Article: Amazing X-Men #11 Solicitation

[TSOG]

As long as it doesn't contradict it though, does it matter? Why rehash it?

It did contradict. When last seen, Heather had run away from Mac with their daughter. Now they've apparently been living together again for some time. It's totally opposite to what we last saw of the characters (Heather at least).

That was a solo book though.
The cast of Amazing X-Men is Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Iceman, Firestar, Beast, Warbird, Rachel Grey, Angel + now Colossus.
And there are only 20 pages in each of the 5 parts to the storyline.

I'm not asking for more. I'm saying apply the ones used better. Even a splash page recap would take no more space or as I said earlier, dialogue more appropriate and specific to the character(s).

Surely it's good writing to tell an engaging, logical story without excess information, that gives the reader the credit/intelligence/creativity to world build and fill in gaps themselves.

That line for anyone that's never read X-Men and has never heard of Heather & Mac before will read it as the couple had a fight and understand that.

Anyone that read Volume 4 will understand what the fight was about and get the tip of the hat.

Both audiences catered for without the loss of pages.

That's not lazy.

I disagree because we actually don't know what the fight was about. We're just told that there was one. They can't even be bothered with a basic mention. "We fought over Clare again". Five words solve several complaints; you know why, you ackowledge their kid, and you indicate that it's fairly common.

As it is, it ends up feeling like they needed Mac gone for a couple of days so they said "let's just say they had a fight". You're left to assume the reason, and because I don't see Mac as the type of walk out on someone he didn't want walking out on him, it makes no sense to me.

I stand corrected and apologise for my poor memory/maths in that case.
Still double Vol 4 though

Which is equivalent in sales by today's standard, as you stated.

But remember there are readers here who didn't read Volume 4.
Marvel Comics don't have footnotes anymore so were the writers to use that line they'd then need to explain:

• when Heather was brainwashed
• how Heather was brainwashed
• why Heather was brainwashed
• who The Master is
• how Heather came to her senses.

You've lost an entire page there, at least.

No, you don't need all of that stuff because if someone wants to find out, the material IS out there. I don't know if Marvel never ever does footnotes anymore, but restoring it to say "see Alpha Flight volume four" is hardly an insurmountable barrier, if the dialogue alone doesn't do enough to explain that she took off under a bad situation, came back, and the whole thing put a strain on their marriage.

The things I refer to, that I feel should have been handled better, are things that are NOT stated anywhere. There was nothing to suggest that Mac and Heather were back together or that Heather had a change of heart about Mac being a suitable father. It's just thrown out there out of nowhere.

That's the equivalent of saying that Amazing X-Men should acknowledge every loose end from Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, or every guest appearance Wolverine has made this month.

If they use a character from the past, yes. There's no point in having a shared universe if things that happen to a character in one book are ignored in others. I'm not expecting the writers to build on what happened in AF v4, but I do expect them to recognize that it happened and write accordingly.