New X-Men #150 is the concluding part of "Planet X", and if nothing else, it confounds the expectations of those of us who were expecting a return to the status quo ante.

Obviously, one of the most interesting things about this arc is the way Morrison has chosen to write Magneto.  Magneto is out of his head on drugs for most of the storyline, which explains much of his behaviour.  Nonetheless, he's been written as a rather addled and bemused figure, who manages the first stage of his grand plan and then stands around in increasing frustration that nobody else seems to really get his whole philosophy.

Morrison's point seems to be that Magneto is of more value as a symbol of revolution than as an actual revolutionary.  The idea of having a revolution is of more value - as a spur to gradual change - than actually having a revolution.  Magneto is left impotently claiming that the mob needs patience, because the current chaos is only a transitional phase on the way to utopia - stock philosophy for various revolutionary factions.  Nobody else seems to agree that it's such a worthwhile exercise, and Magneto's fashion icon stock collapses when he tries to put it all into practice.

All of Morrison's arcs have been playing up somewhat different genres, and this one is his big superhero epic.  Of course, that makes the final issue a big fight scene.  Normally that's not such a good thing, but there's a real feeling of epic climax to all this.  I really did find myself swept up in this story, far more than anything else I've read from the X-books this year.  This is the pay-off for two and a half years of build-up, and it works fantastically.

There are some unfortunate storytelling glitches in the art - Magneto's decapitation doesn't come across at all clearly, and the Beast's syringes seem to appear from nowhere, several panels after they should have turned up.  Equally, it's fair enough to question quite why Scott's optic beam suddenly decides that it burns people (though given all the references to the laws of physics acting oddly, and Scott's own apparent confusion, I suspect that's not the error it first seems).

Ultimately, though, these are niggles.  Phil Jimenez is a great superhero artist, ideal for the tone of this story.  And the sheer momentum of the story sweeps aside minor plot problems.

We've still got one more arc to go, essentially an epilogue set in the future.  That seems mainly intended to tie up the outstanding questions about Phoenix - who, of course, dies only to return.  That's what a Phoenix does, after all.  Hopefully it'll also serve to resolve some of the other plot threads; was there, for example, any real point to Dust, who got a prominent introduction and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing?

Still, fantastic stuff.  This is how to write the X-Men in 2003.  This is what it's all about.

Rating: A+

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