Kenji, Zero is Ten Times the Bad Boy that Quentin Quire Is.

[fod_xp]

Kenji's fine. He was interesting and visually neat - a bit overly cribbed from Akira, but overall cool.
The idea of comparing him to Quire, however, just feels artificial. Making an argument to troll WaTXM fans for the mere sake of it.

I do agree with your observation. The comparison is definitely troll bait, but beyond that, I was interested in Kenji because he was this angry, self loathing person who gained self worth from creating garish art work in an attempt to be unique and original. When his powers flipped on he mimicked all the most common and well know Japanese pop culture tropes and cliches, and in doing so, he felt like a cheapened whore to his principles of garish, original creativity. It was the equivalent of having the ability to create your very own Sistine Chapel, but instead you just copied and pasted a David before Goliath and not even a very good one. That kind of result for an artist is soul shattering, hence his broken and disjointed characterization and his passive aggressiveness.

Quentin was Xavier's prized student who lost his way, took drugs, rebelled against authority in a violent manner, and then his consciousness ascended because Quentin's drug abuse had hyper accelerated his powers. It was a tragic tale of Xavier's failure to connect to the new generation of mutants and that his students, the "New X-Men" (Scott, Jean, Henry, Emma, and the rest) needed to take the reins and steer the following generations of mutants into a bright new future full of infinite possibilities.

What's ten times zero time infinity?

Well, Zero= nothingness, or the lack of anything

and infinite= is never ending, no limit

just divide by zero next time Martin, at least that has a meme gif.

[Rotm]

Quire is reflective commentary on the X-Men. The whole thing he wrote is until the last arc. Kenji was commentary on nothing except a forced plot point designed to make him into a villain from the start. He is at least a better character than what Quire is now however.

[MartinRedmond]

Kenji was a hero! He's the only one who saw Hope for the backstabbing bitch she is.

Kenji is the face in your dreams of glass.

[x-men_always_win]

fcuking bring him back already!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Filip]

They're both pathetic, but at least Kenji enjoys it and admits his role unlike Quire.

Aaron really fleshed him out in ways Morrison never could, and made me question myself why I even liked him in the first place: white middle class teenager who has nothing better to do than start a "revolution" after some insecurities were shaken, take some drugs and feel big, but think small, just to get into enemy's panties. Cry me a river, hipster poseur. Must be that I liked the way he bleeds on the steps of the Institute.

Kenji was honest with himself, and that I can respect.

[Kaiolino]

Read Ultimate X-Men if you want to read more Kenji Uedo!!

[Dr. Sonic]

There’s just not much the two have in common outside of superficial iconoclastic traits. Anarchy and nihilism can seem similar from afar, but the two philosophies are really quite different. Quire’s view of anarchy may be more in tune with The Sex Pistols than Mikhail Bakunin or Rabelais, but the general spirit of turning social constraints and norms on its side is still there. Kenji’s nihilism, meanwhile, was very much the other side of the coin, and edged toward fascism rather than complete liberty.

Upper to middle class white boys embracing anarchy can be a bit annoying because it’s like, what does such sheltered souls know of constraint and oppression? B ut it’s an interesting phenomena nonetheless… and makes a thinker like Mikhail Bakhtin seem especially prescient considering his concept that social privilege can actually accentuate the desire to tear down norms and turn things on its head.

[graffiX]

I don't buy WaTXM anymore, but Quire is growing on me. Definitely better than Kenji.