Who are these two kids? Why were they added to the story? My guess: it's not by accident. But the point is... are they heroes or villains?
My gut reaction after finishing the issue was that they were sent by Ahab to infiltrate and mark his targets, which doesn't jive with his normal techniques. Before going to the mansion the only mutants they interacted with were the Blue team. I'm assuming they will have some relevance to the plot but it's interesting they are French, have no memories of who they are, and have no pigmentation to them.
I realized that once I saw a scan from the one-page preview posted earlier in the thread. Guess I'd forgotten what unis they were wearing.
I guess the end of Blue will lead into the beginning of Extermination, but it's always weird to me when the event starts before the lead-in ends.
What can I say but, "I love comics."
IA. To me it reads, "Hey, so the series you are reading is coming to an end and we're relaunching. So while this new series/event may spoil how your series ends, you'll be ok reading that in advance. The writer knows that their ending won't affect what we have planned and so the ending is inconsequential."
I get if you are relaunching a line, you need to get things all tied up and given various publishing schedules it can be hard. But it also screams "these last few issues don't matter to the new writers so you may not need to read them".
It could be worse, it could be in the middle of a writer's run and their book is majorly changed without their say and they are stuck with the pieces...
What's Gold?
Young Nate looked yummy.
Bloodstorm wasn't a big shock to me...she wasn't the same Bloodstorm from Mutant X and she was barely on the team....I completely forgot about her when the O5 were fighting Magneto until she showed up because she wasn't included with them in team shots. Marvel didn't give us a reason to care.
If you want more Bloodstorm go read Mutant X. Highly recommend it.
Can't wait to see Rachel disappear.
If she goes...great...if not...oh well. You can argue she's her own character, but Marvel only ever brings her forward from the background when Jean isn't alive, or around. If they really wanted to make her her own character pull a Cuckoo and have her dye her hair, or shave it...do something so she doesn't even look like Jean at all.
Considering the fact that Jordan White's favorite all-time X-team is the original Excalibur and there are some of the writers are also fans (well, Guggs really like Excalibur too and look how that turned out), but I'm not sure they'd exactly say Rachel was only in the forefront when Jean was gone.
I think we might see a return of Excalibur or perhaps Rachel going back to Cable since there's no need for her to be the team telepath required for X-Teams with Jean back.
Well, as we've seen OG X-Force members Warpath, Domino, Cannonball, Shatterstar & Boom-Boom with Jean on the cover of Extermination #3, it's fully possible other teams will guard Cyclops, Angel & Beast. Introducing that element of time travel would be really neat. I'd love to see Gen X, X-Factor, Excalibur or the Extinction team with the other members of the O5.
I'm with you on that. Bloodstorm, even with her minimal development, has been far more interesting than 616 Ororo has been in recent years. A pity, when an alternate take on a character is an improvement on their counterpart. I do think it's a shame that Bloodstorm lost her life so soon after her debut, even if I understand why they did it. And the scene was pretty heartbreaking, with Scott finally plucking up the courage to ask her out, only for her to be killed on their date, and dissolving into ash in front of him, as if she had never existed at all.
And I agree that not callling her Ororo in this particular circumstance was quite peculiar, but I think it has just been a matter of distinguishing between Bloodstorm and Storm.
A theory surfaced earlier in the thread that they may be living bombs planted by Ahab or another antagonist, which could result in the extermination of Cecilia Reyes and/or anyone else at the mansion. I believe this to be likely. Or perhaps they're just spies. Regardless, I doubt their mysterious arrival in the lives of the X-Men was entirely coincidental.
I think we could be facing an Excalibur revival in the near future. Jordan White and a handful of writers are fond of the concept. I'm not sure they'd attach Nightcrawler to a splinter team (nor would I want them to) but it could be a great way of making use of Kitty + Rachel now that other X-Men are filling their respective roles in the core X-Men (or could be). Cerise, Nocturne or Juggernaut returning to Excalibur could be interesting, and I can name a half-dozen other X-Men that I'd love to see on such a team. Elsa Bloodstone or Faiza Hussain too.