The Crooked Treehouse
  • Tips From The Bar
  • Honest Conversation Is Overrated
  • Because You Politely Requested It
  • Popcorn Culture
  • Comically Obsessed
  • Justify Your Bookshelves
  • Submissions

The X-Men In Ten Seasons, Season 2: Fall Of The Mutants

10/6/2015

0 Comments

 
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 one introduced us to Claremont’s X-Men, a couple of whom were killed off, and introduced us to a slew of villains, but there wasn’t a Buffy The Vampire Slayer “Big Bad”. Well, welcome to season two, you’re about to get to know Mr. Sinister and The Marauders.
Picture
Season Two: Fall Of The Mutants
(showrunners: Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson)
Serial 1: X-Men Mutant Massacre
(written by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson, art by John Romita Jr, Rick Leonardi, Alan Davis, and Barry Windsor-Smith)

Because Claremont’s writing is so dense, and he was on the Uncanny X-Men book for so long, it’s tough to skip a chunk of continuity, but that’s what I’m doing. Luckily, Claremont waxes backstory that you’ll hardly notice the forty missing issues. Cough. So we start Season Two with Magneto as the headmaster at Xavier’s school. Storm has been depowered, there’s a new generation of X-Men called The New Mutants, and, as we learned in the interseason special, the original X-Men have started their own team called X-Factor which claims to be out hunting mutants, when, actually, they’re rescuing them. Well, all those teams, plus Thor and a group of kids called The Power Pack have to deal with The Marauders, a group of villains who have invaded The Morlock Tunnels and are killing mutants. All the heroes work (not necessarily together) to stop the threat, but there’s great costs (of course), and new X-Men join the team.


Morlock Massacre. 4 episodes




Episode 5: Fantastic Four Versus The X-Men
(written by Chris Claremont, art by John Bogdanove)
It really only takes one episode to tackle this mini-crossover where The FF and She-Hulk fly off to Muir Island to try and help The X-Men recover from Mutant Massacre, which has put four long time team members out of commission. The current lineup is initially excited that Reed Richards has come to help but when he experiences moment of self-doubt, Dr. Doom steps in to offer his assistance. This was the series that got me into X-Men comics, and I think it still very much holds up as one of their best stories.

Out Of Phase. 1 episode





Serial 2: Fall Of The Mutants Volume 1 & Fall Of The Mutants Volume 2
(written by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson, art by Marc Silvestri, Walt Simonson, and Bret Blevins)

This is a giant, non-intersecting, crossover where full-on madness takes place. Forge and Storm enter a realm of magic, X-Factor battles old friends and Apocalypse, the X-Men just might die, The New Mutants lose a team member on the island of…Bird Brain? Even The Hulk, Captain America, Daredevil, and The Power Pack are involved in yet another Everything Will Change storyline.


Fall Of The Mutants. 6 episodes





Serial 3: Excalibur Classic Volume 1
(written by Chris Claremont, art by Alan Davis)

We’re not going to get invested in Excalibur continuity because it was a beautifully weird book that is a fun read but isn’t essential to X-Men continuity. But the first book shows what happens when the X-Men who weren’t involved in Fall Of The Mutants (most of them were put out of commission during Mutant Massacre) .

Excalibur. 2 episodes



Serial 4: Inferno
(written by Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, and many more, art by many)

Another storyline that pulls in Daredevil, The New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, The Fantastic Four, and more. Madelyne Pryor is a teensy bit upset that her husband abandoned her, and, oh yea, sent their child into the future to save him from a virus that he probably got because his dad is a superputz. So she accepts demon powers and transforms New York into a Hell On Earth, even more so that it usually is. In the end, we learn Madelyne’s relation to Jean, and yadda yadda, not so happily ever after. Plus more Sinister & Marauders.


Inferno. 4 episodes




Serial 5: The X-Tinction Agenda
(written by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson, art by Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, John Bogdanove, and Guang Yap)

Eventually, we’ll pare down the amount of teams in a book, but here’s another All Mutant crossover. It turns out that X-Factor has been working for an evil dude this whole time. There’s an island where mutants are slaves and they’re hella mad at the X teams because of the events of a super complex (don’t read it if you don’t have to) storyline called Days Of Future Present. So the leader of Genosha kidnaps The New Mutants and Storm (who was de-aged….don’t worry about it) and all the X teams go to rescue them. This is the Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld era of X-Men so expect big guns and big muscles.

X-Tinction Agenda. 3 episodes



This puts season two at 20 episodes.



Interseason Special: The Muir Island Saga
(written by Chris Claremont, Fabien Nicenza, and Peter David, art by Paul Smith, Andy Kubert, Whilce Portacio, Kirk Jarvinen, and Steven Butler)

I’m going to stray from my Collections-Only policy, and tell you to track down five issues. They’ll be cheap, probably cheaper than new comic issues. Uncanny X-Men #278 & #279, X-Factor #69, Uncanny X-Men #280, and then X-Factor #70 make up The Muir Island Saga. Since the end of Fall of The Mutants, the X-Men have been less a team and more a series of former teammates on their own adventures. In these books, all the mutants are put back on the board and arranged into new teams. Professor X battling The Shadow King is the focus of this story but the purpose was to set up X-Men #1. the biggest selling comic of all-time.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    July 2022
    December 2021
    May 2020
    April 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2015
    October 2015
    October 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

    Subjects

    All
    Alan Davis
    Alan Grant
    Alfred
    Andy Diggle
    Aquaman
    Avengers
    Barbara Gordon
    Barry Windsor Smith
    Barry Windsor-Smith
    Batman
    Batmite
    Bizarro
    Black Panther
    Blockbuster
    Books Of Magic
    Boone
    Brian K Vaughan
    Brian Michael Bendis
    Brother Blood
    Brotherhood Of Evil
    Bryan Talbot
    Calendar Man
    Carmen Infantino
    Catwoman
    Chris Bachalo
    Chris Claremont
    Chuck Dixon
    Dan Didio
    Daniel Way
    Dan Slott
    Daredevil
    Darwyn Cooke
    Dave Gibbons
    Dave McKean
    David Mazzucchelli
    Deadman
    Deathstroke
    Dennis O'Neil
    Dick Grayson Robin
    Doug Mahnke
    Ed Brubaker
    Excalibur
    Fabien Nicieza
    Falcones
    Fantastic Four
    Francis Manapaul
    Frank Miller
    Frank Quitely
    Geoff Johns
    George Perez
    Grant Morrison
    Green Lantern
    Gregory Wright
    Greg Pak
    G Willow Wilson
    Harley Quinn
    Harvey Dent
    Hellblazer
    Hellboy
    Holiday
    Hugo Strange
    Jack Kirby
    James Robinson
    Jason Aaron
    Jason Todd Robin
    Jenny Noblesse
    Jeph Loeb
    Jh Williams Iii
    Jim Gordon
    Jj Birch
    J Michael Straczynski
    Joe Chill
    Joe Quesada
    John Byrne
    John Constantine
    John Romita JR
    Jonathan Hickman
    Joss Whedon
    Judd Winnick
    Julie Madison
    Keith Giffen
    Kelly Sue Deconnick
    Kieron Gillen
    Klaus Janson
    Kurt Busiek
    Leslie Thompkins
    Lex Luthor
    Louise Simonson
    Lucius Fox
    Man-bat
    Manga
    Mark Millar
    Mark Waid
    Marv Wolfman
    Matt Fraction
    Matt Wagner
    Mike Allred
    Mike Barr
    Mike Carey
    Mike Mignola
    Mindy Newell
    Mr. Freeze
    Mr. Whisper
    Neal Adams
    Neil Gaiman
    New Mutants
    Norman Madison
    Paul J Tomasi
    P Craig Russell
    Peter David
    Peter J Tomasi
    Poison Ivy
    Ras Al Ghul
    Rick Remender
    Robert Kirkman
    Ron Marz
    Roy Thomas
    Sal Maroni
    Sandman
    Shrike
    Solomon Grundy
    Stan Lee
    Superman
    Teen Titans
    The Flash
    The Joker
    The Killer Moth
    The Mad Hatter
    The Monk
    The Penguin
    The Reaper
    The Riddler
    The Scarecrow
    The Vigilante
    Tim Sale
    Todd Macfarlane
    Two Face
    Ultimate Universe
    Valiant Comics
    Venom
    Vertigo
    Warren Ellis
    Whilce Portacio
    Wonder Woman
    X-Factor
    X-Force
    X-Men
    Young Justice Cartoon

    RSS Feed

All work on the Crooked Treehouse is ©Adam Stone, except where indicated, and may not be reproduced without his permission. If you enjoy it, please consider giving to my Patreon account.
  • Tips From The Bar
  • Honest Conversation Is Overrated
  • Because You Politely Requested It
  • Popcorn Culture
  • Comically Obsessed
  • Justify Your Bookshelves
  • Submissions