The X-Axis – 21 August 2011
Alright, then. I’ve spent this afternoon watching Neil Gaiman at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and it’s another of those weeks when there’s frankly not much of interest on the shelves – so through a combination of lack of time and lack of anything particularly notable to write about, I’ll be sticking to the X-books again this week. (Something tells me this quiet period can’t have much more time to run.)
Generation Hope #10 – This is one of only two official tie-ins to Schism – not that it’s actually trailed in the Schism miniseries itself. It’s basically the same events as Schism #3, but told from Idie’s perspective. Which makes sense, because while she’s a key character in that issue, she’s also on the margins until right at the end.
Anti-mutant sentiment is on the rise again, and Idie’s kind of sympathetic – after all, she agrees that mutants are dangerously powerful and somewhat horrific, even though she’s one of them. So Laurie takes her to the opening night of the Mutant History Museum from Schism, to give her a crash course on X-Men history and why the bad guys are quite so bad. (And it’s a weirdly comprehensive museum – one wonders what the average visitor would have made of a gallery casually labelled “Alternate timelines”.) So the Hellfire Club attack, Scott and Logan have their squabble about whether she should get involved or not, and ultimately Idie steps in and kind-of saves the day by slaughtering a bunch of henchmen, much to the horror of the other characters who’ve put her in that position.
This is a case where telling the same story twice actually works, because the perspective is so different. The Schism version puts the emphasis on the new Hellfire Club and on the X-Men, while this one is all about Idie, with even the villains reduced to the bare minimum required for them to serve their plot function. (Probably for the best, for reasons I’ll return to when we get to Schism itself.) It’s a good issue; it covers the key points for people who are only reading this book, but more to the point, it sells the story as a huge deal for these characters in particular. Tim Seeley’s art catches the key moment very well, with Idie standing blankly in the wreckage. And it’s a turning point for her, when she goes from being the quiet one in the background to somebody who’s decided to become involved in a way that makes everyone else extremely uncomfortable about what they’ve done to her by dragging her into their world.
The issue is worth having to flesh out Schism, but it’s also a good character piece for readers who are following the series already.
Uncanny X-Men #542 – The Marvel Universe is positively overburdened with events at the moment – between “Fear Itself”, “Spider-Island” and “Schism”, we’ve now got three running at once. And so, alongside the “Schism” story that’s supposedly going to shake up the X-Men titles, Uncanny finds itself running a “Fear Itself” tie-in, which seems like odd scheduling.
It’s still a pretty good issue. This is another chapter of the Juggernaut walking ponderously towards San Francisco and the X-Men trying to find ways of stopping him, but that’s a surprisingly successful set-up. Despite the “Fear Itself” power-up, this is essentially a back-to-basics Juggernaut story based on the old mantra that Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut. It’s not even that he’s causing much damage as he plods into town; the tension comes from the anticipation of what he’s going to do when he gets there, and the utter failure of every plan to make him stop. So we have a series of montages of failed plans which either seal off the obvious questions (why not teleport him away?) or bring on some neat cameos (hey, Adam X is still alive).
Meanwhile, the X-Men finally do the sensible thing that was foreshadowed in chapter one and ask Illyana to sort it out. I’m still not altogether sure why she doesn’t just try whacking the Juggernaut with the Soulsword – doesn’t it still break magic spells? – but then I suppose you could have said that about every Juggernaut story in the last twenty years. Leave that point aside and her solution here makes equal sense: contact Cyttorak and point out that somebody has nicked his avatar. All of which builds to a rather nice cliffhanger. There’s a neat subplot with Emma, as well, developing a point which has been in the background for ages: since everyone’s figured out that Hope’s awfully familiar, doesn’t Emma find that a bit threatening?
Greg Land’s art is a bit patchy (his Emma still leaves something to be desired), but it’s actually one of his stronger issues; while there are some blank expressions, there’s not so much manic grinning, and he actually does the Juggernaut sequences well – the sequence crossing the chasm is nicely executed. All told, a solid issue.
Wolverine & The Black Cat: Claws II #2 – Oh lordy. The first issue of this didn’t seem so bad, but now it’s degenerated into a random time travel story where our heroes team up with Killraven.
Now, it’s not that I have a problem with dusting off old concepts, as long as you actually have a story to tell with them. Sometimes an idea’s time comes round again. That’s fine. But this comic is just a case of saying “Hey, everyone, remember Killraven? We sure loved Killraven when it came out.” There’s no worthwhile plot here, beyond a mechanical quest designed to give the characters an excuse to hang around together. It’s just nostalgia.
It would be one thing if the audience could sensibly be expected to share that nostalgia. But Killraven ran from 1973 to 1976. It was cancelled before I could read. And its reputation is based on the work of particular creators (most notably Don McGregor), not the inherent strength of the concept. This is the comic book equivalent of a stand-up comedian still doing a “Whatever happened to Spangles” routine. And I haven’t heard one of those in 15 years.
Killraven aside, what this comic has to offer is some flat comedy and some excruciating material with the Black Cat – the writers apparently being unable to distinguish between “party girl” and “halfwit” as character types. Scenes where she leaps into Wolverine’s arms to escape nasty creatures? Pools of acid that only affect clothes? This is beyond bad; it’s embarrassing.
X-Factor #224 – Lots of mythical beasties show up looking for Rahne’s baby, and it’s born, and they fight and… look, it’s a dud storyline, every book has them occasionally, let’s just pretend it didn’t happen and move on with our lives.
X-Men: Schism #3 – Finally, the X-Men’s event miniseries continues. Daniel Acuna is the guest artist this time, and he’s a fine superhero artist these days. While there are a couple of moments that could be clearer, I love the richness of his colours, and there’s a dynamism in his action sequences these days.
This is also the point where we find out what Cyclops and Wolverine are really arguing about: essentially, whether people like Idie should have been kept out of the firing line. Now, judging from previous comments, I suspect that some readers won’t go for this. But it makes sense to me. Yes, Wolverine’s the black ops guy – but the crucial thing is that, in his mind, he does it so other people don’t have to. That’s what he’s fighting for; other people’s opportunity to have a better life than him. Cyclops, on the other hand, has become someone who thinks everyone on Utopia is ultimately one of his little soldiers; for him, it’s everyone’s duty to play their part, just like he did.
This, I buy. Whether I believe it coming to a peak in the remaining run of this miniseries… well, that’s going to be a tough call, frankly, but we’ll see how well Aaron can sell it. But as something the X-Men could disagree on, which would go to the heart of the current Utopia set-up, I buy it.
My main reservation about this series remains the kid villains. I’d hazard a guess that they’re supposed to be providing some sort of twisted mirror of Wolverine’s concern for keeping the kids innocent. But there’s a real problem with them in this story, because on the one hand you’ve got a relatively sensible argument going on between Cyclops and Wolverine, and a serious dramatic moment with Idie – and on the other, you’ve got these utterly absurd, one-dimensional villains who look like they ought to be fighting the Powerpuff Girls. Absurdity’s fine, the X-books could probably use more of it. But the two sides of this story don’t gel. It’s like recognisable human psychology is being switched on and off from scene to scene, and there are two completely different stories here passing in the night. The kids are potentially fun villains, but for all we’ve seen so far, they’re absurdist comic relief, and they don’t feel like they belong in this series.
What’s Spangles?
I enjoyed the anti-Juggernaut montage more than I ever expected to enjoy anything drawn by Greg Land. By the end I was actually thinking “wow, this is a really good issue”.
Meanwhile, over on X-Men: Schism, the guest artists are a little awkward. In issue 2, Cyclops looked like a skinny, crabby, middle-aged administrator. In issue 3 he’d turned into a square-jawed hero-type. It’s kind of a wrench, reading them back to back.
The big conflict of Schism just rings false to me. If this is a big deal, why was Wolverine all for Cyclops deciding to send the X-Kids back after Illyana during X-Infernus? Or when Cannonball conscripted them for the same in Hellbound? And then there’s the whole Stabbity-Force business — yes, he ostensibly went along to keep an eye on Laura, but the other option was to tell Cyclops to go screw himself, and that the whole ugly business would come to light if he insisted on using already traumatized kids as soldiers. If Wolverine is so concerned about the welfare of the young mutants on Utopia, it seems to either be coming a bit late, or else defaults back to the theme of the last team of young mutants being disposable (something that’s been so blatant that I think even the characters themselves have remarked on it).
That said, I do very much like that someone is standing up and pointing out that being born a mutant should not automatically make them a soldier in the Summers army. I just wish it was someone other than Wolverine.
Can a mini-series (like Schism) that was designed to not have a regular artist have a “guest” artist?
uncanny is falling back into its old bad habit of having an army of b-list characters running around, but i admit that the ‘failing to stop the juggernaut’-montages are fun. ive always thought that dazzler and banshee should team up, it just makes so much sense.
the cytorak side of the story works quite well, but if they are going to keep colossus powered up when the arc is over, i sure as hell hope gillen has a concrete plan here. otherwise it just ends up cluttering up the character. look what similar stories have done to psylocke.
(part of me is disappointed that it wasnt illyana who became the new avatar of cytorak. i would have gotten a kick out of ‘the unstoppable juggernaut vs. the unstoppable snowflake’)
over in gen hope, im happy that the ‘mindcontrol subplot’ is moving at a decent pace. its overall a pretty good issue.
I guess the problem I see with Schism is that the incident that sparks the disagreement is pretty cut and dry.
The Hellfire club are about to kill a bunch of innocent people, they’re out of time and Cyclops tells a kid, the only person who could potentially stop the slaughter, to do what they feel they have to do. The kid makes a decision to kill in order to save the lives of the innocent victims of the Hellfire club. Is Wolverine really suggesting that Cyclops should have ordered Idie to allow the slaughter? Because that’s what the alternative seems to be!
The only mutant who seems to have been forced to help the X-men under Cyclops’ leadership was Vanisher. And Wolverine didn’t have any problems with that. Beast didn’t like Cyclops’ leadership, and he left. X-Factor didn’t want to follow Cyclops and they weren’t forced to join. While he has used lethal force, it has only been in situations where it was warranted. The idea that he has turned into Magneto seems a little odd.
I wonder if there might be a swerve coming up in Schism. Where it’s not some huge fight that forever sunders mutantkind, but instead Cyclops and Wolverine sit down together and decide that while mutants need an army, they don’t need child conscripts, but what can they do about it? In the end they reluctantly but amicably decide to relocate a bunch of X-Men so they can be a Heroic Age school in New York again, while the rest stay on Utopia to take care of business, if they so choose.
As a climax it doesn’t really pop, and a lot of people will feel betrayed, but it is a far more solid foundation to build serial stories on.
@Jonny K: Square boiled sweets sold in a variety of flavours in the UK between the 1950s and the 1980s. One of those things that prompts inexplicable nostalgia in Britons of a certain age, like space hoppers and the Commodore 64 computer.
I liked Pacers. Why do you never get comedians asking what happened to Pacers?
Whoops, I had a C64, but I meant Spectrum ZX, because it’s a better example.
X-Factor – I’ve actually been enjoying this arc, even though it’s essentially been ‘mythical beings chase pregnant mutant’. If nothing else, this arc has finally found me kinda loving Emanuela Lucpacchino’s work (I thought it was a bit much on the cartoony side in the beginning). Hearing that Leonard Kirk is coming on board to rotate with Emanuela, and having David Yardin on covers (really, the guy is GOOD; I’ve wondered why he never got the regular penciling gig) – combined with David’s stories – I’m excited.
The hellfire kids are just completely unlikable characters, even if you take into account how they are supposed to be this really one-dimensional group. They just don’t work, and the little girl one is probably the worst.
The main split between the two seems a bit ridiculous considering the circumstances. Had Idie killed the innocents in a complete showing that she wasn’t ready and Scott still put her in that position, that might be a great hook. But she killed the bad guys, saved the good guys, it’s not that bad, at least to me.
I think this X-Factor arc could have been good, but it’s gone on for far too long. It should have ended at least an issue or two ago.
The art’s still nice though, and that wolf baby was suitably creepy.
I don’t know…as a long time reader of the X-books I just don’t like “hollywood” Wolverine. Moral outrage is something he wouldn’t have done before the movies. Heck the whole point of making him an Avenger was that Tony Stark knew he was a killer and had no problems with being that.
I don’t think Logan’s anger stemmed so much from Scott choosing between Idie killing the bad guys vs. all the good guys dying. Logan felt that if Scott had just waited a second, Logan would have had a chance to get there and kill everybody himself, so Idie (the ultimate wide-eyed innocent) didn’t have to do it and assume the emotional burden of being a killer.
And yes, you could knit-pick that Logan has never seemed to mind the child-warrior thing in the past, but with 30+ years of stories, its hard to avoid apparent contradictions when a new writer decides to take a new perspective on an old idea. And arguably, all those New Mutants and Young X-Men teams weren’t training to be killers, but getting lessons on how to control their powers so they could defend themselves in a world that hates and fears them.
Yes, all the X-Kids get into seemingly near-death adventures on a regular basis anyway, but if they didn’t, what would be the point of chronicling their adventures in a comic book? And at no point were they intentionally sent out as proactive soldiers.
Well, except for Cable’s X-Force group, and that team literally left the mansion over the philosophical differences and headed off to the Adirondacks. Which is maybe what’s got Logan all pissy: Scott’s approach is starting to look an awful lot like Nathan’s.
And to their credit, this isn’t a total about-face for Logan. The X-office have actually established him (since the end of his first X-Force series) as growing increasingly uncomfortable with having the young ‘un’s fight the battles, hence his kicking Laura off the Murder Squad.
Thanks for explaining the psychological difference between Cyclops and Wolverine that’s supposed to be at the heart of Schism. I haven’t really found it all that compelling in the actual series so far, but what you said really makes sense. I agree, though, that with only two issues left, it seems almost silly that they’d come to such momentous blows as to split the X-Men. Even Cyclops was rolling his eyes at the idea when Wolverine’s claws popped.
And I agree with you about the kid villains. While the concept could really work somewhere, it’s definitely not working in the grounded, more politically-minded Schism. These ‘kids’ are just over-the-top cartoon villains, and they don’t even act like kids. The weaponry they pulled out in issue #3 was just ridiculous. They have these super amazing weapons specifically to take out Namor and Magneto? And both of those characters are taken down in the exact same way: they step up to introduce themselves, the kid brings out some ridiculous super weapon, they get taken down by said weapon. One kid had a gun that shoots miniature neutron stars!? Just silly. At least the X-Men side of things has been entertaining.
Back in the day, Wolverine even went so far as to stab Rachel to stop her from killing Selene, so I suppose the “not wanting others to turn into killers” line does kind of work for him. But it’s still very hazy, I feel.
To my mind, we could easily have had the whole “Schism” plot once the other characters found about the existence of Uncanny X-Force and Cyclops’s complicity in it, in the wake of Nightcrawler’s death. Would make sense from the fallout and meant Kurt’s death had greater emotional impact and story repurcussions, rather than “meh”. We could then have a darker X-team, and another one which vehemently disagreed (led by Storm or some such character?).
I had hopes that Schism would shuffle off a few over-exposed characters (Cyclops, Emma, et all) and allowed the younger characters a chance to shine, but at least we seem to be back to more coherent team structures. I just hope some logical choices are made as to why certain characters end up where.
Cyclops has been conspicuously absent from the post-Schism teasers, at least. That’s enough to keep me watching for developments.
I may be over-thinking things, and it’s entirely possible that the intended reacion to Schism was “Yeah, what was Scott thinking?” and not “What the hell choice did he have?” but I kind of wonder if the thinking behind this issue didn’t go something like:
1) Schism is clearly the X-Men’s version of Civil War.
2) As with Civil War, the intention is to present both sides as having a defensible argument, with no clear “good guys” or “bad guys.”
3) The main complaint readers had with Civil War is that virtually every writer utterly failed (and indeed most barely seemed to try) to put the pragmatic character who’s been defined in the past as much by his flaws as by his strengths advocating for conscription on anything approaching equal moral footing as the charismatic character who’s been consistently portrayed as always right in the past advocating personal freedom.
4) Therefore, to avoid the central failing of Civil War, you have arrange for the “breaking point” conflict to put the guy with the less defensible point completely in the right, and the guy that the readers will naturally be inclined to agree with completely in the wrong (while emphasizing that his heart is in the right place).
I thought Uncanny was really good this week, but couldn’t help but imagine Kitty becoming the Juggernaut instead of Colossus.
Shism isn’t really working for me. The villains seem like Morrison-lite, and their sillyness doesn’t mesh well with the overall serious tone of the rest of the series.
I still feel Storm would have made a better counterpart to Scott than Wolverine, or heck, even Emma would have been a more interesting choice. But, marketing seems to have dictated that Wolverine be a leader…
One kid had a gun that shoots miniature neutron stars!? Just silly.
And yet when Grant Morrison does it, it’s fine. I’m not attempting to be snarky here, but what’s the difference? Does Morrison just do it better, and if so, how?
The ease with which the kids took down the X-Men’s heavy hitters was ridiculous, especially in light of them holding their own against hundreds of Nimrods during Second Coming.
But in terms of Schism, I agree that the museum incident doesn’t seem controversial enough to split the X-Men asunder. Perhaps it will be more a case of Wolverine deciding he’s had enough of Cyclops and taking those who feel the same with him. It’s been somewhat foreshadowed that not everyone is comfortable with Scott’s separatist agenda or living on an island.
i havent been looking at the promo material, so im probably way off, but heres a thought: what if schism doesnt really turn out to be about logan vs scott? maybe in the wake of some catastrophic incident, scott decides to step down as the leader of the x-men. that leaves a power vacuum which splits the x-men in two. could work, couldnt it?
By the by, I’ve read that the Hellfire kids are supposed to be based on Richie Rich and his friends. Now I’ve never read that book, so maybe the reason they don’t seem to work for me is because I don’t get the American reference.
I think there’s a difference between someone like Kitty Pryde (wide-eyed schoolgirl but basically happy to be a superhero), and someone like Idie (believes she’s a malevolent monster).
Wolverine’s not saying “Kids shouldn’t be in battle”, he’s saying “*This* kid shouldn’t have been sent into battle”
I think Schism is the story that is being told so we come full circle and bring Prof. X back in charge to unite the teams again.
‘Stabbity Force’
I’m totally picturing this as Marvel’s anologue of DC’s speed forc,e and the reason why Wolverine is the best at what he does.
I don’t know if it was intentional, or just a by-product of teasing “What will lead to the inevitable split?”, but I think Schism has building a growing divide between Scott and Logan.
The story has been built so that it isn’t one dividing incident, but rather the final straw. While they’ve continued to work well in an actual fight (the UN battle in issue #1), they’ve been on opposite sides of issues from the start of issue #1 as well.
Scott scheduling Logan to teach a combat class for the kids without Logan’s knowledge or apparently knowledge of whether Logan was even around. Logan being the cynic and Scott still being optimistic. Scott treating the kids as soldiers while Logan wanting them to be kids. Logan wanting Idie to leave the room during the TV broadcast and Scott wanting her to stay. Logan wanting to go after Quentin and Scott wanting to leave him alone. Etc.
How long ago was the credo “X-Men don´t kill!” How times (or comics) have changed.
And yet when Grant Morrison does it, it’s fine. I’m not attempting to be snarky here, but what’s the difference? Does Morrison just do it better, and if so, how?
It’s not that Morrison does the weird gimmicky shit better, it’s that – at least when he’s bothering to write well – he uses the weird gimmicky shit in a context that makes you appreciate it a little better. The “gun that shoots neutron stars” but is eye-rollingly bad not just because is physically absurd, but because it results in a scene where a twelve year old takes out Magneto in the space of two panels.
A scene from All-Star Superman in which Superman stops to feed a baby sun-eater a “baby sun”, however, is utterly wonderful, because it’s not just a gratuitously crazy idea, but a nice character moment where we get to see Superman taking care of this strange and beautiful creature (and a fun play on words). The notion that Xorn has a “tiny sun for a brain” is similarly ludicrous, but has a great payoff when Xorn is revealed to be Magneto, and mocks that very Morrisonian idea – and poor idealistic Xavier for believing that such a person could exist.
That’s not to say that Morrison never tosses out stuff like this gratuitously, but in general, he tends to use them better. And at the very least, he’d know better than to have Magneto, Namor, Emma Frost and Colossus get taken down like a bunch of punks to show us how tough a bunch of second graders are.
I may be one of the few people that doesn’t mind the Hellfire kids, but they really don’t fit with the premise of this story. Although it looks like they’re going to be the main villains (at least at first) in Aaron’s series and with the implied tone of that series and Bachalo, they seem entirely appropriate.
As far as the debate as a whole though, I’m not sure I buy Wolverine being the one to propose that side of the argument (if that’s the argument, of course). For one, I think he’d be in favor of kids determining their own fate and having to defend themselves, especially with the climate they’re in. It might just be with Idie, but I sort of get the impression that none of the X-Men really get the Generation Hope cast because Idie strikes as someone you want to expose to more things (not in that environment per se, but still) instead sheltering her. Sheltering her would just further the self hate she has for herself. But that doesn’t feel like Wolverine’s style anyway.
It does however seem more up Emma’s alley. She has in the past gone far out of her way to protect children under her. So her having this discussion with Cyclops makes a good bit of sense.
But then that’s a problem I’ve been having with X-Men in general. They tend to do well in the franchise wide crossovers, but the build up to them have been underwhelming. Schism should’ve been the conclusion to the build up that started after Second Coming, which definitely had the potential for causing differing points of view. Where is everything since M-Day should’ve been leading towards Second Coming by way of Messiah Complex. I’m just hoping that Gillen and Aaron have (or are allowed to have) a long term plan that they can build towards a relatively natural conclusion.
Yeah, the Hellfire Brats aren’t working for me either. Maybe they will in the regular series, but for now…not so much.
“And at the very least, he’d know better than to have Magneto, Namor, Emma Frost and Colossus get taken down like a bunch of punks to show us how tough a bunch of second graders are.”
But that’s something that’s been happening a lot over the last decade or so. Everyone from Bendis to Pak to Scott to…well, everyone, usually has older established character get their asses whupped to prop up their new creation, to show us how said new creation is just sooooo bad-ass.
The scene in issue #1 of schism in which Wolverine walked into a room filled with the X-men’s leaders: Scott, Emma, Magneto and Namor — basically, Cyclops plus a bunch of (former) villains. I thought that an effective demonstration of how Wolverine sees the current administration.
“…and having David Yardin on covers (really, the guy is GOOD; I’ve wondered why he never got the regular penciling gig”
He did, actually, have a regular interior gig. If memory serves, he drew the first arc of the short-lived DISTRICT X series from a few years back. Since then, I’ve only seen him doing covers. (Maybe he’s not fast enough for a monthly? Who knows?)
I’d be curious to hear an exact delineation between what’s “silly” and what isn’t in a genre renowned for characters in fluorescent costumes chucking skyscrapers at each other.
Usually, when people start lobbing pejoratives like “silly” at comic books, the fault lies with the reader’s dearth of imagination, not the creator’s surfeit.
The short answer is that you’re confusing what’s possible in the Marvel Universe with what works in the context of a particular story. Just because Howard the Duck is a viable Marvel Universe character, it doesn’t follow that he belongs in a typical issue of the Punisher.
“Tapping into the stabbity force” – Love it!
It’s how they’ll bring back Sabretooth in a few years: He was lost in the stabbity force.
Screw that, I’d love to see a Howard the Duck/Punisher team-up.
Screw that, I’d love to see a Howard the Duck/Punisher team-up.
Clearly the villain would have to be the Elf with a Gun.
In general, the Hellfire Kids Club doesn’t bother me quite as much as it seems to bother most people, but I did have three big problems with it:
My third biggest problem was the attempt to invoke science while simultaneously ignoring it. Comic book science isn’t supposed to make sense – I get that. But once a writer starts trying to impress us with the clever way he figured out to neutralize a character’s powers, he has to implement that strategy in a way that’s at least in the ballpark of plausibility or he’d might as well be having the villaine wave a magic wand. Neutron stars are bad for magnetic fields? Okay, that’s a good start. Gun that shoots miniature stars? At that point, Magneto could have said “Nuh uh – I got my anti-neutron star cape on so there!” and it would have been a lateral move.
My second biggest complaint is the girl. Is she supposed to be mentally impaired? Or is that how the writer thinks non-genius “tweens” act? I forget how old she’s supposed to be, but if it’s older than 5, there’s a developmental disorder going on there.
And my biggest complaint is a personal pet peeve: the idea that if you have enough resources, you can just throw together a superhero-beating machine. How do you beat Magneto? Why, build the Anti-Magneto Gun, of course. Boy, why didn’t the Beast or Forge or Xavier or, hell, Reed Richards ever think of that back when Magneto was a villain, huh? And Namor’s lucky he’s never come up against someone who thought to build an Anti-Namor device before.
Now I’m not talking about the old standby of a villain customizing a device to fight a certain hero; Dr. Doom’s been doing that for decades and it’s great. I’m talking about presenting it like the only thing you need to do to beat a hero is want to enough and have money or technology. I’m talking about “I couldn’t beat you so I built a robot that can detect your weaknesses!” “I know, let’s give our footsoldiers the powers of five different heroes – why didn’t we think of this before?” “I programmed my computer to know what you’re going to do next because that’s something a person can do!” “This team is too powerful – let’s hire a mercenary and make him MORE powerful then they are so he can kill them!”
I’m probably not being really clear about the difference between “Dr. Doom building a custom trap for each member of the Fantastic Four” and “Hellfire Kid pulling out the Magneto-beating gun,” but it’s the line between “I analyzed your powers and applied my genius to overcoming them” and “I bought a winning machine that wins for me because that’s what it was built to do.”
I think the difference you are try to point out is that Doom is a genius and studies the FF. Or, in X-men terms, remember the first time they fought the Hellfire Club, and the goons had armor resistant to certain powersets they knew the X-men possessed, because Warhawk invaded the mansion so they could get inside info.
Just pulling out a win gun because you just happen to have one laying around is not a story. The enemy going to length to study the hero and know how to win (or vice versa) is the key difference.
Or alternatively, pull out a win machine and make it not work to get a point across, like Beast’s gadget in the Dark Pheonix saga.
“I couldn’t beat you so I built a robot that can detect your weaknesses!” “I know, let’s give our footsoldiers the powers of five different heroes – why didn’t we think of this before?” “I programmed my computer to know what you’re going to do next because that’s something a person can do!” “This team is too powerful – let’s hire a mercenary and make him MORE powerful then they are so he can kill them!”
Mark Millar, is that you?
You know… I’ll bet a Punisher/Howard the Duck crossover could work. I’m picturing the Punisher increasingly tormented by his lust for vengeance and experiencing hallucinations of Howard encouraging him to deal with criminals as violently as possible as a deterrence. It wouldn’t work indefinitely, but it might work as a story arc. You couldn’t draw Howard as overt cartoon and he’d have to come across as fairly bitter and disturbed as well, but it just might work….
I agree with Steve that, under normal circumstances, Wolverine would be the first to suggest that the kids should make their own choices, and they need to see what the harsh world is really like, and etc, etc.
What changed all that, I think, is X-23. I think what’s fueling this (over?)protectiveness is that Wolverine hasn’t fully come to terms with how pissed he is at Cyclops for using her and, more importantly, how pissed he is at himself for letting it happen.
Whether Aaron has any of the same ideas, I don’t know, but it works pretty well as “fanon”.