I am so full of rage now that I cannot even describe it. ---no wait OKAMI SEQUEL OMFG :D :D :D :D
→ Link via joyuexnoel: Marvel/Disney meme. O-oh my god. Sometimes fandom renews my faith in them! Why does fandom love us so much? Though, people need to actually start filling a few requests. :|
→ Ahahaha, oh, I think there are probably only three people besides me on the internet who enjoy sliding puzzles. And probably logic puzzles, too.
This makes me really want to finish the game already so I can get more puzzles! And to dig out my copy of the original game and see what new ones they've updated with. :D As much as I crab about how long the games take to come out, at least they do neat things like this, too.
→ [ETA:] *SHRIEKS* OH MY GOD! OKAMI SEQUEL FOR THE DS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!?!? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MY JOY CANNOT BE EXPRESSED WITH MERE WORDS!!!111 It's like they knew exactly what I needed this morning to calm my rage down. ♥ [/ETA]
Okay, I am close to finishing up with Manifest Destiny, so I'm going to get through these last seven issues already. Even if four issues of it is Young X-Men, which is.... augh. I want to like that book, but it was kind of terrible for the first five issues. I hold out little hope that it'll get better.
Manifest Destiny - Nightcrawler: This was... idek what to make of it. I pretty much expected to check out about halfway through, finding it a waste of Kurt's character who deserves better, but... somehow it kept my attention, despite a rocky start. The art of the first few pages was kind of terrible, at least with regards to Scott. And the story....
It's all about Kurt feeling useless to the team and quitting, but there's this museum for him opening up in his hometown. You know, the one that tried to torch him when he was younger. Scott says NO WAY is that not a trap! Kurt's like, well, thank you for the complete inability to think that someone would actually be interested in me as a hero, but I'm going anyway.
So it's a girl he saved once, but there's also a monster in town, but Kurt's wary because, well, he still remembers how they labeled HIM a monster and then it crashes through the museum, a fight ensues, and sure enough it's just a misunderstood kid, when they take five minutes to explain. The villagers come to attack them, Kurt saves a few people, but the kid kills himself before Kurt can get back. And then it's revealed that the whole thing was just Mephisto fucking around with the town, which makes Kurt realize that he actually is proud of how far he's come since he was like that kid. Then he rejoins the X-Men and his specific teleporting skills are needed in a fight that Pixie's can't be used in (since hers are magic, his aren't) and Kurt's back with the X-Men.
It's... very predictable and that keeps it from being truly great. Or maybe the author just isn't that strong. But, at the same time, it's a very servicable oneshot for Kurt and there were a couple of great lines in it that actually worked. (I had to snatch one of them for my new username.) The art, once it got underway, was actually really pretty good. The rest of the X-Men look weird (when they appear at the beginning and the end) but Kurt himself and the other characters in his hometown looked really solidly good.
The whole thing was sort of... you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, to accept that just as Kurt is having a bit of a crisis, along comes the perfect situation to help him get over it. It probably could have been a little better written, but I did like that it wasn't actually meant to be about Kurt (even though it kind of was) and, well, you get used to these things with comics.
Ultimately, I'm glad I read this. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I were a Kurt fan (or maybe I would have hated it, since I don't have a strong grip on his character?) and some moments were genuinely touching or ouchy, that's about all I can ask for a oneshot like this.
Manifest Destiny - Young X-Men #06-09: Okay. The first issue of this storyline starts out with Santo punching Scott the length of a football field across the lawn, breaking his jaw. Because Donald Pierce disguised himself as Cyclops and a friend of theirs got killed through the whole situation, so he has a PTSD-like sort of thing where he just went into a rage as soon as he saw Scott.
I don't care that it's ridiculous or that, christ, they should have seen that coming from a mile away (that it wasn't Scott) or a dozen other problems with this whole thing. I ENJOYED IT ANYWAY. HE PUNCHED SCOTT ACROSS THE LAWN.
AWESOME.
The rest of the issue... it waffled between sort of good and sort of really terrible. Ink is kind of a terrible character addition, it's just not as clever as Guggenheim seems to want him to be. And the idea of taking these kids in again, but not as a school, is just such utter bullshit. Okay, they'll take them in, but only to train them? To teach them to defend themselves? Such. Bullshit.
They need a structured environment where they can learn and grow and adjust. Not to be tossed around to whatever whim the X-Men have this particular week or to be thrown into boot camp to teach them to defend themselves, which is just... okay, the reason Scott says that they're not doing the school thing anymore is because that puts the kids all in one place and at risk. So, instead, they're going to have them live in a cathedral and have the X-Men train them to defend themselves.
Still all in one place. Just without the learning part.
Right.
That'll be totally awesome and helpful.
The person Dani's talking with throughout the issue basically points out the same thing, that they won't get to be kids and Dani's like, well, tough shit, that's not the way the world works. And just... when did this become the X-Men and what they stand for?
Also, I-- I do not know how I feel about the Santo/Scott hug because... on the one hand, I thought the art was rather effective on that splash page, but the build-up to it was just... it felt like the hug came out of nowhere. I do love that Santo needed the hug/to be able to cry and that Scott could see that, saying that it was okay, but it just... wasn't built up like it should have been.
And there's also this one line in #06, where whoever Dani is talking to (I guess I'm supposed to be intrigued by this mystery, but I'm more annoyed than anything--in retrospect, it should have been obvious that it was Victor, especially since I took note of him on the Marvel Apes-themed cover, but I guess I didn't care enough to really think about it), talks about growing up in the way the world is, not the way we wish it was, saying, "With great power comes great blah, blah, blah?" And that just... asl;dfkjaslkjslsjk
THIS IS A MARVEL COMIC BOOK. SPIDER-MAN EXISTS IN YOUR UNIVERSE, THEREFORE IT IS NOT A POP CULTURE MEME HERE, AUGH.
I dunno why that bugged me. I'm sure it's been used in the 616verse before by other authors and I wouldn't have blinked at it. But it felt like there was no wink-wink-nudge-nudge self-awareness and it just... bothered me.
The subsequent issues were... eh. I thought the conversation between Jonas and Emma was interesting. I can't get into the "which one of us isn't a mutant?" plot because I was accidentally spoiled on the answer. I didn't care about the fights because Guggenheim had this weird habit of injecting these really long asides into the conversation as they were being attacked by a monster. Who stops and says (about doing something for the rest of their life) "Which might not be much longer by the looks of it." when a monster is doing a flying leap at you? Who defends that they're not causing trouble for Ink, that they want to be on the X-Men team by saying, "You just had to say 'trouble'... and I haven't said one word to Ink." while a monster is flying at them?
I don't mind banter while they're fighting, that's actually a really fun thing. But the implication there was that they just stood around and muttered to themselves before moving into action (at least from the way it read to me) and that's just... no. I do like the conversation between Sooraya and Donald Pierce, it presents intriguing insights into her character, at least. And I do really love Santo and Victor's friendship, Anole joining the team again is one of the few bright spots in this thing. The conversations about catch-phrases or names for their hangout were kind of hilarious.
Overall... by the end, I guess I'm glad I read this. Just enough of the characters make it worthwhile (Santo and Victor are highlights, Jonas is growing on me, etc.) but I can't say the plot of it was very interesting. I didn't care about the whole mutant tattoo artist, I don't care about Sooraya's illness or whatever it is, I find the way this team is being put back together distasteful, and just... as much potential as there is in places, part of me is relieved that this series will be cancelled soon after these issues.
Manifest Destiny - X-Men Legacy #215-216: *lets out a long breath of air* So. These issues. I'm kind of blogging about them as I go along, so I'm writing down my thoughts before I see the resolution happen, which may make me change my mind later on. We'll see, I guess. One thing is for sure--I'm probably going to have a lot to say.
It seems like these two issues are going to be a bit of a transition phase, which makes sense with the whole Manifest Destiny theme, about the X-Men regrouping themselves and moving forward and all that. The Rogue story is moving up in prominense, but not too much yet, it's still Xavier's story, which means that Scott is going to get a lot of focus, since that's where Carey is taking Xavier--to bring him to that point on his journey.
And right from the start I'm full of feelings that sort of make me just want to keyboard mash a whole lot. Because it's right back to my main issue with Scott currently--yes, Xavier implanted a small suggestion to get Scott out to a place where they could meet, he (as Scott says) rearranged the furniture without permission. And, yeah, that's true. But it was important.
And I look at Scott's reaction. The anger he has. The anger from a man who put together a squad of killers with X-Force. A man who didn't tell other people (former teammates in many cases) about what happened on M-Day. A man who has done a lot of questionable things to ensure mutants' survival.
I look at this man who's done questionable things and then dares to have the gall to cast stones when Xavier does something similar. It drives me up the wall.
Especially when Scott is angry about how Xavier drafted these kids into a war, which Xavier did because they had enemies out there that would hurt them. Given that I just finished reading Young X-Men and Scott is doing similar things (admittedly, minus the mental alterations, but one could argue that they're going to turn out a lot more screwed up and, hey, AT LEAST XAVIER DIDN'T GET LIKE TWENTY STUDENTS KILLED, SCOTT, THAT WAS ALL YOU) it just reeks of hypocrisy to me.
And I like Carey, so I want to be onboard with this. I can't really fault him for it, I suppose, because he's just writing what's IC for these characters right now. It just... frustrates me greatly. I'm not a Xavier fan! I don't care about him! I actually used to be a fairly big Scott fan! I dislike that I find myself having all these reactions!
But. Deep breaths. I forge onward. Because I like Carey's writing. And he hits me with something really kind of awesome--Xavier talks about Sinister's obsession with the Summers and the Greys (another mention of Jean there, I see, including a "rising from the ashes" reference earlier) and says that Sinister was obsessed with Scott from a young age, even back in the orphanage when he was a kid. And the fact that Scott named his and Madelyn's (a clone that Sinister made) son Nathan was a hell of a coincidence.
Now. Maybe that's an old thing that people have commented on for ages. But I never really thought about it. And asl;dkfjasl;kj omfg that's kind of awesome. However, I do not buy that Emma would be stronger than Xavier on the whole mindscape thing. Just. asl;dfkjaslkj No. But I'll grant that Carey addressed that in #216. Emma has a ruthless streak that, for all that Scott tries to say Xavier had, I don't buy Xavier did. And he has just finished recently pulling himself back together. And Emma snuck in and worked on him while he was distracted.
I'm not sure I really-really buy it, but I'll buy it enough for this issue to work. Because I like Carey. But then... just... as;ldfkjasl;kjalksj
Scott's angry because Xavier went into their minds without permission. Then he turns around and he and Emma do the same thing to Xavier for "the greater good", to make sure Sinister isn't in his mind anymore. NO, SCOTT. YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT AND STILL HAVE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND.
That is what bothers me. If Scott said, yes, I'm on the same level as Xavier now, I can't forgive him for what he did, but I understand that I'm in his same shoes now, I would be ALL OVER Scott. But, no. Scott is angry at him, blames him, basically mentally rapes him with Emma's power, and still plays the victim.
And the snarky, mean comments while they're basically mentally raping him? Because I don't use that word lightly, but that's what this is. No matter what supposed greater good it was for, Xavier said very clearly that he didn't consent and they forced him into this anyway. And then Emma made bitchy comments the entire time.
Jesus, I'm so pissed off. At fucking fictional characters! To add insult to injury, I might have been able to handle this if it were Jean. But it's Emma Frost. The White Queen of the Hellfire Club! Passing judgement on Charles Xavier.
I just-- as;ldfkjaslkjlj
Emma reduces him to a curled up ball on the ground, a mess, and only then does Scott seem to wonder at this, at what she's done. Oh, yes, now that it's turned out badly, he reacts that way. And I found it severely uncomfortable the way Emma crippled him again (even if only in the mindscape) and stood over him angrily, further breaking him into little pieces and passing her own judgement on him.
The White Queen passing judgement on someone. I love Emma and I love that she's trying to become a better person, I love that she has a hardened core that would put her in that position, but... she abused him here.
It wasn't about making sure there was no trace of Sinister. It was about passing judgement and torturing him for her own satisfaction and tearing him apart.
I cannot even begin to say how incredibly horrifying I found the whole situation.
Especially when it ends with Xavier having found some new pieces of himself, holding his hand out to Scott, and it's never even mentioned what Scott and Emma did to him.
Ugh. I think I actually feel sick. I can't remember the last time a storyline literally made me feel sick that wasn't supposed to be horrific.
It's so frustrating because it's never addressed. And I should know that it's never going to be addressed. They all get up, dust themselves off, and part amiably after Xavier supposedly discovers some new pieces of himself. I can't even tell you how much I dreaded that that was going to be the outcome.
It's doubly frustrating because I think this could be an awesome direction to take Scott in, the hardcore badass who makes hard decisions, but they're pretending that Scott is still this pristine hero in the eyes of everyone/the reader (or he's supposed to be), but he's not. He's making the same dirty choices that Xavier did and if I thought *AT ALL* that this was going to come back and bite them the way it bit Xavier, I would be all over this like you wouldn't believe.
But I don't think that's it. I think I'm supposed to genuinely have enjoyed Xavier being crippled and crawling at Emma's feet while she berated him and abused him. I think I'm genuinely supposed to have enjoyed her mental rape of him, the way she took him apart and left him curled up in a ball on the ground after she tore him apart. I think I'm genuinely supposed to think that these are the good guys.
It pains me because I don't think the X-Men have been good guys for awhile. These days it's all about whatever it takes to survive, no matter who they hurt to do it. These days it's not about just being people, it's about being different from "flatscans", it's about being separate and different from them. It's not about saving the world, it's about mowing down anyone who gets in their way.
And I don't find people like that to be heroes.
I realize I may be coming into this with certain biases. I've been angry about this for a long time, there was probably little here that was going to be able to turn me around on this whole mess, short of making me believe that this was all intentional.
I'm not going to read any reviews for these issues, I couldn't handle people thinking it was an awesome story that was told here. I'm going to do my best to pretend this never happened, because I don't blame Carey for this, I blame the whole of Marvel for this, I blame them for this entire direction they've taken Xavier.
I'm just-- yeah, okay, none of this ever happened. /)~_~(\ I'm moving on with the book and washing the really bitter taste of it out of my mouth. What a way to end this entire "event" on. But, I suppose, it's rather fitting.
Supergirl Annual #01: So, after being disgusted with Marvel for awhile, I went to read at least a little something DC. I hadn't intended to read this, I meant to just flip through it and see what it was about. I don't care about the whole New Krypton thing, so I haven't been reading, which made me think I was going to be confused as heck going into this.
I-- really wasn't too lost on things. I knew enough about Kandor and how it came back to get enough to basically follow along here and it was a fairly light, easy story about Kara stuck in a bank robbery and wanting to help, but almost getting exposed until it's revealed that there's another Kryptonian in the place.
It's another story along the lines of what Kara always has happening to her--making mistakes that are really just out of her control, because there's elements she's not aware of, because she didn't think things through enough. Her intentions were good, she'll get there someday. It was an interesting story.
The other half of this issues is basically a Superwoman recap story, which I actually thought was really interesting, seeing that I've read almost nothing about Lucy Lane. It's a handy way to catch up for those of us who don't want to read a lot of back issues and I liked the author's voice for the character, the way her daddy issues were set up and how she became Superwoman.
My only thing about this annual was that it felt awfully short and light, because it was split into two stories, neither of which were particularly depthful. Kara's was a oneshot about a foiled bank robbery that had her only briefly meeting other Kryptonians even after they were outlawed on Earth. Lucy's was pure recap. Both of them were good, just... I felt like I breezed through this in five minutes!
Which you shouldn't feel about an Annual. By their nature, they're oneshots, of course, but... not this light generally. Aside from that, this was really fun and definitely worth a quick read. :Db
War of Kings: Saga oneshot: Despite that I know I probably shouldn't start another crossover even book (though, this one looks like mostly minis and stuff, so I'm hoping that it'll be mostly self-contained), I picked up the recap book for this event anyways. And, wow, what a recap issue that was, it was one hell of a whirlwind. I knew about a lot of it, especially the stuff that was with Quicksilver, but I only ever barely touched on the Vulcan stuff or the World War Hulk stuff.
(I feel like I should at least read the minis and yet... I never seem to quite find the time to do so.)
I know I should probably find them just one giant excuse for Marvel to print yet another comic to make even more money off the suckers who have to collect everything, but... I actually really liked this. It covered one hell of a lot of territory and never lingered on anything. It showed the complex web of circumstances that led to this head-on collision between the various factions, it covered all the major events for these players over the last year or so. Probably back even a little further than that.
It was... massive. 40 pages and nothing was lingered on, this was a brisk paced book and yet I think I absorbed it all in, it was like an awesome little primer for this event.
I can't really say much about the events themselves since I read so little of it (I felt like I SHOULD have read the Vulcan stuff... and I might still go back for the Alex/Lorna stuff, because I guess they got back together... and I do like the Shi'ar...), but for someone who only touched on these events or heard about them through solicts/promotions, this helped so much.
I just... really enjoyed it. It did what it was aiming for, you know?
→ Ahahaha, oh, I think there are probably only three people besides me on the internet who enjoy sliding puzzles. And probably logic puzzles, too.
This makes me really want to finish the game already so I can get more puzzles! And to dig out my copy of the original game and see what new ones they've updated with. :D As much as I crab about how long the games take to come out, at least they do neat things like this, too.
→ [ETA:] *SHRIEKS* OH MY GOD! OKAMI SEQUEL FOR THE DS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING!?!? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MY JOY CANNOT BE EXPRESSED WITH MERE WORDS!!!111 It's like they knew exactly what I needed this morning to calm my rage down. ♥ [/ETA]
Okay, I am close to finishing up with Manifest Destiny, so I'm going to get through these last seven issues already. Even if four issues of it is Young X-Men, which is.... augh. I want to like that book, but it was kind of terrible for the first five issues. I hold out little hope that it'll get better.
Manifest Destiny - Nightcrawler: This was... idek what to make of it. I pretty much expected to check out about halfway through, finding it a waste of Kurt's character who deserves better, but... somehow it kept my attention, despite a rocky start. The art of the first few pages was kind of terrible, at least with regards to Scott. And the story....
It's all about Kurt feeling useless to the team and quitting, but there's this museum for him opening up in his hometown. You know, the one that tried to torch him when he was younger. Scott says NO WAY is that not a trap! Kurt's like, well, thank you for the complete inability to think that someone would actually be interested in me as a hero, but I'm going anyway.
So it's a girl he saved once, but there's also a monster in town, but Kurt's wary because, well, he still remembers how they labeled HIM a monster and then it crashes through the museum, a fight ensues, and sure enough it's just a misunderstood kid, when they take five minutes to explain. The villagers come to attack them, Kurt saves a few people, but the kid kills himself before Kurt can get back. And then it's revealed that the whole thing was just Mephisto fucking around with the town, which makes Kurt realize that he actually is proud of how far he's come since he was like that kid. Then he rejoins the X-Men and his specific teleporting skills are needed in a fight that Pixie's can't be used in (since hers are magic, his aren't) and Kurt's back with the X-Men.
It's... very predictable and that keeps it from being truly great. Or maybe the author just isn't that strong. But, at the same time, it's a very servicable oneshot for Kurt and there were a couple of great lines in it that actually worked. (I had to snatch one of them for my new username.) The art, once it got underway, was actually really pretty good. The rest of the X-Men look weird (when they appear at the beginning and the end) but Kurt himself and the other characters in his hometown looked really solidly good.
The whole thing was sort of... you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, to accept that just as Kurt is having a bit of a crisis, along comes the perfect situation to help him get over it. It probably could have been a little better written, but I did like that it wasn't actually meant to be about Kurt (even though it kind of was) and, well, you get used to these things with comics.
Ultimately, I'm glad I read this. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I were a Kurt fan (or maybe I would have hated it, since I don't have a strong grip on his character?) and some moments were genuinely touching or ouchy, that's about all I can ask for a oneshot like this.
Manifest Destiny - Young X-Men #06-09: Okay. The first issue of this storyline starts out with Santo punching Scott the length of a football field across the lawn, breaking his jaw. Because Donald Pierce disguised himself as Cyclops and a friend of theirs got killed through the whole situation, so he has a PTSD-like sort of thing where he just went into a rage as soon as he saw Scott.
I don't care that it's ridiculous or that, christ, they should have seen that coming from a mile away (that it wasn't Scott) or a dozen other problems with this whole thing. I ENJOYED IT ANYWAY. HE PUNCHED SCOTT ACROSS THE LAWN.
AWESOME.
The rest of the issue... it waffled between sort of good and sort of really terrible. Ink is kind of a terrible character addition, it's just not as clever as Guggenheim seems to want him to be. And the idea of taking these kids in again, but not as a school, is just such utter bullshit. Okay, they'll take them in, but only to train them? To teach them to defend themselves? Such. Bullshit.
They need a structured environment where they can learn and grow and adjust. Not to be tossed around to whatever whim the X-Men have this particular week or to be thrown into boot camp to teach them to defend themselves, which is just... okay, the reason Scott says that they're not doing the school thing anymore is because that puts the kids all in one place and at risk. So, instead, they're going to have them live in a cathedral and have the X-Men train them to defend themselves.
Still all in one place. Just without the learning part.
Right.
That'll be totally awesome and helpful.
The person Dani's talking with throughout the issue basically points out the same thing, that they won't get to be kids and Dani's like, well, tough shit, that's not the way the world works. And just... when did this become the X-Men and what they stand for?
Also, I-- I do not know how I feel about the Santo/Scott hug because... on the one hand, I thought the art was rather effective on that splash page, but the build-up to it was just... it felt like the hug came out of nowhere. I do love that Santo needed the hug/to be able to cry and that Scott could see that, saying that it was okay, but it just... wasn't built up like it should have been.
And there's also this one line in #06, where whoever Dani is talking to (I guess I'm supposed to be intrigued by this mystery, but I'm more annoyed than anything--in retrospect, it should have been obvious that it was Victor, especially since I took note of him on the Marvel Apes-themed cover, but I guess I didn't care enough to really think about it), talks about growing up in the way the world is, not the way we wish it was, saying, "With great power comes great blah, blah, blah?" And that just... asl;dfkjaslkjslsjk
THIS IS A MARVEL COMIC BOOK. SPIDER-MAN EXISTS IN YOUR UNIVERSE, THEREFORE IT IS NOT A POP CULTURE MEME HERE, AUGH.
I dunno why that bugged me. I'm sure it's been used in the 616verse before by other authors and I wouldn't have blinked at it. But it felt like there was no wink-wink-nudge-nudge self-awareness and it just... bothered me.
The subsequent issues were... eh. I thought the conversation between Jonas and Emma was interesting. I can't get into the "which one of us isn't a mutant?" plot because I was accidentally spoiled on the answer. I didn't care about the fights because Guggenheim had this weird habit of injecting these really long asides into the conversation as they were being attacked by a monster. Who stops and says (about doing something for the rest of their life) "Which might not be much longer by the looks of it." when a monster is doing a flying leap at you? Who defends that they're not causing trouble for Ink, that they want to be on the X-Men team by saying, "You just had to say 'trouble'... and I haven't said one word to Ink." while a monster is flying at them?
I don't mind banter while they're fighting, that's actually a really fun thing. But the implication there was that they just stood around and muttered to themselves before moving into action (at least from the way it read to me) and that's just... no. I do like the conversation between Sooraya and Donald Pierce, it presents intriguing insights into her character, at least. And I do really love Santo and Victor's friendship, Anole joining the team again is one of the few bright spots in this thing. The conversations about catch-phrases or names for their hangout were kind of hilarious.
Overall... by the end, I guess I'm glad I read this. Just enough of the characters make it worthwhile (Santo and Victor are highlights, Jonas is growing on me, etc.) but I can't say the plot of it was very interesting. I didn't care about the whole mutant tattoo artist, I don't care about Sooraya's illness or whatever it is, I find the way this team is being put back together distasteful, and just... as much potential as there is in places, part of me is relieved that this series will be cancelled soon after these issues.
Manifest Destiny - X-Men Legacy #215-216: *lets out a long breath of air* So. These issues. I'm kind of blogging about them as I go along, so I'm writing down my thoughts before I see the resolution happen, which may make me change my mind later on. We'll see, I guess. One thing is for sure--I'm probably going to have a lot to say.
It seems like these two issues are going to be a bit of a transition phase, which makes sense with the whole Manifest Destiny theme, about the X-Men regrouping themselves and moving forward and all that. The Rogue story is moving up in prominense, but not too much yet, it's still Xavier's story, which means that Scott is going to get a lot of focus, since that's where Carey is taking Xavier--to bring him to that point on his journey.
And right from the start I'm full of feelings that sort of make me just want to keyboard mash a whole lot. Because it's right back to my main issue with Scott currently--yes, Xavier implanted a small suggestion to get Scott out to a place where they could meet, he (as Scott says) rearranged the furniture without permission. And, yeah, that's true. But it was important.
And I look at Scott's reaction. The anger he has. The anger from a man who put together a squad of killers with X-Force. A man who didn't tell other people (former teammates in many cases) about what happened on M-Day. A man who has done a lot of questionable things to ensure mutants' survival.
I look at this man who's done questionable things and then dares to have the gall to cast stones when Xavier does something similar. It drives me up the wall.
Especially when Scott is angry about how Xavier drafted these kids into a war, which Xavier did because they had enemies out there that would hurt them. Given that I just finished reading Young X-Men and Scott is doing similar things (admittedly, minus the mental alterations, but one could argue that they're going to turn out a lot more screwed up and, hey, AT LEAST XAVIER DIDN'T GET LIKE TWENTY STUDENTS KILLED, SCOTT, THAT WAS ALL YOU) it just reeks of hypocrisy to me.
And I like Carey, so I want to be onboard with this. I can't really fault him for it, I suppose, because he's just writing what's IC for these characters right now. It just... frustrates me greatly. I'm not a Xavier fan! I don't care about him! I actually used to be a fairly big Scott fan! I dislike that I find myself having all these reactions!
But. Deep breaths. I forge onward. Because I like Carey's writing. And he hits me with something really kind of awesome--Xavier talks about Sinister's obsession with the Summers and the Greys (another mention of Jean there, I see, including a "rising from the ashes" reference earlier) and says that Sinister was obsessed with Scott from a young age, even back in the orphanage when he was a kid. And the fact that Scott named his and Madelyn's (a clone that Sinister made) son Nathan was a hell of a coincidence.
Now. Maybe that's an old thing that people have commented on for ages. But I never really thought about it. And asl;dkfjasl;kj omfg that's kind of awesome. However, I do not buy that Emma would be stronger than Xavier on the whole mindscape thing. Just. asl;dfkjaslkj No. But I'll grant that Carey addressed that in #216. Emma has a ruthless streak that, for all that Scott tries to say Xavier had, I don't buy Xavier did. And he has just finished recently pulling himself back together. And Emma snuck in and worked on him while he was distracted.
I'm not sure I really-really buy it, but I'll buy it enough for this issue to work. Because I like Carey. But then... just... as;ldfkjasl;kjalksj
Scott's angry because Xavier went into their minds without permission. Then he turns around and he and Emma do the same thing to Xavier for "the greater good", to make sure Sinister isn't in his mind anymore. NO, SCOTT. YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT AND STILL HAVE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND.
That is what bothers me. If Scott said, yes, I'm on the same level as Xavier now, I can't forgive him for what he did, but I understand that I'm in his same shoes now, I would be ALL OVER Scott. But, no. Scott is angry at him, blames him, basically mentally rapes him with Emma's power, and still plays the victim.
And the snarky, mean comments while they're basically mentally raping him? Because I don't use that word lightly, but that's what this is. No matter what supposed greater good it was for, Xavier said very clearly that he didn't consent and they forced him into this anyway. And then Emma made bitchy comments the entire time.
Jesus, I'm so pissed off. At fucking fictional characters! To add insult to injury, I might have been able to handle this if it were Jean. But it's Emma Frost. The White Queen of the Hellfire Club! Passing judgement on Charles Xavier.
I just-- as;ldfkjaslkjlj
Emma reduces him to a curled up ball on the ground, a mess, and only then does Scott seem to wonder at this, at what she's done. Oh, yes, now that it's turned out badly, he reacts that way. And I found it severely uncomfortable the way Emma crippled him again (even if only in the mindscape) and stood over him angrily, further breaking him into little pieces and passing her own judgement on him.
The White Queen passing judgement on someone. I love Emma and I love that she's trying to become a better person, I love that she has a hardened core that would put her in that position, but... she abused him here.
It wasn't about making sure there was no trace of Sinister. It was about passing judgement and torturing him for her own satisfaction and tearing him apart.
I cannot even begin to say how incredibly horrifying I found the whole situation.
Especially when it ends with Xavier having found some new pieces of himself, holding his hand out to Scott, and it's never even mentioned what Scott and Emma did to him.
Ugh. I think I actually feel sick. I can't remember the last time a storyline literally made me feel sick that wasn't supposed to be horrific.
It's so frustrating because it's never addressed. And I should know that it's never going to be addressed. They all get up, dust themselves off, and part amiably after Xavier supposedly discovers some new pieces of himself. I can't even tell you how much I dreaded that that was going to be the outcome.
It's doubly frustrating because I think this could be an awesome direction to take Scott in, the hardcore badass who makes hard decisions, but they're pretending that Scott is still this pristine hero in the eyes of everyone/the reader (or he's supposed to be), but he's not. He's making the same dirty choices that Xavier did and if I thought *AT ALL* that this was going to come back and bite them the way it bit Xavier, I would be all over this like you wouldn't believe.
But I don't think that's it. I think I'm supposed to genuinely have enjoyed Xavier being crippled and crawling at Emma's feet while she berated him and abused him. I think I'm genuinely supposed to have enjoyed her mental rape of him, the way she took him apart and left him curled up in a ball on the ground after she tore him apart. I think I'm genuinely supposed to think that these are the good guys.
It pains me because I don't think the X-Men have been good guys for awhile. These days it's all about whatever it takes to survive, no matter who they hurt to do it. These days it's not about just being people, it's about being different from "flatscans", it's about being separate and different from them. It's not about saving the world, it's about mowing down anyone who gets in their way.
And I don't find people like that to be heroes.
I realize I may be coming into this with certain biases. I've been angry about this for a long time, there was probably little here that was going to be able to turn me around on this whole mess, short of making me believe that this was all intentional.
I'm not going to read any reviews for these issues, I couldn't handle people thinking it was an awesome story that was told here. I'm going to do my best to pretend this never happened, because I don't blame Carey for this, I blame the whole of Marvel for this, I blame them for this entire direction they've taken Xavier.
I'm just-- yeah, okay, none of this ever happened. /)~_~(\ I'm moving on with the book and washing the really bitter taste of it out of my mouth. What a way to end this entire "event" on. But, I suppose, it's rather fitting.
Supergirl Annual #01: So, after being disgusted with Marvel for awhile, I went to read at least a little something DC. I hadn't intended to read this, I meant to just flip through it and see what it was about. I don't care about the whole New Krypton thing, so I haven't been reading, which made me think I was going to be confused as heck going into this.
I-- really wasn't too lost on things. I knew enough about Kandor and how it came back to get enough to basically follow along here and it was a fairly light, easy story about Kara stuck in a bank robbery and wanting to help, but almost getting exposed until it's revealed that there's another Kryptonian in the place.
It's another story along the lines of what Kara always has happening to her--making mistakes that are really just out of her control, because there's elements she's not aware of, because she didn't think things through enough. Her intentions were good, she'll get there someday. It was an interesting story.
The other half of this issues is basically a Superwoman recap story, which I actually thought was really interesting, seeing that I've read almost nothing about Lucy Lane. It's a handy way to catch up for those of us who don't want to read a lot of back issues and I liked the author's voice for the character, the way her daddy issues were set up and how she became Superwoman.
My only thing about this annual was that it felt awfully short and light, because it was split into two stories, neither of which were particularly depthful. Kara's was a oneshot about a foiled bank robbery that had her only briefly meeting other Kryptonians even after they were outlawed on Earth. Lucy's was pure recap. Both of them were good, just... I felt like I breezed through this in five minutes!
Which you shouldn't feel about an Annual. By their nature, they're oneshots, of course, but... not this light generally. Aside from that, this was really fun and definitely worth a quick read. :Db
War of Kings: Saga oneshot: Despite that I know I probably shouldn't start another crossover even book (though, this one looks like mostly minis and stuff, so I'm hoping that it'll be mostly self-contained), I picked up the recap book for this event anyways. And, wow, what a recap issue that was, it was one hell of a whirlwind. I knew about a lot of it, especially the stuff that was with Quicksilver, but I only ever barely touched on the Vulcan stuff or the World War Hulk stuff.
(I feel like I should at least read the minis and yet... I never seem to quite find the time to do so.)
I know I should probably find them just one giant excuse for Marvel to print yet another comic to make even more money off the suckers who have to collect everything, but... I actually really liked this. It covered one hell of a lot of territory and never lingered on anything. It showed the complex web of circumstances that led to this head-on collision between the various factions, it covered all the major events for these players over the last year or so. Probably back even a little further than that.
It was... massive. 40 pages and nothing was lingered on, this was a brisk paced book and yet I think I absorbed it all in, it was like an awesome little primer for this event.
I can't really say much about the events themselves since I read so little of it (I felt like I SHOULD have read the Vulcan stuff... and I might still go back for the Alex/Lorna stuff, because I guess they got back together... and I do like the Shi'ar...), but for someone who only touched on these events or heard about them through solicts/promotions, this helped so much.
I just... really enjoyed it. It did what it was aiming for, you know?