The Batlord

I absolutely beyond all sense recommend Grant Morrison's New X-Men run. In the early 2000s it for the first time posited a world where the mutant population had achieved a level of millions that had developed their own enclaves in society much like Chinatown. They had their own subculture, their own music, and even subversive elements in human society much like a punk movement (Morrison was in a punk band in the 70's so that makes total sense.) The question was moved from "Mutant survival" to "Mutant rights". (One character's "Magneto Was Right" t-shirt is constantly on my buy list but I've never pulled the trigger.)



Not to mention that Jean Grey's Phoenix storyline and Magneto's very place in the mutant community were completely flipped on their head to illustrate the change in direction to an extent that probably confused a lot of kids who didn't know what to do with an X-Men series that wasn't a pure genre series. Hell, Cyclops being a perennially self-absorbed dick with an inferiority complex was brought to a head that changed a part of continuity in a way that is still relevant almost twenty years later, and for the better afaic cause Emma Frost > Jean Grey. So even the melodrama was on another level from ALL years past.

After he left the series Marvel decided that they didn't like all of this progression and just wanted to write the same X-Men stories they'd been writing since the 60s so they reversed basically everything Morrison had done and killed the vast majority of mutants to bring the question back to "Mutant survival" in a cringey event much like the event that ruined Spider-Man around the same time (Joe Quesada is a ****ing whore). X-Men has never since been interesting because there's basically an editorially mandated glass ceiling of how far X-Men can advance its own story. Joss Whedon wrote a great run directly after that was almost entirely regressive but still high quality, but since then there's been okay or even good stories but never anything of true worth as far as I know.

Morrison's run is just over 40 issues so it had quite a bit of time to develop and there's a nice, heavy omnibus that might as well be made of concrete for you to sink your teeth into. If you want to read the absolute most mature and well-realized X-Men series ever made then this is an absolute must. It's god damn brilliant and the best looking dictionary-sized thing on my shelf. Literally the only thing I'd criticize is that the art isn't exactly my favorite thing. Oh yeah and there was a retcon at the end that was fine but still kinda bull****.

https://www.amazon.com/New-X-Men-Omn.../dp/1302901966

http://readcomiconline.to/Comic/New-...e-114?id=32326

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