E Is For Extinction
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E is for Extinction was the first story arc from Grant Morrison's run on the Marvel Comics title New X-Men. The story was published in New X-Men #114-116 (formerly titled X-Men, the series was renamed "New X-Men at the request of Grant Morrison, but retained its original numbering). The storyline began Grant Morrison's much anticipated revamp of the X-Men franchise, introducing a new status quo for the X-Men and the mutant community of the Marvel Universe as a whole.
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[edit] Plot
As a new generation of mutants begins maturing across the globe, a long-lost Master Mold A.I. and sentinel production facility in the jungles of Ecuador is uncovered by a mysterious woman called Cassandra Nova. She uses the last surviving relative of Bolivar Trask to gain control of the wild sentinels and has the last surviving Trask family member order the Sentinels to massacre the entire population of the mutant nation of Genosha. However, Cassandra Nova's pressence shows up on the newly created mutant detection machine "Cerebra", leading to Cyclops and Wolverine finding Cassandra and defeating her. But it's too late, as the nation of Genosha falls to the deadly might of the Sentinels and nearly the entire population of the island state is killed off.
As the X-Men search for survivors, they find former X-Men villain and teacher Emma Frost as one of the survivors, having survived the Sentinel onslaught thanks to her body undergoing a new secondary mutation. At the X-Mansion, Dr. Henry McCoy investigates the biological origins of the powerful enemy they have just captured, while also revealing the possibility of mankind's genetic extinction within the next few generations. When Cassandra suddenly overcomes her imprisonment and effortlessly strolls her way to Cerebra (in order to take over Charles Xavier's mind), Emma Frost (who moments before the battle began had left the X-Mansion, intent on revenge against humans for the genocidal Sentinel attack on Genosha) shows back up to snap Cassandra's neck. But Emma arrives too late, as Cassandra has swapped bodies with Xavier and shoots Xavier (now in Cassandra's body) to keep him from revealing what has just happened.
Days pass as Jean Grey and Cyclops reflect upon the marital problems that have popped up due to Cyclop's post-traumatic stress disorder (brought on by Apocalypse possessing Cyclops's body for over a year) when they turn on the TV and see "Xavier" out himself as a mutant on live television.
[edit] Critical Response
Grant Morrison's arrival on the X-Men franchise as the new writer of the adjectiveless X-Men book was highly anticipated and featured amongst other things, massive changes for the X-Men franchise. Among which were new designs for the X-Men, where the group abandoned their traditional spandex costumes for leather jackets and conservative turtle-neck sweaters. Additionally, Wolverine and Beast underwent massive visual changes as well, Beast becoming more beast-like than man and Wolverine abandoning his old costume for a new casual look similar to that of 1950s greaser.
In the months leading up to the publication of the arc, Grant Morrison fanned the flames of controversy by announcing his new villain Cassandra Nova, who was hyped in promotional interviews as being Xavier's evil twin sister. While Morrison was able to establish Cassandra Nova into Xavier's past rather seemlessly, the character's background was the subject of much grumbling online.
Another subject of controversy that Morrison fanned intentionally, was his plans for a major "mutant massacre" to clear out the deadwood from the X-Men franchise. Again, the rumors of who would live and who would die filled the online comic community with much dread, though the only real "casualty" of Morrison's arc was Magneto (who Morrison had resurface alive and well at the end of his run as writer) and the bulk of the nameless mutant population of Genosha.
In an irony of timing, the storyline ran during the summer of 2001, before the imfamous terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon Building in Washington, DC on September 11, 2001. As such, Grant Morrison and other writers at Marvel (most notably Chris Claremont) would jump upon the parallels of the 9-11 attacks and the destruction of Genosha as they explored the fall-out of the Sentinel attack on Genosha.
[edit] Secondary Mutation
One of the biggest aspects introduced in the storyline was the concept of "secondary mutations". The concept was created mainly by Morrison to give Emma Frost her diamond skin powers (as Morrison wanted to use Colossus as part of his team but was unable to, due to him being killed off months prior by fill-in writer Scott Lobdell).
[edit] Trade Paperback
A trade Paperback of the storyline was release in 2001; the initial printing of the trade paperback included New X-Men #117 (which served as a bridge issue between "E is for Extinction" and the next multi-part storyline "Germ Free Generation") and the "Morrison Manifesto", a detailed account of Grant Morrison's proposal for his plans as writer for the X-Men.
Many fans criticized the initital trade paperback for it's omission of "New X-Men Annual 2001", which was omitted due to issues involving how to reprint the story, which was published in the sideways "Widescreen" format. As the issue contained the set-up for a key number of future major plotlines for the Morrison X-Men run, later printings of the trade paperback removed the "Morrison Manifesto" and replaced it with the annual, which was published in the standard comic format, though still sideways.
