X-Men #3 [Hordeculture] - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

Best new villains i have seen in a while.

They are fun and made our heroes pause, showing that they indeed do not want to just dominate and kill humans (for those hissing and boo'ing in the back). They are good Krakoan-law-abiding citizens.

[pandafarmer]

Eh... spent way too much time trying to be cute and clever and outside of the dialog between Jean and Emma I feel it was the biggest fail of the DOX so far. It was nice to see Scott make a connection that he screwed up sending the NM's across the galaxy though. I'm sure there is a point to introducing MORE threats here, but I was hoping we'd hear more about the Krakoa love connection established last book. I really don't want "monsters of the week," I'm here for the deeper story here.

[Mutant X]

I understand people being disappointed with this title.
Everybody expected X-men would be a direct continuation of Hox/Pox and the flagship of DoX.
And it's clearly not.

But it doesn't mean it's bad.
This issue was very fun, with very good character interactions.
Hordeculture reminds me Manhattan Projects that I loved.

[FeniSam]

This was... a mess, and not even an enjoyable hot mess, lol.

The "b-word" and "s-word" and so on got older than those ladies, fast, even if the insult to Emma really did land well.

I can see Hickman being all Hickman-y in his storytelling, but the plot points so far seem all over the place. There's Orchis, the Summoners, the Golden Genocidals and whatever he's doing in New Mutants which will inevitably tie-in to the larger story. If the dialogue wasn't so distracting and awful, I'd appreciate the world-building more, but the voices for the characters (in almost every issue so far) are so hit and miss it really takes me out of the story. Also, Yu continues not being great, though he sold the Emma moment and he deserves credit for that.

[Bozack]

In a past life Yu was a God. But boyyyyyyyyy is his art borderline unbearable now. What the hell happened?

[spirit2011]

Eh... spent way too much time trying to be cute and clever and outside of the dialog between Jean and Emma I feel it was the biggest fail of the DOX so far. It was nice to see Scott make a connection that he screwed up sending the NM's across the galaxy though. I'm sure there is a point to introducing MORE threats here, but I was hoping we'd hear more about the Krakoa love connection established last book. I really don't want "monsters of the week," I'm here for the deeper story here.

Hickman is clearly establishing the future villains. But the stories aren't one and done, they are open threads

[People Of The Earth]

- Unlike the preview, the book starts with people in masks coming through the Savage Land's portal who then encounter and attack Pixie and Anole.

- After the title pages, we get into the council meeting seen in the preview.

- Back to the Savage Land, the X-Men on Savage Land duty are subdued (fucking hell, man) and the attackers are revealed to be your grandma and her book club and they spout some un-necessary dialogue.

- Cut to Australia where it's revealed that the away team for the issue is Cyclops, Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw (bruh...). Since Illyana is off-world bullying aliens, they have to hitch a ride from Gateway.

- Cut to Savage Land where the trio encounters the Horde. Sebastian tries to talk them out of it and gets bodied by their mutant neutralizing slime. Scott tries to OPTIC BLAST through and gets bodied.

- I had to stop to take a drink.

- Emma diamonds up and tells them to explain themselves.

- Your gran-gran tells her that their basically super botanists who were planning to make plants take over the Earth but the Snoop-Men ruined their plans with their fancy mutie island. Team Gran-Gran fucks off and tells Emma that with their knowledge they can hack the Krakoa gates whenever they want. The book ends with another council meeting about Hordeculture and a data page for your granny.


Score:
Attachment 89948

I am of half mind with this issue.
From one side, what is security?
Like, AGAIN.
Xavier dying the Week before didn't serve as a Lesson AT ALL it seems…

Look, if other countries have figured out that their frontiers needed protection by fencing them off, patrolling them physically and all in all, have people dedicated to muscle out any unwanted intruders - surely the Kraked, in all their SUPERIOR wisdom as we are being battered with weeks in and weeks out on this forum, surely they'd have figured out by now that yes, monitoring who use your transportation network is good, but proper security enforcers readily available around them is better? Especially when you have such vulnerable mutants around them ("flower children")?
I made that remark back in Marauder #1, it didn't take long before it was illustrated in the comics, by this book here.
I'll add it to the 101 basic nation things that the sapiens have figured out a long time ago but mutants are unable to implement despite all their purpoted "genetic superiority", the number of people populating this island right now and the amount of resources at their disposal… Kind of a bum when you see they do have plenty of candidates to do either parties or orgies or both on the other hand.

Embarassing.

I get that mutants feel "safe" in Krakoa nowadays, so much that some of them feel invicible and godlike even (!!!) but it doesn't mean they have to collectively be so unprepared to everything all the time.
Right now? They suck at this, more than Genosha or Utopia ever did.

I didn't really care about the Jean/Emma interaction.
First, because I'm part of the small crowd who think Jean, as a character, would be better off living on her own rather than being shackled romantically to another person. Let alone Scott Summers and all the drama attached to the man - whether with his former wife (Madelyne) or mistress (Emma) - but it's neither here nor there since her resurrection so I let go of the issue a long time ago… All the subtext/innuendo/drama being conveyed here is pointless to me as a result.
Second of all, because for all we know, the lot of them are a bunch of fancy clones who Don't know better since HoX/PoX anyway. I grew to care about Ben Reilly over the years, so who knows, there's hope yet in their cases.

I do care about Empath and Selene feeding over the population of the island however… big wtf moment here for me.
It's one thing that the Kraked are willingly accepting the toll of having the island feeding off their psychic Energy - they are housed, fed and provided with anything they need by said island after all. If it's a "rent" they all agreed to pay so to speak, then good on them and good for Krakoa itself - and I bet the more people get on Krakoa, the less the psychic toll gets for each individual.
It's another thing however that mass murderers and maniacs like Selene and Emplate are allowed by the powers that be to feed on the population too. Are the citizens aware of this? Did Monet and other GenXers signed-up on that? Did the other X-Men?
That's the exact kind of shady stuff that has people worried about the X-Men as a whole.
Lol, "everything is Under control" is gonna be the go-to answer made to this situation, and yes, it's true, eventhough they are failing at securing their borders properly, the Kraked at least have some measure of success in putting a leash on those mutants like Selene and Emplate.
That's not the point though. Morally speaking, is it right to let those two feed on the populace altogether? Where do the X-Men draw a line exactly? When?

As for the elderly quartet of villains here, though I enjoyed their cheek when making a joke out of Emma and a fool out of Scott and Sebastian Shaw, their generally excentric attitude between themselves and toward others left me with a sour taste.
If those four ladies can hack into Krakoa so easily, it won't be long before other parties manage to do the same.
I appreciated the commentary made about the abuses going on in the agro-industry though, there was Truth in those words. The methods however… Awful, top to bottom.
I Don't expect to see much of them after Hickman's run, so I'd rather preferred if he had used Ex Nihilo as the sprinboard for "Krakoa is in our way" kind of talk here, at least he was interesting.
And Mars is his territory, so he might see Krakoa as an invasive species.
A confrontation with him ending in a defeat would have felt less buffonish than Summers and Shaw being kicked around by those four ladies - sorry, by "good ol' human ingenuity" is what I meant. Really.



2/5.

What is security? What is ethic? The Reavers and Hordeculture could have ended mutantkind twice over if they so wished, and the denizens of Krakoa are a buffet to the likes of Selene and Emplate. The growing incompetence of the Kraked's leaders is getting out of control - they need a reality-check ASAP.
If evolution was really at play here, the mutants would be outstripped by sapiens largely thanks to the stupidity the former group is currently demonstrating... Shocking, I know.
I did enjoy the humour much more than I did in last issue, it's a very hit-and-miss kind of humour Hickman is sticking to here, and it did connect with me this time around. Not sure the cast in this book is suited for it though. Can't say I'm impressed by the writing beyond that either, which is annoying since Hickman is a favourite of mine. Hope he'll get there in the following issues.

[tuck frump]

The Jean/Emma scene and the "you need to was yourself girl" are clear evidence that Hickman has been watching reruns of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.



Emma is clearly Kenya Moore.

Jean = Phony Phaephae and Emma is Kenya Mwhore?

Liked the issue a lot. Scott and Emma were obviously screwing each other brains out right before the council meeting. Hence Jean passive agressiveness and Emma remarking she dont have a hair out of place.

Scott last issue: I love a single person.
Emma this issue: if you beat up these ladies I'll love u even more.

Theres no making it more clear.

Yu's Cyclops was YUmmy.

[JasmineW]

The art is so stiff. The scene where Emma is insulted is just so lifeless.

[spirit2011]

Jean = Phony Phaephae and Emma is Kenya Mwhore?

Liked the issue a lot. Scott and Emma were obviously screwing each other brains out right before the council meeting. Hence Jean passive agressiveness and Emma remarking she dont have a hair out of place.

Scott last issue: I love a single person.
Emma this issue: if you beat up these ladies I'll love u even more.

Theres no making it more clear.

Yu's Cyclops was YUmmy.

If h eloves someone, that someone isn't Emma. he was basically letting the old ladies call her names and didn't seemed pressed to make Emma love him more. neither was Shaw

[Wild Fang X]

So, the antagonists are the Golden Girls crossed with the Planeteers and they raided the Reavers' armory...

...I can dig it. :shrug:

On the other hand:

Rabid environmentalists bug the sh*t outta me...

[ExodusCloak]

This was the best issue of X-Men so far. I found it funny, Emmas refuses to break old ladies bones thats her limit. #EmmaisKind

Anyway, this was funny. From Shaws reaction, we got more of the rectangle and these villains look interesting.

Ressurect Destiny ASAP send her Mystique, Selene and Qwerty to fight the hordeculture

[mugiwara]

Ressurect Destiny ASAP send her Mystique, Selene and Qwerty to fight the hordeculture

Nanny and Annalee can join too.
And Ernst, just to confuse everybody.

[Veitha]

Jean = Phony Phaephae and Emma is Kenya Mwhore?

Well, I can see that. But Phaedra is more chaotic evil ala Mystique. Jean can be Cynthia because the writers don't know what to do with her yet (disclaimer: this is just a joke like the average crotch joke, we love everyone).

[hulkling]

This was the best issue of X-Men so far. I found it funny, Emmas refuses to break old ladies bones thats her limit. #EmmaisKind

Anyway, this was funny. From Shaws reaction, we got more of the rectangle and these villains look interesting.

Ressurect Destiny ASAP send her Mystique, Selene and Qwerty to fight the hordeculture

They can not send Selene anywhere because they need her in krakoa. Another one of the weakness of Krakoa is that some mutants ( The Five , sage , etc) are needed 24/7 to keep the harmony in the island.
Just with Cypher out they already have problems.