Playing the opening bars: X-Cutioner’s Song prelude

When I started properly collecting X-Men comics, it was late 1991, just after Chris Claremont had been shown the door. It was a scant year before the Image exodus, so by the time I was heavily invested in this expanded X-line, X-Factor, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and X-Force had lost their pencillers (it was the early 90’s so also the plotters) and several of their biggest villains. Sinister, Magneto and Apocalypse were either dead or considered so. It was a bit of a lost period after sales being so strong in the record breaking summer of 91. Behind the scenes, Marvel had to try and hold on to sales and market share that the X-Men had delivered without the superstar artists. They still had the writers, who had the characters honed to a razors edge, learning the lessons from Claremont, but knowing how to work with X-Men editorial chief Bob Harras. I don’t think anyone knew what to do, so they did what they usually did, a cross-over.

Back in the mid-80’s Claremont and Simonson did a few of these events in close succession, The Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants and Inferno moved up and down that line between thematic crossover (unlinked, but similar stories that explored similar ideas and events) and sequential crossover (part 1 in one place, part 2 in another title and back again) and they were massive successes. Now it had been between a year and 18months since the last one, another one was set up, this time involving 4 ongoing titles, when in the past they could only do three. This included:-

Uncanny X-Men: Starring half of the X-Men (Gold team Storm, Iceman, Archangel, Jean Grey, Colossus and newcomer Bishop) It was written by Scott Lobdell and was struggling to find a regular pencilller)

X-Factor: Starring Havok, Wolfsbane, Polaris, Multiple Man, Quicksilver and Strong Guy (Yes, he was called Strong Guy) written by Peter David and looking for a penciller after Larry Stroman had left.

X-Men: Starring the other half of the X-Men (Blue team Cyclops, Beast, Gambit, Rogue, Psylocke, Wolverine and Jubilee) written by Fabian Nicieza and Andy Kubert, who had stepped in after Jim Lee had left.

X-Force: Starring characters from New Mutants Cable, Domino, Warpath, Cannonball, Feral, Syrin, Boom Boom and Shatterstar.

It was a way to tie up some hints and subplots that were running through the titles and have all the teams and characters together for the first time, the closest being the Muir Island saga, which left out the New Mutants. It was a chance to put the X-titles on a more writer driven foot and show that the drama and excitement didn’t leave with the other seven.

The question remains though, did it work? Does it stand up? Can it be enjoyed as it’s own thing now, 30+ years after it’s relevant period? I don’t know. Well I suppose we’ll find out together won’t we?