Ideal X-Men.
Oct. 8th, 2010 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleThe X-Men aren't my favorite superheroes (that'd be Red Robin & Batgirl), and they're not my favorite Marvel comics title (that'd be Runaways), but I am a fan, despite the numerous ways they violate all five tenets of my Comics Theses, and they are easily the most recognizable and iconic team of superheroes who also have depth and complexity to their characters. (The Justice League is more iconic and recognizable, thanks to the Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman trinity, and the characters in the JL, when appearing in their own titles, have certainly been written with depth and complexity, but tend to default to archetypes in JLA comics... except for the ensemble cast of less iconic and recognizable characters, who are handled well. Baffling. ANYWAY NOT THE POINT.)
In any case, as I am prone to do, I spent several hours last week imagining what I would do if I was put at the helm of an X-Men title right this moment. (Remind me at some point to also share my thoughts on a Bat-family title, because Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy teaming up would be badass.) Imagining writing an X-Men title is a pretty basic thought exercise because long before you get to petty concerns like plot and theme, you have to decide what your team line-up is. Wikipedia lists 63 different characters on the team roster, while omitting all characters that are presently dead. The strength and variety of the ensemble cast -- the differences in their powers, their philosophies, the way they interact and argue, their multicultural background -- this is one of the things that makes the X-Men great, so it's vital to get your line-up fine-tuned. And you can't go over about ten or twelve characters, counting the primary supporting cast, without losing all control of the story (feel free to argue with me on this point), so any list you assemble will inevitably need pruning. Below the LJ-cut, I'm going to talk about who I want on my team and why, so two notes: a) there will be lots of spoilers, and lots of things I assume you know and don't explain. Sorry. b) I'd really like it if, before reading this, you would think of a list of 5-10 X-Men who you think would make an ideal team line-up.
A lot of my favorite characters are dead or unavailable right now. They killed off Nightcrawler, Shadowcat is stuck intangible, Beast is pissed at Cyclops and stormed off the team, and Magik is trapped in Limbo again. My ideal line-up would have all four, but I decided to restrict myself to what current canon makes available to me, so they're out. Still, their presence can be felt...
My line-up comes in two parts: teachers and students. The conceit I'm using is that Nightcrawler had a pet project he was pushing before he died, and that, realizing how his recent choices are alienating the less militant-minded X-Men, Cyclops is going to pick that project up as a way to bring the team together and honor his friend's memory. The X-Men have a lot of older frontline characters, but all the students seem to briefly cycle into the spotlight and then be relegated to spinoffs and back-up characters - they go to 'school' with the X-Men, graduate, and leave. But the older team can't do this job forever, and frankly it should be becoming obvious to them that they've produced generation after generation of second-stringers and far too few people who could step up to replace them if they all died or retired. Nightcrawler's idea was to pick several promising students and mentor them, one-on-one, not just in combat and tactics but in politics, civics, philosophy, leadership -- to train them specifically as community-builders, leaders, successors.
So: who are our teachers, and who are our students? Scott Summers(Cyclops) and Emma Frost have been headmaster and headmistress since Xavier left; obviously they'll be leading this team the same way they lead all the others. Wolverine is currently in several titles that happen concurrently on different continents, so by my Theses I should exclude him... but at this point leaving him out is as big a statement as leaving him in, and there's a student who needs him, so he stays. Colossus --Piotr Rasputin-- is someone who I think would really embrace the idea of Kurt's project, and is both a combat powerhouse and someone who values peace. And he's my best link to Shadowcat if I can find a way to drag her into the story later. He's in. Bobby Drake, better known as Iceman, strongly believes that there should be life outside the X-Men, and has a college degree and mundane career to prove it -- he'd make a great mentor to balance out the team. He's in. Last but not least is one of my old favorites, Betsy Braddock -- Psylocke. Every new writer seems to revamp her with a slightly different powerset, but she's undoubtedly a powerful psychic, and since Emma Frost is trapped in diamond form these days, the team needs one.
There are two other reasons I picked this line-up of teachers. First, because they have a variety of powers that fills most of the niches and tactical roles any fight could call for, (and their contrasting styles and appearances would make them visually interesting in combat) and second, because they have a wide spectrum of philosophical outlooks. This is both good from a teaching perspective and a dramatic perspective -- it makes conflict more interesting and varied, and it ensures the students are exposed to a broad range of experiences.
So. Who are the students?
Wolverine will be mentoring X-23, his young, emotionally unstable female clone. X-23 (Laura Kinney) is, I think, a more interesting character than Wolverine himself, especially at the moment, since Wolvie is so overused, and the two of them have a lot of trust issues to work through. In Wolverine: Origins we've been seeing how committed Logan is to trying to show his son, Daken, a better path; and I think it's time we saw him work at discharging those obligations to Laura (and dragging her into the Daken storyline -- I may have missed it, but I haven't seen any interaction between Wolverine's two heirs at all, and that's a mistake that needs to change).
Colossus will be mentoring Hisako Ichiki -- Armor. Their powers are complementary enough that he'd be a good combat instructor, and Armor has been a front-liner already in Astonishing X-Men, thrown from student to warrior very quickly, and in at least one alternate future, she leads the X-Men. Time to help her adjust and give her the skillset she'll need to do that job.
Emma Frost will be mentoring Elixir. One of the most powerful mutants alive, Elixir can heal any wound -- in some cases, he can heal the dead -- but lately, after using his powers to kill, he's been having some control problems. Despite her wardrobe choices,Emma knows a lot about discipline, and for the safety of everyone around him Elixir needs someone who won't pull any punches. He's also, plainly speaking, just too powerful and useful not to be put on a frontline team. I'm not as interested in him as some of the others, so I think once he achieved control I'd cycle him out in favor of another student, but from a narrative standpoint that's actually a plus.
Iceman will be tutoring Magma. Both of them have formidable energy projection powers, and Iceman can, well, cool her down if she gets out of hand. Magma is a second-stringer who was cycled in and out of the spotlight a while back; she's the most senior of the students, and it made sense to me that not everyone they selected would be a member of the freshest crop of kids. Plus her backstory is way cool-- she's from a lost Roman colony that still adheres to Roman traditions and lifestyle to some extent -- and there are ways I can use that to forward my first plot arc.
Psylocke will be tutoring Pixie. Pixie is a magic-mutant-fairy-person with a wide variety of powers who has also been made a front-liner despite her student status, so it makes sense that the X-Men would think of her as a good candidate for this training. She, like Magma, has backstory I can use in my plotting, and she has a souldagger she got from Magik -- given that Psylocke projects psychic blades, mystical fencing lessons seem to be in order.
Finally, Cyclops will be tutoring Anole. Anole is a reluctant X-Man, one of the few openly gay characters in Marvel comics, and the student who would have been Nightcrawler's first choice as his own protege. Anole's powerset of camouflage, acrobatics, and regeneration doesn't mesh with Cyclops at all -- but it would benefit extremely well from Cyclops' knowledge of tactics. Likewise, his reluctance is a good counterpoint for Cyclops' sense of duty and dedication, and the Nightcrawler connection gives me a nice bit of ongoing angst to work with.
I don't have time to get into plot arc details right now, but I'd be interested in hearing what people think of the premise and the line-up. Next week: Namor, demons, immortal psychics, underwater leviathans, and a visit to Sealand!
In any case, as I am prone to do, I spent several hours last week imagining what I would do if I was put at the helm of an X-Men title right this moment. (Remind me at some point to also share my thoughts on a Bat-family title, because Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy teaming up would be badass.) Imagining writing an X-Men title is a pretty basic thought exercise because long before you get to petty concerns like plot and theme, you have to decide what your team line-up is. Wikipedia lists 63 different characters on the team roster, while omitting all characters that are presently dead. The strength and variety of the ensemble cast -- the differences in their powers, their philosophies, the way they interact and argue, their multicultural background -- this is one of the things that makes the X-Men great, so it's vital to get your line-up fine-tuned. And you can't go over about ten or twelve characters, counting the primary supporting cast, without losing all control of the story (feel free to argue with me on this point), so any list you assemble will inevitably need pruning. Below the LJ-cut, I'm going to talk about who I want on my team and why, so two notes: a) there will be lots of spoilers, and lots of things I assume you know and don't explain. Sorry. b) I'd really like it if, before reading this, you would think of a list of 5-10 X-Men who you think would make an ideal team line-up.
A lot of my favorite characters are dead or unavailable right now. They killed off Nightcrawler, Shadowcat is stuck intangible, Beast is pissed at Cyclops and stormed off the team, and Magik is trapped in Limbo again. My ideal line-up would have all four, but I decided to restrict myself to what current canon makes available to me, so they're out. Still, their presence can be felt...
My line-up comes in two parts: teachers and students. The conceit I'm using is that Nightcrawler had a pet project he was pushing before he died, and that, realizing how his recent choices are alienating the less militant-minded X-Men, Cyclops is going to pick that project up as a way to bring the team together and honor his friend's memory. The X-Men have a lot of older frontline characters, but all the students seem to briefly cycle into the spotlight and then be relegated to spinoffs and back-up characters - they go to 'school' with the X-Men, graduate, and leave. But the older team can't do this job forever, and frankly it should be becoming obvious to them that they've produced generation after generation of second-stringers and far too few people who could step up to replace them if they all died or retired. Nightcrawler's idea was to pick several promising students and mentor them, one-on-one, not just in combat and tactics but in politics, civics, philosophy, leadership -- to train them specifically as community-builders, leaders, successors.
So: who are our teachers, and who are our students? Scott Summers(Cyclops) and Emma Frost have been headmaster and headmistress since Xavier left; obviously they'll be leading this team the same way they lead all the others. Wolverine is currently in several titles that happen concurrently on different continents, so by my Theses I should exclude him... but at this point leaving him out is as big a statement as leaving him in, and there's a student who needs him, so he stays. Colossus --Piotr Rasputin-- is someone who I think would really embrace the idea of Kurt's project, and is both a combat powerhouse and someone who values peace. And he's my best link to Shadowcat if I can find a way to drag her into the story later. He's in. Bobby Drake, better known as Iceman, strongly believes that there should be life outside the X-Men, and has a college degree and mundane career to prove it -- he'd make a great mentor to balance out the team. He's in. Last but not least is one of my old favorites, Betsy Braddock -- Psylocke. Every new writer seems to revamp her with a slightly different powerset, but she's undoubtedly a powerful psychic, and since Emma Frost is trapped in diamond form these days, the team needs one.
There are two other reasons I picked this line-up of teachers. First, because they have a variety of powers that fills most of the niches and tactical roles any fight could call for, (and their contrasting styles and appearances would make them visually interesting in combat) and second, because they have a wide spectrum of philosophical outlooks. This is both good from a teaching perspective and a dramatic perspective -- it makes conflict more interesting and varied, and it ensures the students are exposed to a broad range of experiences.
So. Who are the students?
Wolverine will be mentoring X-23, his young, emotionally unstable female clone. X-23 (Laura Kinney) is, I think, a more interesting character than Wolverine himself, especially at the moment, since Wolvie is so overused, and the two of them have a lot of trust issues to work through. In Wolverine: Origins we've been seeing how committed Logan is to trying to show his son, Daken, a better path; and I think it's time we saw him work at discharging those obligations to Laura (and dragging her into the Daken storyline -- I may have missed it, but I haven't seen any interaction between Wolverine's two heirs at all, and that's a mistake that needs to change).
Colossus will be mentoring Hisako Ichiki -- Armor. Their powers are complementary enough that he'd be a good combat instructor, and Armor has been a front-liner already in Astonishing X-Men, thrown from student to warrior very quickly, and in at least one alternate future, she leads the X-Men. Time to help her adjust and give her the skillset she'll need to do that job.
Emma Frost will be mentoring Elixir. One of the most powerful mutants alive, Elixir can heal any wound -- in some cases, he can heal the dead -- but lately, after using his powers to kill, he's been having some control problems. Despite her wardrobe choices,Emma knows a lot about discipline, and for the safety of everyone around him Elixir needs someone who won't pull any punches. He's also, plainly speaking, just too powerful and useful not to be put on a frontline team. I'm not as interested in him as some of the others, so I think once he achieved control I'd cycle him out in favor of another student, but from a narrative standpoint that's actually a plus.
Iceman will be tutoring Magma. Both of them have formidable energy projection powers, and Iceman can, well, cool her down if she gets out of hand. Magma is a second-stringer who was cycled in and out of the spotlight a while back; she's the most senior of the students, and it made sense to me that not everyone they selected would be a member of the freshest crop of kids. Plus her backstory is way cool-- she's from a lost Roman colony that still adheres to Roman traditions and lifestyle to some extent -- and there are ways I can use that to forward my first plot arc.
Psylocke will be tutoring Pixie. Pixie is a magic-mutant-fairy-person with a wide variety of powers who has also been made a front-liner despite her student status, so it makes sense that the X-Men would think of her as a good candidate for this training. She, like Magma, has backstory I can use in my plotting, and she has a souldagger she got from Magik -- given that Psylocke projects psychic blades, mystical fencing lessons seem to be in order.
Finally, Cyclops will be tutoring Anole. Anole is a reluctant X-Man, one of the few openly gay characters in Marvel comics, and the student who would have been Nightcrawler's first choice as his own protege. Anole's powerset of camouflage, acrobatics, and regeneration doesn't mesh with Cyclops at all -- but it would benefit extremely well from Cyclops' knowledge of tactics. Likewise, his reluctance is a good counterpoint for Cyclops' sense of duty and dedication, and the Nightcrawler connection gives me a nice bit of ongoing angst to work with.
I don't have time to get into plot arc details right now, but I'd be interested in hearing what people think of the premise and the line-up. Next week: Namor, demons, immortal psychics, underwater leviathans, and a visit to Sealand!
