"X-Men: Mutant Genesis"

 

            The following is a review for the graphic novel “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” by Fabian Nicieza, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio Chris Claremont, & Peter David with Len Kaminski, as collected in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men are a team of mutants, those born with a genetic anomaly that grants them powers beyond those of ordinary humans. They were gathered by telepath Professor Charles Xavier, who dreams of peaceful coexistence between mutants and baseline humans. The X-Men pledge to try to make this dream a reality. The roster has changed many times over the years. The original X-Men reunited many years after leaving the X-Men to create X-Factor. Professor Xavier founded the New Mutants after the presumed deaths of the X-Men, but the New Mutants left Charles Xavier’s tutelage to study under the mutant Cable to become X-Force.

In Kuwait City, Freedom Force (formerly the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now government agents) is assigned to transfer German physicist Reinhold Kurtzmann from a resistance safe house to allied forces and not allow the Iraqis to get him. This transfer is interrupted by a super powered Iraqi team calling themselves Desert Sword.

            The terrorist organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) schemed to recreate Proteus, a powerful reality warping mutant who the X-Men vanquished several years past. To that end, A.I.M. hired mutant mercenaries Harness and Piecemeal. Superhero team the New Warriors and X-Force traveled to Muir Island, home of the original Proteus’ mother, geneticist Doctor Moira MacTaggert to warn her of the plan, but Moira had been possessed by the psychic mutant entity, the Shadow King. Moira has her assistants Multiple Man, Siryn, Legion and Polaris intercept the two arriving teams. A skirmish ensues, and all parties fail to prevent Piecemeal from merging with Kevin MacTaggert’s essence and resurrecting Proteus. The New Warriors and X-Force are able to contact X-Factor to help defeat Proteus once and for all. Meanwhile evil mutants Toad and Gideon literally play a game of chess, plotting against the mutant heroes in the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force.

            X-Factor’s greatest nemesis, evil mutant En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse resurfaces and uses X-Factor’s sentient headquarters, Ship, in an all-out assault upon Manhattan. X-Factor teams up with fellow super hero teams the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. X-Factor arrives on the moon and teams up with the Inhumans, a race of super beings created long ago by the alien race, the Kree. Apocalypse abducts X-Factor leader Scott Summers/Cyclops’ infant son Nathan Christopher and infects him with a techno-organic virus that the present has no cure for, and Cyclops made the difficult decision of sending Nathan with the mysterious mutant the Askani, Nathan’s only hope for survival, with the possibility Cyclops may never see his son again.

            Meanwhile, the Shadow King has invaded Muir Island, enslaving the X-Men to lure Charles Xavier, who cost the Shadow King his corporeal body many years past to enact his revenge. Xavier contacts X-Factor to help defeat the Shadow King and free the X-Men from the Shadow King’s control.

            Following this battle, the mutants of X-Factor decide to rejoin the X-Men at their mansion headquarters Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, New York. However, this grouping is considered too big and the X-Men divide into the Blue Team and the Gold Team. They X-Men are contacted by the global peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. to inform them that their old enemy Magneto has established a haven for mutants called Asteroid M, hovering in orbit by Magneto’s magnetic powers over Russia during the height of the Cold War, kidnapping several human astronauts and risking the threat of nuclear retaliation. A new group of mutants the Acolytes pledge themselves to Magneto’s cause of mutant supremacy. Upon hearing of the nuclear threat, Magneto returns to earth in an attempt to disarm the planet of their nuclear weaponry, but the X-Men Blue engage Magneto. After his defeat, Magneto retreats to Asteroid M and to the supposed care of Fabian Cortez, who is actually planning to eliminate Magneto and usurp control of the Acolytes and the mutant supremacy cause. During his attempted recuperation, Magneto discovers an anomaly in his system. Several years past, Magneto had been reduced to infancy. During this time, Moira MacTaggert had been entrusted with the care of the baby Magneto. Moira attempted to prevent Magneto from being corrupted by his power by genetically tampering with his genetics. Magneto and the Acolytes again returned to earth, where the X-Men Blue Team was abducted. Magneto also abducted Xavier and Moira, and brought them all to Asteroid M. He then used the powers of the Acolytes to subvert the X-Men Blue Team to his cause. Meanwhile, the powers that be upon earth all globally agree to enact the Magneto Protocols and obliterate Asteroid M. The X-Men Gold Team then must mount a rescue effort to save the X-Men Blue Team and evacuate Asteroid M.

 

            I figured this Epic Collection would be a huge joy for me, it has been on my radar for several years. Unfortunately, I was relatively disappointed. When I first started collecting Marvel Comic Books, I went to a comic book store and bought the first three issues of X-Men (1991) from a three for a dollar bin, which were contained in this graphic novel, but I never read the issues leading up to the X-Men (1991) premier, which is why I picked to purchase this book. The first three issues of X-Men (1991) were arranged at the conclusion of this graphic novel. Now, I love those three issues, I’ve read them literally dozens of times I kid you not, so I figured that this would be a great book. And that is where my complaints begin. During the late 1980s and early 1990’s, Marvel published their Annuals as crossover events (if you’ve read my posts before, you might recall this). The problem is, the Epic Collections only feature the Annuals for the titular characters. This Epic Collection again followed suit. The main crossover was “Kings of Pain.” This Epic Collection featured an excerpt from New Mutants Annual #7, but not the “Kings of Pain” story, which I felt made no sense. This Epic Collection contained the entirety of X-Men Annual #15 and the “Kings of Pain” story from X-Factor Annual #6, but it still felt very out of context, leaving out two parts of the story from other Annuals from that year (every issue in this book were originally published in 1991). I will give credit that this contained Annuals aside from X-Men, but it still didn’t give the whole story, which was highly disappointing. I will also say that I figured this would be mostly Uncanny X-Men, which is the series that X-Men Epic Collections mainly follow. The majority series in this Epic Collection, however, was X-Factor. Also, X-Men Annual #15 really didn’t feel like X-Men story as there was literally no appearance of the X-Men, aside from a revisited origin and a Wolverine short story that I found to be rather flat. Otherwise, X-Men Annual #15 belonged to X-Force and the New Warriors. The original New Warriors are one of my Marvel weak points, I really have not read much of their run. Another thing that bothered me was the appearance of both Cable and Nathan Christopher Summers in the same point in time since (spoiler alert) Cable is Nathan returned from the future. That just seemed weird to me, but Marvel time travel has very different rules when compared to time travel in other written and visual works. He was both an infant boy and an older man at the same time. Like I said, weird. I will say I found the X-Factor “Endgame” storyline to be enjoyable and a good Apocalypse storyline. Yes, there have been good and poorly written Apocalypse stories (don’t get me started on the “X-Men: Apocalypse” film, ugh) and I felt that this one was pretty good, especially the heartbreaking sacrifice of Nathan Christopher at the end. I thought that was a great ending. The “Muir Island” saga, however, felt mediocre to me. The saving grace for me though, was X-Men #1-3, which I’ve already talked about, so we can move on from there. This graphic novel just didn’t live up to my expectations. And X-Men #3 was supposed to be Chris Claremont’s final issue, but his retirement didn’t last, which was a relief for me because he has been my favorite X-Men writer and I think his work is brilliant. And now, let’s turn to the “graphic” part of “graphic novel.” I felt like the art was high quality. Previous readers of my reviews know how I feel about artwork in comic books, but I still have to say it to you newbies. The art styles of time periods has certain common traits. As I said earlier this paragraph that every issue in this book was from 1991. I love late ’80s-early ’90s artwork, there was just something about it that just stood out. I have also previously mentioned in my blog that there is art which reflects on either good/bad art of the time or good/bad art period. In other words, some artwork may be good for the time it was released, but it can’t be considered good art by the standards of other times of art. To me, I feel this artwork is good in general, and not just for 1991, and the artwork in this book felt to me like the epitome of art of the time. The art in this book totally stands out to me and even now, thirty-two years later, I still feel it is great. And now, I want to talk about the costumes. The original X-Factor and the Uncanny X-Men had mostly generic outfits that all looked pretty identical. That lack of individuality just didn’t make the characters stand out. Yes, military, police, and other organizations have standard uniforms for their profession, but I just feel like it doesn’t work for mutant teams in visual form. Look at the original X-Men from 1963. You could only tell them apart from Cyclops’ visor, Angel’s wings, Iceman being covered in ice, Beast not wearing gloves and shoes, and Marvel Girl being female. Now, you can counter me with the Fantastic Four all wearing the same costume, and that works, and I will agree with that. But look at the Avengers: they all wear different costumes and you immediately know who everyone is because of that, and viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe like that, the representation of the characters. You can counter me again by saying the X-Men in the films all had the same outfit. But think about supervillains; they all wear different costumes and you know Magneto when you see him, or Doctor Doom, or Thanos; you just see them and know who they are. In my opinion, the X-Men, all being different, deserve to look different, to show off who they are. And again, there have been times where the X-Men in the comics have all dressed the same, but there were customizations that made them stand out. But, when X-Factor joined the X-Men and the X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were created, the costumes changed and I just totally loved that visualization. The X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were drawn with some of the most iconic appearances of the X-Men in all of Marvel history. If you watched the “X-Men” animated series from 1992-1997, these were the costumes you know. I grew up with that, so the appearances of the costumes in the new teams were familiar to me and I enjoyed those costumes. Seeing these just felt right. So I must give a shout out to Jim Lee for creating these iconic costumes, I thought they were brilliant, so thank you for contributing to my childhood!

            So we have a few more pieces of subjects to consider. What do I think you should know about Marvel history in order to understand this book? First off, if you have never read Marvel Comics before, especially from the 1970’s-1980s, this is not the right book for you. It is absolutely not an introductory point to start at. I barely know the New Warriors and the Annuals’ story is incomplete, so it’s easy to get confused by just that (heck, even I was confused). Also, almost every character had been established before and none of their backgrounds were explained and it continues almost directly from storylines that had already started prior to this book. It is not at all a jump-on point.

            Next, we’ll do the ever important and pretty much only reason that you’re still here after over 2,000 words: (and if you are here still, you are THE BEST!) my numeric score. As some of you may already know, I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the worst, ten is the best. In this case, I have to take in everything about the graphic novel before I score it, which means both story and art are considered. I was highly disappointed by some of the story. BUT! The artwork did not fail to impress. So, all the eggs in one basket, I give it a score of… (drumroll please!)… seven. There were stories I disliked, but it had several stories I really enjoyed, and the artwork just amazed me, so I scored it at a balance. If it were just a story as a prose novel, I would have given it a lower score, but the artwork totally upped it, so the score went higher. I will say that I didn’t think it was a bad book, I just didn’t quite get what I was hoping for. I should also be said that Marvel published another graphic novel called “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” which actually does NOT contain the same stories. If you read my review of “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” you may recall that I said it was not “The Infinity Gauntlet,” but only the issues of “The Silver Surfer” from the year around it, and this is much the same. Epic Collections only contain specific stories from mostly a singular point of view. Were you to get the other edition of “X-Men: Mutant Genesis,” you would be reading X-Men (1991) #1-7, so if you are actually interested in reading this book, check the contents first to make sure you are actually getting the right book (it will have the words “Marvel Epic Collection” on the top of the cover). And I have an upcoming review about to sit on my desk called “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” which surrounds the “X-Men: Operation: Zero Tolerance” crossover event, but only features the X-Force issues. If you want to read more of my work, at the moment it should be posted in about a week, so keep an eye out for it.

            Next, I will tell you if I recommend this book. I totally don’t know what to tell you. I can’t quite say I recommend it, but at the same time I can’t tell you to just completely avoid it. All I can really say is if you want to read it, then go for it, but if you don’t feel like reading this book, then I say you should follow that instinct. It’s all totally up to you. In all my reviews, this has never truly happened before, which is weird for me, but I leave the decision up to you.

            As I said before, I have the “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” Epic Collection getting close to being on my desk, so keep an eye out for it. Otherwise, I have literally written dozens of reviews, I’ve made over 100 posts, I write short fiction, short nonfiction, poetry, essays, editorial, reviews and plenty of other content, so if you liked this post, I totally say you should read more of my posts, you may find something else you like. If you read to this point, you are THE BEST, and all I can say is, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Factor: Genesis & Apocalypse" by Roger Stern, John Byrne, Bob Layton, Bob Harras, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco, Chris Claremont, and Jackson Guice

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “X-Factor: Genesis & Apocalypse” graphic novel by Roger Stern, John Byrne, Bob Layton, Bob Harras, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco, Chris Claremont, and Jackson Guice.

            Howdy, one and all, and welcome to another review From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! As is most often the case here, I am myself Tim Cubbin!

            Okay, so, if you’ve been here before, you know that I review every Marvel comic event, Marvel Epic Collection, and Marvel prose novel I read, as well as some other books I read. If you’ve never been here before, now you know. If you’ve ever been here before, you will know how I usually structure my reviews, but if not, I’ll tell you how this review is going to work. After I finish the lead-in to this review, I will briefly tell you a little bit about the main characters in this book. It will be brief because the following paragraph will be about the story and the characters’ roles will be self-explanatory during it, so dilly-dallying on the individual characters would be pointless. After that, I will share some of my personal thoughts about the book, what I liked, what I disliked, and a few other things I feel like typing about the book. After that, I will give this book a numeric score, which, if you’ve been here before you know the deal, and if not, I’ll explain when we get there. Upon finishing that, I’ll say if I recommend this book and who I think the best audience would be, based on the knowledge I feel is required to fully understand and appreciate the story. Then I’ll finish things up with our boring goodbyes and then you can be on your way. So, I hope we’re good on that, so, let’s go!

            Scott Summers/Cyclops: Fires optic beams uncontrollably.

            Jean Grey/Marvel Girl: Telekinetic.

            Bobby Drake/Iceman: Can lower temperature and create ice.

            Warren Worthington III/Angel: Flight due to natural wings.

            Hank McCoy/Beast: Blue fur, claws, enhanced strength, speed and agility.

            Cameron Hodge: Public relations manager.

            Rusty Collins: Pyrokinetic.

            Arthur “Artie” Maddicks: Pink skin, large eyes, mute, communicates by projecting images.

            Tower: Able to grow and shrink.

            Joanna Cargill/Frenzy: Super strength.

            Vera: Beast’s sort-of girlfriend.

            Freedom Force: Mystique, Destiny, Pyro Avalanche, Blob, Spider-Woman. Former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now government employees.

            Trish Tilby: Reporter.

            Tony Stark/Iron Man: High-tech suit of armor.

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Enhanced speed, strength, and agility, can stick to walls and ceilings, precognitive “spider-sense,” self-created web shooters.

            The Avengers: Captain America, Namor, Black Knight, Hercules, Wasp, Captain Marvel. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

            The Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, She-Hulk. Team and family.

En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse: Nearly immortal, shape-changer, super strength, stamina and durability.

Okay, I think that’ll do it for character description, now on to the story. A plane crash in Jamaica Bay leads the Avengers to investigate and they discover a cocoon. They take it to the Fantastic Four, and they discover it contains the body of Jean Grey, who had been believed deceased. The cosmic force the Phoenix copied Jean’s body during a shuttle crash in Jamaica Bay and replaced her, leaving her body to heal at the bottom of the Bay. Jean has lost her telepathic powers. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic calls Warren to inform him that Jean has been found alive. In the time since the Phoenix’s demise, her lover Scott Summers has married Madelyne Pryor and had a son Nathan. Their former team, the X-Men are now led by their greatest enemy, Magneto, and the five original X-Men band together to form X-Factor, a mutant hunting team, which is actually a front for taking in new mutants and training them in the use of their powers. While X-Factor are believed to be humans to the public, as mutants, they call themselves the X-Terminators. They hire publicist Cameron Hodge as their public relations manager. X-Factor take in young mutants Rusty Collins and Artie Maddicks. They go up against evil mutants Frenzy, Tower, Apocalypse, and former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants now government agents Freedom Force and have team-ups with Iron Man and Spider-Man and meet young mutant Skids. The male X-Terminators originally neglect to tell Jean of Scott’s marriage to Madelyne and of his son Nathan. Madelyne, now furious over Scott’s return to being a superhero, takes Nathan and flees, removing every communications to Scott. Beast’s furry form is reverted to appearing passably human. Backstories explore Jean’s connection with the Phoenix.

I think these are all the highlights of the story, so I’ll move on to my thoughts. First off, when I first got into X-Men comics as a regular reader, I had bought a graphic novel containing the first issues of X-Men and read of this team. I had known X-Factor was a reunion of the original X-Men, but I honestly knew nothing about the story, having never read the start of the series, so this was a treat. I mean, this was from 1986, before I was born, but I didn’t pick up the original X-Factor comics series starting that year. The posing as mutant hunters was to me an amazing ploy. I’d also never read of the first recovery of Jean, and, spoiler alert, there was a panel suggesting she and Phoenix weren’t as separated as the X-Terminators had been led to believe. The showdown between Jean and Scott upon Scott fessing up to his marriage and child totally thrilled me to see Jean’s fury not as Phoenix, but as Jean Grey herself. To me, Artie was a fascinating character, and I felt the writers did an amazing job of him while being silent being such a useful character. And reading the earliest Apocalypse appearance was great, BUT! I feel like the writers could have extended the story a bit more, and the Alliance of Evil were a bit bland to me. And I loved the story of J. Jonah Jameson hiring X-Factor to destroy Spider-Man. I found Freedom Force to be an interesting reunion of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants which I felt totally appropriate considering the reunion of the original X-Men and I thought was a great parallel. I personally loved the bond Rusty and Artie formed, their becoming best friends. I wish more mutants could have been included, though, and Bulk and Glow Worm just made me think they were pathetic and their story did not interest me. I enjoyed the backstories of the connection of Jean and Phoenix and found them totally fascinating. As for the artwork, there’s been many different styles of art, and some were characterizations of the time. I personally loved the mid-to-late 90’s, the colorizations of the time always satisfied me. As far as art went for the 80’s, I felt it was top notch and the epitome of art for the time. I mean, when it comes to comic books, the art is just as important as the story itself as it tells half of the story, and I felt this was amazing art for the time.

So, my score. This is very hard for me to decide. There was so much I liked about the book, but I did have disappointed moments as well. By the way, I score my reviews on a scale of one to ten. One is I wish I’d never read this book, ten I loved it and will definitely read it again. First, I will tell you that I will totally read it again someday, BUT! I still have to score it as an eight. For a start of a series, I felt this was a good introduction, but, like I said, I do have complaints.

Now, the biggest question on any of my reviews: do I recommend this book? I say… YES! And I feel it is an excellent jumping-on point for a comic series. If you have never read a Marvel comic before and are considering starting, I feel this would be a good book to begin with. I feel the story is very self-contained and knowing nothing about X-Factor would still be easy to pick up and read. And it you’ve read this review and are intrigued by my description, I totally think you should pick this up. And if you’re a fan of X-Men from the 60’s to mid-70’s and never read X-Factor, I think this is a good book for you. And if you’re a fan of the villain Apocalypse and have never read his first appearance, you may enjoy this book, but, like I said, I would have liked to see more En Sabah Nur. All-in-all, I totally recommend this book.

And now that I’ve ranted for so long, I’m just going to say a few more sentences. And if you are still here and still reading, you are THE BEST and I appreciate your support. Now, I’ve done literally dozens of reviews and I feel you should keep browsing my blog, especially since I have other content as well, including essays and editorials (I am a certified journalist) and short stories both fiction and nonfiction, mostly nonfiction (I have a bachelor’s degree in English, so some may say I’m a great writer), as well as some poetry, and I post fairly regularly, so you can totally keep an eye out for more posts in the near future. And with that, I have three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!