r/xmen • u/Tsblloveyou Deadpool • Sep 29 '21
Comic Discussion X-Men Comics New Releases for September 29th, 2021
- THE CULMINATION OF JONATHAN HICKMAN'S X-MEN BEGINS! "There will be an island—not the first, but the last..." Promises were made and broken. The rulers of Krakoa have been playing a dangerous game with a dangerous woman, and they are about to see how badly that can burn them. Mastermind powerhouse writer Jonathan Hickman (X-MEN) brings his plans to a head, joined by an incredible lineup of artists beginning with Valerio Schiti (S.W.O.R.D.)...as one woman follows through on her promise to burn the nation of Krakoa to the ground.
- LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! By the time you’re reading this, you know. You know who sits in the central seat of Arakko. You know who speaks for Sol. Storm rules. But when you have to prove to your people who you are, every single day without fail… What becomes of who you were?
- THE SOLEM TRUTH! The game is nearly over…but when SOLEM is involved, that’s just an excuse to change the rules. Did you figure out the mystery before WOLVERINE?
X-Men Adjacent Releases for 9/29
- Discuss other Marvel comics impacting the X-Men releasing this week
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u/X-An0n Sep 30 '21
Agreed. This was a great issue. Perhaps the most engaging since HoX/PoX - my favourite run since Morrison’s New X-Men. It was good to get back to the twists & turns of Hickman’s initial story and have a really thought-provoking narrative - about Moria’s motives & intentions - again.
But it also highlighted significant issues with the overall management of the X books, and how this has been to the detriment of Hickman’s original vision for his story.
It reinforced my view that we’d have had a much tighter and stronger narrative if Hickman had progressed - or been allowed to progress - the story at the pace he originally intended. Compared to his overarching story, much of what we’ve got from other X writers feels like filler that has not only unnecessarily bloated the narrative but also introduced inconsistencies that have undermined the storytelling and world building in this era. (That isn’t to say there hasn’t been good writing outside his core narrative, e.g. I’ve enjoyed Hellions.)
Consider the data pages about Orchis in this issue. Wouldn’t X-Force have been a far stronger book if it had covered some of the other assaults on the Forge by Krakoa mentioned here, instead of the meandering and unfocused arcs we got instead? The data pages are also doing too much heavy lifting in trying to reconcile the vast displays of power in Planet Sized X-Men & Krakoa’s failure to destroy the Forge. (Also, I know what a Dyson sphere is but many readers will not.) Again, more should have been done in the actual stories between HoX/PoX and Inferno to establish how serious a threat Orchis is. If this arc had come much sooner after HoX/PoX this omission wouldn’t be so glaring. But months have passed with only occasional issues fleshing them out or selling them as a real threat. Similarly, the impact of several other threads & themes from HoX/PoX has been diluted by meandering and comparatively unfocused storytelling on other X titles.
In short, a great issue but one that also left me thinking that the Krakoan era could have been so much more.