All-New X-Men #26 *spoilers*

[IdaqiBeauty]

Cyclops basically killed Jean by making her an Emma student.

[Kaiolino]

Kitty should be angry all the time.

[IdaqiBeauty]

Kitty should be angry all the time.

Right? That was beautiful.

[Ztopia]

Good Issue.

- Cyke/Jeen convo was genuine indeed. Nice to see Scott take the higher road there
- Teen Iceman being awesome contines
- Kitty was cringeworthy. Losing it because a member left the school? She should have known that was going to happen. and LOL, telling Scott NOT to be alone with Jeen...Nice one Professor. The future of the X-men is in good hands.

While I am glad they had a meaningful chat, Jeen pulled a 360. She was the only member of the 05 that could not stand Cyke. How the hell did it reach the point that she wants to hold hands with the guy? I guess the aftermath of the Trial and not seeing this "mutant genocide" take place could be a reasonable explanation.

[Popcorn Art]

Ahhhh. Stuart Immonen continues to feed my eyes. Bendis continues to roll them. I wonder since the future xmen are the baddies for this arc, will Storm's walking phantom pregnancy show up.

[ItBurns]

Cyclops basically killed Jean by making her an Emma student.

That strategic genius showing its face again.

[DakenGirl]

I was in the process of posting this when the forum threw itself on its sacrificial sword so I have inadvertently saved one of sweetdumbass's obliterated posts for posterity. (Or how long it is until the forum resets itself yet again erasing everything in what I suspect is actually a Sinister mind-game.)

Great issue! And good grief but Stuart Immonen’s art is beautiful. He makes perfection look effortless, whereas I’m quite sure it involves a certain amount of dreary slog, but his work on this book is flawless every month. I don’t know how he does it and I hope Marvel are remembering to tell him that he’s a genius at regular intervals. Major kudos to Gracia and Von Grawbadger as well. The coloring and the inking is equally beautiful.

Loved the Cyke and Jeen scenes. Loved the Warren and Laura scenes. Am totally on board with Teen!Bobby and Benjamin Deeds developing into something too. (They could be the USS Drake Deeds, although I guess that would lead to inevitable piracy in South America, so maybe not.)

Great convo between Cyke and Jeen. I liked all the layers to it and it felt so real and grounded in all the messy toe-curling awkwardness of it. Jeen’s a complex girl who’s had adult knowledge and experiences crammed into her adolescent head and just came back from another trauma without the member of her team she’s closest to. I could see her reactions to Cyke being a combo of relief at there being a grown up around, inchoate attraction, and trying to be nice.

From Jeen’s POV Cyke’s an adult who seems to have it together caring that she’s in pain enough to come and check on her. He’s the older, hotter version of a boy she’s already half in love with who – weirdly and tantalizingly and disturbingly and probably shamefully erotically from Jeen’s POV remembers what it’s like to have been married to her and have sex with her. Even leaving aside the obvious fact that most sixteen year old girls are always going to find a guy in his twenties hotter than a boy their age – so Cyke’s pretty much custom-made to be attractive to any younger girl who already liked sixteen-year-old him – knowing what he knows about her older self and how intimate they were, that’s got to be intensely embarrassing and yet undoubtedly intriguing at the same time. He also loved her, for years; he’s the walking proof that someone could know her really, really well, and still love her. The proof, really, that she is actually enduringly lovable. What teenager wouldn’t be drawn to that?

Hooking up with him from her teenage POV would also cut through so much traveling time. She wouldn’t have to stumble along that path semi-obliviously with an even more oblivious Tyke, knowing only that it might well turn out very badly, while they make all the clumsy relationship snafus together that adolescent lovers inevitably do. She’d be with an older guy who knew what he was doing, knew her really well, and knows how their relationship is supposed to work. The fact it would be an unmitigated disaster in which he tried to recapture a relationship that he feels guilty about and have a do-over while she realized in about two weeks that they could never be equals and became incredibly resentful about it and felt she was never living up to Dead Jean, is not something a sixteen year old girl is necessarily going to work out, especially when she’s had a lot of really crappy days recently and is tired of having to make soul-wrenching decisions about her life and the lives of others and would probably like someone else to take the reins for a while.

He’s also a guy who’s been rejected by most of the people who used to be his friends for doing something when he wasn’t in control of himself – which she now has a whole new perspective on. And, lastly, this is supposed to be the guy who turned out so badly that one of his oldest friends brought Jeen and her friends forward in time to stop him, because he was just that misguided and evil – and yet, now she’s had a conversation with him, he’s still recognizably the boy Jeen likes grown up. So, I think there was some kindness from Jeen as well there. I don’t think it was just hormones and confusion. I think she made a decision to let him know that whatever his friends might say, she thought he had grown up just fine. I’m not saying she didn’t find him attractive in that moment when she was feeling vulnerable and he was feeling like a rock she could lean on, but Jean was always a passionate and compassionate woman who found Cyke’s vulnerability impossible to resist. I think any version of Jean would probably not be able to stop herself taking a moment there to say something along the lines of: Don’t believe the people telling you that you went bad. You’re still a good man. Vulnerable Cyke has always been Jean’s kryptonite. It’s quite likely that it could be Jeen’s as well.

I’m torn on Kitty’s reaction because her lack of faith in Cyke’s judgment is disappointing but on the other hand Den Mother Kitty has become my favorite Kitty (at least until Lesbian Adventures With Magik Kitty is born) so I can’t not love it whenever she bristles up protectively in defense of one of her charges. So, sorry, Cyke, tough, I’m going to have to go with enjoying her snapping at you redundantly.

Warren probably owns a couple of zoos thanks to his papa and he assumes every animal is his friend.

If Bendis could just quietly make all of the male O5 conform to Disney Princess tropes I will love him forever.

Please let Teen Iceman’s gazing at Ben as they eat lunch together not be just a coincidence. It’s well past time that poor guy was handed a crowbar to lever himself out of the closet. Also, they would be totally adorbs together.

Laura and Warren were also adorable. Her being hurt by Tyke heading off made perfect sense when she thought they’d forged a connection. I really liked that he went after her and how reasonable and kind he was. Love how Immonen captured his joy in flying too. That was handled so well in the XM: First Class book, how the sky just called to him. I always thought there should have been more bonding between him and Ro on that. Also Warren dissing Corsair’s headband was one of those things that just really needed to be said.

And Immonen probably knows he’s a deity but the way he managed to make Tyke look like Tyke and yet have an expression on his face that Tyke would never have was just genius. That was so cruel and so unexpected. Poor Laura.

Great spread with poor Hank trying to make sense of the crazy timeline and what the O5 sticking around has done it. I think everyone reading the comic could relate to his pain there.

Teen Bobby continues to be the cutest Bobby in the history of Bobbys. His obliviousness to Laura leaving and to what her name is was great. Liked that Hank was the guy who wasn’t just throwing questions at Laura while she bled out but the one who yelled for the healer.

I like the Future Brotherhood as bad guys and being the O5s particular nemesises (almost certainly not a word). I’m Team NXS here. Just try smacking Kitty’s kids around again, Future Brotherhood, I like to think she will totally kick your asses.

[Phoenix Egg]

Kitty should be angry all the time.

Isn't she?

[Kaiolino]

Isn't she?

Didn't a lot of people complan that she's too sappy in the Bendis books?

[Cless]

Isn't she?

Kitty is well known for having permanent PMS.

[Mahes]

So who at this point doesn't know where the NXS is? Besides Shield.

[Kaiolino]

http://brianmichaelbendis.tumblr.com...aria-hill-emma

I wonder who asked this? Investigation pending.

[AcesX1X]

i would be happy if a new issue of this comic came out every single day. i also liked that jean hero-worships the older cyclops. nice twist, bendis.

[Andru]

http://brianmichaelbendis.tumblr.com...aria-hill-emma

I wonder who asked this? Investigation pending.

Let's just be glad that Kitty & Yana were left out of it!

[Dr. Kusa San]

i would be happy if a new issue of this comic came out every single day. i also liked that jean hero-worships the older cyclops. nice twist, bendis.

ACES is back!


I, too, enjoy the Jeen/Cyke relationship.