08 September 2005

New X-Men - "Planet X"

Premise: Magneto, The X-Men's greatest enemy, returns, in order to wipe humanity from the face of the planet. All hell breaks loose.

For about 30 years, The X-Men family of comics have remained consistently popular with comics fans. The story of outsiders struggling to be accepted by society strikes a chord with lots of fans (myself included). In 2000, even with the success of the movie, the sales of the comics started to slip. The comics were stagnating creatively as well. So, in 2001, they hired iconoclastic writer Grant Morrison to give the book a creative shot in the arm. Over the course of 3 years, he introduced new characters, substantially altered longtime characters (Beast, once an apelike character with blue fur, became a giant blue tiger), and replaced their colorful costumes with black and yellow leather jackets and combat boots. Some welcomed this shake up of the status quo. Others felt that his changes were too drastic, and completely disregarded what had come before.
Of all of the X-Men stories he wrote, none were more controversial than "Planet X," his penultimate story arc. The story crackles with urgency and a sense of finality. Popular characters die and big, big changes were brought about because of this story. In a lot of ways, it would be a fitting end to the X-Men legend.
Many of the changes brought about by Morrison's run have since been contradicted and brought back to their original state, but for a brief, shining moment, it was good to see the most successful comic on the market was also the most courageous comic as well...



Recommended For: fans of the X-Men movies; fans of epic storytelling; fans of progress.
Not Recommended for: people who demand a happy ending; people who expect rigid consistency in their heroes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Magneto should have stayed dead.

Danoftomorrow said...

Which time? Only Doom and the Joker have cheated death more often than Magneto...