The cliffhanger of the previous issue was about present-day, radical revolutionist Cyclops and his Uncanny X-Force, all newly-costumed and chic in their muted dark tones, dropped in unexpectedly in the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, not to make any kind of apologies for murdering Charles Xavier, oh no. With the most impassive and dismissive of speeches, Cyclops maintained that if he wasn't possessed by a cosmic force during that time, he never would have killed the professor. He boldly pointed out that everyone standing there judging him knew it too. He challenged them to kill him on the spot if they truly thought he was guilty and Logan is sorely tempted to just that but Krakoa--the sentient land mass mutant--was more than happy to oblige and swallows up Cyclops and the rest of his team. It was so fucking glorious!
Young Bobby was taken aback completely and when it was explained to him what Krakoa is (and never one to to become speecheless), his remark perfectly summarized my own side of things: "The front lawn is a mutant? I love this place!" You and me both, kumpadre.
Magik (Illyana) was able to get the creature to spit them out within seconds though. Funnily enough, Emma casually commented that this sort of thing with Krakoa happened to her before while Cyclops, completely uncaring of the fact that he was just inside Krakoa's mouth earlier, continued on with his fucking recruitment speech. Oh yeah, that's the entire point why Cyke was here. He wanted to recruit any interested parties to join his crusade. The fucking nerve of the guy, I know, and Logan (even Storm) obviously want to take a step forward--and SLAP THE GUY ON HIS STUPID FACE! That's not even the clincher. The clincher is when Cyke revealed that he will be using the name "Xavier School" for his main headquarters/combat institute, and I swear to Loki, Logan right there and then saw nothing but red.
As for me, I'm so angry...at MAGNETO right now! I mean, why are you enabling Cyke like this? This is not the way to honor Charles. If I want to slap Scott (or at least see one of them slap him), it's nothing compared to my desire to shake Erik until he wakes the fuck up from his stupor. He doesn't make sense anymore as a character since Charles' death. I feel like he's simply going through the motions and his motives just happened to coincide and benefit from Cyke's own agenda so for now he has joined that team. But ANYWAY: I guess you also gotta hand it to Cyke, though. He knew exactly what to say to get them talking and arguing among themselves. He knew these people well enough, especially the more seasoned X-Men, to manipulate them by calling out their hypocrisy and inaction concerning mutant-humans relations. Cyke has tried the pacifist, more evolved way of co-existence but right now what he aims to prioritize is 'mutant prosperity' regardless of how the humans play into it. He and Beast exchanged a few scathing words but I think Cyke hit a nerve when he pointed out that Beast is just as ruthless and morally ambiguous as he is, considering what he had done to the time-space continuum when he brought the original X-Men to the present timeline. Yeah, it's definitely a case of the stubborn kettle calling the asshole pot--an ego-maniacal, reckless individual who will stop at nothing to achieve the desired end even when the means are shitty--black.
After stating his objective, Cyke and his team promptly gives them a few hours to decide and then they will reconvene again in the front lawn for the final reckoning. After the new X-Force left, Logan was reduced into a simmering rage while young Scott was bothered about Cyke's comment regarding the Phoenix which is a concept he has yet to fully grasp on. Beast explained that Tony Stark "accidentally" dropped the Phoenix Force on Scott back in AVX (which I totally forgot and now I realize how hilarious that was on hindsight). And then young Scott challenged Beast as well about his hypocrisy which Beast didn't back down on and he ended up guilt-tripping this Scott who couldn't even comprehend how he ever became the man he just saw spewing out terrifying principles he never even considered by himself as a teenage boy. Completely fed up by all the accusations and the blame for a future he couldn't have known, young Scott did the only thing he had been doing every time people overwhelm him during arguments: he walks away.
Elsewhere, Mystique, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind have pretended to be the original X-Men and started wrecking shit in the city which was bad news enough, and when the X-Men learned about this new piece of information while they were discussing Cyclops and his insanity, it caught Jean's attention since it was about Mystique after all. In issue #7, Scott had a wonderful though deceptive heartfelt conversation with Mystique. He seemed to trust her because of it. And then Jean found out about it because she was willy-nilly reading minds everywhere, apparently. So hearing Mystique doing something awful truly got her concerned but that conflict is just going to have to wait because there are more pressing matters to handle. Outside the mansion, young Scott was already waiting for his older version to come back and when he did, they had a few meaningful words to say to one another. I mean, it's about damn time these two have some serious talk!
The real punch-to-the-gut for this issue arrived on the very last page. So after that heated exchange between the two Scotts, Emma's apprentices, the Stepford sisters, unsurprisingly joined their mistress during Cyke's last callback for duty--but then an unseen person also volunteered to go. And judging by the shock on everyone's faces, it's a deal breaker. I had two guesses about it as soon as I read it. My first guess was wrong, obviously. But my second guess hit the jackpot. OF COURSE. It made the best sense. After all, that person didn't want to be there in the first place...If you haven't guessed it correctly by now then you're not paying attention to this series at all.
Talk to you guys soon. Get ready for some more SHOCKING moments in the next issues.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment