Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Planet X Part 1
Written by: Grant Morrison
Penciled by: Phil Jimenex
Inked by: Andy Lanning
Colored by: Chris Chuckry
Lettered by: Rus Wooton
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Spoilers Ahead!
Grant’s second-to-last arc for New X-Men begins as Morrison starts “Planet X” with a double bang: as Professor Xavier cries out “X-Men Emergency” as the space station headquarters of the Weapon Plus project explodes. Sort of. As Jean Grey takes a Blackbird into outer space to rescue Wolverine, she finds him on an asteroid littered with buildings built onto the outsides of it where the space station should be.
Meanwhile Beast and Emma Frost (who’s announced to Beast her plans to leave the X-Men for good after being shot in the face, killed, and resurrected by the woman who’s husband she’s been screwing around with) seek Cyclops and Fantomex, who have fled the station in a space shuttle that is crashing into the Pacific Ocean. As they locate the two, suddenly an unknown power causes their Blackbird’s left wing to explode into flames right as an unknown person tells Emma and Beast about there being a plant inside the Mansion working for Weapon Plus. Meanwhile Wolverine, upon meeting up with Jean, has her look around and see where the two have ended up.
“Get out of here! It’s a trap! Don’t you recognize this place?” Wolverine
“Oh… Oh my God! Asteroid M!!!” Jean Grey
Meanwhile Charles Xavier has his own trouble as Dust, after being talked to by Xorn, runs towards Professor Xavier to warn him of something before exploding into her dust form, taking Cerebra with her in the blast. As the Special Class kids collect Dust’s sand form into a glass container, Xavier notices something is wrong. The map of the world has been turned upside down and posters proclaiming, “Magneto was right” were posted all over the Special Class walls. As the doors suddenly close and lock by themselves and Xavier falls to the ground unable to walk, the Professor’s worse fears come true as Xorn unmasks and reveals his true identity: Magneto, the master of magnetism….
So Magneto is back. While I am glad to see him back, I am pretty disappointed as Morrison had actually made Magneto a worthwhile character in death after years and years of substandard stories featuring the character. Especially since in killing him, Morrison took out the entire nation of Genosha with Mags. Which was a shame given that there was almost unlimited potential there with regards to stories about Magneto running a country and having to deal with the political and social ramifications of having a country under his control to serve as his haven for all mutantkind.
