Age of X-Man: NextGen #1 (spoilers/discussion)

[Anduinel]

Moving things out of the preview thread:

This is another AoXM series off to a very strong start.

Brisson did a great job making Dept X seem scary as hell - Betsy as the attractive, smiling, squeaky-clean "for the greater good" face of law and order, Blob as the actual enforcer of that order, the lawful neutral thug threatening and manhandling a teenage girl (after possibly having tried to literally burn her and her friends out in the first place!). These guys are the role models for the next generation of heroes. Man. I suspect I am gonna have some complicated-as-hell feelings about the cast once The X-Tremists finally hits the shelves.

Most of this issue was about setting up character roles and building tension. Glob is still acting as our everyman. I think the way Brisson is going with this isn't that he was overlooked by Nate, but that he's been mindwiped before and his telepathic resistance has allowed him to keep some fragments of his canonical memories, and they're slowly resurfacing. Bling! and Anole seem to be forming a student resistance, and have definitely been caught and mindwiped before. Also, Anole is much better treated here than in Disassembled - he seems to have a brain, and the writer remembered his regen and camouflage powers. I honestly cannot tell if Pixie is a construct as theorized, or just an extreme goody two-shoes/suck-up, but yeah, not to be trusted. Armor seems a little too earnestly conflicted to be a plant, though.

I think the whole creepy aura of manipulation and fluid reality surrounding AoXM hits a bit harder here than in Marvelous X-Men #1 because the focus characters here are kids struggling against indoctrination and being repressed, both insidiously and violently, in response. So yeah, this book has the potential hit right smack in the feels once things go from "skin-crawlingly bad" to "Oh ****!" levels of fucked up. (And we just know they're going to.) I did not think I'd ever be saying that about something centered on Glob, but there you are.

Cast and cameos:
Primary Cast: Glob, Rockslide, Armor, Pixie Shark Girl, Anole
Teaching: Madison Jeffries, Sunfire, Husk, CeCe Reyes
Students: Bling!, Manon & Maxine, Gentle (miscolored), Match (miscolored), Transonic (miscolored), Primal
Other: The Marvelous X-Men cast, Blob, Psylocke

[Rosebunse]

Well, that was scary.

Someone protect these poor babies!

Maybe Glob is connected to the Phoenix force or something? That's only partially a joke.

[Anduinel]

Well, that was scary.

Someone protect these poor babies!

Maybe Glob is connected to the Phoenix force or something? That's only partially a joke.

My tentative guess is that Glob's eventually going to remember the circumstances of a previous mindwipe. There will be fire involved, and it will not make for happy reading.

[Triniking1234]

Oh that was Gentle. He looked like one of those tribal kids from Hickman's Avengers. Geez.

[Tycon]

I really love how the conversation flowed from Jeffries to Reyes to Guthrie to Yoshida, to subtly-yet-not-so-subtle explain just how this society so based in calling itself a utopia will always find a way to uproot anyone that could be different or push away from groupthink. It also makes me think (coupled with the end of #1 of Marvelous X-Men) that Apocalypse and the X-Tracts are just a role on the Earth to weed out the “weak.” While the real revolution starts in Prisoner X.

[Rosebunse]

I really love how the conversation flowed from Jeffries to Reyes to Guthrie to Yoshida, to subtly-yet-not-so-subtle explain just how this society so based in calling itself a utopia will always find a way to uproot anyone that could be different or push away from groupthink. It also makes me think (coupled with the end of #1 of Marvelous X-Men) that Apocalypse and the X-Tracts are just a role on the Earth to weed out the “weak.” While the real revolution starts in Prisoner X.

This my thinking as well. I'm sure Apocalypse is sinsere in what he's trying to do, but Nate is likely using him to weed out resistence.

But again, this could easily backfire. What does Nate do if everyone wants to rise against him? And Apocalypse is no slouch. He's ambitious, intelligent, and crazy.

[Mirai]

Pixie is so pro-Age of X-Man....

I think there will be a fight at one point between those who know the truth (Glob/Bling/Anole/Armor?) and the others, loyal to X-Man (Pixie, Shark-Girl?)

[Tycon]

This my thinking as well. I'm sure Apocalypse is sinsere in what he's trying to do, but Nate is likely using him to weed out resistence.

But again, this could easily backfire. What does Nate do if everyone wants to rise against him? And Apocalypse is no slouch. He's ambitious, intelligent, and crazy.

I think someone else may have said so on another thread, but I think Nate has a contingency for whoever joins Apocalypse. It’s almost like there is one last layer of defenses that he had to find a way to break and he can only do that via Apocalypse. But yeah, it’s also possible that Poccu can just manipulate him since he even managed to do it to him back on 616 when he was chained up.

Pixie is so pro-Age of X-Man....

I think there will be a fight at one point between those who know the truth (Glob/Bling/Anole/Armor?) and the others, loyal to X-Man (Pixie, Shark-Girl?)

It’s interesting that the two pro-AOXM members are the two that weren’t shown being at the final final battle. Pixie WAS there but she left to get Cannonball to a med bay and was never shown coming back.

[bladeofdarkness]

Pixie is so pro-Age of X-Man....

I think there will be a fight at one point between those who know the truth (Glob/Bling/Anole/Armor?) and the others, loyal to X-Man (Pixie, Shark-Girl?)

I'm almost certain at this stage that "Pixe" isn't really Pixie, but a Nate conjured spy.

[Havok83]

I don’t like the kids but this was better than I expected

[Anduinel]

Pixie is so pro-Age of X-Man....

I think there will be a fight at one point between those who know the truth (Glob/Bling/Anole/Armor?) and the others, loyal to X-Man (Pixie, Shark-Girl?)

I don't think Shark-Girl is necessarily unshakably loyal to Nate and his Utopia so much as she knows that she can get in trouble if anyone even makes it sound like she isn't. If you're not loyal to the state, you're working against the state and all of that.

[Rosebunse]

Pixie is so pro-Age of X-Man....

I think there will be a fight at one point between those who know the truth (Glob/Bling/Anole/Armor?) and the others, loyal to X-Man (Pixie, Shark-Girl?)

I really am buying that Pixie is a figment created by Nate. For one, there's some debate on if she was even at the beachside fight after she took Sam away.

For another, the art focuses in on her quite a bit. And she's way too happy to go along with the rules. Even Blob was showing a different level of emotion than she was.

I think someone else may have said so on another thread, but I think Nate has a contingency for whoever joins Apocalypse. It’s almost like there is one last layer of defenses that he had to find a way to break and he can only do that via Apocalypse. But yeah, it’s also possible that Poccu can just manipulate him since he even managed to do it to him back on 616 when he was chained up.

I said something like that on one of the threads.

There's just no real reason for Nate to have Apocalypse of all people walking about. Nate hates Apocalypse. Apocalypse is dangerous and you're right, old Poccy was playing Nate hard even tied up. But Nate just has him walking around? Leading a resistence?

So yeah, seems very likely Nate is trying to find the weaknesses in his utopia, but Apocalypse is a dangerous one to use for it, especially with the mutants he has.

[Beetle]

It’s interesting that the two pro-AOXM members are the two that weren’t shown being at the final final battle. Pixie WAS there but she left to get Cannonball to a med bay and was never shown coming back.

Sharkgirl was there, she was on one of the splash pages.

[Tycon]

Sharkgirl was there, she was on one of the splash pages.

Oh damnnnn, you’re right, you’re right. Well, back to the “Pixie is a fake and Shark Girl is just super enthusiastic” theory.

[PrezValentine]

This was great. Lots of new information.
- The division through majors is interesting, although a tired trope since Harry Potter came out and every other story has at least four groups with a selection process to get in. At least they're consistent with "the losers wear yellow and do stuff like agriculture"
- The Messiah Team was Hope, Cyclops, Wolverine, Cable, Gambit and Rogue. It's a good way to make sense of their absence. It's also funny how they keep hammering the Jesus Summers thing.
- Reiterating that tidbit about the guiding principles. One and two are mindwipes, three is excommunication. I wonder if the kids were planning some sort of armed revolution or were just making out.
- I'm already shipping Armor and Glob, even though we know Brisson won't go there.
- Despite the incorrect coloring of Nezhno, the art is still gorgeous and most of the colors work.

Solid start right there.