Upcoming X-books art teases

[JB]

Some uncoloured Rachel and Betsy art

Lovely! I'm all for them as a couple though it would be fun to see a little competition with either Pete or Tom or both.

Right? So cute. Now if these panels were of a man and a woman, I feel more readers would easily identify what the writer is attempting to achieve, but unfortunately when it comes to establishing same sex relationships, a writer is more often than not bound by the laws of "subtext" and thereby forced to be less overt, like the building of Shatter and Rictor for example. These moments often go overlooked by non-queer readers as "buddies" or "gal pals" but for those who have lived these moments, they're very clear.

Oof, I miss big and beefy Julio.

[cranger]

Everybody jobs sometimes. It’s just how it goes. Logan jobs all the time to people. It is what it is. *shrugs*

The 'jobbing' was just a joke, I don't think anyone is worried that Wolverine managed to stab Xavier, just that no one who was involved in the process of creating this comic thought enough to make Jean look like anything other than useless. Like the other examples I gave, even having her start to show signs of reacting with her TK would have been better. Has nothing to do with anyone's favorite.

[jwatson]

Jean just put her hand in his arm and you guys are making such a big deal out of it. Probably just an art choice... And honestly, it seems like a very normal reaction to hold something that just stabbed someone you love, even with she having telekinesis. If in the next panel everything is fine... lol. (and I think it will be "fine" if you see what is probably next panel).

It's not just about that, it's just the sheer laziness of it and the fact that it's nonsensical. not only does wolverine have one of his omega arms wrapped around jean's other arm, meaning it had to get there before her slow reaction time where she is still reaching out for charles rather than even protecting herself from the tentacle about to possibly throw her. Artist choice maybe, but that is a very specific setup and something that has been done before when ceicilia was examining a patient and it ended up with her dead. It's just the same scenes executed the same way with different characters over and over, that's my problem.

And if it was just about the defenseless-ness of another powerful woman one could have just put in the script for the colorist. *A light pink glow surrounds her, grounding her from Logan's awakening.* That's not on the artist or colorist to know or manipulate the script.

[Wolverine12]

The 'jobbing' was just a joke, I don't think anyone is worried that Wolverine managed to stab Xavier, just that no one who was involved in the process of creating this comic thought enough to make Jean look like anything other than useless. Like the other examples I gave, even having her start to show signs of reacting with her TK would have been better. Has nothing to do with anyone's favorite.

To be fair only 2 images from this book have been shown. The second image shows Logan no longer stabbing Professor X and the Omega tentacles are in pieces. I think we should give Jean more than a split second to react before jumping to conclusions

[jwatson]

I think the pairing is absolutely perfect. How much "building up" do relationships really need? They met after some time apart, they spend some time together again, they are both liking each others company, they both are super hot....BOOM! It's the start of a love story for the ages.

I think I also remember that Rachel and Psylocke have been very close during one of Clarmont's later runs. But I maybe only make this up.

They were. They had a whole storyline together where claremont was starting to explore a bit the connection between Jean/Betsy and their powers but it never finished as it went into Grey's end. They were stuck on i think the astral plane together, i can't remember exactly but it was a good story it was in uncanny i think it was a bit after the baseball game where Rachel tried to school Emma and got schooled.

[Askani's Flame]

I'm not feeling the Rachel and Betsy pairing, although the X-books do need more wlw relationships and it is well past time that Rachel comes out. It feels under cooked to me, they don't really have a lot of history together prior to Howard's Excalibur, the last run I remember them together was Wood's X-Men and they didn't even seem to like each other there. So I feel like this relationship would have to be built up more than it has. Feels like Howard fast forwarded the relationship because she was excited about the potential. It's a good panel of them though.

I don't understand the criticism of this needs to be "built up more". Why? What constitutes a proper amount of time to feel "cooked"? I don't know about you, but sometimes the chemistry is there and the switch gets flipped and you run with it. That's real life and real romance. It's not on any time table, and when someone claims it has to be that's when we know they have deeper issues about the people at play.

These two have been friends, close friends at times, since Claremont brought Rachel back into the X-Men and brought Betsy back from the dead. They synched their tk and powers at times together and Betsy and Ray became close for a few reasons. Since then they haven't been in the same space whole lot, but both have suffered at the hands of other men terribly. Both women were pawns of Mojo and his psychic conditioning. Both had their bodies molded to be instruments of death. They understand each other in a way that many other X-Men don't, as well as being able to connect on a psychic level. Since the start of Tini's Excalibur run Rachel has been there and there have been panels and signs of more than friendship developing. There has been less development for other romances that have been done in the X-books with less pushback than this pairing.

I think the pairing is absolutely perfect. How much "building up" do relationships really need? They met after some time apart, they spend some time together again, they are both liking each others company, they both are super hot....BOOM! It's the start of a love story for the ages.

I think I also remember that Rachel and Psylocke have been very close during one of Clarmont's later runs. But I maybe only make this up.

Exactly. All of this, and yes they became close when Betsy was found alive in that run before RaFotSE. They even shared the "ultimate intimacy" saving Chicago from the Shi'ar blast meant to destroy Rachel and spent time together in the WHR.

[jwatson]

Hold on. He had a mustache? And got rid of it ? This ruined the character for ever. Mustache logan is the superior one

Isn't Mustache Logan the one that dated Hercules in Exiles?

[Celestialbodies]

percy always makes jean so fucking dumb lol. In Wolverine solo - "oh no logan just killed domino and quire wtf?!?! let me JUMP ON HIS BACK AND GET STABBED"
lives of wolverine - "oh no logan just stabbed the professor. LET ME GRAB HIS ARM WITH MY BARE HANDS"

It's like she doesn't have TK strong enough to throw sentinels across the street and throw a space station into orbit LMFAO

I don't want to beat Percy up too much as he did also just have Jean casually sending psionic blasts through the past to mindwipe anyone within a 1000 mile radius, from timeline to timeline.

To be fair to him, she's pretty useless as a general rule for this era lol. They all do her like this, Percy included apparently. Literally grabbing him with her hands is pants-on-head stupid though. First thing I noticed when Cassara posted it on twitter.

Stop it!

while she is made to be useless a lot of times, some of her best feats came from this era too, so i don't see it as a "general rule"

jean's power is kinda OP so for a lot of situations she could stomp but there would be no story, so she is made useless a lot of times so the story can progress

Consistency has always been Jean's problem not power levels. And I can't think of a single legit reason that Wolverine would/should be able to get anywhere near Jean!

This is literally the perfect example of a writer who does not grow. This is pretty much exactly the same scene where Cecilia was stabbed despite her powers being forcefields that respond instinctively. I'm out on Wolverine and x-force theres not much i can do when absolutely not a single thing that is terrible with the book has been improved. People can say what they want about Tini but atleast her writing shows growth.

Honestly, I've always hated interactions Wolverine has with the X-men under Wolverine specific writers.

The X-men in general are lowballed in crossover events with the greater Marvel U. However, stories that has Wolverine murder several X-men especially with long-range abilities are eye-roll inducing. Listen, I'm sure Enemy of State or Old Man Logan were enjoyable reads for some but I just can't help thinking why any number of X-men don't simply dismantle him?

Jean just put her hand in his arm and you guys are making such a big deal out of it. Probably just an art choice... And honestly, it seems like a very normal reaction to hold something that just stabbed someone you love, even with she having telekinesis. If in the next panel everything is fine... lol. (and I think it will be "fine" if you see what is probably next panel).

I don't know if grabbing the arm of the man with razor sharp claws who JUST stabbed your father figure in the shoulder would be described as a "normal reaction" for anyone let alone someone with telekinesis?!?!

I understand being tired and being caught off guard, but it's dumb that her reaction to xavier being stabbed is to grab logan with her hand when she has on many occasions reacted well under extremely stressful conditions, very quickly. She has reacted to speedsters, point blank explosions etc. The problem is not a character showing weakness, the problem I have is here is a pattern where characters are made to job against wolverine, including jean multiple times.

Also I don't think Jean is sending logan back. she's serving as his anchor (according to Life of Wolverine #1) but she's not the one that's actively sending his mind into the past. at least not from what little they have explained about how they are doing it

This it's PIS in order to move the narrative forward!

Everybody jobs sometimes. It’s just how it goes. Logan jobs all the time to people. It is what it is. *shrugs*

Which isn't at all the point that's being made here, but I think you already know that.

To be fair only 2 images from this book have been shown. The second image shows Logan no longer stabbing Professor X and the Omega tentacles are in pieces. I think we should give Jean more than a split second to react before jumping to conclusions

A reasonable explanation...IF this wasn't the exact same writer who has her, domino, and Kid Omega all murdered by a mind controlled Logan.

[Writerblog]

A reasonable explanation...IF this wasn't the exact same writer who has her, domino, and Kid Omega all murdered by a mind controlled Logan.

Quentin and Jean are Omega Level mutants, not a great choice by the writer

[Jackraow21]

To be fair only 2 images from this book have been shown. The second image shows Logan no longer stabbing Professor X and the Omega tentacles are in pieces. I think we should give Jean more than a split second to react before jumping to conclusions

Jumping to conclusions is what we do best around here. And lamenting jobbing or lack of feats.

[Jackraow21]

The 'jobbing' was just a joke, I don't think anyone is worried that Wolverine managed to stab Xavier, just that no one who was involved in the process of creating this comic thought enough to make Jean look like anything other than useless. Like the other examples I gave, even having her start to show signs of reacting with her TK would have been better. Has nothing to do with anyone's favorite.

I get it. Just saying that all characters have been shown inconsistently at times in this regard. Maybe Jean was caught off guard because her focus is split between past and present?

I just don’t see it as a huge deal or a huge knock on Jean or her competency, power level, etc. That’s all. Others are free to lament it all they like, but to me it’s not an egregious writing offense.

[Rift]

I mean, not particularly faster than a lot of other romantic pairings that are seemingly recognized by readers.
Laura and Julian.
Jono and Jubilee.
Doug and Bei.
Bobby and Christian.
Prodigy and Speed.
Aurora and Akihiro.
And this Rachel x Betsy is still baking. They're still dough. Yet to be cookies.

Imo, Aurora/Akihiro and Laura/Julian were good. Aurora took time to open up to Daken, and you can see Daken work towards opening her up, while the team as a whole slowly humanizes him. It took a good while before their relationship progressed beyond mutual attraction and casual flirting.

Laura/Hellion work on multiple levels. First off, is that they were tragic kids in a torrid and messy relationship. They didn't instantly start dating, and even when they knew of each other's feelings, things were still complicated. And regardless of time, was very compelling and unique. (You know what? To this day, it still is.) They also had over 20 issues in New X-Men where they interacted, along with the Liu book (before it sank the pairing.) There's a lot of material to get invested in the pairing.

I personally don't like Bobby/Christian or Prodigy/Speed. I wouldn't say the former is particularly popular with fans, especially since most people are just waiting for Christian to actually do something in Marauders. In Vecchio's Iceman one-shot, even Bobby seems confused about where they stand and what's going on between them.

All that said, I'm all for Betsy/Rachel (though deep down, I'm still hoping for Rachel x Future Franklin.) I just want to see more build-up, because the build-up towards a relationship is what usually gets me invested. The Gala issue was a great step towards that. If Howard can keep up the chemistry for 5 or 6 issues (and maybe throw in some complications), I'm in.

I'm kind of dragging the thread off-topic a bit lol. Maybe I should make a thread for analyzing X-ships, because they're so interesting.

[Marvelfan1992]

----------------------------

[Marvelfan1992]

I don't want to beat Percy up too much as he did also just have Jean casually sending psionic blasts through the past to mindwipe anyone within a 1000 mile radius, from timeline to timeline.





Stop it!



Consistency has always been Jean's problem not power levels. And I can't think of a single legit reason that Wolverine would/should be able to get anywhere near Jean!




Honestly, I've always hated interactions Wolverine has with the X-men under Wolverine specific writers.

The X-men in general are lowballed in crossover events with the greater Marvel U. However, stories that has Wolverine murder several X-men especially with long-range abilities are eye-roll inducing. Listen, I'm sure Enemy of State or Old Man Logan were enjoyable reads for some but I just can't help thinking why any number of X-men don't simply dismantle him?




I don't know if grabbing the arm of the man with razor sharp claws who JUST stabbed your father figure in the shoulder would be described as a "normal reaction" for anyone let alone someone with telekinesis?!?!




This it's PIS in order to move the narrative forward!




Which isn't at all the point that's being made here, but I think you already know that.



A reasonable explanation...IF this wasn't the exact same writer who has her, domino, and Kid Omega all murdered by a mind controlled Logan.

yeah I said the same thing as well, "the problem is not a character showing weakness, the problem I have is here is a pattern where characters are made to job against wolverine, including jean multiple times."

[loke13]

This is literally the perfect example of a writer who does not grow. This is pretty much exactly the same scene where Cecilia was stabbed despite her powers being forcefields that respond instinctively. I'm out on Wolverine and x-force theres not much i can do when absolutely not a single thing that is terrible with the book has been improved. People can say what they want about Tini but atleast her writing shows growth.

Lmaooo sorry but I can't agree with you more. It really feels like Marvel just shoved Percy this event because his Wolverine book is doing well and they needed to have a Wolverine Centric event in order to recoup some losses while they prepare for the destiny of X launch. Because the bottom line is this book was Marcus what is something akin to House of X and so far nothing earth-shatteringly profound has actually happened heck outside of Moira's character being beaten like a dead horse I can't recall really anything significant.

If they REALLY cared about the narrative they would have just had Ewing write the event and have Gillen as a co writer and have the end of the event spin off into X-Men: Red and Immortal respectively.