X-Men Headcanon 16: Generation X

This is a very focused, if not very good, section of the X-Men readthrough. The first three collections focus on trying to untangle the Summer Family Tree by first sending Rachel Summers into a new future, then having her pull Jean Grey and Cyclops in, so that they can raise Cable, then showing us Jean Grey and Cyclops traveling back in time to interfere in the origin of Mr. Sinister, and wrapping the whole time travel angle up by showing us a bit more of Cable growing up after his parents and sister are removed from his life.

The second half of this era shows unusual X-Men teams battling The Phalanx, leading to the introduction of the fourth Generation of X-Men: Generation X. This is a bit more straightforward and entertaining than the first half, except when, in the midst of a Phalanx battle, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Cable, and Wolverine end up having to take the entire time traveling saga and having all the characters figure out how that impacts their lives in this timeline. It's clumsy as all hell, and distracting from an otherwise fun story.

The title in Boldface is something I consider Headcanon, meaning that if you're only going to read, say forty(?) of the over 500 X-books, this one should be on your list.

X-Men Phoenix by John Francis Moore, Pascal Alix, and Alan Evans
1st Appearances: Ch'Vayre
Also Featuring: Apocalypse

If Marvel editorial really wanted people to get the full story of the Summers family's time traveling adventures in a sensible order, they would release a collection that began with Phoenix, then had The Adventures Of Cyclops & Phoenix, followed by the Further Adventures Of Cyclops & Phoenix, and ending with Askani'Son. Four underwhelming time travel stories that attempt to make sense of Rachel Summers, Cable, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, and how they fit into Cyclops & Jean Grey's family history.

The Phoenix story picks up after Rachel disappears from Excalibur, introduces us to Ch'Vayre, who's going to pop up in two of the other three chapters of this story, and tosses in Apocalypse for a humdrum future timeline story. We also meet other characters who we know not to get attached to because this is just a setup story designed to let us know how Phoenix becomes Mother Askani. It does a real disservice to Apocalypse who's supposed to be being setup as this time conquering super-villain but who comes off as one of those weak 1960s punching bag villains. It's really difficult to imagine this version of Apocalypse becoming the focal point of X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse Epic, Book 1.

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X-Men Cyclops And Phoenix Past & Future by Scott Lobdell, Tom DeFalco, Peter Milligan, Gene Ha, Kyle Hotz, and John Paul Leon
Askani Tribe: Cyclops (aka Slym), Jean Grey (aka Redd), Cable (aka Nathan Dayspring), and Rachel Summers (aka Mother Askani)
Also Featuring: Ch'Vayre, Apocalypse, Stryfe, Jubilee, Mr. Sinister

I remember reading comics when this book was coming out, and seeing "see Cyclops & Phoenix limited series #1" and wondering if the Cyclops and Phoenix go into the future to raise Cable story would be interesting. There is a ton of story potential, and I knew nothing about it.

Twenty years later, when Cable went into the future to raise The First Mutant Born After Decimation, I remember thinking "I wonder if this is anything like that old Cyclops and Phoenix story. Maybe the whole thing is a cool homage."

No, Cable time traveling in the future to raise Hope was am interesting storyline, where they gave us new glimpses of characters' personalities, and seemed to be having fun writing an adventure story.

Cyclops & Phoenix in the future is a dull slog. While it's interesting to see what happened to Rachel Summers after she disappeared in Excalibur, the main plot of Cyclops & Phoenix in the future doesn't add anything to their lore, Apocalypse's lore, or the Ch'Vayre who we initially meet in X-Men: Phoenix #1. Really, the only interesting thing is finding out that Rachel is Mother Askani, which...ehh.

The second half of the book, where Cyclops & Jean end up in the past where Nathan Essex is slowly evolving into Mr. Sinister is also a slow-moving, uninteresting story which manages to add things to Sinister's lore that just don't make the character any more exciting. He had a sick wife? Ok. His kid died? Sure. He knew Charles Darwin? What is their relationship? Oh, they argue a couple of times when it's convenient for the plot but otherwise don't have a relationship? I guess that's fine.

The best part of the Mr. Sinister story is John Paul Leon's art, which evokes Mike Mignola in the best possible ways.

Overall, though, unless you're a completist, this is a completely skippable pair of side stories.​​

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Askanison by Scott Lobdell, Jeff Loeb, and Gene Ha
Starring Cable (as Nathan Dayspring)
1st Appearances: Blaquesmith
​Also Featuring: Apocalypse, Ch'vayre, Stryfe, Zero

Askani'Son isn't much better than the other time traveling tales. Lobdell tries to cram so much exposition in this story that there's no room for the plot to breathe or for any of the characters to do anything but move from Point whY to Point Zzzzzzz.

Much like The Adventures Of Cyclops And Jean Grey Past & Future, this is a completely skippable side story that drains the energy of the larger X-Men story rather than giving us a new and exciting lore..

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X-Men/Excalibur Road To Phalanx Covenant by Scott Lobdell, Chris Cooper, Richard Ashford, Eric Fein, Kim Yale, John Royle, Ken Lashley, Amanda Conner, Klebs Jr, Paul Abrams, Daerrick Gross, Hannibal King, Yancy Labat, John Romita Jr, Lee Weeks, and Joe Madureira
Excalibur: Moira MacTaggert, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Captain Britain, Meggan, Ahab, Douglock
X-Men: Prof X, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Storm, Banshee, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit, Forge, Bishop
Also Featuring: Zero, Jamie Braddock, Amanda Sefton, Selene, Yukio, Emma Frost

​This is a review of a Trade Paperback Collection That Doesn't Exist But Should. X-Men/Excalibur: Road To The Phalanx Covenant featuring Excalibur #78-81 and Annual #2 & Uncanny X-Men #311-315.

At the end of Excalibur #77, we get two pages of story that show Zero, a weapon left behind by Stryfe after X-Cutioner's song is on a mission of repair when we see a fusion of two dead New Mutants, Warlock and Doug Ramsey, seemingly fused into a new creature called Douglock.

Issues #78-81 mainly focus on a pedestrian, poorly paced story about Zero and Douglock trying to Pinocchio into real boys while being doubted by Kitty Pryde and the newish form of Captain Britain. I can see why the story hasn't been collected, as it's not on-par with Lobdell's other work from the era. It does however feed into the Phalanx story which is big enough that it introduces a whole new X-team soon.

Uncanny X-Men #311-315 mainly focuses Storm, Yukio, and Gambit crossing paths with Phalanx in New York and struggling to find its weaknesses. We learn that a few previous villains have merged with The Phalanx and that they are concerned that Douglock doesn't seem to be falling in line with their plans. This is also not Lobdell's best work but is a bit better. We also see Sabretooth briefly loose, get some more character time with Bishop, and we see how The White Queen adapts when she inhabits Iceman's body and learns to use his powers in ways he hadn't before. This is also not necessarily Essential X-reading but I am surprised it hasn't been collected in some form.

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The Origin Or Generation X by Scott Lobdell, Fabien Nicieza, Larry Hama, Todd Dezago, Joe Madureira. Andy Kubert, Jan Duursema, Roger Cruz, Ken Lahley, Steven Epting, Tony S Daniel, Adam Kubert, and Steve Skroce
X-Men: Banshee, Jubilee, Emma Frost, Sabretooth
Excalibur: Prof X, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Meggan, Captain Britain, Moira MacTaggert, Douglock, Amanda Sefton (as Daytripper)
X-Factor: Forge, Havoc, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy
​X-Force: Cannonball, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Warpath, Shatterstar, Siryn
Generation X: Monet, Husk, Blink, Skin, Synch
Also Featuring: Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine, Cable, Beast, Storm, Bishop, The Phalanx, Cameron Hodge, Steven Lang

The beginning of this origin story for Generation X is really intriguing. All of Lobdell's issues in this collection are above-average X-Men stories about specific characters in the X-Men franchise trying to deal with a crisis where technology is evolving to kill them. They're well-paced, introduce the characters who will become Generation X, and are really fun to read.

Fabien Nicieza's issues aren't quite as good but they're ok. He crams in too many characters and they get a bit disjointed but they're still recognizably part of the overall story and have some fun moments.

Larry Hama's issues are unreadable garbage by a writer who wasn't up to the assignment of working on this crossover. In addition to dealing with the Phalanx storyline, he also tries to work in all of the time-hopping Summers family adventures which he does clumsily and unnecessarily.

The first few issues had me thinking I was going to put this into the X-Men headcanon but it really goes too far off the rails during the Hama issues for me to recommend this to anyone.

I'm not including the final issue in this collection (Generation X #1) because it also appears in the next book.

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​13. Generation X Classic Vol 1 by Scott Lobdell, Fabien Nicieza, Joe Madureira, Roger Cruz, Andy Kubert, and Chris Bachalo
X-Men: Banshee, Jubilee, Emma Frost, Sabretooth
Generation X: Banshee, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Husk, Sync, Monet, Skin, Blink, Chamber
1st Appearances: Penance, Emplate, DOA
Also Featuring: Prof X, Jean Grey, Cameron Hodge, Steven Lang, Beast, Cyclops, Bishop, Angel, Iceman, Gateway, Nanny, Orphan Maker

I mentioned that there were some really good issues in The Origin Of Generation X that were bogged down by some terrible ones. While this collection doesn't have all of the good issues from that volume, it has most of them, and none of the bad ones. So you get an intriguing X-Men storyline about the Phalanx that becomes the origin story for X-Men Gen 4 (Gen 1 is the original team, Gen 2 is the Uncanny Team from the 80s, and Gen 3 is New Mutants/X-Force).

The adventure for How The Team Comes Together is fun, and once the actual Generation X story gets started, we get to see a nice evolution in how mutant teams exist. This isn't gorgeous Jean Grey the psychic and telekinetic with her nerdy suck-up boyfriend, the athletic Cyclops. There's no bouncing gymnast with snappy patter who is ostracized because he has big feet. Nobody looks like an angel, and nobody looks like a regular teen until he turns on his ice powers. When Paige is injured, she has to peel off her skin to reveal a new, uninjured body. Angelo's body has too much skin. And while Monet, Jubilee, and Everett look like normal teens, Jonathan appears to have a nuclear furnace where most people has a face, and the girl known only as Penance has a razor sharp body, not cool claws that they can push in and out of their skin like Wolverine, her whole body is razor sharp. It's basically a team of Nightcrawlers, in that they can't really hide that they're mutants.

In their first set of storylines, they battle the parasitic Emplate, they have to figure out how to interact with one of Emplate's non-verbal victims, Penance, and then they're sent to rescue a mutant teen who's taken a class hostage because the school kicked him out. His powers? He doesn't have any. He's just physically deformed and has trouble breathing. But he's treated like he's a violent criminal who the police assume is bulletproof because he's a mutant.

Despite a lackluster ending (The Holiday Spectacular is slightly holidayish but not at all spectacular), this is a worthy volume for my headcanon as we get to see a new team get together and we see new sides of Banshee and Emma Frost, who serve as the heads of the new Massachusetts Academy (you know, the school where Emma Frost was training The Hellions until she fell into a coma and most of her team died). The only negative caveat I have for this book is that if you really like the series, you should know that most of it hasn't yet been collected into trades. 

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