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Doop (xdoop) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-05 16:00:00

Entry tags:

char: cyclops/scott summers, char: dust/sooraya qadir, char: marvel girl/phoenix/jean grey, char: white queen/emma frost, creator: frank quitely, creator: grant morrison, group: x-men, publisher: marvel comics, title: new x-men

Grant Morrison on the Scott/Emma affair.

Back in S_D 1.0, I posted the storyline of Scott and Emma's affair from Grant Morrison's New X-Men run. I remember that there was some debate over whether or not Scott was actually cheating on Jean, since the hot sweaty sex he was having with Emma was only telepathic.

Well, here to settle the debate once and for all is Grant Morrison himself.

This is one of the questions from Grant Morrison's interview in the Comics Creators on X-Men book, which I highly recommend if you're an X-Men fan.

In your mind, did Scott and Emma commit adultery?

The way I saw it was that Jean and Scott had become remote. For me, the great emotional moment for Scott and Jean was when they ran out to die together on the moon during the Phoenix Saga. After Jean died, Scott ended up with a lot of other women. Scott was very attractive to women even though he didn't know it and I wanted to play around with that. Since he was becoming emotionally remote from Jean, because she was becoming more and more godlike, it just seemed he would naturally fall into the arms of someone more emotionally connected, which Emma actually was. Yes, it was a kind of adultery, but at the same time Jean wasn't being his wife anymore. I just felt that the spark between them had died out and it was time to give Scott someone else.

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	jupiterrhode 2009-09-05 08:33 pm UTC (link)
	You should post the follow up where Jean rips Emma to bits. 'Cause it's fun. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-09-05 08:48 pm UTC (link)
	Actually I think that sequence proves Morrison's point more than most, as Jean destroys any sympathy I might have had about her being the wronged party, by acting in just as brutal and cold blooded fashion as Emma at her worst ever did, purely because she feels aggrieved. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jupiterrhode
2009-09-05 09:04 pm UTC (link)

Well, sure, but Emma deserved it. There's no excuse for infidelity, telepathic or otherwise, and Emma was the initiator of the affair. Yes, Jean should ALSO have busted Scott's ass, but I doubt a (presumably) straight man such as Morrison would see it that way.

Also, Morrison's point is bullshit. You don't go find an "emotional connection" somewhere else just because you're having marital problems. You work it out, whether that means relearning each other or getting divorced. Scott pussied out, and did neither.

It's funny because I've seen people say that Scott's affair wasn't really an affair because it was just "mental sex" and then in the same post get on Jean's case for assaulting Emma. I always wanna say: it isn't really assault, it's just mental assault.

Bah, humbug, I say. Bitch got what was coming to her, and I say this as someone who likes Emma.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

icon_uk
2009-09-05 09:20 pm UTC (link)

And as I've said these are not "marital problems" by any standard human definition. They're not just "growing apart", Jean is no longer entirely human and getting less so with each flap of the Phoenix wings. She's a quart of godhood in a human pint pot. You can't "relearn" each other when one of you no longer speaks the language.

There IS no possible resolution of that that, divorce was losing any meaning for Jean as much as marriage was. And we HAD already seen her throw herself at Logan trying to get some sort of reaction out of Scott.

It was adultery of a sort I agree, but Jean picking through Emma's mind and deliberately opening up raw emotional wounds because she no longer understood the human notion of sympathy or empathy any more was just plain warped.

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	xdoop 2009-09-05 09:28 pm UTC (link)
	I always thought the problem was more with Scott's mind being screwed over by Apocalypse. Even in Morrison's run, Jean tried reaching out to Scott and he just pushed her away. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-09-05 09:38 pm UTC (link)
	"Forget me, Scott. All I ever did was die on you." That was the truest thing ever said about that relationship. Scott could not grow up till he was completely free of Jean, simple as that. When she was dead he brooded and brooded and brooded. It's pathetic. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-09-05 09:50 pm UTC (link)
	?? She never told him to forget her. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-09-05 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	You're right. It was "Live, Scott. Live. All I ever did was die on you." But I would take that as "forget me, move on, have a life." (It was at the end of Planet X.) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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arilou_skiff, 2009-09-05 11:16 pm UTC

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jlroberson, 2009-09-05 11:21 pm UTC

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greenmask, 2009-09-05 11:45 pm UTC

	ian_karkull 2009-09-06 12:45 am UTC (link)
	That's the exact moment their marriage ended, imho, and they both knew that. Everything after that was just a sharade for the good of Xavier's (the school, not the person). (Reply to this) (Parent)

xdoop
2009-09-05 09:21 pm UTC (link)

You don't go find an "emotional connection" somewhere else just because you're having marital problems. You work it out, whether that means relearning each other or getting divorced. Scott pussied out, and did neither.

It wouldn't be the first time Scott left his wife for another woman when they were having marital problems, which is why I thought Morrison's characterization was perfectly in-character. And at least this time he wasn't abandoning his infant son as well.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	runespoor7 2009-09-05 11:26 pm UTC (link)
	Eh, Scott's a grown man, he's the one in a committed relationship, the entire moral fault, whatever it may be, of everything he and Emma do together is on his head. (Reply to this) (Parent)

xdoop
2009-09-05 09:16 pm UTC (link)

Jean tried reasoning with Emma first, but she lost her temper when Emma just snarked at her and made snide remarks.

Photobucket

And while I felt sorry for Emma, I thought Jean's actions were perfectly understandable.

by acting in just as brutal and cold blooded fashion as Emma at her worst ever did

It's worse than what Emma did to Firestar? Manipulating a young girl, killing her pet horse, and making her think she was the one responsible for it?

http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/37542.html

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	sandoz_iscariot 2009-09-05 09:20 pm UTC (link)
	Always remember, kids: Emma Frost killed a pony. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	icon_uk 2009-09-05 09:26 pm UTC (link)
	It's worse than what Emma did to Firestar? Manipulating a young girl, killing her pet horse, and making her think she was the one responsible for it? Dredging up the repressed memory of her poor insane brother for no other reason than to cause Emma pain and misery? It's certain on the same lines. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-09-05 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	Jean isn't killing an innocent creature or trying to control a little girl. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-09-05 09:52 pm UTC (link)
	Is it a contest? And don't women get violently angry when this happens? And we have here a demigoddess, and this is what they do when THEY'RE this pissed off. I imagine any number of other cuckolded wives would do this and worse if they could. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	arilou_skiff 2009-09-05 11:18 pm UTC (link)
	Which to some degree makes it worse: Emma was trying to control Firestar, to get something out of her. Jean is hurting Emma just because she is hurt and wants to hurt someone else because of it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xdoop 2009-09-05 11:29 pm UTC (link)
	How does the fact that Emma was trying to control Firestar and Jean was trying to hurt Emma make Jean worse? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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arilou_skiff, 2009-09-05 11:29 pm UTC

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xdoop, 2009-09-05 11:30 pm UTC

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icon_uk, 2009-09-06 10:19 am UTC

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xdoop, 2009-09-06 07:12 pm UTC

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icon_uk, 2009-09-06 09:07 pm UTC

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xdoop, 2009-09-06 10:52 pm UTC

	jlroberson 2009-09-05 10:06 pm UTC (link)
	It was fun. That's the point. You do this in drama because then you have a story with the consequences. And it's good soap opera. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2009-09-05 10:31 pm UTC (link)
	So, people lie and cheat and are otherwise terrible to each other in soap opera, but that's the genre, so we aren't allowed to judge their behavior by the standards of real life? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-09-05 10:34 pm UTC (link)
	Not at all, but you shouldn't get mad at the writer for writing it. The reaction you have, whatever it is, is the point of the drama. To act like Morrison is evil for doing it is to start mistaking this for a Guide To How Life Is Lived Rightly. It isn't. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	freezer818 2009-09-06 12:13 am UTC (link)
	Not at all, but you shouldn't get mad at the writer for writing it. I can, and will, however get mad at a bullshit justification for bullshit actions. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-09-06 12:42 am UTC (link)
	Okay, that's fair. For the record, I think it is adultery, regardless of how understandable, and I have no idea why Morrison said that, but I'm going to say he was high. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlroberson 2009-09-06 12:43 am UTC (link)
	BUT--have you ever heard Morrison speak? I pity the transcriber. The one time I ever got to talk to him I didn't understand a fucking thing. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kingrockwell 2009-09-06 02:14 am UTC (link)
	See, the problem is that people are misreading the comment as a moral justification. It isn't. Morrison admits that Scott cheated on Jean, he just gave us psychological justification. This is "Why What Scott Did Was Inevitable" not "Why What Scott Did Was Right". Scott's still a right fucker for doing it, and no one's claiming otherwise. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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