Mutants under fire
"I found the X-Men a few months before Mutant Massacre began. I was still new, still figuring out why these characters mattered. This event felt like a real initiation -- messy, violent, unforgettable. So I decided to revisit it all in the X-Men: Mutant Massacre Omnibus. The omnibus collects the full event: Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, Thor, Power Pack, Daredevil, and extras like Fantastic Four vs. X-Men. It’s almost 1,000 pages of battles, losses, and rebuilding -- something I chipped away at over the course of a month, between work, workouts, and downtime. The main story hits hard. The Marauders rip through the Morlocks, and the X-Men and X-Factor fight to survive. The Marauders ended up being a cool group of villains -- ruthless, efficient, and visually striking. Riptide and Harpoon stood out to me, but I can't forget Sabretooth and his two-issue fight with Wolverine! Claremont and the Simonsons keep the pace tight, and Walt Simonson's art gives X-Factor an extra punch. Some tie-ins work better than others, but even the outliers add to the weight of it all. The fallout is brutal. Angel gets crucified. Colossus is left quadriplegic. Shadowcat is stuck in phase. Nightcrawler ends up in a coma. New teammates step in, but the damage lingers. Apocalypse looms in the background. Trust gets tested. The tone of the books shifts -- darker, more uncertain. For a new reader, it wasn’t just a starting point. It was a signal: nothing would stay the same. And that’s what pulled me in for good."
