Corporate synergy takes its toll in X-Chat #14!

The Fall of X continues, and gets bloody in X-Chat #14!

In X-Men #31, the X-Men and Spidey face Nimrod from Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles!

In X-Force #49, no one’s favorite bromance is reignited from Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru-eFx, and Joe Caramagna!

And lastly Wolverine #43 sees the Sabretooth War take a breath from Percy, Victor Lavalle, Geoff Shaw, Frank D’Armata and Cory Petit

Tony Thornley: Fall is just coming fast and furious, isn’t it?

Matthew Lazorwitz: It is, and everything is coming to a head all at once. There’s a lot going on, so let’s get to it.

Nimrod The Hunter

Tony: Last time we talked, we chatted about how this series may go out on a high note. After X-Men #31… I’m pretty nervous. In it, the X-Men and Spider-Man (hi Peter!) use High Evolutionary technology to dismantle the leverage Orchis gained by poisoning the Krakoan drugs. Nimrod traces them and a fight ensues. It’s a pretty simple plot.

So this title seems to be telling the story that Fall of the House of X is kind of rushing through. I don’t feel like we should be needing both this and Fall to get a complete story. And I think it’s a failure of both if that’s what’s necessary.

Matt: I agree with that, but I have to put in what I feel is an important caveat at this moment. The rush to wrap up Krakoa in May reeks of editorial fiat to me. The recently released trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine indicates to me that the X-Men are heavily involved in Marvel’s upcoming cinematic plans, and as there are legendary (maybe urban legends) about the reaction of corporate overlords to the impenetrable nature of the X-Books at the time the original X-Men film was released, I feel like what should have been an additional two or three months of “Fall of X” before Fall of the House of X/Rise of the Powers of X have been moved to run alongside them to allow for CORPORATE SYNERGY.

That’s not an excuse for treating what is a major plot point as an afterthought in a tie-in to an event mini-series, but I do like to provide context. The Orchis poisoning of the Krakoan meds is one of the most important precipitating incidents of the fall of Krakoa. To wrap it up so perfunctorily feels to me like we need to focus on the punching and not on the story beats.

Tony: Including Spider-Man could have helped this be more than punching. MJ’s aunt Anna — essentially Peter’s mother-in-law — is pretty much the only named character to take the Krakoan medicine. We saw the effects of the booby trap in the most recent Amazing Spider-Man annual. There’s an emotional stake there. 

Yet he’s only here for the quips and the punching. Of which there are too many of both, especially for such a high stakes story. 

And then there’s the continuation of Talon’s fridging. I had a friend point out that I might be a little too quick to use that term… that may be fair. In this case though, it’s exactly right. 

Matt: I had a lot of thoughts on ways Talon could have come back in this or next issue, but instead it is a text book fridging: her death does nothing for the story other than to motivate Synch to get up and fight. Not a good look.

For an issue that ended with something so consequential — the curing of humanity — it feels like so little happened here. Aside from the big smash-em-up with Nimrod and the final conversation between Synch and Talon, we get Typhoid Mary finding her way back to Kingpin. I guess that makes sense to do here, as Kingpin has popped up here more than any other book except Iron Man lately, but it also just felt like, “Hey, we know you forgot about Realm of X, but here’s a reminder those characters are back so you won’t be surprised when Illyana and the others pop up over in FoHoX.”

Tony: And honestly, the scene was unnecessary, because the Fisks have shown up together all throughout the “Gang War” event over in Amazing Spider-Man. It would have been much better to see ‘Yana and Dani reunite with Kate instead. 

I’m glad to have seen the prominence Synch has gained. He only shined a handful of times in Generation X, then was dead for decades. The Talon storyline has been so poorly handled though that it’s a bit of a red mark on the character, so much so that I can’t see any writer doing anything with it after this series ends. Rightfully so in my opinion. I hate the sort of retcon that just ignores an important plot point, but in this case, it might be necessary.

Matt: Ah, as I am not reading “Gang War,” that is important to know, and I agree, it makes that scene feel pointless.

The ending of the Talon and Synch plot is tragic, and it uses a “tell instead of show” moment at the very end. This is an epic love story, and I want it to feel that way. Duggan started it that way, for sure, and I have a hard time reconciling that the same writer who brought her back and set up this whole thing now just wipes it out. And having a narration box that says, “As he set her mind adrift, the longest romance in X-Men history finally ended,” feels like a cheap, manipulative attempt to squeeze some emotion out of a scene that most readers are reading and seeing just as that, a lazy manipulation.

Tony: Yeah, and let’s also call it like we see it as well — this was done entirely because editorial couldn’t have two Laura Kinneys. One of them was eventually going to get written out, and anyone that thought it wasn’t going to be Talon was lying to themselves. I just wish it hadn’t been done in this way. Her sacrifice took place almost entirely off-panel. The after effect was only to motivate Synch. Her agency was completely removed, and it stinks.

The Real McCoy

Tony: Thanks, I hate it.

My feelings about Wonder Man aside, I’m digging this. The Sword of Damocles that was the prior back-up has finally fallen. Hank McCoy is getting used to the changed world while Beast Prime does eeeeeevil! It’s setting up a confrontation we’ve needed for a while.

Matt: Every time I think Beast Prime can’t sink any lower — every gosh darned time! — he finds a new low! That last page seems to indicate he’s going to try a genocide even bigger than Terra Verde. 

What I find interesting here is that the X-Men have lost all faith in any version of Hank McCoy. They don’t even give Beast 2 (Electric Blue-galoo) a chance or the benefit of the doubt. He escapes and it becomes an immediate kill order on him. This both tells how far Beast has fallen, and exactly where X-Force’s moral calculus is, even when they are on the “hero” side of the ledger. 

Tony: And that confused me. It seems to me that the worst that Retro Hank has done is run away? He’s figured out Beast Prime’s plan, he’s found allies where X-Force won’t help, he’s generally doing better at stopping Beast Prime than the rest of X-Force has…

And they want to kill him.

Maybe you’re right that it’s more because of Beast Prime than it is about Hank, but it still doesn’t totally sit right with me.

Matt: Once again, if this story was allowed to run an issue or two longer, we would have gotten more out of it when it comes to Hank. The immediate assumption that Hank is joining Beast Prime rather than trying to stop him is definitely a reflection on where X-Force is more than where Hank is.

Putting Wonder Man aside (again), I think that Hank going to him not only shows where this era’s Beast is, mentally and emotionally, but also shows that he has learned something from reading up on his future self. He doesn’t try to go it alone, or manipulate anyone into helping him. He asks for help, something Beast Prime gave up doing a long time ago. 

Tony: As much as I say I dislike Wonder Man, it’s largely because of how poorly he’s been written for YEARS. I mean, the Remender-created concept of Simon Williams as a pacifist is so good. Joe Casey more or less did that with Superman in his Adventures of Superman run. The problem is too many writers have turned that into the character being passive or not taking action. Pairing him with Hank here, Hank respects that, ropes him into his adventures, and it takes on the feel of those classic Avengers stories in which Beast and Wonder Man were best friends.

And back to Beast, Percy is writing the Hank McCoy of the animated series and the 90’s. I like that. I like that Hank. He used to be one of my favorites because of that characterization, and this is an interesting new set-up for him (if he’s the Beast that survives into the From the Ashes initiative). It would sort of be a mix between young Hank from All-New X-Men grappling with what his older self has become whole trying to prevent that and Peter Parker post-Superior Spider-Man trying to deal with the evil of his actions while he was away.

Matt: I hadn’t drawn that particular connection, but there’s some irony there. Hank pulled the young X-Men forward in time to try to teach Cyclops a lesson, and now a pseudo-time displaced Hank is going to have to wrestle with his ills. I like how that rhymes. 

Take A Breath

Tony: Matt, have you been reading “Sabretooth War?”

Matt: You mean the goriest X-Men comic ever released? Why yes, yes I have.

Tony: Yes, and after the unrelenting gore so far, what did you think of Wolverine #43, a very slow (in comparison) issue? 

Matt: I enjoyed it well enough. I was glad to see the return of the Exiles, Sabretooth’s team of former erstwhile allies. That was by far the most interesting sequence here, as it shows an alternate to Krakoa that seems to better embrace exactly what Krakoa was supposed to be, which is definitely Victor Lavelle’s point from Sabretooth and the Exiles and that thread carrying through to this story.

But my concern here is that this is part 3 of 10. We have a lot more to go of this story, and it’s already slowing down. I have no problem taking a step back from the ol’ ultraviolence, but how many times can this arc do that and then ramp it up again? This isn’t a complaint — not yet, anyway — but it’s something I can see becoming a problem. But that, as well as its placement in continuity running print-wise opposite a story that hasn’t been resolved yet and takes place before it in X-Force, again shows the rushed nature of the end of Krakoa.

Tony: I think Wolverine #43 is a “moving the pieces” issue. Percy and LaValle opened with setting the stakes, and showing just how brutal this story is going to be. But there’s a boatload of other players that need to get involved, so they need to do this after all the bloodshed so far.

I love the writing of the Exiles scenes. Makes me wish we got more of them prior to this. This is a thread I’d be interested in. The art… I don’t like Geoff Shaw’s take on Oya, but otherwise, he does the slower stuff really well. Too many artists can’t make the action-to-talky switch. All those years of working with Cates paid off.

Speaking of the art, MAN, the scene with Laura is BRUTAL. Like, yes, it was written great, but without Shaw’s art, it could have just failed. Lady Sabretooth is going to get it later on, isn’t she?

Matt: No doubt! The question at this point is less about if she’s going to get it, and more whether Logan is going to do her in, or if he’s going to let Laura do it.

I agree with you entirely on the setting up of the pieces. By the end of Wolverine #43, it feels like we have four factions: Wolverine/X-Force, the Exiles, Sabretooth-616, and the other Sabretooths (Sabreteeth?) who are now waiting for a moment to strike. So with all that? Maybe ten issues is the right number.

On the art, are you getting a bit of a Mark Texeira vibe here? It reminds me a lot of his run on Wolverine and that Sabretooth mini, but that might just be me. 

Tony: I couldn’t put my finger on it, but you’re exactly right! It’s distinctly Shaw, but the way he inked himself feels very much like Tex’s 90’s Ghost Rider. And while I’m sad that they didn’t bring Kubert back to wrap the series he launched, these art vibes — from both Shaw and Smith — are exactly what this storyline needs.

We know from the solicits that Wolverine #50 is a big celebration issue for the character’s 50th anniversary, so maybe Kubert’ll be back there. 

X-Traneous Thoughts

• Good grief, the artists on all these issues are just bangers.
• If you’ve ever seen me say that there needs to be more duo comics, Beast & Wonder Man are exactly the characters that inspired me to have that take. Something about them together makes them both better.
• The closer we are to the end of Krakoa, the more I worry about characters like Synch, Sage, and other prominent B-listers going back into (storytelling, not Illyana/Maddy’s) Limbo.

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.