Hellions #8 Spoiler/Review Thread - "Too much talking"

[Hulkout42]

Jeez what's next funerals for nimrods?

I preparing a eulogies for Karima, Rover and that Sentinel that was wrecked during the Phoenix5 debacle that was trying to protect the kid in Avengers Academy that even Laura did not want to see dead.

But in all seriousness, i have to hand it to Hickman and the people involved in this run (...well maybe not the ones involved in Marauders and Excalibur, those really have not done much to get me to like them at all), they made me care for things i would never think off before such as Mystique being denied her true love or these repentant AI that were denied a chance to grow further.

I will look back on this run as one of my most interesting, something i was lacking since Claremont and Morrison.

Well i said my piece, let the mocking commence.

[Hulkout42]

I’m just waiting for everything Havok is going though (starting with issue one of Hellions) to revealed as being orchestrated by Sinister.

Well, it's not really just him is it? I mean the QC is doing a bang up job of making a mess of things what with putting him at the beck and call Sinister, denying Madelyne a chance at life and this latest nugget...yeah i don't see how Havok will be keeping his cool around them if they keep pulling this kind of stunts on him and frankly he is more than likely looking at a one way trip to the Krakoa Hole at this rate when he finally has enough of them and i don't big bro will be able to save his bacon nor do i think Havok will want his help.

[sensormellow]

I LOVED this. What started out as a monster-of-the-week of some sorts turned into a continuation of Hickman's endgame for the X-Men and a callback to XOS, with a great character moment for both John and Kwannon. I'm really starting to see the differentiation between Kwannon and Betsy.

Hellions and X-Factor are becoming my new favorites.

[sensormellow]

Not sure why there would be a baby robot smiley, that bit was odd.
Pretty mediocre for a Hellions issue, except for Empath.

I think it was a "baby" Hodgemind.

[Sutekh]

I think it was a "baby" Hodgemind.

I think it was the opposite, the two that were protecting it (that Nanny and Wild Child took out) called it 'the best of us,' which suggest to me that it was a smiley AI that had never actually been exposed to / corrupted by the Hodgemind and it's human hate.

[silvercover]

The phenotype doesnt matter. A mutant is classified by the presence of an X-gene. One doesnt read as more mutant than the other based on genetics. Like someone isnt 50% mutant compared to someone else who is only 10% or even 80%.

I might be misremembering(or maybe marvel already changed the canon for it at some point) but isn't it that humans do have an X-gene themselves albeit its inactive? I can see it as why the more the AI advances the more dangerous they are to humans too, since before they just look for the X-gene on the surface but if they start to look closer they'll see that humans have X-genes too.

[Sutekh]

And what happens when Xavier decides to go world-wide with eliminating AI? Is Tony Stark an AI? Vision is a long-time honored Avenger. Should he die? Machine Man is also a former Avenger as is Jocasta. Or Victor Mancha? Jim Hammond? Where does it end?

Similarly where does this trend of eliminating any race / people that could possibly be a threat end? Loki attacked us once. Kill all Asgardians! D'ken was a dick. Destroy the Shiar! Humans, Inhumans, eventually everything but other mutants, and then the mutant factions that could be a threat, like the Neo...

And we're down to a withered Xavier, huddled in a telepathy-enhancing Cerebro the size of a moon, long since departed from the smoking cinders of Earth, scouring the galaxy for any signs of sentient thought so that he can snuff it out in the cradle before it evolves into a 'threat.'

[Sutekh]

I might be misremembering(or maybe marvel already changed the canon for it at some point) but isn't it that humans do have an X-gene themselves albeit its inactive? I can see it as why the more the AI advances the more dangerous they are to humans too, since before they just look for the X-gene on the surface but if they start to look closer they'll see that humans have X-genes too.

Yeah, that was the premise of Days of Future Past, the Sentinels realizing that 'the mutant problem' required them to address the 90-ish percent of people who weren't mutants, but could still have mutant children (or get zapped by cosmic rays or gamma rays or bitten by a radioactive spider and become 'mutates' with super-powers like the Hulk, Fantastic Four or Spider-Man).

What's never really been satisfactorily explored, IMO, is that there are still some few humans who *don't* have a latent X-gene, whom the Sentinels of Days of Future Past regarded as 'pure.' That's kind of amazing, that enough original (pre-Celestial tinkering) human DNA is still floating around that you can have modern day humans who just crap out their intestines and die if exposed to gamma rays, instead of turning green and getting super-powers.

Also the location of the X-gene matters. It can't *just* be on the Y chromosome, or there'd be no X-ladies, it's literally be the X-MEN. But if it's then just on the X chromosome, then it suggests that there can be women with *TWO* copies of the X-gene, and therefore, in theory, X-ladies with two completely different mutations. (Jean and Emma with their multiple powersets seem like good examples of such, but there are plenty of X-dudes who seem to have multiple powers, like Cable, Nathan Summers, Quentin Quire, even perhaps Nightcrawler, with unrelated physical mutations *and* teleportation.)

It seems like the X-gene can manifest on *either* chromosome.

But that's a shame. A part of me likes the idea that only women can be rare 'double mutants.' I think Claremont would have loved it, back in the days when Rogue, Storm, Dazzler and Psylocke were the heavy-hitter X-'Men'.

[Steel Inquisitor]

If they are out to kill mutants, then down with them

They don't. Do you know who those characters are?

[Frobisher]

Yeah, that was the premise of Days of Future Past, the Sentinels realizing that 'the mutant problem' required them to address the 90-ish percent of people who weren't mutants, but could still have mutant children (or get zapped by cosmic rays or gamma rays or bitten by a radioactive spider and become 'mutates' with super-powers like the Hulk, Fantastic Four or Spider-Man).

What's never really been satisfactorily explored, IMO, is that there are still some few humans who *don't* have a latent X-gene, whom the Sentinels of Days of Future Past regarded as 'pure.' That's kind of amazing, that enough original (pre-Celestial tinkering) human DNA is still floating around that you can have modern day humans who just crap out their intestines and die if exposed to gamma rays, instead of turning green and getting super-powers.

Also the location of the X-gene matters. It can't *just* be on the Y chromosome, or there'd be no X-ladies, it's literally be the X-MEN. But if it's then just on the X chromosome, then it suggests that there can be women with *TWO* copies of the X-gene, and therefore, in theory, X-ladies with two completely different mutations. (Jean and Emma with their multiple powersets seem like good examples of such, but there are plenty of X-dudes who seem to have multiple powers, like Cable, Nathan Summers, Quentin Quire, even perhaps Nightcrawler, with unrelated physical mutations *and* teleportation.)

It seems like the X-gene can manifest on *either* chromosome.

But that's a shame. A part of me likes the idea that only women can be rare 'double mutants.' I think Claremont would have loved it, back in the days when Rogue, Storm, Dazzler and Psylocke were the heavy-hitter X-'Men'.

Wut? What's the source for it being on either the X or Y chromosome?

[Sutekh]

Wut? What's the source for it being on either the X or Y chromosome?

There isn't one, AFAIK, which is what I was getting at. If it was ever nailed down, it could be story-relevant. (Or limiting...)

[Havok83]

They don't. Do you know who those characters are?

then its a non issue

[lefthanded]

What was the significance of Wild child and Nanny's conversation in the ship? "Amenth isn't through with us. You feel it too."?

[Hulkout42]

What was the significance of Wild child and Nanny's conversation in the ship? "Amenth isn't through with us. You feel it too."?

foreshadowing the return of the Amenth version of Sinister most likely, they did die doing battle against him when Sinister stole that DNA from him.

[davew128]

If they are out to kill mutants, then down with them

And since its been shown that anti-mutant prejudice isn't a prerequisite for the anti-AI stance of Xavier, what then?