X-Men: Messiah Complex
In order to not only continue my slower-than-I-wanted-but-faster-than-expected consumption of the X-Men side of the Marvel, but also my complete reading of Yost and Kyle's X-Force, I chose to read Messiah Complex. For those who don't know, Messiah Compllex is a crossover event with Peter David's X-Factor, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle's New X-Men, Mike Carey's X-Men, and Ed Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men. This takes place after the events of M-Day, an event that erased 90% of the mutant population, reducing their numbers to around 190, and prevented anymore mutants from ever being born. Things go to hell in Messiah Complex when a new baby mutant is born, and everyone wants the child for their own motivations.
We begin with a small team of X-Men flying over to the town of Cooperstown, Alaska, which is completely devastated. Flames and corpses everywhere. Cyclops sends Nightcrawler and Wolverine to cover the ground initially, Angel to fly over for surveillance, and then he flies the Blackbird over to the other side of the town where he lands it so he and Emma can then begin to cover ground. While doing search and rescue, the X-Men discover not only the corpses of almost the entire town, but also two Marauders -- Mr. Sinister's X-Men equivalent -- and a hell of a lot of Purifiers -- a religious movement started by the late Reverend William Stryker that believes mutants are aberrations in the face of the Judeo-Christian God. After finding a few live adults, Emma reads their minds and discovers that the Purifiers showed up to murder all the children in the attempt to kill the mutant Anti-Christ a.k.a. the first mutant born since M-Day. Mr. Sinister had also sent his Marauders to capture the baby first. The X-Men, having zero idea who has the baby, recoups at the X-Mansion, where Cyclops arranges one team to hunt down the Marauders and find their base. He also brings in two members of X-Factor; Jamie Madrox a.k.a. Multiple Man, and Rictor. Layla Miller tags along as an uninvited third member. Cyclops has Rictor, having lost his powers on M-Day, go undercover with the Purifiers since he can pass as human. Jamie is to go see Forge, with Layla tagging along.
While the X-Men hunt down information through the Marauders and Rictor enters the Purifiers (discovering that they have an insanely large paramilitary movement), Jamie and Layla find Forge. Forge explains that he had built a device to track various timelines, and that after M-Day, all timelines involving mutants simply disappeared. After this new birth, two of those timelines reactivated. Jamie creates two duplicates; one for each timeline. Layla tags along with one of them. Jamie, furious with Forge, finds out that the time machine is a one way trip. Forge reveals that the duplicates are to kill themselves after discovering the info they need, at which point the info will be transferred to Jamie. While it's unclear as to what future the first dupe ended up at (it's never revealed, either), Layla and the second dupe ended up 80 years in the future.
While that's all happening, the New X-Men, lead by Surge, are furious with Cyclops' sidelining of them. Surge wants revenge agains the Purifiers after they assaulted the X-Mansion and killed several students before being fought off by the New X-Men. Hellion, Mercury, Rockslide, X-23, Armor, Anole, and Pixie all head to the nearest Purifier base. Prodigy, Dust, and Elixir stay back at the mansion. After the New X-Men infiltrate the Purifier base, they discover Rictor, who reveals that the Lady Deathstrike-lead Reavers are allied with the Purifiers and that the Purifiers also don't have the baby. The New X-Men get #RiggetyRekt by the Reavers before Pixie teleports them plus Rictor out of the base. Some of the New X-Men arrive at the mansion, Cyclops sends Iceman to find the rest, as they were scattered by Pixie's desperation teleport. Right after this time, the X-Mansion is attacked by the re-purposed Sentinels standing guard over the mansion, placed there by O*N*E after Civil War. The Sentinels are just barely fought off, while the other X-team finds Sinister's base and fights the Marauders. They also barely make it out, but not before finding out that the Marauders also do not have the baby, but they know who does: Cable.
With everyone under the impression that Cable is responsible for the Sentinel attack, Cyclops orders Wolverine to assemble a new X-Force, consisting of their best trackers and some of their best fighters, to track down Cable and the baby before the Marauders and the Reavers, who are also aware that Cable has the baby. X-Force, consisting of Hepzibah (yes, the Starjammer), Warpath, X-23, Wolfsbane, Caliban, and Wolverine, find Cable as he is assaulted by the Reavers. Despite X-Force putting in serious work, Cable still manages to escape with the baby, with Caliban being killed along with X-23 killing Deathstrike. He shows up at Forge's, planning on taking the baby into the future. However he is ambushed by Bishop, who wants to kill the child. The Marauders show up and ambush Bishop, taking the baby with them. The X-Men show up, helping Bishop and Forge recover, also taking in Jamie as he is still knocked out after the time travel. Cyclops has Bishop go as part of another X-Force to track the baby, who has been taken to Mr. Sinister. It's revealed that Mystique has been posing as Mr. Sinister for three hours, having used Rogue (who is in a death-coma) to kill him. She believes the baby will cure Rogue. X-Force shows up, and a fight happens.
Now, throughout the book, two plotlines have been occurring: One involving a monstrous looking hound called Predator X, which hunts and eats mutants. The second is the time travel storyline. Jamie's second duplicate and Layla find out that the timeline they entered was another Days of Future Past-esque scenario, with mutants being placed in internment camps. This time after an event called "The Six-Minute War," during which tons of humans were slaughtered. It's revealed that Lucas Bishop, having come from this timeline, wishes to kill the one who brought on this war: the Messiah a.k.a. the recently born child. Layla kills the dupe, saying she'll survive this and trapping herself in that future. The real Jamie wakes up, telling Cyclops that Bishop has been the one sabotaging the X-Men's attempts to track the baby, and another team is sent to back up Wolverine's. Predator X also shows up at the X-Mansion, eating the corpses and attempting to eat the wounded in the basement. The New X-Men manage to fend it off and end up teleporting the Predator to the battle at Sinister's base. Cable shows up with the help of Professor Xavier, who throughout this book has been finding himself useless, not being able to repair Cerebro (which was wrecked after a spike from the birth happened) and having been rejected by everyone for being shitty. Cyclops eventually forced Xavier out of the mansion, when Xavier is contacted by Cable. Saving Cable and bringing him to Sinister's island, Cyclops makes the decision to send Cable into the future with the baby in order to keep her away from everyone and preserve the future of mutantkind. With Sinister dead, the Marauders bail. Rogue, having been cured by the baby, sends Mystique into a coma and leaves on her own. Predator X is also killed. The book ends with Cable being sent into the future, and Xavier diving in front of Bishop's shots to protect Cable. Xavier dies, while everyone mourns their losses in this war in the wreckage.
Messiah Complex....is....one of the best events I've read in a very, very long time. Every issue feels seamless, with the only major difference being the artists, switching from Marc Silvestri to Billy Tan to Scott Eaton to Humberto Ramos to Christ Bachalo. The art styles vary, and while the transition can be a bit jarring (particularly Eaton to Ramos) sometimes, it's never tonally disruptive. Everyone does a great job of capturing a somber tone with an extremely tense atmosphere that's cultivated by multiple factions vying for the same thing. Nobody feels truly safe in this, and this adds an even greater tension. Despite me knowing who the victor ultimately was ahead of time, I was still on the edge of my seat wondering what the final results would be. The plot threads interweave in a way that you feel every piece is essential to keeping the plot moving: tracking the Marauders and the infiltrating the Purifiers; the mystery of the dystopian future; the constant fear of when Predator X will show up, as it kills mutant after mutant. It all helps create this blanket of fear, tension, and excitement that I don't think too many other events manage to capture so well. My only regret while reading this is that I don't know all the character arcs going in, because there are some serious payoffs and devastating emotional moments going in. I feel truly bad for Xavier, despite his awfulness during Deadly Genesis, and Mystique, despite her awfulness with the Marauders; I want the New X-Men to get their revenge, but I also worry about them; I both want Cable to succeed, but also want him to go to the X-Men for help. I am fully invested in each one of these characters and their story arcs, and there are far more than the ones I've mentioned, despite the fact that I was only really reading it for one book.
Granted, it's not without its flaws. Sometimes I do feel the pacing is a bit off, with singular scenes from other plots being spliced into the middle of a fight for a page and then back to the fight again. That's just a singular example, but stuff like that happens a lot, and it gets irritating at points. Also, while I did say the art is great throughout, it is a bit jarring going from styles like Tan and Eaton to Ramos. Ramos onward is a far easier transition (Bachalo > Tan > Eaton), but when it gets back to Ramos it's like hitting a brick wall. A bright, disproportionate brick wall with massive gauntlets and big faces.
All in all, I think this is one of my favorite X-books, and it's easily one of the darker X-books I've read. I can definitely see myself reading this again in the future, and I think all X-Men fans should pick this up at least once. Great action, story, art, and dialogue make for a really good popcorn book (IT'S A THING NOW) at the very least.