Comics IV

[red snow]

Beast is a member of the Illuminati now? Is being a whiny hypocrite who never makes hard choices really worth[y] of a seat at that table?

Come on, the guy is ready to fuck up the entire time-line based on a petty hunch - he's just the kind of person the illumintai need. It's making the tension unbearable in All New X-men with his impending death just around the corner. I'm guessing he'll be wrong about that. Maybe his tertiary (or is it more than that now) is to be wrong all the time or right when there's no evidence for him to reach the conclusion?

On a side-note you'd think they'd be able to find one female character who could be a member? I guess Emma Frost isn't one of their friends right now and Storm can't join because of the ex being in charge. Maria Hill or the Agent Brand could have been candidates but maybe "humans (or women)" aren't allowed in the super-powered boy's club? Not that I think Hickman has an agenda or isn't picking the characters that suits his story the best but I think it says a lot about the power structure of Marvel.

[Sci-2]

Come on, the guy is ready to fuck up the entire time-line based on a petty hunch - he's just the kind of person the illumintai need

Hahaha!

Yeah, they gutted the threat of Beast's impending death with the Illuminati preview. One thing I don't get about All New X-men -> Why not get Xavier from the past to stop Scott?

I mean, they just resurrected Jean, so why not resurrect everyone....In fact, Bendis dedicated a whole arc of Avengers around Kang fucking the time stream by doing what Beast did.

If anything, the Illuminati should be smacking down Beast for bringing the young X-men back.

As to the reasoning for no women, I definitely agree that Brand and/or Hill should be there. Maybe even old Valeria, though she's off in the ruins of the Reed Council.

[red snow]

Maybe Hickman will address Hill and Brand's absence in the comic? They could argue they have better things to do than play around with the men. I guess Beast can tell Brand what's going on while he cries himself to sleep in her lap lamenting how evil Cyclops is.

I was just reading this on Bleeding cool. It gives a whole new spin on why "before Watchmen" happened as there may only be 6 years in which they can do so. I don't fully understand the implications behind it to be honest I guess it means creators of characters for Marvel/DC could start getting small loyalties after 35 years. It may explain why Claremont still has a contract with Marvel despite having nothing out as he created wuite a lot of marvel characters after 75 eg Gambit, Cable (in the sense he created Nathan Summers), Forge, Madrox, Rogue, Valeria Richards and possibly Psylocke (she appeared in Captain Britain in UK first but not the ninja version. All of those characters feature in comics Marvel are currently publishing. Regardless of legal things it may explain why Claremont has a non-job with them much like Stan Lee has/had

[Nephrite]

Hahaha!

Yeah, they gutted the threat of Beast's impending death with the Illuminati preview. One thing I don't get about All New X-men -> Why not get Xavier from the past to stop Scott?

The time-machine doesn't have a wheelchair ramp.

I mean, they just resurrected Jean, so why not resurrect everyone....In fact, Bendis dedicated a whole arc of Avengers around Kang fucking the time stream by doing what Beast did.

Listen, you ain't the boss of Bendis. He is one of the Architects. The Big Boss one if that photo of them is to be believed*. He obviously didn't think/plot this all the way thru. Probably got distracted writing his witty/endless dialogue or masturbating to an autographed photo of Quentin Tarantino.

* As far as other architects go... Aaron is the big strong guy, Hickman is the new kid ala Kitty except not a major cunt, Brubaker is Morph cause he is gone so he might be dead anyway. And Fraction is the hipster douche in a dumb knitted Punisher sweater that everybody is jealous of cause he has great hair and gets all the chicks.

If anything, the Illuminati should be smacking down Beast for bringing the young X-men back.

They should shoot him into space.

Beast, ladies & gentlemen.

"Hey man, I just came back, just so you can watch me leave. Did you see me? No? Okay, I'm going. See me now."

Master class in passive-aggressive bitchiness.

As to the reasoning for no women, I definitely agree that Brand and/or Hill should be there. Maybe even old Valeria, though she's off in the ruins of the Reed Council.

Eh, reflects the real world sadly.

[Winterfell is Burning]

As for the Illuminati, I understand why Hickman picked Beast (originally it was Xavier, and I guess he needed a scientist for the role), but I would have put Cyclops in it, the irony alone would be priceless. But on Formspring, Hickman was actually surprised to see a lot of people hating Beast, which of course show how out of touch Marvel is with the fans.

As for Maria Hill, make sure there is no interference of arrogant government types is part of the point of the Illuminati, otherwise there would be no need to keep it secret.

[Sci-2]

Beast has sucked ass all the way back to his Shakespeare quoting days in the cartoon.

[Nephrite]

But on Formspring, Hickman was actually surprised to see a lot of people hating Beast, which of course show how out of touch Marvel is with the fans.

Judging by places like Millarworld, writers are surrounded by people/sychopants that will never give them an honest critique and just tell them how brilliant they are. Unfunnies is apparently a masterpiece.

Unfunnies.

I bet Bendis believes that his Avengers run is 200 issues of pure brilliance. While on non-affiliated forums Avengers fans say to X-Men fans: "We had him for 8 years. Your turn to carry the load."

[Kalbear]

I really liked Beast in Endangered Species. Which is odd - at that point he was willing to try a whole lot to get the mutants back, siding with Dark Beast and doing some pretty gnarly things to himself. Him being the voice of moral clarity is just frustrating, especially when Beast largely agrees with Scott's need to be ruthless.

It's a pity.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Judging by places like Millarworld, writers are surrounded by people/sychopants that will never give them an honest critique and just tell them how brilliant they are. Unfunnies is apparently a masterpiece.

Unfunnies.

I bet Bendis believes that his Avengers run is 200 issues of pure brilliance. While on non-affiliated forums Avengers fans say to X-Men fans: "We had him for 8 years. Your turn to carry the load."

Yeah, and Hickman actually seems more in touch with the fans and self-critical than the average Marvel writer, perhaps because he's new to the industry.

And speaking of out of touch writers, Jason Aaron really thinks the Hellfire Brats are an awesome and deep idea. Honestly.

[red snow]

The time-machine doesn't have a wheelchair ramp.

This resulted in real-life tea-splurting. Between this and Flash's cosmic treadmill Xavier has little chance of mending the time-line.

Makes sense wrt illuninati membership. Seems like the powerful women of Marvel are either government types or leaders of evil organisations eg Viper and Elektra (although I can't recall if she is in charge of the Hand or not these days).

As for the Illuminati, I understand why Hickman picked Beast (originally it was Xavier, and I guess he needed a scientist for the role), but I would have put Cyclops in it, the irony alone would be priceless. But on Formspring, Hickman was actually surprised to see a lot of people hating Beast, which of course show how out of touch Marvel is with the fans

Yeah, in many ways Cyclops should be the perfect illuminati member in that he has a clue what he's doing and is willing to work off the radar to achieve his goals. Wait a second. wasn't Xavier in said group. But I thought he was now supposed to be the patron saint of mutants who never did anything to put his "dream" in jeopardy.

We can only hope that Hickman being surprised at the Beast hate means he doesn't know how he's currently being portrayed. I do like Beast (count me in as a fan from the 90s cartoon) and liked him throughout most of the 90s and during Morrison's run. But he seems to be this whiny pass-aggressive hypocritical joke of late. Hopefully Hickman can redeem him in some way but I think he'll have his work cut out with Bendis writing twice as many BEast comics a month.

[red snow]

Yeah, and Hickman actually seems more in touch with the fans and self-critical than the average Marvel writer, perhaps because he's new to the industry.

And speaking of out of touch writers, Jason Aaron really thinks the Hellfire Brats are an awesome and deep idea. Honestly.

But they are FUN apparently and that's what counts. Above all else. I think there's a fine line between fun and stupid when it comes to comics and I think the writers get the two confused.

[Where Boars Glow]

Uncanny X-Force....this really petered out.

I concour it was really going strong then Bllllleh

[red snow]

This Age of Ultron thing is really irking me. From the "ask alonso" interview on CGR this week it looks like loads of titles are joining in. To make matters more confusing it looks like every title may be getting an AoU cover which seems stupid unless Avengers 1 is tying in (seems unlikely). So people are going to be fooled into thinking a title is part of the crossover? Maybe they'll be ridiculously rare variants so this won't happen. I'm even more confused as these are covers for titles in January when the event isn't supposed to start until March.

I also find it rich claiming the slow roll-out was to go easy on people's pockets when they throw a line-wide crossover in the middle of it.

I wonder how much they can draw from this well until we get a repeat of the late nineties where cross-over events were prohibited because they didn't sell? It's hard to blame them when AvX was a success for them but with this event being finished by June you can guarantee there will be 2-3 months of "ramifications" to show us how the Marvel Universe has been changed "forever" which should lead us neatly into the September cross-over event that will change the Mavel universe forever.

Desptie all this I am hoping it will be possible to enjoy the Avengers and Superior Spider-man books somehow.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Age of Ultron is their most shameless event yet in the sense it just can't change anything- despite all their claims, the event was written long ago, certainly before AvX, possibly even Fear Itself, and they kept delaying it, first for that stupid Fraction non-sense because it had Cap and Thor in big roles in the year of their movies, and later because they panicked when they saw the new 52 success (and Breevort did when he saw X-men overtaking them again).

This will have even less "impact" than World War Hulk or Fear Itself.

[Sci-2]

Kal has a point - I liked Beast when he was obsessed with bringing mutants back. The time when he was gay, but not really, was also a time when the guy didn't suck.

I'm really curious to see what happens with AoU. We know the world (NYC) won't really be in ruins for very long, we know almost all character deaths will be temporary. With the time travel nonsense Kang pulls, we may even see characters resurrected.

The most interesting thing that could happen is that somehow peace is made with Ultron and he's just around, a ghost-god in the machine pushing and prodding at humanity.

Or he possesses Aunt May.

[red snow]

I think I'd have been interested if they'd just left the story as is but it's forcing these things to be events that smack of desperation. I know events always get put back together but this one has been put back together before it starts. The Avengers are going to be largely different from the Hickman ones and there's still a good chance the resolution involves luke cage dying.

Fingers crossed it feels like Age of Apocalypse and can be enjoyed as an alt reality.

I agree that Beast works best when he's a scientist struggling against the odds who only fights when he needs to. I enjoyed him when he was trying to cure the legacy virus (the story that would have allowed a far more organic "no more mutants" and spared Wanda) and when trying to save mutants. I have always seen as one of the X-men's "heart and soul" characters but they've taken this to the extreme and now made him into an irrational busy body. Maybe he needs to be locked in a dungeon by Dark Beast again for a while?

[Winterfell is Burning]

Jonathan Hickman answered a lot of questions in a CBR thread:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?434524-Avengers-Jonathan-Hickman-Q-A

Nothing too spoilerific, but some interesting stuff- most notably, that the Avengers is a team of change and moving forwards, while the New Avengers...not so much. Is deliberately an old boys club, and that's a plot point. Which makes I suppose Beast's presence more understandable.

[Nephrite]

Jonathan Hickman answered a lot of questions in a CBR thread:

http://forums.comicb...han-Hickman-Q-A

Nothing too spoilerific, but some interesting stuff- most notably, that the Avengers is a team of change and moving forwards, while the New Avengers...not so much. Is deliberately an old boys club, and that's a plot point. Which makes I suppose Beast's presence more understandable.

Well, Avengers won't tie-in to AoU. Yay!

[Lady Octarina]

I like how accessible JH is; on Formspring he's basically the Marvel person to answer fans' questions more frequently, though half the time it feels like he's just trolling everyone. Which is the best part, different from Brevoort's constant (occasionally justifiable) angry replies.

But he's not using Quicksilver, so I no longer care for what he plans to do with the Avengers. :bang:

[red snow]

Newsarama were absolutely gushing about the Avengers. They tend to get overexcited but it does sound good. I'm interested to see whether they really do make Captain America likeable (although to be fair he wasn't too bad in Cap 1 which i bought for some reason at weekend)

Interesting in the Hickman interview how he mentions that the Ultimate relaunch was completely swallowed up by DCNU52. Sounds like thay was a big shock for marvel and a disappointment for Hickman. Guess it worked out ok forhim in the endthough.

I also liked his favourite type of Beast characterisation "I like conflicted, but not whiny, Hank." and his answer that Beast is on the team "Uhhh, given the necessary story parameters, necessary tangential connectivity, and character availability, he was kind of the only choice.

But I'm okay with it -- it works."