X-Men Legends is the kind of comic idea that seems like it has been around forever, but it’s relatively new. Marvel has given classic X-Men writers the chance to tell new “lost” stories from different eras. In the second “season” of the series, Ann Nocenti, Roy Thomas, and Whilce Portacio got to take a stab at new two-part stories with varying success. Now collected in X-Men Legends: Past Meets Future, how do these tales hold up, and are they worth picking up?
The first two-parter in this collection is by Roy Thomas and David Wachter. It opens with Wolverine tracking down the Hulk, first published on August 10th. Fans of Wolverine will delight in this opening action sequence as it adds a few more wrinkles to the classic showdown that introduced Wolverine to the world. Wachter and Edgar Delgado do Wolverine and Hulk right, bringing the old-school look of the characters with some great action. Wachter mixes things up a bit with a slashing diagonal panel layout. It’s a satisfying fight that ends abruptly due to Wolverine getting new orders.
This eventually leads to a sequence where we learn Wolverine ultimately follows orders. There are some politics involved with his role as a hero, and soon those politics lead to him being paired with Jack Winters. If you’re unfamiliar, that’s probably because he died in a story way back in 1968 and only lasted a few months in the comics. Created by Thomas and Werner Roth, it’s fun to see a super-underused character get the spotlight by the end of the issue.
Fans of this era of Wolverine will enjoy this story, especially since Thomas gets the voice and attitude right for the character. Plot-wise, this issue is all over the place, seemingly jumping from the Hulk and Wolverine fight to hook readers and then diving into some slow exposition to set up the rest of the story. There isn’t enough here for casual readers to dive into if they weren’t already huge Wolverine fans, but considering his popularity, most X-Men fans should find something to enjoy here. The cover is certainly misleading regarding how many X-Men you’ll see, but the cliffhanger teases there could be more to come if you have the patience.
Berserker rage!
Credit: Marvel
Ann Nocenti and Javier Pina deliver a fitting Mojo tale since Nocenti co-created Mojo, Longshot, and Spiral. The first issue lets Mojo take charge as he tries to film his next magnum opus and win all the awards. He’s using Longshot as his star, who can’t die thanks to his luck powers. Eventually, this story leads to Wolverine and Kate Pryde showing up and being kidnapped, but Mojo truly is a delight in this tale.
The second half shows the war movie Wolverine and Kate are in. The story itself is tucked away in canon, and while it uses a convenient loss of memory to have it make sense, Mojo and Spiral are certainly changed by the events. There are plenty of in-jokes with the film industry, with some great dramatic beats thanks to the art.
Last up is a Bishop story by character co-creator Whilce Portacio, with Brian Haberlin co-writing and Portacio drawing. Taking place at a time when Bishop was living at the Xavier Institute but refusing to join the team, much of the focus has Bishop preoccupied with his future as part of the XSE. The sanctioned police force Bishop was part of was pretty depressing, and it shows how bad things get for him and mutants. The second half focuses a lot on Fitzroy while tying up the story to show a few events before Bishop joined the X-Men Gold Team. Portacio’s art harkens back to an older time for the X-Men while delivering some murky (in a good way), darker-toned art.
It’s an exciting time to be an X-Men of all eras thanks to X-Men Legends: Past Meets Future giving classic creators a chance to tell a few more stories. Not exactly must-read material – how could it be, since these stories are tucked in between past tales? – it’s still enjoyable to get a different flavor of X-Men in such a new and prominent Krakoan era.
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