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And so, the end of an era draws, at last, almost to a close. Grant Morrison's legendary run on New X-Men only has one storyarc left, but since it's set mostly in the future, I feel more than comfortable in starting my dance for his departure now. What the hey, let's celebrate for a few months! Marvel still has yet to officially report a replacement, but rumours are that the new writer will be Joss (Buffy, Angel, and Firefly creator) Whedon, with John Cassaday on pencils. Wow, that should be a massive style shift from Morrison and Quitely.
Personally, I'm looking forward to it. I've made no secret that I'm not a Morrison fan (more on that later), but I do enjoy Whedon's television projects, and he should at least have an interesting take on the characters. And one that is hopefully more in line with the way things are supposed to be. I've also heard Whedon is a big Phoenix fan as well, so I'm sure we'll get along fine. And Cassaday is a fine artist, with a nice run on Planetary, and I'm sure will render gorgeously the varied X-Men. His only problem is that he can be slow. Hopefully, Marvel has learned from the fiasco with Quitely, and will alternate him on arcs with another equally competent artist, so we can have some semblence of stability.
This will all be a moot point, of course, if the rumours are false, but if it comes out during this month, and they're true, I'm at least somewhat timely!
Chuck Austen is also on the outs, and after the absolute messy stories he's thrown out there, he's also slipped onto the Good Riddance list. Disintegrating communion wafers. Need I say more? I do? Ok, howabout a mutant from ancient times who's actually Satan? That got trapped in another dimension by mutants that are the precursors of angels? And the only way he can get back to this dimension is by coming to this dimension to father children that will open a portal for him?
Reread that last sentence. He can't come to this dimension. So he COMES TO THIS DIMENSION to father children to open the portal. This plot hole is big enough for Azazel to drive his castle through without his kids.
But he's leaving, and his replacements have already been confirmed, as I'm sure many folks have already heard. My hopes were answered, and it was indeed a merry Christmas because of this. Chris Claremont and Alan Davis, reteamed, and on Uncanny X-Men. Insert images of me dancing madly here.
If everything pans out, and it turns out we have Claremont, Whedon, Davis, and Cassaday on the two core X-Books, it will be a most enjoyable time.
Before closing for the month, I want to comment on Morrison's penultimate arc. Craaaaaaaaaap. Seriously, though... Actually, that is serious. Allow me to elaborate, though.
In truth, "Planet X" actually started off well. I liked the setup, and the reveal of who the traitor in the school was, and who they turned out to be. I was intrigued, and the story could have been done quite well, with the X-Men removed from the playing field for awhile, and eventually swooping in to save the day.
Pretty much every issue went downhill from there.
Morrison, while touting how silly comic cliches are all the time, revels in them here, giving us only a silly, cliched storyline, with a few good moments here and there. Other writers could have pulled this story off, and made it new and different.
Just before Morrison started, Marvel kicked in the "Dead Means Dead" mandate. Grant has completely ignored it, and even used it to hoodwink the fans. The following is a brief dramatisation of Magneto's history over the last two years.
"I'm the head of Genosha! Ack, I'm dead! No wait, I'm alive in a wheelcha...oh crap, Sentinels. I'm dead again! No, I'm alive, and I've been disguised as Xorn all this time! I'm Magneto! I'm dead! AGAIN!"
Everything after the first death was pure Grant. He brought Mags back, only to 'kill' him again, under Marvel's dead is dead mandate, only to ignore that and have him come back. Just to kill him. And Magneto wandered around the entire storyline walking around as a cliche supervillain, ignoring pretty much any characterisation he's built up. Another Morrison trademark. A cliche character, spouting cliche lines, to the point where a character complains about it. "Do you always speak in cliches?" Gee, I dunno, ask the writer. If you don't want someone speaking in cliches, then don't write them that way. And if you do, don't flag it up in the plot, because it comes off sounding stupid and pretentious.
And if that's not bad enough, he killed Emma, bringing her back three issues later. Then killed one of the young Emma wannabes in New X-Men 150. If it had actually been Emma, he could've come full circle there too.
But the capper is Jean Grey, whom he killed in #148. And brought back in #150. And if you've noticed the pattern with 150 here...he kills her again. Yes, that's right. Killed the SAME CHARACTER in the span of three issues. The manner in which she was killed off was most insulting, as well. She shows up, doesn't do much, appears in about a total of five panels in the entire issue, talks a bit, and is killed by Magneto touching her, and sending an EMP into her.
HUH??
It makes no sense, it's vastly insulting to kill a character, bring them back mere moments later, and kill them again in the lamest, most unsatisfying way possible. No going out in a blaze of glory, or for any good cause...just from some typical Morrison nonsensical technoblabber.
And let's not forget the mother of all dropped plot points. Early in his run, Grant introduced the idea that the human race would be extinct within 20 years, due to an extinction gene that would get rid of them. Most people, rightly, scoffed, because we'd never see this actually happen in the comics. We'd never reach a point 20 years hence where it could happen, to begin with. In what is effectively the last issue of his run, not counting the next four issues which will be set in the far future, he decides to finally get around to that by essentially having Beast say he's suddenly discovered a cure to it. Ahhh, brought up, ignored, and retconned, all in one writer's tenture.
Now, I'm sure there are some folks out there having a good laugh, and saying that he's getting the old fans all riled up, and that makes everything ok. I'm sorry, but that argument is tired, and a total load. Annoying people does not excuse bad writing. Bad writing just is, no matter the excuse. Sometimes it can be explained away, but it's rare. And it won't be done by saying "It's good because it pisses people off!" Nope, sorry. Thanks for playing, come again later.
Grant has one more storyline to go, and it looks like his finale is a rip-off of Days of Future Past. Not content to pillage the majority of the Claremont/Byrne run, he goes for the capper, making it a full set. Wow, he is new and original, isn't he? You would think he would be above these things, what with his reaction when he noticed the Matrix films were similar to his Invisibles comics.
What with numerous characters commenting on time and the universe being 'wrong' during New X-Men 150, and the next storyline being 150 years in the future, with some bits in the present day, and plot points such as the future X-Men trying to go back and fix things, and the Phoenix Egg, I'm sure he'll bring back a few more characters, just to make his cliches complete.
So, good riddance Chuck Austen. Good riddance, Frank Quitely. And good riddance, Grant Morrison. May the door not hit your asses on the way out.
Until next month, take care.
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