X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

Emma Frost hasn’t lost her touch but Scott Summers is still a bit of a jerk.

While Scott is right, they all need to learn self-defense and stuff, he’s not actually the nicest of teachers about it. It’s all a little too paramilitary and he’s doing his reputation no favors. Emma, on the other hand, is downright sneaky and manipulative. She knows there is something more to Ben’s powers and she was going to get it out of him one way or another. 

The hard thing about creating new characters that are mutants is coming up with new powers. Ideally, you want stuff that hasn’t been done before to make them unique. Ben is a ‘transmorph’ or some such. He takes on a pleasing, safe, image and gives off some kind of chemical hormone which together makes people like him. It’s like Gambit’s ‘charm’ ability, or a ‘reverse empathy’ ability, only it has a physical aspect. It’s kinda cool and allows the artists to have a little fun with the whole thing.

Ben is also gay, something we learn in this issue, and it’s treated quite well. Emma just wants him to work on his powers, she couldn’t care less about his sexual preferences as it doesn’t define him as a mutant. And since mutants can easily be used as an analogue for homosexuals, the parallels are there. It’s also good to be learning more about these new characters, it allows us to get invested in them.

I just hope we’re not getting invested in them just to see them get killed off later down the line.