What’s Covered?
New X-Men # 117 - 121, New X-Men Annual 2001
Roster Watch
Synopsis
New X-Men # 117
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Ethan Van Sciver
Beast is training with one of 150 new mutant students, Barnell Bokusk.
Bohusk, who wants to go by Beak, is one of 150 new mutant students at the Institute. Trish breaks up with Beast because she's worried about the mutant hysteria hurting her career.
Xavier is getting ready to go on a date with Lilandra, however not all is as it seems. Cassandra Nova has taken over the mind of Charles Xavier. Nova (as Xavier) begins ridiculing Beast. It's pretty brutal, but then she ups it by forcing Beak to start beating Beast with a baseball bat.
We learn that Nova is actually the identical twin sister of Xavier. Nova's plan is to take over the Shi'ar while she is away, which is fricken scary.
Jean is complaining about Cyclops to Wolverine and then he kisses her.
It seems like she likes it, but then he walks away and says
"We both know it would never work between us."
She'll serve as the headmistress of the school while Xavier is away.
New X-Men Annual 2001
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Leinil Francis Yu
Xorn is in Hong Kong
He has been held for half a century
His face can melt ppl
He’s incredibly powerful
Two days after he reached puberty, his brain was incinerated by a microscopic sun. He survived. He should’ve been a genius, a healer, a Buddha.
Let's get right to it. Xorn is a badass character. I want more!
Emma Giving Scott a hard time about a vow of celibacy
Domino and Risqué (who may be dead) opened up numerous X-Corp locations in Asia
Someone is crafting mutant limbs onto human bodies
Hooray, Domino is here! I had no idea Morrison would be using her, but I'm super pumped!
John Sublime wrote a book called “The Third Species”
Homo perfectus, the self mutatated
Those who do this are called U-Men
“ There’s nothing funny about being taken over, and right now he’s clinging to sanity with his teeth clenched so hard, the beams are shooting out his ass. He’s clenched so tight, when he farts only dogs can hear it. But you can trust that king size bug with your life”
Domino and W investigating Sublime
W successfully hitting on Domino
Beast, Scott and Emma come across abominations
One of them dies
Emma sneaks into Scott’s hotel room with wine and her boobs out
It's not confirmed what happens here.
The X-Men blow up John sublimes base
Xorn is about to explode but Cyclops talks him down after Emma teaches him Chinese
He may be joining the X-Men
New X-Men # 118
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Ethan Van Sciver
A high school kid kills a jock for bullying him. The kid claims to be obsessed with Mutant culture is wearing a Magneto’s T-shirt, and talks about wanting to take the eyeballs of the jock to become a member of the U men. He claims the jock was a closet, gay and mutant.
Many news reports are talking about a rising mutant births, arise in mutant culture athletes, being accused of being mutants, and altogether mutants being everywhere in the media
Beast is in critical condition
Jean, using Cerebro, asks W to find a mutant (Angel) in Wyoming
A Mutant (Angel) is thrown out of her house. Some guys in metallic suits are trying to capture her. She uses acid she can spit, hurts their ears by flapping her wings, and tries to fly away.
Jean, Scott, and Emma try to talk to rioters
Emma gets bored, and makes all of the rioters pass out from too much bliss, then walks away
Jean ask Scott if he slept with Emma while they were in Hong Kong
Scott and Emma go to talk to John sublime about what they found in Hong Kong but he ends up attacking them and saying that he’s going to use the mansion full of kids as a new organ processing plant
New X-Men # 119
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Igor Kordey
Sublime threatening to pick apart Cyke and Emma
W kills the U Men to free Angel
They get kicked out of a diner by a bigot
Sublime is coming after the school
Beast and Beak still under
Jean and students the last line of defense
New X-Men # 120
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Igor Kordey
Emma switches out of diamond mode and overpowers Martha, the brain.
Cyke shoots himself free and Emma gives the henchman pain
Fight against Sublime agents
The Cuckos attack their minds
Jeanmakes them throw up and then shit their pants
Deflects there knife attack
Jean is on fire, looking like the Phoenix
Emma holds sublime out of window and tells him that she’s very cross about her broken nose which was perfect from plastic surgery
Scott talks Emma out of dropping him
It doesn’t work. Martha, the brain, pushes Sublime to drop to his death
Beast recovers and declares that Charles Xavier stuck with an Cassandra nova’s body
New X-Men # 121
Writer - Grant Morrison
Pencils - Frank Quitely
A huge long sequence with Emma and Jean entering Xavier/Nova’s brain, and there aren’t any words at all ('Nuff Said Issue)
“Jean walks out and says Professor X tried to kill his twin sister when they were still in the womb. We need to talk.”
My Connections and Creators
This comic line continues to be phenomenal. It's still keeps the spirit of the X-Men, yet it's more mature and modern (even though it was written 22 years ago).
Suddenly the school has 150 mutant children attending. The biggest emotional reaction I had to seeing this was that it feels right. I can't believe that X-Men has been around for 60 years, yet this is the first time we have a school filled with children, and not just 9 New Mutants running around.
The introduction of these mutant children is once again going to take me back to the reason why I started writing this blog. If you've been following since the beginning of this journey, then you've heard me talk about this far too many times. My X-Men journey began with me hearing about how great HoxPox was and so I dove right in. I could recognize the brilliance, but there was just way too much I didn't understand. One of those things that I had absolutely zero basis of knowledge about, was the focus on Beak, Angel, and Glob as part of the new New Mutants series. In fact, I assumed at the time that they invented those characters in 2018. Well, here I am meeting these characters for the first time and it's one of those situations where I feel like this 3 year committment to reading and blogging about every X-Men related comic in chronological order is worth it.
Quick should out to the Cucko's. Esme was featured in the Fox X-Men show "The Gifted," so it was fun to see them here. Another fun shout out to my girl Domino, who currently sits as my 8th favorite X character, so you can imagine how pumped I was to see her pop up here. Also a blast to see Logan flirting with her.
Characters
Professor Xavier
At one point, Xavier casually mentions deleting painful memories to fix Beak's shyness and psychological damage. Yea, so the theme of Morrison and Claremont shitting on Xavier continues.
Cyclops
Emma sneaks into Scott’s hotel room with wine and her boobs out. Later, Jean asks if he slept with her. This is getting interesting. It makes me reflect on the fact that while I love reading comics, there is rarely many interesting things going on with romance. I don't mind a little drama, in fact this actually helps keep Scott to stay interesting. Will this be another Psylocke thing, or will it actually turn into something?
Jean
Jean nonchalantly mentions that her telepathic powers are coming back. I'm happy about this because Jean is a fucking telepath and having her go a while without these powers was dumb. Maybe if it was explored it would've been worth something, but literally nothing came of it.
Jean will also be headmistress while X is away. Once again, this just feels right.
Beast
Trish breaks up with Beast because she’s worried that the Mutant hysteria will hurt her career. First of all, brah, you can do better. Second of all, oh, they were still dating? Third, what a bitch.
Wolverine
W is successfully hitting on Domino, making out with Jean then walking away. What a baller.
Emma
I guess the biggest thing going on with Emma at the moment is her training the cucko's and tempting Scott. We'll have to see where this goes.