X-Men Legacy: Aftermath


By Mike Carey, Paul Davidson, Harvey Tolibao, Jorge Molina, Rafa Sandoval, Sandu Florea, Craig Yeung & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5636-9

Since its creation in 1963 and triumphant revival in 1975, Marvel’s Mutant franchise has grown into an almighty engine for telling all manner of stories and tackling a host of social issues, so it’s nice to see one that falls back on the basics and simply addresses the prime directive of superhero comics: beat the bad guys, mash the monsters and save the day. Of course with the X-Men nothing is ever that straightforward…

Written throughout by Mike Carey, this particular collection gathers X-Men Legacy #242-244 and 248-249 (released between November 2010 and May 2011), neatly bridging one of those incessantly periodic crossover events to relate small tales of everyday strangeness…

At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior is at its lowest ebb. As seen in the House of M and Decimation storylines, Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff – ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping power – had reduced the world’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals with three simple words… “No More Mutants”…

In the wake of this horrific reduction in numbers, Earth’s remaining Children of the Atom relocated to an island off San Francisco, only to be mercilessly targeted by super-Sentinel Bastion who attacked both their enclave of Utopia and the human city surrounding it in response to the birth of the first new mutant, Hope Summers…

It all begins here with the two-part ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’ (illustrated by Paul Davidson) as young psionic Hellion is undergoing therapy. He’s reacting badly to the robotic hands he’s been beta-testing ever since Bastion took his real ones.

They work fine but the young man is barely suppressing a lot of unexpressed anger over his maiming…

With regular remedies not working, leader of the X-nation Cyclops includes him in the squads of mutants assisting in the reconstruction of San Francisco but events spiral hopelessly out of control when the last vestiges of Bastion’s programming turns cyborg ally Karima Shapandar into a marauding Omega Sentinel hell-bent on destroying them all.

With all her friends fighting at less than their best, desperately trying to save the decent human within, only deeply-traumatised Hellion seems capable of acting decisively. But why did he go so far and how did he get so powerful…?

Following those shocking events, ‘None So Blind’ then focuses on telepathic precognitive Ruth “Blindfold” Aldine who is the only one to notice that something is abducting mutants right off Utopia Island. She’s used to being ignored, however, so sets off to find the threat on her own.

Good thing Rogue and mutant machine-smith Madison Jeffries decided to check up on her wacky theory of a transdimensional trapdoor spider…

Chronologically the events of the apocalyptic ‘Age of X’ follow – neatly fitting into their own trade paperback which I’ll get to one day – before the day-to-day dramas resume here with all the psychically-scarred mutant warriors re-evaluating their lives following a week in an alternate world that was the best and worst of all possible worlds…

Back in our reality but all deeply dosed in PTSD, the heroes are all trying to come to grips with revelations of their own dark inner demons in the first part of ‘Aftermath’ (with art by Jorge Molina, Craig Yeung & Pat Davidson) when mutant elder statesman Magneto shares with Rogue a story of his childhood in Nazi concentration camps…

The ferocious self-assessments they and others such as former thief Gambit and reformed villain Frenzy undergo in the concluding chapter – illustrated by Rafa Sandoval – will forever change the way the X-nation is perceived by humanity…

With covers by Leinil Francis Yu, Joy Ang, Mico Suayan and Marte Gracia plus information pages on Blindfold, Hellion and the Omega Sentinel this slim, stirring, compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights tome is a superb example of how, even in comicbooks, might makes right.
© 2010, 2011, 2012 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.