There will be spoilers

The X-men and mutant kind have faced near extinction before through genocide by humans, a virus, or people from space or the future wanting to kill-off everyone with a mutant gene. Usually everyone got cured, the killer/s neutralized. After M-day, 91% of mutants lost their mutant gene, there’s no “enemy” to fight or a virus to find a cure for, and no problem that science or magic can solve. For two years, mutants know that they slowly dying off and in that time different X-titles have been setting up characters and events for the Messiah Complex. Through bad and good writing I have stuck with the titles. My investment is big. Thus, my expectations for this event is high and so far it has consistently delivered fantastic story-telling.

Madrox and Layla are sent 80 years to the future where mutants are kept in concentration camps (where we learn that Lalyla's mutant gene "comes and goes"). Rictor goes under cover among the Purifiers because he would not register as a mutant anymore. The New X-men led by Surge went to attack the Purifiers as payback for murdering their friends. They almost did not make it out alive. Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Angel, and Emma Frost (at least in spirit, her body’s back at the Xavier’s) fought the Marauders where Kurt got mortally wounded and Logan found out from Gambit that the baby was with Cable. Predator X (the monster made by the people who created X-23 and is reinforced by Mercury’s well…mercury) is tracking the yummiest monster treat around which is of course the baby.

Scott and Xavier are still butting heads with Xavier asserting that he should lead and that Scott has been making wrong decisions. Scott has assembled X-Force: Wolverine, X-23, Caliban, Warpath, Hepzibah, and Rahne to track Cable and the baby with order to kill Cable if necessary to ensure that the baby is in their hands.The Reavers led by Death Strike is also after Cable.

Xavier’s was leveled to the ground by the O*N*E* Sentinels who were taken over by sentient metallic goo. Sentinels wanting to kill mutants is old but they pulled it off because for a long time O*N*E* Sentinels were written to useless in protecting the kids in the Institute – they were harmless, manned by stupid soldiers – it caught me off guard.

In my opinion, Batman War Games was one the most well executed cross-overs ever since the tone of the story-telling and the art was consistent throughout different titles, writers, and artists. Messiah Complex is at par and more. Brubaker, Yost, Kyle, David, and Carey are all in their top form as they write great fight scenes but they do not forget to delve into the characters’ self doubts, fear, and anger and how these affect their decisions and actions. The artists have all been great. So far, I cannot predict how they will resolve the story – or maybe that is me refusing to think ahead. I don’t want anything to spoil the ride.

Hope and fear

Messiah Complex: Chapters 1 & 2

Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan

It has been a while since the last X-Men event. I have been religiously following the various X-titles. I have dropped only one - Excalibur - because I just couldn’t get my head around what was happening to Captain Britain. The thread that was common in all the titles is dealing with the aftermath of M-day—I recently re-read Grant Morisson’s run in New X-men and I better understood the fear and frustration that the remaining mutants felt. During Morrison’s run, the extinction gene in humans has been activated. Homo sapien was slowly but surely being replaced by Homo superior.

In wars around the world that were motivated by tribal rivalries and grudges and where the hate for the “other” was so deep that conflicting parties aimed for genocide, children were targeted first. Kill-off the next generation and there won’t be replacements for soldiers/militia who were killed in battle. Targeting children also caused despair and hopelessness among the adults – leading to a demoralized people losing the will to live. This was palpable in the X-titles. Stryker’s cult killed of a bus load of de-powered students and murdered around three students (with powers). The apathy of the humans, the government, and even the other super heroes was blatant – some parents did not even claim their children’s bodies, not one parent demanded justice for the death of their children, no investigation was conducted by the authorities, and when Ms. Marvel came to the Institute to inform the faculty and the kids that another student was dead, they asked her where was the Avengers when Stryker was murdering the children. She had no answer.

McCoy’s desperate and useless search for a “cure” was a sign that the adults were slowly giving in to hopelessness and to the prospect that they were the last mutants. The X-men’s lame stand on the Registration Act was another symptom of the hopelessness – why bother when they have their own problems – when they were being targeted not only for registration but for extermination.

Thus, the birth of a new mutant is everything to the X-men. Ed Brubraker’s Chapter 1 of the Messiah Complex was very well written – I was kinda traumatized with his run last year in Uncanny X-men. With the Cerebra overloading because of the birth, the Purifiers and the Marauders both scrambling over the baby and practically erasing a town from the map (murdering the children first), the urgency and gravity of the situation was established. Chapter 2 focused more on getting the different X-teams together, setting aside differences and grudges, and setting up plans of action. The tension of who will lead the team was tackled. This is the first major crisis where Xavier is present after recovering his powers. He wanted to lead but since Xavier left the X-men in the end of Morrison’s run, Scott has effectively led the X-men and the Institute with Emma Frost. For the first time, Xavier doubted his place among his X-men and this was perfectly presented and drawn in one page with only one overheard dialog from Scott.

A plus point for me is Billy Tan's drawings of Jaime Maddox, Rictor, and Layla Miller—my beloved X-factor. It has been two (three?) years since House of M where Layla Miller first appeared and in Billy Tan’s drawing she has grown up and is a teen-ager. In X-factor, Layla didn’t look like she aged since M-day. Tan’s Wolverine, Colossus, Angel, and Nightcrawler were awesome in the skirmish with some Marauders. Also, the four X-men executed the fight and interrogation with solid team work that made me want read the fight sequences again (the details are excellent!). So far, I am extremely satisfied and excited. Next week, it’s Peter David and X-factor. Yuhoo!