- Are you with me, Charles?
- Always.
feels like finally an appropriate first post of the new year. because it is indeed “always.” charles thinks of erik more often than he has any expressed reason to, models his thoughts and actions in relation to magneto more than he has reasons to. and erik thinks of him, in times of rage and times of weakness/vulnerability, so precarious and necessary.
they’re not really opposites, not really.
instead they’re like the wheel and axis of a gyroscope, spinning not in parallel but right angle of each other -- never overlapping, yet keeping each other in fixed orientation, in perpetuity.
i like seeing them fight together. i also like seeing them lose relevance. both becoming codified in history as symbols of their contribution and pioneering, and becoming abstractions of themselves with less and less real influence (barred from charles apparently being the founder and largest material stakeholder of krakoa... which the story doesn’t seem to have an interest in seriously addressing or exploring the implications of so we kind of have to just let it slide to the background a bit).
i like how douglas was the “hero” of the story.
i like how he was able to be the hero of the story because he learned from experience and history, and because he learned from the masters. i’m sad that he made some of the same choices they made. i’m sad that he (also) didn’t see another way (just yet).
speaking of choices, i also like this moment:
charles was the one entrusted to make the choice. and he was wrong. and he paid for it with his life, again.
but the thing is, there wasn’t really a right choice. which i do find to be quite emblematic and a good summary of/tribute to all of his dilemmas and mistakes over the past two or so decades...
—— he made the wrong choice; there wasn’t really a right one.
i was really anticipating them to oust him. because it would feel like it make sense in the moment, and i’ve been trained to expect the comics to do that and then undo that again, ad nauseam.
but things as they stand, the writing here actually makes a smart and clever choice. and it is surprisingly self-aware.
he’s exhausted his use, and you need him out of the way. but you can’t dispose of him, because he started it all and his dna has been written into everything standing. you don’t want to dispose of him either... you realized. because then somebody has to take his place -- an unenviable position. you don’t really want that. so you keep him around -- consciously this time -- as the sinner and the scapegoat.
you don’t send him out into the wild now. nor a sacrifice. you keep him on the altar enshrined, both a vessel and a sign; an inspiration and a warning.
