Age of X-Man: Marvelous X-Men #5 Preview

[spirit2011]

This is dope AF

thisis the new power Zac talked

[ChristopherZero]

This series has been a delight. I'm really looking forward to the conclusion, and I really appreciate this creative use of Nature Girl's abilities and the deeper look at her point of view.

[Anduinel]

I can see why Williams was a little salty about having to include Moneta in her book now - the kid's ultimate purpose was to get killed off-sides in a story integral to a different series. I do wonder if we're going to see the murder from another angle in X-Tracts #4, though.

[PetPigeon]

Maybe all of Nate's fake creations will just bite the dust.

[CoCoBandz]

Maybe all of Nate's fake creations will just bite the dust.

I'd rather they stay and he go tbh.

[stormphoenix]

WOW that's a cool power of Nature Girl. She can talk to Bacterial??? Cool.

[Huntsman Spider]

Poor Nate, he is being so villified and he just wanted to do good.
He did take some wrong choices but well intended, I hope he doesn't die.

If he does survive this, he’s going to have a long path to redemption ahead of him. Prior to Age of X-Man, he literally tried to end the world and his actions are directly the cause of everything going wrong with mutantkind in Uncanny. He basically caused a mess and then ran off leaving innocent people to suffer the consequences of them all while holding the X-Men captive in his world.

Yeah, i know he is no innocent but he isn't a villain either. If you think about it he is essentially still a child.
Most X-men had done radical stuff trying to do good, sometimes borderline evil.

Well you know what they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I've posted this before, but Nate comes from an incredibly damaged upbringing. Dani Moonstar was the only normal relationship Nate has ever had. There was the Age of Apocalypse Theresa Cassidy, but that reality ended before anything could really happen. There was Threnody, but that relationship was messed up by her powers making her addicted to Nate and that strange pregnancy. Then there was Madelyne Pryor, whom he, a teenager, recreated seeking a mother and she, an adult, pretty much raped him. This becomes even more messed up when you consider that Nate as a person had only been around for a few years at that point, even if he was biologically a teenager. Then she did it again when she became Queen Jean. So yeah, when his sexual history is that bad, I can kind of see where somebody with his powers is coming from.

So yeah, I also feel really bad for Nathan. He's sick and instead of trying to help him, Jean, his own mother, tried to fight him instead. She only helped when it was too late and then he did all this.

Quoting all of you mostly to provide context for what I'm going to say here. Nate's pretty much on the same level as Ben Reilly circa The Clone Conspiracy --- extremely traumatized to the point of possible psychosis, and said trauma and possible psychosis have jaundiced his perspective and skewed his moral compass to the point where while he does start off trying to do something "good" for the world at large, he's caused potentially apocalyptic damage in the process by taking it upon himself to impose his definition of "good" upon said world despite the lines he's crossed in doing so. Now we're getting to the point where his efforts are all about to come undone, so does he admit he was wrong and try to ameliorate the damage, or does he double down and try to annihilate everyone and everything he believes is standing in the way of the better world he wants to create? The Clone Conspiracy had Ben go the latter way, and that ruined him as a character for a while despite being spun off into his own solo where he tried to redeem himself (and arguably failed until he was "fixed" in Spider-Geddon), but there's some room for Nate to go the opposite direction and genuinely try to make amends for what he did. I guess we'll see.

[cranger]

Quoting all of you mostly to provide context for what I'm going to say here. Nate's pretty much on the same level as Ben Reilly circa The Clone Conspiracy --- extremely traumatized to the point of possible psychosis, and said trauma and possible psychosis have jaundiced his perspective and skewed his moral compass to the point where while he does start off trying to do something "good" for the world at large, he's caused potentially apocalyptic damage in the process by taking it upon himself to impose his definition of "good" upon said world despite the lines he's crossed in doing so. Now we're getting to the point where his efforts are all about to come undone, so does he admit he was wrong and try to ameliorate the damage, or does he double down and try to annihilate everyone and everything he believes is standing in the way of the better world he wants to create? The Clone Conspiracy had Ben go the latter way, and that ruined him as a character for a while despite being spun off into his own solo where he tried to redeem himself (and arguably failed until he was "fixed" in Spider-Geddon), but there's some room for Nate to go the opposite direction and genuinely try to make amends for what he did. I guess we'll see.

I think part of the problem here is that Nate already doubled down. This started with him trying to create a better world and the X-Men confronted him, so he removed them all from the world. This is some other crazy layer that exists on top of whatever drove him to do the first crazy thing. It is kind of hard to see how the character finds redemption at this point.

[Dthirds3]

WOW that's a cool power of Nature Girl. She can talk to Bacterial??? Cool.

Considering they are everywhere and live a long time. I feel like talking to them could have solve many problems.

[Huntsman Spider]

I think part of the problem here is that Nate already doubled down. This started with him trying to create a better world and the X-Men confronted him, so he removed them all from the world. This is some other crazy layer that exists on top of whatever drove him to do the first crazy thing. It is kind of hard to see how the character finds redemption at this point.

That's a good point, I must admit.

Considering they are everywhere and live a long time. I feel like talking to them could have solve many problems.

Like diseases?

[Snoop Dogg]

It would be pretty hilarious for them to not just kill one of the most absurd characters in the franchise at a time when they're trying to refurbish it.

[Havok83]

This sh-t is finally almost over yet it feels as if nothing happene

[anyajenkins]

I know this is comic book science and shouldn’t bug me...but bacteria don’t have ‘eyes’ or brains to talk with...*annoyed for no really good reason*

[Tycon]

spoilers:

well well well cbr guesses it right again. X-Man has forcibly warped and positioned Apocalypse as the villain of the world because it will fit the archetypal story and give the X-Men and Nate’s order a foil/reason to keep existing. Moneta finds that out after running into Poccy’s sex club before he kills her which leads to Nature Girl finding out. Eventually the whole team gets on board, including Jean remembering Bishop and bits and pieces from Disassembled, and confront X-Man before he utters that he is the world.

end of spoilers

[Anduinel]

spoilers:

well well well cbr guesses it right again. X-Man has forcibly warped and positioned Apocalypse as the villain of the world because it will fit the archetypal story and give the X-Men and Nate’s order a foil/reason to keep existing. Moneta finds that out after running into Poccy’s sex club before he kills her which leads to Nature Girl finding out. Eventually the whole team gets on board, including Jean remembering Bishop and bits and pieces from Disassembled, and confront X-Man before he utters that he is the world.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Nadler and Thompson didn't do anything bad with this issue per se, but it's all very predictable. Save for the reveal about Poccy, it's the characters finding out what the reader already knows and they all react in ways that aren't in the least bit surprising. It's all in-character and it looks good, but it feels perfunctory. Can't say I care much for the omniscient bacteria deus ex and I REALLY wish these guys would stop with the Claremontian accents, but a decent enough read overall. 3/5, I'd say. Checks the tickboxes, but doesn't blow the lid off anything.

end of spoilers