Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Marvel's X-verse

And two dozen crap ones... LOL

It warms my heart. This might be the first X-title I'll collect!

I picked up issue one, just to give it a shot, and found myself somewhat lost. I wasn't aware that Jubilee was no longer a vampire (or if she got her powers back), or that Rachel was even still around in the X-verse (since I hadn't seen her much since, oh, the Excalibur days...), or who the girl with the sword was on the cover (Psylocke, I thought, but in the book, the only person who looked like her manifested an energy bow, like Dani Moonstar used to do, and, as far as I know, Psylocke never did, so I'm no longer sure).

And this John Sublime character seems to be regarded as a major threat I'm supposed to have heard of, but... not so much.

I do like that it's set in the school, so that we get to see slices of Bling and Mercury and Pixie and Glob Herman in the background. I always liked the background students / New X-Men crowd.

Edit: Now that I've googled him, sounds like this Sublime guy is a big deal!

I liked it, but the writing was a bit... rough around the edges. Most notably in the train sequence - firstly, why did Rogue borrow Northstar's powers rather than him just going himself (did Wood write that sequence without realising she doesn't have her Carol Danvers powerset any more?) - he could at least have attributed those powers to the students. Secondly, why was derailing half the train meant to HELP, exactly? Firstly, the back half of the train would still slam into the derailed carriages, and secondly the OTHER train would still slam into the derailed carriages!

[Also, do payphones in America have redial buttons? They don't here, pretty much for that exact reason.]


It *is* Psylocke, and Jubilee... I'm not sure. Brian Wood seems distinctly uninterested in her as a vampire, though, and there was something about her briefly being part of a group of vampires with anti-sun doohickeys, so I suspect it will literally never come up (unless she turns into a wolf at some point), until eventually it gets written off by a Handbook somewhere.

As am I, for that matter. I liked her old powerset and attitude, so if he wants to pretend that vampire thing never happened, I'm good with it.

I was wondering about Rogue and the train as well. The writer also seems to think she's got Carol Danvers powers, in addition to the power to do anything any mutant can do. Still, she was the only person (other than wonder baby) who got to do anything with 'her' powers, so I probably shouldn't be too critical.

Rachel even had the hilarious moment where she described Psylocke as the big gun pointed at Sublime's head, when Rachel is like fifty times the telepath/telekinetic. Whacky.

Me too, actually!


Yeah, I caught that about Rachel too - all the scenes with her and Psylocke were written as if Betsy was the only telepath of the two. *Maybe* it could be interpreted as an attitude thing - Betsy being willing to go further than Rachel in a good cop/bad cop thing, but I don't think that's how it was intended.

I'm wondering, actually, exactly how comfortable Wood is with the powersets of the characters he's been assigned. Two telepaths, so one's telepathy needs to be played down. Jubilee's vampirity somewhere between downplayed and ignored, after a LOT of issues in the last adjectiveless series were devoted to it. And that very awkward use of Rogue, when Kitty could have phased the train through the other one.

Ooh, that would have been effing brilliant. Kitty's gotten a pretty buff powerup as of the end of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run, so, yeah, that would have been a totally badass 'moment of awesome' for Kitty!

I've seen panels on another forum that showed the train scene was a reference to another comic.

I for one am happy that Jubilee is being restored to her original powers. She deserves some time in the spotlight because she faded into the background in the 2000s (Wolverine seems to get a new female sidekick every ten years).

She's not:

Count me in as someone who preferred the old Jubilee powerset. On the other hand, I'm glad that she's not being angsty about her vampirism; I assume she's got it under control and it won't be a big focus of the story.

Re Rachel/Psylocke, it seems like an attitude thing as well. Pr could Rachel be trying to hide just how powerful she is so Sublime would let his guard down? I'm not sure if they've met before.

I wonder where the Mercury/Bling!!! thing is going.

I think Rachel is just being bossy. Rachel is always down playing her powers too.

Rachel performs various feats in issue 002 that could be telepathy, or some communication with the technological systems of the mansion (if so it should be explained as an earpiece or something)

I think Rachel put Psylocke on Sublime duty and herself on everything else.

I totally prefer Jubilee as a vamp, with or without fireworks, there are other X Women with similar powers (Dazzler, Boom Boom)

Besides ... Jubilee (as her given name) = firework powers? Her parents were prescient.

The Kitty phasing large objects is an anomaly that IRC was based on some sort of sentience of the bullet in Astonishing X-Men "calling out to her". I don't think she has done anything big since. I prefer her clever like a cat and not able to affect buildings, trains, etc.

Oh, that's a comic book staple! Remember when Magneto's real name was 'Magnus' instead of Erik? And Dr. Druid's original last name was 'Druid' instead of Ludgate? Still, couldn't be worse than DC's Rainbow Raider, whose real name was Roy G. Biv. Ah, that whacky Silver Age.

Anywho, IIRC, her first name is actually Jubilation, which is more of 'an expression of great joy' and not actually related to fireworks (and a name that suggests that her unknown mother was actually very happy to welcome her into the world...).



Me too. I never really liked either of those two characters (my favorite X-teen-ladies were Dust, X-23 and Wind-Dancer), but I'm eager to see what sorts of stuff is going on with the oft-forgotten student body.

I've been enjoying the X-Titles so much that I'm actually really pumped about this Battle of the Atom crossover. I don't think I've been enthusiastic about a crossover since they did one a few years ago in Hulk (during the awesome Red Hulk mystery years), and before that, who knows?

Every month, I consistently LOVE (not just like or enjoy, but love) All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men. That's four X-Men series that I rank above every single DC comic right now (by a mile) that I think are great.

Wolverine and the X-Men feels like its written by the LMB at times. They have a mutant with snot related powers whose name is, you guessed it, Snot. Brilliant!

And who knew that the characters Brian Bendis was born to write were the original 5 X-Men? 'Cuz he definitely is NAILING IT.

I've been hovering around possibly buying All-New in some format or another for a while. Part of it is I simply love Hank McCoy in his original non-furry state! I'm sure I'll make up my mind about it at some point. Sad thing is, I would've picked up Battle of the Atom if it were a self-contained mini. Oh, well....

(BTW, Cobie...I'm curious for you to chime in on the Uncanny Avengers thread where I recently stated it lost me with that Apocalypse Twins story.)

I have a question for long-time X-fans, particularly fans of Chris Claremont. Where did he find the name 'Illyana'? Why did he choose the name Illyana for that character?

I think it is a Russian name. (maybe typical or rare I don't know)

I am not sure if it has any meaning beyond that to him.

A girl in my school when I was a kid had the name Illyana but I think she spelled it differently.

Chris might have changed the spelling, or it could be more commonly spelled another way.

Knowing Claremont, it was a name of someone he knew or admired .

Well.....?

I think it is losing everyone with the Twins storyline.

I know those twins are supposed to be evil but they are so annoying. and too uber powerful ... especially with not the whole team in the game at the moment.

There was a blip of excitement in the last issue when Sunfire said he was going to kick their nass.

Lardy, I'll look for that thread!

Meanwhile, the Battle of the Atom crossover has been...surprisingly awesome! Tightly written and a lot of fun, it's showing the X-Men at their character / conflict best.

I'll repeat: who knew the superheroes Brian Bendis was born to write were the original X-Men? I would never have believed it. But the work speaks for itself.

Amazing X-Men #1

The Good: The fuzzy elf is back. My favorite of the X-Men (although Colossus is a close second). This is the book that got me back into an X-Men comic ssince a ways back. In fact, I think Morrisons run, at least the beginning, was the last time I bought anything on any kind of basis.

Kurt is back. The cast of the book is introduced through the arrival of Firestar as the newest instructor. The characters a little bit different, but totally recognizable. So far, I am a happy purchaser.

The Bad: Nothing really this issue. The art is popping with wasy to follow action.

The Ugly: The main bad...but I think that's the point.

Overall: Aaron wastes no time in getting us into what is going on. Within this first issue, we get where Kurt is, who has him intent on leaving his paradise, who the -team of the hour is for this book, and getting a few of them to where Kurt is. Wolvies "Blue Elf, you don't think?" is great at the end.

If the pace keeps up, this is as close to a throwback to comics I grew up with than I have seen in a long time. It's a 5 story that looks to be equal parts fun and adventure. I hope it lives up to the anticipation I have after reading the first issue.

Dev, all the main X-titles have been fantastic for the last year, so I think you could check any of them out and be happy.

Which is a segue into my own wrapping up of reading "Battle of the Atom", the best superhero crossover in years, which ran through the X-Titles. Man, that was fun!! And it stayed awesomely fun and exciting right on through the finish.

It was actually chalk full of character and I loved that Magik, Kitty and Jubilee were all major, major players in it. They really shined.

I've said before "who knew Brian Bendis was born to write the original X-Men?". Well, considering how he wrote future-Colossus, I also think that applies to the lovable Ruskie as well. I really hope Colossus leaves whatever X-Force book he's in and rejoins on the main Bendis written X-Titles. The way Bendis wrote Magik and Colossus may have been the highlight of a story packed with great moments.

Meanwhile, I can't wait to see Nightcrawler join the fray in Amazing. I don't really need *another* X-series to collect, but it is Jason Aaron doing the writing.

I thought about buying Amazing today, just as I've been tempted by All-New from the beginning. But I just can't escape the fact that I would probably have to buy 4-6 titles just to appreciate all that's going on in the X-verse. And at $4 bucks a pop with most titles being published twice-monthly on average, that's a rabbit hole I don't want to go down just for the hope that I might possibly enjoy X-Men books again.

So, ultimately...no thanks.

Lardy, I feel pretty much the same as you, but I do hope you'll at least give the first couple issues of All-New X-Factor a chance. It's probably going to be off in its own little corner of the universe for the most part, the same way the previous X-Factor was.

Like I said, have not read any other X books in a while, but felt fine reading this and felt no confusion at all. 5 parter to start...but will watch for those damned crossovers with an eagle eye and decide from there.