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In which we start the Morrison Run; Professor X gets his hands on Chekhov’s gun; Cassandra Nova raises X-villains to a new level of weird; and humanity is running on borrowed time.
X-PLAINED:
- No-Girl
- New X-Men #114-117
- Grant Morrison and their approach to the X-Men
- Superhero fashion
- Cerebra
- Beast’s new look
- Ugly John
- Interpersonal dynamics
- Cassandra Nova (somewhat)
- Donald Trask
- Master Molds
- Wild Sentinels
- Emma Frost (more) (again)
- Negasonic Teenage Warhead (the original)
- The fall of Genosha
- Secondary mutations
- The most strapless bra of all time
- The Black Bug Room
- Summers problems
- Official X-Men and the designation thereof
- Wonder Man and mutants
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I have to complain about just one page of New X-Men #1. As it happens, human prehistory and evolution is one of my science interests. I’ve got a lot of information from Wikipedia, IFLScience.com, youtubers Screens of the Stone Age, Archeology Podcast Network, North 02, Gutsick Gibbon, Stefan Milo, PBS Eons, and various others, and people and institutions in the paleoanthropology sphere John Hawks, Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Chris Stringer, and the Leakey Foundation.
Rebecca Wragg Sykes even wrote a book about Neanderthals! Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death & Art! It’s very dry!
First, they both are and aren’t our direct ancestors. They split from Homo Erectus earlier, then we came along and interbred with them.
Neanderthals didn’t look like that. Sure they’d look a little odd to our modern eyes, but a whole lot closer to modern HS than this depiction. Best guess is that they weren’t covered in hair but *did* wear clothes. If they were properly dressed they’d probably have passing privilege these days.
They had fire, rope, sewing needles, jewellery, and art, and cared for their vulnerable family members. Pretty civilised IMO, hardly the savages they used to be depicted as.
Neanderthals, mostly being Eurasian, would have been more pale than early HS, who first appear in Morocco and then spread in all directions.
Yes, I’m sure there were conflicts between neanderthals and HS. But also, everyone who isn’t pure subsaharan African has up to 2% neanderthal DNA. It’s suspected that at least some of those relationships were what passed for consensual at the time. It’s what’s available/they have food, fire, and shelter/I like ’em funny looking.
Why are there no neanderthals around these days? Partially because we alternately integrated them and outcompeted them. Further, we were better adapted to changes in climate.
Way too early for hafted axes. At that time it was just your old-fashioned hand-axe. However, they *did* have early glue and could make spears. No one had the idea of sticking a smaller spearhead horizontally onto a small shaft yet.
Okay, this is both 2001 and in the Marvel universe. But it still bothers me. I’m sure everyone has these things.
Also, somewhat related, I always imagine Moon-Boy (Homo habilis) with a Brazilian accent. Why? I don’t know! Just how I hear it.
My assumption is that Cassandra Nova is running straight propaganda with no attention to historical accuracy–she doesn’t care if Trask learns anything accurate or useful; she just wants to convince him of her point (and buy time to copy his DNA).
Two questions:
Isn’t “X-Men Annual 2001” the first issue of the Morrison run? I haven’t finished the episode yet (commute is over, though), so maybe you address it… but isn’t the annual what addresses Emma’s presence and all that? Perhaps you’re covering it next episode, but I just wanted to ask while I’m thinking about it!
My second question: when JAMXPTXM wraps up, is there any chance we’d see The Lightning and the Storm make a comeback (possibly covering the Aaron run?!) and/or the long-awaited “Jay Dare-Splains the Anne Nocenti Daredevil” podcast?
Well, I guess I forgot that “The Man in Room X” has assumed Emma as a member of the team, and obviously that can’t’ve happened until after Genosha. Just forgot about that one! Whoops. I’m really interested to hear you two discuss that story, because Leinil Yu’s “dirty” art vs. the “clean” stuff we’ve been seeing with Quitely is a huge contrast. I’ll be interested to hear about your impressions!
Miles stopped reading X comics around the same time as the great comics collapse. Do you think it was coincidence, or was it related?
They, them?
Why are you talking about Grant Morrison like he is more than one person? 🤷🏼♂️
Grant Morrison uses they/them pronouns; which, if you’re going to be pedantic about it, have been used in the singular case for centuries.
Grant Morrison identifies as a version of nonbinary and prefers they/them pronouns. Links here if you’re interested.
Because Grant Morrison came out as non-binary back in 2020, and has since said they use they/them pronouns.