Basement X

So eh... what's exactly the idea of this new title? The story so far could've perfectly fitted in the Wolverine & the X-Men title. It looks pretty, though.

But really? Why? And furthermore: why Azazel?!

Why Catholicism for Nightcrawler? Worst addition to a character ever nevermind Azazel.

I don't know if there is universal agreement on what was a bad idea, e.g. Jeph Loeb's Wolverine and Sabretooth origin, Azazel, Spidey Clone Saga and Nightcrawler being deeply catholic, but whether good or bad, editors and/or writers will take up the challenge of bringing a previous idea back and adding to it.

I think sometimes there are writers who know what they have to work with was bad, but gladly take up the challenge of trying to work the idea. I think Bendis gave the clone saga a go in Ultimate Spidey just because he probably felt that the idea itself wasn't bad, the problem was the execution of the idea. I suppose it's also possible that some writers might really like a previous story, but find that they themselves haven't got any ideas how to follow it.

Which ever of the above scenarios it is, it probably all started with, "hey! Let's bring back Nightcrawler now!"

Why isn't it part of WATXM? Probably just a sales reason justified as Nightcrawler's return.

Annoyingly for me, a fan of Aaron, religion is a pet subject of his whilst a pet peeve of mine. When Aaron was writing Ghost Rider, I didn't care, since the religious aspects of badass heaven and hell soldiers was so over the top it was cool. Aaron does like to take religion a bit more seriously though at times, which is why you end up with Wolverine being a deist now rather than the agnostic he was.


I read it, and I did find it quite enjoyable. I have some faith that Aaron can make Azazel work and the religion will take a backseat to the action and story.

On a wider note, I think religion has an unfair advantage in comics. If you create a universe in which you have heaven and hell, then you have a universe where it absolutely makes no sense at all why there would be people who aren't believers. In fact, scrap the word believer, because in this world you know there is a heaven and hell. There's no need to believe. If anything, this knowledge should spur people like Tony Stark and Reed Richards to work on finding out the very specifics about the after life. After all, if you knew for a fact there was a hell - wouldn't you want to know the very things you need to do to avoid ending up there? Wouldn't people like Reed and Tony be the best people to investigate all this?
I actually recall a Hickman comic, I think it was Secret Avengers, in which his writing of Reed has him categorically say he doesn't believe in an after life. I'd like to see some editorial tightening up here and see a story about someone like Reed either tell someone like Nightcrawler that they are mistaken about their experiences or use Nightcrawler to advance our understanding about an apparent after life.

The religion thing was part of Kurt's history since the 1980s, and he's always been a Catholic. I know Claremont made him a priest in at least 2000 (which was later retconned by the dreadful Chuck Austen). There's even a website devoted to the history of Kurt and Religion.

The extremely devout aspect of his faith and later status as a priest came after his creation.

Fun Nightcrawler = swashbuckling, demon-looking, loyal and friendly guy.

Boring Nightcrawler = that guy who's always praying.

He prayed in the 80s, just not a lot. But yes, I do love the swashbuckler in Kurt more than the religious Kurt (especially since I don't do religion). I think here they're going to get a happy medium between the two personas, which we saw in the first issue with time given to both selves.

I really liked it but yeah don't see why it needed its own book.

Have not gotten to read it yet, but will post my thoughts when I do.

My guess is to replace Astonishing and try to keep the number of X-Men titles at 5 (Uncanny, All-New, X-Men, W&TX, and now this)

Pass

Jason Aaron is quitting the book after issue 6, which will be drawn by the ever excellent Cameron Stewart.

Craig Kyle and Chris Yost are taking over after that.

So that's bye-bye for me, one less 3.99$ to spend each month.

Kyle and Yost aren't bad. You not staying on for Stewart?

Stewart isn't staying on the book. McGuinness is supposed to return at issue 8, alongside Colossus.

I'm sad to see Aaron go especially since he just launched the title. I have hopes for Kyle & Yost, but I didn't read their X-Force run and I left New X-Men before they really got started on it I believe.

If it ends up being a book with Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine, I will read it all freaking day. I hope those 3 don't leave when Colossus returns.

Yeah, Stewart is doing only one issue.
Never read anything by Yost & Kyle but Aaron was the reason I was reading the book and I have zero interest in it if he isn't writing anymore.
So that means the moment Bachalo leaves Uncanny for good, I'll be done with the X-Men again.

Even though it's going to be sad to see Aaron no longer on the title, I'll stick with it for the first arc. Plus, I just dropped Wolverine & the X-Men (the first issue just didn't wow me without Aaron writing it).