Three Marvel X-Titles Worth Reading

Three Marvel X-titles Worth Reading by Eblison Grun

This weekend, I started re-reading the now classic “Age of Apocalypse” cross-over from Marvel.  The story started when Legion, the mutant son of Professor Xavier, went back in time to kill the evil Magneto and accidentally killed Xavier instead.  This event set in motion a world where the power-mad mutant Apocalypse would rule over all, wiping humans off the face of the Earth.
That storyline ran through every X-Men book at the time and lasted nearly 50 issues.  Now, seventeen years after the “Age of Apocalypse,” X-Men comics and their readers are still affected by a reality that could have been.  It's my love for that screwed up alternate universe and the nostalgia of what the X-Men were for me, that made me decide to go back and give Marvel another chance.  So I took a peek at some of the current X-Men titles and found three gems that I'd recommend to just about anyone.  A couple of them are even connected to that Earth where Apocalypse was god.  Here's a look at three X-Men titles worth reading.

X-Factor
writer- Peter David
artist-  Emanuela Lupacchino

The current storyline in X-Factor (issues #229-#232) is what hooked me on this book.  In “They Keep Killing Madrox,” the Multiple Man is fatally impaled by a demon called Bloodbath and wakes up in an alternate dimension.  Jamie finds himself in trouble in every issue and ends up getting killed again and again, waking up each time in a twisted version of the world he left behind.  Throughout the story, he travels to a reality where teammate Layla Miller is murdered on their wedding night.  In another, he fights the Captain America version of Deathlok and in another, he wakes up in a universe where the dreaded Dormammu has killed Doctor Strange to become the Sorcerer Supreme.  I'm not kidding when I say that this is what made me come back home to Marvel.  I'm enjoying every word and every illustration and I'm thinking I need to find some back issues.
Writer, Peter David shines when it comes to personal drama and dysfunctional team dynamics.  He follows through with fully developing each character, throwing them into serious situations, and pitting them against some of the most comedic conflicts.  This is mutant entertainment right out of a midday soap opera.
The pencilling on X-Factor is Emanuela Lupacchino's handy work.  She got her start in the industry pencilling the Italian series, L'Insonne.  She then moved into American comics in 2009, working on Angel: Only Human and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Fool's Gold for IDW.  Emanuela sent submissions into both DC and Marvel and eventually landed a job illustrating X-Factor.  Her style is clean and smooth and reminiscent of the 1940's pin-up art.  Perfect for the super-hero genre.
There's no limit to how much I can rave about this book.  This month's issue wraps up the story arc but I suggest picking up back issues or buying the “They Keep Killing Madrox” collected volume, due out July of this year.  Peter David and Emanuela Lupacchino's X-Factor is definitely a title worth reading.

Uncanny X-Force
writer- Rick Remender
artist- Jerome Opena

X-Force used to be just another mutant hero team, led by Cable and poorly illustrated by Rob Liefeld.  Now, they're all grown up and saving the world by doing the dirty work other heroes won't.  In 2008, Cyclops turned the team into a black ops group that would sneak into the darkest places and get things done by stealing, destroying, or assassinating whatever or whoever needed it.  X-Force was so black ops, that not even the rest of the X-men knew it existed.  That team originally consisted of Warpath, Wolverine, Wolvesbane, and X-23 and was later joined by Domino, Angel and Elixir.  The book was written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost to be violent and dark and Clayton Crain's art only added to that grim intensity.  It was no wonder that Marvel released two versions of the book every month; one with a regular cover and the other with the same art but gory and splattered with blood.  The theme of the book certainly called for a more adult cover but Marvel needed to sweeten it some for the public by releasing a non-bloodied version.
In September of 2010, that X-Force was cancelled as part of the end of the “Second Coming” cross-over.  It started up again in October with a few changes.  One of those being the title.  Instead of being called X-Force, the book was titled Uncanny X-Force.  Within the series, Cyclops disbanded the team.  But believing it to be of vital importance, Wolverine gathered together Angel, Psylocke, Fantomex  and Deadpool and started operating X-Force without Cyclops' knowledge.  The writer and artist also changed for the book.  Now written by Rick Remender and drawn by Jerome Opena, this revamped series was just as violent and just as dark as the version before it.

I started reading Uncanny X-Force late in the series, but I went back and caught up with everything that's happened since #1.  The first storyline, “The Apocalypse Solution” was about a doomsday cult bringing back Apocalypse in the form of a child.  X-Force, being the team that does what has to be done, went in to assassinate the child before he could become the monster they knew.  It was a heavy story.  Our characters are the bad boys and girls of Marvel, but when it comes to killing an innocent child for who he might become, even Wolverine was having trouble doing the deed.
Opena's art is great when it comes to this.  He has a bit of an old school approach in the sense that his art isn't augmented by digital enhancements.  It's dark and raw and it's perfect for the mood of the book.  We first noticed Jerome Opena as the artist of Rick Remender's Fear Agent, a book that belonged to Image and later to Dark Horse, but he'd also worked with Remender previously on Image's Strange Girl and Dark Horse's Star Wars Tales.  When Marvel approached him, he signed an exclusive contract and has since illustrated Punisher, Moon Knight, one-shots for Wolverine and Deadpool, and of course Uncanny X-Force.  As I said before, his style of art is perfect for any story set in a dark violent world.
As far as Remender's writing on Uncanny X-Force, he knows these characters backward, forward, and sideways.  He has fleshed out all of them and given them incredible distinctly different personalities.  Each new storyline showcases that brilliantly.
If you didn't read any of the story arc that just wrapped up, look for the collection of  “The Dark Angel Saga.”  The threat of Apocalypse is always near.  Remender reminds us of this every time Angel's personality splits and he becomes the evil Archangel, horseman of Apocalypse.  Really, check this book out.  It will blow you away.

Age of Apocalypse
writer- Dave Lapham
artist- Roberto De La Torre
cover- Humberto Ramos

The next big thing in Marvel's mutant line-up is Age of Apocalypse.  Remember the world ruled by Apocalypse?  Well he's been gone for a while and this book is a look at how that universe carried on without him.  According to Lapham, it begins five minutes after the end of “The Dark Angel Saga” in Uncanny X-Force.  In fact, this was the book that made me pick up my first issue of Uncanny X-Force.  AoA #1 brings attention to ramifications brought on by Uncanny X-Force as well as a character that was left behind from the original Marvel Universe.  All of my old favorites from the "Age of Apocalypse" cross-over are in this book, and many of them are cooler than they used to be.  Weapon X has become Weapon Omega.  He's the new evil overlord in the world where humans are becoming extinct.  And the humans we grew to dislike in the X-Men books- William Stryker, Bolivar Trask, and Donald Pierce are all freedom fighters trying to resurrect humanity.  I have no complaints about Lapham's writing.  The book is still in the introduction stage but I'm extremely interested in seeing where it's going.  Just getting me to like characters like Trask, Pierce, and Stryker is no small feat of it's own, so I'll stick with it till the end.

As for the art, again we have an artist who is perfectly paired for the story.  De La Torre's work is dark and streaky.  It creates a disturbing discomfort as you read through it and that's exactly what the Age of Apocalypse is supposed to do, disturb you.  His artwork can be seen on some of Marvel's finest books over recent years.  He's drawn characters from Daredevil, Iron Man, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel.  No matter what he does, it always deserves a good look.
I don't have a strong thumbs up for Age of Apocalypse, but I definitely think it's worth reading, especially if it prompts you to read the original "AoA" story from almost two decades ago.
So, there you have it.  Three Marvel X-Men titles worth reading.  I'm going to ride these books out and I promise to report back if anything goes terribly wrong.