X-MEN: FALL OF THE MUTANTS

Hardcover, 2011. Collects 1988's X-FACTOR #18 - 26, UNCANNY X-MEN #220 - 227, NEW MUTANTS #55 - 61, INCREDIBLE HULK #336, 337 & 340, POWER PACK #35, DAREDEVIL #252, CAPTAIN AMERICA #339, and FANTASTIC FOUR #312.

"Fall of the Mutants" was less a "crossover" and more an "event featuring disparate storylines sharing a similar theme/banner title" -- meaning that the three core X-series, UNCANNY X-MEN, NEW MUTANTS, and X-FACTOR, did not interact at all during the events of "Fall", instead each participating in the event in their own way.

As a result, this hardcover has an unusual layout by X-event standards -- it's presented in three sections, each devoted to one series and each beginning with its own recap page to get readers up to speed on prior goings-on in those series. We kick off with the X-FACTOR segment, easily the biggest chunk of material in the book, filling 393 out of 824 pages. Following from the recap, we get X-FACTOR issues 18 - 20, HULK 336 - 337, X-FACTOR 21 - 25, POWER PACK 35, DAREDEVIL 252, CAPTAIN AMERICA 339, X-FACTOR 26, and finally FANTASTIC FOUR 312.

All of this covers the lead-up to Apocalypse's assault on Manhattan and Angel's transformation into the Horseman of Death, as well as the reactions from characters like the Power Pack kids, Daredevil, and Captain America. Unlike "Mutant Massacre", where I felt some of the crossover material was inappropriate or weakened the main story, here it mostly all fits with the possible exception of CAP, which rides the story's coattails with a tangentially related installment shoehored into the action.

X-MEN: MUTANT MASSACRE

Hardcover, 2009. Collects 1986's UNCANNY X-MEN #210 - 214, X-FACTOR #9 - 11, NEW MUTANTS #46, THOR #373 - 374, POWER PACK #27, and DAREDEVIL #238.

Published in 2009, X-MEN: MUTANT MASSACRE was, to my knowledge, Marvel's first attempt to collect the complete "Mutant Massacre" event in on volume, including not only the pertinent issues of the mutant titles, X-MEN, NEW MUTANTS, and X-FACTOR, but also the various tangential crossover material from DAREDEVIL, THOR, and POWER PACK.

The book opens with UNCANNY X-MEN #210, X-FACTOR #9, UNCANNY #211, and X-FACTOR #10. From there, we move into the majority of the one- and two-off chapters -- NEW MUTANTS #46, THOR #373, POWER PACK #27, and THOR #374. Then it's back to the "core" material in UNCANNY #212 and X-FACTOR #11, followed by DAREDEVIL's contribution in issue 238, and then the saga is capped off by UNCANNY 213 and 214, which was not originally identified as an official piece of the crossover, but which provides a nice coda to the whole thing.

The reproduction of most of these issues is very nice, with the criminal exception of Alan Davis's X-MEN 213 (below), which looks absolutely horrid and represents an unforgivable crime against one of Marvel's best artists of all time. That issue is, for me, easily the highlight of "Mutant Massacre" in terms of both story and art, and I can't believe it came out looking so awful in this book.