X-MEN '92 #8 - #10

"THE TWELVE" | "A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH" | "EARTH X"
Writers: Chad Bowers & Chris Sims | Art: Alti Frimansyah w/Cory Hamscher (#10 assist)
Color Art: Matt Milla | Lettering: VC's Travis Lanham | Cover Art: David Nakayama
Production: Carlos Lao | Editors: Heather Antos & Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso | Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

The final chunk of X-MEN '92 begins with our heroes and the Ex-Brood fighting off the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, who have arrived to exterminate the Brood. Rogue gets a spotlight here, going to-to-toe with Gladiator while the rest of her friends battle the remaining members of the Imperial Guard -- and the entire fight proves to be a diversion allowing Gambit, Beast, and Death's Head to hijack the Guard's ship. The X-Men escape back toward Earth, where this short-lived series' sub-plots quickly come to a head.

First, we learn that the Gamesmaster is actually Mystique in disguise, and the entire Upstarts competition has been the brainchild of Apocalypse as a way to steel the X-Men against an impending threat. Apocalypse reveals himself to the Upstarts and recruits them to his cause, and at the same time is joined by Cassandra Nova and the mysterious Joseph. Meanwhile, President Kelly arrives at the site of Lila Cheney's concert in Westchester to confront Professor X and X-Factor, revealing that he doesn't trust the X-Men to protect Earth and that he's made a deal with Apocalypse.

Apocalypse and his team show up, we get some jokes at the expense of nineties whipping boy Adam-X, then the X-Men arrive on Earth with the Ex-Brood. Apocalypse reveals a heretofore unknown benevolence to Xavier, explaining that he wants to save the world from a mutant Celestial named Xodus, who has recently awakened. But before he can explain his plan, he's gunned down by Cable as X-Force shows up.

X-MEN '92 #5 - #7

"THE ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX: THE LAST X-MAN"
"LILAPALOOZA" | "HOMESICK ALIEN BLUES"
Writers: Chad Bowers & Chris Sims | Art: Cory Hamscher (#5) & Alti Frimansyah (#6-7)
Color Art: Matt Milla w/Dono Sánchez Almara (#6) | Lettering: VC's Travis Lanham
Cover Art: David Nakayama | Title Page Design: Nicholas Russell (#5)
Production Design: Carlos Lao | Assistant Editor: Heather Antos | Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso | Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

Following the first story arc of their ongoing series, Chad Bowers and Chris Sims give us a one-off story in issue 5 to remind readers that, while they've left the X-Men, Cyclops and Jean Grey are still members of the cast. We pick up with the couple in Alaska, from whence they're plucked to the future by an elderly woman named Rachel. Cylcops and Jean work with Rachel -- a.k.a. Askani -- to infiltrate the lair of Mister Sinister... but in the end it turns out Askani and Sinister are on the same side, working together to create the ultimate weapon against Apocalypse. That weapon proves to be a clone created by Sinister using genetic material grabbed from Cyclops and Jean while Rachel led them through his lair. The story ends with the couple transported back through time just after meeting their clone "son", Cable -- and when next they materialize, they find themselves in the year 2099, confronted by that era's X-Men.

As usual, kudos to Bowers and Sims for integrating the often labyrinthine continuity of the nineties into their story -- though in this case it's not really that difficult. Cable created by Sinister as a weapon against Apocalypse is pretty much the character's mainstream universe origin as well, and Rachel pulling Cyclops and Jean through time to Cable's future was the plot of the ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX mini-series in 1993 (hence the title of issue 5's story). There's a twist here, with Sinister and Rachel in cahoots and Cable created in the future as a clone rather than in the present day as a biological child, but for the most part, this story adheres to existing continuity pretty well, just streamlining it a bit for the X-MEN '92 audience. And the cameo appearance by the X-Men of 2099 on the issue's final page is probably my favorite part of this one! I loved that series when I read it "first run" off the stands, and it's always nice to see it revisited.

X-MEN '92 #1 - #4

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN" | "YOUNG BLOOD"
"THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE" | "PAGES FROM THE BOOK OF SINS"
Writers: Chad Bowers & Chris Sims | Art: Alti Frimansyah
Color Art: Matt Milla | Lettering: VC's Travis Lanham | Cover Art: David Nakayama
Production: Carlos Lao | Assistant Editor: Heather Antos | Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso | Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

The ongoing X-MEN '92 series picks up precisely where the "Infinite Comics" left off: Professor Xavier has opened his school to a new class of young mutants, Bishop and Psylocke have recently joined the X-Men, and Cyclops and Jean Grey are on a leave of absence. We're still apparently set in the SECRET WARS universe, as the X-Men's "world" is referred to once or twice as Westchester (which gets a little confusing since their local municipality is also, as in the source material, called Westchester too). It's pretty clear at this point, if it wasn't already, that this really isn't a straight continuation of the X-MEN animated series. The initial team lineup as seen in the Infinite Comics was the same as on the show, but the similarity ends there. These X-Men have fought in a human/mutant war and are lauded as great heroes by the world, for one thing. For another, references are made to events that never happened on the TV series -- and I'll note some as we get to them.

I'm not necessarily complaining about this; the series is still fun, and -- I'll note for the umpteenth time -- it's a treat to see the X-Men running around in their Jim Lee costumes. But, as with Chris Claremont's X-MEN FOREVER, something of a spiritual forebear to this series, Marvel advertised a "continuation" but what we've actually wound up with is more of a reinvention. To put it plainly, if you tell me that a series is going to "continue" the X-MEN cartoon, I would expect the series to pick up precisely where the cartoon left off: with Professor X away in outer space with Lilandra while the X-Men, still feared and hated by the world at large, live in a loosely brokered peace with Magneto. Start there. It's a continuation. Pick up where the series left off. It's not rocket science, people.

(And I'll give Claremont some credit -- X-MEN FOREVER at least did begin practically exactly where X-MEN #3 ended, with the mutants searching for Fabian Cortez. It just went off the rails pretty quickly after that.)