ANXF #8 Summary & Review (with Spoilers)

[salarta]

I understood what you meant. I wrote those, with a smilar intent of your first god mode post

Ah, okay! Sorry, lately I feel like anything I say that isn't praise is automatically taken to be harsh criticism of the book.

There is no point in arguing this any further. I don't believe it is right for a parent to lock their kid up in their house indefinitely because they're different. Dakei's parenting style isn't just different, it's abusive: he even tells the team he thinks Georgia is his punishment from God. He is certainly not a victim of X-Factor, he brought this on himself.

Dakei's really a victim of himself more than anything else. As I pointed out earlier, X-Factor tried the nice way in, and it was only because Dakei tried to murder them for showing up at his door and not leaving that things escalated.

I would like to see Georgia as the anti Layla. She knows nothing and everything is new to her.

There's a theory some people have that a completely new characters is needed for POV reasons as a "gateway" for new readers to get into an already established fictional universe. The Resident Evil games have been obsessed with this, because every game since RE5 has had one established character with one completely brand new one in pairs, no exceptions. It's only one tool though, and it's really not necessary nor a guarantee of success. RE6 tried it and failed because of other elements, and the people working on Resident Evil have never tried a game where the paired up characters already existed.

Still, I can see how it might be beneficial, and Georgia could be that kind of gateway into learning about X-Men, the Marvel universe and the characters in general.

[TheCatBastet]

Well, my hat's off to Peter David. He's actually got me to start liking Danger!! The panels with her and Warlock going on about superheroing = death was truly hilarious.

And Lorna got some great scenes. Confronting Dakei (and separating him from his security), and then facing down the police (I'll attend to this.). Very cool!

[R0d]

This was just an OK issue to me, there's nothing inherently wrong in it (it has a mutant metaphor, the characters are treated fairly most of the time, there's some action and CDG is a solid again) but I just don't feel it.
Things that bother me: Dakai controls Georgia's computer but he allows her to post a compromising video in the web, she's not sure how her powers work but out of nowhere she realizes that she needs water to fix Doug, Gambit gets beaten by a writer and am I supposed to believe that Georgia knows so little about the outside world?
One last thing, the colouring is truly awful in one panel Gambit has blue eyes and in the next red ones and I'm still not sure if Dakai is a black man with brown hair or a white guy with blonde hair and the excess of yellow is killing my eyes.
I'll give this particular issue a 6.5/10

[remydat]

If there is one thing this book probably needs, it's bigger threats. So far the enemies have been somewhat underwhelming. Hoffman was defeated quite easily, Danger is was defeated with a kiss, Magnus basically ran away, and now a whole team of Superheroes ends up fighting with a random rich dude's security. This team is too stacked with powerful team members to waste time with these small fry IMO.

[Spasticat]

One last thing, the colouring is truly awful in one panel Gambit has blue eyes and in the next red ones and I'm still not sure if Dakai is a black man with brown hair or a white guy with blonde hair and the excess of yellow is killing my eyes.

Oh thank goodness... I'm not the only one confused by Dakei's coloring and squinting at all the yellow!

[Spasticat]

@ TheCatBastet for having a kitty avatar:

[Sea Hound]

If there is one thing this book probably needs, it's bigger threats. So far the enemies have been somewhat underwhelming. Hoffman was defeated quite easily, Danger is was defeated with a kiss, Magnus basically ran away, and now a whole team of Superheroes ends up fighting with a random rich dude's security. This team is too stacked with powerful team members to waste time with these small fry IMO.

Sinister maybe? Since he's so strongly connected to Gambit.
They could have a run in with Magneto. It would be pretty organic given who's on the team. Although he's no match for Polaris at the moment. Or most of the others for that matter.
I don't think the storyline with the Magus is finished. He's mad powerful when he's written right. (First appearance he ripped apart a sun)
I'd love to see Lorna vs Cassandra Nova. Partly because she's one of the X-Men's most creepy villains; also because Lorna was so harmed by Genosha, it would be a wonderful ending to that story. I didn't read much of uncanny x-force though, so I don't know what state she's in at the moment.

[salarta]

This was just an OK issue to me, there's nothing inherently wrong in it (it has a mutant metaphor, the characters are treated fairly most of the time, there's some action and CDG is a solid again) but I just don't feel it.
Things that bother me: Dakai controls Georgia's computer but he allows her to post a compromising video in the web, she's not sure how her powers work but out of nowhere she realizes that she needs water to fix Doug, Gambit gets beaten by a writer and am I supposed to believe that Georgia knows so little about the outside world?
One last thing, the colouring is truly awful in one panel Gambit has blue eyes and in the next red ones and I'm still not sure if Dakai is a black man with brown hair or a white guy with blonde hair and the excess of yellow is killing my eyes.
I'll give this particular issue a 6.5/10

The webcam thing is definitely odd, someone like Dakei seems to me like a guy that would absolutely prevent his daughter from having any such tech in the house. I think it could've helped avoid questions about the oddness of that if there was a throwaway line suggesting something like that Georgia snuck into her dad's office and swiped the camera.

On the other hand, I see nothing odd about Georgia knowing she needs lots of water. She's used her powers a few times before, she knows what they do, and that includes knowing how it affects her own body. It's not saying she needs to know how much water she requires, only that she requires a lot of it. At one point, she had to ask for more, which shows she had no idea what her limits were. I also see nothing odd with Georgia not knowing much about the outside world. She's been locked up inside that house since she manifested her abilities, and the comic notes that there's filters and blocks on her computer. Isolation can be more powerful than you think. Georgia's situation is nowhere near as severe as this, but just think of Genie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29

Sinister maybe? Since he's so strongly connected to Gambit.
They could have a run in with Magneto. It would be pretty organic given who's on the team. Although he's no match for Polaris at the moment. Or most of the others for that matter.
I don't think the storyline with the Magus is finished. He's mad powerful when he's written right. (First appearance he ripped apart a sun)
I'd love to see Lorna vs Cassandra Nova. Partly because she's one of the X-Men's most creepy villains; also because Lorna was so harmed by Genosha, it would be a wonderful ending to that story. I didn't read much of uncanny x-force though, so I don't know what state she's in at the moment.

There's a lot of potential to spending more time on how Lorna was affected by Genosha, and one of the things that's felt like a great shame to me for Lorna aside from her not getting to interact with Wanda (all of her family really, but Wanda most of all) is that the Genosha element of her history has been ignored in the comics since she lost her powers. It's like Marvel and writers that have used Lorna since her power loss want to make people forget it ever happened, and that's disappointing as well as stupid. That may sound like strong words, but it's the biggest thing that's happened to Lorna and it's rife with so much story to tell from Lorna's perspective. She's seen horrors and the worst of humanity, and its effect on mutants, and survived, and that makes for a powerful cause for her.

[Psyknight]

I'm wondering just what Snow threatened Dakei with- maybe it was just exposing him as having a mutant daughter? Still, I'm curious as to where this plot point is going.

My favourite part (apart from Doug being revived, of course!) is Danger and Warlock going on and on about how she'll die if she becomes a super hero, possibly multiple times LOL

That was awesome, lol. I'm starting to really like Danger and Georgia. Poor kid that Georgia.

If a 3 is good but not great, then I'll give this issue a 3.

[Imraith Nimphais]

OMGODDESS!!!LOVED IT!

LOLOLOLLOOLOLOLOLOLOLOL"What sort of pie?"LOLOLOLLOLLOLLLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Poll results aside...Danger and Warlock's banter was the very best thing about this issue.

[sanderling]

Poll results aside...Danger and Warlock's banter was the very best thing about this issue.

That, along with Doug's increasingly frustrated attempts to get the two of them to shut up.

[TheCatBastet]

@ TheCatBastet for having a kitty avatar:

*waves at Spasticat* That's Ginger. I adopted her in 2008.


And back on topic, I was very relieved that PAD didn't actually kill Doug.

[Living Silver]

If there is one thing this book probably needs, it's bigger threats. So far the enemies have been somewhat underwhelming. Hoffman was defeated quite easily, Danger is was defeated with a kiss, Magnus basically ran away, and now a whole team of Superheroes ends up fighting with a random rich dude's security. This team is too stacked with powerful team members to waste time with these small fry IMO.

PAD books often are not about defeating powerful villains: they're about the characters and how they affect each other. Some of the best X-Factor stories PAD's ever told have had no villains or minor villains.

[remydat]

PAD books often are not about defeating powerful villains: they're about the characters and how they affect each other. Some of the best X-Factor stories PAD's ever told have had no villains or minor villains.

Yes I know that but this team is a bit too over powered not to have credible villains to test them.

[Living Silver]

True true.

I would like to see Sinister return to the book. The X-Men are kind of done with him, so he'd make a nice X-Factor arch villain. Now that we know his ultimate goal (to become his own species), the writers can do something else with him other than chasing Summers' DNA.