While the title may be all about the road to Mutant Massacre, the X-Men: Mutant Massacre Prelude Omnibus stands on its own as a complete look at Marvel’s ultra-popular mutant comics of the era.
The Prelude includes the flagship comics such as The Uncanny X-Men #194-209, The Uncanny X-Men Annual #9-10, New Mutants Special Edition, The New Mutants Annual #2, as well as notable mini-series of the day such as Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler #1-4 and Ann Nocenti, Arthur Adams, Whilce Portacio, and Scott Williams Longshot #1-6.
The Omnibus also ushers in the original X-Men in the form of X-Factor (whose recent Omnibus replicates much of the content here) with the prelude in Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286 before starting the new series in X-Factor #1-8 and X-Factor Annual #1 and early team-ups in Iron Man Annual #8 and The Amazing Spider-Man #282.
The Omnibus wraps up with an X-Men story from Marvel Fanfare #33 and two Phoenix back-up stories from Classic X-Men #8 and 43.
The Mutant Massacre Prelude contains work by the aforementioned creators, as well as Chris Claremont, Roger Stern, John Byrne, Bob Layton, Bob Harris, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco, Barry Windsor-Smith, Butch Guice, John Romita, Jr., Rick Leonardi, June Brigman, John Buscema, John Byrne, Keith Pollard, Paul Neary, Bob Layton, Marc Silvestri, Alan Davis, John Bolton, Mike Collins, Dan Green, Joe Rubinstein, Terry Austin, Al Williamson, Tom Palmer, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, Brett Breeding, Bob McLeod, P. Craig Russell, Steve Leialoha, Al Gordon, Mike Mignola, and Bill Anderson.
Highlights include Rachel Summers assuming the role of the new Phoenix, Jean Grey’s return, the debut of Nimrod and Apocalypse, The X-Men and New Mutants Asgardian adventure, Secret Wars II crossovers, new battles with the Juggernaut, Doctor Doom, and a new Hellfire Club, the Trial of Magneto, and the prelude to Claremont and Windsor-Smith’s eventual Weapon X storyline from Marvel Comics Presents in the “Wounded Wolf” story from Uncanny X-Men.
X-Men: Mutant Massacre Prelude Omnibus consists of a whopping 1,496 pages for a suggested retail price of $150.00.
Check out the covers by John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton (comic shop variant) below and stay tuned to Conskipper for all of your mutant and vintage comics news.
