Marval Movie

The X-Men were one of the first Superheroes that I ever learned about, it was the original animated series of the nineties where I first learned about them and I fell in love with them, the characters, the powers the idea of living in a world that hates you but still you defend it to the end. Then the Bryan Singer movie came out in 2000 and then the next animated series X-Men Evolution where they were portrayed more as scared fragile teenagers further developed my love of the characters.

Then over the years I discovered Grant Morrison who I loved more and more of the work I read of his. All-Star Superman is probably my favorite comic, Batman & Robin is excellent and there are plenty of others that I'm discovering now and will probably love too. So when I learned that one of (if not my absolute favorite) writer had a stint on one of Marvels biggest and best books, I decided to give it a pass...

That's right, because unlike the more streamline narrative that follows the animated series the comic book world of the X-Men is really dense and convoluted. Along with the fact that there's a million different titles that exist X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, New X-Men (no I didn't repeat myself there are two X-Men titles both named that) and probably more and more. Along with that baggage there's a million story elements that don't really make it very friendly for a new reader to come in and not feel weighted down with the years of continuity and story lines and not to forget the millions of characters (Kevin Smith put it best saying that X-Men had become the longest running Spanish Soap Opera with superpowers). So I thought that New X-Men would be something that would simply never be, until one day when I was listening to the commentary of All-Star Superman the animated movie, Bruce Timm himself praised Morrison's run on X-Men. Bruce Timm is one of my icons so when he praised this comic, there was no question that I would pick it up.

One thing that you will need to know before you start reading the comic is that there is some previous continuity and story arcs brought into the mix, but enough exposition is given so you understand what is happening. But if you need to be fluent on the subjects then go and watch the first three seasons of the original X-Men animated series and you'll be fine.

Before I talk about the comic itself its important to note that this came out in the early two-thousands, this was the time that the old ways were being pushed aside for the new and the more edgy and darker. It wasn't quite like the barrage of idiocy that the nineties brought, nor was it all bad but clearly everything, including superheroes were going in different directions, and this was some of the mindset that went into Morrison's New X-Men.

The cover for the first issue is just a solid cover, it has the members that Morrison will be using in his series in silhouette but with their distinguishable features highlighted so that we can still identify them, Wolverine's claws, Cyclops visor, Beast's blue fur and so forth. The weird digital spiral is a little distracting if you allow it to attract most of your attention but it merely serves to put the characters in an abstract space where we focus on them rather than the environment that their in. Also look at the logo for this series There were two reasons why this series was called New X-Men, the first I'll tell you about is that Morrison himself designed the logo for the series and Joe Quesada was against using that title but Morrison revealed that if you turn the image upside-down, its the same image, this can even be something that can be interpreted into the series itself but we'll get to that later. So they kept the numbers but changed the title and so starts Morrison's run.

Also we get a look at the new costumes that are featured in this series. The early two-thousands were a time when things needed to be reinvented. The X-Men are not dressed like superheroes, gone are the spandex and in with the leather jackets, one of the best examples I can think of for this is Warren Ellis and his run on The Authority, think of the character the Midnighter and instead of a cape had a long leather jacket. The direction that we see the X-Men in here are not heroes more like a rescue emergency team, with the X incorporated into the clothing for that uniform look, also the original color of the X-men was black and yellow, so that serves as a nice nod to the original. So what we have is a good amalgamation of the old and new.

I should note that unlike my Swamp Thing review were I analyzed the covers, New X-Men doesn't really have very interesting covers, there mostly just straight forward pinup shots of the characters, nothing wrong with that but it doesn't leave much to talk about or analyze, they'll be a few just not for each issue that I want to talk about.

The first story arc is a three-parter entitled "E is for Extinction" drawn by Morrison's most regular collaborator Frank Quitely. Quitely is my favorite comic book artist and he collaborates best with Morrison, able to portray his wild ideas but also being able to translate them to the audience so that they can understand it, I also love it whenever he draws long lasting characters because he always draws them looking like you imagine them but in his own way makes them look fresh.

Anyway the issue starts off with a huge splash page of Wolverine and Cyclops taking down a Sentinel. Wolverine's going crazy by clawing the hell out of the Sentinel and Cyclops casually says "Logan I think you an stop now", already the series starts off with a great image that is pure X-Men. Next we see a mysterious woman talking to a man about the end of Neanderthals and the rise of Homo-sapiens, that they slowly grew in numbers and in a pivotal moment of the Earths history the Homo-sapiens slaughtered the remaining Neanderthals, leaving the Homo-sapiens as the dominant race. She tells him this because this is going to happen to the humans...by the Mutants.

Meanwhile back at the Xavier Mansion Hank (Beast) is getting Cerebra up and ready to work, Cerebra is "Cerebro's big sister". Also we see Beast, but not as we know him, his mutation has pushed him to the next level and he now resembles a cat like creature (he's reminiscent of Beauty & The Beast). Also one really cool touch that was added was that when Professor X is using Cerebra there is a visualization of what their doing and it is called "physic condensation".

Re-reading this issue reminded me of why I love Morrison's writing, constantly while I was reading the issue I was shouting "brilliant, Brilliant, BRILLIANT!". Everything was something new and fresh with ideas that I would have never thought of, but seem logical and you wonder why nobody has ever though of them before.

Then while the professor is scanning the world with Cerebra something goes wrong and and he hears a voice calling to him through Cerebra and he demands that the voice gets out of his mind. He pulls a gun and puts it to his head and gives it one chance to get out, before Jean quickly yanks off the Cerebra helmet, cutting off the link between him and the voice.

Next issue Cyclops and Wolverine get captured by the mysterious woman. She then explains that the classic sentinels are not meant to deal with the mutants of today, in the cities of today, the sentinels need to adapt. But after the quick villain monologue Wolverine and Cyclops quickly breakout and then capture her. The professor seems to have recovered, but the new sentinels have been unleashed on Genosha  and over fifteen million mutants are slaughtered within  a few minutes.

Then we have the next issue, ow me ow my do we have the next issue. This issue is riddled from paper to staple with controversy that literally starts with the cover. The cover is a pinup shot of Emma Frost posed like a supermodel. Grace Randolph in particular has stated her distaste for this cover and has brought it up on her show more than once, she has told us that as soon as she got the comic home she tore off the cover and even wrote a letter to Marvel saying that she was embarrassed as a woman to be seen buying the comic. The awkwardness continues in a full splash page of a devastated, still smoking Genosha with Beast standing in the wreckage and holding a dead Mutants skull in hand (Hamlet style) saying "I don't know how to break this to you, but your dating days may be over my friend". Keep in mind that this came out in 2001, so in one of those awkward moments of art imitating real life in the worst way this was a few months away from 9/11, so as you can imagine this issue may have hit a little too close to home for the people who were living in New York or for anyone who had any connections in New York at that time.

During the search for the wreckage the X-Men uncover Emma Frost, The White Queen, emerging from the rubble with a dead mutant student in her arms (still awkward) but there's something else to her, her skin has transformed into diamond. Yes once again Morrison has injected another piece to the mythology of X-Men by introducing the idea of secondary mutations.

Emma Frost was a villain before she came in this series and classic Morrison, he turned a B list (or even C list) character into one of the main characters in his run and turn them into fully developed character that's just as interesting as the main roster. Emma Frost soured to peoples favorite characters and stared in a lot more books and continued to be an A Lister for the X-Men ever since then.

Anyway it would seem that the mysterious woman is some kind of entity from "beyond the twilight of reality" and her name is Cassandra Nova. For a while it would seem like Cassandra is captured but really it was all part of the plan to be taken back to the mansion and get access to Cerebra so that she can take out all remaining Mutants. This then follows some action and some weird psychic stuff with Cassandra before she gets to Cerebra.

It looks like Cassandra will use Cerebra to kill all the Mutant's before in classic last second fashion Emma Frost arrives to pull the plug on her scheme (by which I mean snapping her neck), but then Wolverine remembers that she has a healing factor and she starts getting up again before out of nowhere she gets shot five times. It was the professor who shot her saying that it was necessary being that she killed over fifteen-million mutants and would have killed all of them. Cassandra is then sent into a comatose state.

Later, after Jean and Scott talk out some of their problems they see the Professor on TV announcing to the world that he is a Mutant. ...Ow hell!

Then we come to the foundation of Morrison's run, New X-Men Annual 2001. This is a bigger seized comic than usual (of course) but there's also something else to it that makes it stick out, the whole issue is displayed sideways. My first question is why? this isn't like the issue of Swamp Thing where there was A) a reason for turning the comic on its side due to what happens in the story B) turning the comic on its side for no reason takes me, as a reader, out of the reading experience and frankly I can only think what it would look like from a third person perspective, they might mistake me for reading a porno. But I digress, my point is that the side view is unnecessary and quite frankly unwelcome.

But what about the issue itself? Well its called "The Man in Room X" and it starts off in China with a mysterious Mutant named Xorn who is being held prisoner. So naturally the X-Men move in to free the innocent Mutant. They also come into contact with a weird businessman named John Sublime who seems to be very interested in the Mutants. It turns out that John is part of the U-Men, an new enemy of the X-Men that are introduced in this run. They are about taking Mutants powers (along with their organs) and taking them for themselves.

While the X-Men are resting for the night Scott cant sleep, luckily there's a knocking on the door and on the other end is Emma Frost with a bottle of champagne with two glasses. Foreshadowing!

The issue is drawn by Leinil Francis Yu. He can handle whatever is thrown at him but always gives what he's drawing weight and gravity. He only worked on this one annual, shame but his work is appreciated.

Xorn's power is one of the most interesting and unique of all the Mutants that I've heard of, he has a tiny sun for a brain, along with this he has the power to heal. Being that he has a sun for a brain he has to wear a helmet. The design for the helmet is very cool its like a big metal skull.

By the end of the annual the X-Men succeed in freeing Xorn and allow him to experience the whole world. He thanks them and says that he will always be their friend and if they should ever need him then he will be there for them. 

The next issue has the mansion opening up to all new students and the professor announcing that he will be taking a leave of absence, for he is going to spend time with the Shi'ar empire and his wife Lilandra, leaving Jean in charge as acting headmistress. So the professor boards the Shi'ar vessel with the power to "extinguish suns" just imagine that power in the wrong hands.

Issue 118 is interesting, not because of what happens in it but because within the issue itself, if you look closely at a few selective panels, there are shapes and lines that form the word "sex". I've heard it was because the artist, Eithan Van Sceiver, was fed up with editorial tampering so he decided to mess with them and get something that really shouldn't be in the comic past their notice and straight into the eyes of the nitpicky fanboys and girls out there. 

For the next issues, Igor Kordey handles the art. Frank Quitely is, by reputation a slow artist, and he's not great at meeting the deadlines of a monthly book like X-Men, so they brought in Kordey to fill in when Quitely couldn't meet the deadlines. Kordey most likely received this news on short notice and it shows because his art is rushed, and a little sloppy. Now don't take that comment as me saying that he's a bad artist or that in any way meaning that I'm insinuating that I can draw better than him. I am a terrible artist, throw a rock in a crowd and you'll find someone that can draw better than me. But his characters stray off model and they just look ugly, no offense to the man himself but his issues aren't great for their art.

Anyway there are rioters outside the mansion and Scott, Jean and Emma go to settle them down but they dont seem to be in the mood for peaceful negotiations. But they get subdued by Emma, she gives the entire riot crowd orgasms...yeah, shes awesome. After that Scott and Emma have to leave to confront John Sublime. 

While they confront him Scott and Emma get taken down through the use of a Mutant brain that Sublime keeps in a jar and drugged up...ew. Meanwhile the U-Men storm the mansion with only Jean and the other students there. Jean calms the young students and tries to call the police for help but they say "Help yourself Mutie". Even though things seem hopeless Jean rallies the students together and they all defend the mansion against the U-Men, then Jean deals the simpulan blow against them with the use of some very familiar psychic fire that she emanates. Then later, of course Emma and Scott break free before they can be dissected and Emma is seriously pissed, mostly that she got her nose broken (apparently it was expensive). Then she gets her hands on John Sublime and throws him out the window, to Scott's great displeasure. Scott and Emma return to the mansion with the U-Men cleared out and everything seems fine but then Beast emerges with Cassandra Novas body held in his arms saying "professor X is trapped in this old woman's hedd..help".

Issue 121 is an interesting comic. First of all comic books are a sequential art-form, the story must be told through a sequence of images that flow from one picture to the next with a stream of motion and continuity that follows through from panel to panel. So what greater test and or example of that than having a comic that is silent, well no word balloons. The cover really is all you need to know about what information we get out of the issue itself but the way the story is told is so interesting and unique that its worth paying the full price to see it yourself. The cover itself has the head of Casandra Nova with the image of professor Xavier within her forehead and well drawn lighting placing bars across the professors face, plain and simple Xavier is trapped within Casandra's body.

The art is handled by one of the only artist that I would trust to tell a story with images alone, Frank Quietly. Again he is my favorite comic artist so if there has to be a higher emphasis on images than dialogue I'm glad its him. What we have is Jean and Emma psychically going inside to find out the secrets of what is happening within Cassandras body and the weird, surreal images that we get of how the mind might work if we had to step inside and walk around in it are a visual delight. In the end we have one full splash page that sums up everything with only two word balloons of dialogue (OK so there is some dialogue in the issue), saying that Cassandra is Charles's evil twin (seriously) and he tried to kill her while they were both still in the womb but now shes back. Nuff said.

The explanation for how Cassandra actually exists is a little head scratching, even for me. Apparently she is what the Shi'ar call a mummudrai. The yin to the professors yang and even though he won for dominance in the womb she still came through the limits of death and pulled herself into the physical world. Yeah it's a real brain twister if you think about it for too long, just go with it.

Later the X-Men decide to hold an open to the media day, to look through the mansion and see that there is nothing wrong or sinister going on with the mansion and all they want is to educate the young Mutants. Scott shows concerns that things might be getting out of hand and tries to talk to Jean but she, rather coldly scorns him and tells him to get over it and see past his own weaknesses.

One of the landmark notes in this run of X-Men was the characterization of Scott Summers. Morrison once described him a Norman Bates that never killed anyone and that's pretty true to some degree. Cyclops has always been the professors golden boy, he has been possessed, captured, degraded, tortured and has always had to endure to pressure and responsibility of leading the X-Men. The fact that Cyclops hasn't experienced some kind of huge breakdown is actually incredible. This is not the breaking down and crying version of the character but it is the window into the mans soul version of him, we see Scott with doubts, we see him with worries and him questioning what he should do next when all his other decisions have led to nothing but more pain and unhappiness for him. None of this is helped by the fact that Jean is not so supportive and even a little disgusted with him.

After that Scott realizes that with the professor dying within Cassandras body, there is only one person to turn to, Xorn. Scott fly's to China to pick up Xorn where he seems to be more comfortable, being accepted by some monks in a temple and using his powers for good. But the temple gets bombed and Scott and Xorn both get captured and taken to the Shi'ar ship (wow a lot of people get captured in the series).

Things take a turn for the wost when Beast analyzes their blood under a microscope and discovers that the cause of their growing illness are the advanced sentinels that have adapted to microscopic size, have infected every member of the X-Men and are killing them from within.

Finally the battle with Cassandra comes and the Shi'ar soldiers invade the school, Jean backs everyone in the lower area of the mansion, while Beast and Wolverine stay on the outside to hold back the soldiers. They hold the lines very well but their no match for the head of the guard, Gladiator. Luckily they convince the Shi'ar that they are not their enemies, so they go to defend against Cassandra, only they are no match for her. At the same time Scott and Xorn breakout and quickly make their way to the mansion.

Cassandra has now harnessed the full power of professor X's brain and has become some kind of all powerful psychic monster, with psychic limbs forming around her and attacking. She easily takes out the Shi'ar guards and moves in for the remaining X-Men.

Then in classic last minute fashion Scott and Xorn arrive to take out Cassandra and cure the Mutants from the sentinels. Xorn tackles Cassandra (in professors body) then Beast injects her with syringes, she easily brushes them off. Then she makes her way down to Cerbra to wipe out all of the Mutants in the world...but. Jean took the professors mind and divided it up amongst all the Mutants into world, so Cassandra has now joined his mind together and pushed Cassandra out.

Cassandra is now just floating consciousness that is slowly evaporating without a body to contain it, it seems like shes doomed before Emma offers her original body for her to enter. Except that Cassandra's body, just like everyone else has been infected by the micro sentinels and is deteriorating along with her mind.  Cassandra is then  put into a sort of psychic prison, where she is put in some kind odd weird preschool and is constantly being lectured by professor X and Jean.

Now Cassandra is in a vegetated state and the school is still standing and all seems right. Beast offers to get the Professors chair but he says that it wont be necessary because the Professor is climbing out of Cerebra, the Professor can walk now.

One thing to know that I didn't know when I decided to buy the comic. I had previously bought Batman & Robin, that lasts sixteen issues, All-Star Superman, that lasts twelve issues and WE3 only lasted three issues. So I thought that this would be a small run, I was wrong. Being that the end of issue 126 doesn't end in the way that most writers runs would end I learned that there was a fourth paperback, then a fifth, then  sixth, then another and another that totaled up to eight paperbacks with forty issues total. This is a big epic of a tale, that you'll have to commit to more that a lighter run. Is it worth it? ow hell yes.

Issue 127 is possibly my favorite issue of the whole run with it being told from the perspective and giving some development to Xorn. The story is just a day in the life of Xorn and how he sees things, what his views are. All told through diary entries.

The cover just makes me laugh, its Xorn in a meditation position with a serious posture, however he's looking at a cheese burger. This is funny but after looking really hard at it I think I have an idea about the reason for the cover. Xorn has been in captivity most of his life and what time he wasn't he was in China, now he is in America in a whole different situation which he now must adapt to. So we have the meditating position looking at one of the big icons of western culture, i.e. the cheeseburger.

Xavier wants to get to know Xorn more but however he cannot simply dip into his mind so he can get a taste of the man because Xorn doesn't have a regular mind, he has a tiny star and the professor is "blinded by his thoughts". He walks the streets, sees the sights and then comes across a young mutant who is going through the developing stages of his mutation, he looks like a baby gargoyle. Xorn does his best to help but the boy runs wild and the cops have to bring him down. At the end of the day Xorn meets an old Chinese man from his area of China and they sit and eat noodles together in the rain and "life goes on".

The art is drawn by John Paul Leon, Leon has an interesting art style, with thick black lines that look like they were done with a runny pen, or a brush. Leon's art-style has grown on me the more I've looked at it. Its not what you would classify as pretty art but with closer inspection you can see that hes drawing characters and framing them to an almost photographic level. I say If you like David Mazzucchelli then you'll like his work.

Morrison's run on X-Men has been criticized (mostly by big X-Men fans) that its too Vertigo. Yes Morrison is a very popular Vertigo writer and indeed some of his best work does come from there. But most of the criticizing says that his run is boring, its all talking and no punching and explosions. If that's the case then I'm a Vertigo guy, I love the exposition and the quite character building moments.

This X-Men story has the coin effect, with one side being positive or negative and the other, naturally, being the reverse. The first half of the book is surprisingly positive with everything seemingly getting better for the X-Men with publicity, new students, media attention that's good for them. Then the flip happens and everything goes to shit and what we thought was a good thing turns out to be their undoing.

Then eventually comes the big play, the part of the series that makes this run a landmark in all the history of the X-Men, Scott and Emma have an affair. That's right morally upright, Xavier's golden boy Scott Summers circum's to his basic needs and has a psychic affair with the seductive White Queen. Its so interesting because they really do succumb to their thoughts but its not physical. This is one of the most steamy interesting subplots that I have ever read in a comic, I mean just say that out loud "psychic affair" only in superhero comics.

We then meet the star pupil in the Xavier school, a dorky kid named Quentin Quire (he's about as popular as most star pupils are). While the professor is giving a lecture Quire shows no restraint in questioning the professor at every turn of how he believes that Mutant/human relationship should be. He even wears a T-shirt that says "Magneto was right". Quire grows more and more displeased with the professors peaceful slow way of making progress and decides that his time is done and he will take the future of the Mutant race into his own hands. One of the big pushing forces in his radical decision making is the new drug for Mutants that is circling the hallways called "Kick" (the names these kids come up with".

The drug Kick allows its users to get and incredible rush of confidence and power for five hours. It is taken in a kind of breather dispenser. After they take it their powers get increased five fold. That is when Quentin and his group assemble with a new hair style and new different clothes and they name themselves the "New X-Men!".

New X-Men started in two-thousand and one, when I first read it it was two-thousand and eleven. So when I read it the story was ten years old and it didn't feel it at all, it still read as refreshing and as sophisticated as I'm sure it was when it was first published. One of the most surreal things that happens is when we see Quintin Quires new gang, they wear what would now be considered Hipster clothes. This comic seems to be ahead of the curve by about ten years.

Riot at the Xavier school is the last story arc illustrated by Frank Quitley. It is also one of the most pivotal of Morrison's run. To Morrison, the X-Men were all about children vs adults and here it is fully demonstrated with the students rioting and taking control of the school. The old ideas are outdated and uncool and now here comes the new generation with bold new ideas and ways of doing things.

Quentin Quire has now assembled his gang of Mutants, they restrain professor X and have taken over the school. Wolverine tries to stop them but Quentin traps him within his own memories. Then the Cuckoo's gather together with Cerebra and take Quentin down while the other X-Men take care of the other students, but the victory came at a price because Sophie (one of the Cuckoo's) pushes herself beyond her limits and along with the strain from Cerebra and the drug kick overexerts herself. Quentin also sinks into a dying state and Xorn helps him enter the light. Both figuratively and literally.

With the aftermath of the riot, Quentin's other comrades get a sever talking to from Wolverine before being handed over to the authorities. The Cuckoos decide that Sophie's death was more than partly because of Emma and the way she pushed them to be heroic, so they abandon her. They also reach out to Jean Grey and tell her that they would like to be her new students next year and they have something to tell her about her husband. With Emma in a very fragile state Scott comforts her and they share a thought together, they are about to psychically have sex but right before they do Jean psychically interrupts them saying "let me guess, you can explain".

After a long awkward scene with Jean throwing Scott out of the psychic area and confronting Emma. She scolds Scott but takes Emma through a big long judgmental tore through her whole life with her working her way from rich society to rich society doing what she had to do to survive. By the end of it all Emma is in tears.

After a huge scene has been made Scott runs off, Jean goes to find some privacy and Wolverine comforts Emma who reveals that she has fallen in love with Scott. Later in the night Beast enters Emma's room to try his had at comforting her but Emma Frost is found in her diamond form and shattered into a thousand pieces. Someone killed her and everyone's a suspect. The question is who shot Emma Frost? 

The professor then calls in Bishop to solve the mystery of who committed the crime. Meanwhile Beast goes about reassembling Emma, piece by microscopic piece at a time. Through the coarse of the investigation it is revealed that it was the Cuckoo Esme that was behind Emma's shooting. But Bishop is not entirely satisfied because he believes that there is someone behind all this that is pulling the strings. Ow and Beast fully assembles Emma back together and she's fine.

Then the endgame gets put into motion. It starts with the professor  sensing a presence in the Cerebra room, it is the mutant Dust, she is almost undetectable in her dust state but she then moves to destroy Cerebra when immediately Xorn captures her in a glass jar. The professor then enters Xorn's class to find that the maps are placed upside-down. Suddenly professor X collapses to the floor and Xorn tells him that he didn't heal him, he merely used the micro Sentinels to glue his spine back together, then he takes off his helmet.

Then comes the big reveal, the villain that has been in the shadows, pulling the strings the whole time. It was Xorn. Actually it goes even deeper than that because Xorn isn't even real, under the helmet, the whole time was Magneto. That's right the whole time, the times they talked, the trouble they got out of it was their greatest enemy.

Magneto wastes no time in assembling his new brotherhood, formed from the lesser students of the school, shoots up on kick and forms a full on assault on New York.

The characterization of Magneto has been heavily criticized (again, by the fans) for being off character and one dimensional. According to Morrison "Magneto is just a mad old bastard" both are right, yes there is more to Magneto than him just being a psycho terrorist, but Morrison is also right in saying that the bastard side is there. What the fans didn't pay attention to is that there is a scene where Xorn's helmet literally speaks to him and he says that "he made Xorn too well. I am your conscious". Morrison said that Xorn was the real personality with all his intelligence and gentleness focuses into that one character, so in the end both sides are right.

Phil Jimenez draws this story arc and like Quitely, he is one of Morrison's great collaborators (built over the time they worked together in The Invisibles). He does a great job of continuing from Quitely, because he follows his character designs, along with the fact that he's just a great artist. I love the way he draws Magneto, the design itself is like Ian McKellen's from the movie's with a long cape and long tight coat underneath, but the helmet is the classic design. What I really love about it is the way he draws his cape, its as if there's a big fan following him around all the time every panel is so Shakespearean and dramatic, I love it.  
Meanwhile, in a parallel story Cyclops and Wolverine are on a journey to get to the bottom Wolverines origin. They encounter other weapons in the Weapon X project before the trail leads them to the main computer that has the information on all the candidates that were used of the weapon process. But when Wolverine is faced with all the facts of his true origin he is saddened by it. What if this is a lie as well, what if there is more secrets to be unveiled? what if in twenty, ten, five or next year this all gets retconned?

This book came out at a time when Morrison was going through some dark times in his life and it shows. The depression and cynicism that came with the twenty first century is in this comic and the long running never fully answered questions that come with being a comic book character are here and the characters are aware of it, and saddened by it.

The of course back in Manhattan Magneto has taken full control of the island and powered by the drug Kick has enormous power. He plans to turns the continents upside-down and he might have the power to do it. With his mass amount of power he hurls all the cars in New York together, killing thousands, time for the X-Men.

The X-Men eventually gather together with what they have and launch their assault on Magneto. They attack in full force barely even allowing Magneto to catch his breath, Cyclops particularly loses it with him being a ragging force of nature from the betrayal of his friend being their greatest enemy. They hit him with everything they've got, shatter his helmet but Magneto still has the Xorn helmet that works the same. Magneto tries to lead his Mutant brothers to victory but they dont even believe that it really is Magneto, even the X-Men are saying that "Xorn" should surrender.

Then with all the madness building up and up Magneto takes off his helmet and declaring that he is indeed Magneto, that's when Jean and the Professor hit him with their psychic blast and restrain him. Jean comforts him but Magneto has one last blow to strike, with an electromagnetic pulse straight into Jeans's system.

Then with all this madness the most pinnacle moment in the series run happens, the death of Jean Grey. Yes Jean Grey dies again in this arc and this time it has been a death that has stuck, until only fairly recently with Avenger vs X-Men and the Marvel Now launch. After re-reading it, it came off a little more rushed that I remember it but through Scott we do feel the pain and the effect of her going and her last line to him is so tragically on the nose "I'm always dying on you".

Next Wolverine goes into his berserk rage mode and decapitates Magneto, just as he did before Morrison's, run began. 

"Always", Jean dying again, Wolverine cutting off Magneto's head just the way he did before Morrison's run began. The tragedy of the symmetrical logo comes into view with the characters both beginning and ending the same, until the end of time.

The last story arc is "Here Comes Tomorrow". When I first read this I wasn't a fan of it and I thought that it should have ended at the end of "Planet X". But after thinking about it more and having re-read it again I realized that what Morrison was doing was that he was writing the last X-Men story. Of course there's no such thing as the real last X-Men story but still if you give a story an ending it gives it shape and form, so good for him.

The cover of the issue is Wolverine looking behind to the viewer and the landscape itself is of iconic landmarks huddled together with weird tubes moving through them. The cover works by the viewer catching up to Wolverine, who's in the future and us seeing what the future hold for us (or at least these characters). The art for the story is handle by the popular Image artist Marc Silvestri, he's pretty good, he has a real Jim Lee feel to his work with lots of extra lines that run across the characters. He's not even a Jim Lee imitator (like so many are) he is a generally good artist that draws good bodies and big landscapes, so his work is very enjoyable.

The story takes place one hundred and fifty years in the future and Wolverine is still a bad-ass, Cassandra Nova is still alive and working again, but for the good guys, there's only one human left on Earth and Beast is now the ultimate enemy (what the hell?). Beast has learned to harness the Phoenix force and use it to his own diabolical ends, in this we get to see Wolverines end and the end of most things. But we also get to see the never ending cycle of the Phoenix and its reincarnations throughout all of time and Jean with the whole universe in the palm of her hands sends Scott that one simple word "live".

Even though this did come in a bad time in Morrison's life and it still shows there is always hope and optimism for the future, and that is how the story ends with something new and wonderful being formed with the new relationship between Scott and Emma.

One of the biggest mistakes that Marvel made after Morrison left the X-Men was retconning the Xorn/Magneto part of the continuity. Apparently as soon as Morrison left the book, they turned the title back to Uncanny X-Men and revealed that Xorn was never Magneto and that it WAS a mutant named Xorn, who it turns out has a twin brother...also named Xorn (comics are confusing). This just goes to show that Morrison had a point with saying that these character lives are just a continuing series of seeming progress but always the rewrites and retconnes will hold them back. Now I know why Marvel did this, because they needed to say that Magneto was not really dead, of course he's not dead, he literally says in the book that he always comes back. You don't have to retcon this so you can bring the character back. Frankly I would have bought that it was a clone or he was brought back to life, either one would be better than this excuse.

I once read that Morrison had an idea for a story where the Xavier school accept their first human student. The human student gets picked on because naturally he has no powers, but he can play guitar. He can play guitar so well that the other students consider it a power and he is eventually accepted by the other students. I would have loved to see this issue, it would have been a great read. The story would have been encouraging to readers and encourage them to embrace their gifts and talents and realize that it is what makes them special. Shame that it didn't happen.

Saying that New X-Men is my favorite run of X-Men would be silly because it is (so far) the only comic run of X-Men that I've read. But even so I can still appreciate it for how much it changed the status-quo of X-Men and implemented changes that have lasted to this day. It has great characterization and huge themes and stories, I recommend it to people that have never read an X-Men comic before to pick this up.

New X-Men is available in eight trade paperbacks, three thicker paperbacks and one giant fifteen hundred page omnibus edition.