X-Lapsed, Episode 205 – X-Corp #1 (2021)
X-Lapsed, Episode Two Hundred Five
Welcome, friends… to, hands down, the most difficult episode of X-Lapsed I’ve ever done! If you’ve been following this show for any length of time, you’ll know I really don’t like being negative about our books… but, this one… hoo boy. I literally almost threw up the white flag.
I feel like I need to publicly apologize to Fallen Angels, Empyre: X-Men, the Broo King Egg story, X-Men #12 and #14 being the same damn book, and even X-Men: Curse of the Man-Thing… because, those were all a dream compared to this!
On a positive note… if you can make it through my negativity long enough – we’ve got some great mailbag discussion to close out!
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Twitter: @acecomics / Instagram: @90sxmen
I cannot recall a time in my fandom when a new book has been released and I haven't seen a single positive comment online about it. Different people have different taste and you expect even the things you think are trash to be loved by someone else. And vice versa. There are people who think that Excalibur is the best book being released by Marvel and just yesterday I saw a tweet declaring that Way of X was the worst X-book. There is no accounting for taste.
But everyone seems to hate X-Corp.
It is terrible. A load of meaningless corporate-speak laid over some terrible characterisation. Monet is an awful person in this story. She is manipulative, self-centred and nasty. This is not the M I know. She was never nasty or cruel. Just impatient and irritated by others' incompetence. I thought X-Force was doing a number on Beast but this book seems to be trying to make Monet into a villain.
The other characters are no better drawn and the art is the weakest we have seen in the HOXPOXDOXROXSOXNOXFOXLOX era.
How did this get the go-ahead to be published? It makes Fallen Angels look like Watchmen. Surely even David Aja covers can't rescue this. You can't polish a turd.
Baffling.
You are usually a lot more positive than I feel about most of these books but even when you love a book the neutral and negative elements, which are often the funniest parts, don't get glossed over and that's what makes your coverage so enjoyable. I think you will continue to feel apologetic about really negative reviews but you shouldn't because you do your reviews right.
Other bits!:
I vote Yes to covering the hidden years and first class in the Essential X radio series.
I don't know what happens in Planet Sized yet but I'll find out in three more episodes.
I keep forgetting while listening that Prof X is walking around at all times in a big dorky helmet and it's rarely brought up. In these post HoX/PoX books, it's not just that so many of the characters aren't acting like themselves that I don't like, but also that when they do act like themselves it doesn't make sense to me why they're giving so much around them a blind pass. Maybe there'll be a great explanation but reading some of my favorite characters act peculiar and morally deficient for 2-3 years does not appeal to me.
One thing I do like about this era is there are a lot of characters getting the spotlight that usually don't and that means almost any of these characters has the opportunity to become a new favorite.
Also I don't know what I know and don't know about fashion but I do have three large hardcovers of Erte prints and a lot of the gala costumes seem to be designed in that vein. I can't believe the X-Men throwing a cocktail party is a big x-event. And Iron Man and Captain America chatting with Mr. Sinister no matter his sassiness level really struck me as odd. It sounded like we were supposed to think the Avengers didn't know who he was, but maybe I misinterpreted those scenes.
I thought Beast might be Dark Beast from the beginning but then thought someone would surely notice him dying his fur a brighter blue at some point. Of course in the Marvel universe it could be the result of mixing their genetics or consciousnesses and there are a hundred other ways to change the color of fur than we have in our non-Marvel world but that idea of Dark Beast constantly touching up his fur with highlights while trying to air out the smell and avoid leaving blue stains around Krakoa wouldn't leave my mind to the point that I then completely discounted this still perfectly valid theory.
Cheers!