Not Gail Simone deleting her post after being called out without even acknowledging the issue.

The twitter post she deleted was of her saying ‘lol this person keeps going’ towards someone (probably younger person) who was defending themselves from the army of people harassing them in her X-men/Rogue relationships related threads.

She specifically made a new twitter post to make sure that person kept being dragged and made fun of. For a creator with so much weight in the comic book industry this was disappointing to see.

Was all of this still over that one fan that asked her about Rogue and Magneto? It started weeks ago.

Thinking again SO hard about Illyana's relationship to herself and the 'snowflake' v. 'sorceress' dichotomy that makes up all of her self-loathing...

It scares her so much that the girl she was might forgive the girl she is.

And Piotr wants to try but feels like he’s constantly afraid of upsetting her and of course it’s that exact ‘walking-on-eggshells’ demeanor he has that makes her so upset and insecure.

Panels above are from Vita Ayala's New Mutants: The Labors of Magik.

this reminds me of the end of AvX. illyana’s post-resurrection writing… could’ve used another round of editing. but one part i always loved was how, after piotr finds out she tricked him into becoming juggernaut, illyana tells him “there are no snowflakes in hell.”

when piotr says she’s insane, illyana is happy about it. she’s glad he finally understands. she viewed herself as a monster and hated that piotr didn’t, that he only saw who she was. which has a few different layers, in my opinion part of it is that piotr seemed to ignore her trauma and pretend it didn’t happen, but it’s also because illyana doesn’t feel she’s worthy of that love or being thought well of.

EXCELLENT addition!

Illyana's core relationships with Piotr and Kitty (and the X-Men at large, but those are the two big ones) are so centered on that push-pull of her self-loathing.

Of course, that's what makes her relationship with Kitty so strong and anchoring to her: Kate never once expects her to be anything or anyone—she's just here for the person that Illyana is.

(Yes, it's New Mutants #14 in the Illyana/Katyana analysis post—mark it off your bingo cards)

But even then, Illyana struggles to get over this idea that she's somehow broken, and that the best possible ending for her is one in which she never becomes the person that she is (which is sort of perversely confirmed in the end of Inferno and I have Frustrations with that).

Piotr's been better about it these days, but I think it's still so telling that he needs to be actively reminded by his 'snowflake' that Illyana is still right there. It's the same girl. It's still her.

(I'm reminded of the scene from Capaldi's first episode of Doctor Who when Clara and 11 speak over the phone—speaking of scenes that mess me up)

He's trying! But he's flawed, and it makes things strained for them. That's compelling! That's the spice. Love it.

You know what I think would be a genuinely interesting What If...? story, that doesn't have world ending consequences (or at least doesn't HAVE to have them) and isn't tied to some big event?

What if Kitty Pryde went to the Massachusetts Academy instead of joining the X-Men?

Claremont explored this, somewhat, during his Exiles/New Exiles run.

(New Exiles #12, Claremont, Grummett)

It's not 100% a canon divergence, as it's tied to Cyclops also not joining the X-Men, and to Sage never going under cover with the Hellfire Club, so other changes are at play. And he uses it as an excuse to go into some multiversal nonsense he'd planned for the 616 version of the character, before Joss Whedon took over as her writer. Reading these issues I honestly get the impression that, in the end, he'd kind of came to regret not having her join the Hellions to begin with for the additional drama.

Xavier is making... some choices lately... So it feels like he is reaching here, like he hopes it is because of the head wound Pere had that he defected to Magneto... and maybe if he helps him with it... maybe he'll come back... but he also knows Pete won't agree with it willingly.. so he is going to use Kitty to trick him...

Looking back, a lot of their interactions amounted to a middle aged man frothing with rage, shouting at a ninth grader for defying him.

(90s X-Men, of course, goes on to constantly describe Charles as "a father" and "a saint")

I feel '97's counterarguments to "Magento was right" fall flat specifically because it centers Xavier, rather than Kurt.

Kurt's survivorship serves as the perfect anti-thesis to Rogue and Magento's (justified) anger and desire for vengeance in the wake of Genosha, simply because he does not react the same way that they do.

Kurt shares their grief but not their anger. He does not join Magento on Asteroid M, despite going through the same ordeal. Kurt would have been more than justified if he caved to despair and anger. But he did not. He still chose mercy, compassion, and hope for a better world.

Is he a fool for doing so? Maybe. But the show doesn't allow us to see his view. We don't even get to entertain it. The closest we get is "You were spared from seeing what Rogue and I had witnessed"--speech as he comforts Jubliee's anger at Rogue.

Not only that, but we completely gloss over it in favor of going back to the classic Xavier v. Magento, which feels ridiculous. Being lectured by someone who did not even witness the horror of Genosha makes any counter-argument feels so shallow and self-righteous.

Now any argument made against Magento's actions leading up to and after he scrambles the earth's magnetic field can be easily refuted with "Xavier wasn't there," but Kurt was. And Kurt still chose to walk alongside Xavier at the end of it all.

There is a somewhat similar ethical dilemma is posed in the Lifedeath comic arc where Kurt and Forge are on the snow-covered rooftop to confront a dire wraith, a skin-stealing alien that has murdered countless people in an attempt to take over their world.

Kurt asks him what he plans to do. Forge executes it right in front of him. "Don't ask foolish questions."

And was Kurt a fool? To even entertain the notion of mercy in the face of such horror and monstrosity? The comic did not say who was right or wrong in the end. I don't think it even acknowledges Forge's actions after this panel. You, the reader, are simply left to determine it yourself.

I feel '97 could have done something similar. Not to say that it couldn't maintain its thesis of "Magento was right," but it should have given more credence to its anti-thesis by using Kurt as its center rather than Xavier.

Give the viewer enough to grapple with to have them come to their own conclusion. It would have been damn good storytelling or at least made for more interesting discussion.

aparently in the latest fantastic 4 comics johnny storm has been in a relationship with an alien, and that would be pretty standard affair for marvel heroes, right.

except someone at marvel with fucking balls of steel and the biggest brain in the known universe made the alien look... actually alien

this is the greatest thing ive seen in my life, is almost enough to make me want to read the comic

okay now this tracks

I find it Pleasing that that alien is clearly based off of a Hallucigenia.

What a deep cut into the Burgess Shale.

Kitty Pride x Illyana Comm for @qwahaxahn ♥️

It's so funny seeing people be like "noooo Kitty Pryde got stood up, she deserves better" because no she's done way worse to other girls

Getting stood up on a date sucks, but I feel like unceremoniously dumping your lesbian situationship without telling her by not showing up to her graduation is worse

We've all joked about this for years, but given New Mutants: Academy X took place during X-Treme X-Men, there's a really strong possibility that Kitty was either a) kidnapped at Mt Pleasant, busy trying to stop a robot from unleashing gray goo upon the world's human population; or b) off in California rescuing Rachel and the other 3 New Mutants from Elias Bogan, and not consciously ghosting Xuan.

What's going on with the X-Men relaunch?

When they first used the Infinity Comic to reset Charles and Alex to their pre-Fall of X versions, I didn't think it was that big of a problem. Charles isn't appearing in comics at the moment, and the fact is that no one really cares about Alex Summers anyway. But Magneto is core cast of the flagship title. Fundamental alterations to his status quo need to be covered in that publication, not preempted by however many months in advance with digital only content that most readers will never even know exists. Even leaving aside inherent scumminess of paywalling required supplementary content, there's no indication anywhere in X-Men that you need to go open Marvel Unlimited if you want the full backstory.

This isn't the only mess they've gotten into with digital content since July. Previously, they spent two months inserting blank pages into the print and kindle editions of all of their comics, that could only be redeemed for a final page on the Marvel app. Before finally backtracking they spent two months fighting their fans on social media, and insisting that these pages were only fun bonus that you didn't have to worry about. Yet several titles used them to introduce their respective villains, and the X-Force relaunch chose to simply redact the actual final page of the issue, for phone readers only.

It's just not a fun way to read things. No one wants to have to put down a physical comic, or close out kindle, and then go open a separate app on their Apple/Android device to finish the story. Or to have to remember to check Marvel Unlimited every Tuesday for weekly backup strips to find out what's going on with the co-lead of the comic they're already paying for. I've seen it suggested that these amount to schemes by the publisher to get more people to install Marvel's various phone apps, and that's probably true, but whatever inanity is going on behind the scenes there is at least some measure of obligation on the part of the editors to not make the rollout so intrusive. The actual comics need to at least be readable.

There's also the questions of:

1.Preservation. Ok, I buy my first printing physical edition like a good little Wednesday Warrior. There's a page that's only accessible via QR code. How long is it gonna be accessible? Most of Marvel's other little gimmicks - foil covers, "director's cut" material, various extra preview pages - are available to enjoy for as long as I own my copy of said comic. The bonus QR stuff, however, is only available for as long as Marvel makes it available. Don't care for that.

2. Negative incentives. Bluntly, if you let me know my single issue purchase is going to be missing material that will be in the trade (and maybe second printings), that doesn't make me want to buy both the single issue and the trade, it makes me think maybe I'll shelf-read the first issue and maybe buy the trade when it comes out in 8-12 months. But hey, Marvel already has their money, so I guess that's a problem for the LCS.

Seems like Brevoort was trying to give the relaunch something that would stand out the same way data pages did for the Krakoa era, and didn't bother giving that thought a second draft.

That's a good point! I hadn't considered future accessibility. I know there have already been issues with broken links and pages not becoming available on the correct day, so I don't have a lot of faith that this is a feature that will be maintained in the medium term. I think it's been taken on trust that the TPD and eventual hardcovers will at least reprint all of this extra material, but I haven't seen anyone at Marvel explicitly confirm it to be the case. They have had a good past track record of doing just that, with variant covers and (as you noted) director's cut pages, but their motivation for this stunt remains inscrutable so who really knows what they'll do.

Excalibur featured in other books

I'm going to try to compile a list of other comics in which the characters from Excalibur appear, as the team Excalibur (not just every book each individual was in). I'm doing this from off the top of my head, and anyone out there who knows more, please add to the list. I'll update as I think of or come across other issues, too.

Thank you!

@hulkingharbor

Two more I can think of are She-Hulk #26 (Jennifer is on a transatlantic flight when she's attacked by a mind-controlled Brian, teams up with Excalibur to free him) and Thor #427-428 (a villain bewitches Brian and Kurt with a magical prybar into thinking that Thor is the Juggernaut, and they all fight).

Both appearances take place between the last two issues of the St Searle's arc, when Kitty has just reunited with the team but before her school is saved. The Thor issues are mildly internet famous in comics circles for featuring that time where Kitty went from zero to horrifically murdering an Avenger with almost no escalation.

ETA: Excalibur also appears, in their Muir Island era, during one of Wolverine's feuds with Cyber (Wolverine vol 1 issues 80 - 82)

au where maddie's goblin queen outfit is just a jareth cosplay