Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1-3 (2009)

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In 2009, Norman Osborn–a villain from Spider-Man who had never had a title role in a book–took over the Marvel Universe, which had traditionally been dominated mostly by X-Books. X-Books usually represent at least a third of the Marvel roster every month. So, the X-Men got jealous and decided to get in on the “Dark Reign” action. Here’s the Dark X-Men lineup:

These issues are a bunch of short stories that introduce concepts, storylines and characters who will be part of the next year-or-so of X-Men stories. I’ll just go through all nine tales (each issue has 3).

Issue #1, Story #1: This tale offers some recent history between Namor and Osborn. It seems Namor refused to be part of Osborn’s Dark Illuminati, but now he agrees to be part of Osborn’s “Dark X-Men” team. Paul Cornell adds some very nice moments here. Most of the conversation, which is all this story offers, takes place with Namor’s massive, muscular, naked body showering and Osborn in a full suit.

Osborn reminds Namor that both of them started as villains and then became heroes. Since Atlantis is destroyed and Namor has been cast out, Namor tells him that now he can represent mutants just as he used to stand for his royal subjects.

Grade: A+. Awesome little story, and a great introduction to the Dark X-Men team.

#2: James Asmus and new Marvel artist Jesse Delperdang show us that Mimic has risen from the dead, is struggling with mental health problems (which of course makes Osborn like him because Norm, too, is batshit crazy), and serves as the Dark X-Men’s version of Angel. Grade: C. There’s a lot of familiar themes here. Mimic is ridiculously powerful and is unbalanced, and Osborn’s relationship with him seems similar to how he controls Sentry.

#3: The final story in issue #1 tells how Osborn found Dark Beast and convinced him to join the team. Grade: C. I’m still not a Dark Beast fan, but I suppose he’s fine here.

#1: Cornell and Kirk team up again as Osborn, in his Iron Patriot armor, recruits Cloak and Dagger. They’re in South America destroying heroin agriculture. To get them on board, he offers to destroy poppy fields all over the world. I have to say, this is a pretty weak rationale to get loners like these two to join forces with a known meglomaniac. Grade: C-

#2: Osborn gets Michael “The Collective” Pointer to join as his “Weapon Omega” in exchange for helping treat his unstable power set. Grade: C-.

#3: Daken already works for Osborn, so getting him to switch from Dark Avengers to Dark X-Men isn’t hard. Their interactions aren’t all that interesting, either. Grade: C-.

#1: Emma Frost gets into Namor’s head as he struggles with feelings about being outed as a mutant. Grade: C

#2: In the only other really excellent story in this anthology, Osborn recruits Mystique, who changes form from Wolverine (who recently almost killed her) to Spider-Man (just to poke at Osborn). Mystique is persuaded to join after Osborn after Norm tells her that Logan has a son and that Daken is on the team. Mystique joins just so she can get revenge on Wolverine.

Why is this one of the only two highly graded stories of this book? Because it makes sense in the overall arc of the characters. Osborn dangling revenge as a motive is perfect because he’s driven by his obsession with Spider-Man. Mystique seeking a chance to use family and manipulation to hurt someone who hurt her is also entirely consistent with her past. Grade: B+

#3: Finally, Simon Spurrier and Paul Davidson show that Aurora is no longer having schizophrenic breaks thanks to a device from Norman Osborn, which will ensure that only Aurora’s dominant, slightly crazy personality is allowed to be conscious. Plus, the device is implanted on her head and Osborn can remotely use it to zap her. Osborn thinks this will make her join the team but it turns out her particular form of crazy likes being zapped–and using her super-speed, she takes it off her head and puts on Osborn (who is also schizophrenic).