Title: X-Men: Mutant Massacre
Author: Chris Claremont
Artists: Jackson Guice, Rick Leonardi, John Romita Jr and Sal Buscema
Genre: Superheroes / Action / Adventure
Year Published: 1986
Year Read: 2012
Series: Uncanny X-Men
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Source: Purchased
Content Rating: Ages 12+ (Death and Fighting Scenes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Introduction:
After I heard so many good
reviews on this comic, I just had to read this and oh boy, I just have so much
to say about this particular comic book!
I know that so many events had happened before “X-Men: Mutant Massacre” happened (as was stated by the characters
in this comic), but I wanted to read this so badly that I was willing to skip
the last few issues of “X-Men” just
to get to this comic! “X-Men: Mutant
Massacre” was a first for me in many different ways: it was the first “X-Men” comic book that I read that
featured Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, also known as Psylocke, the first time I
had read about the original “X-Factor,”
the first time I had read about “The New
Mutants,” the first time I had read “Daredevil”
and the first time I had read about the “Power
Pack.” With the combined writing of Chris
Claremont, Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, and Ann Nocenti and the
combined artwork of John Romita Jr.,
Terry Shoemaker, Bret Blevins, Walter Simonson, Jackson Guice, Sal Buscema, Jon
Bogdanove, Rick Leonardi, Alan Davis, and Barry Windor-Smith, “X-Men: Mutant
Massacre” is definitely a story that “X-Men”
fans have to check!
What is this story
about?
When the Marauders, a group of mutant assassins, started
killing most of the Morlock community, the X-Men, now lead by a Mohawk wearing
Storm, step in to help out the Morlocks.
Meanwhile, X-Factor, a group of mutant hunters who are actually the
original five X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast and Angel) in disguise,
try to defeat the Marauders while Angel goes through an emotional trip that
would change him forever. Also, this
comic features guest appearances from Thor, Daredevil, the New Mutants and the
Power Pack who also try to help out the X-Men in defending the Morlock
community!
This graphic novel
contains stories from:
Uncanny X-Men (issues #210 – 214)
X-Factor (issues #9 – 11)
New Mutants (issue #46)
Thor (issues #373-374)
Powr Pack (issue #27)
Daredevil (issue #238)
What I loved about
this story:
The story: Usually,
I do have problems with reading crossovers in comics because the stories almost
never match up as long as you have different writers writing each story, but
for a crossover, I found this story pretty impressive! I liked the fact that all of the stories
mentioned in this graphic novel actually flowed well together and it felt like
we were getting one cohesive storyline instead of having several different
things happening all at once and it made me really enjoy the storyline! I really enjoyed the way that each different
writer had a different take on the Marauders attacking the Morlocks as we see
the attacks on the Morlocks from the X-Men, Thor, the Power Pack and
Daredevil’s viewpoint. The stories that
I really enjoyed in this graphic novel were the stories written by Chris Claremont as he wrote the stories
for “Uncanny X-Men” and “New Mutants.” I loved the way that Chris Claremont made the story extremely dramatic and intense as we
witness many Morlocks being killed in brutal ways and the X-Men characters
dealing with the tragedy emotionally. I
really enjoyed how Chris Claremont
handled Storm’s character as we see her being emotionally affected by the
situation and how it affected her position as the leader of the X-Men and it
was truly moving seeing Storm struggle with being the leader of the X-Men. I also enjoyed seeing Storm as the leader of
the X-Men since it was rare of me to see her in such a position. I really enjoyed Chris Claremont’s writing in “New
Mutants” as the characters were really interesting, especially Illyana
Rasputin (Magik), Warlock, Danielle Moonstar (Valkyrie) and Samuel Guthrie
(Cannonball) and it was great seeing a younger generation of X-Men step up the
plate in this tragedy. Louise Simonson’s
writing for “X-Factor” was fantastic
as it was interesting seeing the original five X-Men work together again and I
enjoyed seeing how the murdering of the Morlocks affected them and how the
mutant community looks at them as they were disguised as the mutant hunting
team “X-Factor” even though they
were trying to help the mutants. I also
enjoyed Louise Simonson’s writing in
“Power Pack” as it was hilarious and
intense at the same time as I really enjoyed seeing the adventures of Franklin
Richards and the Power Pack as it is rare that I see a comic book with small
children being superheroes, which I thought was really cute! I really like Ann Nocenti’s writing in “Daredevil”
as the fight between Daredevil and Saber tooth was really intense and I enjoyed
the inner monologues of Daredevil as it really defined his position in being a
superhero.
The artwork: Out of all the graphic novels I had
read, “X-Men: Mutant Massacre”
probably had the most artists I had ever seen out of any graphic novel! Each artist had contributed greatly to this
storyline and I had enjoyed each one! My
favorite artwork in this book came from Jackson
Guice’s artwork in “New Mutants,”
Rick Leonardi’s artwork in “Uncanny
X-Men,” John Romita Jr’s artwork
in “Uncanny X-Men,” and Sal Buscema’s artwork in “Daredevil.” (I
know that there is some hate on John Romita Jr.’s artwork in current comics,
but I enjoyed the scratchy artwork he created for this storyline).
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
The reason why I gave this book a four star rating was
because I felt that Thor’s side of the story was a bit of a distraction for me
as it focused too heavily on Thor and I am not used to the “Shakespearean”
dialogue that Thor usually talks in.
Also, you can tell that so much has happened before this storyline, so
anyone (like myself) who just jumped in to read an X-Men comic might be
wondering about how half of the events that happened to the characters happened
in the first place.
This was back in the
days when continuity was important in comics.
This comic also deals with the theme of death and sorrow as
many characters are killed in this graphic novel and that might upset sensitive
readers.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, despite the four star rating (the “X-Men” storylines alone are five
stars in my book), “X-Men: Mutant Massacre” is definitely one of the
darkest yet most invigorating series I had ever read and anyone who is a huge
fan of the X-Men will definitely enjoy this book!
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