Children of the Atom #5 Review/Spoiler - Secrets Revealed

[jwatson]

Honestly, Storm probably thought if the kids are close enough to fight crime together, they probably knew that one of them was a mutant.



I haven't picked up #5 yet but they explained this from Marvel Boy's pov in #4 that he just has attachment issues after his parents got divorced and whatnot.

Yeah, i would say in the end reading 4 and 5 it feels more like a miscommunication and on second read it was resolved pretty nicely in the scene when he was attending to his wounds but i guess i couldn't really connect with it getting that far? so on initial read it was a disconnect for me

As for Storm i've given it a lot of thought and anyway i slice it it just feels wrong what she did. It's like read the room girl. When, Cyclops lass is like "We are all humans" It was not the moment for Storm to call out Carmen Maria Cruz entire government name and put her blast. Storm knows what prejudices mutants face from friends and family despite their pride and what she did imo feels no different than when teen jean outted iceman. Just felt wrong.

[Grunty]

As for Storm i've given it a lot of thought and anyway i slice it it just feels wrong what she did. It's like read the room girl. When, Cyclops lass is like "We are all humans" It was not the moment for Storm to call out Carmen Maria Cruz entire government name and put her blast. Storm knows what prejudices mutants face from friends and family despite their pride and what she did imo feels no different than when teen jean outted iceman. Just felt wrong.

While following the events in this comic, i keep thinking that there was certainly some potential for a good story in all of this, but also that it all fell appart by the marketing trying to make a mystery out of something which would have worked better as the main attraction and the inability of the writer to pace the story, establish the right tone for the status quo, present the new characters in a less issue wasting manner and handle the established characters in a way that they still feel right (and a few things other things).

The last one i find especialy problematic. Even though youth series often tend to present their adult characters as flawed (if not problematic or downright antagonistic), meaning it's not something to soley blame such a book for doing, i feel this book is overdoing it, likely not intentional but by inability of the writer to nuance it here.

The X-men are presented as downright foolish if not uncharacteristicaly blind throughout the book (not to forget unncessarily hostile towards the Avengers who acted in good faith) and Storm's actions here can indeed be counted to this problem.

To put it bluntly. Everyone acts stupid in some way or another and not in a natural way people can act foolishly in real life, but in a forced way that ignores the intellect, abilities, tools and the experience of many characters.

Which becomes worse by the fact that this book is about teenagers idolizing these characters and trying to become like them. So there is no reason to make them look foolish like that.

So unlike New Mutants, were the theme is currently disapointed/ignored youths suffering under the carelessness/ignorance of the adults in charge, there is no excuse for it here.

I know many like Vita's writing, but i feel they still need a lot of improvement, if not a helping hand at pacing their stories and keeping a tonal consistency.

[Triniking1234]

Is this really gonna end next issue cuz there's still the plot with Cole? Don't half-ass it like X-Factor, bruv.

[Havok83]

Is this really gonna end next issue cuz there's still the plot with Cole? Don't half-ass it like X-Factor, bruv.

I feel like this is the perfect place to end the series and quite really it doesnt need another issue. If anything Vita can bring Carmen into New Mutants and tie up any loose ends there

[Metal Sphere]

Yeah, shockingly this really felt like it could end the mini-series without any major issues (aside from the Cole plot). Props to the writer actually writing mutant power dampeners actually nullifying their powers AND making them severely ill since that's the nature of that type of device.

[Filthy Mutie]

Weakest issue by far.

Pretty damning, IMO.

[pkingdom]

Delays really hurt this. I get that the kid wouldn't want to call the Champions because of the stupid law, and also not like the Avengers for personal reasons, but why go to the embassy when he has the communicator in his hand? And from a logical standpoint for the reader, it actually makes LESS sense he'd turn to the X-men after the information we've been presented with even in this story! Last time we say the Avengers they explicitly said they aren't going to enforce Kamala's Law because they don't work for the US government. Meanwhile, Krakoa is considered a foreign government, so getting a foreign government to send a paramilitary team in to pick a fight with some mercs is all kinds of a bad idea.

I know its a silly thing to focus on, but its one of those problems I don't think they thought through when they gave them a nation. It makes sense from a character position, at least. The book still has the flaws of mutant powers being so easily replicated with tech (and better too, in Cyclops' case) that it makes mutants looks kind of silly. The 'mystery' was dull, and the kids were never written well enough to feel like The Next Big Thing like Ms. Marvel was. With the backlash to the announcement, this book needed to be amazing, and instead its just been OK.

And for a book with so many LGBT characters and themes, how they thought Storm literally outing that girl was a good idea I'll never know.

[Thundershot]

I’m assuming issue six is the last issue.. it says “to be concluded” at the end and we’ve had no solicitations beyond issue six that I’m aware of.

[Hulkout42]

Yeah, i would say in the end reading 4 and 5 it feels more like a miscommunication and on second read it was resolved pretty nicely in the scene when he was attending to his wounds but i guess i couldn't really connect with it getting that far? so on initial read it was a disconnect for me

As for Storm i've given it a lot of thought and anyway i slice it it just feels wrong what she did. It's like read the room girl. When, Cyclops lass is like "We are all humans" It was not the moment for Storm to call out Carmen Maria Cruz entire government name and put her blast. Storm knows what prejudices mutants face from friends and family despite their pride and what she did imo feels no different than when teen jean outted iceman. Just felt wrong.

I agree, what Storm did left a bad taste in my mouth...though honestly her general attitude n this has really put me off. I also feel there is a disconnect with what we see from Carmen here and what we saw in her brief cameo in the Gala. i go so far as to say Storm whether she meant to or not (and to some degree the others when they walked away from the kids who had saved them) snubbed her friends by what she did.

Also, unrelated topic, but was Outlaw concluded? Or this crap still going? I ask because they mention that law but i haven't seen anything on that in the last Champions issue.

[Hulkout42]

I feel like this is the perfect place to end the series and quite really it doesnt need another issue. If anything Vita can bring Carmen into New Mutants and tie up any loose ends there

Going to honest, i hope it doesn't come to that, feels like it would be an insult to her friends that she gets to go and leave them behind (and i know it is not permanent but still...) and also she didn't really want to be a mutant to begin with if i recall in one of the issues where she is writhing on the floor in pain because of her power.

[jwatson]

I agree, what Storm did left a bad taste in my mouth...though honestly her general attitude n this has really put me off. I also feel there is a disconnect with what we see from Carmen here and what we saw in her brief cameo in the Gala. i go so far as to say Storm whether she meant to or not (and to some degree the others when they walked away from the kids who had saved them) snubbed her friends by what she did.

Also, unrelated topic, but was Outlaw concluded? Or this crap still going? I ask because they mention that law but i haven't seen anything on that in the last Champions issue.

I don't believe so the last thing i remember is viv using it to sort of get her friends caught for their own safety but then backtracking on it. I don't think it has been fully addressed yet in the MU though. It got derailed by covid and then it just kind of went left and never got back on track.

[jwatson]

Going to honest, i hope it doesn't come to that, feels like it would be an insult to her friends that she gets to go and leave them behind (and i know it is not permanent but still...) and also she didn't really want to be a mutant to begin with if i recall in one of the issues where she is writhing on the floor in pain because of her power.

Duggan could use them as the sidekicks in X-men. It was stated certain heroes have clearance to mentor young individuals with super powers despite kamala's law so i wouldn't be surprised if the side kick thing does happen they will be hanging out at the tree house.

[Drexelhand]

I could see Buddy being envious given that she seems to want Krakoa more than anything except Gabe I guess. Although, hopefully this ends up well, I do think it'd be nice for Buddy and Carmen to end up together.

[Outburstz]

So why didn't they all go through the gate during the 1st issue? If she has been a mutant from the start it should have worked. Did the suits screw everything up or did she some how stop the others from going through the gate?


It's clear that this story got changed a lot from what it was supposed to be and it is leading to some confusion

[Triniking1234]

Delays really hurt this. I get that the kid wouldn't want to call the Champions because of the stupid law, and also not like the Avengers for personal reasons, but why go to the embassy when he has the communicator in his hand? And from a logical standpoint for the reader, it actually makes LESS sense he'd turn to the X-men after the information we've been presented with even in this story! Last time we say the Avengers they explicitly said they aren't going to enforce Kamala's Law because they don't work for the US government. Meanwhile, Krakoa is considered a foreign government, so getting a foreign government to send a paramilitary team in to pick a fight with some mercs is all kinds of a bad idea.

I know its a silly thing to focus on, but its one of those problems I don't think they thought through when they gave them a nation. It makes sense from a character position, at least. The book still has the flaws of mutant powers being so easily replicated with tech (and better too, in Cyclops' case) that it makes mutants looks kind of silly. The 'mystery' was dull, and the kids were never written well enough to feel like The Next Big Thing like Ms. Marvel was. With the backlash to the announcement, this book needed to be amazing, and instead its just been OK.

And for a book with so many LGBT characters and themes, how they thought Storm literally outing that girl was a good idea I'll never know.

The X-Men were gonna be the final option anyway because this is an X-Men book so you're just nitpicking.

Most likely the original pitch was to have the enemies at this point be an anti-mutant corps within CRADLE and they changed it plus made some changes at the end to include the Hellfire Gala which ended being moot since they missed the goal.