X-Men #26 Spoilers/Discussion Thread: Conclusion

[Tunasammiches]

Haven't seen a review here yet, so ...

SPOILERS:
Issue #26 starts with Rachel Summers narrating a shared memory about the failed experiment that caused this mess. Back in the real world, immediately after Monet's arc, we're back in the cave where Rachel's channeling all three of their TK powers to engineer a massive reverse cave-in (cave-up?) M finally gets her bearings and finds Ray and Betsy, soon followed by Storm who's similarly made her own way out — because of Rachel's plan. The reunited X-team have a tender moment and a group hug but are interrupted by the huge rock monster (now named: Dark Krakoa) which breaks the surface and attacks civilians on the outside. Meanwhile, Gambit's above ground protecting humans until Storm and the gang joins him. The team deliberate on a game plan to deal with the rock monster; M wants to take it down, Ray wants to try to communicate with it again and Storm gives her the green light. She mentally hooks the monster until it breaks her grip and swats her away. Jubilee swoops in just in time to save Ray in her cute new X-bug, and Psylocke strains through her injuries to TK their landing to safety. To their dismay, Rachel realizes that Dark Krakoa is too far gone to communicate with and Storm decides to take Dark Krakoa down. Ray uses her telepathy to anesthetize D.K. to keep it from feeling any pain as M and Storm completely demolish him. As they leave, Ray explains the Kree link to the human experiment to create a bomb and Jubes grabs a rock from the D.K. debris to keep. Later at JGS, Beast explains Kid Krakoa's connection to D.K. to Jubes and Storm and they have an existential discussion about life and death... and finally, Logan. All the feels prompts Jubes to get her new DK rock and she goes outside and gives it to K.K., while Rachel narrates us out. /end

REVIEW:
Since feelings is the main theme of this installment, I think it's appropriate that Rachel gets to be the POV voice here. She's a great character and I keep wanting/waiting to read stories of her doing epic X-things drawn by epic artists, but have been pretty bummed that the current Marvel creative teams seem to proactively ignore her. Ray's been labeled as a one-note/ Jean-lite/ redundant/ continuity plot hole/ inconsistent/ lousy-tears-cry-baby. In many ways, G.W. Wilson takes all of that information and magically molds it into some really subtle, yet pretty amazing character growth. G.W.W. takes Rachel's cannon of being a hot-headed, over-emotional, PTSD victim and evolves that by changing the tone. She presents a story where Ray leverages her emotional sensitivity not just to lead the entire team back to safety, but ultimately extends her compassion to Dark Krakoa despite her teams' readiness to destroy it. I haven't seen Rachel written like this since her Excaliber days. Here, she's confident and capable and this entire arc has shown Ray being an effective leader with great instincts. G.W.W. finally does some justice to this character. As for the others, feelings run strong through almost every scene. From the team's emotional group hug, Storm and Jubilee's heartfelt talk about Logan, to Jubilee's reflective sentiments about life and death (being a vampire may be stunting her aging, but doing wonders for her emotional development), and finally that last panel of Kid Krakoa sitting with the Dark Krakoa piece, all of it adds up to a really touching and thoughtful final issue.

I like how G.W.W. chose to end the title by using these last four issues as character spotlights, through telling a smaller story. What a great way to end the run. (And in a way, ultimately, redeem this book.) We get to spend some quality, reflective, quiet time with our favorite characters before Marvel changes everything. The art could have been stronger but the writing carried me through just fine. I wish G.W.W had more time on the book. I like her ideas and thankfully, she writes away all the confusing team in-fighting (Ray/Storm rivalry), expanded on M's character, brought to light the nuances of telepaths, and brings back the friendships more consistent with the characters' interpersonal relationship history, which is the core of this team. My only complaint is that she didn't get to fix the Jubilee vampire problem plot and get her those 'PAFs' back. Otherwise, I'm a new G.W.W. fan and am thinking of picking up the Ms Marvel stuff. Of course, adding A-Force to the pull list goes without saying now. I hope this book and this team comes back after Secret Wars, but if it doesn't, at least fans got a pretty great ending.

~

[Flight]

it definitely doesnt need to come back
all 26 issues were filler and in hindsight, not very good.

[Beezzi]

Good issue. Lots of awesome little touches and the ending was perfect.

If Wilson had gotten a proper run, this could've been epic. She really captured the sense of the X-Men better then other writers over the last two years. Hopefully, she'll be back...

[Conch22]

I have to disagree, I felt her characterizations felt off for several characters and had a similar vibe to bad YA novels. I would've been more inclined towards it in an ultimate type situation but less so here. I got alot of what the writer was going for, but the actual plot and by extension certain thematic elements seemed underwritten.

I do love that she uses thought bubbles and narration boxes frequently throughout the arc, though. That, for a long time, was really feeling like a lost art form and it adds to the experience.

Overall, I'd rate it the weakest run so far, which, I went into this with high hopes for Wilson to deliver a really good arc, so perhaps I set my standards to high. Also, alot of modern slang in weird places with characters that are adults and to whom it is ill suited (imo).
The reveal of the nature of the threat (terran, not otherworldly) seemed very halfhearted and like an excuse for the characters to say WMDs are bad, M'Kay, which true, but I guess I wanted a little more nuance to the response, less after school special.

I wanna end with something positive, so I'll say Gambit 92 was a nice cameo/ capstone for the arc (complete with third person rambling)

[DurararaFTW]

Does good stuff for Jubilee and Rachel, showing how a team can have more then one moral center.

[Sardorim]

It was a good conclusion, only wish GWW had more time with the series. It's rare to get a writer like GWW nowadays.

[Phoenix Raptor]

Her dialog for Gambit in this issue was beyond appalling! It read like someone who'd only ever managed to watch snippets of the cartoon, but based their characterisation on that anyway.

All in all, I wasn't impressed with Wilson's brief run.

[Perfection/Emma 2]

I enjoyed Willow G. Wilson X-Men run very much. Not only will I miss Monet. I will also miss Willow G. Wilson's amazing X-Men run. I personally don't care for A-Force. I just want her writing an all X-Men team again

[OmegaPower]

I liked her run in general. The x-men actually felt like a family in general and I think she had their voices right. Too bad it was for only a small arc.

[AgentFelix]

It's criminal how little attention this arc got,even within the X-Men community. As noted not only by sales, but how late these review threads are going up and how few comments they're generating.


GWW wrote a great character story. Best arc of this book since the first. Makes me want to check out Ms. Marvel and *gulp* A-Force....

[Neko]

It seems character driven stories are not as in demand now. It would seem that only action based and a little bit of story is preferred.

I'm not surprised that this arc didn't do well or attract more. It was one issue story, four issues from a different pov.

I bought the first issue and the last and didn't need the other two issues.

This isn't the only book that couldn't keep people due too character driven story. *shrug*

[Sardorim]

Eh, people left it early on. Makes me wish GWW had been around to run the book from the start.

Kitty and Rogue being forced out early on in the book didn't help matters either.

All female books are also a harder sell and many looked early on for reasons to drop it or not bother with it at all. Than being an X-Men book in an era where Marvel continues to downplay them? Ouch. That art didn't help wow on the fencers either.

If X-Men returns following Secret Wars I don't think it should be all female. However, I do think a female should lead the book. The characters also shouldn't be in so many ongoings too.

Rachel and Storm were in multiple ongoing while X-Men was going on, for example.

Not to mention that Secret Wars is coming and and this didn't tie into it. Thus many would see this book as not mattering and/or unneeded as nothing here had anything to do with Secret Wars and most characters here won't get to do much of anything in Secret Wars.

[AgentFelix]

Eh, people left it early on. Makes me wish GWW had been around to run the book from the start.

Kitty and Rogue being forced out early on in the book didn't help matters either.

All female books are also a harder sell and many looked early on for reasons to drop it or not bother with it at all. Than being an X-Men book in an era where Marvel continues to downplay them? Ouch. That art didn't help wow on the fencers either.

If X-Men returns following Secret Wars I don't think it should be all female. However, I do think a female should lead the book. The characters also shouldn't be in so many ongoings too.

Rachel and Storm were in multiple ongoing while X-Men was going on, for example.

Not to mention that Secret Wars is coming and and this didn't tie into it. Thus many would see this book as not mattering and/or unneeded as nothing here had anything to do with Secret Wars and most characters here won't get to do much of anything in Secret Wars.

Been preaching this for years. Multiple X-Men titles worked best in 1991-2008 when books had mostly exclusive rosters

[Anduinel]

It's criminal how little attention this arc got,even within the X-Men community. As noted not only by sales, but how late these review threads are going up and how few comments they're generating.

It's hard to get people buzzing about a book again once the interest and acclaim have petered off, and Wood left this series in shambles. Hopefully good word of mouth will convince Marvel to offer Wilson a post-SW relaunch book, though.

Do check out Ms. Marvel, though. It's a delight.

[Sardorim]

Been preaching this for years. Multiple X-Men titles worked best in 1991-2008 when books had mostly exclusive rosters

Exclusive rosters also tend to sell that book better as if you want to read about that charactet that was the book yo be at and it gives more diversity for fans to choose from. I know fir a fact that if Magneto had stayed in Uncanny as an ongoing cast member that his solo would have suffered. Just like how Storm being in like 4-5 ongoings really hurt her solo and denied her chances to go big in her solo as other writers had different plans for her.