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

[rcaguy]

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.

And this issue shows why this title tanked. Vita may be a good writer, but even she can't do anything with basically nothing to work with. And there was basically nothing here to work with/no real story. It's all empty filler material. Much like the New Mutants Movie.

[Grunty]

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.

I understand these arguments too. But i think her being "Wolverine" feels forced too (and a futile action on top of that).

Overall i think it's part of a larger problem with her which i think is now merely sidestepped rather than resolved.
Because if they can't use X-23 for her in universe, on account of the reasons you mentioned, they would need to come up with a unique hero name for her and make it stick as the "in universe name" compared to the "fandom name", but as we have seen in discussions over the years, nobody is sure what name would fit her.

But at the same time, giving her the Wolverine name is very unlikely to ever become accepted with many readers or a general audience, since Logan fills the image associated with that super hero name and is unlikely to ever fade from it, which would be the main requirement for her being accepted as successor.

And then there is even the point of discussion on what ever she is better as "public" hero as they are doing now, which requires an equal public code name or if her true calling is still an "underground" hero, which would make a name given to her by her enemies like X-23 more fitting?

But alas. that's a discussion for her thread.

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.

And next time we see them, they are pretending to be alien super heros, reasoning that they got their equipment from an alien ship and they have been to space.

Sorry couldn't resist.

[jwatson]

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.

He is more like Homo novissimio or rather the people who were able to infiltrate krakoa using Domino's DNA, so not officially a mutant but mutant dna spliced in.

[Grunty]

He is more like Homo novissimio or rather the people who were able to infiltrate krakoa using Domino's DNA, so not officially a mutant but mutant dna spliced in.

Homo Novissima (Post Humans) are a whole magnitude beyond just having artifical given super powers.

From what i understand as scope in Hox/Pox, they are basicly people who can tailor themself to have any super power they desire on the fly. Rather than depending on artifical being granted them, having to absorb them or having a random chance in what powers they will get (meaning X-gene mutants).

They are beyond normal humans, mutant humans or any current non-mutant humans who got natural super powers by other means.

It's one reason i feel the chimeras are basicly the potential first step for mutants to become them aswell if they collectively decide to follow that path.

So i'm really not sure that could ever apply to someone who merely got mutant DNA in or on his body.

If anything that's just a mutate ala Deadpool or what the people they created on Genosha.

[jwatson]

Homo Novissima (Post Humans) are a whole magnitude beyond just having artifical given super powers.

From what i understand as scope in Hox/Pox, they are basicly people who can tailor themself to have any super power they desire on the fly. Rather than depending on artifical being granted them, having to absorb them or having a random chance in what powers they will get (meaning X-gene mutants).

They are beyond normal humans, mutant humans or any current non-mutant humans who got natural super powers by other means.

It's one reason i feel the chimeras are basicly the potential first step for mutants to become them aswell if they collectively decide to follow that path.

So i'm really not sure that could ever apply to someone who merely got mutant DNA in or on his body.

If anything that's just a mutate ala Deadpool or what the people they created on Genosha.

I felt it was explained well enough in the story. Cole never exhibited powers or an x gene they thought they could use him to access a gate it didn't pan out. Anything beyond that is pretty much spec. So in a sense there is no specific answer as the specific questiin was never posed it was more spec based on him going from almost dying to fully healed, though ge was exhibiting side effects or symptoms one could make the argument were close to carmen's when she was undergoing her mutation.

[Gripstir]

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.

Well early detection of their plans doesn’t mean you ignore it. Not to mention they are replacing them in mainstream. If you remember the former editor in chief was actively replacing every single popular character all at once. For once I’m actually happy Gambit wasn’t that big in the 2010s because he would have been part of the replacement. You actively saw them kill off or retire the legacy characters to pass the mantle on. And the reason they pass the mantle isn’t because it’s the right replacement it’s because current marvel is not capable of making popular new characters so they give them legacy gimmicks to try to promote them cause they can’t carry a book on their own merit. All the new characters are basically just characters that seem like the kind of people who don’t have to earn their own popularity and will use phrases like “my daddy will make me popular”

[Dipter]

I could picture Buddy landing a role in Champions as a replacement for young Cyclops. The rest of the kids too, that's about the only book I can see them fitting in.

[LordAllMIghty]

This was a cue issue.

I spent a couple of minutes wondering why the never called Eyeboy...Argos.

[Master of Sound]

And this issue shows why this title tanked. Vita may be a good writer, but even she can't do anything with basically nothing to work with. And there was basically nothing here to work with/no real story. It's all empty filler material. Much like the New Mutants Movie.

Did you even read the series? If so, I don't get why you say this.

[Covetous_One]

This was a cue issue.

I spent a couple of minutes wondering why the never called Eyeboy...Argos.

Righhhhtttt!!!! That really just bugs me I’m like why doesn’t name himself after a guardian that the Queen of Olympus gave great recognition to.

[thjan]

I greatly enjoyed this issue and overall liked this series a lot. I am sad to see it go. This was my favorite issue by far. I am glad it focused primarily on Carmen, since she is my favorite of the new characters(and not because Gambit is my favorite X-Man, since I did not care for the replication of powers through tech and Carmen never displayed any special affinity for Gambit). I loved the scene with Carmen's family and I am glad she and her friends ended on a high note. It would sure be nice if more mutants were shown maintaining strong kinships and friendships outside Krakoa like that. I really hope Carmen will appear in New Mutants and we get a greater demonstration of her real mutant powers.

I will say that because Gambit is my favorite comic character and Ayala is my favorite writer in the Hickman era, I am disappointed that he did not show up in this series outside of the tiny, non-speaking cameo in this issue. Obviously he was not required to show up for me to enjoy the series, but he did appear on early covers and I had heard Ayala is a fan of Gambit so I was hoping for him to appear in one of the senior X-Men scenes. It would have been nice to see him written by a character focused writer like Ayala and by someone that actually likes the character. I don't know if Marvel just doesn't allow most writers to use him outside his "designated" book or what, but I know this is not the first time I have heard a writer say they like the character by then never used him in the their actual books.

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

I certainly agree with you that I don't think they plan on replacing Gambit with Carmen, but regarding this point, say hello to Emma Frost and her ridiculously contrived diamond secondary mutation(that was only introduced because writers don't know how to write telepaths as active field X-Men without a physical power of some sort anymore).

[Grunty]

I felt it was explained well enough in the story. Cole never exhibited powers or an x gene they thought they could use him to access a gate it didn't pan out. Anything beyond that is pretty much spec. So in a sense there is no specific answer as the specific questiin was never posed it was more spec based on him going from almost dying to fully healed, though ge was exhibiting side effects or symptoms one could make the argument were close to carmen's when she was undergoing her mutation.

I know about the events of the previous issue, i just wondering from the summary if there was a last update on what ever they revealed this issue if the treatment had any further effect on him. But it seems not. Thanks for the info.

The rest was mostly me thinking that one shouldn't use homo novissima as comparison lightly.

[Milici]

We could have had a book with the Exiles, Young X-Men, Generation X, X-Terminator, Brotherhood of Mutants, MLF, Morlocks, Acolytes ... instead we had whatever this was. I blame Jordan White personaly. I hope that Vita Ayala doesn`t dare to bring Gimmick to The New Mutants she already brought the doods she created in Prisoner X.

[Wolverine12]

Good ending to the series. It seems to me it would be difficult to pack in so many emotional beats into just 6 issue's but Vita did a good job of it. I think we could've done with out the gene splicing sub plot as it didn't go anywhere but maybe there are plans to follow up. Glad I stuck with the series.

[rcaguy]

Did you even read the series? If so, I don't get why you say this.

Did *YOU* read it?What it about other than basically being about nothing?