He Can't Hide It Long

First, let me say that I'm sorry I didn't get you a post yesterday, and Adorable Baby Panda decided to go visit the family over the holiday, so we'll have to wait until next week for panda hugs.

Yes, I saw UnCalvinPitt's post. Yes, there'll be hell to pay. No one lets penguins into my blog without suffering for it. But that's for later. For now, let's talk about Sideshow Bob, and Quicksilver.

I mentioned in my review of X-Factor #13 that Pietro very much reminded me of old Bob Terwilliger. I think it's the veneer of civilization, masking the violent tendencies. Bob tries to seem cultured, what with reading literature, despising popular TV, the appreciation for wines, the vocabulary. But he's still someone who thought the best way to frame a celebrity was to rob a Kwik-E-Mart, who tried to kill Aunt Selma for... some reason, who isn't smart enough to count his blessings for an amazingly lax prison system, and thus keeps blowing his freedom on murder attempts (well, not always, but it does eventually always come back to killing Bart). And those attempts always seem to come back to stabbing. There was the gas explosion attempt on Aunt Selma, and that was inspired, but with his main foe, he seems to resort to the common weapon of the butcher knife. Or the ax.

What about Pietro? Well, he acts very dignified now, politely offering pastries to Doc Samson, and taking small, controlled bites. He speaks very calmly about how he considers all of X-Factor friends, and how he's glad to be helping mutants. He says he knows he made a mistake manipulating his sister, but that it was with good intentions, so it wasn't truly bad. He recognizes the same could be said of his current actions, and doesn't seem to bother to consider whether he's in danger of screwing things up just as badly again. He says that whatever happens to a mutant he repowers, happens. It's not his problem, as he is just an instrument of divine will. So if people die from it, not his fault. He casually mentions, that were he given an opportunity to kill Layla Miller, he'd eargerly take it, and seems to completely ignore the ramifications that would have for him, seeing as X-Factor doesn't totally trust him, and the X-Men are dying for a reason to go after him. For all his playing at being wise, refined, and knowledgeable, he doesn't seem to recognize consequences, or else he just doesn't care. Which might suggest a suicidal tendency, but I think he got over that after the "walking off a building" thing in Son of M, so I think it's more that disconnect from reality that Samson noted.

Bob seems more inclined to let his violence (or insanity, or whatever) out, while Pietro's just slips out through his words mostly. But both seemed too locked into their personalities to stop from repeating the same mistakes. Or maybe Pietro will break the cycle, but I'm not really holding my breath. These repowered mutants are going to start wrecking stuff, and once again the world is gonna get thrown into serious upheaval because of him. The difference is, it's unlikely that the majority of the planet will be unaware of what transpired this time around.