The X-Axis – w/c 7 October 2024
X-MEN: FROM THE ASHES INFINITY COMIC #13. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. This is the end of the Beast/Blankslate arc, which feels a bit too high concept and abstract to quite work. There’s a reasonable idea in here: Beast is worried that something about his powers inevitably drives him mad, Blankslate copies his powers and seems to immediately go down that line. But ultimately Beast gets reassured that apparently he does have self-control. But if the Beast’s concern is that he’s going to go mad in the long run, what does a couple of weeks with Blankslate actually tell anyone? And more to the point, Blankslate never feels like a functioning character – the very nature of the concept almost prevents him from being one. So it’s a hard story to really connect with. But it’s a nice idea in theory.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #2. (Annotations here.) We’re still at the stage of introducing the cast, but this seems like a fun series so far. Thao and Alex get their debuts here, and while they’re certainly recognisable types, there’s enough in the details to make them feel more fully thought out than that. And the cast dynamics seem promising: Trista wants mutant friends, Thao wants to be a mutant activist, Kate and Alex would both quite like a normal life, and who knows yet what Emma’s up to. It’s clearly a character-driven book, but the art can carry it, and I’m happy to see a bit more mundanity in the X-books, both here and in NYX. Okay, it stretches credibility at times – how many newly activated teen mutants can Kate stumble into while wandering around Chicago? Does Thao, the wannabe activist, really not recognise Kate Pryde even after hearing her name and seeing her powers? But I can let that sort of thing slide when I buy the characters.
X-FORCE #4. (Annotations here.) I’m still not sold on this book. The idea that everyone is blindly doing whatever they’re told to be a device that Forge built, without anyone being quite sure why, seems somewhat interesting. But in practice it winds up feeling very arbitrary. It becomes “this happened, then this happened, then this happened…” Having said that, we’re four issues in and we’ve already reached the last of the locations that Forge learned about in issue #1, which suggests the book might be on the verge of moving into a second act, and if so, maybe it’ll turn out that X-Force is simply taking a little time to get going. Forge’s weird paranoia and the mystery of who or what Tank is do have a bit of intrigue for me, and the art’s great. But there isn’t a compelling through line to hold it all together right now.
PHOENIX #4. (Annotations here.) I thought the first issue of this series seemed fairly promising but I’m starting get the feeling that it doesn’t quite work. This issue brings in Gorr the God-Butcher, a Jason Aaron Thor villain, to fight Phoenix in order that Perrikus can make a point. But it’s hard to say what’s really at stake with any of this. Part of the problem is that Jean was never really designed to be a solo character – her established role down the years has been “heart of the team” or some variant on that, and while a solo book might have been an opportunity to explore other sides of her, that hasn’t really come through. But another side is that Gorr and Adani are both characters designed for stories about organised religion, or at least stories about the frustration of the little people who are beneath the notice of the gods. And Jean isn’t acting like a god, doesn’t have worshippers, doesn’t want them, agrees that the ordinary folk matters, so… what’s the argument about, exactly? Is the point that we’re doing a Thor story but replacing Thor with a character who doesn’t regard herself as a god at all? Where does that go? I don’t really get where any of this is heading right now.
VENOM WAR: WOLVERINE #2. By Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs, Kev Walker, Java Tartaglia & Cory Petit. I’m not thrilled that we’re getting such a flood of Wolverine comics again – the Krakoa era was actually quite disciplined i how it used him – but this is surprisingly decent for an event tie-in. It’s a story about a violent father returning to threaten his family, which could really have been done without any Venom War elements at all. But it uses the crossover as a shorthand way to give the guy some powers and get some more visual interest into the story, and fair enough. Kev Walker’s symbiote art is rather neat, too. There’s a clunky beat where the rest of the X-Men show up, which feels a bit off, but that aside, this is actually pretty good.
SENTINELS #1. By Alex Paknadel, Justin Mason, Federico Blee & Travis Lanham. This is a five-issue miniseries, but it seems to be reasonably closely connected to Uncanny X-Men. The title team are actually a bunch of mercenaries powered up with nanotech, who seem to have been responsible for rounding up some of the mutants in the Graymalkin prison. It’s not exactly a villain book – the title characters come across more as professionals who didn’t quite realise what they signed up for, and aren’t entirely comfortable with it. The first issue sends them after Omega Red, who’s a more or less legitimate target, what with him being a seria killer and all. But while the Sentinels aren’t thrilled about the treatment of the mutants, they’re also well aware that they’re the cannon fodder in this story. Giving them all variants of the Sentinel design may have been a mis-step, since they all look terribly similar, and it’s not really a great design for human-size characters. But the concept has something.
Re: Sentinels
Funny, I actually imagined a series called “Sentinels” in my head a very long time ago (back in the Jemas era), except what I envisioned wasn’t much like this. It was just a group of ordinary human soldiers (not cyborgs) outfitted with some Sentinel tech. And one of them had a powerful and potentially dangerous mutant child at home that his colleagues and superiors were unaware of. And they didn’t have silly ’90s-reminiscent codenames. It would’ve been just “rank/surname” as you’d expect. That’s as far as I got into imagining it.
I haven’t read this, but I like my version better, even though it doesn’t exist.
Regrettably, the Sentinels cast has forgettable cannon fodder written all over them, much like the O.N.E. roster from back in the 198 days. We’ve already been introduced to the idea of them being disposable and replaceable. Their looks are fairly generic and interchangeable, their abilities unremarkable (something something nanotech) and I figure most of them are destined for death or obscurity. (Kind of like all those other pseuda-military/merc groups out there…)
I’m intrigued by the idea that each one has a connection to a past Event (like the one who was bitten in half by a symbiote dragon) if just because that gives them personal stakes and emotional connection–if a demon ate your baby during Inferno, or you were crippled when when Rhino threw a car at Spider-Man, that’s nice motivation. But… is 5 issues even enough time to explore that?
Digging up Larry Trask with his prophecies of doom to play “mutant in charge of policing the bad mutants” is interesting but it’s already hinted that things are spiraling out of his control.
Oh, and poor Blob. I feel sorry for him. It seemed like he’d finally found happiness as a bartender on Krakoa… I really hope he doesn’t go full villain again because of the torture and whatnot.
(How interesting is it that almost all of Mystique’s version of the Brotherhood went legit once away from her direct influence? Blob as a bartender, Pyro back to writing and playing hero with X-Factor, Avalanche owning a bar during Utopia, and presumably chilling during the Krakoa period.)
Anyway, I’m tentatively watching to see how Sentinels goes. I like that the From the Ashes period is taking a few chances, even if it’s quickly generated a few misfires already.
“if so, maybe it’ll turn out that X-Force is simply taking a little time to get going”
“I don’t really get where any of this is heading right now.”
This seems to sum up the entire “From the Ashes” era, at least for me. Some of these books are shipping twice a month, but it seems like not much of import has happened yet. Mostly, we’re catching up on where the scattered X-Men have ended up, and they’ve all found some new mutants. I keep hoping it’s all building to something bigger, but how many issues do we need to get there?
Now I want to see Storm (who as of late sometimes claims to be a god) against Gorr and Perrikus.
Marvel seems to have a bit of power inflation issue to deal with right now. A year or so ago it established Mysterium as an invincible material, proof against magic and whatnot. Now cannon fodder has Sentinel-based nanotech armor.
“Sentinels” could have used a longer, slower introduction. It may be a more central book than it appears; it certainly answers a few questions and raises quite a few of its own.
I always thought the most logical storytelling course for “sentinel” technology wasn’t cyborgs, Mecha, or… suits… but essentially miniaturization in tracking hardware and unique software for identifying super-powers and possible countermeasures.
THE GIFTED version of sentinels as SMALL robots made sense for TV but still fit into the live action movie universe.
There were the nano-Sentinels from Grant Morrison’s run. They were very small, well, nanotechnology. They were programmed to identify then infect mutants, destroying them from the inside.
They were an ingenious idea by Morrison which made sense from a real-world perspective but don’t work well for the comic medium
Luis Dantas
Now Storm vs Gorr, that is an interesting idea!
Sentinels reminded me a little of Hard C.O.R.P.S., a Valiant comic in which military men were given technological implants through which they could download superpowers to fight and capture extra-normal threats. I agree with Paul that the character designs are a little too same-y, and the art as a whole wasn’t to my taste. That said, the premise and decent writing have me interested enough to stick with it.
@Thom H: I agree that the FtA comics don’t have a clear direction. They’re all doing their own thing, which I don’t hate, but starting off with mystery boxes that aren’t compelling and unclear premises hasn’t helped. Some of the main characters feel too passive, as if they don’t have goals they’re working toward.
If they started from a Schism-like structure, with Scott & Rogue being at odds and setting out to develop their own versions of the X-Men, it would have made more sense.
@Mike Loughlin: The upcoming “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover will see Scott’s and Rogue’s teams face each other. Maybe then the direction(s) will become clearer. However, Schism happened during a time when the mutants were in a position of unity and strength, having Utopia and all that, while in their current scattered state, a single dividing line wouldn’t have that kind of impact since everyone seems to be doing their own thing already.
“If they started from a Schism-like structure, with Scott & Rogue being at odds and setting out to develop their own versions of the X-Men, it would have made more sense.”
If you’ve got two or more groups all calling themselves the X-Men that are operating differently, behaving differently, and resolving situations differently due to each group having fundamental ideolgical differences, then that’s no good for any of the groups involved. That’s only going to confuse the public as to who the X-Men are and what they represent.
I’m fine with the idea of a larger group breaking down into smaller separate groups due to ideological differences, but not when they’re all using the same name. Never liked that approach.
@Mike Loughlin: Yes, “passive” is a great word to describe the launch so far. I get that many of the characters are kind of aimless because of the trauma of Krakoa’s fall. But combined with the languid pacing, the whole line feels a little sleepy.
“The first issue sends them after Omega Red, who’s a more or less legitimate target, what with him being a seria killer and all.”
The irony, of course, is that this time Omega Red had a legitimate reason for doing what he did since the people he killed murdered a friend of his but the Sentinels don’t know that.
I like that Corina Ellis is too stupid too realize why no one wants to use robot Sentnels a few weeks after Nimrod nearly wiped out humanity.
It’s confirmed that Trask was resurrected on Krakoa. So the Krakoans resurrected Larry Trask, Trevor Fitzroy and Sugar Man- that was really a good idea. 🙂 On the one hand I can see why he thought Trask deserved a second chance, since he died trying to stop the Sentinels. On the other hand, it might have been a good idea to have some sort of safeguards. The real issue is that nobody seems to tried to have teach him other ways to deal with his visions than “Do nothing and let innocent people die” or “Intervene in morally questionable ways which just make things worse”.
Paknadel doesn’t seem to be hiding that Trask’s visions are a self-fulfilling prophecy- the Sentinels are responsible for these mutant villains causing some sort of disaster- the only question is how.
The important thing about Venom War:Wolverine 2 is that it confirms that Venom War takes place after the first arc in Uncanny X-Men. I wonder if the same is true for Blood Hunt.
A preview for Exceptional X-Men 3 teases “the return of a major X-Men villain who takes a sinister interest in Kitty and Emma’s new students”. That seems to be Mr. Sinister, although I wonder if it’s a deliberate misdirect.
@The Other Michael- Blob was in an interesting place before this series started. Hydra Cap had disguised himself as Cyclops and tricked Blob into helping him steal a nuclear weapon but when the Avengers told him what happened he wanted to help them.
It’s not like the Brotherhood went legit immediately after being separated from Mystique. Blob and Pyro joined Toad’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and only thought about reforming much later.
In fact, Blob has done despicable things both before and after Mystique. He tried to rape teen Jean in Byrne’s X-Men: the Hidden Years and he helped Toad kindap Karl Lykos’s girlfriend and drain her life force into Lykos in order to undo Lykos being cured of Sauron.
I kind of respect that the Unlimited story had Blankslate dropped off in the wilderness. It had a real “Note: Poochie died on his way back to his home planet” vibe. Rogue has a power damper collar, Blankslate could have found themself in a cozy flat downtown. But no. They’re eating bark and freezing in a tree hollow somewhere far, far from the main comics.
One interesting point though. The final scene carefully hides their face, hair, even skin colour, but the very last picture shows them with very feminine waist and hips.
Yeah, I am not fond of what happened to Blankslate either. They might as well have a caption stating that he (they?) is just a plot device and it doesn’t matter what happens to him (them?) now.
@Mike Loughlin: I began to type a longer answer, but it got a bit too long. Sentinels Firearm team reminds me of H.A.R.D. Corps as well – and other elements remind me of Armorines and even Strikeforce: Morituri (a series that many people seem to have fond memories of, but which I hated from the first). It is a very Valiant-like book. The way they are handling Larry Trask is very complex and very ambiguous and by rights ought to have consequences in other books.
True, all of Mystique’s former comrades have been pretty awful over the years. But the three guys have all made at least half-serious attempts to reform or choose different paths in the relatively recent past. (I suppose dying affected Avalanche and Pyro, and Age of X affected Blob…)
@Si- the X-Men’s access to power dampers varies Depending on the Writer. During the Krakoan Era, the Hellions had to steal technology from the Right to recreate power dampening armor for Orphan Maker.
In any case, Blankslate was implied to be an artificially created mutant created by Cassandra Nova and her allies- a conventional power damper might not work on him.
Not in the comic (from my reading of it), but I am more of a fan that it’s not Beast mutation that would drive him mad but a long term consequence from experimenting on himself.
When was Trask resurrected? Wasn’t it a whole big thing that Xavier didn’t want to resurrect any pre-cogs?
@Jeremy H: it is unclear when exactly, but flashback scenes show that it was during the Krakoa era, presumably after the ship had sailed with the resurrection of Destiny circa Inferno #1.
Jeremy-It was Moira who convinced Xavier and Magneto that there couldn’t be any precogs resurrected on Krakoa. It was Moira wanting to prevent Destiny from being resurrected rather than precogs, in general, which was Moira’s problem, but it would have appeared too suspicious for Moira to tell Xavier and Magneto that everyone except Destiny was fair game. Once Destiny was resurrected and Moira was revealed as a traitour, the unwritten rule of “no precogs” was eliminated.
So, sometime between “Inferno” and “Fall of X” the Five got around to bringing back Trask.
I think the Krakoan policy of open resurrections for all mutants, no matter what, might have been a little too generous. Like the first Michael noted, bringing back Sugar Man, Fitzroy, and Trask was… not the best of ideas. When you’re bringing back mass murderers, evil geneticists, and guys responsible for creating Sentinels… not to mention some of the other shining examples of “no don’t do this,” maybe, just maybe you’re taking things too far. Just because they’re mutants doesn’t mean they deserve to come back to life.
In fact, I’d love to see someone take it to the former members of the Quiet Council, or the Five, or whoever, with the perfectly legitimate grievance of “How many killers, monsters, murderers and sociopaths did you unleash upon the world with your open door resurrection policy? Did you ever stop to think about the consequences and ramifications?”
I concur with the overall feeling that this era is taking a long damn time getting started. I still don’t know what any of the three main “X-Men” books is *about*. X-Force has an incredibly thin justification that seems guaranteed to be a misdirect. In some ways this feels like decompressed storytelling. More *stuff* is happening, but it’s adding up to less than the sum of its parts.
@Jeremy H- Also, it was after Trial of Magneto, when they gained the ability to resurrect people who died before they met the Sh’iar.
Breevort wrote in his blog this week about Emma and the Cuckoo’s being telekinetic:
Michael Simpson:In NYX, we see that the Stepford Cuckoos have been able to almost perfectly wield telekinesis. I wonder is it in the cards to see Emma use these same powers as well, since they are genetically the same kinda?
TOM:I must have gotten half-a-dozen different wrinkles on this same question about Emma Frost this week, indicating that the White Queen fandom is out in force. But as I said last week, Michael, I’m not really looking to continuously push every mutant’s powers ad infinitum. I don’t know that I’d even agree with the assertion that the Cuckoos can wield telekinesis necessarily. But I understand that a certain percentage of the fandom is always going to be hyper-invested in their particular favorite character being the most powerful and the most amazing and the best. And I’m not against that per se. I just happen to think that all of the characters need to be pretty amazing.
Blob, Toad, and Pyro actually cured Sauron of Karl Lykos
Their motivations for horrifically violating Lykos’ lady love are pure as driven snow.
Do we have any clue who “Perimeter” is? In Sentinels #1 we see Lockstep talking to a letter P on his wall that has a glowing eyeball inscribed inside of it. He calls it “Perimeter”. We saw this same symbol – I think – in X-Men 35/700 when Prof X was being dragged away. Is Perimeter a person? An AI? (Which would be an odd choice given the whole very recent Orchis/AI fiasco.)
It’s not actually Perimiter, it’s Perlmutter. He’s directly manipulating the people in the stories now.
Whenever someone quotes Tom Breevort’s Q&A sessions, he always seems so antagonistic and overdefensive. It certainly doesn’t make me want to read any of the comics.
Re: No precogs on Krakoa:
We know the Krakoans were resurrecting people who died before their mutations emerged. It’s kind of a shame that the first precog on Krakoa turned out to be someone who was resurrected before their powers activated, then manifested precognitive powers a few weeks later.
Given what he has to deal with on a regular basis, I’m suprised Tom isn’t more abrasive that he is. It can’t be easily dealing with the more … extreme … elements of fandom, especially now that he has taken over the X-books. I presume fans of The Wasp or Scarlet Witch or even in recent years, Carol Danvers, are not as intense as those of Phoenix, Storm and Emma Frost.
I find Breevort’s tone refreshing. He doesn’t try to present the comics business as anything it isn’t. And he’s not using a bunch of PR doublespeak like the last X-editor.
Frankly, if I got a million versions of “what’s going to happen next?!” and “why didn’t you do it this way?!” every week, I would become a lot more blunt pretty quickly.
@Mark Coale
I was going to say something similar. I don’t know how long ago Brevoort began his blog, but I remember him engaging with fans online as far back as the late ’90s.
I can’t believe that he’s still doing it. He certainly doesn’t need to be doing it, and yet he does. Fielding, you’d have to figure, the same questions, requests, and complaints ad nauseum?
I couldn’t do it. There’s no way I could do it. Certainly not for as long as he’s been doing it. I’d undoubtedly reach a point where I’d want to place a hit on all of comics fandom.
“I presume fans of The Wasp or Scarlet Witch or even in recent years, Carol Danvers, are not as intense as those of Phoenix, Storm and Emma Frost.”
I don’t know what they’re like now, but many years back, I remember Thor fans being lunatics who would go feral at any suggestion that Thor couldn’t beat the Hulk, or that he couldn’t beat Superman, or that he isn’t bulletproof, etc.
I mean, I’m not a Thor fanatic or anything, but the guy is an actual god. I feel that he’s often taken for granted in the Marvel Universe where a lot of his majesty is lost. It seems there are far too many instances of the proverbial, “We have a Hulk!”, while an actual Norse deity stands around in the background, shrugging.
Although, I did find it hilarious when some space lizards captured the entire inhabitants of Asgard.
My problem with Breevort’s response quoted above is that he’s assuming fans asking about whether or not Emma Frost has telekinesis because they want her to be the most powerful, not because it might explain why her clones/children have the power. I’m sure that he must have had to deal with awful fans over the years, but dismissing the question because he doesn’t like some types of fans is operating in bad faith.
Thor vs. the Hulk, on the other hand, is serious business because the Hulk can so totally beat up Thor because the Hulk is awesome and Thor is laaaame, ‘nuff said
@Mike Loughlin – exactly. If he has people saying “this story isn’t very clear, can you explain”, and he answers “you’re all smelly nerds living in your mother’s basements!”, then he’s not achieving much of anything. Yes it must me soul-eroding to put up with the nonsense of the fanatics of any subject. But then, he can just not do it. It’s surely not helping sales. Does it make him feel superior or something?
And to be clear I’ve only read snippets of his blog in other places, so my own perception may be way off.
“@Mike and Si
You both figure that Brevoort made the wrong assumption concerning the question. Are you sure you didn’t? Because “Is it in the cards to see…?” sounds a lot closer to “Please, can you make this happen?” than it does to “Could you please clarify something?”
And just to be clear, I know that I sided with Brevoort earlier, and that might make it appear that I’m biased in his favor. But I can say with both certainty and complete objectivity that if I were to ask an editor for a simple clarification and nothing more, my question would contain at least one of the following words: clarify, clear (up), explain.
And I know this because I like to be clear when I’m asking for clarification from someone in order to ensure that the person I’m asking for clarification from is clear on what I’m asking and won’t have to follow up by asking me to clarify what I mean. I hope that’s clear.
Fair enough. This site is as close as I normally get to fandom these days, it’s entirely possible I’m taking loaded questions at face value.
@Moo: maybe the person who asked the question was asking because they want to see Emma become more powerful. I can see how the questions phrasing could indicate the person asking it leaning that way.
I just don’t like Brevoort giving an response that doesn’t answer the question or indicate that an answer may or may not be forthcoming, and doing so in a manner I find condescending and even a little hostile toward the end.
And your being clear about clearly not being a Brevoort defender was perfectly clear, so you’re clearly in the clear.
Aipt ran an interview with MacKay and Simone about Raid on Graymalkin. Judging from the images, it looks like the whole thing is kicked off when Beast and Calico are captured and sent to Graymalkin Prison. MacKay has made it clear that Beast Prime’s crimes will “feature heavily” during the crossover. MacKay and Simone make clear this is less of a Schism and more of a family fighting over politics over Thanksgiving dinner.
I wonder if Ellis grabbing Hank has anything to do with the Sugar Man. I mean, she’s obviously worried about what the other Beast did but I wonder if she knows that Sugar Man has returned and is worried that this Beast might join forces with him like Dark Beast did.
@Moo- some of the Thor fans could be insufferable but the issue people had with the suggestion that Thor isn’t bulletproof is in a different category. After everything that Thor and Wonder Woman have survived, a lot of readers find the idea that they could be hurt by bullets ridiculous. i understand why some creators and fans don’t think they should be bulletproof- Wonder Woman deflecting bullets with her bracelets and Thor deflecting bullets with his hammer are classic images. But it still strains suspension of belief that they can withstand anything but bullets. Similarly, a lot of fans have problems with the time the Hulk was defeated by a snake. And I personally have often complained about the time that Llyra defeated Namor with leeches.
@Mike Loughlin
Okay, well, I don’t know if I’d quite characterize it as hostile, but I’d agree on dismissive. What stood out for me upon a reread are the words, “But as I said last week, Michael…” Is Brevoort just assuming this Michael Simpson fellow was around the previous week, or is he already familiar with (and possibly exasperated with) this guy?
Reminds me of an amusing story. Want to hear an amusing story? Well, it’s more anecdote, really. Want to hear an amusing anecdote? Good, because that was a rhetorical question.
From back before Marvel and DC did their JLA/Avengers crossover series, there was a guy named Todd who used to frequent the Avengers message board over at Alvaro’s Comicboards. Todd had absolutely no shame. He relentlessly, incessantly, unashamedly badgered both Brevoort and Busiek to give him a JLA/Avengers crossover. He did this on a daily basis. In fact, the one and only time that Todd asked a question that had absolutely nothing to do with a JLA/Avengers crossover, Busiek began his response with, “Damnit, Todd! I told you I’m not interested in writing a JLA/Aveng— oh. Sorry.”
Anyway, that crossover happened soon afterward, and to this day, I still believe they made that crossover happen just to shut Todd up.
@Michael
Fair enough about the bulletproof argument. But I guess when you have a person or a group of people who complain about seemingly everything, even the valid complaints can get brushed aside along with the others.
@Moo- I found what Breevort was referring to. Michael Simpson didn’t ask about Emma the previous week but another fan did:
Alison Cabot:can we expect Emma to get an upgrade considering most of the heroes are getting significant power boosts or major evolutions of their existing powers? The last time we saw her get a power boost was in the Sins of Sinister event, where she became the Living Gem of Cyttorak, but that didn’t last long.
Tom: I have to tell you, Alison, I’m not really a big fan of increasing everybody’s powers ad infinitum, so it isn’t really something that I’m looking to do. I want our heroes to have to work for their victories, and that’s exponentially more difficult to accomplish when they can suddenly move planets or wipe out suns or what-have-you. If anything, I might be looking to scale a few powers that have grown beyond all reason back to a slightly more manageable level. In any event, Emma is already a world-beater as she is, so I don’t see any great benefit to making her even more overwhelming. What would she ever have a problem with then?
Thor’s power is to be able to just barely do absolutely anything, the cost being he’s only just barely able to do anything at all. It’s great, his power level sometimes changes from page to page. It’s part of the charm.
@Michael
Thanks for digging back for that, Michael.
That sort of thing just reaffirms my belief that I wouldn’t make it ten feet walking in Brevoort’s shoes let alone a mile. I’d be in jail right now with comic nerd blood on my hands. Maybe Michael Simpson deserved a more cordial response from Brevoort (unless Brevoort somehow knew Michael read all that and asked his question anyway) but I can’t bring myself to be too hard on the guy.
Damn that Alison Cabot.
If you read all the posts and not just the ones he answers, you will definitely see some names every week, often asking about the same character every time. I mean, you do have some wheat amongst all the chaff. I mean, Al posted something this week about the New Warriors as you would expect after Tom mentioned them in the mailbag.
“Thor’s power is to be able to just barely do absolutely anything, the cost being he’s only just barely able to do anything at all. It’s great, his power level sometimes changes from page to page. It’s part of the charm.”
Al Ewing actually gives him dialogue about this in the first arc of Immortal Thor (a book which is in significant part about exploring who and what Thor represents as a character and a myth, by juxtaposing him against doubles, impostors, successors, and his own self-image).
Yeah I’m reading Ewing’s Thor on Unlimited. It’s ok but I’m not loving it. It’s a bit too meta and hung up on the real life myths (if that makes sense). Simonson did similar decades ago, and it was both thought-provoking and fun.
Though getting Greg Land to do the issue about the shiny plastic fake Roxxon Thor was absolutely inspired.
I’m surprised no one’s pointing out the obvious re: Brevoort – he picks and chooses which questions to answer. And it certainly serves his purpose to make it appear as though fans as a whole are obsessive/obnoxious, and that his pot-stirring antics are therefore a reasonable response.
I’ve been reading Brevoort’s newsletter every week for a while now, and I get the sense that he really enjoys interacting with/ providing information for fans.
Does he pick and choose which questions to answer? Of course. But he also quickly shuts down interactions that get contentious. He could make a certain kind of superfan look a lot worse if he wanted to. And most of the questions he picks on a weekly basis are not from those superfans.
He’s pretty clear about a couple of things: he’s not going to relitigate his previous answers and he’s not going to spoil future plot points. The specific Emma question that started this particular discussion asked him to do both. All things considered, I think he was pretty even-handed with his response.
Finally, it’s widely assumed that he’s responsible for every decision coming from Marvel re: the X-Men. He’s constantly challenging that assumption by giving credit to other people and, at the same time, giving us a peek into the actual workings of the Marvel offices. I really value that as a fan.
Other (super)fans, of course, believe that if they harangue him enough times about their preferred direction for Emma (or Ororo or whoever), that he’ll cave and make their fan fiction a reality. That’s not what the newsletter is for, but it seems like something he has to put up with to make the newsletter he wants. I suppose he could just ignore the superfans altogether, but he would get as much blowback about that as he is now about facing them head on.