X-men #8 - Preview - Team work!!

[Jackraow21]

Whew. She couldn’t bear to lose that good D so thankfully she kept him from dying. Ha.

[ARkadelphia]

This b.s. regarding Logan not being able to swim or afraid of the water is pretty new. Jason Aaron came up with that to the best of my recollection. Prior to his Wolverine: Weapon X run Logan swam just fine, especially in the Claremont years where it was established he was a good swimmer and could hold his breath for a really long time. See the issues where he fought Tiger Shark (who pinned him to a coral reef with his claws actually) as well as numerous actual sharks for details. Hell, he used to dive in off a boat and wrestle a damn shark, kill it, then throw it up on the boat’s deck for supper back in the day. This being during the Claremont/Buscema days on his solo book.

He’s also quite agile as demonstrated in the countless times he’s fought bigger, stronger opponents including the Hulk and Wendigo. Basically his healing factor allowed his musculature to adapt to the added weight just fine. The adamantium really does nothing except make him more durable, albeit his healing factor does work a little slower since it has to compensate for the poisonous effects of the metal on his system.

Regardless, in terms of the point about wanting your derivative characters that have established a unique identity to retain what makes them unique, I get that. But they also insist on making her “Wolverine” so in my view this would be a logical progression. If anything they should make a status quo change to Logan that warrants it honestly, and he should just pass the mantle as I don’t think his character needs it. Certainly not to maintain his popularity, as has been proven in times where he didn’t have any adamantium at all and/or when he didn’t even go by Wolverine (i.e., when he was replaced by Old Man Logan in the present day 616 timeline). But I might be alone in that view honestly…

… my take would’ve been to have Logan ditch both the adamantium and the codename. Just go by Logan. Him wearing the stealthier brown/tan costume and running the mutant CIA lends itself to this status quo shift too, in that he kind of becomes the Krakoan version of Nick Fury while Laura becomes the more super heroic Wolverine of the X-men complete with indestructible skeleton and yellow and black costume (maybe throw some blue accents in there too to really drive the point home). Logan meanwhile employs other weapons besides just his bone claws, which he still has in a pinch. Make it mission specific, but I can seem him using crossbows, swords (his Muramasa blade), throwing knives and the like just as he did back in the 80s regularly. Again, to me the best Wolverine was 80s Wolverine, so this forces him back into that mold. Hell, I could even see him getting a techno-organic suit from Doug Ramsey or something. Like the Omega Wolverine is currently sporting in X Deaths of Wolverine, which allows him to interface with machines and hack into various systems and whatnot. Another tool in his toolkit, so to speak. Stuff like that would be cool to see rather than the same old status quo. Again, though, that’s probably just me…

But Logan surfs

[salarta]

Psi shields create a blank hole or vacuum in the ambient psionic energy in the area. Telepaths like Xavier, Jean and Emma have different occasions where they were able to track or discover someone that was shielded from them because there was a hole occupying the space where natural psychic energy would just be normally.

Though I don't think Jean was actively scanning before, so there's no reason why she'd notice that. Polaris on the other hand would probably sense the electricity and electromagnetic frequencies from the plane and notice it immediately.

Thanks. I can understand the concept from a perspective of seeing a vacuum where psionic energy would be expected, but it's still hard for me to see it that way when it's about the sky. Maybe it's my understanding of psionic energy. I can see why Lorna would pick up on it because of impacts on electromagnetic fields, particularly Earth's. But I always thought of psionic energy including ambient as emanating from beings/objects, like auras. I don't know. Maybe I don't understand psionic energy. Maybe it would've gone over better if they had enemies with devices that could give false positives of a presence with either Jean or Lorna's power and it took both sensing it to confirm if something is really there or not.

uff, shows the sexism in the depiction of powerful women in the Marvel comicbook universe. All three founding x-women of the X-Men canon are or have been mentally unstable........

also: I want that as a regular team in the x-books. ;-)

I always thought Lorna would've offered Marvel a great opportunity to deconstruct that trope, using her as the "new perspective" on it while involving Jean and Wanda to address those issues from how they were used. Since IMO I think deconstructing with Jean and/or Wanda alone would come off to a lot of readers like an attempt at character rehabilitation by fans of them rather than a much-needed analysis and resolution of past treatment. But, Marvel doesn't think of Lorna well enough for her to get such a role.

[ericng]

Great art but the story is so-so.

[Wind Rider]

Looks so good! Can’t wait! Art + action is looking amazing so far. Amd loving Duggan using Popo’s extra sensory abilities. I don’t see why Laura wouldn’t be a good swimmer though…..?

[Saithor]

I know all the non-X-villains are mostly being used for one shots, but I do want to see MODOK teaming up with Dr. Stasis (Mr. Sinister) in the future.

[Mercury]

Even if it’s light on Jean, this issue is fantastic!

[rhaenylis]

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[PolarIceFire]

Even if it’s light on Jean, this issue is fantastic!

How are you always reading these so early? I like that you do but am just wondering, all the same.

And why is it light on Jean? In a vague, non-spoiler-y kinda way, if ya can. I thought for sure she'd go head-to-(GIANT)head with M.O.D.O.K. in an epic TP battle.

[loke13]

Oooooh hopefully Synch and Laura get to shine this issue.

[alanyoung909]

Duggan isn't even trying to hide he wanted Logan

I don't understand this line of thinking at all.

It's similar to the 'Jason Aaron wanted Hulk for his Avengers but had to settle for She-Hulk' nonsense that people were regurgitating for years despite numerous interviews from Aaron claiming that he specifically wanted to write Jennifer Walters because he had never written her before.
Now was Aaron's writing for She-Hulk good? Not particularly, at least in my opinion.
But I respect the fact that he took a character, did whatever unique take HE WANTED with the character, and when he was done with his big arc (WWSH), he put the character back into a usable state and handed her off to the next writer with no baggage attached.

It's the same thing here.
Duggan CHOSE Laura to be in his X-Men team.
Besides Jean and Scott (who were baked into the concept) and Polaris (chosen by public vote), Duggan picked the other four members of the team.
He could have chosen anyone he wanted.
If he didn't want Laura or if he wanted Logan so badly, he could have easily just picked Daken, since X-Factor was ending during the Gala.
Duggan has said (in many interviews now) that he was a big fan of the 'Vault trilogy' that Hickman did and picked Synch and Laura because he wanted to build off of that.

Again, this is not to say that Duggan is doing the greatest job with Laura or that anyone has to necessarily like what he is doing for the character.
But this 'writer had to settle for female character because he obviously would be a bigger fan of this similar male character' just sounds like sexist drivel to me.

In other news Jean's back to being blocked by psi-shields when in the same run she was easily handling Nightmare lmfao

Did Jean defeating Nightmare really trigger people this badly?

I don't see any contradiction here whatsoever.
Nightmare is a psychic entity and Jean is an Omega psychic more powerful than him so it makes sense that she sent him running.
The goons in this issue are wearing psi-shielding, which specifically disrupt psionics.
Also a group of them were hidden in the air - why would Jean or Synch ever suspect that there were humans suspended in the air if they don't see a craft?
It's not like Nightmare was wearing anti-psi tech when he attacked the Treehouse, so I don't see the contradiction here. Jean was similarly able to read Knull's mind (who also doesn't use anti-psionic tech).

This is like asking how come Doctor Strange can usually defeat Dormammu (a Hell Lord) but he was sent packing by the Empirikul during the Last Days of Magic.
That's because Dormammu is magic entity and Strange is a magician whereas the Empirikul, despite being mortals, were employing magic-nullifying technology.

So Jean the “omega” telepath’s powers are pretty useless again. She couldnt sense a blank hole where those psi shields are and her telepathy is useless at putting those others to sleep. When she’s gone through shields and put people like wolverine to sleep easily.

Yep... The whole "Omniscient..."/"Omnipotent..." bit just keeps getting the legs kicked out from under it by what is actually on the page.

Is Magneto not an limitless ferrokinetic Omega mutant anymore because Karima nullified his powers with a power dampener and then killed him?
Power dampeners, power nullifiers and psi-shields keep being used (as weapons by antagonists in-universe and as plot devices by writers in real life) because they work to increase the stakes of a story.

Gerry Duggan is employing a story structure in which each issue is a showcase for a different character.
Jean Grey and Synch already got their focus issues (issue 4 and issue 3 respectively) earlier in the run.
This issue is a showcase for someone else (probably either Rogue or Wolverine).
Hence, Duggan engineered a scenario in which Jean (an Omega mutant) and Synch (an emerging Omega mutant) don't take out the threat immediately, allowing either Laura or Rogue to shine.
It's just economic plotting, he's been doing it the entire run.