New X-Men

New X-Men 114-116

Grant Morrison’s epic run.  Epic doesn’t mean good, though.  For sure, parts of it are spectacular (the parts where Morrison reads most like Warren Ellis).  But the lows are some of the worst dreck ever (the parts where Morrison reads like Morrison).  

It starts off just about as perfectly as possible.  The initial Cassandra Nova arc is breathtaking fun as Morrison sets up his core team, destroys Genosha, and lets Frank Quitely do his thing.  I was super excited to re-read the rest of the run after this.

Beautiful.  The detail on the deconstructed watch!

Heh, root canal.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Really good

New X-Men 117-126

With Quitely drawing as slowly as he does, Igor Kordey and nameless artist (it particularly hurts to see this asshole pencilling a comic about tolerance and acceptance of those different from you) fill in for a ton of issues.  They do a fine job in this opening year, but they fall off later.  

Here, we’ve got the U-Men attacking the mansion and Cassandra Nova returning from space after infiltrating the Shi’ar empire.  It’s full of Morrison’s crazy ideas, but still grounded in solid action with strong characters.

Sweet.  This evokes feelings of the assault on the mansion in X-Men 2.

The Phoenix hair is a nice touch by Quitely.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Good

New X-Men Annual 1

New X-Men 127-134

Morrison introduced quite a number of sweet ideas over the course of his run- Emma’s diamond form, her relationship with Scott, Fantomex, Quentin Quire, and the original Xorn personality.  Epic fails include the whole Weapon Plus program, Hank pretending to be gay, Morrison’s inability to write any of the X-Men not on his core team, his interpretation of the Phoenix, and his portrayal of Magneto as an insane raving Nazi lunatic.  This is where things start transitioning from superb to clusterfuck.

This is so not how the X-Men talk.

I really liked this Xorn.  A shame it couldn't last.

Things that didn't age well.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Nice

New X-Men 135-138

Quitely’s last issues.  Quentin Quire starts a riot at the mansion, and it’s a splendidly chaotic time.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Pretty good

New X-Men 139-142

Morrison’s last semblance of good writing on this run as Bishop looks into the ‘murder’ of Emma Frost.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes 

Rating: Nice

New X-Men 143-153

Complete garbage across three story arcs: Wolverine, Fantomex, and Cyclops fight Weapon XV.  Xorn reveals himself to be Magneto and goes full on Hitler against the world.  Beak, Angel Salvatore, and Esme the evil Stepford Cuckoo continue to be lame characters.  The Phoenix returns in some storyline that I never cared about.  Morrison wraps it all up with a story set 150 years in the future that I couldn’t care less about.  Just like the great Alan Moore wrote some of the worst comics ever with his later LoEG, so too does the almost-great Morrison write some of the shittiest stories ever with this final string of New X-Men.

Even Chris Bachalo's art can't save this run.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No 

Rating: Hated (Cutting)