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X-Men: A New Dawn
Aug. 26th, 2020 11:08 pmMore good ways to spend lockdown: getting back into old fandoms. I've got a friend who is devouring all the Alex Rider books again (a bit after my time, but I'm glad she's having fun) and having put myself into a mutant mood while slowly working on that remaster of Be My Hero I'm always saying I'll get around to finishing, I decided to finally catch up on some comics.
I fell behind on reading the x-books during Age of X - a combination deck-clearing and stalling exercise performed before Hickman took over the line - and then tried the first couple of issues of House of X and Powers of X before deciding that it would probably read better once the mini was complete. (I was not wrong, it's much more digestible taken all at once.) I'd been a bit reluctant to read these, having heard grumbling about them in some quarters. And I knew that it was another 'let's create a mutant homeland!' story, which I usually don't like much, and that Charles was being ethically questionable somehow, which often puts my teeth on edge because so few writers handle that right. But it turns out I am head-over-heels in love with the entire thing.
Over the past four days, I've read all of HoXPox and every subsequent issue of an X-Book that's up on Marvel Unlimited. I am trying to think when the last time I was this excited by the state of X-Men comics was, and to my surprise the answer is: never. There have been individual titles that have delighted me more than anything happening here, but I've never actually bothered to sit down and read every title in the line at once. Even Fallen Angels which was ... not good. (For once I am happy Marvel hastily cancelled something.)
I saw someone somewhere describe HoXPoX as 'X-Men comics for people who hate X-Men comics' and maybe that's true - I can see why lots of long-time fans would be annoyed by some of the stuff going on here. But it turns out that they have also given me many things that I've always wanted to see, and not just Charles and Erik being in love on an island again. Although that part is pretty great, not gonna lie.
Most delightfully: after decades of stories (be they fanfic or some version of canon) where Charles is keeping secrets and manipulating everyone and being generally questionable while I've thought 'yes, sure, in principle, but not like that ...' I can at last point at one and yell 'THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!'
Back in the day when everyone was raving over Dr. Benway's X-Manson, I found it unsatisfying despite loving most of his stories and agreeing that 'what if Xavier was running the X-Men like a cult?' was an interesting premise. After much contemplation, I realised that it was because Benway was writing about the X-Men as if they were a real-world cult - a perfectly worthwhile goal, and clearly a story that worked for a lot of people. But what I wanted to read about was the cult that comicsverse Charles Xavier would actually run. And here comes Jonathan Hickman to deliver that story to me, finally! (I wonder if Hickman was ever a fanfic reader back in the day. I mean it's been, what, twenty-five years give or take?)
I never imagined that one of my favourite single issues of any x-book ever would be the one where Charles and Erik and Apocalypse put on nice suits and go to a Davos lunch meeting and terrify some humans together while calmly eating steak, but hey, here we are.
The only problem now is that I'm six months behind the release schedule, and I don't think I can justify paying for a subscription for eleven different series I paid for already as part of Marvel Unlimited. But also, I want them.
I fell behind on reading the x-books during Age of X - a combination deck-clearing and stalling exercise performed before Hickman took over the line - and then tried the first couple of issues of House of X and Powers of X before deciding that it would probably read better once the mini was complete. (I was not wrong, it's much more digestible taken all at once.) I'd been a bit reluctant to read these, having heard grumbling about them in some quarters. And I knew that it was another 'let's create a mutant homeland!' story, which I usually don't like much, and that Charles was being ethically questionable somehow, which often puts my teeth on edge because so few writers handle that right. But it turns out I am head-over-heels in love with the entire thing.
Over the past four days, I've read all of HoXPox and every subsequent issue of an X-Book that's up on Marvel Unlimited. I am trying to think when the last time I was this excited by the state of X-Men comics was, and to my surprise the answer is: never. There have been individual titles that have delighted me more than anything happening here, but I've never actually bothered to sit down and read every title in the line at once. Even Fallen Angels which was ... not good. (For once I am happy Marvel hastily cancelled something.)
I saw someone somewhere describe HoXPoX as 'X-Men comics for people who hate X-Men comics' and maybe that's true - I can see why lots of long-time fans would be annoyed by some of the stuff going on here. But it turns out that they have also given me many things that I've always wanted to see, and not just Charles and Erik being in love on an island again. Although that part is pretty great, not gonna lie.
Most delightfully: after decades of stories (be they fanfic or some version of canon) where Charles is keeping secrets and manipulating everyone and being generally questionable while I've thought 'yes, sure, in principle, but not like that ...' I can at last point at one and yell 'THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!'
Back in the day when everyone was raving over Dr. Benway's X-Manson, I found it unsatisfying despite loving most of his stories and agreeing that 'what if Xavier was running the X-Men like a cult?' was an interesting premise. After much contemplation, I realised that it was because Benway was writing about the X-Men as if they were a real-world cult - a perfectly worthwhile goal, and clearly a story that worked for a lot of people. But what I wanted to read about was the cult that comicsverse Charles Xavier would actually run. And here comes Jonathan Hickman to deliver that story to me, finally! (I wonder if Hickman was ever a fanfic reader back in the day. I mean it's been, what, twenty-five years give or take?)
I never imagined that one of my favourite single issues of any x-book ever would be the one where Charles and Erik and Apocalypse put on nice suits and go to a Davos lunch meeting and terrify some humans together while calmly eating steak, but hey, here we are.
The only problem now is that I'm six months behind the release schedule, and I don't think I can justify paying for a subscription for eleven different series I paid for already as part of Marvel Unlimited. But also, I want them.