Issue Details

Release Date: February 27th 2008.
X-Men: Legacy #208 review on Comics Daily

Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Scot Eaton
Guest Artist: John Romita Jr.

John Romita Jr. is a Marvel artist previously responsible for a few short runs on Uncanny X-Men in the late 80s and early 90s, He is also the son of John Romita, one of the definitive Spider-Man artists.

Story Title: From Genesis to Revelations.

This is a reference to the opening and closing books of the Bible, although “Genesis” is, in the X-mythos, a story title popularly associated with the launch of a new title or team - for instance, “Second Genesis” in Giant Size X-Men #1, “Third Genesis” in both Generation X #1 and Young X-Men #1, and the title of the “prequel” miniseries, X-Men: Deadly Genesis.

Issue Synopsis: The Acolytes, led by Exodus, covertly steal Xavier’s body at the climax of the Messiah Complex crossover in X-Men #207. Seconds before, Xavier had been shot in the head by Bishop, who was firing at a dematerialising Cable. Exodus uses his formidable powers to reconstruct Xavier’s brain and heal his wounds, but Xavier seems to be resisting attempts to piece his mind back together. While this happens, Xavier experiences fragments of memories regarding the formation of the X-Men and concerns from various people that he might be influencing their personal development a little too strongly. At the climax of the issue, it is revealed that Magneto is working with Exodus.

Annotations
Cover: David Finch’s cover, the first section of a 5-part panorama, depicts the original X-Men in their “school uniforms”. Elements of the general composition, as well as Iceman and Cyclops’ specific poses, directly reference the cover of Uncanny X-Men #1 by Jack Kirby (shown right). The idea of a multi-cover panorama may itself be inspired by the interlocking variant covers of X-Men #1.

It’s worth noting that the “X” of the X-Men: Legacy masthead has been shattered, as if by a bullet, in clear reference to what Xavier himself has recently experienced.

Pages 1-3: This sequence shows Xavier talking to Moira MacTaggart, a now-deceased genetic researcher that he was once engaged to. As previously shown in a similar scene from Uncanny X-Men #300, Xavier had discussed the formation of the X-Men with Moira prior to assembling the group, though I believe this is a new scene. The letter he refers to was the “Dear John” he received while recovering in hospital following the Korean War, in which Moira explained she would be breaking up with him to marry her first love, Kevin MacTaggart. The letter she sent was first mentioned in Uncanny X-Men #117. The memory sequence is eventually interrupted by an image of Bishop.

Page 4: Click the image for a larger, numbered version of the montage. This key shows the identifiable characters surrounding Xavier:

1: Iceman, 2: Cyclops (Blue/Gold outfit) 3: Angel, 4: Warlock, 5: Marvel Girl, 6: Beast (pre-fur), 7: Jean (Dark Phoenix outfit), 8: Titan, 9: Gladiator, 10: Harry Leland, 11: Mastermind (?), 12: Sebastian Shaw, 13: Holocaust, 14: Colossus, 15: Senyaka, 16: Unknown, 17: Feral, 18: Emma Frost (Hellfire Club outfit), 19: Emma Frost (Astonishing outfit), 20: Cyclops (Astonishing Outfit), 21: Shatterstar, 22: Cable, 23: Beast (Ape version) 24: Wolverine, 25: A Sentinel, 26: Shadowcat, 27: Domino, 28: Boomer

If you want some real nitpicking, note that Beast is wearing his Astonishing/[New] X-Men outfit, but has 5 digits on his hand - this is definitely the “ape-man” Beast, but he’s wearing a costume he didn’t use until he mutated into the feline Beast following the events of X-Treme X-Men #3.

Page 5: The Acolytes in this scene are Frenzy (Joanna Cargill), Amelia Voght, Exodus (Bennett du Paris) and Karima, the Omega Sentinel – not strictly an Acolyte, but she’s taken to hanging around with them after being freed from Malice’s control and leaving the Marauders. Voght is another of Xavier’s former girlfriends. They met and became romantically involved when she worked as a nurse aiding his rehabilitation following the spinal injury that paralysed him. When they realised they were both mutants, she left him rather than help form the X-Men. The most complete version of their relationship is described in Uncanny X-Men #309.

Page 7: Oh good, another montage! Once again, click the image for a larger version.

1: Dazzler, 2: Cyclops, 3: Colossus, 4: Storm, 5: Iceman, 6: Cyclops, 7: Jean, 8: Gambit, 9: Nightcrawler, 10: Jean, 11: Angel, 12: Cable, 13: Thunderbird I, 14: Wolverine, 15: Beast, 16: Archangel, 17: Jubilee, 18: Psylocke, 19: Rogue, 20: Petra Kristensen (?), 21: Sunspot, 22: Stryfe, 23: Mystique, 24: Moonstar, 25: Magneto, 26: Cassandra Nova, 27: Emma Frost (?) 28: Destiny, 29: Selene (?)

The dialogue on this page is all taken from previous X-Men comics:

“There’s no changing sides once god places you” (Northstar, Uncanny X-Men #414)
“I will not allow the world to destroy us” (Storm, Uncanny X-Men #305)
“I am Fire” & “and life” (Dark Phoenix, Uncanny X-Men #134)
“What happens when you can’t forgive me?” (Gambit, Uncanny X-Men #349)
“Take the one thing ah hate the most an kill me with it.” (Rogue, X-Men #27)
“Why does everyone say my name like it means shut up?” (Jubilee, X-Men #10)
“I’m going to catch you.” (Jean, [New] X-Men #125)
“In the name of this undeclared war.” (Shadowcat, X-Men #110)
“People like us ain’t allowed to forget” (Gambit, Uncanny X-Men #326)
“At your own risk, my friend.” (Cyclops, X-Men #1)
“There’s very little written about you.” (Bishop, X-Men #8)
“How quickly it turned to ash.” (Magneto, New Mutants #39)

Page 8: Karima was a regular human who was transformed into a Sentinel by Bastion during the Zero Tolerance storyline which ran in the X-titles from 1996 to 1997. though she first appeared some time after in X-Men Unlimited #27. Xavier and Magneto once helped her free her from her Sentinel programming (in Excalibur (vol 3) #4) which is why she has followed Xavier and the Acolytes - she is trying to save his life like he saved hers.

Pages 8-9: Depicts events from the climactic battle of the Messiah Complex crossover. The Acolytes steal Xavier’s body between panels at the end of X-Men #207, accounting for its abrupt disappearance (shown right). While these pages depict Amelia as present, she wasn’t actually seen in the issues in question.

Page 12-16: This interlude takes place shortly after Jean’s arrival in Uncanny X-Men #1, though presumably before their first mission. Xavier’s claim that “there are others” could be a reference to several things - either Tessa (Sage) (who Chris Claremont established in X-Treme X-Men #3 as having been covertly recruited by Xavier at the same time as the original 5 X-Men) the X-Men students from X-Men: Deadly Genesis (who may already be under Moira’s tutelage at this point) or the eventual “Giant Size” team, some of whom Xavier is already keeping track of (again, shown in Uncanny X-Men #300).

Page 14: Moira is long established as being present behind the scenes during Xavier’s formation of the X-Men, though this is perhaps the first that places her at the mansion while the original team is active and training.

Page 15: The orphanage Cyclops grew up in was, of course, run by Sinister, who kept track of his mutant abilities and fitted him with the glasses necessary to keep his powers under control. (Established in X-Factor #39)

Page 18: The flashback panels on this page contain snippets taken from the scene in the next page. Cyclops is wearing his X-Men uniform in these panels, though not in the following scene, presumably to represent Xavier’s jumbled and incomplete memories.

Page 19: This scene is built off events in Uncanny X-Men #7 (shown right) where Xavier places Cyclops in charge of the recently-graduated X-Men before disappearing for several issues, planning to find and defeat Lucifer, the man responsible for his paralysis.

Page 20: Cyclops refers to events first shown in the backup strip Uncanny X-Men #53 where, after the X-Men recruit Beast, Xavier wipes the memory of everyone in his town (which presumably includes his family) to cover up the machinations of El Conquistador and protect Hank.

Page 22: This, if you’re somehow unaware, is Magneto, former leader of the Acolytes, longtime friend/enemy of Charles Xavier and currently a powerless human since the events of M-Day.

Marvel Digital Comics:
Excalibur (v3) #4
Giant Size X-Men #1
Generation X #1
New Mutants #39
X-Men #1
X-Men #8
X-Men #10
X-Men #27
X-Men #110
X-Men #125
X-Men #207
X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1
X-Men Unlimited #27
X-Factor #39
X-treme X-Men #3
Uncanny X-Men #1
Uncanny X-Men #7
Uncanny X-Men #53
Uncanny X-Men #117
Uncanny X-Men #134
Uncanny X-Men #300
Uncanny X-Men #305
Uncanny X-Men #309
Uncanny X-Men #326
Uncanny X-Men #349
Uncanny X-Men #414
Young X-Men #1

Next Issue: X-Men Legacy #209

Last updated: 09th July 2008
All images on this page are copyright Marvel and reproduced under terms of fair use.