X-Mutants ( The "all -things- X" topic)

[Rollo Tomassi]

Or somewhere down the line have Giant Size Prelude one shot where they fight whatever it is that's coming. I won't buy it, but it'd give me something to look for in the dollar bins down the road.

[jjreason]

I think I might have figured out what they were staring in the face - the one thing that might truly kill the X-Men for good:







A billion cancelled subscriptions due to the ending of the Uncanny volume 1.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I see it as a thinly veiled plan to replace one $3.99 title with TWO $3.99 titles. I call dirty pool. And I shall be showing my contempt by purchasing both titles moving forward. That'll show 'em!! I wasn't going to, but I'm intrigued by the idea. I still won't be buyng many of the other X-men books, like Astonishing, Pointless, and Generation Hope. New Mutants I'll start back up after Fear Itself ends, and I'll continue to get X-Factor and Legacy. Uncanny X-Force can go !@#$ itself.

But seriously, even though its annoying, and Schism's fallout with rife with questionable motives, I really like the idea of Schism and different teams of X-Men. Historically, the X-men have always been about infighting. The only thing a lot of them had in common was they were mutants. if you remember the original "Giant Size" team, hardly any of them got along. Lots of Egos. I think that makes for funner stories if everybody gets on each others nerves, so splitting the X-Men right down the middle works for me. I love how in X-Men: Regenesis oneshot, Beast made it a point to call up Scott and rub it in that he was joining Wolvie's team.

Also, I'm going to LOOOOVE when Scott finds out Wolverine is still running X-Force, the fucking hypocritical douchebaggery of Logan astounds me. And it'll be even better when BEAST finds out. Then Scott can call Hank up and do a Nelson Laugh into the phone and hang up. Chump.

[jjreason]

I'm looking forward to Regenesis and the #1's, but I'm voting with my money to not continue. If I was really tough I'd cancel one of my Cap books too (the only hero I'm buying and "extra" book for right now), but Cap is about the most consistently awesome thing going so I won't do that.

Useless aside: while filing the other day I realized I'm really not too far off (like under 20 issues) from having a run of Cap from 444 (Mark Waid's wicked Man Without a Country arc) to the present day. When I was a kid I used to be quite sure that Cap sucked balls - how did this happen???

[jjreason]

Jeez, I can't see what's going to happen next - World War X anyone?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Cyclops POV is that mutants, whether they are X-Men, students, or whatever, have a big old' target on their back. Mutie haters don't care if you're in a costume or you're a preteen. They'll kill you. So all mutants are defacto soldiers.
Wolverine's POV is to stick his head in the sand and assumes that if he moves back to Westchester and reopens the school, the mutie haters will leave him alone. Even though Westchester is probably the best known mutant hangout in the world. Realistically, Logan is just going to get a bunch of kids killed with his naive (completely out of character) altruism. But that probably won't happen because Wolverine is Mr. Popularity and I doubt Aaron will write him like the complete douche he is.

[jjreason]

That would be quite the twist if Wolverine inadvertently led his Gifted Youngsters into harms way. You might be on to something.

Alternatively, they could have Logan go completely offside & have all the weaker/pacifistic ones at his immediate disposal.... not that they'd ever dare to make Wolverine a murderer.... but it could almost be explained if his Hound programming were to kick in somehow (he was determined to be a mutant-killing Hound at one point, no??? I can't keep it all straight ><) and he wiped a few out.

[anarky]

(he was determined to be a mutant-killing Hound at one point, no??? I can't keep it all straight ><)

He's been everything at one point or another.

Remember it was pretty clearly stated that Ahab was Cable? Yeah, whatever happened to that?

And Bishop must be fucking schizophrenic. If you were to actually detail the events of his life, there's no other explanation.

[jjreason]

You literally need a score-card to keep track - and even your scorecard would have to be updated from time time as the incessant ret-conning fucks everything up over and over again.

I went on my big comic hiatus between Jim Lee starting on Uncanny (literally, my last issue was the last issue before he came on board) and the Age of Apocalypse. I missed all of the Bishop introductory stuff, along with all the Gambit introductory stuff. When I came back into the fold I didn't like either character. Gambit, I'll admit, grew on me somewhat.... Bishop never did. I guess the excitement over him must have been generated in the issues I've missed - there is a big chunk in there I've still never read.

[anarky]

Bishop was actually the center of a rather well-constructed mystery that went totally to hell in the leadup to Onslaught. Someone killed the X-Men. No one knows who. Remy "Gambit" Lebeau is the only one who survived. A fragmentary recording of Jean Grey saying the X-Men never should have trusted someone just before some sort of purple energy blast kills her is the only evidence they have about the killer. And who knew the X-Men, and had purple energy blasts, and is alive in the future, mon ami?

And, once Bishop came to the then-present, who else knew the X-Men, had purple energy blasts, and was at one point alive in the future?

Not to mention there was that other dude, the one with the scar, who time traveled a lot and had been to (and maybe came from) the future, and used guns that could shoot energy beams of any color he damn well pleased, and who the X-Men had no real reason to trust as he just showed up one day and took over the New Mutants and turned them into a paramilitary force.

But then they decided it was Professor X, which was as dumb as immediately relaunching half their titles with Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in charge a couple of months later.

[jjreason]

There was something about Gambit selling them out to the Marauders though at one point if I'm not mistaken, even though the character hadn't come into formal existence by that point.

http://marvel.com/universe/Marauders_%28mutants%29

[Rollo Tomassi]

I think the reason they made Wolverine the guy that breaks from Cyclops, instead of say Storm or Rogue is because nobody would read "Storm and the X-Men". So, regardless of whether it makes sense for the character, Wolverine became the dissenting poster boy. Story rationale takes a backseat to $$.

[jjreason]

The only thing that surprises me is that Wolverine isn't somehow on both teams.

[anarky]

As much as everyone loves him (and, admit it, even if he's insanely overexposed, you love the lil' fellow, too), Wolverine should die.

Yes, death is usually a weak way out. But the character has been so beaten into the ground, I'm not sure how much more life is left in him. He's become a sort of god, not a guy with metal blades in his arm that hurt like fuck to use and the ability to heal about twice as fast as a normal person.

Kill him. With the powers he has, imagine how "holy fucking shit!" everyone around him would feel. It would affect every team out there, because he's on every team. X-Men. Avengers. Defenders. Fuck, he's even on the New Fantastic Four (which is hardly new anymore).

And, if they need a short guy with funny hair and claws, there's always Albert running around somewhere.

Plus, this would open the door to Rollo's "The Wolverine" idea.

[jjreason]

I would be fine with it. I would, however, insist that another Canadian superhero take his place on all of those teams. Not sure whether it should be Puck or Northstar though....