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#Emma “Worst time to be a telepath” Frost

dracaelus · 24 days

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CHERIK FIC RECS

Angst (multiple levels of angst)

too close to the sun, by joshriku: 3, 683 words, charles pov, canon compliant to Jean Grey #1 (2023) (i think it's better to read the issue first, but it's not really necessary)

Jean Grey erases Magneto's mind - or so she thinks. When Charles finds his body, he brings it back to the mansion, and begins the arduous task of putting Erik's mind together. Of course, when it comes to Erik and persevering, it's always a lot more effective than he expects.

To Breathe Again (Impossibilities Remix), by Unforgotten: Erik's pov from the original movies timeline. The old men are old!!! It's a 3,879 words oneshot and it's beautiful

After Liberty Island, you think you must have burned that bridge at last. After Alkali Lake, you're even more certain. What once seemed so easy is now an impossibility, and the dream that once plagued you no longer comes.

Then Charles dies and you know: Going home was never truly impossible until now.

This is not easily described by a single genre methinks

superposition, by borninsideatornado: The racer car driver au! This one has some angst yes, but it didn't feel right to put it in the angst category bc there's so much more to it! This story is about healing. It's also about racing cars. And it's also a romance ! Charles and Erik have an amazing dynamic, but then so does Erik and Emma, Erik and Pietro (the father and son are father and son'ing!) and the entire team tbh. Really fun to read!

erik is a race car driver coming off the worst year of his life. charles xavier may be his last hope.

Time to Grow, by zarah5: 20K oneshot, Charles pov. Fluffy fix-it

In which you'll find chess dates which aren't dates (or maybe Charles is wrong about that). -- Based on First Class, this turns (slightly) AU during the beach scene.

Comedy

Fathers and sons, by M_Leigh: 6K oneshot, Hank pov. So fucking funny

“I have an – interest – in Peter Maximoff,” Erik said, somewhat grudgingly, glaring. “A – familial – interest –”

Everybody stared at him.

“In that – mutantkind is one – large – family –” Erik said valiantly, if pathetically.

“Oh, shit,” Alex said. “No way. No way.”

i guess i should say thanks or some shit: au but they do have powers, 17K oneshot, charles pov

believe it or not, charles has a well-thought-out moral philosophy. he doesn’t follow it. but he has thought it out. alternatively: charles and erik douche it up in amsterdam

Frosted hearts, by aesc & palalife: 29K oneshot, multipov, the main focus is cherik, and it comes with art!

Emma Frost has 99 problems, but a date ain't one. Specifically, she has no time to play the dating game--which is fine with her, because she'd much rather run it instead. From a set of sleek, silver and white offices on Fifth Avenue and with her trusty, stylish, and silent partner Janos Quested, Emma has built Frosted Hearts into New York City's premiere dating service, built on the principle that money, and a sufficiently rigorous psionic scan, can, in fact, buy you love.

Somewhere in Frosted Hearts's server is one Charles Xavier, genius and geneticist, with the kind of nicely-starched good looks that sell well on brochures for New England prep schools. He's also a telepath who's decided to give up pursuing serious relationships and instead spend his thirties doing what he should have done as a teenager: have a lot of sex with random people. Fortunately for him, Erik Lehnsherr, metallokinetic and engineering executive, has absolutely no time in his heart or his schedule for anything more serious than... well, absolutely nothing romantic at all.

#cherik #drac fic recs

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positivelybeastly · 14 days

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Hey, it's been a while since I rambled on about Beast things, and I have something in mind. Let's talk about Hank McCoy . . .

From Earth-1610, the Ultimate Universe.

So, you often hear the generalisation thrown out that the original Ultimate Universe was, widely, garbage and full of far too much 2000s edge to be of worth if your name wasn't Spider-Man. And, by and large, that's true. There is some truly heinous shit in there, and certain issues . . . well, certain issues would likely have trigger warnings if they were made now.

But.

It wasn't all trash.

No, some of it was just tragic.

So, Hank McCoy, recruited to join the X-Men, age 17 I believe? He's your standard Hank - super genius (though that tendency is dialled back in this universe), devilish wit, bouncing, bounding hero with a good heart. Honestly, there's not a ton of differences to him, at least, on first glance. The only major difference is this.

Oh.

So, yeah, this version of Hank didn't have the Edna and Norton McCoy that I spend my life extolling the virtues of. He doesn't have this.

He has this.

Apologies for the language contained within, this is an Ultimate comic. But, yeah, this is . . . this is not great. And it's kind of horrifying to me, to think about how different Hank ends up, depending on how parents. 616 Hank was one of the most moral, lovely, warm, and emotionally open people you could have ever hoped to meet. He wasn't without his problems, but he was all right. He was stable.

Dark Beast, well . . . he grew up in a nightmare apocalypse Darwinist hellworld, so he didn't really stand a chance. His only parental figure was Mister fucking Sinister.

And 1610/Ultimate Hank had . . . them. And that's all it really takes.

Because Hank does have nice things, to start with. He's a good kid. He tries, anyway. He's just a little off in his own head - this is a Hank who's very much of the internet age, so as well as reading books, he spends a lot of his time on blogs, watching movies . . .

Watching a lot of 24 hour news coverage.

Internalising a lot of things.

And eventually it just . . . becomes a little too much. All the insecurities just mount, all the self-hatred becomes a little too acute.

Yeah, Beast and Storm are together in this universe. Kinda wild, huh?

But it's just so . . . awful, to me, to see him internalising all of this, and thinking that it's true. And the worst part is, he has every reason in the world to think that the Professor does this, because in this universe, the Professor really does do it! All the time! Every single time you thought he might be fucking with someone's head, yeah, he actually is!

So he has every right to be worried.

Every time he beats back the insecurity, the worry, the fear . . .

It comes back so much more acutely next time.

He ends up running from Xavier to Emma Frost, who is. Very different, but still running a Massachusetts Academy, which is going to be government sanctioned. An alternative to Xavier, since they're worried about telepathic interference in the President's head (Ultimate Emma only has diamond skin in this universe, no telepathy). And you know what the kicker is?

The ultimate irony?

Yes, pun intended.

"He's a teddy bear. He tests well."

People like him. They don't see him as threatening. He's soft, and warm, and intellectual, and he's just . . . every negative thought he has, it's in his head. It's in his head, where it can do the most damage.

Because of this.

God, it fucking kills me.

And then this happens.

Fucking kills me.

In the comments, you see a lot of people haranguing Hank - because of course they do, there are some things that are just multiversal constants - and they just . . . don't get it.

They don't get that self-doubt and insecurity and self-loathing and the fear that you'll never be worth anything, the fear that you never were worth anything, the belief that all you do is fuck up, that no-one could possibly like you for you, that they're all just pretending, it's all just one big joke and you're waiting for the shoe to drop, they don't get it.

They don't get it.

I have no idea how in the hell Brian Michael Bendis of all people managed to stitch together a decent narrative out of this, considering all the constituent parts he was handed and his limited skill as a writer, but I actually have to give Bendis kudos for once, this arc . . . this arc hit me.

It's one of the great tragedies of the Ultimate Universe, to me. This is the core difference between 616 and 1610 boiled down to one character arc. In one universe, Hank is one of the most popular mutants in the world, a beloved icon, X-Man, Avenger, Defender, the Bouncing Blue Beast!

In another, he never claws out of that pit of insecurity, and it kills him as surely as any disease or Sentinel.

#outofmuffins #hank mccoy #henry mccoy #child abuse tw #slurs tw #bullying tw #death tw

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heckcareoxytwit · 2 months

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The Formerly-Dead X-Men (consisting of Frenzy, Cannonball, Jubilee, Dazzler and Prodigy) land into a timeline where it was it had the worst kind of robot attack by the Ultrons - both regular-size and giant-size like Sentinels. Frenzy notes that Prodigy must be in agony being around all these minds but though he doesn't know why he feels fine and his powers are completely under control. It's possible the shard in his chest is alleviating the symptoms of his unlocked powers. Jubilee is like that's reassuring and super ominous at the same time. They are almost crushed by the foot of an Ultron-Sentinel but Frenzy and Sam work together to take it out. Prodigy absorbed so much from Cyborg-Moira that he's not sure what timeline they're in so he runs towards a newsstand. He learns from a newspaper that Simon Trask was killed and immediately knows where/when they are. Even though AU Moira MacTaggert did kill the AU Trask family in the timeline, it did not stop anyone from producing mutant-hunting robots.

Then, the group hear the mental voice that sounded like a distress call and Jubilee notes that it wasn't Rachel Summers, it was someone else. The Formerly-Dead X-Men find that the person responsible for the mental distress call was AU Emma Frost. They find this reality's Emma, bloodied and holding one of her students who is unconscious (or dead). Emma starts to collapse and Jubilee breaks her fall, holding her. She asks Emma what happened who is starting to turn diamond for the first time. She's weak and doesn't recognize them. Prodigy says the only impressions he's picking up from her are of the Massachusetts Academy. Jubilee tends to her and asks her what they're up against. Dazzler is concerned they're already changing too much of the timeline by intervening. Emma says she'll show them what has happened.

They find out that AU Emma was present in the meeting with AU Henry Gyrich and AU Hank Pym discussing about the human-and-mutant relations which had gotten worse since the assassination of Trask family. AU Hank Pym wasn't sure about using Ultron as a new forms of Sentinels. AU Emma was against the idea while Henry Gyrich the mutant hater has vouched for the Ultron-Sentinel idea. Unfortunately, the meeting is cut short when Cyborg-Moira appears out of nowhere to kill Henry Gyrich and this prompts the Ultron-Sentinels to attack anyone in its path. The Formerly-Dead X-Men recognize her from AU Emma's telepathic projection but don't understand how she got to this timeline. Frenzy asks Prodigy to scan his mind to see if this happened before in any of Moira's lives and he sadly says no, that Cyborg-Moira just changed everything and he feels it's all their fault for changing the path to begin with. Jubilee cries as AU Emma dies in her arms. The Formerly-Dead X-Men vow that they must find Moira MacTaggert and stop her at all costs.

Dead X-Men #2, 2024

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argyleheir · 3 months

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love! 💞

Aw, thanks for the ask, Anonymous <3 Here are five from some of my favorite fandoms I've ever written for...

The Ghost and A. J. Crowley (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, Rated G) - A heartwarming tale of grisly ghost plants and fearsome floral apparitions. Parallax (X-Men First Class, Charles/Erik, Rated E) - After the mission at the Russian Military Retreat, Erik wonders how much Charles' powers mirror those of Shaw's telepath, Emma Frost. Charles is just wound-up and jet lagged enough to show him. Sleeperhold (MCU, Steve/Bucky, Rated T) - He's hardwired to disappear. The Naming of Things (Life On Mars, Sam/Gene, Rated M) - It wasn't the worst arrangement in the history of the world. Red in Tooth and Claw (Dracula, Dracula/Jonathan, Rated M) - Four times Dracula bites Jonathan—and one time Jonathan bites back.

#ask argyle #my fic #fanfic ask memes

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spiralcass · 10 months

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NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 1, EPISODE 13 (PART 2 of 2) (SEASON FINALE)

We open many years ago in a time and place we’ve seen before. A conservatively dressed, teenage Jean Grey steps out of a car, arriving at the Xavier Institute and looking at it in awe. As she comes through the front gates, Professor Xavier and his four X-Men come to greet her outside. While Xavier is polite and cordial and Iceman couldn’t seem any less interested, Cyclops, Beast, and Angel all introduce themselves overly eagerly with lustful intentions.

While Jean seems less than impressed and put off by Warren and Hank, respectively, she’s charmed by Scott’s approach as he takes her hand, bends down, and kisses it. While she giggles as he does this, when he stands up, he finds he’s now shrouded in darkness, and Jean’s eyes are aflame.

In one swift motion, she reaches into his chest and pulls his heart out.

JEAN: “We are the reason your heart beats, and yet you break ours? You do not deserve this, Scott Summers.”

Scott falls over onto his back as the two both become their adult selves. Jean grins down at Scott as his eyes bulge and his body convulses as he bleeds out from the gaping wound in his chest.

We cut straight to another past event, this one somewhere we haven’t been before. A slightly younger Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Mastermind, and other men all dressed like they’re from the 1800s have a toast to their new Black Queen. Said Black Queen is revealed to be Jean, who joins them in their toast, adding in that’s it to their defeat of the X-Men, and the world which will soon be theirs.

Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler, all captured and restrained, look on in horror as they call out to their friend, shouting at her that they’re brainwashing her in an attempt to reach her.

Emma possessively puts an arm around Jean, evil smirks on both of their faces, and asks what she has to say to these peasants for insulting them like this.

Jean’s eyes ignite as she spins around and tears Emma’s arm off. As Emma screams in agony and darkness surrounds them, the two become their modern selves.

JEAN: “You have always been a wicked witch, Emma Frost. We gave you a second chance, and you failed in the worst way you could have: you corrupted a good soul. You do not deserve the gift of life.”

As Emma continues to scream, we cut to her bedroom in the Institute, where Rachel is sweating, spell circles over both Scott and Emma’s heads.

RACHEL: “Come on, come on, come on…”

There’s a flash of red light and Rachel is sent flying back across the room as Cyclops and Emma jolt awake, gasping.

While Emma is struggling to compose herself, Rachel gets up, rubbing her “roughed up booty”, and asks her dad if he’s feeling well enough she can smack him for being a dirty cheater.

SCOTT: “...what have I done?”

The room turns silent as he and Emma continue to shiver.

In her estate, Nova sips her tea with her eyes closed. Every sentinel she’s deployed has been destroyed, but she still has 20 left. And with the Dark Phoenix coming to Earth, everything is falling into place.

In space, we find the Dark Phoenix speeding past planet after planet on her way back to Earth, a manic grin spread across her face, and the phoenix aura ten times her size.

In the Blackbird, Storm is arming every single one of the ship’s weapons they don’t normally use, Betsy seated in the front next to her. In the back of the ship, Kitty is clearly freaking out, and just trying to stay composed. Roberto, smiling with all his shiny teeth showing, asks what she’s so worried about.

ROBERTO: “You love bragging about how many times you’ve saved the world! And unless you were betraying your poor friend’s trust and lying to me, you’ve saved the whole universe. Why do you think this time will be any different?”

KITTY, holding herself: “Would you believe me I told you things have never been this bad? The X-Men have stopped the Phoenix, they’ve stopped armies of Sentinels, and they’ve stopped evil telepaths, but never all at once. And never because of our own mistakes.”

Roberto asks Kitty exactly what she means, with her everyone for this situation. Scott for being a dick who couldn’t keep it in his pants and for bringing Emma in in the first place, Emma for “seducing” Scott, Jean for not just crying into a tub of ice cream after getting cheated on like a normal woman, and the rest of them for not noticing how “too good to be true” Jean had been lately, and not seeing that she was one trigger away from blowing up.

KITTY: “I’m supposed to be the smart one, aren’t I?”

Roberto laughs and shakes his head. Maybe they did all screw up. Maybe they should have done more. And maybe the situation right now is more dire than ever. But they have a plan, and they need to trust it.

ROBERTO: “Never, ever, second guess a plan.”

Kitty still doesn’t seem reassured, so Roberto makes her a bet: If they survive this with no one getting killed, he gets to use her makeup whenever he wants, without asking.

Kitty giggles. “And if someone does die?”

ROBERTO: “Not going to happen, so not worth thinking much about. I don’t know…I’ll buy you something pretty?”

Kitty snort laughs.

ROBERTO: “There she is!”

KItty sighs as she calms down. “I wish I could be as carefree as you, Beto.”

ROBERTO: “It’s a gift.”

With the Blackbird ready to go, Storm shouts on the coms, demanding to know where Wolverine is.

Elsewhere in the institute, Laura tells her she’ll be there in two minutes. She’s making sure they’re ready.

Laura arrives in the medical bay, where the training squad and Roxy surrounded Noriko, who Beast’s just finished patching up. Several former X-Men are far more severely wounded and are asleep in beds.

BEAST: “Well, Ms. Kinney, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that you didn’t actually break anything in your little scuffle, but you did give the poor girl a concussion. I believe an apology is in order, yes?”

LAURA: “Sorry.”

Noriko flips her off with both hands.

As everyone walks out of the med bay on Beast’s request so that he can look after his more in-need patients, Julian asks what she’s doing here. Shouldn’t she be with the X-Men?

LAURA: “Yes. And so should you.”

Laura tells them that they were right. She was worried about them, and she didn’t want them getting hurt, especially not because of her, but the amateurs she saw in that foodfight at the start of the semester don’t even resemble who Wind Dancer, Surge, and Hellion are now. The rate of their growth has been incredible. And while she’s sure they’re not done growing, they are ready.

LAURA: “All of you are.”

Brian and the other girls look shocked. Laura tells Cessily that she was in that foodfight too. Is she going to tell her she’s stayed stagnant while those three have grown so much? And while Sooraya may lack experience fighting villains, her performance scores have always kept up with Surge and Wind Dancer’s.

LAURA: “You two believed in me that I could handle Sabretooth. I believe you two can handle this.”

Laura looks to Brian.

Brian shakes his head. “No. I can’t do it. Literally! I literally cannot fight giant robots!”

Laura smirks. “Obviously. But if one comes to the school, you can make them run away, and no one HAS to fight them.”

Brian is nervous, but appreciates the vote of confidence. And he does want to help.

BRIAN: “I can do that, Creepy Girl. I can do that.”

Julian cheers.

JULIAN: “This is so IT! Everyone else in school already knows I’m the best Mutant here besides Laura and deserve to be an X-Man too, and by the end of today, Storm will see that too.” Julian takes Sofia’s hand. “I promised you we’d be heroes together. And now I’m gonna show you what a hero I can be.”

Sofia grins.

SOFIA: “I have been afraid. I have been afraid of being hurt again, and of how I can hurt others.” She clenches Julian’s hand. “But I know that so long as I have all of you at my side, I have nothing to fear.”

Noriko groans.

NORIKO: “I still think anyone who wants to be an X-Man is cuckoo banana pants crazy.” Noriko cracks her shoulder. “So call me crazy, I guess.”

Cessily and Sooraya nod in agreement. Roxy is clearly terrified by what’s going on, so Cessily wraps her arms around her and kisses her on the lips. She promises they’re all coming home safe.

CESSILY: “I am NOT setting a world record for shortest lived relationship by getting killed!”

Laura grins. These are her friends. These are the people she can count on to watch her back.

LAURA: “Let’s go.”

As the Blackbird takes off, the four adults and six kids heading off to take on Nova, Scott and Emma rush toward the hangar so they can take one of their smaller ships so they can intercept Dark Phoenix before she reaches Genosha, Scott having been contacted by Xavier, while Emma gets a headache from the psionic energy Jean is emanating from across the solar system.

EMMA: “I haven’t touched hard drugs in years, but my mind is going to need them to recover from all this. Care to join me, Mr. Summers?”

SCOTT: “Don’t. Don’t make jokes. Don’t talk to me. We made a mistake. A big one. The only reason you’re coming with me instead of Rachel is if killing us is the only thing which will make Jean calm down. Even if we live through today, this is never happening again.”

EMMA, sarcastically: “Oh no, I’m so crushingly disappointed. Wherever will I find another man like you?”

Scott makes it into the hangar and, while he isn’t looking, Emma is visibly more upset by his words than she let on.

In the Blackbird, Hellion and Wind Dancer are holding hands, nervous but excited to prove themselves, Surge is anxiously tapping her foot at super speed, Mercury is struggling to stay solid with all the nerves she’s feeling, and Dust is praying. Laura meanwhile gets psychically linked up to Storm and Betsy.

Storm wants to know if Laura really trusts her friends for this mission. There’s no doubt they’re talented, but she should have consulted her on this instead of running off on her own and giving her no choice but to bring them. Laura promises they proved themselves to her. If she’s really an equal X-Man to the others, they’ll trust her judgement.

Storm takes a breath.

STORM, under her breath: “Just like you, Logan.”

As the Blackbird rockets toward Nova’s estate, she finally stands from her seat. It’s time to get her hands a little dirty. As she exits her parlor, she psychically deploys all of her remaining sentinels.

The sentinels meet the Blackbird in the sky, or at least some of them do, as others fly off in other directions. Storm quickly calls out orders, telling Hellion and Wind Dancer to keep themselves as well as Sunspot, Laura, Surge, Dust, and Mercury airborn to deal with the sentinels, while Kitty pilots the Blackbird to back them up with its weapons, and she and Betsy make the final push toward Nova.

Everyone does as they are told as they all leave the plane, except for Kitty.

KITTY, over coms: “Beto, let’s try not to embarrass ourselves in front of the kids, alright?”

ROBERTO, floating in the sky, surrounded by sentinels with the kids: “Roberto Da Costa hasn’t embarrassed himself once in his life.”

JULIAN: “Phh. Please, Professor. Even I know that isn’t true. Now come on! Enough talk! Let’s show these tin cans what the next generation of mutants is all!...about.”

Jullian’s face falls as he looks a sentinel in the eyes and freezes up. He lets go of Sofia’s hand as his own shakes.

WIND DANCER, concerned: “Hellion?”

Still flying toward Genosha, Scott has Emma put him in contact with Magneto. Charles has already contacted Erik and informed him of the situation. He pities Jean, and should her wrath burn away all that he protects, even after death, he will never forgive Cyclops.

MAGNETO: “I expected more from you.”

Scott, hanging his head: “So did I.”

Cyclops asks if Scarlet Witch is backing him up. If he and Emma can’t calm Jean down, Wanda is the only person on Earth even capable of hurting Dark Phoenix. Magneto tells him that she isn’t even on Earth right now, instead fulfilling her mystical duties in another realm. Quicksilver and Polaris are similarly pre-occupied. He has other combatants on Genosha, but none that he’s willing to throw into this particular line of fire. All Scott can do is promise they’ll be there as soon as they can.

In the distance, Magneto can see more sentinels coming.

MAGNETO: “See that you do.”

With a pan across the ocean, we see that Nova’s estate is actually on an island only a few miles away from Genosha.

Nova calmly walks out of her house and shuts it behind her, only to grin wildly and leap out of the way as Storm calls down a bolt of lightning to strike her. Nova’s eyes light up as she looks into the sky and sees Storm and Captain Britain.

NOVA: “Storm! A pleasure to meet a goddess face to face! I hope you can live up to that title.” She turns her head to Betsy. “And you brought a friend. Captain Britain, yes? I should be honored to me a hero of your calibur…but I always preferred your brother.”

The two veteran heroes are unphased by Nova’s taunts, with Storm ordering Nova to call off her attack before they’re forced to make her.

STORM: “For all your crimes against your own people, there is no salvation for you, but you can still escape the full extent of my wrath.”

Nova hums as she rolls her head around, confusing Ororo and Betsy.

NOVA: “Wrath. One of my favorite words. And one of my favorite things to demonstrate.”

With her grin spreading unnaturally across her face, Nova blasts Nova and Betsy out of the sky with a psychic wave. Storm and Betsy get right back up, however, and with the winds summoned and sword and shield drawn, the two charge into battle.

Nearby, Sunspot is punching and blasting away at all the Sentinels in the sky, while Laura chops them up, Surge and Dust hit them with everything they’ve got, and Kitty provides cover fire from the Blackbird, Hellion is frozen, with Wind Dancer having to keep everyone airborn herself, while also keeping Julian from getting killed, and Cessily is crying, using her powers purely to dodge and run away in terror, shouting that she’s sorry and she can’t do this.

KITTY, taking note of what’s going on: “Dammit.”

SUNSPOT, over comms: “Care to step in with a motivational speech? Those aren’t really my style.”

Kitty pinches her forehead.

KITTY, over comms: “Don’t have time for this. Wind Dancer, get everyone to the ground and get Hellion out of there! Wolverine, grab Mercury NOW and jump! Surge, Dust keep up the good work! We are not losing anyone!”

Laura, pissed and growling, tries to reach Cessily, but a Sentinel gets in her way, delaying her. Wind Dancer meanwhile completely ignores orders, instead adding to her current tasklist by going on the offensive against the sentinels herself, slicing away at their outer armor with sharp winds, and by electing to do something different about the current problem they face.

WIND DANCER: “Julian, I understand you’re afraid, believe me, I understand, but we need you right now.”

HELLION: “I…I can’t. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t.”

Kitty once again shouts at Sofia to get everyone down NOW, while Laura continues to fight, and Mercury is clearly getting tired.

WIND DANCER: “Please. Don’t you want to be a great hero?”

Julian tenses up, clenching his fists and on the verge of tears.

HELLION: “Do I look like a hero, Sofia? Guess I was all talk. Ashida will get a good kick out of–”

Sofia slaps him. Julian is confused, but Sofia just looks at him sternly.

SOFIA: “There are two things I know about my new boyfriend. Number one: He never doubts his greatness. And number two: He’d never, ever, do anything which would make Noriko look better than him.”

JULIAN: “Sofia…”

SOFIA: “ARE you my new superhero boyfriend, or are you going to tell everyone at school that Surge is better than Hellion?”

The two stare each other down…until Julian untenses and smirk spread across his face.

JULIAN: “Not a chance.”

Julian gives Sofia a quick kiss on the lips before shrounding everyone in his TK fields and jumping into the fight to save Mercury from an incoming attack.

HELLION: “Sorry about that, everyone! It won’t happen again. Now you get out of your funk too, Cess! I know you’re better than this!”

Using his TK, Julian helps Mercury re-solidify in her base form and carries away her tears.

JULIAN: “Remember when we met? I told you how you could show everyone at school everything your awesome body can do. Time to show the world.”

With a warm, charming style from Julian, Cessily sniffles one more time before recomposing herself.

Laura finally takes out the sentinel she was fighting and reaches the two, Sofia flying over to them at the same time.

LAURA: “You three ready to actually help now?”

MERCURY: “If you and Julian know I can do this, then I have to accept it.”

SOFIA: “Apologies for the delay.”

Laura smirks “Good. Couldn’t have you all making me look dumb.”

The four of them re-enter the main fray together.

In the sky above Genosha, Magneto battles a whole squad of sentinels by himself. Impressive as that is, he notes that this shouldn’t even be a fight at all, yet somehow they’re somewhat resistant to his magnetism. There’s something different about these sentinels.

Scott and Emma finally arrive, ready to back Erik up, but as Emma carries the two of them out of their ship, something odd happens: Magneto, the sentinels, and all the in-progress attacks are frozen in place.

EMMA: “I don’t suppose there are any Mutants on Genosha with control over time?”

SCOTT: “Not that I’m aware of.”

The two shield their eyes from a blinding light as Jean, still shrouded in a massive Dark Phoenix force, cackles. She’s been waiting for them. And she wanted some privacy. Before she burns this world to ashes, she wants to do some quick “couples counseling”.

Storm attacks Nova were lightning strikes and winds clearly far heavier than Sofia’s, but they fail to do anything against Nova’s psychic shield, as she leaps into the sky and launches another psychic wave at Ororo and Betsy. This time, Betsy is able to block the attack with her shield, though it does leave her with a bloody nose.

NOVA: “Hmm. Best deal with you first.”

Nova’s eyes glow white as Betsy’s forcibly turn purple. As Storm continues her assault on Nova, Nova’s battle with Betsy takes to the astral plane, as giant, psychically projected versions of themselves engage in combat, with Betsy unable to do anything against Nova’s raw power but play defense.

NOVA: “I can’t say I know anything about you personally, Captain, but do you really believe you’re fit to stand in Brian Braddock’s shoes? You wear those colors, that armor, and represent the greatest country in the world. Nobility or not, is that really a job for a…” she snickers. “...a woman like yourself?”

As Storm finally manages to land a clean hit on Nova, Betsy too is able to start striking back.

BETSY: “You’re the sister of Charles Xavier. You’re a Mutant. What could possibly make you hate us like this?”

NOVA: “If a spider nearly stopped you from being born, if you vividly remembered it trying to kill you, wouldn’t you hate all spiders?”

BETSY: “We are not spiders!”

NOVA: “Nor are you real. Not really. And with every one of you I kill, I make Charles suffer that much more. And that, dear girl, is the only thing that really matters.”

Pulling off a wild aerial maneuver in the Blackbird, Kitty is contacted by Storm over the coms. She’s unsure if she and Captain Britain will be able to defeat Nova on their own. She’s requesting both she and Sunspot come to back them up, not Laura because she doesn’t have the mental defenses necessary to even approach Nova, but she ONLY wants them if she believes Wolverine and the students have the Sentinels handled on their own. It’s her call.

Outside, the kids have gotten their act together, and with Hellion having snapped out of his funk, a leader has emerged.

HELLION: “Wind Dancer, I’ll yank off their armor after you’ve worn them down, then you slash up their insides! Mercury, Dust, stop attacking them head on! Get inside them and mess em up from the inside! Surge, handless fastball!”

Julian, Sofia, Cessily, and Sooraya all do exactly as the former said, taking out several sentinels. As for the “handless fastball”, we see that it involves Surge coating herself in her electrical aura, Hellion putting an additional forcefield around her, and Surge vibrating at super speed before getting launched by Hellion. While this attack hurt’s Nori’s head more than it did in the danger room, it does succeed in putting a hole straight through a sentinel’s chest.

LAURA, over the coms: “Go, Professors. We’ve got this.”

Kitty takes one more moment to mull this over, before calling for Beto to get on board, and wishing them luck.

While the kids are on fire figuratively, it’s literal for Scott and Emma as Jean tortures them both. Emma attempts to fight back, but her psychic attacks peter out in Phoenix’s flames before they can even reach Jean.

Jean laughs.

JEAN: “Oh, Emma. You may be one of the most powerful telepaths on Earth, but you’re still only human.”

Scott begs Jean to stop and to just talk to him, only for Jean to remove his visor and force his eyes open so that she can absorb all of the optic energy he emits.

JEAN: “Consuming a world will take no effort on our part, but regrowing it will. We’ll need to be at our strongest. Consider this an involuntary apology gift, slime.”

While Jean continues to absorb Cyclops’ energy, she also turns some of it onto Emma.

As Emma screams, Jean taunts her.

JEAN: “Isn’t this a little like what you did to Jean Grey’s friends in the old days? We’re certainly enjoying ourselves enough. But unlike them, you’ve done everything to deserve this.”

Scott and Emma are completely helpless.

On both the physical and astral plains, Storm and Captain Britain aren’t fairing much better. Nova’s attacks are now not just hurting Storm, but bypassing her mental defenses to an extent, taunting her with the visuals of what her best friend is doing right now.

NOVA: “These were the people you trusted? You fought Cyclops for leadership of this team once. Perhaps you should have done it again.”

Things are even worse on the astral plane, as Betsy is simply no match for Nova. With each hit her projection takes, her real body gets more and more slashed up. Accepting she can’t win, Betsy elects to at least do what she can.

Captain Britain re-absorbs her astral self into her body and flings herself through the air and Nova.

BETSY, telepathically: “Storm! Cover!”

As Storm shrouds the two telepaths in clouds, purple and white lights flash.

As the clouds clear, Betsy has a psychic knife through Nova’s head, while Nova is gripping Betsy’s.

Betsy falls unconscious, but for the first time, Nova actually seems to be disoriented and in pain.

NOVA: “What did you do to me you little–?”

Storm cuts her off as she shifts the atmosphere around Nova to an unbearably hot temperature.

STORM: “The psychic knife shuts down a normal person’s mind, no matter their defenses. It seems it only weakened you.” With perfect timing, the Blackbird arrives, Kitty and Sunspot phasing through it and dropping down next to Storm. “But we can do the rest.”

Having gotten into a perfect rhythm and executing Julian’s orders perfectly, the kids are having the time of their lives. They’re all clearly proud of themselves, but none moreso than Laura for having made the right call in bringing them.

LAURA: “Only two left. Take them out.”

Nova meanwhile laughs. Kitty, who makes a remark that she really never needed to know what Professor Xavier with boobs would look like, questions what’s so funny.

NOVA: “What’s so funny? A lot of things in this world. Crying babies, natural disasters, wide-spread plagues and diseases…and dead children.”

As the six kids move to take out the two remaining sentinels, the machines’ eyes turn white, and a new layer of armor forms around each of them.

NOVA: “You didn’t think I’d played all my cards, did you?”

While Wolverine, Hellion, Wind Dancer, and Surge focus on attacking one of the two remaining sentinels, with little success, Mercury and Dust are able to circumvent the new armor and get inside the other one. However, once they’re inside, it electrocutes them both. As the girls scream in agony, Hellion panics and abandons his current battle to go and pull them out of there.

HELLION: “I’m the one who’s about to become an X-Man! I’m not letting any of my squad get killed here!

Julian is successfully able to extract his friends from the death machine and help them re-form before they fall unconscious.

HELLION: “Sleep tight, girls. Leave the rest to me.”

While both Storm and Sunspot blast away at the weakened Nova, the older woman now needing to actively deflect their attacks instead of passively shielding herself, Laura, Sofia, and Noriko are knocked around by one of the sentinels, unable to damage it. Wolverine shouts at Hellion to stick with the group and back them up, but he says he’s not backing down again, and is gonna make this thing pay for hurting his friends.

HELLION: “I’m never doubting myself again.”

WIND DANCER: “You idiot! This isn’t what I meant!”

Proudly proclaiming that he’s the strongest here, Hellion attempts to fight one of the “super-sentinels” on his own, throwing everything he has at it.

The results are disastrous, as the sentinel counterattacks and blasts off both of Hellion’s hands.

Everything goes silent, with Julian in shock, and horror on Sofia and Laura’s faces, before Julian cries hysterically and screams at the top of his lungs as his stubs gush blood.

Jean continues to torment Scott and Emma, both with her flames, and with more visions, as Scott gets a highlight reel of the two’s most romantic moments to shame him, while Emma is taunted with the ghosts of the Hellions, Synch, and Skin, as well as one other man. Someone who appears slightly older than Emma, but sickly, with a shaved head and a scar across his neck, who lays in a hospital bed with empty eyes.

JEAN: “Christian Frost. How did you ever think someone like you could protect anyone else if you couldn’t even protect your own brother? Destruction is all you’re good for.”

Emma seemingly cracks, but while she is hurt…

EMMA: “Fine! You win, goddess! I’m a monster! But if you’re poking around in my head, you know that I’m not ignorant about this fact! Can you say the same for yourself, or do you honestly believe you’re granting the world, and not yourself, a boon by ending it? I hope you can’t see that, because that means you don’t realize…” Emma cackles as she chokes on her own blood before it dribbles now her chin. “That means you don’t realize the final thing humanity will learn is that Emma Frost was a better hero than Jean Grey.”

The Phoenix’s grin disappears as Jean gets pissed.

The X-Men continue to battle Nova, who, between Storm and Sunspot’s attacks, and her focus being drawn toward Kitty, needing to stay aware of her at all times as she phases across and underneath the battlefield so she can’t grab her, is being worn down. But she refuses to go down and changes tactics.

With their mental defenses not as strong as Storm’s, Nova takes control over Sunspot and Kitty’s minds and forces them to fight her for her.

The kids are all mortified by what’s happened to Julian, as he continues to screams. Surge in a panic and talking super fast asks Wolverine what they should do, but with Laura flashing back to when she killed her mom, she’s frozen up. Sofia makes the call herself. They have 3 down, one critically injured, and they don’t know how to fight these new sentinels; they have to retreat.

Sofia carries everyone down to the ground, while the sentinels fly off toward their original destination.

WIND DANCER: “It’s going to be okay, Julian. I promise. Surge! Cauterize his wounds!”

SURGE: “Wh…what?”

WIND DANCER: “You should be able to do that, right? Do it now!”

While Surge charges up her hands, closing her eyes and cringing as she takes hold of Julian’s bloody nubs to cauterize them, Laura stands over her friends. Julian was maimed, Mercury and Dust are unconscious and were nearly killed, Surge is a mess, and she’s sure Wind Dancer is just forcing herself to keep a brave face.

LAURA: “I’m sorry, everyone.”

Laura falls to her knees.

Cyclops tells Dark Phoenix to kill them if she has to, but please, spare the world. He knows Jean, he knows Phoenix, and this isn’t what either of them want to do. They’ll regret it for all eternity, just like last time.

DARK PHOENIX: “Do not dare tell us what we want!”

CYCLOPS: “I’m not telling you what you want. I’m telling you what I know about you. I made a mistake. A horrible mistake I can never undo. I’m…I’m realizing things. About who I am. About my life. And not everything is how I thought it was. But I swear, I love you just as much as the day we met. And there’s no one in the world who knows you better.”

The Dark Phoenix falters, uncertainly appearing on her face, watching a vision of her and Scott’s first meeting, as it transitions into her and Scott’s wedding. She looks back at Scott solemnly.

Storm dodges Sunspot and Kitty’s attacks as she tries the old tactic of telling the two to get a hold of themselves.

STORM: “That never works.”

Storm flies up into the sky and, with a singlie bolt of lightning, knocks out Sunspot. She’s going to hit Kitty next, but when she realizes she’s disappeared, she’s momentarily distracted. Nova takes full advantage of this, seizing the split second to hit Storm will a full force mental blast. The goddess bleeds from her eyes as she’s brought to her knees.

As Storm shakes, Nova hunches over to her and puts a gun to her head.

NOVA: “Any last words?”

STORM: “I am no telepath. But I hear your words. And your actions speak louder than they ever could. You have nothing but hate inside in your heart.”

NOVA: “And all the happier for it.”

We go into slo-mo as Nova starts pressing down on the trigger, but before she can fire, Storm grabs her and gives her the full electrocution treatment, stunning Nova, making her scream in pain like she’s done to so many others, and breaking down the last of her physical defenses.

But she still stands, while Storm falls over. Nova, scorched all over her body and barely standing, laughs at Storm. She knows she could have killed her there. But she didn’t. She’s too good and pure for that. And too stupid to know better.

Nova pistol whips Storm.

NOVA: “Oh, it would have been fun to break you. Alas, I had to settle for Cyclops. Watching him kill Stryker was amusing though.”

Storm is barely conscious, but her eyes still express shock at that.

Nova puts the gun to Storm’s head once more.

But once again, she’s stopped. This time, courtesy of Katharine Anne Pryde, as she emerges from the ground and uppercuts Nova. Nova’s eyes fill with shock and bloody flies out of her mouth as her jaw is broken, and she’s knocked unconscious.

KITTY: “Count yourself lucky, you monster. I could have killed you too.”

Kitty helps Storm up, with Storm saying she cut that a little close. Betsy and Sunspot, both now conscious, approach the two, leaning on each other, express how they only had one shot at this, and needed to make sure they got it right.

Turns out, Betsy wasn’t fully knocked out by Nova’s attack; she only made her think she was, and she was in bad enough shape to sell it. She snapped Kitty out of Nova’s brainwashing, and hid her mind while she was underground so that, once Storm had sufficiently weakened her, she could nail her with a surprise attack to finish her.

BETSY: “I have to say, Sunspot, I wouldn’t have taken you for a strategist.”

ROBERTO: “Oh, you know, I’m a man of many talents.”

Kitty laughs, and checks in with the kids on the coms…only to see how they’re doing in person.

Laura, Sofia, and Noriko approach the adults, each carrying one of their friends on their backs. Laura’s eyes are lifeless, Noriko can’t stop looking at all the blood on her gauntlets, and Sofia is struggling not to cry.

Despite being in bad shape themselves, the adults rush over to the kids to look after them. Beto and Betsy look after their injured, while Kitty hugs Noriko, and Storm hugs Laura and Sofia.

Jean looks at Scott lovingly. “Please” is all he has left to say. She turns to Emma and sneers.

JEAN: “What of you? Are you willing to give your life for this world?”

Emma sneers right back at Jean.

EMMA: “Well, that is why I was brought along.” She pauses. “But before you smite me, power down, and make a half-hearted attempt to salvage a marriage which was dead before it even started, I want you to look at me, really look at me, and tell me that is what you desire.”

SCOTT: “Emma, what are you–”

EMMA: “Shhhh.”

Jean and Emma continue to stare each other down. Until Jean smiles, not with the burning intensity of Phoenix, but with gentle warmth. They have made their decision: Earth does not burn today.

Scott and Emma’s face light up, only for Jean to utter a dower, “However…”

On the Blackbird, Nova, who’s been equipped with power-dampening handcuffs, is still barely conscious as it turns out, and she laughs, coughing as she does so. Kitty asks what’s so funny about heading to a life imprisonment.

NOVA: “That doesn’t matter. None of this matters. The second the Dark Phoenix was in play, my victory was already assured.”

While Betsy is banding up Hellion, the others look at Nova with concern, demanding she tells them what’s going on.

NOVA: “You’re about to find out.”

Jean grins evily as she flares up her power even further. The world may not burn today, but they must still pay. Their betrayal must have consequences.

JEAN: “And so, you shall both die. You shall die among the people we three vowed to protect.”

Scott and Jean panic, but there’s nothing left to say. Time unfreezes as Scott and Emma are transported to Genosha.

With Magneto nowhere to be seen, the two broken down heroes are helpless as the sentinels fly over Genosha and firebomb the entire country.

In the Blackbird, Betsy drops to her knees in silent horror as she sees what’s happened. She shares the vision with the others, with Storm and Betsy taking the sight similarly to her, while Kitty screams and cries.

Season 1 ends on the sight of Genosha completely destroyed, and 16 million Mutants dead.

#New X-Men: The Animated Series #New X-Men #Academy X #Scott Summers #Jean Grey #Emma Frost #ororo munroe #kitty pryde #roberto da costa #laura kinney #sofia mantega #julian keller #noriko ashida #cessily kincaid #sooraya qadir #brian cruz

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ethanreedbooks · 8 months

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X-Men: Resurgence - Unraveling the Mysteries of Krakoa's Fall and Beyond

For devoted X-Men enthusiasts, the aftermath of Krakoa's Fall, the grand Hellfire Gala, the enigmatic X-Men #14, the enigmatic Typhoid Mary, and the enigmatic Avengers are all burning questions. What's the lowdown on the X-Men in this post-Krakoa era? Let's go ahead and unravel the tale.

In the wake of the seismic shifts in the X-Men's world during the "Fall of X" events, it's been nearly a month since the anti-mutant terrorist organization Orchis launched a devastating assault on Krakoa, seemingly resulting in the loss of almost 250,000 mutants during the Hellfire Gala of 2023. But what happened in the aftermath? What became of those mutants, and who among them is alive or deceased?

Let's kick things off with the most pressing query: the fate of the vast population of Krakoa, those 250,000 mutants who, according to reports, were sent through the Krakoa gates by Xavier during the Hellfire Gala's one-shot spectacle.

Contrary to Xavier's worst fears, the apparent mutant genocide has proven falsehood. Rather than perishing, all 250,000 mutants find themselves marooned in a sprawling desert, mysteriously severed from Xavier's telepathic connection, as depicted in the pages of Immortal X-Men #14. In a rather overt symbolic gesture, the zealous mutant known as Exodus pledges to lead this multitude through the desert to an unseen "promised land."

For those not catching the reference, the Book of Exodus in both the Torah and the Old Testament recounts Moses guiding the Jewish people through the desert, ultimately leading them from Egypt to their long-awaited Promised Land, Canaan.

Simultaneously, the core X-Men team has perished or disbanded, leaving a ragtag band of mutant survivors under the leadership of Emma Frost and Tony Stark, who are on matrimony. They have taken refuge in the Morlock tunnels beneath Manhattan to elude the vigilant gaze of Orchis' StarkTech Sentinels, constructed with illicitly acquired Iron Man technology.

Surprisingly, the resistance has found an unlikely ally in Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, who has emerged from retirement due to the targeting of his wife, the mutant antagonist Typhoid Mary, by Orchis.

Cyclops and Jean Grey are presumed dead, with Madelyne Pryor confirming in Dark X-Men #1 that she sensed Jean's psyche fading when she was slain during the Hellfire Gala. Time will tell if this is a lasting development, as Jean is on the verge of headlining her limited series in which she reunites with the Phoenix Force, the cosmic entity of rebirth. Regarding Cyclops, the new Uncanny X-Men #1 strongly hints that he may have been resurrected as Orchis' super soldier Captain Krakoa, perpetrating anti-mutant violence. However, this still needs to be verified, and signs point to an alternative explanation.

In Astonishing Iceman #1, it's revealed that Bobby Drake did not truly meet his end when he was liquefied by scorching nanites during the Hellfire Gala. Instead, he was reduced to a mist-like state, yet his consciousness retained enough coherence for the mutant empath Romeo to piece him back together. This resurrection comes at a cost, however. Bobby can no longer assume his human form and only leave his clandestine Antarctic hideout for a brief hour before losing his corporeal manifestation again. Nonetheless, this transformation grants him a unique advantage - the ability to teleport virtually anywhere on Earth without Orchis' detection, enabling him to strike at Stark Sentinels and make a getaway without being apprehended. Simultaneously, Kamala Khan has thrown her lot in with the mutant resistance, with her forthcoming limited series, Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, set to explore her escapades in this post-Krakoa era.

While the X-Men have welcomed a fresh member in Kamala Khan, Kate Pryde has embraced her inner Wolverine. Now operating under the moniker "Shadowkat," a nod to her '90s codename "Shadowcat," she employs her unique ability to traverse Krakoa gates, now isolated from other mutants, to ambush and dismantle Orchis forces with her formidable ninja combat skills as witnessed in X-Men #25.

Elsewhere, in the mutant haven of Arakko, Storm and the council, as chronicled in X-Men: Red #14, grapple with a war against the exiled mutants of Amenth, who were banished following the X of Swords crossover event in 2020.

And there you have it, the overarching narrative of the X-Men's trajectory following the fall of Krakoa. Much more awaits as the "Fall of X" era unfolds.

#x men #marvel #fall of x

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gpsoftun · 3 years

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Cranking out this special request for my Baby Gorge @sinceritysstuff

Unlike the rest of the cinematic hellfire club, January Jones as Emma Frost physically embodied the comic character. In addition, she exuded the ice queen persona to the letter. So, imagine my incredulity at the negative reaction most of First Class fandom had towards the actress. Granted, these are the same people with the tendency to think Famke Jennson did more for Jean Grey than cement her as the most boring, unfaithful murderess in cinema. Seriously, Lifetime's casting agents do better on $2 TV budgets.

As with all the actors, I never previously knew of January Jones, including her all too fitting role on Mad Men. While I admit to not having the comics etched into my memory, I do know that Emma is a cold master manipulator. Stylish, classy, confident, and always working towards her own agenda. Her femininity is not a hindrance but a valuable asset. The 90s animated version of her illustrated this well. Yet, comic Emma also has this underlining nurturing side and resentment of homo sapiens for what they did to her young mutant hellions. Another 90s gem, the Generation X tv movie, showed that part of her flawlessly. FC focused on her darker side, but January Jones displayed great range and potential. She was introduced at the same time as Rose Byrne's Moira Mactaggert and with less screen time, January stood out. Rose Byrne is a capable actress and I still kept forgetting Moira was even there.

There are problems with Emma, but that falls on the writers, not January. Yes, Emma is traditionally the sexy femme fatale of the hellfire club, but what was up with her playing pet wench to Sebastian Shaw? Waiting around in an easily escapable government cell until the next mutant man makes her an offer. Even in the 90s *animated* show, she wouldn't let herself get reduced to some replaceable sex toy. She's a queen, for crying out loud!

Obviously, this direction with Emma was part of the production team's very shallow attempt to address 1960s sexism. So, a regular homo sapien like Moira can climb the ladder of the CIA but the powerful mental mutant basically serves as a live-in hooker? Keep in mind that Emma has two advantages over Charles. She doesn't have a moral code as a telepath and she packs a secondary mutation. In addition to being durable, sparkly prettiness, her diamond form boosts her combat skills and gives her shielding from other telepaths. What in the world is she doing on minion duty with wind boy and the demon of stinky brimstone poofing? Don't even get me started on the ancient nazi whose sage wisdom concocts a plot to take over the world in a fashion that even actual 1960s comic strip villains would call unforgivably stupid! Slapping on some last-minute insult to injury, Emma ends up joining Shaw's protege. The dude who just found out mutants existed 5 minutes ago and who strapped her to a bed and strangled her barely 2 minutes ago!...

This is the good X-movie, right? *Sigh* yes....

I swear, sexism abounds in pretty much everybody but Charles. No, enjoying the company of women and having a protective nature towards them does not a chauvinist make. As seen with his respect for Moira and inclusion of young girl mutants, Charles does not see women as inferior. If anything, he sees them as the more cherished sex. But look at Shaw, Erik, and these writers. Shaw and Erik are classic predators. They groom with fake charm and flattery to cover their obvious abusive tendencies then recruit women into a harem at best or end them when they become inconvenient at worst.

Regardless, January's portrayal of Emma left such an impression with me that I included her in my on-going series FC inspired. She became the first female mentor of the fledging X-Men, third in rank after Erik and Charles.

That brief moment on the boat in FC when the telepaths crossed minds? Despite Emma being the enemy, Charles' reaction to her was notably different than with the other mutant abilities. When he met Raven, he was gleeful and protective. When he met Angel, he offered her a job with a no-nudity policy. When he sensed Emma, he came off as not only taken aback with captivation but aroused by the female telepath. He was also surprisingly and unashamedly quick to declare he would be of no help to the CIA with her. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like Charles needed to 'calm himself down' a bit. Hm, I wonder if saving Erik was actually his second reason for plunging into freezing cold water....

Unfortunately, January's potential as Emma would never be realized. Because unfit parents Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg regained full custody of the franchise and killed her. The potent, diamond encased telepath and favorite daughter of one of the wealthiest families in America was murdered completely off-screen. Decide for yourselves if that was more or less dignified than the metal-bending, nazi-hunting son of Abraham-Isaak-and-Jakob being held captive like an incompetent little Hebrew National weenie.

Although, it is reasonable to deduce that homo sapiens stepped up their game after losing an entire CIA department to mutant terrorism. Seriously, Pearl Harbor, 9/11- do you *know* what happens to outside threats that force Americans to cast aside our polarizing politics in the name of patriotism? The same thing that's happened to every one of them. Do not eff with us.

As for Emma, despite FC offering so little, I still walked away with a solid understanding of her character and potential backstory. Why the heck would she go along with Shaw's idiotic endeavour? Between Frost Family fallout and the gruesome loss of her hellions, Emma was plain done with humanity altogether and opted for a lifestyle of apathetic hedonism. It would explain why she seems so content to sit back and watch the world burn in-between chaos-causing career opportunities. Or you can believe- as Matthew Vaughn undoubtedly does- that she's just an unambitious, man-dependent, patriarchy-persecuted rent-a-hoe. Whichever narrative suits your personal agenda.

Wait, I just realized they tried to give Emma's rightful storyline to flippin Raven. Yeah, if Emma spent dofp using her powers and endless financial resources in an earth-scorching vendetta to liberate mutants it would've made actual sense. As someone who worked on mutant teams long before them, she would honestly be a believable foil to Charles and Erik. Maybe even include a chance for Emma to be humanized and redeemed without it costing her life. I know X-movies have a fetish for pointlessly killing off characters, but dare to step out of the box. Emma possibly could've joined Charles to help re-build the X-Men. Even convince Erik to further the mutant cause without destroying national landmarks or whimpering off to Poland. Take some responsibility for her poor choices and attempt to rectify things. But no, don't use the more experienced female mutant known to take part in the X-Men in certain versions. No, utilize Charles Xavier's spoiled, easily influenced kid sister known to be a self-serving villainess and deadbeat mom as the vehicle for your superficial empowerment message. Too bad January didn't land a once-in-a-lifetime leading role in a YA novel series turned film franchise like Jenni Law did.

Before I venture forth to cease feeding my writing addiction over my mortal flesh, I'm just going to leave this shameless plug for my own work right here: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7512743/1/Rise-or-Fall

Content Warning

Contains unambiguous depictions of heterosexual monogamy.

Platonic relationships between the same as well as opposite sexes (not exclusive to the physically attractive).

Lack of hive-minded political bias.

Racial diversity and inclusion among protagonists and antagonists.

Gentile-passing Jews being Jews.

Acknowledgement of human life and loss with gravity and reverence.

Attempts at maintaining in-story continuity.

Use of mental gymnastics to correct egregious inconsistencies and plot holes cluttered throughout the X-Men cinematic universe produced by 20th Century Fox based on characters created by Stan Lee and recently sold into franchise internment camp Walt Disney Studios.

Disclaimer

No deliberate offense or detestation intended. All allegations to the contrary should be addressed to the Charles Xavier Institute of Individuality. Response times vary based on weather conditions and tedium levels. You may also message the writer directly for clarification, civilized discussion, and/or comedic mockery.

Reader discretion is advised.

Recommended to binge with the accompaniment of a parent/guardian, dom/domme of your local orgy organization, and/or most stereotypical progressive cancellation consultant.

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bamfdaddio · 3 years

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X-Men Abridged: 1980 - The Dark Phoenix Saga

The X-Men, those enduring mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 132 - 140, X-Men Annual 4) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod

Go on. Name a more iconic X-Men panel. I’ll wait. (X-Men 134)

If you were born in 1980, you were born under the sign of the Phoenix. This means you will have great hair, but you’ll also be absolutely corrupted by power. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t consume any stars and/or galaxies, you should be fine.

This year hits the ground running, introducing Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in one fell swoop. The White Queen is the first of the Hellfire Club to make her move, but Phoenix is quickly able to dispatch of her, as you can read here.

Cyclops, worried that the rest of the Inner Circle will soon come in for the kill, decides to abscond to Angel’s Aerie in New Mexico to throw their pursuers off their scent. Jean decides to make the most of it and has sex with Scott on top of mesa. (Kinky!) She also shuts off his uncontrollable destructo-beams, nbd. This somehow inspires Scott to go from reactive to proactive and lead an ill-advised charge straight into the Hellfire Club on the night of their big ball… soirée... thing. Call it a Hellfire Gala-avant-la-lettre.

Fine, he might have been inspired by the raw power of the Phoenix. She’s the biggest gun on their side and, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it´s that reliable powerhouse Jean won´t switch sides in the middle of battle.

Oh wait, that's exactly what she does.

As soon as they enter the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngarde, who reveals he’s actually Mastermind, takes control of Jean, finally turning her into the Black Queen. With the power of the Phoenix and the patriarchy on their side, the Inner Circle makes short work of the X-Men. They consists of:

Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind.

Sebastian Shaw. Often shirtless. The Jeff Bezos of mutantkind. Has the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which means punching him only makes him stronger. (Colossus and Storm figure this out the hard way.)

Harry Leland. Ability of mass manipulation, which has got to be one of the dopest powers ever. Uses it to dunk Wolverine three floors down into the sewer.

Donald Pierce. 25% robot, 100% asshole, 100% useless in taking out X-Men, 225% the worst.

Wolverine is the only one who escapes, resulting in another iconic image:

Apparently, this picture is solely responsible for the fact that Wolverine became the face of the X-Men in the zeroes. It also lit my cigar from the other side of the room. (X-Men 132)

Needless to say, stabbing ensues.

Meanwhile, Shaw pontificates what he wants with the X-Men. He means to use them as guinea pigs to isolate the X-Gene, which he’ll then reverse engineer to give everyone (with money) super powers and all of a sudden, I want Shaw to do a team-up with John Sublime. Jean is not all there, however: she’s trapped in the astral plane, cultivating a cruel streak a mile high.

And suddenly, Jean-turning-evil is not all that funny anymore. (X-Men 133)

Cyclops traverses the mental link he shares with Jean to confront ‘Sir Jason’ and challenge him to a duel. Guy can’t catch a break: in Jean’s mindscape, he is stabbed and he promptly collapses in the real world. Ruh-roh!

Wolverine, meanwhile, has done a passable impression of the Bride against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill, and he interrupts the Hellfire Club and their gloating. That’s when Jean resurfaces as well, snapping out of her voluptuous Victorian fantasy and, playing a dubious tango with everyone’s trust issues, switching sides once again. The Phoenix is like the golden snitch: as long as your team holds it, it’s enough to win.

Colossus snaps Pierce’s robo-arm, Shaw gets punted through a floor and Leland uses his powers to increase Wolverine’s mass - just when Logan is jumping on top of him. Oops! Should have made him lighter than a feather, Leland.

Jean, meanwhile, is doing her own passable impression of the Bride and goes on what the advertisements would refer to as a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’. (Oh, she roars, and she rampages, and she gets bloody satisfaction.)

This is what happens when you fuck around and find out, Jason. (X-Men 134)

Phoenix makes Mastermind’s mind touch the infinite. His tiny human mind can’t cope. And, just like me when I’m at Pride and surrounded by a bevvy of shirtless gym bunnies, he becomes a dribbling mess. A shell with nothing inside. For those of you paying attention: this is where your Lit teacher would shout “dramatic irony” and underscore Emma Frost vs. Storm on the chalkboard.

This is also the moment where she officially Breaks Bad.

We see powerless people become heroes all the time. The reverse, where the angel falls? That happens far more rarely. I think that is the reason this story was so shockingly effective in the eighties. The reason why it’s still so effective? I think because, like the One Ring, you can read the rise and fall of the Phoenix in a myriad of ways. Is this a victim, reclaiming power? Is this a woman, trying to rise in a man’s world? Is this someone who was always buttoned up, daring to embrace her own power, her sexuality, her dangerous side -- only to get promptly beat down? The ambiguity of the narrative gives it strength, which is why I think it keeps resonating even now. This counts especially in the X-Universe, inherently designed to appeal to the underdog.

Anyway, the X-Men try to flee, but it’s too late. Jean can’t hold it in any more. She explodes in Phoenixesness and vaporizes the X-Men’s aircraft over Central Park. Relishing in her power, Jean easily defeats her friends, before flying off into the galaxy.

In the Avengers mansion, Beast gets the report that the X-Men are trashing the Hellfire Club. Ignoring his duties as an Avenger, Beast chooses his old family and hops off to investigate on his own.

The report, by the way, comes from Shaw, who knows when to turn tail and cut his losses. Among the confused, scared refugees of their party, he begins working a politician on the importance of a Sentinel program. That politician? Senator Kelly. Remember that name.

Jean can’t talk, she’s doing hot girl things. Nomnomnom that star system, sis. (X-Men 135)

Originally, Jean wasn’t meant to die. This one panel, the one showing the inhabited planet, is the reason why she eventually does: Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief, felt Jean shouldn’t be able to get away with a literal genocide. Claremont and Byrne, who had planned to strip Jean of her powers at the end of this, had to change the end of their story within days before it went to print. Additionally, this stoked the adversarial fire between the two: Claremont claims that he hadn’t originally intended there to be an inhabited planet, but felt his hands were tied when Byrne drew one. I wonder how true this is, considering how embedded it is in the narrative, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Phoenix’s genocide alerts the Shi’Ar - and therefore Lilandra - to her presence. Lily says that Galactus is nothing compared to the Phoenix: he merely eats planets, she will consume all that exists.

A hungry Jean, meanwhile returns to Earth, not sure what she’s looking for. She pays a visit to the home of her parents, but when they warily come to greet her, she can’t help but read all the innermost thoughts of her family. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred. (Imagine knowing all those little thoughts your parents had about you, all those little terrible human things they did in their life. Imagine knowing all their sexual fantasies. Brrr.) It sours the Phoenix against them and she is about to start familicide to her list of sins, when the X-Men attack!

Nightcrawler slaps a psionic scrambler designed by Beast on her, but she’s still too strong. Wolverine tries to end her, but he isn’t ruthless enough to do the deed. When the scrambler overloads, Scott tries reasoning with her, appealing to her love. This causes the Phoenix to waver and Charles Xavier (airdropped in by Warren), bolts Jean telepathically.

Drinking game rule for the Phoenix saga no 6: shout “ca-caw” and take a sip every time the raptor appears. (X-Men 136)

Xavier feels Jean helping him out from within the Phoenix and together, they slowly trap Phoenix in the same sort of energy-matrix as Jean did with the M’Kraan-crystal. The Phoenix finally lays dormant, the X-Men have Jean back and Scott, overwhelmed by emotion, sort of awkwardly proposes to her. Happy Ending! And then, pulling the rug out from under our feet, the X-Men (including Beast and Angel) are whisked away.

They appear in front of Lilandra. The Shi’Ar hold Jean accountable for her planet-killing ways and Lilandra orders her Imperial Guard to take her away! But Charles invokes an ancient law with the same relish of someone who invokes an obscure board game rule against the person who is about to win: he demands a trial by combat.

The rules are easy:

X-Men win: Jean lives

Shi’Ar win: Jean dies.

The trial will be on the dark side of the moon. The Shi’ar are way too strong and, one by one, the X-Men fall, until only Jean and Scott are left. In their last stand, Jean loses control and becomes the Phoenix again, wiping the floor with the Imperial Guard. Technically, they win, but she knows now.

Suicide by abandoned-machine-of-a-long-forgotten-civilization-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon. (X-Men 137)

She dies. Phoenix dies. The X-Men lose. Scott, bereft, leaves the X-Men.

One detail I love is the holempathic crystal that Lilandra bestows on Jean’s parents.

Without becoming too maudlin, the idea of this is beautiful. A condensed image of a person you love, one you can touch when you feel memories slipping away so you can remember who they were. (X-Men 138)

And with that, season 2 of the X-Men ends. Without Cyclops and Phoenix, the X-Men have to readjust. While Beast returns to the Avengers, Angel takes up residence in the mansion again. He confesses to liking most of the new X-Men, except Wolverine. (To be fair, Wolverine is an acquired taste.) Kitty Pryde also formally starts attending the school and slowly, the Jean-and-Scott-shaped void is filled.

Patriarchal Charles is thrilled to finally have a new teenager in the house who will hang on to his every word. It’ll be like the sixties all over again! (X-Men 139)

There are so many beautiful touches in the few panels:

Wolverine calling Charles ‘Chuck’

Nightcrawler getting drinks (and a beer)

Most amazingly of all, Storm becoming the leader. (I give Chuck a lot of flak, but this decision is Right.) Not just because Storm is the best X-Man for the job, but also because she was a black woman leading one of premier Marvel superhero teams for, what? The better half of a decade? The eighties had barely started, so this was a big fucking deal.

Storm also takes up a motherly role for Kitty, who takes up her suggestion for a codename: Sprite. (This after Kitty rejects Charles’ suggestion of Ariel, which is only fortunate, considering that name would soon be associated with redhaired mermaids.)

The rest of the year is dedicated to two adventures, both of them starring Kurt. The first is depicted in the annual: on Kurt’s birthday, he receives a mysterious package with a mysterious figurine that mysteriously explodes in his face. Professor X calls guest star Dr. Strange for aid, who deduces that his soul has been stolen. What follows is a quest to regain Kurt’s soul in an adventure that feels a little too I just read Dante’s Inferno, check how smart I am.

Hell is a little too pedestrian and boring, though we do get a King Minos hitting on Kurt and Ororo. A man of wealth and taste indeed. Anyway, at the end of this side quest, it turns out all of this was a convoluted revenge scheme concocted by one Margali of the Winding Road. She turns out to be Kurt’s (adoptive) mother, who’s getting revenge for Kurt killing her son.

Kurt, racked with guilt, reveals he had no choice. Stefan had always feared the darkness in his soul and he’d made Kurt pledge to stop him if he should ever succumb to it. After Stefan killed a child or two, Kurt had no choice but to end him. Stefan perished and Kurt was blamed for all of the murders, having to flee an angry mob.

Margali forgives him, with some help from Jimaine, Kurt’s foster sister. In a twist that is a little too soap opera for my tastes (and I watch Riverdale), Jimaine turns out to be Kurt’s squeeze, Amanda Sefton. I’ve always disliked this twist, and not just because of the incesteous vibes: I like the idea of Kurt dating a regular lady who is into him despite his appearance and his being a mutant. Making Amanda Sefton his sorcerous half-sister dilutes that message a lot.

The tail end of 1980 involves Wolverine going to Canada so Wolverine can make amends with Alpha Flight. Kurt joins him, ostensibly to flirt with Aurora, but in fact this shows that Kurt and Wolverine are establishing a rapport. A deeper friendship.

In a pretty paint-by-numbers adventure, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the worse half of Alpha Flight take down a Wendigo. We don’t get Northstar or Aurora, but we do get more Snowbird, who can change herself into Canadian animals, with the danger of being consumed by her animal side.

We get this delightful panel out of it:

Scared Nightcrawler almost makes me forget how full of shit Jimmy MacDonald is, considering last time Kurt saw them, they tried to kidnap the fuzzy elf. (X-Men 139)

This whole arc is meant to show the softening of Wolverine. Not only does he share his name with Kurt (well, sort of: “Logan, is that your name?” “Yup.” “You never told us.” “You never asked.”), but when they fight the Wendigo and Snowbird turns into a white wolverine to deal the final blow, he talks her out of being consumed by her vicious animal nature.

The year ends with two details worth mentioning:

The Canadian government dissolves Alpha Flight, which I can only find a prescient move that highlights their good taste. A realistic note I like is the minister referring to the mutant problem as ‘an American problem’ even though they employ the Beaubier twins. Wankers.

Fred Dukes escapes prison to join the New Brotherhood of Mutants!

We’re now entering a run of the X-Men which I haven’t read much of yet, but Freddy mentions he was helped by some lady lawyer. That’s gotta be Mystique, right?

I can barely contain my glee.

Ugliest Costume: Despite that godawful hooded thing Kitty wears, I have to give this to Dazzler. There’s no salvaging that costume: I’m sorry, but she’s wearing a disco ball around her neck. It's a boot from me.

Best new character: Emma Frost. Fight me by the bike rack near the parking lot if you disagree.

Turns evil: Jean Grey, famously so.

What to read: X-Men 129 to 137, the Dark Phoenix run.

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spiderling-space · 3 years

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If you think about it, half of the canon story would be quickly solved in minutes with Emma!Mc.

Someone's about to overblot? Just control their emotions to calm the fuck down. Or make them faint before the worst happens.

Someone's plotting something? Not a secret anymore! Give them some of that old school amnesia and we're done.

Physical fights? Nop, not on Mc's watch.

Since Emma!Mc would be too good on what she's doing, she'll nag Crowley's about her way home frequently. Which is what she deserves.

Oh, another thing: You mentioned on the thirst blog about Azul being like Shawn to Emma!Mc. After reading a bit about Emma's backstory: Yes! He's not going to be the first to try to call dibs on Emma!Mc, but will surely be the most persistent about it. Both from admiration, envy (sweet, rare telepathic powers) and fear (What if she knows about his past? His weaknesses? Oh gosh, she can have 100% control of him!)

Exactly and also she can do psychic surgery, healing the trauma which is what the NRC gang need

Azul better not get on Emma’s nerves or otherwise he will have hard time. Also Azul is intrigued that he can’t take Emma’s powers like he does with mages. He would be persistent in making a deal, either working for him or having a protection from her as if she won’t use her powers on Azul and co. There is an issue though. It’s about which Emma we are talking about. She was a villain but then became the co-leader of X-Men. I doubt she would like someone acting like Sebastian Shaw around her so be careful Azul

Btw I edited one info in the previous post. In WandaVision Episode 8, Agatha has Wanda in her basement and Wanda tries to read her mind but fails. “My thoughts aren’t available to you, toots” So far, Wanda is a witch (Might turn out to be a mutant later on. Multiverse of Madness when???😫😫😫) and wasn’t able to read a witch’s mind. So this means if the magic user wishes it and is powerful enough, their mind can’t be read.

I say this would go for Emma too. If the witch, or in this case, the mage is powerful and experienced enough, such as the old gang Malleus, Lilia and Dire and likely the rest of the staff, can protect their minds from Emma. The question would be “Are their minds always protected?”

There is a reason why I said it. You mentioned nagging Dire about going back. If his mind is open to read, Emma can read his mind easily and learn his endgame. He is a suspicious person and certainly not doing what he says. She can even force him to do what he promised with her powers

Emma would discover the secrets of Dire and NRC. Maybe she can even read Mickey’s mind through the mirror. Lastly, she is intelligent person so just seeing one vision of Disney Villain through the mirror, she would discover the connection

I’m putting the link of how Emma Frost MC thing started here

Also the prompt for MC with super powers

#mutant mc #twisted wonderland #twst #azul ashengrotto #dire crowley #mc/yuu #twst mc #twisted wonderland mc #super powers AU

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sebastianshaw · 3 years

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Hey there @vvithteeth! So, this isn’t EXACTLY what you asked for the readlist to focus on, but I think it’s worth checking out all the same for a general sense of Emma’s history leading up to her current character!

EVIL 80s EMMA She’s not good reference for who Emma is NOW, but a good look at what she used to be, and what she’s overcome. I think looking at Emma when she was at her worst, helps one appreciate her at her best. If you see what she had to rise above in herself, you understand the self that she’s fighting back, you have a better appreciation for the kinds of things she’s tempted towards---and the kinds of things she no longer does. X-Men (1st series) #129-131 is her introduction, as she tries to recruit Kitty Pryde to her school before Xavier does. One of the most chilling moments, for me personally, is when she threatens to destroy Storm’s mind so that she will be “human only in physical form” And then Jean drops a house on her, which is why she’s not involved in the Dark Phoenix saga, as she was still recovering. Emma continues trying to get Kitty and other kids into her clutches in Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #180 and New Mutants (1st series) #15-17, but in New Mutants (1st series) #38-40 she finally manages it by exploiting their current fucked-up state and having her student Empath use his powers to manipulate Magneto. But when the kids decide to return to Xavier’s school, Emma allows them to do so without a fight, and just tells them that they’ll always have a place with her if they need it. Which seems nice, but then her thought balloons reveal that this is just so the kids won’t believe it when Magneto tells them she’s evil. Firestar #1-4: Whoa mama, Emma is at max abusive here. See, she desires to eliminate Selene, and to this end she trains a young mutant she names Firestar. She does so by manipulating the girl, isolating her, convincing her that she NEEDS Emma to help her control her powers or else she’s dangerous to others, and even KILLS HER PET HORSE. Emma is someone who says “I love children. Teaching is my life.” and she MEANS IT, she has a genuine call to teach and her love for her students is her driving force, but here we see how she USED to treat her students. Then put her against who she is now, it’s a huge contrast. Honestly, I don’t know why SOME WRITERS want to erase her growth by pretending she was Actually Good All Along but yeah, here’s Bad Emma. This is who she fights. This is what she has risen above. EMMA’S BACKSTORY ISSUES Emma’s history is. . . kind of multiple choice. She tells one version in Generation X #24, but this doesn’t fit at all with the Emma Frost miniseries that came out from 2003 -2004, which also doesn’t exactly fit with “X-Men Origins: Emma Frost” single-issue backstory. I personally would read the “X-Men Origins” one and at least the beginning of the miniseries, specifically the parts that deal with her home life. The reason is that both of these show how unhealthy Emma’s home was growing up, and how that made her who she is. When I saw I think Emma is “wired” to be a villain, I don’t mean I think she was born like that, but as in, I think her environment trained her to become like that. It’s kind of like how a lot of personality disorders aren’t something a person is born with, but come from being in a shitty environment where certain behaviors will help you survive better, and then even once that situation is over, you can’t get rid of those behaviors because it’s how your brain is wired now. That’s how I read Emma---she came out of this toxic, duplicitous environment of manipulation and abuse where she and her siblings were set against each other, and that’s now her default for how she interacts with the world, even though she was originally just a sweet little nerd who only wanted to be a teacher. The “Origins” one features a generic Shitty Abuser Shaw and isn’t as good as the more drawn-out miniseries, as it focuses more on physical abuse (like her father suddenly slapping her) to get a point across that her family is toxic, rather than the more drawn-out miniseries, which I think works better for explaining Emma’s specific brand of. . .Emma-ness. But the bit where her mother tells her that her father is hardest on her because he likes her most of all, is really important I think, since that reflects her relationship later with the Hellions, which is also shown in this. Because Emma is cruel to the Hellions, even though she loves them, and in fact because she loved them. Her love for them and her agony over their deaths is what drives her to join the X-Men in the first place. As for which origin story is true. . .I think the miniseries one is probably MOST true, as it’s the only one that Emma herself isn’t telling as a story. But as the friend who helped me assemble this list puts it, “ Think of any origin story of Emma's as "a sort of fairy tale, a parable," where it's the theme that matters, not the precise events or timeline “ 90s EMMA Emma spent most of the 90s teaching Generation X. I don’t remember a lot of stuff for specifically what I’m talking about with her, but here are a couple issues that strike me as significant. Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #311-314: In Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #281-284, the Hellions were killed and Emma Frost was left in a coma, her body taken care of by the X-Men. This is when she wakes up, takes over Iceman’s body, and goes on a rampage thinking she’s the prisoner of the X-Men. When she finds out what happened to her Hellions, she collapses in despair and turns herself over to the X-Men. This is her turning point. This is when we found out Emma Frost had a soul. That she LOVED the Hellions. That they were not just tools. And there’s this one line in the yellow narrative boxes that really sticks out: “As the Hellfire Club’s White Queen, she spent the better part of her life traversing from one mind to another, violating the very essence of anyone she so chose. Losing herself in the memories of others. Altering, at times, the opinions of those who opposed her. This time is different. This time it is about survival. This time. . .it’s for the children.” The words are echoed when she agrees to join Krakoa's Quiet Council, after Charles and Erik tell her their plan and convince her it might just work. "One more time, then. For the children." Emma’s true love, in my opinion, isn’t Scott. Nor is it Namor. It’s teaching. Emma becomes the teacher to Generation X, as mentioned, and in Generation X (1st series) #18-19, during the Onslaught crisis, she’s so terrified of losing them like she did the Hellions, that she snapped, took the kids to a safehouse in Canada, and put them under her telepathic control for their own safety. This is an Emma who has learned that abusing her students isn’t the right way, but still doesn’t respect their autonomy or consent even as she’s desperately trying to protect them, and has to learn from Monet (who is. . . .actually not Monet) that this isn’t the right way to do it either. Emma did not grow up with adult models who showed her how to love and care for a child, she has to figure it out herself, and it’s a rocky journey at times, even though she has the best of intentions. I think this is a good issue to show an Emma who is in the process of evolving. She’s getting better, but she still hasn’t got it “right” yet. CURRENT-ERA EMMA Emma really becomes the Emma we know with Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in the early 2000s. This is where she starts affecting a British accent, calling everyone darling, and the delightfully witty Queen of Mean while also still a devoted teacher with trauma over losing her students. She always was witty and a little mean, but Morrison takes these traits up to 11 and gives Emma the foundation of what a lot of writers would build upon. It’s also when she begins her telepathic affair/seduction of Scott, which is a more than slightly problematic dynamic, as I’ve discussed. Also, this is when she got her now-famous diamond form. We get a lot of lovely Emma nastiness in this series. New X-Men #128-139 all have lots of great moments for her where she’s just WICKED yet still on the side of the angels, and New X-Men Annual 2001 starts us off. However, character-wise, I think what really comes out here is Emma going from blaming her past actions on substances (she tells Scott in the New X-Men Annual 2001 that she just probably out of her mind on drink and drugs all those times she was doing bad things) to being forced to face her past and herself for the first time when confronted by Jean & the Phoenix in New X-Men #139. It’s the first time we get a look at what Emma’s family and home life was like, as well as the first time she’s established as having a brother, but more than that is the emotion that gets brought in. This is also when Morrison decided to retcon the Hellfire Club as a strip joint (which I hate and also shows up in Emma’s “Origins” story) but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, Jean makes Emma face all her flaws and pain and nasty, most vulnerable parts of herself. Emma is left mentally broken...then one page later, physically, shattered by a diamond bullet that we later find out was fired by none other than Esme, the Stepford Cuckoo whom Emma later says reminded her most of herself. There is definitely poetic symbolism there. As my friend put it “This cycle of her students dying and Emma losing it and trying again but never facing the roots of her issues goes on and on until her roots literally kill her, and Jean of all people resurrects her. Jean, who saw right through Emma, saw something there worth saving, and literally and metaphorically put her back together again.” The next place I’d go is Astonishing X-Men, which is the first time Emma and Kitty work together. Kitty HATES Emma at this point, because, as she points out, Emma is the villain in her origin story. And Emma KNOWS this. That’s why she WANTS Kitty there. She knew that Kitty would keep an eye on her, wouldn’t trust her, and that’s what Emma WANTS, because Emma doesn’t trust HERSELF. So this shows that Emma KNOWS her moral compass is a very flawed one, and that she WANTS to be better so consciously that she’s getting someone she knows doesn’t like or trust her to be around because she knows she’ll watch her like a HAWK. This also means Emma is admitting she can fail, and giving some control to someone else. There’s. . . so much that happens from here. Utopia. Phoenix Five. The Terrigen Mists shit. Secret Empire. I feel like there are probably great Emma readlists out there that include these, but honestly I just kinda zoned out through a lot of it. These are some additional read lists for her I found: https://lornahs.tumblr.com/post/87230882649/where-to-start-reading-emma-frost-lets-start https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/2bwwok/emma_frost_reading/ It’s definitely a LOT and I wish you the best of luck tackling it! Also, I wouldn’t feel you have to read EVERYTHING, or incorporate everything into your depiction. Pick and choose what you feel works best for your version!

#out of shirt #readlist

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yourwakingnightmares · 3 years

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Scott Summers Character Study

Okay, does anyone else have those characters that they don’t follow full-time, but they always come back to? Kind of like that old sweatshirt you keep: sure, you have new ones, and they’re great, but that old one is just comfortable, and perfect.

Scott Summers has always been that character for me; like, sometimes I might go months, or years without writing, or looking up anything Scott Summers related... Then something happens, and boom. There it goes, I’m on a roll again. And so... Here we are with my rant of the day.

Buckle in folks, this is gonna be a long one.

I think a lot of people have dismissed Scott as a character, saying that he’s ‘flat’, or ‘one-dimensional’. And if you only periodically glance at comics, or peruse through the movies, I can see how you’d come to that conclusion.

Because unlike Logan (who I do enjoy, this isn’t an anti-Logan post), whose story is easy to follow, easy to understand, Scott’s story is nuanced; it’s something developed over time, with small hints and glimpses thrown in.

For example... what we find out is that Scott is the way he is, because Xavier made him that way. Xavier needed a leader, but he was stuck with Scott: a boy who had lost his parents. A boy who’d suffered from a horrific brain injury. A boy who’d been experimented on, and mind-raped by Nathaniel Essex, also known as Mr. Sinister for Scott’s formative years following his brain injury. A boy who escaped a sadistic telepath, only to end up in the hands of an abusive criminal.

So what does Xavier do? Well, he smooths out those edges; he puts subtle compulsions to turn Scott into the leader he needs him to be. He takes the edge off of the worst memories, and turns them into something distant; something that Scott can look at like a movie starring someone else as the traumatized kid.

Now, don’t misunderstand me: Scott was a brilliant leader. He had the tactical ability, the logistical knowledge to be a leader, even without Xavier. Which is what makes what Xavier did that much worse.

Because what that means is that Scott could’ve gotten there on his own; he could’ve been that leader without Xavier screwing with his head.

Xavier took a kid who needed a home, who needed stability, who needed therapy, and said, “Aha! I know a quicker route! Screw that other stuff; that’ll take years to be effectual! I’ll just do a bit of mental landscaping, and wall off the emotions he felt; I’ll just take the edge off those memories! Surely, nothing can go wrong!”

Looking at Scott’s relationship with Jean from this perspective also sheds new light on it: Scott’s mind had been violated by three telepaths, all of whom had only their own goals in mind. Mr. Sinister, Jack Winters, and Charles Xavier all were concerned more with Scott as means to an end, than they were with Scott himself.

Enter Jean Grey. A young girl, who is a freak even by mutant standards. She struggled to keep her telepathy under control, and we’re frequently shown in comics, books, and even the movies, that she picked up stray thoughts from almost everyone, leading to some very embarrassing moments for everyone. She was an outcast among outcasts.

Not to Scott though. When everyone else is worried about keeping their thoughts locked up tight around Jean, when everyone else is avoiding her so she doesn’t accidentally read their minds... Scott embraces her. He falls in love with her.

And I don’t think we truly ever look at why. Because here was a kid who had every justifiable reason to hate Jean -he’d spent roughly half his life being a plaything for telepaths, people who plucked out things they didn’t like, or added things they wanted. Out of everyone at the Mansion, Scott truly had the best reason to fear and/or hate Jean; out of all of them, Scott best knows the dangers of having a telepath rooting around in other people’s minds. But he doesn’t. Instead, he falls in love with her.

Why? Don’t misunderstand me, they had things they loved about each other in their relationship, but how did it even begin? Why was Scott so open and accepting about Jean’s fragile control over her telepathy in their teenage years?

Because he’d never had any say in who played in his head to begin with. To him, Jean’s accidental slip-ups were nothing compared to the other telepaths he’d interacted with. While everyone else saw Jean’s powers for what they were (an invasion of their most sacred thoughts, accidental or not), Scott was so screwed in the head that it wouldn’t have crossed his mind to be angry or upset about it.

This isn’t to malign Jean, or her and Scott’s relationship; after all, Jean hadn’t done anything wrong either. But it casts a rather dark shadow over the beginnings of their relationship.

But why does Scott become so enamored with Jean? To the point where, after her death, he marries a woman who -although he doesn’t know it -is quite literally a clone of her?

Because Jean was the first telepath who didn’t screw with his head; probably the only person who truly knew what was going on in Scott’s head, and didn’t run screaming. Although he would later meet another, for many years, Jean was the only telepath Scott had had in his mind who didn’t remake his mental landscape.

And think about it: how many people would’ve been comfortable having a lover who literally knew what you were thinking, 24/7? That’s not being mean, that’s just pragmatism: we rarely share our innermost thoughts with anyone, and yet we see that Jean was as comfortable in Scott’s head as she was her own.

We see that Jean’s death devastated Scott; for the first time, he went against his programming. For the first time, we start to catch glimpses of Scott beyond what Sinister, Winters, and Xavier created.

Now, what Scott did to Madelyne was wrong; there’s no two ways around it. However, what can we learn from this, when viewed in context with everything else?

Following Jean’s death, Scott acted like a man who’d lost a piece of himself. He starts searching for his past (finding his grandparents in Alaska), where he meets a woman who is practically the physical twin of his soulmate. Within months, Scott proposes, and they get married, eventually having a son (and we won’t even get into the fact that Scott allows Madelyne to name his son after a man who nearly broke him).

As an adult, these actions can only be looked at as selfish, and reprehensible. But what if we look at it through a different lens for a moment.

These actions would be considered ‘normal’ by teenagers, and young adults; hell, most of us went to school with couples whose story emulated Scott and Madelyne’s. Scott’s first and only girlfriend dies tragically, and he decides to try and learn more about his past -for the first time since his parents died. He meets a girl, rebounds hard, and gets married quickly, only to realize what most adults already know: rebounds never work, and never last. Looking at Madelyne was a benefit at the start, but as time went on, it became a knife in his chest: she was the physical twin of Jean, after all, but she wasn’t really Jean -in fact, Madelyne and Jean had very little in common beyond the physical.

Any healthy adult would have understood this; that physically looking like someone doesn’t mean two people are the same. While this doesn’t excuse Scott’s treatment of Madelyne, it at least gives us a reason. He’s acting out, searching for his origins, and falling in love with a girl who looks like the only person who loved him for who he was. Just like a teenage boy would do.

Now, again: this behavior is unacceptable. As a society, we teach boys this, and they learn through experience. It’s a life lesson -however, it’s one that Scott never got to learn. Scott never got to be a teenage boy; he never got the chance to learn, because Xavier had turned him into his perfect little soldier who never questioned him from such a young age (and prior to that, his only consistent interactions were with the men who abused him, mentally and physically).

Later, we see Scott with Emma Frost -a woman most consider to be a villain, a woman who had fought against the X-Men before. Why?

Well, firstly, let’s consider the implications that Scott chooses another relationship with a female telepath. Sure, with Jean, we explained why they ended up together, but by the time Scott meets Emma, he’s older; he’s more experienced. Why does he put himself in a relationship with someone with the same telepathic abilities as the men who nearly destroyed his very sense of self as a child?

We have to remember that, at first, Emma simply offers to telepathically counsel Scott; to try and piece together the shattered void of his mental landscape. Meaning that Emma was the first person at that point to see the emerging Scott Summers -Jean knew the Scott that had been created, manipulated, and ordered around by Xavier, but following Jean’s death, we start to see glimpses of the real Scott. And Emma is the first telepath to get to see inside Scott’s head, as he starts to throw off the remnants of what Xavier had turned him into.

And she starts to fall in love with him. Unlike with Jean, there are no demands or expectations in place; Emma accepts him for who he is. He questions his loyalty to Xavier? Emma’s okay with that. He questions who he actually is? Emma offers to help him find out.

(Please note: this isn’t knocking Jean; she was as much a victim of Xavier as Scott was, in her own way).

But for the first time, we see Scott Summers start to come into his own; we see him making decisions, expressing opinions, expressing wants and desires outside of life as an X-man. We see him show doubt of Xavier, we see him struggling with who he actually is, and who he was made into.

And Emma... Emma just accepts it. She accepts Scott for who he is, with no agenda, no pressure, not expectations.

Moving a head a bit, let’s look at the action that turned Scott into one of the most reviled comic characters: his killing of Charles Xavier, while under the control of the Phoenix Force.

Now, you can look here for my opinions on Xavier, and why I think we should’ve all been celebrating his death. But let’s look at this for a moment.

Most people’s reactions to this were ‘Xavier raised Scott! Scott was like his son! Scott was one of his first students! How could he?!’

I think the better question, when we look at all the events in Scott’s life is... how did he refrain that long? Xavier’s betrayal of him was so much worse than Sinister’s or Winters’ because Xavier did it as a friend. As a parental figure. Sinister just rewrote, erased, or destroyed things in Scott’s head as he pleased, simply for kicks. Winters’ used his -admittedly limited -telepathic abilities to force Scott to help him steal.

But Xavier saved him from that, right? Xavier gave him a safe place to stay. A place with no more experiments, no more mind-control, no more pain. He earned Scott’s trust, gave him a home, a life, and a purpose.

Only... he didn’t. Xavier betrayed Scott, in a way that Sinister and Winters couldn’t have done. Because Scott didn’t trust them. He trusted Xavier, and Xavier fucked with his head just as badly as Sinister had done. Whereas Sinister and Winters had taken a sledgehammer to Scott’s mental landscape... Xavier just chiseled away at it until it became something he wanted.

I’m going to end this here, because really, there wasn’t much of a point to this post, other than to detail out a lot of thoughts that have been kicking around for a while. If you agree, or disagree, I’d love to hear it.

#Scott Summers #x-men #Charles Xavier #Jean Grey #Mr. Sinister #Emma Frost #Character Study

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ascintillatingwit · 3 years

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“ Time to be a 'proper hero' and do something foolish. “

GENERAL;

NAME: Emma Grace Frost

AGE: 33

MBTI: ENTJ - The Commander

SPECIES: Mutant

HAIR COLOUR: Brunette dyed Blonde.

EYE COLOUR: Blue

GENDER: Female

SEXUALITY: Bi-sexual

OCCUPATION: CEO of Frost International, Chairwoman of the Hellfire Corporation

FAMILY: Winston Frost (Father). Hazel Frost (Mother). Adrienne Frost (older sister, deceased), Christian Frost (older brother), Cordelia Frost (younger sister)

X-GENE

TELEPATHY: Emma Frost possesses telepathic abilities of a similar caliber to those of Charles Xavier, over which she had an extremely refined level of skill. Frost has been cited as a "World-class telepath", "Omega Class Telepath". Additionally, she has also been referred among the five telepaths on the planet capable of perfectly and seamlessly altering a mind, has demonstrated the ability to stalemate Exodus, and overcome telepaths, such as a young Nate Grey, and a young Rachel Summers, through greater experience and skill. When Wolverine thought to be protected from her thanks to Level 9 Psi-Shields created by Charles Xavier, she stated she was herself Level 10. Her abilities have been stated to rival that of Charles Xavier himself, this statement only proven in her telepathic defeat of the Professor.

ORGANIC DIAMOND FORM: As a result of undergoing a body-wide Secondary Mutation, Frost possesses the ability to transform her body into a flexible organic diamond form. In many ways, this is similar to Colossus' organic steel form. She must transform all parts of her body, rather than selectively transforming certain areas and can remain in this form for an undetermined amount of time. If she is rendered unconscious, Frost's body will automatically transform into its normal state. This transformation also alters Frost's personality, causing her to become rather cold-hearted and to lose her empathy for others. Emma does not have access to her telepathy while in her diamond form while making her immune to others. Emma does not need to breath or eat/drink while in this form.

HEADCANONS

Emma Frost thinks that Christmas Eve is perhaps the most romantic time of the year. She finds it both beautiful and tragic.

Emma never lets anyone design her costumes without her seal of approval. She doesn’t refer to her outfit as a “costume” but more as a uniform. She dryly informed Wolverine when he “sleeps with the leader of the pact”, then he can also wear what he wants.

Emma is known for speaking in somewhat of an upper class British accent. There is actually a debate as whether this is her real accent or she has completely altered it for her own personal preference.

PERSONALITY

+Shrewd - Emma Frost is a highly astute woman with words that cut deep enough to make even the most powerful entities deeply. She considers herself a wordsmith, often lifting the phrases of other people and twisting them against them or simply to work in her favour. Emma is considered to be every political worst nightmare.

+Charismatic - Many people can be charismatic but very few are as charismatic as Emma Frost. Emma has been raised in a family that was practically lethal to those who bared their emotions. She has faced perhaps her worst nightmares and came out strong for it. Emma has carefully crafted her persona to protect herself from other people. Emma doesn’t just show off for the sake of it but to display how she has carefully crafted everything; her wealth, her intelligence, her vanity. Everything was crafted into a weapon that she puts full confidence in.

-Ruthless - Emma Frost has had to learn to play dirty to survive and when she felt like the world was truly against her, she decided that she would do whatever she had to punish the world. Even when brought onto the X-Men, Emma has often vocalised she is willing to burden the hard choices if it meant a better life for mutants. She doesn’t find it easy as she likes to convince others but she is willing to burden those choices so young mutants don’t have to.

-Manipulative - Emma Frost has been known to be a master manipulator. She is decisive and often has this complex within her that she must control everything around her for everything to be okay. This can often lead her to make morally grey decisions such as being deceptive to achieve what she needs.

#starcintro #this is v basic #please feel free to message me for more

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mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea · 3 years

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4 different head canons: Emma

Send a character’s name to receive four different headcanons

Headcanon A: realistic

Emma has wanted to be a teacher since she was a kid, and she has always wanted to protect children from the people who want to hurt them. Emma will stop at nothing to protect and educate kids, even from those people she loves the most if she feels like they’re a threat.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Emma is actually a pretty damned good cook. Sure in the comics, it shows her as not being able to cook worth a damn, and everyone assumes she can’t cook because of her ‘silver spoon’ upbringing. In truth, she’s excellent at it because she (and her brother Christian) spent more time with the family cook than with their parents. However, when Emma offers to cook -- or even to make coffee -- and anyone laughs and jokes that ‘sure, we’ll risk you giving us food poisoning’, she cooks as fantastic as ever but then uses her telepathy to make the ones who teased her the worst spend the rest of their day on the toilet.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

One day, Emma is going to have to have the discussion with Scott about how much she loves him, how much she’ll always love him but she’s tired of playing second to a planet-eating narcissist. She can see inside Scott’s mind and knows what he’s going to say before he even says it, and she has to just get up, kiss him goodbye, and walk out of whatever shared space they’re in with all her things being loaded into a moving truck, and she drives off.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

Emma continues to work with the rest of the mutants to fight for their rights, but when she’s not doing that, she spends most of her time with one or both partners - Loki and Tony Stark. Despite what a lot of others think about the three of them together, they are a powerhouse trio, entirely faithful to each other, help each other with their causes. Emma is the consulting telepath now for the Avengers, Tony is the bigger Avenger ally for the mutants, and Loki provides Frost Giants to help whenever either side is dealing with something bigger than they can handle on their own.

Created from the post seen here

#kleenexwoman #headcanons #Emma Frost

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co-mixed · 4 years

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Emma Frost

Part 2 of my take on Emma x Scott vs Jean x Scott.

Part 1: Jean Grey

Before we begin, let’s make something clear: I don’t hate Scott/Jean, as we don’t hate any ship here (canon or non canon). In fact, I very much like this couple in their best stories. But for now, I like Scott and Emma a little better. If you disagree, it’s cool, we don’t have to change each other’s mind, but I would enjoy your take on my thoughts.

Who is Emma Grace Frost?

It’s always easy to come up with words to describe Emma Frost, and said words are not always nice. But the most appealing quality about Emma is that no matter what you say about her, she will be flattered.

Her strength is not meaningless, it’s in knowing who she is, who she was, and who she can be depending on a situation. Emma can be equally sensitive and distant, which is reflected in her powers. Her telepathy is the ultimate form of empathy, it’s all about her that’s X-men, while her diamond form is everything White Queen.

That’s how I see her as a character. She has an inner contradiction that’s projected into every aspect of her history.

Emma’s story

Emma makes the journey from a serious conniving villain to a hero, and I wouldn’t say unlikely, because she’s always had those qualities in her, even though we don’t get to fully sympathize with her until her own Origins run. Her backstory provides you with necessary understanding of how exactly she turned out the way she did. In a way she gets to be the opposite of Jean or even Xavier: discovering a similar power, but ultimately ending up on the outside of the mutant-human war.

In every fictional group you have one character, who is misguided, and out of all given paths would pick the one that would allow for maximum mayhem in the process. Emma is that character, or rather was that character when she used her intellect and resources against the X-men.

She was truly one of the best villains, on the same level as Mystique, and Magneto. You see where I’m going with that? None of them are actually evil, but they are quite open about stalking their personal goals or idealistic fixations.

Emotions are a big part of Emma’s character development. To me one of her defining features is her care for Hellions. Sure, there are a few ways of looking at it, especially when you remember her tendency to constantly brainwash some of her students. But her fear for them and own style of care, they build up on her “evil” persona to create something more humane.

Emma in the X-men

With the X-men her character potential just exploded. She brought a lot to the team, and managed to become essential and not just another telepath or a Jean replacement. Needless to say, her own encounters with Jean Grey were phenomenal. You can say what you want, but the actual cheating scandal which jumpstarted her relationship with Scott was a brilliant story and a necessary shake up.

Emma and Scott

When I think about them as a couple, it’s always imperfect. They started off as an imperfection, their beginning was ugly, and messy. They were interesting right off the bat. You never fully knew how much disclosure there was between them. It seems like they knew each other through and through. And unlike with Jean and Scott, where their child personas got forever merged with their impression of each other, Emma and Scott knew one another at their worst, which brought them to their best (and eventually, worst again).

Emma allowed herself to feel and to let him in. Imagine the level of closeness that you can get, gaining trust of the most distant person possible. This is a great place to remind you that her diamond form doesn’t feel. That’s why we always see her switching when she’s in pain. And that’s one of the most beautiful things that some writers get to use. She has the power to escape pain.

Scott’s history with Jean always had him kind of in the backseat, with Jean in the passenger seat and Phoenix driving. His personality was pretty much bland: do the right thing, and beyond that, try to stay relevant. He was heavily connected to Jean, which is kind of like character equivalent of codependence.

With Emma, and her strong personality, he managed to develop his own. Main thing I remember now from their time together is her being supportive. They were leading together, and they somehow were in sync. Regardless of them being an unlikely couple with different personalities. They still made it work. She was the mind behind his leadership, but she also knew him better than he knew himself. Eventually, he learned to doubt. And this may be my personal take here, but he always seemed like Xavier’s soldier, but with Emma he grew to actually become a leader.

That didn’t work well for him, and he’s made mistakes, but those were his mistakes. She, in the meantime, made her own set, but the love was still there.

On her part it never really disappeared, and you can imagine how. It must be near impossible to let go for people like her. In fact, latest Uncanny run showed us just that.

On Scott’s side there was resentment. And I truly don’t know what kind of a writer do you have to be to pull off bringing them together and undoing his final break up speech to Emma. A brilliant one, obviously.

Anything, however, seems better than throwing Scott back into familiar pattern. Maybe he needs time alone, he’s got a million and one things to work through. But if he did get that time, what would be the chances of him coming back to Emma?

In my book, pretty high.

#emma frost #emma grace #scemma #emma x scott #white queen #hellfire club #scott summers #cyclops #jean grey #phoenix force #marvel couples #marvel comics #marvel #marvel community #earth-616 #comicships

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checkmate-cherik · 5 years

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So I had another dumb idea yesterday (I was away from the internet mostly but by god my brain wasn’t going to let me rest that easily)

Charles starts a new school as a human. Sharon represses his records because she hates that he’s a mutant and doesn’t want him sullying the Xavier name further.

The new school is strictly divided. The guidance counselor for the mutant kids is a mutant supremacist, and has slowly poisoned all the mutant kids to hate and mistrust all humans, and to use their powers at every opportunity. The counselor for the humans is a mutant-hater, and plays on the fears of the human kids so that they’re all terrified of and hate the mutant kids. They all have to mix for classes, but in the lunch room the mutants sit to one side and the humans on the other.

Charles at first wonders if he made a mistake---but then he overhears some mutant kids taking in hushed, fearful tones about the other telepath in school, Emma Frost, and he knows that if he says he’s a telepath, the other mutants will hate and fear him---just like everyone at the old school.

So he’s stuck, miserable because he’s surrounded by humans who hate mutants, but if he goes to the mutants, they’ll hate him too. There’s no way to be accepted except lying and hiding. Which he’s used to. So he slips into the habit easily.

There’s one mutant, Erik, who’s the worst. He openly threatens the human kids. He’s in the guidance counselor’s office every week. But he has a kind of sixth sense for finding other mutant kids, so he knows something’s off with the new kid. Emma tries to read him twice, but both times tells Erik in disgust that his mind is utterly human and she hates it. He’s smart and soft-hearted and eventually he’ll start being an asshole.

But he doesn’t start being an asshole. He’s courteous and kind and does not rise to any bait. He’s small, so he gets picked on; and Erik finds himself telling the mutants “He’s not worth it. He’s just a shrimp. We have other enemies.” Everyone looks at him weird, but he’s the leader, so they listen.

And then Erik notices how Charles’ eyes track him, how his smiles for Erik are still nervous, but different from his other smiles, and he is showing all the signs of a baby-crush. Emma agrees, and is alarmed when she tells Erik and he goes quiet before saying, “I’ll ignore it, then.”

“You should be scaring him off!”

“Why? He’s obviously an idiot. He’ll get scared eventually.”

But he doesn’t. And Erik... kind of likes being crushed on.

And then Charles’ records are leaked.

#ramblings #Cherik #sort of

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