Join me, a lifelong DC Zombie, as I attempt to remedy my woefully limited exposure to the Marvel Universe. Be prepared for opinions forged in the depths of a mind that is completely dedicated to the DCU. I promise to be as objective and honest as I can be--even if that leads to contradictory opinions. Updates will be rare, considering I have limited money for buying new comics (and the fact that I would rather spend my limited funds on DC Comics).
I tell myself I can't help it. I've tried, believe me, I've tried. In spite of my overwhelming love for the DC Universe, I have tried to venture out and explore the other rich worlds of comic book fiction. My adventures in the worlds of Wildstorm, Image, Boom!, and others have led to some exceptional reads, but Marvel....Marvel always leaves me cold. The stories might be good, the heroes might be heroic, and the concepts might be brilliant, but, in the end, I would rather see Wally West or Bruce Wayne triumph over adversity than Peter Parker or Tony Stark. It's nothing against those characters, I just have no history with them. Until recently, even when I have followed my favorite comic book creators when they wrote for Marvel, I still struggled to enjoy their work. Brian K Vaughn's Y: The Last Man is one of my favorite stories ever. As such, during the heyday of his work on it and Ex Machina I decided to give his Marvel series Runaways a try. Sadly, the first Omnibus failed to really pique my interest (There's a good chance it may have just been over-hyped).
So it is with this history that I recently decided to give Morrison's New X-men a try. I had just finished collecting his run on DC's Doom Patrol and Flex Mentallo and I needed a new Morrisonian project to read. Since he's my favorite writer, I had pretty much exhausted my DC options, and I was forced to give his Marvel works a try. In the end, I chose to trade one group of misfits lead by a genius in a wheelchair for another and picked up a copy of New X-men Volume 1. After having read through it twice, I think I have finally synthesized a reaction. Keep in mind that this is my opinion after having read only the first collection, and as I collect the rest I may have to reassess.
Unfortunately, my timing almost doomed the entire exercise from the very beginning. I went from two of his most cerebral works in Doom Patrol and Flex Mentallo to a comic that is on a very different level. That's not to say that his work on X-men was unintelligent, but that it was rather simple in comparison. To be sure, New X-men is layered and full of Morisson's usual brilliant ideas, but it is a very different book from his Doom Patrol. Scattered throughout the first twelve issues are tons of clever ideas and plot devices. John Sublime, The Third Species, the U-men, the Stepford Cuckoso, Casandra Nova and the “evolved” Sentinels are pure Morrisonian brilliance. Yet, compared to some of his other works, New X-men (so far) feels kind of subdued. So while there are plenty of ideas that reach his normal brilliance, there is only one issue that could be called, without a doubt, pure Morrison. (Issue 121, by the way, really is phenomenal—best issue of the run so far.)
When taking a wider view of Morrison's entire body of work, the closest I can come in comparison to his run on X-men is his run on JLA. Of course, this makes sense considering they are from relatively the same era of his work. This is certainly not a slight. I am of the opinion that his work on JLA will go down in history as one of the most epic, pitch perfect runs in the comic's history. It was also my introduction to Morrison, and therefore will always hold a special place in my heart. When I think back to JLA I remember fondly about how awesome it was to see the Big 7 acting like the Big 7 should. It may not seem like a big deal*, but to me that was the brilliance of his run on JLA. It was deeper than many other mainstream comics on the stands, but its real strength was in the characterization and storytelling. Morrison was not trying to open the doors of perception in JLA and New X-men like he was in The Invisibles or The Filth. He was just trying to tell a great story with the comic book industry's greatest A-list characters. Therein lies my problem with New X-men. I have no idea if it is pitch perfect because I am not familiar enough with the characters. Everything I know about the X-men comes from the first two X-men movies, which is a problem because Beast and Emma Frost are not even in them. So, I am left to trust that Morrison is putting the same care into his crop of X-men that he put into his JLA roster.
Sadly, the weakest aspect of New X-men Volume 1 was the art. I am a HUGE Frank Quitely fan, and his issues were generally beautiful. After all, he penciled the standout issue number 121. Ethan Van Sciver filled in admirably for several issues. I am not generally a fan of his work, but these are some of the best issues I've seen him pencil. Igor Kordey drew a couple of issues. His early work on the run is solid, but his later issues are a complete mess. This is particularly sad considering that these later issues come at a pretty climactic time in the story.
New X-men is a solid comic book. At it's best, it is good superheroics but it cannot hope to touch the brilliance of Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, or even Morrison's recent run on Batman. In the end, even with Morrison's guidance, New X-men falls prey to the same problems I've felt with other Marvel comics. It was a fun read, but I still would have rather seen the JLA or the Teen Titans experience the same story. It's just because I literally do not care about any of the X-men. They could die, go evil, or change drastically and it would not effect me in the slightest. Yet, for the first time, I am thinking about adding to my Marvel collection. I want to see what happens in the next volume. I guess that means I am expanding my comic book horizons. Maybe I am more willing to venture deeper into the Marvel Universe than I was two months ago. Perhaps the toughened exterior of this DC Zombie is starting to crack slightly.
Next time: Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man Omnibus 1.
*The brilliance of Morrison and his immediate successors on JLA is even more apparent recently thanks to the book's current writer.
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