X-Men: Legacy #219: In which Juggernaut backslides
Last month's issue of X-Men: Legacy was the first of Carey's run (both before and after the title change) with which I've been truly disappointed. It's long been accepted wisdom that Juggernaut's redemption the only positive element in Chuck Austin's otherwise execrable run on Uncanny X-Men and later X-Men. It was well executed, gradually happening across the entire 30 or so issues of the run. There were several significant points and little twists, and at no point did he stop feeling like the Juggernaut. Cain was never really the most die-hard mutant terrorist or criminal. He mostly was either pissed off at Professor X or was roped into things by his long-time friend Black Tom Cassidy. So he was a relatively believable candidate for redemption, and it worked very well. So why does Carey feel the need to go back on this story?
One of the X-Men: Manifest Destiny stories implied that while Cain was happy to be a less than law-abiding citizen when that's how people treated him, he'd actually rather like to go to San Francisco and hang out with everyone else. This story definitively pushes him back into villain territory, with an especially murderous attitude. Cain is established as willing to kill bystanders and Charles even though he's not really looking to be a "supervillain" particularly.
I really don't understand what Carey's going for here. The brother-vs-brother angle with Cain and Charles is not particularly interesting. It's been explored, and was never the most subtle storyline in the first place. Establishing Cain's acquisition of his powers as a clear and conscious choice on his part rather than as an accident is useful, but did we really need to hit the reset button in the process? I have to assume that Carey has plans for Juggernaut as a villain down the line because X-Men: Legacy is all about stitching continuity together. But I'm dissapointed. Juggernaut was a great character as an X-Man, and I very much wish he were hanging around the base in San Francisco rather than going this route.
One of the X-Men: Manifest Destiny stories implied that while Cain was happy to be a less than law-abiding citizen when that's how people treated him, he'd actually rather like to go to San Francisco and hang out with everyone else. This story definitively pushes him back into villain territory, with an especially murderous attitude. Cain is established as willing to kill bystanders and Charles even though he's not really looking to be a "supervillain" particularly.
I really don't understand what Carey's going for here. The brother-vs-brother angle with Cain and Charles is not particularly interesting. It's been explored, and was never the most subtle storyline in the first place. Establishing Cain's acquisition of his powers as a clear and conscious choice on his part rather than as an accident is useful, but did we really need to hit the reset button in the process? I have to assume that Carey has plans for Juggernaut as a villain down the line because X-Men: Legacy is all about stitching continuity together. But I'm dissapointed. Juggernaut was a great character as an X-Man, and I very much wish he were hanging around the base in San Francisco rather than going this route.