Bishop: War College #4 Review and Spoilers

[Til]

It's been several days and no one has made a review thread, so I guess I will.

Earth-616:

Datapage of an Orchis group chat between Moira, Feilong, and Killian Devo. It turns out that Moira hired Fenris without telling the others, and they're irritated about it. They say Fenris are losers who have never accomplished anything. Moira says they'll succeed in their mission of freeing the prisoners in the Pit. Even if they don't, the fact that they've been spewing Blightswill inside of Krakoa is already a win for Orchis. It shows the mutants that they're not even safe in their own home. Devo asks if she's sure that Sabretooth and the other prisoners are still in the Pit. Moira says of course they are, if they'd gotten out Sabretooth would be causing mayhem somewhere and they'd have heard about it.

Back on Krakoa, Fenris and the Orchis goons are getting close to the Pit. The X-kids are spying on them and realize that the bracelets Fenris are wearing protect them from the Blightswill. They attack and quickly get the bracelets from Fenris. Surge and Armor put the bracelets on and get their powers back, but it's too late: the Orchis goons have broken through to the Pit.

Earth-63:

Datapage of Heather Tucker talking about the Tucker Clinic she and her father run to help mutants. Even though she and him aren't mutants, they've dedicated their lives to helping new mutants learn about their powers and find a place in the world. She also mentions how the X-Gene is attached to the genes that govern racial attributes, which is why only Black people can be mutants.

The attack at the end of last issue continues. 63-Bishop is hiding behind a table while our Bishop yells at him to fight. He says he's not a fighter and can't. Just then Tony Stark is about to attack 63-Bishop, but 63-Bishop hits him with an energy blast instead. He says that's the first time he's ever blasted someone. The X-Men arrive and join the battle. Moira activates an explosive in her chest and suicide-bombs the Clinic. Bishop opens his eyes and realizes he's not dead. Time has stopped. It turns out the Heather Tucker present is 616-Tempo. She was just pretending to be 63-Heather. She couldn't save her father in 616, and now she's failed at saving him in 63. So she decides to use her powers to try again.


This was a very, very quick read. I think the Datapages took up most of my reading time. We're four issues in and I think there's only one left so I might as well finish it out, but I wouldn't recommend this. It's not especially interesting and just feels like fluff. I also continue to be weirded out by the racial angle. It feels like I'm reading a paper on racial eugenics from the 1800's or something.

[JB]

I've committed to finishing out this series as well and it's a bummer that so little has happened in either story. I do think the Blightswill use on Krakoa the mutant itself is interesting and may have some connection to FoX but that's really the only part I'm interested in at this point.

Regarding the twist with Tempo, I'm assuming when her powers went haywire in #1 and she ended up on earth-63, she decided to try and save her father of that timeline. That story beat has potential but unfortunately there hasn't been any build-up to it so it feels empty. Hopefully something substantial happens in #5 that has some kind of impact on the wider X-line story.

[Til]

I do think the Blightswill use on Krakoa the mutant itself is interesting and may have some connection to FoX but that's really the only part I'm interested in at this point.

I agree, I think that has the most potential for having an impact on the x-line beyond this mini. Beyond that though, I'm guessing Fenris will end up in the Pit for violating "Respect this Sacred Land", but I'm not sure anything else will come out of this.

[Malachi]

I haven't read this but so far the X-23 mini and Rogue&Gambit haven't been hits either. I like that they are putting out mini's but they need to step it up. Looking at Claremont in the recent Gambit mini and the current X-treme X-men mini, both of them where filled to the brim with content. While the R&G is so decompressed that it also feels like a quick read.

[Kingdom X]

*sigh* I never thought a series highlighting black mutants and young X-Men could disappoint me so much. Reposting my thoughts from another platform here:

This book doesn’t make any sense.

The entire Orchis Pit plot doesn’t make sense because Orchis captured Sabretooth the minute he got out of the pit.

It makes no sense that Tempo was able to take the place of her AU counterpart. We might get an explanation next issue, but to my knowledge that’s not her powerset at all. I guess we might find she was flung back years in the past in this reality, but it seems a little too late to introduce that huge element.

Thematically having Bishop in this AU for the majority of the series while the kids did their own thing doesn’t make sense. The initial conflict brought up in issue one is the question of whether Bishop is a good teacher or whether his approach is too rough and militaristic. By separating them for the entire series we’re unable to keep addressing that conflict, and now the students have essentially saved themselves proving they were right to be over Bishop’s methods.

[dkrook]

*sigh* I never thought a series highlighting black mutants and young X-Men could disappoint me so much. Reposting my thoughts from another platform here:

This book doesn’t make any sense.

The entire Orchis Pit plot doesn’t make sense because Orchis captured Sabretooth the minute he got out of the pit.

It makes no sense that Tempo was able to take the place of her AU counterpart. We might get an explanation next issue, but to my knowledge that’s not her powerset at all. I guess we might find she was flung back years in the past in this reality, but it seems a little too late to introduce that huge element.

Thematically having Bishop in this AU for the majority of the series while the kids did their own thing doesn’t make sense. The initial conflict brought up in issue one is the question of whether Bishop is a good teacher or whether his approach is too rough and militaristic. By separating them for the entire series we’re unable to keep addressing that conflict, and now the students have essentially saved themselves proving they were right to be over Bishop’s methods.

That's the troubling thing about this whole book. I really want to know what the pitch was. Did anyone else point out that gaging narrative progression would be difficult by having 2 protagonist doing 2 different things. It's hard see pages dedicated to Bishop but there being no real depth being added, or revealed. I hate being an Al Ewing pod but he is just the writer to draw out his past and weave it into a character building plot.

[Rift]

and now the students have essentially saved themselves proving they were right to be over Bishop’s methods.

To be fair, we should have expected Surge to be right because she is amazing and cool.

[pkingdom]

You guys are interested in the Blightswill stuff, but now that they have those cuffs that stop the poison somehow I could see them handwaving away all Blightswill problems with them in general.

I don't understand the purpose of Bishop being in this alt universe besides fan-fic type stuff. And as got brought up in the past issues, Bishop is Aboriginal Australian, right? That's a different subset of genes than African, so it feels like this wasn't thought out well

[JB]

You guys are interested in the Blightswill stuff, but now that they have those cuffs that stop the poison somehow I could see them handwaving away all Blightswill problems with them in general.

I don't understand the purpose of Bishop being in this alt universe besides fan-fic type stuff. And as got brought up in the past issues, Bishop is Aboriginal Australian, right? That's a different subset of genes than African, so it feels like this wasn't thought out well

Yeah it'd a bit of a letdown for me if they solve the Blightswill issue by the end of the series. Particularly using it on the island is what interests me because it seems it would line up with the potential upcoming Orchis attack during the gala. I can see the team having it solved for themselves but not realizing the damage that had been done, or not being able to figure out how to reverse its effects since it's been injected into the island this whole time. It feels like there could be a connection to the mysterious soldier in the FCBD issue injecting something into the vines holding the CK costume.

[Rift]

You guys are interested in the Blightswill stuff, but now that they have those cuffs that stop the poison somehow I could see them handwaving away all Blightswill problems with them in general.

I don't understand the purpose of Bishop being in this alt universe besides fan-fic type stuff. And as got brought up in the past issues, Bishop is Aboriginal Australian, right? That's a different subset of genes than African, so it feels like this wasn't thought out well

Wasn't it implied that Bishop's grandma is Storm?

[BobbysWorld]

Wasn't it implied that Bishop's grandma is Storm?

At other times its been implied that Monet is his mother or grandmother and/or he's descended from Gateway.

[Nicoclaws]

At other times its been implied that Monet is his mother or grandmother and/or he's descended from Gateway.

Because all black people come from the same family.

[BobbysWorld]

Because all black people come from the same family.

Tbf, having time-traveling characters from the future be revealed as having connections to main characters from the present day is an extremely common trope in superhero comics in general. Trevor Fitzroy was revealed to be descended from the Shaws. X-Men 2099 linked characters from that era to the modern X-Men via characters like December Frost. Etc, etc.

[Will Evans]

Wasn't it implied that Bishop's grandma is Storm?

No. His grandma was shown to be black woman with white gray hair (duh, she’s old) and some fans took that to mean it was Storm.
The actual hints from the writers was it was Monet or one of her younger twin sisters.