COTA:#6 A great wrap up and hopefully a new beginning *spoilers*

[jwatson]

Cota # 6 Was a great read. Defiitely one of the best issues and a great way to wrap up the series. Vita definitely stuck the landing and i hope to see this team of heroes in the future. This is easily the most beautiful the book has looked since issue 2 as well and every page was simply stunning.

It starts off with the scenes right after Storm outed Carmen and her friends are in shock. You can really see that they don't know how to take the news but Buddy is very upset and carmen calls Buddy out on befriending Cole just because he was a mutant and says how obsessed buddy too which the others say she took it too far and Carmen storms off.

When then cut to Carmen being welcomed on Krakoa by Storm and i have to say this is the best Storm's cloud cape has look. I love how it blended into her hair on certain panels. Storm is showing Carmen around basically but as to go to terraform, this is where Carmen is left alone and the hell bell's show up wanting some revenge but Dani intervenes and says Carmen is a personal guest of Storm and a student of hers, the bells back off and Carmen ends up with eyeboy. She starts to have a really great time and basically her time ends with her thinking on Mars and saying how beautiful it is.
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This is when it gets real, Carmen goes home and decides it's time to come out. When she is about to talk to her parents, they interrupt her and say they already know that she is a lesbian, that is not what Carmen wanted to tell them though and before she can really get a word in they are speaking for her. Carmen has a memory of her father watching Xavier on the TV and he mentions how no one trusts the mutants and their island so Carmen just blurts and out and basically says they don't have to worry about her as the mutants already offered her a home. This upsets her dad because he loves her. It was a really powerfully written scene.
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The story then moves to the COTA team taking on Holdercultre and they have never looked better. They are on the ropes but Carmen shows up and saves the day and we see her shape shift for the first time. I hope we get more on her powers though because as of right now there is very little, just a panel to be exact but i'm hoping she shows up in New Mutants. After the battle all of the friends talk (Which i did find weird everyone just talking so openly in front of each other about everything but i guess friendships would be stronger if we did. if it's the right people your around. Carmen and Buddy come to an understanding and end up wanting to see where things go, Buddy was scared of losing Carmen. The kids also come to an understanding it was wrong to pretend to be mutants, there was just so much in this issue, Vita tried to address as much as they could and did a fabulous job in my opinion.

The story ends a few days later Carmen/Buddy kiss under fireworks, they are walking her to the gate to Krakoa, she will basically go to Krakoa on weekends. Eyeboy is waiting for her on the other side.

This series will have a fond place in my heart and i can't ask for much more than that.

[Grunty]

Did Cole officialy become a mutant or were they still just suspecting it because he got injected with mutant cells?

It would seem to me that unless some part of his condition would cause it to permanently asborb and replicate the effect of the mutant cells (ala Deadpool and his cancer), or he had an inactive X-gene to beginn with, his body would eventualy end up rejecting the mutant cells and he would require constant reapplication of them combined with anti-rejection medicine ala the U-Men.

[Journey]

I liked how the dad peeped Xavier is a suspect sack of shit.

[Kingdom X]

Thought the issue was surprisingly good until the confession scene. We just sped through so much development to get there (and it was kinda cringe), I would have rather everyone just made up as friends. That time could have been spent on the remaining team members spending more time explaining why they thought it was okay/ a good idea to pretend to be mutants or on everyone making up with Cole.

Considering Dani called Carmen one of her students I think there's a good chance she pops up in New Mutants.

[Grunty]

(...) Considering Dani called Carmen one of her students I think there's a good chance she pops up in New Mutants.

In which a ton of characters are allready fighting for relevance of any kind, because since the 2000's the number of "student characters" has inflated massively starting with Academy X. With no real graduation apparently allowed to stick (say what you want about Generation X they still managed to be seen as "ex-students"). So either she becomes part of the wallpaper or fans of the respective previous incarnations of student teams will be annoyed/angry at her getting spotlight over them and at worst claim she is the writers failed off-book creation, they try to push in their remaining title now.

It doesn't help that she doesn't have the most interesting powers either. So it's not like there will be much to glamor for her, over student characters with (arguably) more interesting or impressive powers.

One could even argue she (like any of the other 4) might have had a better chance to gain relevance a few years from now as suprise pick under a different writer if she didn't had power, than now being part of the notoriously overloaded and underused body of X-men students and settled with being a "second hand Mystique" (look at Copycat for how well that works).

[RamaBird]

So either she becomes part of the wallpaper or fans of the respective previous incarnations of student teams will be annoyed/angry at her getting spotlight over them and at worst claim she is the writers failed off-book creation, they try to push in their remaining title now.

She can be background. Forced characters would result in other fanbases feeling jilted. But as a background character, in a few years, she can take center stage. Most new characters are background at first but with the right writer/conditions, they can become important with a few years experience.

[Gripstir]

She can be background. Forced characters would result in other fanbases feeling jilted. But as a background character, in a few years, she can take center stage. Most new characters are background at first but with the right writer/conditions, they can become important with a few years experience.

This is the main reason I never supported this book. With the way comics are replacing everyone right now I will never trust that they aren’t potentially setting up a replacement for Gambit with the girl from this comic. It can take years like you said but eventually it feels like they will do a retcon in the future where she actually gains gambits abilities and becomes the new him. Pretty much if I see any books with the potential to replace my favorite character I’m not supporting.

[Grunty]

She can be background. Forced characters would result in other fanbases feeling jilted. But as a background character, in a few years, she can take center stage. Most new characters are background at first but with the right writer/conditions, they can become important with a few years experience.

That's a pretty positive outlook, but for how many characters since the launch of New X-men: Academy did that really work out?

Who of them is frequently staring in core titles or is a main character on a major satelite title now or has been over the past years?
Even the more successfull ones who managed to join "grown up" titles like Pixie or Armor are struggling to stay in those positions and not quickly get demoted or regressed to "student book" status again ala Anole in New Mutants right now. The statistic is anything but encouraging.

It's true that minor characters or characters who first appear in backrounds always have a chance to eventualy be picked up later and given larger role or become successfull. But that usualy applies to backround appearances in the "open" Marvel Universe as a whole, where anyone can pick them up.

Meanwhile X-men students since the 2000's seem to not only get pigeonholed down to the "school" environment of the X-men, where they can't get larger roles in the marvel universe anymore, but also seem to have become desired fixtures of the backrounds by writers and artists alike. Encouraging them to leave them there.

For many it might have been better to not be around for a while and instead have a chance to come back re-invented or improved and in books which aren't just the X-men's direct environment (either school or now Krakoa).

Again looking back at the track record of post-2000 X-men students, it feels like Vita might have just doomed Carmen to be un- or underused wallpaper forever, while anyone of the other four has an equal chance of either being forgotten, getting randomly killed or reinvented with more success eventualy. But at least they have a better chance, statistically.

[Devaishwarya]

This is the main reason I never supported this book. With the way comics are replacing everyone right now I will never trust that they aren’t potentially setting up a replacement for Gambit with the girl from this comic. It can take years like you said but eventually it feels like they will do a retcon in the future where she actually gains gambits abilities and becomes the new him. Pretty much if I see any books with the potential to replace my favorite character I’m not supporting.

If (big huge gargantuan IF) it's going to take years in the planning before it's actualised...what's the point of worrying and despairing about it now?

Besides...I've been reading comics for decades and no new character has ever out-right replaced any of the classic and popular characters...like Gambit.

Plus...she's a metamorph...how would they go about retconning her actual mutant powers which have nothing to do with energy manipulation.

[Grunty]

If (big huge gargantuan IF) it's going to take years in the planning before it's actualised...what's the point of worrying and despairing about it now?

Besides...I've been reading comics for decades and no new character has ever out-right replaced any of the classic and popular characters...like Gambit.

And the more successfull ones usualy were those who managed to find their own identity, merely with an attachment to the original to draw from.

One reason i'm not buying the whole "X-23 is Wolverine now" attempts over the last years, is because the original is still around and he will always carry the name in people's mind, while for Laura it merely seems to mean being constantly mis-writen as female Logan, which i think gets her nowhere, while they should have focused more on expanding her personal brand as X-23 (i noticed before she didn't got any real nemesis beyond the now dead and mostly ignored Kimura despite multiple series for example).
What ever we find the codename good or bad for her, it's the one people (including casual X-men fans) have remembered her as for over 15 years now, which is more than what can be said about many failed replacement characters.

But yes i highly doubt anyone of these could ever replace the X-men characters they cosplayed as and Carmen even got super powers which quite heavily move her away from Gambit's brand.

[Devaishwarya]

As for X-23...I don't mind her carrying the Wolverine name at all. As I see Laura is to Logan as Miles is to Peter. (While the latter may have the same name they are entirely different characters and one is not replacing the other)

[Grunty]

As for X-23...I don't mind her carrying the Wolverine name at all. As I see Laura is to Logan as Miles is to Peter. (While the latter may have the same name they are entirely different characters and one is not replacing the other)

I'm not bothered either, but i just feel it's pointless and does litte for her, especialy since she actualy managed to gain attention and her own brand via the X-23 codename, something many other "replacement" or legacy characters could only dream of.

So i can't shake out the opinion that it will end up just a "phase" for the character and i'm worried it stuntss her own development for the duration.

As for Miles he might be Spiderman in his universe (Ultimate and Into the Spiderverse) and to the people of these worlds, but to the general fans/audience he is the "Miles Morales version Spiderman" or short Miles Morales, while Peter Parker will remain being the default one.
Getting a unique code name for him seems to be something writers have been struggeling with for a while now (didn't they try to make "Spyder" a thing?), exactly because Peter will retain the title in pop culture. Same with Gwen Stacy as Spiderman (they can't use SpiderGwen as official code name after all).
Though there is no denying Miles has been successfull, just like Laura even if everyone keeps refering to him by his normal name (then again Kitty Pryde also never managed to get a codename that stuck in people's minds over her civilian name, albeit Shadowcat seems to come the closest).

Edit:
Though thinking about it. It's almost a good thing for Carmen her code name has not been as on the nose as the other ones Buddy came up with, since Gimick can work her new powers without directly referencing her Gambit cosplaying.

[Kingdom X]

I'm not bothered either, but i just feel it's pointless and does litte for her, especialy since she actualy managed to gain attention and her own brand via the X-23 codename, something many other "replacement" or legacy characters could only dream of.

So i can't shake out the opinion that it will end up just a "phase" for the character and i'm worried it stuntss her own development for the duration.

I get what you're saying about brand recognition, but in-universe it doesn't make sense for her to keep answering to that name. It's representative of a dark and degrading time that the character is actively trying to move away from. The best creators could do is have her try to "reclaim" it in an empowering way, but that would feel kind of forced.

Back to the CotA issue that came out, I'm very glad that the kids learned their lesson about taking on others' identities because the X-Men didn't really say much about it in issue #5.

[RamaBird]

Yeah, I hate it when characters like Anole become students again, but they could explain it away by saying he's a college student at least.

And characters like Pixie/Armor are affected too even though they are breakout characters. It's hard for that to happen when Magneto is still a hunky 40 year old and the original 5 are in their late 20's at best.

I don't think it's as bad as you say though, and technically in comic book time it's only been like three years since the 2000's.

And while it's true that Laura has severely lacked development in the role of Wolverine, that has nothing to do with her having the Wolverine code name. Her All New Wolverine series sold really well. If she had the same type of development she did back then, she'd be having her own solo book again.

Personally, I'm over Logan being Wolverine. Wolverine has now become a straight up heroic title while Logan is at his best as a grey character who leans to the heroic side. Laura meanwhile is straight up heroic at her best.

[CoCoBandz]

I liked how the dad peeped Xavier is a suspect sack of shit.

That's what happens when you're a head of state. Some people love you some people hate you irregardless of how ignorant they may or may not be about your policies.