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Sep. 11th, 2019 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. The latest, Powers of X #4 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva...I can't make heads or tails of, to be honest. There's a lot of world-building in this comic, a lot of ret-conning, and a lot of it is annoying teasers or riddles. Which were fun at first, but are beginning to grate a bit -- just to tell me the story, don't make me have to work to figure it out -- I have a full time job, I'm not a bored media darling with nothing better to do but figure out comic books.
That said -- the graphic art in this is amazingly well done. It's worth looking at for the graphics alone. Also there's some interesting ideas embedded in it. And some sly jokes. But, I feel like I'm reading vague spoilers for a television serial and I just want to get to the story.
There's an awful lot of world building here -- because Marvel is basically ret-conning the entire X-men verse (again), except this round they are retconning it from the beginning. So it's a full-scale ret-con. (Not easy to do, as you can well imagine. But, they've definitely made Magneto and Xavier more interesting. Not to mention Cypher, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Moira MacTaggert.)
They ask more questions than are answered...like what the heck are Xavier and Magneto doing asking for Sinister's help in their plan? And is Marvel ret=conning Apocalypse as a psuedo-good guy?
Other odd questions include:
1. What secrets did Madelyn Prior take to her grave?
2. What is the importance of Inferno (outside of the fact that the current regime obviously loved that arc).
3. Why does Sinister have mutant DNA implanted from Thunderbird - John Proudstar of all people? And does that mean Nathanel Essex aka Sinister wasn't a mutant prior to that?
4. Does Scott have more brothers wandering about? Really? Why, Marvel, why?
5. "He is the best at what he does, but she's married with a baby. Her husband however can't point fingers considering what he's been up to." Okay, what family is Wolverine playing nooky with? Are Jean and Scott married again with a baby, or is this someone else...and wait didn't they all die in the last issue?
6. What non-couple-couple, who has been apart for decades, reunites, and everything thinks spark will fly when they do? But don't quite? Is this Moira and Charles, or Moira and Banshee? Magneto and Rogue?
7. Who is the fittest of them all and travels with a selected number entourage, that he keeps replacing, but he'd drop, the moment the original members reappeared so fast the new ones heads would spin? Apocalypse apparently from the comic.
I'm guessing Hickman is a frustrate riddler? He also love Sinister.
I don't know. It's an odd comic series. I'll say that much for it.
In this issue, two things happen -- Xavier and Magneto ages ago enlist Sinister's help in their scheme, and ask him to document the mutant genome. They'll even provide him with samples. One caveat -- Xavier ensures the Sinister he enlists won't remember anything of their conversation, but will do what they ask, and won't remember why until Xavier tells him too. (According to the Sinister gossip secrets, this bit may go awry, and the Sinister that Xavier mind-wiped may be replaced with another one without his knowledge.) The other thing that happens -- which makes more sense - is Xavier enlists Doug (Cypher) help in figuring out Kraokoa island's language, deciphering it, translating it, and teaching it to everything -- and creating an interface. It also explains why Kraokoa is no longer a mutant eating island and what Xavier was up to while everyone else was either in Age of X, or getting killed off in UnCanny. He was bonding with Kraokoa.
Like I said, Xavier and Magneto are a lot more interesting in this series than they've been in a while. Actually everyone is -- except for the main team, which we've seen little of to date. The focus is really on other characters.
2. My body and I are not friends at the moment. Digestive, Gastrointestinal issues, aplenty. Also my legs and back are bugging me. Making it tough to sleep.
My father, according to mother, took a tumble, but he's doing fine. Nothing serious.
She felt the need to explain to me why she prefers to discuss this with my brother, who is less emotional about these things. And doesn't get upset. I finally said, I don't need to know, I get it, look at it this way, at least you have two kids to discuss it with.
I have no clue what my life would have been like as an only child.
3. Working my way through A Duke in Disquise by Cat Sebastian which is enjoyable. I'm half in love with the hero -- who has epileptic seizures, and is an art engraver. He does engravings for various printed publications. This takes place during the Regency period. The hero, Ash, is in love with Verity, a printer and publisher. She publishes the Register and the Ladies Register. And they've just had to send her brother to the States for printing sedition pamphlets to keep him out of prison or worse. Somewhere along the line, Ash, who lives with them, discovers that he is the son of a Duke and the heir to a Dukedom. One problem -- he doesn't want it. At all. If he gets it -- he risks losing Verity, who he's loved forever, and up until now they maintained a friendship denying their mutual affection. Along with the rest of the life he currently has and enjoys. But alas, duty calls -- since his uncle tried to have him killed as a boy and had most likely caused his father's death -- so he must do what he can to help his Aunt unseat him.
That's the set up.
I told this to my mother and she whined that I'd told her half the plot of the book.
(This is a woman who spoils television series and books for me on a daily basis. I called her on it, and said I rarely did...and she admitted I was right. But hey, she's my mother so she can do what she pleases in this regard.)
Anyhow it's interesting, and different. So I got the first one -- The Marquess Unmasked, about a cross-dressing house maid and a Marquess.
That said -- the graphic art in this is amazingly well done. It's worth looking at for the graphics alone. Also there's some interesting ideas embedded in it. And some sly jokes. But, I feel like I'm reading vague spoilers for a television serial and I just want to get to the story.
There's an awful lot of world building here -- because Marvel is basically ret-conning the entire X-men verse (again), except this round they are retconning it from the beginning. So it's a full-scale ret-con. (Not easy to do, as you can well imagine. But, they've definitely made Magneto and Xavier more interesting. Not to mention Cypher, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Moira MacTaggert.)
They ask more questions than are answered...like what the heck are Xavier and Magneto doing asking for Sinister's help in their plan? And is Marvel ret=conning Apocalypse as a psuedo-good guy?
Other odd questions include:
1. What secrets did Madelyn Prior take to her grave?
2. What is the importance of Inferno (outside of the fact that the current regime obviously loved that arc).
3. Why does Sinister have mutant DNA implanted from Thunderbird - John Proudstar of all people? And does that mean Nathanel Essex aka Sinister wasn't a mutant prior to that?
4. Does Scott have more brothers wandering about? Really? Why, Marvel, why?
5. "He is the best at what he does, but she's married with a baby. Her husband however can't point fingers considering what he's been up to." Okay, what family is Wolverine playing nooky with? Are Jean and Scott married again with a baby, or is this someone else...and wait didn't they all die in the last issue?
6. What non-couple-couple, who has been apart for decades, reunites, and everything thinks spark will fly when they do? But don't quite? Is this Moira and Charles, or Moira and Banshee? Magneto and Rogue?
7. Who is the fittest of them all and travels with a selected number entourage, that he keeps replacing, but he'd drop, the moment the original members reappeared so fast the new ones heads would spin? Apocalypse apparently from the comic.
I'm guessing Hickman is a frustrate riddler? He also love Sinister.
I don't know. It's an odd comic series. I'll say that much for it.
In this issue, two things happen -- Xavier and Magneto ages ago enlist Sinister's help in their scheme, and ask him to document the mutant genome. They'll even provide him with samples. One caveat -- Xavier ensures the Sinister he enlists won't remember anything of their conversation, but will do what they ask, and won't remember why until Xavier tells him too. (According to the Sinister gossip secrets, this bit may go awry, and the Sinister that Xavier mind-wiped may be replaced with another one without his knowledge.) The other thing that happens -- which makes more sense - is Xavier enlists Doug (Cypher) help in figuring out Kraokoa island's language, deciphering it, translating it, and teaching it to everything -- and creating an interface. It also explains why Kraokoa is no longer a mutant eating island and what Xavier was up to while everyone else was either in Age of X, or getting killed off in UnCanny. He was bonding with Kraokoa.
Like I said, Xavier and Magneto are a lot more interesting in this series than they've been in a while. Actually everyone is -- except for the main team, which we've seen little of to date. The focus is really on other characters.
2. My body and I are not friends at the moment. Digestive, Gastrointestinal issues, aplenty. Also my legs and back are bugging me. Making it tough to sleep.
My father, according to mother, took a tumble, but he's doing fine. Nothing serious.
She felt the need to explain to me why she prefers to discuss this with my brother, who is less emotional about these things. And doesn't get upset. I finally said, I don't need to know, I get it, look at it this way, at least you have two kids to discuss it with.
I have no clue what my life would have been like as an only child.
3. Working my way through A Duke in Disquise by Cat Sebastian which is enjoyable. I'm half in love with the hero -- who has epileptic seizures, and is an art engraver. He does engravings for various printed publications. This takes place during the Regency period. The hero, Ash, is in love with Verity, a printer and publisher. She publishes the Register and the Ladies Register. And they've just had to send her brother to the States for printing sedition pamphlets to keep him out of prison or worse. Somewhere along the line, Ash, who lives with them, discovers that he is the son of a Duke and the heir to a Dukedom. One problem -- he doesn't want it. At all. If he gets it -- he risks losing Verity, who he's loved forever, and up until now they maintained a friendship denying their mutual affection. Along with the rest of the life he currently has and enjoys. But alas, duty calls -- since his uncle tried to have him killed as a boy and had most likely caused his father's death -- so he must do what he can to help his Aunt unseat him.
That's the set up.
I told this to my mother and she whined that I'd told her half the plot of the book.
(This is a woman who spoils television series and books for me on a daily basis. I called her on it, and said I rarely did...and she admitted I was right. But hey, she's my mother so she can do what she pleases in this regard.)
Anyhow it's interesting, and different. So I got the first one -- The Marquess Unmasked, about a cross-dressing house maid and a Marquess.