X-Lapsed, Episode 107 – Giant-Size X-Men: Storm #1 (2020)
X-Lapsed, Episode One Hundred and Seven
Giant-Size X-Men: Storm #1 (November, 2020)
“Disintegration”
Writer – Jonathan Hickman
Art – Russell Dauterman
Colors – Matthew Wilson
Letters – VC’s Ariana Maher
Design – Tom Muller
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $4.99
On-Sale: September 16, 2020
A somewhat Giant-Sized episode to discuss a Giant-Size issue… wherein we barely talk about the comic, because – well, not a whole heckuva lot happens that’s worth talking about!
There IS however an X-Tended and X-Cellent Mailbag segment, wherein we will discuss some eXLapsedination theories, chat up some divisive books, and ask some much-needed questions about clones and the Resurrection Protocols! We’d love it if you joined us!
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / 90sxmen@gmail.com
The thing that really confuses me about Giant-Size X-Men is the fact that, as you say, they could have all been regular issues of X-Men. You talk about how they are spun off as a separate story to rinse an extra $25 from the fans, but Giant-Size sells worse than X-Men. Surely Marvel would have made more money if they had double-shipped X-Men with a special longer issue drawn by Russell Dauterman. It seems like Marvel is being avaricious but doing it badly. We could very easily be up to X-Men 16 by folding Giant-Size into that run.
It is frustrating that Hickman keeps setting so many things up that don't come to fruition. We talk about Chris Claremont and his dangling plotlines but he would never use an entire issue solely to set up something that he's going to ignore. This is what forces us to make up our own head cannon. He just keeps setting up more mysteries and we are expected to be willing to read stories that are incomplete. Every issue of Giant Sized X-Men set up something new, even this issue was more about setting up the consciousness that Doug talks to at the end than it is about Storm. As I re-read along with you I started to think about who or what that could be and thinking about if it was the birth of something from the Powers of X futures. And then I got to the part of the episode where you were responding to my X-Factor feedback. You were saying (fairly) that if the behaviours of the characters only work in X-Factor by applying head cannon then the story is failing and it got me thinking. Why am I willing to criticise Leah Williams, Benjamin Percy and Tini Howard for the fact that I have to provide half the story but I give a free pass to Hickman when he does the same thing. Is it solely because he has a reputation for long runs that follow a plan? I don't know if I should be giving less benefit of the doubt to Hickman or more to the new guys. Either way I think I've been unfair in some of my responses.
This then made me think about the review discussion you had. I follow loads of comics creators on Twitter and I generally wonder if my responses to their social media affects how I respond to their work. For example I follow Leah Williams on Twitter and based on her posts I think I would like her in person. Do I let that colour how I respond to her writing? Am I less critical of things in her stories than I would be of something written by Dan Slott (as an example of someone I think comes across as insufferable on Twitter)? I actually don't know. It is so hard to be genuinely objective.
Moving on to the What If discussion. I always found X-Men Forever a very odd series. The ultimate problem is that the good Claremont X-Men was never about him doing whatever he wanted it was about him working with someone else who inspired him. Whether that was someone he was chaffing against like John Byrne or Bob Harras or someone he was in harmony with like Dave Cockrum, Louise Simonson or Ann Nocenti. X-Men Forever was crippled by being a Claremont project that everyone else just went along with.
Personally I cannot see a way of returning the X-Men to past that doesn't ruin everything. They had to either lose their memories or go into an alternate timeline. As a reboot it would throw out too much important stuff and would only make X-Men continuity more complex.
Sometimes I do wish for a reboot to simplify and fix certain elements but the danger is that you take away good stuff with the bad. If you had asked me pre-HOXPOX I would've wanted to remove Cable and Kwannon, reinstate the original plans for Sinister and Apocalypse, excise Origin from continuity as well as making Sabretooth Wolverine's Dad, and Mystique and Destiny Nightcrawler's parents. In doing this I would have removed 2 of the best current X-books and made the resurrection protocols and Ecchs of Tens impossible. And that is the problem with reboots.
Anyway, until I give a damning about The World- Make Mine X-Lapsed!