Comments on: Hey, It’s Another X-Men Theme Post!

By: FuryOfFirestorm

FuryOfFirestorm — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:30:33 +0000

@Mike Blake: Taskmaster had “eidetic memory”‘ ( aka photographic reflexes). He can’t read body language, but can copy moves after seeing them once. They are limits, however. Taskmaster can copy Batroc’s leaping abilities (because they are within normal human limits), but not Toad’(since they require superhuman leg muscles).

Cypher’s powers involve a psionic field that allows him to understand languages, written, spoken or otherwise. Much like Forge’s power, Doug just intuitively ‘knows’ how to read/speak the language he is attempting to decipher, without truly understanding the ‘nuances’ of the language.

By: Mike Blake

Mike Blake — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:12:01 +0000

I agree Cypher has always had untapped potential, but isn’t this new power the same one Taskmaster has had all along, albeit with a different rationale?

By: Scavenger

Scavenger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:13:30 +0000

FofF: Claremont hinted at Cypher’s powers heading that way in his final NM storyline (Doug’s playing poker at the Hellfire Club and uses his powers to read the body language of his opponents)

By: FuryOfFirestorm

FuryOfFirestorm — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:39:40 +0000

Cypher’s powers were finally utilized in a way to make him useful in combat. He uses his power to understand language in order to read “body language”, thus predicting and countering an opponent’s moves. However, Batgirl used the idea earlier and the New Mutants fan-fic “Kid Dynamo” came up with the idea first (1996, IIRC). If Louise Simonson had thought of using his powers that way, she probably wouldn’t have killed him off in the first place!

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:30:39 +0000

I haven’t read an X-book since around the time Psychlocke turned Japanese, so I’m confused. Isn’t Doug Ramsey that guy who could translate stuff? How does that make him the most dangerous mutant ever?

Or was he Cannonball? Same question.

Yeah, I could wiki it, but it’s more fun when you guys set me straight.

By: Mary Warner

Mary Warner — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:36:56 +0000

I’ve only been reading Uncanny and New Mutants, and I haven’t got the newest issues yet, so I have no idea what this Necrosha thing is. But Craig is right about the lack of editorial control. I did buy the first Ellis issue of Astonishing, and I’ve flipped through other issues at the store, as well as some of the other mutant books, and none of them seem to fit together all that well. That’s just incompetent editing. And the longer-term plans seem to be floundering somewhat, too. Why did they move to this new island when they still weren’t completely settled in San Francisco yet? And how many X-Men are there? One recent issue I read mentions two-hundred-thirty-some mutants living on the island. I thought there were only supposed to be 198 total. Did they scrap that idea? And I know there are still several mutants not on the island.
I wish they would just sit all the writers down and work out a plan and stick to it. And wait at least two and a half years between major upheavals in the status quo.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:38:21 +0000

I also read Necrosha and Astonishing separately, and I wondered briefly why Ellis was participating in crossover, since he’s pretty much stated that that’s not how his book will operate.

So basically, I’m agreed that somebody should have noticed that two books in the same family were independently using the same plot device. Even money at least one mutant gets undeadified twice in the same month.

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:17:11 +0000

BANSHEE IS THE BEST CHARACTER ON THE SHOW. HE IS BETTER THAN THE BALONEY AND THE SALAMI COMBINED.

By: Apodaca

Apodaca — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:07:06 +0000

“This is a fun done in one story that really gets why Storm’s can be a cool character ”

And why is that? I still don’t get the affection for the character.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:32:22 +0000

X Necrosha was so underwhelming to me, not only because of the close thematic ties to Blackest Night, but also due to the fact that the storyline reeks of “and nothing will ever be the same again!!!” nonsense that seemingly has rested over the X-family of books like a cloud for the past couple years. In three months, all those undead mutants will be dead again, and the heroes will continue on without the emotional baggage of having to fight (or kill) their old colleagues because they’re constantly bombarded with emotional baggage anyway.

Also, the lack of editorial control in the X-books continues to bother me greatly. The whole Utopia/Dark X-Men thing moved the mutants to Magneto’s old asteroid, now an island in the Pacific. The first thing at least four writers did as a result was write a story about someone invading the island (Magneto in Uncanny X-Men, Emplate in X-Men Legacy, Namor’s sea-serpent ex-wife in Dark Reign The List, and now Selene’s undead army in X Necrosha). Furthermore, the twist in Warren Ellis’ most recent issue in Astonishing X-Men was that someone is raising dead mutants in Genosha as weapons against living mutants… but that book’s not even part of the Necrosha storyline.

Letting your stable of writers each tell the same story with absolutely no ramifications is sloppy and distracting. I don’t know how anyone can follow more than one title from this line under these conditions.