Comic Info
Comic Name: E is for Extinction/New X-Men (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Burnham/Dennis Culver/Grant Morrison
Artist: Ramon Villalobos/Frank Quitely
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2016
Warzones!: E is for Extinction #3
Reprints E is for Extinction #1-4 and New X-Men (1) #114 (July 2001-November 2015). Following the death of Professor Xavier, the X-Men have been shattered. Xavier’s original students left the school while Magneto has raised a new team of X-Men. When Cyclops learns that Jean Grey may still be alive and hidden inside the school, he sets out on a rescue mission…but the stakes might be higher than he ever expected. Jean Grey might still be alive, but the Phoenix Force inside of her could be a danger that could even threaten Battleworld.
Written by Chris Burnham and Dennis Culver, Warzones: E is for Extinction is a Marvel Comics Secret Wars spin-off superhero comic book title. With art by Ramon Villalobos, the collection also features New X-Men (1) #114 (July 2001) by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Grant Morrison’s takeover of New X-Men was a big change for the title. Like it or not, it created a big update for the X-Men and really changed the direction of the comic and of mutants themselves in the Marvel Universe. It feels like a logical step to use the New X-Men as one of the Secret Wars spin-off titles since it was such a distinctive and memorable storyline.
Like many of the Secret Wars titles, Secret Wars has little do with the comic itself. The basic knowledge that the events are taking place on Battleworld and that Battleworld is a patchwork of other Marvel versions is necessary only in the idea that the Beast army comes from all different areas of Battleworld…otherwise, you kind of wonder where all the Beasts are coming from. There is a random mention of Doom or two, but largely E is for Extinction is a stand-alone title.
E is for Extinction #4
As a stand-alone, the series is so-so. Unlike a lot of the Secret Wars Warzone! and Battleground books, the book doesn’t feel as compressed as some of the other titles. It also largely feels like Morrison’s writing of New X-Men, and Ramon Villalobos does somewhat resemble Quitely’s style. Unfortunately, the series kind of echoes the end of Morrison run which wasn’t my favorite part of the run.
The art for the collection kind of grows on me. I like the rawness and almost uber-comic style of Villablobos that kind of resembles something out of Heavy Metal. I also like that it has a style and look. It is the type of art that can be kind of divisive, but for me it works and I’d like to see more from him.
E is for Extinction is a kind of nice revisiting of the Morrison era of X-Men. It was big and important and came out at a time where it was really exciting to see what Morrison was going to do each month. I don’t know that Morrison’s run has aged as well as some other X-Men runs and I don’t particularly like what it did to the X-Men in the long run, but it was different and “new” as the title implied. E is for Extinction captures some of that newness and for fans of Morrison’s X-Men, it is a must.
