Strong Guy Watch: He’s Dead
Welp, Strong Guy is dead. Remember last summer, when I was worried that he would be sacrificed in that New Mutants mini-series? Only for him to survive? Welp, that didn’t last long. The moment he returns following that mini-series, he’s needlessly killed.
Strong Guy takes the brunt of a bomb in this week’s Uncanny X-Men issue.
The issue, of course, ignores any response from Wolfsbane or Havok to the death of Strong Guy
There didn’t need to be a bomb. And he didn’t need to sacrifice himself. Neither is intrinsically important to the story at hand. It just happens. Maybe to raise the stakes of the story? Maybe to underline how dark and gritty it is?
I don’t know and I’m starting to not care. Just kill everybody I love. Why not? What have you got to lose? Just kill’em all and bask in the awesome writing skill of killing characters!
That’s how you know it’s a good comic. If a lot of characters are killed, then it’s a good comic. That’s a rule of making comics. Right? Surely that’s right.
This isn’t the end of Strong Guy Watch. It’ll come back in a year or two when he’s resurrected. Because that’s the other god damned rule: characters don’t stay dead. Unless they’re Multiple Man, my all-time favorite comic book character. When he’s killed…no wait, hold off for a second. He’s actually been killed several times now. When he was killed the last time, he’s stayed dead, and Marvel has instead put a puppet in his place.
So no, my favorite comic book characters don’t get resurrected. They get replaced by a mocking simulacrum.
There is no joy in Mudville.
———————-
Posted on February 21, 2019, in Comics, Marvel, X-Men and tagged Strong Guy, Strong Guy Watch, Uncanny X-Men. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
I’m with you, bro. And yeah, the worst part was that only Illyana seemed bothered by it. Ok, maybe you could say Jamie’s dupes didn’t really know him, and Rahne still seemed pissed at him…though I was hoping they were making progress in Dead Souls. So much for that. Alex, I guess, was having his own internal issues and was focused on making things right. But when you put it all together, for Rosenberg to ignore all those relationships at once, at such a crucial time, is pretty unforgivable.
You gotta remember, Illyana and Guido were on a single team together for five or six issues last summer. That bonds people for life!
This whole arc will probably get rolled back at the same time as Age of X-Man is my guess.
I don’t see that happening. Why even have this arc if it’s just going to get rolled back in a couple months? I think the Age of X-Man characters will be folded into this arc once that event ends…but then I have no clue.
They have got to give the writing duties to someone else. Rosenburg just isn’t a good fit for this series. They have to get someone like Claremont who would remember that the thing that made the X-men special was the characters personalities and relationships. He would get so granular with their powers and find new imaginative ways to use them. I don’t think there has been any personality growth in over 10 years. (not including X-factor)
Claremont’s day has passed. Every time Marvel has brought him back to the X-Men for a series here or there, they haven’t been good. I want to see Kelly Thompson taking the reigns of the franchise.
I agree, I just want someone who actually cares about putting time and thought into the characters again instead of just shooting for this epic, dark and gritty storyline. Stories where nothing really matters and you don’t care what happens to the characters because they might as well be card board cut outs.
Speaking of cardboard cut outs can we talk about Salvador Larocca’s art? I remember really liking his art back in the early 00’s but lately it seems like he gives up a quarter of the pages in.
Sorry for the rant, I am a big fan of Strong Guy and this was so stupid and meaningless. it also sucks because it means the he is is retired for who knows how long.
I’m with you, man! That’s why I started Strong Guy Watch, because I’m also a big fan, and this death is indeed stupid and meaningless. But I’m afraid the X-Men are long past a slower, more meaningful story direction. Which is a shame.
And yeah, I haven’t been liking Larocca’s art at all on this comic. He’s been great in the past, like his Darth Vader comic, but the art here is so jarringly bad.
Pingback: In a Little More Than 2 Years, Nearly Every Single One of My Favorite Comic Book Characters Has Been Killed | Henchman-4-Hire
Pingback: Blob Does Not Get Much of an Age of X-Man Send-Off | Henchman-4-Hire
Pingback: Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/21/19 | Henchman-4-Hire