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Uncanny X-Men (1963) #294-297

X-Men: X-Cutioner's Song

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The X-Men story so big, it took four books to contain it! When Cyclops and Phoenix are kidnapped - and Cable seemingly assassinates Professor X - the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force go to war...with each other! Witness epic battles around the globe and on the moon as Mr. Sinister's subtle plan of vengeance on Apocalypse unfolds, and major revelations are made about the true identities of Cable and his twisted doppelganger Stryfe! Featuring blood, angst, sacrifice and great big guns as Marvel's mutant families dance to the villains' twisted tune! Collecting UNCANNY X-MEN #294-297, X-FACTOR (1986) #84-86, X-MEN (1991) #14-16, X-FORCE (1991) #16-18 and STRYFE'S STRIKE FILE.

361 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 2011

27 people are currently reading
148 people want to read

About the author

Scott Lobdell

1,620 books230 followers
Scott Lobdell (born 1960) is an American comic book writer.

He is mostly known for his work throughout the 1990s on Marvel Comics' X-Men-related titles specifically Uncanny X-Men, the main title itself, and the spin-off series that he conceived with artist Chris Bachalo, Generation X. Generation X focused on a number of young mutant students who attempted to become superheroes in their own right at a separate school with the guidance of veteran X-related characters Banshee and Emma Frost. He also had writing stints on Marvel's Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series with artist Gene Ha. He wrote the script to Stan Lee's Mosaic and an upcoming film from POW Entertainment featuring Ringo Starr. He also participated in the Marvel Comics and Image Comics (from Jim Lee's WildStorm) crossover mini-series WildC.A.T.s/X-Men.

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5 stars
72 (21%)
4 stars
126 (37%)
3 stars
106 (31%)
2 stars
32 (9%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,061 followers
September 20, 2017
Cable shoots Professor X at a concert in the middle of Central Park...or did he? Lots of punchy-punchy between the X-teams and terrible monologues by the villains ensue. Should have been about a 2 issue story instead of 12. It's interesting how Greg Capullo, Brandon Peterson, and Andy Kubert all have the same "house" X-Men style when they first started on the X-books. I'd also forgotten how terrible of an artist Jae Lee was when he started out, those X-Factor issues are rough. This was also back in the day when each issue was polybagged with a trading card so you'd buy 2 copies.
Profile Image for Sud666.
2,330 reviews198 followers
March 22, 2021
"X-Cutioner's Song" was a X-men "mega-event" cross over. It was originally published in the early 1990's. Sadly the art, the lettering style and the story are representative of that time. The characters are drawn with that strange overly muscled style, the lettering emphasized with gaudy styles and colors and a story mostly designed around having people fight each other.

Professor X has been shot by Cable. Or was it Cable? The X-Men go hunting for Cable, as Beast and friends try to save Professor X from a Techno-virus, spread by the bullet. This story drags in nearly all the "X" types from X-Men to X-Factor. It turns out that Stryfe is responsible for this mess and it drags Apocolpyse, the Horsemen and the entire X-Men crew into one big fight. While the Apocolypse working with the X-Men was interesting, the story wasn't anything great.

Still, considering some of the crap from the 90's, this isn't that bad an X-Men story. It is important in that it highlights Stryfe's story, as well as feeds into the Cable-frenzy that was common at the time.

A decent enough volume with a tale from the early 90's. Don't expect too much, but it is not awful.
Profile Image for Frédéric.
1,971 reviews86 followers
September 8, 2024
All this because someone didn't suckle enough from their mother's breast as a baby. Sad. I think Stryfe is arguably one of the most pathetic villains in the Marvel universe.

That said, if the whole thing is editorially correct - the series are properly interconnected - this cross-over oozes the vain grandiloquence of the 90s with its body-built villains who talk way too much in mwah ah ah mode.

The artwork was good (Jae Lee on X-Factor, the best of the series involved), decent (Greg Capullo on X-Force), mediocre (Andy Kubert on X-Men. Sorry to his fans) and, last but not least, very bad (Brandon Peterson on Uncanny X-Men).

All in all, a disappointing event.
Profile Image for Cameron H.
209 reviews5 followers
April 26, 2020
If the Dark Phoenix Saga is the Citizen Kane of X-Men, then truly, X-Cutioner’s Song is Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy.

This is not a complaint!
Profile Image for RG.
3,084 reviews
June 22, 2020
This wasnt that great.
Profile Image for Onur Kaya.
39 reviews20 followers
March 24, 2017
Claremont'un gidişinin ardından X-Men'in tekrardan kendini bulduğu hikaye. Yazım da çizim da pek bir güzel, alışıldık doksanlar melodramasıyla dolu olduğu halde kendini gayet güzel okutuyor.
Profile Image for Tim.
706 reviews24 followers
November 13, 2021
This was my first ever X-crossover event when I started reading comics some 20-oddsome years ago and it was interesting to go back and revisit it all these years later. I still remember tracking down all those polybagged issues with the trading cards inside...

Anyway I gave this three stars, it was nowhere near as good as I remembered, but it wasn't terrible either (it's entirely possible my judgment is clouded by nostalgia associated with the story). It's oh so 90's comic books too, brooding heroes, big guns, a villain named Stryfe, pouches, and so on. It's fun to get a look at Greg Capullo coming into his own as an artist too, you still catch glimpses back to his Liefeld imitation days, but every so often you'll see a glimpse of his current style on Batman as well (especially Stryfe, I think he just referenced the face/jaw line of Stryfe in his mask for Bruce in costume).

This story did set the tone for a story in the X-Men universe for years to come with the unleashing of Legacy virus that threatened to wipe out all of mutantkind, how oddly prescient of what happened during M-Day...
Profile Image for Aildiin.
1,488 reviews34 followers
August 18, 2015
Even the original authors admit it wasn't their best work so I have no qualms giving this 2 stars. It's not terribly bad but it hasn't aged well and the plot is full of holes...
Profile Image for Ashley Kjos.
51 reviews3 followers
June 18, 2019
The thing was promoted as a reveal of Cable’s origin, but it never did. Although it becomes obvious (how dull can Scott and Jean get) I still wanted some kind of payoff on the page for reading a pretty long crossover where nothing else really happens. Lot of posturing. The canister releasing the legacy virus at the very end is something, but that’s literally the last page.
Profile Image for Shane Stanis.
497 reviews5 followers
July 18, 2025
Chrises on Infinite Earths

Read for Stryfe & Cable & Sinister & Apocalypse
and a title with unacceptable X-Spelling
3,013 reviews
March 13, 2013
These are the X-Men that I know.

But this crossover -- yuck! Sloppy and confusing. The climax is a surprise and not in a good way. The book withholds the big reveal about the big bad for reasons that are not clear. And I mean it withholds all the way through. Looking back, the hints are heavy-handed, so it is not like they were at the beginning of the mystery.

And the peripheral characters . . . Does anyone care about any of these members of X-Force? No wonder they're put in jail cells for most of the crossover.
2,080 reviews18 followers
July 16, 2014
This was interesting, and faster paced than some earlier X-Men events that I have read recently, though it definitely shows that it comes from the '90s, since it's very dark, gritty, and EXTREME! Particularly the artwork in the X-Factor comics, which are comically so. Still, the story is interesting (though I knew what was only hinted at here already), and it shows the genesis of the legacy virus (albeit subtly), so that's pretty neat. Still, it was hard to deal with the somewhat ridiculous nature of some of the visuals, even if the writing was good.
Profile Image for Adam Stone.
2,043 reviews33 followers
July 31, 2024
This was an overwhelming mess when I read it without the full context of the thirty years of comics that preceded it. It's a mistaken identity clone story, it's a family drama, it's a medical mystery, there's a few pages dealing with refugees, it's an intergenerational conflict, it's an action movie, it's A Lot to have to process without all the proper history before it.

With the proper history, it's ok. It's real strength is the combination of writers on this. Peter David had been writing dad-joke centric noir satire in X-Factor, Jim Lee and company had been writing classic superhero drama in the adjectiveless X-Men, and Fabien Nicieza had been writing family drama and time travel adventures in Uncanny X-Men while writing bland and unfocused action movie dialogue in X-Force. Together, the writing team tempered each other really well. David had to get focused on the intricacies of plot and inter-personal drama to balance Nicieza's action movie style so he dropped the dad jokes while finding a way to include the parts of his ongoing story that didn't seem like they meshed with the crossover. Lee and Lobdell seemed to be guiding the overall arcs to get the various books to move in new directions. Nicieza mostly got the fight scenes, which is clearly what he wanted to be doing. It made for a pretty fluid read. Again, if you've read everything before it.

There was also an odd but smart visual connection that all of the artists did for this book. While many of them had differing styles, they all took the second and third pages of their stories and paneled them landscape style instead of portrait style, so you had to turn the book sideways after you read the intro page, and then turn it back for the rest of the book. It didn't add anything other than a visual connective tissue but it was a neat device.

I had never realized before that Jae Lee, whose work I didn't start recognizing until he and David teamed up on The Gunslinger Born well over a decade later. Much of his work here is also focused and engagingly staged characters with minimal to no background images, which is a stark contrast to the noisy paneling of most 90s X-books. I'm going to have to do a read through of as much of his art as I can at some point.

I also forgot that Greg Capullo was involved with this era of X-books. I've always loved his DC work, particularly on Batman, and I even appreciate his work on Spawn, even if that isn't my favorite series to read.

So there's a lot to love, art-wise and editorially in this book. And if you're an X-pert (sorry) on Marvel's mutant section, I think this is a fun read but it was really frustrating as a reader who'd only read many X-books before, as opposed to pretty much all of them. So if you're a completist or deep into X-lore, this is a great pick. But if you're new to the X-books or a casual reader, this isn't where you should start.
310 reviews
September 1, 2024
  X-Men Milestones X-Cutioner's Song, calificación 3/5 estrellas

  Aceptable crossover de los libros X, con grandes artistas como Andy Kubert o Greg Capullo, la mascara en los close up de Stryfe se asemeja a Batman dibujada por Capullo.

  Se supone que fue un crossover inprovisado cuando Jim Lee y Whilce Portacio dejaron el título de The X-Men y The Uncanny X-Men para fundar Image junto a Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silverstri, Todd McFarlane y Jim Valentino, he leído teorías de fans que el crossover sí se hubiera seguido lo planeado anteriormente, era con The Upstarts.

  Los Upstarts eran Shinobi Shaw, Trevor Fitzroy, Fabian Cortéz, Fenris, Gamemaster y Selene después se agregaron Siena Blaze y Graydon Creed fueron un grupo que mataban como o un juego a los mutantes entre más prominentes fueran más puntos tendrían, el ganador obtendría un premio desconocido se rumoreaba que el liderazgo de The Upstarts, omnipotencia, servidumbre o inmortalidad, pero en realidad eran manipulados por Selene con ayuda de Gamemaster una historia que nunca sabremos su final, a no ser que Jim Lee lo diga.

Después de leer Necrosha donde con las almas de los mutantes muertos, Selene intenta convertirse en Diosa, creo que eso podía funcionar como la trama de los Upstarts de Lee y Portacio.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Judah Radd.
1,098 reviews14 followers
April 14, 2019
You just never really know when an X-Men story is going to kill it. This one killed it big time.

Peter David, Scott Lobdell and Fabian Niceiza bring us a powerful, well paced page turner. The dramatic climaxes are effective. The art from Greg Capullo, Andy Kubert, Jae Lee, Brandon Peterson and Larry Stroman is all fantastic. It all fits, it’s all engaging, it’s all fresh.

Even though Rob Leifeld and Jim Lee aren’t part of this book, their influence is all over it. In the last decade, it’s become trendy to criticize these guys. What a load. They are incredible, and they changed the medium for the better. This book wouldn’t have been possible without their influence.

I really loved this book. It’s not only a great story, but it’s also an important story that shakes the foundation of this Marvel X-Men world.

Listen... I love Claremont... but in all the Claremont stories I’ve read, I’ve never felt this close to these characters. This team really brought them up a level.

In many ways, this is the definitive version of the X-Men. It’s the team/costumes/feel/aesthetic that the hugeky successful animated series was based on, as well as the first film.

Don’t skip this one.
Profile Image for Jeff.
628 reviews
September 1, 2024
The storyline here isn’t top tier. It covers neither much new ground, nor does the reveal that Cable and Stryfe are the genetic offspring of Cyclops and Jean Grey have the gravitas that it should. The family lines are a bit complicated here but the emotional resonance is muted by the fact that very little is actually revealed. There is a lot of Stryfe complaining that he was abandoned as a baby, but there isn’t a real reveal moment that clears up that Stryfe is a clone of Cable who is the son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Prior who
Is the clone of Jean Grey (Marvel Girl). And there lies the convoluted soap opera that could have played out a bit more clearly and with more heart.

However, this is in many ways a strong continuous story written by three writers with multiple artists. The continuity, while not perfect is pretty strong where the story from one book pretty seamlessly picks up the story from the previous book in the series. This is a real accomplishment considering that it is written across four titles.

The other thing is the art is generally really good, and Jae Lee’s work in X-Factor is stylistic and exceptional!
Profile Image for Lance Grabmiller.
591 reviews23 followers
January 17, 2020
Collects Uncanny X-Men #294-297, X-Factor #84-86, X-Men #14-16, X-Force #16-18 and Stryfe's Strike File (November 1992 - February 1993). Surprisingly good. Really hearkens back to the old crossovers in the best ways. The only problem really is that the X-books have kinda become a bloated mess at this point. Here we have four of the X-teams, each with a half dozen or more members plus three of the big X-men villains (Apocalypse, Stryfe and Mr. Sinister) PLUS a BUNCH of villain teams and cronies (Apocalypse's Horsemen, The Dark Riders, The Mutant Liberation Front as well as mentions of The Acolytes, The Upstarts and the Externals). Just too many characters to keep track of and a little too much time in the beginning is wasted with the X-teams fighting among themselves. And I think there is too much beating around the bush about who exactly Stryfe and Cable are, like they were hedging their bets in case they needed to change the story later.
370 reviews3 followers
February 16, 2023
This includes the 12 issues of X-Cutioner's Song crossover event and an epilogue issue as well as the Stryfe's Stryke Files (sp?). I had read some of these issues growing up and still have them tucked away somewhere but the majority I had never read before. I like these collected editions from our great, local library. Truth be told, it was a bit of a slog at first. I would say issue 1 was a 5 star and 2 through 12 were 2.5 to 3. The epilogue and Stryke Files were back to a 5 so it left on a high note. I really enjoyed the slice of life epilogue. I like that more sometimes than when everything is hitting the fan and the world is constantly at stake. Just let me enjoy seeing how the characters interact and grow with each other for a bit.
Profile Image for Eggs Benedictis.
52 reviews
December 12, 2019
Horrid! The epitome of 90s superficiality and lacklustre story telling. Reading this story felt like a chore and I was unimpressed from the beginning. The story was so poorly crafted that I feel that it was at best on par with a 9th grade creative writing assignment. This book focused way too much on battles and fighting.

The only nice thing I can say about this book is it provides some aesthetic appeal with early art work by Greg Capullo and Jae Lee. Art was really a strong point in this run. Also, this is a very nice collected edition printed with quality paper and in hardcover. Very nice to look at!
Profile Image for Arthur .
337 reviews5 followers
October 4, 2021
If you're looking for 90s X-books, you'll find the apotheosis here. The storytelling goes from the fun kind of incoherent (Cable: Blood and Metal) to tiresome kind (the first four or five main crossover issues), then picks up as it gains focus and ramps into a neat, bombastic finale.

The art is variable - this was right after the Image exodus, and Marvel was clearly still figuring things out with their new group of pencilers. I seriously dug the issues by John Romita Jr, Andy Kubert, and especially Greg Capullo, who is my personal choice for 90s superhero all-star. The rest was hit or miss.
Profile Image for Roman Colombo.
Author 4 books35 followers
June 11, 2018
The first time I read this O was just starting to read comics, heard this was a classic, but had no idea what was going on. Now, reading this after Cable and X-Force trades building up to it, it's a lot better. It feels like an X-Force event this time and not a random string of characters O hardly know anything about. And yeah, it's crazy. It's a bar shut insane story but that just makes it better somehow.
Profile Image for Bradfield Ross.
16 reviews
August 20, 2025
And here is the problem with reading the big X-Men trade paperbacks: The opera is supported by issues like Uncanny X-Men #297, which is the phenomenal "epilogue" issue included with this particular collection. The big stuff is great, I love our time with Bishop/Cable/Wolverine as a trio, I love Sunspot and Jubilee, I love Rogue and Gambit and Iceman, I guess I just love the X-Men. Haven't read X- comics in years but its still good stuff, my personal favorite.
Profile Image for Francisco M. Juárez.
327 reviews55 followers
October 26, 2019
Esta historia es justo lo que una historia de los hombres X debe ser!!! Misterio... persecuciones, excelentes batallas, todos los grupos X de ese momento enfrentados, clones, Apocalipsis y una batalla final en la Luna!!! No hace falta decir más!!! De mis historias X preferidas de todos los tiempos.
Profile Image for Courtney.
246 reviews
October 31, 2019
So I’m just going to point out that in the first 2 issues of this series. Jean went from having like bright orange hair to red. Like she has the power to change hair color on the go. But other than that it’s a amazing story.
Profile Image for Omni Theus.
648 reviews8 followers
January 27, 2021
Text Heavy Drivel
OVERALL RATING: 1.75 stars
Art: 2 stars
Prose: 1 stars
Plot: 2 stars
Pacing: 1 stars
Character Development: 3 stars
World Building: 2 stars

Wanted to like this but the story and structure have aged poorly... Steering clear of the older stuff now.
13 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2020
I have a soft spot for this one as it was my first x-over.
Profile Image for Nathaniel.
370 reviews2 followers
May 7, 2022
Truly a 90s crossover event. Better remembered than experienced.
164 reviews
June 22, 2022
I thought the first 3 parts were okay but I really got into the story starting with part 4.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews

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