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So, a month from now, Jonathan Hickman's run on the x-books will be finished when the fourth issue of Inferno comes out on January 5th to get the mutant new year under way with a bang.
A lot of people are saying that whether Hickman's run is good or not depends on the ending, but honestly, whatever happens now I've enjoyed the ride so much and the shake-up has brought about so many things I love that I don't even care. I'm just delighted that they've decided to not pack everyone up and send them back to Westchester yet. Since 2019, the line has actually felt fresh again, and that's worth a lot to me even if it doesn't stick the landing.
Chris Claremont is largely responsible for everything that's made the X-Men so successful and beloved, but his success has been a two-edged sword for the writers that have followed him. Because his run was so influential, a lot of people think the x-books have to be a mutant soap opera set in up-state New York. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but it's not the only way to write them, and while Claremont was great at exploring the 'protecting a world that hates and fears them' side of the X-Men themes, there's a lot of other stuff you can do that he wasn't much interested in. While other people have tinkered with the formula (opening up the school to a mass student population, reducing the number of mutants in the world, setting factions against each other) nobody has changed it quite like Hickman. The way he's incorporated things that happen in X-Men stories all the time - nobody stays dead, every mutant villain joins the team eventually, people keep wandering off to space - and made them thematically central is just amazing.
There's a reason I like the Marvel approach to continuity, where everyone just rolls forward with whatever backstories and retcons they've been given no matter how many problems it causes. Every now and then it leads to something truly satisfying that just wouldn't work in a series of titles that hadn't been ticking away slowly accreting story for nearly sixty years.
But of course most delightfully, for me: Charles Xavier doing a bunch of morally dubious things that are IN CHARACTER AND MAKE SENSE! Truly, the best sort of retcon. In hindsight, it's obvious the reason Charles disproved of every attempt to isolate large numbers of mutants away from humans is that he knew damn well that if they hadn't solved death first they'd just be painting a big target on themselves. And since Erik wants for no mutants to ever die and Charles wants for every mutant to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, of course 'solve death and get everyone to live on an island' is the plan they finally unite on.
My one real wish for the ending of all this is that whatever happens to Erik and Charles happens to both of them, together. Krakoa has been a fascinating look at how they bring out the best and worst in each other, and I don't want that to end until they've faced the end of Inferno together in impeccably co-ordinated outfits.
(While I'm sure that it's all going to fall to pieces eventually, I hope that even after it does Charles Xavier is able to look back and feel smug that the mutant homeland he planned raised the dead and had nacho trees, making it obviously superior to anything anyone else had come up with.)
A lot of people are saying that whether Hickman's run is good or not depends on the ending, but honestly, whatever happens now I've enjoyed the ride so much and the shake-up has brought about so many things I love that I don't even care. I'm just delighted that they've decided to not pack everyone up and send them back to Westchester yet. Since 2019, the line has actually felt fresh again, and that's worth a lot to me even if it doesn't stick the landing.
Chris Claremont is largely responsible for everything that's made the X-Men so successful and beloved, but his success has been a two-edged sword for the writers that have followed him. Because his run was so influential, a lot of people think the x-books have to be a mutant soap opera set in up-state New York. There's nothing wrong with that approach, but it's not the only way to write them, and while Claremont was great at exploring the 'protecting a world that hates and fears them' side of the X-Men themes, there's a lot of other stuff you can do that he wasn't much interested in. While other people have tinkered with the formula (opening up the school to a mass student population, reducing the number of mutants in the world, setting factions against each other) nobody has changed it quite like Hickman. The way he's incorporated things that happen in X-Men stories all the time - nobody stays dead, every mutant villain joins the team eventually, people keep wandering off to space - and made them thematically central is just amazing.
There's a reason I like the Marvel approach to continuity, where everyone just rolls forward with whatever backstories and retcons they've been given no matter how many problems it causes. Every now and then it leads to something truly satisfying that just wouldn't work in a series of titles that hadn't been ticking away slowly accreting story for nearly sixty years.
But of course most delightfully, for me: Charles Xavier doing a bunch of morally dubious things that are IN CHARACTER AND MAKE SENSE! Truly, the best sort of retcon. In hindsight, it's obvious the reason Charles disproved of every attempt to isolate large numbers of mutants away from humans is that he knew damn well that if they hadn't solved death first they'd just be painting a big target on themselves. And since Erik wants for no mutants to ever die and Charles wants for every mutant to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, of course 'solve death and get everyone to live on an island' is the plan they finally unite on.
My one real wish for the ending of all this is that whatever happens to Erik and Charles happens to both of them, together. Krakoa has been a fascinating look at how they bring out the best and worst in each other, and I don't want that to end until they've faced the end of Inferno together in impeccably co-ordinated outfits.
(While I'm sure that it's all going to fall to pieces eventually, I hope that even after it does Charles Xavier is able to look back and feel smug that the mutant homeland he planned raised the dead and had nacho trees, making it obviously superior to anything anyone else had come up with.)