Yeah, this was a plot mover, not a developer.

 

Yeah, there's some more backstory to work in. But given Magneto and Xavier are clearly on the same page, it's not hard to imagine the vast majority of mutants falling in line. Heck, if Moira may have been able to bring in line the mutant's in Apocalypse's faction given her previous life. It's also not a seamless cohesive group, as Scott has some serious concerns.

The State department thing is weird. Very weird. It could be the leverage that Xavier has with the new drugs, or it could be yet another hint that something unusual is happening with Xavier.

 

While that's certainly true (Cyclops is so far the only person to so much as flinch at Charles' creepshow dialogue), there are still plenty of characters with actual lives (like Kitty, who is seen planting a Krakoa seed in #1, Sunspot, who owns his own company and Avengers team, and Canonball, who doesn't even live on Earth anymore) that should be pretty far against this ethnostate Chuck is building.

The Sabertooth plot so far suggests that Xavier wants every mutant on Krakoa, whether they should be (Creed), need to (Franklin Richards) or even want to (I have a bad feeling about New Mutants #1 after reading this issue).

 

Yeah, there's an underlying creepiness to this all. I'm looking forward to seeing more reactions on this whole plan of Moira's, Xavier's, and Magneto's. If the implication earlier is true and Xavier and Magneto have been in this together for almost the whole time, there's bound to be some upset people.

 

Marvel Comics 1000 was pretty good. A couple of cringe pages expected with some of the hacks involved.

 

I felt a lot of it was just really stuck on the for express purpose of bloating the page count. Was really curious about Ewing's arc, but boy, did marketing really oversell the overarching nature of his story in the book.

I'm really expecting 616 to be Moira's 11th life, because there's really now way that this is all happening in the 616. I'm also thinking though, that this arc may extend beyond HoX and Pox, as characters that show up in the upcoming Dawn of X still match up with the characters from HoX/Pox. If that's the case, Hickman really will have his little sandbox away from the Marvel Universe, which has its advantages because he won't be forced to interrupt his story with event tie-ins and the like. Question is, how long will Marvel wait until they tell Hickman they need the X-Men back interacting with the rest of the MU to help boost sales again.

 

Marvel Reveals Why Spider-Woman Changes Back to Her Old Costume

In story reason for the switch back.

 

Real reason: people want her to look cool again and hated her boring pc costume.

 

I wouldn't have minded the first change that much for change's sake, but if I recall correctly, it came right after the Babs Tarr Batgirl redesign was announced, so it was like "Really Marvel, you couldn't make it any more obvious what you're doing?".

 

I like how they care now after people hated the shit out of her comics, lol.

Edit: Apparently the in story reason is.... a reason? Ok, sure. It just makes it sound like a reluctant feminist going back to a shirt they didn’t like.

 

I missed her old mask, but I definitely didn't miss her body paint costume.

 

Readers have debated the idea of rebooting the X-Men into their own universe for a long time. Though in recent years many have decried it because it means Marvel would have "won" their secret conspiracy to destroy the X-Men by giving them five ongoings written by their top talent. Though this isn't even that, because all the X-Men are acting so overtly creepy.

We know from solicits like the Marauders that the ongoings still take place in the HoxPox "era," so if this is an Age of Apocalypse/House of M scenario, it will be a pretty long one. That other shoe has to drop eventually, because there's no way they let Hickman do 40+ issues like he did on Avengers with Secret Bondage Xavier and his creepy schemes.

 

I'm worried the direction this is going, could be good, but could also turn out very bad.

 

Well this is just the beginning of a few year plan for the X-Men that Hickman’s overseeing. Won’t have a better idea of the direction until this event is concluded.

 

What is a body paint costume? How does it differ from the kind of costume Spider-Man wears? I have not once heard anyone complain about Peter Parker's costume being too tight or degrading to men or whatever. Spider-Woman's classic costume was a great look, with the crazy hair and everything. Like Spider-Man's look, it was cool with just the right touch of creepy. If you're going to change that to something completely different, simultaneously thinning out her hair to nothing and completely changing her body type, just create a new character. Don't try to pass that shit off as Jessica Drew.

 

Yeah I think you can only do so much with the creepy detached X-Men and the mystery is really what’s carrying the book now. I do hope we don’t have to wait too long for a payoff because man Hickman can get really dragging like he did during the leadup to Secret Wars, some of which were really negated anyway.

 

I usually stop reading his Avengers books after Infinity (T'Challa really gets put through the wringer after that, and I don't care for it). But the thing is, by the time it gets as conceptual as Time Runs Out does (where they start jumping a quadratic number of years into the future, or where the Ebony Kings and Beyonders get introduced as new factions with 8 issues left), we already had several trades wroth of character building and "normal" Avenger type stories with the characters we like. HoxPox started doing arguably more abstract stuff than TRO starting three issues in, and with very different versions of the characters.

 

I found this funny clip regarding a stand off between Magneto and Mr Fantastic. I can’t imagine the comics every recreating or referencing this scene:

 

In some ways though I think you have to start high concept with the X-men given where the franchise was.

And with Avengers, Hickman really did start against the grain. I’ve read enough Avengers runs to recognize the pattern: knock the team down to a core few for “reasons.” Slowly expand the roster over time. End with a literally army of old and new characters facing some run defining threat. Busiek’s and Bendis’s run, as well as Waid’s run, and Aaron’s run all start with this smallish team of 7 or so, then expand. Busiek and Bendis both had rosters in to the high teens to low twenties that would show up for fights at the end.

So Hickman literally starts there. I recall reading that and thinking “Wow, this is different.”

So with X-men, he’s starting where a lot of folks end up, namely with the X-men isolated and in some weird state fighting for the future with long odds. So it feels odd and different. It’s part of why I’ve enjoyed his run at Marvel as it always seems like forward progress because he’s starting where a lot of runs frequently end and have things rolled back.

 

But it's also a place that the X-Men really shouldn't be. And I'm concerned that were not going to get an explanation for that (or a course correction of it) for a long time. Xavier is leading a cult of mutant drug dealers from inside Fantomex's body. Moira is a Timelord. Kitty Pryde is going by "Kate" and running a pirate ship with Storm and Emma Frost. What is actually happening?