Historical Look at the X-Men Part 2

Hey kids, here's part 2 of our historical look at the different X-Men teams that came out. Click HERE if you have to read Part 1.This one starts from after the Onslaught saga (where Xavier becomes the bad guy) all the way the Grant Morrison and his New X-Men team.

Operation Zero Tolerance-era

Ah pretty good times. Since Xavier surrendered to US authorities after the Oslaught incident, the X-Men had become adrift. Some members left the others stayed. Cannonball officially makes it as an X-Man and had some beef with Storm for awhile.

Shiar versus Phalanx

Another group of X-Men with Rogue, Gambit and the mysterious Joseph were recruited to space to help the Shiar fight the invading Phalanx.

Search for Xavier and Magneto Rex

I still have this issue (Uncanny X-Men # 360 and X-Men # 80 to be exact), actually, this was when I really got hooked into collecting comic books. Good times, and they had Chris Bachalo and Brandon Peterson in each book so they had a strong pretty strong line up both creatively and in the books. A couple of additions here and there as this era hit a fever pitch. They later added in Cyclops, Gambit, Jean, Angel, Iceman and Beast in the mix. The start of the era had the original five building their own lives too. This era ended with The Twelve storyline which 'killed' Cyclops for awhile.

Chris Claremont's Return

It's the return to the two teams for the X-Men. Uncanny had Jean Grey, Cable, Storm, Gambit and Beast. Rogue assumes leadership for 'X-Men' with Thunderbird II (Neal Shaara, former boyfriend of Karima Shapandar aka Omega Sentinel), Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Archangel, Wolverine, and Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde). Oh and there was a plot that 'shipped' Colossus with Rogue too. X-Men of course had Leinil Yu and focused on the X-Men battling the Neo.

Jean Grey's Emergency X-Men

As a response to the Magneto's rise to power (again) the newly returned Cyclops (he had bonded with Apocalypse for awhile) and Wolverine infiltrated Genosha. They get into a pinch and they get rescued by Jean Grey and her quick response team of mutants including Northstar.

New X-Men

Marvel decided to go a different route for the X-Men by the early parts of 2000. Grant Morrison ascends and converts adjectiveless to 'New X-Men'. He picks a tiny cast which includes Professor X, a cat-like Beast, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine and Emma Frost. Later additions to the team included Xorn who also becomes a faculty member. Of course Xorn turns out to be a traitor (Magneto in disguise and kills Jean after holding New York as hostage). It was also this time that Wolverine discovers that Weapon X is just part of the mysterious Weapon Plus program and it's also the first appearance of Fantomex.

Creators: Frank Quitely, Ethan Van Sciver, Marc Silvestri and Igor Kordey

Uncanny X-Men aka X-Corps

Nightcrawler also leads his own team of X-Men with Wolverine, Stacy X, Iceman, Angel, Chamber. Later additions include Juggernaut and Northstar. The team fought the Church of Humanity which crucified Generation X members Skin and Jubilee. This was also the time that Nightcrawler had thought he had become a priest.

Key Creators: Ian Churchill, Sean Phillips

X-Treme X-Men

So what happened to the other X-Men that didn't go well with the revamp? Chris Claremont again writes them in a new ongoing and calls it X-Treme X-Men. Their mission is to collect Destiny's diaries to be able to tell what happens to the world or at least stop them from ever occurring. Sage officially joins the team together with some newblood. Still the book didn't keep too long. In fact, they even did something foolish, come up with a sequel to 'God Loves, Man Kills'. I mean yeah, provided you've got Claremont writing but c'mon....

By the end of the story arc 'HERE COMES TOMORROW' the X-Men pick up the pieces from Jean's death.

Astonishing X-Men

Post New X-Men, the team goes back to wearing 'super hero' costumes ditching the leather. Emma Frost and Scott Summers re-opens the school. Kitty Pryde returns to the fold. New enemies like Ord of the Breakworld and Danger also expand the mythos. New member in the form of Armor and some issues are opened in this title while Colossus returns from the dead. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday as creative team! This was also the team that was the face of the X-Men for awhile including during House of M.

Havok's Second Field Team

Chuck Austen's run on the X-Men made changes to the team. Havok is the leader, renews his relationship with a slightly crazy Polaris. Juggernaut defects to a new Brotherhood. Peter Milligan continues the crazy Polaris thread and turns Gambit into the new Horseman of Death. Oh and there's also that insane plot that 'shipped' Angel and Cannonball's sister Husk.

X.S.E.

More exploits for the fallen remnants of X-Treme X-Men, Storm leads a new team which includes Bishop, Marvel Girl, Cannonball, and Wolverine. We got Alan Davis for a fight with Captain Britain baddie The Fury. X-23 also makes frequent appearances in this book teaming up with Psylocke and Marvel Girl.

Rogue's Rogue Team

Mike Carey picks up the slack from Milligan in 'adjectiveless' X-Men and creates a new team including Rogue, Cannonball, Iceman, Cable, Omega Sentinel with baddies Mystique, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind. Lots of explosions and creative use of Rogue's powers. Hints of Messiah Complex start to drop in bits and pieces here in this book.

Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire

After the events of X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Charles Xavier leads a team to space to follow Gabriel Summers in his path of revenge against Shi'ar emperor D'Ken. Havok and Polaris joins as well as Vulcan's classmate Darwin and Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler and Warpath. This is where Corsair dies (of course, that's not the case anymore)

Messiah Complex X-Force

The 198 are suddenly rocked with the appearance of a mutant baby in Alaska. The X-Men respond and are shocked to find that the entire town has been attacked and burned with every local killed including babies... save for one. The X-Men, Mr. Sinister's Marauders (led by former teammates Gambit and Mystique) and the Purifiers try to outwit each other to get the baby. Cable 'betrays' the team only to be revealed that Bishop has that intention. During the hunt for Cable, Cyclops sanctions a new X-Force led by Wolverine and including some of the 'sharpest' members of the mutant community.

Hold on tight as we'll be diving into part 3 soon enough including the Nation-X era X-Men, Wolverine's Jean Grey School team, Cyclops' Utopia team, the All New X-Men and the new 'Charles Xavier School' team from Bendis' Uncanny X-Men.

SPOILERS: Who's Back from the Dead in All New X-Men # 23

Somebody yet again returns from the dead in ALL NEW X-MEN # 23 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen. Part 3 of Trial of Jean Grey! 

In this issue, more of Jean Grey in the custody of the Shiar empire, more witty banter between the All New X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy and a special surprise appearance by...

Yes, Corsair is back from the dead. Oh and the original cast of the Starjammers are back too including Hepzibah who dropped out of the X-Books post Messiah CompleX

SPOILERS: Wolverine and the X-Men # 40

Here's the most important part that happened over at Marvel Comics' Wolverine and the X-Men book this month WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 40 by Jason Aaron and Pepe Laraz.

So, Wolverine and Cyclops successfully dismantle a S.H.I.E.L.D. base contain mutant-killing sentinels. They get banged up pretty bad and Wolverine scouts for medical supplies while Scott Summers looks on. Fortunately for these two X-Men leaders, Logan also spots a hidden cache of beer. Boxes and boxes full of beer. Which leads to this lengthy conversation between the two.

Taken out of context, this could be fanfic material for Scott and Logan shippers

I like the fact that Wolverine knows how things were and there's an implication that he want things to go back to what they used to be pre-Schism. Logan however is still a sanctimonious dick as a character because he refuses to admit that Cyclops was taken over and influenced by the Dark Phoenix force back in AVX when he kills Charles Xavier.

Wolverine is right however that Cyclops is not seeing it all throughout and Cyke's right about a lot of things about Logan too. There's an old saying that the first road to a full recovery, especially in alcoholics and depressed people is accepting the fact that they are broken or f*cked up. This issue has the two dealing with it and though we're still not seeing a full Scott-Logan bromance here, we can definitely say that we are on the road to a unified X-Men soon.

Oh and there's also a subplot in this issue between the SHIELD spies sent to infiltrate JGH and Aaron's students. But that's not really important for this writer.

Wolverine and the X-Men # 40 is out now.

Amazing Moments from Amazing X-Men # 2

I'm definitely good with Jason Aaron's current "Amazing X-Men" book and with issue # 2 shipping out last week, I just had to focus on this in a blog post. So here folks, are some of the best moments (IMHO) from Amazing X-Men # 2 by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuiness.

1. Storm goes Ballistic on the demons

Left with no powers in hell, a very fierce Storm goes ballistic on the demons they are facing. You have to remember that Storm is no pushover. She once defeated Cyclops in a very serious fight without her powers.

2. A Peter Pan Reference

Resident semi-speedster Northstar also joins the fight somewhere in issue # 2 and he actually goes and give off this "Peter Pan" ish feel in his panel. Heck he's even asking if the demon pirates have a captain with a hook for his hand.

3. The Demon Pirate captains...

... are pretty cool. Hey was that Billy the Kid now having six arms manhandling Storm? Check out the knives on the other captain...

4. Iceman Freezes Hell

With nothing to loss, Bobby Drake cuts lose with his powers freezing the demonic horde and, he'll definitely make the Eagles proud what with "Hell freezes over" and stuff.

5. Professor X is in Heaven



One of the really weird things about AXM is the fact that the X-Men are totally oblivious to where they were teleported. Sure you can say that they were not expecting it but doesn't it seem to be a bit off-character to not be able to determine whatsoever where the blue imp-like bamfs have teleported them to. Firestar, Storm and Iceman even took a couple of pages to realize that they were in hell and all that. A bit of a suck that's all.

Oh and yeah, Professor X is making a cameo here in heaven as he's the voice of reason and logic Wolverine is hearing while clinging to dear life on a plank. (Yeah... don't ask)

Overall, I liked Amazing X-Men # 2 and I'm still at the edge of my seat waiting for how they'll overcome this new challege.

And eventually figure out a way to bring back Nightcrawler from the dead.

SPOILERS - Who Defects After X-Men: Battle of the Atom

Just like that X-Men: Battle of the Atom is done, we got a lot of good moments from this book but for me I still feel it's lacking. Still, the best treats are the ones at the end, the sweet payoff here for X-Men: Battle of the Atom # 2 comes in a defector.

So what happens is the two X-Men teams band together as they protect themselves from SHIELD, including SHIELD sentinels.

Old Future Xorn Jean tries to fight but goes 'boom'. The evil Xavier and the rest of the Brotherhood have scattered. Back in the Jean Grey School, we get two prologues. One written by Jason Aaron and the other done by Brian Michael Bendis. 

NOOOOOO! Don't leave us!!!



Double NOOOOOOOOO! Even the O5 X-Men!!! What's going to happen to All New X-Men now???

Let's scratch that as a big win for Team Summers. Although, this particular page gave X-Men fans a glimmer of hope.

Well, at least it really did shake the status quo...

Also, I wonder what's going to happen to the time displaced Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members like Beast and Xavier's grandson??

X-MEN # 6 SPOILER - Who is SENTINEL X?

SPOILER ALERT

So who is the person inside that Iron Man/ Sentinel hybrid armor running around with the second X-Men team in the future? Well Brian Wood's X-MEN # 6 provides the answers and it's pretty heartwarming.

So what happens is the Uncanny team led by Cyclops and joined by the second X-Men from the future arrive at the Jean Grey School only to see it in shambles. The mysterious Sentinel X does recon for the team.

When Sentinel X arrives at the ruined JGSHL he finds this:

and he's none other than:

Yep. Him

Grab your copies of X-Men # 6 as it's also part of the ongoing X-MEN: BATTLE OF THE ATOM X-Over.

Wolverine and the X-Men # 36 Spoilers

Following up on the events of Marvel's "Battle of the Atom" with the help of Jason Aaron and Guiseppi Camuncoli which transpire in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN # 36.

1. Cyclops Teams up with Old Cyclops

Really cool moment when O5 Cyclops finds himself with his back against his older Phoenix Force corrupted self while fighting the X-Men from the future.

2. Jean Grey vs Emma Frost, O5 Jean Grey and the Stepford Cuckoos

Another cool yet poorly executed moment. The Cuckoos team up with the younger Jean and Emma to fight off the psychic attacks of the Xorn-ized future Jean Grey.

3. O5 Jean is stronger than Xorn Jean

In a surprising turn of events the younger Jean Grey beats her "older" self and makes the ultimate mistake of peering into Xorn Jean's mind. These two panels might just be the ultimate turning point for X-Men: Battle of the Atom. In fact this panel's effect might be carried over to the upcoming All New X-Men/ Guardians of the Galaxy crossover.

4. What Jean saw

Whatever the hell Jean Grey saw in Xorn Jean's head screwed her up badly as she immediately reliquinshes her first decision to stay in the present Marvel Universe.Again whatever she chose to do or not to do automatically leads to some interesting storyline in the near future.

5. Deadpool is hiding something

Prior to this Deadpool threatened the whole team with suicide if they did not stop fighting. He goes on a verbal tirade about how they mean well for the team and how it is important that the Original Five "do the right thing". We later find out that things are not what they seem. In fact, it looks like Wade Wilson lied about everything.

6. O5 Beast and Iceman team up with Magik and visit the Future

Magik takes Iceman and Beast to the future where we see that things are very, very different; particularly in the Jean Grey School where it looks so beautiful. And then they also have Sentinels patrolling the area.

7. A Second team of future X-Men

Sure we got spoiled with the cover for the next chapter of X-Men: Battle of the Atom but it's still a shock to see the actual team that will join the fight in the next few chapters. Whp are these guys? Since when did the X-Men have an Iron Man/ Sentinel member on their roster? Who's the new Cloak and why is Colossus rocking a metallic moustache.