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For what it's worth, some of my thoughts about NXM...
I liked it. I'll probably get critical-sounding lower down in this post, but that's just my way. But I did like it, and I wonder how it compares to other superhero comics. I also got my for birthday an issue of The Atomics, and it didn't really compare to NXM. I'm not sure if that's because I only read only one issue vs. two whole TPBs. Or maybe my brain just wasn't primed enough for new characters; maybe it's just an advantage that NXM has of being established, plus the movie. I didn't really like the way The Atomics was drawn; but this guy also does an X-title for Marvel? How is that?
It felt to me that GM didn't know his own mind about what he wanted Cassandra Nova to be, from beginning to end. When all was said and done, I couldn't distinguish between what was supposed to be narrative misdirection and what were just narrative mistakes. I can see that she's lying when she says to Trask, "You saw my findings: the human race will be just as extinct as Neanderthal man within four generations. Unless we fight back before it is too late." The truth --as Henry discovers and reveals in #116-- is that the human race is doomed to extinction by the E gene. And Hank theorizes at this time that "Cassandra Nova is the first of a new unforeseen species." See now, the pacing of this just seems wrong. It's a big idea that "[h]umanity, whichever you roll the dice, is doomed," as Morrison says in his manifesto. It felt like that idea got trampled in a rush to the next new enemy, but "the next new enemy" is never a new idea. E.g., it was so revolutionary on the original Star Trek that they had Americans and Russians on the same team, but all they did was invent Klingons. And on Next Generation the Klingons are in the Federation, hence Romulans. More interesting stuff to me is... if you were the mentally, physically, and technologically superior species & you knew that these lesser beings that you're in mortal conflict with were doomed to die, what would you do for them?
Of course, as the story develops, it appears that Hank's original assessment of Cassandra is wrong. Cassandra, in the end is the mummudrai (sp?) of Charles. So she's not a new species? I mean, I'd prefer that. In the manifesto Morrison says, "The X-MEN is not a story about superheroes but a story about the ongoing evolutionary struggle between good/new and bad/old. The X-MEN are every rebel teenager wanting to change the world and make it better. Humanity is every adult, clinging to the past, trying to destroy the future even as he places all his hopes there." I would have liked to be able to understand Cassandra in that context --as in, what is the mummudrai of youth? What is the mummudrai of idealism, of activism?
Now I know that Marvel would never give away their property & why would they, but I think it was on the commentary to the Blade DVD that superheros are the modern equivalent to the Greek gods and heroes. Which I don't exactly agree with, except in the regard that no one "owned" those characters. I would love superheroes to be like that. The feeling I got mostly from The Atomics was, what's the point --plus the one guy is basically Plastic Man. I don't really want new superhero characters; I'd like the ones I already know in lots of different stories. Like Wong Fei-Hung in the Chinese tradition. Now I don't feel this way about literary fiction, I can pick up a book and get to know new characters... but I don't think this is about a lower standard for comics. It has to do with the mythological stature of superhero characters. You *can* create new myths, but myths only start to get really fun after they're been around. The characters sort of demand stories to be told about them. And as I write this, I think I understand fan fiction for the first time, and that the very fact of "the fan" is probably an artifact of capitalism. Hm. Anyway, I just wish these characters could be public domain. It seems a little hard cheese that all you can get of these characters is what comes through Marvel.
Uh... I have more notes written down, but I think it would be sane to stop now. Now I'm going to read up on Claremont vs. Morrison, should be interesting...
...also, if anyone feels like giving me a quick rundown on the different X-titles out there & briefly how they compare... |
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