All New X-Men

[Advance35]

Is anyone else reading this series?  I thought the concept was ludicrous and I'm still not 100% sold on it but I have to say I haven't enjoyed the X-Characters in the MU for some time and this series is making me love them again.

 

I LOVE when writers allow Jean Grey to take off her "Marcia Brady" hat and be an actual character.   Seeing what became of her and Scott helped her kick that Summers fixation and in the early days of the series she was selfish, manipulative and a little conniving.   It was awesome.   She's mellowed somewhat but she is definitely no saint, but she hasn't just been the series troublemaker, she's had moments that were genuinely poignant with Old!Scott, Young!Scott, Kitty Pryde, Young!Hank and Logan.

 

I've developed a new appreciation for Angel and Iceman (he's hysterical in this series).   It's also made me fond of Magick, who in the past I haven't cared for.

 

Anyone else really liking this series?

[Dandesun]

I'm loving it. I'm a Jean fan anyway and, like you say, she's allowed to be an actual character here. I like that she has struggled so much with her telepathy and has made massive mis-steps with the use of it and gotten shit for it. It's kind of funny to me that Hank did all of this as a means of getting back at Scott, going to the original five and saying 'You become a terrorist! You must come to the future with me!' but Jean arrives and discovers where HER life is going and it's worse than what's going on with Scott.

 

The panels of Iceman making snow angels while singing 'It's Trikcy' is still my favorite.

 

And I hate the Shi'ar even more with their putting Jean on trial for something that... oh, wait... that's right, Phoenix already went on trial for which resulted in her killing herself. Gladiator got more than he bargained for there with Jean developing a whole new powerset! Whoops!

 

Even though Laura hasn't had much to do, I've rather enjoyed her inclusion as well. I am not a fan of Logan. At all. And I despise the on-going 'love triangle' with him, Scott and Jean that has been played out forever (and it's never convinced me that Jean really loves Logan at all through the decades.) but having X-23 interacting with Scott (it makes me laugh) and the rest of the teen original five has been kind of fun. (Iceman not knowing her name and calling her 'Wolverine clone' was hilarious.)

[jellysalmon]

It's kind of ridiculous and some characters seem OOC but it is a collection of a lot of my favorite X-Men characters, drawn by one of my favorite artists. The X-23 + Scott stuff is out-of-character, but I somehow still find it endearing. It's weird because I think it's a mess in terms of continuity and plot and pacing and yet I find myself looking forward to the next issue all the same.

[Chip]

It's a huge mess when it comes to continuity! I am not sure what the resolution is going to be on that one. It seems like a simple mind wipe and trip back in time would be such a huge cop-out. 

[Advance35]

Even though Laura hasn't had much to do, I've rather enjoyed her inclusion as well. I am not a fan of Logan. At all. And I despise the on-going 'love triangle' with him, Scott and Jean that has been played out forever (and it's never convinced me that Jean really loves Logan at all through the decades.) but having X-23 interacting with Scott (it makes me laugh) and the rest of the teen original five has been kind of fun. (Iceman not knowing her name and calling her 'Wolverine clone' was hilarious.)

 

See I haven't payed much attention to the X-Part of the Marvel Universe since the days of Grant Morrison (who's work I hated and found to be horrendously OOC), than I heard they were bringing a time-displaced Jean back and I thought it was ludicrous but I've enjoyed it.    I don't know much about X23 so I haven't made up my mind about her one way or the other yet.

 

I know at the comic book shop I go too, quite a few people enjoy Cyclops and X23.   Though I find it interesting that they scream bloody MURDER when Jean has even slightly amorous scenes with Original!Beast or Quentin Quire.    If the adult version of Jean ever comes back I'd like to see her move into the Avengers part of the MU but as of now I'm loving Jean's return and all the trouble she causes (rarely on purpose).

 

It's kind of ridiculous and some characters seem OOC but it is a collection of a lot of my favorite X-Men characters, drawn by one of my favorite artists. The X-23 + Scott stuff is out-of-character, but I somehow still find it endearing. It's weird because I think it's a mess in terms of continuity and plot and pacing and yet I find myself looking forward to the next issue all the same.

 

I keep expecting an expiration date but, I think All New X-Men is the X-Line's best selling comic book.   Like the only one to make it into the Top 10 list.  Would Marvel really get rid of it.   Bendis seems to think there's limitless story potential.

[Danny Franks]

I've never been able to like Jean Grey that much, because of the pathetic excuse for a love triangle that existed between her, Cyclops and Wolverine (I say 'pathetic', because it always came off to me like she just indulged Wolverine's crush out of pity). I've never liked either of those guys, and because Jean rarely got to have any storylines that didn't involve at least one of them, she became dull and irritating by extension. If they could give her her own storylines, completely isolated from those two, and from the Phoenix stuff, I might be able to get invested.

 

By the sounds of this book, the X-23 storyline would probably just remind me too much of the fanfic quality hatchet-job Marjorie Liu did on Hellion to put an end to that quasi-relationship in the X-23 ongoing, a few years back. Lord, my favourite characters get treated like shit by comic book writers. 

[Advance35]

@Danny Franks, If you ever come across Claremont's 2000 Revolution Series, I thought that gave a very good example of who Jean Grey is.   That was when everyone thought Cyclops was dead after his merger with Apocalypse and Jean lost her telekinesis and was on the X-Team led by Gambit.    I had my issues with that run but I thought Jean was awesome.    I also think another good showing was the X-Men/WildC.A.T.S crossover in which Jean teams up with Grifter.   To this day I think that was my favorite romantic pairing.   Scott Lobdell did a really good job with both characters.   I thought she developed a nice friendship with Gambit, considering he thought she was just a pampered little princess before his adventure with her and Storm in Cairo.   Her pointing out that she was an X-Man while he was stealing televisions from houses will never not be awesome IMO.

 

I personally am a fan of Jean more for her character interactions than any particular storyline, though I loved "Inferno", "Xtinction Agenda" and "Fatal Attractions".   But just little things like her face-offs with Sabertooth, her proposing marriage to Scott instead of the other way around,

 

But back to All New X-Men, if Jean isn't your cup of tea this book might not be for you.   She's been VERY prominent since the series began and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

[Dandesun]

Hell, the most recent issue has Laura going off with Teen!Angel at the end of it. I swear, I think they're doing this just so they can have a cover of Laura making out with various Original Teen Five characters. First they had her kissing Scott on the cover and all they did in the book was awkwardly hug. What I liked about it was that they had Scott reach out to her as a friend more than anything. 

 

The continuity is a mess but I honestly enjoy reading the book. The art is gorgeous and I'm enjoying the characters... although with this last round, I'm pretty much over Baby!Xavier (Charles' son via Mystique... I don't even know how that works) along with Raze (Wolverine's son via Mystique... I mean, come on) and their constant attempts to go back in time and kill the X-Men of the past. Whatever. I don't care about them. I actively root for them to die and never return but you know that Bendis is going to milk that for as long as he can.

 

 

If you ever come across Claremont's 2000 Revolution Series, I thought that gave a very good example of who Jean Grey is.   That was when everyone thought Cyclops was dead after his merger with Apocalypse and Jean lost her telekinesis and was on the X-Team led by Gambit.

 

I loved that period even though it was thoroughly weird in a lot of ways and the editors at Marvel basically trashed it before a year had gone out because the movie had been released and they thought it was absolutely pointless for anyone trying to jump in. I mean, it was also Claremont being Claremont where he had plots in media res that were to be revealed later and had directions he wanted to go in that the fangirls (the Rogue/Gambit ones in particular) refused to accept.

 

Personally, even though I was phasing out of comics at the time after they canned Claremont again, I still love Revolution!Jean. Hell, I wrote fanfic back in the day for X-men (oh, the 90s... what an awesome community that was) and totally wrote an off-shoot universe where Jean/Remy were a thing for real. They're still my crack pairing I know will never happen but love anyway. I don't care!!

 

To be honest, I think the thing that did the most damage to Jean as a character was the animated cartoon. Jean in the comics hadn't been some weak ass, use-my-powers-once-then-faint type of character since Claremont revamped the X-Men and brought them out of the Silver Age. Even before she became Phoenix... hell, just read the issues where she takes on flying the shuttle back to Earth. That's no wilting flower. But the cartoon... it's like no one at Marvel could reach a happy medium between 'she faints all the time and is useless!' and 'she's a cosmic entity that eats planets!' Where's the creativity?

 

In ANAD-X-Men she has her power and developed a new way of using it which is nice because it does open a different door other than the Phoenix one that editorial seems so desperately afraid of. Plus, the Cuckoos HATE Jean and it's hilarious.

[jellysalmon]

I do love the Cuckoo interactions with Teen Jean, and I really like how one of them (Phoebe) thinks she's kinda cool.

I want to see Immonen draw all three with different hairstyles/colors.

[Taeolas]

I think it's coming. Seems like Jean's a trigger for the Cuckoos getting more individual. 

 

So far I'm loving it; with X-Factor and WAXM, it's probably one of my favorite X-Books at the moment. 

 

As far as continuity goes; while they did strongly imply they are still connected to their futures (Killing Young Scott phased out OldScott, but they got better), things are still timey-wimey enough that no one knows what's going on. Considering Sue and Logan broke the Multiverse (and the Illuminati and AIM's adaptoids are breaking it worse), continuity's basically out the window. Maybe Hank can figure out something eventually; he's probably got the most pieces of any of the big brains (including Reed Bruce, Tony and T'challa) but what he figures out is still a ways away. 

 

On another note, I'm loving how Corsair and Scott are hanging out now. But I'm not sure if I've missed something somewhere. Did anyone ever explain how Corsair came back to life as if nothing happened? Or is that one of those timey-wimey things that only Thanos and Starlord seem to be noticing?

 

And while I'm liking some of the Brotherhood of Future X-Men arc, I'm getting a bit tired of it and want to see them more adapting to today and stuff. 

[Joe]

 

Did anyone ever explain how Corsair came back to life as if nothing happened?

Not yet. But according to Greg Rucka, an answer will be forthcoming.

[Bruinsfan]

I think Bendis is a better fit on this book than the various Avengers titles. His Hank, Bobby, and Kitty all have distinct voices, and generic Bendis-speak seems to work better for the other X-Men and their foes. Of course, I'll read anything if Stuart Immonen is drawing it.

[Joe]

I'm sure I remember reading a quote, possibly from Quesada. That 616 and Ultimate universes would never meet, because it would mean they'd run out of ideas. Not passing judgement, just an observation.

 

Of course, it could have something to do with the reboot I've heard rumours about.

[VCRTracking]

Been catching up to this series. Love this moment from #15.

I remember when Rachel first met adult Jean during the X-Factor/Excalibur days and poor Rachel was hoping to be welcomed with open arms and Jean was just freaked about a daughter from the future!

 

Edited September 17, 2014 by VCRTracking

[Bruinsfan]

Rachel, spiked red leather bondage gear is not an appropriate way to dress for your first meeting with your mother!

[VCRTracking]

I like that in this book and Uncanny X-men vol.4(also written by Bendis) teenage Jean actually interacts with other girls, being a victim of the "Smurfette principle" in the old stories:

 

Edited September 17, 2014 by VCRTracking

[Dandesun]

 

I like that in this book and Uncanny X-men vol.4(also written by Bendis) teenage Jean actually interacts with other girls, being a victim of the "Smurfette principle" in the old stories:

 

I kind of love that when the Stepford Cuckoos started exhibiting individual behaviors not all of them immediately hated Teen Jean. (I did find it off putting how scornful they were at the beginning. 'The great Jean Grey...' 'She's not what we were told...' as if they didn't actually live at the school while Jean was there -- like when Esme shot Emma's diamond form to pieces and Jean put her back together again... as if the Cuckoos weren't the ones who told Jean about the psychic affair between Scott and Emma in the first place!)

 

It seems only the blonde one that has issues and I particularly liked Jean fighting back with her. "Whatever Emma Frost test tube baby fail!"

 

I also like Jean's interactions with Laura. I still enjoy this book immensely.