Avengers: The Children's Crusade #7(of 9):
Summary: After having given X-Factor's Rictor his mutant powers back, the Scarlet Witch wants to do the same for all of mutantkind. The problem? Waiting outside the offices of X-Factor Investigations are the combined forces of the Avengers and the X-Men. Upon arriving outside, Captain America and the Avengers want to protect Wanda since, for better or worse, she was an Avenger. Lord Summers, being an uber-douche, wants Wanda taken to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) where she can face punishment for the House of M debacle. Magneto decides to side with the Avengers, and with that, all of the heroes begin to battle in the streets. Wanda and the Young Avengers stand back and watch for a while before Wanda angrily springs into action, using her powers to put all of the heroes to sleep, since if they were going to act like little children, she'd treat them as such by giving them nap time... HA!! With that, Wanda teleports herself and the Young Avengers to the one man she felt could help her accomplish what she wanted to do(the reactivation of the X-gene), Dr. Doom(!). Wanda reveals to the surprised Young Avengers that upon learning of the “deaths” of her two sons, it was Doom's magic that allowed her to use her powers to manipulate reality itself. Unfortunately for the both of them though, the power Wanda had acquired drove her crazy and led to the events of Avengers Dissembled. Doom seems eager to help Wanda, too eager to help in Patriot's mind, and Wanda, Doom and Wiccan join hands to begin the spell that would restore the powers of all of the mutants who lost their powers on M-Day. Patriot, refusing to believe that Doom was simply doing this out of the kindness of his heart, and figuring Doom was after Wanda's powers, snatches Hawkeye's(the Young Avengers version) bow and an arrow and fires it at Doom, hoping to interrupt the spell. The arrow does interrupt the spell, causing a massive mystical explosion that leaves Wanda unconscious, Wiccan angry and Doom gone, save for his mask. Wanda eventually wakes up and reveals that her reality manipulating powers seem to have abandoned her. Before the Young Avengers could figure out where the powers went, Doom floats down from the heavens, with his face healed, announcing that he would take care of everything...
Thoughts: Well, this comic wasn't AS perfect as many of the prior issues, but it was still damned good, almost definitely better than a good 95% of the comics I'll wind up reading this week. Instead of getting more of an emotional impact or more of the Young Avengers, we got a kick-ass battle between the X-Men and the Avengers and the reveal of how Wanda's powers became as strong as they did(something Bendis never bothered to explain during Disassembled). That's the cool thing about this mini. It has a little something for everybody. You want fantastic dialogue, awesome action, great art, emotional scenes, this mini-series has had all of that at one time or another. Add my absolute love for the Young Avengers, and there's no way I couldn't love this issue.
Score: 9 out of 10.
Jeez, Lord Summers is an asshole no matter what the series is!
Ya know since Wanda's Deus Ex machina Bs is gone, Can Apocalypse Reclaim them to wipe the Crap I've been through Since New x-men? No ? Pfeh
ReplyDeleteStill man I finally found the perfect theme for Nate Grey (in a Dcboard forum of all places) !
" Live Fast Die Young) by Roxx gang
& I kinda disagree about something, For me shaman Nate is the actual logical evolution of the Aoa Youngster he was, Why? Well for me there are 2 defining X-man moments:
1) Killing Sinister with his bare fucking hands! ( yep there's no other words describe this scene & the fact that X-man spits on whoever aims to use him.
2) The mirror scene; If you don't remember this one ,I'll clarify. When the failed shaman version saved him from the red queen & sent him back to 616 (well the CANON 616!) , Nate wakes up is helped by a waitress. Then alone in front of the mirror when he stared at his new appearance , & got that he had to avenge all victims of the red queen, the stare Olivetti drew spoke for itself "Now You 'll fuckin Die." & Then the rest is history!
They can badmouth Counter X all they want but for me, Nate shirtless , Shoeless, & not givin' a fuck is in the top 10 BADASSES not to mention that he was finally unique!
Say what do you think of an X-man/Exiles in an annihilation-like event? Does it need to be drawn?
if u think cyclops is a dick here wait till u seem him in uncanny x-men
ReplyDeleteIdk, Saidi... I still think the jump from the Nate who was in the X-Man series from like issues #1-#60 was just SO different from Shaman Nate. To be honest with you, I'm fine with Shaman Nate, as long as it gets him back in the mainstream Marvel U, but it was a hell of a jump. He went from a rather self-absorbed hot-head to more mellow, mutant loving character. It was just odd to me. And I'd love an X-Men/Exiles knockdown, drag-out battle. I miss that Exiles series...
ReplyDeleteYou know what's funny, Movieartman? The guy at my comic shop basically said the same thing to me! So I can't wait to see what Lord Summers has done NOW.
Since it was brought up here I will go ahead and mention it. I miss the mutant shaman. He was such a badass in Dark X-Men. I am of course ignoring the last issues of X-Man, where Nate's adventures were too surreal for my taste (reminds me of some of that "bullets going backwards in time" crap that annoys me about DC). But now it looks like Nate is back to his young, inexperienced self in New Mutants.
ReplyDeleteBTW, is it really genocide if you don't kill (or try to kill) the species? According to the dictionary I guess it could be.
And, Cyclops is quite the jerk in Schism too. Not a good week for him.
ReplyDeleteSorry Jermox ,he was a jobber in DXM but for me the last issues of x-man are exactly how Nate should be written. & mutant Loving... I dunno, he thinks that it's his newfound responsibility to protect & punish since he's been gifted with that sort of might. And he retained the unforgiving murderous side he had in AOA. It's what makes him frightening , You mess with innocents (whatever they are) or abuse your powers whoever the fuck you are, If he ever discovers it you can already prepare your gravestone or for a good lobotomy or to be traumatised in a way you'll never come back from (like he did Quabiri ). The shaman aspect gave Nate a way & ideology of his own & actual potential. while I am glad to see him ( hey , We REALLY ARE LACKING likable, honest heroes nowadays), I still say it was lazy to depower him that way or to make him that naive or inexperienced, that's bullshit! Nate can actually fend for himself & would NEVER FOLLOW Cyclops or rather the Current shitty depiction, He would have strangled him right away. His detractors may say that he lacked a personna , but I call BS on that. He's a nice person, but not a nice samaritan since he helps others just because he decided it. He never takes gloves with villains whoever they are, so I don't find him that mellow actually. He SEEMS calmer , but he went from explosive to implosive, which is more unpredictable. If anything Nate for me is always on his side of the law: his own opinion. He is not a fanatic at all but for the other superheroes, he can be an asset or a nightmare (well okay , not that far, but remember Cable in the burnt offering? Imagine that , younger, poorer & with No allegiance to any country... I say a X-over event can deal with that!
ReplyDeleteEh, I've got to agree with Jermox here. The last few issues of X-Man were too Morrison-esque for my tastes too. I mean the idea was interesting, but it was damned crazy at times. And I do like the way Abnett and Lanning have been writing Nate in New Mutants lately. I read Schism a few minutes ago, and damn, Scott is just HORRIBLE lately! I did love his line to Wolvie about Jean though!
ReplyDeleteI like the mutant shaman version, it was just the stories at the end of X-Man that I thought were horrible. I did like the last two issues in X-Man where he is actually on Earth doing his shaman thing around actual mutants. Plus, he states what I was always thinking about mutants when he says that calling themselves homo-superior is a bit presumptuous.
ReplyDeleteI liked the first storyarc and the final issue of Nate's Shaman adventures. I remember REALLY enjoying the final issue in a bittersweet sort of way... I kind of wish they'd bring back that kid Nate left his powers with. Anyway, the middle stuff just never did it for me, with Maddie as the Red Queen and alternate Nates, and all kinds of other bizarre stuff. The dimensional spiral stuff that Warren Ellis loves to throw into his work also annoyed me. I always thought in the Marvel U there was an infinite number of dimensions, not really, really good dimensions on the top of the spiral and really, really bad ones at the bottom... But I digress. It's been probably a good 5 years since I've read Nate's Shaman stuff, so who knows, maybe I'd have a greater appreciation for them now.
ReplyDeleteI just bought and read this on a whim, and man I can't wait for the next issue. A few thoughts:
ReplyDelete- I think they wrote lord summers a bit too crazy here- hard to see him endangering his whole team on a hell-bent quest for revenge. Then again, I didn't see him blasting logan's face off either...
-is young hawkeye an idiot? Why would shooting an incindiery arrow at your teammate and his mom be a good idea?
-chances don't look good for reversing m-day at this point, with Wanda losing this life force power, or whatever the fuck it's called
- I literally have no idea what doom is going to do (besides fix his face) now that he's all-powerful.
"Then again, I didn't see him blasting logan's face off either..." Exactly! With the way Lord Summers has been written as of late, I'd expect pretty much anything from him! I mean in the past few months he's attacked the Avengers, threatened to murder the mayor of San Fransisco, lied to Steve Rogers face about a wanted criminal, tried to kill(?) Wolverine and caused a major split in mutantkind... And that's just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head!
ReplyDeleteI have NO idea what Patriot was thinking with his arrow shooting display... Seriously, how could that POSSIBLY help anybody?! I guess it continues to showcase his more impetuous nature?
I'm still holding out the smallest amount of hope that M-Day will at the least be partially reversed by the end of this mini. We already know that Rictor DOES retain his powers after this mini ends, so I'm hoping(probably in vain) that Wanda keeps a smaller version of her powers and can maybe repower mutants by touch or something similar. That way you can finally get the X-Men some new mutant allies and enemies, but not go overboard and have a few thousand nameless mutants running around.