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X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6
X-Men: Deadly Genesis
Professor X's darkest secret revealed!
What happens when the skeletons in your closet finally break down the door and come looking for you? The X-Men are about to find out! The mutant community is in turmoil, and the X-Men are bearing the brunt of this New World Order. Amid the chaos, a new enemy awakens, one whose very existence will haunt the founding members of the X-Men like nothing has before. Who is this new threat? How is he tied to a long-hidden episode from Professor X's past? Cyclops, Wolverine and the others must find out soon, before they and those closest to them go mad!
Collecting X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6 - written by Ed Brubaker (Uncanny X-Men), and illustrated by Trevor Hairsine (Ultimate Nightmare) and Scott Hanna (Ultimate Spider-Man).
What happens when the skeletons in your closet finally break down the door and come looking for you? The X-Men are about to find out! The mutant community is in turmoil, and the X-Men are bearing the brunt of this New World Order. Amid the chaos, a new enemy awakens, one whose very existence will haunt the founding members of the X-Men like nothing has before. Who is this new threat? How is he tied to a long-hidden episode from Professor X's past? Cyclops, Wolverine and the others must find out soon, before they and those closest to them go mad!
Collecting X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6 - written by Ed Brubaker (Uncanny X-Men), and illustrated by Trevor Hairsine (Ultimate Nightmare) and Scott Hanna (Ultimate Spider-Man).
200 pages, Paperback
First published July 26, 2006
97 people are currently reading
4802 people want to read
About the author
Ed Brubaker
1,798 books3,028 followersEd Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
July 18, 2023
The jumping on point for Ed Brubaker's X-Men with a story combining the past, present and future. Although a huge re-imagining of the past, the tension build up in the early part of the series is pretty riveting; but the best thing is the concept.. first time readers should be quite thrilled. A solid 8 from 12, Four Stars from me, mainly for the concept, as the storytelling could have been a fair bit better.
2018 read
2018 read
September 8, 2020
Story - 3.00
Graphics - 3.00
Supposedly good but maybe I'm not in to it...
Graphics - 3.00
Supposedly good but maybe I'm not in to it...
May 4, 2015
Marvel stopped publishing new X-Men stories in 1970. It had been a five-year long absence then, and Len Wein and Dave Cockrum wouldn't stand for it so they wrote what will be known as the definitive reboot issue entitled
Giant-Size X-Men #1
. Introducing Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Colossus for the first time as part of the new team for the X-Men, it was a spectacular gateway story that led to Chris Claremont's legendary sixteen-year run for The Uncanny X-Men.
This monumental issue also addressed why the X-Men had been gone for five years. Apparently, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Havok, Lorna Dane, Angel and Iceman were sent to scout for a new mutant recruit in the remote island named Krakoa and were trapped there. Weirdly enough, Scott managed to escape and tell the Professor what has happened. Wasting no time as he left Scott to recover in the Xavier Mansion, Charles started going around countries to look for mutants that could aid in the rescue mission. And the rest is history where we get four additional characters who garnered respectively large fanbases as The Uncanny X-Men series went in the capable hands of Claremont, all thanks to Giant-Size.
For the 30th year celebration of this classic tale, Ed Brubaker wrote and published this piece. The covers for both Giant-Size and this one are comparable, with this latter one serving as an echo to the original story it was supposed to be based upon. But why is the cover for Brubaker's Deadly Genesis horrific? Why are our heroes portrayed as decomposing zombie corpses? Well, this is because X-Men: Deadly Genesis is more or less a RETCON of the events surrounding Giant-Size X-Men #1. But that in itself is actually misleading---Brubaker simply added a rather upsetting dark twist to what really happened during the rescue mission. It's a doozy.
And I'm going to spoil it here in my review.
First off, let's contextualize the continuity at this point. This was set after the major catastrophe mind-fuck that was House of M. Scarlet Witch loses her shit and attacks her fellow Avengers, killing Hawkeye. Meanwhile, her father Magneto just eloped with Charles Xavier in Genosha, both aiming to rebuild what was taken from the mutants there (told in Claremont's Excalibur III ). Upon hearing the distressing news of his daughter's breakdown, he rescues her and therefore lets everyone in the world know that he is still alive (he had been officially declared deceased before; they had a burial and all that), including the Avengers who have been hunting him down. Charles was upset about this for obvious reasons. Their relationship was finally in a good place (they finally fucking agreed about something after twenty-something years of rivarly, for fuck's sake) and Erik did not have the common sense to keep it that way, exposing not only their clandestine arrangement (seriously, Xavier didn't even let the X-Men know he's running away with Erik) but also risking Genosha under potential threats coming from their enemies.
In Brian Michael Bendis' House of M , Scarlet Witch remakes the world because she has reality-bending abilities that have become quite potent especially after she loses her sanity. Sooner or later, everyone in the Marvelverse (particularly the Avengers and the X-Men) recover their memories and confront her. Magneto was not pleased and almost kills her twin brother and his son Pietro. Pissed beyond fuck, Scarlet Witch punishes Magneto by declaring that the world will no longer have mutants and just like that she rewrote the x-gene out of near non-existence. The number of mutants all across the globe dwindled from thousands to a measly two hundred-plus. She has also rendered her own father stripped from his own electromagnetism. On the other hand, Charles Xavier is missing. The X-Men have to find him.
And this is where we find ourselves in Ed Brubaker's Deadly Genesis story.
Brubaker's Deadly Genesis is all kinds of awesome what-the-fuckery. A retcon story hasn't been this entertaining and mildly depressing as well as being pretty believable. Divided into six official chapters, the collection itself also has four special issues in between that discussed the origins of these certain young mutants (Petra, Suzanne, Darwin and Kid Vulcan) who will play significant roles in the climactic revelation later on in the story. In their frantic search for their beloved mentor, a strange surge of energy fucks up Emma and Kitty while they were using the Cerebra. As the two recover, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Havok have ghoulish visions from their past.
Meanwhile, Cyclops, Wolverine and Rachel Summers (now Marvel Girl) go to their first lead in months concerning the professor's whereabouts. They encounter a new unnamed deadly foe who abducted Scott and Rachel and left Wolverine who goes to find Nightcrawler and Beast. The two have just received a message from Sean (Banshee) who wishes to meet with them, claiming he has uncovered a rather enigmatic video footage from the late Moira MacTaggert. They view the video and were surprised to find her talking shit about Xavier, saying that he was a bastard and that she should have never trusted him.
On the other hand, Scott and Rachel try to figure out who has captured them, all the while said asshole starts brutally assaulting Rachel via telepathy, causing everyone in the X-Men connected to Rachel's consciousness to have visions yet again, particularly Scott who is beginning to put the pieces of a certain memory he couldn't understand why he even forgot.
The way the graphic novel collection was collected was clever; inserting the special four issues as breaks for every Deadly Genesis chapter has inevitably added to a reader's excitement as they eagerly want to know more about the mystery surrounding what Charles Xavier had done to earn MacTaggert's vehemence. These young mutants that readers have gotten to know fairly enough and sympathize with a bit in their respective special issue were not there to be fillers--it turns out that these lost and confused children were adopted by Moira MacTaggert, Charles' former fiancee and fellow geneticist. They have survived traumatic ordeals after their mutant powers started manifesting and MacTaggert was there to help them deal and harness their abilities under her care.
So why is this discovery crucial all of a sudden?
In the last issue, Scott and Rachel's captor finally revealed himself as Scott's long-lost younger brother Gabriel. The three of them lured Charles Xavier from hiding and it was revealed that he had also lost his mutant powers. He's now fully human. Still, Gabriel angrily forces the truth out of him with the help of Rachel's own telepathy. And the truth gets told:
Before the events in Giant-Size X-Men took place, the rescue team composed of Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler (plus Sunfire, Thunderbird and Banshee) were, in actuality, THE SECOND TEAM assembled to save the original X-Men in Krakoa. It turns out that Charles Xavier has pleaded his case to Moira first, asking permission to train and send these teenagers she had just taken under her wing. Moira was understandably reluctant and dismissive of the idea but she wanted the kids to make their own decision about the matter:
[CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES]
This scene was rather heartbreaking, actually, when they all answered the professor's request with a resounding YES. Of course, they'll be happy to help. They've idolized the X-Men. They're youngsters who have been terrified of themselves since they learned what they are and how the world would react to them, and now they are finally given a chance to fight for something--to fight for good and help their heroes get back home--so of course, they'll assist the professor. It's goddamn Professor X, founder of the X-Men, and that title alone means they can trust him. Gabriel himself wants to become a part of the X-Men next to his big brother Scott.
Charles purposefully reveals this information later on to make sure that Gabriel is properly motivated for the mission, and the boy can't to save his brother and tell him they're family. For the first time, he could actually belong and be with family at last.
So Professor X trained the youngsters within a few days but through telepathic manipulation, he was able to make them believe that it had been a handful of months. Because of that deception, the teenagers were able to travel to Krakoa, fearless and ready to take on the challenge. Sadly, it proved too much for all of them. Suzanne got killed first and Petra managed to dug underground with her powers to shield them from other attacks. Next, Darwin, with his reactive mutation, absorbs everyone's powers and preserves them inside Gabriel who was the only one to physically survive the attack. This all happened after they have just rescued Scott and sent him flying back to the mansion using the Blackbird. He makes telepathic contact with the professor upon landing, and together they explored the events in the island and witnessed them all die there (that was what they were led to believe). Devastated of losing his brother so soon, Scott loses consciousness. Charles had to inform Moira about what happened. He then asserted that he is going to make Scott forget about the first team and leave him to recuperate as he went on to recruit the second team which we know from Giant-Size X-Men.
Moira had no choice but to comply, probably in fear that Charles will wipe out her memories too. To make sure that the truth will come out someday, she proceeded to make a video, narrating the tragedy of what has happened, probably in hopes of redeeming herself from her own role in the events.
Like I said, this is WHAT THE FUCK at its finest moment. Contextualizing Claremont's Excalibur III: Charles and Erik have their second chance of a stable partnership in that series and they have grown so much together there, but then both Bendis' House of M and Brubaker's Deadly Genesis happened and also retracted all their character development from Excalibur III to reveal that their past mistakes have caught up with them at last. Erik could never become a good father to the twins and so Scarlet Witch condemned him by taking away his powers and making the rest of mutantkind suffer the same thing.
On the other hand, Charles had knowingly lied about a crucial piece of history and betrayed Scott's trust and soiling the rest of his X-Men's perception of him as a mentor and surrogate father. I've always known Charles Xavier is naturally deceptive. He said so himself in Excalibur III that secrets come easy for him. And now I find it a rather poignant parallel that while Magneto lost his daughter Wanda's trust and gets punished by her for it, Scott in this story also punishes Xavier by banishing him from the mansion. Look at the devastation below:
Charles Xavier is no longer a mutant himself and therefore he has no place with the X-Men. This has to be the most extreme invalidation of his character--and quite frankly he deserves it, much like Erik did when Wanda stripped him away of his powers. These two men have skeletons in their closet that came out at the darkest of opportune moments, and now they are paying the price of their actions, even Charles who only had good intentions to start with, but his actions along the way ultimately paved the way to his own personal hell which included losing the respect of his students and his place in their community.
Nothing could be worse than this.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
DO READ MY REVIEWS AT:
This monumental issue also addressed why the X-Men had been gone for five years. Apparently, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Havok, Lorna Dane, Angel and Iceman were sent to scout for a new mutant recruit in the remote island named Krakoa and were trapped there. Weirdly enough, Scott managed to escape and tell the Professor what has happened. Wasting no time as he left Scott to recover in the Xavier Mansion, Charles started going around countries to look for mutants that could aid in the rescue mission. And the rest is history where we get four additional characters who garnered respectively large fanbases as The Uncanny X-Men series went in the capable hands of Claremont, all thanks to Giant-Size.
For the 30th year celebration of this classic tale, Ed Brubaker wrote and published this piece. The covers for both Giant-Size and this one are comparable, with this latter one serving as an echo to the original story it was supposed to be based upon. But why is the cover for Brubaker's Deadly Genesis horrific? Why are our heroes portrayed as decomposing zombie corpses? Well, this is because X-Men: Deadly Genesis is more or less a RETCON of the events surrounding Giant-Size X-Men #1. But that in itself is actually misleading---Brubaker simply added a rather upsetting dark twist to what really happened during the rescue mission. It's a doozy.
And I'm going to spoil it here in my review.
First off, let's contextualize the continuity at this point. This was set after the major catastrophe mind-fuck that was House of M. Scarlet Witch loses her shit and attacks her fellow Avengers, killing Hawkeye. Meanwhile, her father Magneto just eloped with Charles Xavier in Genosha, both aiming to rebuild what was taken from the mutants there (told in Claremont's Excalibur III ). Upon hearing the distressing news of his daughter's breakdown, he rescues her and therefore lets everyone in the world know that he is still alive (he had been officially declared deceased before; they had a burial and all that), including the Avengers who have been hunting him down. Charles was upset about this for obvious reasons. Their relationship was finally in a good place (they finally fucking agreed about something after twenty-something years of rivarly, for fuck's sake) and Erik did not have the common sense to keep it that way, exposing not only their clandestine arrangement (seriously, Xavier didn't even let the X-Men know he's running away with Erik) but also risking Genosha under potential threats coming from their enemies.
In Brian Michael Bendis' House of M , Scarlet Witch remakes the world because she has reality-bending abilities that have become quite potent especially after she loses her sanity. Sooner or later, everyone in the Marvelverse (particularly the Avengers and the X-Men) recover their memories and confront her. Magneto was not pleased and almost kills her twin brother and his son Pietro. Pissed beyond fuck, Scarlet Witch punishes Magneto by declaring that the world will no longer have mutants and just like that she rewrote the x-gene out of near non-existence. The number of mutants all across the globe dwindled from thousands to a measly two hundred-plus. She has also rendered her own father stripped from his own electromagnetism. On the other hand, Charles Xavier is missing. The X-Men have to find him.
And this is where we find ourselves in Ed Brubaker's Deadly Genesis story.
Brubaker's Deadly Genesis is all kinds of awesome what-the-fuckery. A retcon story hasn't been this entertaining and mildly depressing as well as being pretty believable. Divided into six official chapters, the collection itself also has four special issues in between that discussed the origins of these certain young mutants (Petra, Suzanne, Darwin and Kid Vulcan) who will play significant roles in the climactic revelation later on in the story. In their frantic search for their beloved mentor, a strange surge of energy fucks up Emma and Kitty while they were using the Cerebra. As the two recover, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Havok have ghoulish visions from their past.
Meanwhile, Cyclops, Wolverine and Rachel Summers (now Marvel Girl) go to their first lead in months concerning the professor's whereabouts. They encounter a new unnamed deadly foe who abducted Scott and Rachel and left Wolverine who goes to find Nightcrawler and Beast. The two have just received a message from Sean (Banshee) who wishes to meet with them, claiming he has uncovered a rather enigmatic video footage from the late Moira MacTaggert. They view the video and were surprised to find her talking shit about Xavier, saying that he was a bastard and that she should have never trusted him.
On the other hand, Scott and Rachel try to figure out who has captured them, all the while said asshole starts brutally assaulting Rachel via telepathy, causing everyone in the X-Men connected to Rachel's consciousness to have visions yet again, particularly Scott who is beginning to put the pieces of a certain memory he couldn't understand why he even forgot.
The way the graphic novel collection was collected was clever; inserting the special four issues as breaks for every Deadly Genesis chapter has inevitably added to a reader's excitement as they eagerly want to know more about the mystery surrounding what Charles Xavier had done to earn MacTaggert's vehemence. These young mutants that readers have gotten to know fairly enough and sympathize with a bit in their respective special issue were not there to be fillers--it turns out that these lost and confused children were adopted by Moira MacTaggert, Charles' former fiancee and fellow geneticist. They have survived traumatic ordeals after their mutant powers started manifesting and MacTaggert was there to help them deal and harness their abilities under her care.
So why is this discovery crucial all of a sudden?
In the last issue, Scott and Rachel's captor finally revealed himself as Scott's long-lost younger brother Gabriel. The three of them lured Charles Xavier from hiding and it was revealed that he had also lost his mutant powers. He's now fully human. Still, Gabriel angrily forces the truth out of him with the help of Rachel's own telepathy. And the truth gets told:
SPOILER TERRITORY:
Before the events in Giant-Size X-Men took place, the rescue team composed of Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler (plus Sunfire, Thunderbird and Banshee) were, in actuality, THE SECOND TEAM assembled to save the original X-Men in Krakoa. It turns out that Charles Xavier has pleaded his case to Moira first, asking permission to train and send these teenagers she had just taken under her wing. Moira was understandably reluctant and dismissive of the idea but she wanted the kids to make their own decision about the matter:
[CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES]
This scene was rather heartbreaking, actually, when they all answered the professor's request with a resounding YES. Of course, they'll be happy to help. They've idolized the X-Men. They're youngsters who have been terrified of themselves since they learned what they are and how the world would react to them, and now they are finally given a chance to fight for something--to fight for good and help their heroes get back home--so of course, they'll assist the professor. It's goddamn Professor X, founder of the X-Men, and that title alone means they can trust him. Gabriel himself wants to become a part of the X-Men next to his big brother Scott.
Charles purposefully reveals this information later on to make sure that Gabriel is properly motivated for the mission, and the boy can't to save his brother and tell him they're family. For the first time, he could actually belong and be with family at last.
So Professor X trained the youngsters within a few days but through telepathic manipulation, he was able to make them believe that it had been a handful of months. Because of that deception, the teenagers were able to travel to Krakoa, fearless and ready to take on the challenge. Sadly, it proved too much for all of them. Suzanne got killed first and Petra managed to dug underground with her powers to shield them from other attacks. Next, Darwin, with his reactive mutation, absorbs everyone's powers and preserves them inside Gabriel who was the only one to physically survive the attack. This all happened after they have just rescued Scott and sent him flying back to the mansion using the Blackbird. He makes telepathic contact with the professor upon landing, and together they explored the events in the island and witnessed them all die there (that was what they were led to believe). Devastated of losing his brother so soon, Scott loses consciousness. Charles had to inform Moira about what happened. He then asserted that he is going to make Scott forget about the first team and leave him to recuperate as he went on to recruit the second team which we know from Giant-Size X-Men.
Moira had no choice but to comply, probably in fear that Charles will wipe out her memories too. To make sure that the truth will come out someday, she proceeded to make a video, narrating the tragedy of what has happened, probably in hopes of redeeming herself from her own role in the events.
Like I said, this is WHAT THE FUCK at its finest moment. Contextualizing Claremont's Excalibur III: Charles and Erik have their second chance of a stable partnership in that series and they have grown so much together there, but then both Bendis' House of M and Brubaker's Deadly Genesis happened and also retracted all their character development from Excalibur III to reveal that their past mistakes have caught up with them at last. Erik could never become a good father to the twins and so Scarlet Witch condemned him by taking away his powers and making the rest of mutantkind suffer the same thing.
On the other hand, Charles had knowingly lied about a crucial piece of history and betrayed Scott's trust and soiling the rest of his X-Men's perception of him as a mentor and surrogate father. I've always known Charles Xavier is naturally deceptive. He said so himself in Excalibur III that secrets come easy for him. And now I find it a rather poignant parallel that while Magneto lost his daughter Wanda's trust and gets punished by her for it, Scott in this story also punishes Xavier by banishing him from the mansion. Look at the devastation below:
Charles Xavier is no longer a mutant himself and therefore he has no place with the X-Men. This has to be the most extreme invalidation of his character--and quite frankly he deserves it, much like Erik did when Wanda stripped him away of his powers. These two men have skeletons in their closet that came out at the darkest of opportune moments, and now they are paying the price of their actions, even Charles who only had good intentions to start with, but his actions along the way ultimately paved the way to his own personal hell which included losing the respect of his students and his place in their community.
Nothing could be worse than this.
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
DO READ MY REVIEWS AT:
August 28, 2018
For a book that's primarily designed to retcon old continuity, retroactively add new characters and shake up the status quo of the pre-existing ones, this one was surprisingly good. Of course, I didn't have any investment in that old continuity, but I think what Brubaker did with Xavier here is quite interesting and fits with my understanding of the character fairly well. And hey, it's superhero comics, it's foolish to complain about those things in the first place. I also liked the backstories to those four new characters introduced here, and that extra bit of fleshing out made all the difference in turning them from nameless redshirts to characters who you at least somewhat care about when shit hits the fan in the final issue of this mini-series. Overall, it was a helluva dark story, and an excellent start to Brubaker's X-Men run — can't wait to see what's next!
October 12, 2021
THIS WAS SO GOOD!
It starts off with some energy spike and a mutant coming to Earth and later we find that its Vulcan and we follow the X-Men trying to solve this mystery, some captured, some dead and then we follow this mystery and its epic the way its written and we follow the origin of Petra, Darwin and Sway and how Xavier met this team and all and how he sent them to rescue the trapped X-Men in Krakoa and the secrets are amazing but when his connection to Cyclops and the secrets are revealed its gonna change everything between the X-Men and Professor X...
WHAT AN EPIC VOLUME! I loved this one and its so epic and just some moments in here are well done and its a good mystery and I love the way he reveals the origin of every mutant and manages to use the continuity of the past to make this story! Plus the art is really good and this changes so many things for the X-Men which will be interesting to see!
It starts off with some energy spike and a mutant coming to Earth and later we find that its Vulcan and we follow the X-Men trying to solve this mystery, some captured, some dead and then we follow this mystery and its epic the way its written and we follow the origin of Petra, Darwin and Sway and how Xavier met this team and all and how he sent them to rescue the trapped X-Men in Krakoa and the secrets are amazing but when his connection to Cyclops and the secrets are revealed its gonna change everything between the X-Men and Professor X...
WHAT AN EPIC VOLUME! I loved this one and its so epic and just some moments in here are well done and its a good mystery and I love the way he reveals the origin of every mutant and manages to use the continuity of the past to make this story! Plus the art is really good and this changes so many things for the X-Men which will be interesting to see!
August 12, 2013
I don't know why so many 1-star ratings for this...it's a crucial piece in the X-Men world. This is a hard one to review without spoilers but let's try this: When the original X-Men (Cyclops, Angel, Jean etc.) were trapped on Krakoa, Wolverine's team wasn't the first one sent to rescue them...!
There's also the death of a X-Man who I really never saw much of in the comics, I think underutilized would be the word for him. But with the nature of comics, maybe he's been revived by now...
Either way this explores the relationship between Professor X and the team, especially Cyclops, and to a lesser extent, Havok.
This reveals some of Charles' actions that weren't exactly on the up and up telepathically speaking...
Well worth a read, Brubaker tells good stories always, and I don't know why people don't like the art, there's nothing wrong with it.
There's also the death of a X-Man who I really never saw much of in the comics, I think underutilized would be the word for him. But with the nature of comics, maybe he's been revived by now...
Either way this explores the relationship between Professor X and the team, especially Cyclops, and to a lesser extent, Havok.
This reveals some of Charles' actions that weren't exactly on the up and up telepathically speaking...
Well worth a read, Brubaker tells good stories always, and I don't know why people don't like the art, there's nothing wrong with it.
August 9, 2014
For the 30th anniversary of Giant Size X-Men #1, the X book that revitalized the team and made them popular again, Marvel put out this storyline, which also served as a jumping off point for Ed Brubaker's X-Men run. It's kind of weird, though, because their way of honoring Giant Size X-Men was to totally retcon it. This book doesn't completely remove all of the events of that book, they still technically "happened," but it's still a weird move, particularly since the retcon itself doesn't really add anything to the story. There were any number of ways to tell the same story without deconstructing a book from 30 years ago.
Anyway, in this volume we're introduced to Vulcan, a mysterious, insanely powerful mutant we've never seen before. I was kind of surprised by the similarities between this storyline and Winter Soldier, Brubaker's first story on Captain America, which also sought to introduce a seemingly long-dead character via gradual buildup and mystery. It feels a little formulaic, when you compare the two? I mean, I'm willing to forgive Brubaker of this, because I know he isn't a formulaic writer in the least (all his work with Sean Phillips is some of my favorite stuff in comics), but it still seemed to echo the structure of Winter Soldier a little too much.
That said, Brubaker's storytelling style just works. While nothing hyper original or thrilling happens here, and at times even feels kind of anticlimactic (such as when ), it's still written in a solidly entertaining way. There are so many comics writers who have no idea how to keep a story flowing from panel to panel, and this is something Brubaker will seemingly never mess up.
That said, Vulcan just isn't an impressive new addition to the X-Men rogues gallery (at least not yet, I know he comes back in later stories that I haven't read). When he's first revealed, he seems like an unbeatable, ultrapowerful super-enemy, with no real weak spots to speak of. I got hooked by this. I wanted to know what the X-Men could possibly do to stop someone who seemingly had an answer for anything they could throw at him. But as the story progresses and more is revealed about Vulcan, the less menacing he seems, until ultimately he just comes across as a whiny, undisciplined teenager who never "got his way" or something.
There's also a little discrepancy I feel like a total dork for pointing out. At the end of House of M, the lingering question is "If Scarlet Witch took away all the energy-wielding mutants' powers, where did all the energy go" (law of conservation of energy, of course). Well, in the New Avengers storyline The Collective, that question is answered. All of the energy flows into a single person, giving the Avengers a massively powerful new enemy to combat. Well, at the beginning of Deadly Genesis, that same "where did the energy go" question is asked, and then the answer seems to be that some of it went into Vulcan to reawaken him. Well, which is it, Marvel? It can't really be both. Seems like if you want to bring a character back from the dead, you are going to do it (see: every superhero in the Marvel universe), so maybe don't split the consequences of a major plotline to suit whatever purpose you need. Dork Time over.
Anyway, while I found this book pretty disappointing, I wouldn't call it flat-out "bad." There's some great character work, and the first few issues are downright thrilling. It seems to be setting up a lot of potentially interesting things down the road, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. That said, if you never read this, you will not regret it on your deathbed.
Anyway, in this volume we're introduced to Vulcan, a mysterious, insanely powerful mutant we've never seen before. I was kind of surprised by the similarities between this storyline and Winter Soldier, Brubaker's first story on Captain America, which also sought to introduce a seemingly long-dead character via gradual buildup and mystery. It feels a little formulaic, when you compare the two? I mean, I'm willing to forgive Brubaker of this, because I know he isn't a formulaic writer in the least (all his work with Sean Phillips is some of my favorite stuff in comics), but it still seemed to echo the structure of Winter Soldier a little too much.
That said, Brubaker's storytelling style just works. While nothing hyper original or thrilling happens here, and at times even feels kind of anticlimactic (such as when ), it's still written in a solidly entertaining way. There are so many comics writers who have no idea how to keep a story flowing from panel to panel, and this is something Brubaker will seemingly never mess up.
That said, Vulcan just isn't an impressive new addition to the X-Men rogues gallery (at least not yet, I know he comes back in later stories that I haven't read). When he's first revealed, he seems like an unbeatable, ultrapowerful super-enemy, with no real weak spots to speak of. I got hooked by this. I wanted to know what the X-Men could possibly do to stop someone who seemingly had an answer for anything they could throw at him. But as the story progresses and more is revealed about Vulcan, the less menacing he seems, until ultimately he just comes across as a whiny, undisciplined teenager who never "got his way" or something.
There's also a little discrepancy I feel like a total dork for pointing out. At the end of House of M, the lingering question is "If Scarlet Witch took away all the energy-wielding mutants' powers, where did all the energy go" (law of conservation of energy, of course). Well, in the New Avengers storyline The Collective, that question is answered. All of the energy flows into a single person, giving the Avengers a massively powerful new enemy to combat. Well, at the beginning of Deadly Genesis, that same "where did the energy go" question is asked, and then the answer seems to be that some of it went into Vulcan to reawaken him. Well, which is it, Marvel? It can't really be both. Seems like if you want to bring a character back from the dead, you are going to do it (see: every superhero in the Marvel universe), so maybe don't split the consequences of a major plotline to suit whatever purpose you need. Dork Time over.
Anyway, while I found this book pretty disappointing, I wouldn't call it flat-out "bad." There's some great character work, and the first few issues are downright thrilling. It seems to be setting up a lot of potentially interesting things down the road, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. That said, if you never read this, you will not regret it on your deathbed.
November 24, 2014
So, it wasn't bad. The concept is interesting. Mostly I'm glad it's over with. The execution and pacing seemed off. It was going for this big, reveal-y, mystery twist that was supposed to wow the reader into a convulsive stupor or something. But after a while, I just wanted them to get to it. The reveal was flat. The new stuff about this unknown X-Men team was the most interesting part. Getting to that sooner and running with it would have been much more entertaining. And the villain was an over the top big bad cliche. Your basic former good person whose angst at his mentor drove him over the edge to unredeemable villain-hood. Every one must pay for how wronged he was. But I didn't even buy how he was so wronged. His team went on a mission, which they consented to knowing it was extremely dangerous, and they got their butts handed to them. But he survived. So basically he's just an inherent douche who blames others for his issues. Am I missing something?
But this will hopefully make for some good drama in Brubaker's Uncanny run. But I'm not particularly optimistic. I'm fairly new to Brubaker, but his M.O. so far seems to be heavy handed drama that is interesting but drawn out for dramatic effect, which instead ends up being kinda boring...but, you know, still just interesting enough to keep you reading.
But this will hopefully make for some good drama in Brubaker's Uncanny run. But I'm not particularly optimistic. I'm fairly new to Brubaker, but his M.O. so far seems to be heavy handed drama that is interesting but drawn out for dramatic effect, which instead ends up being kinda boring...but, you know, still just interesting enough to keep you reading.
September 9, 2020
Continuing the great Marvel cosmic Saga.
3.5 stars. This book really felt like a self contained story until the end. The last page shows you how this can be connected to the coming War of Kings.
An omega level mutant pops up on the scene and Wolverine, Cyclops and Rachel are dispatched to check it out. Wolverine gets knocked out and Cyke and Rachel are taken hostage by this being. This story is about someone who felt he was lied to and manipulated by Professor X and has come for revenge. It also adds some new things to the X-men continuity. The story had a nice sense of suspense that was building quite nicely throughout the book. I really enjoyed the mini stories at the end of each issue about those other mutants Charles took from Moira. It’s just that, for me, at the end when the stuff that Charles did was finally revealed, I wasn’t blown away or have any “oh shit” moment. I was just like, oh ok. A little bit of a lack luster ending. But again that last page does make me curious as to what is to come as this cosmic saga rolls onward.
3.5 stars. This book really felt like a self contained story until the end. The last page shows you how this can be connected to the coming War of Kings.
An omega level mutant pops up on the scene and Wolverine, Cyclops and Rachel are dispatched to check it out. Wolverine gets knocked out and Cyke and Rachel are taken hostage by this being. This story is about someone who felt he was lied to and manipulated by Professor X and has come for revenge. It also adds some new things to the X-men continuity. The story had a nice sense of suspense that was building quite nicely throughout the book. I really enjoyed the mini stories at the end of each issue about those other mutants Charles took from Moira. It’s just that, for me, at the end when the stuff that Charles did was finally revealed, I wasn’t blown away or have any “oh shit” moment. I was just like, oh ok. A little bit of a lack luster ending. But again that last page does make me curious as to what is to come as this cosmic saga rolls onward.
January 14, 2025
Solid story from Brubaker, as expected. They did a great job to give the side characters some backstory, so they felt more real. It had some tired comic tropes though, i.e. memory wiping, lost siblings, girl from the future who is the copy of his mom who just died but has a different name.
September 21, 2007
In short, this is a weak story with several plot holes which makes a mockery of a franchise that already has a history of reworking established continuity to poor results. To what end? Another Summers brother who is completely disinteresting, another story in which Professor X acts like a jerk, a dead X-Men (for absolutely no good reason), and some horrible reworking of existing long running history to cram it all in which now require secrets to have been kept by several key characters for the last 30 years.
I want to think that this story was driven by editorial mandate. Unfortunately, this is the second instance in which Brubaker has went back and altered Marvel history from long ago. In Captain America, he made it so that Bucky never really died in World War II. This initially rubbed me the wrong way, but the story itself was done well, and the surrounding plots were good, so I begrudgingly went along for the ride. I was still able to enjoy his entire run on the book.
His attempt to revise history doesn't work nearly as well here. The key difference is that Bucky had been considered dead for so long that there was very little continuity to adjust. He hadn't been written into any stories during all that time, so it was very easy to go and insert an alternate history for him. In 'Deadly Genesis', Brubaker inserts events into key storylines from 30 years ago. In order for them to work, the reader needs to believe that several key characters has kept these events a secret from that time forward. It just doesn't work.
To make matters worse, none of the characters' motivation for anything makes any sense at all. Characters are keeping secrets, and other characters are upset with that, and through the whole you never understand why. It's as if Brubaker had an end goal in mind, and simply crammed in any plot device necessary to get from point A to point B - even if it required characters to act contrary to their nature or the story didn't make complete sense.
The interior art is nice, though not great. Unfortunately, the book falls so short on story alone that the art warrants almost no consideration.
I want to think that this story was driven by editorial mandate. Unfortunately, this is the second instance in which Brubaker has went back and altered Marvel history from long ago. In Captain America, he made it so that Bucky never really died in World War II. This initially rubbed me the wrong way, but the story itself was done well, and the surrounding plots were good, so I begrudgingly went along for the ride. I was still able to enjoy his entire run on the book.
His attempt to revise history doesn't work nearly as well here. The key difference is that Bucky had been considered dead for so long that there was very little continuity to adjust. He hadn't been written into any stories during all that time, so it was very easy to go and insert an alternate history for him. In 'Deadly Genesis', Brubaker inserts events into key storylines from 30 years ago. In order for them to work, the reader needs to believe that several key characters has kept these events a secret from that time forward. It just doesn't work.
To make matters worse, none of the characters' motivation for anything makes any sense at all. Characters are keeping secrets, and other characters are upset with that, and through the whole you never understand why. It's as if Brubaker had an end goal in mind, and simply crammed in any plot device necessary to get from point A to point B - even if it required characters to act contrary to their nature or the story didn't make complete sense.
The interior art is nice, though not great. Unfortunately, the book falls so short on story alone that the art warrants almost no consideration.
January 27, 2009
So I went into this already wanting to not like it. I tried my darndest to keep this from effecting my reading. And think I was fairly successful. Final result: I didn't like it.
Brubaker forced the deep dark secret a bit too hard. This becomes especially apparent with the motivations he gives the primary movers. Sometimes writer's try and think of ways to make their big impression. The best way is to go back to the beginning and rewrite it in a shocking twist. The problem is, it is often done for the sake of a twist rather than a good story.
Similar to the major character death involved in the story. It is, admittedly, one of my favorite characters, but it is not the death that angers me. It is the execution. It is done, again, for the sake of shock/sales not for the sake of telling a good story. I am personally a fan of great character deaths, morbid as that sounds. They can be a cheap way to get a emotional connection with your audience, but I still love 'em. This one was so tacked on and force it was painful.
Oh and the art was really not good for a book of this magnitude. If you are writing a book that you are trying to draw everyone into reading, give it some good art. The Silvestri covers were the best art, and some of them annoyed me to in typical Silvestri fashion, so that's not saying anything good.
One of the major impacts of this book I think has been and will be a good step for the franchise, but that does not somehow fix this book of it's problems.
This is still an important read if you want to have a bearing on the present state of the X-Men, but I'd recommend thieving it from your neighborhood library or geek as opposed to paying money for it (stealing is not condoned by the writer of this review, he only wanted an excuse for a parenthetical aside).
Brubaker forced the deep dark secret a bit too hard. This becomes especially apparent with the motivations he gives the primary movers. Sometimes writer's try and think of ways to make their big impression. The best way is to go back to the beginning and rewrite it in a shocking twist. The problem is, it is often done for the sake of a twist rather than a good story.
Similar to the major character death involved in the story. It is, admittedly, one of my favorite characters, but it is not the death that angers me. It is the execution. It is done, again, for the sake of shock/sales not for the sake of telling a good story. I am personally a fan of great character deaths, morbid as that sounds. They can be a cheap way to get a emotional connection with your audience, but I still love 'em. This one was so tacked on and force it was painful.
Oh and the art was really not good for a book of this magnitude. If you are writing a book that you are trying to draw everyone into reading, give it some good art. The Silvestri covers were the best art, and some of them annoyed me to in typical Silvestri fashion, so that's not saying anything good.
One of the major impacts of this book I think has been and will be a good step for the franchise, but that does not somehow fix this book of it's problems.
This is still an important read if you want to have a bearing on the present state of the X-Men, but I'd recommend thieving it from your neighborhood library or geek as opposed to paying money for it (stealing is not condoned by the writer of this review, he only wanted an excuse for a parenthetical aside).
May 28, 2018
It's almost summer, meaning it is time once again to read ALL THE X-MEN!!!!
This time around I'm filling some gaps in my collection before digging into whatever I've missed since the last time I read ATXM, and under this new rule, Deadly Genesis was first up. This book is hella dark, and of course now that I've read it there's at least two more books I never planned to read that I now must if ATXM are ever to be read by me.
But I really enjoyed this one -- you can see the seeds of the First Class film swimming around in here, but mostly who on earth ever approved this book bc the premise is INSANE and you'd never be able to get away with a de-hero-izing story like this one nowadays. Hell, nowadays you can't even make Captain America a Nazi. You can't even reboot Thundercats as if it's for little kids instead of your 40-year-old neckbearding basement-dwelling Youtube-channeling ass. You'd never be able to get away with making Prof X total psychotic evil and then basing ten years of stories on that mojambi if this book were published now.
But anyway, they did, and it do, and this is our world now, your world, your world, your world, Thundercaaaaats ROAAAR
This time around I'm filling some gaps in my collection before digging into whatever I've missed since the last time I read ATXM, and under this new rule, Deadly Genesis was first up. This book is hella dark, and of course now that I've read it there's at least two more books I never planned to read that I now must if ATXM are ever to be read by me.
But I really enjoyed this one -- you can see the seeds of the First Class film swimming around in here, but mostly who on earth ever approved this book bc the premise is INSANE and you'd never be able to get away with a de-hero-izing story like this one nowadays. Hell, nowadays you can't even make Captain America a Nazi. You can't even reboot Thundercats as if it's for little kids instead of your 40-year-old neckbearding basement-dwelling Youtube-channeling ass. You'd never be able to get away with making Prof X total psychotic evil and then basing ten years of stories on that mojambi if this book were published now.
But anyway, they did, and it do, and this is our world now, your world, your world, your world, Thundercaaaaats ROAAAR
June 26, 2008
Fresh off my Brubaker high with his take on Captain America – are you getting bored with me gushing about him yet? – I found out that he took over the reigns of the long-running X-Men flagship title a couple of years back. (I’ve also been told to check out his Iron Fist relaunch. But that 70’s Kung Fu shtick still sends shivers of repulsion up my spine.) Despite my love for my friendly neighborhood mutants and Brubaker’s tight plotting and dialogue, I was put-off by the art. Harisine has his moments – particularly when his style begins to look like a cross between Bryan Hitch (one of my favorites!) and Alan Davis – but in the end, I have to say it will likely be looked back upon as the Marvel House Style of this first decade of the twenty-first century.
If you have discriminating taste, and only want to spend your time reading the best in the mainstream super-hero genre (does that contradict itself at times?), ignore this and head for Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men. Brutal, beautiful, and – yes – truly astonishing is that.
If you have discriminating taste, and only want to spend your time reading the best in the mainstream super-hero genre (does that contradict itself at times?), ignore this and head for Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men. Brutal, beautiful, and – yes – truly astonishing is that.
March 12, 2014
I found this to be a very satisfying Ret-Con. It took an heroic and epic moment from the X-men's past and gave it a shadier, less heroic re-evaluation. There were just enough secrets and lies added to the story to make it intriguing, but not too much to make it melodramatic and unbelievable. Finally, it created just as many unanswered questions as it did solved mysteries. And it did all of this in the middle of the biggest crisis to hit mutant-kind; namely, the fallout from m-day.
I especially liked how the series was structured, with 2/3 of each chapter telling the current-time story, and then the last third of each chapter serving as a flashback to the origins of four forgotten x-men. A very effective way to build a plot and feed your reader just enough of the story to keep them guessing.
On a side note: I simply love when superheroes take a step back and question whether their actions are for the better or for the worse. This collection had a couple of those moments and they were very well written.
4/5
I especially liked how the series was structured, with 2/3 of each chapter telling the current-time story, and then the last third of each chapter serving as a flashback to the origins of four forgotten x-men. A very effective way to build a plot and feed your reader just enough of the story to keep them guessing.
On a side note: I simply love when superheroes take a step back and question whether their actions are for the better or for the worse. This collection had a couple of those moments and they were very well written.
4/5
October 31, 2025
This was fun. Really a good read, great story and action. Have to admit I picked it up knowing nothing about it based on the cover and it being around Halloween and I was expecting XMen and Zombies. It’s not that at all. But it is still good. And I’m still a huge Brubaker fan!
February 26, 2013
The third Summers brother was a huge dangling plot thread from when I read the X-Titles religiously (1995-2002). The resolution of that here, after no one demanded it, was a little underwhelming. Professor X is retroactively changed for no other reason than to advance Cyclops. It seemed unnecessary. The villain, Vulcan is cheesy and one note. The art was also inconsistent. I am a big fan of a lot of Brubaker's other stuff but this is pretty stale.
December 7, 2012
This is the second time that I have read this graphic novel. I am still amazed at the death of Banshee and the appearance of the four new X-Men from Krakoa. I was not as shocked at Xavier's mind alterations after the retconed events of Krakoa as I thought I would be. A great read from start to finish that leads to some pretty amazing stories in the X-Men universe.
April 20, 2022
The island of Krakoa is legendary in the X-Men universe. And any X fan knows, that the beginning of that legend is in giant size X-Men, where the original team is defeated/captured, and professor X has to then recruit a new team to save them. Comprising of Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and other very notable X-Men, this story would mark a turning point for the team forever.
So it's kind of a bold thing what Ed Brubaker did here in this story. He goes back to that well and changes things pretty significantly. Pretty crazy stuff. I think its pretty bold of Brubaker to do this, and it is kind of interesting, but there are a lot of plot holes with this, and it's better to not think about them.
It's interesting to me that Xavier is now at this point in time of publication, a well of villainous ideas. It almost like a lot of writers looked inwards to the team for new threats, and the Prof was just ripe for villainy it seems. And this particular situation, seems like one that is pretty irredeemable. The rift between Scott of Xavier really begins here, and its riveting to see.
An explosive way to begin a run, I've got to say. Recommended for fans of the X-Men.
So it's kind of a bold thing what Ed Brubaker did here in this story. He goes back to that well and changes things pretty significantly. Pretty crazy stuff. I think its pretty bold of Brubaker to do this, and it is kind of interesting, but there are a lot of plot holes with this, and it's better to not think about them.
It's interesting to me that Xavier is now at this point in time of publication, a well of villainous ideas. It almost like a lot of writers looked inwards to the team for new threats, and the Prof was just ripe for villainy it seems. And this particular situation, seems like one that is pretty irredeemable. The rift between Scott of Xavier really begins here, and its riveting to see.
An explosive way to begin a run, I've got to say. Recommended for fans of the X-Men.
October 2, 2014
There is not really much to say about this series. Sure the basic idea of a failed X-Men team and Xavier being guilty of it might be an interesting one, even if its just a retcon here, but I think the author tried too hard. Also the whole third Summer's son thing... yeah not interesting to me. I think for the most part this was pretty much a waste.
Also one thing to the artist:
Do your homework!!!
I don't know how the first scene ever drawn about the mob attacking Nightcrawler looked like but I can say this: there has never been an area where anyone in Germany was dressed like the mob here. Their trousers, the hairstyles (which fit neither the 1970s nor any later or earlier decade in Germany), the checkered shirts, the jackets, the hats (some even have cowboy hats) and possibly even the guns. All that is not German but the same bland, hillbilly mob that you see in every run-of-the-mill horror movie about isolated villages full of lunatics.
Not to mention that someone having English only as a secondary language like Nightcrawler would probably slip into his mother tongue in such an emotionally charged scene, unlike what we see here.
Of course that is another problem with the character altogether: If he was really raised by a "gypsy" from Germany, that woman would have most likely been a Sintezza, therefore he, in a realistic setting, would have been bilingual from an early age on, thereby speaking German and the Sinti form of Romanes called Sinti-Romani or sometimes Sintikes. But there is nothing; so in my mind Nightcrawler is a poorly constructed pseudo-German regarding his ethnic background, and to the Sinti or any other sort of Romani ethnicity he surely does not belong to.
Also one thing to the artist:
Do your homework!!!
I don't know how the first scene ever drawn about the mob attacking Nightcrawler looked like but I can say this: there has never been an area where anyone in Germany was dressed like the mob here. Their trousers, the hairstyles (which fit neither the 1970s nor any later or earlier decade in Germany), the checkered shirts, the jackets, the hats (some even have cowboy hats) and possibly even the guns. All that is not German but the same bland, hillbilly mob that you see in every run-of-the-mill horror movie about isolated villages full of lunatics.
Not to mention that someone having English only as a secondary language like Nightcrawler would probably slip into his mother tongue in such an emotionally charged scene, unlike what we see here.
Of course that is another problem with the character altogether: If he was really raised by a "gypsy" from Germany, that woman would have most likely been a Sintezza, therefore he, in a realistic setting, would have been bilingual from an early age on, thereby speaking German and the Sinti form of Romanes called Sinti-Romani or sometimes Sintikes. But there is nothing; so in my mind Nightcrawler is a poorly constructed pseudo-German regarding his ethnic background, and to the Sinti or any other sort of Romani ethnicity he surely does not belong to.
February 24, 2011
As far as retcon's go, this one wasn't too bad. Turns out the team of X-Men that Professor X forms in Giant-Sized X-Men #1 is actually the second team that he sent to Krakoa to rescue the original X-Men. The first set of X-Men he sent were actually students of Moira Mactaggert's, who Professor X quickly trains through mind manipulation and sends off to Krakoa, only to have that entire team seemingly killed on their first mission. The only other person who knows of this tragedy is Cyclops, but Professor X wipes the memory from his mind to make it easier for Cyclops to cope. What I didn't like about this story is that it struck a little too close a cord with the DC Comics mini-series Identity Crisis which was released the year before, in which a terrible mistake in the JLA's past is mindwiped from everyone to keep the secret safe. Deadly Genesis, IMO, was handled well and the repercussions from this story have had significant effects on the X-Men as a whole; I just wish it didn't seem like Marvel was trying to copy the success DC had with so similar of an idea.
This volume does introduce us to Vulcan, the mysterious third Summers brother, who quickly becomes one of the X-Men's deadliest villains. It is also a direct lead-in to Rise & Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire, which ran in Uncanny for a full year after this mini-series. Banshee's death is handled well, too. He doesn't seem to have died in vain, and he appears to have remained dead, which doesn't always happen in comics. I personally feel that the X-Men as a whole seemed to be lacking direction post-House of M, but this volume does seem to start to steer them in a somewhat unified direction.
This volume does introduce us to Vulcan, the mysterious third Summers brother, who quickly becomes one of the X-Men's deadliest villains. It is also a direct lead-in to Rise & Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire, which ran in Uncanny for a full year after this mini-series. Banshee's death is handled well, too. He doesn't seem to have died in vain, and he appears to have remained dead, which doesn't always happen in comics. I personally feel that the X-Men as a whole seemed to be lacking direction post-House of M, but this volume does seem to start to steer them in a somewhat unified direction.
February 6, 2017
Para lo único que sirve Deadly Genesis es para presentar a Vulcan (y Darwin, en todo caso) ya que Brubaker escribe esta mini como una especie de prefacio a lo que será la magnífica trilogía de Vulcan (Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire / Emperor Vulcan / War of Kings) la cual estoy por leer completa nuevamente y por eso leí esta mini que incluye la muerte de uno de los xmen más inútiles y con el traje más ridículos de todos los tiempos **spoiler**, Banshee.
Un gran meh, pero vale la pena por lo que viene después.
Un gran meh, pero vale la pena por lo que viene después.
April 18, 2017
X-Men: Deadly Genesis (1-6). This was the beginning of the great Brubaker/Carey X-Men run. It's a strong story, for its secrets and for its action. Vulcan is also a great new character and an answer to a X-Men promise from way back in the '90s. (And a lead-in to the cosmic War of Kings.) However, the real strength of this story going forward was the darkening and humanization of Professor X. This was the story that put things in motion to one day really let the X-Men stand on their own, without their teacher/crutch. At the time, this story was powerful; today, it's pivotal [8/10].
August 18, 2017
Cool story, some interesting things in here. Pretty good writing on Brubaker's part, though not nearly as good as his later work. I really enjoyed the new mutants he invented. Art was variable but overall good, ranging from great to okay. A new reader might be able to read this story with very limited X-Men knowledge. All you need to know are the events of House of M to read this. If you've watched X-Men: First Class, you might notice a lot of parallels in the plot; notably Darwin, who is probably one of the most interesting mutants in the Marvel universe.
April 3, 2017
I love the concept. I love Ed Brubaker. I love the X-Men. That said, this just doesn't really stick the landing for me. Maybe it's because I've grown tired of the overly-dramatic nature of X-titles over the years? Yeah, that's probably it. But if you're going to read one of those convoluted, timey-wimey, resurrection-filled X-Men tales, you can do faaaaar worse than this. It's plenty well-written with a solid core story and adequately strong execution.
August 15, 2009
I enjoyed Brubaker's interconnected narratives that built into the end of this collection. Vulcan is very one-note, but still, I'm very interested where this will go. Also, Brubaker's new characters, like Darwin, are interesting and well developed.
December 30, 2015
Great story, but what do you expect? It's Brubaker!
May 26, 2021
Despite this book hitting every possible X-Cliché imaginable, it still managed to tell a very interesting story!
Every single X-Book has a few elements: Usually aliens, or a robot, or a bunch of characters speaking in a big open area, a coin flip on whether Professor X can walk or not etc. This story manages to have all those and more.
In fact, everything about this story is based on the older stories (which is what pretty much all 2000's X-Men books do) however despite being a bit of a rehash, this book manages to introduce a bunch of new concepts with actual lasting consequences.
Instead of the X-Men fighting a robot, an alien, or Jean Grey for the hundredth time, the villain in this book is... The mistakes they made in the past! Truly something scary.
Some people may have trouble getting into this story though, which is understandable since it's pretty reliant on you having read a random Uncanny X-Men issue from 50 years ago, but if you have read it and a few other classic X-Men stories, then this book should be an easy follow.
Highly recommended if you have the knowledge to enjoy it, if not then probably give to a miss, as this book will seem like lunacy.
Every single X-Book has a few elements: Usually aliens, or a robot, or a bunch of characters speaking in a big open area, a coin flip on whether Professor X can walk or not etc. This story manages to have all those and more.
In fact, everything about this story is based on the older stories (which is what pretty much all 2000's X-Men books do) however despite being a bit of a rehash, this book manages to introduce a bunch of new concepts with actual lasting consequences.
Instead of the X-Men fighting a robot, an alien, or Jean Grey for the hundredth time, the villain in this book is... The mistakes they made in the past! Truly something scary.
Some people may have trouble getting into this story though, which is understandable since it's pretty reliant on you having read a random Uncanny X-Men issue from 50 years ago, but if you have read it and a few other classic X-Men stories, then this book should be an easy follow.
Highly recommended if you have the knowledge to enjoy it, if not then probably give to a miss, as this book will seem like lunacy.
April 28, 2023
Holyfuck these issues have been wonderful. A mystery hidden behind multiple orgin stories. I love it! It was rushed a bit but do I give a fuck? No. Why don't I, a usually hard to please mofo,give a fuck? Because I was having so much fun it didn't even register until I was finished. Such a great fun experience and honestly indicative of what I like about comic books.
March 4, 2024
I have been wanting to reread this for a long time and it still holds up for me. I remember this comic fondly because it started to show Xavier in a different light, at least in a more direct way and I loved that twist. I will admit that the long awaited reveal of the third Summers brother was a bit lacklustre, but looking back at it, I did have tons of fun with the comic.
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