Feralia – Home of the Feralia fantasy novels by Clint Cassa

The next stop on my X-Men Reading Project is X-Men Epic Collection: Dissolution & Rebirth (ISBN978-1-302-91847-7). It’s 488 pages, full color, and collects Uncanny X-Men 248-267.

This collection bridges most of the gap between the major stories Inferno and X-Tinction Agenda. Initially I had skipped over these stories, and read the aforementioned storylines, but I found that a lot had happened in between and wanted some answers. For example, Jubilee and Gambit had both joined the team when I started X-Tinction Agenda. When I finished Inferno, they hadn’t been introduced yet. This collection also includes the tale of the Seige Perilous, so later references to it will make a lot more sense having read it. It also sets up things for up for the next big story (X-tinction Agenda), as well.

Personally, I didn’t enjoy the stories as much as anything in the X-Men up to this point. The writing and art are good quality, it’s just that the collection is so long, and the idea of having the team so split up and scattered just wasn’t as fun to me personally.

As far as a recommendation, I’d say this one depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re only reading the major X-Men stories, you’ll be fine skipping this one. Just be aware that a lot happens and some important characters (Jubilee and Gambit) are either introduced for the first time or have their first important parts, and also it covers a lot of in-between stuff.

If you want to keep up with the team in more detail, then definitely check this one out. This will keep you from wondering about things as you move onto X-Tinction Agenda.

So while not my favorite stories, a lot does happen here that you’ll want to consider reading depending on how in depth of an X-Men reading experience you’re looking for.

3/5

-Clint

Next up chronologically in my X-Men reading project is Cable and the New Mutants. I grabbed the collection pictured above (ISBN 0-97135-937-5). It’s 276 full-color pages and collects New Mutants #87-91, 93 & 94.

There is a lot to make note of in this particular printing. The book itself is beautifully bound, with a high quality cover and foil printing (the lettering and purple behind Cable both being reflective), and the pages are nice and thick. Interestingly, for the cover of each issue, the publisher decided to go with a matching color scheme (pictured below).While I appreciated the cool theme they had going on, the sort of negative black and white of the cover art made the covers a bit hard to see. This would have been remedied by including a full-color cover gallery at the back of the book, but sadly, this wasn’t included.

The next point, and the biggest issue I had with this printing, was the lettering. While I’m sure everything was well printed originally, in this collection there are multiple times when you’ll find words missing, replaced by blank spaces. Also there were several places where an asterisk would denote a footnote, only to have the comment or reference missing entirely. It’s a shame – despite the nice physical printing, something seems to have gone awry with parts of the text. It’s not enough to spoil the story, but surprising coming from a big company like Marvel, even in 1992. (This same problem is also an issue with the X-tinction Agenda collection I read and will be reviewing soon.)

As for the story, this takes place between the big storylines Inferno and X-tinction Agenda. I had originally skipped over these stories, but found that there had been some big changes with the New Mutants between those stories – namely that Magneto had stopped leading the New Mutants, having been replaced by Cable. So, I was hoping to gain some insight into all of that. I was a little disappointed to find that this collection doesn’t include Magneto’s departure. It does have the early adventures of the group that would eventually go on to become X-Force, however.

If you’re a big X-Force and/or Cable fan and haven’t read these stories, you’ll enjoy catching up, but over all I wouldn’t say that they contain anything major or essential if you’re just reading the major storylines like I am.

This is a point in the stories where, for me personally, they don’t quite live up to the legendary tales of those before. They do lead up to some major storylines, however, including X-tinction Agenda, Endgame, and The Muir Island Saga. Again, not neccessary reading unless you’re a big fan of the New Mutants and Cable.

2/5

-Clint