Looking back on E for Extinction

[CRaymond]

I absolutely loved everything about Morisson's X-Era...the art, the writing the plotting...everything except for QQ.

LOL Quentin Quire is Jean Grey. Riot at Xavier's is a thematic sequel to the Dark Phoenix Saga. I didn't like QQ at the time either, but now I hate him. That sweet spot where I understood the point of his existence before later writers decided they needed to resurrect him (see? Phoenix!) was a lovely time for me.

I love how Morrison started with the absolute Destruction of a nation and HiX-Man started with the Building of a nation.

Magneto wanted to move the X-Men past Magneto and Xavier's ideologies. Magneto's was easy. Xavier's took a LONG time. NXM ended with Cyclops taking the reigns of the future, which worked for a while.

HiX-Men is about a whole new ideology that swallows everything that came before and possibly after.

[NewMutant]

If E is for Extinction is bad, then what the hell has been the garbage we've been reading this past decade?

[spirit2011]

The kill command gene was a bad plot point. Its terrible science for starters, which, in X-men, is kind of expected I suppose. But second, it puts a genetic ticking clock on the human race. As time goes forward in the real and fictional world it just looks dumber and dumber. Its never going to happen, if only because it would require ending the entire rest of the Marvel line.

Plus it put the X-men into the line of thinking of "Well, the human race is dying out anyway. We just need to convince them its OK. Don't worry, WE'LL run the world soon!" Its super unhealthy and honestly kind of creepy? Like, that's the kind of thing maybe other people should be made aware of?

That was bad. The only way to that be true, would be if someone traveled back on time and re-enginneered human DNA with a gene that acts like time bomb.

that is basically impossible to execute on a comic in a shared universe where there is ton of human characters.

[CRaymond]

Morrison also wrote a book where the Moon was the creation of ancient Egyptians. He’s not afraid of big bends in chemistry, physics, or history in comics. Not a defense of bad science, a defense of big ideas. The kill command gene was barely mentioned or referenced after, because X-Men stories usually have little to do with science and more to do with people acting weird in the face of potential violence.

[spirit2011]

I'm doubtful you looked that hard for any compliments from him to her.
It's not as if she didn't have moments where she was dismissive of him either.

I'm not looking for it, but I doubt I would find it. Jean was having problem to connect with humans because she was going with phoenix and that made her being human harder. This was easily the worse take on jean/phoenix

It's a good thing that's not all she does in the run though. Phoenix is her superhero persona and her power, death and rebirth is part of the larger Phoenix mythology she is a part of.

The X-Men (including Jean) can be bores for big stretches at a time due to the story ruts the franchise gets stuck in. It happened in the 90s and again before Hickman took over. I don't think she was missing out on much by being dead for a while.

That was Morrison take, that I completely oppose as it cheapens death and the character while doing.

Tell that when Cyclops was having great stories. Yeah of course Jean lost a lot by being dead

A self contained run makes it better.
Nothing is worse than reading a great comic and having it be hijacked by events in another comic or a crossover you're not reading and may not give a crap about. This is why fringe and indy books are often better than what the Big Two put out.

Being on shared universe doesn't mean having big event hijack a run. Mean the wider universe acknowledge it an dit acknowledge the bigger universe.
The worse part is that X-men go after avengers and FF for not doing nothing.
that i sannoying and hateful that x-men keep blaming people who had nothing to do with their problems because they ignored the shared universe.

I would imagine that anyone who witnessed the very public screaming match he had with Joe Q at SDCC would disagree with this, or indeed anyone who read Morrison's book. Or who read the issue of UXM that came out a week before the reveal issue of NXM or even his manifesto for that matter.

Quesada denied it. And for what I know they had a coversation because Morrison signed a exclusive with DC while not finished his run. Remembered that Quesada already had Whedon/cassaday to take over
If Queasada had that power, we wouldn't see the Xorn mess

[Vishop]

I think Morrison's worst possible run was probably New X-Men but that itself is FAR FAR better than what happened to X-Men after NXM and I mean House of M and Deadly Genesis. He wrote various comics based on tropes that were unique but at times his concepts are incomprehensible for me.

[SiegePerilous02]

I'm not looking for it, but I doubt I would find it. Jean was having problem to connect with humans because she was going with phoenix and that made her being human harder. This was easily the worse take on jean/phoenix

That actually gave her a character arc and made her one of my favorites instead of having her be a bland perfect saint put on a pedestal the way many Jean fans seem to want her to be.

it showed her as the heart and soul of the X-men while having a firey edge. As she should be, as the original Dark Phoenix saga depicted her.
And also subverts it. There, her being powerful was painted as a bad thing and she was killed after being corrupted. Here, she basically said "you know what? Screw it, I'm not going to calm down or reign myself in. I feel more alive than I ever have before and you can either get on board with it or piss off." And it was awesome.

That was Morrison take, that I completely oppose as it cheapens death and the character while doing.

it wasn't Morrison. Hate to break it to you, but Jean has been Phoenix off and on since the 70s. Death and rebirth are part of Phoenix lore since the dawn of time.

Tell that when Cyclops was having great stories. Yeah of course Jean lost a lot by being dead

What would those be, exactly? For him and for the X-men? There's a reason why Scott's seeming character re-rerailment beginning in HoX #1 won some people over after the last few years.

Being on shared universe doesn't mean having big event hijack a run. Mean the wider universe acknowledge it an dit acknowledge the bigger universe.
The worse part is that X-men go after avengers and FF for not doing nothing.

That is the fault of other writers and properties ignoring what is happening with the X-Men. Reap what you sow I guess.

[starduck]

I wish Morrison hadn't kill Jean. The way he was writing her setup so many interesting potential plots for her. She was headmistress, had bonded with the phoenix force with no signs of going dark, etc. Also it would have been interesting to see her and Scott as friendly exes and it would have been fun to see her frenemyship with Emma more

[Veitha]

If E is for Extinction is bad, then what the hell has been the garbage we've been reading this past decade?

I wasn't expecting all these mixed comments, I thought it was generally received as very good. And I think too much thought has been out on the Genoshan tragedy. It was meant to be a shock and establish Nova as this big villain. And it didn't kill/depower any of the major players outside of Magneto. I'm not saying it shouldn't have had wider repercussions (which it actually had since later stories heavily mentioned it) but I always saw it as an "excuse" to kick off the run.

[Beaddle]

If E is for Extinction is bad, then what the hell has been the garbage we've been reading this past decade?

I find it to be one of the most memorable xmen stories in 20-25 years. Nova was one of the best villains. in fact I think the first act of the story when Nova manipulate trask 'sson to rebuild the sentinels is one of the best character study act of a comic series that would translate so wonderful in film. of course we have Emma joining the X-Men and the introduction of Xorn. Its definitely one of morrsion's best along with a proper school setting for the kid mutants with new new interesting characters like the Stepford Cuckoos and Quentin Quire, something we have not seen since the new mutants days.


Also, it gave birth to this great xmen cast of Cyclops, Jean, Emma, Xavier and Beast , something that carried over to Whedon's run with Kitty/Pitor in to replace Xavier/Jean

[Tazpocalapse]

I think that arc should have been done later on in the series when it could have been developed further. I think the concept of having so many mutants wiped out so fast and not having a bigger impact on the overall X-world made it feel cheap.Yeah some other writers made from good stories from the rubble, but i expected more from Morrison on the X-men when considering world building and the way he can blend it into stories. I would have liked to have seen cutural conflicts of the X-men and a Magneto led Genosha that was developing it's own counter culture that was occuring at the X-mansion at the time.

[Devaishwarya]

To SDuck's point...I would have loved to see Jean Grey and the Phoenix explored further. Though we got the White Phoenix of the Crown in the end, I thought the Jean/Phoenix paring ended too soon (and too easily) and I would have liked to see more (similar to how Rachel utilised it in Excalibur). Still, that is my only very minor, inconsequential nit regarding Jean in NXM.

[pkingdom]

If E is for Extinction is bad, then what the hell has been the garbage we've been reading this past decade?

Hot garbage, in all honestly. With a few shining beacons of greatness mostly relegated to solo series that stayed away from the regular X-men. All New Wolverine and Shatterstar say hi.

[Zelena]

Nova was one of the best villains.

For Cassandra Nova, I totally agree: she was downright scary.
Her hatred didn't seem to have a logical reason and made her alien, inhuman…

For the rest… I found it interesting but the characters were too serious to my taste, too "adult" and then a bit depressing… Or maybe it was the art: rare are the comic artists that seem to like drawing old bodies with all their imperfections…

It's too bad that Genosha has lasted a short period of time: it would have made interesting stories. Curious…
Nevertheless the name is very often used in X-men fanfictions as Magneto's realm… thanks to the movie probably.

[CRaymond]

For the longest time, I didn’t believe Cassandra Nova was an Xavier twin. Her timing in the story and her character concept made sense that she was in fact Weapon XI.

Over time I stopped caring.