The X-Axis – w/c 31 July 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #98. By Alex Segura, Alberto Alburquerque & Pete Pantazis. Oh, okay, we’re not doing the obvious arch-enemy for Polaris after all. So the issue of ignoring what happened to Malice in Excalibur doesn’t arise. Instead, we’re going even further back to the villain from Lorna’s first appearance from the Silver Age. Which was originally meant to be Magneto, but he was retconned into being a robot in that story. So instead it’s good old Mesmero, which I guess does make the point that Lorna has been stuck in this kind of storyline literally since day 1. The downside is… well, it’s Mesmero, who’s always been one-dimensional, and probably hasn’t even crossed Lorna’s mind in about 50 years of publication time. And we don’t get much in this issue to explain why he ought to be a big deal – and yes, he does need the help. Still, I get the logic of what we’re doing here.
X-MEN #25. (Annotations here.) “Grindhouse of X”, it says on the recap page, and … I dunno, I think the tone here lands a lot closer to grimdark than the gleefulness that that implies. I’m kind of annoyed, as well, that they sold the premise in Hellfire Gala as “all the mutants get marched through the gates”, and now – sure, there’s always going to be a few stragglers, but we seem to have enough still lying around to fill entire detention centres, and that feels too much like backtracking. The Ms Marvel death also feels like a mess, where the X-books are acting as if it played out entirely differently from the way it did, allowing it to be handwaved away. Anyway, this is a double-length issue devoted to setting up the Fall of X status quo, which (in the end) it does well enough. Despite X-Men ostensibly being a team book, it’s really a Kate Pryde story as we have her going back into depressing and reverting to the quasi-ninja Shadowcat… oh god, must we… Shadowkat persona. The prologue flashback with Kitty and her rabbi is probably the best thing in the book. I get what they’re doing, and the art’s pretty good, but… no, this isn’t really doing much for me. I’m not sold on the direction and there are just too many irritating points of detail to boot.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #1. (Annotations here.) This is more like it! We’re still in Fall of X, but what Steve Orlando and Vincenzo Carratù are giving us here is a display of relentless positivity in the face of the abyss. It’s actually one of the more cheerful X-books I’ve read lately. It’s pretty simple – Iceman is out there being inspiring and heroic, a B-list Orchis officer is tasked with getting rid of him, and Iceman is secretly dependent on his beloved Romeo to (literally) keep him together. While everyone else is doing brooding darkness, Iceman has built himself the Fortress of Solitude, something that was too goofy for Marvel even in the Silver Age. Obviously it would be mad if the whole “Fall of X” sub-line was like this. And yes, the full page spread of Iceman kissing the guy he’s just saved is badly pitched, because it plays as a romantic beat when it’s not meant to be. But this is just a defiantly cheerful comic, which is a pleasant surprise.
MAGNETO #1. By J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg. Another month, another flashback miniseries. This one is set somewhere in the late 40s of New Mutants, just after Magneto became headmaster of the Xavier School. DeMatteis is trying to square Magneto’s modern persona with his status as a ranting Silver Age villain, and the sceptical New Mutants make a good foil for that – aside from giving us an excuse to open with a traditional Danger Room skit against Silver Age villains, we get some of the New Mutants refusing to take moral lectures from this guy, and Wolfsbane genuinely trying to make sense of the guy while offending him in the process. Todd Nauck’s a good artist for these Silver Age hybrid sequences, and feels like a good fit for what DeMatteis is doing here. Part of the idea is that Magneto is unwilling to start talking about his personal history to these people he barely knows. But a lot more contentious is DeMatteis rationalising Silver Age Magneto as an act which he put on to provoke the X-Men into emerging as mutant heroes, and which he then got a bit carried away with due to mental health problems. He’s pretty much retconning X-Men #1 into Magneto putting on an act, which is… um, it’s bold, certainly. I’m not exactly precious about the continuity status of X-Men #1, which isn’t even in the top 10 Lee/Kirby X-Men stories. But halfway through the first issue seems a bold place to try and pull something like this, and at first glance it seems to miss the point about Magneto and Xavier having competing visions. I’m curious to see if DeMatteis can pull it off.
LOVE UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #61. By Preeti Chhibber, Carola Borelli & Carlos Lopez. If you don’t follow the Unlimited books, Love Unlimited takes its remit pretty loosely, and seems happy enough if the story just features an established couple. So this is a Rogue & Gambit heist arc, set a “few years” ago, so we don’t have to worry about Fall of X. It’s a simple first chapter: they go on holiday to London, they make a bet to see who can pull of a heist first to steal some colonial treasures from a rich guy. It’s mainly an exercise in setting up the banter, and you could make a case that by 2023 it’s not really necessary to spend your first chapter introducing Rogue and Gambit’s relationship… but it does that job quite charmingly, both for writing and art, so what the heck. This looks like it might be a cute romp.
Looking forward to reading the Magneto issue, just on basis of JMDM writing it.
I hope this Polaris story finally explains the Demi-Men. That would be an area of X-continuity which could use fleshing out, as the original story never actually explained the concept.
The first issue of Magneto was well written, but it did have some problems. It seems DeMatteis was basing his idea of Magneto on Claremont’s thrown-together explanation about Magneto reverting to villainy circa-Uncanny X-Men #275. Magneto said he’d act the villain so that humanity had a devil to focus their hatred against mutantkind. Of course, the problem with that portrayal of Magneto was that it fulfilled their worst fears about mutants, giving them a more plausible reason to hate mutants.
I would think a better idea would be for Magneto to ally with Xavier to have mutants attempt to help humanity create a better world. That seems like a better way to assuage humanity’s hatred of mutants.
Of course, we now know that Xavier and Magneto had been working together to plan a mutant supremacist nation…
Well, back to Magneto #1, I think this mini-series is going to touch on a very unsavoury action from Magneto’s early days which has been quietly swept under the rug in an attempt to make Magneto redeemable. If this is where DeMatteis is heading, I am looking forward to what he does to rectify one of the worst excesses of Magneto’s Silver Age portrayal.
“It seems DeMatteis was basing his idea of Magneto on Claremont’s thrown-together explanation about Magneto reverting to villainy circa-Uncanny X-Men #275. Magneto said he’d act the villain so that humanity had a devil to focus their hatred against mutantkind.”
Actually, Claremont had Magneto explain that in Uncanny X-men 253. To Moira, funnily enough.
Also funnily enough to prevent Moira and Muir Island from also being a target, but the Reavers attacked it the next issue anyway…
I’m not sure that we’re supposed to take Magneto’s claim that he acted the villain so the X-Men would appear as heroes at face value. It seems like Magneto is trying to rationalize his past acts- the theme of this series is how can the man the X-Men fought and the man who taught the New Mutants be the same person?
DeMatteis seems to have a questionable grasp on how Dani’s powers are supposed to work- she creates an illusion of someone she has never met but that Iceman has mentioned even though Iceman isn’t present. That isn’t how Dani’s power is supposed to work. She can only create illusions of people who are present. She can’t meet Iceman on Tuesday and create an image from his mind on Thursday without him being present.
@Chris V- Since the Magneto robot was retconned to be Machinesmith’s creation, the X-Men Indexes suggest that we’re supposed to assume the Demi-Men are Machinesmith’s creations as well.
Michael-Oh. Kind of disappointing. I guess that would make sense. It still leaves the question as to how Machinesmith would know that Lorna was a latent mutant. Also, that he maybe knew she was Magneto’s daughter (as per recent continuity), unless it was just lucky happenstance that Lorna really was Magneto’s daughter.
I have read a fan theory that Claremont was intending to explain the Demi-Men/Robot Magneto story with his Erik The Red/Polaris-and Steven Lang story-arc. I think it’d have made a lot more sense to ret-con that Lang was behind the Demi-Men plot instead.
That should be “create illusions FROM people who are present”.
As I mentioned in the Iceman thread, the second story in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1 is a tie-in to the Hellfire Gala involving Aunt Anna going crazy because of the tainted medicine but it doesn’t seem to have been coordinated very well since nobody seems to know about the tainted medicines.
I remember liking quite a few J.M. DeMatteis comics of the ’90s, particularly his Spider-Man stuff (let’s say, pre-Clone Saga).
But why are they giving him a retro flashback Magneto series? I don’t recall him having any connection to the X-books. Am I mistaken?
No. He wrote the first Iceman mini-series, but Iceman was a member of the Defenders at the time. As far as I remember, his first time writing the X-Men (in their own title) was an annual spotlighting Mr. Sinister. Outside that, I think his only other work on one of the X-titles was his run on X-Factor after David, which did not feature Magneto.
I assume that Marvel simply wanted a respected name like DeMatteis to write the Magneto flashback book. Maybe he requested it.
J.M. DeMatteis has a knack – maybe even a compulsion – for writing moral epiphany stories. It is a bit of a surprise when he does not.
Magneto, of course, is currently and has been largely pardoned by mutants in general (going back to the 1990s). But plotwise it is a bit of a mystery why that happened.
Charles suddenly decided during the original (1985) Secret Wars that the X-Men ought to ally with Magneto despite a lack of rationale for doing so. I guess I blame Jim Shooter? Just kidding. But my sincere feeling is that the decision was really odd and never explained.
Then there was that very unsatisfying situation at Uncanny #200 which amounted to Charles having to leave Earth for an extended period in order to survive, having just enough time to burden Magneto and the New Mutants with each other. And somehow the interesting conflict that ought to have happened as a result mostly did not. At the same time the X-Men lost quite a lot of their moral ground as a general trend towards ever darker and more ambiguous stories. Claremont really turned up the grit during that period.
The plot hole is very concrete IMO. I wonder if DeMatteis can pull it off, but mostly because the way I see it the window of opportunity was some 35 to 38 years ago. At this point is not nearly enough to explain Magneto; we would have to explain Charles and the X-Men as well. If JDM and Marvel somehow can convince me otherwise, I will be very impressed indeed.
He said on a podcast that Marvel came to him with the book, presumably because he’s known as a writer who likes to delve into the psychological makeup of characters and that’s a good fit for a Magneto flashback story. He also said he was a big fan of the Silver Age X-Men as a kid, so maybe that swung it.
I saw someone speculating elsewhere that possibly the reason we’re seeing so many older and influential creators being given miniseries is because it’s Marvel’s attempt to support those who made a significant contribution to things like the MCU, but receive no recompense for it. Or in the case of Peter David, also because he’s had some health problems and they are endeavouring to give him something to do and a revenue stream. I hope this is true, but it’s not easy to believe given, y’know, everything else.
I’m a big fan of JMdM, and Magneto #1 was a pleasant surprise as I had no idea it was even out. I do wonder if he’s been given a mandate to reconcile early Magneto with latter appearances in some manner, or if he’s been allowed to tell whatever story interests him.
Looking forward to it nonetheless, though can Marvel please, please, please at last just get round to collecting his Spectacular Spider-Man run in an omnibus? That, and a full Milligan Shade the Changing Man collection, have been haunting me for years.
“the reason we’re seeing so many older and influential creators being given miniseries”
I don’t really need a reason, I’m just glad they’re doing it. Presumably they think there’s a market for these works – and with pretty much every older “memorable” run available in collected form now, it’s easier for anyone to buy both the classic stuff and these retrospective miniseries.
I mean, Peter David has been writing miniseries nonstop pretty much since, what, Spider-Man 2099 ended? Or Ben Reilly? In any case, it’s been a long enough time that Marvel must feel that an audience is there for him. Even if Marvel were giving him work entirely out of pity/the goodness of their hearts, they would inevitably stop if it wasn’t making any money.
“can Marvel please, please, please at last just get round to collecting his Spectacular Spider-Man run in an omnibus?”
I’d only recently figured out what the Epic Collection line actually is. For a while, I thought it was just a continuation of the Essential collections, but no. It’s entire long-running pre-Quesada-era series printed in color on relatively good-quality paper. Weirdly, they’re printed out of order. For example, I think something like volumes 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 of X-Force Epic Collections exist? They have announced what the middle volumes will collect, but they haven’t been solicited yet.
In any case, Marvel’s done a pretty good job putting out the entire Amazing Spider-Man chronology as Epic Collections . . . but they haven’t even started on Spectacular, Web of, or otherwise.
“That, and a full Milligan Shade the Changing Man collection”
I think they started on these, like circa 2010 or something? But it was around when Vertigo collections were printed on crappy paper with relatively low page counts.
It’s weird to me that they’ll gladly collect things that didn’t sell well the first time like Gotham Central (which I’m grateful for, don’t get me wrong), but stuff like Shade and Hitman just go neglected for ages. At least Starman got those recent Compendium editions.
They did indeed return to collecting Shade a whole back, but low sales meant they stopped at Volume 3. I wish people had the opportunity to discover it more easily. It’s destined for lost classic status at this rate.
It’s sad that we don’t have enough people buying the good stuff. One can point to that being a problem in any medium, but American super-hero comics are a niche within a niche (people who read fiction for pleasure on a regular basis). It’s even worse in that the comics industry has screwed over so much of its talent. Our society devalues art, and people who produce it have to go on strike, rely on charities, and/or use crowdfunding just for the basics.
I’m glad Marvel is giving older creators work, but Disney & whoever owns DC should be paying for their health care and there should be a better retirement plan.
They’re freelancers, not employees.
I mean, I presume that’s why Tom Brevoort has remained on staff for literally decades. He’s all about that healthcare.
I’ve not talked to Tom in years, but if I were him, and I was presumably something I enjoyed for decades, I don’t know why I would leave. And of course, insurance is part of it. I can’t recall ever hearing he’d want to move to DC, even when they were still in NYC.
If he survived Perelman and Jemas and Heroes World, that’s quite an achievement.
@Josie: yes, that doesn’t make them any less in need or deserving of a stable future, nor does it make the corporations that profited off their work any less able to provide what they need. The system itself is awful.
Yet another way the comics industry and wrestling are similar: the historic mistreatment of talent by management. Freelancers v independent contractors: a rose by another name …
Iceman is really good, especially after Marauders turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I think it and Scarlet Witch (and also X-Men Green) show that Orlando is best suited to a smaller cast that he’s able to focus on, and the same was true for his DC work (his weakest title of what I read there was probably his Justice League book).
“At this point is not nearly enough to explain Magneto; we would have to explain Charles and the X-Men as well. If JDM and Marvel somehow can convince me otherwise, I will be very impressed indeed.”
TBH I thought CC did a good job with Magento’s arc during his first run on Uncanny and New Mutants. He did lose some control over the character once he left New Mutants but still got to do some good stuff with the character towards the end of his Uncanny run.
@wwk5d: I absolutely agree. Magneto’s self-assessment in Uncanny X-Men 275- that he tried to be the man Charles thought he could be, but failed- is heartbreaking. Frankly, I don’t think the retcon in Magneto 1 is 100% true. Magneto lashed out in anger after all the human race had taken from him. At this point in continuity, he may have convinced himself that he was playing at villainy, but by he was definitely a villain until Uncanny 150. I hope this mini-series explores Magneto’s change of heart by making him see that his past actions were not justifiable, no matter what he told himself.
The problem with that type of epiphany at this point from Magneto is that he would then delude himself again and go on to justify far worse actions during the 1990s (post-Claremont).
I’m with wwk5d, I thought Claremont did a great job with Magneto’s arc, at least up to the point where it started being out of his hands. Starting with X-men #150, the reveal about a year later that Magneto had been Xavier’s friend once, and God Loves Man Kills. I forget exactly what issue it was in the 190s where Magneto started hanging out with the X-men, but it all built up gradually to the trial in #200 so that I know I was fully rooting for Magneto to win at that point.
Xavier could have trusted Magneto to protect and train a kids team; the question was whether X could trust him to bring them up right, and that seems like a fairly reasonable gamble to me. Magneto was trending in the right direction, and X had pretty good reason to think the kids would be a good influence on him.
But then, major parts of the 90s and beyond X-books just infuriate me, and the repeated weird character assassination of Magneto is a big part of that…
The older creators literally can’t do anything else for a living, so they need to keep doing this.
The younger creators don’t want and can’t have the older creators’ positions because Marvel will never have the “Bullpen” again. They’re not paying a whole staff of NY-based, much less US-based, creators.
It would be interesting if they did more with the Holocaust idea when it comes to play acting. Making use of Magneto’s personal experience with being defined by hateful, reductive stereotypes would color how Max presented himself to humanity. I’ve kicked around an idea of a story that explores Magneto’s relationship with vicious antisemitic stereotypes and his seemingly irrational hatred of Toad in the early X-men books. Maybe Magneto saw Toad as the living embodiment of a stereotype, and hated the idea of Mortimer serving as the idea of mutants would immediately think of. I think they played with this idea in one of the Earth X books, but it’s been a long time since I’ve read it.
Oh, and he could always claim he attacked Cape Citadel the first time because the U.S. was employing Nazi scientists on the base. Since Cape Citadel was, I think, intended to be a stand in for Cape Canaveral that would probably have been accurate.
“There are Nazi scientists working there” sounds like a lame excuse to me even if true, frankly.
@Sol: I don’t claim to follow what apparently was Magneto’s moral regeneration at the time – I literally failed to notice it – but apparently a big part of it was his stepping up in Secret Wars II issues.
About the matter of so many veteran writers writing new miniseries set in the time of former stories (mainly the 1990s), I am not sure what Marvel’s motivations are. But I think it is not too wrong to guess that it is perceived as a gesture of good will and acknowledgement.
At least some of those characters are bound to reach the big screen and streaming services sooner rather than later, and after seeing DC’s troubles in recent years Marvel probably wants to keep good relations with its creators if it is not too troublesome to make the effort. It is much better and safer to pay writers for new material than to run the risk of someone feeling left out and perhaps being spurred into making bold statements that might hurt public image (as has happened in the past). It also just might lead to revivals of interest and be perceived as fair recognition of their past contributions, so it is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Also, I assume that any lingering tensions will be much easier to detect and deal with when there is an active relationship between writer and editor at present time.
Maybe I am reading too much into it, of course. It has happened before, you know. Once or twice or several thousand times.
The last time I remember creators discussing their MCU related royalties was Devin Grayson talking about the legalese involving her compensation (and the artist, was it Land?) for creating Yelena and her appearances in movies and TV.
The “thanks” credits always get peopke talking, like Waid, amongst other notable Flash creators, not getting a mention in those credits recently.
I can’t speak to how well Claremont built towards Magneto’s eventual shift, but I thought, post Uncanny X-Men #200, he did a good job showing Magneto struggling to adjust to a different mindset. He was used to just barging in and demanding what he wanted, or else he’d take it. Now he couldn’t handle things that way.
New Mutants #40 is a pretty good example. He sent the team to Emma for help with the psychic trauma of being killed and I think erased by the Beyonder. In part because he doubted whether he was fit to help them. He changes his mind and goes to get them, and Emma, recognizing she’s only known publicly as headmistress of a prestigious academy, calls the cops, who wisely call the Avengers.
The whole issue, Magneto’s resisting the urge to just hit the Avengers with everything he’s got, at one point even agreeing to surrender if they’ll let him help a badly damaged Warlock first. He’s trying to break old habits, but it’s a constant effort not to revert to old habits when the pressure is on.
“that doesn’t make them any less in need or deserving of a stable future”
If they wanted a stable future, then they probably wouldn’t have become freelancers working in comics.
And it’s interesting this concern is only being extended to freelancers working for the Big Two and not the multitudes who own the rights to their own work at smaller publishers.
Artists have talked for years about how they’re mistreated by smaller companies as well-Boom and Valiant not paying well or even at all on variant covers, Aftershock screwing creators out of money.
Not that it would matter to you, since everything I’ve ever seen you post suggests you lack even the slightest shred of empathy.
I am not suggesting that working on a freelance contract means employers can exploit freelancers. This is a strawman.
I am only pointing out the fact that freelance contracts don’t include healthcare benefits. This is how freelance contracts work around the world in every industry.
It’s like whining, I bought this car, so why can’t it run on water? Well the problem is you bought a car and not a boat. You’re whining about something it’s not supposed to do.
@Josie: “… but they knew they’d be screwed and did the work anyway, those big dunnies!” has been used against freelancers and people in the arts for years. It’s a legal defense for companies exploiting workers, but it is not a moral defense. I don’t care about the legality of it all, which is weighted against artists as it is.
It’s amazing we have any arts in this country, given how disposable we treat many of the people who create. And, yes, I include people from independent companies, self-publishers… in fact. anyone who followed their passions, honed their talents, produced something amazing that enhanced the lives of those that experienced it, and received inadequate compensation in return while those that package and sell the fruits of their labor get more.
Bill Fingrr shouldn’t have died poor. Gene Colan shouldn’t have had to rely on charity publications to pay medical bills. William Messier-Loebs shouldn’t have to start a Go Fund Me so he doesn’t get evicted. It’s morally wrong.
“If they wanted a stable future, then they probably wouldn’t have become freelancers working in comics.”
Most people who start working in comics do so when young, foolish, and star-struck by the idea of working with their heroes. By the time they’re old enough to start thinking seriously about their future, they’ve invested years learning the trade. It’s extremely difficult to change careers after age 30 or so, especially in such a way that is likely to create a “stable future”.
@Josie: Jenny and Mike Loughlin already said it best so I won’t belabor the point with anything less articulate…but goodness, is that is the dumbest, most absurd, and most intellectually disingenuous, victim-blamey false equivalence I’ve read in awhile pertaining to workers’ rights.
We are looking at a world where “creating content” for money and not passion, on platforms where you don’t even have a contract much less rights, where it is literally impossible to organize, is starting to be the default “career” for a lot of young people.
I was talking to someone recently about how to fight back and they said they can’t. They are afraid to do anything that would harm Youtube or drive viewers away.
And this comments thread got me thinking, man, being a freelance comics artist is practically secure compared to that.
Which is not to say that things are good by any measure. It just means… creators need to seize every right they can before the bottom is raced even deeper.
“… but they knew they’d be screwed and did the work anyway, those big dunnies!”
And the strawman army continues. Once again: freelance contracts don’t grant health care. That’s my entire position. That’s literally it.
“creators need to seize every right they can”
That entails owning their own work at a publisher that allows them full ownership, or . . . self-publishing. That’s the extent of rights in this industry if you are a freelance creator: the right to ownership of your own intellectual property.
“It’s extremely difficult to change careers after age 30 or so”
Steve Gerber, Jack Kirby, Joe Kelly, Steve Seagle, Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Gail Simone, Geoff Johns, Warren Ellis, Jeph Loeb, Gerard Way, Bill Sienkiewicz, Robert Kirkman, Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Steve Skroce, Geof Darrow . . . shall I go on?
I find whining about a perfect world utterly boring if there is no practical strategy to achieve it.
Yes, freelance contracts are not great. Yes, there are a multitude of ways they could be better.
SO HOW DO WE GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B?
Nobody here has any solutions other than whining and virtue signaling.
Yeah, as far as capitalist exploitation goes, comics creators are pretty low on the scale of suffering.
As for Magneto, from what I recall, the plot of the new Adjectiveless X-Men title was that originally Magneto’s own powers messed up the electrical signals in his brain, making him psychotic. Then he was turned into a baby, and Moira McTaggert jiggered with his baby DNA to cure that weakness. Magneto later found out thanks to the manipulations of Cortez et al, and went for revenge for what he saw as mind control. Which is why through his history he was evil, then merely bad, then good, then bad, then an antihero.
The retcon is pretty shaky even before the modern Moira retcon, but it exists.
“Then he was turned into a baby, and Moira McTaggert jiggered with his baby DNA to cure that weakness.”
Except that Moira also pointed out that using one’s powers would quickly negate any of the tampering she did, and that most of the choices Magneto made after the tampering were actually his own choices after all. Most people seem to ignore that part for some reason and just focus on the tampering only…
“William Messier-Loebs shouldn’t have to start a Go Fund Me so he doesn’t get evicted. It’s morally wrong.”
Damn, that’s rough. Hopefully the fund was successful.
@wwk5d, I’m running from memory of a comic I read years ago, I didn’t realise there was a whole fandom thing about it. But why would she tamper with a baby’s DNA if she knew it wouldn’t work anyway?
@Josie: “Once again: freelance contracts don’t grant health care. That’s my entire position. That’s literally it.”
Nobody was saying they do. I was saying they should. Stating that known fact is not a position. I was starting from the idea that freelancers not getting adequately compensated is morally wrong.
Also, nearly all the people you listed who changed careers came back to comics. Whether by choice or necessity, I don’t know. As it is, they all practiced their art of writing or drawing after they sought work in other fields.
“I find whining about a perfect world utterly boring if there is no practical strategy to achieve it.”
Then, why participate in the discussion at all? You are not required to respond to all this “whining.” Also, I don’t think saying a thing is bad and should be better and that it makes someone feel negatively constitutes “whining.” It’s definitely not “virtue signaling,” in this case.
If I had the practical solution that I could enforce, I would happily share it. Hell, I would work to enact it. Unfortunately, I haven’t untangled corporate greed and the entire health care system just yet.
I mean all I’ve ever seen Josie do is whine whether it be about this or about comics they dislike but continue to buy anyway, so it’s no surprise that they made 4 posts in a row about how not mad and how correct they are.
Hickman’s ret-con did include Moira’s decision to tamper with Magneto’s mind. She did it because as long as Magneto continued to believe that his way was the right way, Xavier and Magneto would remain antagonists. She tampered with his mind to make him less prone to megalomania. Then, Magneto discovered Moira had tampered with him mind and refused to work with Xavier or Moira. Moira wrote in her journal that she is afraid that her plan to unite Magneto and Xavier had the opposite effect, trying to explain the 1990s Magneto.
I think Hickman’s ret-con might have removed the inconsistency about Magneto using his powers undoing her tampering. Hickman’s Magneto was never “mentally ill”, he was driven by his ideology and his arrogance. He believed he was the mutant saviour.