X-Men In General

That's all fair. I should probably clarify that while Wolverine and the X-Men is the only Aaron comic I like, that's kinda damning by faint praise. It's my favorite comic written by Jason Aaron - a writer who's work I otherwise universally DESPISE - but very far away from being my favorite X-Men comic in general. Hell, it's not even the best book of the Utopia era.

It's very much something carried by it's scattered good qualities and ideas; most of the Non-Quire-And-Kilgore characters, the lighter tone in a dark period, the sense of improvement and progress for Xavier's dream, the good art, the Hellfire Academy as a concept, etc..

Plus as mentioned it was still liable to the Schism bullshit happening then.

Wolverine like a jackass taking an opportunity to badmouth Scott and his side every chance he got, not helped by Aaron probably really disliking Cyke.

Do you know the issue where Kitty Pryde interviews teachers? I'd like to look that up.

WaTXM issue 19

Thanx

So I've been thinking a lot about Charles. The choices he's made, the reasons he's done what he's what, and where he is now, compared to where he started, and now, at the eleventh hour, Scans Daily (which has been posting a lot of stuff of the X-Men during the Phoenix Saga, including one post I put up before that lead to Cyclops, Banshee, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus being separated from Jean and Beast—who'd been essentially guest starring) puts up this post of Xavier's first ever encounter with the Shadow King.

Despite forming the X-Men to protect both humanity and Mutants, I wonder if Xavier's first ever encounter with another mutant being such a vile man unintentionally shaped his methods, and his desire to create a friendly mutant group who humans could feel protected around.

I can't imagine Xavier encountering someone like Shadow King as his first meeting with others like himself and not being permanently scarred by the experience, causing it to influence later decisions on how he approaches mutant issues. If nothing else, it, as he himself notes, drove home just how dangerous mutant powers can be and how much responsibility came with them. For better or worse, it did prove beyond a doubt to Charles that mutants really can be something that humanity needs protection from, and you can't deny that influenced a lot of actions he takes later in life.

Edited by immortaleditor on Apr 29th 2024 at 2:29:41 AM

[1]Beck had indeed come back. Old Man Logan came after Civil War (2006) and one of its tie-ins featured Beck's return.

What makes Shadow King so vile is that he's so petty. His whole thing is indulging his extreme hedonism. But he forces other people to suffer the consequences of it since he possesses them in order to live out his desires.

Shadow King was particularly bad for Xavier since he wasn't just the first other mutant he met, he was also the first other telepath.

Edited by M84 on Apr 29th 2024 at 10:39:58 PM

Yeah, exactly. Like, imagine you're Xavier. You live your life with this huge secret, this bizarre power that seems unique to you. As you travel the world trying to understand it, you finally meet someone else with powers... and that someone else is a near-literal fucking demon who is basically a dark mirror of you, using his powers - the exact same powers as you - to do horrific evil. A mirrored version of yourself that's so far removed from humanity that he's basically an Eldritch Abomination that toys with everyone he meets in nightmarish ways - not even necessarily out of sadism, more just because he can. And the encounter ends with you being forced to fight that monster on a terrifying mental plane of existence where everything is constantly shifting and changing, concluding with you exorcising it and walking away as the supposed body of your nemesis falls over dead, having been nothing more than a skinsuit the monster wore.

With that being his first experience of mutant-on-mutant relations, it's frankly miraculous that Xavier didn't go full Boomerang Bigot.

Even more incredible since he kept meeting mutants who used their powers to hurt others. Including his own best friend.

I liked that Legion took that plot line and made it the whole myth arc of the series.

While I don't like the Legion show very much and have endless criticisms for it (ironically, considering it hits a lot of points I like to see in X-Men, but I feel does them badly), I'll always praise it for having a fantastic portrayal of Shadow King. It's one of the few entries in the franchise that really captures how Claremont intended him; less a person and more a demonic Humanoid Abomination with no real connection to human thought that can and will destroy the world if allowed to, simply because it has the power to do so and the Lack of Empathy to not care about the lives it ruins, and while it's capable of appearing human like any good devil, you don't have to dig far to see the real horror and it is ultimately so powerful that he's less "stopped" and more just convinced to do his thing in a less destructive manner.

I actually kind of prefer the idea that Shadow King is just an evil man, but one who is even more dangerous due to his power.

Not just that.

Remember that Charles saw how power could be abused even before he met another Mutant.

His Stepfather beat him, and turned Cain into a bully as well. Cain then became an invincible asshole who was only stopped because he accidentally buried himself under a mountain.

So now he goes around looking to learn more about his powers, and he finally meets someone like himself, and as others have pointed out, said other person like himself is a monster.

By this point, Charles has had so much experience with chuckleheads who abuse the power they are granted that it's no wonder he keeps betraying his students. He has no examples of positive authority figures at all.

So we have a mutant who's learned just how dangerous other mutants can be, and one who's also been beaten down by those with soft forms of power.

I can see why Charles wanted to protect the world from mutants, but also why he wanted to set a better example for others, and why he went for a path of acceptance, the kind he never got from his Step-Dad, or from Cain (though their relationship has gone back and forth on getting better or worse).

At the same time, his decision to teach young mutants to control their powers so that they weren't a threat to themselves or other was unambiguously a good thing.

It also explains why he's such a terrible father to his own son David.

Edited by M84 on Apr 30th 2024 at 12:00:20 AM

Well said.

Huh. Didn't even think of that. Makes the entire thing sadder.

Thanks. It all kinda just came to me. I usually suck a lot more at this kind of thing.

I guess I've been thinking a lot about Charles, his continued alienation from the X-Men, and his portrayals in other media.

And in realizing that his worse traits have been sanded off in those other portrayals, I've slowly been getting an understanding of who he is in the comics, and I've been left wondering what his place in the next stage of the X-men Universe will even be.

In the most recent comics, Xavier has outright said he has no place in the future of mutants anymore. His time has passed.

That's probably why he's going all out with the manipulative bullshit. He has no intention of being a part of whatever future mutantkind makes for itself.

Edited by M84 on Apr 30th 2024 at 12:38:23 AM

Sad to hear, but expected.

Meanwhile, Magneto seems to be having something of a renaissance.

What's his role going to be in the next era? Has it been mentioned if he's on any teams?

The promo artwork for the next big arc has him leading a team of X-Men from a floating hoverchair.

So he's basically taking Xavier's role. Again.

Magneto was right.

Except now he thinks he was wrong.

As X-Plain the X-Men put it, Magneto Raised Some Valid Points. He wasn't completely right, but he also wasn't wrong.

And again with Magneto, as has been stated, time, time, and time again, Magneto was incredibly ground level with a lot of the worst of what humanity and their monstrous prejudices had to offer... only just recently starting to find the best for his fellow mutants, maybe even some fellow humans... and we have him here and now, shaping up to be the leader of this new era, not many will be comfortable with at first, but perhaps the leader they need.

(Just to point this out, Magneto is one of my absolute favorite Marvel characters there is, so I'm intrigued to see how he plays out.)

Xavier hating David because he sees too much of himself makes sense.

Wolverine also fits into that too. It's noted that Logan is overall a better mentor than a father to his actual kids, and it's implied because Logan sees too much of the qualities that he hates about himself in his own kids like Laura and Daken.

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 30th 2024 at 5:59:12 AM