[Comics] X-Men: X-tinction Agenda

I was never a big X-men fan in my younger years. It's not because I was against them or anything like that - my development just led me to liking Spider-Man a lot more and that became the focus of my comic book budget at the time.

It seems more and more I'm getting exposed to the X-Men because of various friends, most recently by the guy I'm currently seeing. He's been a big help in my X-education of sorts, mainly because he was a big New Mutants fan. It's certainly been an enjoyable experience thus far and I don't mind further explorations of this side of the Marvel Comics universe.

X-Men: X-tinction Agenda has always been one of those muti-title crossovers that I had always heard or read about but never seemed to get around to reading. My previous knowledge of this particular crossover story had been limited mostly to the blurbs on the backs of Marvel trading cards, hehe.

Image via Wikipedia

The story behind this one remains to be rather intriguing. Genosha now seems to be run by the now mad cyborg Cameron Hodge and with this power he sends a team of Genoshan Magistrates to kidnap several mutants from the Xavier Institute in order to bring them to trial for crimes against the nation of Genosha. Hodge has found a mutant who can disable the powers of others and he uses this skill well in order to neutralize all that can be brought against him. This ultimately results in the X-Men, X-Factor and the New Mutants to all get involved in the rescue of their friends and ultimately the defeat of Cameron Hodge.

Keeping track of who's who in the X-universe can be pretty nutty and this is really brought home in this particular story arc. I mean seriously, there are three different teams with some members who had been on multiple rosters over the years. Still, this little complication takes little from the plot and things are handled well enough in order to keep the story going.

The series in indeed daring considering there are actual causalities in this tale involving some of the major characters from the various X-titles. Plus there's Cameron Hodge himself who has become this highly disturbed antagonist who somehow manages to fend off all three teams for most of the series whether through sheer power on his part or with the support of the nation of Genosha.

Instead of just using brute force to challenge him, the mutants come up with interesting counter-strategies of their own and it really makes for good reading in terms of how they ultimately defeat the maniac. It's no wonder why Chris Clairemont is the genius that he is and why his involvement in the X-Men universe will never be forgotten.

This title is widely available in trade paperback format by now or you can look for an X-Men geek amongst your friends who might have a copies of the original issues lying around.