Essential X-Men, Vol. 7 (Marvel Essentials)

 (6 customer reviews)

I am both amazed and incredibly pleased to have seven volumes of Chris Claremont's X-Men Essentialized already (plus two of the Silver Age X-Men, but I'll talk about that in a later review). I now have a virtual library, a nearly complete collection of one of Marvel's most storied franchises, all for much less cost than what I used to spend to fuel my video game habit back in the Sega Genesis era. Thanks to the rapid release of these comprehensive and inexpensive tomes, this is perhaps the best time to make classic comics a hobby. Anyway, that's enough praise for the Essentials as a whole, now for my praise of just the Essential X-Men #7.

The Mutant Massacre had just abated, leaving Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat critically injured and giving the team incentive to hold a recruitment drive. The first new member, Longshot, is probably the most unlikely and, in my opinion, poorest choice. I guess he had to go somewhere after his inaugural mini-series, but the fact...Read more

The Mutant Massacre changed a lot of things in the X-World, and the X-Men continued to fight against the Marauders for a long time after that event. This collection has some of that continuing battle and leads through the X-Men sacrificing themselves to save the world from the Adversary, only to be reborn in Australia. It also includes a couple of Annuals which are average at best, much like in previous volumes. Plus, it's got the limited series X-Men Versus the Fantastic Four, which carries some of the plotlines from the massacre forward.
While the artwork by Barry Windsor-Smith, Adan Davis, Marc Silvestri, etc. is excellent, Chris Claremont's stories get a bit fuddled sometimes. It's almost as if he has a certain idea in his head, but has difficulty carrying it out on the page. Plotlines begin to get really dragged out here, which gets even worse as his run continues. It's still pretty good, but I can imagine the frustration waiting month to month for the originals and...Read more

The team is in a bad way after the Mutant Massacre, and has to do some recruiting, so we get Longshot, who is a lot of fun, and Dazzler, who isn't. The X-Men decide to go on the move to make themselves less of a target, and move their injured comrades to a safe location.

Mojo and the X-babies appear here, and that is a lot of fun. The whole Freedom Force thing at the end is where the franchise starts to lose its way, I think, but this is still an excellent deal.