New X-Men #116 Annotations
NEW X-MEN #116
E Is For Extinction 3 of 3
Marvel Comics, September 2001, Color, 32pgs, $2.25
Written by GRANT MORRISON ; Art by FRANK QUITELY ; Cover by FRANK QUITELY
The conclusion to "E is for Extinction!" If one immensely powerful foe wasn't enough, the X-Men must also fight a supremely powerful — and all-out evil — new villain! It will be a battle that will cost one member of our uncanny team immensely!
"Wow! This made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with excitement! I had hoped that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely would do a good job with this title, but this exceeds any expectations I ever had. Outstanding, highly recommended — as in, don't miss it! Grade: A+" -Jim Shorr, Comics Buyer's Guide
Annotations
Page 1 - The Beast, ever the romantic, srikes a Hamlet pose. The bird skeletons at his feet show the extent of Genosha's devestation
Page 2-3 - "Magda Square" Magda was Magneto's long dead wife, the mother of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver
Vitrified means turned into glass.
Beast's manic depressive tendencies continue to develop, laughing in the face of death and destruction
Page 4 - "Unnaturally thin wrists and ankles", a commentary on Rob Liefield and Jim Lee, amongst a host of lesser imitators; artists who made their name on New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men respectively.
Page 5 - Ellie Phiminster appeared in the classroom scene last issue but is here given the code-name Negasonic Teenage Warhead, after the song by Monster Magnet, Morrison's wife's favourite band.
"She's a robot?" nothing is what it seems in the X-Men's world. Another soap opera trope stretched to an outrageous conclusion.
Emma's secondary mutation kicks in, essentially giving her a variation on the powers of Colussus, who was originally intended to take Emma's place on the team.
Page 6 - "Gravitational bottle" Nothing can stop the Juggernaut.
The death of Magneto, his idealogical opposite, is affecting Xavier deeply. Magneto's death vindicates his worldview. It seems after all this time that Xavier was wrong - mankind and mutantkind can not live together in harmony.
Page 7- More X-brutality
Xavier appears to have two shadows in the last panel
Page 8 - Morrison agains addresses his stylistic choices regarding the title in-story
Page 9 - Emma Frost, like Magneto, has fallen on both sides of the fence as far as the 'war' between human and mutantkind goes.
"A perfect Faberge killing machine" Morrison's superb and oft underrated ear for dialogue
Emma's mention of breeding invokes ideas of a class conflict, as so beloved by us here in the UK, but also touches upon genetics and evolution.
This panel layout on this page seems uncharacteristically conservative for Quitely
Page 10 - Its difficult to tell on re-reading this arc if Cassandra was always intended to be a puppet of Sublime, as per the final 'Here Comes Tomorrow' arc, or whether that particular rationalisation came later.
Evolutionary jumps? Biological studies/books?
Page 11 - Teleimmersive imaging appears again after cropping up in #114; it means a convincing holographic representation of an environment.
Is there really a genetic trigger for extinction?
Page 12 - "There's just a big hole" Cassandra is nothing, a Mummdrai given form. An idea animated by Sublime to save humankind from extinction at the hands of their mutant cousins.
Page 13 - Quitely channels the spirit of Carmine Infantino in panel 2.
"Hell-Wello" Hello/welcome with a nice dollop of Hell thrown in for good measure. See also Catwoman's resurrection in Tim Burton's Batman Returns.
Black Bug Room/White Hot Room reminiscent of the Black and White Lodge in Twin Peaks. Top hats and capes on the wall?!
Page 14-15 - Wolverine's adamantium skeleton. He lost it just after I stopped reading the X-Men in the early 90's, circa Uncanny X-Men #300 but appears to have it again here. Life's too short for me to look up how and why it returned.
Love Cassandra's anime meets Super Powers Lex Luthor armour. Quitely must have a soft spot for it as he used it for the Earth 3 Luthor in JLA: Earth 2
Page 16 - Mutant/racism parallels
Van Cleef and Apples - Van Cleef & Arpels is a real-life (and very expensive) Parisian jewellry and watch-maker
Page 18 - Cassandra's powers make a mockery of Wolverine's unthinking brutality
Page 19 - The rose on Hank's desk from #114 has wilted. Xavier's dream has died.
Page 20 - The X-Men's traditional opposition to murderous means appears to have disappeared altogether in the last three issues, and continues to do so on the very next page...
Page 21-22 - Cassandra's blood resembles the Magic Mirror from The Invisibles, liquid information as God
"Everything mildly traumatized" Blood on the walls.
Jean's telekenisis is getting stronger.
Page 23 - En Sabah Nur is long time X-Men, and specifically Cyclops, foe Apocalypse. Morrison's habit of using real names extends to the villains as well.
"Not the only person..." Jean was possesed by Mastermind during Claremont/Byrne's run, Xavier was possesed at some point by both the Shadow King and Onslaught.
In hindsight its odd that no-one has ever outed Xavier as a mutant before. Surely the easiest way to draw sympathy and gain acceptance would be to be identified as a 'good' mutant.
Part of what makes Morrison's X-Men run so good is that many of his high concepts seem obvious in hindsight, yet had never been explored before.
