r/xmen • u/AngelEyes360 Askani • 13d ago
Weekly Discussion X-Men Comics New Releases for August 27, 2025
- While Cyclops spends the night in jail, the younger X-Men take advantage of the break and head out on their own. Their mission? Revenge on the social-media thrilkillers, the Upstarts! Can Jen overcome her fear and embrace her new self? Or will she begin to tread a dark road of her own?
- A BATTLE TO SHAKE THE STARS! The PHOENIX is a force of life, energy and balance! Powerful, known and feared across the galaxy! And while Jean Grey IS the Phoenix, she is also a human being — so now that her sister Sara has returned to life, Jean's humanity refuses to accept losing her again! Unfortunately, there are other forces operating in the cosmos — enormous, unstoppable, eternal forces — indifferent to the desires of a single woman. And even more unfortunately... they want Sara dead.
- WOLVERINE and DEADPOOL team up with new mutant LEGACY. But is it for GOOD or EVIL? Also, DIRECTOR TALYN's gambit revealed!
Emma Frost: The White Queen #3
- Emma Frost is on the run! Framed as a traitor within the Hellfire Club, Emma seeks to cash in a favor with Liu Wo-Han, head of the Hong Kong branch. But first, she must single-handedly battle her way through a host of deadly warriors protecting the building. Watch what happens when an immovable force of lethal fighters meets one unstoppable mutant!
- KITTY VS. LOGAN! DOMINA has corrupted SHADOWCAT! And will KITTY truly make it out of this situation the same way she went in? Or will WOLVERINE resort to DRASTIC MEASURES?
- The concluding chapter to Chris Claremont's all-new adventure in the aftermath of the fan-favorite KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE series, with details and setup that will change the way you look at UNCANNY X-MEN #192!
Unlimited and Other Releases 08/27
- Discuss Marvel Unlimited and other related comics
Other
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
Emma Frost: The White Queen #3
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u/luuvin 13d ago
I liked this issue more than the previous two, but did anyone else feel like it ended just as it was getting started?
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 8d ago
I’ve felt this way about many X-books in recent years (not just this one). I’ve wondered if the page count in today’s Marvel books is shorter than in years past. I’ve never checked, though.
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u/UltimateSandman White Queen 13d ago
Strongest issue so far, lots of fun concepts, though Ewing's voice is still just stronger. Really enjoy the angle that she's haunted by her past/wrongs but functions anyway, humanizes her without whitewashing. Power-walk was cool, and moment with the kid was cute. Hopefully she'll have a better time in Las Vegas than the last one.
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u/Doctorstrange838MCU 12d ago
The pacing of this issue was really solid and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Emma Frost flex her telepathic powers than ever before.
The reveal of the traitor regarding the hellfire club is still underwhelming since I kind of expected a bit more.
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u/Darksteelwing White Queen 12d ago
This issue was great. DiVito's art is beautiful, and Amy Chu did her homework on Emma's story - from her original hair color to how big of a negative impact her father had on her (I mean, one would expect a writer to always do that, but that's not always the case on the big 2).
Amy was able to put so much content in a regular-sized issue. So many nice moments, but my favorites were the scene with the little girl and Emma's powerwalk while making people believe they were being attacked by other super beings.
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u/wowlock_taylan 13d ago
Wait, their plan was just send their goons to take out Emma? That's all? They know who Emma is right? I know Shaw and their ilk are dumb as bricks but not to this level.
And ofcourse, Emma and her insecurities. Daddy issues too. No wonder she changed her image.
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u/Fickle_Ad8735 12d ago
yea, after the wrong looks in the first issue and now this, the book seems more and more to be set in an alt reality
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u/PatWasRight_F_CHUGS 2h ago
Chu found the sauce - a really good issue and much better than the first two.
The art & coloring continues to be fantastic; not just cuz of how gorgeous Emma looks, but for how it captures her expressions well - facial emoting is captured through the art and we can see her contemplations & pain from her expressions.
Emma using her psychic abilities to make her attacker simulate other assaults was an awesome display of her abilities and I also liked her bonding/humanizing with the branch leader's mother and especially the little girl on the boat. Emma is firmly in her villain period here but those moments added likability & humanity to her character without compromising her current darkness & intimidation. The highlight of the issue was the opening nightmare and the branch leader shapeshifting into her fears. It was great to see Emma's history, with her fear of Jean/Dark Phoenix being a terrific character moment that establishes their future rivalry after Emma joined the X-Men and shows how fundamentally shocking being so thoroughly outmatched was for her. Seeing her father was a needed & admired touch which shows the impact his terribleness had on her and how the trauma is the root of her current cruel status.
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
X-Men #21
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u/pendulumfeelings 13d ago
I didn't find the Upstarts that interesting, so I'm glad we seem to be done with them.
I'm looking forward to what they do with Jen. Tarn was able to manipulate biology and created his own group of Mutants he altered. That kind of lines up with Sugar Man's whole deal.
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
It felt very short for some reason. The action sequence was a little phoned in and brief. The X-Men just find them, go there, and beat them. Animalia getting a little moment to shine was nice, it was her issue overall. But it felt a little brief, I think could have benefited from roping Magneto and Beast into it, at least a little.
Sugar Man going to Arakko is one of those story set-ups I wasn't expecting. I am not entirely sure where it's meant to go. To set up villains for Nova, which MacKay is also writing? Or can we expect the X-Men to do some cosmic stuff at some point? It'll be interesting to see, but so far it feels like more set-up for payoff that feels a long way off. Same with the Hellions, who were mentioned twice in the letters pages, and same with 3K.
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 13d ago
Given that Trevor Fitzroy killed most of the original Hellions back in the 1990s, I’m okay with the X-Men thrashing him soundly.
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 12d ago
I think the issue was a little short, though I didn’t count the pages. X-Men came out twice this month, so I guess you can look at #20 and #21 as one extra-long story in two parts.
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u/Mongoose42 Nightcrawler 12d ago
My major takeaway from this issue is that if Cyclops isn’t around, this group of X-Men are fucking chaotic as hell. Magik jumps the team in with no plan and half-cocked, Juggernaut straight-up kills a guy, the battle is a huge mess. It’s crazy.
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u/antsinmyeyesmauger Nightcrawler 13d ago
Netho Diaz and Fer Sifuentes-Sujo along with the three inkers do another great job on art. Maybe I'm imagining it but Sean Parsons getting help gives this issue a different vibe from the last two.
Fun issue to follow up on issue #4 and to help develop Jen some more. Sugar Man going to Arrako could be fun after AoR.
I wonder what happened with the cover this issue. For whatever reason Netho Diaz is the cover artist but Stegman is credited. Stegman is going the rest of them so he must have skipped this cover for something else probably AoR related.
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
I noticed a different vibe to the art too, especially on those opening pages and the final pages.
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u/Blitzhelios Magik 13d ago edited 13d ago
The best stuff in this for me is the Sugar man stuff him taking over the vile is something that makes so much sense and gives new life into a long forgotten character.
I still wonder though is sugar man a jed pull or when stegman was consistently drawing it was it his idea as its very much a character i could see both suggesting.Other than that there is some good fight scenes involving Magik and Juggernaut especially which Diaz draws very well and thats about it. That scene with Juggernaut covered in blood is such an ominous scene
This issue kinda has the same issue as the last one in it feels a little short and middle chapter before the next event roles around.
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u/_Vivat_Grendel_ Dark Beast 12d ago
Agreed, looking forward to the Sugarman stuff since he has never been fully utilized since he jumped realties in 1995.
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u/amendmentforone 13d ago
Netho Diaz has really grown on me as an artist. Stegman's kinetic action is fun, but I feel like Diaz is conveys the emotions that MacKay has the characters showing. Also shows the brutality a bit more ... like with Juggernaut's "scrunching" of that Upstart.
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u/rob_account Nightcrawler 13d ago
Agree on the art. I've loved the grittyness Nethos and Stegmans cartoonish styles have brought to this book, and this issue Netho shone more than usual.
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u/Jasonl7976 13d ago
Read it.
Seeing Juggernaut being mean is alway fun.
Magik. Don’t like how they pin her down with that mutant circuit. Oh and it still bother me X-authors focus more on her swordswomanship and teleportation power more than her sorcerery ability. Is it because their X-authors so they need to focus more on a person mutant power?
Glad we saw more of animalia ability.
So sugar man gone to arrako. Glad that fun. We’ll have to wait til next year before that get anywhere.
Oh and the upstart are defeated. Gone.
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think you have it. The magic stories are being kept in her solo book, because they don’t fit into a mutant narrative easily. I mean, they would if Chris Claremont was the writer, or it’s a Krakoa story, but otherwise, no.
It’s one of many reasons I’m really enjoying Magik (her solo book), because it’s mostly stories of Illyana practicing magic.
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u/swoozes 11d ago
It's always weird to me that people bring up this complaint about Magik, which was far more important in the previous era, IN THIS ERA.
One where Magik has used magic on this team several times.
Like I get it in say New Mutants or Krakoa X-men where she hasn't used a spell at all. But Magik used tons of spells under Mckay.
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u/JuggernautApologist 13d ago
Juggernaut killing Ocelot (?) brought alot of dread to me dude I am so excited to see if this goes anywhere
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u/lanmetal Hellion 12d ago
Awww, I didn't want Ocelot to die. I mean, I know he, along with his fellow Upstarts, was a sort of disposable villain, so I understand Juggs dispatching him so effortlessly. I'm just so glad whenever a character from Milligan's X-Statix universe makes the jump across the pond to the main 616 universe, I can't ever get enough of 'em and want to keep seeing them making unexpected appearances here and there. Oh, well.
Now, if we could only get Mr. Sensitive, U-go Girl, The Anarchist, Zeitgeist or Venus D. Milo on another 616 X-book, now that'd be really awesome.
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u/wowlock_taylan 13d ago
Well damn, seems Jen got more to her powers than it seems...and it is also similar to Hank's where it gets progressively different. Quentin keeps getting slashed. They really should give him an armored suit or something at this point.
Magik really enjoy leading these attack groups. And yea, Juggernaut might be on the X-men's side but he is STILL the Juggernaut. Don't DARE him to do the meanest things he can to you.
Sugar Man taking Tarn's place on Arakko huh? I guess no one in Arakko keep an eye on that place. And outside of the terrible 'Power Man' book, we still haven't seen much of Arakko since the relaunch outside of the weird decisions made in NYX where some Arakkoans decided to become the new Morlocs for some reason. Like, where is Isca? Surely she wouldn't let some upstart take over the territory of her dead lover like that. Isn't the tower suppose to be in her territory?
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u/CuddleFishEye Kid Omega 13d ago
Quentin keeps getting slashed. They really should give him an armored suit or something at this point.
I noticed that too, i feel like they kinda forgot he can make guns and stuff with his abilities and I wished they showed that more, he seems kind of weak overall
And the Juggernaut thing was a wild surprise, I like magik and his friendship and I'm interested in seeing how both her and the team take this.
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u/CuddleFishEye Kid Omega 13d ago
When I saw the synopsis for this that said " will jen Overcome her fear and embrace her new self" it confused me cause I thought I missed something about Jen's character since she seemed pretty adjusted, but it seems like they kinda just had her hide all her feelings/story till the upstarts circled back. I'm 100% glad it's another animal form and not the white bird form like I thought, but after this her character just continues to feel "convenient".
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u/TheMattInTheBox Cyclops 13d ago
I kinda wish Juggernaut vs Ocelot was a bit more of the focus, but alas. I liked Jen's development-- she's a really fun character, and I'd like to see her interact with the Outliers and the Exceptional Three. She's so different from them, being an adult mutant and having lived a life as a human. If they do a school book, her and Ben would both be interesting faculty members.
Bye Upstarts. Good riddance.
The Arakko stuff is so exciting to me, I hope Mackay deals with it (at least partially) in this book
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u/UltimateSandman White Queen 13d ago edited 13d ago
Writing of Magik in her solo vs this is night and day. If Cyclops is leading, he's eating all the punches and punishment. Magik leads for one issue, and she gets pinned down and kicked around. Good for him that his Moon Knight is decent, MacKay's X-Men is consintently tedious.
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u/Alterplane 12d ago edited 12d ago
You're getting downvoted, but I agree. Magik in this and Magik in her solo series feel like two different characters.
I'm not saying she should just effortlessly dispose of all the villains. But come on. This woman manipulated the X-Men and Legion toward destroying the Elder Gods and succeeded. She forced Dormammu out of Limbo and became a war captain of Krakoa. That last one in particular bugs me because she definitely is an effective combat tactician. Can she be a little hot headed and chaotic? Sure, but never to the point she just charges into a fight with no plan. Here she looks very rash and dumb. I know Illyana is smarter than that.
I do enjoy the chaos gremlin aspect of her, but I also enjoy her cunning/serious side. Something that's been seriously lacking in this run. And I'm not very confident about AOR treating her any better.
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u/Ascleph 13d ago
Magik here is really fun. Its ok that someone sometimes loses a fight for a few seconds and then wins.
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u/UltimateSandman White Queen 13d ago edited 13d ago
Magik here is really shit. In her own solo she's doing strategy, here in perfect MacKay style she did nothing, planned for nothing, then got jobbed out and kicked while she was down, so this mid writer could build up the chicken girl. Who shouldn't even be in the book, same as that Ben dude, since this writer can hardly even juggle the main cast let alone extras.
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u/gamesrgreat Magik 12d ago
Mild disagree. The solo run has her running from location to location, always unprepared and being led around by the nose
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u/swoozes 11d ago
gotta agree here. While I think Magik's solo does a lot for her emotionally, she is absolutely not on top of her game throughout the run. She's clearly playing keep up and trying to manage a tenuous situation due to her emotions being out of whack and her being guilty.
Not once in her solo does she have an absolutely stellar plan.
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u/PatWasRight_F_CHUGS 2h ago
Great issue.
Really liked the focus on Jenn and it was successful in strengthening & complicating her character. I also enjoyed Quentin being the one to talk to her and help her through things, it shows how he's continuing to grow.
The last page reveal was totally unexpected and I'm intrigued to see the Alaskan X-Men potentially having to deal with Arrako stuff.
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
Unlimited and Other Releases 08/27
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u/MiloSheba Mother Righteous 13d ago
Angelica got a relatively happy ending in the final issue of West Coast Avengers. I'm calling that a win for her.
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u/Blitzhelios Magik 13d ago
West coast ended this week and after all the shit duggan put Angelica through she got a nice ending it was lovely to see. Duggan did a great job on west coast and a great follow up to his iron man.
Jeff the land shark has just let kelly thompson play with the x men again and we get her lovely Rogue and Gambit back one more time as well as a lot of other x men.
Just a dumb funny series and i wouldn't have it any other way1
u/erosead Marrow 13d ago
How did WCA go for wonder man, if he’s still in it? I’m curious since it seems like Duggan’s carrying the character into age of Revelation then to a solo
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u/Blitzhelios Magik 13d ago
Duggans Wonder man was fun when he had moments there is a great bit in this issue of him saving killerwatts dad from flag smasher but he didn't have many moments in this series mainly due to how late he came in and it ending at 10 issues.
Think Duggan gets Simons character alot though that he might be an ass who only cares for his press alot of the time but hes also got a heart of gold and is loyal to his core now
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u/Koala_Guru 12d ago
I hope people read Tooth and Claw which collects some of the From the Ashes infinity comics. Still the best Beast story to happen since he got rebooted and gives him some much-needed focus to define his current status quo.
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u/Open_Exercise_3699 11d ago
Thank you SO much for mentioning this. I had no idea it existed until you posted about it here and it was so, so good. The Magneto part was great, too, but the Beast story was outstanding. I hope it gets collected in a trade. It seems odd that it wasn't put out as a guest-written issue of adjectiveless as Mags and Beast have been neglected in the main book and this really helped redress the balance.
Tooth and Claw really captured Henry's voice and how his loquacity is an outlet not just for his incredible intellect but as covering fire for all his insecurities and body dysmorphia issues in a way that no one else has in years. It's been much too long since I've read such a good character focus on any X-Man and especially Beast.
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u/ChowChow200 Monet 13d ago
Read Avengers Academy #57!! It’s a cute stand alone issue with a lot of X-Men cameos. The premise is basically Mojo takes over TikTok.
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u/wowlock_taylan 13d ago
Jeff #3 has a bunch of X-men in it starting with Rogue and Gambit being cute over Jeff's situation and Rogue can somehow kiss Jeff and learn how to talk like him!
Along with Logan and Kwannon.
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
Wolverine and Kitty Pryde #5
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u/lepton_neutrino 12d ago
Like I said before, I wonder if Claremont intended this as a rebuttal to Kitty's edgelord portrayal by Duggan, specifically the part where she gets swords from Ogun somehow with a note that she couldn't ignore her true self (to be like him). In this series, she explicitly rejects Wolverine's and Ogun's path.
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u/VVTFan 13d ago
Solid series.
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yeah, it’s good. Chris Claremont’s retro-continuity stories are hit or miss, but this one is solid. I kind of like it more than the previous Kitty Pryde and Wolverine series from the 1980s.
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u/VVTFan 13d ago
Who is that weird looking character at the end on the final page with Kitty. I just am having a brain fart the last two days.
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u/InsideTheFunhouse 12d ago
The guy with the grey skin? I have no idea. I’m guessing it’s some character who has appeared before, but I’m stumped.
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
Deadpool / Wolverine #8
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u/OhMy-StarsAndGarters Beast 7d ago
I think it says everything about how little everyone cares about this book that it shamelessly recycles half of Percy's X-Force plot from last year and no-one even noticed.
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u/wowlock_taylan 13d ago
Yeaa I am quite tired of this false-pacolypse and the generic 'hate mutants' directro Talyn. Just have them take eachother out already.
Also how many times Wolverine got mentally controlled now? This year alone? And Deadpool's whole thing is his mind cannot be controlled. And yet he is controlled so easily here. So bad.
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u/NickInTheBooth 12d ago
Really the only redeeming quality of this series is Josh Cassara’s art, and he didn’t even draw issues 6 or 7
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
Phoenix #14
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u/Thebraxer Phoenix 13d ago edited 13d ago
The idea for the plot could be good but Stephanie’s writing is just shallow. She doesn’t even try to develop anything. A few short sentences per page and that’s all.
Wasn’t hope dead dead? Like her sacrifice wasn’t a reason why she can’t be brought back?
I’m still surprised Stephanie’s jean would still disagree to let fake Sara go. In Phoenix resurrection she literally refused to bring her family back because she didn’t want to play a god. Now cosmic abstracts tell her she needs to help them keep a balance and she says no.
Also I’m confused. Didn’t Jean have problems to enter white hot room and now she transported there without any problems?
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u/Nosdos 13d ago edited 13d ago
Jean told Adani she couldn’t bring back her dad because it would upset the balance. So it would make her come off pretty selfish…unless the difference needs to be played up that Jean didn’t do it intentionally, (quite by accident really) but is too emotionally invested to kill her own sister. She would rather save a life than take a life, even if it means losing her own.
More exposition was needed in Jean’s position not some flash back that really didn’t make the narrative any stronger. Smh
Who knows if SP even thought about this though or give it proper room to breathe instead of just a line of awkward dialogue as she usually does.
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u/Thebull8 13d ago
Thank you. We did not need 5 pages of flashback in the penultimate issue. Notice how the end of the issues is always them meeting someone new, then the next issue begins with some bare bones interaction and then theres a flashback or cut to something else that wastes time and the issue ends with another meeting with someone new. Rinse and repeat. The story has potential, but Stephanie is not really that good to pull it off. The art feels bland too. We have 10 cosmic beings interacting and it al looks dull like a street level book. I'm glad she's getting off the book
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u/FunCommission3031 13d ago
I feel like it comes off as pretty selfish because Jean herself is a pretty selfish and hypocritical person. But also, as Jean said in the last issue, even though she did create Sara, Sara is still a living, breathing being with memories, emotions, and relationships that didn’t ask to exist. Her only crime is that Jean created her and Jean feels responsible for that. All of that on top of it being Jean’s sister and in this issue Jean declares that she’s tired of losing and having things taken from her which ties directly into the last arc about her losing her childhood. In issue 11 she also talks about how unfair it is that she gets so many chances at life and Sara didn’t, how she constantly reached out looking for Sara over the years and only finding echoes and memories. The flashback shows you how protective Sara was of Jean in her most frightening moments and why Jean is fighting so hard for her now. (And also may provide a hint as to how she’ll save both Sara and the Universe)
I think it’s safe to say that Steph gave this a lot of thought lol
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u/qwfparst 13d ago
I mean the duality of Jean is that she is both selfish and selfless, like most humans. She isn't perfect, but strives to be better.
I don't know why it's so hard to comprehend, why while Jean won't actively resurrect her family, that she would not want to basically end the life of something that at least contains some essence of her sister.
She may not be "Sara", but she was something born from Jean's love, memories, and yearning of/for Sara.
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u/Pre-Foxx 12d ago
And it makes sense too, she wouldn't use the power of the Phoenix to resurrect Scott either, but didn't mind Cable going through all the trouble of using the Phoenix to still bring Scott back.
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u/qwfparst 13d ago
More exposition was needed in Jean’s position not some flash back that really didn’t make the narrative any stronger. Smh
The flashbacks take a bit of space than they should, but they give more emotional context. Readers barely have background on Sara to really feel that she is Jean's sister. There has to be some "weight" so that readers can empathize with Jean on why she wouldn't just sacrifice Sara.
Stephanie's problem isn't her ideas or story beats. She just doesn't execute them elegantly in the panel space she is given.
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u/Pre-Foxx 12d ago
I personally love learning more about Jean, but again Phillips execution of the flashbacks and tying them into the current narrative consistently is lacking. We spent a lot of time in that flashback and it really didn't inform the current story in a meaningful way.
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u/qwfparst 12d ago edited 12d ago
They could have been tied better even if just symbolically just to give them more "weight", and she probably could have omitted one of them, but they were semi-necessary to at least provide some emotional grounding to Jean's decision. Otherwise we just go by fiat that Jean is acting purely based on "Sara" being Jean's sister. There was just a massive amount of panel space used for them for a short arc.
I don't think they need the inform the narrative even more. We don't really need to spell out why Jean is fighting to save "Sara" (although....I guess I'm wrong based on responses here), but the emotional weight of why has to be "felt", otherwise we just intellectually know why she is doing it.
This is a bit of a case where if this was "animated" and "voiced" it would be more effective than the medium of a comic. This also a case where the tradeback form is more effective than when it comes out in serialized installments.
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u/comrade-ev 13d ago
Jean is being selfish, but the contradiction isn’t that huge.
She might not support the idea of intentionally resurrecting someone, but that doesn’t mean she would be wanting to kill someone who was brought back accidentally. Opposing resurrection is not the same as being fine with murder.
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u/Thebraxer Phoenix 13d ago
But it’s not Sara and that’s a problem. It’s personification of jean’s memories of Sara. It’s only how Jean sees Sara. It’s still unfair to real Sara who is dead. The Sara Jean created is nothing more than a clone
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
I agree, which is why Jean in the issue knows what needs to be done. But on the other hand, this Sara has lived a form of a life. Those people on that random planet do know her, have interactions with her. She's a clone, but so was Maddie, and Jean thought she deserved life too.
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u/Nosdos 12d ago
If Sarah is fake, most of the xmen are fake too right? They’re essentially clones with memories placed too
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u/comrade-ev 12d ago
Sarah has a life, however she got it.
Jean lived in a society where mutants were more or less created by the Five, she has a clone with an independent life, and as Phoenix spawned Hope in a way not dissimilar to how she spawned Sarah.
Similarly, Wanda has ‘fake’ children whose loss re-defined first the Avengers and then the X-men. Vision then had his own story arc with ‘fake’ children where he went ape shit over a death. These origins are not unusual at this point, and hasn’t made the emotional arcs less justified.
For all of the comments about how Jean should feel dispassionate due to Sarah’s circumstances, that doesn’t mesh with the fact that in the comics this is more or less just mutant IVF at this point.
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u/Loud-Teaching3238 Shadowcat 13d ago edited 13d ago
Listen I hated Hope’s death but just bringing her back like this is just as if not more stupid. Also this dialogue is all very awkward. Whatever at least there’s only one more issue and then Phillips is gone. Hopefully we get her away from Gwen next
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
There's some good concepts involved, but it does feel a bit empty and too little too late. I think it needs a better artist to elevate the work itself, but with the art it has it doesn't really come across as epic or as storybook as it needs to. The conflict around the White Hot Room is odd too, because that was supposed to be hard to access.
I think people are over-exaggerating about Phillips writing of the Sara situation. Making a selfish decision is the whole point. I don't know how you read the issue and think she's supposed to be in the right, she's very clearly acting on emotion and in her heart knows what has to be done, she even says it. But it's tough because it is family, or a shadow of it anyway.
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u/Blitzhelios Magik 13d ago
After reading this weeks she hulk oneshot for imperial it makes this issue look alot worse as phillips writing is so much weaker here compared to there.
Its got soem decent concepts and i like the idea because of Sara Jean isn't thinking right and both of them are running on emotion. But its not the best overall.
Also why is hope back that mcguffin can stay in the ground.
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
It's always been the quality of the writing that was the problem with Phillips. The ideas are, broadly, fine.
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u/Blitzhelios Magik 13d ago
The thing is Phillips is actually a good writer as shown by her indies and DC work it’s just nothing at marvel yet outside of her black widow and Hawkeye book has shown that
She hulk tie in for imperial was very good though and it’s very much Phillips
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u/wowlock_taylan 13d ago
This book can't end soon enough. Phillips has done enough damage. She can't even keep her own characterization consistent with Jean. Like she was all about 'You cannot be selfish and balance needs to happen!' with the Adani stuff and then writes Jean deciding to BEND THE UNIVERSE to keep her FAKE creation of a sister alive and risk the universe, even risk fighting the Abstracts for it. Makes NO GOD DAMN SENSE. Get JEAN AWAY from her.
And insult to injury, this is how they bring Hope back?...
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u/qwfparst 12d ago
Willfull purposeful negative reading as usual.
Jean, written human, has always been hypocritical. She's never been perfect, but strives to do good, and falters in the process. (Jean's always been damned if she written perfectly, but then damned when she isn't.) "Consistent characterization" doesn't require a character to morally rigid, nor not struggle when facing a situation that would challenge their ideals, never facing the possibility of making a mistake and having to deal with the consequences.
Have you considered the immediate contrast and juxtaposition was intentional?
There's a difference between purposefully going out of her way to resurrect her family, and not wanting to destroy a living creature that while not Sara, was born from her love of Sara.
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u/Pre-Foxx 12d ago
The story does not SHOW this rather tells you ad nauseum...
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u/qwfparst 12d ago edited 12d ago
I mean it's basically a function of Phillips not using her the constraints of her panel space effectively, and having some awkward shoehorning of exposition instead to make up for it.
However, Phillips not executing her intentions elegantly is not the same as those intentions being wrongheaded. The user I replied to repeatedly reads the series in bad faith to the point that it feels that their criticism is informed only by spoiler scans without context or repeated re-hashing from people who have clearly not even read the work.
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u/Pre-Foxx 12d ago
Neither of you are wrong, I just think Phillips ideas in general aren't bad they just rarely live up to the scope of the story or purpose of the narrative.
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u/wowlock_taylan 12d ago
No. Not everything is a 4d 'deep writing'. Sometimes ( most of the time even ) bad writing is bad writing. Simple as that. And comics have tons of it to recognize it quite easily.
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u/qwfparst 12d ago
I'm not describing 4d writing. Just basic writing literally based on what's there.
It's not elegantly or artfully done, but a good faith reading can see what the intentions are even when the execution isn't the best.
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u/Hii8999 13d ago
I feel like this book relies a LOT on the fact that Jean and Sara are sisters to justify Jean risking the entire universe to keep her alive without really effectively showing them actually being close as adults.
By the way, does Sara being created mean that the entire of Issue #12 was entirely meaningless and Sara wasn’t actually a mutant at young?
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
#12 is about their shared childhood and why she means a lot to Jean, it doesn't have a lot to do with her mutation and whether or not she was a mutant when she was young.
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u/Hii8999 13d ago
Right, but to be clear, that part was in fact a lie,
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
If you mean whether she's always been a mutant or not, that's unknown. It certainly wasn't the case before. But it isn't unheard of for people to realize their mutations later in life.
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u/PatWasRight_F_CHUGS 2h ago
I thought it was a good issue. The ending with all the Phoenix hosts showing up and the battle on hand between them & the cosmic abstracts was not a development I was fond of, but I understand & enjoy Jean not wanting to give up her sister. It's a human conflict/contradiction that gets at the heart of Jean - a woman of nigh-unlimited power but still a human woman with wants, desires & feelings.
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u/UltimateSandman White Queen 13d ago
Couldn't this writer just keep it to fucking up Jean? Did she really have to pull Hope into it too?
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
Hope is a as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. She was basically Teen Jean 1.0. I don't know what there is to screw up exactly, she was a MacGuffin, not a character.
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u/cobaltaureus 13d ago
I don’t agree with that, at least in the Krakoa era hope felt like her own character to me. She is sometimes like Jean but also has many traits from Cable who she was raised by
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u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 13d ago
She's largely the same, rather thinly conceived character she always was on Krakoa, the difference this time is that she was competent and she had great interplay with Exodus.
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u/cobaltaureus 13d ago
Did we get an apology for the slap or are we just moving past it? Dropped this book last month
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u/Gambitxremy 13d ago
are we getting more x-men clones
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u/Nameless-Servant 12d ago
What do you mean by this? So far I feel like a lot of the teams aren’t that samey
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u/AngelEyes360 Askani 13d ago
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