Man, Jason Aaron gets it right here.
I was wary of the conversation between Logan and Scott, because I wasn't sure if Aaron could frame it in a way where I would believe the outcome, if said outcome was anything other than Logan popping a claw into Scott's gut. I mean, Scott asks Logan why he hates him. Does Scott really not know? However, Aaron manages to get past their shared history and address the issues at hand, preventing it from devolving into the same argument about Jean that they've been having for 40 years.
First, the Scott that we see here is much more in line with the one that we saw in "AVX: Consequences" than the one that we've been seeing in "Uncanny X-Men." In "AVX: Consequences," we got excellent insight into Scott's thoughts on his role as one of mutantkind's leaders. Before the rekindling of mutantkind, Scott wearily embraced the public's view of him as a villain in order to strike fear in the hearts of anyone contemplating violence against mutants, since the death of any mutant was essentially one step closer to genocide. With mutantkind revived after the events of "Avengers vs. X-Men," Scott felt freed from some of his militarism, though conscious that the public would still see him as a terrorist for his actions as Dark Phoenix. It's very much this Scott that we see here, a weary soldier who feels burdened (though justified) by some of his necessary actions. Frankly, we haven't seen him for a while. Although Bendis doesn't fully treat Scott as terrorist in the vein of old-school Magneto, he definitely employs a similar vibe when it comes to his portrayal of him. Scott's recent abuse of Deeds in "Uncanny X-Men" #14 is a great example of that edge.
However, the Scott of this issue makes the excellent point that his isolation isn't entirely self-imposed. He mentions that everyone rallied around Jean when she destroyed a planet as Dark Phoenix, but no one has offered him that support after he killed Professor X. It's a fair and valid point. If we accept that Jean wasn't in possession of her faculties when she destroyed that planet, why can't we accept that Scott was equally incapable of stopping himself from murdering the Professor? But, Logan has a fair and valid response, namely that Jean accepted what she did, something that Scott doesn't seem to have done. Scott still thinks that everything that he did as Phoenix was justified or not his fault. To answer Scott's question, Logan hates Scott because he sees this inability to admit fault as the thing that's going to lead Scott to take down the entire mutant race with him.
I read the California era of "Uncanny X-Men" after I started reading X-Men again (with "X-Men: Second Coming") and I was struck by Scott's persistent march to war in those issues. Logan recalls that march here and clarifies his earlier point about Scott not taking responsibility for his actions: he wants Scott to accept blood on his hands, in part because he's clearly worried that more blood is coming until Scott does. I had never really thought about it this way before this issue, but it's exactly the problem that I have with Scott. He continues to feel that he's infallible. Sure, the Dark Phoenix probably did make him kill the Professor. But, since Scott refuses to even concede the possibility that he might've had some role in driving the Dark Phoenix there, it reminds us how arrogant he is (and why he's not getting the support that Jean got). It's this arrogance and failure to acknowledge his faults that Logan worries will drive Scott to ruin, because he won't admit that he could possibly fail to win whatever war he chooses to fight. By the time that he does, it'll be too late.
It's the conclusion of this conversation that's heartbreaking, where Logan says that he knows that he'll die alone and he just wants to leave behind something worth his struggles. In other words, he accepts the blood on his hands. Driving home that point that Scott is instead on track to kill everyone, Logan tells Scott to be the man that Jean loved and let Logan be the man who scared her. It's an incredibly sad but honest moment and it might just be the one that puts us on track to end the schism between the two sides.
If you think that conversation was enough anguish for one issue, you're wrong. It's equally upsetting to watch Tri-Joey change sides and defend his friends from his sister, but, to save them, have Quentin erase his memory. In some ways, Tri-Joey's situation feels like Scott's, where I found myself wondering how the kids couldn't find some compassion for him, no matter the arguments why they shouldn't. In the end, he's an orphan sent by himself into the world, wondering why no one seems capable of helping him.
***** (five of five stars)
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