X-Men Annual #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN ANNUAL vol 4 #1
“Radiant”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Andrea Di Vito
Colourist: Sebastian Cheng
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Firestar fighting alongside Cyclops.
PAGES 2-4. Firestar argues with the Hellions.
The Avengers. Firestar was a member of the Avengers during the Busiek/Perez run in the late 90s and early 2000s. The wider point being made here is that although she’s a mutant, she’s rarely been featured in X-related comics. In the Hellions’ eyes – or at least Roulette and Bevatron’s, since Catseye and Jetstream seem more ambivalent – she’s ignored the mutant struggle in favour of an easier life for herself. Moreover, as a member of the X-Men, she’s now been selected as a supposed representative of their nation anyway. They aren’t impressed.
The Beast was an Avenger back in the 70s and early 80s, before he was a sociopath. Wolverine was an Avenger during Brian Bendis’s run. Havok was not only an Avenger, but led the Uncanny Avengers team which was expressly a hybrid of the Avengers and the X-Men. Firestar could also have mentioned Rogue, who was a member of the same team, and Sunspot and Cannonball, who were Avengers during the Hickman period. Oh, and Storm, who inexplicably joins the Avengers for a handful of issues just before Avengers vs X-Men. Nonetheless, all of those characters are predominantly associated with the X-Men, which is the Hellions’ real point.
The Hellions. Now that Hellions is over, these guys presumably have sole claim to the name again. From left to right, the group shown here are Jetstream, Catseye, Beef, Roulette, Tarot and Bevatron. Ironically, Beef and Bevatron rarely appeared in X-books either, except when they showed up to die; they were mainly New Warriors characters. While the Hellions’ nastiest member Empath is absent here, Roulette was certainly among the more villain-inclined members. Catseye was always a nice one (as was Tarot, to a degree), and Jetstream was broadly honourable and sensible.
Firestar was a trainee of Emma Frost at the same time as the Hellions but was always kept largely separate from the rest of the team. I’m not honestly sure what the flashback on page 2 panel 4 is showing (or what it has to do with anything).
The New Warriors were the team that Firestar was most associated with until she joined the Avengers.
The Young Allies. Firestar was a member of an obscure incarnation of this team who had their own book for 7 issues in 2010-11.
“We got killed for sport while she was auditioning for Captain America.” The Hellions were murdered by Trevor Fitzroy as part of the Upstarts’ game in Uncanny X-Men #281. As Firestar says, this is way before she was anywhere near the Avengers, but that doesn’t really affect the Hellions’ point.
“I turned down being a New Mutant.” In Uncanny X-Men #193.
“I’ve been an X-Man before but it never sticks.” She was a member of the X-Men in Amazing X-Men vol 2, which is what the flashback is showing.
PAGES 5. Recap and credits.
“Surviving the experience.” Referencing the familiar “Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde [or whoever], hope you survive the experience” line.
PAGE 6. Firestar and Iceman arrive back at the Treehouse.
Um, was Firestar going to the bar before work, then?
“Maybe Spider-Man called.” Meta reference to the Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends cartoon, where Iceman and Firestar were the titular Friends. There’s no real link with him in the Marvel Universe.
PAGE 7. Forge updates the team.
Harrower (Harriet Bromes) is the villain from Steve Orlando’s Curse of the Man-Thing miniseries; she’s a relative of Augusta Bromes from Hordeculture. She’s also shown up in Deadpool lately.
Bi-Beast is an android created by the Bird People who debuted in Incredible Hulk #179 and has been floating around the Marvel Universe as an obscure background villain for years.
Mojo is apparently fighting the X-Babies version of Havok here, but we’ll come back to that.
PAGES 8-10. Cyclops decides to go with Firestar to investigate the hospital.
“…especially with Shiro on Arakko…” Firestar has replaced Sunfire as the heat guy on the team after he moved to Mars.
“Emma decided it for her.” Emma did essentially bounce Firestar into joining the team in X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1. This sits uneasily with the whole concept of it being a public vote, but since that sort of public acceptance would cut across the whole premise of this issue, it’s probably best to ignore that.
Cyclops has a point that, up till now, Firestar hasn’t really done a great deal other than follow along and try to be loyal.
PAGES 11-14. Cyclops and Firestar arrive at the hospital.
Krakoan drugs. Apparently for the purposes of this story we’re going with the idea that Krakoan drugs are free and plentiful; more commonly the angle is that there are still limits on production capacity.
Russia and the UK are singled out here because they’re countries which don’t recognise Krakoa (in the UK’s case, due to unresolved plot threads from Excalibur), and so don’t qualify for Krakoan drug distribution.
Firestar’s cancer. This is the Marvel Divas miniseries from 2009. The other three women in the flashback are Hellcat, Spectrum and Black Cat. Firestar glosses over it here, but ultimately she got cured as a result of Hellcat doing a deal with Daimon Hellstrom on her behalf.
“Have you ever considered fixing your powers?” Resurrection normally just brings people back as duplicates (with a bit of tinkering around the edges), but Cyclops’s inability to control his optic beams was retconned by Chris Claremont into the result of a head injury, rather than an inherent feature of his powers. So in theory, the Five shouldn’t have that much trouble getting rid of it. But the visor and glasses are very much part of his identity at this point.
PAGE 15. Data page: Firestar discusses her new costume with Jumbo Carnation.
Firestar’s costume. Hank Pym gave Firestar a costume to sort out her lack of immunity to her own powers in Avengers vol 3 #12.
Her leather jacket and goggles costume comes from New Warriors and her early days with the Avengers.
PAGE 16. Whirlwind attacks.
We’ll come back to him.
PAGES 17-18. Montage: the rest of the team in action.
PAGES 19-20. Firestar confronts Whirlwind.
Whirlwind started as an Ant-Man & Wasp villain, under the name Human Top. Unlike most Ant-Man villains, he actually does get used, but mostly as cannon fodder for more high profile villains. He is indeed a real mutant, and (like Firestar) a character completely divorced from mutant comics. Basically, he’s the classic “we couldn’t be bothered thinking of an origin story” mutant. Firestar and Justice defeated him, and earned their way into the Avengers, in Avengers vol 3 #4. It’s a little surprising that Whirlwind holds a grudge over this, since from his standpoint it’s just another in a long line of defeats.
PAGE 21. Data page on Whirlwind, all of which is basically correct.
“The Mandarin, Count Nefaria, the Hood…” Whirlwind worked for the Mandarin in Iron Man #513-514. He was a member of Count Nefaria’s Lethal Legion in Avengers #164. And he was one of the vast number of Z-list villains who hung around with the Hood in Brian Bendis’ Avengers run.
“[W]e have no records of notable conflicts with X-teams.” Correct. The closest he’s ever come is fighting Domino in X-Men vol 3 #38, alongside everyone else who was in the Bar With No Name at the time. He also has a cameo in X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4, and he was a member of the Lethal Legion team who fought the Avengers (including Wolverine) in Avengers: X-Sanction #1.
PAGES 22-24. The X-Men fight the Savage Land Mutates.
That’s Brainchild leading the Savage Land Mutates. The others aren’t particularly recognisable but the big guy riding a triceratops is probably Gaza (either that or it’s Barbarus with his extra arms obscured). The redhead riding a pteranodon might be intended as Lorelei, but she reformed years ago. Piper is probably here somewhere, since he’s the one with the ability to control dinosaurs.
PAGE 25. Firestar fights Whirlwind.
Bagalia is a massively corrupt country ruled by supervillains, from Avengers.
PAGE 26. Mojo and the zombie X-Babies.
The X-Babies were created by Mojo in an inane attempt to expand the X-Men brand – a parody of the way the line was expanding at that time to the ludicrous number of four books a month. Here, he’s crossed them with Marvel Zombies.
Is that Adam X in the background helping to fight them, along with Spiral?
PAGES 27-30. Whirlwind is defeated.
And he gets to be the voice of mutants who reject Krakoa as their identity. Not unreasonably, he thinks he’s better off downplaying his mutant status and (like the Hellions) thinks that Firestar feels the same way in private.
PAGE 31. The X-Men fight some old Sentinels.
The militia are just a random group, I think.
PAGES 32-33. Firestar is accepted at the Green Lagoon.
I’m not sure I really buy Roulette being won round this easily, given that she doesn’t see anything that happened during the story. But she’s not that unreasonable a character, so maybe.
“Why is Mojo so stuck on that old squad of X-Men?” This joke doesn’t really work, since the zombie X-Babies seem to be mostly a 1980 team with Kitty in her generic costume, but that doesn’t really explain what Havok’s doing there – or Cyclops, for that matter, since he left before Kitty joined.
PAGE 34. Trailers.
A decent enough story; Whirlwind’s stuff is the stand out and more of what I wanted at the start of the era.
What’s Justice up to these days? He still a mutant?
” I’m not honestly sure what the flashback on page 2 panel 4 is showing (or what it has to do with anything).”
The flashback is Empath using his powers to make Angelica kiss him, from Uncanny X-Men 193.
Re: public acceptance of Firestar- even if the majority of the public voted for Firestar, a minority might resent her.
Am I the only person that thinks that Scott refusing to have the Five fix his powers is insanely reckless? Scott’s accidentally almost KILLED people with her powers on multiple occasions. Foxe seems to be making an analogy to real life blind and deaf people who don’t want to have surgery to fix their disabilities but blind and deaf people aren’t usually a direct threat to others. Just as recently as the Children of the Vault arc, the Children almost escaped because Scott couldn’t control his powers.
I understand they need to come up with some reason why resurrection can’t fix Scott’s inability to control his powers. The Five were unable to fix Orphan Maker’s inability to control his powers but Orphan Maker’s inability is innate, not the result of brain damage.
Whirlwind wasn’t originally a mutant- there was no explanation for his powers initially. It was Roy Thomas that made him a mutant in Avengers 46.
The cover must be deliberately echoing the cover of X-Men #137, the death of Phoenix issue. I wonder why. Sales ploy?
Is the character Hellion around? It would make an awkward situation with the two different teams with the same name. Then again, X-Man dealt with the same silliness.
Note that Synch was able to copy Miles Morales’s powers despite Miles not being a mutant. It does make you wonder if Synch will be able to copy Venom’s or Hallow’s Eve’s powers during Dark Web- Eddie’s just a human mind driving a dead symbiote at this point and Janine technically has no powers, just magic masks.
I’m not buying that mutants like Firestar did something wrong by joining non-mutant teams. If a mutant doesn’t want to join an X-Team but is open about being a mutant and always helps when asked, what’s the problem? it’s especially annoying in Firestar’s case. When she first joined the New Warriors, the X-teams were all believed dead or trapped on other planets or in other dimensions. Then, they recruited Emma, who had abused Angelica as a teenager, and put her in charge of training children, so it’s understandable why Firestar might not want to join the X-Men. An abuse victim has no obligation to hang around their abuser or their abuser’s friends.
Something similar happened with the Scarlet Witch after M-Day but in Wanda’s case, the writers were trying to justify House of M by arguing that Wanda always hated being a mutant.
Part of the issue is that the Hellions don’t seem to think of Emma’s treatment of them as abuse. (We saw her telepathically zap them when they screwed up a training exercise at least once.) But we haven’t really seen the Hellions react to Emma becoming nicer while they were dead.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem like anyone told the Hellions that Layla Miller was resposible for their deaths. That might set up an interesting conflict between them and Madrox.
The other thing I was thinking about was that the Hellions discussed about how they were murdered by Trevor Fitzroy. Yet, Fitzroy is a mutant. They are making it seem like they were targeted by human supremacists, while Firestar was hanging out with non-mutant teams. That’s not the case though. It defeats any point they are trying to make by the fact that a mutant was the one killing other mutants.
Do the Hellions know they were killed because of Fitzroy? They were murdered by Sentinels, usually a tool of anti-mutant forces. Maybe someone told them about the Upstarts nonsense, but maybe not.
I remember Pym’s suit for Firestar being necessary for about 6 months, then her power would be corrected. Did she seriously get cancer twice, the second time because of magic? That there’s some limited storytelling.
Speaking of limited storytelling, if you’re going to have Cyclops confirm that he’s being brought back with brain damage intentionally, you need to give a plausible explanation as to why.
Speaking of Fitzroy murdering the Hellions…
(the storyline which pissed me off so bad I got into writing X-Men adjacent fanfic for a few years back in the 90s)
It’s been ages since we last saw the Gamesmaster. I wonder what he’s up to these days.
I dropped this but…
Whirlwind! My number one pick for a weird unaligned mutant finally showed up and actually kind of got to make a point! Excellent!
Also- Trevor Fitzroy I have an odd enjoyment of in spite of how many stories he’s actually in. Maybe it’s the rad hair? I think he’d be a great addition to Krakoa.
I want to see a mutant villain do something awful and then immediately run to the island for sanctuary. Them having to deal with a mutant who just assassinated a president or something only to show up and get amnesty would be great.
@Michael: Off the top of my head, the first time we saw Synch copy non-mutant powers was during his time in the Vault. I vaguely recall another instance after that as well. It will be interesting to see how far this can be stretched as Everett is exposed to other metahumans.
Somewhat related: Is this power augmentation also contributing to his accelerated aging, or is it just his other new ability to retain borrowed powers regardless of proximity?
Uncanny X-Ben-Isn’t that what they did with Selene following Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Captain America? I’m not sure if Selene fled there, or if Krakoa stepped in to declare she had diplomatic immunity and she got to escape to Krakoa.
Was there any actual story fallout with Selene though?
Wasn’t she just there and no one said anything about how she had just helped likeconquer America or whatever?
Or… eats people?
I never did read Coates Captain America because I found his Black Panther so dreadfully dull.
@Chris V: Selene was in the first batch of mutants who come through the gates after the amnesty declaration, so presumably she fled there. For whatever the canon value of unnamed background is, anyway.
Digging up Trevor Fitzroy might be interesting. His needing to murder someone to use his power isn’t as much of a limitation anymore.
Cyclops lack of control may have with brain damage but has been shown on multiple occasions as more a psychological issue. Phoenix held them on the butte, Emma helped him in astonishing. So Scott may not be cable of controlling even a non damaged brain, but does not want to publicly admit it as it undermines his status as a leader.
“It’s been ages since we last saw the Gamesmaster. I wonder what he’s up to these days.”
Probably Wordle.
We have certainly come a long way from the 1990s. Grim and gritty is out, taking a moment from the fight to send a message that you will not be late despite being amidst a fight against a supposedly major menace is in.
This issue by Foxe is no more interested in giving us the impression that the X-Men are being challenged than Duggan’s tend to be. We once had a whole issue of Ben Reilly fighting a Sentinel. Now the X-Men can’t spare more than a panel for them, and have to mock them for being a waste of their time while at it.
Roulette seems to be satisfied by Angelica saying out loud that she stands for Krakoa. It is indeed a bit surprising to see her take such a stance.
I figure the Gamesmaster has largely reformed, except perhaps for its fragments that are now writing Spawn and explaining that it is ok that DC has been firing comics creators left and right. I always perceived Gamesmaster not as a character but rather a living parody of 1990s speculator trends.
I feel that we mostly have had the explanation for Cyclops not wanting to be tinkered with by the Five.
In essence, by this point he is genuinely more confortable in requiring a mechanical lock for his powers instead of having to exert voluntary self-control all the time. He is a respected leader and has resolved most of his self-worth issues. There isn’t a clear benefit to giving him full voluntary control of the optical blasts.
Alastair said: Cyclops lack of control may have with brain damage but has been shown on multiple occasions as more a psychological issue. Phoenix held them on the butte, Emma helped him in astonishing. So Scott may not be cable of controlling even a non damaged brain, but does not want to publicly admit it as it undermines his status as a leader.
In the case of Phoenix, that was expressly stated to be telekinesis holding back the energy beams, not telepathy.
However, the Claremont era does have Mister Sinister using a “mental block” that stops Scott from using his optic beams during Inferno, which could be read as the first hint that Cyclops’s power issues are psychological, not physical. Cyclops eventually gets over this by getting really, really mad at Sinister.
However, I don’t recall if we see Cyclops without his visor or shades in that part of the story. So it’s possible this was intended to be Sinister blocking Cyclops from choosing to using the visor controls or lifting the shades, not literally mentally shutting down his powers.
In any case, Whedon’s story seems to have been roundly ignored; Cyclops loses control of his beams again by the end of it, and no one else has ever treated the issue as psychological.
There’s also the issue of the unused plot point of Cyclops suffering further damage to that part of his brain in Wolverine (1987 ongoing series) #101, something stated by the omniscient narrator. This was never followed up on, but the writing makes it clear that this is the same part of the brain injured in his fall back in childhood.
@Luis Dantas:
“In essence, by this point he is genuinely more confortablm in requiring a mechanical lock for his powers instead of having to exert voluntary self-control all the time. He is a respected leader and has resolved most of his self-worth issues. There isn’t a clear benefit to giving him full voluntary control of the optical blasts.”
Maybe, but has the character stated this on the page? Maybe he has and I missed it. If not, I want to hear from Cyclops why he prefers to not be able to control his powers. If he loses control, he could kill someone. Theoretically, he could kill a human bystander and get thrown in the Pit.
I don’t care about the character that much, but would prefer to see the writers explain a character beat that I don’t think makes sense. Even “I’m used to being this way” or “I want to set an example for mutants who need help with powers they can’t control” is better than nothing.
I know it was more Havok’s fault when he punched Cyclops recently, but didn’t Cyclops’ lack of control over his powers almost jeopardize their recent mission with the Children of the Vault?
Arguable.
Having voluntary control over the optic blasts does not mean that it would necessarily go any different.
People who have normal or even perfect control over their own muscles can also be distracted and let things fall from their hands and suchlike.
I don’t think that it would make any plot difference either way. Ultimately Scott let that blast go because Gerry Duggan wanted him to.
Yeah, that’s clearly evident from all the times we have seen characters kicked and punched and have their powers switched on.
Having mutants on the Avengers has always been a good thing for mutantkind. The Avengers tend to be way more popular and visible in-universe than the X-Teams. This issue addresses the importance of mutantkind getting good PR? Surely fighting alongside Captain America is great PR.
Wasn’t one of the subplots during Firestar and Justice’s stint on the Avengers that there were literally big protests outside Avengers mansion about there being mutants on the team?
Maybe Busiek was nodding to the fact Onslaught and Operation: Zero Tolerance weren’t that far in the rearview mirror, or maybe just how quickly the people in the Marvel Universe turn on superheroes, but I don’t know how well it worked out as pro-mutant PR.
I get the impression that some people in this discussion are assuming that, if Cyke has conscious control over his powers, that means he has to constantly think “no eye beams, no eye beams, no eye beams”, and if he ever stops concentrating on that, then zap. In which case sure, why would he want that?
But is there any reason to think that? I’d have thought it was more likely the other way round; that he’d activate his powers by an act of will, and by default they’d be switched off. Like, y’know, every other character with conscious control over their powers.
(Plus even if “concious control” does mean having to concentrate on not firing eye beams, it would still be useful as a backup — wear the visor most of the time, but if it comes off, at least he can see what he’s doing to put it back on.)
Fair point, @Daibhid C.
As for this:
“(Plus even if “concious control” does mean having to concentrate on not firing eye beams, it would still be useful as a backup — wear the visor most of the time, but if it comes off, at least he can see what he’s doing to put it back on.)”
The Whedon run is Astonishing X-Men pretty much shows that such was the case. Apparently it takes a lot out of Scott, though, and he can’t exert that control often and consistently.
For all we know he can’t exert it at all now, even though that doesn’t really make any sense. We have been shown repeatedly that the Five can change the resurectees significantly, and Scott is supposed to have been born capable of controlling the blasts when they eventually arose.
Cyclops, the man who once monlogued:
“Face it Summers, no matter which way you cut it, you’re the one X-Man who can’t hide what he is… and who dares not forget because if he does, someone might get killed. Killed by my eyes! My CURSED, MUTANT, ENERGY-BLASTING EYES!”
And given we’ve seen decades of stories where he loses his visor and has to close his eyes lest he accidentally pulverize a friend or kill an innocent bystander…
And given that his lack of control was caused by the brain damage he suffered as a youth…
And given that at no time has “brain damage” otherwise impacted him or been part of his identity…
There’s no compelling reason why he shouldn’t have this small issue fixed, except that he’s lived with the issue for as long as he can remember.
So the big question is, would fixing this aspect of his power do anything to fundamentally change the character other than make him happier, less concerned over accidents, and safer to be around?
Or would this be another case of “Scott Summers’ lack of control over his powers is a metaphor for disability, his visor/glasses are in fact a long-standing disability aid, and fixing him would send the wrong message, just like when Xi’an opted to keep her prosthetic leg instead of fixing that in resurrection?”
Or would this be no worse than a person with cataracts or glasses getting LASIK to fix the issue?
Or would this just rob writers a convenient drama point, just like when Rogue couldn’t control her powers and always had to worry about when her costume was shredded?
I dunno. Frankly, in universe, it doesn’t make sense to reject the opportunity for tweaking, but that’s just my thought.
Not to mention, they must have Proteus actively warping an exact replication of that brain damage into each new body, because they wouldn’t come by it naturally. It would fix itself if they let it!
Do we not recall the very early scene in HoxPox where Cyclops hatched out of his egg, and he didn’t need his visor until after Xavier returned his mind?
Different writers clearly have different ideas about which retcon to use for Cyclops. Sometimes his condition is physical, sometimes it’s psychosomatic.
And in the preview for X-Men:Dark Web 2, Maddie removes Scott’s visor to hamper any escape attempts. again raising the question of why Scott doesn’t have the Five fix the damage.
‘This is a surprisingly good issue for Duggan’, I thought, before realizing he didn’t write it.
Still, I liked this. At least it does something with Angelica.
BTW I had to have it spelled out on Twitter that the emblem on her chest is a literal ‘fire star’… And it didn’t stick. Every time I see her, I wonder why she has a starfish as her logo.
The Hellions should be the last people complaining about not participating in the mutant struggle, since they hid in a fancy prep school pretending to be normal humans while their patrons in the Hellfire club were building Sentinels. It could be argued as a public mutant Firestar did more for mutant PR than the X-men did.
@neutrino- It’s amazing what some writers (and fans) regard as betraying the mutant cause. Shaw built Sentinels? No problem, put him on the Quiet Council. Mystique, Destiny, Pyro and Blob helped enforce the Mutant Registration Act and turned mutant babies over to mad scientists? No problem, put them on the Quiet Council and the Marauders and let them run the Green Lagoon. But joining an non X-team is treated like an unforgivable sin.
A lot of this back-and-forth in the comics seems like a good case for quietly returning to the Silver Age idea that his mutant power manifests as constantly shooting a death ray out of his eyes.
The whole “It’s psychosomatic and reflects his issues” thing strikes me as one of those “clever” ideas, a writer deciding to flip things around so that his repression causes his problem, and not the other way around as in previous stories.
But it’s too much like Rogue’s old narrative arc for my tastes, and it seems clear that no one is interested in letting him get over it because then he’s “not Cyclops.”
It’s the most elegant solution, especially since the writers and editors seem likely to continue treating the lack of control as the default for the character, both for the visual concept and the characterization effects.
@Michael- As a reader/ fan of the current era, I think it’s wrong to give blanket amnesty to people like Shaw and Sinister on a moral level but it makes for good storytelling. I remember Pyro and Blob being outright villains with homicidal intent, but I’m more interested in seeing them find new roles in Krakoan society than I am in seeing them get beat by the X-Men again.
I think the full impact of the amnesty has been underwritten, however- Ewing and Spurrier used Cortez effectively as a case of “can you believe they gave a ‘pardon’ to this guy?” until Lost forgave him and he started acting less like a monster- and could use more page space.
My memory of the anti-mutant protests during Firestar and Justice’s time with the Avengers was that they were organised by the Triune Understanding, and weren’t legitimate.
“It’s amazing what some writers (and fans) regard as betraying the mutant cause. Shaw built Sentinels? No problem, put him on the Quiet Council. Mystique, Destiny, Pyro and Blob helped enforce the Mutant Registration Act and turned mutant babies over to mad scientists? No problem, put them on the Quiet Council and the Marauders and let them run the Green Lagoon. But joining an non X-team is treated like an unforgivable sin.”
And let’s not even get into the fact Havok had that tremendously embarrassing “don’t call me a mutant” preachy moment when he was an Avenger but fans don’t seem to give him as much crap as they do to Angelica who went through some pretty nasty abuse from Emma Frost.
(though I agree with Mike, from a storytelling standpoint the villain amnesty is not bad per se – you can examine the compromises being made for the sake of nationbuilding etc.)
Miyamoris said: And let’s not even get into the fact Havok had that tremendously embarrassing “don’t call me a mutant” preachy moment when he was an Avenger but fans don’t seem to give him as much crap as they do to Angelica who went through some pretty nasty abuse from Emma Frost.
In Havok’s case, fans seem to have blamed the writer rather than the character, which was cemented when Rick Remender got particularly obnoxious in social media in response to criticism of the scene.
I seem to recall an early issue of Busiek’s Avengers where Quicksilver shows up, runs around exposing all the media and anti-mutant protesters as card-carrying Triune members? And then their NSA liason reveals he’s also a Triune member and argues it’s a legitimate religion so the team can’t interfere? I kind of wish I had held onto those issues, I gave all my singles to Goodwill when I went to college.
Also I would low-key enjoy a resurrected Cyclops that has the mental block/brain damage removed, and maybe his eye beams have been limited to one direction in the past, but now he can control them like Darkseid’s eye beams and they can go in whatever direction he wants. Just make Cyclops Darkseid already, it’s clearly the end of his character arc.
Ben:
Quicksilver discovered a large number of the protestors (not all) were Triune members. Their government liaison tried to argue that could just be a coincidence, a testament to the cult’s increasing popularity.