Hickman: How dare he?

[The Quiet Councilor]

I want to step away from all the handwringing over mutant pride and polyamory to talk about how Jonathan Hickman is nothing but a ****ing fanboy.

First of all, he took our collective cynicism about death in the X-books and completely turned it on its head by rendering it moot and bringing back everyone. Now all his favorites and everyone else’s favorites are on the table. The ****ing nerve of that guy.

Second, he took the classic care bear stare that brought about the original demise of Krakoa and made it a centerpiece of Krakoan culture. Mutants working together to achieve the impossible? Pshaw

Third, he dares to pepper his books with subtle nods to the past, including lifting quotes from past comics so high priestess Storm could verify the identities of the heroes of Krakoa to the citizens of Krakoan. What kind of loser can’t even write his own material? A f***ing fanboy, that’s who.

Fourth, this man had the gall to admit he turned down several pitches from his peers that tore down parts of the mythology. Who the hell does he think he is? If other writers enjoy this cycle of destruction and don’t want to be additive, who is he to stop them?

What do you think about his decision to do these things?

What other things has he done to prove he’s nothing but a f***ing fanboy?

How else has his sense of entitlement served to lift up the franchise?

Did we even say we wanted to be lifted?

SMH

[Grey]

Wonder how many will just read the title before responding.

[Veitha]

I was like Oh **** here we go again.

But I was wrong, like the freaking fanboy I am.

[RachelGrey]

lol, nice sarcasm there.

I love that he is calling back to the history of the mutants in so many little ways.

I also love how Hickman encourages the other writers to embrace the histories of their cast. Excalibur #1 by Tini Howard, you have Betsy encountering Brian, Megan, Maggie, Jamie, avoiding Kwannon. You can tell Tini is going all in on the Braddock/Otherworld/Captain Britain mythology in a way I don't think any writer has done before. Like seriously all in!

Marauders by Gerry Duggan is the ultimate Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost rebirth for both characters. Gerry is taking what Jonathan did with Emma in House of X and running forward with it, and then using that to impact Kate Pryde, and through Kate linking in Storm, Bobby, Bishop, and Pyro. Seriously both Kate and Emma needed a bit of a reset after the last 3 years of mess created for both of them, and this helps to get them both on better footing as characters going forward. There are hints that Bobby and Storm are going to get some big development in the next few issues, and I liked the Gerry kept going with Storm's development from House of X and X-Men too, she is very focused on rescuing mutants from all over the world, it was even revealed in X-Men that she is putting a lot of pressure on herself to accomplish this. It's not unexpected that Storm decided to stay with Kate and help rescue mutants, because Storm has already been working on this for a while, and as a council member she may have decided to keep an eye on Kate's team to make sure they stay safe.

I love how Jonathan sits down with all these writers and they work together as a team to bring the books forward. To me there is a cohesive feel to the X-Men that hasn't been there in a while, all the books are interlinked with each other in that they reference what is happening in the others. Everyone is working from the same base of operations, Krakoa, and they are going to be interacting with each other on each other's books from time to time.

This feels like how you run a TV series with multiple characters and storyboard the entire season and then fill in the scripts as you go. A good comparison would be a show like Babylon 5 that was storyboarded out for all 5 seasons and they just had to make modifications to the story as actors came and went over the course of the series. J. Michael Straczynski knew exactly how each season of Babylon 5 was going to play out and knew the big epic events he wanted to cover in each season.

This is how the X-Men feel now, Jonathan Hickman took the time to sit down with all the writers and they have hashed out at least 2 years of story already. Sure the final scripts all have to be written still, and there is probably room for adjustments to the overall story along the way, but overall these writers have a good idea where they are going with all their main characters for the next year or 2.

[Devaishwarya]

I approve of this message...absolutely and entirely.

[DiamondQueen]

I hate that freaking FanBoy.

[salarta]

I thought this was going to be about sex. D:

[JB]

lol, nice sarcasm there.

I love that he is calling back to the history of the mutants in so many little ways.

I also love how Hickman encourages the other writers to embrace the histories of their cast. Excalibur #1 by Tini Howard, you have Betsy encountering Brian, Megan, Maggie, Jamie, avoiding Kwannon. You can tell Tini is going all in on the Braddock/Otherworld/Captain Britain mythology in a way I don't think any writer has done before. Like seriously all in!

Marauders by Gerry Duggan is the ultimate Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost rebirth for both characters. Gerry is taking what Jonathan did with Emma in House of X and running forward with it, and then using that to impact Kate Pryde, and through Kate linking in Storm, Bobby, Bishop, and Pyro. Seriously both Kate and Emma needed a bit of a reset after the last 3 years of mess created for both of them, and this helps to get them both on better footing as characters going forward. There are hints that Bobby and Storm are going to get some big development in the next few issues, and I liked the Gerry kept going with Storm's development from House of X and X-Men too, she is very focused on rescuing mutants from all over the world, it was even revealed in X-Men that she is putting a lot of pressure on herself to accomplish this. It's not unexpected that Storm decided to stay with Kate and help rescue mutants, because Storm has already been working on this for a while, and as a council member she may have decided to keep an eye on Kate's team to make sure they stay safe.

I love how Jonathan sits down with all these writers and they work together as a team to bring the books forward. To me there is a cohesive feel to the X-Men that hasn't been there in a while, all the books are interlinked with each other in that they reference what is happening in the others. Everyone is working from the same base of operations, Krakoa, and they are going to be interacting with each other on each other's books from time to time.

This feels like how you run a TV series with multiple characters and storyboard the entire season and then fill in the scripts as you go. A good comparison would be a show like Babylon 5 that was storyboarded out for all 5 seasons and they just had to make modifications to the story as actors came and went over the course of the series. J. Michael Straczynski knew exactly how each season of Babylon 5 was going to play out and knew the big epic events he wanted to cover in each season.

This is how the X-Men feel now, Jonathan Hickman took the time to sit down with all the writers and they have hashed out at least 2 years of story already. Sure the final scripts all have to be written still, and there is probably room for adjustments to the overall story along the way, but overall these writers have a good idea where they are going with all their main characters for the next year or 2.

Co-signed on all of this! It's been a dream of mine to have the writers of multiple X-books work together so closely so that they truly feel interconnected and like a family.

Thank you for this post, The Quiet Councilor.

[jwatson]

Damn right he is and he don't know what us fans went through or HOW we got here but I was ROOTING for him! I was ROOTING FOR HIM!!!!

lol. (Some will get the joke.)

[nx01a]

I love his respect for the past and his desire to try something new. Dang fanboy. *shakes fist*

Damn right he is and he don't know what us fans went through or HOW we got here but I was ROOTING for him! I was ROOTING FOR HIM!!!!
lol. (Some will get the joke.)

Duh.

[Tycon]

It’s sad that he’s already had to shut down writers who ALREADY want to break stuff in the new status quo. Those are the exact type of writers that shouldn’t be touching the X-Mythos, especially rn of all times.

[Devaishwarya]

...if it wasn't for that meddling Fanboy!

[Cyke]

I hate that freaking FanBoy.

I dunno, I can relate to FanBoy...

[Desmark]

Yo Dawgs Hickman is a mutants fanboy so he must be persecuted.

[terrancejameson]

He is a fanboy of the highest order! I love that he loves Hadari Yao. Bless this man!