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I have to admit that I was originally going to write thoughts on 48-50 in one post and then the post for issue 48 got rather long so I decided to do each separately. I meant to do issue 49 this weekend, but I’m just going to say I had the weekend from hell and move on. So warning for violence, self-harm and mind control.
So issue 49 opens in the tunnel that Jean-Paul was in during the beginning of issue 48. This time I actually notice that it says ‘soon,’ which it did in issue 48, but I was a bit distracted from all that because Kyle/Jean-Paul and new apartment. This time I’m not distracted, mostly because there is Karma with a bar sticking out of her middle. She’s keeps saying she’s sorry and that Jean-Paul needs to get down the tunnel and then she goes limp in his arms and Jean-Paul says ‘Too late, always too late’ and is Karma unconscious, dead? I really need to know and soon. I’m hoping just unconscious because I’d hate to think that in two issues Jean-Paul is going to get married and Karma is going to be buried. That would really not work for me. Jean-Paul turns away from Karma and Kyle is standing there holding a gun, asking if he worried Jean-Paul. Obviously there is some mind control going on here. Jean-Paul wants Kyle to stop, calls him sweetheart and if it wasn’t so tense I’d be flailing about the pet names, first babe and now sweetheart. Kyle tells Jean-Paul not to call him that. Jean-Paul begs him to put the gun down and Kyle wants to know if Jean-Paul wants to race. Jean-Paul doesn’t understand. Kyle puts the gun to his head and asks if Jean-Paul wants to race him. Jean-Paul begs him to put the gun down and then all you see is a black panel and the words Blam!
The it cuts to ‘Now’ and where issue 48 left off with the group being attacked by the Marauders. There is taunting back and forth. Chimera is messing with Northstar and Iceman, Vanisher is threatening to take away Logan’s heart and then we cut to Cecilia.
She is tired of the X-men and their fights and wants a normal life. Then she finds an injured man and goes to help him. Three of the people from the helicopter that Iceman brought down stop her and try to decide if they should bring her in, but decide that they better not as they have to follow their orders and keep the sensors and cameras rolling. So they shoot her, which is just a bad idea because her powers deflect the bullet right into the guy who shot her. The three run away as Cecilia turns back to the man she was trying to help only to discover he’s dead. She’s pissed and runs to find the X-men while saying, “Life isn’t suppose to be this cheap.”
Chimera has Northstar caught and is telling him she’s supposed to bring him in alive, but she thinks she’ll bring him in damaged. Northstar tells her to go to hell and then Kyle shows up. It turns out that the person that grabbed Kyle in the last issue was Karma and she immediately sets to work figuring out what’s going on with the Marauders starting with Chimera. Karma quickly figures out that someone is controlling them mentally and though the fighting persists even though now Chimera and Karma are trying to get everyone to stop. It ends with Northstar choking Chimera while Karma and Kyle tell him to stop. Northstar listens to Kyle and lets go, Chimera threatens to lobotomize him and Kyle decides they’re all crazy. Northstar asks him to stay out of it because he doesn’t understand. Kyle is not pleased, but Logan is busy trying to figure this whole thing out with Chimera and after some back and forth Chimera lets Karma go into her mind to try and find out who set the whole thing up. When she comes out of Chimera’s head Chimera is sick and Karma can barely stand though she can’t remember seeing anything. Cecilia tried to take care of Karma and they find a dead mercenary that has GPS coordinates.
Northstar goes to take Kyle home and the two of them talk. Part of me is wondering why they are letting Jean-Paul go off with Kyle when it’s clear he was the target and part of me is happy with the conflict that they’re throwing in for Kyle and Jean-Paul because its realistic. Kyle thinks Jean-Paul is right and there are things about him that he’s just not going to understand and Jean-Paul is trying to convince him that it’s not true. Kyle also feels that it humiliating that Jean-Paul is flying him back to their apartment in his arms, he thinks maybe it’s be better if Jean-Paul found himself a boyfriend who was also superpowered. And then Jean-Paul just stops mid-air and tells him that he never feels normal but when he’s with Kyle he feels like there is nothing wrong with him. This just about sums up Jean-Paul perfectly. He’s more than once referred to himself as a ‘freak among the freaks’ and has made it clear that no matter how much he does he feels as if he is a freak. The title of his biography is ‘Born Normal’ and while this what Jean-Paul wants people to believe, that he’s normal despite any differences there is still part of him that feels as if he isn’t. It’s been such an ingrained part of his character for so long that I’m glad they brought it up and I’m glad that Kyle helps him with that. The two make up and kiss twice. The one kiss is being watched and one person watching say that they think it went well and the other says it’s too soon to tell. The person watching them is a man with a telescope while a woman works out and tells him about how she wants her schedule arranged.
Gambit and Cecilia drop Karma off at home and Karma insists that she’s okay. They let her go and she goes about her nighttime routine until she crawls into bed. She wakes up to a woman on a phone sitting in her bedroom. The woman praises her saying she did good in breaking her hold on Chimera and now she wants to see how Karma would hand the X-men. Then the issue ends.
This issue is mostly about ramping up the tension. It adds layers of questions about Karma for me because not once are her younger siblings mentioned. The last time I looked at Karma she was raising her two younger siblings, so where were they? I really hope she isn’t dead because I’m sorry my happiness at Northstar getting married is not going to be that great if they kill their lesbian character. Sorry, just going to not make me happy. I always enjoy reading Karma when she’s in a book and so want to continue to read her here. It also annoyed me that they made it clear that Jean-Paul is being targeted, but none of the others seems to pick up on that. Logan’s been all nice with his leader vibe so I’m a little disappointed in him here. I really enjoyed the Jean-Paul/Kyle interaction because it was nice to see them have problems and the fact that they discussed their problems. Of course this makes me want to shake Jean-Paul when he tries to for an fix-it in the next issue, but it was nice to see this here.
So issue 49 opens in the tunnel that Jean-Paul was in during the beginning of issue 48. This time I actually notice that it says ‘soon,’ which it did in issue 48, but I was a bit distracted from all that because Kyle/Jean-Paul and new apartment. This time I’m not distracted, mostly because there is Karma with a bar sticking out of her middle. She’s keeps saying she’s sorry and that Jean-Paul needs to get down the tunnel and then she goes limp in his arms and Jean-Paul says ‘Too late, always too late’ and is Karma unconscious, dead? I really need to know and soon. I’m hoping just unconscious because I’d hate to think that in two issues Jean-Paul is going to get married and Karma is going to be buried. That would really not work for me. Jean-Paul turns away from Karma and Kyle is standing there holding a gun, asking if he worried Jean-Paul. Obviously there is some mind control going on here. Jean-Paul wants Kyle to stop, calls him sweetheart and if it wasn’t so tense I’d be flailing about the pet names, first babe and now sweetheart. Kyle tells Jean-Paul not to call him that. Jean-Paul begs him to put the gun down and Kyle wants to know if Jean-Paul wants to race. Jean-Paul doesn’t understand. Kyle puts the gun to his head and asks if Jean-Paul wants to race him. Jean-Paul begs him to put the gun down and then all you see is a black panel and the words Blam!
The it cuts to ‘Now’ and where issue 48 left off with the group being attacked by the Marauders. There is taunting back and forth. Chimera is messing with Northstar and Iceman, Vanisher is threatening to take away Logan’s heart and then we cut to Cecilia.
She is tired of the X-men and their fights and wants a normal life. Then she finds an injured man and goes to help him. Three of the people from the helicopter that Iceman brought down stop her and try to decide if they should bring her in, but decide that they better not as they have to follow their orders and keep the sensors and cameras rolling. So they shoot her, which is just a bad idea because her powers deflect the bullet right into the guy who shot her. The three run away as Cecilia turns back to the man she was trying to help only to discover he’s dead. She’s pissed and runs to find the X-men while saying, “Life isn’t suppose to be this cheap.”
Chimera has Northstar caught and is telling him she’s supposed to bring him in alive, but she thinks she’ll bring him in damaged. Northstar tells her to go to hell and then Kyle shows up. It turns out that the person that grabbed Kyle in the last issue was Karma and she immediately sets to work figuring out what’s going on with the Marauders starting with Chimera. Karma quickly figures out that someone is controlling them mentally and though the fighting persists even though now Chimera and Karma are trying to get everyone to stop. It ends with Northstar choking Chimera while Karma and Kyle tell him to stop. Northstar listens to Kyle and lets go, Chimera threatens to lobotomize him and Kyle decides they’re all crazy. Northstar asks him to stay out of it because he doesn’t understand. Kyle is not pleased, but Logan is busy trying to figure this whole thing out with Chimera and after some back and forth Chimera lets Karma go into her mind to try and find out who set the whole thing up. When she comes out of Chimera’s head Chimera is sick and Karma can barely stand though she can’t remember seeing anything. Cecilia tried to take care of Karma and they find a dead mercenary that has GPS coordinates.
Northstar goes to take Kyle home and the two of them talk. Part of me is wondering why they are letting Jean-Paul go off with Kyle when it’s clear he was the target and part of me is happy with the conflict that they’re throwing in for Kyle and Jean-Paul because its realistic. Kyle thinks Jean-Paul is right and there are things about him that he’s just not going to understand and Jean-Paul is trying to convince him that it’s not true. Kyle also feels that it humiliating that Jean-Paul is flying him back to their apartment in his arms, he thinks maybe it’s be better if Jean-Paul found himself a boyfriend who was also superpowered. And then Jean-Paul just stops mid-air and tells him that he never feels normal but when he’s with Kyle he feels like there is nothing wrong with him. This just about sums up Jean-Paul perfectly. He’s more than once referred to himself as a ‘freak among the freaks’ and has made it clear that no matter how much he does he feels as if he is a freak. The title of his biography is ‘Born Normal’ and while this what Jean-Paul wants people to believe, that he’s normal despite any differences there is still part of him that feels as if he isn’t. It’s been such an ingrained part of his character for so long that I’m glad they brought it up and I’m glad that Kyle helps him with that. The two make up and kiss twice. The one kiss is being watched and one person watching say that they think it went well and the other says it’s too soon to tell. The person watching them is a man with a telescope while a woman works out and tells him about how she wants her schedule arranged.
Gambit and Cecilia drop Karma off at home and Karma insists that she’s okay. They let her go and she goes about her nighttime routine until she crawls into bed. She wakes up to a woman on a phone sitting in her bedroom. The woman praises her saying she did good in breaking her hold on Chimera and now she wants to see how Karma would hand the X-men. Then the issue ends.
This issue is mostly about ramping up the tension. It adds layers of questions about Karma for me because not once are her younger siblings mentioned. The last time I looked at Karma she was raising her two younger siblings, so where were they? I really hope she isn’t dead because I’m sorry my happiness at Northstar getting married is not going to be that great if they kill their lesbian character. Sorry, just going to not make me happy. I always enjoy reading Karma when she’s in a book and so want to continue to read her here. It also annoyed me that they made it clear that Jean-Paul is being targeted, but none of the others seems to pick up on that. Logan’s been all nice with his leader vibe so I’m a little disappointed in him here. I really enjoyed the Jean-Paul/Kyle interaction because it was nice to see them have problems and the fact that they discussed their problems. Of course this makes me want to shake Jean-Paul when he tries to for an fix-it in the next issue, but it was nice to see this here.
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