Marc Singer has a good summary analysis of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men.
New X-Men moves in three distinct phases, roughly one for each year Morrison spent on the title. The first year is one of resuscitation, as Morrison rethinks old X-Men concepts and selectively introduces new ones, including a threat that will force drastic changes to Magneto, to the Sentinels, and ultimately to Xavier himself.
Marc’s reading organizes the entire epic story into three parts: X-Men renaissance (catalyzed, appropriately, by Charles Xavier’s evil twin Cassandra Nova whom ey tried to kill in the womb), the X-Men’s exploration of their new role as public advocates for mutant rights, and finally the collapse of Xavier’s dream—and of Magneto’s dream. “Planet X” ends with apocalypse, and the “Here Comes Tomorrow” epilogue apparently further explodes the narrative so there is no status quo established at all, not the pre-Morrison nor Morrison’s own nor an entirely new one. Wonderful! That’s just what I hoped would happen. Not a continuity reset button so much as a marker, a sunset and a sunrise. “This is where the X-Men end… and where they begin again. What next, X-Men?” The fact that Chris Claremont and Chuck Austen decide what they do next is, as Marc notes, a problem only if you keep reading the books after Morrison leaves. I personally think that a new beginning is a lovely way to end a story.
Marc does seem a little disappointed with “Planet X,” which is too bad. I noted some of the “lingering questions,” but by the time I was reading about how Logan chooses to end his life (and Jean’s life), I was practically physically incapable of caring why Logan never smelled Magneto hiding in the school.
Ooh, can’t wait for the “Here Comes Tomorrow” trade to be published! It sounds excellent.
Marc says:
Why Logan never smelled Magneto? Who cares?
But why does EVA reappear after we (apparently) watch her get blown up by Weapon Plus? Why are Beast and Emma not dead? Scott and Fantomex? Or, to shift to another sort of question, how exactly do Magneto and Weapon Plus intersect? Or Weapon Plus and Dr. Sublime? And how is it that Sublime and Magneto are both affiliated with Weapon Plus, given their almost diametrically opposite goals?
These are questions that go beyond mere suspension of disbelief, questions that, unlike the Wolverine one, cannot be answered by mere technobabble. I hated to see Morrison lose interest in the plotting of his story just at the moment when his plotting had achieved the amazing coup of that big revelation - seems like he casually threw away all that carefully-laid narrative cohesion. Conceptually and emotionally, though, it was still a great story.
— 1 April 2004 at 6:34 pm (Permalink)
Steven says:
A couple of those are “Who cares?” questions for me, still… I mean, I can accept that everybody somehow manages to get on an escape pod or something just before the Weapon Plus space station explodes. The Weapon Plus/Magneto/Sublime questoins seem important, though… In fact, I expected most of those questions to come up in “Here Comes Tomorrow.” I guess they don’t.
— 1 April 2004 at 6:40 pm (Permalink)