Monday, April 20, 2015

Bendis X-Men ?

It's been a while since I read X-Men. The stories stopped being fun awhile back, everyone seems to date everyone and a lot of the stories/family trees are overly complex. I stopped reading but I hear spoilers every now and then. The latest one has to do with my favorite X-Man Iceman/Bobby Drake.

SPOILERS AHEAD

First of all I have no idea how the "original X-Men are in the present as teens" plot works. Is it another timeline? Time travel in the Marvel universe has always been unreliable in that regard. Well whether or not it is teen Jean apparently thought it was okay to read teen Bobbys' mind to reveal he was gay. Forgetting for a moment that she should butt out of other peoples' minds this confuses me. Wouldn't he be bisexual? He's canonically (at least 616 adult Iceman) loved women he dated. I know Opal isn't popular in some circles but she was one of his longest relationships and he wanted to settle down with her. When he lost his memory during X-Factor he was attracted to a woman and more confident since he had none of his previous hang ups. If he's going to date another guy (or both Iceman are) don't ignore the fact those women mattered.

I think what bothers me the most is I don't think Bendis is the right person to write this. Teen Jean comes off as a nosy busybody that thinks she knows everything and it could have been done so much better. If both Icemen are the same then why hasn't adult Bobby had an "accept yourself" talk with either adult 616 Jean or Xavier ? Sure Xavier would keep out of other minds to protect their privacy (unless that's been retconned) but if it was so obvious then I find it hard to believe he'd keep quiet. I'm not saying he's be tackless as teen Jean but maybe he'd discuss the matter in an around about way. It just seems odd that the man preaching acceptance didn't try to help his student. Now if there was a flashback with Bobby being in denial or not getting the message until years later--that would work better with than this. Also Jeans' the expert on sexuality even if the person she's mindreading isn't sure what his sexuality is? She just decides he's gay and he can't argue with her because she's a telepath? ...What?

It's also weird to think Jean would say this and not Emma Frost. The one that mentally took over his body, mocked him for not living up to his potential with his powers, has FAR more experience reading minds and had a gay brother. (#1) Emma would have made more sense, she might be tackless too but that's in her character. This could have been moving and instead comes off weak. Is it out of character? Some writers have joked about it in different titles, while I recall some calling out "clues" and don't recalls anything that indicated it strongly. I hope this isn't treated like a joke because the character is often used as the class clown. At present I don't have much faith in most of Marvel but maybe some writer can do something better with this.

From what I've seen and heard this comes across incredibly lazy. Was this even built up or did it just happen because it'll get more attention to make a character with a long history bi (sorry I don't buy that he never liked women) than creating a new character? Again Bobby is attracted to women--he's done incredibly stupid things for women he loved/was attracted to. Erasing that not only disrespects his history (again assuming the two Icemen are the same person) it gives into the idea that bisexuality is a myth. I've seen this happen before and it still bothers me to see the lazy route taken. Don't ignore the past build on it.


#1 Yes I know Emma made a joke about decorating when he iced up her office but that's not the same thing. She's a blunt person and will make herself clear if others don't get what she's saying.


2 comments:

  1. Bendis is not the person to write this. I dislike the way that he has of beating you over the head with his schtick. Plus all his characters have the exact same "voice"

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  2. Pretty much. If it wasn't for some of the Spider characters I wouldn't have any real interest in Marvel. Over the years they did so many things to these characters that for the most part I just don't care. This got me curious enough to check if it was real but the way it's done is grown worthy.

    The only thing that amuses me about this is that Northstar stated he knew Bobby was straight. Of course this also makes a Family Guy joke canon which is irritating.

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