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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #128

  
  

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Matthew Fluxington
13:26 / 15.06.02
As mentioned in another thread, there is a preview up on Popcultureshock, as well as one linked from the X-Fan site. The issue will be out this Wednesday.

Ra ra ra for the mutant team.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
13:29 / 15.06.02
Now, doesn't that look so much better than his stuff for the 'Imperial' storyline. I liked the cute idea of 'Just Think 'X' but surely mutants will think about that anyway now?

Can't wait. Must. Grrr! Damn this linear timeframe!
 
 
Trijhaos
13:34 / 15.06.02
That does look better, except for the last page.

There's something odd about the faces there, especially Jeans's. It looks like a puffy potato or something.
 
 
Axel Lambert
13:36 / 15.06.02
MUTANT puffy potato, sir!
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:46 / 15.06.02
The weird thing about Igor is that he is fully capable of drawing pretty people - look at the Black Widow series, for example - but when he draws the X-Men, he insists on drawing the characters as being sort of unattractive. Now, I don't think all the characters should be beautiful or sexy, but I do think that Igor should try to be consistent with the way that Frank and Ethan draw the characters...
 
 
Tom Coates
14:49 / 15.06.02
It's almost like he's drawing real people, if that doesn't sound too ridiculous. Perhaps it's because of the film, but representations of the X-men seem to have got a lot more human featured of late (with the exception perhaps of Quiteley's stuff) and often to resemble their filmic cousins more than they used to. They all look considerably less iconic and more down-to-earth. Interestingly I think you could make a case for the same thing happening with Grant's writing. The X-men haven't been this politicised in ten years or more.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
15:10 / 15.06.02
I totally agree with making the characters look more normal, and less like the unrealistic supermodels and musclebound freaks that have populated most superhero comics for a long time. I think Frank Quitely does a good job of drawing the characters in a realistic way, even if he has a penchant for drawing Jean and Emma as being impossibly thing and elongated. It's all in the faces, I think.

As I said, my complaint about Igor is how he doesn't draw the characters in a way so that they are very consistent with the other artists. While I can comfortably make the leap from Quitely to Van Sciver and back again, when Igor draws the comic, it's a bit like watching a tv show one week and the next week having completely different actors playing all of the characters.
 
 
Axel Lambert
15:25 / 15.06.02
Myself, I find Igor's characters, er, girls exTREMEly sexy. Not so much foxy faces, but the --- 3-dimensionalness of the bodies.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
16:54 / 15.06.02
Just so everyone can look back and go "hey, look at that", here's links to every thread in our ongoing issue-by-issue review of New X-Men:


114

115

116

116 part 2

117

E Is For Extinction trade paperback

Annual 2001

Transhumanism and the U-Men

118

119

120

more Germ Free Generation/U-Men talk

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

I would recommend that the moderators of this forum go back and retitled some of those thread for clarification in searches...
 
 
quinine92001
22:41 / 19.06.02
pg 20 Charles X and Jean in the Outer Church? Mirrors American Death camp story arc.
Fantomex=King Mob? I take it they are in Paris. Matrix-y moves from above.
Weapon XII=Project Scorpio from Black Science 2.
 
 
quinine92001
23:20 / 19.06.02
White Roses sometimes stand for friendship.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
00:00 / 20.06.02
I get the impression that Igor Kordey doodled this issue on snack-breaks while drawing Cable and Black Widow. With only a couple of minor exceptions, every page seems half-assed and throw away. If Igor didn't show signs of talent in previous issues and in other comics, I would write this off as poor illustration. That it is so clear that these X-Men issues are a total rush-job, I feel insulted.

Barring Kordey's art, the issue was pretty good. I like Grant's new twist on the Phoenix. I'm interested in finding out more about Weapon XII. I wish I could tell what the hell Grant wanted to be happening on that last page before the issue goes back to the mansion with Scott and Emma. I liked how Grant handled The Multiple Man, but couldn't get a firm handle on his version of Cannonball - but hey, EVERY writer who writes Cannonball writes him as a completely different character. No big deal.

What I liked most about the issue was the return of Charles' question "Are these words from the future?" from the very first issue. I look foward to finding out what that REALLY means...I remember that line catching me the first time I read 114, and it reoccuring here adds weight to my belief that those lines are major foreshadowing.
 
 
kid coagulant
04:31 / 20.06.02
I liked this issue a lot.

- opens like 'citizen kane' at an AA meeting.
- and then we're onto a horrible scene of mob violence (perhaps having soomething to do w/ the whole 'riot suceeds/riot fails to happen' bit from the flith #1? does la pen have a hand in all of this? xmen/filth would be the weirdest marvel/dc crossover in history.). we see 2 men in midair on fire, a woman being mauled by dogs, a punk w/ a mohawk and a 'sex pistols' tshirt beating a mutant w/ a stick, a man shoving a baguette down a mutant's throat, a salaryman w/ a cellphone and a briefcase running for his life, and a mutant and a human each holding their own french flag aloft (do mutants have their own flag? are they beyond all that? it's probably the big 'X', if anything.).
- and then down come the mutants w/ the sun shining behind them to save us all. And is that sam 'cannonball' jet-ass' guthrie we see? and doesn't that guy clinging to the statue look like nightcrawler's brother (and who wants to see morrison's take on kurt wagner, the pope of posthumanity?)? and hey look it's multiple man! (jamie madroc reminding me of rac shade for a second there, what w/ all the additional bodies) and, um, some guy who looks like fabio.
- and there's some talk of opting for nicknames instead of codenames (has there been any discussion of codenames in that 'fictionsuit: a user's guide' thread in the magickal forum i've been meaning to slog through?). And there's this lovely mutant called monet.
- professor x and jean grey telepathically scanning humans and mutants indiscriminately again (xavier reading the mind of a boy who finds the xmen 'cool', jean scanning the occupants of a gendarme helicopter). can a person tell when their mind is being read?
- the 'manifestation of the phoenix' bit kind of reminded me of rebis' 'iamtheinvisiblefirethatworksinsecret' and rhea jone's lodestone stuff from 'doom patrol'. morrison is good at writing characters that make you wonder how they talk and sound. and notice phoenix's speech balloons on page 15 (i think) panel 1, how they come together and form those hyperdimensional interferences form invsibles. notice the bodies of cyclops, emma, beast and wolverine strewn about.
- and is it just me or is fantomex slightly reminiscent of storm shadow? morrison cashing in on that current 80's comic nostalgia? is another miniseries costarring the micronauts in the works? also liked how the gendarmes were decent enough to speak english while they were chasing fantomex (does this mean something in french? or perhaps another 'foreign' language?) through the streets of paris.
- and is it 'weaponx 2' or 'weapon 12?''
- that 'are these words from the future?' line got me too.
- 'no more human rules.'

yeah, i liked this issue.
 
 
The Natural Way
10:39 / 20.06.02
So, that's how he reconciles it: the phoenix IS "the alien"! Of course - never got it before and it's so obvious. It downloads itself into local space, but it exists outwith the super-sphere.... And, yes, the first touch of its wing can feel like the end of everything (I was muttering aimlessly about Rah-Hoor-Khuit on another X thread...), but the ashes are there for the other face of our notorious bird-god to emerge from - Hoo-Par-Krat/Horus, take a bow.

Cleeever Grant. The old cosmology's coming together nicely.

Weapon XII: a hate plague a la Mageddon? Everyone seems to be attacking each other. Oh, we'll have to wait and see, but curiosity piqued....

Yeah, the future thing. But, as Jean says, it's not the future....
The Invisibles is such an essential reference point for this comic.

I just dug, dug, dug Charlie and Jean's little chat. Brilliant. Grant lurvs supersex. And everything's got that May-day, punky vibe.

Rah-Hoor-Khuit, Rah-Hoor Khuit, Rah-Hoor-Khuit.....I just can't shut up about 'im.

My only grouch is Kordey's art. Everything Flux said. I'm so pleased he's off soon, but I can't believe Marvel didn't get him to pull his fucking socks up.
 
 
Tamayyurt
15:27 / 20.06.02
Does Fantomex mean anything? Why does he pour the glass of mineral water on his head?

Who's Darkstar?
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
15:38 / 20.06.02
Darkstar is just another fourth-string X-character who has been floating around over the years. I can't remember which comic she's from - I best remember her from the Age of Apocalypse story, and I think she was an pre-Milligan X-Force character. Most of the X-Corps characters come from comics like X-Factor, X-Force, New Mutants, and Generation X. Monet is M from Generation X. Cannonball used to be in X-Force and the New Mutants, and was a full-time member of the X-Men for a couple years in the 90s. Siryn is Banshee's daughter. The Fabio-looking guy was Rictor from X-Force/New Mutants.
 
 
kid coagulant
19:05 / 20.06.02
'fantom' is 'phantom' in french, it seems. so he's 'phantom x'? maybe?

and flux, your knowledge of x-oterica is simply astounding...
 
 
MJ-12
19:10 / 20.06.02
Darkstar was origninally from the relativly short lived Champions series, where she was hooked up with Iceman.

"I am Fantomex, the most notorious mutant crimial in Europe..that, y'know...no one has ever heard of..."
 
 
Professor Silly
22:50 / 20.06.02
Also "Fantomas" was a popular French anti-hero (and he wore ninja-like garb). Could be GM based this character on this historical oddity.
 
 
Boy in a Suitcase
23:03 / 20.06.02
Glad someone besides me got the Fantomas reference–he's a reoccuring, public domain French character from the turn of the century who's a sinister gentleman thief. He's appeared in novels, serials ("Les Vampyres") and there's currently a band called Fantomas. He's super-big in Mexico right now, where he's become a sort of wrestler-comic book hero (and may well be called "Fantomex.")
For info, go here.


Also, Pheonix="Lord of Force and Fire..." obvious Grant would pick up on this! Also it appears to be Jean's Holy Guardian Angel. " Also, "Manifestation of the Pheonix" sounds like Crowley's "Mass of the Pheonix" and "Neuro-mystical Surgeons" sounds like some kind of modern cabal, like Bertiaux' "Technicians of the Sacred."
 
 
sleazenation
07:58 / 21.06.02
more comic geekery - Grant Morrison HAS actually written a storm shadow story in the Action Force monthly/G.I. Joe Europe 2 and I believe Darkstar was also a member of the soviet supersoldiers a soviet answer to the Avengers...
 
 
The Natural Way
09:03 / 21.06.02
The "phoenix" is clearly a description of the Horic (is that a word?) state where mind/matter is utterly devoured by "force and fire", or, to put it more accurately, emerges as "force and fire" and is seen to devour itself (Y'know, the Choronzonic abyss that Grant waffles about). Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.... But Horus has another face apart from the seemingly terrifying Rah-Hoor-Khuit. After the nigredo - where the endless, self-consuming chatter of the relative mind dissolves within the cosmic athanor (furnace [see Jean's comments about what we will need in the light]) - the God's secondary quality reveals itself: the crowned and conquering child, Hoo-Par-Krat - the product of silence (the dissolution of the relative or, as Mr. Buddha liked to put it, the discovery of that which cannot be reduced to its component parts) and illumination - the radiance of the "fire"/the world/Mind. Empty and full: like water w/ water. Emerging from the black earth below, rising towards the heavenly sun: y'know, rebirth. The phoenix emerging from the ashes.

This moment is universal - eternal - and as such cannot be described as strictly personal/local. The "Phoenix" cannot be said to be entirely a property of Jean's mind, but, equally, it cannot be said to be entirely distinct from it. Christ, it IS it. The thing's everywhere - an archetypal quality. To access it is to access an endlessly reiterating priciple of the universe itself: initiation. This is what Jean means when she says "this is not the future, this is the moment...blah..." This doesn't mean Charles wasn't experiencing events yet to occur within linear time, just that the events in question are a reflection of global initiation that, from the phoenix's perspective, exists outwith the biomass membrane. Think of humanity as one body/mind and you'll get what I mean. Maybe.

The mutants represent the influx of this fiery, winged force: rapid change, the exponential increase of novelty - burning brighter and brighter until everything is consumed. And of course the emphasis is on the children and the "school": a perfect cipher for the future of the human race and the evolutionary force that guides it.

A bit of a long winded post, this, but I thought it might be nice if someone reiterated the mystical, aeonic underpinnings of the series.

Truly is it said that Mr. Morrison only knows one story.

Oh, and another, slightly more mundane thing: Y'know Grant was going on about a Muslim girl, whose powers have yet to be defined, and who enjoys a striking resemblance to the human bomb (or whatever he's called), in that only her eyes show beneath her costume? Fantomex completely.
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
13:12 / 21.06.02
Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust....

ass 2 ass!
 
 
The Natural Way
13:14 / 21.06.02
Indeed.
 
 
Seth
11:33 / 22.06.02
"Are these words from the future" is used in a very similar way to "Try to remember" from the Invisibles. Nothing more to say, as I'm still mulling it over.
 
 
Trijhaos
19:33 / 22.06.02
I'm a bit confused. Xavier calls Jean an omega level mutant. What does this mean? Are mutant powers now being measured on a scale kind of like radiation?
 
 
Sandfarmer
20:24 / 22.06.02
I thought this issue was the worst yet and I'm beginning to wonder how this comic stays in the top five in sales every month. I pick it up because of Morrison and my hopes of a good read but to the average fan this has to be confusing. You get two great issues in a row. (The last Quitely issue and a good Zorn story) then you get total garbage. A bunch of guest star muties no one cares about drawn horribly.

Kordey is drawing his layouts better. Page 7 where Jean makes Prof a drink is nice. Page 9 and 10 with the Midnighter looking character are okay. He draws Jean nice but the rest is just so out of style with the rest of the series. Why does his Professor X look to be about 70 years old? Why does his Emma look like a washed up 50 year old crack whore?

I blame Morrison for this issue alos. Other than the stuff with Jean and the Prof, its a pointless exercise. Its like Grant is saving all the important stuff ro the issues he knows Quitely will draw.

This is Marvel's top selling book most months since Morrison came on. Shouldn't they have some editorial pride and give the reader some consistancy?

Van Sciver's cover was nice though.
 
 
Captain Zoom
20:31 / 22.06.02
Van Sciver gets a fair bit of flak. He's no Quitely, but I like his work. I think it meshes with Quitely's look of the book better than Kordey's does.

I have just read an issue of Cable that Kordey did and it's surprisingly good. Though everyone did seem to have been hit with the ugly stick.

Zoom.
 
 
The Natural Way
10:33 / 24.06.02
Sand: I don't understand what you mean by "important stuff". We get to see the X Corps thing again - and in action (which is, I think, very important), we get to see its first legal connundrum, the addition of a new mutant, Scott and Emma hit critical mass and the whole thing's jolly entertaining to boot. Also think it's important to remember that this is the beginning of a story arc.

Agree with you about the art, though.
 
 
sleazenation
11:01 / 24.06.02
I entirely disagree with sandfarmer , and I really don't want to sound negative, but- last issues xorn story read (to me) exactly like what it was: a fill in story, a shoehorned in issue that was largely meaningless and had little or no impact on the wider ongoing story arc. Worse, its superfluous and forced attempt at charaterization of xorn, came accross as rather 2 dimensional and facile - more sakin to Claremonts work than Morrison's.

This issue gave us our first glimpses of Morrison's vision of the new world order- with an increased presence of 'out' mutants and we the implications of mutant asylum... We saw the return of a number of x-force types and other assorted mutants back in Xavier's fold. And we saw the emotionally constipated Scott actually talking to someone about what he's feeling. (and my guess is that Emma will give him the best advice he's ever had.) And this is just part one.

Of the last two issues i know which i preferred.
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
11:37 / 24.06.02
kordey's art was an improvement I feel.

the last page was kiwaliteh, no? sweaty and leathery with an ultra violet glow - juss right I reckon.

composition of panels and pages was good genrally and there was a sense of depth throughout (apart from the sacre couer stuff which was appalling)

is that some scotch mutant chick by the way - fuckin awful accent grant - a joke yeah? like disney doing trainspotting.

that fart powered mutant was a laff.

the whole meta-fiction things kickin off - within the story we learn its becoming cool to like mutants - just as in the real world its becoming cool to like superhero comics - thanks to the matrix, new scientist and all those other lovely synchro-links.

anyway.
 
 
sleazenation
11:49 / 24.06.02
the mutant with the VERY vaguely gaelic accent was Syrin- THe Irish daughter of the equaly Irish Banshee.

other stuff i noticed... in the last page Emma seems to have padding in some very strange places ion her costume...
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
12:16 / 24.06.02
I wouldn't be surprised if Charles asks "Are these words from the future?" at least once every year until Grant finishes his run.

And I wonder if Jean's being an omega level mutant is anything to do with that thing in the Invisibles (and 'The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits') about type 1 civilisations and type 2 and postulating up to what a type omega civilisation would be like. The Phoenix would easily represent that level of power, but I still don't understand why Jean is this link with the Phoenix when they are different beings. The whole point of much of the story since Jean returned in Avengers or FF or whatever was that she WASN'T the Phoenix, unless they encountered it sometime in the last few years when I wasn't reading.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
12:55 / 24.06.02
She is the Phoenix, she isn't the Phoenix, she is the Phoenix she isn't the Phoenix. Basically.

As for "Omega-level"...it's the last letter of the Greek alphabet. It sounds cool. Christ calls himself the Alpha and the Omega in Revelations. It's an unspecified descriptor for "wery wery powerfu'", like Alpha-class in the Authority. Which might cause confusion in the crossover...
 
 
the Fool
04:08 / 25.06.02
She is the Phoenix, she isn't the Phoenix, she is the Phoenix she isn't the Phoenix. Basically.

Perhaps the phoenix force is like Promethea, being able to manifest through your own guardian angel - to wear your higher self.

Thus the last pheonix/dark pheonix (not rachel) could manifest/embody/replace as Jean while she recovered from radiation poisoning beneath hudson bay but Jean can also manifest the pheonix force as it is part of her (even if it was a separate entity before their first meeting, it is nolonger). The pheonix can be banished from the physically plane but not destroyed.
 
  

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