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 three absolutely destroyed The Marvel Universe (don’t worry Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee came back to put it back together between seasons). Now we step away from Mr. Sinister (about time!) and the consequences of Professor X vs. Magneto, and deal with Apocalypse, who was pretty annoyed that I didn’t include the serial where they renamed the entire X-Men universe after him. Suck it up, Blue Boy, here’s your season. You have to share it with Magneto. Deal with it. Colossus & Cecelia Reyes art by Salvador Larocca Season Four: Legacy (Showrunner: Alan Davis) Serial 1: Magneto: Rogue Nation
(written by Alan Davis and Fabian Nicieza, art by Lee Weeks and Brandon Peterson) Since Professor X was wheeled out at the end of Onslaught, why not start this season with Magneto.. Look, everyone, especially the government has reasons to be afraid that Magneto is back, so….they give him Genosha.. But if this is Magneto, who’s that guy that looks like young Magneto and has all his powers? Also, it’s called Rogue Nation partly because everyone’s favorite sugah gets all cuddly with Mr. Purple Helmet (that’s not a good nickname). Rogue Nation. 3 episodes Serial 2: The Shattering, The Twelve, Ages Of Apocalypse (written by Alan Davis, Jay Faerber, Rob Jensen, Terry Kavanagh, Howard Mackie, Chris Claremont, Joe Pruett, Fabian Nicieza, Mike Raicht , and Karl Bollers, art by Adam Kubert, Brandon Peterson, Tom Raney, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Roger Cruz, and Bernard Chang) Since we missed out on The Age Of Apocalypse last season, let’s get to know Apocalypse through some good old fashioned team destroying as Death comes to the X-Men. In The Shattering we learn a lot of horrible things about every member of the team but only one of them is real. Only one of them IS DEATH (dun dun dunnnnnnn). Then Apocalypse sets out to kidnap a dozen X-Men for his evil scheme in X-Men Vs. Apocalypse: The Twelve. And the X-Men fight back in X-Men Vs. Apocalypse: Ages Of Apocalypse. The Twelve. 6 episodes Serial 3: Powerless (written by Alan Davis, Terry Kavanagh, Joseph Harris, Erik Larsen, and Joe Pruett, art by Tom Raney, Brett Booth, Steven Harris, Graham Nolan, and Juan Santacruz) The team has virtually no time to recuperate from their Apocalypse problems when they all find themselves Powerless. How will the mutants survive without any of their powers? Powerless. 2 episodes Serial 4: Counter X Volume 1, Volume 2 (written by Warren Ellis, art by Ian Edgington, Whilce Portacio, Ian Medina, Ariel Olivetti , and Enrique Breccia) Annnnnnnnnnnd then a not so brief detour into the X teams as written by Warren Ellis. In Counter X Volume 1, Ellis takes X-Force’s mercenary ways to the 2000 era limit as Pete Wisdom leads the team into battle in a much darker color palette than the 90s ever had. In Counter X Volume 2 he takes Generation X from school kids to teenagers rescuing mutants in serious danger. And he kills one of them. You know, for reals. Extreme X-Men. 3 episodes Serial 5: Dream’s End (written by Scott Lobdell, Joe Pruett, and Robert Weinberg , art by Salvador Larroca, Leinil Francis Yu, Tom Derenick, and Michael Ryan) Finally, the end to The Legacy Virus problem that’s been going on since season three. Spoiler alert: Someone dies. Totally permanently forever, I’m sure. Dream’s End. 3 episodes Serial 6: Eve Of Destruction (written by Scott Lobdell, with art by Salvador Larroca, Tom Raney, and Leinil Francis Yu) Then we cap off the season as some old faces return in the form of a new X-Men team that must rescue Professor X from Genosha (you know, the place that Magneto rules). Also, old X-Men faces return to rescue Professor X who aren’t currently official X-Men because that’s the kind of loyalty old Chuck inspires. Eve Of Destruction. 3 episodes Season 4 is 20 episodes. Interseason Special: X-Force Famous, Mutant & Mortal (written by Peter Milligan, art by Mike Allred and Darwyn Cooke) One of the great cliches of comics, and especially the X-Men, is when a team is touted as “all new” or “all different”. Apart from the Uncanny team being debuted in the 70s, the X-Men team may change rosters and add one or two new characters but, for the most part, they’re same old same old. This is not true for X-Force: Famous, Mutant & Mortal as Peter Milligan introduces all new characters and kills them seemingly indiscriminantly. It’s a really cool commentary on the reality television spectacle at the turn of the millennium starring a bunch of mutants who gain instant fame because they’re on TV. The art by Mike Allred and Darwyn Cooke was unlike any previous art on X-books. For about a decade, it was questionable whether this was even considered part of continuity but some of the survivors have popped back up in recent years. If you really like it, you can follow it up with X-Statix but it’s not quite as fun as this first run.
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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? 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. 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. Blame it on the Infinite Final Crisis On Infinite Multiple Earths. Blame it on Superman's tendency to spin the globe around whenever someone he loves dies. Blame it on the rain (that's what's fallin' fallin'). One of the major problems with a giant universe written and edited by hundreds of creators is that there's a whole mess of contradictions in comic timelines. Unfortunately for Year Two: Fear The Reaper, most of the stories it contradicts are more appealing.
This collection opens with Jim Gordon being named Commissioner of Gotham (don't get used to it Jim, you'll be back playing Captain? Lieutenant? Head groundskeeper? in the next collection), and publicly revealing (drum roll, please) The Bat Signal! Which, of course, we've already seen. There's a lot of familiar tropes in Mike Barr's story: Bruce Wayne falls in love with a girl whose father's life is intertwined with Batman's (see Batman & The Monster Men), her father turns out to be another vigilante in Gotham (see Blades), but this is a vigilante who's not afraid to kill (that hasn't come up yet, but it's not far off on the horizon), and the villain is connected to Batman's past. In fact, to take down The Reaper, Batman must cross Leslie Thompkins, Alfred, Commisioner (for the moment) Gordon, the Gotham City Police Department, and his past by teaming up with small time thug Joe Chill who (spoiler alert) KILLED HIS PARENTS. Bruce's love interest, Rachel Caspian,'s mother was killed by a masked murderer on the family's way home from the circus, which mirrors Bruce's childhood trauma in an almost aggressively forced way. By the end, of course, everyone realizes that Batman only teamed up with villains to take down a larger villain, and they forgive him. But the girl, of course, is traumatized by her father's death (see Batman & The Mad Monk), and decides to become a nun, instead of marrying Bruce. I realize this entry sounds a bit harsh. Some of the stories that I've referenced were written AFTER Year Two: Fear The Reaper, so I'm not trying to imply that Barr's work is derivative,it just doesn't hold up as well as the other stories. The writing is fine for a book written in 1987, but Frank Miller's Year One was written the same year, and it still holds up. There's also the issue of this collection being heavy handed with the family theme. Bruce's family in relation to other characters' families comes up again and again, and it's tough to make it feel fresh, but many writers did. Barr does not. The art here is also very telling of its era. The penciling duty goes back and forth between Alan Davis and Todd Macfarlane. There's a lot of eighties hair and some inconsistent experimentation with cross hatching in the Macfarlane issues. But while the art certainly screams 80s, it screams it in a good way. The follow-up story, Full Circle, also appears in this collection. This story is set a year or so later, and I recommend skipping it for now. I actually own Full Circle as its own collection, and have it placed in the appropriate chronological location on my bookshelf. But that's because I'm OCD. You can just come back to this book later. Story 2/5, Art 4/5 |
April 2024
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