Everyone talks about Disney princesses...

... and what kind of example they set for young girls.

Well, what about Disney princes and young boys?

Meditations on Douglas Horton

"Being sorry is the highest act of selfishness, seeing value only after discarding it."

"Change occurs in direct proportion to dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction never changes."

"Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss."

"No one can drive us crazy unless we give them the keys."

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."

The Value of Math

I keep using math to make my work day seem shorter.

I'm two hours in.

There are three hours until lunch and three hours after that.

I'm a quarter of the way done.

I'm two hours away from the middle of the day.

Marvel Comics and the Cowardice of Public Opinion

Marvel Comics lost a lot of my respect in 2006 with their political allegory event "Civil War." The plot of the story was that Congress passes the Super-Human Registration Act requiring all superpowered people to register their real name with the federal government or face imprisonment. The superhero community, accustomed to anonymity, are split between those who comply with the law and those who resist it.

It was a difficult year in the middle of a disastrous presidency and the story responded to many of the themes in the public consciousness. Like Jack Bauer's famous torture scene in 24, a lot of attention was placed on fiction as the barometer of our social values. Whether it was questioning torture, wiretapping, or foreign policy in general, the nation was asking how much of our civil liberties should be compromised for the sake of safety. It's an important question that deserves serious introspection, which it failed to deliver in almost every way.

The seeds for this event were set in earlier comics after the Avengers were disbanded. 2004's event comic was called House of M, featuring a reality in which mutants ruled the world, which ended with the near extinction of the species. This effectively removed mutants from the topic of discussion with the X-Men remaining neutral during Civil War.

This is important for one major reason. A major theme in the X-Men books is the Mutant Registration Act, a similar bill requiring mutants to register their identities and powers with the federal government. The X-Men have opposed it for some fundamental reasons. Primarily, to reveal oneself as a mutant (even with a government agency) is to place the individual in grave danger from prejudice and retaliation. Secondarily, there is the fear that registering mutants is one step away from drafting them for military service.

It would be hard to address the Super-Human Registration Act in a neutral way when the X-Men have been fighting the same thing as a form of prejudice for years. So rather than address the truth of the world they had created, they took the mutants from the playing field.

Leveling the playing field wasn't restricted to mutants. Spider-Man had recently joined the Avengers and, after losing his apartment and Aunt May's home, moved his family into Stark Tower. Tony Stark gave Peter a job and took care of him, so when Tony sided on the pro-registration side, Peter did the same.

On this, I call bullshit. Spider-Man's secret identity has been a vital part of the character since the very beginning and he has seen, time and time again, how dangerous it can be when people learn his secret. Furthermore, he has often been on the wrong side of the law and should know that is where he is most valuable. Of all the superheroes, he should be most opposed to a registration act. Even if he chose to register, he would still fight for the rights of others because he knows what it is like to be scared and on your own.

But Spider-Man is the Marvel Universe's everyman. We all see ourselves as Spider-Man so he is "neutral." In Civil War, he first sides with Tony Stark and even reveals his identity (which received much publication in the mainstream press) only to change his mind and join up with the resistance. Less than a year later, his identity would be secret once again due to magic.

When the event finally started, Iron Man represented pro-reg and Captain America represented anti-reg. While having Cap represent the resistance was a surprise, it didn't seem to be out of character considering Cap comics from the seventies and eighties which showed that Steve Rogers is willing to fight his leaders when he believes it necessary. The story ended with a big superhero brawl in New York City when Captain America is attacked by firefighters who point out the damage being done by the fight. Seeing the destruction, Captain America surrenders.

Despite having Captain America and Spider-Man (eventually) side with the anti-registration side, I think this was an especially insulting story to the liberal viewpoint. Even though the writer, Mark Millar, is a socialist, the story is a creation of media and reflects the cowardice of the media when they try to be politically neutral. Instead of allowing the events to unfold naturally, they gerrymandered their universe to create equal support on both sides of the issue.

At a time when real life civil rights were being trampled, Marvel Comics had the gall to say, "Fighting amongst ourselves isn't the answer." If this comic came out in 2002 or 2003, I would have expected that and maybe even understood, but in 2006, the patriotism of 9/11 had died down, but was still being used to justify the most inhuman activity. And as our pop cultural connection to morality and heroism, Marvel Comics essentially said, "Obey your country. Obey the law."

Two years later, following the aftermath of Civil War, the government and hero teams were infiltrated by alien shapeshifters seeking to destroy us from within. It was a sign of distrust from within the system following eight years of Bush's America. Immediately following, we were given Dark Reign, the current status quo in the Marvel universe where the villains have taken over and become the heroes. It is a truly cynical look at our system...

Just in time for a Democrat in office.

Marvel Comics isn't unique in this. I have noticed a growing number of films and television shows demonstrating a feeling of suspicion and paranoia toward the government. I'm reminded of a similar trend in the mid-nineties following the Reagan/Bush Sr. years where paranoia directed at the previous administration was most vocal in the Clinton administration. X-Files was the pinnacle of government paranoia in pop culture and The Matrix might have brought it up another notch or two.

So, the way it seems to work is that when there is a Republican in office, everything is gray and we need to put aside our differences for the common good. When there is a Democrat in office, the government is filled with corruption and is conspiring against us. Even when all evidence suggests that it should be the opposite.

So, Marvel Comics, I'm accusing you of political cowardice mandated by your bottom line. I'm sure you see no ethical conflict in this and you view me as just another politically-biased consumer, but I see you, through your greed, as justifying and supporting the civil rights abuses of the Bush administration, if only by your willingness to raise the issue and your inability to address it honestly. I also think that although Dark Reign was probably planned long before the presidential elections, your belated moral stand against corruption from inside the government fuels the illegitimate and dishonest paranoia against our current president.

If you are going to make events around important social issues, please be honest about it or else just stick to telling stories about guys in tights hitting each other. That seems to be more your level.

Stephen Leacock quotes

I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so.

It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask, and take it as required.

There are two things in ordinary conversation which ordinary people dislike - information and wit.

Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

Each section of the British Isles has its own way of laughing, except Wales, which doesn't.

He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

Genius

I'm writing a new series. I don't really want to, but I'm having trouble with my other projects. Astonishing Adventures is like moving a bad couch. I just can't get a good handle on it. Most Modern (the indie project I have yet to even talk much about) is a bit too whimsical and social, so it seems like something I might be able to write when my life is a bit more... well, whimsical and social.

Stargame work is on hold for me. I can't really be the one to push this along. I have an opportunity to pitch something to an assistant editor at Marvel, but the idea I had is getting worse and worse the more I think about it.

The only idea I'm really enjoying right now is a project that I've entitled "Genius." It's the story of Adam, a young college graduate whose mother died of a brain tumor while he was young, so the boy decided that he was going to find a cure for cancer. From these noble ambitions, he studied pharmacology and managed to get a job as a lab assistant at a leading pharmaceutical company.

As for his personal life, it isn't much: a roommate, his ex-girlfriend, and occasionally he talks to his dad on the phone. He has lived by the philosophy that the best way to solve all problems is by being the smartest man in the room and always looking for a smarter room.

The plot begins when Adam is accidentally exposed to a concentrated dose of an experimental drug named G3N5. After the initial exposure, he is sent to the hospital where he is given a clean bill of health... with the exception of a slight fever. Naturally, they send him home to recuperate.

At first, nothing seems any different, but he gradually starts noticing little things. At one point, he plays a game of chess with his neighbor, a champion who he has never beaten, and defeats him fairly quickly. He guesses that it was just luck, but as he goes through the supermarket, he realizes that he has calculated the cost of his cart including tax before reaching the register.

Before long, he is making money as a pool shark and a card counter or staying up all night reading Wikipedia, WebMD, and eHow. He learns a lot in a very short amount of time, but the knowledge makes the ignorance of others all the more obvious and frustrating. When he tries to learn about his own condition, he discovers that his company has been involved in many such accidents and is secretly doing research on pharmaceuticals for the military and designer drugs for the extremely wealthy. When the company realizes what happened to him, they frame him for murder and leak to the media that his mind has been deranged by chemical exposure.

Essentially, this is a "man on the run" story about the strengths and limitations of intellect. What does a man do when he is the smartest person on Earth and can't find a solution to his problems? It should prove a good topic for analyzing intelligence and drug use.

X-Men Primer - Part 7

If you are confused now, you will hate this blog entry. Although Uncanny X-Men remained the number one selling comic throughout the '90s, there was considerable fan backlash to increasingly complex and confusing stories which either went unresolved or worse, poorly resolved.

While there are definitely some high points in this six year period, for the most part it will be remembered as the era that took the X-Men from the undisputed champion of comic book sales to just another comic book property.

And with that sterling introduction, we go to...

X-Men Prime

When we left off, we had just visited the dark alternate reality known as the Age of Apocalypse which was resolved in X-Men Omega. In order to capitalize on reader interest and refocus the franchise, they came out with another in the Greek character cycle. This was called X-Men Prime.

X-Men Prime brought us back to the regular world of the X-Men to show how things have changed... which is not all that much, aside from Cannonball moving from X-Force to become an official X-Man. The center piece of this issue is when Hank's girlfriend, the reporter Trish Tilby, goes on the news to report that the Legacy Virus has spread to humans. This causes an immediate backlash of anti-mutant paranoia which results in a young mutant being beaten to death by an angry mob.

But more meaningful for the reader is the introduction of the Age of Apocalypse refugees including Hank McCoy's infamous counterpart now known as Dark Beast (or sometimes Bete Noir), Nate Grey, Sugar Man, and Apocalypse's son, Holocaust. For reasons that escape me, the writers decided that Dark Beast and Sugar Man ended up twenty years in the past where Dark Beast created the Morlocks while Sugar Man was responsible for mutant slavery in Genosha.

Holocaust reappears in the present as little more than an extremely powerful skeleton. He is found floating above the Earth by the Acolytes who take him in, but this quickly results in a battle between himself and Exodus which destroys Avalon. As the space station collapses, Colossus takes the brain-dead Magneto to an escape pod and launches him to Earth.

Meanwhile, in X-Man #5 (the only title to survive the crossover), Nate Grey appears in Switzerland where he is naturally confused about the state of... well, reality. Fortunately, he meets a sexy redhead who can explain it to him. Unfortunately, that redhead is Madelyne Pryor. She is later revealed to be a psychic projection from Nate's subconscious creating a mother figure, but that never made much sense to me.

I really enjoyed the series at the time, but I have to say it never really went anywhere. I found Nate much more interesting than his gun-totting, futuristic counterpart. He is essentially just a lost and confused teenager with psychic powers to rival both Professor X and Jean Grey, but coming from an extremely violent world where hope is dead to a... less violent one is an interesting idea that was never fully explored.

Over in Uncanny X-Men, Beast, Bishop, and Psylocke are out in Jersey watching Pulp Fiction in its original theatrical release when they are interrupted by a meteor which turns out to be Juggernaut who was punched here all the way from Canada. When they ask him what happened, all he says is "Onslaught."

In other X-Men news, a series of attacks on humans and Morlocks lead the X-Men to discover an off-shoot of the Morlock's called Gene Nation. This crew was led by Marrow, a girl possessing external bone growths which could be used as weapons. The legacy of Marrow was not impressive. After a botched assassination attempt, Callisto flees to the X-Men where former Morlock leader in absentia, Storm, suddenly decides to defend her people. This leads to a duel between Storm and Marrow echoing her original fight with Callisto, however, this time she removes Marrow's heart. Marrow eventually recovers, having an extra heart as part of her mutation. She eventually comes under the tutelage of Callisto who tries to curb her extremist tendencies.

In Mexico, the escape pod carrying Magneto is discovered by a nun who nurses him back to health. Magneto, fortunately, seems to be suffering from amnesia. Even stranger, when his beard is shaven, it is revealed that he is much younger than before... approximately the age of most of the X-Men. After discovering his magnetic powers, he takes the name Joseph and heads off to find the X-Men, figuring he should seek out other mutants.

Meanwhile, Rogue is going a little crazy after kissing Gambit. She is aware of some dark secret, but not aware enough that she actually knows what it is... leaving the distinct impression that the writer doesn't know either. All that becomes clear is that it has to do with Mr. Sinister.

Back in Uncanny, Sabretooth finally makes his escape, attacking whoever he can in the process. The brunt of the damage is suffered by Psylocke who lies dying in the medlab while Angel looks on helplessly. At Wolverine's assistance, the two of them go to Chinatown to seek a mystic oriental cure for their mystic oriental comrade. With the help of Dr. Strange and Gomurr, they reach the Ebon Vein. Sacrificing a piece of his soul, Warren gives Betsy a new life and nifty tattoo.

But to me, this just made Psylocke even harder to explain. But it did make her darker and, in comic book math, dark = cool. The only real change to the character was her ability to meld in and teleport through shadows.

By the way, Sabretooth was recovered and sent to X-Factor where he was implanted with a control chip and put on a short leash. Between him and Mystique, it seemed that X-Factor was turning more and more into a team of mutant prisoners with their actions dictated by human concerns.

Meanwhile, Hank McCoy finally met his doppelganger when the Dark Beast captured Hank, locked him in a basement and hide him behind a brick wall. During this time, he died his fur blue and became a spy in the X-Men, although I'm not entirely sure why.

Over in Wolverine, fans were teased by this image of Wolverine with hoses attached to him evoking the image of the experiment which gave him his adamantium skeleton. The story follows Apocalypse's servant Ozymandias and Cable's son Tyler (yes, the Summers line gets even more complicated) as they attempt to graft adamanatium back onto Wolverine's bones. Along with some evil programming, they intended to make him Apocalypse's new Horseman of Death. Logan is apparently no equine fan because he rejects the adamantium, shooting it across the room as unbreakable spikes. In the process, Logan mutates into a creature more beast than man and unable to say much other than "grrr."

This follows a really bad habit in comics of offering something that everyone wants only to surprise you with something no one wants. The next few issues featured appearances from Daredevil's Elektra as she tried to reform him, but eventually this whole plot sort of fizzled out (most likely due to public backlash) and Logan just sort of became normal again.

In other mutant affairs, the Friends of Humanity, an anti-mutant hate group, were now stronger than ever as they announced the candidacy of Graydon Creed for president of the United States. The X-Men began to infiltrate the group and investigate their ties to the US government, particularly in a powerful new player by the name of Bastion.

Onslaught

The X-Men finally meet Onslaught when he launches an attack on the mansion. He takes them out fairly easily before revealing his true identity as Professor X. Over the course of this massive crossover which spills through almost every title in the Marvel Universe, it is explained that when Professor X wiped Magneto's mind, something new was created in the amalgamation of their psyches... a destructive entity based on the worst of both men. He consumed other psychics and absorbed their powers, particularly those of Nate Grey and the Fantastic Four's first born, Franklin.

The Onslaught Saga comes to a conclusion when the Avengers and Fantastic Four unite to take him down. Onslaught is destroyed, but in the process, so are all of Earth's greatest champions, namely Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Fantastic Four, and a few other Avengers. Soon after, Xavier surrenders himself to the law thereby taking responsibility for his actions.

This storyline was created as a lead-in to Heroes Reborn, an event designed to boost sales by outsourcing their properties to Image Comics. It was an interesting strategy to say that someone else can handle their characters better than them, but I imagine this had a lot to do with their recent bankruptcy filing. For one year, Image Comics produced Fantastic Four, Avengers, Captain America, and Iron Man using their top talent including Jim Lee and Rob Leifeld. For the most part, this was a failure although I personally enjoyed Fantastic Four quite a bit.

In the aftermath of Onslaught, public anti-mutant sentiment reached brand new heights. Most humans blamed all mutants for the death of their heroes making the Friends of Humanity in general, and Graydon Creed in particular, more powerful than ever. The X-Men continued to infiltrate the group, pretending to be mutie haters, particularly Bobby "Iceman" Drake who had become Graydon Creed's right-hand man. Yet after his father, a long-time mutant hating bigot himself, went on television in support of mutants following the Onslaught incident, Creed had his father beaten and killed, then left Bobby in the woods to find his father's body. He didn't know who Bobby really was. He just figured, like father like son.

This roughly coincided with the return of Warren's feather wings, which I can only imagine was due to the fact that real feathers look so much cooler than metal ones. Of course, the trade-off is that it once more makes Warren's powers seem comparatively weak to all of the other opponents they run into. It is a balancing act that they are still working on to this day.

Joining the X-Men following the Onslaught Saga was the mysterious Joseph who took to wearing a generic X-Men uniform and not adopting a codename. He soon became close to Rogue, echoing their relationship in Age of Apocalypse, and creating a love triangle with the now estranged Gambit. Using his magnetic powers and the Professor's alien technology, Joseph manages to give Rogue something Gambit never could... a normal kiss. The moment is soon interrupted by the Shi'ar Imperial Guard's Gladiator who transports them to an alien ship headed for deep space... but more on that later.

In X-Factor, Creed's candidacy comes to an abrupt stop when he is assassinated. Although this image implied Mystique's guilt, I'm not sure that the truth was ever revealed (can't even find it on Wikipedia), however the suspicion was clearly laid at Bastion's feet. This is probably just another plot hole that was more or less forgotten about.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

In the aftermath of the assassination, Bastion manages to institute Operation: Zero Tolerance which involves using Sentinel cyborgs called Prime Sentinels. These were placed in both volunteers and unwitting victims to capture or kill mutants across the country.

Things go bad pretty fast. Half the X-Men are gone in space and the other half get captured in the initial attack. It's even worse for X-Factor who is slaughtered by Sabretooth when he finally manages to escape. While the title limped on for another year, it might as well have been canceled here.

Interestingly, all hopes for stopping Bastion were laid on Iceman who formed a ragtag group of X-Men consisting of any mutant he ran across. The first was Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a force field projector who was recruited by Xavier long ago, but rejected his offer, having no interest in fighting people for a living. Instead, she chose a background in medicine which was destroyed by the Prime Sentinel attack. Before long, they were joined by Marrow, who had reconsidered her life choices with the help of Callisto and a chance encounter with Spider-Man. With the timely assistance of SHIELD and the US government, they manage to stay alive long enough for Bastion to be arrested and imprisoned. All in all, it is not their finest hour.

The Trial of Gambit

Meanwhile, at the Shi'ar homeworld, Rogue, Joseph, Gambit, Beast, Bishop, and Trish Tilby arrive at the far side of the galaxy only to discover the Shi'ar taken over by their old enemies, the Phalanx. In a battle that isn't worth mentioning, they won and returned to Earth... but became a little lost on the way... especially Bishop who did some unholy boot-knockin' with Deathbird then traveled the galaxy and ended up in the future for a while. In my opinion, he should have stayed there.

The other X-Men were soon captured by some old friends of Gambit who had never appeared before and would never appear again. They were hired to take Gambit to a cave in Antarctica where they once again encountered the android called Nanny. Here Gambit was held on trial for crimes against the mutant race by someone wearing the familiar guise of Erik the Red. In the course of the trial, it is revealed that Gambit was hired by Sinister to form the Marauders, leading directly to the Mutant Massacre that killed the Morlocks. Upon seeing what they had done, Gambit managed to save only one mutant, the child who would grow up to become Marrow. During the trial, the X-Men manage to escape, but leave Gambit behind. This show of disapproval lasted roughly two issues, but as they left, the identity of Erik the Red was revealed as Magneto... leading everyone to wonder just who the hell Joseph is.

The Slightly New, Slightly Different X-Men

Following Operation: Zero Tolerance, the team once more reformed, now with the addition of Cecilia Reyes, Marrow, and a character with the unfortunate name of Maggott. The character was never popular, his powers sucked, and he didn't last long, so the less said about him the better.

As for Cecilia Reyes, I always liked her and wish she had become a bigger part of the X-Men. Considering how often they sustained serious injury, it only made sense to have a full time doctor on staff. It was also fun seeing an X-Man who didn't really want to be an X-Man, but didn't have a whole lot of choice.

Marrow, on the other hand, quickly took over the role of the untrustworthy member of the team. Her feral nature brought to the group something that Wolverine had long lacked... an edge born from unpredictability. This was shown in one of the first issues when Wolverine picked a fight with Marrow to prove he is the alpha male. However, this backfires when she sticks one of her blades in his throat...

He got better.

Although Marrow quickly became unpopular, I kind of liked her. There was something to be said for her punk rock personality. Her own healing factor seemed to me more like a side-effect of her painful bone growths making her survive on pain. Sure, she could be a real bitch, but she had a pretty good excuse.

Mutant X

With the quality of the books falling by leaps and bounds, X-Factor and Excalibur were canceled, but for some reason, the adventures of Havok continued in a parallel universe under the title of Mutant X. The premise of the book was that, after an explosion where he was presumed dead, Havok awoke in another universe where he was leader of the Six, this universe's equivalent to the X-Men. Here Storm was still a vampire after her encounter with Dracula giving her the name Bloodstorm, Ice-Man's powers were out of control freezing anything he touches, Warren was called the Fallen (more demon than angel or machine), Hank was a mindless creature called Brute, and Havok himself was married to Madelyne Pryor.

Although the series started strong with a lot of promise, artist Tom Raney soon left and the writing skills of Howard Mackie gave us little more than random moments of "look at who is different in this world!"

The Mostly Old, Mostly the Same X-Men

Less than one year after the X-Men roster changed, it changed again as Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Colossus returned to the X-Men from Excalibur. By this point, Maggott and Cecilia had left leaving Marrow the only new X-Men.

In their first adventure, they are pitted against mutants claiming to be the X-Men and looking very much like an amalgamation of other X-Men characters. Their one claim to fame is that they are led by Xavier. However, we soon discover that he isn't really Xavier, but Cerebro having gained sentience and creating his own X-Men. Before long, the X-Men run into the Brotherhood of Mutants now run by the real Xavier who used their help to engineer his escape. They team up, destroy Cerebro, and now Xavier is back. All-in-all, a most forgettable adventure.

The Magneto War

The real story begins in the Magneto War when Magneto regroups his Acolytes and creates a giant machine to soup up his magnetic powers. Fortunately, the X-Men aren't the only ones out to stop him. Unfortunately, this story is mainly used to tie-up the Joseph plotline with a new character called Astra who supposedly cloned Magneto as a young man to make him younger and more powerful so that he could kill Magneto. Joseph dies reversing the damage done by Magneto, but is soon forgotten and never mentioned again. The only lasting reprecussions of this storyline is the decision by the UN to grant Magneto control over Genosha as a mutant safe haven... provided, of course, that he stop trying to destroy the world.

Well, the X-Men aren't happy about it, but they are soon whisked off to another dimension before landing in the Skrull homeworld of the past just as Galactus is about to eat the planet. If the words "Skrull" and "Galactus" don't register, don't worry about it. The only notable event here is Marrow being put in a Skrull healing chamber while fixes her mutation problem making her both pretty and nice. All-in-all, she becomes much less interesting. The X-Men hop into a Skrull ship and return to Earth, placing themselves in suspended animation so as to return to Earth in the appropriate time period.

The Twelve

They soon find themselves in another attempt to wrap up continuity as Apocalypse gathers "The Twelve" referring to twelve mutants that were important in some way when they were mentioned in a small piece of dialog over ten years ago. In the story, Apocalypse gathers the twelve as ingredients for creating his perfect vessel. Magneto and Polaris represent the magnetic poles; Storm, Sunfire, and Iceman represent the elements; and... well, I'm already bored. Wolverine is once more chosen as Death, but this time it works and he gets back his adamantium, to the joy of fans everywhere. Nate Grey is chosen as the vessel, but Cyclops leaps into the way thereby becoming Cyclopalypse who is either temporarily destroyed or defeated and runs off weakened.

The Return of Chris Claremont

Soon after, Marvel creates big hype with the return of Chris Claremont to the X-Men, but it turns out to be the biggest disappointment of the year. Whatever skills Claremont had had in his heyday had atrophied resulting in one dimensional characters, insubstantial villains, and way too much repetitive narration. Particularly jarring were the character summaries in every issue which became tedious to read over and over again. It was not an auspicious return.

Counter-X

Meanwhile in X-Force, Generation X, and X-Man, then hot writer Warren Ellis, fresh off of his groundbreaking work on The Authority and Planetary, is brought in to refresh these three failing titles. Unfortunately, his independent style mainly clashes in all three titles and before long, Generation X and X-Man are canceled. Nate Grey falls into comic book limbo, Generation X disbands, and X-Force... well, that's a story for the next blog.

Dream's End

Claremont's run soon winds to a close with Dream's End, a storyline centered around Senator Robert Kelly's bid for the presidency and Moira MacTaggert's attempts to cure the Legacy Virus. Both plans are interrupted by the Brotherhood of Mutants who kill Moira and blow up Muir Island. Professor Xavier's mind holds on to her as she slips away, leaving him with the cure that she had finally found, the only caveat being that it requires the sacrifice of a mutant life as the catalyst. The X-Men succeed in defending Kelly from the Brotherhood long enough for him to call for equal mutant rights, but he is immediately shot and killed by an angry human bigot. In the following story, Colossus injects himself with the cure for the Legacy Virus, sacrificing himself with the memory of his sister close in mind.

Eve of Destruction

Soon after, Cyclops returns from his amalgamated state with Apocalypse. Using their mighty psychic powers, Jean and Cable separate Cyclops from Apocalypse thereby returning things more or less to "normal." He returns just in time to launch a stealth attack on Genosha as Magneto rallies his mutant population for war with the human race. The fight is ended with Wolverine's claws severing Magneto's spine and leaving him, once more disabled... for the time being.

Next

The current and (in my opinion) greatest X-Men era. Come back soon for the conclusion to this X-Men primer... unless it ends up too long and I have to split it into two.

LINKS

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Part 8 (coming soon)