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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-men #132

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06:06 / 13.09.02

You're not the only one, Flux. It was not only hokey, but totally out of character for Magneto. Let's face it, the leader of the mutants-as-master-race movement is not going to broadcast a "treasure our lives in your hearts, always, forever, huggles message." He's going to broadcast a call to arms for mutants everywhere when he sees genocide being carried out by super-Sentinels, which he had no idea had been commisioned by the crazy-ass Cassandra Nova. From his perspective, humans were wiping out the largest colony of mutants in the world. And I don't buy the fact that life looks very different when you're facing death schtick, not for a moment, especially not under the circumstances in which Magneto died. It just didn't work on any level.

Matthew Fluxington

11:33 / 13.09.02

I agree, Exp.

I can't help but feel that it was a concession to all the diehard X-Fans who refuse to see Magneto as anything other than Claremont's tragic hero, which isn't the most logical way of writing the character.

Of all the issues so far, this was the issue that most felt like a Chris Claremont comic. That Magneto dialogue at the end especially was an uncanny impression of Claremont's writing style...

It's interesting that no one has really noted that at least in one sense, Xavier was responsible for what happened in Genosha, for murdering his rival and his followers. Xavier notes in 128 his debt to Cassandra for putting him in the good position he currently finds himself in, and of course part of that is the absense of Magneto. I start to think that Charles was more complicit in Cassandra's crimes than he's made out to be - after all, she was simply doing the things he wanted to do but wouldn't, perhaps even as a perverse way of trying to win him over. It's too neat and tidy to accept the simple answer that Cassandra and Charles were two separate characters.

22:37 / 13.09.02

Unless, of course, Grant's been reading stuff like this thread, and theorised that not only could Magneto's mutation result in his survival of his body's destruction, but also make him an even more powerful telepath than Xavier. Magneto's actions in this issue are much more understandable as those of someone who has been alive since the destruction of Genosha, keeping tabs on the worldwide political situation since the Sentinel attack.

14:21 / 14.09.02

yes of course - magneto isn't really dead - this may be grant morrison but it's still comics. fave dream of an idealogue is not martyrdom but resurrection and messiahdom. best issue yet i thought, lovely adams/byrne blend on the art and lovely colours, all washed-out and electric. i like the toad's peevishness - xavier is very smug and i suspect by the time he's crippled again i'll be glad. the image of a dying magneto thinking the thoughts of the dead onto tape is marEVPllous, nice ambigutiy with the formation of the statue - was it quiksilver, polaris, the ghosts or magneto himself? weird electromagnetic phenomena, call them ghosts people have done for centuries. just a nice feeling.

16:33 / 14.09.02

I loved it. A real, genuine Grant heart-in-mouth moment. A fitting epitaph? Magneto's knocked up the best yet: the moment a city died freezeframed. This isn't "take us to yr heart" stuff - this is horrible. A scream that echoes forever and, in its centre, the booming, commanding, confused, dying, accusing voice of the city's king. All that "this is the voice of MAGNETO!" stuff? That's the end, the death throes of the old Marvel way... A funny, noble beast with all its lofty, Shakespearian pretensions, and this is its big send off: pulsing, electromagnetic Godhood.

Naah, it's a complicated message, the death signature of 6 billion people...

And the city/Polaris reaching out for help, for a lover, a father... "I love you...I love you...". fantastic, cheesy, excellent Grant.

The transformation/subversion of the killing device....

Well bugger me!

21:54 / 14.09.02

Yeah, I'm afraid I didn't find this "hokey". But then I'm one of those cheeseballs who thought the Claremont tragic Magneto was infinitely superior to the Kirby-era "I wear a bucket on my head so I am EEE-VILL, just like Doctor Doom" school of Magnetodom. Since I haven't read any of the intervening issues between nXm #3 and #113 I'm afraid I missed any storytelling wonders wrought by Messrs Nicieza and Lobdell....

Just as an aside, it was the more tragic, human nature of Magneto that made most of my non-comic-reading friends enjoy the X-Men movie so much. Many of them commented that it was nice to see a villain with a (comparatively) well fleshed out personality and set of motivations, rather than the usual 2D cut-outs. And, to be honest, I'd have to say that the Claremont-Mags was a more complex character than Cassandra Nova in her Dark Xavier mode. Anyone who's read 'X-Men vs Micronauts' has seen this "foe of all life" shit done before.

Obviously, the potential to resurrect Mags still exists. Maybe it's a *good* thing that a reasonable out has been left. After all, Marvel will inevitably do it so Morrison might as well make it easy for them to do it as elegantly as possible. But I was glad to see that he didn't make this an issue on "How Magneto used his powers in a clever way to cheat death," focussing instead on the nature of the tragedy, and of the symbolism that comes in its wake. Notice the aggressive, warlike and unreconstructed behaviour of those who gathered to pay tribute to the lost - Toad and his Evil Mutants club. Anyone see a resemblance to any real world figures who're busy capitalizing on the WTC disaster to further their own petty militaristic agenda...?

Yeah, me too.

The Natural Way

16:32 / 15.09.02

I was Pranny yesterday.

And the little things:

Unus's implied terror of infection: a little glimpse at the type of neuroses a "special gift" might induce. Pietro's confused, complicated relationship w/ Daddy dearest: he knows Mags was BAAD, but, inspite of himself, he can't help giving Charles a frosty reception and look at the speed with which he sets about completing that "insane monument"! Oooo!

Squatting, blind, hollow and dead Killing-bug in Magda Square.

The observation that Toad "knew Magneto better than anyone". And Charles's disappointment that he and Ororo don't get much time together "these days". Very little things, but important.

Oh, and that the final sequence made me feel like I was watching a film.

No...no, Flux and exp...just wrong.. I can't believe you think detonating a spirit bomb's a fuzzywuzzy thing to do. The murderers are accountable forever - there will always be a witness.

16:55 / 15.09.02

I dunno...To me, it just seemed like an average 1960s Star Trek episode. Especially that last scene with all the characters looking on and being DEEPLY MOVED...

I did get, and like, the 9/11 stuff, tho, and I like the ideas in the issue, but I was too eager to get back to the Jean/Scott/Emma love triangle action, and the ongoing romantic misadventures of Angel and Beak.

But Morrison can do better interlude-type issues than this: witness the Xorn story, or 'Only Lovers Left Alive!' in The Invisibles. This just seemed a bit rushed, and, unfortunately, the inking kind of undid the effect of Phil Jimenez' fantastic art. Why couldn't they just have got Stokes to ink him?

I'm sorry. That last point was almost fanboyish...But it does really piss me off.

The Natural Way

17:02 / 15.09.02

I like the Scott and Emma break. And I love the fact that when we next see them it'll be after-the-event...

And, vandal, I enjoyed being DEEPLY MOVED... It was fun.

23:04 / 16.09.02

Hrrrm, I don't know. My 'web-friends' at HeroRealm are happy with the last 2 issues, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they're written by a man who's been reined in by editorial.

Don't get me wrong; I read X-Men for a long time - but I gave up because I finally realised after Terry Kavanagh and Fabian Nicieza came back on deck that it was pointless. But Granty-baws lured me back - and these 2 have felt Claremontian. Which is all well and good, but I'm 23. If I was 16, even, that would be fine. But I'm not...

Ah, the stuff (Morrison) usually improves after 2 or 3 rereads, searching for hidden messages/symbology, etc...

23:07 / 16.09.02

Oh, and Magneto isn't Polaris' dad...

I thought that was sorted years ago, and it has bugged me today. Oh, maybe he is, now...

And the 'father of Genoshans' isn't cutting it with me.

Sorry, wrong messageboard!

23:41 / 16.09.02

Regarding the statement Magneto was making through the recording: let's see how it plays out over the coming issues. If it's not referred to, we can assume it's sentimental clap-trap. I've interpreted it in this way because of the mawkish final panel.

Matthew Fluxington

01:16 / 17.09.02

I can't possibly imagine why you would think that Grant has had any kind of notable editorial interference, Frosty. It really does not seem that way at all. Grant's work may have seemed scary to the fanboys at first, but maybe it's just becoming clear to some of them now that Grant is being more true to the spirit of Claremont's original run that anyone else since 1991, including Claremont himself.

The Natural Way

07:28 / 17.09.02

Well, I still insist that it doesn't matter, exp. Sure, the sentimental stuff's there, but you can't tell me Polaris as city reaching out to her father/lovedone/whatever to save her wasn't a fucking brilliant panel and good, powerful stuff.

21:25 / 17.09.02

I actually though it was pretty awful. In fact, it reminded me of Claremont at his clumsiest and most manipulative. I don't care about Polaris, because the only time I've ever seen her used in any vaguely decent way is by Peter David, years ago. I have no emotional investment in her, and what happened at Genosha has barely been referred to since it occurred (considering the sheer scale of the slaughter, I've actually been amazed that it hasn't featured more), so I don't have much of an emotional investment in what happened there, either. To be honest, the only well known character that GM has mentioned perishing was Magneto, so again, no real attachment to the tragedy. The issue left me cold.

01:21 / 20.09.02

Well, I'll pin my colours to the mast, and say there ain't many bigger GM fans than myself. I've read about 70-80% of his stuff, and yes there's bits like the 'green tea' moment, that are good, but on the whole, I'm a little disappointed.

And it does feel muzzled, somehow; subject matter or editorial would perhaps both, or either, contribute.

22:49 / 21.09.02

Actually, I don't like the 'green tea' moment. It feels like a "Grant Morrison TM" line, self-parody.

But I think the problem with this issue for me (and I'm surprised to say it) is really Phil Jiminez. His art's too static (apart from one page which features speedlines and colouring effects) and too "sooper-'ero". A surprise, as I love his art in 'The Invisibles'. And Sabra looks fucking stupid in context with everyone else.

AHHHH - but she's Israeli! Is this 9/11 commentary? How?

22:05 / 18.02.03

^
You don't know, do you?

One last observation/thread recycle; bottom of the page when they're in that van, it's driving out of the 'Sentinel Mega-Jet's open hand.

When last seen in #115, that hand had been fist shaped, and about to punch Magneto + his ivory tower.

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