New X-Men #154

Grant Morrison // Marc Silvestri
June 2004
****
Despite dodgy panels from Silvestri, Morrison sticks his finale with acrobatic beauty. The enemy of his entire run is finally unmasked: Sublime, a 3B-year-old viral consciousness that subverts evolution to survive! Jean G. ascends to godhead & defeats the villain w/ love by blessing Scott & Emma.
[last issue: New X-Men #153]
[next issue: New X-Men #155]

New X-Men #153

Grant Morrison // Marc Silvestri
May 2004
*****
GM’s white-hot with hyper-compression, an abstruse style that, at its best, delivers complex plotting but doesn’t neglect emotional beats. Led by a rehabilitated Cass Nova (AKA Ernst!), a future X-team confronts Phoenix & the Beast—who’s infected by Sublime, a virus that thrives on mutant conflict!
[last issue: New X-Men #152]
[next issue: New X-Men #154]

New X-Men #152

Grant Morrison // Marc Silvestri
late March 2004
*****
In the far future, the Beast wants to mass-produce life rather than letting evolution work. Morrison’s riff on Days of Future Past equals the original & surpasses its ’90s echo Age of Apocalypse. Silvestri also outdoes his past X-work, retaining the sturm & drang of Inferno but surer on shapes.
[last issue: New X-Men #151]
[next issue: New X-Men #153]

New X-Men #151

Grant Morrison // Marc Silvestri
early March 2004
*****
At the end, an arc to match the inaugural #114-17! GM flings the mag 150 years into the future & briskly builds an alt Marvel Universe. The Beast, fur silver with age, has turned evil; all-new X-Men include a boy & his pet Sentinel; a Phoenix egg may save the timeline, ruptured by Cyclops’ despair.
[last issue: New X-Men #150]
[next issue: New X-Men #152]

New X-Men #150

Grant Morrison // Phil Jimenez
February 2004
***
A great cover! Magneto, humiliated, zaps the resurrected Phoenix w/ a touch & rips a hole in spacetime. Is Mags Xorn or visa-versa? It’s ambiguous but neither option feels plausible. Take the former as read—it’s a stronger theme. Zealotry & violence (by Bin Laden or Bush) is a failed philosophy.
[last issue: New X-Men #149]
[next issue: New X-Men #151]

New X-Men #149

Grant Morrison // Phil Jimenez
January 2004
****

Tho’ Morrison probed Magneto’s X-role better in the Kid Omega arc; here he argues that the original Silver Age supervillain isn’t a radical, he’s a self-loathing reactionary. On another level, GM brings Beak’s arc to a scruffy head, as the youth stands up to the terrorist & joins the X-revolution.

last issue: New X-Men #148
next issue: New X-Men #150

also indexed for Jan. ’04
Alias #28

New X-Men #145

Grant Morrison // Chris Bachalo
October 2003
****

GM brings the run back to techno-pop adventure, tho’ he forfeits Wolvie & Cyke’s emotional arcs. The baddie who created the U-Men also leads Weapon Plus, a program of Sentinel supersoldiers disguised as a comic book team! All this on an exploding orbital satellite laid out superbly by Bachalo.

last issue: New X-Men #144
next issue: New X-Men #146

also indexed for Oct. ’03
Alias #25
Avengers/JLA #2 of 4

New X-Men #144

Grant Morrison // Chris Bachalo
September 2003
****

Much of #144 has Fantomex exposit on Weapon Plus, the anti-mutant corp that bred him. The ultra-cool antihero, like his creator, delights in misdirection as a mode of self-definition. Under all that, however, lies an autopilot conceit: Weapon XV, spliced w/ a super-Sentinel, awakens to megalomania.

last issue: New X-Men #143
next issue: New X-Men #145

also indexed for Sept. ’03
Alias #24
JLA/Avengers #1 of 4

New X-Men #143

Grant Morrison // Chris Bachalo
late August 2003
*****
Synthetic time speed-breeds generations of supersoldiers in an artificial city surveilled by corporate scientists—until one test subject escapes! But Fantomex drags Logan & Summers to the scene. Bachalo’s design sense complements the arc’s theme of 21C superscience well—just look at his AIM outfits!
[last issue: New X-Men #142]
[next issue: New X-Men #144]

New X-Men #130

Grant Morrison // Igor Kordey
early October 2002
***
Kordey finally hits the right tone, a murky horrorshow. The Prof faces a fractal consciousness that infects by touch (Claremont-like psi-villainy!); Jean gets exposition from a mystery man. This super-conscientious objector is  Fantomex, AKA Weapon XIII—which makes Logan’s “Weapon X” the number 10!
[last issue: New X-Men #129]
[next issue: New X-Men #131]

New X-Men #129

Grant Morrison // Igor Kordey
September 2002
***

A new antihero—a suave French mutant named for Fantomas & costumed like Diabolik—improves greatly on Gambit. But imagine what JH Williams III could do w/ the master thief & his beaux arts UFO! Kordey’s just wrong for this mag. Another clever revision: Weapon X = 10, and big bad number XII is loose!

last issue: New X-Men #128
next issue: New X-Men #130

also indexed for Sept. ’02
Alias #11
Alias #12
Avengers #56