Empyre: X-Men #4 Preview

[Glio]

It seems that the invasion of Krakoa by the Cotati in X-Men is going to involve Magneto so it is likely that Polaris is there.

[Ichijinijisanji]

tfw no emma, lorna or magneto
imagine if emma had to see her zombie students?

This tie in just for memes and for wanda to add another notch to the "crime against mutantkind" board

[Kingdom X]

tfw no emma, lorna or magneto
imagine if emma had to see her zombie students?

This tie in just for memes and for wanda to add another notch to the "crime against mutantkind" board

I’ve been so overwhelmed by the endless action and weird character choices that I didn’t even think of some of the huge story potential that’s being wasted.

[pkingdom]

I’ve been so overwhelmed by the endless action and weird character choices that I didn’t even think of some of the huge story potential that’s being wasted.

Kitty is back to life; she could have met her zombie dad!

[salarta]

Emma survived too, and she's arguably one of the higher profiled mutants to survive. They didn't use her either

Toad is the other high profile survivor

I've seen this said previously when I've complained about Marvel ignoring Lorna's history with Genosha for the past 15 years. I have two responses depending on intent.

If the intent is to say those characters need it acknowledged too, then great. We agree on its importance. Let's work together to insist on better from Marvel than they've been willing to offer.

If the intent is to dismiss complaints and justify Marvel's behavior, then no. Absolutely not. Two wrongs do not make a right. And while I can't speak to Emma's or Toad's experiences, I know for a definitive fact that Lorna's experience should mean a hell of a lot more than Marvel acts like it does.

Before the genocide, Lorna was heavily involved in Magneto's running of it. She even posed as him on his behalf to maintain the appearance of strength. When the genocide happened, those millions were looking up to her as a sovereign princess and begging for her help as they all died around her. She replayed those moments in her head with her powers until she was found and broadcast them (along with her father's final message). What followed was a Lorna horribly traumatized by those events with extensive PTSD, whose outlook became much darker and more vicious. And for a time, she was regarded as the "Queen of Mutants" in her father's absence.

For Marvel to just shrug at all of that - especially the raw experience of millions murdered all around her, idolizing her and begging for her help, while she could do nothing to save them - is BS. There is no excuse. Lorna deserves and has deserved a hell of a lot better, especially in this.

P.S. - I'm extremely emotional on this subject. It means a lot to me. So if my response was overzealous compared to intent then I apologize.

All I was saying is that I understand your complaints about Lorna possibly not being present in a history about Genosha but that's not the case here when the purpose of this book isn't really to tell a story about Genosha. It's just a silly intentional mess built around a pun on the name of a famous game.

Covers always lie because the cover artist only really gets some instructions of what to draw and really have no idea what is going on the actual comic. Cyclops and Magneto are in the same cover and are nowhere to be found either. Magneto himself was the leader of Genosha and he has no role in this story. I doubt his or Lorna's absence is a sign of disrespect towards the characters, that's just not the story the writers are interested in telling right now. Maybe it will be later, who knows.

I do understand your point, that this book is not meant to be the place for a major, definitive, hugely revelatory story concerning Genosha and experiences of characters deeply tied to it. That if Marvel has such aims, they're better handled with a wholly different book with a different tone and intent behind it. I do respect where you're coming from on that. It's an understandable view when looking only at this mini.

However, we have two major problems tied to this situation.

One, we know of no such plans in Marvel's future. We only know what we know. If Marvel told us there was going to be another huge Genosha event soon, maybe we could cool our jets on Empyre, but as we know of nothing, we can't. For all we know, this is the most Marvel will ever do with Genosha from now on.

Two, again, Marvel's ignored Lorna's history with Genosha for 15 years now. They've had MULTIPLE occasions where they could have acknowledged it at bare minimum as a line of dialogue in passing (though that's of course nowhere near enough). Not only the Jean and Storm moments I mentioned before, but Axis too.

One of the easiest places they could have done this lately was in Hickman's X-Men #1, when Lorna and Cyclops were talking, by simply changing one line of dialogue from Lorna to her saying she understood Cyclops' fear for his son's safety given what she witnessed in the Genoshan genocide.

At some point, "this isn't the right time and place" isn't good enough. It can't keep getting punted for all eternity. It has to come up and mean something somewhere. They could always make a Polaris solo, mini or oneshot for the task if it's so hard for it to fit anywhere else.

[sensormellow]

wanda no.jpg

It's funny/painful that Wanda looks like she just messed up tonight's dinner instead of making 16 million mutants zombies, leaving and not bothering to take her demonic staff with her.

Wanda, girl. You need an intervention. Or an exorcist.

[GenericUsername]

She's just doing Chthon's bidding. Marvel Zombies is back!

[CGAR]

If this story actually meant to address Genosha then sure, that would be a knock against it, but at this point the main thing about this mini seems to be that the x-writers were given an order to make a Empyre tie-in and just decided to do a plants vs. zombies gag + randomly brought a few plot points to get there (that includes Wanda).

Maybe this issue will prove me wrong and Hickman will actually wrap it up in a nice manner, but I'd rather see him address Genosha/Wanda/Decimation in his own terms in his own book later.

Yeah I agree with this. I'm hoping the Hickman is dropping little tidbits so that he can come back around to it. I do not like that big Scarlet Witch story beat was added to the forced crossover event.

Anything that has to do with Wanda, Decimation, or Genosha should be done in his book. And then I'd like people that actually were present during that trajedy to be the focus of the issue.

Also going by issues 2 and 3. I dont trust the other writers to help him or do him any favors.

I want that story to be taken as serious as HoXpOx.