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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #122

  
  

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The Natural Way
14:08 / 14.02.02
Could it be that Cassandra was born inside charles body (ala dark half) and manufactured her body out of his whist he was sleeping etc.

Ooookay, you really don't want to go there. The *details* of Grant's stuff are always a little fuzzy.... To all intents and purposes, I think it's more appropriate to understand Cassy as an extension of Charles.
Sleaze, you've read the Invisibles...you know what's really going on here.
 
 
kid coagulant
14:13 / 14.02.02
She's a gnostic demiurge, I'm thinking. Whatever that is.
 
 
deja_vroom
14:33 / 14.02.02
By invix: quote:She's a gnostic demiurge, I'm thinking. Whatever that is.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It's the unperfect sentient part of a perfect, but absent God, which created our failed material world. But you knew this already.
 
 
kid coagulant
14:55 / 14.02.02
Phillip Dick wrote about this in 'VALIS', in his exegesis (don't have my copy at hand right now). Something about twins being born, the sister twin being the 'damaged' one, coming to our universe and corrupting it. SOunds about right.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
17:45 / 14.02.02
I just thought it would be interesting to note something my little brother pointed out to me after reading the issue - at no point in the issue are any of the X-Men referred to by code-name.

I wonder if this is something Grant will continue with, one more thing to eventually be phased out entirely...
 
 
The Natural Way
06:54 / 15.02.02
Actually, I don't think he will. I think Grant's aware of the totemic nature of the code names - y'know, the old thing about names actually serving to describe the essence/attributes of the individual to which they are applied. They're not just "code names", but "mutant names".... Aquiring a code name is tantamount to some kind of mutant baptism/rebirth.

I suppose.
 
 
kid coagulant
12:07 / 15.02.02
This is going to be a rather longish post, but if you're up to wading through it you'll see some similarities between Xavier/Nova and parts of Philip Dick's 'exegesis', and maybe some hints of things to come. Or at least I hope you do, cause if you don't then that means I've gone completely over the edge...hang on...

From PKD’s ‘VALIS’: <<<47. TWO SOURCE COSMOGONY: The One was and was-not, combined, and desired to separate the was-not from the was. So it generated a diploid sac which contained, like an eggshell, a pair of twins, each an androgyny, spinning in opposite directions (the Yin and Yang of Taoism, w/ the One as the Tao). The plan of the One was that both twins would emerge into being (wasness) simultaneously; however, motivated by a desire to be (which the One had implanted in both twins), the counterclockwise twin broke through the sac and separated prematurely; i.e. before full term. This was the dark or Yin twin. Therefore it was defective. At full term the wiser twin emerged. Each twin formed a unitary entelechy, a single living organism made of psyche and soma, still rotating in opposite directions of each other. The full term twin, called Form I by Parmenides, advanced correctly through its growth stages, but the prematurely born twin, called Form II, languished.

The next step in the One’s plan was that the Two would become the Many, through their dialectic interaction. From them as hyperuniverses they projected a hologram-like interface, which is the pluriform universe we creatures inhabit. The two sources were to intermingle equally in maintaining our universe, but Form II continued to languish towards illness, madness, and disorder. These aspects she projected into our universe.

It was the One’s purpose for our hologramatic universe to serve as a teaching instrument by which a variety of new lives advanced until ultimately they would be isomorphic w/ the One. However, the decaying condition of hyperuniverse II introduced malfactors which damaged our hologramatic universe. This is the origin of entropy, undeserved suffering, chaos and death, as well as the Empire, the Black Iron Prison; in essence, the aborting of the proper health and growth of the life forms within the hologramatic universe. Also, the teaching function was grossly impaired, since only the signal from the hyperuniverse I was information-rich; that from II had become noise.

The psyche of hyperuniverse I sent a micro-form of itself into hyperuniverse II to attempt to heal it. The micro-form was apparent in our hologramatic universe as Jesus Christ. However, hyperuniverse II, being deranged, at once tormented, humiliated, rejected and finally killed the micro-form of the healing psyche of her healthy twin. After that, hyperuniverse II continued to decay into blind, mechanical, purposeless casual processes. It then became the task of Christ (more properly the Holy Spirit) to either rescue the life forms in the hologramatic universe, or abolish all influences on it emanating from II. Approaching its task w/ caution, it prepared to kill the deranged twin, since she cannot be healed, i.e. she will not allow herself to be healed because she does not understand that she is sick. This illness and madness pervades us and makes us idiots living in private, unreal worlds. The original plan of the One can only be realized now by the division of hyperuniverse I into two healthy hyperuniverses, which will transform the hologramatic universe into the successful teaching machine it was designed to be. We will experience this as the “Kingdom of God.”

Within time, hyperuniverse II remains alive: “The Empire never ended.” But in eternity, where the hyperuniverses exist, she has been killed – of necessity – by the healthy twin of hyperuniverse I, who is our champion. The One grieves for this death, since the One loved both twins; therefore the information of the Mind consists of a tragic tale of the death of a woman, the undertones of which generate anguish into all the creatures of the hologramatic universe without their knowing why. This grief will depart when the healthy twin undergoes mitosis and the “Kingdom of God” arrives. The machinery for this transformation – the procession within time from the Age of Iron to the Age of Gold – is at work now; in eternity it is already accomplished.>>>
 
 
The Natural Way
12:14 / 15.02.02
I think that stuffs there, but I also think Grant's going for a more Groffian thing. The "oversoul" caught in the moment of being born. There's a new world on the X horizon and Cassandra embodies all the birth trauma that attends it, whereas Charles (and his "children") is a cipher for the new human race bound up in its chrysalis about to emerge... That kinda stuff.

BTW, has anyone got a copy of Invissy vol 3 no 7 to hand? The Shi'ar are a class 5 civilization, etc. and I can't remember what that *means*.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
12:19 / 15.02.02
Runce, I'm pretty sure that they've been calling the Shi'Ar a class 5 civilization since Chris Claremont first wrote the comic in the 70s...

Question for those more learned than I: Does anyone make out any specific cultural/mythical references in the 'Immensity' creature-shape Charles is surrounded in on the fifth page?
 
 
The Natural Way
12:24 / 15.02.02
Yeah, that doesn't matter. I'd still be interested. Grant probably wouldn't of bothered referencing it unless it *meant something*.

[ 15-02-2002: Message edited by: Fantastic YOU [I, Runce] ]
 
 
kid coagulant
12:29 / 15.02.02
The shape around Xavier/Nova looked pretty Lovecraftian to me. A shoggoth or Yog Sothoth or something thereabouts.
 
 
The Natural Way
12:58 / 15.02.02
Yeah, I was thinking shoggoth.

But about that class 5 thing........
 
 
kid coagulant
13:05 / 15.02.02
Was that John Barrow's stuff you're talking about? Got this off 'the bomb': http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~sander/mensa/glbmail1.html
<<<Barrow's complex sequence of civilizations runs all the way up to the final type Omega civilization "which could manipulate the entire universe (and even other universes)".>>> Anyone read 'Impossibility'? Are the Shi-Ar an omega class civilization?
 
 
The Natural Way
13:22 / 15.02.02
Yeah, that's it, but still no sign of no 5....
 
 
rizla mission
13:26 / 15.02.02
quote:Originally posted by invix:
The shape around Xavier/Nova looked pretty Lovecraftian to me. A shoggoth or Yog Sothoth or something thereabouts.

The last two issues of X-men have to contain more startlingly scary psychological-becomes-physical Lovecraftian horror movie imagery than any mainstream comic ever..

Definately one of Grant's favourite things.
 
 
The Natural Way
13:28 / 15.02.02
Oh, Grant's X stuff is all about the sublime and the horrid.
 
 
Captain Zoom
14:59 / 15.02.02
If I could get really anal, I think the immensity looks far more like Tsathoggua than anything else. But then you can ingnore me as I slip back into Abhoth's pits.

Zoom.
 
 
Burning Man
15:10 / 15.02.02
Just an aside: Reading through the posts...I really appreciate and admire the intellegence sharpness of your observations. You folks are really on your Morrison game.
 
 
Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?
15:11 / 15.02.02
I want Wolverine to touch Emma Frost's tits.

With his claw.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
17:57 / 15.02.02
I just read an excellent review of this issue, from one my favurite sites: Hero Realm

quote: New X-Men #122
Bottom of the Heap!!

'Imperial'

Cassandra Xavier, now in control of a Shi'Ar destroyer fleet, makes her inevitable return to Earth.

After finishing the surprisingly good silent issue from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, I had a glimmer of optimism regarding the return of Cassandra Nova Xavier. Now, it's no secret around the Hero Realm community that I'm less than impressed by this villain. Ever since the horrible "E Is For Extinction" storyline, I have learned to dread any story featuring Cassandra, because Morrison's writing always seems to be at its worst when this overrated villain is present. Partly, my strong dislike of Cassandra stems from her undefined motivations-- she is evil because the story requires it and no more. Moreover, up to this point, the execution of the Cassandra plot required everyone around her to act like incompetent buffoons so she could conveniently acquire a Shi'Ar armada and terrorize the X-Men some more. In spite of all these reservations, I crossed my fingers and gave Morrison one last opportunity to change my mind regarding the character and the story he's telling with her, in the hope that this chapter could do more for her character.

Sadly, Grant Morrison's story utterly failed to live up to the promise of the silent issue. If anything, this tale is a weak and predictable continuation of a story that had little creative merit to begin with. As expected, Cassandra manages to completely fool the Shi'Ar until she acquires a destructive space fleet. Why does she want one? Who knows? How did Cassandra manage to get past Xavier-class telepaths like Oracle and others? The same way she managed to switch bodies with Charles without either Emma Frost or Jean Grey noticing-- writer's favoritism. Grant Morrison apparently loves his pet villain so much that Cassandra cannot seem to lose no matter how much logic demands otherwise. As stated in X-Treme X-Men #9, it also turns out that Cassandra infected the entire team with mental illnesses. Nice idea, except that Jean and Emma should have been able to detect and at least attempt to intercept them before they took root. As much as Morrison beats Cassandra's supposed brilliance over the reader's head, her success is due solely to the stupidity of the X-Men and the Shi'Ar, not due to any intelligent planning on her part. If only that were the sole flaw in the writing this month.

In the first place, Emma's speech to the assembled students comes across as more than a little disturbing. Emma speaks of the school's intention of abandoning the "human" educational system for a mutant system that is supposedly more flexible. Leaving aside the fact that the human educational system worked just fine for the X-Men, the New Mutants, and Generation X, this entire line of thought strikes me as very racist coming from the X-Men. I realize that the X-Men may harbor some understandable resentment towards humans for being outcasts, but they've never previously thought of themselves as being superior to humans because they have powers. While Emma herself may believe that (and that would be acceptable), she speaks on behalf of Jean and Xavier, who most definitely do not. This is the same kind of bigoted thinking I expect from Magneto, not the guardians of Xavier's dream. To the story's credit, Cyclops actually confronts Jean about this later on, which is very much in character for him to do. However, the opposition is based more on public relations than on any ethical grounds. By portraying the X-Men in this fashion, Morrison erodes the themes of racial tolerance that have defined this book since the first issue.

While Morrison has been more judicious with continuity in the past, he drops the ball in two key places. In Scott's confrontation with Jean, he warns her that she may lose control again. Clearly, he's referring to the Dark Phoenix Saga here. The problem? The being who died at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga was later revealed to be the Phoenix entity, not Jean herself. I'll admit up front that I am no fan of the retcon used to bring Jean back from the dead. However, this is a major piece of Jean's history and should not be swept under the rug without an explanation. If Morrison did not want to deal with the retcon, he should not have addressed the issue to begin with.

Worse, however, is the horrible explanation for Cassandra's existence. We were told at the end of "E Is For Extinction" that Cassandra was the first of a new species beyond mutantkind, and that she carried an "e-gene" that compelled her to destroy mutants. Now we are being asked to accept that she was living emotional energy without a body, which she created from Charles' own cells. The two positions are incompatible, because Charles has always been a baseline mutant with no "e-gene" of any sort. Unless some way is found to reconcile this, Morrison is openly contradicting his own continuity.

Cassandra's motivation also makes little sense as explained here. Destroying Charles I can understand. But why would Cassandra be so concerned with causing widespread destruction? Why not kill Charles while she had him at her mercy? Why take over a space fleet and invade Earth? The exposition does not cover these facts, and so Cassandra remains a purely evil villain with nebulous motivations, as she has been since the beginning of this run. Morrison's nonsensical explanation does nothing to turn me around on a character that already had little going for it.

Exactly how Frank Quitely managed to win a Wizard award by drawing a small handful of issues with deformed figures is well beyond me. That said, he does better work here than in previous issues of this title. Quitely seems to have a better visual grasp than he did previously, but they still are not pleasing to the eye. His concept of anatomy is sorely lacking, shown clearly by the fact that the Imperial Guardsman Smasher (who had been shown previously to have normal human physiology) now has a chin that stretches out far longer than Jay Leno's. Quitely still has trouble drawing the female figure, particularly Lilandra and Emma, although he's admittedly improved slightly since "E Is For Extinction". I've also noticed that Wolverine's head tends to be slightly out of proportion to his body in spots. Some of Quitely's layouts don't work for me either. He tends to draw panels that are longer than they are wide, which imply a long span of time. But some of the illustrations are meant to take place over a short period of time. The result is storytelling that looks clunky and uneven in places, and disrupts the pacing of the story. However, I do have an appreciation for the way Quitely does backgrounds and perspective. Even his storytelling isn't so bad when the layouts are not quite so wide. Overall, Quitely does average work here, though the art is by far the strongest point of this comic.

For all the critical acclaim this series gets, the creative output on New X-Men is unequal to it. Grant Morrison has long overstayed his welcome on the X-Men, if poorly conceived and plotted stories like this one are the norm. Perhaps if Morrison placed a little less emphasis on ludicrous and over-the-top villains like Cassandra and more focus on story logic, this title might be actually be something approaching enjoyable.


This review earns itself a 5.6c, losing points due to continuity errors and a stray banana. Extra jalapenos + 3.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
18:10 / 15.02.02
I just feel so bad for that guy - so freaked out with continuity, so unable to grasp the mechanics of simple storytelling. So spoiled by years of reading crap comics that he expects every detail of a character's motivation explained in detail from the get-go. He's probably the kind of person who can recite the Psylocke "my psionic knife is the totality of my blah blah blah" speach on a second's notice... The kinda guy who probably loves Jim Lee, the Kuberts, and Joe Madureira, but can't figure out Frank Quitely...

Poor fella. You just want to send him off to a clinic somewhere and maybe they can help him...

edited to say:

I was just looking through the website that's from, and noticed there is an entire section of the site devoted to saving Tom DeFalco's Spider-Girl comic from cancellation. Wow. That's like when the terminal disease spreads to the brain, now isn't it?

[ 15-02-2002: Message edited by: Flux = Rad ]
 
 
kid coagulant
18:14 / 15.02.02
Comicbook Reviewer Guy: Worst comic ever!
 
 
Jackie Susann
08:24 / 16.02.02
I don't know, I still think it's just a pretty good superhero comic, making it pretty average by any reasonable standard. My biggest problem is that it's basically a few pages of plot, a page of philosophy, a page of character development, back to plot. The three things just seemed totally disjointed, not intergrated at all. The gnostic stuff seems forced, it just keep screaming 'I am Grant Morisson, look at my obsessions' to me.

For bonus geek points, I reckon the cow scene is a tribute to the Kree-Skrull War (as were Skrull Kill Krew and big chunks of the JLA Mageddon story).
 
 
bio k9
08:24 / 16.02.02
Making matters worse, Cassandra has booby-trapped her own body with a motor-neuron disease (could that be what she injected herself with in 115?).

We saw John Sublime with the same pink fluid though. I think it has something to do with the third species. Using drugs to make sure the body doesn't reject the donor organs...

Logan to Jean, with green goo on his hand after touching the Professor on his deathbed:

"What's all that bug stuff on him?"

Jean: "He grew that shell around our own life support system."

Wha-what?

Charles is in Cassandras body now. Remember when she threw up that armor to fight Wolverine? Now look at the pic on top of that page with Logans goo covered hand. Looks like the professor is in a larva or something. I'm not sure the goo is what hes refering to at all. I think the professor is in her brain, using her bodys powers.

ALSO

Cassandra replicated the Trask DNA and took on his vocal patterns. She may have done the same to professor X on a much larger scale. Did the pink fluid help keep her body from rejecting the Trask DNA? Its 4am here and I just thought of all this. Maybe I'm delerious. Sounds good now though. Now, off to bed. Night all.
 
 
quinine92001
11:48 / 16.02.02
Charles Xavier really is evil. His "twin" is terrorizing the X universe, his twisted amalgomated Magneto psyche terrorized the X universe and his son Legion aka David Haller caused a bit fucking time rift that allowed Apocolypse to take over. The answer is very simple, he created the X-Men to save the world from himself.
 
 
Captain Zoom
13:19 / 16.02.02
See? Now that's the shit I like to hear.

Zoom.
 
 
Captain Zoom
13:21 / 16.02.02
Oh, and if i may ask, has anyone seen X-treme X-Men (I feel stupid just typing that) #9. Claremont's using Cassandra? WTF? Do you think he had to ask Grant's permission? And how would Ms. Nova come across in a Claremont written comic? Are these questions I really need the answers to?

Zoom.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:37 / 16.02.02
Okay, slow down Zoom... how is he using Cassandra? Has that issue come out yet?

I'm sure he had to ask permission, and I'm sure he was given a set of boundaries in how he used her - it's only fair, though. Grant is playing with all of Claremont's old ideas and characters, so it's actually kinda nice that Claremont is cool enough to give Grant some credit. I know that Grant claims Claremont as a major influence, so he was probably happy to lend the old guy a helping hand (though I'd love to hear Grant's off-the-record feelings about X-Treme!)

X-Treme scares the hell out of me, honestly. Everytime I'm at a newstand, I tend to pick it up out of morbid curiosity, and it's always far worse than I could imagine it being.
 
 
quinine92001
14:14 / 16.02.02
reivax si selin redluac ohw si ris selim. s'eh gniyalp a emag fo ssehc htiw flesmih.
 
 
Tamayyurt
15:19 / 16.02.02
You know what's weird? I just bought Valis and I read that TWO SOURCE COSMOGONY thing right after reading this last issue of new x men. I was coming here to post it when I found that you're already ahead of the game.

and I felt so special.
 
 
Dr Doom
15:26 / 16.02.02


[ 16-02-2002: Message edited by: pretty hate machine ]
 
 
Captain Zoom
15:27 / 16.02.02
Sorry Flux. Should have sourced that.
from the funny review:


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As stated in X-Treme X-Men #9, it also turns out that Cassandra infected the entire team with mental illnesses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to Diamond's shipping lists, Xtreme Crap shipped Jan. 16. I'm really curious now.

Zoom.
 
 
Professor Silly
15:57 / 17.02.02
quote:Oh, and if i may ask, has anyone seen X-treme X-Men (I feel stupid just typing that) #9. Claremont's using Cassandra?

quote:how is he using Cassandra? Has that issue come out yet?

quote:from the funny review:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As stated in X-Treme X-Men #9, it also turns out that Cassandra infected the entire team with mental illnesses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the record, X-Treme #9 used Cassandra in reference only. The issue wrapped up the battle in Australia, with Sage using her powers in a most intrusive Xavierish way (read: necessary yet of questionable ethics).

The side plot has Jean Grey contacting Storm through Cerebra in order to compare notes. They discuss the death of Psylocke, the changes in Hank, and then Cassandra. Jean updates Storm on the whole switched bodies-thing, and that none of them realized what had happened right in front of their eyes. She mentions the disease that Cassandra's body is infected with, and theorizes that she might be behind the bug running through the school. Jean then reveals the reason for contacting Storm: the school is under a quarantine from the global X-Men, and she wants Storm's team as possible backup for when Cassandra returns. They then discuss the possible connection between Cassandra and Vargas (although I'm not sure they'll actually find one--I chalk it up to coincidence).

All in all I found the exchange pleasant to read--Jean and Ororo have always been close friends, and their banter about what's been happening in both books seemed natural and necessary for their survival, 'cause this Imperial storyline is going to test them to their limits (thank goodness they got Xorn too).

So now it's cleared up, right?

[ 17-02-2002: Message edited by: Chevy Fenderson ]
 
 
the Fool
09:07 / 18.02.02
A small thing I noticed - Smasher = Legion's Ultra Boy. Downloading 4d vision (ultra vision), Invulnerability, Super Strength...

I read somewhere the Grant was going keep the whole Legion/Imperial Guard link going.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
09:07 / 18.02.02
I beat this guy really likes X-Treme X-men...

Chapter One.

Poirot entered stately Whytham Hall. Corporal BigBelly lay in a pool of his own blood. "Frankly we're stumped mon-sewer Poirot" said Inspector Silly-Moustache.
"Actually it was me." admitted Mr. Jewish Charicature.
"well, zats a relief," said Poirot, "I reelly 'ate the way it takez me about 200 pages to sort it out normally. Now I can go and review some comics..."

THE END.
 
  

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