X-Men 14 - Review and spoilers

[JustAnotherFan]

If I understand this correctly, the dark religion that the summoners follow is native to Amenth? If that's the case, who trained War's son to become a high summoner if all of the Arakkii were living in isolation behind their towers?

I’m not sure if that is the case. After all it seemed that Okkara also had a summoner with them. Or maybe that Summoner joined the mutants after Okkara was split into Arakko & Krakoa but that Summoner was shown with the Arakko mutants when they walked into Amenth.

[Kingdom X]

This would have been better if the art had not been reused. I understand why, looking back at House of X and Powers of X, but it feels different in this instance and a bit lazy.

For HOX and POX it’d be like 3 pages tops of repeated art with earth shattering revelations. All the new info from this issue could have very easily been fit into STASIS. And yes we’re totally getting this retold again for the finale.

[Rev9]

This was really poor, re-used panels retelling the same tale for the 3rd time? Easily the worst issue in the saga.

[baxer]

Man was this issue was a waste of money. I do get what they are going for but this is just lazy and a bit dishonest to charge people a full price for this issue. Most of the art was copy-pasted from a previous issue and even the narration was the same with just a different character narrating and some of the details being changed. But those changes were too small IMO. And there wasn’t that much new info given. So really this was the previous issue with maybe 5 pages changed. That’s so lame. I guess if I were to use a Hickman expression I “found this issue wanting”, lol. I was already tired of reading the part about the Twilight Sword tearing the world asunder and making two of that which was one and then it was repeated again! Aaaagh! Please, no more of that. Ever.

I guess I’m starting to grow a bit tired of Hickman tropes since I just read his Avengers & Secret Wars. Also I couldn’t care less about Apoccy’s little romance. I really don’t like this take on him. I preferred him as the incredibly old and incredibly powerful mutant leader instead of this weak and sad lovelorn shell of a man. I get that they are trying to humanize him and give him a more relatable motivation and backstory but it’s not working for me. To me that goes against what he’s supposed to be. And maybe it’s partially because I have this certain perception of him as more of a force of nature than a man. For example, I loved his depiction in TAS where he “wasn’t good or evil, he just was” or how he was “as far above mutants as mutants were above humans.”. And I’m not saying that you can’t give him a deeper motivation behind his survival of the fittest ideology but I think it should be done differently. In fact I liked how Louise Simonson did it in X-Factor Forever. To me that kind of background fits Apoccy better without watering him down. But that’s just me.

All in all this issue was meh. Well written but too repetitive. This event is lagging a bit too much for my tastes.

The retcon just make you throw away Apocalypse character since his creation. Not here for that kind of story telling

[Steroid]

I gotta say this issue pretty much took me to my breaking point with this crossover. I honestly don't even care anymore about the fights, backstory, even the aftermath. I'm seriously just bored with it all at this point.

[Drexelhand]

The retcon just make you throw away Apocalypse character since his creation. Not here for that kind of story telling

Not really? The way Okkara fits into the timeline, the only thing that happened before is the Rise of Apocalypse miniseries and him making a contract with the Celestials. If anything, it puts into context why he wanted the Twelve. He wanted the power of the Celestials so he could go to Amenth and destroy it. There's even a line in the Blue Area of the Moon Saga (before the Muir Island Saga) where Apocalypse mentions that getting Celestial power will enable him to destroy worlds.

[baxer]

Not really? The way Okkara fits into the timeline, the only thing that happened before is the Rise of Apocalypse miniseries and him making a contract with the Celestials. If anything, it puts into context why he wanted the Twelve. He wanted the power of the Celestials so he could go to Amenth and destroy it. There's even a line in the Blue Area of the Moon Saga (before the Muir Island Saga) where Apocalypse mentions that getting Celestial power will enable him to destroy worlds.

It doesn't fit on anything, the backstory is really convoluted. There isn't any mention of celestials on this new retcon Apocalypse. he never mentions Krakoa or Okkara, even on the future where he is a Genocider there isn't any Krakoa

[Kingdom X]

I’d liked the retcon when it was just that Apocalypse secretly had a family that he cared about, but this whole “he’s actually really weak” thing is stupid. Seems kinda antiquated that they couldn’t write Apocalypse with some emotional depth without tearing him down and claiming that he’s also physically inferior.

[MYCMTSC]

Uh...this was not great. I get the storytelling device Hickman was going for, but was Annihilation's telling of events thrillingly different? I could have maybe excused the regurgitated tale of Annihilation's origins if we got another artist (Stephanie Hans?) to reinterpret these events.

[CGAR]

Well there have been comments from JD and Hickman himself that Hickman is a slow ass writer.

Also we got a lot of this slow burn during Hickman's Avengers run.

He has his way of telling stories and he doesn't care if we like it or not.

I just wish the other writers had a little more nuance.

I'm most excited about Al Ewing and Vita Ayala. I think they can get cerebral like Hickman.

The other writers not so much. Especially X-Force and Excalibur.

[nx01a]

>Nice art.
>This insight into Arakko should have happened 6 issues ago. We should be knee deep in mutant blood matches by now.
>The story of Arakko on Amenth was pretty much what we expected. Not much more to add except now we have to hear White Sword's side, which will probably take yet another issue containing no sword fighting.
>In a fair fight, Arakko/Amenth stomps Krakoa and might even take over Earth unless the big magicians and cosmic powers get involved.
>Now we know why Redroot was called a 'pure-blood mutant reclaimed from Amenth'.

Favourite panels...
Perspective makes it look like their swords are symbolically together while they're actually far apart, just like Apocalypse and Gennihilation.
x1.jpg
x2.jpg
x3.jpg

[baxer]

Well there have been comments from JD and Hickman himself that Hickman is a slow ass writer.

Also we got a lot of this slow burn during Hickman's Avengers run.

He has his way of telling stories and he doesn't care if we like it or not.

I just wish the other writers had a little more nuance.

I'm most excited about Al Ewing and Vita Ayala. I think they can get cerebral like Hickman.

The other writers not so much. Especially X-Force and Excalibur.

Well he should care, since people buying books keep his job going.

i'm not really impressed with Hickman being cerebral, so I really don't care about Cerebral

[nx01a]

X-tras...
The Arakko rules also come in threes. The Make More Mutants one is definitely forced breeding compared to Krakoa's more lax approach.
x4.jpg
Is this a score card for the fights? Did Apocalypse just lose to Gennihilation? She beat him emotionally alright.
x5.jpg

[cranger]

Moira knows all about Otherworld, Arakko, Amenth, the First Horsemen, Genesis, etc, etc. Krakoa and Arakko also want nothing but to be reunited. Someone is using this to mess with Poccy and probably influencing him to act out of character.

[Wolverine12]

I will say I do like seeing this story told from different perspectives but I did feel a little cheated on this issue. Same art with a few word changes isn’t really fair for a full price issue. Honestly I would’ve preferred this be a double size issue and give us this plus another story for an extra buck or two. Overall I enjoyed the issue but felt a little ripped off.