of experience in genetics) it's not a character trait that's seen focus lately. Thus, I'm assuming they're discussing it as amateurs and as patient zero in Magneto's case.

Magneto confidently names the condition for the first time as well as using an acronym for it, suggesting it's confirmed to exist, he's had a positive diagnosis, and they're using the term enough to require shorthand. He even spells out the subtext for us - it was a hidden flaw in Krakoan resurrection. I'll come back to that notion. Scott says 'we don't know that for sure,' implying that R-LDS is just a theory or speculation, which Mags doesn't directly refute. Instead he lays out the worst case scenario. They can't both be right here, so what's the deal? Magneto's symptoms are obviously confirmed, but how did they get from there to here?

If Magneto is the first and only person affected by his condition, why are he and Beast so sure about its providence and everyone being in danger? How could they possibly link it to Krakoan resurrection? I'm no scientist but I do know that there's only so much you can conclude from a single data point. Magneto was indeed only resurrected by the Five once, but he died again after that on Arakko (X-Men Red #7). The body he's in came out of a portal from Overspace in Adam Brashear's underwater base (Resurrection of Magneto #3.) His body suffering a condition borne of something that happened to a different body doesn't make sense. Considering he's the only person to return to life that way AND the only one allegedly with R-LDS, that would be the place to start for Beast's sciencing.

There he is, good as new.

Word of God

In a recent AIPT interview, Tom Brevoort removed any ambiguity and just straight up confirmed it. With the caveat that his recent X-history knowledge seems pretty poor, he is the de jure ultimate authority on the matter. I don't agree with that, and not just because I don't respect him as a creator. This habit of on-panel ambiguity and editorialising in interviews is vexing.

It's especially vexing when he contradicts himself. He counterpoints his own information with some of what I just pointed out, but the fact that they've made a list of who was and wasn't resurrected suggests R-LDS is a plot point they're committed to. I have to wonder why he bothered giving a detailed answer to this question if it's 'yes,' then 'maybe', then 'it will definitely be a thing you'll see as we progress.' Saying all of that and then ending with 'we know very little so far' really makes me wonder what he's thinking. Tom Brevoort could have given his usual cagey answer about not wanting to spoil anything, but he didn't here. I'm saving most of my Brevoort-specific criticism for a separate piece, but this glib and irreverent tone is typical of his commentary - even managing a light jab at Jordan D White.

Frankly, I think it's a graceless and cynical development. There are so many character beats, mistakes, and conflicts to use from the First Krakoan Age that choosing to create R-LDS feels like a shot at the core of hopefulness and creativity that blew our socks off in 2019.

HoxPoX

House of X/Powers of X was hopeful and magical. After a decade plus of endless misery and genocides, dull stories and bizarre characterisation, for once mutants got a W. The ability to use mutants working together to right the horrendous wrongs they'd suffered was central to that - the power of community and cooperation. What they built wasn't perfect but The Five was something they got right.

What would possess someone to take the cornerstone of the greatest X-Men story of all time (don't @ me) and try to tear it down? Remember, when the dust settled we ended up in Moira X life 10E. In 10A, the original Krakoan experiment, the mutants won! They thrived and protected what was theirs against Dominions. It took a literal apex AI God existing outside of space and time directly opposing them to fail. Enigma, on the back foot, sent Omega Sentinel through time to start ORCHIS years early and ensure Krakoa's collapse. Am I to believe 'no, sorry. That was a dead end?'

Haven't we been here before?

We've had mutants suffer from the Legacy Virus and M-Pox already, and I might even be missing other examples of nebulous diseases that threatened to wipe out all mutants. Obviously it's the prerogative of the X-Office to use whatever plot points they want, but do we really have to do this again? There are plenty of ways to sideline Magneto as a combatant that don't require repackaging old storylines. We've even had Hank McCoy decades behind the curve desperately trying to catch up before - in All-New All-Different X-Men.

Small World

Defenders-era Hank McCoy might be the worst possible 616 scientist to tackle this problem. He's literally decades behind the science curve and doesn't have the experience in dealing with anything like this. He's not the same guy that worked on M-Pox or the Legacy Virus. He never set foot on Krakoa and has never met any of the Five. We don't know how much data was recorded or kept from The Five but Beast may not have access to it.

Why isn't he talking to Cecilia Reyes, Forge, Jean Grey, Reed Richards, Doctor Strange, Adam Brashear, Healer, Doctor Nemesis? Even doctor dickhead that extorted Storm has the ability to instantly diagnose anyone. It makes the world feel tiny, and when you're following an era of interconnectedness that's just so disappointing. Portraying him as supremely concerned about 'all of us being ticking time bombs' rings hollow if he's working on it solo. Hank McCoy has always had a sense of arrogance where his scientific ability is concerned but not to this degree. Look at the guy! He's hating the stress he's under.

Sins of Sinister and the White Hot Room

I have to wonder if the implications of linking Magneto's illness to The Five's resurrection have been fully considered. The Sins of Sinister timeline ran for a millennium with the Five resurrecting on an industrial scale. Rasputin IV would have noticed, or the Quiet Council. The mutants left behind in the White Hot Room in RotPox spent 15 years bringing back ALL the dead mutants. That's 16 million, minimum. 15 years is less than a thousand but it's still longer than the First Krakoan Age, several times over. Nobody noticed anything? Elixir, member of the Five and Omega biokinetic, with his unlimited mastery of DNA didn't notice anything? Destiny didn't see mutants falling apart? Sounds dubious as hell to me.

Towards the end of the era many humans were resurrected too. 5% of the Five's work was set aside for bringing back poor children etc through the Phoenix Foundation. Steve Rogers was resurrected into his current body on Judgement Day. I am extremely skeptical that this has been considered, and in Steve's case whether the X-Office can even use him.

Conclusion

Magneto's physical degradation has been swift. Here he is in Uncanny X-Men #700, implied to be at most 6 months before X-Men #1. I think I've demonstrated that the concept is nonsensical and to reiterate, I think it's a terrible narrative choice. If I'm being generous, it'll be interesting to see if they can explain R-LDS in a way that makes sense - if they can do something new and interesting with a tired concept. There's only been one issue since it was introduced, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun on breaking it down. Let's check back in 6 months.

What do you think of R-LDS? Do you think my reasoning is sound? As always, I'd love to hear what other fans think.

[tomfoolerytotality]

Spider-Man rant post. This pisses me off so much

This is from an interview with Tom Brevoort, senior editor at Marvel, dismissing the ongoing fan backlash to the current state of Amazing Spider-Man.

I mean you can say you don't care what fans think, you're gonna write your slop regardless. But don't fucking LIE to us.

"Plenty of things have happened to Peter Parker and Spider-Man over the last 17 years and most all of them mattered"

NO THE FUCK DIDN'T. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? NOTHING IN THE LAST TWO DECADES HAS HAD ANY LASTING IMPACT OR LONG TERM IMPORTANCE. WHY? BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO SCARED TO MAKE ANY PROGRESS, YOU CAN'T LET PETER GROW AS A CHARACTER.

Every time he takes one step forward, Marvel editorial, like yourself Tom, arbitrarily forces him to take two steps back. Peter is the head of a successful business, fuck you not anymore. Peter finds a career he's passionate about as a teacher, and he's fired. Peter slowly and realistically rebuilds his relationship with MJ? THROW THEM IN A FUCKING PORTAL TO AN ALTERNATE DIMENSION AND BREAK THEM UP AGAIN. Even the things that SHOULD result in major changes to Peter's life are reversed and never talked about again. He fucking DIED and had his body taken over by one of his greatest enemies, his entire life was stolen from him and upended. And as soon as it was over, Peter just moved the fuck on like nothing happened. Back to the status quo, I guess. So no, nothing you've written has mattered because you're too scared to LET IT MATTER.

I mean when are you going to learn. You mention Ultimate Spider-Man in this same quote. THE FLAGSHIP COMIC FOR YOUR ENTIRE COMPANY IS BEING OUTSOLD BY A SPIN OFF FOUR TO ONE. WHEN IS IT GOING TO BE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO REALIZE HOW BADLY YOU KEEP FUCKING THIS UP?

I mean really, he said it himself:

"...he has a black costume, and then he doesn't, and sometimes he's a school teacher and then he isn't, and sometimes he's married and then he isn't..."

What reason do I, as a reader, have to CARE about any of your work if it is always going to end with "and then he isn't?" Why should I read Superior Spider-Man if none of it ended up mattering in the end? What impact does Spider-Verse have other than hyper moments if it's not going to matter once it's over? Why should I keep reading at all? Well...according to your own words, Tom, I shouldn't. And I think more and more fans are realizing that, and that's why this once beloved comic is failing.

[rzc11]

Thank you, Chad. Jean Grey gets to us, too :) in a good way.

[downthetubes]

A new book, Jack of All Comics, offering insights into the life and work of Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby is on the way from US publisher Becky Books

[newx-menfan]

I’ll believe the Hellion rumors when I see it lol

[samasmith23]

Massive kudos to Matt Fraction & Tom Brevoort for retconning John Byrne’s creepy weirdo crap with Reed Richards & Susan Storm!

[brw]

Tom Brevoort is the kindest, most patient man alive because I would have started killing some of you people by now.

[tomoleary]

Jim Starlin Avengers #135 (1975) Source (Man With A Hat - Tom Brevoort)

Altered cover (changes by John Romita Sr)