From: mcollins@isis.cs.du.edu (The One and Only Killans)
Subject: MUTANT: (was Re: X-notes)
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Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 17:09:14 GMT


1) I happen to agree with this view, that there is no major love interest
in Scott for Psylock - he just got distracted a little by the sight of a
(we are told) good-looking bod in a skimpy swinsuit. Un-PC as it may
sound, this is a fairly natural response from many men, and I thought it
showed un unusual level of 'real-person'-ness in the X-Men...
If it were to become a love triangle, I would consider it to be *very* bad
characterisation on the part of the writer (who will probably be Lobdell
unless he leaves as fast as the last one...).

2) Grudgingly I will admit that Bishop has the potential to be an
interesting character. His power is boring and too /combat-orientated -
every new mutant introduced seem to have vague powers involving energy
absorbing/emitting that make for lots of wham-bam power fights, eg
Jubilee (not so bad but the start of a trend), Gambit (Pseudo-scientific
waffle about kinetic energy), Bishop (absorbs energy and shoots it out),
Michael Rasputin (some similar vague energy power), even Guido has an
'absorb energy and use it to make me stronger' power. Whatever happened to
interesting and unique powers like Rogue, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty
Pryde (hey kids can you guess which was my favourite X-Men period? :-) ) ?
Also, the fact that the future-time thing has been over-done and badly
done so much already means Bishop isn't as interesting as he would have
been otherwise...
Still, with good writing, he could make an interesting addition. After
all, Professor X has always had a habit of inviting unlikely people to
join the team - Rogue (then a *proper* villain), Wolverine (2 anchovies
short of a full pizza) for example (there are probably more). I don't see
how Bishop is any different. Unlikely, yes, but there is a precedent.

3) I think it'll go on for quite some time. It is obviously supposed to be
a *major* power struggle - after all the Hellfire Club Inner Circle is no
more - and presumably will result in a 'New Order' among mutant villains.
Expect this to be a major long-term (dangling) plotline 

What I wanna know is -what are the losers going to do? Just pack their
bags and go back to the day job? 

4) As I said above, yes I think the time-travel bit has been overdone. The
original Days of Future Past story was well-done, and Rachel was an
interesting and largely well-written character, at least until they
started doing silly things with the Phoenix Force (never did like the idea
of Rachel getting the Force...). However by now, it has been overdone, the
main culprit has to be Rob Liefeld in the form of Cable, though we've had
the Askani business in the old X-Factor (of course, their is an obvious
possible connection...), and the possibility of Mr. Sinister being a
future person too - then we get a silly villain from the future, followed
by Bishop. Now if we had had Future Past, possibly the New Mutants
follow-up story to it, and then Bishop (with Fitzroy I suppose) then it
would have been a lot more interesting IMHO.

5). A lot of the X-Men's advanced technology comes from the Shi'ar, an
alien race which have long-standing connections with the X-Men (their
Empress, Lilandra, is Professor Xavier's long-time love, and he stayed
with her for a long period, from Uncanny 200 to 276 or thereabouts). As
rewards for helping them out on several occasions, they have provided the
X-Men with superior technology. They also have their handy
once-in-a-lifetime-offer mutant inventor (Forge) who devoted his entire
life to the worthwile aim of tinkering with the X-Men's combat devices...)

Mike