History of the Many (near) Deaths of the X-Men
Catching up with the Extraordinary X-men, we, once again, find the Mutants facing extinction. Of all the great themes running through the X-stories, this one seems to reappear time and time again; much like a Phoenix, Marvel's not-so-merry mutants rise from the ashes time and time again defying death on a constant basis. So, the post-Secret Wars era follows suit and takes another shot at the embattled mutants although, this time, 'It really seems like the end'!
BUT, once you take a quick study of the blood splattered past of the X-Men, you begin to wonder if this really is it or just another rebooting of a tired theme.
SO, here, for your education, is the history of the constant (near) Death of the X-Men:
1) GIANT SIZED X-MEN #! (1975
That's right! We almost go back to the beginning. The fans of the X-Men haven't seen a new issue in about 5 years when, suddenly, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum bring'em back with a whole new international team. It is this team that began the legacy that most of us know and love; featuring Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee and an ill-fated Thunderbird. But, as many of the most loved X-stories, it was a triumphant story that rose from a near loss of the original team!
The new team follow Cyclops into a trap called Krokoa, the living island! The rest of the original team were in the hands of a mutant power sucking vampiric alien colossus. Thankfully, the combined efforts of old and new team, Krokoa was disposed off for the time being. If they had failed, the living island would have continued to feast up each and every mutant on the planet!!
2) DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
( The Uncanny X-Men issues #141–142, published in 1981)
Although 'hated by those they chose to protect', things seemed to be going peachy for the every changing roster of super mutants. That is until they got a message from the past. In the comic version, Kitty Pride time-jumped to her past self and warned the X-Men that the death of Senator Kelly would begin a backlash against mutants like never before. This horrid look into the future saw the death of many of the mutants we had known and loved. This terrible vision was averted, but was just one possible future; all of which included the near extinction of mutant kind.
3) The MUTANT MASSACRE (1986)
Once again, things eased off a bit. But, as we find, the end is always just around the corner for the X-men and all of Mutantkind. The MUTANT MASSACRE was one of the first great crossover events; tying together, not only, the flagship Uncanny X-Men, but also the strong X-Titles, X-Factor and the New Mutants. The success of this story spawned what seems to be a never-ending collaboration of all Mutant titles across all generations to come.
But, of all the stories to come, this was one of the most gruesome and shocking of them all. Mr. Sinister set his Mutant/Clone army upon the highest concentration of Mutants (another running theme), the Morlock Tunnels. For years, the writers had created this safe haven for hated Mutant-kind where they could live in peace away from the danger of man's world. Named the Morlocks after the underground dwellers of Jules Verne's THE TIME MACHINE, they gave those mutants who couldn't hide their mutation a place to go.
So, thanks to the traitor, Gambit (long story-look it up), Sinister found the secret tunnels and unleashed his blood thirsty hounds upon the nearly defenseless Morlocks. This, of course, brought the X-Men to the rescue along with some awesome fights and cameos. Thor actually saved Angel who still lost his wings. Wolverine had another iconic showdown with Sabertooth. And many unnecessary mutants died. This story will always be known as the first Mutant super-event and being one that had far reaching consequences for years to come.
4) THE FALL OF THE MUTANTS (1988)
The Massacre seemed to really get the ball rolling for Mutant hating baddies. Once again, Senator Kelly of Days of Future Past fame, was pushing the Mutant Registration Agenda again. A wave of anti-mutant rhetoric and advertising spawned a public outcry. However, unlike past crossovers, the three stories here did not intersect at all.
The X-Men ended in the prophesied death of the present X-Men team. No really. It happened. Oh, but they were brought back to life and whisked off; hidden from the world by any means and thought dead by their friends. Yep. Go check it out. I'll wait.
X-Factor showcased one of the first battles with Apocalypse and his horsemen in New York City. Angel became Archangel (repercussions from the Massacre), at first, joining Apocalypse as DEATH and, then, betraying him for his friends, the original X-Men. New Mutants deals with Ani-Mator in their own story against a madman.
5) The Legacy Virus (1993-2001)
Unlike those before, this was not a crossover event. This was a story-line that weaved its way thought the X-Titles for almost a decade. With illusions to the Aids virus, it dealt with the Legacy Virus, an airborne killer of Mutants. With no cure, it would, at first, attack only those with the X-Factor aka mutants. That didn't stop humans from fearing them even more. But, in the end, the virus itself mutated and began effecting humans as well as they had feared would happen.
6) OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE (1997)
Many of the near extinction events involved Sentinels. Starting with early days of the All New, All Different X-men and through Day's of Future Past, Sentinels were future nightmare scenario #1 for mutants. No Sentinel brandished the kind of fear that the ultimate Nimrod and the untraceable Bastion did. Once again, they were using the government and the public's fear to drive an agenda to round up the merry mutants of earth. In the process, Bastion was exposed as a super sentinel and the project was scrapped. But this crossover had the X-Men's world reeling till the very end.
Side note: This was after the Onslaught battle and the disappearance and supposed death of the mainstream heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four which ramped the paranoid to the max.
7) E is for Extinction (2001)
Grant Morrison's virgin run of the X-Men brought an extinction event epic like none other. Much like the Massacre, E is for Extinction wiped out a whole populace of mutants; ie. the mutant nation of Genoshia. Unleashing a new breed of wild sentinels upon the unsuspecting mutant populace, Cassandra Nova, the surprise sister of Professor Xavier (YEp...that happened), went to weed out the mutant population. The destruction of Genoshia continues to have repercussions to this day.
8) HOUSE OF M (2005)
All other extinction events pale in comparison to the fateful words of Wanda Maximoff, "NO MORE MUTANTS". This mantra is the epitome of the X-Men legacy. Basically, the now mad Scarlet Witch wishes the mutants away only to create an alternate universe that is ruled by Mutants. A world turned upon its head where humans are subjugated by their mutant masters all under the thumb of the House of M: Magneto and his children Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
9) DECIMATION (2005)
All was put right in the end, but it gave us massive consequences. Once our mutant heroes and villains arrived back in the real world, they found that their numbers has been cut down considerably. The after-story, called appropriately DECIMATION, left only 198 mutants across the known world. This cause those that were left to huddle together in defense and spawned AVENGERS VS X-MEN as well as the aftermath of the arrival of the mutant savior Hope Summers. This story-line existed up to last year's super event, SECRET WARS.
10) The Terrigen Mist (Present)
With all of the rumors that Marvel was going to kill off the X-Men and replace them with the Inhumans, we find that it was only partly right. You see, for those who've been living under a rock lately, Marvel doesn't own the rights to the term Mutant or X-Men. Fox on the verge of burning down the Mutant universe has found new life since DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. And with APOCALYPSE on the horizon, it doesn't look like Fox is totally giving up the rights to what can become a lucrative cash cow to them.
SO, what is Marvel to do? Kill the X-Titles permanently? Of course, not. BUT they are spending less time, effort and comic pages pushing the merry mutants to the public. I mean, why grind out your best stuff to feed the Fox movie machine, right? But there's still money to be made. There were also rumors that the mutants were leaving earth. Well, that's only partly right (so far). In the pages of Extraordinary X-Men (my favorite X-book going), a ragtag band of mutants spend much time saving mutants worldwide from, not only, the Terrigen mist, but also the humans 'they swore to protect'. It seems the rift between man and mutant is wider than ever. But, instead of boarding a rocket-ship and leaving Earth, they moved Xavier's school to Limbo. So, in a way, they've left earth.
STILL, the story-line runs that the mist is killing AND sterilizing mutants world round. So, we're back to NO MORE MUTANTS or Mutant free sex or something. Is this the end for the Mutants? Probably not. But Marvel IS making a concerted effort to replace them with Inhumans any chance they get.
There are a few mutants left on the Avenger's rosters. Wiccan and Sunspot still hang with the New Avengers and the Uncanny Avengers (don't expect that to last) have Rogue, Quicksilver and Deadpool on their roster. But expect more and more Inhumans to take front and center.
But, in the end, I don't see Marvel killing off all of their Mutants. They did get rid of Wolverine and brought up X-23 in the role and Old Man Logan. And they haven't revved the engines to the rocket-ship to exit Earth yet. There are also reports that Marvel has made deals with Fox to, not only, do a few mutant related tv shows and, possibly, get the Fantastic Four back. So, don't worry, True Believer. Marvel may be willing to ease off on the mutants for a while hoping that Fox's efforts will fail and the world of mutants can return home for good. But, for now, Fox knows better than to give up a good thing.
