This thread's for all of the X-Men comics and spin-offs (X-Force, X-Factor, New Mutants etc.), whether they're decades old or brand new.
- Apart from the main Marvel Universe titles, Ultimate X-Men, X-Men 2099, X-Men "What If?" stories, crossovers, guest appearances in other books, Alternate Universe tales and things like Marvel's manga adaptations are all on-topic here.
- X-Men 'family' books are on-topic (as are their own crossovers, guest appearances etc.) - e.g. Wolverine, Deadpool, Ms. Marvel and Cable.
- Characters and comics that originated in X-Men and its related books but are no longer connected to the franchise are not on-topic, unless you're discussing historical connections and crossovers. If in doubt, check before you write a long post. If this isn't the right place, there's a more general Marvel Comics thread
which covers them.
Technically, Marvel's Infinity Comics (and their predecessors, Infinite Comics) are webcomics, not comic books, but it's fine to talk about their X-Men related stories here.
Discussions that are only about X-Men adaptations in other media (films, video games etc.) are off-topic, but discussing the differences between the adaptations and the original comics is fine - as long as spoilers for the adaptations are tagged.
Please follow the spoiler policy rules
- tag spoilers for the latest issues, for any previews or content leaks, and for off-topic comics. When including spoiler tags, try to write so that tropers can make an informed decision before viewing them (e.g. which series and issue will they spoil?).
I have to say that the X Men franchise has been going on for decades. Maybe not as many as the Superman franchise has, but it still has quite a number to it.
One thing I am certain of is that the franchise seems to be subverting Status Quo Is God in recent years. Magneto and Professor Xavier seem to be fading into the background, with Cyclops and Wolverine taking their places. A lot of villains associated to the X-Men have been killed off and have actually stayed dead so far.
All this gives me the general impression that the franchise is trying to reinvent itself. Do you think that's what's going on here?
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 29th 2023 at 10:02:23 AM
I think part of the fun of Mystique and Destiny is they are two of the most singularly awful people in the X-men franchise.
I always liked that Mystique and Sabertooth had a good relationship because they were just both irredeemably evil.
Even if she prefers Irene.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
The Formatter
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
"Be gay, do crime" I guess.note
he/him
Mystique's been all over the place, Depending on the Writer. The casually horrible Mystique of X-Men Black is pretty different to the star of the two year Mystique solo series, if memory serves.
If this gives us a more consistent characterisation and opens the door to more stories, I'm good with that.
My impression of Mystique was that she was loyal to Destiny, loved Nightcrawler, and that everyone else, including her other partners and children, were all tools on her journey to serve those two.
Don't forget Rogue, she loves her too.
Mystique joining the X-Men only to end up shooting Rogue and not shoot Nightcrawler is what cemented that impression of Mystique to me. That was the time Rogue tried to kill Mystique immediately after recovering only to learn her touch wasn't lethal anymore and she was now being taunted by a copy of Mystique in her head. So Wolverine tried to hunt down and kill Mystique for Rogue.
Goku Black
Tbf that really depends on the comic. Like sometimes she Truly loves Rogue and nightcrawler. Other times not so much.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Surrounded by weirdoes
Then again, Mystique and Destiny's understanding of love is so messed up that Rogue and Kurt better keep their guards up around them.
Wake me up at your own risk.
The Head of the Hydra
Wolverine's new creative team announced
Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
The Head of the Hydra
I think the problem with Mystique and Destiny's relationship is because its a romance between 2 women, Marvel expects us to be more invested in the relationship, forgetting the 2 are still technically awful people.
Its like its great they genuinely love each other, but they are still brutal supervillains. Its like wanting readers to be happy that Sabretooth or Carnage found the love of their lives and devoting a lot of page-time to how deeply in love they are while apparently forgetting these guys are still mass-murdering bastards.
Like how the reveal about Mystique and Destiny's true parentage is significant in real life for what it represents but in-universe it should be pretty meaningless. Sure Mystique is Nightcralwer's biological father but what does that change? She still treated him pretty awful, and this extends to her other children. Graydon's entire hatred of Mutants stems from having Sabretooth and Mystique as parents while she's also attempted to ruin Rogue's relationship with Gambit, including up to trying to seduce him to break them up.
Mother, father, doesn't matter which way you cut it Mystique has been a figure of misery and despair in the lives of all her children.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Oh, bother.
Heck, even Victor Creed turned out to be a better parent for Graydon.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Yeah, it says a lot about how awful Mystique is that Sabretooth was the better parent to Graydon and had genuine moral objections to how Raven treated him.
Like, just because Mystique and Destiny are in lesbians with each other doesn't mean we need to pretend they're the real heroes. LGBT people don't need to be condescended to with Flawless Token type characters, people can deal with two women in love who are also hideously awful abusers towards their children; it's not as if the comic so much as even lightly implies that their lesbianism/bisexuality has anything to do with the abuse, it doesn't. And we have plenty of heroic LGBT characters to offset two villainous ones. It's fine, we can handle Mystique and Destiny being narcissistic moms to their kids.
Pretty much the main reasons why they're getting the focus instead of heroic lesbian X-couples like Betsy & Rachel or Karma & Galura are tenure from being created by Chris Claremont as well as the fact that their heel-tweener turn is generating discussions like the one on this thread.
The Head of the Hydra
Yeah I agree, they are giving them focus because of the controversy it generates.
Headlining a relationship between 2 heroes wouldn't generate as extreme a reaction as with 2 villains.
Edited by slimcoder on May 9th 2024 at 12:28:03 PM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
The Formatter
Question. I want to make a new page for the original 66 issue run on X-Men, before Giant-Size X-Men #1, but I don't know what to call it. Any ideas?
It's gonna be fun on the bun!
𐀀𐀩𐀯𐀂𐀰𐀅𐀡𐀄
Sorry if this is a very awkward question, but has there ever been an X-men plot about corporations chasing the mutant demographics? Not as in the usual, just awkward marketing and the like.
Secret Signature
Oh, bother.
No, when corpos get involved with mutant stuff in X-Men it's usually comicbook villainy shenanigans.
Edited by M84 on May 10th 2024 at 5:51:18 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
It usually involves Sentinels.
𐀀𐀩𐀯𐀂𐀰𐀅𐀡𐀄
I feel like Grant Morrison was one of the only writers interested in writing mutants as a culture like that.
Krakoa, for all its benefits, went too far in the other direction for that to be viable, too. Their attempts to expand on a mutant nation's thought process fell flat for me a lot of the time. Remember the mutant religion?
I think the closest we ever got was when a pop star dated Chamber because she thought it would be good for her image.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
The Morrison era and the stuff written during - both from Morrison themself and the other writers - had a lot of that mutant culture stuff, which is a big part of what made that period so damn good. Amongst other things we got the whole X-Statix saga with them being celebrities who take advantage of being mutants for easy fame, mutant communities like Mutanttown, mutants having their own equivalent to wiggers in the form of the U-Men and Sublime's other followers, and so on.
he/him
A long and thoughtful piece on Magneto, his publication history, his Jewish identity, and how he's entwined with RL history.
Found it via Kieron Gillen, who shared on social media and described it as "really strong". So it probably reflects some of Gillen and/or Ewing's Krakoa-era view of him. It's certainly positive about Ewing's recent miniseries.
(And, yes, part of this also talks about the current RL situation in the Middle East, which is a topic we should not bring into forum discussions - but there's plenty of other elements in there too)
Edit: In tangentially related news, someone pointed out that Kate Pryde is Kitty again in the post-Krakoa era. Not sure how I feel about that one. I'm glad to see her step away from the killing spree of Fall of X, less glad to see her pick up the teen nickname again.
Edited by Mrph1 on May 10th 2024 at 4:08:58 PM
I'm the opposite on the name thing, her dumping the Kitty nickname came off as a pathetic attempt to make her seem more "serious" and "powerful" as if adults never use nicknames, so her letting people call her Kitty again feels, ironically, more mature than Krakoa having her abandon it.
Enigma maybe being Hope's dad is... I don't know how to feel about it.