Academy X: New X-Men Appreciation 2022

[Anduinel]

I was following these characters as the comics were just coming out in the beginning. I liked Hellion quite a bit but some animosity has been displayed towards him over the years on these boards and I still really dont know why. I liked Wind Dancer too and it just happened they were falling in love too interestingly enough. hopefully someone at Marvel will want to do something for him People are set on him and X-23. I think it would be interesting if they became friends again. Mercury is another character I liked quite a bit. FUNNILY enough I liked QQ too in Morrisons New X-Men. I think both QQ and Hellion can both exist TOGETHER.

I liked QQ in Morrison's X-Men too, or, rather, I liked how potentially dangerous he was. I still sincerely think, between his intelligence, power potential, and entitlement, he could have eventually taken Magneto's spot as Xavier's equal and opposite on the modern stage, a true villain now that Mags is firmly and forever in the frenemy camp. On the good guy side, I just find him tedious.

[Anduinel]

How many era do you guys split the kids into?

Special Class (Morrison and Whedon)
New X-Men/Academy X (DeFillpis & Weir, Kyost)
GenHope
The Joke Entries (WatXM)

All the ones that come after that just blend together for me.

[Hulkout42]

So it looks like Surge and Gentle are going to be X-men, or is that just a tease on the cover?

[bladeofdarkness]

What Cover ?
Can you please link ?

[Starfish]

Speaking of Quentin, I'm curious about his taste in music, because apparently it overlaps enough with Cessily's to make her dare go into his room.

[Sutekh]

I liked QQ in Morrison's X-Men too, or, rather, I liked how potentially dangerous he was. I still sincerely think, between his intelligence, power potential, and entitlement, he could have eventually taken Magneto's spot as Xavier's equal and opposite on the modern stage, a true villain now that Mags is firmly and forever in the frenemy camp. On the good guy side, I just find him tedious.

I thought it was interesting that he was barely even an 'alpha' level telepath, and had to use the drug Kick to boost his powers enough to override nobodies like Slick, and yet he also was the student who whipped up anti-grav generators for Martha Johanssen's brain-bubble and gave her some mobility, which is exactly 100% more than any other X-person did for that poor girl *for over a decade.*

That bit of insight into both him being a smarty-pants, but also more inclined to focus on the smaller immediate needs of his fellow mutants, and not all distracted by imminent extinction drama / adult relationship shenanigans 24/7 intrigued me (at least, when he wasn't psychotic from the Kick, which Emma described as making one murder-rage-y).

Also, he had just been abandoned by his adoptive family because he was a mutant. Most of the X-folk have either parents who are okay with having a mutant kid, or who are long dead anyway, but, save for Nightcrawler, none of the original crew were flat out abandoned because of being mutants (and several still are on speaking terms with any surviving parental figures). That's the sort of mutant prejudice story that hits hard, and could justify a whole character progression revolving around diving HARD into 'mutant identity' and mutant culture and mutant everything, because Quentin would feel like the human world, and his human family, have rejected him, and the only identity and family he's ever going to have is one he makes for himself, as a mutant. Other than Nightcrawler and perhaps Rahne/Wolfsbane, most X-folk have some sort of family or human connections they can point to, even if it's only the memory of loving parents, like Storms.

And, we got none of this.

We actually got more of Hellion's relationship with *his* parents, than Quentin's, despite a decade of weird use of QQ that completely ignored both his characterization under Morrison, and his powers. (And now, he's a telekinetic! That can make guns! Rubbish.)

Heck, we know more about Mercury and Wallflowers relationships with their parents, and how it has affected them, for that matter.

So much left unfinished. Did Dust ever find her mom? Is Icarus still suicidally self-loathing? Was it really an art error and is Match / Ben actually supposed to be African-American as was rumored? Is Onyxx back alive, and does anyone care? Is Elixir ever gonna come out and admit his 'hate' of Hellion was repressed lust?

[Fokken]

Sutekh! hahahahha omg dead

[From The Shadows]

I liked QQ in Morrison's X-Men too, or, rather, I liked how potentially dangerous he was. I still sincerely think, between his intelligence, power potential, and entitlement, he could have eventually taken Magneto's spot as Xavier's equal and opposite on the modern stage, a true villain now that Mags is firmly and forever in the frenemy camp. On the good guy side, I just find him tedious.

Me too. Loved Morrison, his creators, portrayal. Really didn't care for much of what they did later.

[Hulkout42]

What Cover ?
Can you please link ?

Untitled.jpg

This one, it was in the latest Previews issue.

[Rift]

Untitled.jpg

This one, it was in the latest Previews issue.

Unfortunately, the art is nothing new. They've been using this art since January. Its existence has nothing to do with the results.

[Paragon]

We actually got more of Hellion's relationship with *his* parents, than Quentin's, despite a decade of weird use of QQ that completely ignored both his characterization under Morrison, and his powers. (And now, he's a telekinetic! That can make guns! Rubbish.)

Heck, we know more about Mercury and Wallflowers relationships with their parents, and how it has affected them, for that matter.

So much left unfinished. Did Dust ever find her mom? Is Icarus still suicidally self-loathing? Was it really an art error and is Match / Ben actually supposed to be African-American as was rumored? Is Onyxx back alive, and does anyone care? Is Elixir ever gonna come out and admit his 'hate' of Hellion was repressed lust?

Which main members of Academy X did we never learn anything about their families? I know we've gotten stuff about the other Hellions and New Mutants, as well as Anole, Loa, Indra, Gentle, and Pixie eventually, but I have no recollection of Rockslide's or Tag's families ever coming up at all.

I had never heard the thing about Match before. Is he actually able to turn off his flames and they colored him wrong?

[Anduinel]

Which main members of Academy X did we never learn anything about their families? I know we've gotten stuff about the other Hellions and New Mutants, as well as Anole, Loa, Indra, Gentle, and Pixie eventually, but I have no recollection of Rockslide's or Tag's families ever coming up at all.

From what I remember, Wind Dancer, Hellion, Icarus, Melody, Mercury, Elixir, Surge, Prodigy, Wallflower, Anole, Loa, Gentle, Indra, Bling, Armor, Wither, Pixie, Dust, WolfCub, and Blindfold have either have some mention of their families outside of the school or have them come up in their backstory.

[BobbysWorld]

Although not a main character, we also know that Specter was an orphan who lived with his grandfather, and he had some guilt about his powers according to something Julian said once, about how when he first got his shadow form he scared his grandfather so badly he had a heart attack (though he recovered). And Dryad's father was a mutant too, and a famous landscaper who used his own plant powers to design the Institute's grounds.

[Rift]

More info. We don't have info about Academy X kids per se, but we have some behind-the-scenes drama that tells us about Marvel.

was there a death/storyline that hurt the most with the academy x kids when you heard about them?

That's a tricky question.

When you do work for hire at a company like Marvel, part of what you sign up for is the fact that everything you write, and even the characters you create, it's all part of a shared universe that belongs to them, not you. So you know that stories that you create will be undone, and characters you create may be killed. So getting hurt by these events feels a bit like you're being unprofessional.

But so much of how it all went down was pretty painful in the moment. They put 27 kids on a bus and killed them in one page. That's gonna sting, no matter how professional you want to be.

Ultimately, what really hurt the most is how we found out. When we were taken off the book, we knew the new team was planning to shake things up and make things more dangerous. So we knew characters would die. And so we asked Marvel - just give it to us straight, who was going to die. And we were told - no joke - that we didn't need to worry. Only two of the kids we wrote would die. Icarus, and Tag. That's it. Just two. We were sad for them, but it felt like it wasn't going to be too bad. And we had time to prepare.

And we weren't told anything else. Everything else we found out, we did so by reading the comic when it came out, like everyone else. Except, unlike everyone else, we'd been told everyone but those two characters were safe.

And then, as we paid for the issues like any other fan, we watched as 27 kids blew up on a bus. As Laurie was shot. As Quill (who we put in the book and named in honor of a friend) was shot in the face.

So... which hurt the most? All of it, really. Not because it happened - that's Marvel's right. And Kyle and Yost's right. But because we wanted to be prepared and ended up being completely surprised.

[Paragon]

That's unfortunate about Nunzio and Christina. Marvel could have just told them who the main team would be and that no one else should be considered "safe."

From what I remember, Wind Dancer, Hellion, Icarus, Melody, Mercury, Elixir, Surge, Prodigy, Wallflower, Anole, Loa, Gentle, Indra, Bling, Armor, Wither, Pixie, Dust, WolfCub, and Blindfold have either have some mention of their families outside of the school or have them come up in their backstory.

How do we know more about WolfCub's family than Rockslide's? That is so odd. O_o

Oh! And we've also met Trance's parents. Right before Nanny and Orphan Maker tried to kill them and abduct Trance.