Blatant Begging

[selenak]

Every now and then, I find another issue of X-Men: First Class to read, and continue to be utterly charmed. This re-telling of the early days of the original five X-men - Scott, Jean, Hank, Bobby, Warren - is one of the best ideas Marvel had in recent years. It manages to be both faithful to the original characterisations - Hank and Bobby are BFFs, Scott has a crush on Jean and so forth - and to bring in the advantages of contemporary storytelling. Most noticable with Jean, who shines in these comics, and gets to have friendships one wishes the original writers had thought of when Jean was still alive and around - with Susan Storm, who mentors her a bit, and with Wanda Maximoff, who becomes her best friend. (Incidentally, this also means that First Class passes the Blechdel test quite often, as Jean and Wanda only occasionally talk about the boys and mostly about the adventure of the day or their powers.) Since Jean and Wanda are the two doomed superheroines of the Marvelverse, and an illustration of the difference between what happens to female and what happens to male mutants if they become too powerful (the women go crazy and/or die tragically, the men, see Sentry, stay alive), there is an inherent meta sadness in this friendship, but as it happens on the pages, it's joyful and adorable. (It also provides more than enough fodder for slash, but even if you're not slash-friendly, it's really great to read.)

A more recent issue, in which Hank and Bobby make a holiday trip around the states (in Warren's car, which becomes something of a problem near the end), made me wish someone would write a story in which teenage Abigail Brand meets teenage Hank McCoy. Because I'm nothing if not one-track minded in some regards. Pretty please? You know they'd hate each other on sight, and it would be ever so entertaining.

In other news, there is a new trailer for Quantum of Solace, the next Bond movie, here. As with the earlier trailer, they start with Judi Dench's voice, which is a wise decision. Speaking of fanfic, I do hope this film will give us some more great M/Bond scenes which will inspire astolat and others to write more fanfic.

Comments

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

First Class stories are charming. Speaking about Wanda and Jean, it's fascinating for me, who much they fills in the Marvel universe, perhaps more than they did ever did, when they were physical there. With Jean it seems more like that she gone to a far away land, and can come back tomorrow or never. Wanda is a X-factor (pun intended) in a potential Deus ex machina clas, as Skrull!Pym pointed out before he got killed. The Sentry mental health is such that he are nearly always is inactive, and when he really uses his powers, it comes with considerable danger to other people. His wife is so afraid of him, that she asked Stark to kill him. I don't see his situation as better than Wanda. Like Wanda people had tried to kill him for the conmen good, but it can't be done. So now is he really a walking time bomb, that people don't now what to do with.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Speaking of fanfic, I do hope this film will give us some more great M/Bond scenes which will inspire astolat and others to write more fanfic.

It certainly looked promising to me. Nothing like yummy trust issues to get fanfic going. (Have you seen July's teaser trailer? Oh yeah, that's the stuff.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I did see it, and know what you mean. *anticipates*

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

XFC is worlds better than most comics, and does indeed pass the Bechdel test.

I don't know if teenaged!Hank would meet teenaged!Abigail. I got the impression that she was younger than him by a few years -- late twenties to his mid-thirties -- which would translate to her being a child during the XFC period. But I bet she was a horribly difficult girl, and would have made his life interesting in that 'Ransom of Red Chief' way.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You have a point. She would be a terror of a child to his teenager. But wouldn't it be just like Xavier to think babysitting horribly difficult half-alien girls is good for character building? *veg*