X-men #19 Review/Spoiler - In the Fire of Each Other

[Malachi]

Hickman must have understood that his idea wasn't right for the format. Scenes need to breathe for us to feel them. When you go compact like this it's the biggest risk. That the impact of what is happening is blunted. Trying to make us feel such a span of years is hard. It easily becomes a bit of a grey mush.

It certainly didn't help that prose isn't his strong suit. It wasn't terrible but very forgetable and bland.

The romance aspect was cliche as hell. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Laura was an object and Synch was just a man reflecting on what could have been put on every other male X-men. So if going for generality to convey beauty it fails. Trying to make us interested in these specific characters without writing as a result of it being just them doesn't work either. Add that to the fact that it just wasn't given enough space. Lets hope that Hickman doesn't write Laura anymore. I sincerly doubt he has it in him to write her.

[Glio]

Seems a very polarizing issue. I loved it. The way it played out has so much potential for both sides, plus ambiguous deaths can lead to some revival shenanigans. Was hoping old Laura would make it out alive, the design intrigued me. I couldn't decide while reading if I wanted that change to stick.

The only issue I had was that Synch apparently escapes the vault for a week...why not contact xavier and have a backup done to get some of the info then? And how long can he hold powers?

It also seems like there would be a lot of information for Xavier to backup and not much time...it would be interesting if Synch had gaps in his memory, where Xavier copied as much as he could but couldn't get it all.

Buy both those gripes are revival mechanic based, which I know means I'm just supposed to accept it and move on, so I will.

Perhaps Synch did not know which direction to move under the Vault to escape, he does not know exactly how big it is and how much he would have to move horizontally underground, he could die from drowning or collapse before he succeeded.

Regarding the other, shortly after entering Darwin creates a system to preserve Children's DNA so that Synch can have access to the powers indefinitely. Like, he doesn't need the Children alive for his powers to work, only to have access to a part of them.

[Rev9]

It was a good issue for completing the story that it told. The problem for me was that I knew the ending before starting the issue and that always makes the read less interesting. You knew at the start of last issue that Synch was the only one who made it out as he was the one recalling the mission. Since you knew that he escaped, you knew the mission was a success and the other two didn't make it. Learning when/how Wolverine and Darwin died was the only high points.

Am curious just what knowledge Synch learned that will help the X-Men defeat the Children in the future. All he knows is that the fourth generation of Children will have acquired some improvements given by Darwin's DNA being added to the mix. He never actually encountered the 4th generation so he has no idea of their power sets or their weaknesses. Does Darwin even have a weakness?

As for the potential relationship between him and Laura it is tragic that he is the only one to remember. I wish him the best and hope he is patient enough to win her over but I fear he will be too eager and initially scare Laura off. Was a nice touch to have the last scene of Issue 19 being the exact way the two started the mission in Issue 18.

This is actually one of those 'making things worse by trying to make things better' mis-steps that are Xavier's forte, now coz of him the X-Men know how the children operate at a basic level, but that has all blown up in their faces coz with Darwin, **** just got a whole lot worse.Level 4 children could be chimaeras of life 9 , before Sinister even starts contemplating that, besides they could be living Nimrods able to adapt to any threat mutants could throw at them( some of them not all of them to make this worth a battle, like the CoV weren't powerful enough already) Well at least this makes for interesting contests in the future

[shadowbox]

They should have just left Laura’s arm. Wouldn’t Darwin’s powers just unconsciously adapt so that his limb couldn’t be severed anyway? Loved the art and the story but that’s bothering me. Also, has Everett had a reunion with Monet yet? I know creators don’t have a lot of time to depict every emotional meeting but I’m dying to see it.

[Glio]

They should have just left Laura’s arm. Wouldn’t Darwin’s powers just unconsciously adapt so that his limb couldn’t be severed anyway? Loved the art and the story but that’s bothering me. Also, has Everett had a reunion with Monet yet? I know creators don’t have a lot of time to depict every emotional meeting but I’m dying to see it.

Laura's arm has adamantium that she cannot regenerate and she is also the best suited for cutting things (which made the amputation much less painful).

They probably thought about that and not the long-term implications. Like, yes, in hindshight it would have been smarter to amputate Laura's arm but it would have been much slower and more painful. I can't blame them for such a mistake.

[Jackraow21]

Best issue so far for me. Hands down. Out of all the issues Hickman wrote including Giant Size Storm this is the one that evoked the most emotion from me. loved it.

Yeah this was great. Really enjoyed it.

[Ambaryerno]

Laura's arm has adamantium that she cannot regenerate and she is also the best suited for cutting things (which made the amputation much less painful).

They probably thought about that and not the long-term implications. Like, yes, in hindshight it would have been smarter to amputate Laura's arm but it would have been much slower and more painful. I can't blame them for such a mistake.

They could just remove her claws. That's what she did after Kimura took a chainsaw to her during X-Force: Removed the metal claws from the severed arm, then had them reimplanted once her arm regrew.

[Rang10]

Was I the only 1 bored? After months of waiting this was so lackluster to me.

I was more dissapointed than bored. Charts are a wasy way to bore me

[Glio]

They could just remove her claws. That's what she did after Kimura took a chainsaw to her during X-Force: Removed the metal claws from the severed arm, then had them reimplanted once her arm regrew.

If you come across the arm of someone with unbreakable claws and everything is there except the unbreakable claws, it seems unlikely that someone is dead.

[Vishop]

Was I the only 1 bored? After months of waiting this was so lackluster to me.

Yeah I have the same vibe. I don't know about CoTv and neither do I really care much about the characters. But there was no narration between the characters at all really. I only skimmed issue. Don't know what happened to the Pre-XoS Hickman. If this is how COTV were written by Carey then I guess I did the right thing not reading it.

[Nevets]

One of the best issues so far. LOVE.

[OopsIdiditagain]

This.

A future issue in one of the comics can have them sit down and talk to each other about his experiences but I'm not even sure that is necessary.

This story is the equivalent of character a going to a timeline where they are married to character b. But in their native timeline they have little to no interaction with each other. Sure you can try to write a storyline about the two falling in love but Rezzed Laura is a different person from Vault Laura. Rezzed Laura will never have those experiences (and you can't force them on her either) and Synch might come to realize that he has feelings for her just because she was the only non-hostile woman he was around for 500 years or maybe its not feelings of romantic love but familial love. There's plenty of other story opportunities that can be explored to help flesh Synch out aside from "Synch and Laura fall in love". Especially when the falling in love story reduces Laura to just an object of his affection he needs to win. Had Hickman let them both keep their memories and then they go abck to Krakoa in younger bodies a love story would be more interesting because it would be about them both trying to adjust to a world that only had months past while they were gone for 500 years.

Either way he needs to just relax on the island with other people for a while and sort stuff out cause being in that Vault for 500 years is an incredibly long time just being around three people.

I don't think either Laura or Darwin need the memories but didn't Moira do the same thing to Xavier?

[Rang10]

Hickman must have understood that his idea wasn't right for the format. Scenes need to breathe for us to feel them. When you go compact like this it's the biggest risk. That the impact of what is happening is blunted. Trying to make us feel such a span of years is hard. It easily becomes a bit of a grey mush.

It certainly didn't help that prose isn't his strong suit. It wasn't terrible but very forgetable and bland.

The romance aspect was cliche as hell. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Laura was an object and Synch was just a man reflecting on what could have been put on every other male X-men. So if going for generality to convey beauty it fails. Trying to make us interested in these specific characters without writing as a result of it being just them doesn't work either. Add that to the fact that it just wasn't given enough space. Lets hope that Hickman doesn't write Laura anymore. I sincerly doubt he has it in him to write her.

very on point. Really wished writers were less obvious and less awful with the romance storyline. Hope Laura get a solo back instead of being a love interest

[ZephyrSurf]

very on point. Really wished writers were less obvious and less awful with the romance storyline. Hope Laura get a solo back instead of being a love interest

It wouldn't be superhero comics if that was the case.

[Fokken]

This issue seems to largely encapsulate the contrary (extreme) reaction to the Krakoa era. hahaha.

Half are "LOVE IT 10/10" while the other half are "FILTH. Kindle for my fireplace!"