#logan behavior

There's definitely resentment there, because Logan was and is a selfish jerk. It's refreshing honesty, and very Scott Summers. He's remembering all the different ways in which Logan made his life harder, acted like a creep, or spited him needlessly, yet Logan's death is keeping Scott up at night.

I love this flashback to after the Dark Phoenix Saga (I think) and it makes pretty clear that Logan transferred his idealisation from Jean to Scott. Scott is standing at his wife's grave and somehow Logan manages to make literally everything about him. At least he acknowledges his grief and says 'sorry for your loss.' Wait, no that doesn't happen actually. The bastard just tells him he's not allowed to quit because of his psychosexual obsession. I wonder what Scott is thinking as he walks off. An optic blast in the back would be somewhat justified (and funny) but Scott usually has better self control than that.

He considers the aftermath of Fatal Attractions, when Magneto performed field surgery on his bones. Logan definitely wasn't used to not being immortal and the apex murderer. His recovery was long and his whining intense.

Is Scott biting Magneto there?

Scott approaches Logan as he's punishing himself in the Danger Room and echoes his words back to him, offering him a hand up. He remembers the heartwarming threats and the good times shared together fighting for their lives. Brothers in grief and violence, rivals who are simultaneously paternal figures to each other.

Scott is very prone to blaming himself for things going wrong, and Logan was always there to remind him. I don't think he's being fair on himself but he never really is. Blaming Scott for things is an X-Men sport. He repeats Logan's insane words for a third time - 'we don't get to quit.' Scott cries in the snow on all fours outside the base where Logan was repeatedly tortured and dehumanised, but he doesn't quit.

Scott imagines what Logan's funeral would be like, and he's not far off. He thinks hard about an appropriate way to honour his memory. The answer is obvious - alcohol and violence. I have no doubt Scott knows exactly where every mutant hater watering hole is, but it's funnier to imagine him wandering around until he finds one.

I don't know if I see Logan as quite so Freudian myself, though I think it's a fascinating analysis.

I think for me, there's an element of the Scott-Logan and Jean-Logan dynamics that start off interestingly separate. Maybe it's because, initially, Jean never really seemed to return Logan's feelings. But there wasn't as much of a sense of "triangle" back in the early Claremont issues for me.

Logan was attracted to Jean, went after her, was rebuffed, and kept going. He had moments with Scott, like when he was judging Scott for not grieving her enough in the Savage Lands, when she and Hank were presumed dead. But generally that seemed to be a separate thing.

Whereas with Scott, we had the sort of maverick vs. leader dynamic. Scott is younger, more uptight, less experienced (in a military capacity, anyway), less traditionally macho, and Logan clashed with the idea of taking his orders. But pretty quickly, they did fit into a sort of bickering respect - Logan threatening Hawkeye when the latter insulted Cyclops, going to Scott during the whole demerit thing in general.

They do fall pretty quick into that "I'll follow you to hell, bitching all the way" sort of dynamic. And most of that seems to develop without Jean present (she wasn't, after all, officially part of the team at first, then she was presumed dead, then she was actually dead.)

In the 90s, things get a bit murkier, because the love triangle heats up and becomes a little more reciprocal on Jean's part. But Jean and Scott had gone through all of their real emotional turmoil in X-Factor, when Logan wasn't around, so by the 90s, they were pretty solid. Then you get things mashed together a bit.

And also during the time apart, Logan's had his own shift from stab-happy wild man to that more noble drifter cowboy meets Kurosawa type. So we get a shifted dynamic, where Logan's attraction to Jean becomes a lot more overtly romantic, in a certain courtly way. We get a lot more emphasis on the "she makes me want to be a better person" element of their dynamic here too.

Meanwhile, the 90s also give us Scott at what's probably his most emotionally and morally stable place. He's past his trainwreck stage (and Logan didn't get to see most of that), and has settled into a confident upright leader.

So we essentially end up with a kind of Lancelot, Guinevere, Arthur thing. (Honestly, I've always thought Jean made the better King Arthur, but we're talking Logan's perspective. And honestly, I've always thought that Logan has a bit of an issue with toxic masculinity and overly-rigid gender roles.)

So while there's still the sparky bickering between Logan and Scott, for the most part, it's comfortable. Any attraction Logan feels gets sublimated into respect (kind of like his dynamic with Captain America. I tend to assume most people are at least a little in love with Steve Rogers, and Logan's no exception.).

But it all sort of melds together into Logan being romantically in love with Jean, sublimated attraction-into-respect for Scott, and then ultimately idolizing their relationship on a whole. Which has the awkward effect of putting Scott on a pedestal, because he's the man Jean chose over Logan. So of course, he must be a paragon of virtue.

(The fact that Scott's trainwreck tendencies are still there pops up occasionally, but generally goes unnoticed.)

But then we get Apocalypse - and a Scott stripped bare of his illusions. But still possessed of his moral code. Mostly. He's wounded, but still pretty forthright. Then we have the situation with Emma. And Jean's death. And that's when things get a lot...sparkier. The bickering starts getting a bit more heated again.

Honestly, they're probably the slashiest they've ever been during that period between Jean's death and the Schism. And Logan seems to have a weird sense of judgmental entitlement over Scott during this time. He still respects him though, but things are starting to fray with Utopia and X-Force, and everything crashes down in the Schism, when the last of Logan's illusions about Scott shatter.

I've said before, I think that their whole dynamic would have been a lot healthier if Logan had realized that Scott, beneath the facade, is a lot more like Laura Kinney than he'd ever been like Steve Rogers.

But he didn't figure that out and now he's heartbroken, angry, and can't sublimate the fact that he kind of wants to fuck him into that whole Captain America/Paragon of Virtue veneration anymore. Nope, dude, that stirring in your loins doesn't come from the fact that you're in the presence of one of the Truly Good Men. You just want to fuck that trainwreck.

And honestly, I think Hank has a bit of the same thing. But Hank/Scott is a whole separate essay topic. I think Hank and Logan kind of fed off each other at this time. So we get things like the Cyclops-dartboard. When we both know that's not the penetration they really want to do.

What? I was talking about claws? What did you think I was talking about?

(Okay, that too.)

I think the post Schism/pre AvX dynamic is fascinating adolescent on the part of Logan (and Hank). I can't help but maybe conflate this a bit with the fact that Logan only relatively recently regained the full memories of his life, while Hank has that whole arrested development child soldier thing that most of the O5 have deep down. And they both start acting a bit like the bitter dorks in high school, watching the Homecoming King and Queen.

Which is a little bizarre considering that Scott and Emma are holding Utopia together by the skin of their teeth and intentionally trying to present it as a lightning rod for anti-mutant sentiment in order to keep the school safe. But things aren't necessarily rational there.

But then we have AvX. And everything goes from hilariously adolescent to absolutely tragic.

Because no one makes it out of that mess okay or whole. And Logan, in particular, has to go full on aggressor, because if he stops and thinks about it, he might well realize that if any one person could be the cause of this mess: it could be him. HE's the one who went to the Avengers, after all. Scott's plan with the Phoenix was batshit, but it might have been resolved differently if the Avengers hadn't gone in there all OOC heavy handed, guns blazing.

Scott, meanwhile, has lost some of his Utopia edge, and found a new easily romanticized role as suffering martyr. We start to see events that might lead to a resolution: Kitty and the O5 switching sides, a lot of realizations from a lot of people that Scott isn't the villain he's playing on television, and so on. (There's also the O5 putting a human face on the man that Logan's convinced himself he hates. And a version of Jean that's completely horrified and disgusted by him...)

And then Logan dies, and his role's taken by a dude from a side comic with no connection to any of these characters of events. And no, I'm not bitter about Old Man Logan at all.

(Sure, he was fun in his OWN comic. But there's shit going on here and he's not a part of it!!!)

Then there's the fucked up weirdness of Scott's death, his unspoken terrible acts (that eventually amounted to destroying a cloud), and so on.

Once both characters have resurrected, we get an interesting return, almost, to that post Jean's death dynamic. They're again in a foxhole, desperate. Scott's relying pretty heavily on Logan at this time, even as they rebuild the dregs of the team for their last stand.

Then Rahne leaves, dies. Logan skips the funeral to go after her murderers. And then when he returns, covered in her murderers' blood, he and an angry Scott have it out and he storms off, with the unfair accusations all over again. (This time, it's more apparently that Wolverine's lashing out because of his own wounds, but it's not very pleasant to experience.) He does make up for it a bit by coming back for their last stand. Which is, maybe, a bit romantic in its own right.

And then...Jean and the original team reappear and Jean immediately shoves her tongue down Scott's throat while Logan and Emma both look a little bitter.

And then we have Krakoa, and I know I've bitched about not seeing the foundation of the Throuple. But in a weird way, it does kind of work for me. The euphoria of their new sanctuary, the realization that death is no longer a thing, the return of lost loved ones (like Alex, who'd died recently in Rosenberg's run), and so on - it made a place, and a moment, where the sublimation can just be the truth.

Scott and Jean are Scott and Jean. They have their family again. Logan is welcomed into the family as occasional partner. Nate's "Uncle Logan". He gets to come on family vacations.

Logan still gets to be Logan, though, and do his own thing. As much of a romantic as he is, I'm not sure I buy him ever actually settling down to domesticity. But this works out fairly well.

There are still some hints of tension though. I like bringing up the "Scott in a Speedo" scene, not just for the expression of attraction - I've seen it dismissed as a "joke", but I still don't see how that works as a joke either of them would tell - but also for the actual scene.

In it, we see Scott, conflicted over the Crucible and his mixed feelings about the more...religious elements of Krakoan society, looking for something from Logan - maybe reassurance, maybe just commiseration? That the latter isn't willing or able to give him. "Go find a priest." He says.

Everyone's going to have their own interpretation, but my read on it, in the context of their complicated relationship, is that Logan's happy to enjoy the idyllic interlude that Krakoa's given them, but he doesn't want to go deeper. He doesn't want to talk about their underlying issues or be the support that Scott needs at this time. It's an emotional commitment that he's not ready to make.

In his own comic (or possibly X-Force, they blur together for me), Logan expresses dislike regarding Krakoa, feeling like it's fostering a false sense of safety and security.

I feel like that might be why Logan is the way he is in this scene. They haven't resolved their issues, and where Scott's overture might indicate that he'd like to, Logan isn't open to that now.

And I think that's the Watsonian reason that we don't see very much with these two beyond a couple of Pride issue panels of the trio having a good time together.

I don't think the Throuple really lasts that much beyond this either. We have that funny bit where Teen Nate has called in a favor to have Logan comfort his parents after his departure. We have a few Jean/Logan moments in X-Force, but they're pretty shallow, all things considered. Some light making out. A single scene of sex in a hot tub.

Beyond that, we have that bit where she's trying to help him telepathically in X Lives of Wolverine, but she'd have done that for him even if they weren't banging.

And then, nothing. Scott and Jean are doing fine in the X-Men (eventual Brood argument notwithstanding), Logan is doing fine in his own book. But the Throuple seems...done.

Oh, maybe that bit in AXE where Jean is having issues for failing her test and Logan's all "anyone who'd fail you and pass me..." bit of reassurance. But again, that's the sort of thing he'd have said even if they weren't fucking. (I also wish he were able to comfort her without making it all about HIS issues, but that's a separate essay!)

There are a few parts that annoyed the shit out of me though. In both X Lives of Wolverine and later toward the end of his own comic, Logan lists Xavier and Jean as members of his found family. Saying shit like how their broken edges come together to make a more profound whole.

Scott, who is Xavier's son, Jean's husband, and the man whose house Logan STILL LIVES IN, doesn't get a mention.

(Doylistically, I theorize that maybe Marvel wanted to downplay the Throuple implications already. But I don't know.)

Nor does Storm, Kurt, Kitty, Jubilee, or a lot of other people who'd fit into that category too, including his actual children, mind you. But this isn't an essay about them.

And then there's Fall of X/Fall of the House of X. We do know at one point, Logan was involved in a rescue mission for Scott which fell through because Xavier called Rasputin away to go help him kill a thirteen year old.

Then there's nothing but a mostly civil exchange in X-Men #1, where Logan decides to go off on his own to run with wolves after he's rescued, and then that snide comment in Uncanny.

Scott's not really mentioned Logan either, except maybe that bitter little "everyone likes HIM" as a response to Magneto's amazing accusation of "logan behavior".

So...I don't really know how I see their relationship dynamic now. I was hoping for some interaction in Raid on Graymalkin, but the closest we got was Logan saying to attack if Scott touched his temple.

(Doylistically, that may be all we get. If Marvel thinks interaction might fuel the Throuple implications, we may not get anything else for a long time, which sucks.)

Watsonianly, I think maybe it's as simple as the idyllic Krakoan interlude being over. Jean's in space and unable to smooth things over. (Also, I'm not actually sure how I think Logan will take the whole Phoenix side of Jean's personality. They'd been considered two separate entities by the time the triangle really started up...). And whatever attraction that Scott and Logan have for each other is back to being sublimated in unnecessary antagonism and bitterness.

It's a shame, really.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing this angsty white boy suffer, but what an anticlimax. It's really funny to me that Marvel spent about a decade trying to villainise the dude and failed pretty miserably. Young Scott's misery worked at first for shocking acts like killing Xavier, less so by the time of Death of X. Indeed, it was an important plot point that Hank and Logan were incredibly biased if not straight up lying. The teen O5 bailed for a reason.

Amadeus Cho referring to him as 'young Hitler' was not just a miss but flat out ridiculous. Impossible to take seriously. Specifically arguing over 'evil' in warped hypothetical moral relativism. Nobody here blinks at that analogy either; highly educated and experienced supers just acting like idiots. The moral judgement stands, accepted by Scott himself, with the decision being whether they should condemn the teen based on his future self's actions. Maybe that's part of it. Scott Summers takes criticism quite seriously and generally listens to his friends. His guilt over killing Xavier especially meant he never really advocated for himself.

Obviously there's some subjectivity in play with that but I feel like the dude was vindicated for the shit people were actually mad about. Hope/Phoenix, the Terrigen Cloud, X-Force to a degree, trashing The Avengers, uh, rescuing mutants from SHIELD/cops, etc. Even the impetus for Schism - using children in battle - made sense only if you forget what genre it is and ignore the context. It almost feels like everyone else went crazy for a decade or so. Here's Storm on some 'not all mutants' shit, said while cowering in Limbo a few months before going to war with the Inhumans.

'... What?' Despite being an omniscient being, it really didn't expect that. Scott's position seems to be that only Jean can judge him, though he'll accept a scolding from his teammates. Considering the stakes are the end of all that exists, it makes sense that Scott is only willing to put his heart on the scales for Jean. He's been living on the edge of annihilation for most of his adult life and he knows who he is. He knows who loves him and who knows him best. There was never any chance he'd accept the judgement of a god built by Mister Sinister and Tony Stark, but he does need to pass. Everyone does.

He passes! Thumbs up for Wife Guy Scott Summers. He's so incredibly confident about this that it's a little off-putting, even threatening The Progenitor as he turns his back. Rule of cool plays a massive factor here, but I think if it was left there it would be a bit trite. Refusing to listen to anyone but your wife? That doesn't sound healthy.

Scott has always had self doubt - it's one of his superpowers. The First Krakoan Age is the happiest time in Scott's life, no contest, seeing it as a reward for all the years of suffering and hard work. It's to be expected that his angst would be at an all time low, and this isn't the first time he's faced down space gods without blinking. However, they're being judged individually and as a collective.

The Progenitor has a much harder time with Jean. She's currently leading a mixed strike force into its body - protecting everyone present from the very hostile environment. She describes it as 'holding a small star at bay,' so keep that in mind while she's simultaneously debating God.

The Progenitor knows where to push, and manages to make Chuck look as sinister as ever. The framing is her first day of school, observing as the Danger Room runs the D'Bari program for the rest of the O5.

The O5 get into Dark Phoenix formation and the Progenitor!Chuck makes the case that Jean, and Jean alone, is responsible for the D'Bari genocide. She manages to kinda throw it out of her head, which is an astonishing feat. Jean cries out that she's been a hero ever since, admitting guilt if not culpability.

Tony, the unhelpful jackass, tells her she needs to pass the test. No shit dude. Somehow he passed his, despite causing as many problems as he solves (including this one) and being a billionaire. Logan is as paternalistic as ever, but at least he's supportive. She's a grown woman, dude.

Unknown to Jean, Destiny engineered a Quiet Council vote to approve destroying The Progenitor despite a high chance of destroying Reykjavik. A very exaggerated Emma Frost lays out the details while Jean's hands are nailed to the table. I wonder if this is Jean's exaggeration or the Progenitor's. Emma is so delightfully callous that I think it's plucked from the subconscious and twisted into a caricature.

The Quiet Council was already a disaster before Jean left/was forced out. It's only gotten worse, with people like Shaw, Sinister, Mystique, Destiny, Xavier etc making the decisions. Jean feels guilty about giving up the power as a ballast and becoming an instrument of policy. If anything, I think her sin is being a part of it in the first place and not overthrowing the council/working to reform it. Jean Grey has a unique position of moral authority and near universal respect, not to mention the power to avoid telepathic subversion.

It's unfair to put it on any one person, but Jean should and would feel guilty for allowing this travesty to continue. Same with X-Force - she left with clean (ish) hands and did nothing to challenge the institutional rot. It's fascinating that The Progenitor speaks as Xavier this entire time, suggesting that Jean still holds him as an authority. Someone she doesn't want to disappoint, when maybe she (and everyone else) should be worried about how he's disappointing them.

Sinister manages to insert himself and Logan into the Jean's mindscape, as the owner of purloined telepathy and Celestial knowledge. Logan gives The Progenitor props for getting Xavier's patronising demeanor right while Sinister shoots the metaphorical Quiet Council (he already had a taste for that, but it's clever foreshadowing by Gillen.) Jean tells them both to fuck off - she hates mind games.

Jean engages beast mode and steps up. The Progenitor finds her difficult and needs perspective, summoning character witnesses. Useless ones.

Sinister, the ultimate coloniser and objectifier, reduces Jean's value to her uniqueness and power. He tried to clone her and failed, making 'none better than her.' Why TF did it even call upon Sinister? He does know her well, in the way you know a painting. As a thing - beautiful and unique, forever out of his grasp - but still a thing.

Logan might be even less helpful. Calling God 'bub' is kinda funny, but his perspective is that of a worshipper. He can never truly see her for who she is because he's built a pedestal that nobody deserves. No knock on Jean, but nobody is perfect. Ignoring someone's flaws and mistakes while idealising their virtues stops you knowing the real person. He's not just saying she's perfect, he's saying she's better than this God. It might be his truth, but it's neither healthy nor helpful. I wonder what he'd say if he was a character witness for Scott, heh.

The Progenitor has heard enough of that. I can't imagine what its takeaway was from those two. High expectations? There's a third character witness it references - Jean's husband Scott. We find out the reason Scott passed. Bravery, haha. Buddy, you have no idea. It's not fear, I'll say that much. It's LOVE and submission to/respect for power. It's misquoting Scott heavily, or misunderstanding the subtext. Either way, it doesn't matter right in this moment. Look at Jean's face. I have no idea what to make of it, other than terror. There's a lot more than that going on, but I think it's successful in making her feel like a monster.

Well, God says Cyclops was right. Someone should make memes and t-shirts. 'I think you are like me' is an existential nightmare. The Progenitor gets to the point - Jean destroyed a planet for no reason at all. Umm, actually bro, it was a star and she was hungry. Get your facts right. It certainly is complicated though, no doubt about that. Jean certainly feels guilt for that, and it's interesting that she's 'never stopped trying to make up for that.' People aren't motivated by only one thing, but I feel like Jean has done more penance than most. Wayyyy more.

I'd like to see some receipts for the 'violent bully' claim, but again, this is about guilt. Emma called her a 'schoolyard bully' when she was caught raping Scott, and while Jean's actions were punitive against someone without the ability to fight back, I don't think her behaviour was especially untoward. It looks like those words have stayed with her, though. Considering the social flak she caught and her need for self improvement, a being of her power should be wary of bullying people. That's a strength IMO, but it haunts her subconscious.

Yeah, violence, god who's currently destroying the world. That's the idea - to stop your bullshit. The world isn't perfect, not even close, but destroying it accomplishes nothing. Jean makes a case of arithmetic, arguing that she's in the black. It doesn't work that way (I'm sure the broccoli people would agree) but that doesn't mean you don't keep trying to be better. You do the right thing because it's the right thing, not to balance some arbitrary karmic ledger.

Tony Stark didn't blow up a star (plenty of planets though but nobody remembers), but he was an arms dealer for a long time. He'll never have clean hands no matter what he does, yet The Progenitor passed him. That says more about Marvel's favourite billionaire failson than any Godly judgement, but Jean being The Phoenix, now and forever, doesn't have to be a bad thing. She did do that shit and it will always be with her, but dying closes the book on her story forever. Living means the opportunity to spend every day being better. Every day is Judgement Day.

For example, in All-New X-Men, the O5 have just been bought to the future by Hank McCoy. He stops teaching his violence through yelling class and heads out the front, leaping at the 16 year olds with his claws out. Not Hank, who brought them there but clearly traumatised children - while screaming like a lunatic of course. Even if he's not trying to kill them, what purpose does terrifying them serve? He clearly IS trying to kill them, though. I'm sure his students would love to see their headmaster butcher confused children in front of them.

Unsurprisingly, he scares the fuck out of them. In part influenced by constant threats of his violence, the O5 steal the X-Jet and flee, explicitly doubting this guy is an X-Man. His thoughts about the 16 year old Jean Grey... No dude, this isn't the Jean you know. She's a child you've tried to kill. Fucking creep.

This one is great. Young Scott has enough going on without this frothing beast advocating for his immediate execution as punishment for his future self's actions. Out front of the school with literally everyone watching. He's using his authority to advocate for slaughtering a child. Thankfully nobody agrees with him, but this is traumatic, terrifying, and affects Scott especially so badly he runs away.

No wonder he freaks out and leaves. Obviously the headmaster of a school should drop what he's doing, not for his wellbeing but to get his bike back. How is he in charge of anyone's wellbeing or moral instruction? He demands absolute obedience while doing nothing to deserve it. It's all about how Logan feels.

Here he is trying to gut a 15 year old Wiccan for having Scarlet Witch vibes, not for the or last time. I'm a little surprised he remained an Avenger after this. When you have knives for hands everyone looks like a pincushion. Except that's not it, because everyone else is a living weapon too and they mostly manage to be somewhat rational.

Why are his claws out here? Is he trying to kill him? What did he expect after threatening and traumatizing him? Snarling and shouting like an animal - isn't he trying to emulate Chuck here?

I can't remember why he's doing this but it's not the first time he's tried to kill Hope. Didn't work then either.

A 16 year old Jean uses a telepathic projection of the Phoenix to aid Wolverine in a fight. He stupidly thinks it's real and straight up tries to kill her. The bad guys get away. Not sure how many times he has to attempt to kill the Phoenix before he understands it's not an appropriate thing to do, nor is it about him. He's more like Sabertooth than he thinks, except he thinks he's in the right and somehow never gets called out. Logan has advanced senses - how is his instinct to straight up kill her instead of investigating further?

We can do better