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NEW X-MEN #122
(Best of the Week!)
"Imperial"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Pencils: Frank Quitely
Inkss: Tim Townshend, Rich Perrotta & Sandu Florea
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Richard Starkings
Editor: Mark Powers
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Just as Chris
Claremont and John Byrne redefined the X-Men in the 1980s, Morrison and his
co-creators are redefining the X-Men for this decade. The elements of the story
are familiar - The Shi'ar Empire, anti-mutant paranoia, angst between the
various characters - but the way it is being told is more modern, more exciting
and more forward-thinking than we have seen in many years. Instead of the
illusion of change, we have actual change, and instead of sound and fury
signifying nothing, we have explosive and kinetic action with consequences. And
with artists like Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver and Igor Kordey, the story
looks as good as it reads.
This issue is the fulfillment
of a promise made by the story when Cassandra Nova took off into space. Morrison
wastes no time, opening with a sequence of Nova having already succeeded at her
plans, with the desperate Empress and some of her loyal guard fleeing before the
powerful and mad telepath. The atmosphere on this sequence is incredible, filled
with the desperation and claustrophobic terror of one of a horror movie, and
Quitely, the inkers & Hi-Fi do a great job conveying the monstrous and mad
appearance of Cassandra Nova as she chases down her prey. As an aside, the
redefinition of one of the Imperial Guard members, Smasher, keeping his powers
in line with previous appearances but giving them a high-tech/imaginative
Morrisonian twist, is a fantastic little bit.
I'm actually quite impressed
at the way the story shifts tones throughout. While the feeling of urgency is
prevalent in the opening sequence, the sequences on Earth range from pride and
heroism to foreboding to quiet introspection, and yet the whole story feels
whole. Emma Frost's speech to the students about changing curriculum is a good
indication of the subtle shift in mutant pride, which is now less about "let's
all live together and be happy" to "let's use our gifts to help everyone, and
screw anyone who doesn't like it." Frankly, it's a more practical approach, and
it still has the idealism that made Xavier's dream so intriguing. The handling
of the Phoenix situation is also done in a surprisingly frank way, with an
awareness of the potential problem causing tension but not resulting in
melodramatic hand-wringing from Cyclops or Jean.
With his work on JLA, Morrison often threw out numerous concepts at the same time, and never really followed up on enough of them for my taste. With New X-Men, he is applying a similar multi-layered
approach, but he seems more focused, and the various plotlines of this issue
converge. Cyclops's visit to Xorn ties nicely into the story of Xavier and
Cassandra, while also providing a nice visual link to Smasher's crash to Earth,
and the difficulties that Beast is having in adjusting to his appearance play
nicely into Cassandra's verbal torture of him in the previous issues. Though she
isn't directly involved in everything going on, Cassandra Nova has turned out to
be quite an important player in this book in every aspect, and she's a terrific
new villainess.
I won't spoil the finale of
the issue, but I will say it's a heart-breaking portrayal of a heroic failure,
with a touch of ironic humor. Though it is in many ways a funny ending, it also
adds considerably to the sense of foreboding that has permeated the issue, and
it's another example of the multiple tones of the story converging to create
something greater.
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