Review # 186: "X-Men - The Twelve"

With the X-Men franchise sagging, "The Twelve" is like a Hail Mary pass. It's presented as the be all/end all story for the villain Apocalypse. Unfortunately, the Hail Mary plunks on the 12 yard line with everyone waiting in the endzone.

Review # 181: "X-Men - Road to Onslaught Vol. 3"

Finally in part three of "Prelude to Onslaught" do we finally hit on some actually important pre-"Onslaught" moments as the "X-Men" franchise mainly under the direction of Scott Lobdell at this point continues to slowwwwwwwwly make its way to its next big event. Well, actually, in terms of time the proceedings are not that slow. There were so many annuals and special editions beyond the two main series themselves that you could find yourself with 3-to-4 X-Men comics coming out each month, and that doesn't even count the spinoffs.

Giant Size Review # 4: 90s X-Men ("Bishop's Crossing," "X-Cutioner's Song" and more)

I've gone on record before about how I'm not the biggest fan in the world of the writing during the Nicieza-Harras-Lobdell (NHL) era of the X-Men. While they had their flashes of brilliance, most of their work is far too wordy, is shallow (disguised as deep) and compromises a lot of the action on-page.

Review # 161: "X-Men Epic Collection Vol. 1 - 'Children of the Atom'"

Stan Lee is one hell of a creator. But I don't need to tell you that. His mark on popular culture grows by the day as franchises attached to his name have become multimedia phenomena, shattering records worldwide. Lee deserves all the praise he receives.

However, he is not perfect.

Review # 145: "X-Men - X-Tinction Agenda"

Welcome to the 90s, X-Men.

Review # 135: "X-Men: Fall of the Mutants"

Regarded as the second major X-Men crossover, "Fall of the Mutants" takes a much better approach for its titles at the time than what had been done in its predecessor "Mutant Massacre." In essence, it's not a crossover at all - each series was slated to go through a significant change at exactly the same time under the same banner headline. This allowed the creators to do whatever they wanted and fail or succeed on their own merits.

Review # 132: "X-Men: Mutant Massacre"

"Mutant Massacre" made X-Men history by being the first crossover between three X-family titles and is regarded by many as one of the greatest X-Men stories of all time. But while it has its share of memorable moments, I really can't say I agree.

Review # 129: "Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2"

On the one hand, the second "Uncanny X-Men" omnibus by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Dave Cockrum isn't as fascinating as the first one.

Review # 128: "The Dark Phoenix Saga"

This is a write-up I have been looking forward to since I started this blog. With no reservations I can tell you that "The Dark Phoenix Saga" is my favourite comic book story of all time, one of my favourite stories of all time and my pick as the greatest in the history of its medium.

Review # 115: "The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson Vol. 4"

Why is Walt Simonson the greatest writer in the history of "Thor?" Easy: he took a story about turning Thor into a frog, and made it a compelling drama.

Review # 109: "Marvel Masterworks - The X-Men Vol. 6"

Before Len Wein, Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont came along the X-Men sucked. Flat out sucked. Issue after issue of one-note characters taking on terrible villains in forgettable stories. Given how memorable the work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby was in the early 60s, it's stunning to find a book so empty outside of some very rare exceptions. As a result, I was 100 percent certain for years that I would never pick up another pre-"Giant Size X-Men" collection again. I wasn't interested in seeing more pale shadows of these characters that I love - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Charles Xavier, Magneto, etc. - ever again.

Review # 65: "X-Force/Cable - Messiah War"

"Messiah War" is a big, fat slice of the 90s served up in 2009. X-Force. Cable. Bishop. Stryfe. Apocalypse. It's an over-the-top romp with big guns, cannon fodder and a lot of interior monologue. However, it learns from the past by not getting trapped in 90s mistakes. The stories don't drag, the villains don't state the obvious and both sides fight each other without trying to compete on a debate team.

Review # 63: "Uncanny X-Men - Lovelorn"

Matt Fraction is Marvel's golden boy right now with his acclaimed work on "Hawkeye" and "FF," but things weren't always rosy in the public eye. His run on "Uncanny X-Men" was not the most popular in the world and drove a few people away from the series. Frankly, I don't get the hate. Some criticize Fraction for making "Uncanny X-Men" the "Scott and Emma Show." But, really... who cares? They were the centre not only of the team at the time, but of mutantkind's place in the Marvel Universe. If you wanted Rogue and Gambit, there was "X-Men Legacy." If you wanted Nightcrawler and Colossus, there was "X-Infernus." Um... er... OK, maybe not. I'll get to that next time. If you wanted Wolverine, the man was EVERYWHERE, front-and-centre in his solo series and "X-Force," and it's not like he completely disappears while the X-Men are in San Francisco.

Review # 59: "Uncanny X-Men - Divided We Stand"

"Messiah Complex" went madly off in all directions, so it should be no surprise that its follow-up moves in a straight line. Well, two straight lines to be exact. The "Uncanny X-Men" portion of "Divided We Stand" focuses on two stories: Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus taking a trip through Europe and Cyclops and Emma Frost taking some downtime of their own while simultaneously trying to locate team members who have disappeared.

Review # 43: "Uncanny X-Force - The Dark Angel Saga"

"The Dark Angel Saga" may very well be the best X-Men story so far this century, and rivals the drama seen in the tale its name is inspired by.

Review # 42: "Uncanny X-Force - Deathlok Nation"

"Deathlok Nation" is a tricky story for me to review. I was originally going to include this with "The Apocalypse Solution," as it's very much an extended epilogue. But it just didn't seem to fit, so here it is on its own.

Review # 40: "Uncanny X-Force - The Apocalypse Solution"

Marvel was on to something when it re-introduced X-Force as a hit squad during "Messiah Complex." While Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost did an admirable job putting together a team that was very much a callback to the Cable era, only under Wolverine, what Rick Remender did in the pages of "Uncanny X-Force" took it to the next level.

Review # 35: "Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron Vol. 5"

While I appreciate Jason Aaron's ambition to make "Wolverine and the X-Men" a mixture of both whimsy and darkness (almost like Hogwarts with mutants,) there's always a line that can be crossed and things become too absurd. I think he may have done that here.