Astonishing X-Men #32
Nov. 9th, 2009 07:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakCurse you, Warren Ellis, for making me break my resolution of not reading your work until it's gathered in trade volumes because it's more enjoyable this way by catering to my fannish whims.
Not that one of the few shippings I indulge in was the only one being catered to to in this volume. I bet the Logan/Scott slashers had a grand old time with the scene where Logan bickers Scott into getting patched up and basically pronounces his Summers love for all and sunder.
In other news, Ellis has apparantly decided that Scott is getting lonely, being the only one calling Hank McCoy "Henry", so now he has Brand doing it as well. Just kidding; actually when she does it it works better for me then when Scott does because it's related to a switch of mood on her part (note she's calling Beast "Hank" early on when it's business as usual and also "McCoy" in betweeen when they're busy staying alive; "Henry" comes out once when she's being sarcasting and once, at the end, when she's being very serious indeed and confiding something major. As a juxtaposition of Hank's both barbed and playful endearments he uses for her all through the issue, it's pretty neat.
I'm really not sure whether Ellis is going to where the story practically begs him to do, character-exploration wise, because so far there's been no direct back reference to events in Gifted. But the set-up we get here is so good it would be a crime to go anywhere else. Consider: so this arc's mysterious foe has been using mutant corpses to experiment on and turn into weapons against mutants, with the end game of making them completely extinct. Does that sound even vaguely familiar? It should. Because that was what Abigail Brand's deal with Ord of the Breakworld in Gifted consisted of - she provided him and Kavita Rao with mutant corpses to experiment on (and in one case, the corpse in question got revived by Ord which means she provided him with a living being as well; Gifted leaves it open whether or not Kavita Rao knew this, but makes it clear Brand did), with the end goal that the "cure" should turn all mutants into non-mutants. There is a difference in motivation, of course; Brand did it because the Breakworld was directly threatening to destroy Earth otherwise. But her arc through the Whedonian AXM run has still been about confronting her with her "the end justifies the means" beliefs, expecially Unstoppable, where she ended up concluding that sometimes, it didn't; one of the reasons she gave for wanting to work with Hank (beyond personal attraction) was because she recognized she needed someone to argue back at her from an ethical perspective.
Now, in this current issue, we find out the unknown opponent of this arc has been doing similar things, and that Brand instead of handing the case over to SHIELD (btw, first I thought she didn't want to involve Osborn, and then I realized no, SHIELD instead of HAMMER means we're still in the pre-Secret Invasion era and it's Tony Stark she's not handing the case over to) has been going after these guys herself. Here's what I hope for without being sure Ellis will give it to me: that this isn't "just" because she wants to protect her boyfriend but precisely because the methods have very personal resonances for her, because she feels guilty about what happened back then, and being Brand, finds it easier to express this via action than via words. The best villains tend to be the ones who did what you did and just carry it one step further, and as I said, it could serve for some fantastic character exploration.
Or it could simply lead to some X-Men versus Bad Guys of Arc slinging it out fest. We'll see.
Not that one of the few shippings I indulge in was the only one being catered to to in this volume. I bet the Logan/Scott slashers had a grand old time with the scene where Logan bickers Scott into getting patched up and basically pronounces his Summers love for all and sunder.
In other news, Ellis has apparantly decided that Scott is getting lonely, being the only one calling Hank McCoy "Henry", so now he has Brand doing it as well. Just kidding; actually when she does it it works better for me then when Scott does because it's related to a switch of mood on her part (note she's calling Beast "Hank" early on when it's business as usual and also "McCoy" in betweeen when they're busy staying alive; "Henry" comes out once when she's being sarcasting and once, at the end, when she's being very serious indeed and confiding something major. As a juxtaposition of Hank's both barbed and playful endearments he uses for her all through the issue, it's pretty neat.
I'm really not sure whether Ellis is going to where the story practically begs him to do, character-exploration wise, because so far there's been no direct back reference to events in Gifted. But the set-up we get here is so good it would be a crime to go anywhere else. Consider: so this arc's mysterious foe has been using mutant corpses to experiment on and turn into weapons against mutants, with the end game of making them completely extinct. Does that sound even vaguely familiar? It should. Because that was what Abigail Brand's deal with Ord of the Breakworld in Gifted consisted of - she provided him and Kavita Rao with mutant corpses to experiment on (and in one case, the corpse in question got revived by Ord which means she provided him with a living being as well; Gifted leaves it open whether or not Kavita Rao knew this, but makes it clear Brand did), with the end goal that the "cure" should turn all mutants into non-mutants. There is a difference in motivation, of course; Brand did it because the Breakworld was directly threatening to destroy Earth otherwise. But her arc through the Whedonian AXM run has still been about confronting her with her "the end justifies the means" beliefs, expecially Unstoppable, where she ended up concluding that sometimes, it didn't; one of the reasons she gave for wanting to work with Hank (beyond personal attraction) was because she recognized she needed someone to argue back at her from an ethical perspective.
Now, in this current issue, we find out the unknown opponent of this arc has been doing similar things, and that Brand instead of handing the case over to SHIELD (btw, first I thought she didn't want to involve Osborn, and then I realized no, SHIELD instead of HAMMER means we're still in the pre-Secret Invasion era and it's Tony Stark she's not handing the case over to) has been going after these guys herself. Here's what I hope for without being sure Ellis will give it to me: that this isn't "just" because she wants to protect her boyfriend but precisely because the methods have very personal resonances for her, because she feels guilty about what happened back then, and being Brand, finds it easier to express this via action than via words. The best villains tend to be the ones who did what you did and just carry it one step further, and as I said, it could serve for some fantastic character exploration.
Or it could simply lead to some X-Men versus Bad Guys of Arc slinging it out fest. We'll see.
