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

[Starfish]

There's some irony about mutants fearing the post-human while they're the ones living immortal lives in their post-scarcity utopia and can't seem to wait to divorce themselves from all things they perceive as human. But just like claiming "sapiens thinking" doesn't erase their evolutionary history as social hominids, creating a paradise in which they can start over with a blank slate won't erase all that very human baggage each one of them comes with. Humans need community to build societies, but mutants can make do with just a few individuals with the right powers. If they can't manage to establish a sense of community every mutant can feel a part of, I fear they'll never become a proper nation, but just gods watching cattle.

This is exactly the kind of book I wanted from the concept of mutants building their own society, as it presents such unique challenges, and to me that makes it the most interesting current X-title. That it's also giving my favourite character some development since what feels like forever certainly helps, too.

[hairys]

I'm really disappointed that every issue so far is Kurt acting like a sanctimonious douche while a side character has to lecture him about the basics of the human condition. Kurt should be a lot more well-traveled and open-minded than this. It's not even things that are unique to Krakoa. Like, just because people have safe sex doesn't mean they don't also have procreative sex, amongst other things.

Well, it's not that simple, according to the issue. What we have are depressed mutants who want to experience sex, so Stacy uses her pheromone powers to get them going, with I believe the clear implication being that without Stacy's pheromones to help, they might not be able to go through with it in their sad state of mind. Is it consensual and legal, and they should be allowed to do it? Yes, of course. Could Kurt reasonably disapprove of this pathway to sex, though? I say yes.

I don't know what exactly the real-life comparison would be since pheromone superpowers don't exist (at least among humans). What I'm imagining is two friends of mine who are depressed and get completely drunk at a party to deal with it and under that intoxicated state, they start making out with each other and moving towards the bedroom. I happen to be standing in front of the bedroom door. Would I advise them to go through with having sex (although it's ultimately their choice obviously)? No. I think I would advise them to sober up and go out on a date sober. But maybe Kurt and I are just prudes.

[BroHomo]

Well, it's not that simple, according to the issue. What we have are depressed mutants who want to experience sex, so Stacy uses her pheromone powers to get them going, with I believe the clear implication being that without Stacy's pheromones to help, they might not be able to go through with it in their sad state of mind. Is it consensual and legal, and they should be allowed to do it? Yes, of course. Could Kurt reasonably disapprove of this pathway to sex, though? I say yes.

I don't know what exactly the real-life comparison would be since pheromone superpowers don't exist (at least among humans). What I'm imagining is two friends of mine who are depressed and get completely drunk at a party to deal with it and under that intoxicated state, they start making out with each other and moving towards the bedroom. I happen to be standing in front of the bedroom door. Would I advise them to go through with having sex (although it's ultimately their choice obviously)? No. I think I would advise them to sober up and go out on a date sober. But maybe Kurt and I are just prudes.

I think the mutants Stacy X is helping in the issue are just shy/awkward

[ohsnapulon5000]

This book has gotten better issue by issue! It’s becoming one of the more important books next to SWORD and it’s got so much playing power. The way that it completely fills in the gaps and asks the philosophical questions necessary to any world building and the culture of what the mutants are establishing are phenomenal and Si Spurrier is doing a great job of handling voices he’s not usually known for writing. I hope he keeps making the smart choice of building Dazzler and the Blue Lagoon Crew as a literal watering hole for all of fandom.

The dynamics Dpurrier created in his character interactions are gold and I hope this book reads as a compendium to the main HOX lineups because it is very necessary to have these voices challenge the status quo and also defninitively set up mutant culture and faith therein as a staple of existence.

[Metro]

This book has just convinced me Krakoa is genuinely awful.
People basically get pumped full of aphrodisiacs to mate, get pregnant, and then dump the babies someplace because they can't be bothered to look after their own offspring.
Sounds like the sort of place that would exist in some twisted doujin.

[ohsnapulon5000]

Love that StacyX is a Dazzler fan (but then who isn’t, really?) I wanna see Dazzler ditch the blonde wig, don her strawberry mane and go party with StacyX and Spiral.

[BroHomo]

This book has just convinced me Krakoa is genuinely awful.
People basically get pumped full of aphrodisiacs to mate, get pregnant, and then dump the babies someplace because they can't be bothered to look after their own offspring.
Sounds like the sort of place that would exist in some twisted doujin.

OR a High school Prom

[Lady Midnight]

Are we sure that Nightcrawler isn't dreaming/hallucinating some of this?

[Su_Whisterfield]

Are we sure that Nightcrawler isn't dreaming/hallucinating some of this?

Not enough pirates for that!

[Grunty]

Are we sure that Nightcrawler isn't dreaming/hallucinating some of this?

If we go by that possibility, you could speculate the same about this whole status quo. Considering it got build up out of nowhere and involves several severe retcons.

To quote Inception:
"Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."

Which fits the whole beginning of Hox/Pox and how all the X-men allready seem perfectly adjusted to this strange world Xavier says to have created.

[Su_Whisterfield]

If we go by that possibility, you could speculate the same about this whole status quo. Considering it got build up out of nowhere and involves several severe retcons.

To quote Inception:
"Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."

Which fits the whole beginning of Hox/Pox and how all the X-men allready seem perfectly adjusted to this strange world Xavier says to have created.

I still can’t shake the feeling that this doesn’t end with Moira’s many lives, but with the X-Men held in the bowels of Krakoa as per all previous appearances.
But then, I am very old and set in my ways.

I think the litmus test will be how out there the books get. Planet Xmen is starting it. My bellwether is Kurt, if he ends up being a mad pope, it’s all a bad dream where Krakoa is trying to give them everything they want, but it all goes pear shaped.

[Rev9]

This book has just convinced me Krakoa is genuinely awful.
People basically get pumped full of aphrodisiacs to mate, get pregnant, and then dump the babies someplace because they can't be bothered to look after their own offspring.
Sounds like the sort of place that would exist in some twisted doujin.

That is one side of it, imagine we learn Krakoa is only to glad to have those babies to siphon their life force for itself.The logical conclusion with that depiction of only Lost looking after the kids, is Krakoa is doing the rest of the nurturing.Krakoa doesn't do 'freebies'. I don't know if writers would be willing to go down this path, but I foresee mutants born and nurtured by Krakoa instead of having parent-child experience of the others may grow to revere Krakoa to a degree that even the current 'immigrants' won't tolerate.This could be the birth of a new mutant sub species perhaps.Which is kind of weird how readily mutants have embraced Krakoa the sentient island, this sentient being has its own agenda that may be pernicious, anything too good to be true rarely is.

[Sutekh]

That is one side of it, imagine we learn Krakoa is only to glad to have those babies to siphon their life force for itself. The logical conclusion with that depiction of only Lost looking after the kids, is Krakoa is doing the rest of the nurturing. Krakoa doesn't do 'freebies'. I don't know if writers would be willing to go down this path, but I foresee mutants born and nurtured by Krakoa instead of having parent-child experience of the others may grow to revere Krakoa to a degree that even the current 'immigrants' won't tolerate. This could be the birth of a new mutant sub species perhaps. Which is kind of weird how readily mutants have embraced Krakoa the sentient island, this sentient being has its own agenda that may be pernicious, anything too good to be true rarely is.

The notion that Krakoa may be subtly psychically numbing the mutants residing there in the process of feeding on them, the same way a leech delivers a tiny dose of anaesthetic during it's bite so that the prey doesn't feel it (and dislodge the leech). We already know that Krakoa doesn't like a bunch of mutants leaving (it protested during Empyre, I think, when a bunch of psychics left to deal with zombie Genosha, IIRC?), and it is interesting that Emma hosted the Hellfire Gala on another island far away, as if she didn't want Reed, Tony, etc. looking too closely at what Krakoa was all about (or letting Krakoa 'taste' all those guests that would be leaving at the end of the night?).

This is really the best of all possible worlds for Krakoa itself, so I could see it taking every opportunity to promote 'Make More Mutants,' even if it has to produce lots of booze to lower inhibitions, and even lace the air with some pheremones to encourage promiscuity. But that's long-term thinking, since a mutant baby, more often than not, is going to be *human* for 13 or so years, before their X-gene kicks in, and not as 'tasty' to Krakoa, who seems to prefer the taste of mutants.

One bit of sinister Krakoan shenanigans I could see is Krakoa doing what it can to psychically influence Marius and Selene to get up to no good, so that they end up in the Pit. He's the Apex predator. He can't love the idea of A) people assigned to monitor him and govern his feeding, or B) competition.

[Scavenger]

If they can't manage to establish a sense of community every mutant can feel a part of, I fear they'll never become a proper nation, but just gods watching cattle.

Interesting thought...one of the previous times they did the "super hero creates perfect island" story, Cable's providence in Nicezas' Cable & Deadpool series, they made a point of showing that while Cable built the island, everyone there was building the community in this giant public works program (Captain America painted a mural for the island when he sneaked in to spy on them for SHEILD).

Just an interesting parallel/point of divergence in the stories being told that occured to me.

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Anyone know who these two are? are the supposed to be anyone, or just a couple pulling focus from Legion in the picture?
Screen Shot 2021-07-01 at 1.07.27 AM.jpg

[Su_Whisterfield]

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Anyone know who these two are? are the supposed to be anyone, or just a couple pulling focus from Legion in the picture?
Screen Shot 2021-07-01 at 1.07.27 AM.jpg

Bob Q says just two random background mutants.