X-Men: Messiah Complex

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the psychological term, see Messiah complex.
"Messiah CompleX"
Variant cover of X-Men: Messiah Complex 1 (Dec 2007), art by Marc Silvestri
PublisherMarvel Comics
Publication dateOctober 2007 – January 2008
Genre
Title(s)
New X-Men vol. 2, #44-46
The Uncanny X-Men #492-494
X-Factor vol. 3, #25-27
X-Men vol. 2, #205-207
X-Men: Messiah Complex #1
X-Men: Messiah Complex - Mutant Files #1
Marvel Spotlight X-Men: Messiah Complex #1
Main character(s)
ISBN 0-7851-2320-2

"X-Men: Messiah Complex" (also known as "Messiah CompleX") is an

crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics from October 2007 to January 2008, which ran through the various X-Men
books.

The story is the climax of events that began with "House of M", which led to the decimation of mutants in the Marvel Universe, and the first chapter of a three-part saga, which continued in "Messiah War", released in 2009, and culminated in "Second Coming", a crossover between all X-Men titles in early 2010.

Overview

The "Messiah Complex" storyline is the climax of events set into motion in "

Predator X to see who will find the child first. The event also marked the return of X-Man Angel, who had been away from the X-Men teams for a while.[1]
"Messiah Complex" also involves
Cable
.

Plot

A mutant activation is detected in Alaska and

Predator X
detects the newborn mutant, and devours the bodies of the dead Marauders present.

Cyclops creates an "assault team" (consisting of

Forge, and has member Rictor (who lost his powers on M-Day) pretend to join the Purifiers to see if they have the baby. Forge tells Madrox that Scarlet Witch
's hex spell flatlined mutants across all possible futures until the baby's birth, which spawned two futures with mutants present. Madrox sends a duplicate to each timeline, and Layla Miller runs in the portal with the second dupe as Madrox falls comatose and Forge takes care of his body.

Rictor joins the Purifiers and discovers they are working with

Wolfsbane
) to locate him. Cable wanders Alaska with the baby while Predator X continues killing mutants, making his way to the X-Mansion when it loses the baby's scent.

In the future, Layla and Madrox discover there are mutant concentration camps, a result of mutant activity, and they get themselves locked in one and permanently marked with "M" DNA face tattoos. In present day, X-Force finds Cable, who is battling Deathstrike and the Reavers. X-23 defeats Deathstrike at the cost of Caliban's life, and Cable steals X-Force's Blackbird, making a path for Texas, where he goes to Forge's headquarters to use a time traveling device. Cable is hit from behind by X-Man

Muir Island, it is revealed that Mister Sinister
, who has the baby, is actually Mystique and that Mister Sinister is dead by her forcing him to touch Rogue.

Cerebro is repaired and used to track Gambit as Cyclops rescues X-Force, Bishop and Madrox. Bishop says Cable knocked Forge out and ran away after both him and Cable lost the baby. Cyclops sends Bishop and X-Force ahead to Muir Island in a faster O*N*E* ship. After they leave, Madrox reawakens after Layla uses a stolen grenade to kill his duplicate and send future Madrox's memories to Madrox Prime, now with the duplicate's M scar. He tells the group about Bishop. Predator X arrives at the X-Mansion and fights the New X-Men until Pixie teleports them to Muir Island, and Cable uses his stolen Blackbird to get Xavier to help him, explaining that in his future, the baby was a Messiah who united all of man and mutantkind.

Mystique explains to Gambit that

Scalphunter
's gun and shoots as Cable timeslides to the future, missing him and hitting Professor X. In retaliation, Cyclops takes out Bishop with a powerful optic blast. After Professor X is shot, his body is teleported away as Cyclops declares there are no X-Men.

Afterwards, Cable appears in the future, with the baby in his arms. The story ends as Cable thinks to himself, "here comes the hard part".

Publication

October 2007

  • Chapter 1: X-Men: Messiah Complex one-shot.

November 2007

December 2007

  • Chapter 6: Uncanny X-Men #493
  • Chapter 7: X-Factor #26
  • Chapter 8: New X-Men #45
  • Chapter 9: X-Men #206

January 2008

  • Chapter 10: Uncanny X-Men #494
  • Chapter 11: X-Factor #27
  • Chapter 12: New X-Men #46
  • Chapter 13: X-Men #207

Additional books

  • X-Men: Messiah Complex - Mutant Files #1

Collected editions

The storyline has been collected into a single volume:

  • X-Men: Messiah Complex (collects "X-Men: Messiah CompleX", Uncanny X-Men #492-494, X-Men #205-207, New X-Men #44-46, X-Factor #25-27, and "X-Men: Messiah CompleX - Mutant Files", 352 pages, Marvel Comics, hardcover, April 2008,
    ISBN 0-7851-2320-2
    )

Aftermath and consequences

Since Mystique risked the baby's life by touching it to Rogue, Rogue disowned her foster mother, but only after touching her before realizing the baby's touch cleansed her of her gained memories from a lifetime of touching. Rogue left, wanting time alone.

Divided We Stand: The "Divided We Stand" event followed on from the end of Messiah Complex, with the X-Men no longer being a team, and encompassed the Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Young X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, and Cable ongoing series.[2]

Uncanny X-Men: A separate Divided We Stand storyline ran in Uncanny X-Men from #495 to 500 and ended with the X-Men reforming in San Francisco and pursuing "Cyclops’ vision of what the X-Men should do".[2]

Cable: At the Baltimore Comic-Con on September 10, 2007, Marvel Comics announced that a new solo

Cable ongoing series (replacing Cable & Deadpool), with Duane Swierczynski as the writer[3] and Ariel Olivetti as the artist, would be launched after the conclusion of Messiah Complex in March 2008.[4]
This series followed the attempts of Cable to protect the Messiah child from the recovered Bishop's time traveling wrath.

X-Men (vol. 2):

Mike Carey remained as writer with various artists contributing to the art, including CompleX artist Billy Tan and Scot Eaton, among others, with David Finch as the cover artist.[5]
The book turned to a focus on Professor Xavier, Rogue and Gambit, and featured plans regarding Magneto, as well as a female character from the New X-Men title.

X-Force: A new X-Force series was launched in February 2008 with Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost as the writers and Clayton Crain as the artist. The team consists of the X-Force team introduced in "CompleX", minus the ones that died and the ones that suffered injuries.[2]

X-Factor saw Layla Miller remain trapped in the future. Additionally, two of Madrox's duplicates were sent into future alternate realities. One duplicate traveled into the future with Miller and found himself in Bishop's future. The other duplicate returned as an X-Factor character with the ability to possess others using techno-organic abilities named Cortex.

New X-Men (formerly New X-Men: Academy X): A new series, titled

Ink and Graymalkin.[6]

Sequels

"Messiah War", a seven-issue crossover between Cable (vol. 2) and X-Force (vol. 3) which writer Craig Kyle describes as being the follow-up to Messiah Complex and "the middle chapter of what I think will be a major three-part saga, which will continue to define and redefine the X-Universe moving forward".[7]

"X-Men: Second Coming", was the final part of the trilogy that began with "Messiah Complex" and "Messiah War", intended as a conclusion to Cable's efforts to save Hope from Bishop, who has hunted the so-called Mutant Messiah since her birth.[8]

References

  1. ^ Carlton, Brian (June 16, 2007). "HeroesCon: Marvel Writers Round Table" Archived 2007-06-21 at the Wayback Machine. Comic Book Resources.
  2. ^ a b c "Marvel Comics Solicitations for April, 2008 - UPDATED!" Archived 2009-01-11 at the Wayback Machine Comic Book Resources. January 23, 2008
  3. ^ "Wizard Entertainment: DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI'S 'CABLE' VISION". Archived October 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Tramountanas, George A. (September 10, 2007). "'X-Force' and 'Cable' Special Edition" Archived 2009-01-11 at the Wayback Machine. Comic Book Resources.
  5. ^ Tramountanas, George A. (January 2, 2008). "X-Position: Week Thirty Two" Archived 2009-01-11 at the Wayback Machine. Comic Book Resources.
  6. ^ Renaud, Jeffrey (January 25, 2008). "Youth Served: Guggenheim Talks 'Young X-Men'" Archived 2009-01-11 at the Wayback Machine. Comic Book Resources.
  7. ^ Richards, Dave (December 12, 2008). "Kyle/Yost/Choi Talk 'Messiah War'" Archived 2008-12-17 at the Wayback Machine. Comic Book Resources.
  8. ^ Richards, Dave (October 12, 2009). "X-Writers Prepare for the 'Second Comin'". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2010-03-10. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

External links

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