Ellis, why does your post contain a plot synopsis?
And why did the cover embarrass you, old boy? Is it because someone might catch a glimpse of it and assume all comic readers are a bunch of sex starved dorks? Don't worry about it - stop feeling so guilty. I love the cover, it looks great. And if you expected the White Queen's cover to exclude the rudeness quotient, then obviously your interpretaion of the character differs from mine..... I've said it over on another thread and I'll say it again: That whole look? It's the Hellfire Club in a nutshell, the White Queen in a nutshell. And maybe, just maybe, the idea behind it has less to do with fanboy lust (although I don't rule that aspect of it out) and more to do with the character herself. The comic isn't about the pornographic exploitation of the female; after all, Jean doesn't receive the same treatment. And Wolverine is always getting his kit off...... Are you really telling me his body is normal? Christ, is any mutant's body normal? Their extended body, their powers, are easily sexualised (See Flex Mentallo/your libido).
But now onto the good stuff:
- What everyone else said about the art. Fantastic. And someone mentioned "Little Nemo": absolutely.
- The constant references to Cassandra Nova as "It" and "That Creature", etc. Her motives and physiology are as alien to Homo Superior as they are to Homo Sapiens. I've been mulling over her name.... "Cassandra", the woman whose prophecies were destined to be ignored, of Gk myth fame; and then there's the "Cassanova" thing - The Great Lover. What does this tell us about her relationship to Charles? Someone mentioned the Invisibles.......
Her multitudinous powers suggest the new race of mutant mutant's abilities may only be limited by their imagination: Super adaptive and superfluid like mind itself.
- Emma's whole gig: the way she hides behind a mask of vacuity and misanthropy, and the fact that Jean can see right through it:
"We need your strength and brilliance to help us recover from this."
Oh yeah, and the fact that she's going to get herself valued.
- Cassandra's silence, but deadly obvious murderous intent.
- The Horrorshow shit: The Black Bug Room, and Scott's horrid, confused attempts to convey the Bug's "insights" into his relationship with Jean, while she drools and splutters, caught like a mouse in Cassandra's mind trap. Urrgh.... Two horribly mentally injured people struggling to have a conversation. And our Cassy's last, feeble, snapped neck attempt to pick herself up and brush herself down:
"Auum....UmMa....UmMmmMmm...Charles...."
Yuck.
- Wicked bug battlesuits ahoy.
- The Mrs. Murphy story. Grant's not afraid to bring out the horrors of mutation - to illuminate the disgust and revulsion humans might feel (and quite rightly) when confronted with their school teacher laying a bunch of eggs. Grant has such a novel take on mutation: His X Men hail taxis with their minds; sense each others sexual arousal; read each others minds to get a clearer impression of the feelings they are trying to convey, rather than resorting to clumsy language; have microscopic suns for brains...
- Nesh got to the fractal tentacle thing before me. And I thought that was gonna be my cool observation.
- Grant's Wolverine respects and cares about Cyclops, defering to him as team leader and bigging him up to Domino, whilst resenting his relationship with Jean, etc. This is a lovely, emotionally complex situation, and I really don't get the feeling that this guy is the type to just jump Jean at the earliest available opportunity - just as I'm sure Jean wouldn't jump him. Grant's playing these guys as adults: It would be too easy, too "childish" and too obvious to have Jean and Logan leap on each other as soon as Scott's out the way. But Scott? I'm not so sure about him. I think he might need a good, no holds barred, no strings attached FUCK just to get some of that tension out. Doesn't mean he will, though......
- I love the way, with each issue, it becomes more and more clear that Grant is commited to redefining the superhero genre. Firstly there's the stylistic touches: no speech bubbles, moviespeak, hyperkinetic action and plot development, condensed information download and an artist whose style redefines popular comics art. And then there's the content itself: New costumes that make the X Men look more like aid workers than superheroes; and the fact that they actually act more like aid workers than superheroes - rescuing mutants in distress from Sentinel attack; trawling through the wreckage of Genosha for survivors; opting against "war" and "domination" in favour of peace and co-operation. And, unlike the X Men of yesteryear, I'm sure Morrison will allow them to live up to this ideal whenever possible. Morrison wants to make this comic relevant to a whole new generation. The kids don't give a fuck about Byrne and Claremont and they certainly don't give a fuck about Superman. And before you say, "But kids don't read comics", I know a few that do. And I did. And many of you did.
Grant wants to make this stuff relevant because it's more fun that way, and because he has his own agenda - his own message he wants to get across to the kids: the idea that the old ways, the "human" ways are over. That the "individual" as we know it was out the moment someone uttered the words "quantum physics". In this new universe, the limits of gender, the body, sexuality and consciousness in general are limited only by the imagination. The old laws are out, as are all the old structures (brilliantly exemplified by Cyclops asserting his authority, his decisions, over Xavier's - "No formations, act on instinct!"). We have to bury the notions of what we were and accept the "mutations", beautiful and borrible.
I really like Grant's radical utopianism, and his attempts to introduce kids to the chaote, transeverything philosophies that inform his thinking.
[ 25-08-2001: Message edited by: runt ] |
