Despite an epic moment in X-history: the wedding of Jean Grey and Cyclops, this is a solidly forgettable era of X-books. While The Legacy Virus looms in the background, we spend these volumes following Cable and the X-Force through a series of Fabien Nicieza anti-climaxes, and experiencing an actually entertaining storyline where we learn about Nightcrawler's family history while also seeing what happens when Sabretooth ends up at the X-Mansion.

I would absolutely read a collection that only included the Excalibur and X-Men Unlimited Nightcrawler stories and the Sabretooth parts of Uncanny X-Men (along with his first mini-series) but the way they're collected in these volumes includes a lot of dull stories that either don't lead anywhere or else don't have a humongous effect on any other titles.

None of these books made Headcanon, though The Wedding Of Cyclops & Jean Grey came fairly close.

​Bishop Mountjoy Crisis by Josh Ostrander and Carlos Pacheco
1st Appearances: Mountjoy
Also Featuring: Storm, Prof X, Gambit, Shard, Forge, Bantam, Psylocke, Angel

What should have been a story running in the background of X-Men: The Wedding of Cyclops & Phoenix, Mountjoy Crisis sees yet another time traveler from Bishop's future flung into the current X-timeline to wreak havoc.

Theoretically, this expands on Bishop's origins and gives his character more depth but there isn't really anything interesting to add from this collection. It's told well, there just isn't really a full story's worth of plot here. Certainly not four issues worth.

Ostrander is a decent storyteller and Carlos Pacheco's art is better than most of the ongoing titled, so it's a shame there isn't enough story to make this worth the read.

​Excalibur Epic Days Of Future Yet To Come by Scott Lobdell, Dan Slott, Evan Skolnik, Richard Ashford, Steve Buccellato, Ken Lashley, Terry Shoemaker
Excalibur: Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers, Meggan, Cerise, Kylun, Micromax, Feron
Also Featuring: Corsair, Hepzibah, Raza, Ch'od, Lilandra, Fang, Gamesmaster, Moira MacTaggert, Siena Blaze, Ahab, Spoor, Mr Sinister, Amanda Sefton, Captain Britain, Mystique, Graydon Creed, Rogue, Forge, D'spayre, Margali Szardos, Zero

(I reviewed issues #59-67 as Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis, Vol. 3, I read #68-77 in issues)

I struggle to think of many positives to this run on Excalibur. As someone who was already not a fan of the series, the constant shifting of a team I didn't really care about gave me a bit of motion sickness. Characters I didn't like or care about were given dramatic sendoffs, and then, remarkably, not replaced until the team dwindled down to a bare bones ancillary X-Men team.

Once that happened, I actually started enjoying the book. I don't imagine that's the case with the people who loved Excalibur up until this point but, for me, a team of Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Rachel Summers trying to figure out their places in the X-Men universe was way more interesting than shifting through magic and fairy-themed alternate universes.

The highlight for me was the issue where Nightcrawler joins up with Rogue to learn more about his parents. This is connected to a storyline in Sabretooth, and feeds into another storyline in the X-Men. This is the type of story I connect to more than A Bedpost With A Face Gains Sentience And Chews Through Barriers Between Worlds, Some Featuring Nazi Versions Of Heroes. If the latter sounds awesome to you, then you're a better match for Excalibur than I am.

By the end of the story, (view spoiler) it seems like we're going to get a new status quo with a team more similar to the original Excalibur lineup than the trio we focus on at the end of this volume.

We also get a peek at a villain who's going to be an important part of the next X-Force story.

X-Force Child's Play by Fabien Nicieza, Jim Kreuger, Tony S Daniel, Darick Robertson, Paul Pelletier, Mike Weiringo, Brandon McKinney, and Arnie Jorgensen
X-Force: Cable, Cannonball, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Shatterstar, Warpath, Domino, Siryn
New Warriors: Thrash, Justice, Nova, Firestar, Kymaera, Speedball, Rage, Silhouette
​Also Featuring: Gamesmaster, Siena Blaze, Magma, Empath, Dani Moonstar, Husk, Icarus, Trevor Fitzroy, Shinobi Shaw, Graydon Creed, Fenris, Mantek, Forge, Banshee, Nimrod, Apocalypse, Saul, Gideon, Feral, Forearm, Wildside, Jade Dragon, Collective Man, Reignfire

Fabien Nicieza's plots are usually inconsistent and tenuous. The first half of this collection is a focused storyline. Unfortunately for me, as a reader, it also heavily features another of Nicieza's teams, The New Warriors, who I'm not very familiar with, and who aren't very interesting in this volume.

The overall plot of the first half, that The Gamesmaster and The Upstarts have set a contest to kill all the original members of The New Mutants and The Hellions is interesting. Unfortunately, like most Nicieza stories, it doesn't really end so much as fizzle out. There's no satisfying comeuppance but also no cliffhangers for any future storylines, it just sort of ends, mostly off-panel.

The rest of the book is short stories about Nimrod, the Mutant Liberation Front, and the Externals. None of them are terrible but none of them are conclusive, either. Once again, Nicieza introduces some intriguing ideas and then gets distracted and the stories just end so we can move on to the next idea.

I think you have to be a die-hard fan to enjoy the main Child's Play Story and/or the annual issue, which focuses on the Mutant Liberation Front. The rest of the stories in this volume are forgettable no matter how much you love X-Force continuity. There just isn't enough in this volume to care about ever reading it again.​

11. X-Factor Epic X-Aminations by Peter David, Scott Lobdell, Skip Dietz, JD DeMatteis, Shana David, Joe Quesada, Jae Lee, Chris Batista, Buzz, Jan Duursema, Terry Shoemaker, Paul Ryan, Greg Luzniak, & Cliff Van Meter
X-Factor: Havoc, Polaris, Rahne, Quicksilver, Madrox, Strong Guy, Val Cooper, Forge
​1st Appearances: Haven, Monsoon
Also Featuring: Doc Samson, Random, Trish Tilby, Moira MacTaggert, Crystal, Prodigal, Amelia Voght, Unuscione, Katu, Colossus, Milan, Frenzy, Scanner, Kleinstock Bros, Rusty, Skids, Spoor, Sentinels, Robert Kelly, Cortez, Archangel, Icaman, Colossus, Cyclops, Prof X,  Lila Cheny

I'm skipping the X-Cutioner's Song issues in this volume because I already talked about them when reviewing X-Men: X-Cutioner's Song.

The next issue is the story the collection takes its name from. It's part of David's farewell storyarc, and it's fantastic. It's each of the members of the team meeting with psychiatrist and Hulk antagonist, Doc Samson and trying to work out their benefits/problems with being part of X-Factor. It's a very twenty-first century issue but it came out in the early 90s.

The team's trip to Genosha ends up adding a fascinating angle to the Havoc/Rahne issue as well as introducing the team to The Legacy Virus, which is going to ravage the X-portion of the Marvel Universe for years. We even see the introduction of a questionable guru character whose motivations and behaviors don't precisely align, as well as some inner-team turmoil when there's a possible betrayal.

This is just a really solid collection of stories, especially if you skip the X-Cutioner's stuff. Nothing against the overall X-cutioner's story, it's a decent crossover but you only get three non-consecutive portions of it here which makes for a choppy and unsatisfying read. Otherwise, this is a must-have for Peter David fans while also being a decent primer for Scott Lobdell who does his best to keep David's charm while also adding his own ideas into the story.

Cable Classic Vol 2 by Fabien Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, Glenn Herdling, Darick Rbertson, Dwayne Turner, Aron Wisenfeld, MC Wyman, Mike Miller, & Steve Skroce
Also Featuring: Cannonball, Siryn, Sinsear, Zero, Domino, Mr Sinister, Askani, Tolliver, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Prof X, Kitty Pryfe, Rachel Summers, Moira MacTaggert, Omega Red, Amelia Voght, Unuscione, Katu, Colossus, Milan, Frenzy, Scanner, Kleinstock Bros, Rusty, Skids, Lee Forrester, Senyaka, D'spayre, Belasco, S'ym

It's impressive that this book ends up falling victim to The Law Of Diminishing Returns given how terrible it begins.

This is just a hodge-podge of half baked continuity ideas in a desperate attempt to make Cable seem interesting. It's a shame because Cable was interesting the moment that Louise Simonson introduced him. The idea of a time traveling military-styled leader of a generation of mutants is cool. The idea of him being the son that Cyclops had to send into the future to save him from a technovirus is also cool. But Nicieza's story about Cable being a clone of a villain or maybe the villain is a clone of him or maybe the moon is a potato clone of a dinosaur in chili sauce blah blah blah.

Nicieza strikes me as someone who has never, in their life, completed a sentence. His ideas constantly shift, and they seem interesting on the surface but there's rarely any depth to them.

He was sort of Vince Russo before Vince Russo was Vince Russo.

This story is a mess. There's no reason to read it. Every time an interesting idea shows up (Lee Forrester is somehow back in the X-narrative?) it's squandered by bad 80's action dialogue (in a 90s book) and an aimless plot that doesn't take you to any of the potentially interesting destinations promised by the premise.

If you love Cable, I guess you might like this. Otherwise, there's no real reason to bother with this.

Deadpool Classic Vol 1 by Fabien Nicieza, Rob Liefeld, Mark Waid, Joe Kelly, Joe Madureira, Ian Churchill, Lee Weeks, Ken Lashley, and Ed McGuinness
1st Appearances: Slayback, Blind Al, T-Ray
​Also Featuring: Kane, Weasel, Copycat, Juggernaut, Black Tom, Banshee, Siryn, Sluggo, Sasquatch, Expediter

Deadpool is as divisive a character in the comics as he is a beloved character in the Marvel movie franchise. It takes a really gifted writer with a particular turn of phrase to make Deadpool funny. Fabien Nicieza was never going to be that writer. And Mark Waid, one of my favorite superhero comic writers wasn't up to the task, either.

While the comics in this issue aren't precisely terrible, they're just not very engaging. Whether it's Nicieza drowning anything interesting with the stupid Tolliver/Cable-adjacent storylines, or Waid's barely passable Juggernaut and the Cassiday family drama, I found myself waiting for this collection to be over, rather than hoping to see where it went.

The jokes are mostly flat ginger ale. The pop culture references pick up a little at the end with Joe Kelly's issue but it still felt like an underwhelming beginning to Mr. Wade Ryan Bea Arthur Chimichanga Reynolds Wilson.

I know the books get better because I've read them all before but I'm not sure I would have kept reading them if I'd started at the beginning. If you really love Deadpool and want to see his early appearances, I don't think this book is going to make you hate him, it's just not on-par with later volumes.

Wolverine Epic Inner Fury by Larry Hama, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, Mark Texeira, and Dwayne Turner
1st Appearances: Tribune
​Also Featuring: Jubilee, Rogue, Sauron, Sabretooth, Psi-Borg, Birdy, Mystique

Apart from a very eventful issue that's also contained in Fatal Attractions, this is a collection of dull Wolverine stories that add nothing of interest to the character nor are they particularly fun or intriguing.
I don't know why it's impossible to tell an interesting story in The Savage Land but it is. I feel like the writers who enjoy writing about The Savage Land eat a lot of Corn Flakes and think black pepper is a bold spice choice.

Sauron should be an interesting character but his ties to the Savage Land make him a half-note dud.

There's also some Jubilee background that I didn't need. I enjoy that we saw her in a mall scene, and then she followed a band of mutants to Australia, and was like "I'm going to hang out with Wolverine until they make me an X-Man." It makes her teenage aloofness/rebellion tenable when we only know the bare bones of her tragic backstory. I didn't need it explained upon. It isn't as disappointing as when they finally revealed Wolverine's origin but I do think it devalues her story rather than improving it.

Sabretooth James Bond is a silly concept that doesn't work very well but it does include a ton of continuity points that are going to show up in various X-books including a pivotal Nightcrawler story in Excalibur.

There are also some trite one-shots, including an environmental story that I believe was written and drawn by children.
​
This is a hard pass for me. The only moderately interesting story is a collected in another trade. If you're not a completist, there's no reason for this to take up real estate on your bookshelf.

12. X-Men Fatal Attractions by Scott Lobdell, JM DeMatteis, Fabien Nicieza, Larry Hama, Joe Quesada, Brandon Peterson, John Romita Jr, Richard Bennett, Greg Capullo, Jan Duuresma, Andy Kubert, Adam Kubert, Ken Lashley, Roger Cruz, Cliff Van Meter, Jae Lee, Chris Sprouse, Paul Smith, Darick Robertson, & Matt Ryan
X-Men: Prof X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Iceman, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Pylocke, Revanche, Jubilee, Gambit, Bishop
X-Factor: Val Cooper, Havoc, Quicksilver, Polaris, Madrox, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, Random
X-Force: Cable, Cannonball, Sunspot, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Shatterstar, Feral, Warpath, Siryn
​Excalibur:Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers
1st Appearances: Exodus, Kleinstock, Neophyte, Spoor, Milan, Seamus Melloncamp, Empyrean
Also Featuring: Magneto, Colossus, Forge, Moira Mactaggert, Banshee, Magick, Reed Richards, Thing, Captain Britain, Sunfire, Fabien Cortez, Frenzy, Unuscione, Amelia Voght, Sanyaka, Trevor Fitzroy, Shinobi Shaw, Gamesmaster, Tribune, Toad, Blob, Pyro, Phantazia, Gabrielle Haller, Charlotte Jones, Trish Tilby, Robert Kelly, Sharon Friedlander, Tom Corsi, Lilandra

As you might guess by the volume of names above, this is a messy mega-crossover. While it has one excellent issue, and a couple of very important plot points for many future storylines, I have a difficult time recommending this. Mostly because it pivots around Magneto being a villain again. Yes, Magneto started as a villain, but he evolved into an anti-hero, an actual hero, and then into the murky era of being an opponent to the X-Men for a very valid reason that didn't cast him precisely as a villain. And then he died, fairly heroically. So to bring him back as a villain again felt really tacky, lazy, and not very believable.

I've grown to like Scott Lobdell's books more than I thought I did, and I do think he tells some compelling stories in this volume, but the conceit of Magneto being a villain just doesn't work for me.

There is a death, from The Legacy Virus, in this volume that was devastating when the issue was written, and it's devastating now. The story of grief from the perspective of Jubilee, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde is possibly Lobdell's best comic. It's certainly the best Jubilee story I can think of.

But then we have a character I most remember from The Age Of Apocalypse (which hasn't happened yet), Magneto and his Acolytes, a couple of minor but recurring character deaths, and a huge Wolverine moment.

So, I think I'm going to begrudgingly put this volume as a recommendation with the caveat that there's a lot of material, and not all of it is great, but all of it does feed into the major storylines, and it does make sense. We're about to enter an era of X-Men where most logic goes out the window, so I guess you should check out this, as one of the last bastions of decent, if complex and sometimes annoying, X-books before that era begins.

Avengers/X-Men Bloodties by Bob Harras, Scot Lobdell, Fabien Nicieza, Roy Thomas, Jan Duursema, Steve Epting, Andy Kubert, John Romita Jr, and Dave Ross
Avengers/West Coast Avengers: Captain America, Black Widow, Black Knight, Crystal, Darkhawk, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, US Agent, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hercules, Sersi
X-Men: Prof X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Storm, Rogue, Revanche, Gambit, Bishop
1st Appearances: Renee Majcomb
Also Featuring: Magneto, Quicksilver, Colossus, Nick Fury, Peter Gyrich, Exodus, Fabien Cortez, Luna, Jenny Ransome, Trish Tilby

Another messy crossover. This one is mercilessly shorter but has a ton of plotholes and doesn't really enrich the X-Men's storyline. I can't say for sure about the Avengers storyline, as I'm not super familiar with the 90s Avengers & West Coast titles.

The weirdest plothole is that there is a very tight team of specific X-Men throughout this story. They go to Genosha to stop Magneto's Acolytes, as well as some rogue mutates, and then in the middle of a battle Angel and Revanche are just there, even though they did not accompany the X-Men to Genosha, nor were they already there. I think there was just a miscommunication between writers.

I also couldn't keep track of all the Avengers characters.

This is mainly the story of Acolytes wreaking havoc in Genosha and kidnapping Quicksilver and Crystal's daughter, Luna. This continues some of the fracturing of The Acolytes that we saw in the previous volume. It doesn't really have much of a bearing on future X-stories other than further connecting Genosha with Magneto, who is still suffering the effects of Fatal Attractions for the entirety of this volume.

I do not recommend it unless you're an Avengers/X-Men/Acolytes/or Genosha completist.

The end of X-Cutioner's Song is the beginning of a several year long era where the X-Men learn of, are effected by and must figure out how to overcome The Legacy Virus, a fatal disease with the impact of AIDS but nobody quite knows how it's spread.

Stories involving the Legacy virus have varying degrees of impact. At this early stage in their understanding of the disease, it's more of a concern than a tragedy.

Apart from the quirky but intriguing Skinner Of Souls storyline, this is a pretty tepid, wheel-spinning section of the X-Men Universe. It is almost entirely skippable, although the X-Force Assault On Graymalkin is fun if you're invested in the Cable/Cannonball/Sunspot storyline.

As usual, anything boldfaced represents a highly recommended book that I include in my actual headcanon.

Excalibur Epic Days Of Futures Yet To Come by Scott Lobdell, Alan Davis, Skott Collins, Mark Farmer
Excalibur: Captain Britain, Meggan, Kitty Pryde,  Nightcrawler, Cerise, Kylun, Micromax, Feron
Also Featuring: Black Panther, Captain America, War Machine,  Widget, Knight Errant, Galactus, Alysdar Stuart, Death, Roma, Saturnyne, Ahab, Sentinels

This book is split pretty evenly between an Alan Davis storyline, and some Scott Lobdell stories. Weirdly, it begins with Lobdell for two issues that take place in Wakanda and attempt to make the title feel more like an X-Men book, then we return to Alan Davis playing Chris Claremont's whackity-schmackity-doo, ain't-I-zany stories, and finally Lobdell returns and we're back to trying to tie stories into X-continuity.

While I'm not usually a Lobdell fan, I do enjoy his work on this title more than Davis's. So far, no writer has been talented enough to make me care about Widget and the magic/dimension-hopping shenanigans of Captain Britain and friends. I think Tini Howard is very talented but I still found her run on Excalibur a snooze. The Wakanda storyline was, for an early 90s superhero book, a progressive story that toyed with tropes in a way that felt like it was from the early 2000s.

If you're a fan of Alan Davis's work, you might love this. While I do enjoy his art, I'm not a fan of his writing so this wasn't for me. Lobdell fans will be disappointed that after the second issue the story goes in a wildly different direction, even though it seemed like Lobdell was setting up some interesting threads before Davis's return, and then introducing even newer ideas when he returned to the title.

10. X-Men Skinning Of Souls by Scott Lobdell, Fabien Nicieza, Dan Slott, Andy Kubert, Brandon Petersin, Richard Bennett, Eliot R Brown, Kris Renkewitz, Henry Flint, Steve Alexandrov, and Darick Robertson
X-Men Blue: Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee
1st Appearances: Revanche
Also Featuring: Jean Grey, Iceman, Storm, Darkstar, Magik, Omega Red, Shinobi Shaw, Matsuo, Silver Samurai, Psynapse, Foxbat, Gauntlet, Tusk, Barrage, Mesmero, Banshee, Moira MacTaggert

After the team goes to Russia to deliver bad news to Colossus's family, bad news is delivered to them in the form of a mutant who has time-locked a town and enslaved Omega Red. This is followed by some nifty continuity tweaks explaining some characters' backgrounds and setting the stage for the complicated future that awaits everyone courtesy of The Legacy Virus.

Cable Classic Vol 1 by Fabien Nicieza, Art Thibert, Ron Lim, Paul Smith, Klaus Janson, Brandon Peterson, Kerry Gammil, Ian Churchill, Paul Ryan, Bill Wylie, Jim Reddington, Rob Liefeld, and Scott Koblish

Debut: Sinsear, Weasel

Featuring: Kane, Hammer, Bridge, Grizzly, Vanessa, Domino

The first four issues of Cable, are really the story of his sometimes sidekick/sometimes antagonist Kane who Cable rescued to the future. We follow his adventures in the future with Cable's dull team of cliche warriors, who somehow manage to be less interesting than his team of cliche warriors from Cable: Blood and Metal, until Cable shows up and we get returned to the "present" portion of the timeline.

It's all fine. The plot is predictable, none of the characters besides Cable, Domino, and Vanessa, are particularly interesting. I also find the "mystery" of Tolliver's identity that runs through Cable, X-Force, and Deadpool fairly tedious.

If you love Cable or Kane, and really want to see one of the many futures they exist in, this is worth picking up. It's never terrible. It's just never very interesting either.