Rob Liefeld | Essential Showcase

First Published: March 2012

Contents: Uncanny X-Men #265 (Early August 1990) to #272 (January 1991); Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 (1990); New Mutants #95 (November 1990) to #97 (January 1991); X-Factor #60 (November 1990) to #62 (January 1991); and material from Fantastic Four Annual #23 (1990); New Mutants Annual #6 (1990), and X-Factor Annual #5 (1990)

Key Creator Credits: Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Louise Simonson, Rob Liefeld, Jon Bogdanove, and others

Key First Appearances: Remy LeBeau/Gambit, Seraph, Ahab

Story Continues From: Essential X-Men Vol. 9

Story Continues In: Essential X-Men Vol. 11

Overview: Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of future present for the X-Men and their extended family. Make no doubt about it, the X-Men title in this era is a full-blown daytime soap opera. You’re going to need a scorecard to keep up with everything going on here in Essential X-Men Vol. 10.

Let’s start with Storm, the one-time leader of the X-Men. She is suffering from amnesia, and her body has been reverted from adulthood to childhood. She is getting by with petty thievery on the streets of New Orleans, where she meets the Cajun mutant, Gambit. Will this charming rogue stick around?

Speaking of Rogue, she’s back in Australia from the Siege Perilous. But she has been split into two people, Rogue and Ms. Marvel, whose powers she absorbed so many years ago. The two women must fight each other as well as the Reavers for control of the headquarters and for control of Rogue’s body. Who will win?

Of course, we can’t tell an X-Men story without involving Wolverine. We get a great stand-alone issue, featured on the cover of the Essential, which tells a flashback story of Wolverine and Captain America saving a young Natasha Romanov, who would one day become the Black Widow.

But the highlights of this collection are the two large stories that take up most of the book.

The first is the Days of Future Present story, which ran across multiple annuals in 1991. Serving as a sequel to the original Days of Future Past story (check out Essential X-Men Vol. 2), a grown-up Franklin Richards travels from the future hoping to stop the events that lead to his current situation. This leads to fights between the Fantastic Four, the New Mutants, X-Factor and the various members of the X-Men. Adult Franklin meets young Franklin, Jean Grey meets Rachel Summers, and Cable spends time in the same room with infant Nathan Summers without things going wacky.

But the main story that takes up the last half of the book is the X-Tinction Agenda epic. The various teams (X-Men, X-Factor, and the New Mutants) must ban together to finally overthrow the Genoshan government. This storyline wrapped up so many ongoing storylines, with the most important conclusion being the reformation of the X-Men as an official team with a line-up featuring Storm (now returned to her adult form), Wolverine, Banshee, Forge, Psylocke, Jubilee, and Gambit. But the teams did not escape unharmed. Warlock was killed, and Wolfsbane finds herself trapped in her wolf form. She and Havok elect to stay behind on Genosha and help rebuild the government, one which will treat mutants and humans as equals.

What makes this Essential?: This is an interesting era for the X-Men, as the book (and the various related titles) truly become a large soap opera of sorts. While it’s always been a key component of any Chris Claremont X-Men story, the stories in this collection seem even more focused on the character interactions than the over-the-top superhero adventures. (Don’t get me wrong, you still get those stories, especially with the epic crossovers in this book.)

If you have been reading the X-Men since Giant-Size X-Men #1, then, by all means, pick up this book, if you don’t already have all of the issues. But if you are just getting into the X-Men, you might be better off just focusing on the big epic stories, many of which can be found in their own hardcover or trade paperback collection.

Footnotes: Material from Fantastic Four Annual #23, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Factor Annual #5, and Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 are also reprinted in Essential X-Factor Vol. 4.

Uncanny X-Men #270 to #272, New Mutants #95 to #97 and X-Factor #60 to #62 are also reprinted in Essential X-Factor Vol. 5.

If you like this volume, try: the X-Force series that started in 1991. Following the end of the X-Tinction Agenda story, the New Mutants book was due for a shake-up. Wolfsbane left the team to stay in Genosha and help rebuild the nation. Long-time member Warlock had been killed during the story. New members were joining the team, and the group was now led by Cable. Series artist Rob Liefeld had taken over the writing duties, and it made sense for Marvel to relaunch the title in a new direction with a new #1 issue. Along with co-writer Fabian Nicieza, X-Force #1 became one of the best-selling comics of all time, thanks to the issue being poly-bagged with collector cards. The first year of X-Force has been collected in an omnibus edition, so that might be the best way to track down these stories to read.

First Published: December 2009

Contents: X-Factor #36 (January 1989) to #50 (January 1990); X-Factor Annual #3 (1988); and Uncanny X-Men #242 (March 1989) and #243 (April 1989)

Key Creator Credits: Louise Simonson, Walt Simonson, Chris Claremont, Kieron Dwyer, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Arthur Adams, Paul Smith, and others

Key First Appearances: Alchemy

Story Continues From: Essential X-Factor Vol. 2

Story Continues In: Essential X-Factor Vol. 4

Overview: This book has a little bit of everything for the mutant fan in all of us. Sit back and enjoy the read of Essential X-Factor Vol. 3.

First up is the Evolutionary War crossover in X-Factor Annual #3. From a chronology point of view, this should have been collected in the prior Essential volume, but there was a lot going on in that book, so we get it here. In the main story, we see X-Factor trying to stop the High Evolutionary from exterminating the Moloids and others that are at the end of their evolutionary development. It’s part of the big storyline running through the annuals that year. The big take away from the annual is the back-up feature, which features the various kids in training with X-Factor, such as Skids, Boom Boom, Rusty, and others, taking off in their own adventures, which would be told in the X-Terminators mini-series – sadly not reprinted in Essential form.

Next up is Inferno, which we have talked about previously with Essential X-Men Vol. 8. The big takeaway for the X-Factor team is the resolution of the Jean Grey-Scott Summers-Madelyne Pryor love triangle. Madelyne is killed, leaving Scott and Jean to resume their lives together raising baby Nathan. As the team all catches their collective breath, the X-Terminator kids return, only to break up their band. Many of the older kids would transfer over to the New Mutants title, becoming key members for the years to come.

But I need to focus on X-Factor here, because we are quickly caught up in the Judgement War. The team is kidnapped and sent across the galaxy to a planet facing judgement by the Celestials. On this planet, everyone is ranked on a perfection scale. Jean Grey is viewed as being perfect, while some of the guys (Beast, Archangel) tend to fall at the bottom of that ranking. The team members work independently before reuniting and stopping the Celestials.

What makes this Essential?: This is a transitional volume. We see Walt Simonson’s run on the book come to an end with the Inferno storyline. The art is handled by committee, with most of the work done by the criminally-underrated Paul Smith. We do experience Rob Liefeld’s first work for Marvel – you decide what to make of that! Through all of this though, writer Louise Simonson continues to provide a steady direction for the title.

My biggest issue with this collection is that the book gets highjacked by events going on in the other X-Men or Marvel Universe books at the time. The first half of this book is given over to tie-ins with the Evolutionary War storyline or the Inferno storyline. Considering that the Inferno story has been reprinted already (see Footnotes), you almost feel cheated by paying full price for half of a volume of “new” material.

Footnotes: X-Factor #36 to #39 and Uncanny X-Men #242 and #243 are also reprinted in Essential X-Men Vol. 8.

If you like this volume, try: the Acts of Vengeance storyline. After multiple summer events which focused solely on the Marvel mutants, this event crossed over across the Marvel Universe. Secretly organized by Loki, the villains unite and agree to change up their normal foes, in an attempt to surprise the heroes. So you have the odd combinations of the Punisher facing Doctor Doom, or Daredevil vs. Ultron. In typical fashion, the villains plans unravel due to infighting and personal agendas. Loki is revealed as the organizer, which leads to yet another face-off with the Avengers. Now, this may be a harder storyline to track down. There was an omnibus released which collected the main issues of the storyline. However, this omnibus has gone out of print, and the prices have skyrocketed in the secondary market (eBay). A second omnibus was released featuring more of the crossover issues, but not the main storyline. This omnibus is still readily found for cover price or less. This may be a case where the thrill of the back issue hunt is more fun, to track down all of the numerous crossovers, which should be noted by a triangle window in the upper right corner of the covers.