X-Men Legacy was originally X-Men, the book Marvel intended to hand to Jim Lee, except he left to co-found Image. It went on anyway, as X-books in the '90s typically did. Became New X-Men for the Grant Morrison/Frank Quietly run. Continued on through other creative teams probably better left forgotten, and eventually landed in Mike Carey's hands. Carey wrote it as a team book for awhile, with Rogue trying to lead a group with Mystique, Sabretooth and Cable among others (kind of filched Cable from Cable/Deadpool in the process, thanks loads Mike). After Messiah CompleX (yes, the "X" was capitalized) it turned into X-Men Legacy. It spent maybe a year as a Professor X solo title, as he tried to put his mind together after being shot in the head by Bishop, as well as make up for past mistakes.
Xavier, I mean. Bishop was out in the timeline committing all new mistakes by trying to murder a child with a nuclear weapon. One of ol' Chuck's mistakes was an inability to help Rogue, and at the point they intersected, the book became a Rogue solo title for the next 50 or so issues (although the last 15 of those were written by Christos Gage.)
So the biggest thing Carey does, as part of Xavier's "fix past fuck-ups" tour, is do some work on Rogue's psyche that gives her the chance to actually control her mutant power. The thinking is, because Rogue absorbs memories through her power, and that she basically absorbed Cody's entire psyche the first time she used her power, it fragmented her mind, and this wrecked her ability to develop control. Charles basically wipes the board and let's Rogue figure it out.
(In a nice touch, the last persona to go is Mystique, who naturally curses and blames Xavier the whole way. Even an echo of Mystique can't acknowledge that being a wholly untrustworthy, backstabbing person who used Rogue as a weapon is why the girl wanted nothing to do with her.)
From there, Carey tries to explore Rogue putting together a life where she may have to be careful before she makes physical contact with someone, but she doesn't have to avoid it entirely. Gambit and Magneto both factor in, as past love interests who would like to be present love interests. Carey uses the Necrosha X-Event to let Rogue have some closure with Destiny, which is nice. Guess that's irrelevant with Krakoa bringing everyone back.
More crucially, Rogue has to decide what her role with the X-Men is, if any. She came to Xavier originally hoping to get her powers under control, and was caught up in X-Men stuff in the interim (or for lack of anywhere better to go). Now that her powers are under her control, does she still want to be caught up in X-Men stuff, especially during the Utopia era (aka, the first time they made their own little island nation)? If she does stay, what's her role?
I think Carey settles on her as a sort of mentor for younger mutants struggling to come to grips with their powers, whatever that means.
The big problem is the constant string of events the book has to tie-in to. Necrosha as mentioned above, but Age of X, which is a whole alternate reality thing that took over the book for six issues. Second Coming, when Hope and Cable return to the present, and by the time Gage is writing, Avengers vs. X-Men. That's a lot of event crap to navigate, and they do their best, but it's hard to focus your X-Men book on a specific X-Man when you have to follow along as Chapter 7 of Whatever. There's also artist shuffle, though that's to be expected with Marvel. Scot Eaton, Daniel Acuna, Clay Mann, Scott Kurth, David Baldeon, Rafael Sandoval, Greg Land. I don't think that helps much, but at least some of the time the artist seems to match the material. The story the splash page is from involves traveling into some weird other-dimensional space that Acuna's coloring makes look suitably unreal and slightly out of sync. On the other hand, Greg Land. Suffice it to say, I did not bother picking up those issues.
And with that, we are done with X-Men titles. Not mutant titles that start with "X", mind you. Oh no, you're not free and clear of those yet.
2 comments:
Did they ever explain the "Legacy"? I'd stopped following by that point.
Maybe when it was Xavier's book and it was going through his past, it could refer to his legacy. What he'd left in his wake? Otherwise, I got nothin'.
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