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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 17, 2018 5:21:35 GMT -5
Well said. Maddie was not intended to be a Jean Grey clone; Chris Claremont created her to give Scott a happy ending of sort. Her looking like Jean was a red herring, nothing more. Then because of the X-Factor fiasco, she was turned into a copy, who was then corrupted by the demon Nastirh to become the Goblin queen. As if turning her into a villain absolved Scott of dumping her in the first place! What a complete fosterclock and character assassination the whole thing was. The problem was the Claremont set up her too well to be a Jean clone or alternate reality something-or-other. Not only did she look identical to Jean (including hairstyle), but she also survived a plane crash on the same day (and, apparently at the exact moment) that Jean was dying on the moon. That's too big a plot point to chalk up to coincidence, so I don't blame somebody for feeling the urge to paper it over with an explanation. Too bad; I would have rather she was just some lady who happened to look like Jean.  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Yes, the red herring was pretty convincing. There even is an image where, in a flashback or a dream scene, we see Maddie walking away from the crash... and the flames of the wreck form the phoenix raptor. Perhaps Chris wanted us Jean fans to think that maybe, perhaps, somehow, Maddie was a reincarnated Jean... but he also did say in an interview that no, Maddie was not Jean and was meant to be her own person. (I got the mag somewhere in the basement... I should look up his exact words). The culmination of which was Scott’s speech over Jean’s grave, in the issue where he married Maddie. He was glad that his new love was not Jean, because after the grief of losing her he bow had the chance of building something new with someone else. I thought that whole story arc was a nice lesson for all young readers (and a few olfer ones): that we can survive a tragedy, that it is possible to build a new life (even a happy one) out of the ashes of the old one. I will admit that although I had wished Maddie was Jean, I was O.K. with that conclusion. Those were good days... actually dealing with events instead of just killing, resurrecting, rebooting and retconning whatever doesn’t suit the writer’s or the company’s momentary fancy. |
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Post by rberman on May 17, 2018 7:15:24 GMT -5
The problem was the Claremont set up her too well to be a Jean clone or alternate reality something-or-other. Not only did she look identical to Jean (including hairstyle), but she also survived a plane crash on the same day (and, apparently at the exact moment) that Jean was dying on the moon. That's too big a plot point to chalk up to coincidence, so I don't blame somebody for feeling the urge to paper it over with an explanation. Too bad; I would have rather she was just some lady who happened to look like Jean. Yes, the red herring was pretty convincing. There even is an image where, in a flashback or a dream scene, we see Maddie walking away from the crash... and the flames of the wreck form the phoenix raptor. Perhaps Chris wanted us Jean fans to think that maybe, perhaps, somehow, Maddie was a reincarnated Jean... but he also did say in an interview that no, Maddie was not Jean and was meant to be her own person. (I got the mag somewhere in the basement... I should look up his exact words). The culmination of which was Scott’s speech over Jean’s grave, in the issue where he married Maddie. He was glad that his new love was not Jean, because after the grief of losing her he bow had the chance of building something new with someone else. I thought that whole story arc was a nice lesson for all young readers (and a few olfer ones): that we can survive a tragedy, that it is possible to build a new life (even a happy one) out of the ashes of the old one. I will admit that although I had wished Maddie was Jean, I was O.K. with that conclusion. Those were good days... actually dealing with events instead of just killing, resurrecting, rebooting and retconning whatever doesn’t suit the writer’s or the company’s momentary fancy. There's this Phoenix-y scene.  At the time, the Maddie story seemed like a good way to lead away from Jean forever. But in retrospect, it was the first of many rehashes of the Phoenix storyline. First Maddie, then the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover, then Rachel, then Jean's return and eventual Phoenix-ification (how many times now?) It became clear that the strong critical critical and audience response to the original Phoenix story meant that it would be rehashed over and over and over again, with the built-in defense that "Phoenix's power is to return." With diminishing returns on each iteration, evidently, as we'll see in the conclusion of Morrison's run. Speaking of which... |
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Post by rberman on May 17, 2018 7:19:46 GMT -5
New X-Men #142 “Assault on Weapon Plus: Brimstone and Whiskey” (August 2003)
 The Story: Scott Summers has quit the X-Men and fled from his wife following the revelation of his affair with Emma Frost. He settles in at the Hellfire Club “gentleman’s club,” and this issue consists entirely of six conversations in that setting: 1) Scott talks to a stripper about how he finds her act unsexy; he can’t lose himself in a fantasy that she is attracted to him, knowing that it’s just a paycheck for her. 2) Sabretooth mocks Scott while Sebastian Shaw reminds the two that no fighting is allowed here. 3) Logan and Scott discuss Scott’s depression. 4) Sabretooth and Logan heckle each other in the bathroom. 5) Logan and Scott discuss Scott’s depression more. 6) Fantomex meets Logan, and the two of them get Scott drunk enough to come with them on a mission.  My Two Cents: If the X-Men stand for a family, Scott is dad having a mid-life crisis. Logan is now the Wise Uncle (brother to Scott) rather than the “troubled teen runaway” (so to speak) we first met back in Giant Size X-Men #1. Sabretooth is the annoying kid brother who’s mainly there for comic relief fart jokes so this whole issue (which has no B-plot) is not just 22 pages of Scott saying “I hate my life,” and to give both Scott and Logan someone to look better than. The upshot is that Logan has a mission with Fantomex, and he decides bringing Scott along will be a good way to keep Scott from doing something even dumber by his lonesome.  The whole setup can’t be taken too seriously. Would Scott go get drunk at a strip club to forget about his bad behavior, and maybe follow it up with further poor choices? Sure. Would he go to Sebastian Shaw, who both was indirectly responsible for Jean’s death and also will remind him of Emma Frost? No way. Would he hire a stripper that resembles Jean-as-Black-Queen? I’m going to go with “No way” on that one also. This is also the issue in which Morrison mistakenly writes Shaw as if his power was telepathy. Oopsie! Morrison should have known better, but editor Mike Marts really should have caught that.  On art, it’s a new day compared to the first 2/3 of Morrison’s tenure. Gone are Quitely, Kordey, Leon, Sienkiewicz, and Van Sciver. This four-part arc features Chris Bachalo, who makes quite an impression. Like Quitely, his figures have an expressive caricature feel to them, with exaggerated features that suit all the emotional fireworks going off. Bachalo also gives us some neat page layouts, with substantial use of empty space, quite different from the “widescreen cinema on the page” look we’ve seen for most of the last two years. 
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Post by rberman on May 18, 2018 5:11:53 GMT -5
New X-Men #143 “Assault on Weapon Plus: The World” (August 2003)
The Story: The World is a giant dome in rural England where scientists are breeding anti-mutant mutants inside a bubble of vastly accelerated time. At the moment, that bubble is set on “pause,” frozen in time. Fantomex (Weapon XIII) is one of their escaped projects. He’s bringing Wolverine (Weapon X) there to learn about his past, as well as to complete some quest of his own. Wolverine has dragged along Cyclops, who discovers that his affair with Emma Frost has not only threatened his marriage, it’s stolen his mojo; his optic blasts no longer function. Two reporters sneak inside the exterior fence surrounding The World and are dispatched by its defenses. A group of A.I.M. science looters are there also; they scuffle with our heroes, who defeat them and then enter The World. That's all that happens!  My Two Cents: This is a pretty decompressed issue plot-wise. Our three heroes go from “outside the fence of The World” to “Entering The World,” facing minimal resistance along the way. There’s a decent amount of banter, with Logan and Fantomex engaging in something of a rivalry in the “I can be nonchalant and deadly” department. Scott is still Mr. Grumpypants. Ordinarily his loss of powers would be a dream come true, but he could really use offensive capability now, and for whatever reason he chooses not to bail on the mission. Mainly we get some world-building, reminding us what The World is (it’s been a long time since Fantomex gave all that exposition to Jean and Charles back in Paris) and showing us the infrastructure that maintains it. This whole arc is an exploration saga reminiscent of classic silver age sci-fi novels like Larry Niven's Ringworld (1970) or Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama (1973).  Wolverine has been a rather underused character in the previous two years of Morrison stories, so I suppose it was time for him to have a turn at bat. But it’s a little bit disappointing that his spotlight moment comes on a trio mission with Scott and Fantomex, far away from the rest of the team. Wolvie already has his own book. Can’t his solo adventures take place there, with Cyclops as a guest star? I know, his book already has a writer and artists, so Morrison is going to have to do his thing in the title assigned to him. Still, this is a four part story, and that’s a long time to whittle our cast of six main characters down to just two (plus Fantomex, who doesn't count). One moment of genuine surprise: Morrison is a self-confessed DC nut, with little zeal for Marvel continuity. So I was surprised by this panel:  The lower half of the panel shows the two reporters peeking over a wall at the World engineers. One of them, Dr. Dalton, says that he cut his teeth working on A.I.M.'s "alteration chamber." This is the device that was used to create genetically enhanced super-villains M.O.D.O.K. and Bulldozer in Captain America #133 (1971, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan). Here's the scientist getting thrown into it unwillingly to create M.O.D.O.K.  It also seems a lot like the Evil Factory of Simyan and Mokkari in Jack Kirby's issues of Jimmy Olsen in late 1971 and early 1972. I suppose all these devices go back at least to Victor Frankenstein's lab table. Maybe further. 
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Post by Reptisaurus! on May 18, 2018 11:14:40 GMT -5
Man, I know I've read Morrison's run 3-4 times, but I totally forgot those issues existed. Everything else you've reviewed in this thread I remember the basic plot and the basic theme, but here I'm just drawing a blank.
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Post by rberman on May 18, 2018 11:52:20 GMT -5
Man, I know I've read Morrison's run 3-4 times, but I totally forgot those issues existed. Everything else you've reviewed in this thread I remember the basic plot and the basic theme, but here I'm just drawing a blank. The plot for each of the four issues is pretty sparse, so there's not much to remember. Lots of large panels, splash pages, two-page splashes. It could have been a one-and-done issue, with the four parts of the story condensed to five pages each. Or he could have had a denser plot, especially for the "inside The World" segment which occupies tomorrow's post. If you make a new setting, explore it some! |
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Post by sabongero on May 18, 2018 11:58:30 GMT -5
Gotta love Fantomex's design. He's almsot like Storn Shadow from G.I. Joe A Real American Hero, with a trenchcoat to match the white costume.
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Post by rberman on May 18, 2018 15:03:08 GMT -5
Gotta love Fantomex's design. He's almsot like Storn Shadow from G.I. Joe A Real American Hero, with a trenchcoat to match the white costume. Some of the Stormshadow-ness comes from Diabolik, who was probably the source material for both Fantomex and Stormshadow. The trenchcoat may be Morrison's own idea, or perhaps a nod to Fantomas.  |
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Post by rberman on May 18, 2018 17:20:09 GMT -5
New X-Men #144 “Assault on Weapon Plus: The Flesh” (September 2003)
The Story: Fantomex, Cyclops, and Wolverine enter the time-frozen world of The World. Fantomex is there to kill his successor, Weapon XV. Wolverine is there to find information about his past. Cyclops is there to feel useful, except he’s lost his optic blast power and feels like a big target. For The first half of the issue contains lots of chit-chat as the three heroes explore the time-stopped World.  Then the A.I.M. agent they left alive decides to turn time back "on" in The World, which means first a battle with a security AT-ST cyborg and then a showdown with Weapon XV. The Weapon handily defeats our heroes but seems dazed. He’s walking around saying things like, “Are you real?” and flies off rather than killing them. Eventually he realizes that The World is not the whole world, so he simply flies through the side of the dome and off into the night sky. They follow him to a satellite in Earth orbit.   My Two Cents: We learn that Fantomex’s original designation in The World was Charlie Cluster 7, and that his French accent is an affectation. As with the previous issue, I feel like this story could have been told in far fewer pages, either being combined with the previous issue or else making room for a much-needed B-plot showing the other four X-Men doing something interesting back at the mansion. Maybe, I don't know, Jean and Emma awkwardly coming to terms of some sort? Or else a lot more happening inside The World, which is after all a breeding ground for more Wolverines and Fantomexes and thus ought to have all sorts of interesting things going on. Bachalo makes the most of the space, delivering some interesting visuals within The World. Regarding which, I need a reality check from my readers. Does the background art in this issue look a lot like Moebius, or am I just in an “Everything looks like Mobius now” mode after reading The Incal? Judge for yourself: 
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Post by sabongero on May 18, 2018 18:50:02 GMT -5
Gotta love Fantomex's design. He's almsot like Storn Shadow from G.I. Joe A Real American Hero, with a trenchcoat to match the white costume. Some of the Stormshadow-ness comes from Diabolik, who was probably the source material for both Fantomex and Stormshadow. The trenchcoat may be Morrison's own idea, or perhaps a nod to Fantomas. According to Wikipedia: Influence: The popularity of Diabolik spurred a long series of characters directly or indirectly inspired to him, generally noticeable by the "criminalizing K" in their name. Some of them are a kind of satire. - Max Bunker (writer) and Magnus created in the 1960s two of these "K" characters, Kriminal and Satanik, the second being a feminine and horror version. Both are distinguished for their greater realism and for a more substantial sexy style. - Killing, an Italian comic book. - Paperinik (Duck Avenger) is the volatile superheroic alter-ego of Donald Duck created by Elisa Penna, Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi in 1969. - Cattivik is a humorous version of Diabolik created by Franco Bonvicini in 1967: cattivo means bad, evil in Italian. - Dorellik is the name of a film starring singer and actor Johnny Dorelli. - Fantomex is a character created by Grant Morrison during his run writing X-Men. He is a master thief using technological gadgets and his uniform is similar to -Diabolik’s, but coloured white. He is assisted by an artificial intelligence called E.V.A.
- Mike Patton had decided on either Fantômas or Diabolik for his avant-garde metal band, ultimately called Fantômas. The Beastie Boys music video for the song "Body Movin’ " is a direct parody of Danger: Diabolik and features many clips from the movie itself. - Millar & McNiven's Nemesis - A racing driver named Diabolik who races in the Superstars Series, who never takes off his balaclava. In real life, Matteo Messina Denaro, a prominent figure in the Sicilian Mafia considered to be a candidate to become the next capo di tutti capi, is nicknamed "Diabolik", after the comic book character. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 19, 2018 7:42:09 GMT -5
It’s in that story arc that I noticed Wolverine’s eyes had turned from brown to blue, and the color seemed to stick.
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Post by rberman on May 19, 2018 22:37:32 GMT -5
New X-Men #145 “Assault on Weapon Plus: The Devil” (October 2003) The Story: Weapon XV “Ultimaton” finds scientists of the Weapon Plus program greeting him warmly when he arrives on a satellite in Earth orbit. Fantomex, Cyclops, and Wolverine give chase in E.V.A., the biological spaceship which is an extension of Fantomex. The three heroes set explosive charges all over the station. Fantomex gives Wolverine computer access to read about the history of the Weapon Plus program, including previous experients such as Captain America and Frank “Nuke” Simpson. We see that the Weapon Plus creations were conceived not just as a line of unrelated experiments but as a team, the Super-Sentinels, who would be the subjects of a publicity campaign to fire the hearts of humankind with anti-mutant sentiment. A scientist talks to Fantomex from a video screen, chiding him for spoiling the project. He also hints of a government mole inside the X-Mansion. E.V.A. is (apparently) destroyed, which incapacitates Fantomex due to their psychic link. Cyclops carries him to an escape pod. Ultimaton confronts Wolverine, who detonates the whole satellite on which they are standing. Did Fantomex and Cyclops make it out?  My Two Cents: Hmmm, a code-named superteam with a satellite headquarters. Methinks Morrison is winking at Bronze Age JLA here. It’s a nice touch that the table with a large “+” sign (for "Weapon Plus") inlaid into its center could just as easily be a large “X,” suggesting a parallel between our heroes and this team of antagonists that never managed to get up and running all at the same time. The scientist on the video monitor chides Fantomex like a comic book writer debating with one of his recalcitrant creations:  If I understand Morrison correctly, he is completely retconning Wolverine’s origin. Logan is not from the nineteenth century or earlier but rather was created after Captain America (Weapon I). Like Cap, Wolverine is the product of ongoing genetic experimentation to produce a JLA-like team (satellite, meeting table with logo in it, and of course a "+" sign is a sideways "X") of biological sentinels, anti-mutant mutants. James Logan's real birth name is probably some military code like Charlie Cluster 7. (At least he’s not an evolutionarily advanced wolverine!) Has this retcon been undone or ignored by anybody following Morrison?  Ultimaton has discovered that Doctor Sublime had similar anti-mutant plans for himself, but he has second thoughts. “I could have been a painter,” as well. Is he thinking about rejecting his mission altogether and pursuing a career in the arts, or is this just a nod how a mass murderer like Hitler could still have hobbies like painting on the side? Either way, Logan doesn't plan on finding out; he detonates the explosives on the satellite that he himself occupies. Makes sense, given that Ultimaton was (hastily) built up last issue as a doomsday character who could somehow wipe out all of mutantkind. This issue’s title, combined with the titles of the two previous issues (“The World” and “The Flesh” respectively) form a quotation from the Anglican Church’s Book of Common Prayer, likely familiar from Grant Morrison’s childhood in Britain. It can be traced back through Thomas Aquinas to medieval theologian Peter Abelard’s comment: “There are three things which tempt us, the flesh, the world, and the devil,” itself a paraphrase from Ephesians 2:2-3 concerning the past evils which Christians have left behind. Logan, Fantomex, and Scott all have strong reasons to leave both the sins of the past and the temptations of the present behind, so the title makes a nice thematic touch for those who catch Morrison’s reference. Chris Bachalo continues to give us nonstandard layouts like the Z-shaped one pictured at the beginning of this post, with plenty of black space to heighten the drama. This is the end of his New X-Men tenure, however. His version of Cyclops has shed his bulky X-jacket, so Slim now looks slim again. I read recently that Scott is supposed to be 6'3", but that impressive height doesn't tend to come across in X-Men artwork. Pity. Chris Hemsworth is quite a tall guy as well, but in Avengers: Infinity War, they made Chris Pratt seem equally tall when the two were having their "manly frat boy" competition upon meeting. 
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Post by Cheswick on May 20, 2018 0:31:02 GMT -5
An interesting thing about this arc is that it led to the creation of We3, the series Morrison and Quitely did for Vertigo about weaponized animals. He initially conceived of it as an X-Men spinoff-of-sorts about Weapon II.
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Post by rberman on May 20, 2018 7:27:42 GMT -5
An interesting thing about this arc is that it led to the creation of We3, the series Morrison and Quitely did for Vertigo about weaponized animals. He initially conceived of it as an X-Men spinoff-of-sorts about Weapon II. I got that recently but haven't read it. We all know how Morrison feels about animal experimentation and the military in general. He grew up in an "anti-everything" home. His parents spent their energies protesting The Bomb, the military, the leaders of their own hippie co-ops, etc. |
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Post by rberman on May 21, 2018 6:27:06 GMT -5
New X-Men #146 “Planet X, Part One” (November 2003) The Story: Cyclops and Fantomex rocket away from the exploding JLA Satellite – I mean Weapon Plus satellite – on an escape craft, leaving Wolverine behind. Happily, there are no cosmic rays to curse them with tragically uncontrollable abilities, as has been known to happen to those on such descending spacecraft. The rest of the team mounts a two-pronged rescue of Cyclops and Wolverine. Emma Frost and Beast head for the French Polynesian Islands to pluck Cyclops and Fantomex from the ocean. Somewhere over the Pacific, their plane explodes, dumping them in the ocean. Jean Grey-Summers takes a spaceship to find Logan in the wreckage of the Weapon Plus satellite, which turns out to be built upon Magneto’s old base Asteroid M from the earliest issues of X-Men. Logan is in the middle of a fight with Ultimaton (Weapon XV), both of them having survived the destruction of most of the satellite by bombs in the previous issue. A secondary explosion shoots Asteroid M out of Earth orbit on a trajectory for the sun.  Sooraya “Dust” has come with Jean from Mumbai to Westchester, where she’s been placed in Xorn’s Special Class due to her traumatized background. I would have thought school was out for the summer; there were only a few days left in the spring semester back in #138 when we saw the school awards day ceremonies. But no, we still see Ernst, Beak, Martha Johannson, Angel Salvadore, and Basilisk sitting in class with Dust, receiving some sort of proposal from Xorn. Dust must not like what she hears, because she turns to dust and whisks away to warn Xavier about something.  She’s interrupted by Xorn’s arrival and goes berserk, destroying Cerebra. She’s captured and put into a jar in dust form, meaning that Xavier cannot communicate with her telepathically. Then Xorn takes of his skull-helmet and… he’s Magneto! He turns off the nano-Sentinels holding Xavier’s spine in place; now Xavier is paraplegic again, and Magneto and his Special Class are in control of the mansion.  My Two Cents: Triple cliffhanger! It’s exciting to see our heroes in varied peril simultaneously. Let’s get the big issue of out the way first. Xorn is really Magneto? That’s such a big reveal, initially (and possible finally) against the direction of the evolving story, that I’m going to put it aside for the moment to discuss tomorrow. So save your Magneto/Xorn thoughts until tomorrow, if you can! Moving on to other matters… Why did Jean go to rescue Logan instead of Scott? Especially leaving Emma to get Scott? I don’t see that happening. If not for love, she would at least want the wronged wife’s vengeance of seeing her wayward husband having to accept her help. The main reason I can think for her to seek out Logan would be that betrayed spouses often feel at liberty, even primally obliged, to cheat themselves to even the score. And Logan is far and away the most likely candidate for that. Beast and Emma, as the two most cultured X-Men, have cultivated a surprising friendship. This makes a lot of sense. We know Emma is a blue-blood. I don’t know anything about Hank McCoy’s upbringing (Emma calls him “Henry”), but he’s frequently shown enjoying the finer things in life. Jiminez also depicts him as wearing taloned metal gloves that allow him to type despite his enormous paws; little details like this show the thought that went into crafting these tales. Jiminez's realistic style makes quite a change from Bachalo's previous work, but I like them both on their own terms.  On her way out to find Logan, Jean tells Xavier (she always calls him “Charles” in Morrison’s stories, an indication of how she’s outgrown their mentor/pupil paradigm) that “I’m going away soon.” This seems a lot like foreshadowing. She could be going to death, to some higher plane of existence as Phoenix, to vanish into Dark Phoenix, to explore space, etc. Which will it be?  Yet another idea of what the mansion looks like on the outside. It can't be right if Xavier's office overlooks the lawn yet has a secret Cerebra lab behind a bookcase on the side wall, as we have seen numerous times. 
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