COMIC BOOKS MAKE MY HEAD HURT*

[mf_luder_xf]

*Also in which I muse about Magneto's kids and propose fanfic and more Charles/Erik epic love.


So, first of all...how does ANYONE keep comic books straight? I mean, apparently the DC characters have been rebooted twice? So what canon does one follow? And then there's all these tangential side comics that sort of fit into the main series but never fully. And volume numbers don't seem to follow and...seriously, I haven't bought Hellblazer volumes because they're so confusing when trying to figure out what issues to order.

I mean, this is ridiculous:

The final issue, House of M #8, was ranked third in sales for the November 2005 period with sales of 135,462.[2] In addition to the main eight-issue limited series, House of M was preceded by a story in Excalibur #13-14, and had several tie-ins to ongoing series, including Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men: Academy X, and Wolverine, and several mini-series: Fantastic Four: House of M,The Incredible Hulk: House of M, Iron-Man: House of M, Mutopia X: House of M,and Spider-Man: House of M.

So, to get the complete story in this mini 8-arc series, you have to follow like, 11 other sub plot lines (25 total other issues according to the end of the page). All separate from the main series?

All taken from here, FYI.

Anyway, what drove me to this page (beyond it overlapping with my frustrations about Hellblazer - and if anyone knows every single issue/volumes for HB, please feel free to let me know, the Wiki page isn't that helpful when comparing it to Amazon, lol), was the fact that Magneto apparently has 3 kids in the comic 'verse.



Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Polaris. Quicksilver clearly takes after Erik, Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda) after Charles and Polaris, well, that's what happens when someone Hank gets a bit too vigorous with the EYCL1 gene.  (Can I just point out their beefy thighs? LOL.)

So now I want the fic where using mutant powers or technology or whatever (well, not whatever; I still don't like mpreg) allows Charles and Erik to have these three kids and so they have a blood family as well as all their adopted children. And at first Havoc and Banshee (and especially Raven) are all a little put out because they were the first and they thought all the adopted kids were the family, but then the kids are just so cute and Charles and Erik SUCK at babies, even if they did fine with teenagers and so they (and the other adopted mutants) all end up being older siblings and these kids are spoiled rotten (and also, eventually, the equivalent of pushed off a satellite dish) and there'd be horrible parenting skills on the part of Charles and Erik and Erik practically begs Moira to come back and be nanny  (and she's all like, I WORK FOR THE CIA, BITCH, I'M NOT YOUR HIRED HELP but comes anyway) and they're this massive, massive family living in a giant mansion (and the marriage is less divorce and more James Carville and Mary Matalin where Erik still tries to control the world/kill the humans and Charles at this point just rolls his eyes and sends out Rogue and Wolverine to stop whatever idiotic plan his husband is hatching).


I also noticed reading the page above about Magneto's daughter, Scartlet Witch, this:

Given that the House of M reality was created by the Scarlet Witch and Charles Xavier combining their powers to give the assembled New Avengers and X-Men their heart's desires

That's right. TheirErik's daughter and his husband ex-boyfriend friend joined forces to give Erik everything he ever wanted. (Ok, fine, everyone else, too.)

Also:

Wanda Maximoff, also known as the Scarlet Witch, is living on the devastated island of Genosha under the care of Professor Charles Xavier and her father Magneto.

Her powers are such that she has to live at home with her two dads. She must have been a handful as a child.

And finally, apparently Polaris is an X-(wo)Man. So, it just makes sense that these three belong to Charles and Erik. One child ends up with the beliefs of her academic father, while the two older twins take on the attitude of their more bold father. FAMILY. ♥


I also have another question. In the comic book, Magneto's real name is Max Eisenhardt. How did Erik Lehnsherr come about?  That just seems out of nowhere.

Ok, see, the bad thing about getting into a fandom that is in so many forms? THERE'S SO MUCH. And it's all-consuming. I apologize in advance for any future ramblings about X-Men comics and random minutia.

Comments

[wandersfound.livejournal.com]

X-Men isn't one of the comics with which I'm particularly familiar, but I think Erik Lensherr was an alias Max Eisenhardt took on. So I guess the movieverse just changed it to be his original name rather than an assumed identity.

[mf_luder_xf]

Ah, that makes sense, then. It is a much better name. I was just all, why make up your own name if he already had one?lol

[sheryden.livejournal.com]

I'm trying not to read your posts about the movie, since I haven't seen it yet. *covers eyes* But if you're looking for a good primer to sort out the complicated history of Magneto, this is a good one: http://x-men.wikia.com/wiki/Magneto

[mf_luder_xf]

ACK! Sorry, hope I haven't been too spoilery for you...hurry up and watch so I can have another person to flail with! :D

Thanks for the link!

[starbuck92.livejournal.com]

*giggles* You sound a lot like me when I was hooked on X-Men a few years ago and was trying to figure it all out. It was freaking impossible!

[mf_luder_xf]

LOL, I can't imagine! I mean, I like complicated mythology and such, but constant rebooting and retcon and...gah! That's just poor writing. (Hmm, comic books are written by multiple writers, I'm seeing a link to the poor writing that happens with TV shows when new writers come in...*cough*SGA/SPN*cough*.)

But it's kind of fun, too. Makes no sense, but hey, if the writers can pick and chose and retcon, well, then I can do that with my fanfic, too.lol

[starbuck92.livejournal.com]

There's also books! I've read a couple of good ones - may re-read them before the year ends as it has been a while. But it is a crazy affair trying to keep up with the X-Men. Hope you have fun with it!

[zhadra-ahni.livejournal.com]

Huh, last I knew of Polaris, Magneto turned out not to be her father. Geez, I'm out of date. 8|a And also comics retcon things about a million times, and I've never really known much about Polaris, anyway.

Pietro and Wanda are super-fun; they started out in the Brotherhood without even knowing Magneto was their father, and then they ended up as heroes on the Avengers for a while, and blah blah blah tons of complicated comics events, lol. They have such a complicated, fraught relationship with their father that it's really fun to play around with. :)a There should be more First Class fics incorporating Erik's kids, I only know of one right now.

As for 'Erik Lensherr', I think that's the 'real name' the writers gave him early on; he started out just this two-dimensional villain 'Magneto', and then some writer had Charles call him 'Magnus', and then he was called Erik Lensherr and so he became Erik Magnus Lensherr, and then they retconned that into being an alias and going with Max Eisenhardt. I think. >_>a And seeing as how I didn't even know the name 'Max Eisenhardt' until I googled Magneto after seeing First Class, I doubt that it's really caught on in terms of how the fans mentally label the man.

[mf_luder_xf]

Oh, see more retcon! I have no idea, actually, I found all this kid stuff out via some comments on ONTD and just reading that wiki page.lol

They have such a complicated, fraught relationship with their father that it's really fun to play around with.

Damn, I more and more want to write it now...:P

Haha, yeah, I watched a clip of the X-Men animated show and Charles calls him Magnus and all the comments in the post are like "MAGNUS?!?!" I really think Magneto is as bad as Magnus (comic books so love their literal superhero names - I prefer names like "The Comedian" and "Dr Manhattan," also Constantine. Less inyourface! obvious.). I much prefer Erik Lehnsherr to Max, so I'm going to go with the original.lol

Thanks for all the info! It's rather obvious I'm just not a comic book geek. Until fairly recently. (It all started with Watchmen. If only JDM hadn't been in the movie...)

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

Unless you've been reading since X-Men was first published, it's almost impossible to keep up.

Hell, today I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and that left me with a hundred new questions. Like who was this Weapon XI; was Kayla's sister a relative of Emma Frost; why did Patrick Stewart come *walking* out to rescue the mutant kids...continuity is all screwed up.

Funny, I am a 90s cartoon purist, and loved Gambit from that series. Taylor Kitsch was no Gambit.

[mf_luder_xf]

Hmm, I saw Weapon XI as the ultimate destroyer of all the mutants (labeled as weapons to keep military funding). Apparently his name is Deadpool. And I, since we didn't see Emma Frost in the first 3 movies, assumed that girl probably was Emma Frost. As for Professor X walking...X2 says the experiment happened on Wolverine 15 years ago. X3 shows Charles walking 20 years before (when he and Erik go to meet Jean). So I guess the accident happened within 15 years of X1. That seems to be movie timeline. Whether that matches with comic book time lines, no idea, obviously! But yes, everything is ALL over the place.lol At least STReboot was a simple alternate universe rather than different timelines.lol

Yeah, I've noticed Gambit seems to be a popular mutant...yet just from X2 I'm like, why? But then I watched a short clip of the series and noticed he was an X-Man so clearly there's more to him.

[rhymephile.livejournal.com]

I know they're supposed to be making an Origins movie about Deadpool. Hmm.

What I mean about the continuity is that in First Class we see how Charles is paralyzed yet there he is walking out as Patrick Stewart in Wolverine. They kind of screwed that up a bit. They should have left Charles walking at the end of First Class.

[cheerful-earl.livejournal.com]

I was just having a discussion about comic continuity and its crazy with my roommate's boyfriend! How funny. The continuity in question was the Marvel universe too. Ha!

I'm not sure if Erik Lensherr was an alias, or if that was his original name, and he became Max Eisenhardt later in some sort of retcon? At one point his name was Magnus too, so IDEK. From what I gather, a lot of fans completely dismiss the Max Eisenhardt name LOL. I'm not a huge Marvel person (DC all the way... except now I love the X-Men because Charles/Erik is love ).

Comic continuity is very much like a modern myth, IMO. There is a fluidity to it that changes depending on the storyline and the media, and every arc has a slightly different take. I'm endlessly fascinated by it, LOL. And impressed by those who can keep it all straight in their heads. I can do it somewhat with DC stuff, but not like those comic fanboys/girls.

[mf_luder_xf]

Someone above mentioned Erk was his original given name, and then it was retconned to be an alias. Psssht, whatever, I'm dismissing Max, too. Erik is so much better. Also, it's in movie 'verse. So I'll make Max the alias should I ever need to.lol

Yes, I'm a DC girl, too! Well, never comics. But DC characters as in movies and TV. And graphic novels, i.e. Watchmen, Hellblazer, Superman...I want to get into Gaiman's Sandman soon.

And impressed by those who can keep it all straight in their heads. I can do it somewhat with DC stuff, but not like those comic fanboys/girls.

I think I could keep it straight (I have little toruble with XF muthology after all), but if it makes no sense and overlaps, that's entirely different from simply knowing it. I mean, if there's so much retcon and reboot...it's pointless.lol!

[cheerful-earl.livejournal.com]

PS: I LOVE YOUR FIC IDEA. Because you KNOW those kids would be SO spoiled. Oh, Erik and Charles. Their parenting skills would be EPIC.

[bitter-crimson.livejournal.com]

how does ANYONE keep comic books straight?

Well, when I was more into comics, here is what I did:

A) !!!Wikipedia!!!
B) Google (if I can't find enough info on Wikipedia, but usually I could)
C) I seek out / absorb the comics+info I am interested in and ignore all those other characters/events/whatever I don't curr about.

[mf_luder_xf]

Haha, yes. I suspect ignoring plot lines will become a standard for me. I just can't imagine as a kid, needing to get Spiderman comics to finish off the plot in X-Men. What child has the patience for that? :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I knew that Magneto had children. What I wonder is how he had sex with a woman when he's so high on the Kinsey scale. Artificial insemination may have been used in order to spread his superior genes. XDDD

Also, I totally dig your theory that Charles is the mother other father. From the very little I know about New Avengers, Wanda gave his powers to Wiccan, who turned out to be gay (bi?). She's clearly open-minded from having 2 daddies.

[mf_luder_xf]

Haha! His cartoon character does seem rather...overcompensatory. He's sort of like Adrian Veidt. I also enjoy the idea of Magneto/Mystique and per First Class allusions Magneto/Emma. Then again, I tend to view all my characters as bi with perhaps a preference one way or another. That being said, I could totally see in comic 'verse Magneto using IVF rather than sex. :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Well, Magneto/Mystique is cool, but every time she's all gorgeous and naked in front of him, he's like: "Go away!" (First Class) or he goes away himself (X3). :-P

Magneto/Emma is all about "Once you go mind!sex, you never go back."