I’m Not a Fan of Morrison’s ‘New X-Men’ Run

Uggggghhh…

So, about a month or two back I finally got around to reading Grant Morrison‘s well regarded 42 issue run of X-Men that has been collected in a massive omnibus that could probably stop a bullet. These issues were originally published while I was on a self-imposed comic book walkabout, so they completely went under my radar.  It was only during the last few years and my re-entry into the comic book world that I started hearing of this great era of X-Men that I had missed out on.  Being a lifetime X-fan, I decided that it was definitely something I wanted to check out.  When I saw Marvel had put out this ginormous tome collecting the run I nearly wept with joy.  Okay, there was no weeping, but there was a brief, yet furious click of the ‘Order’ button.  The book was delivered to my door and I dove in with enthusiasm.

So, what did I think?  Well, I didn’t think much of it.  And what I mean by that is it kinda…sucked.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe the Morrison run does have some  high points.  Emma Frost and her Cuckoos stand out as an interesting part of the story.  The fate of Jean Grey played out pretty well, although it did tie into one of my major issues with the story towards the end.  And speaking of Jean Grey, I enjoyed the love triangle that formed between her, Emma Frost, and Scott Summers.  This run also featured the first appearance of Quentin Quire, although I like his current characterization in Wolverine and the X-Men far more than I did in this book.

But ultimately I found at times that the writing in New X-Men seemed to be trying too hard to be different just to be different. It was also full of confusing writing and terribly paced moments, and one tremendous head-scratcher of a twist that pops up near the end.  You see, it turns out this Xorn guy, who was saved from a secret Chinese facility where he had been imprisoned and eventually becomes an X-Man, is actually Magneto.  Did I mention Xorn’s powers aren’t really Magneto’s powers?  Honestly, the twist is terrible.  That said, I was willing to shrug off the doofy twist because hey, Mags is back!

The story then goes on to feature a Magneto who ends up being uncharacteristically over-the-top evil in a way that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the character.  Magneto has always been one of those villains that you could empathize with at times.  He wasn’t completely unreasonable, and didn’t care for the fact that he had to constantly be at odds with the X-Men since they were all mutants.  During the final act of New X-Men, Magneto goes full blown, moustache twirly evil…with a hint of death camps and genocide.  It never comes off like something the character would do based on the way he’s been written in the past and it really killed the story for me.

Some other gripes…  Seeing as this was published shortly after the first movie came out, the characters all wear black leather jackets and field gear (with huge Xs).  I also seem to remember a character commenting that bright colored superhero gear is lame, which to me came off like the writer’s opinion coming through the comic a bit too strongly.  Of course, this book also features Emma Frost wearing an outfit that could have been sponsored by 3M due to the amount of sticky tape needed to keep it attached to her body. Very strange to shoot for realistic costumes while at the same time featuring a hilariously implausible outfit on her.  There are other things I could complain about, but they’re just minor gripes.

As a stand alone story arc, New X-Men isn’t that bad.  It probably would have felt better as a What If/Elseworlds sort of tale, but it wasn’t.  It does seem that most of the dumber plot points (the Magneto stuff) were eventually retconned/forgotten/ignored after Morrison left for other titles.  Oddly enough, Jean Grey’s death did stick.  I may need to delve into some back issues to see how Cyclops and Magneto started working together again after that little oopsy.

Oh, and on a final note, the art was consistently decent throughout, with the high points being the issues handled by Chris Bachalo and Marc Silvestri.   If there is one thing I can’t complain about with this book it’s the art.