X-Men : Imperial Paperback – August 31, 2002

This is the story-arc on Grant Morrison's tremendous run on the X-Men that really frustrated me, not because it wasn't good, but because it could have been so much better. It could have redefined my all time list of greatest X-Men stories. And it was let down not by the writing -- which is superb -- but by the artwork. Igor Kordey is a decent artist, but he was absolutely the wrong person to do the two middle issues of "Imperial".. The colors are too muted and the inks are too thick, quite a jarring change from the issues before. Had Frank Quitely done the pencils, this would have topped the Claremont/Byrne/Austin "Days of Future Past" and the whole "Dark Phoenix" saga as the greatest X-Men story-line ever. As it is, "Imperial" is still an excellent story that ends Morrison's brilliant first year run of the X-Men, and started me wanting to read the X-Men again after a 20 year hiatus.

morrison is crazy.he should be locked up in the mind of his evil twin sister.anyway that's what he did here to one of the main characters.and then he has the two telepathic chiks enter the mind on a rescue-mission...that part of the comic is one of the most memorable pieces of comic story&artwork that i have ever seen.as psychedelic and creative as the weirdest from manara or moebius.when morrison and quitely get working on the same wavelenght,they really are something special.to bad quitely is so slow that other artists have to fill in for him.or that the marvel bosses are in such a rush to publish that they wont wait for him.quitely has a difficulty with faces,everybody looks similar.be they male,female,old or infant.but his designs and layouts are so cool and matches morrisons ideas so well that it doesnt matter.he truly makes the reading of his works seem like watching a movie.the problem is the other artists. and the other problem is morrisons self-fascination.he's very good,very hip and clever,but becomes a bit hard to digest in large doses.too many big ideas and grand moments,and too skimpy on the action.still,a great book,part of a series worth colecting.viva the british comiqueros,they are still spicing up the whole american superhero-scene.

New X-Men was Grant Morrison's attempt to really dig deep and bring new life to the X-Men books. A chance to take a much more serious and realistic tone to a book that was declining in quality during the 90s. After the success of Bryan Singer's film adaptation at the new millennium, Morrison succeeded in making the X-Men what it really needed to be.'E is for Extinction' was the opening arc to his run on the title, putting everyone's favourite mutant team back to basics by simplifying the roster to six members; Professor X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Emma Frost and Beast, and transformed the 'School for Gifted Youngsters' to an actual academy for homo superior children. I loved it. And apparently, others did too. With the most annoying and nail-biting cliffhanger I'd read in a long time, I needed to see how this story would conclude.'Imperial' takes everything that was great about 'E is for Extinction' and cranks it up to 11. Although it is slow to begin with the uninspired villain of John Sublime and his dull U-Men, once we see the return of Cassandra Nova, the Shi'ar empire and the most exciting biological weapons I've seen in a comic, it comes off as a masterpiece. The slow beginnings and the uninteresting characters are an annoying part of the book, but this only emphasises how amazing the climax becomes. They definitely set up events, and the newcomers are developed well enough to really set things into motion, pushing the boundaries of what was previously done to an adrenaline-pumping theatrical climax of blockbuster standards.In case I'm not making myself clear, it's pretty good. But don't take my word for it. Give it a read!