Knights of X #1 Review/Spoilers - Imperiled

[carmoc1234]

Alright, who else bets that Mordred ends up betraying the team before the end of the series?

nah knowing tini howard it will end with mordred becoming king of avalon and for some reason be an even better king than arthur ever was

[king of hybrids]

Alright, who else bets that Mordred ends up betraying the team before the end of the series?

If this was any writer than Howard I’d think that’s possible

But this is Tini ‘it’s not bad when the genetic superiors do it’ Howard

[freemach]

IMG_A3A983189C7E-1.jpg
Kind of depressed Brian who got his identity pretty much given to Betsy is now relegated to off panel babysitter. Kind of crummy for the guy who used to be ruler of Otherworld to not even feature in a story all about it. Although always nice to see more of Meggan I suppose...

[CGAR]

But like what big things was he doing these past 8 years? Just that appearance in Secret Wars right?

[Frobisher]

This has been better than I expected. But my pessimism tells me that Tini will make it unnecessarily confusing again after a good start, like the high that hit the series after X of Swords.

I actually think the more overwrought 80s style narration here really helps her style - partly as you can tell what’s bloody going on! I get the impression a DND party going in a quest is absolutely terra firma for her.

[Glio]

I actually think the more overwrought 80s style narration here really helps her style - partly as you can tell what’s bloody going on! I get the impression a DND party going in a quest is absolutely terra firma for her.

Yeah, I think that you can be right. And I hope that you are right.

[Saithor]

nah knowing tini howard it will end with mordred becoming king of avalon and for some reason be an even better king than arthur ever was

Don’t remind me. They already did that with Mr reality warping crazy slave trader

[CGAR]

Was that actually a big part of his character or was it just like one off hand comment someone made? Did they really make Jamie Braddock a slave trader. I feel like thats a little much, no?

[Saithor]

Was that actually a big part of his character or was it just like one off hand comment someone made? Did they really make Jamie Braddock a slave trader. I feel like thats a little much, no?

Before he was even a mutant, the first real major character arc was the revelation that he had been doing slave trading as well as murder and robbery in Africa to try and pay off some gambling debts, and got caught by Brian and Doctor Crocidile. Brian was disgusted and left him in the custody of Doc Croc, who I believe kept him imprisoned and maybe tortured up until the Claremont Excalibur run when he manifested his reality warping powers and freed himself from Doc Croc and immediately started screwing with Excalibur. Pretty sure it happened because Sar-r-n9ne hired Technet to cause the freeing of him as well. This wasn’t a later retcon or anything, pretty much all of this happened a decade after his introduction. And not a one-off comment

[Aeon]

Shouldn’t we start calling Shogo „Drogo“? Because of that dragon thing…

[Wolverine12]

Pretty solid first issue. It felt like it jumped around a bit, not much in the way of a logical flow but it wasn’t too bad. Art was really good. I am excited to explore Otherworld more.

[Kurolegacy]

IMG_A3A983189C7E-1.jpg
Kind of depressed Brian who got his identity pretty much given to Betsy is now relegated to off panel babysitter. Kind of crummy for the guy who used to be ruler of Otherworld to not even feature in a story all about it. Although always nice to see more of Meggan I suppose...

Let’s be real, Tini Howard never cared about Brian and he only existed in this book as a vehicle for her to make Betsy the star. At this point, I’m not really sure what there is left that she can take from him so he’s basically been shunted out of the story.

[Milici]

Let’s be real, Tini Howard never cared about Brian and he only existed in this book as a vehicle for her to make Betsy the star. At this point, I’m not really sure what there is left that she can take from him so he’s basically been shunted out of the story.

He could divorce Meggan.

[king81992]

Shogo going solo might be what's necessary to make him into an actual character and not an accessory.

Every time Siege Perilous shows up, it does something new. I'm not even sure what its powers are. Myth wise, it was Sir Galahad's chair, in the Marvel Universe its ?

[BobbysWorld]

I mean, so far I like this better than Excalibur, so there's that. It has a much clearer, more coherent direction, its streamlined, like these are all good things. I've always been of the opinion that Howard's better at plot than characterization, so stories where there's not much plot and its just character work - like X-Corps and Secret X-Men.....they tend to miss their mark more often than not, but when she has room to stretch her legs and weave a more complex story....like her story itself tends to be fairly compelling and engaging, its still just....the characters that tend to fall short for me, as they're often shoehorned in to make the plot work rather than being there for their own reasons.

So, taking a look at the characters and how they inform the plot:

1) Shogo - Let's just get this out of the way, it doesn't matter IMO that Howard came up with a way to use Shogo that doesn't make Jubilee look bad by extension, as this is all out of her control now. So on the one hand, I feel like that's an indication Howard at least listened to some of the criticism about her use of him in Excalibur, and she found a way to address that. Unfortunately, I don't think she listened to the right part of the criticism? Again, IMO, but like.....the criticism of Jubilee just kinda going along as Shogo was thrust repeatedly into danger was more a byproduct of the actual larger criticism which was the heavy focus on a literal battle baby in the first place. Sorry not sorry, I've said it a million times before, but baby dragon warrior Shogo is just....not it, chief. I feel like Howard thinks it adds a sense of whimsy to what's already a fantastical tale by nature, but I don't think whimsical is what actually lands and its just....not a concept worth doubling down on, I don't think. I'm inclined to agree with people who think the Siege Perilous might be used to change Shogo in some fundamental way like age him into his adult self, but I still find that unnecessary. This character and plot direction just.....do not work for me and probably never will. Oh well.

2) Gambit - Have to agree with everyone who thinks he's being wasted, and it'll be more of a surprise if he's NOT the character who dies during the Quest than if he is. Even then, I don't think that has to be a dealbreaker, Otherworld deaths are basically a huge wildcard now and there's tons of ways that Gambit dying and coming back could be spun to do interesting things with his character, but the problem is, Howard's not really attempted to do anything interesting with his character as is, and thus the prospect of him dying seems like her taking advantage of a character reset button that lets her turn him into anything she wants him to be and is interested in writing, rather than the character he already was and has no seeming real interest in writing. And that's something that fans of his character have every reason to be wary of and like....not interested in. You don't have to reinvent characters you don't like just to make them something you personally would be interested in, when you can instead just like....not use them, and find a different character you like more to use in their place.

3) Bei the Blood Moon - For the love of god, please, please, PLEASE use this series to finally give her an actual character. She's been around for almost three years now and we still know next to nothing about her because she never gets to really DO anything. I actually really like the potential of her - she's got an interesting look, an interesting backstory, an interesting power....she has everything she needs to be a great, compelling character except for....an interesting characterization because practically no characterization EXISTS for her yet. Please let her do something. Flesh her out. Make her stand out on her own right rather than as just Doug's mysterious wife or the token Arakki mutant, like, give her actual connections with these characters, form actual friendships beyond just mentions of dinner double dates in a data page.

4) Rictor - So far I'm liking him better here than in Excalibur, but the bar is seriously too low there. Having Shatterstar back has seemingly reignited the parts of him that actually seem like Julio, and here's hoping that holds....especially if Apocalypse gets looped back into things, as I suspect might happen after that data page. I don't think he's going to come back in this series, not like fully or whatever.....if and when he and his family do return to the thick of things, I suspect it will happen somewhere other than this book. BUT the Dryador Rift is still there and with the hints there might be some sort of message left in his grimoire, it wouldn't shock me if at some point the Knights take a detour to Amenth and interact with him as a guest star, especially since its obvious Death is going to be coming into the book soon, but if that does happen, I really hope Rictor's character doesn't backslide.

5) Shatterstar - Its honestly way too early to tell anything about his characterization or larger purpose in this book, though I do like the potential for camaraderie with Bei and Kylun, so ultimately my only real hope here is that he's not here just to be Rictor's plus one, but has a story and dynamics of his own, aside from Rictor's.

6) Rachel - Same with her, its still too early to tell how her addition to the book is going to go, but I mean, I don't hate the fire priestess look and at least leaning into the 'D&D band' direction like, hints for actual plans for Rachel beyond just a storyline with Betsy. Which I'm not opposed to at all, I just don't want that to be the only reason Rachel's here. Ever since Remy used Saturnyne's deck of cards in an interesting way in Excalibur I've liked the idea that maybe some mutant powers manifest differently in Otherworld, because while in 'the real world' they manipulate natural energies and forces and principles, in a place where magic is a fundamental force and energy underlying everything, it makes sense that powers synced into and relying on fundamental forces might have different manifestations or possibilities. So I'm very curious if Rachel's design change is just cosmetic and a side effect of the Quest's fairy magic, or if it signals something about her own powers and how they work here.