Ten Million Brilliant Thoughts Per Second

Here’s an excerpt of Joe’s remarks on Barbelith about Quentin Quire from the forthcoming New X-Men #135, which can be previewed here. I really like what Joe has to say about this…he’s right on the money, I think.

…I’d just like to rant a bit more about why Quentin’s outfit/’look’ rocks so much. Quite aside from the reference to obscure X-history, it’s subtly evocative of other things: as someone mentioned, it’s a bit straight-edge, a bit emo… but it’s also parodically geeky (which is arguably what being a mutant has always really stood for), and more than a little dykey, actually – almost transboi-ish (look at his hair!). These elements have to be deliberate, I think, especially when you consider how well his name suggests these sort of themes as well – ‘Quentin’ is real spod-who-gets-kicked-in-the-playground stuff, his surname is almost ‘queer’. QQ’s look also reminds me of Grant Morrison’s predictions for fashion around the time of the Invisibles – that everything was going to get tighter and more repressed… It’s just perfect, really.

I like the suggestion that Xavier may be a bit out of touch with mutant youth culture: it stands to reason that there are kids into thinkers/artists who he’s never even heard of, kids who probably think Magneto is an irrevelant (not to mention dead) old fart as well. Also good is the way that Quentin’s class aren’t all that impressed with his weirdo theories and confrontational grand-standing distracting them from, specifically, more red-blooded pursuits. I wonder what he makes of Beast’s experiments with language, species and gender?