The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 250: E is for Extinction #4, November 2015

As I started reading this issue, I wondered why Doom would ever let something like a Phoenix Egg sit around unattended considering the sort of power such things contain. Then I remembered that thing with Cyclops in Secret Wars. So, anyway, the Phoenix Egg hatches and inside is a Cassandra Nova-possessed Jean Grey, manifesting all the powers and fashion sense of Dark Phoenix.

Which, honestly, is a pretty amazing way for that showdown between Professor X (now possessing the body of Quentin Quire) and, as the title of the issue suggests, "Supernova." Though there's a divergence there, the battle between the two seems to have been fated, regardless of the version of the universe they exist in.

I've been thinking about this idea of "Secret Wars," and how Hickman is deploying it. It obviously hearkens back to the original, and the idea of the winner getting all they want, their hearts' desires. You know who gets that in this version of the story? Doom. He's got Susan, he's got Valeria and Franklin, he's got a people who fear and worship him, and a world that, aside from a few inter-zone skirmishes, the "Secret Wars," an ordered world.
But the Wars themselves, the mini-series, much as they're all nicely skewed toward telling us a satisfying story, are also providing a subtext to Doom's thinking that his world is ordered. Each of these minor skirmishes demonstrates the fundamental volatility of a collective like Battleworld. With so many versions of so many significantly-powered individuals who have vast amounts of experience with reality-shifting crises, how could Doom possibly keep things together?
Of course, in the actual series, we're seeing just how much he's not, as well as numerous other intrigues at the highest levels of Battleworld....I was going to say politics, but it's actually at the highest levels of existence in this particular reality. Doom fights a Secret War as well, and at the moment he's the only one aware of it.

But getting back to E. The wrap up is....odd. I got to the end of this series and I had a bit of a hard time telling if Burnham and Villalobos were offering an homage to Morrisonian storytelling, or taking the piss with it. Not that I'm suggesting that the two are necessarily mutually-exclusive, but things got so esoteric there at the end that I'm not sure where on that continuum the series sits. I think I'll consider it homage, with a knowing wink, and leave it at that.

It was really, really great to get a small glimpse back into that world, albeit slightly changed. A very cool era of the X-Men, and a very cool suggestion as to how it might have all turned out.

Not sure where we're going to go tomorrow. But it'll be somewhere. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 249: E is for Extinction #3, October 2015

Happy Halloween everyone!

I've only been following a couple of the "Secret Wars" tie-ins, notably the afore-blogged Weirdworld and Squadron Sinister, though I was really hoping for slightly more of the Shadows in that title. What these titles have in common, as do the series I sort of delved into (Inferno, Secret Wars: Battleworld, Battleworld Journal), is that they're very explicitly invested in the narrative universe within which they exist - they utilize the setting as a plot point, referencing the fact that there are different realms in Battleworld, having communication and conflict between those realms. Up until this point, E has only tangentially referred to this situation, with the occasional replacement of the word "God" for "Doom." In this issue, however, the Battleworld situation is made an intrinsic plot piece, as versions of Hank "Beast" McCoy from all over the planet converge on the realm of Mutopia (setting for this series) under the influence of an enhanced virus called "Sublime."

Now, it's been quite a while since I read New X-Men, and I do remember the character of Sublime in that series, a particularly grim portrayal of a human being in the Marvel U, but I don't recall him being a virus. Perhaps after I've finished my look at Waid's Flash (hey! Stop snickering. I'll get there!), I should do a read of Morrison's X-Men. I was thinking about doing his Superman, using Action, All-Star, and JLA....y'know, there's sometimes just too much to write.

This issue has been my least favourite so far, in that it seems to have been a tangent in order that the series be more fully inserted into the crossover, rather than anything fundamental to the plot of Magneto and the Phoenix Egg. Who stumbles out of that egg, or rather emerges majestically, will be fodder for tomorrow's post, but it's going to be interesting.

From a collecting standpoint, I've filed these comics in my Grant Morrison Collection. I'm impressed enough with the quality of the series that I think it deserves to be kept with its source material, a What If?, or even What Should?, and one that adds some depth and nuance to the original run. I'll admit that one thing I am excited for is to read New X-Men up to the point where the two diverge, and then see where things go in either direction. But I'm a literature geek that way.

See you tomorrow for the conclusion of E is for Extinction. I'll probably go out today and grab the last issue of Weirdworld, too, so that we can make a clean break from the "Secret Wars" crossovers. And then back to Alpha Flight, I think. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 248: E is for Extinction #2, September 2015

See, I would absolutely keep reading this take on the X-Men, for as long as Burnham and Villalobos wanted to do it. At the end of last issue, the elder X-Men rescue Xorn from a facility in which he is being used as a power source.

But....wait a minute (SPOILER AHEAD!!!!)
...
 ...
 ...
 ...
Isn't Xorn Magneto?

I know that at some point after Morrison left the title, a character called Xorn was introduced into the X-continuity. I have the suspicion that this was because so many people loved the character of Xorn, and when he was revealed to actually be the X-Men's greatest rival, it probably irked a lot of people. I know it irked me, because Xorn was awesome, but it was also perhaps one of the greatest deceptions ever in superhero comics, on par with Busiek's deployment of the Thunderbolts right up until the end of that first issue (So. Great.). But if that's the case, then who is the sun-headed Xorn who is facing off against the master of magnetism in this issue? Methinks something weird is going on.

Well, when all those Beasts show up, I guess that's obvious.

What's striking me really about this series is that it's trying very hard, and largely succeeding, in being a kind of weird, off-kilter superhero book, something that, as is well known, Morrison excels at. We can read the strangeness of the book, the visual aesthetic, everything, really, as a love letter not only to New X-Men, but also to Morrisonian superhero writing in general. But here's the thing: if you look back at New X-Men, it is pretty much the most mainstream thing Morrison has put out in superheroes. Even his JLA run, which was pretty mainstream, had weird story lines like "Rock of Ages" and "Crisis Times Five," stuff worthy of an Animal Man or Doom Patrol arc (okay, maybe not Doom Patrol. That shit was out there). The closest New X-Men comes to a Morrison story, in my humble opinion of course, was the silent "Psychic Rescue" issue. Everything else was actually pretty normal (for the X-Men) stuff.

So E is for Extinction is actually a newer, stranger take on a fairly mainstream comic written by Grant Morrison? I think we must be in for some high weirdness over the next couple of days. Join me, won't you?

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 247: E is for Extinction #1, August 2015

I know it's probably just me, but I think way too many of the "Secret Wars" mini-series were focussed on various iterations of the X-Men. I mean, how many more series does this team merit?

I admit, I bought this particular title because it picks up some of the threads of my absolute favourite run on the mutants, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely(ish)'s New X-Men. The extinction of the human race, a major plot point at the beginning of that early 2000s run, was seemingly dropped for more mainstream superhero concerns, and then the whole aesthetic was replaced with Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. So a chance to return to this era? Sign me up.

What I think distinguishes E is for Extinction from the other X-titles in the crossover is that it actually takes that ephemeral now of the Marvel U and projects into the future - it ostensibly takes place "X" years in the future, which we can read as 10, or as a variable amount, but enough that Emma Frost has wrinkles, and Cyclops is a bit overweight. How on Earth Magneto is still alive, I'm not sure, but he's taken on an Xavier-esque role, which, if "Age of Apocalypse" has taught us anything, can only seem to happen after the death of Professor X. What's that all about?

The Burnham/Villalobos team does a nice job of capturing the aesthetic of this X-period, both in the character designs and in the look of the book in general. I've been trying to figure out exactly where in the original run this series diverges from (if anyone can tell me, drop a line - I wish I had the time to go back and re-read New X-Men right now). Regardless, the What If...? structure of many of these crossovers gives us a glimpse of what might have been had the Marvel U continued from particular points in its history, a swan song of sorts, I'm assuming, before we see a more cohesive, and more linked to the MCU, Marvel Universe emerge after Secret Wars. Though there have been hints that these are all parts of parallel universes, Marvel has traditionally avoided that trope more strenuously than their Distinguished Competition - these are more glimpses of the past, What If worlds, rather than Elseworlds, I suppose.

I'm interested to see where this all goes. Every now and then someone reinvents the X-Men, and pushes at the boundaries of what they're capable of, and of their potential to be truly innovative and versatile story telling tools. But then they'll often go right back to being Claremont/Byrne era shells, lacking in substance and vision, and telling the same old stories all over again. It's nice to see a what might have been.

More X-shenanigans tomorrow! I've missed the mutants since we wrapped up the AoA. It'll be nice to hang out with them for a few more days.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 138: What If?: Age of Ultron #2, June 2014 (Two Weeks From The Dollar Bin - Day 2)

I'm going to be honest: I really didn't understand what happened in this comic. I mean, I understood the story, the narrative that was conveyed. I like Joe Keatinge. His work on the revamped Glory was stellar. But this story was...confusing. Mainly I found it confusing because I'm really not sure what it had to do with the Age of Ultron series. It is the second issue in the series, so I'm willing to concede that rather than a series of one-shots, perhaps these What If's are telling a serialized story. I don't know because, though I own a couple of other issues, I read them ages ago and they didn't really stick with me.

So here's the things I did like: the characterization of the older versions of Hulk and Spider-Man were excellent. Really excellent. I absolutely adore the idea of the Hulk as zen master, finally gaining control over his rage, and, strangely, relinquishing his Banner persona and becoming a giant enlightened superhero. And Peter ending up as a family man is of course how he should end up, regardless of how things go in this story.

The art by Ramon Villalobos is cool and quirky, very much not in keeping with mainstream superhero art, and thus giving the book a somewhat unique feel. It reminds me of Seth Fisher's art in Flash: Time Flies and Doom Patrol, or even Rick Geary's style. According to my database, this is the only work I have by Villalobos, but I'll be keeping my eyes open in the future.

Not much more to say about this one. Nice art, nice story, not sure I got it. I guess that'll happen occasionally.

Live Post - Sunday Afternoon Comics - E is for Extinction #1

I just went out and spent $80 on comics. The pile I came back with doesn't really look like $80 worth of comics, but complaining about high prices and exchange rates will get me nowhere.

I've been looking forward to E is for Extinction since I found out it was coming out. Morrison's New X-Men was really the last time I enjoyed the merry mutants, so to see a series that extrapolates what might have been is such a treat. There's a nice lynch pin moment at the very beginning that sets up the whole series, and how it diverges from the Morrison saga. Wonder if we'll see Fantomex?

Stay tuned. Some more neat things coming up this afternoon.