As New X-Men continues, and the "Riot at Xavier's" story theoretically concludes, I've come to realize that the book seems less than focused lately. This whole arc has had more of the feel of Morrison throwing out neat ideas without giving too much thought to how they all tie together into one narrative. However, while this does give the book something of a scattershot approach, the characters and the situations are still incredibly interesting, and Quitely's artwork throughout has been terrific, better in some places than others but almost always exceptional.
New X-Men is unlikely to go down as the best the X-Men has ever been, simply because the plots and characters are not as tightly focused as the era of Claremont/Byrne, which was probably the best era the book has seen, and certainly the era when it was truest to its central concept. However, what Morrison and his various artists can offer is something that is new, different from the X-Men has been before, rather than a second-rate attempt at the same style that Claremont had perfected at his peak in the 70s and 80s, which was the default style of the book for the previous ten years or so.
As an example, the ideas touched upon in this issue include a telepathic affair and whether or not that really constitutes cheating, a spoiled rich woman who compensates for her shortcomings with her students (often with disastrous results) and another slight modification of Xavier's dream as a result of events. While many of the characters are a little bland and ill-defined, Morrison's new personality for Emma Frost has moved her to the forefront of the series and made her more interesting than I ever thought she'd be, and his view of Xavier as somewhat detached from the world emotionally works quite well too.
In addition to exploring new directions with the stories and characters, though, Morrison does provide some basic level of action as well, something that many of new Marvel's titles aren't so great at. The action sequence in the opening pages shows off not only Quitely's skill but Morrison's, as the writer steps back and lets the artist do his job, rather than inserting a bunch of generic tough-guy dialogue. And the soap operatics that have always been an undercurrent of the book continue, albeit in different form, with the relationship between Angel and Beak and the Emma Frost/Cyclops/Jean Grey triangle, which seems to be heating up considerably in this issue.
Morrison has transformed New X-Men into a book that appeals to a completely different audience than the one that has traditionally been the X-Men core. It reads more like the rest of his work, structurally unusual but with some fascinating ideas and strong talent at the base of everything. To be totally honest, I don't think it's exactly what I want from the X-Men all the time, but it's a damn sight better than the book has been in a over a decade and it's going to be an extremely hard act to follow, or compete with, as the other X-book creators have learned.
