Originally Posted by
AppleJ
You know, I weirdly had a much less strong negative reaction to this issue than the last 7? Which is interesting because I'm seeing way more criticism for this book suddenly. But I seriously think it's because my expectations were so very, very low and because we got so little actual Rogue or Gambit this issue. Harder to screw them up if you just don't write them.
Yeah, I agree that we were meant to understand that Remy was running away as part of some kind of plan. And I think it was supposed to showcase their teamwork and innate understanding of each other. But obviously that didn't come through clearly for a lot of us which is not a good signal for writing quality and/or art direction. And he still got dissed by his teammates none-the-less ... AGAIN, even if it wasn't as it appeared. (Can we feel the eye roll?)
Definitely felt robbed we didn't get a cozy, snuggled sleeping Romy at least. Just. One. Panel! Though Bets in her see-through bloomers was funny at least.
The whole plot of stopping in the middle of the hunt for dinner and a rest was ... a weird plot point. Clearly there was the whole portion of the book that was about a bigger message and theme around "I don't mind mutants, but could you act less mutant" in lieu of the mutant metaphor. Which is great, but did we need to break it up this way? That line about "I know we haven't gotten off to the best start" ... for a moment felt very meta like maybe Tini addressing the reader, but then it wasn't ... so nevermind.
All these mini-missions with lackluster action sequences feel so much like fetch quests and I just can't get into it.
I'm kinda just finding myself a little annoyed with ALL the characters at this point. They don't feel like a team. Betsy doesn't feel like a strong leader. I'm not sure they even like each other (which we KNOW they do!)
I just read Marauders and it's definitely giving me all the character, team, plot flow, and dialogue beats that I want from Excalibur.
And that baby warwolve, while cute, is nowhere near Baby Yoda levels of cute. So I really hope that wasn't the cute thing Tini was referring to.
The data pages also continue to be an exercise in annoyance for me. The second one reads like horoscopes, but not in a way that is particularly helpful.