All-New/Extrordinary/Uncanny X-Men (2013-2019) [Marvel]

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
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So, this is my favourite primary X-Men comic (of all the billions of them that I'm reading). This is really the main arc of everything that's come for Scott Summers coming through the events of AvX & onwards. The new Xavier School kids are fuckin' rad, and they have lots of interesting powers. We get to deal with Scott, Emma, & Magneto having broken powers (for a while before Magneto moves off onto his solo title). Also, this series ties in REALLY closely with All-New X-Men, as the original 5 end up at the school (other than Young!Cyclops who moves off onto his own series).

More than anything, this is a Cyclops-centric comic. As of the most recent issue, the primary story arc that started with AvX came full circle into an EXCEPTIONALLY intense moment. One of the things to note is that this series is... significantly removed from the ongoing events in terms of the timeline -- neither the events of AXIS or Death of Wolverine has taken place in the series. I'm very interested in the latter, because after the loss of Xavier (and recent developments with his last will & testament), I'm REALLY looking forward to see how he deals with the loss of the rivalry-type relationship that he had with Logan.

But yeah, new comic coming out tomorrow for this, and I wanted somewhere to gush about it.

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X :neo:
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
It starts off Maria being completely unable to stop Cyclops from leaving with Matthew, and being utterly without any ideas about what to do once they leave. Then we switch to Beast sending a message reaching out to absolutely EVERYONE - all world governments, the UN, the Avengers with a request for assistance, which is as follows:

"My name is Dr. Henry McCoy. Most of you know me, or at the very least, you know my work and reputation. The X-Men have a serious and immediate situation and we need your help. We have discovered and are in pursuit of an Omega-level new mutant. S.H.I.E.L.D. will confirm the immediacy of the situation. We have a mutant whose powers, by definition, disregard the laws of time, space, and physics. Both humans and mutants are in GRAVE DANGER. We have to work together to quickly find a way to either tempter the mutant's power level. Send it somewhere were it cannot hurt any other living creature, or DESTROY it. But what we cannot do is allow this mutant out in the open for one second longer. Be advised -- attacking the mutant head on in a fatal error. What we must do is study the overall--"

It's at this point that we cut in and find beast in his room, in tears. Every single group he's reached out to is reporting in as unavailable, returning silence, or actively ignoring his plea for assistance. When Storm tries to find out what it all means, he smashes through his desk, and admits that Scott was right. As soon as he learns that Cyclops' left with the mutant, Beast breaks down completely and openly admits to Storm that - knowing he's probably never told anyone this before - he has no answers. He doesn't know what to do anymore.

This is probably one of the biggest points in a LONG time when it comes to the two of them. They haven't met back up in the X-Series yet, but (having especially read Avengers #38) it looks like Beast is finally on the same page as Cyclops is. I've been looking forward to Beast and Cyclops finally no longer being on opposing grounds ideologically since we walked Cyclops away in handcuffs in AvX Consequences. More and more it's looking like Cyclops is carving his way to being THE leader of the Mutants and (again, thanks to Avengers #38) it looks like the mutants are going to be focused on taking care of their own their own way... but not without a pretty big confrontation first.

Then the comic moves on to show how Cyke is tackling the real difficulty of trying to get Matthew in control of his powers. It gives a run through of memories of what this means for him on a personal level with his own past and his mutant powers, in addition to on a larger scale of mutants who've obtained powers like this and have been able to succumb to being consumed by that power - most recently himself as Dark Phoenix. At the same time, you get to see the development of his ideology breaking away from that of Xavier's, and you see how this is really turning into Cyclops' defining moment of becoming the new leader of the mutants and distinguishing himself from his predecessors. He wants to carve out a place for the Mutants, because they keep getting dealt a shit hand and he feels that they need to take control.

That all comes in to the biggest point yet, when Matthew loses control, and Cyclops has to get Magick to bail him out. She criticizes him and says a lot of what he was talking about sounds like The Brotherhood of Mutants. She gives him the ok to go back for one last attempt to break through to Matthew before she decides that it's not just his call anymore. Matthew's afraid what happens IF it means that they have to use his powers offensively, and someone unexpected agrees with him and steps in in the final page, declaring that Scott's gone too far, and he won't let it go any further -- Magneto.

If this comic was about Cyclops setting himself apart from Professor X's ideology, then I expect UXM #29 to be about Cyclops distancing himself from Magneto in the same way. If they're setting up Cyclops to be the new front face of the Mutants, the big way to do that is show how he's like and unlike the people who came before him. There've been lots of comparisons to Cyclops & Magneto since he went off on his own, and I'm really excited to see how this series of events pans out.




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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Not gonna lie, this story is dragging and, unlike Hickman's slow burn over with the Avengers books, this arc isn't worth the wait. The shipping schedule is doing it no favors, nor is spreading out a story to at least five issues that should have been managed in two or three.

For fuck's sake, this story started as a vague tie-in under the "Original Sin" banner (it actually had nothing to do with "Original Sin"), and that event has been over since the first week of September!

And that's not even getting into the specifics of the problems with the story itself:
-First, the notion of this new mutant, Matthew Malloy, being beyond any they've ever seen before? Bullshit. You guys have seen Franklin Richards, you've seen Nate Grey, you've seen Cable at his best, you've seen the Scarlet Witch warp reality, and you've seen other powerful mutants besides (e.g. Vulcan). Even without counting David Haller among them, since he apparently erased himself from existence, you've got numerous mutants who have already filled that introductory description.

And youre going to have to do more to convince me he's something so fucking special as to surpass all of them than to just say so.

-What's with Scott's inconsistent speech in this issue to this poor, confused fuck? He gives him a halfway hopeful message about controlling his powers, but then says he wants to use him as a weapon/deterrent against baseline humans. Uh, Scott, the guy wants control over his powers so he won't be blowing shit or peeps up anymore.

When Magneto of all people tells you that you've gone too far, you've gone too fucking far.

-What's with all the talking Scott does while accomplishing nothing? And why drag this out further by having Illyana teleport him away once, then bring him back immediately?

Just UGH.

[EDIT: It is nice, though, to see Hank finally easing the fuck up.off Scott.]

One of the things to note is that this series is... significantly removed from the ongoing events in terms of the timeline -- neither the events of AXIS or Death of Wolverine has taken place in the series. I'm very interested in the latter, because after the loss of Xavier (and recent developments with his last will & testament), I'm REALLY looking forward to see how he deals with the loss of the rivalry-type relationship that he had with Logan.
"Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan" #1 should be relevant to your interests then. :monster:

I don't know if the matter for Cyclops will be picked up elsewhere, but it was addressed (quite well) there.
 
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X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
The story is a bit of a slow running one, yes. I think that the tie in to Original Sin was really just because The Last Will & Testament of Charles Xavier was the X-Men's equivalent of a big secret coming to light at the same time everyone else was dealing with the situation with the Watcher.

Now, is Matthew THE most dangerous MUTANT ever? Maybe? He's hella reality-warping dangerous, and can melt psychics who even attempt a connection to him from MILES away, and it seems like that's not nearly the full extent of his powers. The point is him being a mutant, and not just being a super-powered danger. This whole scenario is an intentional revisit of the AvX conflict, and it's all VERY heavy development for Cyclops specifically in closing up the arc that started with the Phoenix Force coming towards Earth, and in pushing his agenda
with him being the main figure of Nation X and in possession of a Phoenix Egg
.

The breakdowns for the last three comics that really get into the core of what I mean are here:

• UMX 25
• UMX 26
• UMX 27

Could this have been wrapped up more succinctly? Yes. However, each comic has its own little arc that it's focusing on in terms of that development, and I'm digging it a lot more like that. UXM 25 is the betrayal with him reeling from the final bit of Xavier not being who everyone thought he was, UXM 26 is the breakdown of him slowly sinking into silence and acceptance of what's happened, UXM 27 is the full repeat of AvX with Scott stepping in and doing what should have happened with him, UXM 28 is him showing why Xavier was wrong and this can work, and assumedly UXM 29 is gonna be about why this ISN'T another Mutant Brotherhood.

He starts out by describing how his own mutant power was something that's highly destructive, and initially he didn't understand it, wasn't able to control it, and felt that everything was hopeless -- until Xavier found him. Then we get into the development of the X-Men, and how in each iteration they've fought both for mutant rights as well as human-mutant harmonic coexistence. That's the first bit, and it's all the parts that were pre-AvX and prior to Cyclops losing his overly idealistic image of humanity just coming to accept them on their own by being the best example that they could be.

This is where he moves towards the idea that Xavier might've been wrong, and that defending humans against other mutants hasn't worked out at all. That's the realization that Phoenix Force Scott hit after they provided the world with free energy and no more hunger and were still being hunted by humanity. It's the "even under best circumstances to have humanity come to accept us, things have still never worked out and this is where we are" part of his speech. Now we get to the other side of the coin.

Cyclops' been branded a Mutant Revolutionary for a while, and this is where you get the sense that he's done trying to prove the Mutant's worth to humanity through good deeds, and he's prepared to just make it happen. No more earning their place in the world, they're going to take it. He's said flat out that he's not going to lie to Matthew about what he's planning (it's that honesty that you're calling inconsistent speech). The issue is that even little thoughts cause MASSIVE explosions of power from Matthew, so this is going to be the tough part to discuss.

This is where it gets into the crossover between Scott's own pain and his emotional shift post AvX, and what Matthew's currently going through. It's the extension of the intervention that he needed, but didn't get when he was struggling with the Phoenix Force. He openly acknowledges that there have been lots of other mutants who've held overwhelming power like this before, and that they've failed and wrecked themselves and mutant kind time and again. Scott used the Phoenix's godlike power for good -- for a time, but in the end, he got consumed by it and nearly destroyed everything. He's focused on not letting this happen to Matthew, but it's still working through Matthew dealing with his own existential crisis - which makes him lose control and rips the plateau apart, and Scott has Magick pull him away.

That's enough for her to plant the seeds of "What if Xavier was right about him" and making the comparisons to how he sounds a little like Magneto with all his "brother" speech. That's all an intentional hook to the next piece which leads directly into the UXM #29 which I'd guess is going to be the final piece to the puzzle of what Cyclops' overall plan is.

We know where this ends up to some degree with the preview of Nation X and Scott's, "abandon all hate, ye who enter here" mentality, as well establishing their nation over the old Weapon X Facility and having it guarded by Sentinels. It's all a pretty clear statement to the fact that they're putting the icons of their persecution out on display and standing beside them without shame. Overall, this is the buildup to how it got to this point, and why it's not just a retread of the things that've come before it. At the same time, we finally have the biggest naysayer to the AvX events within the mutants - Beast (since he was attempting to work against Scott in his future self to the extreme in earlier issues), finally openly admit that, "Cyclops Was Right." So now that he's on the same page, it's Cyclops being presented with a parallel scenario from AvX for a super-powered mutant messiah-type figure of extreme power for him to prove that we knew/knows what he's doing, and when that works out to see what it means for mutantkind. (The fact that his work somehow results in a Phoenix Egg is even more direct proof of that).



Also. Death of Wolverine: Life after Logan #1 did a good job of him dealing with it on a brief, personal level which is pretty much what I expected from it, but I'm more interested in the fact that UXM is moving him into being both a figurehead/leader of the mutants AND the rebel/revolutionary, whereas he and Logan had usually sat on opposite sides of that coin. Even his message to Logan in AvX: Consequences was pretty clear that Scott was taking a different road BECAUSE Logan could take the other role for him. Now Scott's left occupying everything and I'm interested in seeing what that looks like (especially after the Avengers #28 preview).



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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Insightful analysis. There's more at work here than I gave it credit for.

Which should have been obvious now that I think about it, since over in "AXIS," where the X-Men's moral alignments have been inverted, that is where Scott is willing -- and eager -- to do the things his speech in this issue implies. So there must be something less insane to what he really intends here.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
It happebs during UXM #17, in case you wanted a quick revisit of the surrounding events. I'm looking forward ta seeing your thoughts.




X :neo:
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Okay, so, I read it, and it was pretty good. I wanted to give it a shot since I like the character of Tempus even if a lot more of Bendis's stuff is miss than hit for me. This isn't bad, though.

I do think the
husband and daughter
angles were way under developed, but not bad ideas in themselves. Obviously, we needed a reason for Eva to want to remain in that era, but more should have been done with it. Or less if it was going to be over and done with in seven pages (maybe have her
become smitten with one of the X-Men from this era, but not be in such a serious relationship
).

Of course, this is only the first half of the story, so maybe more will be done with the situation next time, before Eva gets back to the present (not a spoiler since that's already happened).

In any case, this was solid, and particularly good work for Bendis. I always say he does a better job with a smaller cast than when he tries to do a big event. That's probably why his Ultimate Spidey stuff is his better work.

The Killraven and Rawhide Kid cameos were also cool (and unexpected), and Andrea Sorrentino's art was gorgeous, as always.
 
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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Haven't gotten to read the second part to Tempus' story in the annuals yet (one local comic store was closed for Christmas Eve, the other didn't order enough), but I wanted to comment on the Xavier's will story unfolding in the main title:

Oh my fucking God, are you kidding me??
This shit -- that started on July 16th with issue #23 (with #29 coming out yesterday) -- still isn't over.

What the fuck! Ostensibly, this whole thing happens in the course of a day or so, doesn't it? Wolverine was alive and well when it began, and a relatively important part of the story. He inexplicably vanished at some point because, in real life, we're months past his death. I don't even know when the fuck this thing is supposed to take place.

For so many reasons, the "shock" of this most recent issue's cliffhanger doesn't stick -- and especially being that we already know that from comics set later, it seems like forced "drama" and feels pointless.

And we still don't even know what the last part to Xavier's will says!

It's like Bendis thinks he's writing the Next Marvel Epic instead of a throwaway story that began as a tie-in to a line-wide event ("Original Sin") and has now outlived both that event and the one that came after ("AXIS").

Unbe-fucking-lievable.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
The second part of Tempus' story is important, 'cause we've REALLY gotta talk about how the fuck Marvel's time travel works, because
this last part makes it look like it's a single, overwriting timeline, which doesn't seem to jive with how Xavier II's "sending messages to myself when we fuck up" would need to work

That being said, I'm still really digging this arc still despite the fact that it isn't shoving story forward. That's probably because of the fact that it's literally all just development about Cyclops still & we've got some more bits about Magneto & Magick in it. I liked that Magneto got cut off, but what he wanted to say gives a lot of background into his interactions with Cyclops from AvX Consequences into the start of UXM. The last second development was actually pretty intense I thought (though it's probably because of what it potentially means because of All-New X-Men Annual and the end of Tempus' story, and what ramifications that'll have). Not just that, but the bit just before it really ups the stakes for the S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. the UXM side of the story - depending on how everything plays out in the grand scheme of things (since obviously that part isn't going to be permanent thanks to this story happening a long while back chronologically speaking).





X :neo:
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
I got the second part of Eva's story.
Bendis is clearly just writing time to work how he needs it to at any given time. He's not that good at stuff like this. Still, it was a good story and I'm looking forward to seeing what Eva does now that she can control her powers pretty well and has gone back to see Xavier.

Obviously, Cyclops and Illyana, at the very least, will be back.

Speaking of Illyana, this hasn't been a good month to be her. That's two issues in two weeks where Bendis has written her getting killed.

And speaking of that S.H.I.E.L.D. attack ... how the fuck did they manage to get the drop on both Yana (the best teleporter one could ask for) and Malloy? Even if one gets the drop on Matthew, his power display up to now would suggest that his powers would just do something to accommodate the problem.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
Well it looks like each issue from 31-33 is gonna be a big cliffhanger of sorts, leading to an enormous Uncanny X-Men #600 in May, which is also gonna be Bendis' last part of the series, which is confirmed to be the whole arc from AvX - Secret Wars: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=59025

It looks like this is gonna build up to the big confrontation about Beast fucking with the timeline as its apex (especially since that was briefly touched on during The Black Vortex comic), and is what really kicked all this off.




X :neo:
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
It looks like we got the Ctrl+Z'd nuclear option that undid all the character development that happened throughout all of the last kajillion issues. Eva's now even more myopic than Storm about how she uses her powers and is the new "I hate Scott Summers and I'm going to abuse my powers of time travel to teach him a lesson" character. Sigh.

This was a full regression, and the most disappointed I've been in an issue since I don't even know when.

I dunno how they're gonna un-fuck this up in 3 issues.

:(



X :neo:
 

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Don't worry, at this point Eva is too powerful too keep around, just like Malloy. At least Exodus is back. ^_^
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
This is why I don't want Bendis anywhere near the "Old Man Logan" tie-in to "Secret Wars." I knew this would be a let down for you, X, and anyone else who has faith in that hack.

There are maybe one or two good moments here from Eva and Cyke at the end, but the rest of this arc was a bloated trollfest on Bendis's part. Though "trollfest" may be giving him too much credit -- he probably thinks this shit is actually good.

The Mystique angle amounted to nothing, the exploration of Cyclops's ambitions/philosophy was discarded and Beast's progress into seeing into Scott's point of view was lost.

Utterly pointless developments in an utterly pointless arc. All it managed to do was develop Eva Bell, who -- while a character I quite like -- is now obscenely overpowered from a storytelling perspective in much the same way Matthew Malloy was (seeing as Eva effectively took Malloy of all people out, that really says it all), and end the X-Men's Schism in a terribly underwhelming fashion.

The story never even delivered on the remaining revelation that was supposed to be waiting in Xavier's will once the Malloy caveat was addressed (as promised at the end of issue #25). Hell, within this very issue, the set-up of Xavier going to the Jean Grey School was abandoned without explanation, creating for some very awkward pacing.

It's obvious from the hilariously disconnected cover to this issue, as well as the repeatedly unfounded monthly solicitations, that this story went through some significant changes between conception and publication. Issue #29 had been billed as the conclusion to this arc ("Everything over the last several months has been building to this—a turning point for the X-Men") while issues #30-31 were billed as dealing with the fallout of "AXIS."

So, yes, changes, and not for the better, I think -- unless what was there before somehow sucked even harder. Maube this will at least blessedly be the end of all the time travel b.s. from Bendis, though.

Bendis is a fucking terrible writer.
 
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X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
See, everything until 29 was great, and it was all IMPORTANT to the post-AvX developments, too. I hold to that all I want is the answer that Magik & Scott were trying to get before they got gunned down by SHIELD. Reset to that moment and give me the answer. Anything else that isn't that isn't worth it.




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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
If Bendis planned for this shit ending from the start, he could have at least tried to give it some kind of legacy by keeping Logan around through the whole arc instead of letting him disappear halfway through since he's supposed to have been dead for a while already.

That way, when things reset to the reading of the will and Logan wasn't present this time around, there would at least be the question of whether this story led to ripples that resulted in the series of events that killed him. Not that such a decision would make this story good, mind you (that would still have been way outside the thematic elements of this arc), but it would have been something people could point to as a legacy mark.

As it is, Bendis's legacy mark on the X-Men will be a big ol' shit stain.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
It is indeed looking like that'll be the case.

I'd have much preferred that there was little to no development over the Will & Testament arc that was just set to be Ctrl+Z'd and we got real interaction to see how Scott dealt with Death of Logan instead. ANYthing that just left the seven months worth of really good development intact instead of handwaving it away.




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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Hilarious that
continuity could be maintained with Doop out in the hall in the same place from six months ago, but this shit writer (whose popularity I will never understand) couldn't keep anything that transpired in this arc relevant (development for Scott and Hank, in particular, but also the bit with Mystique), nor even deliver on the promise about the remainder of the will.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias

Meant to say earlier, by the way, that I think you're being too hard on Eva. She's not responsible for the shit casserole Bendis wrote. :monster:

Really, with respect to the narrative itself, it's Eva who "fixed" the situation, what with Malloy killing more and more X-Men as the minutes went by.

She may have said some unfair things to Cyclops, but I bet you anything from Bendis's perspective, she was only preaching the truth. He's just that bad of a writer that he probably meant for readers to accept that what went down was Cyke's fault despite the sequence of events not supporting that judgment.

Remember that this is the writer who, only two issues ago, had Scott accusing Magneto of putting Xavier in a wheelchair -- and then Magnus admitting to it, despite that having been Xorn disguised as Magneto. And did you read Bendis's "Original Sin" arc on "Guardians of the Galaxy"? He couldn't even keep the spelling of Richard Rider's name consistent, much less get details accurate related to the plot of "The Thanos Imperative" (the ending of which the GotG story was supposed to shed light on).

There were seriously no less than half a dozen egregious details about that arc that completely derailed it.

Bendis is just a bad writer. He's like Steven Moffat -- great ideas; once in a while a beautifully executed piece of work; and the rest is just shit, often bordering on the incomprehensible, while he inexplicably maintains vastly undeserved popularity and keeps being trusted with characters and franchises way beyond his ability to do them justice.

Eva, as a creation, is one of the few things Bendis has done well. Hell, if there wasn't such a logical disconnect between what she was saying to Scott and the merit of what she was saying to him, it would have been a great scene for her.
 
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