Looking back on E for Extinction

[pkingdom]

I read E for Extinction earlier this week, because the destruction of Genosha comes up a lot on this board and in the comics, and I had never actually read the arc that it happened in. Looking back on it, its kind of....bad.

I'm not talking about the art, which is all over the place. The story itself is just not good. For something that involves something as monumental as the total destruction of a nation and the death of 16 million people, the actual attack is barely a blip in the plot. We get maybe 6 pages total on the destruction itself. The nation looks like its wiped out in minutes.

Here's a quick summary of the story:

Cassandro Nova abducts the nephew of Bolivar Trask by faking being a government agent. The Trask guy is a shmuck, and is initially told he's needed to help the President with a dental problem (he's just a dentist). She takes him to a Master Mold base in South America that's been producing 'Wild Sentinels', Sentinels that constantly build new Sentinels by scavenging parts from anything metal around them. While they look a bit creepy, they also look really rickety and most don't even have the major Sentinel guns, since they've had to make do with old car parts and handguns.

Anyway, while this is going on, Nova is ranting at the man about how mutants are super dangerous and are going to kill and replace all humans inevitable because of evolution. The usual junk. She even shows him a super gross VR simulation of Neanderthals getting slaughtered by Homo Sapiens to emphasize her point. He vomits into the VR helmet because of it. When the Sentinels try to attack them, Trask begs them to stop, and they listen because they are programmed to not harm the Trask family. Nova tells him that to save the human race they have to send Sentinels out to commit genocide.

Meanwhile, Jean, Beast and Xavier are testing out a new Cerebro, called Cerebra, and preparing for a new school year. They detect a weird mutant reading in Central America, and send Cyclops and Wolverine to look at it. Those two had just rescued a random guy called Ugly Tom from an old Sentinel, and just bring him along despite him being a totally normal dude with no powers. Meanwhile, Nova almost possesses Xavier, and he nearly shoots himself in the head.

We don't actually see Trask and Nova give the order to send the Sentinels to Genosha. We see them go into the facility, and then leave the area they had to go to give the order. The entire time the Trask guy is scared, confused and unsure of what's going on and if he did the right thing. Nova declares that she had been copying his DNA into herself the entire time, and just finished. So she kills him, and starts ordering the Sentinels herself. Wolverine and Cyclops arrive, promptly get captured and Ugly Tom gets killed by Nova. They eventually break free, subdue Nova and decide to bring her to Xavier to figure out what the hell her deal is.

In what looks to be less than an hour, the Wild Sentinels descend on Genosha and reduce it to dust. I'm assuming Magneto was depowered at this point, because there's a dramatic shot of a giant fist blowing through his skyscraper. There are no scenes of anyone fighting back or anything. Just a kaiju-sized Sentinel and a swarm of misshapen smaller ones descend on the nation at the end of one issue, and the next issue starts with Beast digging through the ashes and making a Shakespeare joke with a skeleton. They dig Emma Frost out, and she seems shocked, but not so shocked that she isn't snarking at Beast and Jean on the way back. The tone at this point is bizarre. Characters are being witty, and Jean even tells off Emma by saying Magneto is dead now, and his ideas should have died with him. Emma should listen to the X-men because Xavier is the only one left alive.

The story ends with Nova healing her injuries and curbstomping the entire X team, making her way through the mansion to Cerebra. Just when she plugs herself in, Emma gets behind her and breaks her neck. Xavier then unloads his gun into her. I know the twist here; Nova actually used Cerebra to switch bodies with Xavier right when Emma snapped 'her' neck, and Nova-as-Xavier killed 'her' to hide this. Nova-as-Xavier then goes on TV and reveals that Xavier is a mutant to the world for the first time. CREDITS!

[pkingdom]

The tl:dr version: for a story that involves the genocide of mutants and the destruction of Genosha, its barely a plot beat. Everyone is shocked, but not so shocked as to not be witty and chatty with each other. The tonal whiplash is so severe it will break your neck.

[spirit2011]

The tl:dr version: for a story that involves the genocide of mutants and the destruction of Genosha, its barely a plot beat. Everyone is shocked, but not so shocked as to not be witty and chatty with each other. The tonal whiplash is so severe it will break your neck.

Morrison x-men are cold and cynical;

imagine arrive on a place where genocide just happened and then crack a shakespeare joke the the skull of a victim. imagine doing it on a extermination camp.

[Kisinith]

The tl:dr version: for a story that involves the genocide of mutants and the destruction of Genosha, its barely a plot beat. Everyone is shocked, but not so shocked as to not be witty and chatty with each other. The tonal whiplash is so severe it will break your neck.

You've just discovered one of the (many) reasons I hated Morison's X-Men, A lot of people loved it and I never really understood why. It never struck me as being revolutionary, I thought it was just bad and the OoC moments... I always thought I'd like it more as an AU.

[MechaJeanix]

I loved E is for Extinction and it is one of my favorite X-men stories. I will concede a few points that the Genosha genocide wasn't really a man focus of the story. I don't think it was designed to. Most of Morrison's run involved around the X-mansion and the characters of Xavier, Scott, Emma, Jean, Beast and Wolverine and of course with some new characters thrown in.

The art was incredible in this storyline but what really made it for me was Morrison's writing especially his dialogue. Beast had some very memorable lines throughout this arc (the hindu sex god line, the tony the tiger on barbs line, etc). I loved the scene showing the dark gallows humor when him and Jean were at ground zero in Genosha.

What I liked best in this story was Cassandra Nova and especially the parts with Trask (focusing on evolution, change, new vs. old, in vs. out). The panel where she sticks her hand through his face was great and very memorable. Morrison did use the sentinel attack on Genosha to set the new status quo. You had this horrible tragedy that killed 16 million mutants but you also had a new mutant baby boom and the idea that mutants would eventually replace humanity.

I also liked the Nova was a real threat and wasn't what most X-villains become - lame, boring, and ultimate a good guy (of course that later does happen to Nova in Here Comes Tomorrow). She was a threat and the X-men were kind of scared of her.

I loved that the X-men were professionals (teachers or admin staff to a real school and tasked of teaching the next generation of mutants) but they were still the X-men (a mutant emergency and rescue operation). I will never forget the excitement of new comic book day and leaving my college campus to go to the local store and buying New X-men. Nor will I forget all the fights and debates on the various boards I visited back them (including this one where my bro and I used to post advanced spoilers for New X-men - back then it was allowed). Good times.

I re-read Grant Morrison's run often and it never disappoints. I loved every single issue. I know some fans didn't like the Morrison-esque voice for the characters but each character was still very distinct. Beast didn't read like Scott or Emma, etc. They felt more real then they do in recent years where the dialogue can be stiff and sounds the same fore every character.

Again, to each their own when it comes to tastes, but the Genoshan genocide wasn't designed to be the main story. It was just a catalyst in a new era and a new status quo.

[pkingdom]

You've just discovered one of the (many) reasons I hated Morison's X-Men, A lot of people loved it and I never really understood why. It never struck me as being revolutionary, I thought it was just bad and the OoC moments... I always thought I'd like it more as an AU.

Emma Frost is pulled out from under the rubble, holding the corpse of one of her students and literally covered in the ash of the rest. A couple pages later she's joking with Jean about what makes her a high class bitch. Its just.....what?

I will say Cassandra Nova was excellent. She came across as a monster that the X-men had no idea how to handle. Probably the best thing in the story.

[yogaflame]

Here's the thing: there weren't millions of mutants before Morrison. It was always just a random scattering, barely more than the X-Men and their villains. Maybe, all over the world, including all the Genosha mutates(which are distinct from real, natural mutants) we were talking a few hundred thousand individuals at most, and most of them had been dying of the Legacy Virus just an arc or two before Morrison's run. He inflated their numbers tremendously, even factoring in his killing half of his new population. So, essentially, the millions of Genosha mutants were completely unknown and uncared for. Did any named mutants die in Genosha besides "Magneto"?

It is interesting/ballsy that Morrison/Marvel ran that story just a few years after 9/11, though. I guess by then The Authority comics had already been doing the whole grisly urban battle thing already, but still, very bold to do that. But to your point, I mean, look at modern superhero movies. The MCU snapped away half of the entire universe in their movie, that also included fat Thor jokes and quips and all that. I guess in a way, the post-WW2 world is just really desensitized from all the various warcrimes and tragedies, since they actually do occur in real life so often, and are aggrandized in fiction/on screens in media even moreso.

[pkingdom]

Here's the thing: there weren't millions of mutants before Morrison. It was always just a random scattering, barely more than the X-Men and their villains. Maybe, all over the world, including all the Genosha mutates(which are distinct from real, natural mutants) we were talking a few hundred thousand individuals at most, and most of them had been dying of the Legacy Virus just an arc or two before Morrison's run. He inflated their numbers tremendously, even factoring in his killing half of his new population. So, essentially, the millions of Genosha mutants were completely unknown and uncared for. Did any named mutants die in Genosha besides "Magneto"?

It is interesting/ballsy that Morrison/Marvel ran that story just a few years after 9/11, though. I guess by then The Authority comics had already been doing the whole grisly urban battle thing already, but still, very bold to do that. But to your point, I mean, look at modern superhero movies. The MCU snapped away half of the entire universe in their movie, that also included fat Thor jokes and quips and all that. I guess in a way, the post-WW2 world is just really desensitized from all the various warcrimes and tragedies, since they actually do occur in real life so often, and are aggrandized in fiction/on screens in media even moreso.

The MCU did this much better. Everyone in-story was pretty much mentally scared by what happened, so at least in-universe you don't have anyone cracking jokes in minutes. The fat Thor jokes were more for the audience to not have the first half of the movie be a misery fest.

And the only other named mutant was Negasonic Teenage Warhead, as far as I'm aware.

[yogaflame]

Negasonic was introduced and killed in the same issue. I'm talking real established characters. I guess now that I think of it, Kitty's father died in Genosha, but that was Claremont's introduction to the canon a little later, not in E for Extinction itself(I actually really liked how he played off of Morrison in X-Treme and MechaniX; people like to say he doesn't play well with others, but their one/two combo was the last time I felt the line really was doing something before HoX/DoX came along).

I do agree that the Endgame handled it much better, but that was their conclusion they were working towards for all 10+ years of movies. Morrison changed a lot of things and broke them right from the start of his run(and ultimately didn't stop....). I think E for Extinction is a great story, but the overwhelming violence/loss of life is supposed to be overwhelming. And I do like that even now, after almost 20 years, Hickman is still playing off of it(with the Resurrection Protocols bringing them back). So, even if it was a bit parsed over in the beginning of Morrison's run, its reverberations have been felt continuously ever since.

[Coal Tiger]

Here's the thing: there weren't millions of mutants before Morrison. It was always just a random scattering, barely more than the X-Men and their villains. Maybe, all over the world, including all the Genosha mutates(which are distinct from real, natural mutants) we were talking a few hundred thousand individuals at most, and most of them had been dying of the Legacy Virus just an arc or two before Morrison's run. He inflated their numbers tremendously, even factoring in his killing half of his new population. So, essentially, the millions of Genosha mutants were completely unknown and uncared for. Did any named mutants die in Genosha besides "Magneto"?

It is interesting/ballsy that Morrison/Marvel ran that story just a few years after 9/11, though. I guess by then The Authority comics had already been doing the whole grisly urban battle thing already, but still, very bold to do that. But to your point, I mean, look at modern superhero movies. The MCU snapped away half of the entire universe in their movie, that also included fat Thor jokes and quips and all that. I guess in a way, the post-WW2 world is just really desensitized from all the various warcrimes and tragedies, since they actually do occur in real life so often, and are aggrandized in fiction/on screens in media even moreso.

It actually came out a month or so before 9/11.

[yogaflame]

It actually came out a month or so before 9/11.

Really? Wow. Even more interesting. He really was channeling the zeitgeist.

[PrezValentine]

Damn, this is the best summary about why E For Extinction is awesome.

Anyway, Morrison has always been into fast pacing, as he DC work clearly shows. The point of the massacre being quick is precisely to show how dangerous the wild sentinels are and the tragedy of the whole thing. 16 million people wiped out in an instant is quite terrifying.

The scene with Trask and Nova is interesting, because the dude is so hesitating that you start to wonder if he would give the order to kill so many people, but then Nova talks about his thoughts on mutants and then he's freaking dead. So you can't really sort out your feelings for the guy and not seeing him do the deed makes the scene better for me, or else I'd just kind of cheer for Cassandra for killing him lol

Beast makes jokes because he's coping with the horror, but I guess that doesn't go well with everyone. I can see real people doing that, though. About Emma, I think it was the fault of the diamond form that made her less empathetic.

The general point is that Morrison is definitely not for everyone. I fell in love with his dialogue and his pacing at my first read, but I can sincerely understand why others would hate it.

[Thundershot]

I know when it happened, I didn’t personally care for it. They didn’t feel like MY X-Men anymore. They didn’t feel like the same characters who fought the Imperial Guard, Dark Phoenix, endured the Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, X-Tinction Agenda, X-Cutioner’s Song, Etc. I’m glad we’re in a different place now, but the characters, IMO, have never truly recovered from the Morrison era.

[Jackraow21]

Loved E is for Extinction and almost all of Morrison’s run. It felt very fresh to me, especially coming off some atrocious stuff in the late 90s where I actually dropped the books for awhile. Came back for Ultimate X-men, stayed for New X-men, and have been back ever since.

The only characterizations to me that felt really off were Beast and Xavier. In the case of the former, I chalked it up to his secondary mutation and his hormones and whatnot being out of whack; and in the case of Xavier, well, coming face to face with one’s evil twin (Mummudrai) and feeling 16 million of your fellow mutants wiped out at once probably changes a person. I loved what Morrison did with Cyclops and Emma (sorry Jott fans), and both of their characterizations were far more interesting than anything that had come before with them; and IMO he wrote a great Logan. His Jean was just... okay. But she spent a lot of time in the 90s being just “okay” too. At least IMO.

All in all I remember Morrison’s run fondly. Now I might go back and reread it actually.

[Hi-Fi]

Loved E is for Extinction and almost all of Morrison’s run. It felt very fresh to me, especially coming off some atrocious stuff in the late 90s where I actually dropped the books for awhile. Came back for Ultimate X-men, stayed for New X-men, and have been back ever since.

The only characterizations to me that felt really off were Beast and Xavier. In the case of the former, I chalked it up to his secondary mutation and his hormones and whatnot being out of whack; and in the case of Xavier, well, coming face to face with one’s evil twin (Mummudrai) and feeling 16 million of your fellow mutants wiped out at once probably changes a person. I loved what Morrison did with Cyclops and Emma (sorry Jott fans), and both of their characterizations were far more interesting than anything that had come before with them; and IMO he wrote a great Logan. His Jean was just... okay. But she spent a lot of time in the 90s being just “okay” too. At least IMO.

All in all I remember Morrison’s run fondly. Now I might go back and reread it actually.

His Jean was honestly the last time I loved Jean.