#just like cyclops always ends up with jean | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dg-outlaw · 13 days

Text

"Holy Childhood Trauma, Batman!"

Okay, let's get into it. *spoilers ahead*

X-Men '97: Episode 5 - Remember It

So without boring everyone with yet another recap as every nerd fandom outlet has that covered, I want to highlight all the things that really impacted me with this episode.

The animation team, storyboard artists, and directing for this episode.

I love how this series has captured the essence and style of the original 90s series, but has amped up the actions sequences to an 11, 12, 13, or 20! It's been a hot minute since I saw the original series, but I just don't recall many truly badass anime-esque action sequences from the OG series. And while X-Men has always been more of a socio-political and interpersonal drama, it's always cool to see your favorite characters use their powers in unique ways and this was Gambit's episode. I also love the addition of tears in many of the faces of characters during key moments. It's a minor thing, but emphasizing them just shows the gravity of the emotions the characters are facing. Also, special mention to episode 1 as well with Cyclops' intro and the ending battle in the sentinel graveyard. This series is what we all wanted back in the 90s and honestly, I'd be fine if comic book adaptations were more in animation form than live-action. CGI and VFX can be cool, but having characters do insane, gravity defying things like in this episode without looking janky is so awesome.

The usage and variation of the X-Men theme.

In both these scenes (above) the X-Men theme is played, but in vary different ways and I love when a score or soundtrack can enhance the mood of a scene or just help tell a story or convey a mood/emotion. In the first, we see Gambit and Rogue heading into battle and the score is slowed down and just has this serious tone to it. We're not having fun. This is war and we've got our game faces on. The second is the traditional theme and fits the tone as Gambit is just showing off and being a badass. IDK. I'm not a student of music, but I still love this stuff and how even the same music can be varied to convey different moods.

The impact and stakes.

Without getting too political (even though X-Men is all about politics and social issues), it was hard to not feel an extra impact by this episode's destruction of Genosha given the events taking place overseas in Palestine (as well as so many other countries that don't get as much news coverage). Again, trying to keep this to X-Men, but seeing the mass loss of innocent life (even in a cartoon) in such a quick and brutal way just sent my mind there and it was hard to not tear up thinking about the real loss of innocent life in our world (but without superheroes to intervene). Not to mention, I was already prepared for the loss of Gambit thanks to being on the internet and not watching new content the second it drops.

Honestly, this episode felt like an epic finale given the gut punch of emotions, the action, and the destruction. I know there are many theories that this could/will be reversed or altered via time travel, especially with the presence of the Watcher and Cable's attempt to warn his mother, Madelyne Pryor, but narratively I hope we sit with the weight of what happened in this episode. Selfishly, I want it fixed yesterday but I know that if that were to happen it would minimize the stakes and take away from the emotional weight of this episode. Also, the X-women are going through it this season. First, Storm, then Jean, and now Rogue.

The Ending and Saying Goodbye

So, as mentioned above I had Gambit's death spoiled and while I hate that I still wasn't prepared. As I said, I was already dealing with emotions at seeing the destruction of Genosha, but when it came for Gambit's end I was falling down onto the ground even more. Add in the rest of the X-Men at home, only able to watch from TV, devasted and powerless, and then Rogue's emotional (Death of Superman-style) goodbye as the episode faded to black... I still can't watch this scene or think about it without getting emotional all over again.

That said, to all the kids who thought I was lame for picking to play as Gambit on the playground instead of then fan-favorite Wolverine like everyone else, this episode and his epic goodbye was just amazing. I think anyone wanting to do Gambit justice in a film or solo movie/series should watch this episode and take notes. While most of us hope to die peacefully in our sleep at a ripe old age, I think going out like a total badass hero is a close second and Gambit achieved that. I'm sure it'll get fixed eventually, but I think Genosha (when they rebuild) should have the Magneto and Xavier statues back up, but also have a giant one of Gambit as well.

And speaking of Magneto, having him have flashes of his childhood and embracing the Morlocks (especially Leech) at the end was just more piled on emotional damage... and apparently this is just the tip of the iceberg for this season according to the writer/showrunner. I guess the writers know their audience is probably mostly 80s and 90s kids who grew up with Bambi, Land Before Time, NeverEnding Story, Gremlins, and all the other emotionally damaging "kid" content we were exposed to back in the day. Do I need this level of trauma or PTSD as an adult? No. But I'll keep watching.

#x men 97 #gambit #rogue #magneto #gambit and rogue #and yes it was great seeing Nightcrawler but why here and now?#also all the romantic drama. love triangles and trapezoids and what not #this episode was one part daytime soap opera. one part political drama. and one part epic anime end of the world battle with stakes.#I was not prepared x-men '97. not prepared at all #so many more thoughts but I'm trying to minimize these long posts yet I'm failing completely

29 notes · View notes

algumaideia · 9 months

Text

Don't know if you guys can tell but I'm not good with romance

...

Jason’s day was going as expected until the afternoon. He went to his classes, made a presentation of a school project, ate and now was going to his room. Nothing unusual. Until a classmate said the following:

“Your boyfriend is waiting for you at the front desk.”

Most people in this situation would ask what boyfriend? Because Jason Grace did not have a boyfriend, he had been single since he and Piper broke up. But Jason wasn’t most people, he just nodded and went to see the person or creature that was calling itself his boyfriend. Maybe it was a monster, he didn’t understand why it would go to such trouble to get to him, however it was definitely a possibility. It could also be a minor god, trying to reach for him. In the end he wasn’t prepared for who was waiting for him.

“Hey, Jason, it’s good to see you.”

Nico di Angelo was there in all his glory. His hair was longer, reaching the shoulders, he had gained some weight, had no black eyes, and just better. Nico was wearing a white shirt with a black skull melting on it, black jeans with chains. He looked good. But most important, Jason missed Nico. A lot.

“It’s good to see you too.”

Nico seemed amused. It was probably because Jason was a little awkward, still trying to process the situation.

“Can we go anywhere to talk or now is not a good moment?”

“Huh, no, I’m not busy. We could go to a restaurant or to my room, I don’t share it with anyone.”

“Your room sounds good.”

So they went to Jason’s room.

One thing was still a mystery though.

“Why did you say you were my boyfriend?”

Nico looked at Jason like he was crazy.

“I didn’t?”

“Oh.. George must have heard the message wrong then. Or maybe he was just messing with me.”

Nico still looked at Jason like he wasn’t making much sense, but didn’t say anything else. They walked in silence. It was weird.

When they got in the bedroom, Nico sat in the bed and Jason in the chair next to his desk. Things didn’t become less weird. They stared at each other. Jason still was unsure about what was happening.

“So, what brings you here?"

"You."

Nico said it like it was a reasonable answer.

"You were so happy when I said I would say at camp and then you just went away, after you and Piper broke up you barely keep in touch, you haven't been at any camp for months, whenever anyone sees you, you look exhausted. What is happening?"

Jason had no words. He cried. Nico hugged him.

…

“I could help you.”

"What?"

They hadn't properly talked, Jason did tell Nico how he felt about the break up with Piper, but obviously that wasn't the only problem.

"Your job with honoring all the gods. I could help you. I have contacts and I can travel easily."

Jason didn't want to be pitied or a burden.

"You don't have to."

"I want to do it. It would be nice to spend more time with you."

Jason also didn't know how to deal with this.

…

Nico started to spend a lot of time with Jason which made Jason worry if he was being treated well. Nico always said it was fine. Jason wasn't so sure.

…

Jason sighed.

"Thank you, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have gone to see Leo if it wasn't for you. I really needed it."

Nico smiled.

"Of course." …

"I still don't understand the appeal of Tennis."

"Maybe you would if you tried to play it."

"Nah. I'm fine with just watching."

…

"I shouldn't have taught you how to play mythomagic."

"Don't be so bitter, Nico. This is just the natural course of things. The student always gets better than the teacher."

…

They were lying in the grass, with cuts and bruises. They had just fought a group of cyclops and were laughing.

Nico looked at Jason. Jason looked at Nico. They never felt so lonely when they were together.

They kissed for the first time in the afternoon.

#jasicoweek2023 #jasico #jason grace #nico di angelo #day 5

23 notes · View notes

ilovelosersandshortmen · 5 months

Text

The Members of the X-Men reacting to a member of the Brotherhood joining them.

Honestly, I love this because I've always been a huge Kurt fan and I've never written about him before!! Also, I didn't specify the relationships so anyone can imagine what they want.

KURT WAGNER (Nightcrawler):

• He doesn't accept you right away, which makes sense. He still holds a few grudges against the brotherhood and even more so because of Mystique.

• But you guys spend some time together, maybe you bond over your hatred for his mother or something, and he starts to genuinely like you as a person.

• He is the first to come to your defense if anyone talks negatively about you.

• He'd probably be the only one who is willing to spar with you, because honestly, you scare a lot of the X-Men.

• You two become a force of nature. Anyone who ever has a problem with you is taken care of quickly.

• .. Not in a Mafia way or anything. They just "mysteriously" end up getting transported to random places.

• Also, you two would prank people all the time.

• Kurt is more sympathetic than anyone else because he knows what it feels like to be judged. He gets what you're going through.

• So he convinces everyone else to give you a chance after a while

• And you best believe he's always there to cheer you up with a cheesy joke whenever you're sad

• He leaves little gifts in your room while you're sleeping and then teleports away.

• Always making sure you're fed by bringing food to your room when you're avoiding everyone else.

JEAN GREY (Phoenix):

• We all know Jean is way too sweet for her own good. She sees the goodness in everyone around her, even when there is none.

• So she welcomes you with open arms, only being a little cautious when it comes to fighting and things like that.

• She's definitely a peace-keeper, the kind of girl who would help you calm down after a fight.

• She teaches you breathing exercises and is always a shoulder to lean on when you're feeling down.

• She's such a sweetheart honestly, I love her so much

• She would really encourage you to come out of your room. She takes you on a lot of walks in the garden and things like that.

KITTY PRYDE (Shadow Cat) :

• Lots of insults and snide remarks towards you.

• She's a bit judgemental, which I hate to say but I genuinely think it's true.

• But of course, once she realizes how amazing you are, you guys become closer.

• Which she adamantly denies, but everyone can see how worried she gets when you're angry or overly tired.

• She's a little bit of a Tsundere but that's okay.

• She's usually a very sweet girl but as soon as you get hurt, she's pouncing on people. It might take a while to pry her off, but she's still in denial about liking you.

SCOTT SUMMERS (Cyclops):

• Honestly, even though people think he would judge you, he would probably be more accepting than a lot of the members.

• I mean, he joined Magneto at one point, so he knows what it's like to be indoctrinated and judged for doing what you think is right.

• So he's just really cautious around you while still being friendly.

• Like with a child, you know what I mean? Watching you to make sure you won't cause trouble or something.

• Which can be a bit condescending, but he really does mean well.

• And he'll stop if anyone points it out.

ROGUE:

• .. she has no room to judge.

Sorry this took so long lol. I've had a lot of stuff to do and I honestly only saw this recently. Of course, I hope you enjoy! I've never written for the X-Men themselves before, so it's a bit out of my comfort zone.

6 notes · View notes

roguestorm · 8 months

Note

I am here for your in-depth analysis for my favourite ship Jott. I see many people reducing it to nostalgia and marvel not wanting to split them but I disagree wholeheartedly cuz to me they work well together without overpowering the other. I just can’t get myself to articulate it well hahah so what do you think makes JeanScott work well together.

Ohhhhhhhh let’s see

What you said about not overpowering each other is true, in a couple different senses. I think it helps that they’re both powerful and iconic and interesting characters in their own rights, so Jean/Scott never has to be stale bc there’s always something you can do with one or the other of them. (Like Romy! They’re both interesting in their own right!) But also as characters they never overpower the other because they like fundamentally respect each other even when they disagree or have different ways of doing things. (Like RoLo!) I’m not sure which one of those you meant ha ha but I definitely agree!

I also like that they have always seen the potential in each other. There’s a quote from 308… “When I was young, withdrawn, frightened, you challenged me to become all I was capable of becoming” or something to that effect. And I think that’s true both ways! Like Jean really clearly saw Scott and what he could be way before he saw it himself. And Scott has always thought the world of Jean and believed her capable of anything. This goes back to the like respect we were talking about but they both think that they’re so lucky to have ended up with this amazing person and they’re proud of each other and so their relationship is founded on that as a source of love.

They work personality wise I think because they’re really similar in some ways and really different in others. Like they both start off as insecure and they both repress a lot of stuff, but they manifest that in really different ways. Scott isolates himself and Jean is friendly and outgoing and beloved by everyone. They both believe really strongly in the X-Men, but they come at it from slightly different angles – Scott has built his whole identity around being a mutant in the service of other mutants and particularly the X-Men, and Jean has built her identity around being a superhero who fights for Xavier’s dream. So they’re a good balance as a couple because they’re often on the same page, but they’re not boring to each other or to us as readers because they also help illuminate the other person in their differences.

I also just like love their story. Like young and in love and heroes is interesting but so is X-Factor’s quarter-life crisis angle and so is the married couple who only have each other part of The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix and so is the negotiating when they want to leave the X-Men or not and I just think that all the heroics and the domesticity work really well for them! They have dramatic fights and grand gestures of love and cute little moments and times when they make each other laugh and fun date nights and there’s so much history! And I think that’s different from nostalgia because I think that recognizing the history is about like honoring the couple for what they are while also trying to push them forward into new eras and new moments together so that they can make new and different history.

Like overall they just make me so happy and I love them! (🥰 <- Me thinking about them)

Thanks for the question!! Do you feel like any of this captures what you love about them, or do you think that you like them for different reasons?

#asks #Anonymous #otp: a hurricane and its eye #jott

9 notes · View notes

wellnoe · 1 year

Note

What do you think Rachel and Madelyne's relationship would be like if they met? (Have they met?)

they have met! they met while maddy was married to scott and scott did not know rachel was his kid. i would say that they don't really have a relationship?

rachel is extremely upset when she finds out maddy and scott are going to have a boy, but none of those emotions really revolve around maddy? she's not angry at maddy, just upset that she won’t exist. she does say that one of the reasons she doesn't want to tell scott she's his daughter is because it could open up old wounds for maddy:

[id: a panel from x-men/alpha flight #2. rachel sits next to cyclops, thinking: "If I tell him, I'll reopen wounds that have barely healed. I'll always remind him--and Madelyne too--of what he had, and what might have been. He's made peace with his ghosts; maybe it's time I did the same with mine"./end id]

(i want to note that i think this is pretty much exactly what happens when rachel later shows up in a phoenix costume:

[id: rachel, off panel, responds to cyclops telling her he'd appreciate her not using a phoenix costume: "The outfit and the name, Cyclops, I mean to keep them both, I'm sorry it upsets you--but it's also none of your concern. You're married, remember? You may be leading this mission, but you're retired from the X-men." Maddy touches scott's shoulder, saying, "She's right Scott...isn't she?" Scott pulls his mask over his face, frowning, and says: "Sure."/end id]

like i think this is both about her saying he's retired from the x-men and her connecting that to him being married.)

anyway i think maddy and rachel don't really have a relationship. they get along fine and rachel gets really attached to her baby brother once he is born, but that's about it afaik until maddy gets all demonic and rachel gets a telepathic cry for help from nathan. she tries to see what's up, and mistakes maddy for jean.

[id: 2 panels from excalibur #6: rachel flies up to maddy, who is currently the goblin queen. rachel says: "Mom?!? It's me, Rachel!" Maddy responds, while blasting rachel out of the air, "Foolish girl, the Goblin Queen claimes but one child as her own--and he isn't you!"/end id]

rachel spends the rest of the event as a manikin, so they kind of end on a bad note i guess. i am unaware of any other time they met, but i have not read a ton of recent comics. my impression is that they don't really have a ton going on in their dynamic.

in terms of what their relationship COULD be like, i think it would be interesting to see their dynamic kind of focus around phoenix, and phoenix's relationship to jean, and what that means to both of them.

rachel and maddy are brought into being in 616 from encounters with phoenix that stem from the same event. phoenix has killed herself on the moon, and is attempting to return to give her memories to jean grey, currently cocooned in jamaica bay. as she does so, she encounters rachel:

[id: 3 panels from excalibur #52: Phoenix comes upon rachel's consciousness, floating in the air above new york. phoenix narrates: "I could conceive of no way to undo the evil I had done...save to return to Jean Grey the life force I had stolen. As I descended toward the Earth I sensed Jean, not in her cocoon, but floating high over New York." In the third panel, Phoenix narrates: "As I felt her psyche begin to slip into the timestream, I sent a portion of my essence to restore the stolen life force to Jean Grey...and followed Rachel into the future."/end id]

Phoenix then, at the behest of kate pryde, throws rachel into 616, with rachel unaware of any of this. And the essence that phoenix sent to jean does not actually go to jean!! when confronted with phoenix's memories of the destruction it has caused, jean, in her cocoon, rejects it. phoenix, still looking for something like jean, finds maddy, unaware, and unconscious.

[id: a panel from x-factor #38: jean and maddy stand face to face, eyes closed, telepathically observing maddy's memory of phoenix making contact with her. Maddy says: "You see what you rejected? Power! You sent the Phoenix away...sent it circling the globe. And it found me. I was whole...but not yet conscious. That bit of Phoenix, with its impressions and stolen memories awakened me...and gave me consciousness. I awoke...with Phoenix's dying thought. I stepped from the test-tube where I was grown...and called out our lover's name. Scott! I am what I am because you refused to take back what was rightfully yours."/end id]

i LOVE THIS. SO MUCH. They first touch phoenix on the same day, and they have completely different reactions and relationships to it. Phoenix is a nurturing presence for rachel, she saves her, cares for her, gives her power and a name that rachel wants, that rachel uses to honor her mother, who she and phoenix both miss.

and with maddy, phoenix is one more thing meant for jean and forced on her, one more thing that pushes her toward scott. it is really interesting to me that maddy says she is what she is because of jean's refusal to take what was hers. this is certainly true where phoenix is concerned: maddy gets brought to life, and she also gets jean's memories (even memories that predate phoenix, like annie's death. jean gives those memories to phoenix, phoenix gives them to maddy). but also, i think there's something there with maddy's role and what sinister planned for her. maddy has to have a child because jean died, and thus can't. if jean doesn't die, if phoenix doesn't kill herself on the moon, i think maddy thinks that she would never have been compelled into this role by sinister. she wouldn’t be forced into this role and this marriage and this motherhood.

it is so wild to me that they make contact w phoenix on the same day, and if they ever interact again, i would love to see phoenix brought up. i think there's room for a lot of sympathy between them! they both know what it means to be used as a tool by others. but also, rachel has a very weird and complicated relationship with her mom, where she loves her and wants to honor her memory and idolizes her and constantly feels rejected by her. i could see maddy's anger at and rejection of jean being really hard for rachel to get past.

thank you for asking this question i had a lot of fun thinking about it!!

#w.ask

23 notes · View notes

catboy-sinister · 2 years

Note

What is your fav Mister Sinister arc and/or also your favorite depiction/characterization of him?

Omg thank you for blessing my inbox my power is still out and I'm sitting in the dark 😭

So I actually have three favorite Sinisters, I just can't get enough I guess lmao. In no particular order:

1. Futher Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is like a perfect character study for pre-Sinister Nathaniel Essex. To keep it short and not an essay, I view Essex similarly to Kieron Gillen; the remnants of British imperialism + the side of science that goes too far. The part of science that goes too far is a pretty obvious one imo but it ties in soo nicely to the imperialism when we discover Essex has been experimenting on the 'lower' parts of society (and I use those quotes HEAVILY, this is in reference to prisoners and the poor so more about class than race). It's genuinely horrifying, at least to me, when he says that they're subhuman and he really believes it. Tbh I haven't reread it in a second so I don't know if he says it explicitly in the comic but I do know he says it in Fav #2 but we'll get to that. Point is, he truly believes he's doing good at this point by experimenting on these people because "oh well they commited crimes anyways so they're the worst we have so I'm doing everyone a favor". He's very, I guess, historical in his love for his wife too. He loves her but I don't think he sees her as his equal. We unfortunately only saw the terrible ending of their love but if we pick it out I'd say they were deeply in love. Yes I know their marriage was arranged but hey maybe it's Wattpad. Oh god I turned this into a rant- To draw it to a close I'll just say that this is a comic I read if I want to think about him in a dark horror way instead of a fun way.

2. Gillen's Sinister!! I love a sassy son of a biscuit. He can be super fun but also horrific depending on how you want to look at him. I love how it's hard to distinguish where the line is that seperates his persona vs his true nature. He's got all sorts of philisophic questions about him, like how far is too far, the ship of Theseus, and more. Even when you read from his perspective, you never know how much he knows. He's not as smart as he thinks he is but he might be smarter than we think he is, if that makes since. Plus he's just a bitch. He's fun if you want him to be, and he's awful if you want him to be.

3. Animated Series Sinister was my first introduction to him. And he'll always have a spot in my heart. I lovelovelove his voice, it's so unique. I remember watching the first part of when he shows up and thinking, "Ugh this guy is annoying" and then having a fanfic moment of "Oh. Oh." Kidnap me instead of Scott and Jean lmao. And then his part in the big Apocalypse storyline (spoilers?) where Magneto goes "Apocalypse betrayed us!" and Sinister goes "Uhm he betrayed you, I knew 💅" like damn bitch. And then Phalanx Covenant (spoilers??) he throws a Phalanx infected Moira off the plan and says in the bitchiest voice to Beast "You want her to infect the whole plane?! 😒" God he's funny. The Hasbro Pulse Sinister is probably my favorite purchase ever.

Well that was um long, I'm so sorry 💀

I didn't even really get to arcs besides Further Adventures

Don't worry everyone, the autism testing is coming in 2023 lol

#sinister posting #asks

16 notes · View notes

jaydonsjam · 1 year

Text

My Morbius reading continues! I read Marvel Team-Up #3-4 and gotta say I really enjoyed both! I always love a team-up between Johnny Storm and Spider-Man! I like that issue #3 picks up only weeks after TASM #102 and honestly it felt like a seamless transition. Morbius was more villainous in these two issues than previously. He’s trying to cure his vampirism so he kidnaps his friend and murders a few more people. He bites a kid and changes him into a vampire. Then he hits him later when he argues that humans deserve no remorse. I mean, he’s less sympathetic this time around but I still enjoyed getting more of him. I love that Morbius goes toe-to-toe with the X-Men and holds his ground for a while before he gets taken down by Cyclops. I honestly didn’t know Michael was THAT powerful but I enjoyed it. The fights in these two issues were lots of fun. I like that there turns out to be side effects for Spidey due to taking the serum and he’s on the verge of death. I like that they gave consequences to that. Anytime Spidey finds himself teaming with the X-Men is a fun time for me but I felt like the initial confrontation between Spidey and the X-Men was weird and felt forced just for action-sake. But I didn’t do my research so I don’t know if Marvel Team-Up #2 was the first meeting between Spidey and the X-Men. Although it seemed like Professor X knew Spidey already so idk. My favorite moment between both issues was when Spider-Man jumps on Morbius and just starts beating him senseless for killing someone in front of him plus he’s been fighting with himself for leaving Morbius to die in the river. Then there was a weird moment at the end that came out of nowhere when Spider-Man just gives Jean Gray a kiss after mentioning that he can’t thank the guys but he can thank her. Idk it was just a bizarre moment lol

But either way it was still a fun read and left me wanting to read more Spider-Man but that’s not hard cause he’s a top 5 Marvel character for me. Thanks for reading my dumb thoughts and I’ll keep updating my blog with more classic issue reviews!

(Marvel Team-Up #3 written by Gerry Conway pencilled by Ross Andru and inked by Frank Giacoia

Marvel Team-Up #4 written by Gerry Conway pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Steve Mitchell)

#marvel #marvel comics #morbius #spider man #spidey #x-men #Johnny storm #human torch #professor x #jean grey #cyclops #angel #beast #iceman

2 notes · View notes

spoilertv · 3 days

Text

#SpoilerTV

0 notes

keepsmagnetoaway · 17 days

Text

X-Men: The Hidden Years 11 (October 2000)

John Byrne & Tom Palmer

The blur of storylines continues. I realise most of my posts about this series are just complaints about this, but just to make the point clearly and upfront: what is the point in writing a book called X-Men if you are so clearly averse to all the X-Men ever being in the same place at the same time? The readers - rightfully - want and expect the X-Men to act as a team, it's a team book, that's the whole deal. But instead we get a sort of French farce vibe of characters constantly running in and out of different doors and just missing each other. Anyway, I like this page.

This issue...Sauron comes back, Xavier and Beast fight off a Sentinel with the help of their newly discovered kid mutant, who I initially suspected was going to turn out to be an early version of some later key character but now I think is just a throwaway, Magneto is apparently back (again? I forget). Cyclops and co. end up in a Dr Moreay-referencing sequence aboard a creepy freighter. I actually quite like this bit, the art is good and it engages with the mutant theme - which I always like to see - and the villain, Krueger, is appropriately creepy. He's got Angel somewhere, although we don't see where, because, again, the X-Men aren't allowed to be a team anymore.

He's apparently going to sell Cyclops, Jean and Centrally Important X-Men Member Candy Southern to none other than the Blob, Mastermind and Unus, which in Unus' case is a pretty unexpected appearance.

While I'm bitching and moaning, why can't this book ever have simply shaped panels? I get that only haivng rectangles is boring, but why are so many the panels in this book various weird trapezoids? After a while it achieves nothing. Man, I'm in a really bad mood with this stuff today.

#x men comics #an xmen a day #xmen #xmen the hidden years

0 notes

dg-outlaw · 1 month

Text

X-Men '97: Episode 1 Thoughts: Do I Like Cyclops Now?

Minor spoilers for Episode 1

First off, is it just me and all the brain rot from the internet and things I've seen and read in my life, but did the voice actor read that line a little too bedroom-y? And yeah, I heard that line several times via Spotify ads, so it wasn't just a a one-time thing.

"Mr. Summers, save that energy for the after party in the Danger Room."

All jokes aside, I really did enjoy the first episode and outside of knowing I was watching something new, it felt like I was jumping right back into the series like no time had passed.

A few things I really liked:

As mentioned in a previous post, I wasn't a big fan of Cyclops growing up. To me, the clean cut, handsome, by-the-book boy scout was never appealing, but damn did they make him badass in this episode. From the way he used his optic blasts in the opening to move and dodge, to his Johnny Utah 'Point Break' style who needs a freakin' parachute scene toward the end (IYKYK), I have a new respect for Cyclops.

Storm getting some respect on her name and her abilities. While she got knocked out in the beginning I appreciated when the sentinel recognized her as an Omega-level mutant when she made her entrance during the final battle. That along with her lightning turning the desert sand into glass was just awesome. As a kid, Storm always seemed like a cool character, but in the show she'd often make a grand entrance and then get knocked out by a tree branch or something two seconds later. To quote Leslie Jones from everyone's favorite 'Ghostbusters' movie, "Okay, I don't know if it was a race thing or a lady thing, but I'm mad as hell."

I loved the teamwork at the end and how it also showed that each of them were badass. In the old series if more than one sentinel showed up they were screwed, but this time there were at least half a dozen or more and the X-Men just kicked ass--as they should.

In relation to #1 and #2, I hope we see more unique and comic-centric uses of the characters' powers rather than them being nerfed for plot reasons, though I'm still look at you Jean Grey. Every. Single. Time. She uses Cerebro. It's like watching someone go back to a toxic ex. "This time they won't hurt me. This time it'll be different." Girl... That or someone needs to run that software update Charles kept skipping. At least show Jean ordering pizza on Cerebro so that we know it works properly and mind freak outs are not the norm.

That said, I do hope this show evolves a bit as it did in the first episode. While my nostalgic brain loves the old-style animation, the returning voice actors, and other stuff, I would like to see the show grow beyond what it was. The dialogue is a little cheesy in some parts (again, like it was back in the day), and the character interactions are a bit clunky at times, but I would like to see the show slowly become something new-ish rather than just a strict adherence to what it was. Many great animated shows have come along since this series in the 90s and I would hate for the writers to feel bound by some time-capsule of nostalgia. I'm happy with a slow burn evolution, but I think for it to have success it will have to evolve beyond a purist fanfic of the original with just a few added cool factor scenes.

#x men 97 #x men the animated series

3 notes · View notes

amuseadozen · 2 years

Text

New Muse

`Biographical`

Name: Alexandra O’Neill

Nicknames: Alex, Xan, Xandra, Al, Major, Cyclops(military), Reaper (military), Night Fall (military).

Alias: Nightfall

Birthday: September 18th, 1984

Age: 9-39

Hometown: Dublin, Ohio

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Gender: Presents as Female (can be intersexual)

Pronouns: She/They

Sexuality: Lesbian

Occupation: Major in the Army’s Special Forces aka Black Ops, S.H.I.E.L.D Agent, Avenger.

`Appearance`

Faceclaim: Kristen Stewart

Eye Color: Green/Hazel depending on mood

Hair Color: Brown to Bleach Blonde back to Brown

Height: 5’7’’

Build: Slim but athletic with defined muscles from being in the military for years.

Piercings (only wears when she is on leave): both ear lobes (one on the left but three on the right), left orbital, left forward helix, right eyebrow, septum.

Tattoos: tbd

Style: Masculine (Would wear a suit over a dress), Tomboy/Punk (Ripped jeans, dark wash. Leather jackets, band tees, or cut off tees. Combat boots or converse)

`Traits`

+: Has a big heart, is loyal, would do anything for a civilian stranger, loves to be playful and joke around when the time is right. Easy going and adventurous.

-: Can hold a grudge, can be cynical, 90% of the time is pessimistic, and can have a temper that rivals Bruce’s/Hulk’s. Can easily shut down when angry or push people away.

+\-: Can compartmentalize the job of a special forces officer, sarcastic, protective even when she doesn’t have to be. Almost always thinks things through before she acts unless it deals with a loved one then she just acts.

`Mental Status`

- Silently suffers from PTSD both from her childhood and from being overseas, bouts of depression.

- Can seemingly be an open individual but trust has to be gained and can easily be lost with her—depending on the person.

`Family`

Father:

-Faceclaim: Colin Firth

-Name: Jack O’Neill

-Short Bio: Army man through and through until his honorable discharge from the Army with a Purple Heart, used to be a friendly and outgoing man. After his discharge and handicap which left him in a wheelchair for life, Jack was no longer that friendly man. He became a gambler and a drinker, also verbally and mentally abusive to his family from his anger and pain at the way his lift turned out.

Mother:

-Faceclaim: Lili Taylor

-Name: Addison O’Neill

-Short Bio: A loving and patient mother/wife. She simply worked to pass the time once her kids were old enough and distract herself when Jack was deployed. But once he came home, Addison worked two jobs (One at a local diner and the other at a small grocery store in town) to keep food on the table, the lights on, and clothing on her children’s backs. She tried to keep Jack’s ire on herself as much as possible but refused to leave the man she’d been married to since she was legally able to do so, he was her high school sweetheart.

Older Brother:

-Faceclaim: Chase Crawford

-Name: Chase O’Neill

-Short Bio: Someone who couldn’t wait until he graduated to get away from his home and out into the world, not wanting to be near his abusive father and timid mother any longer. While he cared about his younger siblings his focus was always on himself. High School quarterback and top of his class academically, trying to get whatever scholarship he could get to run as far away. He ended up going to college on the opposite side of the country, rarely coming home for holidays and after a few years stopped calling. He became a high up in a law firm which eventually added O’Neill to their title.

Older Sister:

-Faceclaim:

-Name: Jessica O’Neill

-Short Bio: As the middle child it was almost easy for Jessica to never be home growing up, choosing to be out with friends running the streets until the early hours of the morning. She wasn’t the smartest book wise of the siblings but she was definitely the smartest when it came to common sense and being the people person much like their mother. Just like their brother, she couldn’t wait to graduate to get away from their father. But unlike Chase, Jessica’s love for their mother and Alexandra kept her from being completely selfish with her future plans. Jessica was more often than not Alexandra’s comfort person and the one who always showed the younger girl unconditional love. When she graduated, barely too many low grades and skipped classes, she went only a state away to a community college and always came back on holidays or Alexandra’s birthday. Weekly phone calls did dwindle down to monthly, especially once she met her future husband. She married at the young age of twenty one and had her first child at twenty three. Her husband made and makes enough as a banker (who came from a better off family than her own) so Jessica could be a stay at home mom. She may or may not have cried more than Addison when Alexandra joined the Army and she’s always the one to send letters and care packages. Jessica also convinced her husband to move back to Dublin once Alexandra was gone so she could be there for her mother more.

`1995 Forward`

When Nat leaves, Alexandra just kind of shuts down. Home life gets worse because Chase is on the other side of the country and Jessica is nearly out the door for her own college experience. Alexandra focuses solely on school, pushing away any remaining friends that were left and now that Nat is gone, some bullying takes place. Alexandra gets her first bouts of depression, her person is gone—while Jessica is close it’s not the same. So depression at home and school.

On one long bike ride around town to avoid going home Alexandra ends up finding an old rundown gym, the owner is ex-military like her father—has some damage mentally from being overseas but not like her dad. After coming around several times after school to watch and be away from home, the owner offers Alexandra a job of helping clean up around the place. He can tell the kid is running from something but never pries. There is where Alexandra’s interest in fighting starts; boxing, wrestling, anything that passes through. After she shows up with a black eye and roughed up clothes, the owner and a few of the fighters that know her decide to take her under their wing and teach her. Though they make her promise to never cross the line of protecting herself and using her knowledge to seriously hurt someone.

Junior year of high school Alexandra takes the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), she scores above average by a few points. Senior year she scores even higher, which leads to a recruiter talking to her, then her parents. Her father couldn’t give a damn but her mother doesn’t want her to do it. Jessica, who hates the idea, decides to be supportive. Alexandra graduates and enlists in the Army. She quickly climbs ranks until she falls into the special forces, aka black ops.

S.H.I.E.L.D. takes notice but neither Coulson or Fury himself can convince her to join...yet.

#new muse #marvel AU #looking for opposite #natasha romanoff #Natasha probably #marvel rp #marvel roleplay

1 note · View note

bamfdaddio · 3 years

Text

X-Men Abridged: 1981

The X-Men, those back-to-the-future mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(Uncanny X-Men 141 - 152) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Brent Anderson, Dave Cockrum, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod and Josef Rubinstein

While I also committed various fashion atrocities at the age of 14 (tye-die and fauxhawks, oh my), even Liberace would find Kitty’s outfits too much. (Uncanny X-Men 149; Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘81)

We dial back from the v. epic scope of the last few arcs. Instead, 1981 is just a lot of fun! We get:

Storm and Emma doing a Freaky Friday!

the X-Men vs. Magneto (again!)

A surprisingly effective Alien rip-off

An dystopian future! (OoOoOoOo)

Last year was the year of the Dark Phoenix, this is the year of Kitty Pryde. That’s not to say Jean’s death is swept under the rug: all throughout, we see her friends mourning her loss or remembering her fondly. (Scott even gets to have a demonic adventure about it.) But in general, Claremont puts Kitty in the forefront, fleshing out his YA-addition to the team. And what would a YA heroine be without a grim dystopia? Roll out the iconic Days of Future Past!

To be fair, 2013 was a dark time for all of us: What Does the Fox Say somehow got to the top of the charts and I was still watching Glee. (Uncanny X-Men 141)

How cool would it have been to see a name like Jonothon Starsmore or Eva Bell on those tombstones?

Anyway, that’s Kate. Kate’s had it rough. Mutants are at the bottom of the foodchain, most X-Men are dead and only a small cadre of resistance fighters remain, Sentinels dominate, and while she is married to Piotr, her children have been murdered. Bleak. Luckily, the rebellion has concocted the plan to shunt Kate’s spirit back in time to prevent this awful future from happening. (You’ve seen Days of Future Past, the last passably good X-Men film, you know what’s up.)

Let’s do the time warp again! 1981!Kitty’s mind gets taken over by 2013!Kitty, who promptly tries to convince the X-Men that a new Brotherhood of v. Evil Mutants will try to kill Senator Kelly, a presidential candidate who tries to put the mutant menace on the agenda. (Mutants tend to blow stuff up when he’s around.) Since the X-Men recently took a literal trip to Dante’s Infero and also befriended a cosmic world-ending entity, they basically shrug and go: “Yeah, this checks out.”

Off to Washington they go (zoommm) and there, they happen upon the Baddest Bitches in Herstory:

“How dare you hate mutants, senator Kelly! We’ll fix that by killing you!” (Uncanny X-Men 141)

This All-New, All-Different Brotherhood consists out of:

Destiny, a blind woman who can see the future. Definitely the eeriest member of this group. Badass lesbian, though that won´t be canon for years.

Avalanche. Greek who makes things shake. Is a long-standing member of the X-Men Rogue’s gallery, but rarely features in the spotlight. I think he got more characterization in four years of X-Men Evolution than he ever did in the comics.

Mystique. Shapeshifter. Ruthless and unhinged, the Cersei Lannister of the X-Men universe. Absolute legend, secretly the wife of Destiny, currently not as unhinged as she’ll be later. Immediately implied to be related to Nightcrawler: it’s the yellow-eyes-blue-skin-combo.

Pyro. Can manipulate fire, not create it. Absolute pillock, in all the best ways of the word. Originally intended as gay, but they decided to make him Australian instead. (?!)

Blob. Big, strong, immovable. We’ve seen him before.

One of the details in this fight I enjoy is that Storm is still struggling with her leadership, although she has a better grip on things than Cyclops:

Wolverine then proceeds to use those iconic but deadly claws about twice per issue for the next, oh, forty years. (Uncanny X-Men 142)

While the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in the present, we cut back and forth to the future. There, the X-Men consist out of some familiar faces - Storm, Colossus, Wolverine - and some surprises: Magneto (in a wheelchair), Franklin Richards (son of) and an unfamiliar ginger girl called Rachel. (She’ll be important later.) We even learn (one of) Magneto’s names: this is the first time he’s canonically called Magnus.

One of the strengths of Days of Future Past lies in its brevity, the way it tantalizingly taunts us with a brutal but familiar future without giving away too much. It’s single-handedly responsible for all those dark future timelines the X-lines are so fond of which will eventually culminate in time-displaced grandsons from alternative dimensions and the impossibility of a succinct answer to the question: “Who’s Cable?” Too much of a good thing and all that.

Still, what Days of Future Past does so successfully is:

Put the idea of the mutant menace back at the forefront, hammering home the metaphor of mutants being a minority. Mutants being put in camps and being forbidden to breed should - regretfully - make us think of all too many real life equivalents. (Specifically, all of the imagery harkens back to the Holocaust.)

It starkly shows what happens should the X-Men lose, reminding everyone of the stakes. The X-Men are here for a reason: bridging the gap between mutants and humankind. If they fuck up, we end up with mutant concentration camps.

It helps that the X-Men in the future almost all die horribly: Franklin is incinerated, Storm is impaled… It's brutal stuff. The only one to survive is Rachel, who wonders if their plan actually changed the future or if they created an alternative timeline. (It did the latter, sorry ‘bout it, Rachel.)

In the present, Kate chases after Destiny, who trains a gun on senator Kelly. I always wondered how this works: if Destiny saw the future, she knew that killing Kelly would trigger a terrifying future. What in the current Marvel timeline made her decide that the Days of Future Past was better? Did she see her own death? Did she see the Onslaught-crossover coming? The Chuck Austen run? What was it?

In any case, time-anomalous Kate stops Destiny from killing Kelly and the future is safe! For now. Kate disappears, Kitty returns to her body and some of the Brotherhood are apprehended. All is well, for now.

After being a key figure in DoFP, Kitty is also the main character in the Christmas special, which is basically a straight up horror and a pastiche of the Alien-movie.

Seriously, John Byrne still isn’t sure why he wasn’t sued by Ridley Scott for this. (Uncanny X-Men 143)

If you love Kitty Pryde? Read this issue. If you’re not convinced you like 80’s Kitty? Read this issue. It’s not continuity relevant and it’s basically Kitty playing the part of a Final Girl in a horror where she’s being chased by a demon, but it’s so good. It showcases all her strengths and her foibles. Kitty’s intelligent, cute (sometimes preciously so) and brave, but she’s also young, self-conscious and hot-headed. And it's not as if the other X-Men automatically adore her: Storm berates her all the time, she’s afraid of Kurt because of the way he looks (though she grows out of that) and she fights with Professor Xavier a lot. Moreover, she has a clever power-set for a young superhero who faces menaces on a daily basis: a thirteen year old who can go intangible is far less likely to have reality ensue on her and be dramatically offed because she's better at protecting herself.

I’m sure there are people who thought Sprite was hogging the spotlight, but I, for one, say she brings more to the table than, say, Angel. She’s not the Dawn Summers of this franchise.

Scott also gets a side quest. Poor guy can’t catch a break: first the love of his life dies, so he quits the X-Men, then he realizes he can’t do much else than be a superhero. He becomes a sailor on the ship of spunky captain Lee Forrester, is drawn into the sadistic plans of a demon unironically named D’Spayre and then shipwrecks in Bermuda with Lee.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are tormented by a team-up of Doom (who’s currently Latverialess and working on a comeback) and Arcade, that annoying crony. Locke, Arcade’s dom, has kidnapped the loved ones of the X-Men (Moira MacTaggart, Jean Grey’s parents, Illyana Rasputin and Amanda Sefton) in order to blackmail them into getting Doom to free Arcade. Apparently, Arcade accidentally insulted Doom and DOOM DOES NOT FORGIVE THAT FOLLY.

While the B-Squad (Polaris, Havok, Banshee and Iceman) goes to save Arcade’s hostages, the X-Men sneak into Doom’s castle. Well, except for Storm, who doesn’t give a single fuck and simply flies up to Doom, demanding an audience. Doom likes the cut of her jib and invites her to have dinner. (This is pre-Tinder, so this is a legit way of scoring a date.)

If Storm has a flaw (I said if!), it’s got to be her atrocious taste in men. (Uncanny X-Men 145)

The X-Men find Arcade’s cell empty, while Arcade casually saunters up to Storm and says hi. Storm realizes too late that this is a trap: while the X-Men are all trapped in Saw-like traps, Storm is encased in ‘living chrome’.

If you remember she’s claustrophobic, you know why this is a bad move.

While the X-Men free themselves from their traps - Polaris hilariously has to deal with a murderous merry-go-round - Storm is slowly driven mad in her prison, triggering a worldwide tempest. (She causes Lee and Scott to shipwreck.) Under the threat of Wolverine’s claws, Doom releases Storm - or rather, unleashes her.

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!” (Uncanny X-Men 147)

The memory of Jean brings Ororo back to herself and she starts undoing the superstorm she created. (If only climate change were reversed that easily.) Their confrontation ends by Storm easily forgiving Doom, because she apparently trespassed on his grounds without adequate cause.

Mkay.

All of Arcade’s hostages return to their homesteads, except for Illyana Rasputin, Piotr’s sister: she’s staying at the mansion for a while. Angel, who’s sort of been a part of the team since the Phoenix thing, has had it with Wolverine and his ‘tude, and decides to quit the X-Men : he doesn’t want to be a part of an outfit that has a killer like Wolverine on it. (Or maybe he’s just mad Claremont didn’t give him any storylines: his presence has been mostly pointless.) It’s too bad he left before Kitty started experimenting with her outfits: I bet he would have loved her ugly-ass costumes.

Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a brand new character, who then proceeds to disappear from the narrative for the rest of the year:

Black Tom has tried to kill you at least twice, but him sending you a long-lost daughter doesn’t give you pause? Ugh, Sean, you deserve Moira. (Uncanny X-Men 148)

Intrigued by Theresa? TOO BAD, WON’T SEE HER AGAIN ANYTIME SOON.

Another new character is the lonely, decidedly mutant looking Caliban, who can sense “people like him” and is on the lookout for companions. Like many lonely people who try and grasp at friendship, he decides to overshoot his shot and ruin the night of Storm, Kitty and Jessica Drew at a Dazzler concert. Because he tries to kidnap Kitty, the girls react a trifle aggressively. When they realize their mistake - the eerily pale Caliban is a simpleton rather than a menace - he’s already fled. No mention is made of the Morlocks yet!

There’s also another dull annual where the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four to save Arkon’s dimension from the Badoon and yaaaaawn. Far more interesting is the landmark issue #150. Slowly, through the adventures of Scott and Lee Forrester, Claremont has been setting things up for the return of a favorite villain. While the X-Men investigate Magneto’s old base in Antarctica on a hunch of Professor X and tangle with Garruk, Scott and Lee survive Storm’s tempest, only to wake up next to a strange island that seems to have been raised from the ocean.

It’s apparently some ancient citadel from a long forgotten civilization with a fondness for squid statues. (I don’t know man, I’ve never been to the Bermuda Triangle, maybe this is just super-accurate.)The tentacles make Lee Forrester feel very amorous, but before Scott can tell her he is way too repressed to just have sex with an attractive someone he’s known intimately for a month or two, Magneto saves his ass by revealing he, in fact, raised this island from the seafloor.

Oh, Magneto. So extra.

My ambitious little mutant demagogue then proceeds to take the entire world hostage, showing how much he’s grown from the pompous, raving madman from the sixties. (Sure, Magneto is still a bit of a madman, but increasingly, he starts being on the right side of history.)

“I’m trying to make Magneto more sympathetic.”

“Just put him on a page with some bigger villains who are less noble, like the Vanisher, Count Nefaria, or…”

“Reagan, Thatcher and Brezhnov?”

“Er.” (Uncanny X-Men 150)

It’s obvious Magneto is being pivoted as a more noble villain, codified into the well-intentioned extremist we know and love today. Not only do we get the first hints at his past, fleshing out his motivations, he’s also not wrong. Humans are historically not great at taking care of the planet or each other.

When the Russians call his bluff and launch nukes at Magneto’s new island, he quickly disarms them. His retribution is swift and ferocious: the entire citadel is a machine that massively amplifies his powers. He sinks the submarine that launched the missiles, condemning the entire crew to death, and he casually erects a vulcano in a Russian city in Siberia.

Damn. Not messing around this time.

Despite his good intentions, Magneto is still definitely in the wrong: not only because of his methods, but as Scott points out: if Magneto unifies the world under his kind of benevolent dictatorship, all of that will simply fall apart as soon as Magnus dies.

In a way, Magneto is just as big a dreamer as Charles is: Charles believes in peace and integration, whereas Magneto believes his iron fist will be enough to make a perfect world happen. Both of them ignore the reality that acceptance is difficult and messy, because you’re trying to change essential human nature: the fear of the other. Magneto believes in big, sweeping gestures that will fix the world in move, while changing the world is also boring, hard work. One step forward, two steps back. Magneto just wants to leapfrog to his ultimate goal.

The X-Men fly over the citadel, returning from Antarctica, and their plane crashes into the ocean. (Magneto does not brook planes over his territory, humans!) The Professor is also nearby, looking for Scott with Moira, Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers. The X-Men sneak onto the island, but to their horror, their powers are nullified by some machine of Magneto. They reunite with Scott, who formulates a plan to thwart the would-be ruler of the world.

While the rest of the X-Men go to trash the machine, Storm, Kitty and Lee infiltrate the control chamber where Storm finds a sleeping, shirtless Magneto. Once again showing her terrible taste in men, she is not weak in the knees at the sight of a sleeping Magnus: instead, she contemplates killing him.

Storm knows how dangerous he is, but she also knows that he’s a great man who’s fighting for ideals, no matter how misguided. She hesitates too long: Magneto stirs, suspects an attack and tosses her out of the window, to her death.

Magneto quickly undoes the sabotage the other X-Men have wrought to his machine. A fight erupts. Storm, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a ledge. She crawls back up and smashes an important-looking computer, restoring everyone’s powers.

The battle turns grim, but Scott sends Kitty away to wreck Magneto’s machinery. She sneaks off, following Scott’s orders and destroying both Magneto's power-up device and all of his plans by phasing though the computer circuitry. Magneto senses this and furiously gives chase. Overcome by rage, he attacks Kitty and disrupts her phasing power with a magnetic bolt, seemingly killing her?

Everything about this story beat is great: mama bear!Ororo, mournful Magnus and even the fact that Kitty’s godawful outfit serves a narrative function: highlighting to us (and Magneto) just how young she is. The fact that Kitty’s Jewish is just icing on the cake. (Uncanny X-Men 150)

And thus, the softening of Magneto commences. 1981 might be a year with wildly varying narratives, but it has given us at least three enduring legacies to the X-Mythos: a new kind of Magneto, a fondness for dystopian futures and the character of Kitty Pryde, who's really come into her own this year.

Ugliest Costume: Kitty! Purposefully, but still. Best costume, by the way, goes to Destiny, with her creepy, creepy golden mask. Just imagine this lady casually strolling across a battlefield, eerily calm and collected, dodging everything you throw at her. Awesome design.

Best new character: I usually pick one character - what good is having a shared award when declaring the best of anything? - but this year, it’s going to one of my favorite couples: Mystique and Destiny. Can’t wait to see more of them.

Most audacious retcon: Blob somehow retroactively becomes a member of the original Brotherhood, which is not what happened. Ever weirder is Xavier pondering that he never met Magneto before his attack in X-Men #1, while their cordially adversarial relationship rooted in a youthful friendship would soon become a cornerstone of the X-Men.

What to read: Uncanny X-Men 141 - 143 and 150 - 152

88 notes · View notes

salarta · 2 years

Text

"I think Polaris should date Jean Grey."

"No, she should date Emma Frost."

"Why not Wolverine?"

"She could always steal Gambit away from Rogue."

"I think Cyclops would be a good match."

"You know, an alternate universe did have her ending up with Colossus."

"Hey, Exodus would be perfect!"

"No no no, I think Lorna should date Jean's daughter, Rachel, so Lorna can tell her all about how hot her mom's cooch was in the early years."

"Let's go with Daken, he's like his father but he smells better."

"If we undo Iceman being gay they could still do it!"

"What about Kid Omega!"

"You know, dating Scarlet Witch isn't really incest since they're not considered siblings anymore."

"Yeah but Quicksilver got more time with her on X-Factor so they gotta do it now."

"Obviously she has to get back with Havok, you can't go wrong with half a century of being written exclusively as his girlfriend."

Polaris, slumped forward with her coffee while nursing the worst hangover: "Can I just not fuck someone for a while?"

#polaris #lorna dane #x-men #marvel

25 notes · View notes

mcustorm · 3 years

Text

In Defense of a Black Cyclops

In case my username didn’t make it clear, the single most anticipated visual project for me is the MCU’s interpretation of the X-Men, which hasn’t even been announced yet [officially]. And ladies and gents, I have found your Cyclops:

Good ol’ Alfred Enoch, who we all know from Harry Potter and How to Get Away With Murder. If you’re not familiar with HTGAWM, know that his character goes from the de facto leader of the ragtag (murderers) and most cherished protege of Viola Davis’ Professor X to taking more of a grimdark turn after his girlfriend’s death. Sound at least somewhat familiar?

Enoch also embodies the physicality of the character well, seeing as to how he’s “slim”, 6′4(!!), black, and notoriously lanky. Wait, one of these isn’t like the others.

In general I hate fancasting. Everyone generally picks from the same pool of about 30 actors (Peeps, neither Taron nor Daniel is a good Wolverine choice. Argue with your mother!), and most all of it is based on physicality, except when it absolutely should be (like say, choosing a ~5′10 dark-skinned black woman for Storm).

And I think there’s some malarkey afoot. I think there needs to be some serious consideration on part of fancasters and actual casting agents alike to rethink race when it comes to the [white] X-Men, especially since they’re the X-Men of all teams. So I’ll make the case for a black Cyclops:

1. There is no quota on Black X-Men: There’s a bug in your ear that’s been whispering lies to you for years, it says something to the effect of “We need a black person on the team for diversity. How bout Storm?” And you’ve gotten complacent. Storm does not have to be the only black person on your X-Men roster.

2. The X-Men represent diversity: Iceman is gay, Cyclops and Prof. X are disabled (sorta), there are plenty of women, oh and everybody except Storm is white. Of the A-List X-Men, there is only *one* POC character. I’d argue that an MCU X-Men needs to champion diversity like never before.

3. The X-Men represent minority struggle while being mostly white: There’s a cognitive dissonance in the metaphor that has always been there, and for the most part, nobody cares. To appeal to the white readers of the 60′s, the X-Men were all initially white. That way, the message of the mutants could be related to the audience with a familiar face. We don’t need to approach the problem that way in 202?

4. Just because that’s the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be: The first line of defense. Sorry, that will never be a good justification for literally any idea. It’s time for some more critical thinking.

5. We don’t all want to be Bishop: So say you’re white and you have a kid who for his birthday having a costume party. You’ve bought some X-Men costumes and you want each kid to pick one. 9 white kids and one black kid show up to your house. As the kids deliberate who gets what costume, be it Cyke or Wolvie or whatever, you yell at everybody to “STOP!”, point to the one black kid and tell him “You’re gonna be Bishop. That’s it, end of story!”

We don’t all want to be Bishop. The black child could have the best Cyclops interpretation within him, but you’ll never know if you don’t let him try. And that’s no different from the Black actors of Hollywood. There’s no reason why all of the black talent should *have* to compete for the role of Bishop or Storm, which I’ve discussed, while Joe Schmo can walk up and audition for literally anybody he wants.

Jharrel Jerome is 23 and has an Emmy to his name. He needs to be in the MCU in some capacity, period. Stephan James is another. How bout Damson Idris. Ashton Sanders. But no, no, let’s fancast Dacre Montgomery or Ansel or Joe Keery again as [Human Torch, Wolverine, Iceman, Angel, I’ve literally seen it all.]

6. Nobody wants to see the B-team if it comes down to it. The next line of defense from your racebending naysayers after “That’s the way it’s always been!” is “Well, what about Psylocke, Bishop, Forge and Jubilee?” who are otherwise known as B-tier X-Men. The problem is, we’ve got limited time and limited spots.

So since the X-Men is all about wonky metaphors that make half sense, let me give you another: Let’s say somebody approaches you and says “Hey buddy, I got two free concert tickets for ya! You can either see Michael Jackson Sings the Blues, or you can go see Justin Timberlake. Free of charge!”

Now, are you used to MJ singing the blues? No! Do you have a problem with going to see Justin Timberlake? No, he’s fine on a Wednesday! He had that one little diddy we liked that one time. We’d love to see him eventually! But are you gonna say, “fuck that, I’m going to see MJ Sings the Blues” regardless? Hell yes, because that’s still Michael Jackson. He’s gonna give the same amazing performance he always does, it’s just gonna be the blues. And speaking of blues...

7. Black is not Blue, Brown is not Blue: Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard this one: “I don’t care if you’re black, white, purple, or green, I’m going to treat you all the same!” I will not say all have this intention, but some fancasters have noticed that the racial diversity is kinda low within the A-List X-Men, so they oh-so-generously give the following roles to a black or brown person: Iceman, Nightcrawler, Beast.

Notice the pattern? It’s a microaggression, and it’s bullshit. What these fancasters are implicitly telling you is that, yes the actors will be black or brown, but when the action starts we can ignore that. They’ll be blue by then. In other words, you in fact do care if they’re purple or green. Nobody will cry foul if Dev Patel gets to play Nightcrawler (because that’s a common one I see), but should Anna Diop be Starfire or Michael B. Jordan be Human Torch, I bet there’d be backlash. Oh wait. If that’s you, please stop acting like you actually value diversity. You don’t want to see black or brown skin, period. Unless of course, it’s Storm (refer to point #1).

But wait, there’s more! When brown characters get whitewashed in these movies, it’s crickets! So eventually it’s revealed implicitly that proclaimers of point #4 only care about it one way.

8. Professor X should not be black if you’re not willing to change anyone else: The next line of defense is that some people say the professor should be black, if anybody HAS to be racebent. Something something MLK Jr., Civil Rights or some shit. Number one, I’m not reducing Professor X to being a magical negro for 9 white people (and Storm!) who for all intents and purposes get to have all the action. Number 2, the Professor X/MLK/Magneto/Malcolm X comparison is an oversimplifying disservice to ALL FOUR of those people. I hate that line whenever I see it, please watch a documentary my friends.

9. The Candidates for Racebending: For me, the A-List X-Men are Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde. Now, who should be exempt from the racebending? Storm, she’s our designated minority. Gambit, he’s Cajun and they’re white (generally speaking, that’s a fun bit of research). Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler, because their nationality/ethnicity was the whole point of the Giant-Size premise in the first place. Angel, because his character embodies a privileged white male. Beast and Iceman, I don’t care one way or another (Point #7).

That leaves Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde. Now Jean Grey is a redhead, and we all know that every time a redhead is racebent people sharpen their pitchforks (Mary Jane, Wally West, Iris West), so I will cede the ground on Jean if only so that my ginger friends can get their rep. Kitty Pryde is Jewish, but Jews of color exist. Rogue is from the South. And Cyclops is, well, just Cyclops. That makes those three characters good options for more diversity. But allow me to make the case for Cyclops, specifically.

10. It’s not just diversity for diversity’s sake: If you had to pick who the main character of the X-Men is supposed to be, most would say Cyclops. And so in a series that highlights racial discrimination in society, it makes sense that our main character be black. While changing Cyclops’ skin color should not change who he is as a character, it *should* recontextualize it. Now, as an eventual increasingly radical leader of the X-Men, Cyclops would evoke real life figures such as Colin Kaepernick or, shall I say, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not that most X-Men fans and writers truly think about what it means to be black anyways. Storm’s minority status is almost always put through the lens of her being a mutant and not her being a black woman. In other words, you can’t argue that making a character black will fundamentally change his or her character when you haven’t even analyzed the racial context of the black character(s) you already have. Another concept that the MCU X-Men should tackle: intersectionality.

11. Representation matters: I have to say it: Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther hit different. And now he is tragically gone. At the end of the day, the MCU moving forward is down its most prominent black male superhero. Which has implications beyond just the movies themselves.

The women are in good hands. Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia are badasses in Wakanda, Valkyrie is ruling Asgard, Storm is almost assuredly on the way, RiRi Williams has already been cast, and Monica Rambeau is here and she’s not even at her most glorious yet. That doesn’t even include variable Δ, or the number of characters who can and will be racebent. And I’ll note again that to me, Gamora doesn’t count, because she’s green (#7 really pisses me off because it’s so blatant. I hate it). Of course from a behind the camera perspective we love black women getting work.

The men are a completely different story. Imma just go out and say it, I can’t stand Falcon and War Machine [in the MCU] because they’re not characters, they’re just two of a slew of MCU minority sidekicks who have essentially been at the beck and call of Captain America and Iron Man, respectively. You cannot tell Falcon’s story without mentioning Cap. The reverse is not true. There’s a whole essay that could be and have been written on “Minorities in the MCU, pre-Black Panther”. Remember, there’s a reason BP made so much noise in the first place.

So excluding those two we have, let’s see, M’Baku, Blade, and Fury who aren’t exactly the most superheroic superheroes, Eli Bradley is proooobably coming, I doubt Miles Morales is coming (because he’s just Peter Parker in the MCU), Luke Cage(?) Bishop(??), Sunspot(???), Blue Marvel(????). Not only are they not A-List, I would not put money on any of them being in the MCU any time soon.

Cyclops is thee Captain America of the X-Men. He’s the frontman. He’s the poster boy. He’s the “boy scout”, which in other words means he’s the hero, if there has to be one. It would mean a lot right now, and specifically *right now*, if he were to be black. The MCU needs it. It NEEDS it.

12. The X-Men is the Summers Story: I’ll even make the case that if just one character needs to racebent, then it should be Cyclops, because that of course implies that other related characters need to be black because half of the X-Men universe is in fact a part of the Summers family.

So now Cable is black. Corsair is black. Havok is black. And one of the most central stories in the X-Men mythos, the Summers family drama, is now a black family drama set in space or the future or where the fuck ever. The concept is boundary pushing. When white families have drama in the media, it gets to be Game of Thrones or Star Wars, while when black families have drama in the media, it has to be black people arguing in a kitchen or living room about their various earthly traumas (I’m @’ing you, Mr. Perry). I mean, that’s all fine and good often times, but I want my black family drama in space, dammit.

And again, this is the X-Men, the series that’s all about *minorities* and their struggle, so again, why not?

Oh, and I’ll even throw out a Havok fancast for you: How bout Jharrel Jerome?

#cyclops #scott summers #the mutants #monica rambeau #X-men #xmen #marvel #MCU #fancast #jharrel would actually be a better sunspot #but you get the point #my man would have OPTIONS

158 notes · View notes

imperiuswrecked · 3 years

Note

To me, it doesn’t make sense to make Magneto the main villain because it has been done so much before and it would connect it so much to the Fox Films. Also I think there is a GREAT laziness in writing Magneto especially in films. He generally didn’t want to kill all humans, subjugate them yes because he doesn’t trust them. Which isn’t a ‘good guy’ move in itself and he slips in and out of.

He legit murdered genocide I think when he was going to kill all humans. Like no.

I also think that the average cinema goer likes Magneto too much… or maybe that is me. It would also require them to recast the most famous faces of the franchises?

Like is anyone going to care if they recast Jean, Scott, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty, Beast even Mystique but Magneto? I don’t know. I have long been a fan of an actual Jewish actor playing Magneto but following Ian McKellan would be difficult for the casual fans to accept. I don’t think Fassbender left such an amazing impression.

Even my most average MCU fans friends (and god they love the MCU 😤 but I see past it) still talk about how much they want to see a Magneto solo film.

To me I would put the focus on their reveal and sentinels. Then again I thought they’ll go through Krakoa stuff. Like it turns out the mutants have been living on this Island etc

With the ‘simpler times’ comment I have to for the sake of my sanity have to think that it was because Pietro knew where he was. Things were clear to him, as much as it hurt he had his sister. The following trauma had not occurred. Again I don’t think this is true but I am trying to reason bad writing. He didn’t doubt his morality but was indebted and controlled. Shitty actions were out of his control.

I don’t read Avengers so I didn’t know he was shelved for so long.

I think the Trial of Magneto is trying to ride on the coattails of Wandavision because even though she’s not a mutant a lot of the internet was wanting Magneto to show up. So what is the best way to get those fans who wanted to see that? Set up a family comic book where they establish the family again because I guess the MCU fans heard they’ve changed their background and themselves didn’t like it.

I see the Trial of Magneto as something poorly thought out as they saw what the audience was interested in. The timeline kind of clashes uncomfortably with Inferno. Which makes me think it was wedged in there to ride the Wandavision train and undo the retcon on the side of the main storyline.

Thank you for reading my essay/rant

Ok so I'm going to first say you have a lot of great thoughts and great on picking up the whole forced feeling. You are right, it does feel wedged in there and it does feel forced because that's exactly what Marvel did.

The Trial of Magneto was supposed to be an X-Factor plot, it was Leah Williams next arc, here's an article link talking about her podcast: link (yes I know it's bleeding cool but I don't have time to listen to the podcast)

Leah Williams tells us that X-Factor was canceled because Leah's pitch for the Magneto/Wanda story for X-Factor, now called Trial Of Magneto, became such a popular pitch at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn't big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic. And canceled X-Factor #10 rather than seeing it run as originally planned, with the Trial beginning in X-Factor #15. Williams says she only learned about the cancellation of X-Factor when she was writing #9, so as she had to finish the series quickly, squeezing six issues worth of story into those last two issues, calling it "cramped and rushed".

So I'm not a fan of Leah but the way Marvel treats it's writers has always been terrible so this cancellation doesn't surprise me. Could this be about W*ndaVision? It's likely, but it's more likely this has to do with Hickman bowing out. It's no secret literally everyone hated the retcon and I always knew it would be undone but I didn't think it would take 6 years but here we are.

Hickman leaving is a bigger thing, he stated in an interview ( link ) that he had planned Krakoa and X-Men to be a 3 arc story, and he wasn't allowed to move onto the 2nd arc because the clowns at Marvel liked the idea of Krakoa too much and I'm so mad because that's exactly the kinda behavior that annoys me with the fans, them thinking Krakoa is just a fun playground for the mutants to mess around with.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot." Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

I'm so MAD because the thing I was predicting, that Hickman would have it come crashing down and everything would be revealed to be terrible and Mutant Death Sex Cult Island wasn't a paradise is never going to happen because the fucking CLOWNS at Marvel don't want him to move past it. I may have my personal gripes about some of Hickman's writing but we can't deny the man wrote one of the best if only the best Marvel Event with Fantastic Four/Avengers/Secret War.

As for the simpler times comment, like I have my theories that I wrote out here, and that's what I think is most likely but I do think Pietro's life has never been easy or simple once his adoptive parents died. Pietro could be drinking to a time before the Brotherhood.

I would love for a Jewish actor to play Magneto and any other characters who are Jewish. I would love for a Jewish writer to be able to write them too. However Ian's performance literally set him in the minds of the people as Magneto, not even Fassbender's bleh one note Magneto could compare. Imo the only reason people liked the younger Magneto was because he was young, handsome (? ig idk i dont simp for him) and they could ship him with young professor X (cowards. where is the old man ship???) But I feel like a new actor could definitely fill the role if they are Jewish and the writing was good.

Magneto's writing in comics... well I just wish we could have a Jewish writer for him. There's some great stuff for him but I feel like characters like him and Doom could be written better by non white/american writers.

Although by today's standards the og X-Men trilogy doesn't hold up I will defend the first two movies with my life simply because after Blade these movies opened up the idea that a good serious, non campy version where characters called Magneto and Cyclops were taken seriously. X2 in my mind was the definitive X-Men movie. Was it totally comic accurate? No, but it doesn't do what the MCU does, it doesn't treat the watcher like they need to have their hand held through all the military propaganda and "hints to the comics". Also side note; the reason no one cared about any of the other X-Men being recast is because all through most of the X-Men movies the focal story point has been Professor X vs Magneto. If they really want people to care about those characters/actors then we would need stories that focused on them. Not like how Storm barely had any character growth or plot in the og X-Men and even young Ororo got mishandled by the script. This is why I feel we should have "origin movies" for the X-Men that don't do what Wolverine Origins did and try to make a whole new cast but instead should use the stories as they are. If it was Kurt's story then we would see him join the X-Men, and have the other actors revolve around that. Same with each of the others, the X-Men work best when they are working off each other and each given enough screen/page time to shine. Unfortunately we all have our favorites, even movies and writers, so those are who are going to be pushed for fans to love.

Thank you for your long rant and sorry for my own long rant/reply.

#xmen #x men #comic talk #xmcu #magneto #erik lensherr #imp answers

20 notes · View notes