First issue of the From The Ashes era is out and I'm still very bleh about the new direction for the X-Men after the glory of Krakoa (or rather, the glory of Krakoa as it was when Johnathan Hickman was involved).
The book itself is fine, good even. Jed McKay is a great fit for X-Men and a wonderful writer in general, he's clearly trying his best even if he has the mess of Fall of X hanging over his run. And to his credit, he's facing that issue head-on instead of trying to sweep it under the rug. All in all, this and Gail Simone's book are the both really looking like they'll be a lot of fun and I could see one or both of them becoming the next great run for the X-Books if things play out well for them. Like how the otherwise terrible Decimation/Utopia era has the utterly classic, must-read Uncanny X-Force plopped in.
But the problem is, they're the ONLY books that seem particularly interesting and like they're seriously trying to carry on from where Hickman left off thematically speaking, certainly the only ones where I feel like have a really good handle on the characters, themes, and vibe of X-Men. The others all feel very lifeless at best.
And a bigger problem hanging over it all is the way Krakoa was screwed over and the way editorial has once again torn the X-Men's progress down and forced the same shitty "mutants are near-extinct" status quo that nearly destroyed the series decades ago now. It doesn't help that Krakoa was a huge jumping on point for newbies and is arguably to credit for the newest generation of X-Fans. Every book in this "fresh start" has this looming in the background and aside from McKay and Simone, it feels like everyone is now flailing to figure out where to take the franchise from here, now that they've basically burned down the greatest leap forward it made since the Morrison run, possibly since Claremont's legendary run.
Holding onto hope that, if nothing else, From The Ashes will produce an enjoyable book or two in the form of Simone and McKay's runs. And maybe that it won't be too long before the writers and editors as a whole once again stop being afraid to push things forward instead of dwelling in the past.
You know, I would be down for another 'magic is dying' or 'universe is in danger because of magic' if we can get more exploration of Zatanna's great grandfather Luigi Zatara and Leonardo Da Vinci. Most of the time she is stuck fighting her Dad's villains (and Sindella is lucky to even get mentioned) but her other family members deserve exploration.
For instance if Da Vinci backwards writing was a form of magic then what he was weaving spells for? Did he face any occult magical threats during? If so, what kind? Imagine if those threats were coming back. What about his rivals; Michelangelo or Raphael? Did they have magical powers too? If so, what kind? And are there characters who are descendants of them like Zatanna is a descendant of Da Vinci?
I'm saying we need Johnathan Hickman to write a book on Zatanna's Family tree akin to his 2010 S.H.I.E.L.D mini series.
There is also Luigi Zatara who introduced John Zatara to magic:
First in DC Special Blue Ribbon #5
and then in Secret Origins Vol 2 #27:
Did Luigi have magical abilities as well? What happened to him? Did he lose his powers?
And looking closely, you can interpret this as him intentionally leading John Zatara to the path of being a sorcerer.
There is also this scene from Madame Xanadu #9 which somewhat contradicts what was previously established:
I think you could fudge canon to say the Giovanni had aptitude for magic at a young age, discovered stage magic later and then rediscovered Da Vinci's book as an adult.
So this is it…we’ve finished x-force. All issues done. All story lines done and all interest done. So why do I still feel like nothing happen? Was time wasted? Was it really all for nothing…
Fair warning I do ramble on for quite a long time, but it’s for good reason! Anyways…let’s begin.
Chapter 1: A Promising Start/ First Impressions
When I first stumbled into the new era of the X-men I was originally very skeptical. For someone who doesn’t have any comic book knowledge outside of a few DC and Spider man comics from the early 2000s I was expected to be lost. But then after reading a little of the new era, made by Johnathan Hickman, I was truly intrigued in what I was seeing. Sure I had questions…many of which I wouldn’t get the answers to unless I read spin off comics of the new era. Despite that I was beyond HOOKED!
When I first saw this I immediately thought back to deadpool 2 and what they did with X-Force. Now not everything as memorable in that incarnation of the team you still had colossus, deadpool, and domino. 2 of which was seen here and the last one would come a little later. Outside of that I knew a lot of these characters already:
Beast
Wolverine
Colossus
Jean Grey
Deadpool
Domino
I’ve seen all this characters at some point in my life to give the X-force branding of comics a try, and thankfully I did. Sure, I didn’t understand a lot of the context behind why certain characters acted a certain ways but I could appreciate how rare those moments were. Most of the time if I just kept reading the issues I’d understand what was going on, especially in relation to the newer characters.
Kid Omega
Omega Red
Sage
X-23
Black Tom (I think that’s his name).
The dialogue between both the old and newer characters, to me, really sold me on this new era. It got me invested with what could happen to these characters. On the side note, I don’t really see many people talking about this, but the art style of these characters are VERY COOL!!! It looked fun and expressive! I’ll show examples of why I love the art so much throughout this. It really says a lot about what your gonna read, for better or for worse.
If it wasn’t obvious at this point, I clearly haven’t read comics or even x-men comics for years. So when you hear my opinions just remember that my knowledge on certain things are fairly limited in most aspects. I. Don’t. Know. Everything. Yet I’m still enjoying what I’m reading so far, with or without connections to the past. To me that only enriched everything, not the pinnacle of my interest in this initially. Anyway…let’s continue
Chapter 2: Enjoying the concept material
In my opinion, the first couple of arcs with x-force seemed like they had promise. They had a lot of interesting stuff going on. Take this for example.
Colossus, a mutant that everyone has heard of and it known for his heroism snaps the neck of this random mutant…THAT RAISES HUGE FRICKING QUESTIONS OF YOU ASK ME! Like why is he killing people? What’s the importance of this character to him? Based on how this is drawn it looks as if he struggled to kill her even though his face doesn’t portray that, the veins on his muscles do. Speaking of the art colossus looks more cold and distant being in his metal form…and every time I saw him before he never gave me that impression. It was always more light hearted rage fulled or disappointed dad (thanks Deadpool 2), but never cold murder. a more underrated question, HOW OLD IS COLOSSUS?! I mean he has a fricken beard now…didn’t know he could grow one.
Or…what about this!
Why does Jean look so…classic and basic in her design? Compared to Wolverine and Hank she doesn’t look like she belongs there. Even though she’s going through Omega Red’s mind she seems to be the odd one out. Speak of designs why does Hank got mad scientist energy now? Wolverine…more understandable since I’m pretty sure this guys a villain. Although this looks more painful than any super hero interrogation I’ve ever seen before. This doesn’t even look like interrogation, this looks like torture.
What really caught my eye in all this was the moral ambiguity at play here. Reading early x-force a lot of that was present, and as some one who loves seeing situations within the grey area this satisfied me greatly. Look at this conversation between beast and Jean.
Now I’ll address this later, but look at the points they make. Normally the X-Men are depicted as people who want coexistence between humans and mutants, yet here Jean weights the two evils and says lying is for humans not mutants. She views that as the bones honest path for x-force than what beast did.
Although beast, surpassingly, does have a point. A lie would only suffocate the process needed to save their nation. They already have enemies who would want nothing more than to harm them, so what’s the point in letting them strategize when he can just kill then now? Why should let billions die in the future when we can kill one person now and save billions?
Do the end’s justify the means…that’s for you to decide.
As for me though I’m picking up so many mixed signals here from beast on this one. Look his eyes, their blackened, this is mostly for evil, corrupted, shady, malevolent intent. Yet there’s a sense of honesty when beast confesses his mindset here. It’s almost as if he himself doesn’t enjoy the ruthless calculus of war at affect here. He hates himself for it. He wishes he could be on Jean side and yet after experiencing so much pain and damage he doesn’t see the point in being hesitant with those who want to hurt you. For him the line was drawn when they even had a thought of hurting Krakoa. Even Jean, who has her back turned towards him, seems to be getting what he’s saying. In some way she gets it. But she doesn’t want to get it, she doesn’t want to understand his reasoning but she does.
First time I read this I was stunned! Like all this was just one panel?! Wow! I really hope this continues onward. I would love to see every character get this much depth in them!
I could go on here for ages about this stuff, but if you really read x-force this is kinda what it’s about. At least until we get towards the end…which is where I started to realize the issues in all this beauty.
Chapter 3: Problems in paradise
Remember when I talk about how much I adored the concepts of what I was seeing? How much I loved what the art brought to the table so subtlety? Well…look at this.
Do you see anything wrong with it? Probably not. And honestly I didn’t either when first viewing this.
Just colossus suspiciously murdering someone. Initially I didn’t think much of this because I thought, “hasn’t he killed before? Why put such emphasis on this one?” But look back x-men history the writers and artist always illustrate the emotional distress of colossus murdering any one. He has never taken any pleasure in doing it, and he hardly does it. So when he does do it you gotta ask, “what did that person do to deserve that response from him?”
Anyway we’re getting side tracked here. Next photo.
Do you see a problem here? Again probably nothing. Art looks great, nothing outstanding but nothing terrible either.
On to the last photo.
Did you spot the issue? No? Well, just look at the number on the top left and right side of the photos. Do you see it now? I’ll explain. The first time we see colossus arc really begin is in the 24 issue of the comic. The next time we see it is in issue number 39. The very end of the arc is issue number 46. You could argue that his arc spanned several issues in between them…I wished it played out like that. The reason why I chose these 3 photos is due to them being the only time we see the colossus arc take center stage. Now you probably asking, ‘okay so if his arc wasn’t taking center stage then what was?’
This is what was taking place:
Change in X-Force leadership
The quiet council putting colossus as a member.
Beast going rogue and wolverine in pursuit of him
Kid omega disappearing in a fight after a corrupted Cerebro goes on the loose.
Kid Omega coming back, not really a kid anymore, but he has x-force follow to the future to deal with beast.
Beast and wolverine have a massive fight.
The build up to the Fall of Next before it was officially dubbed so. And so much more.
All of this was happening alongside the colossus subplot, it’s a boring waiting game. For someone reading this for the first time it felt like watching an amazing episode air for the first time only to wait a week or two later for the next episode. (Disney plus)…
But it wasn’t a week or two long it was YEARS! Years for a plot that could have being unraveled by some common sense by professor x only for it to never happen, despite them being in the same room with each other so many times! You literally see him on the quiet council every single day and get you don’t ask how he’s doing? Especially after seeing his behavior towards his own teammates?!
To his lover at one point?!
Thematically this works…but for the viewer this feels scattered and rushed. Hell the photo on top isn’t even from X-Force it’s from Immortal X-Men! Why is his arc being stretched like this, only to have no impact on x-force directly? I get it, if we spread out colossus influence it will show the readers how big of a problem this really is. The ripple effects of you will. But when the ripple effects don’t lead anywhere for a long time, constantly put to the sidelines by other major events, and then given a mediocre finale it doesn’t increase the impact it lessens it.
Not to mention the conclusion of this arc is simply colossus killing his brother which is earned don’t get me wrong, I loved that. His brother deserved death. But the very second we see colossus again it’s with x-force as if nothing happened. I don’t even remember if we had a conversation or a look into colossus psyche after everything happened. It’s just straight to the Fall of X which is already happening by issue number 43.
This doesn’t even stop at colossus though, domino has that same issue. Being skinned alive, tortured by an forgettable villain, and having it all be undone by a res set button called resurrection just feels wrong. Makes it seem pointless…
The true tragedy by far isn’t even those characters…it’s by the series main stars of the show.
Chapter 4: Beast Agenda Finale/Shattering my expectations
So Wolverine vs Beast. Again, another great concept from X-forces writers and editors. And another disappointment. Why? Because every time we get close to the conclusion to their huge fight beast manages to slip away. This one…this one got me the most upset. I remember waiting around for ages to see the conclusion of this arc, this cover art didn’t help.
Yet, despite the lies this cover baited you with we don’t even get close to the finale of the beast saga. He runs away, and the only thing that does die in this issue is just beast many clones. Boring, and useless.
But you want to know what really left a nasty scar on me during this arc. The characterization.
Was gonna show an example but I reached the picture limit…didn’t even know there was one.
Anyway, what I mean is characters don’t talk naturally. It’s always it either drive forward the conflict or to build up the conflict. There’s rarely any moments we’re characters just talk about what’s going on in their lives. It’s just moment to moment action. Feels lifeless.
Going back to beast, after reading what people think of this version of beast…I see where your coming from I truly do, but I love this version of beast. He’s actually the incarnation that got me interested in every other version of the character because his actions had context and if you had the context it would enrich the actions of this character. It wasn’t required but you were rewarded for doing so. Despite his very obvious flaws he has a point in a some of what he does. Or at least there’s an external reason that tragic on why he feels the need to do this. As explained with the Jean and Hank conversation I’d like to think the reason why Hank is fighting so hard for this country is because everyone saw what happened to Genosha! No one wants their homes to be destroyed by those who hate them the most. Not even that but it shows how broken Hank truly is from everything…that’s depressing yet intriguing to read.
And I wished this version of the character was treated with the same respect as the other incarnations and not given a shitty finale. A finale that completely reboots his character and pretty much states to the readers that we as the writers are done with this character and all that hyped up facade was worth nothing…no redemption and no future. It just hurts…and as I go back into the past to see better conclusions for this character I fear this version of the character could fall future and future down the rabbit hole.
This is why I hate reboots.
Last thing I want to say on this character is the art. What. The F@$&. Happened.
Beast (Prime), as he is referred to now, looks the exact same as the one in the past. For anyone thematic reason this could have, all I get from this is laziness. From an artist and thematic lens’s they should be different. If they had made them both different it would hit home how time has really change these characters. But since they look the same I guess that nuance also doesn’t mean anything. The art used to be diverse and fun while also being serious and dark. Now it’s just flare and boring not to mention lifeless. It’s just another pointless experiment for a pointless finale.
Anyway, thanks for reading this very long post, took me about 4 hours to finish this. Had a lot to say obviously 😂. Hope this gets you to understand how I feel about this whole thing, anyways thanks for reading and take care! Oh and if you want a better deep dive into the personality of both beast go to @positivelybeastly he does a wonderful job on that front.
