{"id":222,"date":"2015-05-30T14:34:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T21:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2015-06-03T06:05:27","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T13:05:27","slug":"uncanny-x-men-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/?p=222","title":{"rendered":"Uncanny X-Men 34"},"content":{"rendered":"

So have you guys heard that Uncanny X-Men 600, the long-awaited final issue of Bendis\u2019s X-Men run, has been pushed back from May to <\/a>October<\/a>?<\/em>\u00a0 Man, was I crushed to hear that news.\u00a0 I just want an ending!\u00a0<\/em> Just the night prior, I\u2019d been telling my husband how much I was looking forward to (hopefully) letting myself love the X-Men again.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a hard three years, you guys!\u00a0\u00a0I can only hope the next creative team can help deliver us from mediocrity.<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, perhaps it\u2019s the good feeling of knowing Bendis\u2019 run is nearing it send, or maybe it’s Kris Anka’s consistently gorgeous and expressive artwork, or maybe it\u2019s the satisfaction that comes from the rare occasions when Bendis actually wraps up a plotline<\/em>\u2026 but after my first reading, this felt like a pretty good issue, in that it had a beginning, middle, and end, along with a fun reveal or two. \u00a0(Cover unrelated<\/a>, however, as Emma Frost does not appear in this issue. \u00a0I love it when this happens to Bendis titles, since I’ve heard it’s when his stories run longer than he intended, as if he’s simply a humble artist at the mercy of his muse<\/em>.) \u00a0It opens with Cyclops confronting Mystique in a standard scene wherein Bendis has someone explore the wildly inconsistent characterization of his own writing<\/em> as if it was all done with some sort of intent:<\/p>\n

Cyclops: “Raven… you are a mutant of exceptional ability. \u00a0You might be one of the best.”
\nMystique: “Might?<\/em>”
\nCyclops: “But one minute you’re setting up a nightmare mutant utopia in Madripoor. \u00a0The next you’re attacking your own people. \u00a0(What you did to Dazzler…) \u00a0You were one of Xavier’s soldiers, just like me… and now? \u00a0Honestly… I’m talking to you, Raven… mutant to mutant. \u00a0What are you doing? \u00a0What do you want?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Yes! \u00a0This is what it means to be a comic writer! \u00a0Just have a brilliant character like Mystique flail around like\u00a0some stupid\u00a0action-movie\u00a0villain, accumulating money and power with no clear motivation or apparent\u00a0end goal, then have someone have a nice rational sit-down with her\u00a0and ask, “What are you doing? \u00a0What do you want?<\/em>” \u00a0It’s a fair question Brian Michael Bendis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But we don’t get an answer, of course. \u00a0It turns out that Cyclops is actually Dazzler in disguise, since Mystique kidnapped her, took her identity as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mutant liaison, and kept her in a drugged-up coma for a while, and now Dazzler is out for payback. \u00a0She goes aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier to inform Maria Hill of her intent and get whatever current intel\u00a0they have\u00a0on Mystique’s whereabouts; Bendis continues to insist on making poor Maria Hill talk\u00a0like an idiot every chance he gets, from telling the rest of the helicarrier bridge crew, “Everyone go potty. \u00a0I’ll call you back in when I need you,” to telling Dazzler “I’d be out-of-my-skin pissed if she took my place in the world,” and when Dazzler negotiates for clean records for the X-Men’s new mutant recruits in exchange for custody of Mystique, she replies, “You bring me that terrorist, I’ll give you that and I’ll buy you all ice cream, too.” \u00a0So, yeah, business as usual, I guess.<\/p>\n

So Mystique clues in to Dazzler’s disguise by referencing the affair she and Cyclops never really had, and the Stepford Cuckoos are managing to hold Mystique in place telepathically, despite Mystique “using anti-psychic nano-technology that we don’t know anything about yet” (hahaha what<\/em>). \u00a0Mystique taunts Dazzler for not doing anything interesting with her life until Mystique took it from her, then succumbs to the\u00a0kind of uncharacteristic dialogue<\/a> that results from plain ol’ lazy writing right before Dazzler zaps her out of a high-rise window. \u00a0Buuuuut instead of letting her plummet to her death, Magik teleports down and rescues her, Mystique (apparently sincerely?!) admits that Dazzler is a better woman than she is, and Dazzler tells her she’s trying to teach these kids “something someone should have taught you<\/em>.” \u00a0Dazzler goes back to singing, Maria Hill re-recruits Dazzler to S.H.I.E.L.D., and the young X-Men wonder where the rule is that says they have<\/em> to be X-Men, and maybe they can be something else. \u00a0TO BE CONCLUDED… IN UNCANNY X-MEN #600 AT SOME UNDETERMINED POINT IN THE FUTURE!<\/p>\n

So… what happened to Mystique, you may ask? \u00a0Good question! \u00a0I assume she’s in S.H.I.E.L.D. prison? \u00a0I guess Brian Michael Bendis said everything he wanted to say about her character? \u00a0I think this issue felt<\/em> like a good issue because Bendis was asking\u00a0the same questions I<\/em> am\u00a0— what does<\/em> Mystique want? What are<\/em> the young X-Men going to do with themselves now that Cyclops has dissolved the team? — but upon further analysis, he\u00a0doesn’t actually get around to providing any answers<\/em>. \u00a0Right when we think Mystique is about to have a moment of character development (I mean, her face was obscured in shadow<\/a><\/em>, you guys! \u00a0Twice<\/a>!<\/em>), the scene just skips\u00a0to\u00a0her asking who Cyclops really is, then moves right along to the next comedy\/action bit. \u00a0So aside from Dazzler once referring to Mystique as “that sad, scared little girl hiding behind all her masks,” this story isn’t actually about Mystique at all, which it really should<\/em> have been. \u00a0Still… I guess it was nice to have Dazzler in the spotlight for a little while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So have you guys heard that Uncanny X-Men 600, the long-awaited final issue of Bendis\u2019s X-Men run, has been pushed back from May to October?\u00a0 Man, was I crushed to hear that news.\u00a0 I just want an ending!\u00a0 Just the night prior, I\u2019d been telling my husband how much I was looking forward to (hopefully) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comic_round-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.codyscomiccorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}