I'm pretty excited to see this title coming out in the next couple of months. I mean it has Rachel and Lorna in it, so of course it looks like it'll be good. Plus I've enjoyed the stuff Leah Williams has written so far.

To start off the hype, here's an alternative cover for issue 2 that just got released.

X-Vampires 1.0

Should bring back Jubliee in this book.

Polaris, Rachel & Northstar are the biggest reasons why I want to read this book.

I can usually tell what to expect from the quality of someone's work by not only their previous works, but their twitter timeline as well.

Both are pretty groan inducing, so, not much to expect there.

~Walks in looking for Rachel~

~walks out after finding Rachel~

~Shakes head because it still looks better then their official redesign for Rachel~

@koays: Pffft....what's wrong man, you don't like your favorite female character looking like a straight up dude??

What's wrong with you??

@cattlebattle:

Damn, you are the x-prognostic in disguise which x-fans needed for a long time lol. Just kidding. What do you mean by "groan-inducing" for this book btw?

@cattlebattle: Not now Cattle, Im having a existential crisis within my inner Rachel fanboy....

Not a fan of Williams' writing. Not cool with the redesigns either. For some reason the subject matter is a bit difficult as well. Xfactor could be done better in my opinion

Yeah, I kinda agree with this one. For some reason, I am getting vibes of Tini's Excalibur.

I am not a fan of Leah Williams....

To be honest she's touched X-Men 3 times and none of them wow me.

X-Men Gold Annual- She gave us Brian Braddock and Meggan's daughter and a mini Excalibur reunion. I love all of those characters and that run but the issue is a 6 out of 10 with alot of points given to it just because it broke up the poor story structures of the Guggenheim monster.

Otherwise nothing about the story made you really want to go back and read Excalibur and it's plot was utterly forgettable

X-Men Black Emma Frost- Her best outing as an X-writer, where the bulk of the issue is Emma walking through a building KOing office workers as she walked up the steps. It's a nice issue....but it's not very strong for an Emma story *much like all the Black issues*. Everything from Emma to Shaw to the guest starring X-Men seemed under done with everything lacking the depth or the intrigue of a chess master taking over the Hell Fire Club.

It's one of the better X-Men Black issues but one of the weakest Emma Frost stories. But hey maybe you can blame it on it being a one-shot.

X-Tremist- Wtf. I mean ignoring the shock value of the whole "locked in a basement" plot. Was there really any substance to the book at all? Blob and Betsy? Ok...I guess.

Iceman and Jubilee lacked any real character. The dialogue was terrible. The plot and mystery drew nobody in. And somehow Northstar being the "straightman" (ha) on the team is what made her look forward to writing that character.

The other two issues were forgettable but had there moments despite that. Here we have a 5 issue mini where the team comes into it with a specialized role and the book still ends up coming off as standing out more for bland character writing and with shocking swerves to draw your attention before returning to bland character writing..... I mean it's not even a question that this was the worst Age of X-Man book...and that whole event is struggling for a 4/10.

And yet they give her X-Factor which is a book with another specialized team and who's solicits point to more shocking swerve writing....I mean if you look at interviews and discussions of X-Tremist and then you turn around and look at what she says about X-Factor it's alot of the same flavor.

As far as I can tell she's a very shallow writer for the X-Men. And maybe it works better for Gwenpool and Maryjane....but as far as I can tell she's going into this with an average of 5 issues for her longest written series and their both borderline parody books......I see no reason to trust her with one of the more important story elements of Dawn of X, or with a group of characters who ALL need help and characterization....

Smh....I mean to be honest, it just feels like she really wanted to write a detective X-Men book and they finally let her and now fans of all those characters need to pucker their cheeks.....I wasn't concerned at first, but the more I look into her style in and outside of the X-Men the less impressed I am. Add to ALL OF THAT that she was pretty much launched by Tini who's got the best line-up currently and is still managing to be bad....smh another day another time I get to be scared for Rachel.

I kinda skimmed the Age of X-Man. Never really thought it was going work in the first place. Williams's annual was meh with or without Guggenheim's Kitty. The only good thing about that issue was that the cover was an homage to Excalibur zzzzzz.

@koays: lol I actually liked all three of those! I found them charming and entertaining.

Go fig that you didn’t.

How could they figuratively or literally be "charming"? I mean...... How? lol

@ashetdust: No....I mean seriously no. Emma Frost sure...cant knock it because its harmless and and short.

But wtf, are you seriously gonna defend whatever the hell Xtremist was trying to do?

@koays: @vishop_: I liked the romance between Betsy and Blob. It was sweet. Heart warming really. It wasn’t that bad at all.

Guess I’m just a romantic!

@ashetdust: you liked this.....

-_- We are no longer Vine friends

@koays: omg, so romantic! ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

...

Okay, yeah I think that picture is a bit over done. But I really did enjoy the developing romance between the two characters. It was unexpected and it’s fun how two people can come together over a shared experience.

Something like not being able to see their feet unless they bend way over.

@ashetdust: The two eternal love birds. Blob and Psylocke xD xD xD

@ashetdust: ....was that a joke about Betsy's boobs? You know what dont answer that were not speaking anymore

Well I can assuredly say that Blob has bigger xD

@vishop_: We arent speaking either

Williams is absolutely the wrong writer to tackle this book. I think we all know what she will focus on instead of the actual plot and giving answers.

I still say this is going to be a good series regardless of the naysayers.

I guess we’ll see.

Nay I say.

Sigh...and Rachel walking around looking butch as hell.

Oh well....Leah gonna Leah

Smfh...I realize I haven't ranted about this publicly yet....but Leah Williams really gives me no faith that this book will be good.

I want Kelly Thompson back on X-Men and Leah Williams back on....whatever drugs made them think that the "Amazing Mary-Jane" writer who is soooo excited to write the book because of NORTHSTAR of all people, should be writing this series.

Keep the cast the same...just give me Kelly Thompson

@koays: You seem over-apologetic for Kelly Thompson. What did you think of her before?

@pyrofn: I always liked her.....I was just underwhelmed with her Mr. & Mrs X/Gambit and Rogue runs in comparison to her Jessica Jones and Hawkeye stuff.

Like she wrote a likeable Quire in West Coast Avenger....that's nearly impossible.

Then you add in that she worked on the build up toward and first 10 issues of Uncanny Disassembled....she speaks for herself.

I don't usually pay attention to writers outside of X-Men, so when you've got a Candra, Mojo and Shiar story back to back I take notice...the fact that she wrote 3 outside books I've actually enjoyed makes me see that she knows the franchise AND has serious talents to bring to the table.

I mean she used Cerise and Candra.....WHO WOULD USE CERISE AND CANDRA??? And got 2 pretty solid stories out of them. That's saying something.

Marvel's whole thing write now is pandering finding new ways to pander to SJW's (after the Marvel Now era backfired) and it seems to be hiring female writers and other minorities. All of that is fine....but when you have an EXPLICITY talented female writer who has knowledge and interest in a brand and you REMOVE her from that franchises division but hire a person with no experience and questionable knowledge.....it confounds me.

That little faction of Rosenberg, Thompson & Brisson could've rebuilt the X-Men brand judging by their work leading up to Extermination. And if you include the Uncanny run....they kinda did.

Leah Williams though doesn't know who most of her characters are and seems to only be excited about writing about Northstar and Dakken in a love triangle. I mean she literally said that she was excited about writing him because of her Age of X-Man title....which barely featured him and then said how she didn't want to write Polaris in her book.

So subtracting polaris we have a book where the writer isn't even excited about its plot and the cast has an eyebrow raising number of LGBTQ members where the only person who is 100% straight is the guy with so many eyes he may count as disabled.

It's so gimmicky it hurts....but everyone still loved the line up and cast. But when you have an inexperienced writer it doesn't inspire confidence that it will move beyond what people see at first glance.

Idk. I just feel like whatever Marvel planned to accomplish with Leah, they could've done the same with Thompson and had my faith because her resume back her up

@koays: That makes sense overall. From the sounds of it, Leah could have been on the right track had this been a solo book, where she could take focus on a couple of characters, rather than an entire team. And to be fair, Northstar, for what little he was in Age of X-Man, was the most interesting character in the end due to him losing his husband because of X-Man's teleporting him to his fan fic world. I think if she had focused on that instead of rat mama and Bloblocke, we could have had a decent story. Jubilee could have also been really interesting had she remembered her baby earlier. Maybe make a story where she opposes her team by trying to free the rat mother earlier and get her out while the X-Tremist chase them.

Yeah, I think Leah probably did have something good in mind in that book, focused on the wrong things.....

I think the key to Leah's success for a marginally decent book (because I have as little faith as you do) would be to linking a conflict to a specific character's arc. It doesn't sound like that will be the case, but there is a chance she could succeed if she plays things correctly. She has an entire quarantine to plan this all out, so its not like she won't have the time to flesh out her ideas.

@pyrofn: Yea see my faith just goes out the window though when you remember how bad Age of X-Man was and realize EVERYTHING in her book made it the worst every month.

She gave us this awesome preview with JDW saying how this was going to be the book looking at the behind the scenes of Krakoa. And show the team working with the 5!

And then we get her talking about it....

Williams also worked with Hickman and White to put together the X-Factor lineup. She chose Northstar after becoming attached to the character while writing this summer’s Age of X-Man: X-Tremists miniseries — and she says that one other character from that run, Blob (AKA Frederick J. Dukes), will return in X-Factor as well.

“His new role (thanks to Ben Percy and Josh Cassara!) is perfect,” Williams said, “and gives Freddy a bigger path threading through all our books.”

&

Williams has been coordinating with other X-Men writers on the “X-Slack,” which she says became her “happy place,” along with the “‘trash queer squad’ Discord server where Tini Howard, Vita Ayala [Age of X-Man: Prisoner X, Morbius the Living Vampire], and I act like shitlord fangoblins freely.”

&

Lol.....Marvel has removed her C2E2 comments from the web....

I may over hate her....it's just not the person I want writing Rachel Summers and Hope Summers first title together and describing Rachel as "the teams James Dean"....essentially meaning she's there to be a wise ass.

Sigh....we'll see

Lol.....Marvel has removed her C2E2 comments from the web....

Didn't she say something about periods???

This is indeed pertinent information!

@koays: You have been overly-obsessing over this subject! What did she say at C2E2?!

Lol there was this tangent about not getting Polaris. Trini Williams is her besty (figures...) a bunch of...well feminine humor (during the women of Marvel panel)....she didnt want to write Polaris and had to ask people what her character was....idk what else, my rage kinda cooled down so I put this behind me.

Whenever we finally get this 42pg issue I am officially ready to be wow'd or to take a 11am swig of tequila. Bring it.

so Polaris will experience menopause??

Since there's talk of X-Factor, maybe you all may know who created this, why, or could decipher it...

I ran into this very interesting photo manip poster of X-Factor's Gambit, titled "the most important version of Gambit you'll ever see" from Pinterest. I have no idea what these edits are supposed to mean, it feels like a puzzle or riddle. Any suggestions?

Above is the MODIFIED version with enigmas, below is the plain non-text ORIGINAL

@cattlebattle: Leah Williams locked a pregnant rat woman in her basement....if you told me we were getting daily updates on Polaris, Aurora and Rachel synching cycles I'd believe it.

@teamgxone:It's from Peter David's "All New X-Factor".

Why do you know this?

@cattlebattle: Lol I meant the thing from extremist but ima roll with it....she totally has a saw situation set up in her basement for people with disabilities.

LOL, you are the only poor soul on the planet that read that crap, well, you and like 40 people on Reddit.

@cattlebattle: Smh the scary thing is that the people on Reddit actually liked it

But that edit is not. My question is about the weird edit with all the symbols and shit.

@teamgxone said:

Just laying out all the pieces here to see if it makes any sense:
There's the Greek letter, Psi, in place of traditional playing card symbols
Infinity loop
Phoenix emblem on the whole team
7 diamonds in colors yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, red and shiny white
and the mask on Warlock is an Illuminati thing, I think

I mean, without context it could mean anything. Probably has something to do with a fanfic or maybe someone's trying to build an X-Men card game or something.

@thunderscream said:

@teamgxone said:

Just laying out all the pieces here to see if it makes any sense:

There's the Greek letter, Psi, in place of traditional playing card symbols

Infinity loop

Phoenix emblem on the whole team

7 diamonds in colors yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, red and shiny white

and the mask on Warlock is an Illuminati thing, I think

I mean, without context it could mean anything. Probably has something to do with a fanfic or maybe someone's trying to build an X-Men card game or something.

A few days ago, I found out this IS related to not only a fan work, but its the animator's edit, who is launching the fan collab Marvel Universe I've discussed. LOL I hope she doesn't see this thread, I believe this was not intended for the general public yet. Knowing now this is her fan edit, I know now what this is... for the most part.

This probably isn't even Gambit as we know him... kinda like, it IS Remy, but yet it's not Remy at the same time. Anyway, this has been answered now.

COLOR SCANS!!!

@koays: Mine beats you! Mwhahahahahaha

@vishop_: the hell???

Is that Jubilee in that one panel??

@cattlebattle: Nah, Sage