Customer Reviews

X-Men: Origin of Generation X (Phalanx Covenant)

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this book includes the 3 storylines that were made up x-men crossover called "the phalanx covenant". the first storyline (reprinting uncanny x-men #316-317 and x-men #36-37) features the characters that would eventually become the x-men group known as generation x, and is def. the best of the 3. highlights include banshee rejoining the x-men family and the surprise cooperation of the white queen and sabretooth. the second story (x-factor #106, x-force #38, and excalibur #82) is less focused and features so many characters and situations that were set up before these books that newbies will prob. be very confused. the story works best when it concentrates on rahne (aka wolfsbane), cannonball, and the cypher-warlock entity called "douglock". the last is a two-parter (wolverine #85, cable #16) featuring wolverine, cable, jean grey, and cyclops, and is pretty decent although not particularly original. although again newbies will be wondering details like who hodge and lang are, which will detract from their enjoyment. as a bonus the book reprints generation x #1 which introduces chamber and penance. the artwork and writing are all representative of marvel's 90's roster (inc. andy and adam kubert, scott lobdell, fabian nicieza, etc.), and although the 90's isn't really thought of as being a golden age of marvel comics there's some good stuff here. also includes some concept art by bachalo.

I loved these comics when I was 14, and at the basic story level, they still hold up well. This was an admirably restrained crossover, where for one or two months, each x-book told part of a story of a techno-organic alien race trying to take over the world. The X-Men themselves basically step aside, as the core titles follow Banshee and Emma Frost tracking down some young mutants, the secondary team titles bring all of their members together to get in some fights, and the solo characters team up to climb a mountain. I promise, it's much more engaging than I make it sound. For example, this is my favorite exploration of Forge, as we see what the world looks like through the eyes of someone who can't help but see how machines work, and I love the way that this collection deals with the effects of The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.

This is not a good read for new fans, though, as the dialogue is just terrible. It climbs to Claremont-style heights of clunky exposition in the middle of fight scenes, dips low in its attempts to present phonetically accurate accents that end up sounding nothing like real accents, and occasionally hits sublime moments where it does both at once. That was just kind of the style in comics back then, especially x-books, and there's not much you can do about it now. I also have a problem with the way the editors of this collected edition chose to black out every box with editorial comment, as I usually find those comments helpful when a character references another story I've forgotten, and the big black boxes on the pages make me feel like someone is hiding something from me.

Overall, then, this story is a good nostalgia trip for those who read it in single-issue format back in 1994, but I would not recommend it for a new reader.

This series was something of a rebirth of my interest in the X-Men. It had been a long time since I'd read of new and interesting heroes, and these ones were definitely enough to keep my attention going. A definite read for any X-Men fan, regardless of previous knowledge.