New X-Men By Grant Morrison Ultimate Collection

Grant Morrison’s New X-Men – Series Review

Back in 2000, Marvel offered long-term writer Grant Morrison a chance to take the X-Men comic book series in a bold new direction for new readers. Morrison accepted, and with the help of some sexy new uniforms (or so the back of the book tells me), New X-Men went on to win won numerous awards. The series kicked off in 2001 alongside Mark Millar’s Ultimate X-Men, who also had the brilliant idea of sexy new uniforms for new readers. But unlike Ultimate X-Men, which was part of a brand new Marvel timeline, Grant Morrison did not reset the X-Men continuity with New X-Men, so make sure you brush up on your X-Men history if you decide to pick this up (the 1990s television series is as good as anything, mind you). I read this series through the three Ultimate Collection books.

New X-Men begins with a new villain, Cassandra Nova, who I have since begun to regard as the second best X-Men villain since Magneto. Cassandra is a character almost literally from the Twilight Zone; a bald, wrinkled woman with an uncanny resemblance to Professor Xavier. Her freaky, unnatural presence is felt almost immediately in the first issue, and is intensified until her defeat at the end of the first Ultimate Collection book. Cassandra’s first act is to employ Sentinels to destroy the mutant island nation of Genosha, killing 16 million mutants and Magneto, which sets the tone for the rest of Morrison’s run.

In the world of New X-Men, the mutant population has exploded and despite the destruction of Genosha, mutants continue to dominate the news and popular culture. With Magneto dead, Xavier’s school is the leading force for mutant activity worldwide and his new X-corporation allows mutants to continue his work into adulthood. Does that sound exciting? I personally love it; it makes an excellent change from the usual “freedom fighter mutants versus oppressive humans” premise I’ve seen so many times. And some of the ideas that Morrison creates from it, like what mutant youth gangs might look like, or how disadvantaged mutants might be cared for, or what if two radically mutated beings were to have children, are nothing short of brilliance.

Characterisation is a particular strength in this series. While the recognisable characters are well handled, the series shines with the new students and teacher at Xavier’s school. Beak is the first new student to be introduced; a depressed teenager who is deformed like a bird but cannot fly. His accompaniment by the delinquent Angel makes for some engrossing conversation as their shared self-loathing come to heads with each other. And then there is Xorn, a Buddhist who has a small star for a head. His character introduces a unique philosophical perspective on the mutant concept, and he makes a good addition to the X-Men and teacher at Xavier’s school.

And I’d never thought I’d say this, but Morrison has turned Marvel’s butchering of the theory of evolution into a strength for the series. For a group that is trying to encourage real-world peaceful coexistence philosophy between humans and mutants, it was a masterstroke to have nature itself justify the eugenics movement. Beast discovers an “extinction gene” in all non-mutants, which will eventually bring about their deaths. Suddenly the world becomes a much more unsettling place, as the sympathy of mutants and humans for each other is compromised by nature itself. Mutants never think to address the superiority complex, not even the X-Men.

So after all this praise for New X-Men, it’s time to get to the fundamental problem. Morrison throws a lot of ideas onto the page but doesn’t give them any real direction. While this structure works well initially to create a feeling of chaos for the mutant world, it gets increasingly convoluted and out-of-proportion. And as a result, at least half the book is dedicated to peripheral concepts that simply aren’t as interesting as the main premise, like revisiting the alien Shi’ar and the Weapon X program. I appreciate that they had a part to play in the greater storyline, but they really weren’t interesting enough for the large number of issues dedicated to them.

And on top of that, Morrison’s use of plot-twists to drive the last Ultimate Collection book was quite frankly stupid. Good guys are regularly discovered to have been manipulated by villains, who were in turn manipulated by other villains, who were in turn manipulated by other villains, etc. It gets ridiculously convoluted and I simply gave up trying to make sense of it at the point I was taken to an apocalyptic future where the “master villain behind everything” revealed himself. The impact of this final reveal was diminished after seeing the same sort of thing just twice before.

As for the artwork, the revolving artists make it difficult to write anything in too much detail. Thankfully, the quality of work is never too inconsistent and it follows a generally high standard.

So is New X-Men worth reading? Absolutely, if your brain can contain it. The series’ strengths far outweigh its problems, and I found it a great companion to the more straightforward Ultimate X-Men.

PS: At the end of the third Ultimate Collection book, a “Morrison Manifesto” from 2000 was included, outlining Morrison’s complaints about the previous X-Men books and his plans for the series’ future prosperity. Reading this made me smile, because it closely reflected my own thoughts on a number of current comic book series. It’s an interesting read if you’re into that sort of thing.

Review by James Hurvid