X-Men

[KingRoyal]

And the blonde hair

[Thad]

The first issue of New Mutants: Lethal Legion, by Charlie Jane Anders and Enid Balam is out, and it's a delight.

It continues a story that began in last year's Pride special and continued in New Mutants #31-33, but it'll get you up to speed if you missed those.

The villain is Count Nefaria, and I love me some Count Nefaria. I love goofy '60s villains who are kind of treated as laughingstocks and have something to prove.

Anyway, there's a fun interview with CJA over at AIPT Comics, and if you don't mind having the ending spoiled, it has the last page of issue #1 about 2/3 of the way down the page (under the words "including those costumes" if you want to Ctrl-F for it). It is delightful and oh my god is that the bandanna Wolverine wore over his face for a hot minute in the late '90s when he went all feral, just to the left of Cyclops's bandolier? I guess it could just be any of the cowls from the original X-Men costumes from the '60s, but the page has such a '90s emphasis that's where my head went.

[Thad]

It continues a story that began in last year's Pride special and continued in New Mutants #31-33, but it'll get you up to speed if you missed those.

Also, those New Mutants issues have been collected in the New Mutants vol 4 trade paperback, per CJA herself.

[Grath]

[Friday]

okay you got me, my secret fetish is that I am Chris Claremont

[Thad]

Always kinda funny seeing somebody mess up a reference because it's just so damn old.

There's a bit in New Mutants: Lethal Legion #3 where Count Nefaria calls someone on an old-timey phone, and he's clearly speaking into the earpiece.

It's not a gag; the artist just doesn't know how old phones work. Why would they?

[Thad]

...I am currently in a conversation where a bunch of us old-timers are trying to explain Onslaught to a Gen Z'er who is just hearing about it for the first time.

[Mongrel]

...I am currently in a conversation where a bunch of us old-timers are trying to explain Onslaught to a Gen Z'er who is just hearing about it for the first time.

[Thad]

wait wait wait Charles Xavier and Magneto have a child and that child is Onslaught!?

oh it's far more complicated and stupid than that... you see when a psychic loves and hates a metal bender and that hatred gets so strong it reaches out to try and destroy the mind of the other but also in destruction results in creating a new being of their shared hatred and dark desires well then you get a Mecca Kaiju anime large amalgam version of both

then the Mecca Kaiju recruits Beast to help him, but it's a Beast from an alternate reality, but the X-men don't know that yet because they don't remember it and also is worried about Nathan Grey , also a remaining character from this alternate reality, could have the power to stop so he kidnaps him and the son of Sue and Reed Richards...

And he has Charles imprisoned in his chest.

duuuuude that's so dumb it's awesome! How'd he even get in there?

[Mongrel]

Literally the beginning of the end of my buying mainstream Marvel/DC funnybooks (the end of the end was when they cancelled Excalibur).

[Büge]

I thought Onslaught came about as a way to explain Prof. X's creepy obsession with his teen student



also, MAN, was Scott always such a weenie

[beatbandito]

also, MAN, was Scott always such a weenie

I also immediately thought that before reading this line. And had the realization that Scott was always doomed to suck the moment he entered a long-term relationship with the character all the writers wanted to fuck.

[KingRoyal]

Cyclops is an orphan who was raised by Mr. Sinister to take advantage of his terrible powers. He was then rescued by Charles Xavier, a man whose first thought was to make a 16-year-old the leader of a child paramilitary organization.

So yes, he was always a weenie

[Thad]

I thought Onslaught came about as a way to explain Prof. X's creepy obsession with his teen student

Nah, that was two panels and everybody, including Lee, pretty much ignored it and never brought it up again.

(It bears adding that Charles was barely more than a teenager himself at that point; he claims in issue #1 that he's a mutant because his parents worked on the atomic bomb before he was born, which in 1963 puts him in his mid-twenties at the latest. He still shouldn't be creeping on his teenage student, and given that it's immediately abandoned I think Lee figured that out, but it wouldn't have been as cringe-inducing given early-'60s social mores as it is today.)

Onslaught was apparently created in X-Men #25 when Xavier shut off Magneto's brain. Some part of Magneto's consciousness latched onto his, and that, combined with Xavier's rage and despair at the usual stuff mutants have to rage and despair about, eventually created Onslaught.

Though the writers were just making it up as they went along, and when Onslaught was first mentioned they had no idea who or what he was, they just had him beat the Juggernaut's ass because that's the way hacks show a new character is totally badass, by having him beat up someone who's already impossibly strong.

Well, him choosing the Juggernaut as his first target kinda jibed with the idea that he should be Xavier, and then they decided hey, remember that "traitor to the X-Men" plot point that we never resolved? Maybe we can tie those two things together.

also, MAN, was Scott always such a weenie

I maintain that Scott wasn't a weenie until the Claremont era.

In the '60s he was the stock Marvel Tragic Hero. The rest of the X-Men acted more-or-less like regular teenagers; Slim was the one who was acutely aware that he had a loaded gun strapped directly to his face at all times.

He's pretty similar to Peter Parker, really, except he doesn't do the false bravado thing when he puts on his costume.

[Niku]

...I am currently in a conversation where a bunch of us old-timers are trying to explain Onslaught to a Gen Z'er who is just hearing about it for the first time.

he doubles other ongoing abilities at his location it's not that hard

[Mongrel]

...I am currently in a conversation where a bunch of us old-timers are trying to explain Onslaught to a Gen Z'er who is just hearing about it for the first time.

he doubles other ongoing abilities at his location it's not that hard

No, it only gives you 20% More Attack and Cast Speed, unless you have % increased buff effect, then, sure, maybe.

[Thad]

The first issue of New Mutants: Lethal Legion, by Charlie Jane Anders and Enid Balam is out, and it's a delight.

Up to issue #4, and I don't know the last time I read a book that had this sense of pure joy at getting to play in the Marvel sandbox. Maybe the Beta Ray Bill miniseries by Daniel Warren Johnson, back in 2021?

I don't really know the New Mutants very well; when I was a kid they were called X-Force and they were like the EXTREME X-Men (but not X-Treme X-Men; somehow, Marvel didn't get around to using that title until after the '90s were over). But the creative team's choice of villains shows they've got the same affection for weirdos and second- and third-stringers that I do. Count Nefaria and Moonstone, in particular, are old favorites of mine.

And CJA rounds them out with wonderful little character touches. Here's something she recently said on Mastodon:

1) Moonstone sings Gilbert & Sullivan while taking out all of the New Mutants because she's so powerful, they're not a challenge for her. She's singing to entertain herself.

2) Count Nefaria is absolutely right: Escapade didn't let Cerebella deal with her trauma in her own way. I almost gave this line to one of the "hero" characters but I thought it was more interesting to have the villain be completely spot on and insightful.

She's really good at this and I hope she gets a chance to stick around and do regular Marvel work.

[Thad]

Got a Target catalog in the mail. It had this image of some X-Men '97 toys:



Looks like they're following the '92 designs pretty closely except Storm's got her '80s mohawk.

There are various other images online, mostly blurry photos of a screen in what appears to be a convention in the Philippines. The clearest image we've got is this recent variant cover from the comics:



Bishop got a haircut too. Jean's lost the ponytail in favor of the Jim Lee do. Jubilee's features are more obviously Asian. Pretty sure the no-face guy in the bomber jacket is Morph, redesigned to look more like the Joe Madureira Age of Apocalypse version.



Bleeding Cool says the new guy on the bottom right is Sunspot. Could be -- Sunspot's definitely on the show; he's visible in Kirby-dot form in one of those blurry photos -- but I don't recognize that look on the cover so I'm not 100% that's him. (The Bleeding Cool article also says Alyson Court is playing Jubilee, which is wrong; she's returning to the show but not as Jubilee. Poking around the Internet it appears that Holly Chou is the new voice of Jubilee, but I'm not seeing that confirmed by a primary source so I'll take it with a grain of salt for now.)

[Thad]

Xavier is conspicuous in his absence and...oh God, he's going to be the villain, isn't he.

...oh God.

They're doing Onslaught, aren't they.

[Büge]