Wow, that's alot of characters that were never seen again!

Yeah, because all the mutants lost their powers right after the Morrison run.  

Which was, on the whole, a good decision.  I *love* Morrison's X-men but...

Look, the appeal of the X-men were that - under Claremont and successors - they were the most adolescent of superheroes.  "I feel so different!  Nobody understands me-e-e-e-e-!  I'm so alone!"  I have emotions and the narrative takes my emotions incredibly seriously, mirroring the adolescent mind-set and very, very, different than (say) Stan Lee's superhero stuff, which had a lot more tongue in cheek and had a lot more adult ironic distance.  

(I talk about this a lot when the X-men come up.)  

Morrison ran with the metaphor of X-men as minority group, but he made it really hard to do stories about the X-men as metaphor for hormonal adolescence.  And, honestly, I think the latter is more important to the franchise.  X-men under Morrison became a lot more intellectual and a lot less emotional - or a lot more complex in it's emotional appeal and much less a simple teenage fantasy.

Which was probably the wrong direction for the franchise.  I mean *I* liked it, but I was out of the age where I needed media to pat me on the hand and validate my teenage emotions.  

I can see that. A segment of X-Fans seem to like the same stories/ideas recycled. I guess there is some sense of comfort in that? But, as a recently-returned reader, it was exactly what I was looking for: Familiar characters and concepts balanced with new and creative approaches and ideas. This was one of the books that made it an exciting time to get back into comics.

New X-Men #138 “The Prime of Miss Emma Frost” (May 2003)



The Story: Beast, Cyclops, and Xorn immobilize Herman before he can reach the civilian bus he was chasing last issue. This wraps up the threat of Quentin Quire's Omega Gang.



Sophie did not survive her Kick-enhanced battle with Quentin Quire, and the other four Stepford Cuckoos announce their intention to leave Emma Frost’s tutelage in favor of a new mentor in Switzerland. Emma immediately latches onto Angel Salvadore (whose surname we did not previously know) to be her latest Eliza Doolittle.



Quentin himself is raving insanely. Charles Xavier call for Xorn to use his healing powers; instead, Xorn shines light from the star inside his head on Quentin… killing him? Apparently so, because Xavier announces to the protesting students that Quentin has been “liberated from his physical cocoon and born into a higher world.” Xavier also announces that he is re-thinking his “peaceful integration with humanity” approach to life, and will be stepping down as headmaster. The Cuckoos, Angel, and Beak receive special honors at the graduation ceremony. Angel gives Beak a prize of her own, in the form of news that he has made her pregnant.



Emma and Scott are still meeting mentally for telepathic trysts; she continues to present herself as Dark Phoenix to his mind. Emma finally discovers what Scott is so tense about: Since his possession by En Sabah Nur, he’s been having kinkier sexual urges that he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing with his wife. The Stepford Cuckoos, still looking for ways to get back at Emma for Sophie’s death, tell Jean Grey-Summers that her husband is committing telepathic adultery with Emma. Jean finds Scot in the rose garden and steps into Emma’s mind to confront the two. This is not going to go well…



My Two Cents: You know how Fantomex was a pastiche of European detective/spy characters, and Morrison was not shy about making his allusions front-and-center for those who were familiar with his source material? The title “The Prime of Miss Emma Frost” does the same thing for his version of Emma Frost. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the 1969 film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie":



The book/movie (also written for the stage in between) also features one of the Brodie Set being partially estranged from the others, one of the Brodie Set dying for putting into practice Miss Brodie's romantic ideas of adventurism, a married co-worker who is inappropriately attached to Miss Brodie, and the schoolgirls learning of the affair and tattling on their mentor.  To sum it up: Pretty much the entire Emma/Cuckoo plot thread of Grant Morrison's New X-Men is an adaptation of this British movie from 30 years prior.  Moves like this are hardly unprecedented in comic books, and certainly not in X-Men. Still, it seems bold of Morrison to make the origin of his material as "in your face" as he does with the title of this issue, which is quite distinctive and sent me scurrying to the internet, where the twin oracles of Google and Wikipedia immediately pulled the curtain back on his designs.



That aside: this is a mop-up issue, winding down from the heavy action of the last few, and heavy on soap suds. But it left me with questions.

• Did Xorn really kill Quentin Quire just for being loony after suffering a telepathic attack while high on drugs? There’s some discussion that Querntin may be experiencing a “secondary mutation” like how Beast went blue and furry, and Emma gained her diamond form ability. Maybe he is. Or maybe he’ll recover from the psi-attack just like lots of other people have in the past. (Mastermind, Emma Frost, etc.) That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that Xorn would do, or a measure of which Xavier would approve. If that’s not how we’re supposed to read those pages, then I am missing something big.

• What is the time-frame of the Quentin Quire story? Angel and Beak first kissed in #131, and at the time she was playing that she wasn’t really interested in him. The first time we actually see them together was #136 in the woods, and that encounter was interrupted by a U-Man attack. Apparently somewhere along the way they have consummated their relationship, and then enough time has passed for her to know that she’s pregnant. I guess more time has passed during and between these issues than I realized, since this issue takes place at the end of the school year.

• How did the Cuckoos know about Emma’s telepathic affair with Scott? Is she either nonchalant or careless enough that they discovered it interacting with her? Did they read Scott’s mind at some point? I can imagine it being difficult for telepathic teenagers not to go snooping, but I bet all the students and X-Men have at least rudimentary anti-psi training. Seems like we missed an importent beat in this story.

Very true. The subtext of Morrison’s X-Men was no longer hormonal adolescence and much more identity politics. 

I've been ready this thread with interest. I liked the Morrison run but it started off real strong and I never got to the end of colllecting it because the artwork got worse with each arc. Quietly and Sciver were great but Kordy was terrible and I didn't really like Paul and the George Perez clone.