X-Men #12 Spoilers/Review Thread

[salarta]

Pretty much Lorna's out after half a year on the book, a lot of good fleeting moments happened but they'll be quickly ignored by future writers, and it's a toss-up whether she's going into limbo or will be misused by another writer to promote their actual faves elsewhere. Typical Marvel.

[Glio]

By the way, I love that that the X-men moment with "Cyclops was right" was in Madrid, the same city where humans believed in Death of X that Scott died being a villain.

[Devaishwarya]

That "Cyclops was Right" made me smile.

[Krakoa]

It was definitely a step-up comparatively in characterization. Hickman was less character focused and more lore focused in his approach. Duggan, for the flaws of his pacing went, did give the characters a voice. The complexity was lost, but you could tell who these characters were in their dialogue to everyone. (With exception of Laura, who came off as female Logan in the beginning, only to get a bit more nuance near the end of the teams cycle)

I feel like Duggan gets voice, but he didn't do much to give the characters an arc. Synch had the closest thing to one with finding his power, getting past Laura, etc. and Scott had something of one with resurrection. But everyone else was more of just character moments, they didn't really grow or change or have direction.

[CapCyke]

Pretty much Lorna's out after half a year on the book, a lot of good fleeting moments happened but they'll be quickly ignored by future writers, and it's a toss-up whether she's going into limbo or will be misused by another writer to promote their actual faves elsewhere. Typical Marvel.

I think Duggan did a really good job with her. I really wish she would stay. She was a real discovery for me. So funny and elegant.

[alanyoung909]

Hmm… perhaps this is where Laura is going as Jordan White mentioned more “Snikt Family” action coming soon. Her running with X-Force under her old man is regressive in many ways, so it seems like precisely something Percy would do. Ha.

Wait a minute, we already know where Laura is going to end up - Leah Williams's X-TERMINATORS.
Sure, it's a mini-series, but it's still a team book that she (and Dazzler, Jubilee, Boom-Boom) can star in until they get more permanent fixtures.
Any news about them joining other teams will probably only come in November/December when X-Term ends.
Regarding what Jordan White said, I think Laura will show up in Wolverine instead of X-Force. That's where Percy does all of his Logan family stuff.

So Laura already has a post-X-Men book(s). She's safe. Now we just need to find books for Rogue, Shiro and Lorna.

ROGUE
I think chances are she either joins Immortal X-Men (becoming a supporting character to Destiny and Mystique) or she joins Knights of X (as a response to recent developments regarding Gambit).
The Hellfire Gala should reveal more since she'll meet up with (resurrected / imposter) Gambit and her mothers there.

SUNFIRE
Given that he thinks of himself as an Arakkii citizen now, X-Men Red is the most likely option.
That said, I don't see him becoming a major character, like Kingdom X said, Ewing is already juggling a lot of characters in that book.
He might even make a guest appearance in X-Men down the line, as Duggan is the one who set up the "retrieve Redroot' plotline.

POLARIS
A bit trickier than the others, but Alyssa Wong's upcoming book is a strong possibility.
Another possibility is that she will end up in whichever book Scarlet Witch is ending up on - they are standing together in the Gala preview.

[king81992]

Cyclops made the right call, though the Quiet Council won't see it that way.

[Krakoa]

Is Lorna for sure leaving? Her thing about going with the flow didn't seem like a for sure departure but everything after it made it seem like it was.

I hope Laura does leave - her answer was noncommittal but the "then there were three" sounded more certain. I hate the Synch/Laura dynamic and think both will do better without it.

Overall I would love to have seen one of the other three characters stay.

I wonder if Rogue is going to have a significant role in Judgement Day in some way. She's been in a good number of covers and art.

[Glio]

By the way, the drawing of Sinister's son implies that he is Cordyceps Jones? His malformation looks like fungus.

[JamJams]

Cyclops has made some questionable decisions in his history. He's also made some bad decisions in his history.

This is #1 on the bad list.

If the Krakoans have had like a peaceful existence this entire time I can understand why you may feel the need to tell the world that you are functionally immortal. But Krakoa has faced nothing but opposition since Xavier declared its existence to the world - why would Cyclops give them yet another reason to justify their antagonism against Krakoa?

[Glio]

Cyclops has made some questionable decisions in his history. He's also made some bad decisions in his history.

This is #1 on the bad list.

If the Krakoans have had like a peaceful existence this entire time I can understand why you may feel the need to tell the world that you are functionally immortal. But Krakoa has faced nothing but opposition since Xavier declared its existence to the world - why would Cyclops give them yet another reason to justify their antagonism against Krakoa?

The truth was going to come out sooner or later. Stasis knew it and Cyclops knew that Stasis knew it.

If it's the mutants telling "We're immortal," this allows them to control the narrative. In fact ORCHIS are angry with Scott's decision since now they can't use that knowledge as they planned.

If you have a secret that is going to stop being a secret, it is always better that you be the one to tell it.

[gonnagiveittoya]

It was definitely a step-up comparatively in characterization. Hickman was less character focused and more lore focused in his approach. Duggan, for the flaws of his pacing went, did give the characters a voice. The complexity was lost, but you could tell who these characters were in their dialogue to everyone. (With exception of Laura, who came off as female Logan in the beginning, only to get a bit more nuance near the end of the teams cycle)

The X-Men going against the Councils interests for Krakoa is something I've been excited for since this team w as first created. Blind allegiance to a government over what they believe is right has been a weird thing in this era and I'm glad it's looking like it'll go away now

[Kingdom X]

Cyclops has made some questionable decisions in his history. He's also made some bad decisions in his history.

This is #1 on the bad list.

If the Krakoans have had like a peaceful existence this entire time I can understand why you may feel the need to tell the world that you are functionally immortal. But Krakoa has faced nothing but opposition since Xavier declared its existence to the world - why would Cyclops give them yet another reason to justify their antagonism against Krakoa?

He also DEFINITELY should have consulted someone. I get why he didn’t, cause the Council is corrupt as hell but then advocate for a more representative government or at least some checks and balances. The solution isn’t to unilaterally reveal state secrets.

[salarta]

I think Duggan did a really good job with her. I really wish she would stay. She was a real discovery for me. So funny and elegant.

I agree it's definitely the best 616 Lorna's been written in at least a decade, there were good moments and first issue of Devil's Reign started to tap into more of a sense of who she actually is philosophically than anything in a long time. But it's also too little time with no meaningful, longer-lasting impact. I don't think anything he did with Lorna is going to matter to Marvel a month from now. To me, after what I've seen from Marvel over time, the question isn't "What great thing will they do for Lorna as her next step." It's "are they immediately going to turn her back into a mistreated plot device, or will they limbo her before doing that?"

Is Lorna for sure leaving? Her thing about going with the flow didn't seem like a for sure departure but everything after it made it seem like it was.

I read "I'm just going with the flow" as Marvel speak for "we have no plans for her but we know we can't just have her say that, so we'll put in a nebulous non-answer, then we can say we've technically addressed it." A statement like that has me leaning more toward limbo because it's language in keeping with other times she's been sent into limbo, but it's also possible there are plans and Duggan's just trying to steer clear of being tied to them for his last issue writing Lorna. The words themselves are very pointedly saying "I have no plans, ambitions or interests that would give me any kind of direction for my future" just in a nicer way.

And I suspect Duggan's intent there was to let people know Lorna's gone without tying the hands of whoever's writing her next. Which is considerate of him from a writer standpoint. But from a character standpoint, it's going to hurt Lorna. A lot. Whoever's going to write her next will interpret that as meaning Lorna has nothing she's ever been passionate about in her entire history (besides being a Havok fangirl if it's a writer that loves backwards sexist nostalgia) and they can do whatever they want with her. Duggan never truly delved into Lorna's philosophy as a character, but being on the flagship X-Men team still implied she cares about mutants and serving the broader needs of mutanthood. Next writer may not get that. Might even try to use lines from earlier in the book of Lorna griping about gross things she's encountered on X-Men to justify separating her from mutants completely.

[Devaishwarya]

I feel like Duggan gets voice, but he didn't do much to give the characters an arc. Synch had the closest thing to one with finding his power, getting past Laura, etc. and Scott had something of one with resurrection. But everyone else was more of just character moments, they didn't really grow or change or have direction.

Granted, you can't have much discernible change and direction if all we see of you is once a month, for just a year.