A Look At The New Mutants
Two years ago, this movie missed it’s first release date in 2018, and was originally intended to tie into X Men Dark Phoenix. Then the delays started, first because of reshoots, then because of the Fox buy out from Disney and then the damn plague came around. I was happy to finally see this movie, I wasn’t expecting a blockbuster, I wanted a mutant movie from the X Men side of the Marvel Universe. My expectations were tempered.
After a horrific storm tears through her reservation, Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt) wakes up in a facility in the middle of rural America. Overseen by a Dr. Reyes, Dani and 4 other institutionalized mutants reflect on their pasts and the hurt their powers have caused. These being Illyana Rasputin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), Sam Guthrie (Charlie Heaton) and Roberto Da Costa (Henry Zaga).
Knowing going in that this movie was leaning on horror elements, I appreciated that this film’s setting is an echo of past X Men movies. Past X men movies often used the Xavier institute as a place to calm the audience, it’s a peaceful setting for the characters to have exposition. In this movie, we have an institute for emotionally damaged youths, there’s a feeling of catharsis about it though undercut by it’s vacancy of people besides the 5 mutants and Reyes. It gives an eerie feeling to be sure.
On the subject of the characters, there was a deeper sense of vulnerability from this team than one would be used to from the X Men movies. This was shown most in Sam and Rahne, both were timid and scared and quivered their feelings through their accents. Seeing Sam especially was satisfying to watch when he stopped being scared of his powers and more scared of watching his friends get hurt; letting loose his explosive invulnerability on the smiling men. Illyana was an acquired taste, her bad attitude was laid on a bit thick at the beginning of the movie but became more tolerable when her energy was directed towards the action scenes. Dani and Roberto were serviceable as characters, but I found Dani underwhelming. And Roberto, though he had some substantial scenes, amounted mostly to the film’s comic relief.
I’ll also give a point of praise to the marketing of this movie. Most times, in press leading up to the release of some media, a character’s sexuality is advertised in big bold headlines. I hate this, because this can feel like an overcompensation for a lack of character, and in some instances can overshadow an audience member’s impression of said character. Rahne Sinclair, is a small lesbian and a small angel that convinces Dani not to jump to her death. It’s is just the cutest thing and it warmed my heart watching Dani and Rahne find comfort in eachother. HOWEVER Large portions of time were dedicated to the developing relationship between Dani and Rahne. Soon enough, Dani has overcame her emotional trauma, which is good for her but a double edged sword for the movie. Dani didn’t know at first, but in time learns that it was her powers that lead to the death of her father. Sam and Roberto, they know they killed people. It was unintentional but they’re terrified of themselves. Illyana was traumatized by demons of Limbo, and has been emotionally unhinged because of it. One could debate that so much time was given to Dani and Rahne overcoming their sadness that there wasn’t much time left over to give to the 3 other protagonists to reflect on themselves and rise over their fears. Their horror story was undercut, by the gayness of the movie. I can’t confidently say Dr. Reyes had time to be particularly villainous, she’s a shady psychologist but is otherwise unconscious through many parts of the movie because Illyana kept drugging her drinks. And that leads me to my final point: what could have been. The institution the characters are trapped in, is owned by none other than Nathaniel Essex. Mister Sinister. His name has been creeping through the X men movies over the last few years, X Men Apocalypse, Logan and Deadpool 2(yuck). It’s a discomforting presence to be sure, but unless Kevin Feige sees fit to bring Sinister over to the MCU, X Men fans will never get to see what that weird pervert was planning. I liked this movie, it’s a comfortable viewing with familiar ideas shown in a different lens. I’ll be happy to add it to my X Men Blu Rays and slip my ticket stub into the case. But I’m sad to see this movie getting treated the way it is. It came out two years late in the middle of a time when are either too lethargic to go outside or too disinterested in a movie released by forces that be that didn’t want to nurture the X Men franchise and it’s characters. Even the original artist for the New Mutants comics, Bob Mcleod, tore into the movie mainly over the character’s appearances. As an X Men fan, this movie is inoffensive, this movie is harmless, this movie does well enough to shine a light on some otherwise overlooked characters in the mutant side of Marvel. If you like X Men, give New Mutants a chance. P.S. Lockheed’s inclusion was a treat for readers of the comics when I thought the producers of the film were copping out.
I had no idea who Hickman was, in the time leading up to the House and Powers of X, I only heard second hand information about his previous work at Marvel. I knew a minimum amount of details about him turning Mr. Fantastic evil or putting Captain America and Ironman at each other’s throats, again. After the X men had been in a drought for years as far as excitement was concerned, I was welcome to the idea of any sort of shake up after the writers had finally sent the past versions of the original 5 X men back to the time they came from.

I stuck with House and Powers of X during the issue’s releases over 12 weeks. I won’t deny it started off intriguing. Xavier had returned with a mission, his brain no longer being hijacked by the Red Skull. The X men were gathering and refocusing their efforts. One large change being that the X men had a home again, trading the Xavier School for gifted Youngers for the entire living island of Krakoa. The biggest change of all was the X men’s newfound collateral with the Human race; 3 lifesaving drugs to better the quality of human life before they disappear while more of the populace evolves into mutants and they’re inevitably replaced.

Even the “truth” about Charles Xavier didn’t seem so bad at the time. Xavier apparently had advance knowledge of many of Mutantkind’s fates thanks to Moira Mactaggert’s suprise mutant power of reincarnation, which in retrospect isn’t so much a mutant power and is more of a cheat code courtesy of the universe. However, my opinion changed when the X Men went on a mission into space to destroy a sentinel factory orbiting the sun. They all died, or at least, those bodies did.
According to John Hickman, Cerebro was more than a Mutant finding machine, it was a device to copy the minds of every mutant it located and put it into a storage collective. The constantly updated data is then uploaded into a new copy of the individual’s body, courtesy of Krakoa. This was performed in a ceremony troublingly similar to that of a baptism, turning the X men from people into something more like replaceable apostles or mouthpieces for Xavier’s plan.

X men comics have had many writers over the decades that brought in changes to shake up and update the X men for new audiences.

John Byrne and Chris Claremont injected individuality into the earlier incarnations of the team and introduced Kitty Pryde and started shifting the team dynamic to a family dynamic.

Scott Lobdell helped to orchestrate the Fatal Attraction arc and truly pushed Charles Xavier to an emotional breaking point, showing us an emotional vulnerability from the stoic teacher we’d never seen before.

Grant Morrison finally made the Xavier “School” an actual school and not a training facility.

Joss Whedon managed to pick up the pieces after Morrison’s run ended and set the team into motion despite Charles Xavier being out of the spotlight.

Each one of these men breathed new life into this beloved team with new ideas too. Hickman also has ideas, however he explores these ideas at the expense of character development, not to mention he basically invalidates decades of story-telling to say that he had the true story the whole time. Charles Xavier has always been a teacher, I don’t think it would be unfair to say that Xavier would never treat the lives of his X men so casually in all his years offering his home to them, Charles Xavier would keep tabs on mutants but never “collect” them without their knowledge only to copy them, and Charles Xavier is just as human on an emotional level as anyone can be.

I think the idea of gathering mutant consciousness into one giant mass of intelligence to create a God is a cool idea, but the characters aren’t growing as a result of this idea. What Hickman has done is essentially jerry-rig the characters to stagnantly go about their duties in order to explore the idea. The X men have become the tools of Charles Xavier, or rather, they have become the tools of John Hickman.

There were ways to introduce these ideas without compromising the character’s status as people. For starters, let Charles learn what Moira knows in a more recent context rather than making it a secret he’s kept to himself most of his life. Secondly, instead of reducing the X men to data, just make Krakoa a source for advanced healing. Thirdly, SHOW this Mutant nation being built with a little more skepticism from it's residents rather than show these characters gather and accept all these revelations with the conformity of a cult.

And furthermore for the sake of fairness, the concept of data being human after all has been done successfully. However it works in stories like Ghost in the Shell, Nier Automata or Star Trek: The Next Generation; stories where either the concept of identity is flimsy from the get go due to circumstances constantly switching characters through multiple bodies OR a character is data from their inception and they yearn to learn. Doing this with the X men just feels like a hollow plot device.

Thank ya Hickyman, you have dampened my enthusiasm for my favorite hero team.

Oh, and you let Wolverine do WHAT? He’s been a home wrecker for decades and you’re just giving him access to Jean? The internet can celebrate Scott, Jean and Logan having kinky threesomes, but I can’t ignore that Wolverine has been acting selfishly for years when he has a number of his relationships with women that have ended in failure. Years of fan fiction and guy on guy art have not changed the fact that Logan and Wolverine are never and have never seen eye to eye morally or ethically and are incredibly unlikely to start having sex in the same bed.
A Look at X men: Dark Phoenix

This movie is ironic.

After 20 years, 10 movies and 3 disjointed continuities, the X men’s time with Fox has come to an end. I love the X men, and I’m sad that this movie will be brushed under the rug due to the lack of care and 2 delays, because honestly this movie isn’t spectacular but as a bookend for this line of films it’s acceptable.

It’s the 90s now, and the un-aging X men in their 30s and 50s fly off into space to save a crew of astronauts in a spinning space ship from a space cloud. The space cloud gets all up in Jean, but surprise it’s a cosmic force that’s starts making Jean go bananas. Shenanigans ensue and Jennifer Lawrence finally dies.

The main point of contention I had was the story, it was gratuitously simplified. The Dark Phoenix was a story of a cosmic energy getting drunk on its indulgence of human experiences and refusing to return to its original function while spurred on by the Hellfire Club. Here we get a space cloud like Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer and Paralax in Green lantern, and some body snatching tree people want to control it to revive their world, which is awfully noble but for whatever reason they go about this in an oddly sinister fashion. At this point, a lack of care for a good villain is to be expected from the Fox movies, but what this movie lacks in substance it makes up for in style.

Mystique finally dies, and the oddball member of the X men who didn’t really belong but stuck around since 2011. This leaves the X men with a somewhat classic lineup of team members with Xavier, Beast, Cyclops, Storm, and Nightcrawler. In two instances, the X men get their chance to show off their powers with some style I have not seen in these X men movies before. Fast aggressive body language once reserved for Wolverine is being wielded by the lot of them, and it rocked. Well, except for Charles of course.

The writing and direction is also commendably composed and collected. The mood of scenes are allowed to play out without forced jokes and actors give some engrossing reactions to the chaos in Jean’s wake. What’s ironic about this is that Dark Phoenix is written by the same guy who wrote X3 which as I’m sure we all know jumped the shark and fell on its face.

So X men with Fox is over, we had some good times, we had some depressing times, and some of those times were The Generation X Pilot. Though we can all agree the lack of continuity was a headache, the X men got a good run. All I ask is that in 5 to 10 years when we get X men movies again, show them some respect, pick the good stories like Onslaught or Fatal Attractions and keep the obnoxious jokes to a minimum.

Good by Fox X men.
So in the recent past, there has been a slew of discussion after the reveal of Scarlet Johansen as Kusanagi in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell live action adaptation. I was on the half of the argument that was in an uproar.

Although to my discredit, I was only familiar with Ghost in the Shell on a small scale and was only familiar with Johansen from Avengers.

So over the past week I have been marathoning both a small handful of Johansen roles in library movies and a freshly received amazon order of the complete Stand Alone Complex. (Personal side note, I avoided SAC for the longest time due to being Jarred by the opening.)

And after watching SAC for the first time, I was extremely fascinated. I was expecting an existential cyber odyssey but instead got a series of very human and relatable stories in a rich, developed, not so farfetched future. The show is intelligent, and proposes questions from the points of view of seasoned combat veterans, individuals getting mangled and swept away in the chaos of an ever changing world or even basic curious minds like the Tatchikomas. And even answers them the best they can. Speaking of which, Tatchikomas are a great way to tell us that the show isn't taking itself terribly seriously and is willing to have fun in short instances.

And after watching Scarlet roles, I can say from the bottom of my heart that I'm not looking forward to this. I personally just find Scarlet to be a boring actor. Don't believe me? She does a great job of being a walking monotonous pile of information in Lucy before she turns into a flash drive. And she just wears a perpetual blank stare with only slight variations in her roles even as small as her roles in Chef. Also her hair looks like basic cosplay. Hell, Keanu Reeves does a better job of being expressive and monotonous at the same time. We could easily squeeze him into a tasteful violet one piece and thigh high boots.

All ethnicity aside, They could easily solve this problem by changing the character to one of western origin and call it a day. But Kusanagi is practically synonymous with the series and shouldn't be done without her.

And if anyone comes to me saying that pretty much everyone in anime looks white, I would concede to that IF we were talking about most other anime. GITS has displayed a number of diverse characters and cultures and cements there are big differences visually between characters of different nationalities. Therefore I call that argument bullsh*t.

So in the end, this is all merely my opinion. And in the end, I am also going to see the movie before I can properly judge this, just as I did with DBE, Avatar TLA, Rurouni Kenshin (UGNGH!) and so on and so forth.

P.S. No longer bothered by the opening credits, I feel the song is beautiful and cascading like a mantra.

P.S.S. I realize the Japanese audiences don't really care as well.
After many, many months of drawing and editing, I have posted my very first comic. As stated prior to this, the title is "Worldly Ones-The Cornerstone Story".

It is 300 pages long and available for $8 on gumroad.com.

gumroad.com/l/lLXG

Story synapsis

*On a world outside the boundaries of time and Orthodox, 6 beings are born within a dark complex. The only clue to their purpose is their born function to birth small functioning planets with a clasp of their hands, and the voice of the complex echoing in their heads. "Create Worlds of a high functionality in conjunction with my ideal, if you do so you may leave and experience the world."

For a long time the 6 worked in the Darkness, testing different worlds and receiving direction from the complex. Until one day, with no fore-mentioning, a seventh member is born.

Named Intrigue, he joins the folds of the other 6, Galore, Branded, Alleviation, Manned, Rivet and Breach. But unlike them, as he pursues the ideal, he begins to question it in turn.*

I hope there are those who will venture to purchase my book, as it will help me grandly to pursue my dream of making even more comic books. I have many ideas dancing in my head, but I can't move forward unless I can create an environment in my life that will allow me to continue my craft uninterrupted. And if it's not your bag, show the link to a friend who might be interested. Simply doing this allow me to have a presence in the comic creating community.

Any contribution would be eternally appreciated.

Thank you for listening,

Mister23