X-Men: ReGenesis

Okay, the long overdue ReGenesis issue.  Yup it had X-23, so I get to talk about it.  Thank you for small favors. 

Small warning. There are some spoilers here.

I'm not sure how I want to dive into this really.  The idea is promising and long overdue.  A split in the X-Men based on the premise of the treatment of children and how adults are supposed to protect them.  Cyclops on the callous and arrogant side of telling children they don't have the luxury of any form of innocence or to even pretend as such, and Wolverine on the side of being a real man and adult to protect these kids, not put them in those kinds of positions, and give them that time instead of inflicting even more psychological trauma on them than the world already does in their formative years.  (Because really, in the end, even if Scott does succeed, what has he really won if he destroys these kids from the inside out before they've had enough time to mature to handle it?  It's done wonders for X-23, so how can it be bad?)

Wow, that was a loaded statement.  Guess you can tell which I side with.

I do feel that maybe this issue and schism didn't articulate the argument as well as it should have, but this is a debate that spans many a psychiatrist and ample amounts of research.  So maybe it really can't be articulated that well to begin with.  That's rationalizing it though, and it's hard to do that when mistakes happen that suggest it was rather hurriedly thrown together last minute for something that's been years in the planning and supposed to be such a pivotal turning point in the X-Men's future.



Typo or Freudian slip?  You decide!


With potential mistakes like that. It's hard to take this issue seriously as an event that has span years in the making that finally came to a head. I think "unavoidable" is what they meant, but it goes to a lack of quality control in the product itself which suggests a form of rush to being published. Especially a scene as pivotal as this.  If you still don't get what I mean.  Cyclops just told Psylocke "No Killing, unless it's absolutely something that doesn't need to be killed. Then kill it."  Which changes the entire line away from the suggested intent.  Uh, Marvel, you might want to fix that on future printings or digital copies.  As it stands now, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever other than as a Freudian slip by Scott alluding to his true fallen from grace nature.  It undermines his statements to psylocke, and sabotages his side of the debate entirely.

To be continued!

On the flipside, it was pretty obvious where X-23 was going to fall in this debate about children.  She always has been, and always will be for protecting children.  The issue more or less suggested the same with her response.  A response that was handled with perfection and evokes a layer of sarcasm at Logan that only those two seem to share at times.  It can also be interpreted as Logan not giving her a choice in the matter, but I side with the sarcasm angle because of how Scott has treated her, and her views of him as per her ongoing comic.  She does have choices though.  She can be thrust into a guardian role for Wolverine's school, become an Assassin again for Summers, or stick with the FF a bit longer and learn about life from a potential surrogate mother-figure; the ultimate mother-figure of the Marvel Universe.  We'll see how this all plays out on her end in upcoming issues of the ongoing.  I personally hope she sticks with the FF a bit longer, at least until Johnny comes back, then leaves right before his arrival to continue her travels.  Utopia isn't a good place for her, Wolverine's school may not be a good place for her with Hellion's toxicity there, and her road to self-discovery on the path of the selfless is still long ahead.

All in all, I look forward to seeing how this goes, but I'm really starting to wish some of the writers at marvel would use a dictionary, or the lettering staff would check grammar rules or talk to the writer to make sure the dialogue is right.  This is isn't the first time it's happened, and probably won't be the last.  It's a bit shameful to think that mistakes like this keep happening time and time again for a large company that likes to claim superiority and mock others for their mistakes.  The irony of which is too delicious to bother going into here without further examples of public mistreatment of staff, typographical errors, and blatant misunderstandings from lack of asking questions or reviewing older material, let alone the way they shrug off such commentary as "can't you take a joke" like any schoolyard bully does that comes right back to doubling up the layers of damage it illicits by forcing silence onto the outspoken party.


I might have to save that for another day though.  Instead let's just focus on this issue and the primal nature it tries to dive into without a clear articulated reason as to why.  Suggesting it more akin to the dance of Scott and Logan as they lay blows to each other's manly pride as opposed to the primal nature of what being a real adult, a real guardian, a real parent, is about.

It also has ample amounts of buxom babes in bikinis too if that's your thing. (Hey, sex sells over substance.)