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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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New X-Men Xtrospective Part 2: Germ Free Generation (Annual, #117-120)

Hello all you happy mutants! And welcome back to my look one of my faviorite runs of one of my faviorite super teams by one of my faviorite comic book writers!

For those of you just joining us.. it’s been a while. I did the first instalment of this retrospective back in early January as a present to my friend for christmas, as he had never read E is for Extinctoin and what with this run being vital to the current, utterly brilliant Krakoa era of X-Men. But with both Black History Month and Valentine’s day, February had no real room for this one and march ended up being just as crammed with me doing essentially the entire della arc of ducktales in one month. I didn’t mean for this retrospective to get pushed so far back, but since I gave up doing weekly coverage of Final Space I had some room on the schedule so this retrospective is back with a vengance with two entries this month and hopefully at least one a month afterword to keep it at a decent clip.

Last time I covered the background of this run and didn’t really find much for the issues after, so I won’t have to spend as much time on background.

So since i’ts been a few months, a refresher is probably in order

PREVIOUSLY, ON X-MEN: Our merry mutants enterted a marvelous new era. As Charles redidciated to the dream with new equipment and a new uniforms our hero encounter a new villian: The Mysterious Cassandra Nova, a powerful telepath who used an uwitting patsy from the trask family and a defucnt sentinel factory to slaughter the mutant nation of Genosha, killing 16 million mutants in the most horrific act of genocide against mutants ever known. And the fact there has been more than one genocide against mutant kind MIGHT, just MIGHT be the reason they blackmailed for peace with life saving drugs instead of helping willingly and freely in the current comics. Just maybe.

Cassandra was captured by the X-Men soon after but escaped and nearly got a hold of Cerebra only to be stopped thanks to a combination of former enemy, genoshan resident at the time of the genocide, and that bitch Emma Frost who snapped her neck and Charles himself who uncharacteristically shot Cassandra in the head. That night Charles took a bold step over that would change the X-Men forever and told the world on live tv:

While all of this was going on we got caught up on the team’s personal struggles, currently consisting of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Wolverine with Emma joining as of the issue we’re about to cover. Beast is grappling with a secondary mutation that makes him look like Aslan, the jesus of narnia and all lions. Meanwhile Scott and Jean are grappling with their non existant sex life as Cyclops possesion by Apocalypse shortly before this story has severely rattled him and caused him to close himself off emotionally.

So that’s where we pick up. Our heroes are now no longer hiden saftely in the shadows from a world that hates and fear them but are out front and center with the world watching. And we’ll see both how that helps their cause and how it puts them directly in the cross hairs under the cut. Content Warning: This review discusses Transphobia and a scene involving a school shooting. If either of these are a trigger for you or something you do not want to read about please skip this part of the retrospective for your own well being. Thank you and have a lovely day.

The Man From Room X:

We have three stories today: an annual that introduces our final team member and the main villians of our next arc, a one off that moves the main plot for the first 12 issues along, and a three part arc about said villains. Before we get into the Annual, I have to talk about it’s weird gimmick: The issue is entirely sideways. I don’t mean it’s bad though some parts are problematic I mean when bought it’d be on it’s side and in my trade I have to flip the whole thing over on it’s side to read it. It’s just a .. weird choice. Not the weirdest thing about this issue somehow but not unexpected from Grant as they like to play with the formula.

We open in said Room X, a location in China where a mutant named Xorn is kept and showed off to a mysterious group of dickweeds in suits representing “Mr. Sublime”. His jailer, General Aao Jun,, shows him off as most bad guys would : By undoing his helmet and thus disntegrating two innocent children just by looking at them. Sublime says they have a deal.

Meanwhile also in China the X-Men are there for a funeral and Emma and Scott trade insulting questions back in forth: She mocks him about his lack of sex with Jean lately and he brings up her criminal past. As for why Emma’s still with the x-men.. it’s out of pragmatisim. WIth Genosha gone, the x-men are the saftest faction to throw in with.

As for why the X-Men are in China, Charles has rapidly expanded his operations now he’s public by setting up X-Corps, a multinational humantarian aid organization dedicated to helping mutants in need wherever they sprout up. He’s set up offices in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Mumbai and Melborne.

He’s also half assed it, at least for the Hong Kong office and only gave them two employees: Domino, who those of you not as familiar with the comics may remember from deadpool and Risque.. who I honestly had never heard of before New X-Men and frequently forget existed. I just looked her up for the first time and she’s a minor mutant who was an associate of X-Force and Warpath’s love intrest. She could compress matter causing it to implode. My assumption here is that Morrison simply picked a minor mutant at random for the job.

But yeah naturally with only two mutants charged with, according to domino “All of asia” went horribly and the x-men are there for Risque’s funeral and to find out what happened. Unsuprisingly it’s tied into our cold open: Risque had found evidence of a mutant trafficking operation and died fighting them off and Dom is naturally f eeling in over her head since said operation involves the chinese goverment, who according to her exccute most mutants at birth and John Sublime and his cult.

We soon see a press confrence from this asshole and find out what his deal is: Sublime is the head of the U-Men, a group that belivies they are a “third species” of mutants trapped in human bodies that deserve to have the surgery to make them into mutants, and thus wear weird suits until the world is pure and allows them to have surgery for it.

Yeahhhh this.. this is really fucking uncomfortable and is going to be present throughout today’s piece so let’s just go ahead and rip that band-aid off: The U-Men come off as HIGHLY transphobic. They use terms similar to trans people call themselves trans species and are trapped inside a body they don’t belong in. It’s VERY uncomfortable to read as a result and something that hadn’t really sunk into till thsi reading but once it had.. oh god does this not age well.

The one thing that keeps this from runing the run and Grant Morrison as a whole for me.. is that I do not think for one second it was intentional. Grant themself is genderqueer, nonbinary and a cross dresser. None of this means they CAN’T be prejudice, being Queer does not magically make you immune to being prejudiced. But before this Grant had the genderqueer sentient street Danny the Street over in doom patrol and a trans main character in his book the invisibles, Lord Fanny. And given New X-Men’s biggest flaw as a whole is clumsy early 2000′s unforutnate implications such as a good chunk of the things about Cyclops affair with Emma, we’ll get to that at the right time, Angel in the next arc and Dust, who was introduced as from afganastan wearing an outfit not seen in the country and speaking a language not spoken in the country. Grant didn’t make these mistakes TWICE, it’s why I still have respect for them, and this won’t be the first or last comic i’ve forgiven for being stupid for it’s time. But I will still call Grant out when I see it. Just because I respect an author just because they changed my life does not mean I won’t call them out when they fuck up. And if they prove to be truly vile, have harmed someone or what have you I will cut them the fuck out of my life. I’ve done it with JK Rowling, Warren Ellis, Brad Jones and Joss Whedon. I would do it with Grant if I truly belivied they were transphobic and instead didn’t just write something very stupid without thinking the metaphor through 20 years ago.

So anyway back to the comic book bollocks as Wolvie and Dominio prepare for an infiltration and flirt a bunch. We also find out Jun is a mutant himself with a power only Grant could dream up: his skin, hair and what have you that falls off him turns into a naked golem for a bit before expiring. And if you hadn’t read this issue before reading this review, yes that actually happened. While the first arc had a BIT of Grant’s trademark batshit insanity, the series REALLY starts to pick it up from here: This issue has a mutant with functioning star for a head, a poorly thought out bucnh of sci fi new age organ theives, and a general whose power is “makes naked clones out of his dandruff”. Oh and his fondest wish?

I just... I don’t know how to respond to that. I don’t know how you respond to an old man’s weird murder fetish that he tells a somehow even creepier cult leader while said cult leader is paying him to buy a star man, and their both surronded by the creepy old guy’s skin golems that weirdly look like mudokons. Look i’ve read Grant’s entire utterly bonkers run on doom patrol. I’ve seen a man who looks like a question mark use a bicycle that makes everyone high like their on LSD for president. And THIS is what breaks me.

So while.. THIS is going on, Dom and Wolverine plan to do it all night long on the professor’s credit card, no really he gives all his professors carte blanch to use school fun, and inflitrate, Dom through the elvator this horrorshow just took place in and Wolvie james bond style. Also I gotta say I REALLY love how Morrison writes Domino. She’s wittiy, entertaining and her power is as awesome as always, super luck if you didn’t know. It’s a real shame he didn’t add her to the team: She wasn’t on any other x-teams, with X-Force having been rebranded into X-Statix by this point. She would’ve been a fun addition to the cast.

Naturally wolverine is found out.. but that was the entire plan, for him to serve as a distraction then cut his way to domino while she steals something from the vault. As for the rest of the X-Men, Cyclops, Beast and Emma are all downstairs in the parking garage and find a secret entrance. Jean is not on this trip and that’s a major plot point for this run. This is where Risque died.. and it only get’s worse when Hank goes inside, finding a bug like child, basically htink a giant caterpillar but with tons of human arms inttead of legs with her wings cut off.

Thankfully as Logan and Dom escape above, the U-Men are dumb enough to storm down bellow.. and while they incapacitate beast with some launched tiny knives, designed to incapcicate but leave them in tact for harvest, Emma beats the shit out of them and get the info out as only she can....

Granted she could’ve just turned back to normal and used her telepathy.. but what fun would that be? Plus they have blockers and you know CUT UP A FUCKING CHILD. SO yeah fuck them, let emma have her fun.

Thanks to her they find out the U-Men are a front for illegal organ harvest, and while they can’t prove sublimes attached Emma suggests killing him. Good idea but Scott suggests the lighter approach and we find out what Dom stole, a key, something Emma can psychcially scan. She warns it might take her a bit to get something.. only to be flooded instantly and we find out who the man in the box was. Shen Xorn... i’ll let emma tell you more herself.

It’s stuff like this why, despite some serious flaws like the U-Men debacle and some stuff to come, some I mentioned above other that’s just with the plot that i love this run. Morrison just gets how to really tell an x-men story and the real tragedy of being a mutant. That just for being diffrent, you get shut out, or in this case thrown into a box when you could’ve and should’ve been something more. As emma turns herself to diamond to deal with the psychic backlash, Beast has some solemn words to share.

That night Scott rests in his bedroom while presumibly hearing some truly horrific and sexy things next door while talking to jean before clocking out.. only for Emma to head in in a sexy dress with champagne. What happened? Well we won’t know for sure for most of the run.

The next day the U-Men prepare to load and we get some scrap of what the idea was supposed to be: John talks to Ao Jun about his procedures. We see wings crudely sewen to his back and his throat implaants hurting “But one day I will fly”. THe IDEA is their supposed to be lunatics, people who envy mutantkind but don’t actually respect their culture or their sense of personhood. It’s not the worst idea and had Grant not used trans termnology for htis, it would’ve been a great one. I think he INTENDED for them to be coopting the idea of being trans and what not to maks their true intentions.. which is problematic due to debates like the ones on bathrooms where a lot of transphobic asshats make the bad faith argument a bunch of people are going to pretend to be trans to assault people.

We’re.. we;’re not even to the main storyarc yet.

But things soon go wrong as Xorn’s starhead starts to collapse into a black hole, with no solution as the x-men took the key to his helmet.. and assault the compound. Turns out the star collapse thing is Jun’s revenge on humanity for lockig him down here and he gets his neck snapped. Scott has a solution though.. and it’s stuff like this why I fucking love Scott Summers and get annoyed when people call him “boring”: He realizes Xorn is comitting sucicide.. so he’s going to talk him out of it. Not just for everyone else but he deserves to live. And while Emma points out only logan among htem knows chinese and she can’t get through to Xorns’ head due to the way his brain works, Scott has a simple workaround: Use the nearest chineses speaker to teach Scott chinese. So.. with that he talks to Xorn.

And that my friend is Scott Summers. A man who faced with powerful man whose given up, whose lost all hope... convinces him he can still go on. That living’s better than dying.. and that it does get better. The issue closes with Xorn basking in the sunlight for the first time in decades while Domino sweats having an extremley powerful unknown mutant out in the world. Scott’s already thought of that.. and signed him up with the x-men. Granted it won’t be until our next article that he actually fully joins the team, but w’ell get to that next time.

This issue is great... while the U-Men stuff is pretty bad and isn’t going to get better, the tale of xorn is excitiong, Aao Jun is an intresting antagonist and the sideways gimmick suprisingly works. So now we’ve finshed our apitizer let’s get on to the main course.

Danger Rooms:

We open in well.. the Danger Room with Beast training a new student.

This is Beak. Beak is my faviorite character Morrison came up with and one of my faviorite X-Characters. Beak is a bird like boy who can fly, it’s just a struggle and due to looking diffrent and not having the most impressive power has very low self esteem. It’s also part of something Morrison took a concerted effort to do: introduce more mutants with genuinely odd apperances and drawbacks. Like we saw with Ugly John last time and Aao Jun in the previous issue, Morriosn really likes adding weird mutants but he also uses it to give a genuine downside to being one. While this isn’t NEW to x-men, Morriosn upped the scale and number of characters like this with weird powers and apperances. We see a bunch of human passing ones too but the backgrounds just jammed with all sorts of unique designs and students. It’s also the point where the school became far more crowded like the movies, a good call on my part both to help those coming in from the movies, and to help sell the mutant baby boom going on. After all it wouldn’t make sense if the school was just about 5-7 students and a bunch of grown adults doing superhero stuff like usual would it.

But we get to see that Hank is a good teacher, as he reminds the boy that he’s getting better and won’t be an x-man overnight, and worries about him to the professor, wanting the boy not to slip through the cracks, figuratively, and not to feel like an outcast.. especaily here. But Hank dosen’t feel blue for long, metaphorically he was blue long before he became the lion minus the witch and the wardrobe, as he has a date to night.. and so does Charles.

Or rather he did.. his girlfriend trish, a long time love intrest of his and a reporter.. breaks up with him. Over voice mail. While in washington. And the reasons she gives are not great

Yes Hank’s transformation is radical.. but not only was it not his choice... she’s being a coward, sending the message it’s okay to dump someone because hteir a mutant or because they happen tobe diffrent and that efffects your career. Again it’s moments like this that make the run soar over the more awkward bits.

Meanwhile Logan’s off doing logan stuff, i.e. gazing at a deer. Wow. Jean followed him. Both notice a space ship: Despite recently outing himself as a mutant, leading to an increased number of students and a bunch of rioting morons at the gates, Charles has decided NOW’S a good time to take a vacation to the Shiar empire. As for why Jean’s really out here, her marriage to Scott isn’t doing so good and while Logan encourages her to stay it’s just not that simple: Her telekenisis is coming back, stronger than ever. She feels the most alive she’s been while he’s shutting her out and feeling his deadest. She tries to turn to logan for comfort but he shuts her down. Just wait two decades jean... he’ll open up to a threesome. In all seriousness though having Jean try and come onto Logan .. will backfire slightly on later storylines. But we’ll get to that eventually.

In the basement Hank is studying Cassandra or rather a virtual version of her since her body is naturally in storage. And he’s found out something disturbing: She’s Charles Genetic Twin.. oh and it gets way worse. The Professor’s weird behavior? Barely staffing the hong kong office, leaving suddenly with rioters t the gates, outing himself? About that...

Cassandra tourtures Hank with the possiblity he’s devovling and then tries to mind controlli him into cleaning himself with his diploma when Beak enters. The good news is this allows hank to shake off her control and tackle her, showing off why hank mccoy is fucking awesome in the process.

That is the Hank McCoy I know, love.. and miss dearly. The one we’ll probably never get back sadly after what others did and what Percy’s had to do to reconclie with all they did.

Unfortunately beak being around means cassandra can force him to beat beast into a coma with his bat. She plans to tear Charles dream down around him and make him watch.. and cryptically says he tried to kill her. She then cheerfully leaves Jean in charge.. and talks about just how much damage one could do with an entire interstellar empire in the wrong hands....

This issue is also excellent and sets up the next two arcs nicely while giving us a nice peak in hank’s head. Great stuff. The artist also hid the word sex in a lot of the images see if you can find them.

Germ Free Generation Issue 1:

So now we get into our main story for today. This story and the one before it were drawn by Ethan Van Sciver whose a talented artist.. but also highly contrversial for being a conservative. I myself.. don’t know what he’s said or did, though calling himself “Canceld Superstar’ on twitter really isn’t a good sign. So I really can’t comment on it but I also know someone would mention it if I didn’t bring it up and if you know what he did please enlighten me.

So we open with a school shooter who also scooped out a guys eyes and is part of the U-Men. He get shot by the swat team while making his speech> it’s an effective opening but one that’s become more uncomfortable to read with each passing day due to school shootings going up and up in number. And mass shootings in general and I... I need a second. I need something to relax me

Thank you Stoopy. Your doing Odd’s Work.

So the news reports on this and we soon see how Jean watches the news.. by using Cerebra to read the minds of every person on the planet. Neat. Everyone’s talking about them. We also get a hint for later as we hear on the suicide of one martha johanson who wrote the note in her own blood. She’ll be important later.... and I mean that both in the context of this retrospective and for the fact she’ll go on to be part of x-men in perpetuity.

This is also where another great concept of Morrison’s pops up: Mutant culture. After all mutants are a minority, they should have their own culture. It’s something Hickman’s era has taken and ran with, but it’s a damn good idea and one that it shoudln’t of taken almost 20 years for someone else to use given Decimation was undone way back around 2012 in Avengers Vs X-Men, aka that event half hte articles on the mcu around the fox sale used as either their image for the article or asked about happneing. And yes that is a pet peeve of mine: while I do think like Civil War AVX could use a movie version to make it better, I don’t think it’s an event that could be done right away and would have to be almost entirely redone anyway given the context for AvX is entirely couched in decimation i.e. something NO ONE wants in any x-adaptation.

So it turns out while watching the news in a next level way Jean is also talking to Logan. “Stay out of my personal fantasies”. Yeah I .. I don’t think your ready for a hairy canadian dry humping a transformer.. specifically killbison. And yes.. that is an actual transformer and why yes, I have been waiting to bring him up.

And he is , and I am not making any of this up, part of a group of decpticons known as the breastforce. Your life is better for knowing that and you are welcome.

Anyway as you’d imagine a genocidal old woman in her brothers’ body leaving the X-Men to fend for themselves after having a teenager bludgeon one into a coma after publicly outing them with a rabid bunch of bigoted morons at the gates has not gone great. Henry is still out and despite the short staffing Jean needs logan to stay where he is as he’s close to an emerging mutant and within range to go get her.

Emma of course has never been so fucking irate in her whole life and is plotting various forms of psychic tourture with the help of her proteges the Stepford Cucokoo, 5 teenage mutants who functoin best as a unit and are easily some of MOrrison’s most prominent additions to the x-cast. Unlike a lot of the x-kids, they’ve been featured prominently in every era of x-men after this including the current one.

Jean decides for a less “Make them hate us even more” approach, but no less pissed off, opening the gates and going out directly to chew out the assembled bigoted morons, pointing out the ones carrying “Mutants Go Home!” signs are especailly dumb as this IS her home. And while she dosen’t point this part out, it’ the same for all of them: most of the mutants are either adults who choose to live here, teenagers who along with their parents choose to live here, or in the majority teens who have no where else to go due to either being abandoned by their families or it being way to dangerous for said families for them to stay due to bigoted assholes like the ones holding mutants go home signs.

A member of the press asks if she’s willing to talk to the media and she refutes most of his bullshit allegations: He asks if their building an army, she and Scott respond they are not and are simply educating mutants and protecting them. When he counters with the fact their living weapons and wearing uniforms... she counters with the fact she’s wearing them to protect herself, rightfully, from people like her, and the x-men are an aid orginzation going where needed to protect the world and while asshole points out no one apointed them.. jean shuts him down by pointing out there are no mutants in goverment and a genocide just happened, so someone has to do the job. Another random asshole tries to pipe up with “Genosha declared war on us” and Emma senses this is just going to go round and round and round and simply presses the assembled mob’s “bliss buttons” in their brains to knock them out. Non violent but honestly warranted: A dangerous part of bigoted assholes is they’l bring up racist bullshit to try and couch it like an actual conversation. None of these complaints really hold water if you looked at the x-men’s history for more than 5 minutes. Yes Charles is training them to fight and yes hte ingial class was an army but every class since has only been trained for self defense: they still got into adventures and what not, but it was usually by their own choice or because they were thrust into them by circumstance. Xaviers is exactly what jean said and endudgling these morons, while good on paper, only makes them seem legit.

Jean retreats to the infirmary where she’s on the verge of breaking down from the sheer weight of everything. Cyclops proves that despite not being the best husband right now... he still loves his wife, offering to go look into Sublime with Emma and hoping Hank wakes up. Turns out his mind for now is a big blank room.

So she can’t get any info off his skull, and neither of the two think what happened with Beak adds up. Something is up here. Their also coming down with colds which will be important later. And just as important.. Magneto is becoming a symbol among people and merch sales with his image are on the rise. We then get this.

So Jean is trying to be a supportive, honest wife, and while the questions incredibly insulting.. his answer is equally so. Spoilers, as mentioned we do get an answer long after this.. and they did not. So Jean is wrong to be suspcious, at this point, but is at least trying to be polite about it and gave him the benifit of the doubt.. and Scott basically said he slept with her without actually saying it despite not having to. You could’ve said “no we did not have sex, we simply talked all night”. It’s not ENTIRELY better given the horrible state of their relationship right now, but it’s still better than HEAVILY implying he rocked her body to the break of dawn for no damn reason.

So we meet our next major addition to the cast Angel Salvador, an abused teen who is a mutant.. and whose abusive and molesting step dad beats her and throws her out over this. The scene’s a bit overdone, coming off like an after school special.. but it’s what happens AFTER that’s truly heartwrenching.

A poor scared teenager clutching herself, finding herself homeless alone and desperatly wishing she wasn’t what she was. It’s just a striking image and shows how well Grant uses the mutant metaphor. I could easily see myself in that position had my parents not been good peopl and had I come out far sooner as bi. The idea of desperatly hoping your not what you are simply becaus eof what hell it brings, despite all the joy it can bring too. . it’s heartbreaking to hear.

Naturally though things don’t get much better as the next morning the U-Men have found her, calling her a freak and successfully kidnapping her.. if only because while she uses acid spit to escape, she flies into a power line.

We then get Sublimes meeting with Emma and Scott and a BETTER use of teh u-men as while Grant made the horrible mistake of calling them “transpecies”, seriously what the fuck were you thinking, the way sublime frames it here is a MUCH better, much less accidently bigoted concept.

The idea isn’t bad: A group of humans jealous of the mutants powers, blatantly ignoring the horrible downsides and mountain of persecution that comes with being one. Grant just made the mistake of couching in in Trans metaphors, clearly trying to have the U-Men steal from Trans People too as a way to make themselves seem legit. And I say if you want superpowers.. fine.. wanting to be a superhero or a mutant is fine, the issue with the U-Men is their copoting a culture, trying to be part of mutantkind without having any of the drawbacks and by actively butchering them. It’s why the concept HAS shown up elsewhere; it’s not TERRIBLE, Grant just made a bad creative choice that’s only gotten worse as Transphobia has ramped up further and further.

Sublime denies it when our heroes bring up Hong Kong.. but naturally he’s simply just keeping them talking long enough to bring out his trump cards, an army of u-men and a brain in a jar he uses to incapacitate them.. and announces his plan to use the school as an organ farm for his third species.

Meanwhile Logan finds the U-Men in their truck preparing to rip angel apart.. and given he snikit’s soon after.. i’ts very clear whose REALLY about to get ripped apart.

Germ Free Generation Part 2:

Part two begins wth Sublime monologoging about how Mutantkind are just cattle to them and reveals the brain is martha’s, her sucicide having been faked and her brain currently being controlled to use as a weapon.

So while Johnny monlogues we find out what happened with Wolverine last issue he didn’t cut up the guys yet as they fired their little flichete guns at him... it was about as useful and effective as you’d expect and the massacre you were expecting occurs. Though in a nice bit of reality the fact wolverine’s soaked in blood and just killed a bunch of blood shockingly does not make the already frighttend teen feel he’s safe and she spits acid on him. Logan pours some stuff on the acid, figuring rightly a black ops murder farmacy would have something to counteract it and tells her she’s safe now .. and tells the guy behind him not to try it. He’s stupid and does anyway and likely gets a claw to the head off panel.

They go to a diner to eat and find a local asshole who threatens them with a shot gun to leave once angel uses her power to digest and goes on a rant about how he snapped his own son’s neck to prevent him being born a freak. Just.. fucking hell this arc is not good for my depression. We get some more angst from Angel and whiel her dialouge is not the best, i’ts a too bit mark millar flavored edgelordy for my taste and if I wanted that i’d go read Ultimates or Ultimate X-Me, her pain is real and Logan helps her through it.

Back at the Mansion the U-Men are on their way to strike, whlie Jean unaware continues to buckle under the weight of all the shit she’s had to deal with, feeling SOMETHING is making them weak with the colds and something worse is going on and thus tries going to Beak’s mind instead and gently helps talk him through it, showing her grace and empathy.. and in return finding out Charles was the one responsible. The alarms flair up and Jean tries calling the police now that’s an option.. but it goes exactly how you’d expect.

Also a second artist took over for this issue and the next Igor Kordey. He’s fine, but not nearly as good as Quitely or Van Sciver and it shows. Meanwhile Beast awakens and heads for the body drawer with Cassandra’s body, and professor’s mind in it.

However Jean’s finally had enough and got her second wind. She’s outgunned, outmanned and left to her own devices. And she’s fucking fed up with it. She steels herself and assembles the students. This is obviously a last resort.. but some of them can defend themselves and their going to need to. But today they won’t be learning.. they’ll be teaching and as the U-Men call them defensless Jeans simply asks “Are you sure about that?”

Germ Free Generation Part 3:

So we come to the finale of this arc. Angel is once again an ungreatful brat to logan and he opts to just leave her there if sh’es going to be like that pointing out being a mutant sucks, it’s going to keep sucking.. and she needs to deal with it instead of lashing out at him and herself over it.

We get back to the U-Men, one of whom is utterly flabergasted they want to him to cut of Cyclops head... only for Emma to awaken.. and take back her regular form meaning she has her telepathy back. The only reason they were able to get her ealier is she was in diamond mode which is stronger but lacks that, a nice way to check and ballance her new powers. She quickly takes them out and disables Martha.

Back at the school we get one of Jean’s definting moments for me and a true chance to show how badass she can be. Before this while Morrison wrote her well, and his version’s still my favoirite, she didn’t really get to do much and was motly in the background. This arc has been her time in the limelight, having trouble grappling with all the stress of running this place by herself.. and emerging from it stronger, more capable and ready to kick some racist weirdo ass. She tries a few diffrent tactics first, having a mutant with a voice power project it to make them think their san invisible army and having the cuckoos fuck with their heads but when both fail, Jean REALLY gets to show off. Thier blade ammo gets turned into a cool looking 3 dimensioinal shape with her telekneisis, and in a cool moment and a wise use of something gross makes the only one of them with useable powers throw up, before issuing a badass boast, wreathed in flames all while she crumples their guns into uselessness. and tears open their suits.

Bad ass.. and logan and Angel arrive just in time for the cecendo as hte u-men flee in terror

The Phoenix has been Reborn. Jean Grey has risen from the ashes and returned to full power.

Meanwhile Sublime is pankcing.. and it gets worse when Emma shows up, fully enraged after all of this and has some words for him.

Iconic. Emma prepares to drop him out of a building but Scott rightly tries to get her to back off, pointing out the pr nightmare it’d create and the fact that they have enough evidence ot shut him down. Martha however has other ideas and gets him to let go of his own accord, falling to his death.. but given he’d aranged a stunt for the press apparently this gives our heroes deniability and Martha her revenge.

So we end this three parter as Jean revels in her new power, and Beast returns with an announcment:

Final Thoughts for Germ Free Generation: This arc is pretty good if forgetable. The struggle of Jean to run the school herself and her rising from the ashes of her own pain at the end with the power of the phoenix at the end is fantastic, finally both giving her a chance to shine.. and a worrying sign for her friends given what her phoenix force copy whose memories she has a copy of, long story, did is awesome. The other parts are okay and ehhhhhhhhh though. Scott and Emma’s investigation into the u-men while having a really good climax, is pretty standard x-men stuff, and Wolverin’es trek with angel is just okay with Angel being highly intolerable during this arc, with Morrison trying a bit TOO hard to make her a “realistic” teen instead coming off as horribly unplesant. She’s supposed to just be lashing out but comes off obnxious as a result. That said this arc does furhter a lot of Morrisons best idea and introduce more, and is a great setup for our next arc, which we’ll get to in two weeks. Soooo

Next Time On X-Men: We find out just what the hell Cassandra Nova is, what her plans are, and what happened with her and charles as our heroes come down with a cold as the might of the shiar empire bears down on them. It’s IMperial in two weeks.

Next Time ON This BLog: Speaking of long Delayed Projects, I finally return to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck as a young Scrooge starts his prospecting career, learning the ins and outs from a rich new mentor, and finding the price tag striking it rich comes with. Raid a copper hill with me tommorow.

If you liked this review, subscirbe for more, join my patreon, and if there’s a comic you’d like me to cover suggest it in the comments or outright comission a review from me via ask. See you at the next rainbow

#new x-men #grant morrison #cassandra nova #shen xorn #beast #hank mccoy #jean grey #cyclops #scott summers #wolverine #logan howlett #angel salvadore #beak #barnell bohsk #the stepford cuckoos #the u-men #john sublime #marthan johanson #ethan van sciver

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djinmer4 · 6 years

Text

Transfer (Ultimate AU)

Kitty looked down at the letter in her hand. This was the opportunity she’d been waiting for. Now she just had to be brave enough to take it.

“-can’t say I blame them. They don’t have good memories of this place and if they feel safer with you, they’re free to go with my blessing.” Scott turned from Emma Frost to Kitty as she entered the room. “You’re late.”

“I’m sorry,” she tucked her hair behind her ears. “I got a letter that may affect our discussion here. Excalibur, the superhero team in Europe, has invited me to join their organization. I’m taking them up on the offer.”

“Congratulations,” said the White Queen.

“I can’t say I’m happy to lose you,” replied Summers. “Is there nothing I can do to make you stay?”

“I’m sorry, Scott, but I’ve thought about this for a long time. Balancing missions, my education, training the newbies and being the PR spokeswoman for the X-Men, it’s too much. I’m afraid I’m going to have a nervous breakdown before I even reach twenty.”

“Most of that won’t go away if you join Excalibur.”

“But some of it will. They’re not expecting me to train entire classes of newly expressed mutants for one. And it’ll take some of the celebrity pressure off too. There I’ll only be one out of a crowd with Captain Britain and Capitan Espana and whoever they get to fill France and Germany’s places. And just by being in Europe, people are less likely to care.”

“It’s your decision. Will you be going by yourself or can you take some students with you?”

Kitty sat down. “They’ve given me almost complete carte blanche. They did say I shouldn’t bring Piotr though. Interpol wants to charge him for what he did when he was part of the Mafiya. If he comes with me, Excalibur will turn him over to them.”

“He can’t cut a deal?” asked Cyclops.

“He was only an avtoritet, whatever that means. Not high enough to have any information they’re willing to deal for.”

“I guess that’s fine. He was willing to stay with the school anyway so that doesn’t change anything.” The ruby-eyed man set a stack of profiles on the table. “Let’s get started. Firestar.”

“She can stay with you,” stated Emma. “The Academy may not differentiate between mutants and humans but we do have standards. Miss Allen has shown she has the improper attitude to join our school.”

“On to the next one then,” he picked up the next profile. “Jimmy says he hasn’t decided. Is there anyone who doesn’t want him?”

“He’s welcome to join the Academy at any time.”

“Kitty? If you want, I’ll tell him you never want to see him again.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m over it. If he wants to join Excalibur, he can come with me.”

“Are you sure? He did dump you in a pretty awful manner.”

“Yeah, but that turned out to be Jean manipulating him. I’m not going to jump back into a relationship with him just like that, but I’m not angry at him anymore.”

“You should tell him that. He’s been really broken up about it.”

She hesitated. “I’ll text him later. Who’s next?”

“Pyro.” Scott quickly took the folder off the table. “Nope, I’m keeping him. He’s a good recruiter, a good trainer and hopefully, he’ll stick around after he graduates. I need all the good teachers I can get.” The two women just laughed.

“Next is Bishop. Still in jail. Not likely to be released anytime soon. Moving on.”

“Dazzler and Angel have stated they want to stay with the X-Men but would also accept being moved to the Academy. Emma, what are your thoughts?”

“Dazzler is fine, but Angel’s already played mole at my Academy once before. He’s not welcome to return.”

“They’ll stay with me then.” Another profile. “Rogue. She’s specifically stated she doesn’t want to be anywhere near you, Kitty.”

The Jewish girl made a frustrated hissing sound. “I don’t even like Bobby and I certainly don’t encourage him. It’s not my fault he can’t take a hint. And I’m not taking him either.”

“Emma, he might do better with his attitude at the Academy.”

“If you like I can test and interview both of them. But based at least on what I’ve seen of Bobby, he doesn’t meet our academic standards.”

“If they fail out of your program, they’ll stay with the X-Men then.” There were only four profiles left. “Beast and Ororo both want to leave-” Emma grabbed the two folders. “Accepted with pleasure!”

“Oookaaayyy then. Now for Jean. She’s definitely not staying with the X-Men. Wolverine’s already tried to kill me and I’m not interested in working with the woman who cheated on me when we were engaged.”

“I’m not taking her either,” announced Kitty. “I don’t even know why she hates me but I’m not putting up with her hostility or bullying.”

Emma just looked thoughtful. “Do you think I should-”

“No!” Both Kitty and Scott exclaimed. Scott continued, “I’ll just fire both of them. They’re very high profile, they can fend for themselves.”

“It’s kind of you,” Kitty reassured the older woman. “But Jean has a history of undermining authority figures and she’s not any less dangerous for losing her attack dog. Your diamond form gives you some protection from Jean’s telepathy but you can’t be like that all the time. It’s better to just be rid of them completely.”

Scott started a new pile for just those two. “Last one. Kitty, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to order you to take this guy, especially since Angel, Colossus, and Dazzler will be staying with me.”

Weapon XVII flinched when someone sat down across from him. Ever since his breakdown, kidnapping Dazzler, going off on Piotr then abusing the Banshee drug, everyone had been avoiding him. If someone was actually going out of their way to seek him out . . . either it was someone else who wanted to chastise him for his actions or Scott had finally made up his mind to kick him out of the X-Men. Still, there was no point in running away. He looked up.

Oh God no, it was Kitty. They’d been friends once before he’d gone and alienated everyone. There had been a time when he even had a crush on her and hoped to become more than friends. Then she and Peter fell in love, he kidnapped Dazzler and Kitty rescued her from him. Kitty hadn’t spoken a word to him after that fiasco. “Katherine. What can I do for you?” He kept his voice as neutral as possible.

“Oh, so you can speak English.” She sat down across from him.

“I’ve been practicing ever since the disaster with Banshee. I’m pretty sure Scott’s had it up to here with Logan and Jean, and if Jean leaves, so does the translation function in my brain.”

“Have you heard the rumors about the team disbanding?”

He swallowed. “Yes, I have.” The possibility of the X-Men dissolving had been preying on his mind lately, making it difficult to sleep at night. With Professor Xavier dead, he didn’t know who would be the leader now or where the funding would come from or if they all were allowed to stay here. Nightcrawler had nowhere to go other than the X-Men. He couldn’t even begin to figure out where the circus he had originally been from was or hope to find the little German town he’d grown up in. And the US was definitely growing more and more unsafe for visible mutants like him. Maybe Emma Frost could use another bodyguard?

“Well, let me put some of those fears to rest. The X-Men will be continuing. Scott has stepped up to be the leader of both the team and the school. We’re getting a grant from the government, plus most of our backers have returned. And Professor X put the Estate in a Trust to run the school so everything will continue, albeit with fewer teachers sleeping with the students hopefully.”

The Weapon let out a sigh of relief. The Sword of Damocles had been lifted away. Then he tensed up again. Just because the X-Men were still around, didn’t mean he was wanted. “Scott’s going to announce the good news tomorrow. However, there’s some bad news as well. There’s going to be a lot of reorganization. Logan and Jean were fired. Hank and Ororo are transferring to the Academy of Tomorrow.” She looked him straight in the eye. “I’m leaving for Excalibur at the end of the month. You’re coming with me.”

It took him a few minutes to process. “Vas?”

“I said that you’ll be accompanying me to Excalibur. Angel, Colossus, and Dazzler, they all expressed a desire not to work with you. So you’ll be coming with me and some of the students to join the European Union superhero team.”

“Ah, um, danke.”

She leaned forward. “Make no mistake. This is your last chance. If you fuck this up, Excalibur will hand you over to Interpol or the CIA or even Department K without any hesitation. And you will be watched very carefully to see if you’ve recovered from your instability earlier.”

It was still better than being locked in a cage or thrown out on the street. “I understand.”

Kitty returned to her meal. “I suggest you start packing and making any arrangements soon because we’ve got less than two weeks before Excalibur comes to pick us up. Officially, the X-Men will be sending some students to study abroad with Shroud and Nightcrawler as the course leaders. In reality, you’ll be my subordinate. Can you handle that?”

“Yes. You’re a good leader. And it’s Kurt.”

“What’s Kurt?”

“My name.”

She stared at him. “You remember your name now?”

“Well no. But you can’t keep calling me Weapon-XVII or Nightcrawler all the time. Or Legolas, no matter what I’d prefer. So Kurt. It’s a common German name so it won’t stand out, it’s easy to remember and short too. What’s not to like about it?”

“Hmm, fair enough.” She thought about it for a second. “You might as well choose a last name too. Make things easier for Jamie when he does the paperwork.”

“In that case . . . Wagner. Spelled with a W. You can call me Kurt Wagner.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Pronounced like a V and spelled with a W. Less easy.”

“But also very common. Perhaps not as common as Muller or Schmidt or Schneider. But Kurt Wagner sounds real enough without being an obvious alias like John Doe.”

“Very well then. I’ll see you later, Kurt Wagner.”

The last of the students had boarded the Blackbird and there was just her and Kurt on the tarmac when Kitty heard someone shouting, “Wait! Wait!” She turned and there was Jimmy Hudson running up. He had a suitcase, duffle, backpack and was clearly ready to go with them. Kurt stepped between them. Kitty had said things were fine with Logan’s son but Kurt was taking no chances.

“Jimmy? I thought you weren’t going to come with us.”

“I-I,” he took a moment to catch his breath. “I procrastinated on my decision until the last minute. But I don’t want to stay here. I’d trust Mr. Summers with my life, but it can’t be easy teaching the son of the guy who tried to kill you. Not to mention Jean cheated on him with me. Even if I was mind-controlled, the whole situation’s just awkward.” He smiled up at her boyishly. “Can I come with you?”

Kurt half-hoped she would say no. But Kitty just waved her hand at the blonde and let him board. “You’re going to have to sort out the paperwork with Jamie when we get there.”

“My fault for being such a slug about it.”

#ultimate au

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voltkaizer · 7 years

Text

Good-bye... TV-Tropes.

Well... It’s official now.

I’ve been permanently banned from TV-Tropes.org because the mods just couldn’t handle the fact that they had committed a terrible mistake, and that they inflicted disproportionate retribution and great emotional pain upon someone that didn’t deserve it.

And yet... I feel extremely happy, fulfilled, and justified, because despite the mod-team’s best efforts to try to cover their asses and hide the truth behind the backstabbing-shit they did by patronizing me, ignoring me and censoring me, I’ve archived the evidence of their shenanigans so their injustice isn’t lost in the sands of time.

This is the post that got me banned:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13037797990A10271500&page=1320#32986

This is the stuff the mods tried to censor in order to “save face”:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=5cma6iojg5o27puhulc24sje&page=575#14354 ... and these are the censored posts (those which appears a blanked posts “written” by TrollPost from troll post crusher) whose bitting truth they couldn’t handle:

[POST #14373 & POST #14354]

These are the two only posts I couldn’t save before the mods censored the whole thing... but they basically boiled down to:

*POST #14373: Me offering a sincere apology and recognizing my mistake, while humbly and politely requesting the reinstatement of my wiki-editing privileges.

*POST #14354: Me reacting, after receiving a notification that I had a new private message... which I COULDN’T read at ALL, because the mods had disabled my ability to even read&write private messages too.

[POST #14373]

@Fighteer: In that case, there's nothing to worry about, I can 200% guarantee that... I might have said some things that could be misconstrued as me having high-suicidal tendencies, but that was just me being hyperbolic due to the high amount of stress and emotional turmoil I was going through during those days.

Think about this: Can you really blame me for being slightly overblown considering that a very close and important person in my life died very recently?! ... we all at home are coping with that grief the best we can, but even the best armor can be dented by the sheer day-to-day stress (it isn't the “brunt/size” of the problems, but their “recurrence” what wears you out...) that is bound to come your way when dealing with these kind of events.

Besides, I ALREADY AM under professional and constant psychological and psychiatric treatment, (I've been so for 1 or 2 years already, I can't accurately remember right now) and I always make sure to take my medicines. So all things considered, there's nothing to worry about... doubly so since what I want reinstated is JUST the wiki-edit privilege.

As I see it, you (the mod team) is just running out of arguments and "carte-blanches" to deflect my polite and humble petition... unless you want to go ad-hominem and say: "No! We hate you guts for being a persistent and (strangely) clever smartass that's strangely good at debating... for some unholy reason!". (which is kinda obnoxious, but NOT a crime/ban-worthy-offense) The "danger" you're trying to keep users away from doesn't exist; you're judging me with incomplete data and without being fully aware of the true story and extend of the circumstances. (I reiterate, you didn't know I already was under professional and constant psychological and psychiatric treatment, just to name an important fact you gleeful omitted)

I have to reiterate: After 7+ years of service as an always vigilant, constructive, diligent and proactive wiki-editor, it would only be fair for you to concede me that one little indulgence... refusing to do so would only cast light on you being arrogant petty authority-abusing jerks with zero empathy, that refuse to see the whole picture before hastily judging exacting swift and disproportionate “retribution” upon a person who isn't a true danger at all... but a just folk whom had a very bad day, and a small emotional lapsus because of it.

You don't even need to take my word for it... ask the folks back at the Thread that caused my downfall, and you'll see none of them truly considered me a danger... obnoxious, maybe... most definitely... but not a danger. Truth be told, and despite the events that triggered all this, they all just showed that they had good faith in me, and they were sincerely trying to help me get through this difficult stage of grief... and then the Supermods came flying-by, and friggin' ruined everything by pouring more metaphorical gasoline into the metaphorical fire. Good grief, man... good grief, indeed.

PS. Please, stop sending me Private Messages, because I can't read them at all, folks. [my PM privilege was disabled too] (-_-)U Do you even read, broseph(s)?

[POST #14374]

Just a small addendum: As of now, and despite stepping away from the TV-Tropes' user community aspect, I’m NOT cutting human interaction, folks... That would be just silly! I already have plenty of outlets for interation with a lot of (potentially) awesome human beings.

The one thing those don't have, is the ability to reinstate my wiki-edit privilege... which is what this whole fight is about, in the end. My love for this wiki and its wealth of content and valuable information exceeds my grieves with its user community and trigger-ban happy mods

[POST #14377]

...There are only two ways this ordeal is going to end up:

1.- You accede to fulfill my humble, sincere and reasonable request; I regain my wiki edit privileges; you atone for the horrible mistake and emotional damage you inflicted upon me. (banning/silencing the guy that was feeling horrible because he perceived he was constantly castaway, ignored and silenced... your blindness to the whole irony of the situation doesn't cease to amuse me) We leave in good terms, and I return to silently editing the wiki while establishing no personal contact with any of the users, so you won't have to deal with me "contaminating" your precious forums ever again.

2.- You TRULY ban me for good in order to silence me... proving in the process that I was right all along; that you're a bunch of petty short-sighted prejudiced authority-abusing team of mods with zero empathy.

I win one way or the the other... but while the first options leads to all of us leaving in good terms as reasonable adults whom managed to find a reasonable compromise to a delicate situation, the second one just leaves you looking like a bunch of jackasses whom caused a lot of harm to an innocent person... a person that's going to continue his life somewhere else, but that will always be bitter with you, because you ruined something that was so dear and precious to him.

[POST #14378]

...So, I'll ask once again... and I'll ask as many times as necessary... because I won't stay silent, either until justice is done or until my voice is forever drowned by your kill-switches / censorship...

Tell me: What is going to be?

[POST #14379]

I promise... No, I SWEAR upon the immortal soul of my dear grandfather: I'm not going to fucking kill myself just because of a dumb and insensitive mistake done for a bunch bunch of petty, short-sighted, antipathetic mods.

I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than that, you condescending fools. I'm the only one that's allowed to look down upon me... not you, nor anyone else.

...And so it ends... And yet, despite this story having a “tragic“ end, I’m really satisfied and at peace with how it turned out, and even (not so) humbly proud, because things happened exactly as I predicted...

They played dirty and laid very obvious trap that I could see a mile away coming, and then they got “salty”/indignant when I called their shenanigans/bullshit, and exposed them as the scum they are.

The lies, duplicity, petty attitude and total lack of empathy of the mods was captured for posterity, and I walk away knowing I OWNED them so hard, that they had to delete The Truth in order to desperately try cover their assess. Censorship is the tool of the coward, weak and stupid. So much for the Streisand Effect, eh guys?!

In my country, there’s a saying that has become a very important axiom in my life-philosophy:

“La Verdad no peca, pero incomoda.” (translates from Spanish to “The Truth doesn’t sin, yet it (always) stings”)

Looks like truth’s sting really was too much for them to handle! HA HA HA HA HAH! (^_^) Farewell TV-Tropes! I’m glad I got to leave on my own terms, and with no regrets.

Important Update, April 25th 2017: Unlike those shitty TV-Tropes' mods, I’m not going to censor/retroactively-edit my own words and say I never wrote: “I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than that, you condescending fools. I'm the only one that's allowed to look down upon me... not you, nor anyone else.”

INSTEAD, what I’m going to say it that those words are NOT what I’ll believe-in any longer; rather, what I’ll believe-in is:

-“I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than what you, condescending fools, might ever think; and no one in this world (SPECIALLY me) is going to tell me otherwise! From now on, I’ll believe in my own strength instead of doubting it all the time. I won’t EVER allow for anyone to look down upon me!”

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