X-Men Blue Origins #1 Review From A Female Perspective: Shuts Down Representation Whilst Ironically Framing Itself as Inclusive

This was always the intention. This was the original intention. It was long overdue. Better than his father being a demon. Chris Claremont longed for this for decades.

These are a fraction of the common recycled and rehearsed lines I have heard from the small but loud group who try to justify the existence of this retcon in cultish defiance. In some extreme cases, you might even be thrown the insult TERF for daring to question, doubt or denounce the implications and collateral that such a retcon has created.

Why now write a review on this two years after it's debut? Things have only gotten worse from here in the comics performance wise and regarding narrative. It's also about time that somebody who actually belongs to the group being implicated has a say since frankly, it wasn't offered. I'm talking about women and queer women.

The comic book space is still largely male dominant and this can ring true for many of the other reviews I have read on this particular issue. It feels to me like there's a lack of critical thinking on display for this retconned narrative, perhaps a fear to even go there, and certainly there is a lack of understanding of how this implicated and impacts women.

To give a brief history which I must; the story goes that Chris Claremont, one of X-Men's most prolific writers, really wanted the character Nightcrawler aka Kurt Wagner to have two queer mothers, Destiny and Mystique. And apparently, this was prevented from happening by the Comic's Code at the time. This is a common line I have seen recycled time and again online. After decades of wanting, in 2023 two writers named Kieron Gillen and Simon Spurrier granted his wish, combined with the support of then-Editor Jordan White. Sounds very straight forward doesn't it?

Well there are two sides to every story as they say, in this case there may even be multiple sides. Chris Claremont has been one of Nightcrawler's permanent writers for a long time, but he actually is not the creator of this character. That credit must be bestowed upon the late Dave Cockrum and Len Wein. Cockrum's early sketches of Nightcrawler actually described him as being a literal demon.

Also despite the popular rehashed line that Destiny and Mystique being his parents was supposedly the original intention, people tend to omit the name Nightmare from the conversation. Nightmare was a name floated around as an option too, but Roger Stern would not allow his character, the ruler of the dimension of dreams, to be used. Nightmare was instead in Dr. Strange at the time; https://www.cbr.com/doctor-strange-destroyed-powerful-x-men-sorceress/

Ultimately, Nightcrawler's father became established by writer Chuck Austen. Nightcrawler's villainess mother Mystique gave her son the last name of her elite German husband, Baron Christian Wagner, whilst his conception was actually the product of a secret love-affair with the demonic-looking mutant Azazel who can teleport.

Therefore, Azazel is his father and yes, take note of how I used the word mutant as he isn't actually a demon contrary to popular confusion, he is a mutant who looks like one, not at all dissimilar to his son Kurt.

Again, I've heard the same recycled excuses from a loud minority that this origin clashes with Nightcrawler's religious devotion. To them, I would argue that Claremont writing Nightcrawler sleeping with his adopted sister Amanda Sefton is also very anti-Catholic and unholy.

I would even go as far as saying Nightcrawler was resembling something of a heretic and a villain in the recent Krakoa era where double standards were littered everywhere. To briefly recap; Kurt made random decisions that abided by his mommy-issue filled tendencies towards his mother Mystique. He made an entire law out of a Bible quote about mass reproduction and a law enforcing people to reproduce on an island with orgies, portrayed as intensely looking at his mother while announcing this it's worth noting.

When not having a fling with Silver Sable, he was busying himself creating a religion police which followed his own definition of Krakoa's three laws but never once made those definitions official to the rest of the mutants on the island and in Children of the Atom #1, he was part of the Quiet Council which kidnapped many children like Franklin Richards...which he never protested against.

Apologies for digressing, but it's worth pointing out that there are A LOT of canon events in X-Men that contradict Nightcrawler as a wholesome, holy and devout Catholic individual regardless so I find this argument against Azazel being his father weak personally.

Fast forward to the present where this retcon is now done and dusted, what's so wrong with it?

Many mainstream reviews point out that this retcon is framed as a positive for the LGBTQI+ community, a win that Mystique was turned into a father to impregnate her wife.

Critics gloss over it on a surface level basis without actually digging deeper than a safe bet, thumbs up headline. Many have gone so far as to call it representation for the transgender community, which is why you might encounter the occasional TERF throwaway insult if you dare go against this retcon in any manner.

Let 's dig deeper for a second because actually - yes this is that deep.

We shall remind ourselves that the X-Men staff at the helm of this retcon, those responsible for it include Chris Claremont firstly. Because this was his idea and in my humble opinion, the hysteria exerted by the loud minority in Nightcrawler's

fandom over Azazel, was arguably, largely down to his revelation that he wanted Destiny and Mystique as the parents.

Then we have Simon Spurrier and Kieron Gillen, the writers actually responsible for this retcon happening. Lastly, Jordan White, the Editor who let them run wild in doing so.

With that in mind, let's discuss the key characters that this retcon has included, affected and impacted because it wasn't just Nightcrawler. We also have Mystique, Destiny, Rogue and Charles Xavier.

Prior to this retcon and prior to Destiny having a godawful resurrection in Krakoa era which is a story for another day, Destiny was a blind, elderly lady who could see visions of what was to come. She was co-habiting with her lover Mystique, and both women are confirmed bisexual because they weren't always together, both were with men and had other children before they joined together in union.

This is where the timeline gets messy. Blue Origins chooses to bizarrely ignore their pasts, ignore Destiny's age, and kind of implies that they were always together for hundreds of years. Kurt's age is also bizarre because the retcon went from him being born decades prior to Rogue in a different era to only being a year apart in age from her (five and four) which also doesn't make sense but again, I digress.

Sidenote - Rogue's origins are an absolute mess regarding timeline and having multiple variations and ages for her that contradict each other, so it's curious that no writers takes interest in this the way they have taken interest in her brother, Nightcrawler.

Speaking of Rogue, before this retcon happened she was the only child of Destiny and Mystique by means of adoption. Why Claremont chose to do this if he wanted Kurt to be their child all along as he claims - I will never understand this. Especially in hindsight with these disastrous retcon changes.

Rogue was an abused child found in the woods by Mystique after Destiny had a vision that she would grow up to be very powerful, and they could use her as their weapon. So these villainesses took the child in and unexpectedly for them, became genuinely attached to her. But they never ever forgot their reasoning as Claremont reminds us time and time again that they adopted her for her powers specifically. She was an object to be used;

Classic X-Men V1 #44

This wouldn't be out of character for Mystique considering she abandoned her human son Graydon Creed, and threw her second son Nightcrawler off a cliff (albeit, this was retconned and reframed to be a reluctant move). But it was clear that Mystique's love for Rogue always came with strings attached. And a lot of abuse physically and mentally as she became an adult who Mystique could no longer control.

It's sad that post-Blue Origins, Claremont in his Uncanny X-Men 700 mini (2024) had Mystique and Destiny abandon Rogue like she was nothing. The daughter whose skin she and Irene lamented over not being able to touch...well now that Rogue has control over her powers and they can finally do so, they don't even care for some bizarre reason. Nightcrawler and his retcon became Claremont and co.'s priority here over a family storyline we were already following for decades that has now been tossed so easily.

It would seem that Claremont wants Rogue to be treated just as poorly as Kurt for "equality" purposes and because said small minority of his loud fandom whined for years that Mystique never loved him (ignoring that she was cruel to all her children and a narcissist).

Now the narrative has been reframed so that Mystique and Destiny should only ever love each other.... hmmm, we'll revisit this one and how the opposite is true because of this retcon. A retcon where Mystique very much treats Nightcrawler better and hence the negative implications of this new messaging.

The older comics painted a different picture;

X-Men Unlimited Vol 1 #4

As for who Destiny was, well like I said, she was elderly. Mystique had rejuvenating cells due to being a shapeshifter, meaning she aged extremely slowly and was close to immortal.

Destiny did not, so when it came to raising Rogue, Mystique was painted as the more hands-on parent while Destiny was a calm by-stander who was quite passive and understanding in comparison. She even had no problem with Rogue dating boys as a teenager, which contrasted with Mystique, and greatly contrasts with who this retcon made Destiny today;

Destiny before versus after Krakoa era and the Blue Origins retcon, a complete shift.

The changes made by X-Men Blue Origins have frankly not benefitted Destiny and Mystique at all. It has actually damaged this couple and someone else's representation ironically. Because who were Destiny and Mystique for a lot of queer women to begin with?

They were the couple who adopted a child that couldn't reproduce together. That kind of representation is very true to form for many queer women in real life. So erasing this and erasing Mystique's pregnancy with her son from a previous relationship was highly controversial because I for one, don't believe that a male character getting biological blood-ties favoritism is worth erasing someone else's representation. And I'm all for adding new representation in media but not at the expense of erasing a pre-existing one.

More than that, these changes have turned Destiny from a passive wife who just gave Mystique information and let her process it her way, into a master manipulator and an abusive wife. In turn, Mystique is abusive back to her;

So this previously fun villainess couple who at the very least were deeply and sweetly in love and always on the same side, are now incredibly toxic and depressing to read.

Rogue came from a home where she was beaten with a belt,, feeling unwanted and abused, not dissimilar unfortunately to some real life foster and adoption situations.

She ran away and was taken in by this mutant couple who yes were villainesses with an agenda and viewed her like a prize they won. But they did do the bare minimum of providing her with a safe haven and a non-toxic environment. This retcon has changed this...begging the question why did Rogue not run away again? Also, well...Destiny's appearance has been shallowly and bizarrely retconned and de-aged too. These changes are honestly...uncomfortable, unnecessary and pathetic.

According to the Blue Origins retcon, it was Destiny who instructed Mystique to sleep with Azazel and she told Azazel where to find her wife. A bizarre prophecy that made Kurt a messiah but at the same time...he's not really so what was the point?

Mystique's powers had to be changed from aesthetic shapeshifter into "gene shaper" where by mixing sperm with her own dna, she acts as a cocktail blender and can as the title suggests, shape genes. So why was her first son Graydon, born human at? The reason she was repulsed by him.

And why does Mystique keep complaining about wanting a daughter (to control) when it sounds like she had the capability of making one all along and could have worked on that with Irene? Bizarre and nonsensical. So the Yin and Yang that Mystique and Destiny represented is now Yang and Yang and they undercut each other as characters too.

When fans like myself pictured a possibility of Destiny once again returning to the role she once had with Mystique and Rogue, I guarantee it wasn't envisioned like this, where she is unrecognizable and not even worth having around anymore. A far cry from the final beautiful scene shared between Rogue and Destiny during her brief resurrection in Necrosha, the last time we saw Destiny in character in my opinion.

All these recent retcons and upgrades to Mystique's powers for Nightcrawler's sake also undermines Rogue's role in the family because she is getting dangerously close to doing what Rogue does as her recent solo unfortunately added that Mystique can copy powers. So we are now seeing the adopted daughter's entire purpose and role in this family be eradicated.

Her entire reason for being adopted was changed to Destiny blackmailing Mystique to take pity on a four year old that was going to be pimped out. Which was a disgusting, unnecessary line and change. Tone-deaf and very derogatory to Rogue. So poor Rogue's origins got changed.... to service and uplift Nightcrawler;

The reality is, Mystique's personality, her relationship with her wife and daughter, her own history, her motivations in life, ALL of it got overhauled just for Nightcrawler.

She has been made a victim of her own wife AND of Charles Xavier because apparently, according to this retcon, it was Destiny's idea to have Xavier erase their memories of Kurt (Destiny was slyly keeping notes behind her wife's back - strange that Rogue never absorbed THOSE memories after the countless times she absorbed Destiny).

And it was retconned that Mystique never ever did anything wrong to Kurt. Pre-retcon Mystique struggled to accept a child that looked so much like herself. But suddenly she is calling him perfect, very loving toward him, gushes about him and she NEVER threw him off a cliff period.

They brought Destiny into this retcon to pin all the blame for Mystique's transgressions on her and Xavier. Rogue's foster mother and the woman who raised her has been altered beyond recognition. They both have to the point Rogue has now sadly been living a lie with her childhood now cast under a shadow because of Nightcrawler.

Her adoption was turned into an argument all about him, her story is no longer her own anymore.

Marvel have also been bizarrely pushing for hatred toward Xavier, they removed his disability rep (thanks for that Marvel because we definitely needed more representation erasure which you're getting good at these days). They turned him in to a full fledged villain and a scapegoat in this instance to make Mystique a whiny victim.

So job done, Mystique and Destiny but especially Mystique, can now never ever be blamed for not loving Kurt because big bad Xavier still has their emotions switched off supposedly.

As for Rogue, Mystique's emotions were never turned off for her but ironically she is extremely abusive to Rogue in comparison to Nightcrawler. Mystique now didn't really want her, not even for her powers (she didn't need it anymore she's a gene shaper) and Destiny forced her hand in adopting Rogue. What made Rogue special is now gone.

This retcon has callously reframed it that Mystique is now not being consistent like she once was but rather, these writers made Mystique shower unconditional love and favoritism on her biological son with Destiny while she is now exclusively abusing and the cruel to the daughter she adopted.

Mystique has stabbed Rogue, shot Rogue, tried to seduce her husband, slapped her for saying she wanted the cure to have a baby. Mystique has called Rogue not Kurt to bail her out of jail multiple times and screamed at Rogue when Rogue got done with her.

Bishop: The Last X-Man Issue #16

Sorry but what were these X-Men staff thinking and what kind of message do we now have for adopted and foster representation that Rogue proudly carries? For a so-called inclusive comic book for minorities, they sure do care the most about blood ties and mommas boy narratives, not what really matters.

Then we can't forget Chris Claremont's problematic narrative where he once had Mystique save Nightcrawler over Rogue in a simulation which seemed to imply the old "blood is thicker than water" trope unfortunately.

Uncanny X-Men 1963 Issue #177

Adopted rep is not these writer's forte. Claremont had Nightcrawler sleep with his adopted sister Amanda Sefton which is quite invalidating to Amanda and similarly, Simon Spurrier, one of the Blue Origins authors, had an issue where Nightcrawler is pictured having a fantasy about sleeping with his adopted sister Rogue. And sadly I have witnessed some Nightcrawler fans defend the character for these actions;

Legion of X #3

Are women treated well in this retconned comic period? The answer is no. Is it misogynistic? Honestly, I think so. Some of the scenes featuring Destiny and Mystique seem particularly graphic, objectified, unnecessary and feels very fetishized for the male gaze in the guise of being for the girls and pro LGBT....yeah, it's not.

And for all the inclusivity people claim this retcon has, why then do we have four men essentially dictating a queer female narrative featuring adoption as if we are back in 1980?

Why are we not allowed to have a voice for our own representation? Ironically these female characters are being bent out of shape used as pawns to boost a male character.

Can Marvel and X-Men be any more tone-deaf? It's really not fulfilling X-Men's mission statement from my perspective, and we simply do not need men acting as sympathetic voices dictating for us in this day and age when they have their own ego-driven agendas and ideas clearly.

Discourse has swirled that Mystique's creator refers to her as Sherlock Holmes and wishes to write her as Sherlock Holmes when he gets the chance next. So we are going from mild inspiration to Mystique now needing to be a man to be successful and using her shapeshifting powers as an excuse?

Rogue has taken Mystique's powers from time to time too, so what does it all mean?

Moreover, it really feels like the writers are kicking Rogue to the curb in her own family. She has been excluded from her family during Krakoa era and in the Marvel Pride issues for two years in a row and Nightcrawler has been unfairly spotlighted in covers or she just isn't present at all;

I'm tired of seeing Rogue being used to serve other characters over her own story by the way. We also have this problem when it comes to Rogue being subjected to uplifting Magneto, a man who has treated her horribly and used her for sexual gratification when mind you, she has been in a vulnerable state of mind, in a vulnerable power dynamic (student/teacher) and she is younger than his children.

Also, if people are really intent on saying well Claremont should have the final say he never made bad calls, I would argue that he has made bad calls.

I think his decision to have 18 year old Rogue sexually assaulted by multiple anti-mutant guards in a jail cell in Genosha, was tone deaf, unnecessary and unfair. People were so concerned that he had Rogue get raped but he clarified that she was groped/molested...as if that makes it so much better.

Uncanny X-Men #236

And as I've said, Nightcrawler has now never experienced half the pain and suffering that Rogue has because his experiences got retconned to give him a happy ending.

Rogue has been written like an NPC to just be happy for him, unfeeling for herself and happy for everyone. She has no rational human reactions to the trauma and unfair changes and treatment the writers put her through. Rogue is a doormat with the excuse of being tough as nails. Then again, ruining other characters timelines and origins in the process clearly wasn't their concern.

There have been whispers that the performance of this retcon wasn't good and that it hasn't been well received in many spaces online - this is certainly visibly in the comment sections of most YouTube videos on the topic.

Apparently. Mystique's solo also didn't perform as hoped and surprise surprise, it has been announced that Gail Simone will need to shove Mystique and Destiny back into Rogue's narrative since I presume, Marvel are hoping she will help them sell again.

Kurt also clings to her narrative, he is living in Rogue and her husband's house with a couple of other X-Men as Rogue & Gambit try to deal with their own relationship and raise the displaced mutant children in their care. So Rogue starting a family and at the bare minimum trying to ignore this retcon that insulted her and severed her origins and ties with her mothers - isn't even allowed and once again she will be held back and used to uplift others.

Should Rogue and Gambit have children any day soon in the comics, having them named after Mystique and Destiny as some alt universe versions have done, will certainly no longer make sense, that's for sure.

Do better Marvel. This needs to be undone, and it will never get better until you do. I don't care who you make Nightcrawler's father become, but you shouldn't have made this our problem and created so much collateral damage that this has become the hated retcon to date.

No female characters should ever be changed beyond recognition in my opinion or have their narratives undercut to boost a male character either, simple as that.

Justice for the women, queer women and adopted rep that you burned without thinking or caring about the consequences.

I would give this zero out of five stars if I could.