Writer: Matthew Rosenberg / Artist: Carlos Gomez / Marvel

“Rahne Sinclair didn’t have a place in this world.”

The tragedy of mutant existence comes with constant violence. The X-Men choose to fight this struggle head on, but life on the front lines takes its tolls.  At the end of the day, everyone wants to to be accepted – to be normal. In the previous issue, the desire for a normal life led Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane to walk away from the X-Men.  By story’s end, however, Dani Moonstar collapsed in agony as she felt Wolfsbane die.

Wolverine mourns in his own way.  On the day of the funeral for Wolfsbane, Logan decides to skip the services in favor of some direct action.  While those who knew Rahne the best, memorialize her in a solemn ceremony: Wolverine takes another route. Once again using their prisoners like a backup team, Wolverine takes the ninja Kwannon on a quick mission to bring justice to Wolfsbane’s murderers. Using Kwannon’s psionic abilities, they track the assailants to a small house full of mid-twenties bro-bro’s. Wolverine forces Kwannon to use her powers to link his mind to theirs in order to see what happened to Wolfsbane. Seeing their ignorance and entitlement revealed in a park attack, Wolverine pulls out a bag of weapons and begs them to “Please, fight back.” Before he can get started, however, the O.N.E. raid the house in search of mutants and not mutant murderers. 

The issue boasts a strong script that splits the narrative along the parallel mourning of Wolverine with Kwannon and the other X-Men. Whereas the others choose to grieve together, Logan is the loner who works through his emotions with action. Most interestingly, however, is the subtle way in which Rosenberg shows the diminishing rift between the ideologies of Wolverine and Cyclops. Since bringing Logan aboard the team as an advisor, and then dissolving X-Men leadership into a committee, Scott’s post-resurrection persona veers closer to guerilla Scott rather than boy scout Slim.  In the opening scene, although he is dressed for Rahne’s funeral while Logan medicates with whiskey, Scott still pours himself a drink trying to convince Logan to attend the service. Ultimately, their emotions boil over into the inevitable fist fight that reveals the two are more alike these days than they would like to believe. Visually, fill-in artist Carlos Gomez holds a strong pencil next to series regular Salvador Larroca. His renderings veer more toward the stylistic leanings of early Chris Bachalo or Joe Madureira with bulkier renderings of the characters, especially Wolverine. The visuals here maintain the quality and energy of the preceding issues without the sudden jolt of a quality drop that can kill a series trajectory during a strong storyline.

Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men reboot reads like a tragic opera.  With their numbers diminishing by the day and death looming at every moment, the last X-Men are a constantly rotating crew of survivors in need of family.  The only thing that separates them from their enemies and extremists is their dedication to one another and the sacrifices they make together. So far, the “This is Forever” storyline stands as one of the more compelling mutant arcs of recent years. Scheduled to end just as the recently announced Jonathan Hickman mini-series Powers of X and Houses of X debuts in July , Uncanny X-Men may only be the beginning of a banner year for mutant-dom.

Rating: 8 out of 10 Purple Ninjas

Reading Uncanny X-Men? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.

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Takashi Doscher’s Only recently premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film festival.

The sci-fi drama is set in a post-apocalyptic world where Eva (Freida Pinto) may be the longest-lasting survivor of a mysterious air-borne pathogen virus causing the premature deaths of women. Told in non-sequential order, Only chronicles the very intimate interactions and daily lives of a couple in love as they strive to make sense of what’s happening in the world around them and life as they know it. What makes Only so significant is that it places the woman and her body at the center of the narrative, not as a sexual object, but rather as a very valuable and necessary commodity needed to maintain humanity as we know it.

In Only, the woman has the right to choose what will come of her body. In the end, she takes ownership and uses her body as a means to break free — but not in the sense that one would immediately suspect.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Doscher and Odom (who stars as Will in the film) currently running at the 2019 Tribeca Film festival, and the conversation was quite intriguing. They both agree that personal experiences in their marriages deeply influence their work, that the female body is so valuable, and that a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body is important.

What was the inspiration behind the film?

Doscher: The concept of female agency is very important to me. We live in a world where we talk about a woman’s choice, both as it pertains to reproduction as well as her health. The decision that Eva chooses to make in the end [of the film] may be a bit polarizing for some people, and they may view it as selfish. However, I think other people may view it as quite heroic. For me, the ending was a moment for her to assert her agency in a world where she has pretty much lost all agency.

In Only, the Embryo Project is an underlying theme and the female body is a hot commodity for scientific reasons for the purposes of research. In your opinion, is the current norm of freezing eggs a strategy to preserve humanity in the near future?

Doscher: That’s a very interesting question. I think that humanity will always look for a way to stick around and to survive, and technology is currently helping. It’s helping couples have children that would not have been able to otherwise. I am a firm believer in science, technology, and improving our world.

In Only, Will has a love, compassion, and commitment to protecting and hiding Eva that is unique and steadfast. What was the inspiration for showcasing this kind of love? How was this character developed?

Doscher: I always start with a core emotion, a core theme, and normally echo something that is going on in my personal life. In this case, when the film was conceived I was on a camping trip with my wife. While she’s a very strong, independent woman, when we were at this rural campsite, I began posturing and became a little bit more protective of her.

Odom: Takashi had drawn Will as an architect, and we began to talk about how men actualize their manhood. So, for this guy — it’s like, “If I can’t create medicine to heal her, I don’t have a vaccine,” and he does not have a lot of weapons, yet he wants to bring all that he has to the table. So he goes, “Here’s how I can protect her — build this bubble.” And he goes too far.

In the film, Will and Eva are not able to be sexually intimate for a long period of time, if at all. Yet, their love is still palpable. What are some of the benefits in a relationship where there is no sexual contact involved?

Odom: Great question. I had to think about how can I make love without sex. We talked about touching with the gloves on, long gazing, and thinking about ways to communicate without talking and touching.

How far are you personally willing to go for love?

Odom: In long-term relationships, it is a process of ripping off layer after layer and becoming more and more vulnerable. I think real love requires all of you. It doesn’t require all of you on the first day, but you keep walking forward. Essentially, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for love. When you think about people who have been in 50-, 60-year relationships, those are the people who you know there’s nothing they wouldn’t give or do.

What would you do differently or how would you live differently if you knew that the person that you loved only had a few days to live?

Doscher: I would like to think that I would be 100% on board with whatever she wanted to do and celebrate her as well as our love and our lives together, even if our days were shorter than either one of us would wish.

Odom: I’d try to just appreciate the present — the here and the now moments. So, there’s times when I’m looking at my wife, and I’m consciously trying to miss her while she’s here. It makes me present. It makes me cherish a simple moment, like waking up next to her on a Sunday morning. You know what I mean? 

Only’s film schedule at the Tribeca Film Festival can be found here:

https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/only-2019

This interview has been shortened for clarity and length.

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We’re not sure exactly when it started, but for years now May the 4th has been the unofficial Star Wars Day on the internet, allowing people to spread their love of the galaxy far, far away to everyone on social media. But this pun-tastic tradition is now about to become an officially recognized holiday in the state of California. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the California Legislature voted on Thursday May 2nd to officially declare May 4th as “Star Wars Day.” This is in recognition of  the Disneyland theme park’s opening of Galaxy’s Edge later this month.

As part of the announcement, a charity group that dresses as Imperial Stormtroopers (the 501st Legion, we’re guessing), along with a hot air balloon that looked a lot like Yoda, showed up at the State Capitol.

So given that Disney has theme parks in both California and Florida, why is only the Sunshine State getting Star Wars Day as an officially recognized day? Galaxy’s Edge is opening at Walt Disney World in Orlando later in the year, while California is getting it first. This is due to construction having gone a little bit faster and more smoothly at Disneyland. It’s also perfectly fitting that Galaxy’s Edge will open in the month of May, as the original Star Wars hit theaters on May 25th, 1977.

We like to imagine a future where Star Wars Day is recognized wide enough to become a true holiday. You know, with days off work and school and everything. Kids and their parents and grandparents can gather around their televisions and watch the entire saga, or just their favorite films in the series. It would be kind of like that scene in Return of the Jedi where Threepio shares the story of the trilogy thus far with the Ewoks around the campfire. This is the future we deserve.

Images: Lucasfilm 

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We’re not saying it’s possible for us to be more excited to see a Keanu Reeves’ character on the big screen this year more than John Wick, we’re just saying his character in Toy Story 4 at least has us asking the question, especially after the newest commercial for the animated film introduces us to Canada’s greatest stuntman and popular ’70s toy, Duke Caboom. He’s an action figure who can’t exactly deliver on the “action” part, but he sure can pose.

This delightful ad is our best look yet at the new Reeves-voiced toy. “Riding his powerful Caboom stunt-cycle, Duke is always prepared to show off his stunt poses with confidence and swagger,” but that’s about all he can do. As Woody finds out soon after after meeting him, “Duke has an Achilles heel: he has never been able to do the awesome stunts advertised in his own toy commercial,” and “for years, Duke has been sitting in an antique store, constantly reliving the failures of his tragic past.”

We know Keanu Reeves lived in Toronto as a kid, which is why we assume that after hockey and Alanis Morissette he’s the country’s export, so having him voice a famous Canadian stuntman is a fantastic choice on its own. But hearing him play a super silly toy full of false bravado and doubt is genuinely inspired. Despite being one of the stars of Bill & Ted, somehow Reeves’ comedic sensibilities have always been underappreciated.

So are we more excited to see Duke Caboom and his inability to do cool stunts this year more than we are the ultimate action hero John Wick? Probably not, but it’s pretty revealing we’re even thinking about it

But if we find out Duke also loves dogs all bets are off.

Toy Story 4 leaps into theaters on June 20.

Featured Image: Disney Pixar

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