Children of the Atom #3/ Review/Spoilers

[Wolverine12]

Solid issue and I really liked the art on this one. My big question is how did they end up in a space ship? Was that in issue 1 or 2?

[pkingdom]

Nope, no mention of space or ships at all before this. Its very weird.

Maggot is a good example, but he at least is humanoid and can walk around on his own power. There are some people who's mutation is full-on "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". To say nothing of the dozen+ nobodies who showed up in the 80s and 90s who had life draining powers and would quickly die if they didn't 'eat' other people. It looked like she was becoming something really monstrous.

What I have questions about is how and why did these kids become fixated so much on being mutants? We got that flashback last issue with the Dazzler concert, but that didn't seem like enough to inspire him to go this far. And so far what we've seen of these kids is that they have loving families and people who depend on them. Why want to run away to Krakoa? Why not try to help out their own communities?

There's nothing wrong with being fans of mutant heroes, but I'm just getting this weird disconnect between this kids and why they're doing this.

[Scavenger]

Anyone checking in on this topic who was wondering who the hand holders were from a X-Men Monday preview or something, it happened in this book.
1. Probably got some start with that alien spaceship. Probably picking up odds and ends like those Magneto helmet bits.

IT's a silly thing, but that bugged me. That helmet was a big, if weird, plot point in Way of X #1...BUT ALSO Wolverine just had a whole story about super hero-villain stuff being secret auctioned by the criminal underworld for major money.....and yet it's on ebay here?

That the same family of books did "artifacts like this are big crime money" but also that that artifact was just dealt with last month...like i said, silly that it annoys me, but it did.

[superjosh]

This was hands down my favourite release today - which is something I never thought I’d be saying about this book when it was announced! !

Yeah, the marketing team did not do a good job with building hype initially (COVID derailed that anyway, obviously). When CotA was first announced, it looked like a terrible, terrible concept. But the mystery is actually kind of intriguing. I'm not a fan of teenage books because NO ONE can write youth (and their families) without it being just total and utter cringe-fest, but Ayala does as admirable a job as possible!

[darkalamator]

Please, cancel this rubbish, please. It is sinking lower and lower. Carmen María, hija, sal corriendo a otro título o vuelve a la vida civil...

[Kingdom X]

What I have questions about is how and why did these kids become fixated so much on being mutants? We got that flashback last issue with the Dazzler concert, but that didn't seem like enough to inspire him to go this far. And so far what we've seen of these kids is that they have loving families and people who depend on them. Why want to run away to Krakoa? Why not try to help out their own communities?

There's nothing wrong with being fans of mutant heroes, but I'm just getting this weird disconnect between this kids and why they're doing this.

So far Buddy seems to be the main one who is obsessed because she just feel like that much of an outsider. I have theories as to why that I’ve stated before so I want rehash here. I think Gabe just wants an escape and Carmen expresses just going along with it to please everyone.

Side note: With the previous artist I thought Ben was a POC but with Medina he looks fully Caucasian. Do we have any insight into his background?

[gambitxremy]

So the children of the atom are basically u-men

[Killerbee911]

Yeah, the marketing team did not do a good job with building hype initially (COVID derailed that anyway, obviously). When CotA was first announced, it looked like a terrible, terrible concept. But the mystery is actually kind of intriguing. I'm not a fan of teenage books because NO ONE can write youth (and their families) without it being just total and utter cringe-fest, but Ayala does as admirable a job as possible!

I am going to disagree with that the concept of it look just fine, It was just the X-fanbase being salty over their young favs characters being passed over new characters. There was no amount marketing that would have stop that and even worse it caught up in New Warrior crap storm. The book just look like the X-men version of young Avengers there was nothing innately bad about the pitch but I can agree the secretiveness of the book plot and not being able to talk about things did let certain fans ideas and opinion just run wild as if they were facts.

I am very happy that quality of book is speaking for it now instead of the wild theories, Now if people don't like it that is fair but I think CotA "bad marketing" was really people making up their mind on bad information they read in threads.

[Grunty]

Nope, no mention of space or ships at all before this. Its very weird.

How likely would it be that the ship has anything to do with their tech/powers?

Though there is also the possibility that the writer took the presence of alien space ships, space adventures and so on in the history of the X-men comics as basis for making it something mundane in this comic. Even though it clashes with the more urban human society centric story they tell so far.

Maggot is a good example, but he at least is humanoid and can walk around on his own power. There are some people who's mutation is full-on "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". To say nothing of the dozen+ nobodies who showed up in the 80s and 90s who had life draining powers and would quickly die if they didn't 'eat' other people. It looked like she was becoming something really monstrous.

True. Maggott is one of the milder cases of "problematic mutations" and many backround mutants or one-shot "problem mutants" of the past have shown weaker or worse super powers. However considering this series is still mainly about a team of super heros (wannabe perhaps, but it's still the main objective these characters have), i think if one of them gets a problem power/transformation, they will get one that at least still has a use for super heroics.
Similar to how Maggott still has some utility (matter disassembly) and benefit (super strength) from his slugs, even though it comes with an altered livestyle (can't eat anymore) and intense pain.

The fact that he is black south african, from a once tight knit poor family, lost a brother to violent militias and despite everything he experienced still wanted to be a hero (something which never happend because of getting written into limbo and then randomly picked as victim by Frank Tieri for his Weapon X series) means he has quite a unique perspective from which he can relate to any of the kids turning into a mutant.

What I have questions about is how and why did these kids become fixated so much on being mutants? We got that flashback last issue with the Dazzler concert, but that didn't seem like enough to inspire him to go this far. And so far what we've seen of these kids is that they have loving families and people who depend on them. Why want to run away to Krakoa? Why not try to help out their own communities?

There's nothing wrong with being fans of mutant heroes, but I'm just getting this weird disconnect between this kids and why they're doing this.

Many have pointed out how it's seems to be a queer/trans metaphor about simply not feeling like fitting/belonging in, even when they are well intigrated into their family/society, that kind of story.

The question in this case however can be what ever the reader is supposed to blankly agree with how they act and follow this possible motivation, or if the reader is supposed to be critical and/or sceptical of it.

Basicly is their motivation for wanting to leave it all behind to be with their desired "nature" a reasonable or a selffish one? Especialy since as mentioned most of them seem to have social/familiar responcibilities.

Though i agree that trying to fixate that kind of desire onto the idea of being mutants, seems a bit odd given that they aren't the most desirable or easy to live as group of people (at least traditionaly).

So far Buddy seems to be the main one who is obsessed because she just feel like that much of an outsider. I have theories as to why that I’ve stated before so I want rehash here. I think Gabe just wants an escape and Carmen expresses just going along with it to please everyone.

So basicly latching onto something at the moment popular for various reasons, dragging friends along into it and not thinking too much about consequences? Well sounds like teenagers.

So the children of the atom are basically u-men

It's likely not intentional but it does have a similarity.

[Killerbee911]

Though i agree that trying to fixate that kind of desire onto the idea of being mutants, seems a bit odd given that they aren't the most desirable or easy to live as group of people (at least traditionaly).

A good bit of that is the franchise trying to hamfist a minority metaphor even in the face of not making any sense in places, The majority of X-men are beautiful with useful powers, The X-men are heroes who save the world multiple times. When Marvel isn't forcing down everyone throats that every single mutant on earth would be hated with the same intensity because writers are unable to be subtle with metaphor or don't realize that 16 to 20 million is a tiny amount of 7 billion people then makes a lot of sense kids growing up idolizing mutants.

I always use sports as a reference and the X-men are SEC football teams and Alabama football if people don't get the reference, It is crazy how the south in America will support its football teams and at same time a lot of those people are anti-minority in many things. It is quite easy to understand CoTA kids if you realize Wolverine is Lebron James, Storm is Beyonce, the Xmen is Lakers and mutant culture is hip hop culture. Being black can look like fun if you focus on certain things and Mutantdom is similar when Marvel isn't trying to push every single mutant would be oppressed and hated.

[cranger]

Idealizing the X-Men is not a stretch, this is one of the biggest brands in comics. Lots of kids grew up pretending to be mutants. Wanting to be a mutant is more like roleplaying an wizard, it is fantasy that does not change anything about the person that they don't want changed, making it a universal appeal not limited by other stuff. If you are lacking something in your life, if you live in a world where aliens and demons swarm your city every other month, wishing to be a world saving superhero with mutant abilities is not a stretch of the imagination.

[Grunty]

A good bit of that is the franchise trying to hamfist a minority metaphor even in the face of not making any sense in places, The majority of X-men are beautiful with useful powers, The X-men are heroes who save the world multiple times. When Marvel isn't forcing down everyone throats that every single mutant on earth would be hated with the same intensity because writers are unable to be subtle with metaphor or don't realize that 16 to 20 million is a tiny amount of 7 billion people then makes a lot of sense kids growing up idolizing mutants.

I always use sports as a reference and the X-men are SEC football teams and Alabama football if people don't get the reference, It is crazy how the south in America will support its football teams and at same time a lot of those people are anti-minority in many things. It is quite easy to understand CoTA kids if you realize Wolverine is Lebron James, Storm is Beyonce, the Xmen is Lakers and mutant culture is hip hop culture. Being black can look like fun if you focus on certain things and Mutantdom is similar when Marvel isn't trying to push every single mutant would be oppressed and hated.

That's an interesting comparison and i can definetly see that being the case here.

It also invites the discussed downside eventualy hitting the characters.

My issue being that the "every single mutant in the world is oppressed and hated" thematic had been the dominant one the past two decades and that it feels like the universe took a 180 degree turn so quickly for this series to be based on this scenario.

Like i said it would have felt more appropiate if the status quo had some time to stay changed for a while, before establishing this series. But perhaps that's just me.

[superjosh]

I am going to disagree with that the concept of it look just fine, It was just the X-fanbase being salty over their young favs characters being passed over new characters. There was no amount marketing that would have stop that and even worse it caught up in New Warrior crap storm. The book just look like the X-men version of young Avengers there was nothing innately bad about the pitch but I can agree the secretiveness of the book plot and not being able to talk about things did let certain fans ideas and opinion just run wild as if they were facts.

I am very happy that quality of book is speaking for it now instead of the wild theories, Now if people don't like it that is fair but I think CotA "bad marketing" was really people making up their mind on bad information they read in threads.

Well the design is part of marketing and I think the decision to make the kids look like notable X-Men counterparts was a bad one. It might still play into the mystery, but they also had to know that the payoff would come far later than the buildup. Fan reaction can be a negative black hole, but the job of marketing is to avoid that as well.

I personally hate "mini-me" situations. And I hate teenagers in general lol. The first CotA images paired the kids up with the adults and made it look like cheesy sidekick stuff. It was bad and now we learn it was even inaccurate. I think that constitutes a fail.

[Baron of Faltine]

Idealizing the X-Men is not a stretch, this is one of the biggest brands in comics. Lots of kids grew up pretending to be mutants. Wanting to be a mutant is more like roleplaying an wizard, it is fantasy that does not change anything about the person that they don't want changed, making it a universal appeal not limited by other stuff. If you are lacking something in your life, if you live in a world where aliens and demons swarm your city every other month, wishing to be a world saving superhero with mutant abilities is not a stretch of the imagination.

You know....is interesting....with CotA they are dealing with certain aspect fo fandom, deconstructing the way fan realte with the object of fandom and with themselves in the process. And on the other side with Heroes Reborn we see how messy is when a aging fan(coulson) try to make his fanfiction reality. Sure can be cool at first but make for confusing messy stories later....What next Spidey dealing with aggrssive fans? Hulk corssing path with followers that distort what he say all the times?(wait I think this kind of already happened....)

I can see trend here, like after overanalyzing their own mythos the comic authors turned their attention to....us?

[Killerbee911]

That's an interesting comparison and i can definetly see that being the case here.

It also invites the discussed downside eventualy hitting the characters.

My issue being that the "every single mutant in the world is oppressed and hated" thematic had been the dominant one the past two decades and that it feels like the universe took a 180 degree turn so quickly for this series to be based on this scenario.

Like i said it would have felt more appropiate if the status quo had some time to stay changed for a while, before establishing this series. But perhaps that's just me.

I don't disagree with what you are saying or saying how you feel is wrong but a book like this what the line needs to break that feeling. We know everybody on earth does not hate mutants but without the perspective of humans around who are showing that they are okay mutants the books feel very much feel like the majority of marvel is hateful. I mean Avengers and X-men don't even do the friendly colleague thing anymore so you don't even have those humans liking mutants. I mean other than Kyle and Shogo do any humans like mutants? I am just saying a book like this is good. Especially because once upon a time imo the X-men were almost neutral mutant and human conflict allowing the X-men to be love superheroes as well.