Uncanny X-men 600 - Spoliers [11-04-15]

When did Stan Lee and Brian Bendis get into a feud? I Googled, but the only result was Bendis defending Lee's comments about Spider-Man being white. As far as Lee "rolling over in his grave" goes . . . well, since he's not dead, he's actually fully capable of stating his opinions on what Marvel does. And by and large, his opinions have amounted to him not having any problem with what Marvel does. Also, anyone writing to Stan Lee in the hope that he'll do something is an idiot. Just, a straight-up idiot. Lee hasn't been involved in the running of Marvel for decades. What the hell does anyone actually expect him to do? And why would they expect him to even try to do anything? He's made it clear that he's fine letting the people in charge do what they feel is best. There was never any chance he was going to call Alonso and say, "What the hell are you doing, Iceman is straight, you can't let him be gay!" Lee is not the type to do that. Even if he did disagree with a story direction, there's just no way he would tell the people involved t change it.

I thought the scene was done reasonably well. I still think Iceman being gay is an asspull, and something that needed a whole lot more foreshadowing during Bendis' run. But the scene itself was decent. It is the kind of thing that happens.



Beyond all that, I enjoyed the issue. I thought it was a good comic. Some really good scenes. The Kitty/Colossus/Illyana bit was really sweet and touching. The Beast's intervention had a lot of good tension in it. The ANXM scene was good, though I still don't buy the Jean/Beast ship. (For the record, the Beast's best girlfriend was Trish, but he was a horrible boyfriend for her, and she deserved way better. "How dare that woman do her job and report the facts in an unbiased manner!" Shut up, Beast.)

The best part was Cyclops' rally. Loved that scene. So much. That is exactly the kind of thing I want to see more often in X-Men comics. Mutants gathering peacefully and publicly speaking out for co-existence. It's a shame that Extraordinary X-Men #1 then immediately shit all over it by declaring Scott evil and having mutants hated, hunted and on the verge of extinction. Again. Because that's not something we've seen before. EXM's bold new direction is apparently rehashing the same stories we've already read.

Seriously, as pissed as you are about UXM, I'm way more pissed off about EXM. The X-Men franchise is supposed to be a metaphor for the struggles of oppressed groups. The fear and hate they face, the systemic oppression they have to constantly battle against. And that's important stuff. But what's always omitted from the X-Men is the idea of actual frigging progress. As far as the X-Men franchise is concerned, progress doesn't happen. It's an illusion. A pipedream, something that can never actually happen. And that's bullshit. Every civil rights movement has seen progress. There's always more work to be done, but same-sex marriage just got legalized throughout the US. That is some amazing progress. That shows that there is real, genuine hope for the future. That is the reality of civil rights struggles.

By choosing to ignore that reality, the X-Men franchise ends up looking outdated and out-of-touch. I'm not saying things need to be rosy for mutants. I'm saying that there need to be some signs of progress, of hope.

Bendis actually did show that. For all the hate he gets, he showed occasional signs that mutant rights had seen some progress.

And that progress is just being erased, in favour of more hate and misery and hopelessness.

I'm giving serious consideration to dropping EXM, and if that happens, then I won't be buying a single X-Men comic. For the first time in my entire comic-buying life.