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Dr Kool-AIDS
Mar 26, 2004

BrianWilly posted:

When the great concept behind your relaunch just so happens to be "Every X-Man suddenly buys into a literal master race rhetoric and moves to a segregationist island," you bet your rear end that I one hundred percent absolutely can and will hold a creator to respecting continuity and making sure this lofty premise actually makes sense with the characters that it drags into the fold.

But okay, sure, let's ignore Jubilee for now 'cuz apparently her being mother to a human child is so lame or whatever. Jean Grey is also acting out of character, but we're gonna chalk that up to something to be explained down the line I guess. When down the line? Who knows, but okay. Then we move on to Storm, who I also have a hard time believing would just give up on all of humanity in lieu of Xavier's newfound superiority complex...but I guess let's just ignore her former characterization as well because it's also not convenient to the "great relaunch." Who's next? Havok and Rogue, both of whom served in Steve Rogers' Unity Squad out of a genuine belief that humans and mutants can work together? The countless characters like Kitty Pryde, Cannonball, Husk, Goldballs, Iceman, and Psylocke who still have human family? What about a mutant like Sunfire or Gentle, who already has an allegiance to another country? What's the general number of characters whose histories we shouldn't pay too much attention to because it puts too many holes in this plot? Is there a certain set amount of time that we should ignore their characterizations for before we're allowed to be put off by it, or is it just a general indeterminately-indefinite amount of time?

It just feels like there's one rationale after another ready to go for every sort of issue that keeps popping up in this series because we simply can't acknowledge that there may actually be any legitimate, genuine mistakes in this writing. "You can't blame Hickman for not focusing on stuff, certain writers have certain strengths!" Well not being good at something isn't an excuse to omit it from your story. "But a story doesn't need this!" Ah yes it does actually. "Well then in that case this isn't a story, it's just setup." ...Setup also needs to be believable, no different from the actual story. "Well who cares about Jubilee!" ummmm

I'm not trying to be a douche, but I'm just real wary about that sort of thing because it feels a lot like -- just for instance -- the same sort of reaction people had to any criticism about Tom King where like, that guy had some pretty legit flaws in his writing, but people kept brushing them off because he was so good at other specific aspects of the story and is so funny on twitter and stuff. But then it turns out, lo and behold, that there really was some seriously flaws in his writing, and it somehow comes as a shock that there would be, except that there were readers who had been having problems with it right from the getgo.

First, congratulations for disliking Tom King before it was cool/while he was still writing incredible comics.

People mostly aren't just saying Hickman is infallible so it must all come together. People are mostly saying they're enjoying the hell out of these comics despite the flaws, perceived or otherwise. Maybe some of the characters were persuaded out of their misgivings after finding out the entire thing is a last desperate attempt to stave off genocide, maybe Xavier's loving with everyone's minds as he attempts to stave off that genocide, or maybe there's something even worse going on and he's being manipulated in some way too. Or maybe Hickman's so caught up in the big picture, and trying to radically transform the status quo in 12 issues, that he's leaving characterization behind to be cleaned up/explained away later--we just don't know yet. Either way, as a limited series I think this has been amazing, and I'm willing to forgive an awful lot for the sheer number of wtf moments we've seen. If everyone was able to move beyond Iron Man and Reed Richards running a concentration camp in the negative zone, we'll probably be able to move on from some mutants being a bit too excited about their suspicious looking mutant paradise where they're all gifted with immortality.

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DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company
I find it sort of mind-boggling that anyone can look at HoX/PoX, a pair of miniseries explicitly aimed at setting up a Big Picture, and say "but where is the focus on the individual characters" as though the fact that there are like a dozen books that will be spinning out of this that will undoubtedly be directly focused on individual characters is all just, I don't know, unfounded rumor or something. Like, I get wanting to see those details, those individual responses, but you're not gonna find them in the book that's explicitly meant to set up the big new status quo, because if you did it would take 400 issues instead of 12. It's not rocket science.

It's okay to just say "Honestly, Hickman's approach isn't doing it for me" but the dude works the way he works. If past experience is any guide it's not as though we're not going to get some of those answers. But let the overture finish before you start demanding the third act solo, is what I'm saying.

Billzasilver
Nov 8, 2016

I lift my drink and sing a song

for who knows if life is short or long?


Man's life is like the morning dew

past days many, future days few

Sinteres posted:

First, congratulations for disliking Tom King before it was cool/while he was still writing incredible comics.

People mostly aren't just saying Hickman is infallible so it must all come together. People are mostly saying they're enjoying the hell out of these comics despite the flaws, perceived or otherwise. Maybe some of the characters were persuaded out of their misgivings after finding out the entire thing is a last desperate attempt to stave off genocide, maybe Xavier's loving with everyone's minds as he attempts to stave off that genocide, or maybe there's something even worse going on and he's being manipulated in some way too. Or maybe Hickman's so caught up in the big picture, and trying to radically transform the status quo in 12 issues, that he's leaving characterization behind to be cleaned up/explained away later--we just don't know yet. Either way, as a limited series I think this has been amazing, and I'm willing to forgive an awful lot for the sheer number of wtf moments we've seen. If everyone was able to move beyond Iron Man and Reed Richards running a concentration camp in the negative zone, we'll probably be able to move on from some mutants being a bit too excited about their suspicious looking mutant paradise where they're all gifted with immortality.

Xavier promised everyone a gigantic mutant orgy, and in HoX #6 he finally delivered.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Sinteres posted:

People mostly aren't just saying Hickman is infallible so it must all come together. People are mostly saying they're enjoying the hell out of these comics despite the flaws, perceived or otherwise. Maybe some of the characters were persuaded out of their misgivings after finding out the entire thing is a last desperate attempt to stave off genocide, maybe Xavier's loving with everyone's minds as he attempts to stave off that genocide, or maybe there's something even worse going on and he's being manipulated in some way too. Or maybe Hickman's so caught up in the big picture, and trying to radically transform the status quo in 12 issues, that he's leaving characterization behind to be cleaned up/explained away later--we just don't know yet. Either way, as a limited series I think this has been amazing, and I'm willing to forgive an awful lot for the sheer number of wtf moments we've seen. If everyone was able to move beyond Iron Man and Reed Richards running a concentration camp in the negative zone, we'll probably be able to move on from some mutants being a bit too excited about their suspicious looking mutant paradise where they're all gifted with immortality.

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

It's okay to just say "Honestly, Hickman's approach isn't doing it for me" but the dude works the way he works. If past experience is any guide it's not as though we're not going to get some of those answers. But let the overture finish before you start demanding the third act solo, is what I'm saying.

Not all comic books are for all audiences. There are dozens of ways to write a comic, and every one is just as valid.

Sometimes you have to take a backseat while the appeal to a different audience is running. That's just how the comic industry goes. My personal checklist starts with "Kitty Pryde can gently caress off forever" so the last 2 years or so weren't for me.

Acting like your checklist of needs/wants is the only right one is being a douche.



Now beyond that point, the obvious sinister air hanging over everything that happens in the Krakoa timeline is basically slapping us in the face with "things aren't right here". Maybe it's not yet the time to say Jean Loring took a walk on Xavier's brain.

Parallax
Jan 14, 2006

I feel like it’s a valid criticism because it’s just bad storytelling. What’s the point of a bunch of wtf moments if all the characters feel shallow and interchangeable? And yes, this is set-up, but for what? Hickman doesn’t have to explore every single character’s feelings about this new status quo, but it’s lacked the foreshadowing that would at least give the notion of where things are going. The Namor scene is example where Hickman does this well, we see how Namor sees this situation and it foreshadow’s that Xavier’s actions may not be entirely what they seem

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
I guess my complaint would be "I thought I was buying a storybook, but I was actually paying Marvel for a brochure of their products for the next year."

Dr Kool-AIDS
Mar 26, 2004

Parallax posted:

I feel like it’s a valid criticism because it’s just bad storytelling. What’s the point of a bunch of wtf moments if all the characters feel shallow and interchangeable? And yes, this is set-up, but for what? Hickman doesn’t have to explore every single character’s feelings about this new status quo, but it’s lacked the foreshadowing that would at least give the notion of where things are going. The Namor scene is example where Hickman does this well, we see how Namor sees this situation and it foreshadow’s that Xavier’s actions may not be entirely what they seem

I feel like there's been a ton of foreshadowing, and the only question is how/if it's going to pay off in a satisfying way.

BrianWilly
Apr 24, 2007

There is no homosexual terrorist Johnny Silverhand
I personally wouldn't go as far as "this is just a promo for future books," but my general point remains: how many characters acting out-of-character does it take before we get to call it bad writing? How long do we have to wait for some great reveal that makes everything make sense again before it's considered bad writing?

My very first impression of Hickman, from reading his mainline Avengers book way back when, was that he writes some very awesome sci-fi concepts, but that he's not good at all at the humanistic focal point. And this wasn't ever something he really ended up "fixing" in that book, and there did not end up being some great master plan as to why his characters never seemed to act like real human beings; it was simply the way he wrote that book and that's all there was to it. It was just stilted writing. There was nothing more than that.

So I just, again, I get real wary at the idea that surely this is all part of some greater reveal and that there must be some profound explanation for all this that will put everything in a different light. Oh, I'm sure there's gonna be lots of surprises and twists and turns and master plans in all this, but I don't like using that to rationalize all the stuff that I just plain don't like about how this story is told.

How Wonderful!
Jul 18, 2006


I only have excellent ideas

BrianWilly posted:

I personally wouldn't go as far as "this is just a promo for future books," but my general point remains: how many characters acting out-of-character does it take before we get to call it bad writing? How long do we have to wait for some great reveal that makes everything make sense again before it's considered bad writing?

My very first impression of Hickman, from reading his mainline Avengers book way back when, was that he writes some very awesome sci-fi concepts, but that he's not good at all at the humanistic focal point. And this wasn't ever something he really ended up "fixing" in that book, and there did not end up being some great master plan as to why his characters never seemed to act like real human beings; it was simply the way he wrote that book and that's all there was to it. It was just stilted writing. There was nothing more than that.

So I just, again, I get real wary at the idea that surely this is all part of some greater reveal and that there must be some profound explanation for all this that will put everything in a different light. Oh, I'm sure there's gonna be lots of surprises and twists and turns and master plans in all this, but I don't like using that to rationalize all the stuff that I just plain don't like about how this story is told.

I agree with this and the substance of your previous post-- I remember a lot of this same rhetoric around his Avengers runs, in which the ominous and troubling ethical situations the characters were put in, and the distant, arid way in which they were often written, was waved off as just setting up the pay-off. But like-- I didn't like the pay-off either. I didn't like the world ending in nastiness and acrimony as a cabal of stiff-lipped dude kings curated their arc. I liked a lot of the mini-series and stuff that came out of it, but the run as a whole wound up leaving precisely the same sour taste in my mouth at the end as it did in the beginning.

The fact is, and I don't want to cast aspersions on Hickman personally who I'm sure is very likely to be a wonderful guy, that I just don't like or agree with a lot of the fundamental moral principles that a lot of his stories emerge from, and I don't think they're an exciting or healthy way to take this medium. It's not just a clumsiness or lack of interest in adding in humanizing moments to his stories-- it's a blase disinterest in the overwhelming majority of humanity, period, in favor of telling ponderous fables about sad men making big decisions. Maybe he's exceptionally good at the kind of story-telling he likes to do-- I presume so, since people seem to love it. I just don't think it does much for me.

I think a large part of it goes back to the big flaw in the mutant narrative in general-- that these are ostensibly stories about a marginalized population finding community and strength in each other, and, in the past decade or two, stories about that population coalescing as a political demographic. I love the elevator pitch of this series-- "ok, mutants have had enough and are making their own paradise-- what does it look like? what are its laws? what is its culture?"-- but I think the answers bore me because they are, precisely, answers furnished by the same kind of writer that has been furnishing them for decades: a straight white guy locked into believing that the horizon of the future is essentially, still, people that look like him except with cooler clothes and maybe super powers.

My favorite three X-Men adjacent runs of all time would be
-Morrison, who if nothing else has a long (albeit imperfect) history of being conversant with queer theory and culture, and well-attuned to the queerness of the superhero genre
-Claremont, who is basically the Foucault of comic books and whose extravagant kinkiness has long been a running gag in online fandom
-Leah Thompson's X-Tremists, which is more honest and blistering about sexuality than any comic by a guy I've ever read

What's Hickman bringing to the table? I think these questions about what individual mutants think, how they reconcile their new lives with things they've left behind, etc., aren't just epiphenomenal because like, if we're supposed to take this narrative about Krakoa seriously, well, these are the people who live there, the people that make that society up. Society isn't a set of laws or a decision made by political leaders, it's the gestalt consensus and lived experience of the people that live in the midst of those laws. That's where the story is and I think we just aren't getting that.

To wit: I don't buy the orgy jokes re: this last issue, because, well, why am I to believe that these characters are all going to bust into an orgy? I've seen them stolidly deliberate for pages at a time, conspire, make stern faces, and then this brief threadbare scrap of "socializing." The art sells a sense of cameraderie and intimacy and excitement, but Hickman isn't pulling his weight-- these characters still feel sexless and anomistic, like they're all hovering in orbit around each other. There's nothing there to make me give a poo poo about the macro level. I'm all in with the idea that mutant culture shouldn't adhere to the sexual and cultural mores of anywhere else-- give me polyamorous, pansexual Cyclops, give me, a la Claremont, characters just wandering around in bonding gear, let's unpack what gender presentation means in a society with a decent population of shape-shifters, lets for sure dig into all that, but like, in this comic, by this author, I barely even buy that any of these clowns are friends.

Abroham Lincoln
Sep 19, 2011

Note to self: This one's the good one



It's a bit odd, because I know in all the individual books spinning out of it, there's no way they can dodge the characters talking about the weird Krakoa beer 'n boning cult. But as far as what Hickman's doing now in HoX/PoX I also don't get the impression that there really is any singular connective tissue of reasoning for why everyone's going along with it, either.

A big reveal and lots of mystery dolled out piecemeal about Xavier, Moira, the nature of Krakoa, etc.? Definitely. But the impression I get for "why is everyone cool with this who probably wouldn't be" is just "because the story says so."

Billzasilver
Nov 8, 2016

I lift my drink and sing a song

for who knows if life is short or long?


Man's life is like the morning dew

past days many, future days few

I just don’t see the same lack of characterization that you all do. Just look at Xavier being a smug piece of poo poo rear end in a top hat smiling like he’s the devil.






I would say that a small number of characters have been uh, characterized very very well. Mostly magneto, and a few good pages of Emma and Sinister.

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
Yeah, there are a couple of characters who get to have personality, but everybody else is just kind of being buffeted along by the important people, and it's gotten to the point where it no longer feels like the world is real.

Billzasilver
Nov 8, 2016

I lift my drink and sing a song

for who knows if life is short or long?


Man's life is like the morning dew

past days many, future days few

Well that’s a lot more fair and I accept it. I guess I just automatically expect that from all team books.

Kingtheninja
Jul 29, 2004

"You're the best looking guy here."
Real missed opportunity not putting eagle plaza forge in short shorts.

Fritzler
Sep 5, 2007


Parallax posted:

she was a fighter, but she was always the loner of the group in New Mutants. maybe that's changed but Dani seems the more obvious choice for general out of that group
I took the Captain role as a combat only type role, and Magik has been on the big fight teams for quite a while, like Gillen's Exctinction team. She is also a ruler of a dimension, and constantly had to keep those demons in line, through more combat. Finally all the captains bring something different. Gorgon brings what X-Force had been doing, Bishop has the cop experience, Cyclops has all the traditional marvel super hero fights down. If there's a magical threat, Magik will be the number one person responding to it.

Fritzler fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Oct 3, 2019

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Rand Brittain posted:

Yeah, there are a couple of characters who get to have personality, but everybody else is just kind of being buffeted along by the important people, and it's gotten to the point where it no longer feels like the world is real.

This is the case with the beginning of every Xmen comic though. Even Claremont, he just got to everyone eventually.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


I think we’re like one Moira section from tying this whole thing together (in relation to why everyone so on board). Charles used her to get Erik to go along but I doubt he did this with everyone. That said this has been very much a Charles and Moira story and she’s been uncharacteristically missing these past few issues.

Not to mention there’s that yet to be revealed 6th life. She’s obviously the catalyst for this new direction. I have no doubt she’s playing a bigger part than simply getting Charles to start this.

wielder
Feb 16, 2008

"You had best not do that, Avatar!"
I can agree with the premise that Hickman is best at crafting a "big picture" sci-fi structure, but it's not like he is incapable of good characterization either. He has given us some great moments and lines of dialogue in each issue. Nonetheless, the man is only human, plus he doesn't have an infinite number of pages nor an infinite amount of time to give to such an insanely large cast of mutants. This is just the opening salvo of his X-Men run. He'll be on these books for a few years (a minimum of three, from what an interview suggested, but probably a couple more in practice) and other writers will contribute to filling in some of the gaps during Dawn of X.

I think each type of story has its own purpose and House of X/Powers of X is not an exception. The point of Hickman's Avengers run was that everything could go wrong in the face of a universe-ending threat...and it did. Tony, Steve and almost everyone else made a bunch of terrible mistakes. That all led to pure chaos and the new Secret Wars. Conversely, his Fantastic Four run had a (comparatively) far more optimistic tone, by the end, so it's not like everything Hickman writes will lead to as bleak or depressing of an outcome as his Avengers run.

So far, we're still in the honeymoon phase of this whole Xavier/Magneto/Moira effort. Things are going great and these wins for the mutants all seem to be a little too perfect. You could even consider it to be an intentionally creepy honeymoon, given some of the hints and foreshadowing, since it's inevitable that the Krakoa plan isn't going to keep going smoothly forever.

wielder fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 3, 2019

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
I think "intentionally creepy" is the part that makes it hard for me to get invested, because what's going on is so divorced from really that I don't even know what I'm supposed to think about it, much less what I actually do.

wielder
Feb 16, 2008

"You had best not do that, Avatar!"

Rand Brittain posted:

I think "intentionally creepy" is the part that makes it hard for me to get invested, because what's going on is so divorced from really that I don't even know what I'm supposed to think about it, much less what I actually do.

I can't really pretend to lecture anyone about how to enjoy a work of fiction, nor do I know what's going to be the ultimate fallout from all of this, but in my personal experience...I think it's nice to see the mutants finally getting a big break. That alone has value as part of a story, even if it won't escape from both internal and external sources of conflict.

Dr Kool-AIDS
Mar 26, 2004

Honestly we're only six days away from the end of the miniseries, and while that won't be the end of the bigger run that this has all been establishing, we'll all be in a better place to evaluate this thing when we have the last piece of the puzzle for this part of it at least.

Fritzler
Sep 5, 2007


Sinteres posted:

Honestly we're only six days away from the end of the miniseries, and while that won't be the end of the bigger run that this has all been establishing, we'll all be in a better place to evaluate this thing when we have the last piece of the puzzle for this part of it at least.
Maybe, but I also see it as a set up for future story lines and I think I will heavily judge it on the quality of the stories/concept afterwards.

Barry Convex
Sep 1, 2005

Think of the good things, Pim! The good things!

Like Jesus, candy, and crackerjacks! Ice cream and cake and lots o'laffs!
Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Joe! Larry, Curly, and brother Moe!

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I think we’re like one Moira section from tying this whole thing together (in relation to why everyone so on board). Charles used her to get Erik to go along but I doubt he did this with everyone. That said this has been very much a Charles and Moira story and she’s been uncharacteristically missing these past few issues.

Not to mention there’s that yet to be revealed 6th life. She’s obviously the catalyst for this new direction. I have no doubt she’s playing a bigger part than simply getting Charles to start this.

Up until the first few pages of this issue, I don’t think we’ve seen anything of Moira X past the nebulous “Year 0” period, so odds are there’s a reveal coming next issue.

But yeah, this series demands a lot of suspension of disbelief in terms of “would all of these characters really go along with this plan,” and I don’t expect the final issue to really resolve that.

Happy Noodle Boy
Jul 3, 2002


I mean if we’re talking about long setups and reveals

Avengers/New Avengers began in December 2012 (New Avengers Jan 2013). So let’s say Jan 2013 for the introduction of Incursions. It took around 2 years to reveal the two main players of that event (the beyonders, Jan 2015 and Doom, March 2015). The actual why this was all happening was saved for the very last issue of New Avengers in April 2015.

This story rolled through two line wide events (Infinity, also a Hickman event) and Original Sin and ultimately consumed every single Marvel book as everything died and Secret Wars / the 8th multiverse began.

Not Marvel, but East of West has tons of “here’s a line or moment that’ll take years to pay off”. It’s just how he plots and sets up stories.

I guess what I’m getting at is that there’s a good chance that the answer to the whole Moira 6 and why this started the way it’s starting with everyone immediately on board may take years to get here.

Billzasilver
Nov 8, 2016

I lift my drink and sing a song

for who knows if life is short or long?


Man's life is like the morning dew

past days many, future days few

Do all the of new #1 x-books drop the week after PoX #6? Or if not, which books drop first?

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Billzasilver posted:

Do all the of new #1 x-books drop the week after PoX #6? Or if not, which books drop first?

I don't know the exact dates, but X-Men, Excalibur and Marauders all drop in October, Fallen Angels, X-Force and New Mutants all drop in November, so my guess is one a week and we'll get the second issue of the early releases the same week as the first issue of the late ones.

nemesis_hub
Nov 27, 2006

Rand Brittain posted:

I don't even know what I'm supposed to think about it, much less what I actually do.

But that’s precisely what’s so good about it! Hickman is resisting the urge to neatly signpost how we’re “supposed” to feel because that’s the only way to be true to the story he’s telling. In reality, liberation is messy and the foundation of new political orders is always ambiguous. Sometimes, liberation itself creates new forms of oppression which then have to be overcome in the future...but this doesn’t invalidate that the initial liberation in some sense, was still justified, that it “had to happen”. I mean, the birth of the modern world, democracy, rights, etc was a tremendously violent process but also a “liberating” one. Why should the mutant revolution be any less contradictory and hard to wrap our heads around?

Sure, you could say, this is way too heavy for a freakin xmen comic, but imo, why the hell not? Isn’t watching Hickman try this crazy poo poo (even if he fucks it up down the road) a thousand times better than the years and years of mediocrity?

Metalshark
Feb 4, 2013

The seagull is essential.
Synch and Skin are back. Hell yeah.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

nemesis_hub posted:

But that’s precisely what’s so good about it! Hickman is resisting the urge to neatly signpost how we’re “supposed” to feel because that’s the only way to be true to the story he’s telling. In reality, liberation is messy and the foundation of new political orders is always ambiguous. Sometimes, liberation itself creates new forms of oppression which then have to be overcome in the future...but this doesn’t invalidate that the initial liberation in some sense, was still justified, that it “had to happen”. I mean, the birth of the modern world, democracy, rights, etc was a tremendously violent process but also a “liberating” one. Why should the mutant revolution be any less contradictory and hard to wrap our heads around?

Sure, you could say, this is way too heavy for a freakin xmen comic, but imo, why the hell not? Isn’t watching Hickman try this crazy poo poo (even if he fucks it up down the road) a thousand times better than the years and years of mediocrity?

I like it a lot, but I also want to say that my feeling on this is like...okay, this is a comic book that's trying to tell a smart, difficult, thematically complex story. I really appreciate that - but it also means I'm gonna hold it to a higher critical standard than I would a comic book that's consciously trying to be popcorn.

Stuff like Xavier saying Krakoa won't tolerate prisons while putting Sabretooth in prison - under normal circumstances I'd just be like, "that's silly, but comics are silly so alright". In House/Powers though, where much is made of complex schemes unfolding over multiple timelines and there's a political subtext that draws from some pretty serious wells, I want to look at that moment more critically and try to wriggle out if it's an uncharacteristic mistake, or if Xavier is really that much of a hypocrite. Same deal with Jean, Kurt and Ororo being cool with eternal solitary confinement or a trial where the law is being made up on the fly.

Metalshark
Feb 4, 2013

The seagull is essential.
I just went back to check that I caught all the Academy X kids at the party, and noticed Mister Sinister creeping in the background of the Exodus + the Mutant kids panel. :ohdear:

Adept Nightingale
Feb 7, 2005


Android Blues posted:

I like it a lot, but I also want to say that my feeling on this is like...okay, this is a comic book that's trying to tell a smart, difficult, thematically complex story. I really appreciate that - but it also means I'm gonna hold it to a higher critical standard than I would a comic book that's consciously trying to be popcorn.

Stuff like Xavier saying Krakoa won't tolerate prisons while putting Sabretooth in prison - under normal circumstances I'd just be like, "that's silly, but comics are silly so alright". In House/Powers though, where much is made of complex schemes unfolding over multiple timelines and there's a political subtext that draws from some pretty serious wells, I want to look at that moment more critically and try to wriggle out if it's an uncharacteristic mistake, or if Xavier is really that much of a hypocrite. Same deal with Jean, Kurt and Ororo being cool with eternal solitary confinement or a trial where the law is being made up on the fly.

Feel like Jean, Kurt and Ororo were probably not down with the contextually-seem-to-have-been unnecessary murders going in, and can probably be forgiven for not really going to bat for Sabretooth of all people.

The ETERNAL STASIS thing is, yeah, uncomfortable and hypocritical, but I don't think that's a knock against the narrative so much as a knock against Xavier.

BrianWilly
Apr 24, 2007

There is no homosexual terrorist Johnny Silverhand
A couple people have insisted that Hickman has in fact been doing a lot of good character work here, and you're right. The thing is, though, is that he's been focusing on characters like Xavier, Magneto, Emma, Apocalypse, and of course Moira...and even Cyclops...these characters who have been far more radicalized, who've been hardened, who've been arguing that the ends totally justify the means, who love to keep their big mysteries and behind-the-scenes shadowy conspiracies. In other words, the only characters he seems interested in giving a limelight to are the ones who just so very conveniently aren't going to have huge problems with the master race radicalism that this new Krakoan society has been spouting.

What's been conspicuously missing are any voices from any characters who would absolutely dissent against this. I mean, those characters are there -- being background fodder usually -- but the story seems completely uninterested in anything they might have to say. We've heard more direct opinions from chimeric clones in a far-flung future than we've heard from ordinary characters that the actual current story is affecting. Hell, I think the island itself, Krakoa, has expressed more complex emotions about all this than the X-Men and mutants whose lives are being so diametrically altered by Xavier's actions.

And then when Hickman does devote panel time to characters who might realistically have issues with all of this, they're instead towing the company line so hard, in ways that so contradict their established personalities, that we have to assume they're being brainwashed somehow. How, exactly? Tune in next time to find out maybe!

That's what I meant when I said Hickman seems stubbornly uninterested in how individual characters would engage with this new status quo; it's not that he's not writing characters at all, it's that he's only writing characters that very helpfully only have good things to say about this story. And like Android Blues just said, this is an incredibly complicated new status quo that deserves to be scrutinized from all sides, and the less that that happens, the less engaged I am by this status quo.

And, again, Hickman has pulled this sort of thing before. His Avengers run was rife with situations where, like, a certain character should absolutely be reacting a certain way, or they should be saying something or doing something in a way that makes sense for them...but then they don't, and they never do, and then we move on and never speak of it again. There were situations that should be all rights be solvable within the logic of this world and the characters existing in it, but Hickman didn't want it to be solvable so we just move on and are supposed to stop thinking about it so much. That actually encapsulates much of Hickman's general modus operandi: if it's not literally happening right now on the page that we're reading, then we're not supposed to think it matters. Move on. It'll make sense later. Or it won't. Either way we're not dealing with it any more.

And I can see how that approach might be useful in laser-focused-forging some of the stories that he does, but I also think it can make for shoddy worldbuilding when taken to the extremes that it often is.

Open Marriage Night
Sep 18, 2009

"Do you want to talk to a spider, Peter?"


Xavier just thinks the best place for Sabertooth is in his basement. He did it in the early nineties, and nothing bad happened.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

Adept Nightingale posted:

Feel like Jean, Kurt and Ororo were probably not down with the contextually-seem-to-have-been unnecessary murders going in, and can probably be forgiven for not really going to bat for Sabretooth of all people.

The ETERNAL STASIS thing is, yeah, uncomfortable and hypocritical, but I don't think that's a knock against the narrative so much as a knock against Xavier.

I get the former thing, and Sabretooth is absolutely very evil, but I still feel like these (generally heroic) characters should display at least a moment's compunction about running a kangaroo court and/or handing down prison sentences without fixed term. Instead it feels very brushed aside - they all agree instantly.

Billzasilver
Nov 8, 2016

I lift my drink and sing a song

for who knows if life is short or long?


Man's life is like the morning dew

past days many, future days few

Well, the giant fireworks orgy is happening right outside their door.

Android Blues
Nov 22, 2008

And the: "well, he's super evil, so it's okay" thing doesn't really figure up for Jean/Ororo/Kurt's motivation when they're sitting across the table from Shaw, Apocalypse, and Sinister, two of whom are probably worse than Sabretooth.

Blockhouse
Sep 7, 2014

You Win!
At this point I would be so tired of the Sentinels and the Purifiers and the government stooges and the internment camps and the everything else that I would basically do anything for some stability

Live on a big island monster with Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister where we all get cloned into big balls and have weird mutant orgies? Sure man, whatever, gently caress it, as long as I don't have killer robots trying to laser my face off because I have the ability to talk to fungus.

Codependent Poster
Oct 20, 2003

Metalshark posted:

Synch and Skin are back. Hell yeah.

now Jubilee will have the chance to have sex with Skin and won't be saying that while standing over his grave!

Metalshark
Feb 4, 2013

The seagull is essential.

Codependent Poster posted:

now Jubilee will have the chance to have sex with Skin and won't be saying that while standing over his grave!

...You motherfucker.

(I hate how much that made me laugh.)

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Adept Nightingale
Feb 7, 2005


Blockhouse posted:

At this point I would be so tired of the Sentinels and the Purifiers and the government stooges and the internment camps and the everything else that I would basically do anything for some stability

Live on a big island monster with Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister where we all get cloned into big balls and have weird mutant orgies? Sure man, whatever, gently caress it, as long as I don't have killer robots trying to laser my face off because I have the ability to talk to fungus.

The whole immortality pitch is a legitimate draw to make you think twice about a lot of criticisms, too, sincerely.

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