Bishop War College Issue 3 Recap/ Review

[Kingdom X]

After the preview we see the AU Quiet Council shocked at how bad 616 is and how hard our Bishop’s life has been. Funniest line is Shaw looking at Emma and saying, “Girl you were white.”

We get a glimpse of Moira and Feilong explaining their plan that doesn’t make a lick of sense. For some reason they want the Struckers to get to the Pit to free Krakoa’s prisoners. Problem with that: Sabretooth was captured by Orchis after he escaped. They were the first ones to know that he was no longer in the pit. Luckily they have a second goal of poisoning the island with Blightswill.

We go back to the War College kiddies. Cam and Amass get captured. Wrongslide (who is not on Mars for some reason and is talking like regular Rockslide) hid the rest of them. We get a data page of a cute group text. Aura refers to those in the Pit as psychos, which again doesn’t make much sense cause it seemed like most of the island (especially young mutants) knew that everyone besides Sabretooth was unjustly imprisoned.

We get a brief exchange between our Bishop and Destiny where she warns him of coming danger to mutants, but he responds with “in my world, that’s a constant”. That hit way too close to home after all the conversations about the endless misery cycle of X-comics and the coming Fall of X.

We got some backstory on this world and learn that the X-gene only shows up in black people. I get what the story was trying to do here with a bit of an Afro-futurist vibe, but to me it was pretty unrealistic. They make it clear that traditional racism does exist in this world, and if the only difference between here and 616 is that all mutants are black, I don’t see mutants somehow having an easier time and being less oppressed.

Anyways the issue ends with Bishop being his normal agro self and getting in AU Tempo’s face (they went to go find her in hopes of locating 616 Tempo), only to get interrupted by black Orchis (apparently Asian people don’t exist here cause Feilong is also black).

Overall the issue was okay. It seems like it’s trying to connect to other books quite a bit, but no one (editorial) is putting in the effort to make those connections make sense. I think they need to combine the two plot threads ASAP because neither of them are that interesting and it makes the issues feel quick because we have to bounce around so much. Still don’t like the depiction of Bishop here so hoping he gets a better showing in the CoTV series. I’m considering dropping because I know he’ll have a home even if this book flops.

[Dizzystarr]

This whole mini series sounds really dumb a world where only black people have the x-gene that makes zero sense mutation genetics don't work like that and it sounds just a tiny bit racist

[JB]

Thanks for posting the recap! I left feeling confused by the whole Pit thing because as you said, Orchis should know that Sabretooth is out. Their plan to drill down and free the "dangerous" mutants would have worked over a year ago lol. The altered Blightswill part is interesting and Aura sensing that it's already being used on Krakoa is the most intriguing part for me. The intention of using it to "slowing drive Krakoa mad" as Moira said will bring me back next issue just to see how it possibly connects to Fall.

I'm still not quite understanding what the Bishop side of the story is trying to tell us. Two more issues to go and hopefully there's some kind of payoff with his story and what it'll mean for his character.

[Rift]

The AU reminds me of Black AF, that comic nobpdy read where only black people have the potential to develop powers. I would have read it if it had a black Hellion, but at least we got one in War College. Eu te amo, little 8 year old Hellion.

Tbh I'm like whatever with the AUs mutant rules. Like it's an AU, they can make whatever rules they want for their universe. It's a little sketch but like whatever, artistic vision and whatnot. But as a few people have said before, there's a missed opportunity for commentary by removing other races from the equation. Maybe we'll get more from the next 2 issues. Maybe Feilong is unknowingly a mutant, and this book is forshadowing it.

Edit: But maybe there's a parallel between racism/racial purity and the persecution of mutants?

Anyway, it feels like both plotlines are moving by very slowly. Like not much is happening. But we have Surge, so I'm staying on. Eu te amo, best girl of the comic Surge.

[Kingdom X]

This whole mini series sounds really dumb a world where only black people have the x-gene that makes zero sense mutation genetics don't work like that and it sounds just a tiny bit racist

And the scientific name for mutants is homo negrus superior in this reality... I really almost spit out my coffee.

[Starfish]

Those Orchis schemes feel kinda goofy. Surely with all their resources they could get their hands on a nuke or enough explosives to stuff underneath Krakoa and simply blow the whole island sky high.

[Steroid]

I love Bishop ans really want to like this series but it's kinda terrible. Hopefully COTV will deliver the Bishop story I can enjoy.

[Taurean Sun]

This is a mess the whole home nergus superior is thing is dumb. As Xavier said mutants are dangerous, they are not your average minority soem have the ability to literally shoot lightning bolts and rewrite reality like be serious.

[cranger]

Even AU Moiras have gone full racist.

[Kingdom X]

Even AU Moiras have gone full racist.

It’s crazy… even in a world where things are 10x better she still ended up becoming a villain. It’s like Marvel wants us to think she’s an inherently bad person now, whereas even in HOX/POX she seemed like a good person that was weighed down by her multiple lifetimes.

[Diammandis]

This is a bad book like its actually hilarious

[carmoc1234]

And the scientific name for mutants is homo negrus superior in this reality... I really almost spit out my coffee.

So they learned nothing after what if miles was thor

[Galerion]

This is a bad book like its actually hilarious

Considering also the things in X-Men #21 it's like somebody at the X-office actively hates Bishop and wants to put him down. The Bishop and Gambit fandoms can join forces at this point.

[Triniking1234]

Why is FeiLong black? Pretty sure he has powers in 616 because he experimented on himself to survive space when he planned to conquer Mars and he's not a self-hating mutant. Did the War College guy even read Duggan's books?

[pkingdom]

Why is FeiLong black? Pretty sure he has powers in 616 because he experimented on himself to survive space when he planned to conquer Mars and he's not a self-hating mutant. Did the War College guy even read Duggan's books?

Given how badly they connected to the other books here, probably not. Might have skimmed a recap or something.

Everything with this AU is super cringey. Its a weird situation where the more they explained it the worse it was. There's not much point in going into it in a lot of depth, but yikes.