Something is wrong with Storm. Like they did long before with Charles Xavier, Jean Grey and Emma Frost enter the mind of Ms. Munroe in Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost #1 by Russel Dauterman, Jonathan Hickman, and Matthew Wilson.
Nola Pfau: Well. That certainly is a comic book. I gotta say, when this book was announced, I really had no idea what to expect, and I certainly was not expecting what we got here. Dautermanâs art is giving me everything I was hoping for, but the rest? Well…
Allison Senecal: Look. I am physically incapable of disliking a Dauterman comic. He could draw the Iron Man ongoing and I would have to read it and like it. Shallowly, itâs perfect and absolutely fed my kink for Emmaâs half-palm gloves.
NP: God those gloves are good. I suppose in context, itâs good that the plot of this issue was told the way it was; given the framework of these Giant Size books, and the conceit of letting artists draw their choice of characters, I donât hate the idea of a largely silent book where the artist does the heavy lifting, story-wise. And there is some definite heavy lifting here.
New(er) X-Men
AS: Iâve definitely enjoyed Hickmanâs DoX work more when the artists have been dynamic and uh, I barely had to read any of his dialogue here at least. I can not imagine how I would receive this issue with, now that I think about it, pretty much any other artist in this era, even Larraz or Silva.
NP: Yeah, Dauterman specifically imbues this sense of power and majesty into the figures he draws that I rarely see matched. It helps that heâs very, very precise with things like posture and features; you never run into issues where one character looks almost like another, or repeated posing, etcetera. Well, mostly no repeated posing.
AS: *pained noises* Jeanâs lip curl. She and Emma having such different facial expressions at everything. âWhat the %$&#, Ororo?â âOh no! Ororo!â At some point I will post every single panel to social media and cry, which is good, right.
NP: There is a lot of material here thatâs going to make great content for crying gays. I suppose we should just dive right in, yeah? Howâd you like the New X-Men riff?
AS: Oooooof, some of the obvious little detail nods were fantastic. The âSILENCEâ sign in Krakoan instead of English. The huge difference in Scott and Loganâs body language. Emmaâs sip of liquid courage. And then I think the biggest thing, Stormâs mindscape as opposed to Xavierâs. The baobab instead of a tower. A lot more inviting looking, but just as dangerous.
NP: The baobab was…certainly a choice? I didnât really love that the visual imagery of Stormâs psyche so closely resembles TâChallaâs communion with his ancestors in the Black Panther movie. That said, I really like how the majority of this issue both references New X-Men #121 while also playing with expectations. Like you said, the differences in body language, the fact that Emma and Jean made the entire journey together in this one the…blessed lack of seeing Xavierâs father inseminate his mother in absurd detailâŚ
Stormy Weather
AS: Thank you…for that. Love that reminder. AND YES. YES. Jean and Emma not getting separated for this was such a welcome change. Teamwork on maintaining the stone spiral staircase, etc etc. I also didnât love the callback to the Wakandan ancestral plane, but not sure how Dauterman could have avoided that a bit more visually, I guess. At the very least, the choice of the baobab itself is pretty great re: Storm. Those trees can survive some gnarly stuff. But we did just (time has no meaning, I donât remember when actually) see one in Shuri in a big way, and if I remember correctly, it was also used for communing in that context. Woulda been great to have more of a disconnect from that, agreed.
NP: Yeah, it just kinda feels like itâs becoming an easy shorthand for Marvel? I dunno. I get wanting to tie Storm back to her roots as a goddess, but thereâve got to be better ways to do that, and besides, there are so many other important phases of her life that might help to define her psyche. I suppose in the end it probably comes down to the idea of the baobab being a monolithic structure in her mindscape the same way that the stone keep was in Xavierâs. That spiral staircase though! Not just the teamwork, but the way it crumbled, tried to bury them in rubble; Stormâs own mental defenses attempting to attack them with the thing she fears most. What a touch.
AS: THAT DIDNâT EVEN OCCUR TO ME WITH HER PHOBIA. Mind blown. Yes. And yeah, I think in the end it just boils down to the baobab being a callback to the towerâs imagery. Speaking of defenses, I did love Emmaâs honesty in showing an image of her and Storm scrapping instead of even trying to pull one past her for the friend test. The vague little shrug was *chef kiss*, Though, thinking on this more, is this issue directly post-Marauders? That makes the exchange a tad more heartstring-tuggy.
NP: Thatâs hard to sayâbecause essentially the entire issue is a riff, thereâs no contextual information to give us a time frame. Speaking of that and the rubble, thatâs yet another tie back to the Frank Quitely issue; telekinetically assembling stones was how Jean crossed the void to Xavierâs keep. So too, for that matter, is Emma getting violent! For all that I donât like the framework that gets us where we are in this issue, I really enjoy the way that the book reinterprets the events of New X-Men in ways that arenât a straight copy. There are just enough deviations to keep it fresh.
AS: Yeah, I find the circumstances around the issue incredibly annoying, as much as I mostly enjoyed the contents of the actual issue. Like I asked, when in the DoX timeline is this? But also, when did Storm get infected by the Children? That feels quibbly, but it just seems so out of nowhere. I know we still have the Giant-Size X-Men: Storm issue to follow-up on this, but I hope her bold new story direction isnât ⌠a nanite infection.
NP: She really, truly just deserves so much better. I really liked that bit with her phobia, and I liked the image of her looking down over the tree as Emma and Jean approached it, like an actual goddess, but it also seems like her weaknesses are the only things that get brought up these days. When her strength is displayed, itâs almost…reactive? Like no one can seem to access that part of her without first showing her in some kind of pain. Here sheâs a damsel,, subject to body horror, and it all seems a bit…much, especially given the issues with coloring her properly at the start of Dawn of X, the way she seems to just sort of follow other (white) team leaders around…I dunno.
AS: Mmmm, yeah, I was gonna mention I did like seeing that she does have psychic defenses, is strong mentally, instead of easy to just peel open. Xavierâs psyche was a given because heâs a powerful telepath. Ororo, itâs a nice touch to see her mind also attempt to rip Emma and Jean to shreds. But, as you say, thatâs also reactive. Sigh. Iâm not quite sure what I expected from this issue in regards to her, especially considering the solicit text, but I guess it was never going to come off not damsel-y. I really am giving the benefit of the doubt on this with Juneâs Giant-Size focus on her, but still, for a character who has been under-served for years.
Let Them Date, You Cowards
NP: I will say that one thing I liked about this issue is that because it plays with the layout of NXM #121, it also really shows how the characters are in different places than they were (god) eighteen years ago. I kind of wish a woman had been writing this, but I at least like that for all Jean and Emma are recognizably themselves, theyâre also not catty to one another in the way that Morrison liked to write them. He really is…not great with women. I appreciate that weâre getting to a point though where people are understanding that female characters can be more than jealous, vengeful stereotypes…or, because itâs X-Men, getting back to that point.
AS: Oh, most definitely. They feel comfortable around each other in ways they mostly havenât been, well, ever. All conveyed via Dautermanâs excellent body language skills. Emma taking Jean by the hand. Them sticking through it together. Their little faces at each other. That hesitation from Emma at the end before she also leans into the moment with Jean and Storm. I think the other important distinction in this is that we arenât getting the glaring opposite of them being catty either. And we see that with Emma and Stormâs relationship, too. Women also donât always have to be close friends, which is the other extreme we seem to get when men want to write girl power moments.
NP: Yes! Thereâs an animosity between the two of them that isnât about a man, or some other petty thing, it goes back to some really deep conflicts. This is some of what I was hoping for when Dawn of X started; the initial HoXPoX issues felt a little too âcircle around the campfire,â and it seemed like they glossed over the fact that for all that mutants are a people unto themselves, some of them just donât get along with each other very well. Now if theyâd just get around to Jean and Emma going on a dateâŚ
AS: THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO GET THERE, OK. First the beer, now this ordeal. You donât have to be chummy to go on a date, pfffft.
Mind Bullets
- That little kiss on Loganâs cheek was cute.
- Logan, very short. Good content.
- And Scottâs hand on his shoulder. I feel like Iâm begging for scraps but I love it.
- Look, also Jean and Emma reaching for each other and then the forehead touch. Itâs fine. We all want scraps.
- Really liked how Dauterman put so much emphasis on Stormâs cat-eyes.
- Krakoan Teaser reads: NIGHTCRAWLER
Nola Pfau is Editor-in-Chief of WWAC and generally a bad influence.
Allison Senecal buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally.
Nola Pfau is Editor-in-Chief of WWAC and generally a bad influence.
