Books like New X-Men by Grant Morrison: Ultimate Collection, Book 3

“Kicks just keep getting’ harder to findAnd all your kicks ain’t bringin’ you peace of mind”Because I’m a relatively mean and shallow person, I’m always ready to jump on a writer’s pretentions or missteps and there’s no one with a bigger target on his back than Grant Morrison. He’s written some seriously misguided crap; peppering his work with allusions to Keats or Milton and quoting The Kinks or William S. Burroughs or Little Lulu that I’m usually just too stupid to get. Yet the man is capable of some extraordinary work – brilliant, funny with plenty of love and respect for the history of comics. With New X-Men, one of a handful of Marvel titles he wrote, Morrison, in his manifesto included in this book, wanted the X-books to return to the halcyon days of Byrne and Claremont, exciting times before the X-titles became inert and mind-numbing. For the most part he succeeded. Back in the day, I remember looking forward to picking up this title in single issues.This is the culmination of the run that Morrison had planned out from the beginning with the only head scratcher being the final story line from the future. Wolverine recruits a drunken Cyclops at the Hellfire Club.Along with Fantomax (Vive le Fanotmax!), their mission is to infiltrate Weapon X.Logan learns Weapon X history stuff.After hiding behind his Xorn disguise, Magneto, hopped on Kick (the song lyrics at the beginning of the review finally make sense), a humdinger mutant-power enhancing crack, does the full reveal and finally punks the X-Men.However, his (Xorn’s) special-ed class is confused.But Magneto goes balls to the wall to create a new mutant paradise in Manhattan.…until the inevitable showdown.Future times are a mixed bag.Yep, Wolverine dies for like the millionth time…The art’s also a mixed bag. Frank Quietly helped set the tone with Morrison in the beginning of the run. In this volume, a different artist takes a turn for each story arc. That includes Chris “Just-what-the-hell-am-I-looking at” Bachalo.Bottom line: Aside from a recommended cracker jack run on this title, we owe Morrison an X-debt for Fantomax, Quentin Quire, the Cuckoo Sisters and Emma Frost’s white ho outfit. Thanks, Grant!!No worries for Wolverine, being pee-shy is not a secondary mutant ability.