THE X-MEN IN FIVE SEASONS WORTH READING, SEASON 3: Generation M

A few years ago, while working on the now defunct VeXed-Men website, I did a series of The X-Men in ten seasons, where I did some exhaustive reading, some skimming, some Wikipedia-ing, and some trips to the used book store that carries comics, and put together an exhaustive timeline of how to read the X-Men using pretty much all of the trade paperbacks that were then available.

Don't do that to yourself.

In the last few months, I've read nearly 150 X-Men and X-Men adjacent books including spin-off titles such as Cable, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Man, Generation X, Rogue, Wolverine, Wolverine & Gambit...if it has been collected into trade in the last fifteen years or so, I've read it and reviewed it on Goodreads, and it made me question why I ever even liked the X-Men.

For this project, I'm just going to condense it down to the books I enjoyed reading. There are going to be ten "episodes" per season, and it's going to lean heavily and more modern stories/collections because they're easier to access, and some of the writing techniques of the 60s, 70s, and 80s haven't aged well.  Season one took us from the original stories all the way through the Claremont run and beyond. This season is once again, mostly spinoffs, as the main titles at the time were beimng written by Chuck Austen, Peter Milligan, and Chris Claremont, three of the Worst Writers to ever work on the X-Books. I know, Claremont was also one of the best, but his 21st century X-books are akin to Jimi Hendrix coming back from the dead and swatting randomly at a keytar, and having record executives try and convince you he was still a genius. Except it's much worse than that. Don't punish yourself by picking up X-Treme X-Men, Uncanny X-Men The New Age, New Excalibur, or his runs on The Exiles. You don't deserve it.

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Season 3:
​Generation M

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Episode 1: Wolverine Ultimate Rucka
(Greg Rucka, Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernandez)

Wolverine is the most overyhyped at what he does, and what he does is feature in every X-team and spin-off, whilst also having two or three of his own titles, along with the occasional mini-series. Also, most of his work as a solo character is dreadful to read. Rucka puts him in a less-spandex scenario, as he tracks down human traffickers, while he's being pursued by an obsessed detective.  The first two storyarcs are excellent, and have some well-conceived Nightcrawler cameos. The third arc is Not Very Good, as Sabretooth and Yet Another Version Of Wolverine/Sabretooth/Feral/Wolfsbane/X-23/Wildchild/Lady Deathstrike/etc shows up, prompting a paint-by-numbers Weapon X story. It's a testament to how much I liked the first two stories that I am allowing the last third of the book to corrupt my list a bit.

If you enjoyed the first 2/3rds of this volume, check out Batwoman Elegy by  Rucka and JH Williams III. It's a beautiful standalone story in the Batman universe that I can safely recommend more than any book about Wolverine.


Episode 2: NYX Complete Collection
(Joe Quesada, Joshua Middleton, Rob Teranishi, Marjorie M. Liu, and Kalman Andrasofszky)

Last season we met X-23, a Wolverine clone who actually has an interesting backstory. In NYX, she, along with several other teenage mutants in District X, end up thrown into a series of unfortunate conflicts that would normally see The X-Men, Professor X, or one of the spin-off teams show up to help them out. But in this book, that never happens. A bunch of teenagers are left to their own devices, and, really, nothing ends up going their way.

Brian K Vaughan's Runaways also deals with super-powered teenagers not given the guidance of older superheroes, and it's a Must Read for fans of young adult superhero books.


Episode 3: X-Factor Madrox Multiple Choice
(Peter David, Pablo Raimondi)

A near-perfect noir tale following The Multiple Man, as he and some of his former X-Factor teammates (Siryn, Wolfsbane, and Strong Guy) are ensnared in a mafia love triangle by one of Madrox's rogue duplicates. Peter David's tweaking of Madrox's powers makes the character much more interesting than he was in any previous X-books, and David manages to mostly balance his Dad Joke humor with this complex character study.

The first twelve volumes of Peter David's X-Factor are pretty good. But you can stop reading there. Really. Stop. Don't do that to yourself.


Episode 4: Astonishing X-Men By Joss Whedon and John Cassaday Ultimate Collection Volume 1
(Joss Whedon, John Cassaday)

Marvel should use this book as a textbook for incoming X-writers. While the series eventually got bogged down a bit by overly-complex storylines, long-delayed issues, and editorial continuity problems, this first volume is a perfect quippy superhero book. It uses each of its characters with deliberation, it includes some backstory but mainly trusts its readers to figure out chracters' relationships, it reintroduces a dead character in a reasonable way, and it also introduces new villains who are challenging, but aren't The Most Powerful Villains The World Has Ever Seen. Whedon elevates one of the Academy X kids up to the main roster, and it works, which is not always the case. Also, Cassaday's art is cinematic and hypnotizing in the best way.

By all means, check out Ultimate Collection Volume 2. It's still good, it's just not *as* good as this volume.


Episode 5: Wolverine Enemy Of The State
(Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Kaare Andrews)

This book seemed tailor-made for me to hate it. This is around the tipping point where Millar's work started to irritate me. I'm not a fan of Romita Jr.'s art, and, as stated earlier, Wolverine solo books rarely interest me. This book, however, has every creator working to their strength in a story about what happens when Wolverine is corrupted. And while he is certainly the center of this volume, Enemy Of The State is more about how the Marvel Universe (not just the mutants, either, SHIELD and The Avengers play a big part in this) deals with an evil Wolverine. Romita Jr. gets to draw a bunch of full spread action shots, and technology-filled backgrounds, and does so with  a precision I haven't seen in most of his other work.

New X-Men Academy X : X-Posed includes Wolverine's rampage through the Xavier school through the lens of the students. On the whole, the collection isn't superb, but the crossover issue in the middle is perfect, and it's an otherwise fun look at the soap-opera that is the teenage mutant squads of Academy X.


Episode 6: Astonishing X-Men: Mystique Vol 3: Unnatural
(Sean McKeever, Manuel Garcia)

Time to check in with Charles Xavier's espionage agent, as Mystique and Shortpack try to dismantle a corporation that's using mutants as guinea pigs for drug testing.

There is another volume of McKeever's run on Mystique, and it ties up everything he and Brian K Vaughan set forth in the series, but it's my least favorite of the four volumes.


Episode 7: House Of M
(Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel)

Starting with Avengers Dissasembled, and feeding into the background of several other books, including the second volume of Excalibur, a story has unfolded about The Scarlet Witch losing her ability to control her powers. A series of traumas cause her to create an entirely different set of traumas for herself and her Avengers teammates. Eventually, Charles Xavier and Magneto (who never came back, destroyed New York City and died again, in this continuity) try and help her, but they're not strong enough. House Of M gives you the essentials for what you need to know before it gives every mutant their fondest desire in an alternate reality where mutants are the majority, and Magneto is one of the most powerful kings in the world. It's a much condensed anti-Age Of Apocalypse, and its ending changed the Marvel Universe in an immense way.

Avengers Disassembled is where Bendis starts this storyline, and it's worth the read, even if you're not completely familiar with the Avengers of the early 2000s.


Episode 8: House Of M World Of M Wolverine
(Daniel Way, Reginald Hudson, Brian Michael Bendis, and more)

Fleshing out the main story of House of M, this volume, like Enemy Of The State, focuses less on Wolverine, and more how heroes react when they believe Wolverine has gone rogue. The main character in the series is actually Mystique, Agent Of SHIELD, whose adventures line up quite a bit with the Mystique that works for Charles Xavier. It's got a few great twists, and shows you why Wolverine made a seemingly abrupt decision in the main House Of M book. The other stories in this volume are okay, but you can skip them for the purpose of this continuity.

Daniel Way is my favorite writer to ever work on Deadpool , and if you've ever been curious to read a book about the meta-assassin but didn't know where to begin, pick up Deadpool By Daniel Way Ultimate Collection Volume 1.


Episode 9: Decimation Generation M
(Paul Jenkins and Ramon Bachs)

Written from the perspective of a journalist who lost her mutant daughter to natural causes before the events of House Of M, this book seeks to discover why so many mutants were depowered, as the world at large has no memory of House Of M taking place. It's a much better way to check in with the depowered mutants than the main books which are Garbage Fire Bad. 

Decimation Mutopia X by  David Hine is also worth reading, as it first presents his District X story, in the context of House Of M, then has the cast dealing with the reprecussions when the world resets. 


Episode 10: New X-Men Childhood's End
(Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mark Brooks, Paul Pelletier)

Won't anyone think of the children? The Academy X storyline tends to fall on the melodramatic side of the X-books. Pre-House Of M, and during House Of M, the stories didn't really earn their melodrama. But the Childhood's End storyline has no qualms about killing off characters in droves, and leaving the survivors to figure out the consequences. It's a shame the books about the adults weren't as bold as this series.

.If you enjoy this, you can go back and check out the New X-Men Academy X books to get some backstory for the non X-Men characters.