X-MEN #2 Arakko Review *spoilers*

[spirit2011]

There's actual AUs/What Ifs? devoted to a-certain-someone-that-Summers-jerk-couldn't-even-be-bothered-to-mention-while-planning-a-vacation-with-his-kid murdering Scott and/or Emma via the Phoenix Force. Just sayin'. Crazy is an amusingly polite/generous understatement, really.

AUS and What ifs doesn't count.

[RD155]

Finally got a chance to sit down and read this issue today. Damn it was hard to get through. 1 or 2 more issues tops and I might be done with this title. It was painfully difficult to read and I don’t know what happened since HOXPOX but I’m not feeling Hickman at all right now with these first 2 issues. This was probably the worst issue for DOX for me. Is this really how the Summers family acts or is Hickman just doing a bad job with them?

[Havok83]

Finally got a chance to sit down and read this issue today. Damn it was hard to get through. 1 or 2 more issues tops and I might be done with this title. It was painfully difficult to read and I don’t know what happened since HOXPOX but I’m not feeling Hickman at all right now with these first 2 issues. This was probably the worst issue for DOX for me. Is this really how the Summers family acts or is Hickman just doing a bad job with them?

This is a completely new dynamic for them and thats solely on Hickman

[Harpsikord]

Finally got a chance to sit down and read this issue today. Damn it was hard to get through. 1 or 2 more issues tops and I might be done with this title. It was painfully difficult to read and I don’t know what happened since HOXPOX but I’m not feeling Hickman at all right now with these first 2 issues. This was probably the worst issue for DOX for me. Is this really how the Summers family acts or is Hickman just doing a bad job with them?

It's Hickman doing a bad job with them. Rachel would never be this formal and distant with Scott, and the first thing she would have thought to do with the Summoner is either translate or communicate telepathically. Cable never would have bitten the fucking octopus or given the summoner a grenade as a gift, even this teenage version. Scott was fine, but then I feel like the others were written out of character specifically to make Scott look better.

[NewMutant]

Haven't read it yet; but Summers Family solely being on cover to an X-Men #1 is never a good sign and this issue seems to prove that.

HoX was amazing, the franchise direction is compelling, but the flagship does not seem promising.

[Whim]

The art feels so stiff .... the Kid Cable dialogue is just bad and Kid Cable is an abomination...

[JKtheMac]

- Rachel's known Nathan since he was a baby. She established a meaningful mind link with him, even when she lived with Excalibur and he lived with XFactor on the ship.
- Rachel is not a stranger to Cable or Kable - she was in his mind for most of his childhood during The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, which canonically takes place way before the age he's at when we meet him in Extermination so Nate/Cable/Kable has always felt close to her...with or without Scott. Rachel and Nate have had multiple storylines without Scott involved...he is not the common denominator
- The 3 of them HAVE been on missions together, Scott and Rachel were in plenty field missions in the 80's, like going to Asgard with the New Mutants, etc...and Nate and Scott did some stuff in Cable's book .... and Nate, Ray and Scott all were in the field together and fighting Cable during that story in Cable & Deadpool comic... heck Scott, Jean, Cable and Ray all fought Ahab together in Days of Future Present...(even though we didn't know Cable was a Summers then). Rachel WAS rescued by Kid Cable in XForce recently, and they've been living in the Summers house so they've had plenty of time for us to reasonably assume they've formed an organic relationship. Jean accepts him, Scott does too, why shouldn't Ray?

I dunno. your statements don't seem based in fact.

Glad someone is keeping score. Thanks.

It is so easy to just pretend things are how we think they are and then moan about them not being that way. In reality we have decades of continuity and writers have to pick a lane. Hickman has picked the Summers Family lane. That’s fine with me. I thought it was pretty on point for siblings coming to terms with a new family dynamic. It is pretty heavily implied that dad takes the kids on this road trip to force them to communicate, and plans like that always go badly before they go well.

[JKtheMac]

Brisson may have a plotting credit but IIRC both he and Hickman have said Hickman wrote the first two issues, implied solo. I've also read enough Hickman to tell when it's him. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

It certainly read just like Hickman.

[Anduinel]

I liked the story just fine, but I just didn't think Yu's art was a good pairing with the family bonding stuff. The expressions on the humorous bits just didn't come through. But the art was really effective when it came to making the Summoner look creepy and otherworldly, but also making him look vulnerable next to Apocolypse. Really, expanding on Poccy's mythology is what's got me interested here, and haven't usually had a lot of use for that character.

[RamaBird]

What a fail this was for me! It would've worked had Cable and Rachel not sounded like dumb teens. They sounded juvenile constantly calling Scott dad. In Cable's case, its specially off-putting watching dark and badass Cable suddenly become a puppy dog used as a punchbag. Why is he still here? He's from a failed time and the only book he was on sold pathetically compared to the one's out now.

Hickman also looks sloppy when it comes to dialogue but maybe that's cause his ideas overshadow things. Still, his dialogue has no kick in it it feels.

I did like Apocalypse's short scene though. He's probably the character that's benefitting the most from Hickman.

[JanBlackfyre]

The good:
Cyclops behaving like an adult as opposed to the immature horndog he has been since Morrison.

The bad:
The tease is dragging everybody down. This is not the only and most important thing for the characters and whatever answers Cyclops has will change the moment Marvel wants him with someone else.

[Supernature]

This was very Hickman's Avengers... which is not a good thing.

[RamaBird]

This was very Hickman's Avengers... which is not a good thing.

Never read that. I have liked the few issues I read of F4 he wrote though.

I do get the feeling Hickman might be more of an architect than writer though.

[GeneTitan]

Cyclops is my favorite character and I was cringing the whole time I was reading his dialogue. This issue was disappointing, however I will keep reading and buying because I saw the power of HOX and POX and I'm sure Hickman will get back to that. No disrespect to Yu, but I'm looking forward to R.B. Silva taking over on the art.

[xiyon]

The Good:
- Dialogue was better than the preview
- Cyke promising to take Rachel on a trip
- Rachel roasting Wifi
- Poccy and child-of-war
- impending war between Krakoa+Arakko vs ??? At least we're not stuck with just the Orchis crew

The Bad:
- Wifi is still... strange. And annoying. Cable oughtta be ashamed to have been taken out in one panel by this idiot.
- Forced conflict: Wifi thinking giving a bomb as a gift is a good idea

The undefined
- Island smut. Exactly what it sounds.
- Art is expressive in some panels; dead in others
- Cyke's complicated love & the special single someone. Oooh boy, Hickman continues to troll.

Overall, better than issue #1. The book's mostly still setting the stage for future conflicts though. I'm not sure how I feel about these one-and-dones, though, since there's no immediate hook for the next issue.