*sipping Krakoan tea infused with extract of imported Jasmine*
...Unfrayed AF.
Right
Wrong
Both
Neither-it's complicated
*sipping Krakoan tea infused with extract of imported Jasmine*
...Unfrayed AF.
Lord Ewing *Praise His name! Uplift Him in song!* Your divine works will be remembered and glorified in worship for all eternity. Amen!
Throwing my hat in for a little bit as I'm curious what everyone thought/thinks of this morsel from latest Excalibur.
Betsy has been CB (not by her choice) for a very short time and is summoned to meet with the Queen. Protestors gather immediately doing what they do. Gambit is walking by and someone throws a bottle at him. He gets angry and starts fighting back, Ric and Jubes join to back him up and push the crowd back. Signs saying "Britain is for humans" and "Keep Britain human", and some nasty words spoken. No authorities shown.
Everything starts to calm down when Betsy emerges from the meeting. As I mentioned in another thread, she could have easily mindwiped the jackals and tossed them far away. But she calms down her team and informs them that...
Last edited by JB; 01-07-2020 at 12:32 PM.
"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
A part of me wanted her to knock them all out but a part of me was pleased that she showed restraint as it appears she's taking her role as protector of GB very seriously. Thoughts?
"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
I'm kind of with you. There's some surface-level moral complexity, but it keeps going out the window. Like, the humans are always going straight to genocide, so any fears they have about being replaced/enslaved look extreme, despite replacing them being explicitly Xavier's goal. Whenever the Marauders invade a nation and attack people, its always to save nameless innocent mutant children. Only a monster would say they were in the wrong! That kind of thing.
And half the books seem to be based on big-shot mutants scheming and undermining each other. Shaw and Emma are manipulating pretty much everyone in Marauders, up to including trying to get each other killed (mostly Shaw on that). Excalibur has Apocalypse clearly setting everyone up for his own agenda, and like you said, Sinister is openly broadcasting his intent to screw everyone over. Solicits are hinting that Mystique is about to pop off over Destiny, too! I've been open about disliking this status quo, but its barely been in place and it already looks doomed, or at least short sighted. A lot of people don't care about the status quo, and they're already upending it!
This isn't a problem unique to X-men. I'm a big fan of the Champions, and pretty much every 4 months they get a NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME! thing, so much so that they really haven't found their feet.
Heroes being heroic in the face of extenuating circumstances.
*pours a fresh cuppa*
Lord Ewing *Praise His name! Uplift Him in song!* Your divine works will be remembered and glorified in worship for all eternity. Amen!
“Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe
Did you intend that to be a non-sequitur? I'm just pointing out that it's not as bleak and dark and depressing as people are strawmaning it to be.
But, to your comment...
"Everyone needs to accept the new normal of Krakoa." This is as much to the readership as it was to the characters around that table.
Edited to add: Hickman has gone on record saying that this is intended to be the new status quo and, as long as it sells, it will be as big of a sea-change as Claremont's X-Men were. So far, it seems to be working, so yeah, it's going to stick around unless people stop supporting it.
Last edited by Astroman; 01-07-2020 at 01:32 PM.
Yeah, people are saying it’s bleak and hopeless while I’m over here wiping tears of joy from the sense of triumph and pure optimism radiating from scenes like the presentation of the heroes of Krakoa, Rahne’s rebirth, and the Dazzler-powered dance party at the end of HoX.
“Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe
Nothing coded about it. "Intersectional socialist" is the most appropriate technical term, but it's not exactly pithy. "SJW" is a convenient shorthand, and, in the U.S., it is a label proudly embraced by those who subscribe to critical theory-based progressivism.
Taken at face value, Hickman's current set up for the X-Men incorporates elements of that ideology which is why it appeals to so many of you. In your reading, the good mutants (i.e. minorities) are finally sticking it to the evil humans (i.e. cis-het white people). You have yet to see this in the real world, but you wish you could. Hence, wish fulfillment.
So, yeah, SJW wish fulfillment. Or, if you prefer, "Woke" wish fulfillment. Or, intersectional progressive wish fulfillment. Pick any term you prefer. It doesn't matter; they all refer to the same thing.
I was referring to what we've seen since Krakoa's establishment. Xavier and Magneto haven't screwed up yet. Apocalypse, Sinister, etc. haven't yet gone rogue and started slaughtering innocent civilians. The X-Men haven't caused any collateral damage in their operations. Etc., etc., etc. Nothing's gone wrong for them to have to answer for. Yet.
Given Hickman's comments about "a fall", I expect that's not going to last.
“Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe
I'll say I appreciate Hickman's direction and influence helping work more towards to relatively more subtle approaches like this. I suspect many other writers would sooner or later have had this little incident escalate with more bad actions piled top of each other again and again to the point of an all out battle leading to many casualties, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.