The Gala event kicked off yesterday. I heard that there was some ROMY wallpaper in a few panels, but since I only tune in to Hellions, I didn't see it. It makes sense Gambit would avoid Sinister at a party.
To that same effect, you'd think the same thing about Apocalypse too? I can see why he stuck around. Rogue was in "hurt" but what reason would he want to stay around him, and by extension his wife? You think if I had beef with some dude, my wife would be like: "Cool honey, do your thing - but I'm going to stick around and see what happens". That's not a failing of the character or franchise. That's a writer forcing a narrative and editorial staff not caring enough to pull back annoyingly inaccurate ideas that just don't work.
I never liked the fact that historically the X-Men have only by one demo - but I understood it - at least to a point. The hobby was vastly supported and patronized by a specific demographic. If only that demo is reading - chances are the same demo would end up producing it later. That makes sense with anything. Music genre, food, etc. But that hasn't been the case for a couple of
decades now. I know for a fact people from all walks and ilks have pitched to write the X-Men - mostly after XTAS created millions of new reading fans (something the movies never did). Yet somehow the X-Men didn't get their first full-time woman writer until Liu's 2012 books (X-23 & Astonishing X-Men) and black writer until 2019 with Bryan E Hill.
To their credit - they did employ Fabian Nicieza heavily from the 90s into the 00s. You might be able to argue the pool was shallow in the 90s - but until the 10s? At this point, it's not a shallow talent pool problem - it's hiring habits. People naturally put on people that they know - and people tend to know others similar to themselves. That's why HR is supposed to step in to make sure this doesn't become a trend, esp in large corporations. This problem continues today in comics.
Why I bring all this up? Simple. For the word "overcorrection". Marvel isn't stupid. It's not hard to stand back and look at the company and see that this inclusion and diversity effort is new territory for them. Before they got jumped on they took what arguably is their biggest franchise and flooded it with individuals that would better suit their narrative. I have zero problems with people getting a shot at the big stage. That's not the issue at all. It's who they are choosing. It's not their aspects that has me shaking my head - it's their backgrounds and track records. Some of these writers have either little or no experience in these types of books - and what they do have tends to be middling, at best. Most of them are decent writers but it appears, no one is saying "no" to some of the less inspired story ideas.
It's no wonder why these characters are written the way they are - as if the person behind the pen doesn't understand them or isn't being properly directed. Or perhaps, they're doing exactly what's intended. Who knows? But the stories we're getting don't feel like they are coming from imaginations birthed from comics. Most of this feels like the result of watching a lot of XTAS or other shows like Wix and then writing fan-fiction based on those impressions. Then we're returning to "people hiring people that they know" instead of it being based on resumes.
This is why we get stories where we see one of the X-Men's most agile characters falling in a hole or sliding uncontrolled down a hill.