Friday, May 23, 2008

X-Men: Messiah Complex

It began with the birth of a baby. It ended with the death of Charles Xavier (Prof. X) and Nathaniel Essex (Mr Sinister). In many ways, "Messiah Complex" is the most important X-storyline since the Morlock Massacre more than twenty years ago. It's also a return to the monster mega-crossover that the X-titles were so famous for in the 1990s - but with better writers this time around: Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Peter David, Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle. It's the first time that all the X-characters really got together since Grant Morrison came on board in 2000 and turned the X-titles upside down! Cyclops acted as the leader that he was always meant to be. Mystique was at her duplicitous best. X-23 fought Lady Deathstrike to the death. The new X-Force was born. The new Cable series became a reality (this time, Nathaniel Summers is the protector of the baby that is sent to the future). The X-Men is disbanded and we're getting probably the most interesting X-storylines in a long, long time (starting from the post-Messiah Complex, Divided We Stand issues). In a way, it's an end. It ties up everything built up from the age-old "God Loves Man Kills" to the "Mutant Massacre", "Inferno", the Sinister-Summers-Gambit connection, all the way up to the recent "Decimation" stuff. It's an end for the "New X-Men" title that I've grown to love over the past year. It's an end to the Mr Sinister stories that Pltypus have been rambling about since forever ("superior comic-craft?"). It's an end to annoying one-note characters like Caliban and many of the Marauders (not seen since "Inferno"). It's also an end to the interminable relationship between Rogue, Gambit and Mystique. It's got X-Men fighting Christian Fundamentalists (the "Purifiers", followers of the late Rev. William Stryker). It's got X-Men fighting the Marauders for the final time. Finally, the identity of the X-traitor that Bishop have been talking about since 1991 is finally revealed!

* I must be bored today. I'm writing about the Doctor Ben talks that I've not even heard and here I am, reviewing a comic series that I've not even read..... As usual, I'm savin' up for the trade. It's the first X-crossover in over a decade. Makes me feel like it's 1996 all over again. Anyway, here's the official trailer from Marvel:

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