The latest issue of New X-Men

[avram]

OK, I like as good surprise twist as much as the next guy, and I never did buy that Magneto could have been killed by Sentinels, but what the fuck? Has Morrison had this planned all along, or is he pulling it out of his ass?

Xorn has a bunch of powers that Magneto’s never demonstrated. Look back at the annual in which he was introduced. “This is what a three second exposure to the face of Xorn does to a living being.” And we’ve seen him heal; how did Magneto fake that? And that big gravity-event-horizon thing at the climax. And disrupting G-Type on the Shi’ar cruiser: “My core is in flux. There is an unknown gravitational source interfering...”.

How did Magneto fake all the background around the facility where they found Xorn? The Chinese officials who seemed to believe it had been there for decades? How did he fool Emma’s telepathic scan?

This has all the signs of a sloppy ret-con.

Comments

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

I would insert a snarky comment about Marvel here, but:

1. Whatever floats yer boat, and


2. Like I should talk, since I am doggedly sticking to Cerebus till the bitter end.

[avram]

I don’t think of it so much as a Marvel book as a Grant Morrison book; I didn’t read it before he started writing it (well, not since I was a teenager anyway), and I’ll probably drop it when he does.

Does it make sense to follow comics based on what company publishes them, rather than what creators work on them? Would you pay more attention to the publisher’s imprint than the author’s name on a novel?

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

No, of course it doesn't. It's an Ancient Prejudice on my part, back when I was a little kid discovering comics, had only a quarter (we never missed a meal, but there wasn't much cash left over) and noticed that I had to read $1.25 worth of comics monthly to get the story. Bummer.

Fast forward: I gave the John Byrne Superman a try - same thing happened.

I buy self-contained stories. Watchmen. Cerebus. Rising Stars. Wolff & Byrd. Bone.

I like the Marvel characters a lot; I just don't like having to buy an entire world to follow a single story. Am I missing good stuff with that attitude? Of course, but I gave up trying to read Everything about 1980.

Perhaps things have improved on that front recently, and I can get self-contained stories from Marvel/DC. I'll give a look next time.

[mojo-iv.livejournal.com]

And, Damn, is that going to be a bitter ending...

--m4

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Next issue he gets a new costume (autumn colors), a new name (Unifiedfieldo), a 5-panel speech (boring exposition), and a year's supply of Turtle Wax. What do we have for the villains, Johnny?

I'm reading my first Marvel title in years - 1602, because Neil Gaiman's writing it.

[avram]

I read the first issue of 1602 in the store, and it totally failed to capture my interest.

Chris Priest’s Black Panther is probably the best thing Marvel’s published in a decade. Check out the first few collections.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

As to how mags did those things:
1: The 80's unified-field-theory mags idea. Silly.
2: Why couldn't his known powers easily do all those things? He didn't actually become a black hole, our heroes theorized he was doing so. M is perfectly capable of blasting anyone he wants, and the "exposure to face" bit is simply because he doesn't want people seeing is face. And the healing? He says how he does it. Nanosentinels. With sufficient control, restoration of a bird would be simple. Similarly, how would a sun know what's tugging at his plasma? Gravity, magnetism, its just force...

[avram]

Since when does magnetism act just like gravity?

[strangevisitor.livejournal.com]

Magnetism acts like gravity when enough magnetic force is appiled to the gravity around it there by bending or nulling gravity. It's all physics.

In fact, I believe Grant Morrison did a great good with this plot. I can't remember when was the last time I read a comic and was actually surprised by it. Despite the collective internet big mouth, Morrison was able to pull the wool over everyones' eyes and we had all the clue right there the whole time.