Review: X-Men - Mutant Genesis

A recently reformed Magneto returns to villainy in order to exact his revenge on humanity after learning that his rehabilitation may have been a manipulation. His first order of business? Kidnap and brainwash the X-Men into being his faithful servants. Then, Wolverine’s past comes back to haunt him when a mysterious assassin named Omega Red comes to hunt him down.

X-Men: Mutant Genesis collects X-Men #1-7, with story and art by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. Additional dialogue is written by John Byrne and Scott Lobdell.

Mutant Genesis collects the first few issues of the blockbuster relaunch of the X-Men from 1991. This series was a turning point for the X-Men, as they’d been previously split apart and fractured. The original X-Men had formed the splinter group X-Factor, while the remaining members of the X-Men had been living in Australia for the latter part of the 1980s. The original and current X-Men were thus reunited during preceding storylines, which brought back plenty of familiar faces back into the fold. Despite being a relaunch, Mutant Genesis isn’t entirely new reader friendly. Anyone expecting to pick this collection up and understand everything that’s going on is going to be disappointed. Both arcs collected in this volume build upon concepts, characters and narratives that were previously established during Chris Claremont’s legendary run on the X-Men.

The first storyline present in Mutant Genesis is a three-parter that serves as Claremont’s farewell to the X-Men. In it, the titular team of superheroes faces off against Magneto high above the Earth on the villain’s satellite base Asteroid M. It’s a splashy and action-packed story featuring a plethora of mutants, which makes the story feel important and gives it a larger scale. Artist Jim Lee, who joins Claremont as co-plotter, helps to enhance the overall feel of the narrative. His art is fresh and dynamic, contributing some of the most iconic depictions of the X-Men of all-time. His then-new designs for the characters brought colour and life back into the world of Marvel’s Merry Mutants. These first three issues illustrate a synergy between Claremont and Lee, but also a slight schism. Lee’s art is so lively, yet it’s bogged down by Claremont’s habit of character grandstanding through dialogue. Gorgeously drawn panels are thus marred by massive blocks of text.

The question remains, does Mutant Genesis serve as an explosive finale to Claremont’s tenure on the X-Men? Yes and no. When you take away the quality of Jim Lee’s work, the story itself fails to match the depth and scale that became synonymous with the X-Men in the 1980s. This had been a continued problem with Claremont in general, as the quality of his stories declined sharply around 1989 when the Outback era reached its conclusion. The great thing about Mutant Genesis is that Claremont makes good use of his large cast and helps to pen yet another fantastic Magneto vs. the X-Men story. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t stand up very well to the test of time. Much of the conflict hinges upon a minor event that occurred several years before, which can be troublesome for people less familiar with Claremont’s oeuvre. It’s a bittersweet finale, of course, particularly because we know that Claremont left prematurely and likely would have ended things a bit more differently.

The rest of Mutant Genesis consists of a Wolverine-centric story conceived by Jim Lee, with dialogue written by John Byrne and Scott Lobdell. It features Wolverine being kidnapped by Omega Red at the behest of a new group of villains known as the Upstarts. The X-Men must then find and rescue their teammate before he outlives his usefulness to the Upstarts. As far as the story is confirmed, Lee’s first foray into being the sole plotter for the X-Men wasn’t half bad. Despite the rather large cast of characters he’s dealing with, he juggles them well and keeps things intimate by keeping the focus on Wolverine. He gives us glimpses into Wolverine’s past and even brings in Sabretooth. He also gives us a number of panels of Psylocke displaying just how badass she is. Nevertheless, there’s nothing too remarkable about the narrative that stands out. It’s solid, but lacks a sense of gravity. In other words, it’s filler and seems to be there only to give us a preview of what we can further expect from this series.

There are also a number of issues with Lee’s art in the final four issues in this collection. It doesn’t look quite as polished, particularly when it comes to their faces. His distinctive style isn’t as noticeable here, which is rather unfortunate. This also means that the flaws you’d normally overlook because of the beautifully drawn characters are all the more glaring. He’s clearly not the best artist when it comes to rendering backgrounds, nor does he seem to know quite how to edit his panels so they’re not too busy. More often than not, transitions seem abrupt and it’s often hard to follow the dialogue as a result of this.

There’s no denying the legacy of X-Men: Mutant Genesis. It has gone through multiple reprints and exists as one of the most iconic moments in the X-Men’s illustrious history. It doesn’t have the same critical acclaim that the Dark Phoenix Saga has, but the nostalgia factor is high on this one for those of us who were ‘90s (or even ’80s) babies. The stories presented here are great. They’re fun and they’re very much what you’d expect from a ‘90s comic. The art, however, is the real star here. Lee’s pencils are why this collection has been reprinted and collected (and sold out) so many times. That said, this volume feels incomplete. Since there’s a subplot involving Dazzler and Longshot in Mojoworld, ending the collection on issue 7 feels abrupt. This storyline wouldn’t be resolved until issue 11, so a larger collection would be nice to see in the future.

RATING: B