Empyre: X-men #4 - "You're a damned fool, woman" review *spoilers*

[jmc247]

So...Lorna showing up in this event was just a straight-up lie.

It looks that way.

This issue was a step up from #2 and #3. Hickman did have two good character moments in the issue I liked and it moved things forward with Wanda. But, the book badly could have used less action in the middle of it and someone actually connected to the island and its destruction and could bridge the gap between the Genosha era and Krakoa era if not Lorna or Mags who are on the trade cover then even Emma.

[Glio]

At the end of the day, Wanda did it with good intentions, it unexpectedly had two positive effects (Helped with the Cotati invasion and allowed Krakoa to access Hordeculture's technology) and had no long-term negative effects, nothing that cannot be fixed with a shower.

I wouldn't compare this to House of M or Avengers Assembled at all.

[Dipter]

Yes, the ending was sad, but at least it implies that Wanda is still determined to fix her mistakes. Now she's a character that I can actually empathize with, instead of a sociopath that brushes off genocide.

[Havok83]

It came up during Bendis' X-Men and during Remender's Uncanny Avengers, but I guess that was a while ago comparatively.

yeah that was like 7 years ago at this point

It came up during Bendis' X-Men and during Remender's Uncanny Avengers, but I guess that was a while ago comparatively.

I was hoping Illyana would be able to tell it was Wanda after breaking free from the staff

[ExodusCloak]

I find that take ridiculous. Wanda was broken she is a character that needs help with her mental illness. Of course she's written like a student being scolded by her teacher its a long time coming. She is very privelaged in regards to power. She isn't the victim here, the victims are the zombies she desecrated

The X-Men are unware of Wandas involvement too

[GenericUsername]

I find that take ridiculous. Wanda was broken she is a character that needs help with her mental illness. Of course she's written like a student being scolded by her teacher its a long time coming. She is very privelaged in regards to power. She isn't the victim here, the victims are the zombies she desecrated

The X-Men are unware of Wandas involvement too

Wanda doesn't need help for her mental illness from Strange. He is not a therapist. She has a therapist for that. How Wanda has been depicted for the past 15 years is not the character that existed before. And even during these past 15 years it is like two characters exist. She is somehow both the capable magic user that Strange told people to go to when he was not able to help, but not capable here. Why? Why is their continuity with this character so off? And why is it ok to portray a mentally ill character as child-like?

[gurkle]

The thing is that Uncanny Avengers is one of only two ongoings that Wanda has been in since Avengers Disassembled. (The other was her solo series, where she rarely interacted with other characters she knew.) So the fact that Remender spent most of that run pushing the House of M story makes it loom large. It feels like she never gets to do anything after all these years except revisit House of M or get a new origin story.

If she were on the Avengers or in any regular book right now I would find her treatment by Hickman easier to take, but this is, sadly, the most substantial Wanda content we've gotten in over a year.

I find that take ridiculous. Wanda was broken she is a character that needs help with her mental illness. Of course she's written like a student being scolded by her teacher its a long time coming. She is very privelaged in regards to power.

This doesn't portray Wanda as mentally ill, though, just an idiot. I know it gets tiresome for Wanda fans to dismiss every other story she appears in, but Wanda isn't an idiot, and Strange isn't that big of a jerk; Hickman just got them wrong.

Which isn't a problem for Strange because he gets to appear in a lot of comics and gets a lot of different writers' takes on him. It's a problem for the Scarlet Witch because she appears so rarely that a few out-of-character pages - like House of M wrongly portraying her as a self-hating mutant - come to overshadow the "real" version of the character from the first 40 years.

[ExodusCloak]

Wanda doesn't need help for her mental illness from Strange. He is not a therapist. She has a therapist for that. How Wanda has been depicted for the past 15 years is not the character that existed before. And even during these past 15 years it is like two characters exist. She is somehow both the capable magic user that Strange told people to go to when he was not able to help, but not capable here. Why? Why is their continuity with this character so off? And why is it ok to portray a mentally ill character as child-like?

There's a spectrum of mental illness, Wandas mental illness at least preceeding HoM still had her enough insight not to go to Strange to tamper with the dark arts. She didn't go to strange to help her with her mental issues she went to Strange a more experienced magic user to clean up her mess.

[Zelena]

Why? Why is their continuity with this character so off? And why is it ok to portray a mentally ill character as child-like?

Misogynistic authors?

[ExodusCloak]

The thing is that Uncanny Avengers is one of only two ongoings that Wanda has been in since Avengers Disassembled. (The other was her solo series, where she rarely interacted with other characters she knew.) So the fact that Remender spent most of that run pushing the House of M story makes it loom large. It feels like she never gets to do anything after all these years except revisit House of M or get a new origin story.

If she were on the Avengers or in any regular book right now I would find her treatment by Hickman easier to take, but this is, sadly, the most substantial Wanda content we've gotten in over a year.



This doesn't portray Wanda as mentally ill, though, just an idiot. I know it gets tiresome for Wanda fans to dismiss every other story she appears in, but Wanda isn't an idiot, and Strange isn't that big of a jerk; Hickman just got them wrong.

Which isn't a problem for Strange because he gets to appear in a lot of comics and gets a lot of different writers' takes on him. It's a problem for the Scarlet Witch because she appears so rarely that a few out-of-character pages - like House of M wrongly portraying her as a self-hating mutant - come to overshadow the "real" version of the character from the first 40 years.

Wanda was responsible for Planet X in UA she was an idiot there too.

If the characterisation is consistent its consistent. Other female characters were written fine. Every other author ignored Wandas actions. Her finally being called out and taking some responsibility is her becoming more autonomous even if she had to seek out someone to help her clean up her mess.

[Maxxx]

I felt the whole thing was so disjointed, why have all these writers? For me, it wasn't fun to read.

[GenericUsername]

There's a spectrum of mental illness, Wandas mental illness at least preceeding HoM still had her enough insight not to go to Strange to tamper with the dark arts. She didn't go to strange to help her with her mental issues she went to Strange a more experienced magic user to clean up her mess.

Marvel themselves had Wanda treated by both Strange and Xavier both people that are very unqualified. Then Marvel states that no, she's not losing her mind, it's the Life Force. Because they couldn't explain how she got this sudden power up. There is a spectrum of mental illness. It doesn't make people commit genocide or create zombies. That's not what's happening here.

[gurkle]

Wanda was responsible for Planet X in UA she was an idiot there too.

Many of the characters were portrayed as idiots in that book. The difference is some characters get to move on to stories and writers where they aren't portrayed as idiots, and Wanda just gets put in storage until they need someone to screw up.

I can get saying, well, she's been like this since 2004, so her official characterization now is as an idiot. I might even agree if she got to appear for more than a couple of pages a month to flesh out this new characterization. For now it's just that she appears occasionally, the writer gets her wrong and she goes back into storage.

[GenericUsername]

Misogynistic authors?

I guess? I don't know Hickman well. I did follow him on Twitter and he always trolled X-fans so it could be just a side effect of that.

[Glio]

I mean, Peter Parker in The Clone Saga beat MJ while she was pregnant and you will never see him being treated like Hank Pym.

All the characters do bad things, in some thewriters decide to pay attention to it and in others they don't.