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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #129

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Murray Hamhandler

19:30 / 19.07.02

I thought the exact same thing when I saw Animal, Lada. I don't know why I doubted Our Grant for a moment. It turned out quite lovely.

21:38 / 19.07.02

The art by Kordey DID look REALLY, REALLY RUSHED -- I'm glad overworked I.K. now has nothing else to focus on but SOLIDER X (formerly CABLE). No more NXM fillins, no more BLACK WIDOW mini. My bet is that now that he's not Marvel's go-to quick artist anymore, we'll see his art rise back to its former greatness as he can focus on 1 book, not 3.

13:06 / 20.07.02

yeah y'know it's lke Extra Vehicular Activity by jean-jacques perrey. it was used for a lucozade advert a few years back, a bit of an 'anthem' during the horrid bigbeat days after the bald one out the housemartins did a remix of it.

13:37 / 20.07.02

Not much happened, but it was a good set up for next issue.

I like the idea of Fantomex testing Xaviers ethics (and doesn't Xavier look cool in that coat?)

And i am thinking who Fantomex is... for some reason I keep on thinking he is Deadpool (man i used to love that comic...)

The Weapon XII concept is a bit boring though, although since its just there as a plot device for testing Xavier, I'm not really bothered.

13:47 / 20.07.02

Fantomex is Logan. From another reality. Grant's reusing his Apocalypse 2099 plot detailed in another thread. The Marvel Universe is going to go boom after NXM 150, right?

Not sure about his mum, though. Destiny gone crackers? She was blind, right? (X-Men lore failing me here slightly).

14:05 / 20.07.02

I'm pretty sure Destiny is dead. Not that that's stopped any comics writer before.

21:25 / 20.07.02

Haven't read it yet, but what about Fantomex = Gambit? Don't know his status in Extreme X-men, though.

In general I'm excusing Grant wattering down X-men, because FILTH is where the shit's at. Maybe he realized it's not worth putting too much effort on something he doesn't own, since he's having fun and spreading his 'mad' social concepts on it anyway.

Also sales royalties are not that good in today's Marvel (with general comic sales being not as high as in his JLA's times).

21:59 / 20.07.02

What if Fantomex is a version of Moon Knight, maybe from an alternate dimension or something where Moon Knight is actually a mutant. You've got the white costume and the big statue of an egyptian deity. It wouldn't be too much of a strech.

As for Gambit, from what I can remember, right now he is currently hooked up to some machine that uses his mutant powers to power an alien race's portal from their ship to earth.

Matthew Fluxington

23:09 / 20.07.02

Fantomex is Fantomex. It's pretty simple. I'm not sure why ANY of you are thinking that it's any more complex than that...

Gambit is a regular cast member of X-Treme X-Men, by the way.

Anyway, my official stance on The Filth is: I don't enjoy it at all, but maybe it'll end up being good. I kind of doubt it, though. I think it's pretty much Grant in self-parody mode.

19:45 / 21.07.02

"These are the details to the entire weapon plus program, dating back to World War Two"

Fantomex

Ditto on the whole Captain America thing.

Ish seemed to foreshadow a lot of very bloody future conflict with the human community. For that matter, looks like we've already got a few deaths on our hands.

Oh yeah, on the origins of Fantomex, I reckon he's a mutant version of The Beyonder from the Marvel Knights universe.

Gotta be!

00:49 / 22.07.02

Seemed more Batman-esque to me, what with the junk-filled... erm, 'FantomCave'. Then again, he had his own Spidey-U-Like version of Aunt May...

08:04 / 22.07.02

there may be some alternate logan thing going on here though. when he's looking at jean's tits with x-ray vision who else does he remind you of? obviously i haven't read origin, but is there any french blood in his family? the weapon # disc is very exciting, with info. on Nuke from born again and weapon eleven where the us army trained a man to turn into two jet airliners and ...y'know.

The Natural Way

08:37 / 22.07.02

Aaah, good old Nuke.

Yeah, Fantomex is Fantomas - there's plenty there already without Logan and Gambit thrown into the mix. And if you don't like NXM that much, you don't like NXM that much: has fuck all to do w/ Grant not giving a shit about the title - that's not the way he works. He enjoys doing the commercial stuff (isn't big on "high"/"low" art distinctions) and he loves the X Men.

As for this:

Ellis: "The Weapon XII concept is a bit boring though, although since its just there as a plot device for testing Xavier, I'm not really bothered."

See Fecond's post and.....remember Grant waffling about how Cassy was nothing? Of course! You know when Grant's real baddy's are turning up......the shadowy powers-that-be start to play their hand. Weapon 12 is a great idea: superheated time vats spawning sentinel/human hybrids with the whole Herne the Hunter thing going on.... What's wrong with you, lad? And that tunnel.... The Weapon # program expands Marvel U/Logan's origin in a good, logical and obvious way: like all of Grant's best ideas, someone should of thought of it before, but, for some weird reason, they just didn't.

And, yeah, again: this heralds the start of the really nasty shit.

that whole thing about how "the humans know much more about mutants, etc....", that was creepy.

12:22 / 22.07.02

New Fantomex theory: he's really the villain, and is manipulating Jean & Xavier in order to steal something else off the train, like one of the time incubators. Weapon XII was never supposed to be released. That's why he's got the anti-telepathy rig on his head.

err. Something like that.

yawn - thing's buddy

13:01 / 22.07.02

nice

A

08:54 / 24.07.02

Right, I've only just picked this up, which is pretty stupid of me because the whole reason i buy NXM and The Filth in individual issues is that i'd miss out on the discussions on Barbelith otherwise (which looks like it may happen anyway, damn you, world.)

Anyway, i really enjoyed this issue. I think that the way Corporal Animal was dealt with was the best example so far of the "pacifist superheros" Morrison has been talking about in interviews. They beat the guy, yeah, but they really did him a favour. He really seemed to be a parody of a GI Joe character, which is interesting because Fantomex (in addition to his more obvious origins) does have a bit of an air of a GI Joe-style villain about him. I liked how this was turning that on it's head. I'd like to think that this may have been a bit of a dig at the recent GI Joe revival in comics, but it's just as likely a coincidence.

Something I don't think anyone else has pointed out yet is Fantomex's similarity to Prometheus from Grant's JLA comics. They're both unbelievable bad-arses with UFOs, at any rate. I know some people around these parts have previously pointed out the similarites between Prometheus, Jack Frost (Invisibles) and Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy). Maybe this is the "X" version of that character. Or maybe not.

The Egyptian statue Fantomex is standing under is Anubis, god of the dead, if I'm not mistaken, which is a pretty obvious bit of symbolism.

As for Weapon 12, i think it's a deliberate move that, at the moment, we have no idea just what it can or can't do, so we're left in suspense. I'm sure that all will be revealed in due time.

The Natural Way

09:05 / 24.07.02

Just don't let it TOUCH you!

Hmmm, the horus current that you mention (embodied by Jack & Noh-Varr) finds a more accurate representation in the mutant kids at Xavier's school. Oh, and in the phoenix - a bird God composed of force and fire, bound up w/ the "end" of the world.

Fantomex is Fantomas is Fantomas.

yawn - thing's buddy

09:36 / 24.07.02

Yeah – but fantomas, wears all black, and a mask covering his eye-area, wheras fantomex wears all white and has his eyes uncovered – a kind of inverse fantomas.

I wonder what it can mean.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:25 / 24.07.02

Does anyone else get a real terrifying-children's-BBC-show-from-the-eighties vibe from Weapon XII? Maybe it's the 'low-budget' art, but something about shadowy wolves in subway tunnels chasing young 'uns, "don't let them touch you!" - it all seems very "teatime terror" to me... Hmmm.

The thing that strikes me about Fantomex is the way he initially seemed almost a parody of the "kewl" comic character (a morally dubious, effortlessly skilled, impossibly tough loner who has lots of neat *stuff*/toys) - visually he's like an amalgamation of the Midnighter, Storm Shadow and any old bloke with guns, and his name is almost a parody ("Phantom X! grrr!") - and in #128 I loved the way that Morrison cut straight to a fresh and interesting idea using such an 'old' character (and he's definitely been around a while, as he says himself - he's like the fanboy favourite Marvel character we didn't know about).

#129 was a bit disappointing because I didn't think we needed a whole issue making the same point again, but maybe "the kids" need the potential analogies to be implied a bit more heavily ("we're not just going to hand him over because *you* say he's dangerous" - timely words).

15:49 / 24.07.02

"Teatime terror"? yes indeedy! Morrison seems to be interested in creating an underlying creepy vibe throughout his NXM run.

As for pacifist superheroes, almost every single issue is littered with direct and indirect references to Morrison's new philosophy -Animal is only a particularly explicit example.

The Natural Way

18:19 / 24.07.02

Yeah, Fly, that's why I mentioned the Herne the Hunter/Wild Hunt thing - there's something very....British about Weapon 12. Low budget, "Robiiiin, the Hooded Man" type thing. I can smell the dry ice.

And what you said about how Fantomex feels as though he should've been around for ages: exactly what I meant when I compared him to Wolvie and pulled a "best marvel creation in years" rant. But you gushed less and made the point more clearly.

14:59 / 25.07.02

Don't think anyone else pointed this out yet, but I read in a recent Aint It Cool News Article about the original DIABOLIK movies and comics, which Fantomex is clearly based on (in addition to Fantomas - or are they the same character?), and Diabolik had a girlfriend named (say it with me now): Eva. Thus Fantomex' "partner," the UFO E.V.A.

17:39 / 25.07.02

//As for Gambit, from what I can remember, right now he is currently hooked up to some machine that uses his mutant powers to power an alien race's portal from their ship to earth.//

How... Sliders.

21:25 / 25.07.02

Isn't Gambit great?

22:56 / 25.07.02

Sorry but I think Gambit sucks...

I agree that FantomX has that Amalgam quality Midnighter/Storm Shadow... Plus has anyone considered that he could be the reminants of the trigger happy King Mob Fiction suit vs. the Xavier/pacifist King Mob fiction suit?

Anubius... God of the Dead, Guardian as well... taught the Egyptians the whole process of Mummification... plus he leads freashly dead souls to judgement before TOTH and feads them to his Aligator-dog (for reincarnation) if they fail.
So will FantomX act a judge/exicutioner on Weapon XII?
Will PhoeniXavier play the role of Toth in this case?
Will there be a knock down dragout fight between these 2 god forms... Anubius vs. Hern while PhoeniXavier use the timevat to solve/resolve the situation? Imagine flying the UFO into it.

Wild hunt indeed...

Kind of disapointing depiction of Darkstar though... She's always been a sort of Mutant Green lanturn, making giant hands with her Dark force and such... now she'll probably die

perhaps FantomX is weapon XII using this whole situation to bring PhoeniXavier down... I doubt it though.

More likely he's looking to steal something... Perhaps an interesting solution with the Time Vats & the UFO... Lot's of Ultra terrestrial activity just under the surface.

The Natural Way

08:51 / 26.07.02

Fecund was being sarcastic.

Hmmm. As for the Fantomex stuff, PAT, I think its pretty clear that Morrison's using him to illustrate that not all mutants pick sides (or that there's as many sides to this thing as a there are on a string of spaghetti). Forget Xavier's dream and Magneto's revolution; forget the confused Gen X kids searching for a way to live and something to believe in, etc. - Fantomex is a law unto himself: totally self-sufficient and with his own agenda that may or may not, at any given time, coincide w/ that of our heroes. He's there to flesh the thing out - to add a third dimension to the two dimensional mutant-fest that's defined the book for the last billion years.

And that's why I dig him. An unknown quantity. Goodies, baddies....balls.

09:24 / 26.07.02

And he lives with his Mum. Awww...

09:40 / 26.07.02

Runce:

Didn't Deadpool do that?

The idea that there are mutants are aren't either Human Loving or Human Hating or Angsty teens isn't really that new.

(i just like Deadpool)

And I love Fantomex. I just hope Grant kills him at the end so we don't end up with a Fantomex limited series or have him popping up in other X-Books.

10:05 / 26.07.02

yes or he could just be prometheus you morons. good-guy/bad-guy he sure as shit wants to kill weapon telve and weapon twelve looks pretty mean to me i say he's right. normal gambit merely has the most lustrous hair this side of billy-ray [wash-n-gumbo], whereas ultimate gambit was i thought quite the little charmer. no bad characters...

yawn - thing's buddy

10:07 / 26.07.02

no. fantomex is fantomex is fantomex.

ha ha

The Natural Way

10:43 / 26.07.02

It's new for most of us who haven't had the time or patience to get to know the 2nd(X)stringers like Deadpool. Fantomex is far more interesting anyway.... And killing him off is rubbish (unless it really suits the plot): as I've already established, he's a toy. There for future writers to play w/. That "house" alone. I reckon his Mum should get her own spin off series, entitled MAMANEX.

And definitely forget me cottoning onto this funny Prometheus idea, until someone provides me with a good reason to do so. In what way is Fantomex like Prometheus? He's self serving and hard? Great...there's a reason for you. I just think yr overcomplicating it: my take's far more elegant (in the Occam's razor/scientificy sense).

10:51 / 26.07.02

On the whole fantomex is fantomas thing at the same time as being Storm Shadow and a bunch of other people. Check out the Fantomas comic from mexico they mutated the old phatomas to a guy in a white mask and cape back in the 1960's.
I would love to read a decent translation of Fantomas versus the multinational vampires

----------
the narrator (autobiographically named Julio Cortazar) has been collecting testimony on human rights abuses in Latin America, including the 1973 CIA-sponsored coup in Chile against the democratically elected Marxist government of Salvador Allende. The narrator buys a copy of the Fantomas comic book to read on the train, and becomes absorbed in the story in which Fantomas is battling a nefarious conspiracy which is destroying the world’s libraries and museums. Soon the worlds of the comic book, the novella, and reality have completely interpenetrated, and Fantomas discovers that those responsible for the destruction of the world’s cultures are also those responsible for the poverty and political repression in Latin America. Bringing these men to justice is a task too great for any one man, of course, even Fantomas.
-----------

Can see why our Grant likes the character.

11:52 / 26.07.02

No really, mon ami, Gambit is the best!

Discard.

No Deadpool didn't do that. Let's look at the context, shall we? Human vs Mutant crisis (assuming things are as 'ol Fantypants say's they are), a bipolar opposition. Into the mix we throw Fantomex - an ideological absence - suddenly the conflict develops a third dimension - it becomes 3D. Deadpool ain't Fantomex because he was never used as deliberately: his position was never intellegently articulated within a political/philosophical conflict. Put simply the guy was never juxtaposed with Xavier and Weapon XII.
Here the ideological relationships count just as much as the characters involved.

11:56 / 26.07.02

self serving, hard, weird house, motivated by concerns for parents, technomagic telepathoid helmet, ability to make otherdimensional objects appear spontaneously, hatred of police officers, boasts of superior knowledge, conscious self-regulation of mental processes, disdain for money/wealth, manifests fire-in-the-sky, plans operations in advance yet capable of adapting to new situations [fore-thought]. you've both been quoting occam a bit lately, but it's best applied like you say to objective, scientific concepts of formal logic and can preclude too many channels of associative or inferential information to be relied on when discussing art. you're far too familiar with morrison's work not to admit that this character stinks of ones that he's liked and used and invented and ripped-off before.

11:57 / 26.07.02

not at work also? well hurrah. finish that script

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