X-MEN #2 Arakko Review *spoilers*

[AHRNIHAL]

I don't see the problem in the dialogues. Summers have never been a real family like F4. Here we've a kid version of a character who we knew as 50+ years old.
A daughter who came from another world and less than 5 years younger than the man she wants to call father.
The dialogue is supposed to feel off.

The art is just bad.
Also the worldbuilding is still going on than other books.

[powerpax]

Scott has been flowing between Big Dick Utopia/Rightclops Energy and Hi Fellow Mutant I’m Dad for at least the last twenty years. This was no different. With his kids he can unwind and be full I’m Dad.

I don’t see what’s wrong with poor Rachel being chill. She can’t agonize over being a fetish Hound forever.

I’m still waiting/hoping to see them all interact with the presumably resurrected Grey twins (Joey and Gailyn) someday. I assume the kids will think this is Disney World.

[Anchorsify]

lotta hate coming in for it but I was mostly okay with the Summers family bonding time issue.

Only thing I don't like is Cable giving him a bomb (really.. why) and Rachel forgetting how to translate. And why would rachel and scott just go, oh yeah, let's give this stranger a bomb, what could possibly go wrong? Why not give them a flower, or one of the drugs made from Krakoa flowers, or something less likely to immediately turn into the worst case scenario?

kind of silly in that regard, but w/e. curious to see what it means that Arakko is already there and a thing.

[Havok83]

lotta hate coming in for it but I was mostly okay with the Summers family bonding time issue.

Only thing I don't like is Cable giving him a bomb (really.. why) and Rachel forgetting how to translate. And why would rachel and scott just go, oh yeah, let's give this stranger a bomb, what could possibly go wrong? Why not give them a flower, or one of the drugs made from Krakoa flowers, or something less likely to immediately turn into the worst case scenario?

kind of silly in that regard, but w/e. curious to see what it means that Arakko is already there and a thing.

They didnt know that Cable gave it a grenade until after the fact and Scott reacted as it went off

[Desmark]

The ones who guessed the islands were going to couple were bang on target. The issue didn't turn out to be a bad read as seemed likely by the preview. Seeing Apocalypse in a tender moment is weird as most of the times he would have repulsed summoner stating his survival of the fittest dictum. Guess he must still be feeling the love guru calypse vibes.

[stormphoenix]

The issue was good and Interesting no doubt.

The Summers family felt kinda out of character to me, but I did like the family dynamics that was very cute.

This Arakko Island sounds very fishy along with the High Summoner is Daemons and Elementals. And it’s ties to Otherworld has me curious if we see them again in Excalibur.

Of Course Apocalypse looks to be up to no Good.

All in all this was pretty cool. It was great, but ok.

[Crimz]

This issue bored me tbh.

I was struggling to care about anything that happened.

[Glio]

I think Rachel and Cable were silly just so there could be an action scene.

[Purplevit]

My thoughts from preview thread.

It wasn`t good at all. Art and dialogues are bad. X-Men shouldn`t be Cyke solo or Summers family adventures. It contradicts what are X-Men to me.

Sad about it because I really loved HOX/POX. So far X-men for me has the lowest quality of DOX books.

[AHRNIHAL]

lotta hate coming in for it but I was mostly okay with the Summers family bonding time issue.

Only thing I don't like is Cable giving him a bomb (really.. why) and Rachel forgetting how to translate. And why would rachel and scott just go, oh yeah, let's give this stranger a bomb, what could possibly go wrong? Why not give them a flower, or one of the drugs made from Krakoa flowers, or something less likely to immediately turn into the worst case scenario?

kind of silly in that regard, but w/e. curious to see what it means that Arakko is already there and a thing.

Kid cable is a dumbass. It makes sense for that idiot.
I don't see that why people think Rachel forget telepathy. She didn't. She just didn't think of installing Krakoan language in the person's mind. Different ,maybe slightly.

[Omega Alpha]

This was an otherwise good issue that was brought down by terrible, stiff art. Ironically, seems like Hickman's run will also be brought down by lame art just like Morrison's. I don't know whose idea it was to bring Yu to do SIX issues in a row, but that was extremely stupid. He's barely any good when he has lots of time, let alone in a hurry.

That said, this was a deceptively happy and light issue. This confirms what Hickman hinted at in Powers of 10 in that if a war divides mutantkind, Krakoa might side with Apocalypse. One has to wonder how much does Moira know.

Ya'll are gonna need to stop being so fixated on age. Hickman made that very irrelevant with the whole resurrection protocols and people being able to be aged physically and mentally to whatever they feel optimal. Its kinda moot now. Scott can be mid 20s and 30s and that technically not contradict anything

Exactly. In fact, with the time travel Scott did, he already lived 30 something years, maybe more, but physically he's clearly much younger.

I just want to know more or less the age difference between Scott and Rachel to better understand the father-daughter relationship that exist between them.

Why does it matter? People can adopt other people not much younger than them, or a stepdad or mom can have a parent-like relationship with someone not that much younger.

[People Of The Earth]

Here’s what I don’t understand: why are the old archetypes of these characters so important?

There's a semblance of familiarity as a reader to be able to recognize the voice of a character even when said character is handled by different writers throughout the years.
I'm not saying characters shouldn't evolve - in fact, isn't it part of the appeal to read their adventures and personal Journey and growth for years sometime? I think it is - BUT it has to be done with attention and care, not bluntly like it is done here.

This is not the Cable we’ve read for decades. He is a young kid. He displayed some of that vulnerability and immaturity in several books before HOX.

True. I already wrote Kable off as a moronic teenager. What makes it painful, is to realize this moronic teenager is the same character who took out Cable. It stings.
My remarks are more directed toward Rachel and Scott, though from the two Scott at least shows competency and intelligence through the issue, balancing out his horrendous bantering. Rachel doesn't.

And as for the Summers clan finally chilling out and being retrofitted into an iteration of the F4 - I am all for it. It’s been decades. They all know and love each other. Scott and Jean raised this Nathan. Rachel has been home a long time. I don’t see a reason for them not to become a functional family unit as opposed to tripping over angst and grimdark exposition dialogue all the time. They spent so many years being the Very Important Summers-Grey Clan that bored the piss out of me in the 90s. I am happy to see them just lean into being The Incredibles instead.

Which is perfectly fine with me, and I'm sure, with most of the readership.
What is not fine though is the execution, or lack thereof, if them becoming this functional family ala The Incredibles is truly one of the goals of Hickman with them here.
We could have seen this sense of familiarity and camarederie between all of them develop over the missions they were going to do together as a unit in the future issues, but we are left already at the final outcome without having witness any of the Journey instead.
It leaves us wanting and disappointed, at least in my case, not because I started reading this issue wanting to see that happening, but because since Hickman decided to go down that road with these characters, he should have processed it much much better than he did here.
If one is bound to do Something no one was asking for, at least s/he should try and do it properly, to summarize.
That's not the case here.

[Tunasammiches]

i for one thought this issue was a lot of fun, and much better than fallen angels (cable was a bit cringeworthy tho) and intriguing. the family bonding was much needed and a long time coming. just wish it was with old man cable instead. he would have made this issue so much better.

cable's decisions in this issue leads me to believe that his decision to kill his older self was another bad decision on his part, and confirms how wholly unnecessary it was for him to do it.

[Magneto]

Wi-Fi is a huge mess. I feel bad for Cable fans.

[powerpax]

I’m not sure the takeaway here is a rift between Apocalypse and the X-Men yet. I think what is clear is there is a deeper game at play with the demons Arakko is fighting, and the X-Men will have to deal with what Arakko has been fighting against as well soon. Apocalypse wants to save the mutants of Arakko. This should be a goal the X-Men can get behind.

I’ll die if we see N’astirh again.