Son of M --- the aftermath
Everly
below is only my personal opinion. Folks here and abroad are welcome to
agree, disagree, or anything in between, openly or otherwise. I don't
mean to flame, or troll, and I'd be as happy to hear differing opinions
as to find out if anyone else reading the series thought similarly
about it as I. (Heh, and I would have been doubly as happy to have
enjoyed the series as I had highly hoped to.)
So! The dust has settled after Son of M came to its end, and I've
finally taken a minute to compose some thoughts. First, a little
introduction.
Who I am:
A former longtime reader of the Marvel Universe, who years ago started
dropping titles like flies until eventually there were none left on my
pull list. Occasionally I catch up on the old titles I used to read via
reviews or whatnot. Recently my ears perked over 'Son of M' , because a
(well-written) Quicksilver is an old favorite of mine, and because the
web-published preview of issue#1 blew me away.
And don't get me wrong: those first few pages are classic. I was
captivated and itching to know...what would Pietro do next? Would he
strike out in sorrow to find himself, or in anger to find his sister?
Would he go mad at the mere prospect of normality, or simply be
convinced he's STILL better than the best of them? Would a life at
normal speed be his swift undoing, or would it actually start to grow
on him -- after all, making love with his wife, watching his daughter
grow, interacting with people...M-Day changed everything: everyone and
their dog knows how to use ATMs now.
Unfortunately, this series touched upon only one plausible possibility
(that Pietro would fall into a dangerous depression and attempt
suicide), then proceeded to avoid addressing its own revelation,
reverting instead to a generic "crazy character" formula. (Honestly, I
wonder if the author knows Pietro was retconned to have been
mind-controlled by Maximus during his previous period of apparent
insanity long ago...) To reiterate: Pietro attempts suicide, and if not
for the miraculous intervention of a teleporting dog and an Inhuman
healer, he would have died there on the pavement -- yet no one (himself
included) and no subsequent occurrences so much as reference the event
in retrospect. The man should have been in therapy and on suicide watch
in Attilan...instead, he lives in an apartment separate from his
(so-called) wife and daughter, eventually to be put under house arrest
and further ostracized by an armed escort accompanying him in public.
(Not saying he didn't deserve such treatment by then, just pointing out
one of many instances where something significant happens, then is
either immediately undone or is simply ignored thereafter; a somewhat
pointless method of storytelling, like a continuous dream sequence
where any minute nothing could matter.)
Before getting into a few other specifics that really jarred me off of
the page, I want to summarize some major disappointments.
Not enough Pietro.
The initial first-person narration that seemed so spot-on, so
in-character, just up and vanished a few pages later, only to briefly
reappear maybe three times total, epilogue included. Not that it isn't
a difficult perspective to keep up: very easy to lose the feel, the
voice, of a character that way (imo it slipped already with the virtual
words "Oh, Wanda, my perfect sister"), but the general THEME of being
from Pietro's POV, being inside his head, could certainly have been
carried through. As that wasn't the case, we're left with no insight of
the title character's internal reaction to anything, not via thought
bubbles, not in captions. What we do see is Pietro's behavioral
reactions, which were out of character, not to mix words.
Speaking of characterizations, I have to say Medusa finished ahead of
everyone as far as sensibility and consistency. She had the decorum to
interject on Pietro's behalf and welcome him to stay in Attilan until
recovered, while Crystal just excused herself for bringing him home
because he was dying (not because he's her husband, curiously). Also,
Medusa understood Pietro's right to spend time with his daughter (and,
presumably, Luna's right likewise), while Crystal just exclaimed "Have
you seen Pietro lately? There is something seriously wrong with him!"
as though he isn't a man so broken that he attempted suicide just
recently, in whose life she's made no positive impression since. (btw,
what will it take before people commence investigative measures at the
first sign of a Maximoff acting off-kilter?) Even in pursuing the Mists
and ultimately declaring war, Medusa (along with Blackbolt, if she was
speaking/acting on his behalf) came off as the most rational in the
whole cast. Which, maybe, was the intention -- but MY intention was to
buy a Quicksilver series, not an Inhumans one.
Sad thing is then, even when Pietro was in the spotlight of his own
series, it read to me like a legitimate "evil twin" plot, and felt as
irrelevant. (If SoM isn't eventually retconned to one extent or
another, it should be.) This version of Pietro had none of the
intelligence, none of the wit, none of the personality, indeed none of
the HEART, of the Pietro that most of his fans just love to hate. This
doppelganger can't win an argument, can't even have a conversation, and
can't think beyond the most difficult and troublesome and least
effective contrivance of a plan that first comes to mind (that is, I
assume it came to mind, because suddenly Pietro was doing something
ridiculous to achieve some goal pulled out of left field in a most
peculiar way, absent supporting motivation leading up to that point),
despite that it seems obvious the best way to go about putting things
back to how they were before Wanda changed it all would be to have
Wanda put things back to how they were before she changed it all, as
opposed to coming into contact with millions of would-be mutants one by
one, repeatedly, but whatever. Wanda who?
Another issue with me is Pietro's daddy-complex as portrayed.
While it's reasonable to say he has one, it should be nothing like
represented here. Note that initially, Pietro and Wanda were the
children of Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple who raised the
twins in the Balkans of Europe. Later, Magneto was retconned in as
their biological father -- the siblings were well-adjusted (as much as
they've ever been) adults by the time this revelation came to light.
Granted, it couldn't have been very comfortable for Pietro to discover
that this megalomaniacal on-again off-again terrorist is actually his
father -- worse, that they share some of the same opinions (i.e.
prejudices) regarding mutant supremacy and such. Here's the crux
though: not unlike Magneto and Xavier, Pietro and his father have that
'opposite sides of the same coin' dynamic going on. Barring bouts of
insanity (or trickery) on Pietro's behalf or bouts of reformation on
Magneto's, these two have been on opposing sides of the hero/villain
spectrum for nigh their whole lives. Thus Pietro whining to Spider-man
that he's "earned the hatred of [his] father" as if it were ever
otherwise or as if that were ever a concern to begin with is
canonically unfounded.
(remember when Quicksilver disassembled a nuclear bomb to foil
Magneto's plans even when they WERE working together in villainy?
before he QUIT the Brotherhood and Magneto's vision along with it?
fighting AGAINST Magneto repeatedly thereafter? remember Pietro
rejecting his new-found father's overture of amends on account of
Magneto being such an ASS all the time before? remember Magneto's whole
"MY OWN SON MUST BE SLAIN" a la Fatal Attractions? remember Bloodties?
Magneto Rex? Dark Seduction? Better yet: can anyone remember a time
when 'all Pietro wanted to do' was please ANYONE, save perhaps himself
in lieu of going insane with boredom, as his ludicrous "All I ever
wanted to do was please [Magneto]. He barely acknowledged my existence.
Have you noticed me now?!" line would have us believe?)
I almost suspect the author got his X-verses a bit crossed with these
two; for example, if one were to replace Ultimate Quicksilver with
Pietro in Son of M, it would be a much more accurate match.
Next up, Pietro's new powers.
The most frustrating thing is that his speed could have, with
reasonable believability and logic (or as close as comics books come)
IMO, been expanded to encompass time manipulation. Consider that,
either due to a mistaken perception of how his powers have worked all
along (i.e. a retcon), or due to Terrigenesis' unpredictable results,
Pietro does not necessarily move his body at an accelerated rate, but
rather accelerates the passage of time as it relates to himself: a "hex
sphere", if you will, within which Quicksilver can do an hours' worth
of whatever, while without only a genuine minute has passed, thus he
appears to physically speed up to those unaffected by the
time-acceleration.
(A clever author could even reference Pietro's accelerated aging back
in the original PAD X-Factor as proof, and as an example of the adverse
effects such powers can inflict without careful control.) So Pietro
remutates/reactivates his X-gene via the Terrigen Mists, and voila, now
he's so revved and so determined and noticeably unsettled after
everything that's happened go figure, the twin of a woman who can alter
reality can alter time. Whoop-de-do.
Instead, what we have here is someone who can "vibrate his atoms" fast
enough to travel through time (but only so far, and only for so long,
and only in one direction, bringing nothing organic either way except
his organic body and the organic contents of his
stomach)............but he can't vibrate his atoms slower than that to
achieve super-speed. And he can see the future, but he can't thereafter
affect the future via present time actions. What the--? (I mean, I
agree if you have a zit on your face next Monday, there's no stopping
it the Friday before -- but if you see yourself in the hospital after a
car wreck on Monday, it's perfectly easy to stay out of cars until
Tuesday so the accident never happens.) Oh, well, hey, at least now we
have an extra Multiple Man -- there can be a new series: Madrox and
Maximoff, starring in TON OF M.
Furthermore, the crystals' effect is misrepresented as addictive,
temporary, and systematically identical to but worse than one's
original mutation (except for Pietro at the end of the series...because
then the crystals inexplicably do whatever the author wants them to do,
unrelated in this case to speed or time or anything in between), when
there's been no historical indication of any of the above. In fact, the
one thing the mists ARE canonically known for is the 'monstrous
mutations' Medusa mentioned that damaged the Inhuman gene pool for
millennia -- which is the one thing that DOESN'T happen here.
Basically, Terrigenesis turns everyone into a junkie ("Come on, take a
huff" /EYEROLL) with no control whatsoever over their powers, unless
they abstain and then they turn human again. Yawn.
By the way, about the crystals.......it makes no sense to me that the
whole chamber full of them on Attilan is rendered useless for "many
years" because Pietro cut off a portion itself undamaged by the
process. By that logic, all the Inhumans had to do was cut off another
piece and it'd function just fine. As the very basis for the Inhumans'
involvement in the rest of the story, this is a crucial point that
failed to convince me in the least. (Also, if the crystals are a
natural resource discovered originally on Earth, why can't the Inhumans
harvest more?)
Really though, I recognize that this WAS the main point of the entire
story: to get the Inhumans involved in the upcoming Civil War
storyline. Everything else that happened in SoM has been undone already
(such as the Genoshan mutants' reversed/re-reversed conditions), or
could easily be undone by another writer in another story (such as
Pietro's powers conveniently wearing off as Terrigenesis is [now as
never before] wont to do), or went in a full circle and might as well
never have happened anyway (such as Pietro 'not repeating his father's
mistakes' by taking Luna only to leave her again). Problem being, I
don't CARE about Civil War any more than I care about the plights of
Calisto or any of those Genoshan mutants I didn't even recognize. I
cared to read about the son of Magnus.
Moving on to some perceived blunders.
---"Luna is half-Inhuman" ... strange that Reed would say that, since
he said her parents' mutant and Inhuman genes cancelled each other out
when she was born, and Luna has been plain human ever since; the
subject of a lot of grief previously, wherein Pietro already considered
and decided against subjecting her to the Terrigen Mists -- so why he'd
be asking again here as if it's never come up before is anyone's guess.
In fact, Pietro involving Luna as he did just came across as a cheap
tactic to portray him as a baaaad parent and an eeeevil man IMO.
Problem being, Pietro isn't supposed to be stupid (he must know what he
means to do will be dangerous, that people will try to stop him, etc.),
and he's never endangered his daughter before (it's one thing when a
youthful and impetuous and prejudice Pietro wanted to execute his
lawful right and go about subjecting Luna to Terrigenesis -- it's quite
another if Luna has officially been disqualified from the process AND
she says pointblank "Father, I'm frightened. I don't want to do this"
well AFTER Pietro has grown up and lived down this mistake and moved
on). So reverting Pietro to his much younger, less-wise mindframe that
other writers had since incorporated character development as a result
of (in addition to making him into the kind of man who --even having
lost his own birth mother and adoptive family at a young age under
tragic circumstances-- would remove a child from her mother and
relatives), is either OOC by ignorance or OOC by design.
---'Then Wanda said the magic words... "No more mutants." ...and my
father finally knew despair.'
If that isn't the most mind-boggling line in the entire series, someone
please point it out to me. Magneto loses his powers (again, since it
happened at least once not long ago courtesy of the High Evolutionary,
mind), and only THEN does he "finally know despair"? Odd.....I would
have thought he'd probably learned despair sometime during, oh I don't
know, the HOLOCAUST maybe. Wow.
---What was the point of the black thing Luna saw spreading in her
father's chest? She tried to take away Magneto's murder-inducing
sadness, but doesn't try to take away the obsidian mass of wickedness
spreading in daddy's torso? Whatever became of this 'thing' in his body
(or in Luna's perception), who knows -- and who cares, if the author
doesn't.
---What was the point of the sculpture Luna gave her father that
future-Pietro gave to other-Pietro and called "important"? How
important could it be if we never saw it or heard of it again?
---"Grandfather!"
"Luna? My dear child, is it really you?"
Well, okay. Maybe Luna learned who her grandfather is, but at the same
time, no one bothered to tell her that he isn't a very nice man and
that she should stay away from bad people like him at all times. And
maybe Magneto puts two and two together to conclude that the little
girl with Pietro is Luna. I'm assuming this must be the case, because
otherwise the scene looks like some sort of family reunion, wherein
Luna calls someone she's never met "grandfather" and runs to him like
he'll bounce her on his knee, and Magneto calls someone "my dear girl"
whom he hasn't seen since she was an infant and has had nothing to do
with since. Why, he wasn't even conscious when Luna was nearly murdered
in his name for being a Homo-sapien stain on his bloodline.....but
that's another story, another backstory, in fact, that this series
doesn't so much as wink at.
Brining me, finally, to my last complaint.
There's nary a ghost of HISTORY to haunt this broken wing of the House
of M. Crystal teleports via Lockjaw to find a fatally injured
Quicksilver, and takes him back to Attilan for healing....yet no one
mentions how this is the same way they FIRST MET. Quicksilver asks
about Inhuman customs relating to Terregenesis as though he's never
heard of it before, much less lived in Attilan as the brother-in-law of
their King and a soldier in their Militia. Pietro exposes Luna to the
Terrigen Mists for no reason, despite already wanting to but deciding
not to and beating himself up about it for years before. Pietro loses
his powers, gets turned down by the Inhumans for help, and doesn't even
consider seeking out the High Evolutionary next (creator of the
power-enhancing Isotope E that Pietro once used, and responsible as
well for earth's mutants to lose and then gain back their powers, who
also once trusted Pietro as commander of his army of New Men).
...I could go on, but I given the hour, instead I'll skip to the worst
and call it a night: Wanda who?
-E
Ken from Chicago
"Everly" <ae_e...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1150605219.0...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: everything that follows
> below is only my personal opinion. Folks here and abroad are welcome to
Why would we think otherwise?
> agree, disagree, or anything in between, openly or otherwise. I don't
Why would we change?
> mean to flame, or troll, and I'd be as happy to hear differing opinions
If we "disagree" wouldn't that by definition be a different opinion than
yours?
> as to find out if anyone else reading the series thought similarly
> about it as I. (Heh, and I would have been doubly as happy to have
> enjoyed the series as I had highly hoped to.)
Irritatingly I've discovered not everyone agrees--including not with me
(their lose or gain depending on your POV).
> So! The dust has settled after Son of M came to its end, and I've
> finally taken a minute to compose some thoughts. First, a little
> introduction.
It took a minute to compose 18 SCREENS of thoughts? Impressive.
[Exit smart alec mode.]
So, what did you REALLY feel?
[Wait, exit smart alec mode for sure.]
Actually someone else did enjoy SON OF M:
http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/AOTB/post/567742/Blair_Butlers_Fresh_Ink.html
GMTA.
-- Ken from Chicago
anmc...@hotmail.com
> ---"Grandfather!"
> "Luna? My dear child, is it really you?"
> Well, okay. Maybe Luna learned who her grandfather is, but at the same
> time, no one bothered to tell her that he isn't a very nice man and
> that she should stay away from bad people like him at all times. And
> maybe Magneto puts two and two together to conclude that the little
> girl with Pietro is Luna. I'm assuming this must be the case, because
> otherwise the scene looks like some sort of family reunion, wherein
> Luna calls someone she's never met "grandfather" and runs to him like
> he'll bounce her on his knee, and Magneto calls someone "my dear girl"
> whom he hasn't seen since she was an infant and has had nothing to do
> with since. Why, he wasn't even conscious when Luna was nearly murdered
> in his name for being a Homo-sapien stain on his bloodline.....but
> that's another story, another backstory, in fact, that this series
> doesn't so much as wink at.
Well, I could disagree with that: I would believe that Magneto does
care about Luna. One can say that Luna closely resembles Anya, Mag's
first-born child, whose death motivated her father into starting his
war with mankind (My dying grandmother mistook my elder brother as her
long-dead first-born son).
This adds to the scene in the 1st VISION AND SCARLET WITCH LS, when
Magneto decides to stop his war as a promise to the babe (closing the
circle). Of course, that didn't work out, but I can see Magneto keeping
an eye on his granddaughter (in the 2nd VaSW series, Magneto came to
the couple's Thanksgiving party and gave a present to Luna, now a
toddler). I could believe he would recognize the child and care about
her safety (once again, she resembles the daughter he couldn't save).
A.Gerard
yusaku...@dca.net
well thought-out post. And the first to say that you're really not going to
make a difference with the current generation of editors and writers and the
fans of the direction that Marvel Entertainment is taking. It seems that
we've come full circle from the day when Stan Lee originally promoted his
vision of "gods" with feet of clay.
Today, what we're confronted with is something akin to the "pro wrestling"
phenomenon, where a logical progression of storytelling no longer applies
and sales gimmicks are substituted. Unless we lower our expectations for
the products significantly, we really can't enjoy reading another Marvel
title. The difference between me and you here is that I saw this coming
when "House of M" was first announced and when the writers then handling NEW
X-MEN: ACADEMY X were told to leave the book. Only the Hollywood action
flick fans would enjoy the direction the DePhillipis-Weir's replacements
have taken the title in.
Rather than get involved with it any more, I've just been browsing through
the occasional volume just to see how much worse it can get. There really
arent' enough bright spots in it all to justify my even wanting to go back
in. The field belongs to the new kids now; they're quite rude.
Let it go.
--
Yusaku Jon III
http://members.dca.net/yusaku-jon-3/
will...@aol.com
<snip>
> Today, what we're confronted with is something akin to the "pro wrestling"
> phenomenon, where a logical progression of storytelling no longer applies
> and sales gimmicks are substituted. Unless we lower our expectations for
> the products significantly, we really can't enjoy reading another Marvel
> title.
<snip>
::applause::
Thank you for putting into words why I gave up on comics when X-Factor
#1 came out and Phoenix was ret-conned out of having been Jean Grey.
William
Everly
anmc...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> Well, I could disagree with that: I would believe that Magneto does
> care about Luna. One can say that Luna closely resembles Anya, Mag's
> first-born child, whose death motivated her father into starting his
> war with mankind (My dying grandmother mistook my elder brother as her
> long-dead first-born son).
> This adds to the scene in the 1st VISION AND SCARLET WITCH LS, when
> Magneto decides to stop his war as a promise to the babe (closing the
> circle). Of course, that didn't work out, but I can see Magneto keeping
> an eye on his granddaughter (in the 2nd VaSW series, Magneto came to
> the couple's Thanksgiving party and gave a present to Luna, now a
> toddler). I could believe he would recognize the child and care about
> her safety (once again, she resembles the daughter he couldn't save).
>
> A.Gerard
I think it's the execution more than the concept that disagreed with me
here. For example, to have Luna identify Magneto as her relative, then
run to him without caution seems somehow self-contradictory; either she
knows him or she doesn't, and if she knows him, how could she NOT know
he is dangerous (in other words, what adult wouldn't have taught her
so?)? As for Magneto, between the "my dear child" line and his knowing
as much about Terrigenesis as anyone while even Pietro needed a lesson
on Attilan just struck me as incongruent. Eh...
-E
Ken from Chicago
<will...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1150635034.4...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
Worse are the few exceptions to that rule which would raise your
expectations, like a groundhog out of its hole--only to find out you're a
polo field ... the hard way.
<THWACK!>
-- Ken from Chicago
mimf
In real life there are mothers who don't tell their young children that
their fathers are or have been in jail. I doubt Luna would have ever have
been left alone with Magneto, but I can see Luna's family allowing him to
visit her, and keeping the visits amicable enough so as not to scare her.
Jimmy Fury
Everly wrote:
>
> Brining me, finally, to my last complaint.
>
> There's nary a ghost of HISTORY to haunt this broken wing of the House
> of M. Crystal teleports via Lockjaw to find a fatally injured
> Quicksilver, and takes him back to Attilan for healing....yet no one
> mentions how this is the same way they FIRST MET.
The lack of respect for history, and character continuity and
relationships has been one of the greatest annoyances to me of Marvel
and the X-books recently. One of the reasons X-Factor is one my
favourite books is because an effort is made to treat history with
respect. Fans have long memories!
Everly
I know you're right about that. Thing is, we're talking about specific
characters here with certain histories and traits, not real-life people
in general. Question would be then: would the characters Pietro and
Crystal allow Luna to know Magneto as her grandfather but fail to
caution her about him at the same time? I personally think not
(leastwise not at this juncture: much different circumstances than the
Scarlet Witch/Vision LS era). Of course your mileage may vary.
-E
Ken from Chicago
How old is Luna?
-- Ken from Chicago
Ken from Chicago
"Jimmy Fury" <james....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1150666735.7...@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Who writes X-FACTOR?
-- Ken from Chicago
David Henry
"Ken from Chicago" <kwicker1...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:6MadnQtDFfTFfAjZ...@comcast.com...
The great Peter David, who just released a book on writing for comics.
But you already knew that....
Dave : >
Everly
>Ken from Chicago wrote:
>
> How old is Luna?
>
> -- Ken from Chicago
According to SoM, 6 years old.
In the Quicksilver series she seemed around 5, so this actually fits in
all right canonically.
-E
Ken from Chicago
So next year she'll be a teenager.
-- Ken from Chicago
Ken from Chicago
"David Henry" <telem...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:xMmdnRTP0-bBeAjZ...@comcast.com...
I'm shocked, shocked Peter would finally release a book on writing.
-- Ken from Chicago (stunned at gambling in Casablanca)
grinningdemon
And the year after she'll be 6 years old again.
Ken from Chicago
"grinningdemon" <grinni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:r9he9291ttpcjpev8...@4ax.com...
Or an infant.
-- Ken from Chicago
YKW '06
<kwicker1...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> "grinningdemon" <grinni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:r9he9291ttpcjpev8...@4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 23:57:38 -0500, "Ken from Chicago"
>> <kwicker1...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"Everly" <ae_e...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>news:1150675792.4...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>>>>
>>>>>Ken from Chicago wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> How old is Luna?
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Ken from Chicago
>>>>
>>>> According to SoM, 6 years old.
>>>> In the Quicksilver series she seemed around 5, so this actually
>>>> fits in all right canonically.
>>>>
>>>> -E
>>>
>>>So next year she'll be a teenager.
>>>
>>>-- Ken from Chicago
>>>
>>
>> And the year after she'll be 6 years old again.
>
> Or an infant.
>
> -- Ken from Chicago
>
>
>
Or 30. And from an alternate future. Where "she's" a "he". (And probably
dating Franklin Richards. Everyone else does.)
--
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Ophidian
> "grinningdemon" <grinni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:r9he9291ttpcjpev8...@4ax.com...
>
>>On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 23:57:38 -0500, "Ken from Chicago"
>><kwicker1...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>"Everly" <ae_e...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>news:1150675792.4...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>>>>Ken from Chicago wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>How old is Luna?
>>>>>
>>>>In the Quicksilver series she seemed around 5, so this actually fits in
>>>>all right canonically.
>>>>
>>>
>
> Or an infant.
Or an illusion.
("Worked" for her cousins...)
--
Perhaps the greatest evil of the American people is apathy!
But who cares?
shawn h
Everly wrote:
> Speaking of characterizations, I have to say Medusa finished ahead of
> everyone as far as sensibility and consistency. She had the decorum to
> interject on Pietro's behalf and welcome him to stay in Attilan until
> recovered, while Crystal just excused herself for bringing him home
> because he was dying (not because he's her husband, curiously). Also,
> Medusa understood Pietro's right to spend time with his daughter (and,
> presumably, Luna's right likewise), while Crystal just exclaimed "Have
> you seen Pietro lately? There is something seriously wrong with him!"
> as though he isn't a man so broken that he attempted suicide just
> recently, in whose life she's made no positive impression since. (btw,
> what will it take before people commence investigative measures at the
> first sign of a Maximoff acting off-kilter?) Even in pursuing the Mists
> and ultimately declaring war, Medusa (along with Blackbolt, if she was
> speaking/acting on his behalf) came off as the most rational in the
> whole cast. Which, maybe, was the intention -- but MY intention was to
> buy a Quicksilver series, not an Inhumans one.
Of course Medusa was speaking for Blackbolt. She does that
professionally, everywhere except in the inscrutable Illuminati.
> Sad thing is then, even when Pietro was in the spotlight of his own
> series, it read to me like a legitimate "evil twin" plot, and felt as
> irrelevant. (If SoM isn't eventually retconned to one extent or
> another, it should be.) This version of Pietro had none of the
> intelligence, none of the wit, none of the personality, indeed none of
> the HEART, of the Pietro that most of his fans just love to hate. This
Hmmm, yep, all of Magneto's kids are crazy these days. It happened to
his sisters first.
> doppelganger can't win an argument, can't even have a conversation, and
> can't think beyond the most difficult and troublesome and least
> effective contrivance of a plan that first comes to mind (that is, I
> assume it came to mind, because suddenly Pietro was doing something
> ridiculous to achieve some goal pulled out of left field in a most
> peculiar way, absent supporting motivation leading up to that point),
> despite that it seems obvious the best way to go about putting things
> back to how they were before Wanda changed it all would be to have
> Wanda put things back to how they were before she changed it all, as
> opposed to coming into contact with millions of would-be mutants one by
> one, repeatedly, but whatever. Wanda who?
Her character destruction is complete, his still had a few loose ends.
> Another issue with me is Pietro's daddy-complex as portrayed.
> While it's reasonable to say he has one, it should be nothing like
> represented here. Note that initially, Pietro and Wanda were the
> children of Django and Marya Maximoff, a gypsy couple who raised the
> twins in the Balkans of Europe. Later, Magneto was retconned in as
> their biological father -- the siblings were well-adjusted (as much as
> they've ever been) adults by the time this revelation came to light.
That never seems to have dawned on anyone currently writing for Marvel.
> Granted, it couldn't have been very comfortable for Pietro to discover
> that this megalomaniacal on-again off-again terrorist is actually his
> father -- worse, that they share some of the same opinions (i.e.
> prejudices) regarding mutant supremacy and such. Here's the crux
> though: not unlike Magneto and Xavier, Pietro and his father have that
> 'opposite sides of the same coin' dynamic going on. Barring bouts of
> insanity (or trickery) on Pietro's behalf or bouts of reformation on
> Magneto's, these two have been on opposing sides of the hero/villain
> spectrum for nigh their whole lives. Thus Pietro whining to Spider-man
> that he's "earned the hatred of [his] father" as if it were ever
> otherwise or as if that were ever a concern to begin with is
> canonically unfounded.
They've muddied that recently with various stints by Pietro on
Magneto's right hand in Genosha in a mini-series or two.
> Magneto Rex? Dark Seduction? Better yet: can anyone remember a time
> when 'all Pietro wanted to do' was please ANYONE, save perhaps himself
> in lieu of going insane with boredom, as his ludicrous "All I ever
> wanted to do was please [Magneto]. He barely acknowledged my existence.
> Have you noticed me now?!" line would have us believe?)
They've juvenilized he, Wanda and Lorna. Apparently it's what happens
to everyone in Magneto's orbit.
> I almost suspect the author got his X-verses a bit crossed with these
> two; for example, if one were to replace Ultimate Quicksilver with
> Pietro in Son of M, it would be a much more accurate match.
Ultimate-verse is successful, and thus is bleeding over into the main
one.
> then the crystals inexplicably do whatever the author wants them to do,
> unrelated in this case to speed or time or anything in between), when
> there's been no historical indication of any of the above. In fact, the
> one thing the mists ARE canonically known for is the 'monstrous
> mutations' Medusa mentioned that damaged the Inhuman gene pool for
> millennia -- which is the one thing that DOESN'T happen here.
> Basically, Terrigenesis turns everyone into a junkie ("Come on, take a
> huff" /EYEROLL) with no control whatsoever over their powers, unless
> they abstain and then they turn human again. Yawn.
The lesson of Iridia has been long forgotten.
> failed to convince me in the least. (Also, if the crystals are a
> natural resource discovered originally on Earth, why can't the Inhumans
> harvest more?)
I thought they were an invention of one of their great scientists.
> mistakes' by taking Luna only to leave her again). Problem being, I
> don't CARE about Civil War any more than I care about the plights of
> Calisto or any of those Genoshan mutants I didn't even recognize. I
> cared to read about the son of Magnus.
Pictures were pretty.
> on). So reverting Pietro to his much younger, less-wise mindframe that
> other writers had since incorporated character development as a result
> of (in addition to making him into the kind of man who --even having
> lost his own birth mother and adoptive family at a young age under
> tragic circumstances-- would remove a child from her mother and
> relatives), is either OOC by ignorance or OOC by design.
Both, I'm sure.
> There's nary a ghost of HISTORY to haunt this broken wing of the House
> of M. Crystal teleports via Lockjaw to find a fatally injured
> Quicksilver, and takes him back to Attilan for healing....yet no one
> mentions how this is the same way they FIRST MET. Quicksilver asks
> about Inhuman customs relating to Terregenesis as though he's never
> heard of it before, much less lived in Attilan as the brother-in-law of
> their King and a soldier in their Militia. Pietro exposes Luna to the
> Terrigen Mists for no reason, despite already wanting to but deciding
> not to and beating himself up about it for years before. Pietro loses
> his powers, gets turned down by the Inhumans for help, and doesn't even
> consider seeking out the High Evolutionary next (creator of the
> power-enhancing Isotope E that Pietro once used, and responsible as
> well for earth's mutants to lose and then gain back their powers, who
> also once trusted Pietro as commander of his army of New Men).
>
> ...I could go on, but I given the hour, instead I'll skip to the worst
> and call it a night: Wanda who?
Let's keep her out of this for as long as we can.
Shawn H.
ajs...@aol.com
bonkers, Lorna's hardly the picture of mental health, and from what
I've heard the what if in which their other sister lived she grew up in
need of medication herself.....So why should Pietro be the only sane
member of the family, ever? :)
Somebody should get Luna a therapist asap.
Oh, and am I the only one who thought the inhuman and mutant
cancelling each other out in Luna's case didn't make a whole lot of
sense to begin with? Deviant/eternal produced mutant kids, X-Force had
deviant/mutants running around, mutant skrulls who are themselves a
deviant strain, but Luna's mixture just gets nerfed?
shawn h
ajs...@aol.com wrote:
> Actually considering Magneto's been crazy off and on, Wanda went
> bonkers, Lorna's hardly the picture of mental health, and from what
> I've heard the what if in which their other sister lived she grew up in
> need of medication herself.....So why should Pietro be the only sane
> member of the family, ever? :)
>
> Somebody should get Luna a therapist asap.
Or they should just stop writing them that way, as easy as when they
started. It's not a sign of mental illness in the Lensherr clan. It's a
sign of lazy, cliched writing.
> Oh, and am I the only one who thought the inhuman and mutant
> cancelling each other out in Luna's case didn't make a whole lot of
> sense to begin with? Deviant/eternal produced mutant kids, X-Force had
> deviant/mutants running around, mutant skrulls who are themselves a
> deviant strain, but Luna's mixture just gets nerfed?
Well, it was a John Byrne idea, so take that for what it's worth ...
but I did think it was an interesting choice at the time.
Shawn H.
Nathan P. Mahney
"shawn h" <sh...@fas.harvard.edu> wrote in message
news:1150815579....@b68g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
It was interesting given Magneto's attitudes toward the human race. I don't
really think it made much sense genetically speaking, but from storytelling
perspective I can't think of much better that could be done with Magneto's
grand-daughter.
- Nathan P. Mahney -
Everly
shawn h wrote:
>
> That never seems to have dawned on anyone currently writing for Marvel.
>
> > Granted, it couldn't have been very comfortable for Pietro to discover
> > that this megalomaniacal on-again off-again terrorist is actually his
> > father -- worse, that they share some of the same opinions (i.e.
> > prejudices) regarding mutant supremacy and such. Here's the crux
> > though: not unlike Magneto and Xavier, Pietro and his father have that
> > 'opposite sides of the same coin' dynamic going on. Barring bouts of
> > insanity (or trickery) on Pietro's behalf or bouts of reformation on
> > Magneto's, these two have been on opposing sides of the hero/villain
> > spectrum for nigh their whole lives. Thus Pietro whining to Spider-man
> > that he's "earned the hatred of [his] father" as if it were ever
> > otherwise or as if that were ever a concern to begin with is
> > canonically unfounded.
>
> They've muddied that recently with various stints by Pietro on
> Magneto's right hand in Genosha in a mini-series or two.
>
Still, I never quite got the vibe that Pietro was pining for daddy's
lurve ... maybe that he felt somewhat obligated to supervise, assist,
etc. whereas that wouldn't be the case with a non-relative, but not
that he was looking for attention or leastwise affection from "his
father" (has Pietro ever even called Magneto 'father' when he wasn't
being sarcastic?).
BTW, didn't their last pre-HoM relations end with Pietro turning up as
a bearded amnesiac on a Russian ocean liner curtesy of a whopping from
daddy? This was just before he rejoined the Avengers the last time, I
think.
>
> > I almost suspect the author got his X-verses a bit crossed with these
> > two; for example, if one were to replace Ultimate Quicksilver with
> > Pietro in Son of M, it would be a much more accurate match.
>
> Ultimate-verse is successful, and thus is bleeding over into the main
>
I guess so. Did they think no one would notice? (Then again, it seems
that few enough have...)
> > failed to convince me in the least. (Also, if the crystals are a
> > natural resource discovered originally on Earth, why can't the Inhumans
> > harvest more?)
>
> I thought they were an invention of one of their great scientists.
This is what Videmus in SoM said:
'It is now almost 25,000 years since the Inhuman geneticist Randac
isolated the catalyst for human evolution. It is an incredibly rare
mineral which exists in crystal form. He named it Terrigen.'
Which, to me, combined with Pietro's rationalization that the Crystals
are a natural resource, made me suspect it should be possible to
unearth more of the mineral.
However, whether that was always the Crystals' canonical origin or if
the above is a retcon, I don't know.
>
> > mistakes' by taking Luna only to leave her again). Problem being, I
> > don't CARE about Civil War any more than I care about the plights of
> > Calisto or any of those Genoshan mutants I didn't even recognize. I
> > cared to read about the son of Magnus.
>
> Pictures were pretty.
>
Except the frames where Luna was drawn completely out of proportion, I
agree.
-E
Everly
ajs...@aol.com wrote:
> Actually considering Magneto's been crazy off and on, Wanda went
> bonkers, Lorna's hardly the picture of mental health, and from what
> I've heard the what if in which their other sister lived she grew up in
> need of medication herself.....So why should Pietro be the only sane
> member of the family, ever? :)
>
Except he's already gone crazy before, too.
> Somebody should get Luna a therapist asap.
>
> Oh, and am I the only one who thought the inhuman and mutant
> cancelling each other out in Luna's case didn't make a whole lot of
> sense to begin with? Deviant/eternal produced mutant kids, X-Force had
> deviant/mutants running around, mutant skrulls who are themselves a
> deviant strain, but Luna's mixture just gets nerfed?
Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
I personally think making Luna plain human was a more dynamic choice
than either other option, from a storytelling perspective, considering
her relatives and their prejudice tendencies. Of course her father
eventually realized the error of his ways...........until now.
The Black Guardian
> ajs...@aol.com wrote:
>> Somebody should get Luna a therapist asap.
>>
>> Oh, and am I the only one who thought the inhuman and mutant
>> cancelling each other out in Luna's case didn't make a whole lot of
>> sense to begin with? Deviant/eternal produced mutant kids, X-Force had
>> deviant/mutants running around, mutant skrulls who are themselves a
>> deviant strain, but Luna's mixture just gets nerfed?
>
> Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
> themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
Indeed. It goes against previously established stories. Not that it's
that big of a deal, since Reed has already created Anti-Terrigen just
for such situations.
Plus, I think it was a little too magical that Terrigen just happens to
restore mutant powers, even if there were catches.
Ophidian
>
> Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
> themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
That's just for humans though, right?
Everly
The Black Guardian wrote:
> Everly wrote:
> > Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
> > themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
>
> Indeed. It goes against previously established stories. Not that it's
> that big of a deal, since Reed has already created Anti-Terrigen just
> for such situations.
>
Shame he didn't remember that before sending "half-Inhuman" Luna away
to Attilan for examination -- because, you know, otherwise the problem
would be solved already.
> Plus, I think it was a little too magical that Terrigen just happens to
> restore mutant powers, even if there were catches.
A wonder the Inhumans ever evoled into a full-fledged race at all, no?
Seeing as how they would have had to sit around sucking on gas all day,
lest their mutations up and vanish.
-E
Everly
Ophidian wrote:
> Everly wrote:
>
> >
> > Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
> > themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
>
> That's just for humans though, right?
>
In my experience, when anything goes, anything goes. So who knows,
since I didn't observe that SoM was required to adhere to it's own
internal logic, much less canonically established facts.
I do find it endlessly lame though, that a race of genetically superior
humans (the Inhumans) would suffer monstrous mutations from a substance
that, when used by regular humans, has a temporary, self-reversable,
and less-severe effect.
-E
mimf
>
> The Black Guardian wrote:
>> Everly wrote:
>> > Not as little sense as Terrigenesis mutations magically reversing
>> > themselves so long as one abstains from inhaling the Mists.
>>
>> Indeed. It goes against previously established stories. Not that it's
>> that big of a deal, since Reed has already created Anti-Terrigen just
>> for such situations.
>>
>>
> Shame he didn't remember that before sending "half-Inhuman" Luna away to
> Attilan for examination -- because, you know, otherwise the problem would
> be solved already.
But Luna is half inhuman, and her mutant half may now be cancelled by
Wanda's spell. So she may be able to keep her powers, like a full-blooded
inhuman would.
>> Plus, I think it was a little too magical that Terrigen just happens to
>> restore mutant powers, even if there were catches.
>
> A wonder the Inhumans ever evoled into a full-fledged race at all, no?
> Seeing as how they would have had to sit around sucking on gas all day,
> lest their mutations up and vanish.
Seems it's only that way for humans and ex-mutants.
The Black Guardian
It's all part of the problem I had with this miniseries. We've already
had stories with normal humans using Terrigen to get permanent powers.
We already have a freaking normal dog who got permanent powers from
Terrigen. Terrigen works on pretty much anything, not just special
Human-Kree variants.
Everly
mimf wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:30:16 -0700, Everly wrote:
> > Shame he didn't remember that before sending "half-Inhuman" Luna away to
> > Attilan for examination -- because, you know, otherwise the problem would
> > be solved already.
>
> But Luna is half inhuman, and her mutant half may now be cancelled by
> Wanda's spell. So she may be able to keep her powers, like a full-blooded
> inhuman would.
>
She never had a mutant half to begin with, nor an Inhuman one for that
matter.
Pre-HoM, Luna was plain human.
Post-HoM, Luna was still plain human.
As to whether she'll keep her Terrigenesis-mutation, that's entirely up
to whichever author happens to be writing her at any given time,
because evidently they just make it up as they go now (or they always
have and I didn't notice so much back in the day).
Logically, however, she shouldn't keep her powers, since the other
humans didn't. (Not that that was logical in and of itself either, but
a story should at least abide by it's own internally established rules
if not those of canon.)
-E
Everly
The Black Guardian wrote:
> It's all part of the problem I had with this miniseries. We've already
> had stories with normal humans using Terrigen to get permanent powers.
> We already have a freaking normal dog who got permanent powers from
> Terrigen. Terrigen works on pretty much anything, not just special
> Human-Kree variants.
Even besides the above examples, if it's the "catalyst of evolution",
then it HAS to work on everything by that very definition alone. Unless
we're supposed to believe only the cavemen who happened to be in
constant contact with this raw 'terrigen' mineral evolved.
-E
mimf
>
> mimf wrote:
>> On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:30:16 -0700, Everly wrote:
>> > Shame he didn't remember that before sending "half-Inhuman" Luna away
>> > to Attilan for examination -- because, you know, otherwise the problem
>> > would be solved already.
>>
>> But Luna is half inhuman, and her mutant half may now be cancelled by
>> Wanda's spell. So she may be able to keep her powers, like a
>> full-blooded inhuman would.
>>
>>
> She never had a mutant half to begin with, nor an Inhuman one for that
> matter.
>
> Pre-HoM, Luna was plain human.
> Post-HoM, Luna was still plain human.
Her mommy was an inhuman and her daddy was a mutant. I remember reading it
somewhere (years ago) that Luna's combination of inhuman and mutant genes
cancelled each other out, causing her to be unpowered like a normal
human. Of course it may have been retconned by now.
> As to whether she'll keep her Terrigenesis-mutation, that's
entirely up
> to whichever author happens to be writing her at any given time, because
> evidently they just make it up as they go now (or they always have and I
> didn't notice so much back in the day).
Too true, unfortunately.
> Logically, however, she shouldn't keep her powers, since the other
> humans didn't. (Not that that was logical in and of itself either, but a
> story should at least abide by it's own internally established rules if
> not those of canon.)
>
> -E
The weirdest thing is how Pietro somehow picked up an additional power
after exposing himself repeatedly. Apparently he's absorbed enough
mutating power from the crystals that he can now "gift" other mutants with
their old powers, or something resembling them, without needing the
crystals at all. Where did that come from? Can he now "gift" normal humans
the same way?
Everly
mimf wrote:
>
> The weirdest thing is how Pietro somehow picked up an additional power
> after exposing himself repeatedly. Apparently he's absorbed enough
> mutating power from the crystals that he can now "gift" other mutants with
> their old powers, or something resembling them, without needing the
> crystals at all. Where did that come from? Can he now "gift" normal humans
> the same way?
He can because the author said he can. Sadly, I gather that's all it
takes to make what passes for a plot these days.
-E