What do you want to happen to Hope?

I bring this up because I've been thinking about Hope a lot today, possibly because of Milkshake's Action Figure lol.

I know a lot of people REALLY really hate Hope. Like hate her with so much passion it's hard for me to fathom. (I'm not really one of those people but I do see the why's and wherefore's of that group). But to me, from the outside looking in at those people, I think in a way she's been really good for X-Men comics because she stirs up emotions. Wouldn't you rather have intense hatred for a character than apathy? I know it's drummed up a LOT of chat on this board. In a way that's probably exactly what Marvel wants.

So my question is - for those of you that hate Hope - what do you want to happen to her? Do you REALLY want to see her die in a horrible and excruciating way? Because while that might be good for some short-term pleasure, then its over, and no more fun. Would you like to see her become the villain she's meant to be, thus you can claim "I told you so!" Or would you like her to stay where she is and revel in your hate?

This is not meant to be an inflammatory post, in fact, I don't even think we should debate whether you like her or not. It's meant to ask, what should be done with the character that would satisfy you? Ok play nice!

I'm actually torn on what I want to see happen.

I can, however, say what I don't want to see happen: I don't want her to become Jean 2.0 (or would that be like 4.5?). Meaning I don't want her to be stuck with the Phoenix Force. I don't mind it coming around as a big thing and letting some sweet fights come from it but let it leave and go away. It should not and I repeat not be a permanent fixture of the X-world.

As for what I'm torn about. Part of me wants her to die. Like have her go out in a blaze of glory, stabilizing the next generation of mutants (not undoing M-day). I would like for the event to also stabilize Wanda's powers back to a level that would be comparable to Blue/Gold Era Jean Grey (if that makes sense). I would want her death to have a real impact on the X-Men. Actually, I would like for it to strengthen the divide between the Utopia team and the JGS team. Let Logan be justified in his belief that children shouldn't be soldiers and Cyclops in his belief that Hope died for the cause. I'd love to see it have an affect on Kenji where he actually keeps all his coolness but wants to be a hero, same goes for Laurie. While it sends Gabriel and Primal down a dark path as potential villains. I would also like for there to be a good moment with Emma and Hope, similar to how Emma and Jean's relationship ended. Respect but still not the other person's bff.

The other path I would like is for Hope to burn out her powers stabilizing all of mutantkind. She should be left either powerless (maybe enhanced speed, agility, endurance, and such) or left with a weak simulacrum of abilities of her original 5 Lights. Either way she should have a great loss and be dealing with the losing of so much power and responsibility. I'd want her to stick with the Utopia side. A book should come out depicting her now living on Utopia not as the messiah. It would feature the recruits, Dazzler, Boom-Boom, and Lifeguard plus the remaining recruits. I still think some of the Lights should turn bad or whatever and leave.

I want Hope to fulfill Bishops prophecy and really really F up the Marvel Universe in some huge way. Accidentally of course.  Something like Cyclops believing she is the key to saving everything and him making her do something that turns out to be a really bad decision.

Then She dissapears, assumed dead, but really was plucked out of time by Morph, Nocturne and Blink as a recruit for the new Exiles title.  There she becomes a staple (phoenix-less) member of the team for most of its 100+ issue run, copes with all of her messiah baggage, develops a likeable personality, becomes a fan favorite, and dies heroically on a mission to save the 616 X-men, redeeming her in everyones eyes, and her ghost floats off into the sunset to meet the spirits of her family she never met as well as Cable. 


Edited by Lorr - 01-Mar-2012 at 1:50am

Originally posted by Anna Raven Assuming she killed a million people at the end of that story would the X-Men kill her Kipe? Or in your scenario would she escape to become a recurring villain?

Would it really matter?  Everybody would blame Speedball.

I've always liked the idea of her being a reborn/reincarnated Jean Grey. I get the feeling it still might be the case. Sort of like how fans of Lost immediately completely pegged the ending, and the writers of the show had to go into a mode of aggressive posturing that they were all wrong.

Although with Lost they basically wrote themselves into a corner. With Hope if that was ever intended to be the case, they still have lots of different directions they can now go with.

Edited by Anna Raven - 01-Mar-2012 at 3:24am

I'm with you Uncanny. I've never hated Jean but she was never a favorite of mine. That said, I think if she is going to come back then let it not be as a resurrected Hope. I'm sure it would feel cheap to some of her hardcore fans but also because it places Jean in a position that I just don't think would be as interesting for her character.

Plus as people can see I'm all about removing the Phoenix Force from Jean Grey as completely as possible.

People want Hope to die?  Hope will destroy you!

And that ladies and gentlemen is Ciel's response...buzzkill

There goes your thread Anna LOL

Edited by Blackcyclops - 01-Mar-2012 at 6:33am

I'll admit... I'm no fan of Hope's.  I liked her well enough until she got powers that made Rogue kind of obsolete and a solo/team title that meant the X-Students got shunted aside for her new group.  Her mental influence and Phoenix-potential is also creepy.

I like the idea that she temporarily harnesses the Phoenix, uses its powers to reignite the X-Gene fully and then largely burns her own mutant uber-powers out as a result.  She'd be left only with low-level empathy/telepathy (sort of spidey-sense level) and the ability to stabilize emerging mutant powers.  No mimickry or other deus ex machina powers and NO PHOENIX. If it cuts Wanda's power levels to a manageable level and helps redeem her in the process... X-Cellent!!  In the finale, the Phoenix Force would run wild, threatening to utterly destroy humanity and it would take the combined might of Wanda, Hope, Rachel and the forced return of Jean Grey from the White Hot Room to tame it completely and send it on its way.  Jean and Rachel would each retain a connection, as would Quentin Quire and the Cuckoos... divided as it is, the power would not consume them and they'd form a sort of corps of guardians dedicated to keeping the Phoenix from every uniting in a single avatar again.

As for Bishop's prophecy, I'd have Hope come full circle.  Her power does "kill" a million humans... by restoring a million depowered mutants.  Humanity views this as a loss to their numbers and mutantkind is back on track to being a true genetic minority that is truly hated and feared. 

Turn Hope into a villian. The groundwork is there in her personality and she would make quite a powerful villain. Plus the internet pretty much hates her so having her as a villain would justify that and may in fact help people to like the character. 

I'd really like to see some definite endings with hope in AvX. eg the cable-bishop-future-situation should be clarified (as we are now used to parallel, multiple, whatever -worlds - why not have it both ways - hope does something in 616, stabilising and "rebirthing" somehow the x-gene on a larger scale, while this creates a "side-timeline" in which bishop will be right?!).

as for the phoenix - it should definitly not be with hope or someone else in the end - some loose-connections would be ok though.

so - what I would like for hope is - to grow up, join the new mutants - and just live some ordinary life in SF.
oh - and get sunspot as her boyfriend of course, so amara can be with someone "hotter" 

I'm pretty indifferent to Hope.  Honestly, I thought she'd have done something cooler by now.  I understand the X-Writers believe they're building something up that will rock the foundations of the MU with AvX or whatever, but from what I gather here, most people strongly dislike Hope and suffer from some pretty intense event fatigue.  I for one am intensely sick of hearing "things will nevar be the same again!1!" only to have things go back exactly to the way they were before.

Jean's return has been hinted at for years now.  I'm not totally convinced that when the Phoenix comes back, Jean won't be there too.  I think the idea of a Hope/Wanda/Phoenix/Jean is cool and has a lot of potential, but I'm worried this potential will be squandered.

I don't think Hope will fulfill Bishop's prophecy.  For one, we still have the Ultron War coming up.  So there's that.

What do I want to happen to Hope?  If she left to make room for Jean, I'd be just fine with that.  Maybe her "messiah" title means that she'll bring Jean back, who will do something amazing to the MU with the Phoenix.  Kind of like how it was foretold that Anakin Skywalker would bring balance to the Force, albeit in a backwards way.

Originally posted by das_boot Wanda turns up and says "NO MORE HOPE". All of the X-Men, including the Lights completely forget about her, she's depowered and made fat. Yeah. Not just fat, but super-morbidly obese to the point that she'd make the Blob look svelte. And she's forced to work as a prostitute because she has no marketable skills that she can use as a fatty and then she has a heart attack and dies.

I was just thinking painful death but I like the way you think!