Minor addendum to that Gen Hope post
Nov. 19th, 2011 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rallamajoopSpeak of the devil, these scans turned up over at scans_daily about 24 hours after I put up that last post, and I've been kind of boggling at them ever since. I guess at least you can argue they're taking a step away from the 'unbelievably stable, well balanced and well socialised for someone with her upbringing' aspect of my previous criticism, but at the same time it's clear Hope is bollocks at leading, planning or strategy, which are the exact things she should be good at after being brought up by Cable. It does seem safe to say that the only reason she's getting away with any of this bullshit is a combination of the messiah-worship going to her head and the fact she's mind-controlling everyone around her into agreeing with her, and she's presumably got to get taken down a peg somewhere down the line, but the creepy tone of those pages contrasts so violently with the way the series is being promoted and solicited ("NEW CREATIVE TEAM! Hope and what is left of her five lights travel to China to find their latest recruit. Wait, is that X-Villain SEBASTIAN SHAW?" - and not a word about whether the leader of the team is spiraling out of control) that one starts to wonder if the mind control is extending past the fourth wall somehow. Comments go on to bring up most of the same points of criticism that have been bugging me, which is validating to a degree, but again only highlights the problem.
There's nothing wrong with showing a character being flawed, making bad decisions and struggling with the temptation to abuse her power. But so far the X-Men seem helpless to get her under control, or even to recognise and talk openly about the fact that they might have screwed up with Hope somewhere along the line, and that makes them look pretty pathetic. Especially after the mammoth amount of time and effort they've put into raising and protecting her.
Meanwhile, we've got X-Sanction to look forward to next month, which, according to the solicits, sounds like the tale of how Cable comes back to life to take down the Avengers in the name of protecting Hope (or something). That would be a pretty unbelievable concept for a storyline from so many different angles even if it wasn't looking like it's the world that needs protecting from Hope these days. It would be nice if we could assume that a premise that illogical has to have an interesting explanation, but with Jeph Loeb writing, I'm not holding my breath.
There's nothing wrong with showing a character being flawed, making bad decisions and struggling with the temptation to abuse her power. But so far the X-Men seem helpless to get her under control, or even to recognise and talk openly about the fact that they might have screwed up with Hope somewhere along the line, and that makes them look pretty pathetic. Especially after the mammoth amount of time and effort they've put into raising and protecting her.
Meanwhile, we've got X-Sanction to look forward to next month, which, according to the solicits, sounds like the tale of how Cable comes back to life to take down the Avengers in the name of protecting Hope (or something). That would be a pretty unbelievable concept for a storyline from so many different angles even if it wasn't looking like it's the world that needs protecting from Hope these days. It would be nice if we could assume that a premise that illogical has to have an interesting explanation, but with Jeph Loeb writing, I'm not holding my breath.