The Publication Year That Wouldn't End continues as push through more extra X-content, including another annual, the culmination of the "Cannonball & Iceman undercover in Graydon Creed's campaign" subplot, and Apocalypse's first miniseries!
On Sale October 1996
November 3: X-Men Unlimited #13
November 4: X-Men '96
On Sale November 1996
November 10: Uncanny X-Men #340
November 11: X-Man #23
November 17: X-Men (vol. 2) #60
November 18: Wolverine #109
Power Rankings for issues on sale in September 1996
The common this month is "series starting three part stories" and "mediocrity", as nothing is terribly good but, graded on a curve, nothing is outrageously bad, either.
1. Uncanny X-Men #338
2. X-Men (vol. 2) #58
Neither of these issues are great, as both don't so much tell a story as tell parts of a bunch of different stories, but Joe Mad on at least part of Uncanny and some nice Gambit/Joseph/Rogue stuff in Adjectiveless keep them at the top.
3. Excalibur #103
4. Generation X #21
Warren Ellis' final issue is light on story but heavy on fun alternate reality visions drawn by Carlos Pacheco. Similarly, Generation X #21 is maddeningly inconclusive story-wise, but Bachalo's art helps keep it afloat.
5. X-Factor #128
6. Cable #37
7. X-Force #60
8. X-Man #21
9. Wolverine #107
X-Factor gets a boost thanks to Mackie finding his plot and the surprise return of Madrox, while X-Man gets a boost from borderline competence in setting up a new status quo. The rest of the series are all beginnings of multi-part stories, all of which are fine but none of which are terribly exciting.
"Apocalypse's first miniseries"??? Only one wasn't enough?
ReplyDeleteHa! I actually don't think he gets another one; it was more of a "hey, it's the first time there's a miniseries starring Apocalypse" kind of thing, as opposed to being the first in a series of miniseries or something like that. :)
DeleteAwesome, an Apocalypse mini coming out. I'm super pumped. Wait, who's the artist? NOOOOOOOOOOO. Instantly knowing that I won't like the series and didn't pick it up. I'm always more interested in the villains. Their costumes/designs are generally cooler looking and I want to know more of their motive. Yet this is rarely covered in comics and you just don't get the villain's perspective often enough. I would have been all about an MLF series showing the history of the characters, why they are part of this group, their motivation, how they prep for missions, etc.
ReplyDeleteI want to say Magic Alliances was out around this time. Star Wars CCG Hoth set, Middle Earth The Dragons and we were waiting for First Contact for Star Trek CCG if memory serves me right. Inquest 14/15 was out around this time period. I had my first job at Kroger's, I was 15 and looking at this list of books, I think I was only buying Uncanny so I could continue to have a run of it while the rest of the X-Books were all determined by art/villain involved. Writers at this time weren't as important to me. Wildstorm was probably getting most of my comic money as their universe had much better art and cooler characters.