So, I just heard that the upcoming Spider-Man and Wolverine comic is going to be featuring Omega Red as a villain, teamed up with Kraven the Hunter.

It comes out May 7 and, from the article, it sounds like it is set in the present From the Ashes era. Only problem: Omega Red is currently in Greymalkin prison and has been for months. How can he be there and appearing here at the same time? Is this actually current, or does this take place earlier/later in the Marvel timeline? There's something about this timeline that isn't sitting right with me. Is this even Omega Red, or are both the clone boys causing trouble? I have no idea. It isn't making any sense.

I will check it out, because it has Omega Red set to appear, but I am rather confused at the moment, if not frustrated with Marvel for not keeping track of their own characters and their continuity. Omega Red only just appeared in Sentinels, has been name-dropped in Uncanny and Adjectiveless X-men, and he appeared constantly in the Krakoa era. It's not like Marvel is reviving a character who has been gone for years. Editorial should know where he is, if he is able to be used, and should be able to tell a writer "no" in cases like this where he's being used elsewhere.

This upcoming comic also highlights a concern that I and other Omega Red fans have had ever since Arkady was thrown into Greymalkin: that Marvel is trying to walk back Arkady’s redemption arc he's been on since 2017 just so Wolverine can have someone to punch. Just because Omega Red has historically been a villain is no excuse to not respect his continuity and story arc as a character over the past several years. He was just teammates with Wolverine in the last era. Kraven the Hunter was an enemy to them both when he attacked Krakoa during Judgment Day. Wolverine and Spider-man even just had a recent team-up in Fall of X, there shouldn't be anything between those two to cause the conflict that is being teased between the two of them. Marvel should not be ignoring recent events to revert to the perceived status quo -- and this goes for all the characters involved in this upcoming book.

This is really a problem when they bring back writers who are fans of specific, older eras: they want to return back to those days of nostalgia rather than respect the character progress that has been made in the decades since they have read/wrote about these characters. Especially with regards to villains, who they almost never consider when they make stories like these. Their continuity needs to be respected the same way the hero's continuity is respected -- especially when they're involved in other storylines taking place at the same time that makes a double appearance like this very conflicting. Omega Red can't be in prison and palling around with Kraven the Hunter at the same time. You can have one or the other, not both.

We will see what this comic (which is being promoted as an ongoing) will actually do and if Marvel will respect the continuity they themselves have made or toss it aside to make money off of their cash cows at the expense of making the timeline make sense. I'm not holding my breath, though. Marvel seems to do this sort of thing when they're out of ideas and want to make quick money, falling back on the Wolverine and Spider-man zombie fanbases to save them and get guaranteed money. Unfortunately, no matter how Marvel tries to spin this as an easy jumping-on point/accessible story for new readers stories like these just never fit easy into the timeline that Marvel has and make it even harder for anyone to follow what is going on. Marvel really needs to get their act together. Continuity has to be respected.

@thealmightyemprex @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @piterelizabethdevries @stormandforge

There is not always a guarantee that a more realistic depiction of minority characters, our struggles and opression will be better when written in a realistic scenario.

Sometimes, the realistic scenario does a poor aproach in representation, while a fantasy or sci fi allegory or even a case where a minority viewer or reader identifies with a fantastical character that wasn't necessarily meant to be a metaphor for them, becomes the better received, most effective and respectful form of representation.

I am thinking primarily on the X-Men franchise as a comentary on passing, assimilation, minority opression and resistance, but other examples can be The Matrix, Nimona, the Star Trek franchise, fairy tales and their film adaptations, Dinosaurs, The Muppets...

Feel free to ad more examples.

re prev . ive seen a handful of x-men fans on here use this panel as a Gotcha! whenever people discuss the zionism of krakoa, or how claremont based his characterizations of magneto and charles off of zionists and it makes me MADDDD . one fucking panel does not negate the rest of the shit thats going on in the x-men. come on now

do not understand the "Claremont's X-Men was a very progressive book but was unfortunately a product of it's time" lens. Like he did not have to put every form of racism known to man in his comics just because it was the 80s. He did not have to have Kitty Pryde say the n word.

This guy is racist you guys just have to accept that.

It's funny, I think I've garnered a reputation for being an X-Men hater, despite X-Men taking up anywhere between 30 to 60 of my usual reading (USAgent read-through aside). I do enjoy a lot of X-Men characters and many of them are very important and personal to me; I just think that there is too much of a culture of worshipping the contributions of the likes of Claremont and Morrison, who are both immensely racist! And I do not think that Zionism can be meaningfully divorced from Magneto's character when he has actively participated in at least 3 different mutant ethnostates. Like I love the X-Men but it's difficult to talk about that love when it feels like there's a sense amongst the fandom that the X-Men are inherently more progressive / woke / leftist than the rest of cape comics, and that like, just isn't true from a basic foundational level. So I guess I'm now a public facing hater, while a lover internally.

Also, when will Marvel stop acting like Gerry Duggan is the greatest gift to comics and giving him title after title? Anyone read the latest X-Men Unlimited, with Nature Girl? 

Like, wtf.

Talk about a shining example of portraying a character with reasonable motivations/feelings acting on them in extremely over the top ways that lose her all sympathy. That’s on his writing, not her character, and its like…..caricature-ish.

Bleh. I wouldn’t have read that issue except I didn’t realize he’d written it - I already stopped following Marauders and X-Men because of him. The ableism with Shaw in Marauders was beyond the pale, and I noped out of X-Men when he had Lorna of all people making a joke about Wanda’s death, like, you do realize they thought of each other as sisters for literal years, right?

It’s still weird so MANY people love the Krakoa era…

While I agree fully X-books haven’t been stellar since 2011… (“Age of X-Man”/Rosenberg/Bendis was PARTICULARLY AWFUL!), I just don’t see how the quality has really improved THAT MUCH?

Hickmans stuff was genuinely GOOD and creative…. So was Marauders when Duggan wrote it…

But most of the titles have been pretty disappointing and more or less the same quality of the past- there was so much potential there and so many things that COULD have been done…that just wasn’t. 😐

The same problems that plagued the line then are still plaguing the line NOW- using only the A-list X-Men over and over again, rehashing more or less the same old tired nostalgic drama, instead of developing new characters and ideas…

It’s more or less the same lack of consistency in canon and lower quality writing, all while the cost of floppies go up…

“Excalibur” was disappointing…ditto for “Fallen Angels”…

Honestly watching Beast devolve into a total psychopath with cringe-worthy “EVVVVVVIL” plans has just been sad when you remember what his character USED to be. Same with Moira.

The one plus side of Krakoa- no more Scott/Jean/Wolverine love triangle overused DRAMA- is possibly being done away with for upcoming Brood drama…

We’re still getting dumb creations like “Hulkverines”…

What was the POINT of bringing back X-men from the dead, if they’re not EVEN going to use them??

“Rogue and Gambit”- one of the only pluses to come out of the dismal Kitty/Colossus drama- is currently being made toxic and horrible…

Going at Scarlet Witch AGAIN for the whole M-Day thing seemed utterly pointless…

Laura’s characterization is completely gone; this time without even Taylor to make her SOMEWHAT palatable….

IDK- I just don’t know if I am gonna stick with the X-books anymore. The one character that was kind of holding me in- Laura- I just don’t even really like anymore. She’s so far removed from KYOST version, that just…don’t even really find her interesting anymore.

Other than Storm not being “Asleep” and Synch coming back…I just can’t think of a lot of things Krakoa GAVE readers. I just keep thinking- what was the point of all of this?

anyway ceasefire doesn't mean boycotts are stopping and BDS has called for a boycott of the new captain america movie. please remember this when it comes out in two weeks. please remember this with the news articles about conservatives boycotting the film, and when those same conservatives claim the movie failed for having a black lead or "being woke".

Marvel Studios included an obscure comics character called Sabra in this movie, who is basically Captain Israel and literally had no necessary reason to be included other than Disney being zionist. this character did not need to be there at all but has been left in despite the ongoing genocide over the past year and a half. BDS put out a call to boycott it in early 2024. BDS strong.

I bring a "A non-insignificant portion of Charles' more morally grey moments in old comics i.e. having a crush on Jean is due to ableism and demonisation of wheelchair users, and by extension a part of the X-Men fandom hate of Charles is inevitably demonisation of his disability, and if he had always been walking I doubt we would be sitting here talking about how irredeemable he is nearly as much" vibe that the X-Men bloggers don't really like.