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Post by Cheswick on May 3, 2018 11:32:04 GMT -5
X-Corporation was Xavier's attempt to pick up the pieces of X-Corps, a mutant paramilitary group founded by Banshee that did not end well. That story took place toward the start of Morrison's run in Joe Casey's run on Uncanny X-Men. Rictor and Monet were indeed 90s characters. The former being a member of X-Force and the latter was one of Emma Frost's students from Generation X. At what point did Emma Frost become someone who was trusted enough to have students on X-teams? I am unclear what the X-Men thought about Genosha as it existed at the beginning of Morrison's run. Before Emma taught on Genosha she worked for Xavier, running (along with Banshee) the Massachusetts Academy in Generation X, essentially training the next generation of X-Men. That series started in 1994 and established her on a path to redemption. It continued the pattern of Xavier's belief in second chances, as previously shown with Mimic, Rogue, Magneto, etc. At the end of the Generation X series Emma receives a call from Xavier, who sends a helicopter for her. The next time we see her is on Genosha, teaching a class. So, I always presumed Xavier had something to do with the school on Genosha.
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Post by Cheswick on May 3, 2018 9:15:51 GMT -5
X-Corporation was Xavier's attempt to pick up the pieces of X-Corps, a mutant paramilitary group founded by Banshee that did not end well. That story took place toward the start of Morrison's run in Joe Casey's run on Uncanny X-Men. Rictor and Monet were indeed 90s characters. The former being a member of X-Force and the latter was one of Emma Frost's students from Generation X.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 29, 2018 21:02:58 GMT -5
The only reason I thought it might be a mistake is, in all her subsequent appearances, she is back to her original look. I guess Marvel didn't like the change either.
At several points during Morrison’s tenure I felt that (a) the writer wasn’t all that versed in X-Men lore and that (b) editors were sleeping at the switch. Hence things like several dead members of the Imperial Guard showing up again, Oracle not looking nor behaving like herself, or Sebastian Shaw making threats that only a telepath would. Oh, sure, in all cases a no-prize hungry reader could come up with solutions... “clones!” “Heroes radically change their look from time to time!” “Shaw was referring to telepaths that he has at his beck and call, not to his own power!” It all works, but a good editor should have pointed out that such points should not have to be explained in the first place. On the other hand, Morrison not being a fanboy is one of the things I like about his run. He would not submit his readers to more Psylocke, Gambit or Sabretooth stuff. Yeah, you're probably right. I recall reading an interview with him where he stated he prepared for his run by reading the Essential books, which, at the time, only reprinted up through Claremont's stuff. I also agree that his run probably benefitted from him presumably not being a huge fan. As far as Shaw's telepathy, at the time I figured it was a secondary mutation since Morrison recently introduced that concept with Emma's diamond transformation. But, he actually admitted in an interview it was just a mistake on his part.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 29, 2018 8:56:56 GMT -5
As far as the art in this issue goes, the only thing that really bothers me is the way Oracle is depicted. I don't know if it was an intentional new look or if Kordey just did not realize she was a preexisting character and accidentally drew her differently. I assume that Kordey was acting on instructions from Morrison; surely the artist isn't authorized to make a character constantly nude without some kind of writing/editorial involvement. She was always albino, though. She seems sort of like a Dream Girl/Saturn Girl hybrid. Her dialogue suggests that she can't easily distinguish the present from the future, which is quite a liability in a combat situation. But as previously depicted, Oracle also has offensive psi-blast capabilities. Morrison shows her being easily overcome by the Stepford Cuckoos. The only reason I thought it might be a mistake is, in all her subsequent appearances, she is back to her original look. I guess Marvel didn't like the change either.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 29, 2018 8:27:52 GMT -5
As far as the art in this issue goes, the only thing that really bothers me is the way Oracle is depicted. I don't know if it was an intentional new look or if Kordey just did not realize she was a preexisting character and accidentally drew her differently.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 28, 2018 9:15:05 GMT -5
The Stepford Cuckoos started as an inside joke, with five girls named Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme. SPICE, as in “The Spice Girls,” the British singing sensations of the mid-1990s. But Irma’s name was never mentioned on the page during Morrison’s tenure, and a later writer mistakenly named her “Mindee” at first. She’s now (i.e. in the year 2018) Irma as originally planned, I’ve heard. Anyway, we still don’t know their origins. Did they survive the Genosha extinction? Were they already X-students before Emma came from Genosha? Did they already look a lot like young versions of Emma, or did they adopt her style in admiration? I am surprised that Mindee isn’t her proper name, as that’s the one I remember! I believe that the Stepford cuckoos were later revealed to be clones of Emma or something. Yes, I know. *Sigh*. Mindee was revealed to be Irma's nickname during Fraction's run, putting it back inline with Morrison's intentions.
At one point in Morrison's run it is strongly hinted that the Cuckoos are Weapon XIV/created by the Weapon Plus Program. This was confirmed in Greg Pak's Phoenix: Warsong series. It actually made clever use of continuity: It was revealed that Emma's eggs were harvested after she ended up in a coma way back in Claremant's Uncanny X-Men #184 and used, along with an as-yet-unnamed male donor to create the Cuckoos, who were cloned and artificially aged using the program's advanced science. So, they are technically Emma's biological daughters.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 27, 2018 12:39:09 GMT -5
The other two teams were away teams. The Uncanny X-Men team travelled around assisting mutants and, at that specific time, were dealing with the X-Corps fiasco and the team in X-Treme X-Men were off looking for Destiny's diaries. So, presumably, neither were able to assist the mansion team. "Yay! We found Destiny's diaries!" (World blows up) "Oh... we lost them again." Yeah, it doesn't make complete sense. I look at as being similar to Batman not just always calling Superman or the Justice League or even his younger allies for help. Sometimes logic has no place in a shared universe
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 27, 2018 12:26:09 GMT -5
That brings up a question. If New X-Men was only one of five X-Men titles running concurrently, how did the other titles justify ignoring this big fat mess that was unfolding in New X-Men? I mean, Professor Xavier has been possessed by a world-ending monster, and the Shi'ar will soon be coming to destroy the Earth (spoiler!). What other characters were busy doing something more important in the other books? The other two teams were away teams. The Uncanny X-Men team travelled around assisting mutants and, at that specific time, were dealing with the X-Corps fiasco and the team in X-Treme X-Men were off looking for Destiny's diaries. So, presumably, neither were able to assist the mansion team.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 27, 2018 12:10:45 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, I looked up the other books/creators thay took part in the "'Nuff Said Month" (The list of talent working at Marvel at the time is pretty remarkable):
Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita, Jr. Avengers by Kurt Busiek & Kieron Dwyer Black Panther by Priest & Sal Velluto Cable by David Tischman & Igor Kordey Captain America by Dan Jurgens & Bob Layton Daredevil by Bendis & Alex Maleev Deadpool by Frank Tieri & Jim Calafiore Defenders by Kurt Busiek & Erik Larson Fantastic Four by Jeph Loeb, Fabian Nicieza, Tom Grummett, et.al. Peter Parker, Spider-Man by Paul Jenkins & Mark Buckingham Punisher by Steve Dillon & Jimmy Palmiotti (even though it was during his run, Ennis did not write this issue) Spider-Girl by Tom DeFalco & Pat Olliffe Thor by Dan Jurgens & Stuart Immonen Thunderbolts by Nicieza & Mark Bagley Uncanny X-Men by Joe Casey & Ron Garney Wolverine by Frank Tieri & Sean Chen X-Force by Peter Milligan & Mike Allred (New) X-Men by Morrison & Quitely X-Treme X-Men by Chris Claremont & Salvador Larroca
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 27, 2018 9:22:57 GMT -5
Oh, were silent issues a thing that month? I didn't realize that. Was there a silent month anniversary that put that style as an editorial mandated storyboard across the Marvel titles that month? Yes. Joe Quesada put the challenge to all creative teams on the books to do a dialogue-less story for "'Nuff Said" month. I can't speak to the overall quality of them since the only ones I read were the 3 main X-Books, which were good (New X-Men being the best).
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 21, 2018 10:43:32 GMT -5
The annual was not included in the TPB that collected the start of Morrison’s run (I wish I had gotten the larger hardcover that did, but I think that was published later). Pity, but the regukar title did a good job of bringing the reader up to speed. Not having read the X-Men comics since 1993, I have no idea if Scott’s psychological problems were previously caused by his fusing with Apocalypse or are an idea retroactively introduced by Morrison. In any case, “Scott has mental problems” is a meme I have to live with (despite being a big Cyclops fan) since that’s how the character was handled most of the time since Louise Simonson’s days on X-Factor. At least, here, it serves a genuine story purpose. Emma’s new personality works for me, but like that of several other characters it’s essentially a reboot when compared to who she was in the 1970s and 1980s. Does her behaviour fit with the way she acted in Generation X? I haven’t read that title. I like the way Morrison handles Xavier. The man is clearly conscious of the danger he represents, and his aloofness can be attributed by (a) a perhaps justifiable sense of mental superiority to anyone else, and (b) a strong sense of entitlement. This Xavier just loves being the one everyone looks up to. It doesn’t make him sympathetic, but gives him a depth of complexity that few other writers gave him. (Even in Claremont’s hands, Xavier was essentially a saint). One thing that annoyed me in these issues is how impossibly fast Wolverine heals. I was introduced to the character back when his being stabbed or shot would incapacitate him for hours or days, and here he can regrow an arm in seconds. That’s not a weird mutation, that’s magic! Emma's personality during Morrison's run is, essentially, the same as it was in Generation X and her transition from villain was handled really well in that book. As with Morrison's run, she retained enough villainous traits to keep her from truly being a hero but they were well-balanced with heroic traits, such as how much she cared for her students.
I agree about Wolverine's healing abilities, but I believe they were increased earlier on, so I think Morrison was just going along with what was already established. He did, in a later issue, have him go into a deep sleep state in order to recuperate from an unseen battle.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 8, 2018 10:14:01 GMT -5
My one big gripe with Grant Morrison is how he tends to take complex villains and turn them into mustache twirling Nazis and Bond villains. What he did with Magneto was easily the worst part of his X-Men run, though whoever decided to undo Magneto's reform and make him a villain again in the late 80s/early 90s also really messed up. Ra's al Ghul was brought up here, and if anything Talia was even more complicated, being torn between her love for her father and Batman, while also being torn between their respective ideals. Morrison screwed that up royally and I doubt her character will ever recover from his assassination of her. This is a common complaint about Morrison, but it seems that people either forget or ignore that he was writing Magneto and Talia very similarly to how they had been portrayed shortly before his work with them ("Eve of Destruction" and "Death and the Maidens" respectively). He could have gone with the (preferred by many) "anti-hero" or "sympathetic" route with either character, but that would have gone against then-current continuity.
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Post by Cheswick on Apr 3, 2018 4:11:55 GMT -5
I'm up to Detective Comics #490. There's an ongoing story with Batman sort of caught in the middle of a conflict between Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins. The Don Newton/Dan Adkins art is very nice but the story is mostly not doing a whole lot for me. Ra's al Ghul is not a character I like most of the time. They use him way too much. Like Darkseid. He has to get beat eventually, but failure after failure makes him look like a joke. So it would be much better if master villains like Ra's and Darkseid were reserved exclusively for epic storylines every ten years or so - and they have to almost win. (I hope they NEVER bring back the First Born! He was great in that one long storyline ... and it would be almost impossible to justify a revival.) The Spook appeared in #488. BRONZE AGE BONKERS! I loved it! Barbara Gordon lost the election and is no longer a Congresswoman! (She also lost the knowledge of Batman and Robin's secret identities through a very complicated and rather contrived set of circumstances. It's very important that Batman and Robin's secret identities are unknown to Batgirl because ... I dunno. Some editor with a bug up his butt?) Some really nice Ross Andru covers! One of my favorite moments in 490 is when Batman literally face palms himself in frustration, then tells the source of his frustration--a stubborn Reverend he's trying to rescue--how much he'd like to hit him.
I also like the Sensei's convoluted plan (it involves a weaponized earthquake), and his reasoning behind it: that he's an "artist" that works in the medium of death.
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Post by Cheswick on Mar 25, 2018 11:57:47 GMT -5
I guess I should mention one thing I didn't like - the death of Batwoman! Kathy Kane is killed by the League of Assassins in #485. Such a waste! They had brought her back a year or so earlier in The Freedom Fighters series. Kathy Kane was running her own circus and she gave the Freedom Fighters jobs in the circus so they could have a place to hide out in the wake of all the trouble they had in their series. (And boy did they have troubles!) The series was canceled very soon after that, so unfortunately there was no 1970s comic book series about a fugitive group of superheroes operating from a circus run by the woman who used to be Batwoman. What a missed opportunity! Instead of killing Kathy Kane, they should have given her a spot in Detective Comics! Kathy Kane also appeared in Batman Family #17 a short time before this issue, in a story with Batgirl and Huntress where they fought Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Despite really liking the overall League of Assassins storyline from the Dollar run, I was also disappointed about Kathy's death. Especially since it didn't really serve a purpose story-wise. After Morrison's Batman run, we can actually refer to this as the story that she "died".
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Post by Cheswick on Mar 21, 2018 22:49:15 GMT -5
I'm just starting to re-read the original run of Generation X. I know there is/was a second series that I've never read. Once I finish this, I'll start that. Are you talking about the one that just ended? It doesn't have much to do with the original series until the final arc, but it was a fun book. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a new X-book, so it sucks that it got cancelled.
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