Worst Moments in Comics

New X-Men #114-116

Story title: "E is for Extinction"
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely

Synopsis:
While Cyclops and Wolverine are helping rescue a mutant chased by a Sentinel in Australia, in an underground laboratory circa Ecuador, a baldish woman named Nova is showing the nephew of Bolivar Trask, whose name is Donald, some recreations of what happened 30,000 years ago, when homo sapiens took the land from their predecessors, and tells him mutants will do the same unless they can eradicate the mutants first.

Over at the Xavier Institute, Beast, whose physical appearance has been altered to look more feline, is testing a new version of Cerebro called Cerebra (yes, apparently a female take; what else is new). It’s purpose is to provide Xavier with a better device to extend his telepathic range. While using it, Xavier gets a telepathic message from this Nova, who tells him she’ll take him over and make him a killer. He threatens to kill him with a pistol (yes, he really does have a piece on him), and she just scoffs and “hangs-up” leaving him with a nosebleed (though she too has one).

Turning her attention back to Donald Trask, Nova tries to convince him further that the plot to commit genocide against mutants is justified, but he’s still reluctant, and she finally kills him by stabbing him through the head with her fingers (I kid you not). We then find that Wolverine, Cyclops and the mutant they rescued named Ugly John have been captured by a Sentinel under her control. They manage to stop her, but not before she’s slain their rescuee. Then, the Sentinel assault on Genosha, where Emma Frost is working as a teacher, begins, ravaging almost the entire population, save for Emma (and as we later discover, also Magneto, seen briefly in a wheelchair before his building is struck).

They bring her back to the Xavier mansion where she predictably breaks free of her bonds and causes a ruckus, making her way towards the room where Cerebra is kept with the intention of augmenting her powers to control every mutant mind on the earth, and one in particular, but Emma, who’s survived the assault on Genosha by turning herself unexpectedly into a diamond-like form (a power described as a “second mutation”, whatever that is) and come back to the mansion, comes up behind and snaps her neck while her attention is elsewhere, before being shot dead by Xavier.

Later, they find that the destruction of Genosha has brought about a lot of sympathy for mutants, and Xavier decides to reveal to the public that he’s a mutant.

Comment:

I sure wish I could say this was a great item, but this, and subsequent issues penned by Morrison, were so surprisingly crude and gross, it just ruined everything. Did I mention that it was very troublingly violent? Contrary to what some people might think, I don’t read the X-Men, or a lot of other Marvel comics, for gratuitous violence/gore, nor do I read them for darkness, nor 100 percent for realism, which bloodletting alone does not make.

To make matters worse, it turns out that Nova switched minds with Xavier, which actually defeats the impact that could be had by seeing Professor X go public about being a mutant. He later regained his own body, but the damage had been done. Add to this that, in spite of everything, the X-Men and their current school attendants don’t really change in personality – they still brood or are pessimistic about life, and even shut themselves out from the rest of the world, as is seen in later issues.

The worst part though, was surely when a new school recruit named Xorn turns out to be none other than Magneto, depicted towards the end of Morrison’s run in a storyline called Planet X attacking the standard human population and imprisoning them in concentration camps. Yes, they really do go out of their way to depict Magneto, after years of development, resorting to nazist tactics, and even brutalizing Xavier before being decapitated by Wolverine. So much for going public. It’s truly awful, and even worse than when Jean Grey is finally turned into the Phoenix again and sacrificed yet again.

When Morrison was working at DC on some of their mainstream titles in the 1990s, he was actually decent enough. Since this story, his work has largely dropped in quality, and Final Crisis, written when he returned to DC, didn’t help matters. I suppose you could say that Joe Quesada had a lot to do with this, just like he did with the destruction of Spider-Man. This was exactly the kind of thing that discouraged me from reading a lot of Marvel titles in the post-2000 era. It could be added that if Marvel was hoping to draw in new readers who’d watched the movie at the time, they sure didn’t do a good job at it.

Actually, even that movie was vastly overrated, as I argued once years ago, though whether one should blame the black leather costumes on the moviemakers is a good question. The editors at Marvel are certainly to blame for bringing about this tommyrot.

Almost 3 years after this began, Morrison left, and Chris Claremont, who’d long been “typecast” as the X-Men’s writer, returned for a while to write it some more, and the spandex costumes came back as well. But the damage was only just beginning, as House of M, one of their most pointless crossovers, began shortly afterwards, followed by Civil War, and dragged down the quality of Marvel comics much more than before.

Back to the Worst moments Menu

Home FAQ Columns Reviews Links Favorite Characters Special Features Politics Blog Comics Blog Food Blog