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The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years? Here it is, the final season. Will the two units of X-Men be able to resolve their differences and become one happy franchise again? Everything’s been cheery since this point, why not, right?  Season 10: All New X-Men (Showrunners: Brian Michael Bendis and Jason Aaron) Episode 1: Avengers X-Sanction
(written by Jeph Loeb, art by Ed Mcguiness) In order to protect Hope from being killed in the future, Cable is back, and he’s here to kill the Avengers. X-Sanction. 1 episode Serial 1: Avengers Vs. X-Men (written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Jonathan Hickman, art by John Romita JR, Oliver Coipel, Adam Kubert, and Frank Cho) This is a giant mess to read but it’s necessary. The Avengers, thanks to Cable, believe that Hope is going to turn into The Phoenix, so they go to Utopia to contain her, and the X-Men (either faction) aren’t happy about it. But as it turns out, The Phoenix may not be targeting Hope, per se. Or is it targeting her in a different way? AvX. 4 episodes Serial 2: Wolverine & The X-Men Volumes 5-7 (written by Jason Aaron, art by Nick Bradshaw, Ramon Perez, David Lopez, and Steve Sanders) Closing off the Hellfire Club saga, we get to see the post AvX Jean Grey school as an idyllic place where almost nobody dies too often. Hellfire. 3 episodes Episode 9: X-Men Primer (written by Brian Wood, art by Oliver Coipel and David Lopez) Vampire Jubilee is back. With a baby. Storm forms an all female X-team to protect it from….everything. Primer. 1 episode Serial 3: All New X-Men Yesterday’s X-Men, Uncanny X-Men Revolution, All New X-Men Here To Stay, All New X-Men Out Of Their Depth, Uncanny X-Men Broken (written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Stuart Immomen, Chris Bachalo. David Marquez, David Lafuente, and Frazer Irving) Beast goes back in time and retrieves the original X-Men team, hoping past Cyclops can bring current Cyclops back from the dark place he’s been in since AvX. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be able to send the team back. Time. Line. Problems. All New X-Men. 4 episodes Serial 4: X-Men Battle Of The Atom (written by Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Wood, and Jason Aaron, art by Chris Bachalo, Stuart Immonen, Frank Cho, David Lopez, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Esad Ribic) X-Men from the future show up to warn what will happen if the X-Men from the past aren’t returned to their timeline Battle Of The Atom. 2 episodes Episode 16: Guardians Of The Galaxy All New X-Men Trial Of Jean Grey (written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Stuart Immonen and Sara Pichelli) Remember when Jean Grey used to be The Phoenix? The Sh’iar do. They show up to put Jean Grey on trial for the crimes of…the Jean Grey that’s been dead for five seasons. The Guardians Of The Galaxy might be able to help with that. Trial. 1 episode Serial 5: Wolverine The Death Of Wolverine, All New X-Men All Different, All New X-Men One Down, Uncanny X-Men The Omega Mutant, Uncanny X-Men Revolution (many writers, many artists) The final serial takes us all the way up to Secret Wars, which ends this timeline. It includes a fond farewell to one of everyone's favorite Canadian metal salesmen. End Of Days. 4 episodes Season 10 is 20 episodes.
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The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years? Now that the X-Men are tucked safe and sound in a place called Utopia, one would imagine they’re all happy together and throwing the best psychic slumber parties ever, right? Not so much.  Art by Ilias Kyriazis Season 9: Schism (Showrunners: Mike Carey & Rick Remender) Serial 1: X-Men Legacy Aftermath, X-Men Age Of X, Lost Legions
(written by Mike Carey, art by Paul Davidson, Harvey Tolibao, Jorge Molina, Rafa Sandoval, and many others) Legion, Professor X’s mentally ill son, is one of the most powerful mutants in existence. He has a long and complicated backstory intertwined with The Age Of Apocalypse (which he accidentally created) but let’s pretend we are seeing him for the first time here. He’s brought to Utopia by The New Mutants and in the first half of The Aftermath trade, he accidentally creates Age Of X. So put Aftermath down, check out The Age Of X trade, you can skip the Avengers and Spider-Man stories at the end of Age Of X, and then resume reading Aftermath, as Utopia struggles to understand how many of the mutants spent seven days in an imaginary world. Age Of X. 3 episodes Episode 4: X-Men Legacy Lost Legions (written by Mike Carey, art by Khoi Pham) Professor X forms a team of X-Men to track down six of Legion’s missing personalities. Lost Legions. 1 episode Serial 3: Uncanny X-Force Apocalypse Solution, Uncanny X-Force Deathlok Nation (written by Rick Remender, art by Jerome Opena, Esad Ribic, and Rafael Albuquerque) There is a run of X-Force that goes back a few years before this, and it’s a good run, but Remender’s run is excellent. X-Force is a team assembled by Cyclops to handle situations that the now public X-Men can’t be publicly involved with. Wolverine is the team leader and they do all sorts of morally dubious things. Their first mission lead them to a reborn Apocalypse who is still a child when they discover him. Their second mission gives them an opportunity to get their revenge on The Reavers from waaaay back in Season One. The only problem? Deathloks programmed to kill Fantomex. Ok, that’s not their ONLY problem. X-Force. 2 episodes Serial 4: Uncanny X-Force The Dark Angel Saga Volumes 1 & 2 (written by Rick Remender, art by Jerome Opena, Dean White, Esad Ribac, Billy Tan, and Mark Brooks) Fiiiiine, here’s your Age Of Apocalypse story. Angel has been able to transform back and forth into Archangel for a while now, but Archangel is becoming a bit of a monster. In fact, he may be the next Apocalypse. Can his teammates stop him before he destroys this world? Dark Angel. 3 episodes Serial 5: X-Men Schism (written by Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen, art by Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis, Adam Kubert, and Billy Tan) The whole point of X-Force is to be the soldiers of the X-Men’s Utopia, so when Cyclops responds to a new Hellfire and Sentinel threat by using members of Generation Hope, Wolverine decides that the X-Men have gone astray and decides to come up with a solution. Breaking up the X-Men. Schism. 2 episodes Serial 6: Uncanny X-Force Otherworld, Uncanny X-Force The Final Execution Volumes 1 & 2 (written by Rick Remender and Sam Humphries, art by Jerome Opena and Ron Garney) Wolverine has some unfinished business to attend to before he can take on his new role as headmaster of the Jean Grey school. This arc is probably not going to win him the prestigious Father Of The Year Award. The Final Execution. 4 episodes Serial 7: Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen Volumes 1 & 2 (written by Kieron Gillen, art by Carlo Pacheco and Brandon Peterson) Back on Utopia, Cyclops uses the adult X-Men to handle events that would previously be X-Force’s problem and dubs them The Extinction Team. Mr Sinister returns to help them live up to their name. Everything Is Sinister. 2 episodes Serial 8: Wolverine & The X-Men Volumes 1 & 2 (written by Jason Aaron, art by Chris Bachalo and Nick Bradshaw) Wolverine opens the Jean Grey school for mutants on the grounds of the former Charles Xavier school in Westchester. For a guy who’s all about making younger mutants students and not soldiers, he sure puts them in a lot of life or death situations, though. Blame the Hellfire club. New School. 3 episodes Season 9 is 20 episodes Interseason Special: Avengers The Childrens’ Crusade (written by Allan Heinberg, art by Jim Cheung) The Young Avengers go off in search of Wiccan’s mom, The Scarlet Witch, who has only been seen once since House Of M. How will the possibility of her return affect the population whose genocide she’s responsible for? The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years? The events of the last season brought the mutant population from millions to 198. Despair ran through the Xavier school, the ashes of Genosha, Mutant Town and beyond. This season Beast tries to come up with a way to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.  Look at all them pretty graves. Art by Marc Silvestri and Stjepan Stejic Season Seven: Messiah Complex (showrunners Peter David and Mike Carey) Backup of the first six episodes: Endangered Species
(written by Mike Carey, Christopher Yost, and Christos Gage, art by Scot Eaton, Mark Bagley, Mike Perkins, Tom Grummet, and Andrea Divito) Beast goes across the globe in search of a solution to the decimation crisis, running into a slew of villains, old friends, and surprises along the way. Episode 1: New Avengers The Collective (written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Steve McNiven and Mike Deodato) The Avengers know all about what happened during House Of M so they’re super worried when a new cosmic entity shows up in Alaska that appears to be a mutant. What it is is much, much worse. The Collective. 1 episode Serial 1: X-Factor Life & Death Matters, X-Factor Many Lives Of Madrox, Heart Of Ice (written by Peter David, art by Pablo Raimondi, Ariel Olivetti, Dennis Calero, Renato Arlem, and Roy Allen Martinez) The heart of the post House Of M world is X-Factor. Peter David’s decision to draw from the event and then only skirt around the other crossovers works really well, making this book much more engaging than any of the other X-books. In these two volumes they deal with mutant terrorist cells, the truth behind Decimation, the enigmatic Layla Miller, and the X-Men who really want them to pick aside in Civil War. The Many Lives Of Madrox. 5 episodes Serial 2: Messiah Complex (written by Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Peter David, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost, art by Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, and Scot Eaton) A mutant child is born in Alaska and every mutant and villain are fighting for control of it. Marauders. Purifiers. Reavers. Mr Sinister. Forge. Lady Deathstrike. Mystique. Pretty much everybody but Apocalypse is involved. And in the end, the X-Men are betrayed by several of their own. But at least there’s hope. Also, Madrox and Layla Miller go to the future to learn what they can. It doesn’t go well. Messiah Complex. 6 episodes Serial 3: X-Factor The Only Game In Town (written by Peter David, art by Pablo Raimondi and Valentine De Landro) X-Factor had a rough time during Messiah Complex and Madrox and Layla’s return to Mutant Town isn’t precisely restful. Plus, Quicksilver has had a rough time of it since House Of M but maybe things will finally turn around for him. Also, Val Cooper from the early X-Factor days gets some comeuppance. The Only Game In Town. 2 episodes Episode 14: Wolverine Get Mystique (written by Jason Aaron, art by Ron Garney) Mystique wreaked havoc during Messiah Complex, and Logan decides he needs to make her pay. Get Mystique. 1 episode Serial 5: Cable Messiah War, Cable Waiting For The End Of The World (written by Duane Swierczynski, art by Ariel Olivetti, and Ken Lashley) Tasked with keeping the future of mutantkind safe, Cable travels through the future with Hope but they are constantly being trailed by a certain turncoat X-Men who thinks Hope is the key to mutantkind’s extinction, not their salvation. Waiting For The End Of The World. 2 episodes Serial 6: X-Factor Time And A Half, X-Factor Overtime (written by Peter David, art by Valentine De Landro and Marco Santucci) Just when you think X-Factor couldn’t get any darker, it does. Longshot, Darwin, and Shatterstar join the team. Madrox goes back to the future and we finally learn why Layla Miller “knows stuff”. Overtime. 3 episodes Serial 7: Cable X-Force Messiah War (written by Duane Swierczynski, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost, art by Ariel Olivetti, Jamie Mckelvie, Mike Choi, Sonia Oback, Clayton Crain, and Larry Stroman) Returning from their adventures through time, Cable and the child are greeted by X-Force and a litany of villains still trying to claim the messiah child as their own. Remember how I said it was everybody but Apocalypse? Yea, well, Apocalypse shows up. Plus, Deadpool and Cable have some long unfinished business. Messiah War. 2 episodes Season seven. 22 episodes Interseason Special: X-Men Legacy Divided He Stands, Uncanny X-Men Divided We Stand (written by Mike Carey and Ed Brubaker, art by Scot Eaton, John Romita Jr, Billy Tan, Greg Land, Brandon Peterson, Mike Deodata, and Mike Choi) Having been shot by a traitorous X-Man earlier in the series, Professor X is being put back together by an unknown benefactor memory by memory. Meanwhile Cyclops and Emma Frost go to the west coast to examine the future of mutantkind. The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years? At its heart, The X-Men have been a small band of mutants brought together by Professor Charles Xavier. He’s a professor because he runs a school. A small school. A small private school for mutants. But when Marvel handed the reigns of their franchise to Grant Morrison, he thought “What if we made everything about the X-Men bigger?” More mutants, bigger campus, higher stakes. And thus, all the X-men writers and artists followed him as he helped the X-Men involve into the 21st century.  Xorn meditates on how to eat a cheeseburger while wearing a metal mask art by Frank Quitely Season Five: Planet X (showrunner: Grant Morrison) Serial 1: New X-Men Ultimate Collection Volume 1
(written by Grant Morrison, art by Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver, Leinil Francis Yu, Igor Kordey, and Tom Derenick) Grant Morrison fucks shit up. Secondary mutations, how mutants fit into the evolutionary timeline, Professor X takes his school global, the X-Men give up their random uniforms for leather jackets with yellow Xes, Professor X has a twin sister, Emma Frost has a British accent and a heroic streak, a whole mess of new characters. So much goodness in one giant book. E Is For Extinction. 4 episodes Serial 2: X-Treme X-Men Volumes 1-3 (written by Chris Claremont, art by Salvador Larroca) Meanwhile, Chris Claremont is back for a weird little run of his own. Rogue is trying to figure out Destiny’s book of predictions for the X-Men and how to stop world ending events. There are a lot of Claremont tropes of losing powers and team dynamics that are a fun respite from the Morrison stuff. Destiny. 2 episodes Serial 3: X-Corps (written by Joe Casey, art by Ian Churchill, Sean Phillips, Ashley Wood, Ron Garney, and Aaron Lopresti) On a more serious note, while Morrison’s book focuses on Xavier’s School, Joe Casey shows us what happens when Angel’s money allows the X-Men to form a corporately funded team to react to world events. Banshee leads a squad in Europe, while back in the US, some of the usual X-Men are joined by Chamber and Stacy X, as Casey explores a lot of religious and sexual themes (but not X rated sexual themes). X-Corps. 3 episodes Serial 4: New X-Men Ultimate Collection Volume 2 (written by Grant Morrison, art by John Paul Leon, Igor Kordey, Phil Jimenez, Ethan Van Sciver, Keron Grant, and Frank Quitely) Our leather clad school teachers try to deal with the aftermath of an extinction level event and the outing of Professor X (as a mutant), a drug epidemic, a school based riot by a naughty psychic student, and then Bishop returns from The X-Treme X-Men to solve a murder of someone who is totally and completely dead forever. Riot At Xavier’s. 4 episodes Background story: Mystique: The Brian K Vaughan Ultimate Collection (written by Brian K Vaughan, art by Jorge Lucas, Michael Ryan, and Manuel Garcia) Throughout the third and fourth serials, we witness Professor X sending long-time X-foe, Mystique, out as a mercenary to do the jobs that Professor X can’t have traced back to him. What could possibly go wrong? Episode 15: X-23 Innocence Lost (written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, art by Billy Tan) We spend an “episode” away form the main teams as we meet yet another stabby member of the Wolverine “family”, as a young clone fights her Weapon # training to try and be a good uhhhh person. X-23. 1 episode Serial 5: Assault On Weapon Plus (written by Grant Morrison, art by Phil Jiminez and Chris Bachalo) I’m sure you imagine this season will end with New X-Men Ultimate Collection 3, the denouement of Morrison’s run. Ehhhh. Look, you can buy it if you want, but the last few issues of his run is a giant middle finger to Marvel’s Editorial, and while that’s conceptually interesting, it’s kind of annoying to read. I recommend getting the smaller trades. In this serial we meet Fantomex and discover what the “X” in “Weapon X” really stands for. (Spoiler alert: It’s not porn related.) Plus, bonding between Cyclops and Wolverine is always so much fun. Assault On Weapon Plus. 2 episodes Serial 6: Planet X (written by Grant Morrison, art by Phil Jiminez) I’m not really a fan of Planet X but it does wrap up all the plot development that Morrison laid down. We learn more about Xorn than we imagined. The “special class” at Xavier’s school goes rogue. Plus, while I’m usually sarcastic when I mention that a character death is totally permanent and forever, the death in Planet X has lasted fifteen years and that character isn’t back yet. Very much. Planet X. 4 episodes Season 5 is 20 episodes Interseason special: NYX Wannabe. (written by Joe Quesada, art by Joshua Middleton and Robert Teranishi) X-23 and some other young mutants live in New York. They’re not on the X-Men’s radar, so they live their lives on the streets making dubious choice after dubious choice. The X-Men franchise has had a few animated series, and is on their way to a sixth live action movie. But how would you put together a ten season live action show with continuity and including the best stories from the various X-books over the years? Season two focused on Mr. Sinister and The Marauders and the dissolution of the team that came together in the first season. Well season three returns us to Xavier’s school, introduces us to The Legacy Virus, and gives us a new big bad who is so bad, he gets the whole season named after him.  Onslaught and Dr Doom art by Skottie Young Season Three: Onslaught (showrunners: Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza) Serial 1 & 2: X-Men Mutant Genesis.
(written by Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, and Jim Lee, art by Jim Lee) See how the new teams come together, learn uncomfortable truths about the X-Men’s relationship with Magneto. See Rogue and Gambit mercilessly flirt. Delve into Wolverine’s backstory as Omega Red shows up. Oh yea, and Jubilee’s around. Must be the 90s. Avalon. 2 episodes Omega Red. 2 episodes Serial 3: X-Cutioner’s Song (written by Scot Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Peter David, art by Brandon Peterson, Andy Kubert, Jae Lee, and Greg Capullo) Who tried to kill Professor X? Who is Cable? How many 90s characters happen to have that shining eye thing that Longshot and Cable and Ahab and Stryfe and everybody seem to have? While all of the mutants try and solve the mystery (ok, they don’t care about investigating the eye thing but I want answers, damn it), we learn a whole mess of more confusing things about Jean Grey and Cyclops. They must be important or something. X-Cutioner’s Song. 3 episodes Serial 4: X-Men: A Skinning Of Souls (written by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Dan Slott, art by Andy Kubert, Brandon Peterson, Richard Bennet, and more) Picking up right after X-Cutioner’s song, we meet a new villain let loose in Russia who will take on the X-Men AND Omega Red. More Jean Grey Cyclops drama. Rogue and Gambit continue to make kissy-face. Mr. Sinister just won’t go away. And then you get two Psylockes for the price of one! Why are there…is this a clone thing….are they…I mean…huh. Skinning Of Souls. 3 episodes Episode 11: Avengers & X-Men: Bloodties (written by Bob Harras, Fabian Nicieza, Roy Thomas, and Scott Lobdell, art by Steve Epting, Andy Kubert, Matt Ryan, Dave Ross, and John Romita Jr) The X-Men, The Avengers, and The West Coast Avengers team-up as The Acolytes who once served Magneto (who is totally dead, of course) wreak havoc on all the superheroes. The two most prominent Acolytes, Fabien Cortez and Exodus battle for control of the team, each believing they are truly following in Mag’s footprints. A lot of this takes place on good old mutant hating island nation, Genosha. Bloodties. 1 episode Serial 5: The Wedding Of Cyclops And Phoenix (written by Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, Glen Herdling, and Kurt Busiek, art by Richard Bennett, Andy Kubert, Ian Chuchill, Mike McKone, John Romita Jr, Tim Sale, and Ron Randall) Because somebody in the 90s demanded it The Wedding Of Cyclops And Phoenix not only delivers on the promise of the title but also delves into The Legacy Virus, dealing with the multiple Psylocke issue and gives us a whole mess of Sabretooth. And for the love all that’s Summers, GO AWAY MR. SINISTER, YOU ARE NOT SCARY. It’s a big collection but I’m only giving The Wedding. 3 episodes Serial 6: The Road To Onslaught, Prelude To Onslaught, and The Complete Onslaught Epic Volumes 1-4 (many writers and artists) Now we get to our first big skip. You don’t need to read Age Of Apocalypse. It has a fun set-up where Legion goes back in time to kill Magneto but accidentally takes out Professor X instead, but the ensuing storyline is utter madness. It’s a whole different world that, by the end of the series ceases to exist. So don’t invest! Instead, it’s time for The Road To Onslaught featuring Bishop, The X-Babies, a dude who looks but does not act an awful lot like Magneto, and Psylocke trying to cure Sabretooth of his rage (it doesn’t go well). Plus a bunch of planted seeds about the coming of Onslaught. Prelude To Onslaught is the perfect primer. It starts with pivotal snippets of storylines (some which are already represented in the previous seasons, some which aren’t, including a glimpse of the aforementioned missing Age Of Apocalypse) and then throws you right into The Complete Onslaught Epic. See the ultimate consequence of Professor X shutting down Magneto’s mind at the beginning of the season. Guest starring pretty much every Marvel superhero who existed in the 90s. And not leaving very many of them alive at the end. Onslaught. 6 episodes Season 3 has 20 episodes. Interseason Special: Zero Tolerance. (written by Scott Lobdell, John Francis Moore, Larry Hama, and James Robinson, art by Chris Bachalo, Carlos Pacheco, Leinil Francis Yu, and Adam Pollina) After the cataclysmic events of Onslaught (what other kind of events are there when the X-Men are involved?) the government declares open season on mutants (again). Lots of Wolverine, Cable, Cecelia Reyes, Generation X, and even some Deadpool. Plus, sad kids. |
May 2020
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