529 – Magneto Was Wrong

I don’t think I ever made this connection until your coverage of this run because I didn’t read it in the context of when it came out, but the comment Magneto being a terrorist twat really solidified why Morrison went in this direction for Magneto. I don’t think it’s at all separable from the War on Terror.

Prior to 9/11, there was definitely a romantic notion for some terrorists – not just in the Muslim World, but elsewhere as well (the Irish Republican Army is a big example). After 9/11, there was a push to demystify them. Terrorists weren’t at all romantic, they were murdering bullies. And the sillier you could make them the better. This feels very much in that conversation, but using Magneto in that role.

I loved this episode! Thank you.

It reminded me of some thoughts I’d had about reading the Morrison era as a sequel to the silver age. Getting down voted on Reddit but if okay, thought I would share here.

Hot take: Morrison’s New X-Men is best read as a sequel to the silver age…

Hear me out…

Let’s imagine that Giant Sized X-Men (1975) had never existed and the book ceased in 1970. Then let’s imagine that at the turn of the millennium, Marvel execs decided to revive some forgotten books and revamp them for the 21st century. I think what we’ve got could have looked very similar to Morrison’s New X-Men – a series that ignored much of Claremont and the 90s.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

– Finding and training mutants is central – this was the premise of the Stan/Jack era and it got slightly lost in the 80s
– The characters – Charles, Jean, Scott and Hank are central. It’s easy to believe that they just grew up at the school, never left and became teachers. Obviously Logan and Emma don’t fit this pattern – but they could easily have been new characters that the revived run introduced us to
– Scott and Jean – their slow burn romance is a running theme during the 60s, even though they don’t quite get together. The gradual collapse of their marriage is central to Morrison’s run, even though they don’t quite split up. Scott’s affair with Emma (and his rationale for it) makes more sense if he had started a teenage romance with Jean and never questioned if he could love someone else. In the 80s, Scott lost Jean and had relationships with other women, even marrying one. He also feared that he had fallen out of love with her when she first became Phoenix. People forget how long it took him and Jean to get back together in X-Factor and he had that 90s wobble with Psylocke before getting married. I get that Apocalypse made him re-examine everything, but the idea that he had never faced such fears before doesn’t work if we factor in the 70s, 80s and 90s
– Magneto – they think their arch foe is dead but in the end he turns out to be behind all their troubles. This feels very silver age. And the Magneto we see on page? He is just the super-villain of the 60s. The Claremont character development was thrown out the window

Okay, so I do recognise that there are several aspects of the run that do not fit this theory. I have (no prize) explanations:

– The Phoenix force – at least on the surface, this is a direct nod to Claremont. But how much really connects the two stories? It’s only toward the end of the run that Phoenix feels “cosmic”
– Logan and Weapon X – Wolverine and his origin are instrumental to Morrison’s run. But they pretty much re-write the character’s back story and turns our understanding of the Weapon X programs on it’s head
– Emma – clearly a Claremont creation. But you don’t need to digest her 80s appearances or absorb the pages of Gen X to understand what makes her tick in New X-Men. In fact, it’s better if you haven’t
– The Sh’iar – another Claremont classic. But again, almost unrecognisable from previous appearances

As I say, a bit of a hot take. But I hope it gives food for thought…

The depictions of the destruction and chaos of New York seem strangely understated and dreamlike, certainly compared to the destruction of Genosha earlier in the run. This could have been another effect of 9/11 on the creative team — they know very well what destroyed skyscrapers look like, and I don’t blame them for wanting to do a realistic take. So instead we get the everything-goes-red effect, like how Kill Bill went to black-and-white for the many of the really violent scenes.

But the effect on the reader lessens the impact and makes it more surreal — if you had told me that all of these was a Kick-induced hallucination of Magneto’s, I’d nod and say, “makes sense.”

It’s also one of several elements that seem to weirdly lower the stakes — another is Magneto’s choice of followers. I get that Morrison doesn’t want to bring in more heroes for the final showdown — as much sense as that would make — but all Magneto can muster for flunkies is Toad and the special class? We know this crew is no threat, and the fact that Magneto can’t seem to draw any better worshippers is an early sign of how pathetic a foe Morrison thinks he is.