X-Men Headcanon 13: Revanche

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.

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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.

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X-Force Assault On Graymalkin by Fabien Nicieza, Greg Capullo and Darick Robertson
X-Force: Cannonball, Sunspot, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Shatterstar, Feral, Warpath, Siryn
1st Appearances: Sluggo, Double Trouble
Also Featuring: Nick Fury, War Machine, Deadpool, Lila Cheney, Domino, Bridge, Grizzly, Hammer, Gideon, Saul, Val Cooper, Henry Gyrich, Crule, Yeti, Tigerstryke, Killjoy, Rusty, Skids, Copycat, Friends Of Humanity, Professor X, Trish Tilby

Like many of the other X-books around this time, this reads better if you've read everything before it. I haven't changed my opinion that you need to have a PhD in X-history to follow everything that's going. I'm just saying that since I got my degree, I had no problem following the plot. Nicieza even seems to be maturing as a writer here. He's still more of an 80's action movie scripter than a superhero comic writer but he included more interesting character development in this volume that I would previously have given him credit for.

If you love 90s X-Force books, this is perfectly fine. Otherwise, yea, it's messy and complicated, and not necessarily worth reading all the backstory to understand what's happening.

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Gambit Classic Vol 1 by Howard Mackie, Lee Weeks, and Klaus Janson
Also Featuring: Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Professor X, Gideon, Bella Donna

In the limited series, Gambit's family drama takes him away from the X-Men and back to New Orleans, and a small diversionary trip to Paris. There are some External plotlines, some Thieves vs Assassins drama, some characters back from the dead. It's all pretty standard 90s X-fare.

If you love Gambit, check this out. If you don't care about his life outside of the X-Men, there's nothing here you're going to enjoy.

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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.

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