X-Men In General

That rules out Mysterio. Unless he was really a demon, or got genuine mental powers somehow.

Yeah. It's nice that Brian Wood's making use of the New X-Men. After a couple years of Jason Aaron forgetting those characters even exist, it's nice to have a writer make some actual use out of them. Rockslide and Hellion also exist in Latour's current Wat XM run. We'll see if that keeps up.

Speaking of Wat XM, anyone finding the new volume kind of hard to follow? Or maybe it's not very interesting.

Hey, compared to the last volume, the new one might as well be a masterpiece.

edited 18th Apr '14 10:57:48 AM by kkhohoho

Say, do we know if Gage is still "officially" working at Marvel? He hasn't done much except a few annuals and backups since Academy ended, and he has an ongoing at DC. I'm asking because we were discussing that he'd be excellent for a New X-Men book.

I think he wrote part of the Superior Spider-Man finale.

I'm finding the new volume of Wat XM to just be incredibly bland. I find it difficult to care about anything going on, because none of it is particularly interesting. The story, the characterization, the art - none of it is all that compelling.

Gage scripted a few issues of Superior Spider-Man, including the finale.

So not good, not bad, just... there, huh?

Yeah, I don't think it's all that great either. It's still okay though, which is more than I can say for Aaron's run.

So, as Evil Santa said, practically a master piece in comparison with its predecessor.

On the other hand, Aaron's run gave me plenty to get angry about. A nice froth-mouthed rant can be a lot of fun. With a bland book, you don't even get the enjoyment of righteous anger.

Though I can still complain about Latour's take on Idie. She started off a lot like Wolfsbane did - worried about whether her mutant powers make her evil, and worried about being a sinner in general. Jason Aaron largely dropped the Christian Guilt angle, making her concerns about being a monster so cartoonishly over the top as to be ridiculous. He had her get over that, so now under Latour, she doesn't even have that going for her. Instead, she's got this weirdly adversarial relationship with Armour, something which came right the fuck out of nowhere, with no explanation.

Jason Latour is writing a completely different character from how she started. Her personality has changed completely. She's retained not a single fucking thing from her early appearances. Kieron Gillen created a fascinating, compelling character, and that character is now nowhere to be seen, and she's been replaced by another bland character wearing her skin.

I personally don't think it's such a sin for, if a writer has a character get over their issues, the next writer to create some new ones for them.

Like most things, it's all in the execution, though.

The problem is that the new issue comes out of fucking nowhere, and doesn't even mesh at all with any of her past characterization. She's a nice person. That was always a key part of who she is. So why is she all of a sudden acting like a bitch? It's unlike her, and it's such a huge and sweeping change in who she is that it cannot go unaddressed. At the very least, it needs to be commented on by other characters.

At this point, I don't think it's a matter of Latour giving Idie new issues to work through. I think it's just how Latour's chosen to write Idie. I honestly have to wonder if he's even read her UXM and Generation Hope appearances, or if his take is based purely on Aaron's Wat XM run. It certainly seems that way. Because I cannot detect even a trace of the Generation Hope Idie in Latour's character. At this point, I'd be genuinely surprised if Latour is even aware that she's African, not African-American, because he writes her as more of an American teenager than someone from a small African village.

That's fair. Giving a character new issues or a new character arc generally does need buildup, after all.

And more to the point, you need to keep the core of the character intact. The character's personality needs to be recognizable based on previous takes on the character. Latour's Idie isn't recognizable at all as any previous Idie.

Say, Tiamatty, I was just wondering something: you said you thought Aaron shouldn't write X-Men anymore, but earlier, some weeks ago, you said that WATXM's weaknesses likely came from Aaron taking on a genre he wasn't suited to. So, if Aaron wanted to do a darker X-work, similar in tone to his Thor or Wolvie, would you support, oppose, or have no opinion on it?

At this point, I'd be opposed to it on principle. Maybe he could do a good job with a more serious X-title. Or maybe he'd bring back Vargas or the Neo or some shit. I'd rather not risk it.

But I liked Vargas...

Well, that makes you and Claremont. Vargas sucked.

If I may play the Claremont's advocate, you keep saying 'Vargas sucks', but I don't believe you've ever mentioned why he sucks, at least from what I've seen.

He's just a really generic, forgettable character. He's basically just Bad Guy, and there is absolutely nothing more to his personality. He's arrogant and sadistic and condescending and shit because that's just how Bad Guys are. There's just no reason to actually care about him.

How about Evil Is Cool? What can I say, the man just has style.

I think the only Jason Aaron X-Title I liked was Schism (shut up) mainly because I thought that both sides were handled evenly. Okay, maybe I just liked that part, wasn't the head Hellfire Brat introduced here?

I don't really think Aaron brings the right tone to X-Men. As I said before, I appreciate him for doing something different with the kooky stuff. But it just doesn't mesh well with the X-Men. Amazing X-Men is better, but it's still off. After reading Astonishing X-Men and all the House of M Myth Arc and Bendis's X-Men, I can say the book just works better when it's (somewhat) grounded and the X-Men are the Marvel Universe's Dude, Where's My Respect? guys.

edited 18th Apr '14 10:09:58 PM by MegaJ

That doesn't make him terrible, though. Just forgettable. It seems a bit unfair to compare him to Azazel.

The Hellfire Brats were introduced in Schism, yes. I also didn't thought this book to be that bad. I did become a bit more critic about it upon reread, though. Particularly on how week the climax of the story was.

edited 18th Apr '14 9:51:35 PM by Heatth

Uh, yeah; telling someone to 'shut up' is really just going to make them do the exact opposite. Like me! Really, Schism was only 'balanced' if you considered that both sides were acting like morons. Fighting on the ground in front of a gigantic Sentinel? All because of a sudden bout of Think of the Children!? Really?

edited 18th Apr '14 10:11:51 PM by kkhohoho