After reading a couple of thick black & white essential volumes I was excited to jump back into a full color collection. The edition I picked up is 320 full color pages (ISBN 978-0-7851-6741-9) and collects Uncanny X-Men #210-214, X-Factor #9-11, New Mutants #46, Thor #373 & 374, Power Pack #27 and Daredevil #238.

One thing to note is that while Essential X-Men vol 6 and Essential X-Factor vol 1 both include much of the Mutant Massacre storyline in black & white, neither of those collections include every issue included in this trade paperback. This high quality collection has a cover price of $34.99 (really not a bad price for such a nicely printed and bound collection), but I was able to find it for much cheaper by shopping around.

This is another one of those classic X-Men stories that you  won’t want to miss. As usual, I won’t get into too many details story-wise to avoid any possible spoilers for anyone who may be reading this story for the first time, like I was, but needless to say, this one deserves a spot on your shelf next to the other important X-Men stories before it, and sets up some others to follow.

One thing I personally found surprising was how attached I found myself growing to characters I’d never found interesting before, namely some of the Morlocks – Leech and Caliban especially, and even Callisto, who I’d previously found to be a bit annoying. Also, Artie. He and Leech are adorable!

So the Mutant Massacre is definitely a dark storyline, and also very important part of the overall X-Men story – another highly recommended collection! If you haven’t read it, even if you’re somewhat familiar with it, it’s definitely worth picking up.

5/5

-Clint