Muir Island Saga

"Muir Island Saga"
"Muir Island Saga"
	Cover of The Uncanny X-Men 280 (Sept, 1991), art by Jim Lee
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Publication date	July – September 1991
Genre	Superhero; Crossover;
Title(s)
	The Uncanny X-Men #278-280; X-Factor #69-70
Main character(s)	Michael Heisler
Colorist(s)	Joe Rosas; Glynis Oliver; Dana Moreshead; Steve Buccellato
Editor(s)	Tom DeFalco; Bob Harras

The "Muir Island Saga" is a five-part

crossover event involving the X-Men and X-Factor, published in 1991. It was written by Chris Claremont and Fabian Nicieza

.

Plot

After warnings from

Siege Perilous. Xavier decides to call in his original students, now forming the team X-Factor

.

On Muir Island,

Zaladane

stripped Polaris of her magnetism powers. Using her new powers to absorb negative energy for superhuman strength, Shadow King plans on becoming all-powerful. They fear that to break that connection and defeat him, they may have to kill Polaris.

With X-Factor gathered, Professor X plans a strike on Muir Island using resources provided by

Mystique and kills Reisz. Shadow King quickly shifts to a new host, Legion

. As X-Factor and the freed X-Men reach Polaris, Legion sets off an explosion that destroys much of the island.

Professor X lands on the island himself, but finds Legion holding all of his students captive. Legion is attacked unexpectedly by Storm, freeing the X-Men. He retreats and unleashes the X-Men and Muir Island inhabitants to take down his enemies. Professor X decides they must attack the Shadow King on both the physical and astral planes to defeat him, so he sends half the team to break the nexus formed with Polaris and the other half to protect his body while he is on the Astral Plane. He begins his battle with the Shadow King, but now the villain has become too powerful to attack. Jean Grey, finding the damage inflicted to Xavier on the Astral Plane affecting his actual body, brings herself and the accompanying X-Men onto the Plane to assist. In the physical world, Forge defeats the still-controlled Psylocke and uses her psychic knife on Polaris to disrupt and sever the nexus. His power source destroyed, the Shadow King is ripped apart.

In the aftermath, Professor X fails to repair the mental damage to Legion's mind, leaving Legion brain-dead, but is comforted by X-Factor's decision to rejoin the X-Men. Val Cooper, returned from Shadow King's control, recruits Polaris, Guido Carosella and Jamie Madrox into a new government-sponsored team to replace Freedom Force.

Impact

The series had several lasting results for the X-Men family of characters.

The original X-Factor rejoined the X-Men, causing the team to be split into two separate units.
Val Cooper organized a new X-Factor as a government-sponsored team to replace the recently disbanded Freedom Force
.

Muir Island

was greatly damaged, causing many of its longtime inhabitants to vacate.

Polaris lost her super-strength but regained her magnetic powers.
Professor X once again lost use of his legs.
Legion was left in a catatonic state, in which he would remain until the lead-up to "Legion Quest".
The individual X-Men would abandon the team-uniform costumes for individual costumes once again.
Colossus
was stripped of his Peter Nicholas persona and rejoined the X-Men.

Publication

Uncanny X-Men #278
Uncanny X-Men #279
X-Factor #69
Uncanny X-Men #280
X-Factor #70

Collected editions

The storyline has been completely or partially reprinted in the following volumes:

Essential X-Men, Volume 11 (
ISBN 0-7851-6684-X
)

Essential X-Factor, Volume 5 (X-Factor #69, #70, Uncanny X-Men #280) (
ISBN 0-7851-6353-0
)

X-Men: Legion – Shadow King Rising (Uncanny X-Men #253-255, #278-280; X-Factor #69, #70; The New Mutants #26-28, #44) (
ISBN 130290955X
)

X-Men Epic Collection, Volume 19: Mutant Genesis (X-Factor #65-70, Uncanny X-Men #278-280, X-Men #1-3, The New Mutants Annual #7, X-Factor Annual #6, X-Men Annual #15) (
ISBN 9781302903916
)

References

Muir Island Saga at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)