Originally Posted by
Dante Milton
I’m still fuming over Williams giving Howard the ingredients for a most excellent reunion and Howard instead delivering this steaming pile of comic, so here are all the other ways in which this issue was an utter disaster.
Betsy’s time as Captain so far has been defined by failure, and Howard handed her another one in this issue. Are we supposed to be agreeing with Saturnyne and Coven Akkaba? Because the narrative that Howard has constructed supports their belief that Betsy is a terrible Captain and probably shouldn’t hold the title. Howard seems to think that failure and struggle make for better storytelling, and she is wrong. I’m not saying that Betsy should be perfect or infallible, but there needs to be a balance and I can’t think of a single win she has had as Captain.
The obvious Brexit parallels are dumb for two reasons. First as an American writer, living in the States, Howard is in absolutely no position to write critically of another country’s politics, shitty as they may be. How is this supposed to be helpful to people who actually have to live with the consequences of their government making terrible decisions for them. Secondly, there’s no real reason for Krakoa to care that the UK is pulling out of the treaty agreement. They already have a system in place for such countries, and even have an established black market in Marauders to make sure that the citizens who require Krakoan medicines still receive them. It kind of sucks for Betsy because it’s another failure, but it doesn’t really negatively affect her or Krakoa. Krakoa and Betsy do not need them, they need Krakoa and Captain Britain. Some people seem to think it could lead to a war, but the UK would lose, they more than likely don’t even have the support of their own citizens whom they are attempting to deprive of life saving medicine.
With Rogue leaving the team, it opened up a space for Meggan to step in and get some good focus and development. Instead Howard has decided to saddle the character with another pregnancy and baby. Which will make it more difficult for future writers to use her.
I don’t even particularly like Pete Wisdom, but she wrote him so poorly. A professional secret agent with years of experience just blindly follows an anti-mutant cult to their secret lair with no back up or plan of escape? Dumb. Then when the baseline, powerless humans begin to attack him he puts up almost no defense whatsoever? Dumb. The man has superpowers and combat training.
The druids are a stupid, unnecessary plot device. The entire premise of this book is supposedly to establish a unique mutant magic. Instead, Howard keeps attempting to define Rictor as a druid. A very human, very British magic tribe. If she is going to constantly ignore her own premise and refer to magic in human terms, the least she could do is connect Rictor’s magic use to his actual Mexican culture, instead of trying to force this druid identity that makes no sense. The Rictor I know would tell these losers to f*** off.
And then there’s “Braddock Isle”. Howard does know that a piece of land becoming an island doesn’t make it an independent nation, right? It would still absolutely belong to the UK. This is like, flying island headquarters dumb. And that scene near the end with Morgan Le Fay was really poorly staged. She’s right there, Rictor acknowledges her little flashy lights, and then just ignores it? And all the druids who were also right there, and can sense magic, also did nothing?
I do enjoy the Braddock sibling dynamic and Otherworld expansion, Howard does those very well. The book should have more of that, less of everything else. I also really enjoy To’s art, although I don’t care for Jubilee or Gambit’s Gala outfits.