X-Men Epic 9 The Brood Saga prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781302948818Publication Date: 26th December 2023
The complete Brood Saga, a Mavel extravaganza up there with the very best, is presented in this amazing Epic Collection. It's storyline that blends space opera—with the X-Men, Starjammers and Shi'ar—and disgusting parasites from the outer limits with the Brood. Featuring art by X-icons Dare Cockrum and Paul Smith, it's en action-packed adventure with a visual majesty that will leave you awed. Then, the X-Men encounter the darker side of the Marvel Universe in stories the pit them against Dracula and take therm to Belsaco's mysterious Limbo realm. Chris Claremont crafts each tale, end he tops it all off with a character-defining piece the shows us Professor X and Magneto as allies before the philosophical fallout that would shape mutantkind's future.
Collecting:
Uncanny X-Men #154-167 X-Men Annual #6 Special Edition X-Men #1
424 pages
$44.99 USD, $56.25 CAD
Uncanny X-Men #154 is cover dated February 1982 the same month as Amazing Spider-Man 225, Avengers 216 & Fantastic Four 239
Savage She-Hulk 25, the final issue of her first series, was published this month
www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/newsstand.php?type=cover&month=2&year=1982&publisher=marvel&sort=alpha&checklist=null&variantex=null&collectionex=nullUncanny X-Men #167 is cover dated March 1983 the same month as Amazing Spider-Man 238, Avengers 226 & Fantastic Four 252
New Mutants starts that month, even though X-Men 167 is set after New Mutants 4, and Marvel Graphic Novel Vol. 5:The X-Men God Loves, Man Kills was published.
www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/newsstand.php?type=cover&month=2&year=1995&publisher=marvel&sort=alpha&checklist=null&variantex=null&collectionex=nullCover Is: X-Men 166
Title isn't taken from an issue within but describes the contents
I should be more excited by this book, because it contains some super stuff and the debut of one of my favourite X-Men artists. But after YEARS of being criminally uncollected in colour paperback a large proportion of this material showed up in X-MEN: STARJAMMERS BY DAVE COCKRUM, published October 29, 2019
prhcomics.com/wp/book/?isbn=9781302920463 That collects Uncanny X-Men (1981) #107-108, 154-158, 161-167; X-Men: Spotlight on Starjammers #1-2.
The issues in this book are essentially one big block continuity wise. There's the possibility of events happening between 158 and 161 but something that happens in 154 places almost all of the X Men tie ins in this period either BEFORE 154 or AFTER 167, and probably after 168. The who's where when of that period eliminates the period between those issues as being the setting for a fair few tie in stories. This is why Marvel Fanfare 1-4, published bimonthly the same months as Uncanny X-Men 155-161 are placed in Epic 8, after issue 153.
Marvel Team Up 117 Wolverine & 118 Professor X, published same months as Uncanny X-Men 157 & 158 should slot in the same gap prior to X-Men 154. Given there's only 424 pages in this book I'm unhappy that we didn't get an extra 48 pages to include both of these issues.
But for TWO factors this position is where I would like to place Marvel Graphic Novel 5 X-Men God Loves, Men Kills, whose placenment in continuity is troublesome. It was published the same month as Uncanny X-Men 167, so your automatic rection is to put it close to that issue. Crucially Cyclops is present, he's absent from the X-Men team between the end of 167 and the start of 172. Kitty Pryde is also part of the X-Men team and in one of her X-Men uniforms, where she's in the New Mutants team and uniform between 167 & 168. The major blow against placing the story earlier than when it was published is an appearance by the 15 year old Illyana Rasputin, and a more minor one is which particular X-Men costume Kitty is wearing during the story. I'm not sure that matters so much but the presence of a 15 year old Illyana rules this out before 160. I would love to hand wave the older Illyana away and put GLMK here but I can't.
154-157 are a block of three issues with the X-Men fighting the Sidri, Brood & Deathbird in New York. 158 leads out of there but the main narative goes in a different direction for a few issues. 154 features a major first for the X-Men. OK if it happened now you'd just go "oh it's Wednesday", it's happened so often since then!
158 is the X-Men's visit to the Pentagon and the first appearance of Rogue in the title. The Starjammers are in it the at start, Corsair meets Havoc and Carol Danvers prominantly features so I'm guessing that qualified it for the Starjammers book while the next two issues miss out
159 is not in the Starjammers book. In fact it's the only remaining pre 176 issue not to have had a colour paperback printing. It features the team's first meeting with Dracula which is followed up in Annual 6 later in this Epic.
160 is also not in the Starjammers book and is the X-Men's infamous trip to Limbo that results in a dramatic unexplained change to Colossus' sister Illyana leaving a mystery which is not resolved till the Magik Limited Series a year or so later. Magik 1-4 is published the same months as Uncanny X-Men 176-179 (New Mutants 10-13). Some *might* put Magik here but it's set just prior to New Mutants 14 (the end of the framing sequence in Magik 4 is reprised at the start of New Mutants 14), which in turn is right before Uncanny X-Men 180, with the action in Limbo being told in flashback.
161 *is* in the Starjammers book, even though it is mainly a flashback to Professor X & Magneto's first meeting in Israel many years ago, but the last few pages at the end lead directly into issue 162
162-167 is the X-Men's BIG Brood Story which were, as I said earlier, uncollected in colour paperback prior to X-Men Starjammers. 162-164 are Dave Cockrum's last work on the series. 165 is the debut of Paul Smith whose short run to 175, with a break for Walt Simonson to fill in 171, is almost universally hailed as one of the greatest art runs on the book.
(New Mutants 4, their encounter with the Brood, is immediately prior to Uncanny X-Men 167 but published the same month as UXM 170!)
The book closes with X-Men annual 6 and I would argue VERY loudly that that comic is misplaced here by one issue:
* Wolverine is in X-Men Annnual 6, Cyclops is not.
* Kitty gets demoted to the New Mutants at the end of 167 and reinstated at the end of of 168.
* Kitty is very angry at her demotion at the start of 168, indcating it's still a recent decision.
* Kitty does not mention her demotion in X-Men annual 6, suggesting it hasn't happened yet or has been resolved.
I'd argue that Annual 6 has to be after her reinstatement into the X-Men in 168
* At the end of 168 Cyclops meets Madelyne for the first time, and he doesn't return to the X-Men after that till 173.
That would account for Scott's absence in annual 6.
BUT....
* Wolverine leaves for his Canada trip in 168 (does he go to see Mac & Heather while there?) which we see in the start of Wolverine 1. His Japan trip then follows.
How do you make Annual 6 fit then?
CRUCIALLY the text of Wolverine 1 makes the gap for annual 6 to fit in clear if you're looking for one: After the encounter with the bear and the bar fight in Canada, Wolverine returns to the mansion where he gets the letter from Mariko. I'd argue this is the point X-Men annual 6 occurs and Daredevil 196 (published same month as Uncanny X-Men 171). Wolverine then leaves for Japan.
So the order in the Epics is
167
Annual 6
(then, presumably, in Epic 9)
God Loves Man Kills - which we've not seen yet
168-171 and concurrently Wolverine 1-4 (published same months as Uncanny X-Men 161-4)
God Loves Man Kills feels very uncomfortable in that spot: it's the only point both Wolverine & Cyclops are in Westchester post trip to space and pre Rogue joining the team (she's not in God Loves Man Kills) but for the story to be there Kitty should be off the team and at the very least in her New Mutants Uniform. In fact I'd argue the narative suggests there's little to no break between 167 and 168! The two things that force God Loves Man Kills here are an appearance by the 15 year old Illyana, which dates it post 160, and Kitty's use of a costume only seen elsewhere in Uncanny X-Men 169-170, when both Cyclops & Wolverine are absent.
I'd argue the order *SHOULD* be
167
168
(first few pages of Wolverine 1)
Annual 6
Daredevil 196
169-171 and concurrently the rest of Wolverine 1 and 2-4
I'm not sure it's possible to place God Loves, Man Kills anywhere without it causing some problems.
Here's the X-Men state of play so far, with my rough guesses for the main contents of the missing Epics
1 Children Of The Atom 1-23
2 Lonely Are The Hunted 24-45
3 The Sentinels Live 46-66
4 It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn 67-93 covers
5 Second Genesis 94-110 GS1
6 Proteus 111-128 annual 3
7 The Fate of the Phoenix 129-143 annual 4
8 I, Magneto 144-153 annual 5
9 The Brood Saga 154-167 annual 6
10
11
12 The Gift 189-198 8
13
14
15
16
17 Dissolution and Rebirth 248-267
18
19 Mutant Genesis 278-280 annual 15, X-Men 1-3
20 Bishop's Crossing 281-288 annual 16, X-Men 4-9 & annual 1
21 X-Cutioner's Song 289-296, X-Men 16-18
22 Legacies 297-300 annual 17, X-Men 17-23 & X-Men Unlimited 1
23 Fatal Attractions 301-306, X-Men 24-25 & Annual 2 (due April 2024)
24+
The Epics immediately following this book are now a "split the gap down the middle" job:
10 168-176, annual 7, Wolverine 1-4, God Loves, Man Kills
11 177-188, Kitty Pryde & Wolverine 1-6
I'd love to see the unreprinted Marvel Team Up 135 (Kitty Pryde) in Epic 10 and the double sized Marvel Team Up 150 in Epic 11 but after the disappointment with MTU 117 & 118 I'm less certain they'll appear
There's then FOUR Epics between Epics 12 & 17 which will run something like this:
13 199-210 annuals 9 & 10, New Mutants Special Edition 1 and Annual 2
14 211-219 annual 11, X-Men vs Avengers, X-Men vs Fantastic Four
15 220-238, Hulk 340
16 239-247 annuals 12 & 13, X-Factor 37-39
And finally the much desired Epic 18
18 268-276 & annual 14, New Mutants 94-96 & material from annual 6, X-Factor 60-62 & material from annual 5, and material from Fantastic Four Annual 23
2023 saw the publication of Uncanny X-men Omnibus 5
prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781302948719 collecting Uncanny X-Men (1981) #194-209, X-Men Annual (1970) #9-10, New Mutants Special Edition (1985) #1, New Mutants Annual (1984) #2, Nightcrawler (1985) #1-4, Longshot (1985) #1-6 And Material From Marvel Fanfare (1982) #33
A lot of that is in Epic 12 but you can cross Epic 13 off the list for 2024. Likewise Epics 14 & 15 are probably going to get Omnibused at some point in 2024 or 2025 so put a line through them too.
2023's X-Men Marvel Masterwork is volume 15
prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781302949228 collecting some of the same material: Uncanny X-Men (1981) #220-231, X-Men Annual (1970) #11, X-Men Vs. Avengers #1-4 And Material From Best Of Marvel Comics. But that means 2024 X-Men MMW is going to be the issues leading up to and in Inferno, so you can also cross off Epic 16.
So for once we're looking at a period ahead of where we know that X-Men Epic 18 is a possible for printing. However I'm not 100% sure it's *LIKELY* as I can feel a next Claremont, next post Claremont pattern emerging in the releases.
24 and beyond is a little more wobbly, mainly dependent on what Phalanx Covenant issues appear in X-Men Epics. We'll look at those here when Fatal Attractions comes out but you can see them on my blog at
philsotherthings.blogspot.com/2023/11/future-epics-mapped.html#XMEN
