When you’re 40 years old and you only figured out you were bisexual like 6 years ago and you have a pathetic little crush on your sadistic chain smoking rat-looking heterosexual(?) coworker and sometimes you think he has to know it too but you’re a team before anything and even when your larger friend group split up you stuck together and you’d have done anything for him and he repaid you with a bullet in the skull and it broke your heart and when you recounted this story to the most preachy moralistic teen gay in the world who you’re only hanging out with due to the the most outrageous and extenuating of circumstances he clocked all of this seamlessly and immediately
Obligatory Snikt Fam cameo in today's Wolverine previews :(
Also: yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
Your son is dead, and Laura is sorta MIA (she's a queen and a superstar, but you don't know that yet) Gabby is completely MIA and hopefully will stay that way.
One of the many things about this how it kind of just evokes the exact opposite emotional reaction, at least from me. I'm angry and not touched by this. At no point did any Wolverine writer even try and show Logan spend time with his kids, and now they are trying to make it look like he's been going out of his way to dedicate all this time bonding with them. I wish we did get this truly. 4 and a half years of Krakoa and the snikt-siblings got a lot of together and admittedly heartwarming moments, but Logan remained glaringly appsent, and now im worried Akihiro won't make it back despite the growth he's made since
Remember how we spent the past several years assuming that the narrative on the Archie v. Penders lawsuit was pretty settled, that Archie’s opening salvo of “Well you signed work-for-hire contracts” didn’t work because they couldn’t provide said documentation and we were left to speculate what happened to his contract?
Welllll… plot twist time!
Well… that changes some things.
More details will probably be apparent soon, but right now the best explanation I can come up with is that Archie ‘lost’ the characters and stories from the preboot, not because of their own bad luck/clerical incompetence, but because they just kinda… let them go, to shut Penders up?
That or Penders doesn’t actually own anything and he’s been lying about that too, but that then raises the question of how we ended up with a reboot and half the cast dropped into a gutter.
@stillafanofsonic @lunasilverpelt
1. He is cool as fuck okay /j
Cut bc this is LONG
No but in all seriousness. I only JUST started liking him recently. I don't care much for his pre-reveal characterization or design, because he kinda just looked like a shitty megaman oc with some generic mumbo jumbo about protecting the multiverse or whatever. And I guess it was a pretty cool moment when he DID take his helmet off, but it kinda just missed the mark for me. Idk why it just did
The writers mostly used him, along with Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, echidnas, and racism to give Sonic and the gang (mostly sonic) shit to do while Eggman was being set up. While the others were more serious villains, the zones Zonic took Sonic (OR THE READERS!!!) to were mostly just silly, one-off parody zones. After Eggman's return, Sonic had his hands full, and I assume Zonic and the zone cops did too. But while we're here, can we talk about the very CONCEPT of zones?? In the games, they were just areas to go in. Which is completely fine. But the inclusion of the special zone and the Zone of Silence in SatAM indicated that zones could also be seperate dimensions or realities. Sonic had a few fun times in zones before any Zonic shit was revealed, like in Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles, when he met Anti Sonic, or in that trippy zone with Al and Cal or whoever the fuck. And it's either been established or was common knowledge that those zones are either parallel universes such as Moebius/The Anti Zone, or pocket dimensions, like the Special Zone or Zone of Silence. The "COSMIC INTERSTATE" was just a gateway to Anti Sonic, but the IDEA that those zones are connected somehow was set up. Funnily enough, Zonic didn't even THINK to rear his ugly head (affectionate) during the Giant-Borg Crisis, so the Sonics solved the problem on their own. Although later down the line, he'd say he knew about all that and partook in some shenanigans with the Sonic Underground crew. The Cosmic Interstate would later be expanded into the concept of the No Zone, a zone that runs perpendicular to all other parallel ones, thereby intersecting and connecting all of them. This leads to the fact that every inhabitant of this zone is dedicated to preserving the multiverse, a group known as the Zone Cops. These motherfuckers never even took their sorry asses outside of their zone, however, leaving Zonic to do all their dirty work for them. How rude. He was involved with a lot of other miscellaneous shit over the years, which isn't really important, but I'll give a quick overview. He arrested Evil Sonic who then escaped jail after beating him up but then was promptly put back in jail. Mammoth Mogul tried to destroy every zone ever because he's cringe, so Zonic and Sonic teamed up to create the monstrosity known as Titan Tails. And then Anti/Evil Sonic was a little bitch and turned into Scourge, caused some mayhem, and was then beaten up by Sonic, who called Zonic out on his bullcrap, because the Eggman they have is not from their zone. Zonic comes and takes away Scourge, and says some vague ass shit about how he's "needed for the stability of your zone" or some shit. Which is why a lot of people dislike him actually, rather than just calling him mid. However, and this is encroaching headcanon territory, I think there's just enough clues to interpret for yourself. Chaos energy is extremely important in both the games AND in the comics, although in a more subtle way. So when Zonic says there "HAS to be a Sonic and an Eggman," he most likely means how the perpetual conflict that takes place between Sonic and Eggman sustains the natural chaos affinity of that specific zone, and when things get TOO chaotic, that's when the Zone Cops step in. He also says how the Zone Cops are fighting against Eggman N. so need to do a little bit of some zonal social distancing. He then calls Scourge a fucking loser or something and peaces out. Then the funny little jailbreak happens, and then reboot. Boom. A lot of character things here, but I won't go too into detail because I can't. I'm too dumb. Sorry :(
But now we need to go into personality, and a lot of VERY interesting concepts relating to zones imo. Zonic's usual personality is, like @burningdepths said, a lot more serious and focused than Sonic, due to the responsibility he has. It's also interesting to note that he rarely uses his super speed, if EVER, or if he even has it at all. (I like to think he does, just because. Well. He's a fucking sonic.) Sonic's speed obviously representing his freedom, contrasts with how Zonic is not free and can not be free. He's bound to his duty by some inexplicable rule, which creates conflict with the character of Sonic- ANY Sonic. Which are two very important things. (Also important- he DOES have Sonic's attitude and personality, just buried down a lot. IT does surface very rarely though.)
Starting with contrast: I always believed that every alternate zone version of a character starts the same, and is shaped into the person we see them as. This also means that nobody is BORN "good" or "evil". A bit of nature vs. nurture. A prime example of this is Scourge. What are common personality traits of a Sonic? Specifically in Archie, Sonic is a lot more of a dick. He has an ego and he's a little impatient. But he's still a hero at the end of the day, kind and respectful and fun and all that jazz, even though he does half the things he does just for the thrill of it. Archie's Sonic is a bit more grounded, although not by a lot, since he lives in a house with a family and friends and a team. He is also confirmed to be the embodiment of chaos, adding to the thing I said earlier about Eggman and him. Sonic is the way he is because the people he loved were taken away from him by Robotnik, and he wants to fight to get them back, and then keep them, as well as doing the same for others. The person he is today is a result of his character traits being molded by his situations.
Scourge, on the other hand, has been presented as what Sonic COULD be, if everything had went wrong. Unlike Sonic, Scourge had massive daddy issues, like all good villains do. The Great Peace also meant Moebius was weak and ripe for takeover. Since Kintobor is a big softie (I have no time nor energy to start on HIM), Scourge just waltzed in and took over. Good for him. He also committed murder. Now, WHY is he like this? Remember what I said about Sonic's character?? In for the thrill, has an ego?? (None of which are inherently bad, mind you) Well, so does Scourge. Sonic has mentioned that he used to be a bully, meaning that being a hero isn't a part of who he is. It's a product of who he came to be. Those character traits are present in Scourge as well. He came to find Sonic multiple times, because he was fucking bored. Even after powering up, he wanted to go test his powers against Sonic and Shadow. He is very obviously egotistical, and when taking over Moebius, referred to himself as a king. Not very humble. But in this case, he's a massive fucking dickwad, since there was no big bad to put him in his place, whether that be war or a mad scientist, and teach him to fight for the right cause with his friends.
Now Zonic, you can argue, is neither good nor bad. He is leaning a bit to the good side, seeing as most Sonics ARE good, but he's not a pure hero like the regular Sonic is. (credit to @id-f87 for some of these ideas too) Just like how the No Zone is perpendicular to the Prime and Anti Zones, Zonic's moral compass is perpendicular as well. He is technically a "good guy" at the end of the day, but not in the way Sonic is. That ego and thrill-seeking hasn't been toned down, rather redirected by the establishment that he was raised in. He's an Elite Cop, meaning he probably puts a lot of time and effort into all of that, and the multiverse is most likely no stranger to adventures. There's a lot to be said about the Zone Cops being a corrupt establishment and everything, but that's another discussion for another day. Zonic's brief conversation with Warden Zobotnik shows that he doesn't really care too much for minor rules, and if convinced that something is the right thing to do, would probably do it, regardless of what his orders are. Unlike Sonic, who isn't willing to cut any of his losses, Zonic seems more willing to make sacrifices for the "greater good," meaning that it is possible for him to end up against Sonic Prime. Like Sonic and Scourge, he seems prone to making rash decisions sometimes, and definitely has his fair share of mistakes, such as when he forgor to call Underground Sonic to fight Giant Borg. It does feel like he doesn't WANT to be a Zone Cop at times, but genuinely does not know any other option for himself. He pretty much represents the Zone Cops to other zones, (specifically the Prime zone, which might have to do with the fact he's a Sonic) and it's very hard to separate his personal identity to the identity of his bosses. Which is something I think can be explored, especially when his Zone Cop need to maintain order clashes with his own chaotic nature, outside of a workplace.
Marauders Annual by Steve Orlando (writer), Creees Hyunsung Lee (artist), and Rain Beredo (colorist)
Daken: “To gutting predators like Love […] “
Kate Pryde: “To always going where we’re needed, not where we’re wanted.”
Steve Orlando makes his debut as the new writer of Marauders hot off the success of the Darkhold mini event. While the new artist Eleonora Carlini has yet to join the crew, Creees Hyunsung Lee does a fantastic job depicting Captain Kate Pryde and her new crew.
Much like how the final issue of Duggan’s Marauders felt very much reflective and self-aware of the difficulty of juggling the business of Hellfire Trading with the mission of mutant rescue, Orlando’s Marauders sets its mission statement on focusing on the second aim, with Christian Frost stepping up as the Red Monarch to deal with the Hellfire Trading business. The focus of this issue is the rescue of Daken, after he’s been captured by Brimstone Love and the Theater of Pain. By the end of the book, he - along with Psylocke, Somnus, Aurora, and Tempo - have joined Bishop and Kate to form the new team of Marauders. It really is a fresh start - a new creative team, a new cast, a new ship, and a new mission.
However, while the struggle against Brimstone Love is on the surface level an example of mutant rescue, Orlando also uses his antagonist as an ability to speak to some of the major criticisms of Krakoa. If you’ve been reading any Internet chatter about Krakoa, you have probably heard fan complaints about how the X-Men are villains now, how they’ve become supremacists and isolationists, how they’ve betrayed everything they ever stood for. Brimstone Love makes these same points and is, quite literally, a bad faith actor. He manipulates and lies, using slipperly slope and strawman arguments to make his point. The Marauders refute these claims. Brimstone Love’s entranced minions make arguments that often boil down to - “I was a human, I fought for mutant rights, and now you’ve abandoned me and I need you to feel the pain that I feel.” It’s easy to see how ridiculous a sentiment this is, as if the mutants have to feel grateful and indebted that some humans ‘fought for mutant rights.’ It would be like if I, a queer person, were told that moving to a predominately queer neighborhood and living with other queer people had betrayed my straight friends who had been proud allies. But ultimately, the people making those arguments in bad faith aren’t really allies - they’re narcissists, convinced that we need them to be saved, that we couldn’t do it on our own.
Brimstone Love does have, on the other hand, some mutant supporters. These mutants are convinced that Krakoa is not for all mutants - that a hierarchy will form, based on how beautiful a mutant is, how useful their powers are, etc etc. This argument I think is something worth exploring deeper, as on the surface, they aren’t wrong. The X-Men are all beautiful people who can pass as human. The Quiet Council is all gorgeous and mostly human passing - but even those who cannot pass as human are still pretty, they aren’t what some might consider ugly. But examining the story so far, there’s no direct evidence for the evolution of this sentiment - and so, this too is a belief made in bad faith. Maybe they’re right and that will happen one day, but it’s a logical fallacy that they’re clinging to.
This issue is really fun - particularly with the establishment of the new team. Tempo seems to have an almost Quicksilver like problem of just not having patience for things around her - as she fast forwards through her own life. Kwannon seems to be ready to rededicate herself to protection of those who cannot save themselves after the loss of her daughter. Somnus is a man who lived a normal life and is ready for excitement. Daken is a beautiful disaster bi as always - and Aurora is my queen.
Verdict: Eight out of ten mysterious boxes with Kate’s name
Today we talk about Daken, Wolverine's evil bisexual son. He was adopted, named Akihiro, meanly called Daken, became evil, tried to kill Wolverine, became Wolverine, and now he's just kind of around?
Been seeing a new wave of discourse over Daken Akihiro prompted by the XFQ preview. And frankly, it's the same thing that has been the ongoing depiction of him after Dark Reign: The Redemption Arc.
From his conception in Wolverine Origins/Dark Avengers, Daken (then never called Akihiro) has been a controversial figure. He was both an 'evil/amoral' version of his father and his sister -- and a resurgence of old villain tropes such as the predatory bisexual, the machiavellian prince type, and dubiously used pheromone powers -- which a section of fandom read as the same thing as rape powers.
He ran with Norman Osborn's villain crew, and played the villains and heroes for suckers, but seemed to have glimpses of doubt and desire for a different life. Still, he killed, cheated, manipulated, and hurt everybody around him. He wasn't a complete monster, slowing care of children, abused/trafficked women, and sparks of genuine affection.
Fandom was split in their reactions to him; some hated him with vitriol as an 'awful' evil character, others loved him as a multi-faceted sexy villain, and a tertiary group saw the potential for a good man under all of it.
Then, the redemption arc slowly started. Unlike some, I stand by that it already started in Daken's solo series post-Dark Avengers. He was trying to build a life for himself, and creating a relationship with his sister Laura, and trying to find himself as an entity not tied to Wolverine. Sure, he wasn't a hero, but he was slowly losing his outright villain status, fighting people worse than himself. He failed to do what he wanted and tried to suicide by super-hero.
Later, the X-Force and Death Seed arcs pushed him further into woobie villain, aka. that he was severely hurting from his situation in life and wanted to pain to stop. Here, a lot of his fans felt very conflicted by him, he was losing his "cool villain" status, it mostly seemed like someone struggling to live and lashing out, and it was hard to follow what we were meant to feel about him. However, in hindsight, it worked well to create a break in his life goals. He doesn't want to be who he is, he doesn't want to live like this.
He commits crimes, kidnaps and hits a mutant teenager, tries to get himself killed by his father, and succeeds. Later he's a puppet for the Apocalypse Twins Death Seeds and torments Wolverine. Then pretty inexplicably, he's fine again after fighting Ice-Man.
The overt redemption starts in Wolverines, where his sister Laura nurses him back to health from a massive depressive episode and physical injuries during their adventures. He's also confronted with his life choices, his father's death, and his purpose in life, notably by Laura and Fang.
In All-New Wolverine, his relationship with Laura is firm and familial, he helps here and Gabby in their hero business, even if it's framed that he does it ONLY for her. He then joins the X-Men: Blue team and tries to be even more of a hero, if only for the mutant cause, and works for Magneto.
Here the fans of villain Daken are very disappointed/resigned to what's happening and the fans of redeeming Akihiro see the clearest past to his redemption. However, during all of this, there has been the third category of fans increasingly upset by the developments, the ones that hate him for being awful. They don't want the redemption arc, they don't want a villain Daken either, they just want to get rid of him and hate on anyone who likes him, regardless of what reasons.
Which puts us at X-Factor. Daken Akihiro, now more called Akihiro, is in the final stages of a redemption arc. Whether or not XF has handled it well is a matter of taste, but that's still where we're at. He's meant to be seen as a villain redeemed into a tentative hero. Some claim, that this is impossible due to his past crimes, which I think is just a testament that some people believe that redemption in itself is impossible. Others are very satisfied to finally get a heroic Akihiro who can get past his painful childhood, crimes, and poor mental health. Others are disappointed at having lost a fun, multi-faceted villain.
Now, this, in turn, puts us at today's preview panel of XF:
There is no dialog or greater context clues, and fandom has seen this as an 'evil' smirk and a potential return of villain Daken doing a classic betrayal of his current love interest.
However, there are some in-story context clues that might give these panels some relevance that doesn't necessarily support this interpretation. 1) Akihiro is meant to be seen as mostly redeemed, 2) Aurora has been keeping secrets about her death, 3) She was his first assignment: he's been investigating her since even before their relationship.
I believe that this is meant to be the culmination of that investigation, his 'gotcha!' moment where he reveals that he's found out what she's been hiding. I don't think this is mean to be a return of any villainy, but a testament to that despite his redemption Akihiro can be a dog with a bone and is unable to let things lie despite the consequences. He needs to know what she's hiding, he feels clever in figuring it out.
I don't see this as malicious but as a character trait. He can smell her lies -- just like Laura and Logan can. No member of his family can let lies stand, because they constantly and literally KNOW when they're being lied to. He's probably handling it poorly, still too maladjusted to realize that maybe a serious private conversation might be the better option than springing it at your partner in the middle of a dance that you have uncovered their dirty secrets. But, Akihiro is still a dramatic bitch.
Now, can their relationship survive this? I don't think so, to be honest. Aurora strikes me as a too private person to take this easily, even if she was in the wrong or not.
Can Akihiro's hero status survive this? Of that, I'm pretty certain. I think it'll be framed as both of them fucking up: him being tactless and her being a liar. As for what the next writers will do with him once the Krakoa event is over-- well, that's up in the air. We know how many times Magneto has been redeemed and then vilified and then back again.
Now, where do I stand on him personally? Frankly, I liked villain Daken and hero Akihiro both for different reasons.
I think the redemption arc has been handled a bit messy with so many different authors, back and forthing, and inconsistent objectives regarding him and his end goal. I'm in general a villain fan, and those are the characters that I care the most about. I lost my special interest in Daken Akihiro since he's no longer a villain, but I appreciate the redemption and I love his familial relationships. Krakoa has been a place for villains to get a second chance, even more so considering that Akihiro started his journey a long time ago.
I appreciate that fans both want him to be a hero and to be a villain and that you can appreciate both viewpoints without invalidating others' preferences. What I don't respect are those who hate on fans for liking a character. It's fiction people. We're allowed to like heroes and villains. It doesn't make you a better or worse person regardless of what fictional character you like.
Since I did a development analysis on Daken in X-Men Blue, it feels only reasonable to do one for X-Factor, especially considering the the latest issue (#8). I had thoughts that I articulated in the tags, but I think I should try to put them together and look at Daken as a character in the whole of X-Factor.
Gatecrashers Interview with Leah Williams - Highlights on Akihiro
Gatecrashers: How do you think Daken’s relationship with his papa bear Wolverine informs the character in the present day?
Leah: I think it’s a lot better than it has been in ages past, because Krakoa is a place that provides — their survival needs and fulfillment needs are being taken care of first — so I think that Krakoa is a really healthy environment for a lot of people with difficult backgrounds, like Daken or Aurora or Polaris, to finally explore themselves and their relationships with other people, and really start to self-actualize. So, I would say that Daken and Wolverine are not close, but they are open to the potential for now, which is a new thing.
Gatecrashers: With characters like Daken, who are working through some past trauma and even their own sins, we see art as a major coping mechanism in your writing. Do you think characters like Quentin (Mysterio, NdT) and Daken are expressing their own self-worth through creation?
Leah: Daken’s relationship with art is still probably [laughs] in his head he thinks that he is a very gifted killer [laughs] I do not think he has the same kind of relationship with art that Quentin does, I think that when we see him sketching on his wall, it’s more like a hobby kind of thing, because he’s like ninety years old, he is old, and has been around since the 1940s, I think was when he was born, so I imagine over the years he has picked up some underappreciated skills such as charcoal sketching, and he’s got a good eye, a steady hand, so of course he’s going to have some innate ability in this arena, but I don’t think he’s at a place yet where he feels comfortable expressing himself through art — I think this is one of the things he’s learning about himself right now, he’s still kind of relying on his old habits of… I don’t even know how to call it… He doesn’t care what other people think of him, but he also doesn’t care to correct people when they make snap judgments about him, like, he gets slut-shamed a lot in the first three issues of X-Factor, and it’s not gonna get addressed until X-Factor #7, it’s the first time that he actually speaks up about how it makes him feel, because Daken is not a “talk about my feelings” kind of person, he just has never had that kind of life, and it has a lot to do with the way that he was groomed into being a killing machine, as he was a kid, so these are things he’s discovering about himself very slowly now, and he’s not even yet concerned with the need to prove his worth to the world — he’s not there yet.
Gatecrashers: From @lucario2405 on Twitter “Two Daken questions: How do you handle his two names? He is widely known only as Daken and most characters & profiles use that, but in #6 Northstar calls him Akihiro. Given his traumatic history with both names which does he personally prefer? Why does he sleep in a guest room?”
Leah: So going back to what we were talking about earlier, in terms of Daken’s self-actualization and the fact that he’s, you know, for the first time thinking about these things, I think his name is very much going to become an aspect of this. It’s a name that he chose out of rage and spite, back when it was a slur being used against him and his mixed-race background, but it is different now, asking somebody to call you by this chosen name when it could also be making them uncomfortable. We know he’s anestetised to it and it doesn’t have the same meaning to him than it did once when it was being used to hurt him: he has reclaimed this, it’s canon, it’s something he did as a fuck you. It is a different situation now, when it’s not being used as a fuck you, it is being used as his mutant name. So the opportunity to re-evaluate that and kind of take a look at it and being like, “Is this really the legacy that I want?”, is for sure a part of his Krakoan journey, he’s figuring out all of these things in relation to himself. He’s never had the kind of peace where he can ask himself these questions and take a look inwards at himself and his feelings. But he has that now. And for the other question, the guest room question, both he and Aurora were treated as “temporary crushers” at the Boneyard, so they’re both inhabiting the two guest rooms, taking over these spaces as their own, except in Daken’s case it’s because Northstar and Lorna didn’t trust him and they just assumed he would get bored and leave and flake out.
Gatecrashers: Terrible roomate habits?
Leah: Daken is very clean, fastidious about cleanliness.
