New X-Men #125
New X-Men #125 cover

Date:

 June 2002

Title:

 “Losers”

Plot:

 On the Shi’ar superdestroyer, Cyclops and Xorn take out G-Type and rescue Lilandra just in time for the ship to self-destruct.  On Earth, the Stepford Cuckoos, Angel, and Beak free Emma Frost and put a plan in motion involving Stuff. Inside the Academy, the Imperial Guard prepare to face the mummudrai Cassandra Nova.

Credits:

 Grant Morrison (Writer) • Igor Kordey (Artist) • Hi-Fi Design (Colors) • RS [Richard Starkings] & Comicraft’s Saida T! (Letterer) • Pete Franco (Assistant Editor) • Mark Powers (Editor) • Ethan Van Sciver [presumed; unsigned] (Cover)

CHANGE HISTORY
Date of Change
Content of Change
09/2302
 Posted
01/02/03
 Reprint status update
03/28/03
 Notes updates to reflect correct Imperial Guard names and Legion connections

Analysis Notes
General The Marvel Universe features a team of alien superheroes — the personal guard of the leader of the Shi’ar Empire — based on the Legion of Super-Heroes.  This New X-Men run is notable because it produces new designs for several of the Imperial Guard, and adds or replaces a few existing ones, making it an analogue of the postboot Legion.
3:1 The armored character is G-Type, an analogue to Wildfire.  His armor is quite similar to that worn by Acclaim’s X-O Manowar, and there is a medieval knight influence to it as well.  On this page, his dialogue evokes a more Eastern motif.
11:2 The tentacled creature with the puckered anus on it is Stuff, a shapechanger and thus analogue of Chameleon.
Intriguing, to put Stuff in the rose arbor.  A colloquial nickname for an anus is “rosebud”.  (Look up the Citizen Kane/William Randolph Heart references for yourself.)
12:1 “Bum-face”: well, at least Grant Morrison is very aware of how Stuff has been designed.
13:2 Beast, Phoenix, and Wolverine are in the X-Men jackets.  Plutonia (equates to Apparition) is in purple, holding Smasher (a version of Ultra Boy).  Gladiator (Superboy/M’Onel) has the mohawk (which is a real mohawk, not a helmet like in the previous issue), and behind him are the new Cosmo (named only in a Grant Morrison interview; Star Boy) and Manta (no Legion equivalent).  The other characters are Xavier Academy students and human reporters.
19:1 Although Manta is speaking this dialogue, it should belong to Oracle/Delphos (Saturn Girl/Dreamer), based on its content.  She was talking like that in the previous issue.
19:3 Like Ultra Boy, Smasher can only use one power at a time.  He apparently downloads them from an extradimensional computer (perhaps Neosaurus [Brainiac 5]?).
22
 Although it appears that Cassandra Nova may have physically merged Plutonia and Smasher, given that Plutonia is a version of Apparition, this is simply her power in action.
Reprints This issue was reprinted in the New X-Men: Imperial trade paperback collection.