Legion of X #5 Review/Spoilers - Altared States

[Rift]

We start off with a data page! An Excerpt from the Journal of Professor X, "Regarding DH." It tells the story of a soldier who creates a gun and loves it. When it works, it's fantastic. However, it keeps messing up and nearly killing him when he uses it in battle. It always misfires, nearly takes off his fingers, and puts everyone in danger. The soldier's comrades start to see him as the weak link. The man realizes that, as much as he loves what he created, it's too dangerous and unhelpful. He keeps it in his locker and arms himself with other means.

That man was Julian Keller, and the gun was his love for Laura Kinney when written by the pen of Marjory Liu.

Anyway, back to the story. Shift has possessed David, while Ghost Banshee and Mother Poppins look on in distress. To make matters worse, Ora Serrata jumps in. But we can take solace in David locking up his other personalities, and Shift being too unimaginative to take advantage of them to take over the world.

Astral Blindfold rushes in and punches Shift out of her boyfriend's body, because only she is allowed to be inside him. Ora starts ****-talking Nightcrawler for being an incompetent peacekeeper, but he decides to counter with the knowledge he learned from Tumult: that Ora was his first worshipper, and the one keeping him. Ora denies it, but she utters the god's name; something she shouldn't know, because she originally claimed that nobody knew it.

Kurt lays down the score: In times of civil unrest, people defer to the seat of Law, Ora's seat. She purposely used the god to create chaos and anarchy to keep herself in power. Now, he's going to arrest her. Ora responds by eye-blasting everyone, with the intention of killing all witnesses. Nightcrawler teleports away, and Nemesis and Chamber hide behind some rubble. Many people are vaporized.

Shift returns to Tumult and asks for more power. Tumult instead decides to believe in himself and revoke any power he's given to Shift. Now that Tumult is no longer shielding him, Pixie, Warlock, Juggs and Lost find their hiding spot and incapacitate Shift.

Back in the Altar, Legion, Nightcrawler, Blindfold, Chamber and Hellion hide from Ora. David points out that if he's erased, the Altar is gone, they'll be trapped in the Astral Plane until they're dissolved into cosmic rapture, and they can't be revived by Cerebro. Kurt spews some vague platitudes about the Spark, but no one is buying it. But Ruth has an idea: David can embrace his gift and let all of his personalities out to fight for him.

They're all vaporized by Ora.

Luckily, another one of Mother Righteous' cards has come into play. Magic mirrors encircle Ora, and Tumult grabs hold of her little baby hands. An injured Zsen shows up, having defeated Ora's assassins from last issue. She formally challenges Ora to the Circle Perilous, under the terms of the Godlaw from the first issue, to prove her god's utility. Ora is furious, and says that Arakko was united and strong under her rule. When she has sole power, she will return Arakko to the Everwar. She was the first of her seat and will not be judged by anyone.

Enter Storm. She doesn't want a power vacuum in place, and she knows that Ora likes to keep her sins discreet. So she blackmails Ora: Everyone will keep Ora's crimes secret, but in exchange, she must undergo torture: she must listen to Kurt's talk about the Spark.

Later, Ora writes a letter to Kurt. With wonderful penmanship, she says how Ora's plans have failed. Her attempts to create chaos and mischief only made people unit and become stronger. She wanted people to look to her for strength, and stick to the old systems. But they adapted and became better for it. Mischief, creativity and recklessness were mightier than Law. No weapon is mightier than the idea.

But some things need to be done by the book. Some things need to be seen and witnessed before they tear up the book.

Zsen stands in the Circle Perilous, wielding the severed head of Uqesh. She has Switch stand and call upon Tumult to fight and prove his usefulness. However, it turns out that Switch and Tumult switched bodies, so Switch is the one getting his ass kicked by the Arakkii. Which is pretty messed up and goes against Kurt's idea that anyone can be saved. But as Zsen tells Storm, she boinked Kurt so hard that he'll be sleep for a long time, and he won't know about any of this.

Zsen imparts her own lesson: There are idealists who make the world a better place, and pragmatics who make the world less awful. It's kinder to the former that they don't know anything about the latter.

Before the festivities end, Ora Serrata makes an announcement: the Godlaw is revoked, people can worship what they want, and Uqesh can finally rest (by being erased from existence.) Zsen is also released from her vow of service, free to do as she pleases.

Later, Warlock finds strange glowing blooms on Juggernaut, who says that they drifted out of the Astral Plane and got stuck to him while he was moping around. Later, David looks over Paulie's dead body and wonder who killed him and let Switch out of his container earlier in the arc. Blindfold believes that it was something from the Qortex - something invasive and exotic.

Meanwhile, Zsen's letter to Kurt continues. While she's free and better off for his help, she's not sure if people can truly change. We heal, but the scars and pains remain. We change our paths, but our footprints remain. Blah blah blah. Point is, she's joining the Mercury Battalion with Hellion and leaving everything else behind. She hopes to see Kurt again one day, though. And that he thinks as fondly of her as she does him.

Kurt once said that her power, to paint the truth, sounded beautiful. Zsen is sorry to prove him wrong, as she has left a giant painting of Kurt's impression. We don't get to see it, but it makes Kurt fall to his knees. Presumably, it's a picture of the one god Kurt knew was true, but refused to worship: Hellion.

Later still, Ora is throwing a tantrum like an actual baby. Mother Righteous shows up to chide her. Ora is furious that the god MR provided sucked, but MR counters that she gave Ora everything she wanted, and it was her own arrogance and disdain for the hidden arts that lead to her downfall. When Ora threatens her, Righteous inflicts severe pain unto Ora through her soul. She forces Ora to thank her.

She confronts Banshee, who is possessed by the Spirit of Variance. She makes Banshee thank her for giving him focus and purpose, and the Spirit for nurturing it when the Spirits of Vengeance rejected it. She then asks them to watch David and make sure he doesn't do anything rash.

The story ends with Legion on Arakko as Uranos lands

[Devaishwarya]

Ora's characterisation was...fucking awful in this. That's all I have to say on this mess.

[pkingdom]

Apparently Kurt needs to be coddled and protected like a pretty pure princess. Or in other words, he has to fail at everything and be wrong about everything and everyone else has to do everything. Blech.

[Glio]

Ora's characterisation was...fucking awful in this. That's all I have to say on this mess.

How can the characterization of a character that Spurrier created 5 issues ago be bad, Jesus, sometimes I don't even understand what people here say.

Just say you don't like the character.

[Saithor]

How can the characterization of a character that Spurrier created 5 issues ago be bad, Jesus, sometimes I don't even understand what people here say.

Just say you don't like the character.

There have been cases of writers screwing up the characterization of characters they’ve made within the run they created them.

This…really doesn’t read as one of those times. I do need to go find the actual issue to figure out what happened though because the Hellion stuff is obsfucating

[JB]

Fantastic recap! Ora is quite the diva it seems.

[Proxy]

Apparently Kurt needs to be coddled and protected like a pretty pure princess. Or in other words, he has to fail at everything and be wrong about everything and everyone else has to do everything. Blech.

This was my least hated issue, parts of it I even enjoyed. But it’s still not Nightcrawler and the writer still doesn’t get it (but I will acknowledge he has been trying). Nightcrawler has never had agency in these books (and he never gets to do anything except wander around different locations). He’s either belittled by people for his beliefs or Molly-coddled and treated like a naive summer child who’s never experienced the ‘harsh’ realities of life and needs to be ‘educated’. Completely ignoring that often the things he’s been ‘taught’ in this book are things he either already knows, has lived through or taught other people for the past 40+ years.

I’ve also got a specific nitpick on the concept of Zsen’s portrait of Kurt in this book too. Spurrier tip toes around Zsen’s description of Kurt’s ‘true’ self and apparently, it isn’t pretty which frankly I call BS on. I have no desire to see that portrait if it’s going to suggest that Kurt’s entire way of being has been a facade to cover a dark, bitter loneliness the whole time.

Kinda dreading each new solicit that comes out as I see Kurt looking more dark and monstrous each month.

[Glio]

There have been cases of writers screwing up the characterization of characters they’ve made within the run they created them.

Maybe, but not in 5 issues.

[Kingdom X]

This was my least hated issue, parts of it I even enjoyed. But it’s still not Nightcrawler and the writer still doesn’t get it (but I will acknowledge he has been trying). Nightcrawler has never had agency in these books (and he never gets to do anything except wander around different locations). He’s either belittled by people for his beliefs or Molly-coddled and treated like a naive summer child who’s never experienced the ‘harsh’ realities of life and needs to be ‘educated’. Completely ignoring that often the things he’s been ‘taught’ in this book are things he either already knows, has lived through or taught other people for the past 40+ years.

I’ve also got a specific nitpick on the concept of Zsen’s portrait of Kurt in this book too. Spurrier tip toes around Zsen’s description of Kurt’s ‘true’ self and apparently, it isn’t pretty which frankly I call BS on. I have no desire to see that portrait if it’s going to suggest that Kurt’s entire way of being has been a facade to cover a dark, bitter loneliness the whole time.

Kinda dreading each new solicit that comes out as I see Kurt looking more dark and monstrous each month.

Yeah this idea that Kurt might be “rotten” on the inside makes me feel a little icky. I understand wanting to do a reversal of the characters original premise (pure soul with the face of the devil), but grim dark Kurt just don’t work for me. Didn’t work when they took his literal soul away and doesn’t work now.

[Glio]

Yeah this idea that Kurt might be “rotten” on the inside makes me feel a little icky. I understand wanting to do a reversal of the characters original premise (pure soul with the face of the devil), but grim dark Kurt just don’t work for me. Didn’t work when they took his literal soul away and doesn’t work now.

I don't think the implications are that Kurt is rotten or dark. Perhaps he is sadder than he lets others see him. I think there has always been a bit (like, 10%) of sad clown in Kurt. Perhaps it can be interesting to explore it.

People are complex and not everything not black or white, no one is happy all the time and maybe Kurt feels obliged to "appear" happy all the time even when he's not always like that, because that's what people expect of him.

[pkingdom]

Yeah this idea that Kurt might be “rotten” on the inside makes me feel a little icky. I understand wanting to do a reversal of the characters original premise (pure soul with the face of the devil), but grim dark Kurt just don’t work for me. Didn’t work when they took his literal soul away and doesn’t work now.

My guess would be not that he's rotten or gross on the inside, but just empty. Hollow. Devoid of depth or meaning. Like a mannequin or doll. Maybe the picture is of him but with blank spots for his face or heart.

[Devaishwarya]

How can the characterization of a character that Spurrier created 5 issues ago be bad, Jesus, sometimes I don't even understand what people here say.

Just say you don't like the character.

I do like the character...I just don't like how she was portrayed in this issue. End of.
It's not for you to understand or even respond to what anyone else says, but if you want to stress yourself out over an opinion go right ahead. I have no fucks to give.

[Glio]

I do like the character...I just don't like how she was portrayed in this issue. End of.
It's not for you to understand or even respond to what anyone else says, but if you want to stress yourself out over an opinion go right ahead. I have no fucks to give.

You believed that the character was different from how she is, that is not characterization.

[Proxy]

Yeah this idea that Kurt might be “rotten” on the inside makes me feel a little icky. I understand wanting to do a reversal of the characters original premise (pure soul with the face of the devil), but grim dark Kurt just don’t work for me. Didn’t work when they took his literal soul away and doesn’t work now.

I wouldn’t mind if it was highlighting his characters insecurities or the exploration of darker parts of ourselves we prefer to hide. But this was (gingerly as always) hinted at being his soul. And no matter what peoples personal opinions of souls are, we actually know what Kurt’s soul is like because it’s been an important part of a few storylines in the past. If his ‘true self’ has indeed become dark and empty, it happened on Krakoa…and it’ll still be BS.

[Proxy]

I don't think the implications are that Kurt is rotten or dark. Perhaps he is sadder than he lets others see him. I think there has always been a bit (like, 10%) of sad clown in Kurt. Perhaps it can be interesting to explore it.

People are complex and not everything not black or white, no one is happy all the time and maybe Kurt feels obliged to "appear" happy all the time even when he's not always like that, because that's what people expect of him.

I’d like to explore that a bit more, that’d be much more interesting but I doubt it’ll go in that direction (I’m afraid I’ve lost faith in this book and can’t stop myself being cynical).