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Friday, April 17, 2009

An X-Comic Thought

Okay, so I've recently been reading some X-Men back issues. I'm enjoying it a lot, actually, despite the fact that I still think Xavier's a creepy, borderline villainous idiot who sabotaged his own cause. I like Cyclops, though. He's fucked up in ways that intrigue me.

Anyway, as I read the issues, I started noticing something odd. Jack Winters has a lot in common with Emma Frost.

I mean, first there's their names. Obvious similarity there. Frost. Winter. Yeah.

Then there's the fact that both of them have used game-related codenames/aliases before. (Jack O'Diamonds, White Queen.)

And both are telepaths with hard to kill "diamond forms".

Granted, there are over 40 years of X-stories out there, most of which I've never read, so I don't know if it's coincidence or if anyone's actually explained that. The Internet has not enlightened me.

It's a bit creepy if you think about it though. Sure, a lot of men end up dating women who are a lot like their mothers. But there's something a little off about dating a woman with such obvious surface similarities to your abusive, evil foster father. Who you killed. I really hope that at some point, someone actually called Cyclops on that, because it's really fucking creepy.

If there ever was a more obvious cry for psychiatric help that doesn't involve telepathic-jumping-of-bones, I've yet to see one. Yeesh.

8 Comments:

  • At April 17, 2009 11:01 AM, Blogger Jer said…

    I really hope that at some point, someone actually called Cyclops on that, because it's really fucking creepy.You're talking about a guy who married a woman who looked exactly like his dead girlfriend, apparently because she looked exactly like his dead girlfriend (since he abandoned her as soon as dead girlfriend turned out to be not so dead).

    Cyclops IS creepy. Everything about the man post-Claremont screams "CREEPY WEIRDO" bold and in all-caps. He's obsessive - not just about dead girlfriend, but also about anything else he decides is "important" to him. And yet he's capable of deciding things are important/not important to him almost at whim. He decides that his family is so important that he quits the X-men and moves them all out into the wilderness of Alaska. Then they're so unimportant that he leaves them for good. He's a mess.

    A lot of that is bad writing (okay, MOST of it is bad writing) but it's what you're left with when you work with a shared universe and massive continuity scalpels are discouraged, and somehow most other characters don't end up so creepy-weird. (Well maybe Tony Stark, but I think a lot of that is intentional).

     
  • At April 17, 2009 12:08 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    As I recall, they did call him on the Madelyne thing. But regardless, Scott's fucked-up-ness does amuse me so.

    I really blame Xavier for most of it, honestly. Anyone else adopting some poor traumatized, abused street kid would have tried to get the poor thing some therapy. Xavier decides "Okay, you're the first soldier in my army!"

     
  • At April 17, 2009 12:26 PM, Blogger Moriarty said…

    Reading X-Men: First Class is the first time in years that I've enjoyed an X-Comic. I've always liked the original group and the characterizations in XM:FC are just fun.

    But hey... I'm mostly a DC guy, so what do I know?

     
  • At April 17, 2009 12:39 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    I haven't actually tried it, but I intend to. It sounds really good, and I love the stories with the original five.

    Oh, Jer, another thing re: Madelyne? (Madeline? I never spell her name right). I think if your creepy relationship is directly the result of scheming by the supervillain who raised you and then cloned your dead girlfriend for his master plan, you get a bit of a pass anyway. :-) It's the "Evil Villain Plot" excuse. :-)

     
  • At April 17, 2009 5:43 PM, Blogger Your Obedient Serpent said…

    I've been taking advantage of working in a comics shop to READ stuff I don't actually BUY -- which includes a whole lotta Marvel.

    X-Men: First Class is consistently good, and one that I regularly recommend to a wide range of customers.

    X-Men: Legacy (formerly "X-Men With No Adjective") is another good title, though with an entirely different target audience. The "Legacy" story arc has spent the last year or two following Charles around after some kind of mind-rape or another fragmented his memory. He's trying to put himself back together by wandering around the world, seeking out all the different people who've known him, and tapping into THEIR memories of him.

    Every issue has Chuck discovering NEW AND DIFFERENT WAYS he's been a complete asshole.

     
  • At April 17, 2009 7:20 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Ooo, now THAT sounds like fun. :-) There are so many possibilities!

     
  • At April 18, 2009 4:25 AM, Blogger LurkerWithout said…

    X-Men: First Class by Jeff Parker and Wolverine: First Class by Fred Van Lente are both great x-books. Fun without all the accumalted x-wangst. XFC is finishing up a mini-series and then will probably be done. WFC is now being written by Peter David as of issue #13. His first issue is..ok. Its got Hand ninjas and Daredevil. *shrug*

    Anyway the WFC issues are MOSTLY about the mentor/student relationship Kitty and Wolverine had. Though one issue is Wolverine going to Shang Chi to learn Kung Fu to beat up on Sabretooth. Its awesome...

    Oh! And the issue with Werewolf-by-Night where Wolverine gets infected with lycanthropy and becomes Werewolf-erine. I love Van Lente so much...

     
  • At April 19, 2009 7:55 AM, Blogger Ethan Hoddes said…

    Regarding the White Queen/Jack of Diamonds thing, the resemblance wasn't so striking until Grant Morrison added her diamond powers. Since he's also the one who thought up the Cyclops/White Queen relationship its hard to believe he didn't have that in mind. However afaik no one's ever brought it up in the comics.

     

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