X-Forums book Club: New X-Men 20-23 by Kyle and Yost

[Wolverine12]

Sorry its a day late but I was busy all Wednesday.

This review will be just for the first issue, if someone else wants to jump in down the line and review the second and or third issues please feel free as this is supposed to be about everyone having a chance to discuss these comics.

The issue starts off with a suicidal Reverend Stryker looking for a sign from God, he is about to kill himself when the statue of Jesus on the cross begins to glow and it cuts away. We then jump to the X-Mansion where we are seeing in real time the effects of M-day on the students, it's a mix of celebration and desperation. Some kids are relieved they are now "normal" and some kids are said that they have lost their gifts. We do see at least one kid called Hydro die from losing his powers. Emma gather's the cuckoo's and puts everyone to sleep so they can figure our what to do next. Emma decides that the depowered students have to go as it won't be safe for them at the school any more and Cyclops disagrees but ultimately Emma has her way. There is also a sub plot with Wither, Laurie and Elixir. Whiter grabs Laurie's arm thinking he was depowered only to learn he still has his death touch, this obviously hurts Laurie but Wither is also upset because he didn't mean to hurt his friend and he realized he was being reckless and got caught up in the madness. We then see Elixir trying to heal Laurie with Wither looking on in the background looking a bit jealous. After that we cut to a scene of Logan telling Laura it's time to come in, that she's not safe on her own. Laura hesitates but Logan insists. The issue ends with Jay Guthrie showing up at the X-Mansion doors at night bloody and with his wings cut off.

I feel obligated to mention that Hellion does make a cameo, I hope Rift is reading along.

I've read this run previously but it has been quite awhile. I'll admit I was a little lost on some of the story lines, mostly the stuff with Whither, Laurie and Elixir. I also couldn't remember why Laura was on her own, but really as of the first issue it's not super important. The issue does a good job setting up the tone for what we can expect, a lot of panic and disaster, which I remember follows in spades for this story. As a single issue without having read what came before it it would be a tough jumping on point for a new reader. I think a new reader could get a general idea of what's going on but it relies heavily on having knowledge of other events and previous issues. I will say that Brooks just kills it on art, I really like his style and even though its a bit cartoony for such a dramatic story he made it work imo. I already read the next issue but like I mentioned above we can take our time with these reviews and do one issue at a time.

Looking forward to hearing what everyone else thinks.

[Rift]

Point of order so no one gets confused: This is actually New X-Men (2004.) New Mutants was the previous Academy X book.

I've been reading along, don't you worry. I even started rerereading all of Academy X in preparation. There's so much I wanna talk about, but I'd just be repeating many of my talking points. Regarding the art though, I'm actually kind of meh to it. A lot of sameface going around. Like it's better than the early New Mutants art, but the Hellions mini had the best look imo.

Fun fact about this issue, and future issues: many of the posters in the kids' rooms are pictures they just put in the book. Julian has a poster of the 2006 Fantastic Four cartoon in his room, Surge has a FLCL poster. In this issue, she has Ando Hiroshige's Wild Sea Breaking on the Rocks.

Since you're all in this thread, you're forced to read my posts. So lemme get into the characters a bit.

Wither is a character I want to highlight here. Like yeah, we all know how miserable his decay powers make him, how he killed his dad, how he can't touch anything. But his life is really sad when you think about it. Because the school and his friends genuinely do everything they can to reach out and help him. He has people who love him. And as he's getting more stability in his life, M-Day happens and he loses more and more. That little bit of hope is flushed away, and things just get worse for him. I might talk about this at the end of this arc, but this issue is the start of his fall.

Note that his room seems to have a lot of wood, which he can decay. In a previous issue, Dani said they were going to get him inorganic, metal furniture he couldn't decay. Either the "wood" is just metal made to look organic, or this is a detail that was lost when KYost took over writing duties.

The Laura stuff confused me at first too, since I didn't read any of her past series. They just sort of slide her in. We do get a little more info on how and why she's here, and that was enough for me. But I recommend reading her past stuff because her history is pretty cool. NYX, 7 issues. Though while we're on the subject of Laura, remind me to go into a rant about the writing when we reach the end. Because while I really like Laura and her story here, there are a lot of things that are just ???

Icarus/Jay Guthrie is a pretty interesting character, though many people tend to hate him. (And to be fair, they have good reason.) The next couple of issues will delve into his character more, including touching on an element of his past publication history. It's not required reading, but if you want to know more about the character, check out Uncanny X-Men Vol 1, issues 437-441. It's uh, written by Chuck Austen. So have fun there.

Mercury gets a brief cameo here, reinforcing her body image issues that I don't think ever really go away. Sadly, she never got a lot of major focus outside of her subplot in the 2004 Hellions mini and arguably the Mercury Falling arc later on in this book. We get a lot of her personality, her character dynamics and other details, but she never got the story focus she deserved.

Prodigy, a character I'm sure many people are familiar with, gets depowered here. He doesn't get his power back until Krakoa's X-Factor book, 15 years later. The earlier issues of New X-Men and New Mutants have more focus on him, his relationship with his family, the potential of his power and his relationship with Surge. If you want something that's light and sweet, check it out.

Brian Cruz/Tag is a character who didn't get a lot of focus, before or after this story. But if you want to know more about him, check out the 2004 Hellions mini. He has no arc, but his main motivation is to try and keep everyone together. There's one startling line that reveals a lot to his character, which is sadly not touched upon. "I just thought... with all you guys getting everything you wanted, you ever wanted... the group might, you know, stop hanging out. You'd all leave me. I'd have nobody." And that's another thing I'll have to write an essay about sometime: the Hellions, despite their success and popularity, are misfits that rely on each other.

We know some mutants died without their powers. One character who isn't mentioned here, but I think gets a mention later, is Jeffrey Garrett, who spent most of his screentime as a ghost due to shenanigans. He actually appeared before Academy X, but he was reintroduced to the school through an Academy X story. (Which I recommend reading. Hellion is an ******* in this arc and I thought it was pretty funny.) He bonded with Surge, so his death undoubtedly impacted her.

Wind Dancer doesn't get a lot of focus here, but note how she doesn't lash out at Wither like Jay does. A key aspect of her character is that she's much more understanding and friendly than others. In New Mutants, she was one of the first people to reach out to Wither. Hellion was one of the first people to bully him.

Notable Academy X cameos: Indra, Specter, Preview.

The next issues are pretty fun.

[sunofdarkchild]

This is only the 2nd time I've read this story, and looking at it with a more critical eye doesn't really help matters.


I thought the first issue with the characters reacting to either losing or keeping their powers was really strong, but the story started to lose me after the first issue.

Sticking with the first issue that initial hook is strong. I don't need to care about these specific characters beforehand to care about how M-Day affects them. I don't need to know who Hydro is to care that a child just died for no reason. I think it's great to get so many different viewpoints on what happened in this specific instance. Though I think the size of the cast becomes a detriment to the story later on.

[Milici]

Absolutely heart wrenching issue, Damm that witch!

[Ambaryerno]

The Laura stuff confused me at first too, since I didn't read any of her past series. They just sort of slide her in. We do get a little more info on how and why she's here, and that was enough for me. But I recommend reading her past stuff because her history is pretty cool. NYX, 7 issues. Though while we're on the subject of Laura, remind me to go into a rant about the writing when we reach the end. Because while I really like Laura and her story here, there are a lot of things that are just ???

The main problem with Laura's introduction in NXM #20 is that her introduction in the books themselves was kind of confused and chaotic.

Originally, NYX was planned to be an ongoing series, and presumably had that carried through Laura would have remained with Kiden Nixon's group, at least until everything got relaunched after Decimation/House of M. But Quesada's failure to keep to the schedule (there were considerable delays between issues) led to the book being cancelled after the first arc, essentially restructuring it as a miniseries. However, Marvel needed to get Laura into a book SOMEWHERE, so handed her off to Claremont. Claremont never really got a handle on her, and then House of M hit upending his run.

After House of M, Kyle and Yost took over New X-Men. I don't know if Marvel handed Laura back to them or if they called "dibs." Regardless, they chose to pretty much ignore what Claremont was doing with her, which didn't gel with their own take on her characterization, and only a clumsy handwave that Logan was just "pretending" not to know her in Claremont's book for the X-Men's benefit for...reasons to explain the situation. The problem is, there's nothing to establish context for readers who hadn't followed any of Laura's previous books. Usually there's an editor's note (*See Issue Whatever) pointing to an issue. but there's not even any sort of reference like that. It's not helped that Target X #1, (December, 2006) which established how Laura and Logan really first met, and who she would be looking for in San Francisco, wasn't released until a year AFTER NXM #20 (November, 2005). So KYost evidently had that planned, but for whatever reason that story wouldn't be released until after the issues that alluded to it.

[Rift]

The main problem with Laura's introduction in NXM #20 is that her introduction in the books themselves was kind of confused and chaotic.

Originally, NYX was planned to be an ongoing series, and presumably had that carried through Laura would have remained with Kiden Nixon's group, at least until everything got relaunched after Decimation/House of M. But Quesada's failure to keep to the schedule (there were considerable delays between issues) led to the book being cancelled after the first arc, essentially restructuring it as a miniseries. However, Marvel needed to get Laura into a book SOMEWHERE, so handed her off to Claremont. Claremont never really got a handle on her, and then House of M hit upending his run.

After House of M, Kyle and Yost took over New X-Men. I don't know if Marvel handed Laura back to them or if they called "dibs." Regardless, they chose to pretty much ignore what Claremont was doing with her, which didn't gel with their own take on her characterization, and only a clumsy handwave that Logan was just "pretending" not to know her in Claremont's book for the X-Men's benefit for...reasons to explain the situation. The problem is, there's nothing to establish context for readers who hadn't followed any of Laura's previous books. Usually there's an editor's note (*See Issue Whatever) pointing to an issue. but there's not even any sort of reference like that. It's not helped that Target X #1, (December, 2006) which established how Laura and Logan really first met, and who she would be looking for in San Francisco, wasn't released until a year AFTER NXM #20 (November, 2005). So KYost evidently had that planned, but for whatever reason that story wouldn't be released until after the issues that alluded to it.

Oh dang, that's pretty interesting. I only knew about NYX's issues behind the scenes, but I didn't get the full picture on how borked Laura's situation is.

[sunofdarkchild]

I have 2 main problems with this arc. The first is the way in which events are shown out of order, especially with Jay Guthrie. I believe this was done to build tension, but in general you've got to be really good to make that kind of story-telling device work, and I don't think it does here.

One thing that makes this 'arc' very hard to judge, and my biggest problem, is that it is just act 1 of a larger story. And not in the way A New Hope is the first act of the larger Star Wars trilogy. It's in the way Luke finding his aunt and uncle's skeletons, meeting Han Solo, and leaving Tatooine is the end of the first act of A New Hope. This does not stand on its own, as it ends without any character arcs or plotlines being anything other than set-up. Outside of 24, I can't even think of any TV shows that do this in having entire episodes that are just part of the larger whole rather than complete stories in their own right. Nothing is resolved. The ending, while shocking, is merely a transition from act 1 to act 2. I'm not sure I can think of any other storyarc that does this. Messiah Complex is act 1 of the 'Messiah Trilogy' but it's still a complete story in its own right. Mutant Massacre is act 1 of a 3-part story that goes through Fall of the Mutants and culminates in Inferno, but it still stands on its own. With Childhood's End I'm left scratching my head why issue 23 is called 'part 4 of 4,' separating it from what comes after when it can't stand without what comes after? Do I judge it as it's own thing and therefore criticize it for not resolving anything or telling anything close to a complete story, or do I judge it the way I'd judge the section of a tv show that comes before the second commercial break, as part of everything that makes up the complete story and with no thought given to it as its own unit?

[jwatson]

First thought, in the opening page i don't know how i feel about the powerless description for humans but then that could be a percursor to the story because after what was done here with decimation 90% of mutants now get to feel powerless. I don't feel powerless as a human but some prob read that and grinded their teeth a bit. lol I'm weird with words sometimes.

I'm actually typing this as i read because i want to do the assignement. lol. and it works better for what i'm feeling as i read. I have to say the scene 2 years earlier of the man begging jesus to deliver him some mutants (a sign) and then the light followed by two years later and the light of decimation really in a way implies, in this moment that his divine prayer was answered. I don't know what the man saw yet but it does sort of set up the feeling in the reader or at least this one, that this is an act of whichever marvel god. While at the same time, Emma's response is "oh god."good juxpasation to make one wonder well what happens when prayers conflict.

So far i am enjoying seeing the variance in what reactions are to some of the students. It's to be expected some would be happy their mutation was gone just like it's not unexpected people who can blend to blend. But it was also interesting seeing those so tied to their powers they were just absolutely disllusioned by it's loss like melanie guthrie which again shows the wide breath in mutatdom and what it means to be one, just like everyone else of course.
Ummm in a book that already is starting out not very diverse it is not lost on me that two Black men basically lost their powers on the same page while we got 4 blonde telepaths... And i don't know given the page i'm just really not a fan of elixir in gold still powered and Julian floating above while Tag is on his knees "powerless" now. not a good look imo.

Overall i have to say i know why i may not have followed this series. So far it's just really an introduction to the current status but can't say i am a fan. Perhaps issue 21 will be better.

Oh and Emma wanting to send them home makes no sense to me. The way this world is playing off at this time (in the story) i would be thinking people may think they are tainted because they were once mutants or the one above gave them a temporary reprieve so they need to kill all the mutants before they turn back. I mean it's not like the average human would know of decimation so they had to have many wild theories. I don't think it's the case at all but it very much reads as emma wants to get rid of them so she can focus on protecting what little they have left. And lets not forget windancer. That is Prodigy, Windancer, and Tag losing their powers when you could have just took out the 3 cuckoos and spared them since it was power redundancy at it's finest. That gets a REAL side eye from me.

[jwatson]

I'm reading issue 21 and i can tell i was coming off of Xtreme because i'm not sad most of mutant town is gone because i remember in Xtreme people bullying humans in mutant town and stealing their land and telling them "there was no place for them". This would have also been coming off of Emma denying Storm and the Xtreme team to take in a mutant who was accused of murders because he teleported a family in left them in the cold to die by accident. Storm wanted him to stand trail and Emma refused.

Interesting seeing william stryker on tv and reading the story you can't really say he is wrong. So far he asked for a sign in the story and he was given one as far as the story is showing. So i can see how people would see humans are in the right IN the story but then on a more emotional levels those who have experienced bigotry because so far it's written very subtle and with the fact that no entity did it and scarlet witch was used there was no way to blame anyone for what was easily seen as divine intervention based on what william stryker is presenting and what happened.

Interesting that the word cult is used here. I have to wonder what is this story really saying. Ohhh and sorry Rift but this is why Hellion will not make many fans or really be invited to any cookouts. This dude had the nerve to walk in on one of the only black mutants still there even after losing his powers and had the nerve and the entitlement to be all "What to you mean, "WE"? No that wasn't cute, it wasn't smartass that is the personification of what the xmen became under Morrison with that stank attitude.
This emma frost is hard to like to. Yeesh. I guess these are the "Standards" people talk about today when "bad" characters a given a second chance. Emma seriously standing here screaming "she a murderer, she killed her own mother... blah blah blah" It's like girl get a grip. You really preaching this right now with a straight face. Sending all your students away doesn't give you the right to act all brand new.
It was nice David got to build the Danger Cave, one last reminder of when he wasn't "poweless" to leave behind for others.
I mean i don't even know what to say at this point. lol This was not good.

[sunofdarkchild]

I'm reading issue 21 and i can tell i was coming off of Xtreme because i'm not sad most of mutant town is gone because i remember in Xtreme people bullying humans in mutant town and stealing their land and telling them "there was no place for them". This would have also been coming off of Emma denying Storm and the Xtreme team to take in a mutant who was accused of murders because he teleported a family in left them in the cold to die by accident. Storm wanted him to stand trail and Emma refused.

Interesting seeing william stryker on tv and reading the story you can't really say he is wrong. So far he asked for a sign in the story and he was given one as far as the story is showing. So i can see how people would see humans are in the right IN the story but then on a more emotional levels those who have experienced bigotry because so far it's written very subtle and with the fact that no entity did it and scarlet witch was used there was no way to blame anyone for what was easily seen as divine intervention based on what william stryker is presenting and what happened.

Interesting that the word cult is used here. I have to wonder what is this story really saying. Ohhh and sorry Rift but this is why Hellion will not make many fans or really be invited to any cookouts. This dude had the nerve to walk in on one of the only black mutants still there even after losing his powers and had the nerve and the entitlement to be all "What to you mean, "WE"? No that wasn't cute, it wasn't smartass that is the personification of what the xmen became under Morrison with that stank attitude.
This emma frost is hard to like to. Yeesh. I guess these are the "Standards" people talk about today when "bad" characters a given a second chance. Emma seriously standing here screaming "she a murderer, she killed her own mother... blah blah blah" It's like girl get a grip. You really preaching this right now with a straight face. Sending all your students away doesn't give you the right to act all brand new.
It was nice David got to build the Danger Cave, one last reminder of when he wasn't "poweless" to leave behind for others.
I mean i don't even know what to say at this point. lol This was not good.

Yeah. I also came away from this with a strong dislike for Hellion and Emma.

[Rift]

Interesting that the word cult is used here. I have to wonder what is this story really saying. Ohhh and sorry Rift but this is why Hellion will not make many fans or really be invited to any cookouts. This dude had the nerve to walk in on one of the only black mutants still there even after losing his powers and had the nerve and the entitlement to be all "What to you mean, "WE"? No that wasn't cute, it wasn't smartass that is the personification of what the xmen became under Morrison with that stank attitude.

Yeah. I also came away from this with a strong dislike for Hellion and Emma.

No offense taken. Hellion really is a huge jerk, and I understand if people find him unlikeable. I won't spoil too much, but you'll see that his attitude will come back to bite him in the butt over the next few issues of this arc, and many future ones. The book makes it pretty clear this sort of behavior is wrong, and he becomes more less haughty and more humbled as the story goes on.

And if you still dislike him, he gets stabbed, beaten up, attacked and maimed throughout New X-Men. Like a lot.

[jwatson]

No offense taken. Hellion really is a huge jerk, and I understand if people find him unlikeable. I won't spoil too much, but you'll see that his attitude will come back to bite him in the butt over the next few issues of this arc, and many future ones. The book makes it pretty clear this sort of behavior is wrong, and he becomes more less haughty and more humbled as the story goes on.

And if you still dislike him, he gets stabbed, beaten up, attacked and maimed throughout New X-Men. Like a lot.

To be fair i can't get page 19 and 20 to load on either my phone or in a browser so i reeaaaally have to wonder what happened between the last page and depowered david dressed up as Storm. Which has me more occupied than Hellion's scene. lol

[Rift]

To be fair i can't get page 19 and 20 to load on either my phone or in a browser so i reeaaaally have to wonder what happened between the last page and depowered david dressed up as Storm. Which has me more occupied than Hellion's scene. lol

You're on issue 21, so I'll put spoiler tags so no one gets spoiled.

spoilers:

That's Tag/Brian dressed up as Storm. After that seen, we get a flash forward to 10 days into the future. Elixir is called to the infirmary to help Icarus/Jay, who had his wings amputated and is dying. When Jay wakes up, Elixir offers to heal him. But Jay becomes very panicked, lashes out and screams for Elixir to not touch him. To just go away from him.

end of spoilers

[jwatson]

You're on issue 21, so I'll put spoiler tags so no one gets spoiled.

spoilers:

That's Tag/Brian dressed up as Storm. After that seen, we get a flash forward to 10 days into the future. Elixir is called to the infirmary to help Icarus/Jay, who had his wings amputated and is dying. When Jay wakes up, Elixir offers to heal him. But Jay becomes very panicked, lashes out and screams for Elixir to not touch him. To just go away from him.

end of spoilers

Oh boy that was tag. thank you for the info i really appreciate it. Man kyle and yost are not coming off good in terms of the young ethnic mutants. wow.

[jwatson]

Okay on to issue 22 I'm going to do it in one sitting.
page 1 image not found. "Hail Hydra" is this like subliminal messenging at this point.
page 6 imagr not found "hail Hydra"
David Allyne (human) really digging that point across aren't they.
The x-23 scene of her i guess stabbing jay isn't really cute. This stuff is pretty dark.
X-23 being treated as a dog "oh she's sweet on you keller." also not cute.
For so much being said about Laura character in the issue and assumptions being made, she didn't get a single line of dialogue.
Emma looking annoyed the two girls of color that lost their power in the same arc , Dani and Sophia are crying and haven't gotten off the porch yet. Emma was suppose to be a teacher and hero at this time? I mean i guess at least she let wind dancer back inside but it never occured to her that a woman who just lost her powers as well might be able to actually council people who lost there powers or don't know how to deal with someone who has?
Oh laura get's a line. To let us know she killed in afganistan. Seems like the other kids are actually right about her if that's all she has to say but hey at least she told the person from the middle east thats where she goes to kill. SMH
Also why would Sophia who is depowered even want to talk to julian when julian already dissed Prodigy for being "human" It makes perfect sense why she would expect no matter what Julian says he feels the same about her and if he didn't she would still have to wonder if he is only dealing with her or feels different because he likes her. What happens when he doesn't.
Oh isn't this nice, Emma tells laura she isn't going anywhere only to taunt the girl later to get her rocks off by showing her her dead mother and people are still upset over Buttercup? Puhlease!
Still waiting for the moment in the story where the purifers aren't wrong. I mean they got a light, and mutant powers went away. In their mind and image they are right. I mean books don't show emotion unless they are written. From their perspective and how it's written it does seem like some holy crusade. But i know better.