zprime

X-Men Legacy

This title is a wonderful deconstruction of how much of the X-Universe has gone wrong. Great writing, wonderful covers and a nice perspective.

Uncanny is solid and All-New is okay (though I would give the series a thumbs up if it would just end with the O5 heading back to where they came from).

It will be somewhat distracting reading Battle of the Atom and thinking, "Send the O5 back, send the O5 back, send the O5 back" the entire time.

@oldnightcrawler: I know they weren't actually Morlocks. That is why the word "essentially" came before the word "Morlocks." Don't forget that the Morlocks had to create their own culture/society due to their often hideous mutations (so, yeah, they actually were Morlocks in large part due to how they looked). Morrison's run was far too-often consumed with bucking the normal X-Person archetype that what he essentially did was throw open the doors to what would have been Morlocks (had they not started killing each other/been whisked away by Mikhail back in the day) as a reminder that, "Hey, these aren't your normal X-students!" That's why I picked that for a good ol' retconning.

I would retcon "Secondary Mutations" out of existence. It was extremely lazy writing and largely nonsensical in application.

Also, no Beak. Ever. Come to think of it, I would scrub Morrison turning the Mansion into a haven for what were essentially Morlocks. Also, let's get rid of Cassandra Nova while we are at it....just.....no.

While I appreciate your interest in what I responded to (or didn't), I'm afraid the reason is mundane. My wife and I had to take our pet to the vet and we were going to be late. That being the case, I decided to respond to the only thing that warranted a response, which was the post by Lyko. Quite frankly, there were no counter-points to respond to because they were merely competing opinions (nuh-uh vs uh-huh, if you will). You like Kitty Pryde in her drill instructor role and I don't like how Bendis writes her in that role. That's pretty much it. Yes she has a history, yes she was taught by Logan and Xavier, yes she has been written well at times and no to whether this means Bendis is writing her well or anything better than annoying. These characters don't exist in a vacuum, mind you. As for your heartfelt defense of Lyko ("Lay off Lyko"), that seems a bit misplaced. Lyko made an ad hominem argument based on mere difference in taste. This isn't "reaping what you sow" (not "sew"....I don't recall having needle and thread when I posted ) but rather calling someone out for clearly lowering the discussion. But, you know, good job coming to their aide.

@lykopis: Nice implied dig at a person's knowledge of X-history based on their distaste/subsequent disapproval of Kitty Pryde as a mentor to the O5. I mean, seriously, "if anyone doubts...." are you kidding me? Sure, she gets "upper rank consideration (whatever that means). Let's put it this way: I find her extremely annoying and it was a poor choice for this role, training by the Professor and Wolverine be damned.

But I guess the mere expression of this taste somehow renders my knowledge of the X-Universe and, Hell, my collection, entirely irrelevant. Weird...before your post I really thought I had been collecting since '91.....strange.

@CTG: Yes, I understand that those characters are under those circumstances. What I'm suggesting is that Bendis is writing those characters inconsistently with a)how the O5 were originally portrayed and b)how the O5 were portrayed in the beginning issues of ANXM. Putting characters is wildly different circumstances is not a license to change them immediately. Take AoA for example. Multiple characters were dramatically different because the global situation was entirely different and they had lived under that particular paradigm for decades. Here, Jean messes with the mind of one of her closest friends and I have the sneaking suspicion it was so we could have a dramatic panel of her walking way "being in charge" as Issue 8 drew to a close. To be frank, it seems like Bendis wants the O5 Jean to have more of the characterization of his Ultimate Jean; that's how she is acting.

@lorex: Well put, but the only issue with showing "the O5 that they have quite a bit to learn" is that these are kids that were ripped from their school were they were explicitly being taught how much they had to learn. None of them are operating under delusions that they don't have anything to learn, which is why I thought the training session was so poorly done and basically an excuse for Kitty to arbitrarily assert her "authority."

I have that issue and read it as well. At no point did I take "No More Phoenix" and the subsequent "spread" of the Phoenix Force re-igniting the X-gene as a "Hey, the Phoenix is now totally banished from 616." It is entirely possible that banishment was explicitly stated in another issue or by one of the writers/editors, but that is not how I interpreted "No More Phoenix." I merely took their action as a disbursement of the Force back into the cosmos.

Where was it explicitly mentioned that the Phoenix Force was banished from the 616? I'm not being argumentative, I just didn't catch that it if it happened in AvX.

So, after reading issue 9, I'm all but certain that this book is going to be re-titled as "The Insufferable Kitty Pryde." The Danger Room session was less of a training exercise and more of an opportunity for her to act superior to the O5 (though kudos to Beast for pointing that fact out in a roundabout fashion). Joking aside, her in the role as "Professor" to the O5 is enough to abandon the book except that there are some interesting ideas to mine, provided that Bendis doesn't botch it (and some serious cracks are showing). Personally, I'm hoping that Beast is going to break ranks and join up with Cyclops. Let's face it, once upon a time Henry McCoy wasn't a petty imbecile (truly, he was a great character that has been completely derailed, not unlike Wolverine) and perhaps the younger version has realized that his elder self has made a serious mistake in logic and reasoning and is going to see what the "other" side has to say about it.

I know that it sounds like I'm being negative just to be negative, but I'm still genuinely excited about what this title could do. Granted, the last two issues have exposed the extreme limitations of the writing (I mean, it is almost like Bendis has never read any issues featuring the O5, Jean Grey especially) and the endgame of convincing Cyclops to abandon his (somehow bad, I guess?) path has been completely ignored. However, I remain hopeful.