Way of X 3 Review/Spoiler thread. The Joy of X

[Malachi]

It can really feel like the entire plan for handling building the mutant society is basicly half a page reading this.

Step 1: Convice magic mutant island to produce everything you need.
Step 2: Create mass cloning facility so nobody stays dead.
Step 3: Shout "Mutant!" a lot.
Step 4: Invite everyone to the island, even the villains.
Step 5: Declare yourself superior to the rest of humanity 24/7.
Step 6: ???
Step 7: Perfect society!

Which raises the question just how little this was a concern to any of Moira's implied previous attempts at building a mutant safe haven or mutant ruled world and how much it might have been the mutants themself who caused their demise rather than the "evil humans"?

The whole chimera project and especialy the fate mentioned for the 4th gens certainly make it a possibility that the biggest weakness was the foundation rather than the walls which cracked first.

Considering the time and issues after Krakoa was established it seems lacking. Creating a society from scratch is a massive undertaking and especially considering that one of the main goals has allways been that it should be unique to reflect it's unique population. Yet this feels like a shoddy built house where the surface is polished up and all the rooms are being shown to impresse us with all it's splendor. With electricity and plumbing being planned after the house is built and people have moved in.

I can understand why the villians are welcomed in. They are needed to present unity. They add power, wisdom and intelligence. It's easier to keep a close eye on them this way. Still they are dictating so much the agenda. Shaping the society. If you let people like Apocalypse help shape your empire then don't be surprised if it doesn't work. We are talking about a mutant who over countless millenia and alternative universes at best has built an giant ugly colloseum. He's great if you want to supress people and commit genocide and then watch it blow up in your face. Top tier level there. Or if you want to pilfer alien tech from crashed spaceships.

It just seems many of the decisions at best look good on paper but won't last under any scrutinee.

That's one part of what I like with Way of X. It seeks out the cracks and don't try to gloss them over. Perhaps it will fix some of them. Perhaps not. At least it feels good exploring all the thousands of loose ends that make up Krakoa.

[Glio]

I think Xavier's attitude towards Krakoa's everyday problems is very well represented in New Mutants. His initial plan is for the young mutants to self-manage and when that obviously didn't work out, he gives the problem to Magik and the others.

He just doesn't want to deal with the more "mundane" aspects of ruling a nation. They need to expand a bureaucracy that takes care of the day-to-day life of the nation.

[KylunFan]

yea xtwitter was saying the issue was bad but I thought it was fine. what was their gripe around it?

Some came from poor representation of the Loa/Mercury encounter. We haven't seen any real female/ female relations on Krakoa and people were dissapointed with the depiction and them immediatley falling out in the aftermath.

Others have raised/ shown panels of how Kurt is usually a lot more sex positive than this. Seems very out of character for him to question people having sex for the fun of it rather than procreation.

I guess the abandoned mutant babies caused some of the issues too? It seems a tad farfetched that Krakoa has existed for well over 9 months if X of Swords was only 2 weeks ago.

I still liked the issue, just thought Kurt didn't seem like himself.

[killerbee]

I didn’t enjoy reading this issue I’m afraid. It’s still well written and I’ll defiantly continue with the series but…this issue made me realise I’m getting tired I guess:

Rant mode:

I enjoyed Stacy and what she’s trying to do, but I found it rather sanctimonious of her to brow beat (both figuratively and literally) Kurt about how she was doing a good thing by helping people to remove inhibitions and the consequences of love and sex. Religions do it all the time you’re just tiny minded! And in the literal next panel show him the exact consequences in the form of abandoned children, because parents want the sex but none of responsibility; and then tell Kurt this is a problem I’ve just told you exists, you fix this! It is putting another problem directly onto Kurt’s shoulders since he is the only one that’s been assigned to ‘save’ the souls of the entire mutant nation.

Yet Stacy is an active participant in the problem (abandoning children without consequence), and handing out contraceptives is not managing the issue, it’s just a band-aid. Stacy says so herself: that mutants are free of STI’s, conventional relationship or family norms or consequences so what the hell is the point of contraceptives? It’s sounds like she’s handing a couple a condoms out and saying ‘Hey if you use my sex garden, could you try not having a baby and dumping it on my doorstep, k thanks!’

The love without inhibition is not a bad thing, I can completely understand Stacy’s motivations and well meaning intentions. but sex for comfort to fill a void is potentially harming as well. So I can also see Kurt’s take on ‘empty sex’. I mean, he’d probably know quite a bit about that himself.

Very against the implication that Kurt would be against enjoying sex without the purpose of making babies though. Pot, kettle Kurt. Not sure why Spurrier thinks that Kurt would be most offended by sex, as opposed to….abandoned children!

I really miss thought bubbles because I so wanted to know what was going through kurt’s head when he saw those kids. Kurt’s a foundling himself! Discarded and disposed of by a mutant mother for her own selfish gain, and now he’s seeing his people do the same to these poor babies. That had to have struck a nerve.

But he says and does nothing! Nightcrawler hasn’t done one active thing in this entire issue, he just stands there and takes it. He’s taken quite a lot actually in Way of X, everyone around him just takes the piss (usually at his religion) or tries to preach to him about how he’s wrong for not being happy on krakoa while in the same breath assuming he’s going to find a way to fix all their problems.

Kurt looks so tired, it genuinely feels like he’s about to just give up. Of course I am unfamiliar with Spurrier’s writing so this could all be leading up to a big pay off where kurt’s finally had enough and just starts wailing on people, I certainly hope so.

Rant over, what I enjoyed:

Very unusual hook up with Dazzler and Nemesis, fun but probably not going to be revisited.

The Scarlet Witch cameo, dancing/talking with Magneto while Kurt slurs about regrets.

Lost (Marinette) being an absolute angel, even though we don’t have a lot of dialogue from her, her personality shines through.

What I’m unsure about: I’m less familiar with Mercury so…..hope she and Loa get to discuss her dark murder thoughts and patch things up.

Mystique didn't abandon kurt because she wanted to. She was forced by the mob who were hunting her and beat her to a bloody pulp. Thats why in aoa she raised him

[butterflykyss]

Some came from poor representation of the Loa/Mercury encounter. We haven't seen any real female/ female relations on Krakoa and people were dissapointed with the depiction and them immediatley falling out in the aftermath.

Others have raised/ shown panels of how Kurt is usually a lot more sex positive than this. Seems very out of character for him to question people having sex for the fun of it rather than procreation.

I guess the abandoned mutant babies caused some of the issues too? It seems a tad farfetched that Krakoa has existed for well over 9 months if X of Swords was only 2 weeks ago.

I still liked the issue, just thought Kurt didn't seem like himself.

thanks for providing the background here! greatly appreciated!

[Rev9]

Well, the Council was not even aware of the existence of that riding sex place/nursery. They cannot legislate on what they do not know (and that is the point of this comic).

If the writers deem it so, maybe but I find it implausible.Xavier has cerebro on his head almost all the time, it naturally registers mutant life signatures ,so he must know.Beast is in the business of knowing(I doubt his attempts at Intel gathering are limited to only those outside Krakoa)Finally Sinister is always on the look out for children to further his eugenic imperative.So all in all I'd find it staggering incompetence for any of those individuals to be clueless.

[jwatson]

thanks for providing the background here! greatly appreciated!

But on the flip side in the same day marvel voices showed 90 percent of the lgbt+ relationships thst happen are connected to krakoa. Think about that. how long has Krakoa been around? How long has marvel universe been around? Yet 80 -90% of their lgbt+ stories in Marvel voices had a connection to krakoa. The passion mystique and destiny showed alone in their kiss jumped off the page.

[killerbee]

I liked stacy x in this issue but what was up with her run away slave outfit? I expected stacy to show up in her classic leather outfits or something similar. Otherwise loved her characterization. I sensed real growth. I thought she needed to touch people to use her powers though?

[Rev9]

There's no way the Exodus wouldn't be all over this child thing. Exodus would hands down be telling any mutant that could hear please give me all your children that you don't want so that I can raise them with my ideology.

I am betting 100 million dollars that we are going to see Exodus running something like that. Heck he might go to Stacy X and use his council seat as a way to take over for her.

I'd be more suspicious of Sinister and Selene having big plans for those kids than Exodus.

[Proxy]

Mystique didn't abandon kurt because she wanted to. She was forced by the mob who were hunting her and beat her to a bloody pulp. Thats why in aoa she raised him

Mystique in 616 universe has consistently made herself quite clear that willful abandonment was involved and that she did it to save her own skin. There have been occasional hints here and there that she cares for him now, in her own way, but it’s not the last time she almost killed him. And he’s not the only kid she abandoned.

[Rev9]

Kurt's situation starts to make him look like a fusion of Ijob and Atlas.

I don't think Stacy is supposed to be completely right, but merely presented as a person who identified a problem and tries to adress it in her own, well meaning, but not entirely right ways. Which i think is the major focus of the story so far, not to present a resolution right away but adress that problems exist, regardless of how much people want to ignore them or believe everything to be fine, which need to be adressed.

And that's a hard pill to swallow for everyone who bought into the hype, especialy those who were willing to die for it's creation. Also just because she dresses down Kurt, doesn't mean the writer wants her to be seen as entirely right. Which includes mocking his religion.

About the writer's previous writing.
Spurrier's books are often about fantastic yet very flawed constructed worlds filled with equaly flawed people and how they find their ways in them. Though the worlds often have a certain darkness to them they don't tend to be entirely depressing so (can't say anything about his work on Crossed though as i avoid that whole series like hell).

God Shaper, The Spire, Cry Havoc, Motherland. They all introduce fantastic worlds, but are ultimately about how people just live in them.

So this whole title feels quite fitting to that. All the bio-tech, mutant powers and feeling of superiority won't help the people of Krakoa dealing with their absolute flawed human nature, especialy when they try to disregard it under the argument of not being "human".



Or potential side effect of getting brought back while the Patchwork Man/Onslaught is active and judging by the upcomming one-shot affecting Xavier who is turn putting the minds/souls back into the new clone bodies.

So perhaps it's the result of her supconsciously knowing something is off.

I always thought procreation among immortals is redundant. If you cannot die then the drive to live on vicariously through your children or to leave someone to do what you couldn't or just the need give a fuller meaning to life by leaving a legacy or something for posterity ceases to be that important. Maybe the mutants feel there is safety in numbers ,but that would imply the make more mutants rule is a temporary stop gap measure to build their numbers but not some perpetual law that is binding for all time. The more one reflects on Krakoa's 'ethos' the more one notices contradictions.

[Outburstz]

It's clear what Krakoa was supposed to be what Arrako is now. Krakoa was supposed to be a warrior race where mutants learned to work together to fight create defend and die for the state of Krakoa. The problem is that the main person that would have forged Krakoa into that was Apocalypses.

When Apocalypses left Krakoa lost it's direction because Xavier and Magneto are too focused on bigger things. He was going to be the main guy while Magneto focused on defense of the nation while Xavier focused on the big time planning. No one has stepped up to instill those values into the mutants.

[Old Owl]

For the longest time I thought it was rare for mutants to be born with powers? Does anyone know when they changed that rule?

[Ravyn]

I sometimes wonder if the current crop of X writers have even read an X-Men book before.

[pkingdom]

Here's a horrifying thought that could explain the discrepency for how there's so many kids when the country has seemingly been around for only a couple months: pregnant mutants and mutants with small children who came to the island just straight up abandoned them right off the bat.

This series has grown increasingly uncomfortable. I was afraid from the get-go that it was going to be a lot of characters telling Kurt he's wrong and a stuck up prude for not being gung-ho about all of Krakoa, and that's largely happened. I was hoping for more pushback from Kurt, and instead he's been super passive. A lot of downright nasty comments about his faith, coupled with Kurt being weirdly out of character. Mr. "Chicks Dig the Fuzzy!" being this level of a prude? Weird.