The image above ran in an issue of Wizard back in the summer of last year and can be found archived on their website by clicking here. The article at the time stated that one of the mutants in this image would die in the upcoming Messiah Complex event. Going by the the last chapter of that event, it looked as if at least three of those people died - Charles Xavier, Bishop, Mr Sinister and, while only dupes, two Madrox's. Not even a day after release and Marvel and some creators revealed both Bishop and Charles Xavier survived those on panel deaths. And that brings me to the point of this post.Do you think that the senseless killings in this event, of which all but one has been retconned already, tarnish the overall quality of the story? Do you feel cheated by these cheap deaths that were put in the story for the "OH SH--" factor and to drum up fake tension between characters? More on what I think after the jump.
The event started with the mass slaughtering of humans in the town the baby was born and the mindless killings continued throughout the books, whether it was Predator X chowing down on obscure mutants or the various Marauder killings and culminating in Xavier's cop out death.
On top of that, they've maimed numerous characters, like Hellion for instance, all of which looked fairly fatal (Deathstrike with all her claws tearing through his torso where all the major organs are in Hellion's case) and were cliffhangers that used graphic violence and gore to sensationlize their books and entice readers to pick up the next chapter. They did it for Cable, Forge, the baby (Bishop with gun to her head), Hellion, Jamie (when he collapsed at the start), Exodus, Omega Sentinel, Nightcrawler, and the list goes on and on.
Before I go on, I really did enjoy this crossover and I'm not hating on just MC, but sort of how all events are becoming these days. I hated the opening issues and that first one-shot was absolutely terrible in my opinion, but that might have been all the hype building it up and not delivering clouding my judgement. However, after all that, the event ended up delivering a rollercoaster ride of action, thrills and story progression as everyone chased down the baby and Bishop betrayed everyone.
But, and this is a big but, a lot of the stuff I loved ended up being lies. I know people come back from the dead in comics and it's a revolving door, but when the death doesn't even last 24 hours in the case of Xavier? What the hell is that? I was blown away with his 8th or 9th in comic death and knew he would eventually be brought back, but I feel like I was cheated out of any real reaction to this death and that Marvel is pulling the rug out from under me on just about every single thing they did in this event.
I feel like I should be getting mad at them over this or posting on message boards I'm dropping everything Marvel is putting out, while secretly still buying everything, but I feel like it's pointless and I'd just be wasting my time. It's as if I've resigned myself to the fact every comic book event will have to resort to huge bodycounts, which will be retconned away immediately, just to make a quick buck at the expense of the characters and, most importantly, the fans.
I ask again, does any of this bother anyone but myself? Were you shocked at Xavier's death or what Lady Deathstrike did to Hellion or Dust's tearing apart Exodus' innards with her sand? Did the fact almost every shocking or insane moment in this series was retconned before you even finished reading the book? Does it even matter we enjoyed the series? I'm not even sure what to think anymore. I just feel dejected at the moment over all of this. Maybe I'll know in a couple months after the new status quo, sans my favourite X-title, New X-Men, has had some time to shine.
On top of that, they've maimed numerous characters, like Hellion for instance, all of which looked fairly fatal (Deathstrike with all her claws tearing through his torso where all the major organs are in Hellion's case) and were cliffhangers that used graphic violence and gore to sensationlize their books and entice readers to pick up the next chapter. They did it for Cable, Forge, the baby (Bishop with gun to her head), Hellion, Jamie (when he collapsed at the start), Exodus, Omega Sentinel, Nightcrawler, and the list goes on and on.
Before I go on, I really did enjoy this crossover and I'm not hating on just MC, but sort of how all events are becoming these days. I hated the opening issues and that first one-shot was absolutely terrible in my opinion, but that might have been all the hype building it up and not delivering clouding my judgement. However, after all that, the event ended up delivering a rollercoaster ride of action, thrills and story progression as everyone chased down the baby and Bishop betrayed everyone.
But, and this is a big but, a lot of the stuff I loved ended up being lies. I know people come back from the dead in comics and it's a revolving door, but when the death doesn't even last 24 hours in the case of Xavier? What the hell is that? I was blown away with his 8th or 9th in comic death and knew he would eventually be brought back, but I feel like I was cheated out of any real reaction to this death and that Marvel is pulling the rug out from under me on just about every single thing they did in this event.
I feel like I should be getting mad at them over this or posting on message boards I'm dropping everything Marvel is putting out, while secretly still buying everything, but I feel like it's pointless and I'd just be wasting my time. It's as if I've resigned myself to the fact every comic book event will have to resort to huge bodycounts, which will be retconned away immediately, just to make a quick buck at the expense of the characters and, most importantly, the fans.
I ask again, does any of this bother anyone but myself? Were you shocked at Xavier's death or what Lady Deathstrike did to Hellion or Dust's tearing apart Exodus' innards with her sand? Did the fact almost every shocking or insane moment in this series was retconned before you even finished reading the book? Does it even matter we enjoyed the series? I'm not even sure what to think anymore. I just feel dejected at the moment over all of this. Maybe I'll know in a couple months after the new status quo, sans my favourite X-title, New X-Men, has had some time to shine.
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7 comments:
Funnily enough, that was my biggest problem with "X-Men 2". Magneto just strolls into a room and senselessly kills a bunch of soldiers, pulling the pins out of their grenades. Why does he do this, attracting attention to himself and potentially endangering his quarry - Xavier - when he could easily have just used the grenades as blunt objects and knocked them all out? I'll tell you why:
1) Because the character is all about killing, granted, but more important is
2) Because the director thought it would make him, and the scene, impressive, in the same way that the Messiah CompleX writers thought having Wolvy bust out of Pred-X or Sinister being smushed against Rogue would look impressive.
I still think they should have made it clear in adjectiveless 207 that xavier wasn't dead. makes them look kinda stupid to have every one all 'he's dead' when I turn the page and a plug for a new book is all "LOL NO HE ISN'T!"
I'm still not sold on this "new" direction for the x-books. and whathisface who is writing young is all 'this is the last x-team ever!' just makes me think "so, is he new to comics or what?"
I don't have a problem with it at all because I don't consider these 'deaths' to be actual deaths. This is a hardcore superhero battle, with the X-Men played up as tougher than ever, and I expect them to make some huge attacks. But just because an injury would probably be fatal if you really think about it doesn't mean it's fatal in the comic book world. I didn't even consider Bishop, Exodus, Lady Mastermind or Hellion to be dead. So the fact that they're fine is OK with me. I don't consider them retcons to keep the people alive because the plan all along was to keep them alive. The writers will treat all these epic injuries as serious, which is what makes it OK for me. Xavier's not just going to be walking around all well and perfect the next time he's seen. He's going to be dealing with getting shot in the head.
Is it actually a retcon if they were never intended to stay dead in the first place?
But to your question...I actually haven't read any X-Men comics in probably 10 years or so. I decided to use Messiah Complex as a time to check out what was going on. So maybe I wasn't as affected by the "oh shit" factor that much since I've been away and don't know what's been going on with all the characters who aren't in the same state/situation that I remember them (Rogue, Gambit, Bishop, Xavier, White Queen...)
I did think that there were a lot of deaths which I thought was weird since I know that it is rare for comic characters to stay dead. As far as Xavier, maybe I just wasn't paying attention enough, but I thought the way it was layed out on the page and drawn, and also the reactions of the characters afterward kind of undercut the emotional impact it was probably supposed to have...so I kind of didn't care that much. I feel like everyone was kind of matter of fact in their reactions to it, and so I kind of rolled with that.
I never thought that Bishop was actually dead either. Cyclops blasts people all the time without them dying and there wasn't really anything to lead me to believe that he was dead. So I don't know. I actually don't think the whole thing was as great as some people are saying. But maybe that's just because I've been away for a while.
I understand they probably had no intention of these being permanent deaths in the first place, but a lot of them are drawn and set up to look like it to readers.
Exodus - Emma describes teh scene as millions of sand shurikens ripping him apart from the inside and Dust makes it clear she took no pleasure in it. The fact he can barely speak and then blood starts pouring out of him and he collapses made me think he was out of it. Let's say I'm just overthinking that scene. He walks away fine in previews for Legacy with the rest of the Acolytes as if nothing happened. I assume it's his pyschic abilities stopping everyone from perceiving them as Mastermind is dead or not present in the scene.
Bishop - Bishop had his arm, shoulder and part of his chest bitten off by Pred X. The type of wound it was would not lend itself to caterizing and he would eventually bleed out (actually, he would bleed out pretty freaking fast). I can see any comic person surviving this with ease. He then blasts Xavier and takes a blast from Cyclops, which many have survived (his mutant power wont absorb Cykes beam). Combine that with his critical injury, the fact no one is going to give him aid and he doesn't get up / everyone leaves him be after Cyclops is finished with him and I can come to no other conclusion than he's dead. I'm sure Wolverine would have gutted him for killing Xavier based on all previous characterizations if Bishop was alive during that scene.
Hellion - I didn't think he was dead, but come off it, that last panel with her hand through his stomach was pretty damning. I thought they'd get Elixir for the miracle save, but he was fine with basic medicine after laying there as Laura fought Deathstrike before Pixie teleported them all to the wrong location, they waited for the X-Men to pick them up and take them to the mansion to save him. If it's a minor gut wound, don't display her claws tearing through his stomach and blood everywhere as if he's dead.
And I'm only using MC because it just ended, was a major event and had a lot of instances of this. Infinite Crisis was similar in that regard (the death's). I'm just annoyed at the trend to have these killings or blood baths for fights and then just chalk it up to sensationlism and "artistic license" and claim they were never really hurt that bad, let alone dead in comics these days.
Look at Sinestro War in contrast. It had lots of epic moments that didn't necessarily revolve killing a well known character or maiming supporting cast. Yes, they had lots of killing of random no name grunts, but that helped show this was an actual war and things were rough. The closest it came to doing something like MC did with death / fake killing is with the Ion vs. Superboy fight that had Prime holding a lifeless body as other GL's came in to fight him. It was shocking but hard to tell if he was alive or not. If they had Prime punch a hole through Ion's chest and drop his blood dripping body into a hole and later found out he was alive, would you call bullshit on them for having a cliffhanger like that? That's how all the MC killings feel to me.
I think Messiah Complex was more structured to sell books (and launch new series to sell more books) than it was to actually tell a monumental story. If only Marvel had focused on telling a great story it would have been more satisfying. The so called conclusion of Messiah Complex left more questions dangling than it answered.
I agree. I stopped buying x-men ever since they killed Jean Grey for the umpteenth time. Its just plainly ridiculous and stupid. I feel cheated out of my money and it just annoys the hell out of me. What's worse is that DC seems to be following this stupid trend. arggh!!
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