Nightcrawler by Mike Deodato Jr.
Great to have the fuzzy elf back!
I thought you could help me. My girlfriend has been interested into getting into the X-Men comics. I'm interested in the characters - why I follow you!- but I don't actively read the comics right now. What books do you suggest she starts from? She's more interested in jumping into current storylines now than dredging through back issues.
AnonymousHey, thanks!
The original Marvel Now books that started post AvX, October of 2012 is the ground floor of the current Marvel Universe. You do not need to have read anything pre Marvel Now in order to get on the ground floor, running.
If you have a tablet, or want to read comics on the computer, you can get a Marvel Unlimited subscription. It is l$9.99 a month, or $69 for the year. Gives you access a to huge library of books, and will allow her, and you to start these books in a cost effective way, and see what you like.
The main thing to know going in, is that the X-Men are split in 2 factions. One lead by Cyclops, and the other by Wolverine. We are just coming off a war between the X-Men & the Avengers. During that time, Cyclops became possessed by the Phoenix, and killed Charles Xavier. The mutant gene was also turned back on after going through a 7 year (our time) period where it was dormant, leaving less than 200 left.
The mutant race is once again in bloom, and in many ways starting again at square one. Can they succeed with this second chance?
All New X-Men 1 - This is where the current dynamic starts, bringing the original X-Men into the present. Issue 19 came out last week. There are 3 volumes of the trades available now.
Uncanny X-Men 1
This is the start of Cyclops’ mutant revolution, and plays the counter balance to All New. 14 is the most recent issue.
X-Men is an all female cast of X-Men. Issue 8 is the most recent.
Amazing X-Men 1 just started. Issue two should be out soon. It tells the story of the X-Men at the Jean Grey School. This is Wolverine’s faction.
There are some other Mutant titles, that will be getting a relaunch soon. Be on the look out for all new number 1s for
Hope that helps.
Amazing Heroes #134 (1988) cover by Alan Davis. High caliber: The story behind Excalibur by Peter Sanderson.
I’m with you! I really want a reunion. Maybe this will be what catapults Kitty back to the JGS?Well, WatXM has been cancelled so there’s not…
I posted this three times tonight and had three people tell me that I helped save their life. Thank you to those people who have decided to struggle through to let us enjoy the gift of one more day of their prescence gracing us all. I hope that you all reblog this, to save another few. Because we all dserve another chance and hope in life. I went to the hospital 6 times before I decided to keep my life but I hope none of you suffer that much. And I hope you all can make that scary, seemingly painful, blind, hoping, wonderful step to live.
I want to help you in any way I can. ANYTHING. I mean it. If I had had someone stay with me and text me or talk to me all night, just one time, it would have changed my life. I know how hard those nights can be.
<3,
Love,
Emily
^I love this girl more than words can express.
foundmywaywheniwaslost: I am always here if anyone ever needs to talk/vent. You have a purpose, Please Stay Alive. <3
Not just for tonight but for the rest of your life. You have so much to look forward to in the future that if you choose to kill yourself, it will be the biggest mistake of your life. You’re going to miss out on people you’ll never be able to meet, kids you’ll never have, a partner to love or partys to go to. There’s just too much that you’ll miss out on. You deserve and have the right to be here as much as the person next to you does. You’re just a drop in the ocean. You were meant to be here and you have a purpose. Don’t ever forget that. And if you feel like you don’t, just believe in yourself because you do. If you ever feel worthless or like shit, know that I love you and those dicks that tell you shit are jealous that you’re who you are because there’s something about you that they wish they could have. Please stay strong and never give up because things DO GET BETTER.
3rd time I reblog this xx
Keep your self awake, I hope your here to stay. This day is not yet over, let me be your four leaf clover.
Reblogged it and queued it so it’ll post tomorrow too. And the next day and the next so I hope I can save someone. We all love you.
someone messaged me this morning saying it helped and thanked me, so im reblogging this again, and queuing it. stay strong guys.
reblogging this everyday no matter what
Reblog if you actually give a shit about anyone who’s suicidal or depressed.
no one should scroll past this
Agree. It’s on everyone to put forth the effort to promote understanding of this. Media and entertainment isn’t always especially sensitive, either. Here’s my two cents for it: http://romanticizingsuicidecomics.tumblr.com/
Romanticizing Suicide in Pop Culture
I debated for a long time before deciding to write this blog entry. I mean, this is about a comic book – pop culture for either the young or the young-at-heart. The stories found in this genre are action oriented and based in a science fiction/fantasy environment. Some pretty extreme things can show up on the pages, from mind-control to alien invasion, people who shoot lasers from their eyes to some random mega-villain trying to take over the world for the thirteenth time in his career – all dealt with handily by our spandex clad heroes. So, why take them so seriously?
Part of what has made this particular medium have such lasting appeal is that these over-the-top heroes are portrayed with a strong human element. What is Batman without his grief and the resulting determination to make a difference? What would Spiderman be without what he learned from Uncle Ben – with great power comes great responsibility?
Alongside stories of time travel or alternate realities, we see these characters facing such real life issues as racism, maintaining relationships amidst their day to day lives, alcoholism, survival of abuse, moral dilemmas, grief, anger…you name it, and these pop culture heroes have had to deal with it on the pages of a comic book. It’s those notes they hit that make them resonate with readers.
So what’s my point?
Fair enough. My point is actually the same as Uncle Ben’s – with great power comes great responsibility. Comic books – Batman, Superman, X-Men, Avengers, Spiderman – reach an untold number of readers the world over. The audience is vast and includes people of all ages, from all ethnicities, orientations, economic brackets and backgrounds. It’s influence crosses over into other media like film, games, toys and cartoons. It is the responsibility of comic publishers to understand this and handle issues realistically, especially those that can be sensitive. For the most part, I believe they try to do a pretty decent job of that. However, there are times when they miss the mark rather spectacularly and that’s what prompted me to write this. This is a particular case where Marvel has allowed their writers to romanticize suicide and put a positive spin on a devastating real life problem.
Back this past spring, Marvel came up with a crossover story within the X-Men franchise entitled ‘X-Termination’, co-written by Greg Pak, Marjorie Liu and David Lapham. The general purpose behind the event was to wrap up two of the three titles in a big way. The gist was a typical comic threat of pending annihilation and our heroes had to work together to save not just a world, but the entire fabric of reality. Sounds entertaining. Pass the popcorn.
The focus character for this story and the one giving a POV for readers was Nightcrawler from the Age of Apocalypse – one Kurt Darkhölme, first introduced in 1995 in the AoA mega-event, and later brought by Rick Remender in 2011 to the pages of Uncanny X-Force. He was a definite anti-hero-turned-villain by the time of the crossover, having betrayed his team-mates in UXF. Part of the story of X-Termination was the redemption of the character.
What gets the crossover rolling is Wolverine hunting this fellow down to have a few words with him because of his actions – words of the pointy variety. Darkhölme, meanwhile, just wants to go home, even understanding that there’s no longer anything left for him there.
At this point, it’s important to include a little character history, as it directly sets up this story. I mentioned already that AoA Nightcrawler is a fallen hero going into this. His world has been utterly devastated by war. It’s a wasteland, and he and the rest of the X-Men from that world have spent more than a decade fighting not one, but two, comings of Apocalypse. The character has experienced the death of nearly everyone he ever cared about, from that of his mother, to his friends in the X-Men, to the murder of his wife. These deaths are what prompted him to cross into the main Marvel universe. He came to hunt down those who’d slaughtered his family and destroyed his life after they escaped into the world of 616. He wanted revenge, and he got it, at the expense of his own moral integrity. What’s left in the aftermath is a broken man, consumed by grief, battling alcoholism and wrapped in depression.
The X-Termination story starts, in Astonishing X-Men #59, with Darkhölme seeking out the 616 version of his dead wife. He seems to hope he might be able to start over, and build a new life. It was a poignant issue.
But he finds out there is no going back to recapture the past and makes the decision to return home, to his own memories, no matter the cost.
At this point, the toll life has taken on him and his current frame of mind is unequivocally shown on the pages.
He wants to die. He is so consumed by grief and depression that he no longer wants to live without those he loves. He feels hollow and empty and wants the pain to be over. Anyone who has ever suffered from depression probably recognizes that feeling.
Throughout the story, he does begin to realize the consequences of his actions, though never once is he shown understanding the value and importance of his own life. All that’s shown is the guilt now weighing on his shoulders.
Ultimately, he decides the only way to make amends is to sacrifice his life to save the others – perhaps those more worthy, who still have something to live for. Only by doing that can he once again be the man he was before. It’s a bitter message sent to readers. This was not a case of a heroic noble sacrifice as used with the original Nightcrawler or even the child version in this very same arc, this was the case of someone with a mental illness feeling like the only way to make up for his past actions was to die, and that was after stating that death was what he wished for.
Depression is an all too common thing. Millions suffer from it, to one degree or another. Most people will have to either deal with it themselves, or with a loved one, at some point in their lifetime. The risk of suicide goes right along with it.
AoA Kurt struck a very strong cord with me, personally. I’ve been in that black, hopeless frame of mind. I dealt with crippling depression for years, following loss. Even now, there are good days and bad days. The character’s internal dialogue, “I wanted to come home to – nothing. God help me, I was hoping not to make it. I wanted to die in the quest and not face the future without you” – that was a powerful bit of writing. That’s exactly how it feels. The vacuum, the feeling that you are nothing or no longer really exist without the person you love is very real, and can be very debilitating.
Yes, his supposedly 'noble’ sacrifice makes him a hero again, or did it? The bigger message it sends is that his reward is oblivion and that life really doesn’t go on after loss. Darkhölme didn’t fear death, he said he wanted it. What he feared was living and coming to accept that he was alive while those he cared for were not. He feared learning that the sun would still rise every morning, with or without them. He feared dealing with what he’d allowed himself to become as a man. Learning to live again would have been AoA Nightcrawler’s real redemption.
The point of comics is entertainment, and maybe it was unintentional that this stuff was even brought in. I don’t know. What I do know is that media and pop culture need to take responsibility for how they handle and portray subjects like this. Marvel is worried about showing Wolverine smoking, yet they tell readers that someone depressed is better off dead and that’s the way to become a hero again?
I want to see this fixed, even if it’s only to show a brief panel of the character in some other dimension recovering from his wounds, or living anonymously or as a recluse in the main universe. He doesn’t otherwise ever have to be mentioned again. I certainly understand the creative desire to shelve certain characters for a period of time in the interest of story-telling. No writer should have to use someone they don’t care to write, but that doesn’t mean it’s all right to send the character off in such a manner, with so little consideration for the underlying message.
Okay, don’t take funny books so seriously, you might be thinking. How about publishers not putting in things like mental disorder and suicidal tendencies, then? If they’re used, then at least be mindful of how the character is handled.
If how depression, suicide and grief is handled in pop culture is something you care about, reblog this. Better still, write in to the respective publishers and let them know how you feel about it. Understanding won’t come without effort. If we won’t make the effort, who will?
