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Happy Birthday, New X-Men: How Grant Morrison Let Writers Be Themselves On X-Men Again
I still can’t believe it. 20 years? But… it’s new.
At least, it’ll always feel new in my mind. Yet last Sunday, May 16, 2021, truly did mark the 20th anniversary of New X-Men, Grant Morrison’s daring, invigorating, controversial, beloved, divisive and exalted run. It was all those things and more when it first debuted and remains all those things today.
So much has been said about the series already, including these past few months. Owen Likes Comics did a great video about it recently. Newsarama briefly interviewed Morrison last month about it. There’s something, though, that I don’t think gets talked about quite enough.
I’ll illustrate with a pop quiz. What do you notice about these two pages?
They’re pretty different in some ways. One’s set on Earth, the other’s in space. The left page, from Uncanny X-Men #137 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin and Bob Sharen, features Jean Grey (kind of) in full-on Phoenix costume while the right page, from Uncanny X-Men #294 by Scott Lobdell, Brandon Peterson, Terry Austin and Mike Thomas, has Archangel in…
