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Post by rberman on Jun 1, 2018 22:39:06 GMT -5
Postlude #2: Hidden in Plain Sight
 “I saw all this coming.” Cassandra Nova, in Jean’s dream, seems to be speaking for Phoenix, who sees the whole storyline from the Morrison’s-eye-view, from the start to the finish. Here are three snippets of dialogue that Jean hears when she’s looking at the whole galaxy (and the whole of Morrison's four year run on NXM) from a top-down vantage point in Morrison’s final issue:  These are the bread crumbs that Morrison planted all along the way, leading up to the “Here Comes Tomorrow” story. The first time was in #114, Morrison's first issue. Right after Cassandra Nova fails to take over Xavier's brain, he curiously says, “Are these words from the future?” and it seems like he’s just confused:  The next one is when Xavier is comatose and has been thinking about his parents and someone named Gus. Jean is puzzled. Who is Gus? She later finds out, as seen below. This is a perfect example of Morrison's point about how later knowledge can recontextualize and solve an earlier mystery:  Then when John Sublime has immobilized Emma Frost with Martha Johannson, we get the “Every diamond has its flaw” moment. This is the only one of the three quotations for which Jean was not physically present.  The next one is especially portentous. When Xavier communes with the Phoenix in Paris, she takes him to a hellish landscape with fallen skyscrapers and a castle rising in the distance. At his feet are dead Beast (visible from the blue head of hair right behind where Xavier is sitting) and dead Logan (sprawled toward the bottom of the panel; you can barely see the white claws emerging from under his outstretched right hand.) A couple of other corpses with X-Men jackets are lying in the distance. The fire hydrant on the far left of the foreground is running with blood! Xavier asks about the scene: “Are these words from the future?” We now know that the scene is a combination of the destruction of Manhattan by Magneto in “Planet X” and the showdown with Sublime/Beast in Jean’s dream of the dystopian future in “Here Comes Tomorrow.”  We see this scene again when Xavier is Magneto’s prisoner in the bacta tank that blocks his powers. Jean, having by stabbed by Logan and assumed full Phoenix power, communicates telepathically with Xavier, returning him to the ruined cityscape. We can see more clearly that it’s Logan dead behind Xavier; the other bodies are not present this time. For the third time, Xavier asks, “Are these words from the future?” and wants to know “What is this place?” Beast’s castle is more visible in the background this time, and Phoenix (as opposed to Jean) tells Xavier that “It’s not a place.” That’s because it’s just a vision from the mind of Jean as she lies dying shortly thereafter.  The appearance of these words at the end of the story shows the trans-temporal nature of Phoenix, perhaps analogous to how the Shi’ar Superguardian Oracle had trouble keeping track of which of her memories reflected events that had actually happened, vs events that were still future.  Morrison telegraphed the Sublime bacteria plot elaborated in “Here Comes Tomorrow” way back when Xavier was talking to Jean in Paris:  That’s pretty much what Sublime has been doing for three billiion years, we eventually learn. Shi’ar prophets have predicted that “nature” is attacking the X-Men, but that Phoenix will “disinfect” the Earth, and both prove true:   These are some of the bon mots that come "value added" for those who venture a second or third reading through Morrison's time on New X-Men. Tomorrow, for my finale postlude: What can we learn about New X-Men from Animal Man?
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Post by rberman on Jun 2, 2018 8:18:31 GMT -5
Postlude #3: Beast vs Animal ManIn part four of the arc, The Quentin-Phoenix tells Jean-Phoenix that she and he have met here “hundreds of times.” You might think this is some reference to reincarnation or the cyclical nature of the universe, but I don’t think so. This is one of Morrison’s pet fascinations: Fictional characters exist in a form that the reader can experience repeatedly, and with each reading, the reader brings a new version of himself to the experience, prepared to wring more information from the same story. Morrison is certainly counting on this in “Here Comes Tomorrow,” which is impossible to understand the first time through.  Morrison has laid out his ideas about the relationship between reader and text in both nonfiction form (in Supergods) and fiction form (in Animal Man #24). Here are samples of each:  Hey, look! In that last panel, one of the heroes is wearing Cyclops' visor and has Quentin Quire's "Omega" glyph on his forehead, just as Quentin had provocatively written "Crazy Now" on his own forehead in magic marker to challenge Xavier. Keep in mind that this was a dozen years before the Quentin Quire arc of X-Men was released. In the final issue of “Here Comes Tomorrow,” Sublime/Beast (his cape nicely billowed like Phoenix wings since he has incorporated Jean's genes into himself) announces his arrival to the battle by saying that he has drowned the last whale and can “do anything now.” In what sense are these two statements related?  So… remember when I wondered whom or what Mer-Max the telepathic whale might represent? I have one possible answer, from Animal Man #19 (1990). This issue is based upon a real-life drug-induced hallucination that Grant Morrison had, as he described in, yes, Supergods: Morrison told the story of his drug trip in some detail in Animal Man #18-19, imagining the mesa as surrounded by water, the LSD as peyote, and a great whale rising from the depths to engulf him and his friend as they discuss the works of physicist/cosmologist David Bohm ( Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980; Unfolding Meaning, 1985, several other books):    As often happens when a specialized work of science gains popular currency among those of incomplete training, Bohm’s new technical vocabulary about the interplay between quantum mechanics and relativity was ransacked by philosophers, theologians, and yes, comic book writers to feed their own pet theories about how the universe fits together. Morrison even shows a copy of Bohm’s Unfolding Meaning on his desk on the splash page of Animal Man #19. For Morrison, such musings fuel his conviction about the interconnectedness of all things, of the prospect of stepping outside of our four-dimensional walls and, like Animal Man, kicking through into the higher consciousness where the whole history of our universe becomes a 4-D object small enough to be held in our hands, like Phoenix holding the galaxy in “Here Comes Tomorrow.” In the light of all this, Beast killing the whale could represent the opposite: the forces that try to limit our possibilities, darken our horizons. The end of potentiality. The hole in the universe. Similarly, in Animal Man, Buddy becomes aware of the higher reality outside his own, where a writer pulls his puppet strings, and repeat readers encounter his life over and over, like Quentin and Jean meeting for the hundredth time.   So! That’s the end of Grant Morrison’s tenure on X-Men. Overall, I found the Quentin Quire storyline most compelling, followed by the Cassandra Nova plot. The World was an interesting idea that deserved far more development than just “heroes go in, have one fight, and leave.” Come on, it’s like a whole sci-fi planet in there! Do something with it! Similarly, John Sublime died too quickly. The Magneto storyline had some interesting ideas, and a funny satire on artist/fan relationships, once you get past the notion that he was Xorn the whole time. “Here Comes Tomorrow” seems like a real dud if taken at face value, but once you figure out the secret of interpreting it, it’s really quite a tour-de-force symbolizing Jean’s opinions about everyone she knows, while working in several of Morrison’s pet theories about life, the universe, and everything.
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Post by The Cheat on Jun 2, 2018 14:51:12 GMT -5
Great thread, really enjoyed the daily updates. Will have to dig out my Astonishing omnibus now so I can follow along over there.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 2, 2018 18:57:58 GMT -5
Well this was brilliant, thank you for taking the time on this thread. I will definitely have to reread the books.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jun 3, 2018 0:23:15 GMT -5
Yeah, that was a really great thread. The reason I like Grant Morrison so much is that he's the best conduit for these kinds of discussions... There's SO MUCH to unpack in all his stories.
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Post by rberman on Jun 3, 2018 21:58:55 GMT -5
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Post by craymond on Jun 8, 2018 8:05:19 GMT -5
What I love most about Morrison's run on NXM is how clearly it was designed from beginning to end.
The opening roll call image in issue 114 features Jean Grey psychically taking apart a pocket timepiece.
In issue 154, the final act of Jean Grey, as Phoenix, is of her psychically taking apart the timeline.
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Post by craymond on Jun 8, 2018 8:31:46 GMT -5
It wasn't until recently (facepalm) that I realized "U-Men" was a pun on the word "human".
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Post by rberman on Jun 8, 2018 9:05:58 GMT -5
What I love most about Morrison's run on NXM is how clearly it was designed from beginning to end. The opening roll call image in issue 114 features Jean Grey psychically taking apart a pocket timepiece. In issue 154, the final act of Jean Grey, as Phoenix, is of her psychically taking apart the timeline. It wasn't until recently (facepalm) that I realized "U-Men" was a pun on the word "human". Both of those details escaped me as well until just now. There's so much buried in there to talk about! Now I feel the urge to go back and read (and then write about) Cassandra's opening speech more carefully in light of everything uncovered in this thread so far. Despite their personal feud, I know Morrison was impressed with all the "timekeeping" imagery that Alan Moore worked into Watchmen. |
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Post by craymond on Jun 8, 2018 10:04:48 GMT -5
I don't fully rock with the notion that the HCT arc was the dying dream of Jean Grey, but I'll grant you it's certainly a valid interpretation of the story.
How would you like me to weigh in? This forum format doesn't allow me to respond directly to preceding posts without including quote tags. I would LIKE to address your reading issue by issue, but what would be best for you?
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Post by craymond on Jun 8, 2018 10:16:00 GMT -5
Despite their personal feud, I know Morrison was impressed with all the "timekeeping" imagery that Alan Moore worked into Watchmen.One thing I noticed in your reviews of this arc is how much you also review Morrison the author, and how what you know about his personal life affects what he chose to write. I can't say your views aren't valid to a reading of the text, but I don't let his celebrity get in the way of listening to the story he's telling. Comparisons to Moore are also a valid conversation, but I worry the experience of the run is clouded by the history of the author. Morrison led a colorful life, that's very true. I feel the Invisibles and Animal Man are far more appropriate texts to use as examinations of autobiographical influences. ... Unless you want to discuss how Emma Frost could be his avatar in the story? |
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Post by rberman on Jun 8, 2018 11:55:18 GMT -5
One thing I noticed in your reviews of this arc is how much you also review Morrison the author, and how what you know about his personal life affects what he chose to write. I can't say your views aren't valid to a reading of the text, but I don't let his celebrity get in the way of listening to the story he's telling. Comparisons to Moore are also a valid conversation, but I worry the experience of the run is clouded by the history of the author. Morrison led a colorful life, that's very true. I feel the Invisibles and Animal Man are far more appropriate texts to use as examinations of autobiographical influences. ... Unless you want to discuss how Emma Frost could be his avatar in the story? I am definitely up for an exploration of how Emma Frost might be some aspect of Grant Morrison. My impression is that he writes a lot of himself into everything he writes. This is part of his worldview about the relationship between the world of the creator and the work that he creates. In Supergods, Morrison himself called out specific aspects of his life that he was drawing upon in various works including New X-Men, so I took that as a cue to carry that thought further. Am I over-identifying the intentionally biographical element of his work? It's possible. Are there elements of his biography which he included in his work subconsciously? Probably. Am I over-calling those too? Could be. But given the philosophy that he lays out in Supergods, even the apparently unintentional connections could still have meaning. I don't fully rock with the notion that the HCT arc was the dying dream of Jean Grey, but I'll grant you it's certainly a valid interpretation of the story. How would you like me to weigh in? This forum format doesn't allow me to respond directly to preceding posts without including quote tags. I would LIKE to address your reading issue by issue, but what would be best for you? Take your pick! Whatever seems clearest. It may partly depend on the depth of your commentary. If you intend to go issue by issue with extended comments, then you might find it fruitful to quote some portion of my post on that issue (if any) which is germane to your own comments, or to remind people of the general plot of that issue. Or if you're going to be more general as in arc-by-arc, then quoting my own work may be less helpful. Just to give you an idea what I've done in a similar circumstance, here is an example. The longer your posts are, the more helpful it will be to include illustrative images so it's not just blocks of text. Comic books are a visual medium! I use Imgur as my image host; it works pretty well, scaling images to 600 pixels or less in width. |
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Post by craymond on Jun 8, 2018 13:06:19 GMT -5
Okay, I think I'll probably go arc by arc, and start with responses and observations of E is for Extinction.
ANNND start a running tally of references to decapitation.
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Post by rberman on Aug 21, 2018 22:50:22 GMT -5
Tom DeFalco interviewed Grant Morrison for his book "Comic Creators on X-Men" (2006). Some highlights:
Also, Chris Bachalo (artist on the Weapon Plus arc) reports: "I don't really have a personal take on Grant because I never actually worked with him. He was a good year ahead of schedule and the stuff that I got to draw had been written long before I came on board. Marvel gave me the scripts and I drew the books and that was it! I just did the best I could with the material. I thought the scene with Wolverine and Scott talking in the bar was wonderful."
Chris Claremont describes trying to fit X-treme X-Men with what Morrison was doing: "The frustrating aspect of the current publishing environment is that you can't allow things to evolve and percolate anymore. It happens too often where storylines and characters that have been introduced are forgotten as soon as a new creative team takes over. Guys come in with agendas. Grant Morrison came in with a Manifesto that outlined thirty-odd issues of New X-Men. This is what he's going to do and basically what he did with a couple of tweaks along the way. The problem is that at the end of the thirty-odd issues, the canon was left in ruins. Grant doesn't care. He's off writing Superman."
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Post by rberman on Jun 11, 2020 14:51:06 GMT -5
Thread resurrection! I replaced all of the muddy iPhone images with digitally sourced images, and added covers and other images to illustrate points that were only previously discussed before. I also added an index to the beginning of the thread. Probably nobody else cares, but I do. I also discovered that somehow I never posted about issue #133, so without further ado... New X-Men #133 “Dust” (December 2002)
The Story: This one is a sort of strange issue built around a series of five loosely related scenes: 1) Wolverine goes to Afghanistan to rescue Sooraya, a newly discovered mutant, from slavers. She’s a Muslim clad in a burqa. While there, He also meets (for the first time) Fantomex, who jaunts off after securing the papers he came to find, for blackmailing the slavers’ clients. The gentleman thief strikes again! (six pages, four of which are basically filler showing Wolverine walking to a tent, plus a half-splash when he gets there)  2) Charles Xavier and Jean Grey-Summers incapacitate a terrorist with a nuclear dirty bomb on their plane to Mumbai. This plays out as a brief, self-contained episode like those found in many early issues of X-Men in which the team encountered several trivial obstacles on the way to the main event. (four pages)  3) Charles and Jean are greeted at the Mumbai airport by Warpath, Feral, and Thornn. Also by Lilandra, who tries to assassinate Charles. For some reason, she still believes that he is possessed by Cassandra Nova. Jean blocks the bullet telekinetically, and Shi’ar agents wearing Abraham Lincoln bodies belatedly whisk Charles and Lilandra away. (five pages)  4) Jean goes to the X-Corporation building in Mumbai, where she meets Sooraya, a.k.a Dust, who has Sandman-like powers, including changing her clothing to dust and back again. Feral, Wolvesbane, Sunfire, and Warpath are on hand; Logan is asleep. (five pages)  5) On Lilandra’s spaceship, Araki-6 informs Charles that his marriage to Lilandra has been annulled. Araki also says something about Phoenix, and about disinfecting the planet Earth.  My Two Cents: Another rough issue for a new-again reader like myself. Lots of new characters. I would have thought the Marvel Universe had enough were-cats between Wolvesbane and Catspaw (not to mention Tigra and Hellcat), but apparently Feral and Thornn are Morlock sisters who fill that slot as well. Xavier seems confused to see Warpath dressed like Thunderbird did. Wasn’t that already a thing, though?  When Jean arrives at X-Corp, Logan is there sleeping after his Afghan adventure and can’t be awakened. I like the idea that he has to sleep a lot after he heals a lot. Too bad it’s not a firmer part of X-men lore; it would raise the stakes for wounds that he suffers. I complained recently that Jean wore the same clothing every issue; now she’s traded in her black turtleneck for a light green blouse with a Phoenix on it. I like it! Not for every scene in the next fifty issues, but it’s a nice happy medium between civvies and combat togs. Also maybe insensitive, given the connotations that Phoenix has for her teammates. As in, her death. Plotwise, this issue feels like a fill-in issue since it doesn’t lead clearly to the issues that follow. It has three main purposes: (1) Introduce Sooraya; (2) Get Fantomex and Wolverine familiar with each other; (3) Give Xavier a reason not to go with Lilandra into space after the Cassandra Nova ordeal. The problem is that one of these stories (the first one) is unnecessary, and the other two are way too short. We didn’t need to see where Sooraya comes from; she’s headed to the Xavier School and may as well have been there in the background all along. She does something significant in issue #146, but between now and then, she doesn’t get any character development or plot participation. Morrison had big plans for Sooraya which he put on hold after 9/11. She basically has one more scene in his tenure as writer. Given that she has the power to shred a dozen men to the bone by becoming a sandstorm, I don't know why she needed rescuing in the first place. On to Purpose #2: The story comprising issues #142-145 requires Wolverine to know Fantomex. This issue shows us how they met, and presumably they had some other contacts in between as well. Wolverine has his own monthly series does Fantomex show up there after this? At any rate, this issue places both of them in the political and military hotbed of Afghanistan. There’s plenty that could have been done with a “Wolverine and Fantomex in Afghanistan in 2002” story, but we don’t get that story; just the bit where Wolverine finds Sooraya, and Fantomex pilfers some papers. Too bad. Then there’s Purpose #3, which deals with the Shi’ar. Xavier has disappeared with them into space a few times previously, so it’s good that Morrison feels the need to justify not doing it again now, since Xavier figures heavily into the school-related story that kicks off in the next issue. But Morrison is not overly familiar with X-Men lore, so his handling of the situation raises numerous questions. Starting with: What form of government do the Shi’ar have? A republic (They governed by a Senate, says Araki) or an empire (governed by the Empress Lilandra)? Previously it’s seemed as if Lilandra runs the show, but apparently the Senate is above her now. “We got wrecked by one human mutant, so we now hate all human mutants” seems like an unworthy reaction from the Shi’ar government, particularly considering that the X-Men have previously saved not only Shi’ar society, but the whole universe, from crazy Shi’ar leaders (D’Ken and Deathbird come to mind) on multiple occasions. Why does Lilandra think that Xavier is still possessed by Cassandra Nova? Surely Guardian would have reported back to her that Cassandra’s consciousness is trapped in Superguardian Stuff, who himself is inside a footlocker in the X-Mansion basement. Where has Lilandra been since she was rescued from the exploding ship by Xorn and Cyclops? Did she go back to back to Shi’ar space (as evidenced by the friendly dreadnought that even now is carrying Archangel and an X-Men humanitarian squad to help the Shi’ar) and just recently came back to Earth, sneaked off her own ship, and tried to play sniper? The story is opaque to me, and I wonder whether it’s clear to Morrison at the moment. Araki has a warning about Phoenix, but do they plan to do something? Surely they can anticipate that Xavier won’t stand for that. Don’t telegraph such plans; just show up to Earth with a planet-buster fleet and zap the whole planet Earth. Lilandra implied in X-Men #137 that such things were within Shi’ar ability. Or were the Shi’ar just warning that Phoenix is going to eat Earth? That doesn’t sound like something they would just allow, given that Phoenix wouldn’t stop there. So again, the whole Shi’ar part of this story seems rushed and incomplete. It could have been a whole multi-part space opera story arc instead of just a few pages. Either do, or do not. There is no try! Another fine art job by Ethan Van Sciver. He is welcome to as many issues as he wants, if you ask me, which no one did. |
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