ShareThis"Messiah CompleX" -- what Marvel Comics keeps calling the "biggest X-Men story in 10 years" -- just wrapped up, with many casualties and the team disbanding at the end. So I guess the X-Men story is finished, and we can all read other stuff now.Ha-ha! Just kidding! If you read comics, you know how this works: One big event always leads to another (in this case, a story called "X-Men: Divided We Stand," beginning in February). But before we get into that, let's see how we got here:For a couple of years now in the Marvel Universe, there have been only a couple hundred mutants left on Earth, and no new ones being born. Which is why the birth of a baby mutant in October's "X-Men: Messiah CompleX" one-shot kicked off a 13-part story line running through four X-titles over four months, involving just about every X-isting mutant hero, villain and hanger-on. Everybody into the pool!But the ride came to end in "X-Men" No. 207, which shipped Jan. 23. Among the many repercussions (Spoiler Alert!) was Prof. Xavier getting shot in the head. Ouch. Which led Cyclops to disband the X-Men, saying "(the team) was Xavier's dream ... it began with him, and it ends with him." No, that doesn't make sense to me, either, especially since Xavier isn't quite dead yet. But Cyclops throwing in the towel will transform the following X-titles:-- "Cable & Deadpool": Canceled. Because the baby (see above) wound up in the hands of the time-traveling Nathan Summers, he will flee with it through time and space, pursued by the murderous turncoat Bishop, in the new, ongoing "Cable" (debuting in March). Eventually, he'll end up in Edo-era Japan, and the book will be renamed "Lone Cable & Cub." (Just kidding about that last part.)-- "New X-Men": Canceled, but it will be resurrected as "Young X-Men" in April. The book will star Blindfold, Dust and Rockslide, whom we know from "New X-Men," and Graymalkin, Ink and Wolfcub, whom we've yet to meet.What's it about? Writer Marc Guggenheim described the Young X-Men thusly in a video interview (www.marvel.com):"They don't have the mansion. They don't have the support system. They are not being coddled. ... They know there are no more mutants, no more new mutants. This is the final group of X-Men that will ever be assembled. It's young kids being placed in incredibly difficult, trying, challenging situations and having no 'out' other their own abilities ... and their own courage and fortitude."-- "Wolverine": Through April, at least, this title will be devoted to the feral X-Man hunting down the shape-shifting Mystique to kill her dead, because she double- and triple-crossed just about everyone in "Messiah CompleX." This will be difficult for even the lethal Wolverine, because A) shape-shifters are really good at hiding, and B) she's adept at using human shields.-- "Uncanny X-Men": Although there's no X-Men team anymore, this book will follow the adventures of Cyclops, the telepath Emma Frost, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler. But they're not a team. Got it? Not a team. They just, um, hang around together and have adventures. But they're not a team! Marvel says so.-- "X-Force": A new title launching in February, starring Wolverine and three other ex-X-Men who form a covert team to hunt down and kill evil mutants. And you can tell just how double-super-secret they are, because the other X-Men don't know about them, and they dress in black.-- "X-Men": Renamed. It becomes "X-Men: Legacy" with issue No. 208 in February, and stars Prof. Xavier (in a coma after being shot in the head), Magneto (who is currently depowered), Gambit (in disgrace) and Rogue (perpetually confused). How, you ask, can Marvel wrap a title around these damaged characters?Well, I wouldn't sweat the details. Prof. X alone, for example, has been "dead" at least twice, has been cloned before and has gained and lost the use of his legs so many times I've lost count. A little thing like being shot in the head won't even slow him down. (The others have similarly convoluted histories.)But I have high hopes, because this is the most X-cited I've been about Marvel's merry mutants for years. "Messiah CompleX," uncannily, lived up to its hype.(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)
X-citing developments in the Marvel universe...
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