X-Men: Mutant Genesis

Ah, memories. I got my roommate to get me this book when he was in Sapporo... mostly because the store in Sapporo had slim pickens in terms of comics. Still while this comic is not terribly good, I'm glad I read it because it contains X-Men #1 (the 1990's one) which is the comic that got me into comics. It wasn't the first comic that I thought was really good, but I was attracted to the cool looking characters... and that's about it. A friend (name Francis, but not pronounced how you think it is) showed it too me (he bought several copies because of the infamous variant cover pictured below, which when put together forms a nifty cover.

But rereading it, it certainly isn't really good. Oh, the art by Jim Lee is pitch perfect and his costume designs are among the best loved (why didn't the Jim Lee Cyclops and Storm costumes show up in the X-Men Legend games?) and the man draws good super-action. But the writing is painful. It contained (at the time) what was supposed to be long time writer Chris Claremont's last story arc, but it really didn't work out all that well. There are some interesting moments but they are ruined by over-the-top wordiness. Way too much talking and posturing and characters talking about how complex and interesting they are. This makes them seem shallow and boring. I certainly have fond memories of this one but it doesn't hold up.

This story focuses on Magneto (who was a good guy only short time ago), who finds out that he was only a good guy because he was brainwashed as part of a chain of events that sounds too to be said out loud (it involves Magneto being turned into a baby, and somehow comedy was not intended). Anyhoo, he does the same thing to half the X-Men and the two halves fight and they eventually snap out of it (way too easily, by the way. Must be a crappy brainwashing machine) and I'm just bored by the whole affair. I know this is coming from a comic fan but no one can possibly talk that much whilst fighting or flying a short distance.

The story after, however, co-written by John Byrne and Jim Lee (and I think Scott Lodbell fits in there too somewhere) is a lot more fun. It too is flawed, but it's like growing up with a so-so movie. While it doesn't age well, it still pushes certain buttons. The dialog is less full of itself and more dumb action movie, the fight scenes are just plain fun, the twists are fun, the villains are badass and there's a McGuffin. You'd be surprised what a positive effect a McGuffin can have in your story if you play your hand right.

Basically, this story has the first appearance of Omega Red, who teams Matsuo, an evil Upstart (on evil gang that makes a sport of starting wars and wants to see whose manipulations can produce the highest body count) and the Fenris twins (mutant children of an evil Nazi who happens to be a Captain America villain. I swear there's like two degrees of separation in the Marvel Universe tops) to find something called the C-Synthesizer so they can... do something. Something to do with Omega Red's death factor (people around him die if they hang around him for a few minutes) but I don't remember or care to look up the details. This one got my attention for the cool character designs.

I'm sort of sad this book doesn't have the Mojo story that happens right after it. Mojo (an emperor of a TV-obsessed universe) seemed like a good villain when I was young but now he seems silly. Still, I think if he was retooled as an Fantastic Four villain he'd be better (even though they've had some of their best stories their, I never really liked the idea of the X-Men in space). Still, this little trip down memory lane was an eye opening read and an interesting little peak into my childhood. And it held up better than the Ewoks movie I was always watching as a kid.