X-Men: Deadly Genesis

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X-Men: Deadly Genesis
Cover to X-Men: Deadly Genesis #6, by Marc Silvestri.
Publisher Marvel Comics Schedule monthly Format 6 issue limited series Publication dates 2005 – present Main character(s) X-Men Creative team Writer(s) Ed Brubaker Penciller(s) Trevor Hairsine (lead stories, layouts only on #2-5) Pete Woods (backup stories) Marc Silvestri (covers only) Inker(s) Kris Justice (#1, lead story) Pete Woods (backup stories) Scott Hanna ("finisher", #2-5, lead story) Mike Perkins ("finisher", #2, lead story) Nelson ("finisher", #3, lead story) Colourist(s) Val Staples (lead stories) Brad Anderson (backup stories)

X-Men: Deadly Genesis is the name of a miniseries from Marvel Comics by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine with covers by Marc Silvestri. Starring the X-Men, this series celebrates the 30th anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1. The plot deals with the X-Men looking for Professor Charles Xavier, who went missing after House of M, as well as the appearance of a new, incredibly powerful mutant threat.

The plot of the miniseries will also continue a plot thread that has not been touched since 1993, when writer Fabian Nicieza hinted that there were “other” siblings of Scott (Cyclops) and Alex (Havok) Summers in X-Men #23 (2nd series). [1]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Back-up stories 3 What if...? 4 Trivia

[edit] Synopsis

Deadly Genesis is a retcon of the classic Giant Size X-Men #1 story of 1974 by Len Wein. In that story, he used the abduction of the original X-Men by the living island Krakoa as an instrument to discard a larger part of the first-generation X-Men of 1961. Wein wrote that Professor X recruited international characters, most noteably the quintessential Marvel Comics anti-hero Wolverine, who eventually substituted the original X-Men.

In Deadly Genesis, Ed Brubaker writes that this episode was only half of the truth: the international X-Men had been Professor X's second attempt to rescue the original X-Men. The first try to retrieve the missing X-Men were conducted with young mutants, the energy-wielding Vulcan (established as the brother of Scott and Alex Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops and Havok), time-manipulator Sway, the hyperadaptive Darwin and terrakinetic Petra, and it had ended in catastrophe, seemingly claiming their lives. However, Vulcan had escaped, having absorbed all his three comrades. When Polaris blasted Krakoa into outer space in Giant Size X-Men #1, Vulcan was shot into space, too, but survived comatose thanks to Darwin's reactive powers. After the debacle, the X-Men and especially Cyclops were deeply distraught, so deeply that Professor X decided to ruthlessly mind-wipe them in order to spare them the agony, and to clear his name.

After the House of M storyline (2005), a large energy surge went through the galaxy. It awakened the comatose Vulcan and caused him to return to earth, out for revenge. He easily defeated the X-Men several times with his now demi-godlike powers, killed the X-Man Banshee and revealed the terrible truth to the X-Men, in full view of Charles Xavier. When the X-Men attack him in order to avenge Banshee, Vulcan flees into outer space. Feeling deeply betrayed, Cyclops banishes Professor X from the X-Mansion as punishment.

The storyline from Deadly Genesis will continue in Uncanny X-Men's The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire this July.

[edit] Back-up stories

In addition to the main plotline about the X-Men and the Mystery Mutant, each issue of the series features a backup story introducing a new mutant character. In each of these, after the character learns of their powers, they use them to overcome a challenge in their life, which brings them to the attention of a woman who specializes in helping mutant youths. That woman is Moira MacTaggart.

• In issue 1, a young girl named Petra runs away to Central Park, using her power of terrakinesis to survive.
• In issue 2, a young boy named Armando Muñoz, becomes a scientific wonder when he is dubbed Darwin, the Evolving Boy.
• In issue 3, Suzanne Chan survives the crossfire of a gang war and solves her parents' murder by using her power to freeze and review time, taking on the name Sway.
• In issue 4, Gabriel, a young orphan in the care of Moira MacTaggart, learns of his mutant power to control and manipulate energy, while dealing with flashes of memory of his life treated as an outcast in the Shi'ar Empire (while under the rule of D'Ken). He then gains the codename Kid Vulcan.
• In issue 5, a young Emma Frost, following the events of the Emma Frost series has just begun working as a stripper at the New York Branch of the Hellfire Club (from here, she will go on to work her way up to the rank of White Queen). Xavier and Moira MacTaggart approach her about joining the X-Men, but she refuses. She briefly encounters Kid Vulcan outside the club before Xavier erases her memory of the encounter, which explains why in the current storyline of the same issue, Emma has a vague recognition of Vulcan.

In the current storyline, it is revealed in that Petra, Sway, Darwin, and Kid Vulcan were placed under the tutelage of Moira MacTaggart, much like the original X-Men trained under Xavier. When the original X-Men were lost during their fight against Krakoa the Living Island, Xavier appeared and psychically accelerated the training of Moira's students in order to send them to rescue his own. In the present, Vulcan claims that Xavier left his team to die on Krakoa (presumably, had Emma Frost accepted the invitation to join, she would have become the fifth member of this team and died on Krakoa as well).

[edit] What if...?

A one-shot comic is planned for 2006, in which an alternate version of the story has taken place. In the present, Kid Vulcan has become Vulcan, the leader of the X-Men, and one of the greatest mutant heroes alive. However, Krakoa is still drifting in space... and the secret it contains may tear the X-men apart...

[edit] Trivia

• The title "Deadly Genesis" is a homage to the title of Giant Size X-Men #1: "Second Genesis." The cover of the first issue of the mini-series features a homage of that comic, with all the characters turned into skeletons (save for Thunderbird).
• Adam X was originally intended to be the additional Summers brother, but the plans for this were dropped when Fabian Nicieza left Marvel's various X-Titles in 1995. Nonetheless, Vulcan - believed dead and in-stasis at the time of the original hint and thus in no danger from the Legacy Virus - does not fit the hint which started the plot, as of yet, at least.