Conclusion of Volume One: A Few Thoughts of Mine

As the title says, Volume One has ended.

Everyone who has made it this far can probably feel that the story of Volume One was not written like a normal web novel at all; calling it a movie or comic book script is much more fitting.

I actually conceived the story for this volume quite a long time ago, but I kept hesitating on whether I should write it, since the pacing is a bit slow... But there is no help for it; I used to try writing according to traditional web novel tropes, but facts proved that I am truly unsuited for it, bombing so hard my own mother wouldn't recognize me.

Then I accepted my fate and peacefully wrote fanfiction.

At first, I wavered between Naruto fanfiction and American comic fanfiction for a long time, and then considering that Naruto is too niche by comparison, I decided to write American comics instead.

So the question came: where to start writing?

A normal opening is definitely The Avengers in the MCU, or a bit earlier with Captain America: The First Avenger, but I always felt like similar openings seemed to have been written to death... So I turned my gaze over to the neighboring X-Men, binge-watching several films all the way to Logan.

Then I went crazy.

Damn it, watching the movie felt so stifling and depressing, screw it, this is the one!

And so this story came to be.

Before starting the book, I had actually pondered the plot of Volume One for a long time. I felt that if I could write it all in one breath, it should be a very good-looking story, but the problem was... the early stage wasn't satisfying enough.

With Logan as the opening, the tone of the movie predestined it; wanting deep immersion into the plot and atmosphere makes being satisfying almost impossible, and wanting a satisfying start from the get-go would most likely break immersion. Perhaps there are skilled authors who can balance these two points, but I am truly not that good at it.

I personally consider myself an author who values atmospheric experience quite a bit. Since I am writing about the X-Men, I have to capture the flavor that the X-Men ought to have.

As for the Madonna-like tendency in Chapter Six that most people are complaining about... I admit that I lacked consideration at the time, resulting in a reading experience that was stifling and toxic. I am sorry, I got too high on my own writing and really did get poisoned by swallowing that set of Western ideologies hook, line, and sinker.

However, I feel that one point still needs to be declared: under the environment of the Fox X-Men Film Universe, especially in Logan, mutants getting shot on the street is a completely possible occurrence, considering free America after all.

Coupled with the fact that in that worldview, having one's mutant identity exposed on the street is basically equivalent to a certain island nation colonel swaggering around Tiananmen Square wearing a sign that says "I come from the Yasukuni Shrine"—would you be able to stomach that if you were in those shoes?

Of course, this is my own understanding; if you hold a different opinion, then you are right.

I admit to all the other problems; this part indeed had elements forced to be reasonable for the sake of plot development. If you forced me to explain the plot I could round it out, but there is no need. Writing poison means writing poison, and I own up to it.

Next is the issue of Miles being unable to control X-24 upon their first meeting. I actually considered this segment seriously.

In X-Men: First Class, a young Charles could make enemies unable to see him, achieving the effect of "Psychological Invisibility," but he could not control police dogs, explaining this as "too low IQ," which showed that he couldn't easily control animals back then. But in Logan, old Charles can close his eyes during a car accident and control panicked horses... So the question comes: the IQ of dogs (especially police dogs) surely cannot be lower than that of horses, right?

So the only explanation is that Charles's mind control can control animals, but it requires specialized proficiency. This also shows that controlling humans and controlling animals are different.

Similarly, in Dark Phoenix, a young Charles cannot control aliens (continuously dropping his cool factor). Although it can be understood as plot armor, it can also be understood that the way aliens transmit thought signals differs from humans. In my understanding, if Charles were given a bit more time to practice, he would definitely be able to control them.

Of course, the above speculation is limited to the Charles of the Fox X-Men series; the Charles in the comics does not have this problem.

Then, switching to the protagonist, as I mentioned right at the beginning, in the realm of "controlling humans," Miles's talent is far inferior to Charles's. He is truly at the Delta-level tier; humans with slightly strong willpower in the early stage of the plot can attempt to resist. By comparison, his talent lies mainly in manipulating electronic equipment.

The place where I took it upon myself was directly classifying X-24 under the category of "beast." This was indeed somewhat far-fetched, because looking purely at physiological structure, X-24 is indeed a normal mutant, no doubt about it. But considering his behavioral patterns in the original film... calling his brain animalistic is not entirely out of the question.

Aside from this I have no other explanations; if you have objections, you are right.

As for finally letting X-24 exit the stage, it was mainly considered that in the original film he was the great villain who killed Uncle Wolverine, and leaving him directly by the protagonist's side might make some readers who like old Uncle Wolverine feel awkward inside... Then again, I truly didn't expect everyone to seem rather regretful over him.

But there is no help for it; his character arc was sufficient. Since I could write Volume One like this, you should also know my thoughts: everything prioritizes the story, and when it's time to use the blade, it gets used.

After all, my Volume One was aimed at feeling like a superhero movie script. Other things aside, the "flavor" definitely had to be pure!

Then there was another unexpected aspect: after being captured, the protagonist dropped out of the picture for several chapters straight, relying entirely on Uncle Wolverine to push the plot. This is a taboo in the web novel field, but considering subsequent developments, I gritted my teeth and kept writing like this... Yet looking at the comment section now, it seems no one is talking about this issue, and they are all blasting me for poisoning them in Chapter Six. Fine, I can only say as expected of Uncle Wolverine; he can maintain his pulling power even inside a fanfiction.

Lastly, there is the character design of this batch of mutant teenagers. To be honest, the original movie of Logan gives really few descriptions of them; the only one whose name can be confirmed is Richter. Then there are those names Laura said when confronting Logan, totaling five including Richter, which are: Delia, Rebecca, Gideon, Jonah, Richter. But the problem is that the young mutants who appear at the end are definitely more than five, and the corresponding relationships have no reference whatsoever; one can only roughly distinguish the genders by their names.

Then there is the electricity-discharging chubby kid Bobby. In the original movie when he runs away, someone yells "Bobby" at him, just like the classic Iceman, so it felt like they were calling him that, and I used it accordingly. Other than that, the rest of the names are all original creations of mine.

Another thing that must be mentioned is that among the young mutants in the original film, there are a bit too many telekinesis types. Too many of the same abilities lack distinctiveness, and I am not planning to write too many telekinesis characters, so Volume One only kept one Delia, while the rest can just be considered graduated by General Lake. (A minor spoiler: an even fiercer one is coming in Volume Two)

After such a plan and layout, this book is destined to belong to the niche track—hardcore American comics, immersive superhero movie experience, where even the protagonist starts off crippled. Those who like it will love it, and those who dislike it will most likely not be able to read it through.

This is also why I made up my mind to come to Tomato to write this book, because before starting the book, I saw a sentence on Zhihu: "There are so many readers on Tomato; as long as what you write has distinctive features, there will always be people who read it."

Well, no more words, let's give it a try. According to my thoughts, regardless of how the book itself turns out, it definitely has distinctive features.

Then up to now, the performance of this book, which suddenly surged a few days ago, has already surpassed the total of my flops over the past few years.

I am not clear whether this is because everyone genuinely likes it, or because it is indeed easier to produce results here, or because I really flopped too hard in the past... In short, I hereby thank that Zhihu bro, and all you reader lords.

Really, thank you.

Orz.

Then let's talk about some subsequent arrangements.

The story of Volume Two will still take place in this X-Men world (mainly considering that the protagonist has only just begun to grow and his frontal combat power is too poor; with his current foundation, running to the MCU would only let him play second fiddle to Tony). Of course, if you are familiar with the X-Men worldview, you must have already guessed who the villain of Volume Two is.

To be frank, my confidence in Volume Two is average... because the preparation for Volume Two is far less than that of Volume One, and there is no original plot reference... That's right, Volume Two is an original story under the current worldview... After all, after Logan the Fox film universe ended, I have no plot to reference anymore. Could it be that I should go write The New Mutants, stuffing the protagonist into a sanatorium to do time with a few kids while incidentally cannon-foddering Magik? Stop joking, I bet fewer than twenty percent of the readers present have seen that movie.

Then starting from Volume Three, it will be the MCU story; we'll talk about that later.

The story of Volume Two won't be as depressing as before. In my imagination, it should be a popcorn blockbuster similar to X2: X-Men United, with not much plot involving ordinary people, and the tragedy of Chapter Six shouldn't happen either.

In short, I will try my best to maintain the cinematic style from Volume One and go all out.

Oh right, lastly, let me explain my updating habit. I am an amateur author who has to go to work during the day. The normal state of affairs is one 4K chapter a day to secure the baseline. If my state is good, maybe I'll add an extra chapter, but don't count on too many extras.

That's all.