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UNRESTRAINED FANBOY GEEK ALERT!
LONG WHINY PARAGRAPHS FOLLOW!!!!
I think that it is wise for Morrison to shift the X-Men in a direction that has more to do with what he wants to say, and what he feels, rather than to keep pushing Claremont's old agenda.
Absolutely, and I do really enjoy what Morrison's doing. He's only had one fumble so far, with the Weapon XIII storyline. But in a pinch I prefer Claremont's old agenda.
though those visions may be different, just having that to guide the characters is what makes their X-Men connect in ways that other writers have been unable.
That's true. I do get a sense that Morrison has affection for the characters. He's added a depth to Beast that wasn't there before (I now like the character, instead of feeling indifferently to him). He knows how imperious Charles can be (just like the last time he walked, in the JRJR run). Even Scott's affair is sowed in the character's history rather than tacked on for shock value - this is the man after all who walked out on his wife and child after a single phone call. It's certainly the first time the characters have felt real since Claremont left.
I think that it should also be noted that Grant's X-Men is just a handful of the characters, and just because the school has changed, it doesn't mean that all of the X-characters have gone along with what Grant's characters are doing. I do wish X-Treme or Uncanny X-Men were better counterpoints - though Claremont still pushes his outsiders/integrationist/family buttons
I think you've just hit on a major problem for me, actually. Remember when Claremont wrote both UXM and New Mutants, and later Excalibur? They were separate series, but perfectly integrated. Characterization was consistent throughout, and the three seemed woven into the same tapestry. They had different styles that also served to comment on the other parts of the troika. The current trio of X-Men titles don't do this. UXM is currently a wasted book. It's superfluous, the team members poorly chosen, the integration with the mansion poor. Even editorially it doesn't make much sense - why don't all the X-Men wear the same uniforms?
I really, really wish Claremont would buckle down and take a long look at his older work and recommit to Extreme. It should be the "unsung band of outlaw heroes" book, a core family group (perhaps the old-school characters) cut off from the mansion precisely because they're outlaws, or because they disagree with Charles' new vision, or even because of some diary McGuffin. I'd like to see a return to the street level X-Men of just before and after the Massacre - a group that has no home, has no friends, has no purpose except sheer survival. It's a pity that after Claremont left the subsequent writers eviscerated Storm's personality and will. She should be quite steely and able to pilot a true break-away faction. It's nice that Claremont has made Bishop slightly more interesting and real, but I think it's time to stop servicing every damn trademark and jettison a lot of these characters who just aren't working anymore. Get back to basics. Gambit should never have been anything but a one-storyline guest character. Bishop is useless, the three new characters flat and irrelevant. And Rogue is a textbook example of how a good character can be completely destroyed by the multi-writer system.
Ultimately, I think the "superconsistency" experiment is a failed one. The results are unsatisfying.
There's an obvious persecution angle, but I think there's also the more optimistic way of looking at it - it's about people who are born with special talents that they need to learn to develop and use for the common good. I think this is more to do with where Grant is going - it's a metaphor for finding what is good and useful in everyone and finding a way to give something back to the world.
Yeah, I see that intellectually, but it doesn't have the emotional resonance that Claremont's take had, when mutants were obviously the gay kid, the black kid, the Hispanic kid. Because the X-Men had problems and were pretty grounded in reality, they were relatable. Everyone's giving Morrison and company plaudits for removing the spandex ... but I remember when the X-Meh were in civilian clothes more often than not. Or maybe it just seemed that way.
The number of "normal" mutants like Doug and Kitty were good gateway characters. I don't think Grant has any gateway characters like that, and I think the beautiful people and the scifi technology also stand in the way. I think something is wrong when the Blackbird lands in suburbia to pick up every fish boy in America (and don't get me started on that. I can see being rich enough to buy an SR-71. But where do you make custom jets like that?).
There are several notable absences in Grant's take. Where are the everyday humans who are willing to give mutants a chance? Where are the humans in the school? Where is the alternate choice - the Magneto, the Massachussetts Academy?
I think that it's probably a bit too soon to assume that the negative moral implications of the Xavier Institute's new direction will not be dealt with down the line in Morrison's run. I get the impression that this is all being set up for a reason, I doubt that Grant is being sloppy about this.
Yep, agree totally. But I can only talk about what's been done so far, right?
I would think quite a few angry, depressed, frustrated young men may have a lot to relate to in Beak. I think Beak is very much the Korn/Slipknot type of kid, and I'm really glad that an X-Men writer finally decided to slip in a guy like him. I think Grant Morrison is very keen on the mutation-as-awkward adolescence angle, and Beak's a great example of that.
I suppose. But to me, that's a key shift in the metaphor. Aren't most comics basically adolescent power fantasies anyway? I initially liked the X-Men because they were different. I guess when the pacifism subtext comes firmly to the fore the series will stand out more.
If I were in charge of the X-world, I really wouldn't want lots of freaky alien-looking mutants, mostly cos I think that it scientifically is implausible, I think that the mutations should be more similar and practical if it's really a next step in evolution.
More than that, I think that this signifies a huge difference in the writing talent of Claremont and his successors. To cram the MU with mutants makes them less special. Making them more bizarre affects the metaphor, because it makes them less like us. We were all Kitty, Doug, Sam or Dani. None of us is Beak - not in terms of emotional connection. But the increase in the "freaks" diminishes the subtext of having Nightcrawler around, or the ironic presentation of Beast. You couldn't have Kitty's arc re: Nightcrawler in today's MU, and that undermines one of the key strengths of the series. In the rush to present theory (the Noughties) or bland slam-bang comic action (the Nineties), the emotional core has gone. Without that connection, the X-Men is a poorer tool for subversion or agit prop.
Or, I could just be wallowing in nostalgia. |
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