New X-Men: Here Comes Tomorrow

(or, “Abhay Khosla, I Hope You’re Happy Now”)

One of the most entertaining comics of the past three years, one of the most novel corporate-owned superhero comics, and one of the greatest successes of New Marvel (now Old Marvel again) ended last week with the conclusion of Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men. To mark the occasion I’ve decided to put down a few thoughts on his final storyline, “Here Comes Tomorrow.” But to make sense of that story, and of why Morrison’s run has been so successful, it’s necessary to talk a little about the series as a whole.

New X-Men moves in three distinct phases, roughly one for each year Morrison spent on the title. The first year is one of resuscitation, as Morrison rethinks old X-Men concepts and selectively introduces new ones, including a threat that will force drastic changes to Magneto, to the Sentinels, and ultimately to Xavier himself.

The second year explores the ramifications of this changed world, in which mutant culture has gone public and the X-Men have gone global. At first the X-Men seem closer than ever to their dream of peaceful coexistence, but the year culminates in Morrison’s brilliant “Riot at Xavier’s” storyline, which asks what might happen if one of Xavier’s students chooses not to believe in his utopian program. It’s an eminently plausible question, as for seemingly the first time ever one of Xavier’s precocious teens actually acts like a precocious teen – which is to say, an arrogant know-it-all who doesn’t see the consequences of his formless adolescent rebellion. (Not that all precocious teens act like this, of course, but I’m thinking the world has more Quentin Quires than it does Kitty Prydes.)

This begins the downhill slide into the chaos of year three, as all the cracks in Xavier’s dream begin to show – his school is sinking into drug use, illicit sex, and murder, and the noblest X-Man is revealed to be having an affair in thought if not in deed. The X-Men reach their nadir, and the comic its creative high point, in issue #146 (the start of “Planet X” - and old friends will know why I love that name), which reveals a well-buried twist and a surprise villain worthy of Keyser Soze.

Unfortunately, the rest of “Planet X” doesn’t quite live up to that meticulous plotting. The ideas underpinning the arc are as sound as ever – Morrison confronts the X-Men with the ultimate loss of their dream, the corruption of the next generation of mutants by their greatest adversary. But Morrison seems almost uninterested in establishing any kind of point-to-point narrative cohesion; two different sets of X-Men escape from certain death, and he doesn’t even bother to show us how. The arc is also thrown off by its lopsided pacing – the first couple of chapters are fairly decompressed, so that when the X-Men return midway through part four there’s no room left to show how they survived or to explain many of the lingering questions left by the dramatic revelations of part one. (This is doubly frustrating because the crystalline clarity of Phil Jiminez’s pencilling averts the comic’s traditional weak spot, its inconsistent art; had the story been a little better paced and plotted, it could easily have been Morrison’s best.) But the arc does at least build to a satsifying conclusion, with a shocking ending that removes two of the franchise’s most enduring characters.

Enter the final storyline, “Here Comes Tomorrow.” The arc initially appears to operate in traditional X-Men “Days of Future Past” mode, setting up a dystopian future (albeit one slightly more outré than Claremont’s) that the X-Men will presumably have to abort. Given the apparent time-travel aspect of the plot, one highly plausible ending – the one I was expecting – would have been to have Phoenix and/or the X-Men change history by saving the lost X-Man, which would in turn eliminate Logan’s need to slay her killer, which would leave everything back in place for the next writer, the status quo neatly restored.

Except Morrison never gets around to the time-travel part. “Here Comes Tomorrow” isn’t really a time-travel story at all, just a flashforward to a grim genetic future, and what’s been done in previous arcs doesn’t get undone. This is one of the strongest virtues of Morrison’s finale, and Morrison’s run in general: he refuses to allow the book to return to any status quo, even his own.

Yet the arc manages to fulfill these generic expectations even as it confounds them. “Here Comes Tomorrow” is perhaps much closer to Morrison’s “Rock of Ages” storyline in JLA than to the X-Men classic, in that it allows Morrison to write an apocalyptic ending which he then immediately undoes. Phoenix does change the future, but not through the traditional “Days of Future Past”/“Terminator” riff. Instead, as we might expect from Morrison, it happens through a realization of her full potential as a Phoenix - but also as the compassionate and loving Jean Grey.

If the plot structure is reminiscent of “Rock of Ages,” then this ending harkens back to one of Morrison’s finest works, the evolutionary explosion of superhumans at the finale of Flex Mentallo. This time it’s a legion not just of supermen but of Phoenixes, a perfect way to take a tired concept and extrapolate it back into wonder again. Sensibly, Morrison doesn’t try to wring a story out of this Phoenix Corps; that would leach all the novelty right back out of it. Instead he keeps them strictly in cameo, confident, perhaps, that the stories we imagine for this host will be greater than any he could tell. Well, maybe not any he could tell, but the less he integrates this wonderful Lensmen/Green Lantern Corps homage into X-Men continuity, the better off we all are.

If most of “Here Comes Tomorrow” appeared to have been wallowing in highly traditional X-Men territory, the final chapter reminds us that this comic has actually been in highly traditional Grant Morrison territory all along. The final chapter, even the final pages, contain all the usual Morrison themes in miniature: bodily infection and surgical rescue, healing contact with a compassionate but alien and inscrutable higher power (the Phoenix Force as Barbelith?), a narrowly averted apocalypse, and human evolution as emblematized by a parade of costumed superbeings.

If we hadn't figured it out already, then, this finale makes a good case for New X-Men not as some adolescent digression written to pay the bills, but as an integral part of Morrison’s canon. With considerably more intellectual and emotional complexity than JLA, New X-Men turns one of comics’ most ossified properties into an inventive, expertly-executed story about evolution, rebellion, love, and compassion.

Naturally, since Morrison was working with some of the most lucrative properties of the largest comic book publisher, there’s no guarantee that future writers won’t undo his fine work – in fact, the process seems already to be underway with Marvel’s current turn toward all things safe and stale. Some people would say this is one of the drawbacks of working with corporate properties. But in another sense, this is only a drawback if you keep reading the comic (something I certainly don’t intend to do). Morrison’s books still exist, still are there to furnish more pleasure and more new insights with each new reading or rereading. This wonderful run may be over, but happily, Grant Morrison has created something lasting.

(UPDATE: For another, highly intelligent review of New X-Men that talks about the series’ commentary on violence and superheroics, check this out.)

Comments

[abhay]

haha, thrilled!!

its amazing how much i didn't catch. the weapon xiv thing got by me, and quentin there at the end.

matt rossi wrote a book!

[Marc]

That he did.

Good to hear from you again, man. It occurs to me that at some point well into my Ph.D., the vast majority of the reviews I had written were of Guttertrash stories...

[Robin Hermann]

Hello,

First off, let me say I really enjoy your blog; well-written, smart, good stuff.

Secondly, since it seems like you're well-read in your Grant Morrison, maybe you can answer this question: how does his NEW X-MEN stack up against THE INVISIBLES?

I swear to God I am not being snarky in asking this. It's just that over the past week or so I've been reading these hagiographic eulogies on NEW X-MEN. Don't get me wrong, I really do like it so far: I've read the first 5 trades and I just bought the 6th. But I still don't think it compares to THE INVISIBLES. So I just wondered what you thought.

Thanks!

rob

[Marc]

Thanks for the compliments, Rob!

How does NEW X-MEN stack up to THE INVISIBLES? To some extent I think it's apples and oranges, although less so than they might appear at first glance. THE INVISIBLES was always halfway a superhero book anyway (the costumes, codenames, powers, etc), and NEW X-MEN dealt a lot more intelligently with some of the same themes than, say, JLA did. (Mind you, I loved JLA, but it was more just a series of ripping yarns with the occasional thematic gloss.)

Part of me wants to say that nothing stacks up against THE INVISIBLES, because for the first half of that series - up through the Jiminez issues of volume 2 - I thought it was just about the greatest comic ever written, a technical masterpiece that was also on the verge of saying something fundamentally hidden and true about humanity. That Rick Moody quote I had about THE FANTASTIC FOUR in the Ice Storm post? That was me and THE INVISIBLES in 95, 96, 97.

But THE INVISIBLES was at its best when Morrison's brilliant, insane ideas were wedded to well-constructed narratives. They were never simple narratives - I'm thinking especially of "Dead Man Fall" and "Entropy in the UK" - but if you were willing to do the work everything fit together into a coherent picture of the Invisibles' universe. The series used ongoing comics continuity to its best effect, slowly adding details and answers and new mysteries and worming me deeper and deeper on the hook.

Then it started falling apart. Volume 3 in particular stopped telling coherent stories - the middle arc wasn't telling stories at all, just sharing idea after idea after idea. I understood that it was a counterpoint to "Arcadia," a mirror image, but you know, "Arcadia" still had a plot. I realized, and I guess Morrison forgot or didn't care, that I wasn't interested in the series because I cared what he thought about the genderless beings who would inherit the Earth's psychosexual future; I cared about what happened to Sir Miles, and what happened to Dane, and what did Edith mean to call him Boody, and would Boy ever show up again?

The final arc returned to the coronation plot that had started so well and been abandoned for so long, but the poorly-executed artists' jam marred that. (Why, oh why, does anyone hire Ashley Wood to tell a story?) The final, Quitely-drawn issue was fantastic, but, as with the previous arc, it felt like too little too late.

So, how does NEW X-MEN stack up? It clearly doesn't have the same thematic ambitions - but it does have ambitions, and it probably realizes them far more effectively because Morrison maintains the narrative. Wondering who killed Emma and what'll happen to Scott and Jean isn't nearly as profound as some of the questions raised by THE INVISIBLES, but they hooked me just as deeply. (In an age where everyone else is padding it out for the trade paperback, Morrison wrote a comic that still had me craving its monthly crack-fix, and God bless him for that.)

I suppose NEW X-MEN's greatest weakness, in comparison to THE INVISIBLES, is also its greatest virtue. It dilutes the same themes of evolution, revolution, and conflict into a standard superhero narrative, but again, THE INVISIBLES never worked better than when it had that superhero-style monthly continuity, and NEW X-MEN keeps it up throughout the run.

Oh, and you only just bought the 6th trade? "Planet X," right? Let me ask you - once you've read that one, please come back and then let me know how you think it stacks up. Because my friend, you are about to get your mind blown OUT OF THE TOP OF YOUR FUCKING SKULL.

Just like reading THE INVISIBLES...

[Pete]

Cool stuff, Marc. I'm curious about something; I've heard a lot of fans complaining that Morrison essentially wrote himself into his run of New X-Men as Cyclops, rather the same way that he wrote himself into Invisibles as King Mob. Any thoughts on that? His comments on the Cyke/Jean/Emma triangle (he described C & J as "so over" in one interview) do point to a "Mary Sue" sort of characterization.

Still, at least he's not Chuck Austen. /obligatory swipe

[Steven Berg]

I like your organization of the run into a three-stage story arc... rebirth, exploration of new roles, apocalypse, and an epilogue with a new rebirth.

I've been blogging on New X-Men for months as I read the trades, so I've been very happy getting to read the recent explosion of discussion on the book.

Pete, I didn't catch a Mary Sue whiff from Scott. Actually, speaking of King Mob, I wondered if there's a connection between King Mob and Charles Xavier. They look awfully similar when drawn by Phil Jimenez... I've found at least one panel in Invisibles (Bloody Hell in America, p. 78, panel 5) which is almost identical in structure to a panel in New X-Men: Planet X, p. 24, panel... 5! (I'm looking at the TPBs, here.) Given the care and attention to detail in Morrison's comic, I'd be surprised if this were coincidence. So, if King Mob is Morrison inserting himself into The Invisibles, I wonder if Xavier is Morrison inserting himself into New X-Men.

[Marc]

Jiminez does tend to repeat compositions for no reason I can fathom. The diving King Mob that opens "Black Science" is reduplicated exactly in one of his splash pages of Wonder Woman wearing that goofy 70s diving suit in all her Lynda Carter glory. No fair, I say; I kept expecting her to start shooting people. So I don't know if Xavier and KM have anything in common other than being bald people drawn by Phil Jiminez.

Also, Pete, I don't think Morrison was literally writing himself as Scott. (Sure, you'll hear fans complaining about it, but then again you'll hear fans complaining that his stories didn't have enough Shatterstar or Sabretooth or whatever other crap I skipped in the 90s.) Scott is just too fundamentally uptight for me to buy him as a Morrison figure, even the new straight-edge Morrison. I think I recall reading somewhere that Scott was his favorite X-Man, the one with whom he most closely identified... as I'm sure all of us geeks did... but that's not the same as a Mary Sue.

[Max]

Damn you. You made me want to buy comic books again. Sure, I could blame Morrison for writing something worth reading, but I was happily ignoring it until YOU came along.

So if my wife complains about the charges to the comic store on the credit card, I will give her your address. Consider yourself warned.

[Shawn Liu]

First off, fantastic article. I feel you captured the essence of what made me enjoy this run so much.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men was what got me into comics full steam. I was always semi interested in X-Men and comics in general from my cousin back in Jamaica. I would read his copies of Wizard and get hooked into all the different story updates. I tried to delve in 10 years ago with the Age of Apocalypse crossover but I always found myself being months behind the publishing (and with no income). So when I read about the Morrison/Casey crew coming aboard for the X-Books, I figured that would be a great starting point for me to get into comics.

What I absolutely loved about Morrison's run (and I think why I hated Joe Casey's on Uncanny) was exactly what you said, he refused to let his characters sink back into any sort of status quo. From his powerfull opener of killing off Magneto and wiping out Genosha, to granting Xavier his ability to walk, to finishing up with Scott and Emma's newfound relationship, Morrison did everything he could to get away from the standard superhero conventions (droll) that caused the X-Men franchise to stagnate for so long.

Morrison strived to make an X-Men story that was more than just X-Men and he succeded. The weekend after #154 came out, I stayed up all night and read through the entire 41 issue run (bought the singles). Took me 9 hours to get through it all but it was one of the greatest comic experiences ever.