X-Men: Deadly Genesis #3
In which things come together and this mini-series suddenly looks like it might be interesting. Instead of just a cheap aniversary rip-off involving an ill-advised character ressurection.
So "Deadly Genesis" is commemorating the 30th anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which introduced the 2nd-generation team (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Thunderbird) and inaugurated the classic era of the X-Men (which picked up in (Uncanny) X-Men #94 the next month). And we've all known for a while that Thunderbird (who died on his 2nd mission in X-Men #95) was going to be brought back- they've been droppping obvious hints.
But I decided to pick it up anyway since it would probalby impact the main titles, and its being written by Ed Brubaker, who generally Doesn't Suck. And its been an odd little title. The characters who were on the team in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (GXM1) or joined it as a result have been having wierd flashbacks. And someone kidnapped Cyclops and Marvel Girl II (Rachel Grey subbing for her dead mother, the original Marvel Girl/Phoenix, who was in GXM1). Rachel's actually being not too annoying in this one, probably because Claremont's not writing her. Although she does have her requisite scene where she sees something she thinks might have to do with her mom and freaks out and does something stupid, promptly getting them captured. Its overdue- she becomes a total idiot whenever her mom is brought up and its nice to see someone else notice that and use it.
Anyway, along with this have been short back-up stories on mutants we've previously not heard of. They're teen-agers and at the end of each story, someone comes to get them and we get the idea that its a benevolent someone, quite possibly the X-Men. But this is a bit odd given the current situtaton where most mutants have lost their powers and the government is paranoid and is keeping them all essentially prisoners at the Xavier Institute. So clearly something's up.
Finally this issue we find out that the woman who comes to collect the unknown mutants is Moira MacTaggart. For those who don't know, Moira's been dead since early 2001 (and actually shows no signs of returning, for once). She was a human geneticist and long-time ally of the X-Men, and had been romantically involved with Professor X when they were students. So suddenly these little vignettes make sense- they happened sometime in the past.
Add to this the discovery of what the villian was trying to prevent the X-Men from finding and it gets very interesting- a recording of Moira, distraught that she gave Xavier people who were "just kids" to help him find his missing X-Men and he got them all killed.
In GXM1, the original team (except Cyclops) was captured, and the 2nd-generation team was recruited to go save them. It looks like this is setting up a major retcon saying that the 2nd-generation team was not the first to try. Possibly this unknown team tried before Cyclops even made it back. This could suck or it could be fascinating. Its not the first time the early history has been retconned (declaring Sage to have been an undercover X-Man style agent since the days of the original five being the most notorious). But it would be one of the most disturbing, since presumably none of the current team knows about it.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they do with this. In related news, Ed Brubaker will be taking over Uncanny X-Men after Claremont's run finishes this summer- it should be a significant improvement if this is anything to go on. Especially since he presumably won't be working with the constraint of doing some sort of GXM1 anniversary tie-in.
So "Deadly Genesis" is commemorating the 30th anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which introduced the 2nd-generation team (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Thunderbird) and inaugurated the classic era of the X-Men (which picked up in (Uncanny) X-Men #94 the next month). And we've all known for a while that Thunderbird (who died on his 2nd mission in X-Men #95) was going to be brought back- they've been droppping obvious hints.
But I decided to pick it up anyway since it would probalby impact the main titles, and its being written by Ed Brubaker, who generally Doesn't Suck. And its been an odd little title. The characters who were on the team in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (GXM1) or joined it as a result have been having wierd flashbacks. And someone kidnapped Cyclops and Marvel Girl II (Rachel Grey subbing for her dead mother, the original Marvel Girl/Phoenix, who was in GXM1). Rachel's actually being not too annoying in this one, probably because Claremont's not writing her. Although she does have her requisite scene where she sees something she thinks might have to do with her mom and freaks out and does something stupid, promptly getting them captured. Its overdue- she becomes a total idiot whenever her mom is brought up and its nice to see someone else notice that and use it.
Anyway, along with this have been short back-up stories on mutants we've previously not heard of. They're teen-agers and at the end of each story, someone comes to get them and we get the idea that its a benevolent someone, quite possibly the X-Men. But this is a bit odd given the current situtaton where most mutants have lost their powers and the government is paranoid and is keeping them all essentially prisoners at the Xavier Institute. So clearly something's up.
Finally this issue we find out that the woman who comes to collect the unknown mutants is Moira MacTaggart. For those who don't know, Moira's been dead since early 2001 (and actually shows no signs of returning, for once). She was a human geneticist and long-time ally of the X-Men, and had been romantically involved with Professor X when they were students. So suddenly these little vignettes make sense- they happened sometime in the past.
Add to this the discovery of what the villian was trying to prevent the X-Men from finding and it gets very interesting- a recording of Moira, distraught that she gave Xavier people who were "just kids" to help him find his missing X-Men and he got them all killed.
In GXM1, the original team (except Cyclops) was captured, and the 2nd-generation team was recruited to go save them. It looks like this is setting up a major retcon saying that the 2nd-generation team was not the first to try. Possibly this unknown team tried before Cyclops even made it back. This could suck or it could be fascinating. Its not the first time the early history has been retconned (declaring Sage to have been an undercover X-Man style agent since the days of the original five being the most notorious). But it would be one of the most disturbing, since presumably none of the current team knows about it.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they do with this. In related news, Ed Brubaker will be taking over Uncanny X-Men after Claremont's run finishes this summer- it should be a significant improvement if this is anything to go on. Especially since he presumably won't be working with the constraint of doing some sort of GXM1 anniversary tie-in.