A lot of my time in late-91 and most of 1992 hanging out a small local comic shop about three blocks away from my house hanging out with the local solicitor, a guy I only knew as Steve.  Steve had opened a comic and card shop along with a small art gallery in a building next to Louisville’s Clifton Pizza, which is why to this day I associate the smell of a sit-down pizzeria with comics.  Steve was an amazing contributor to my fledgling comic fandom, one of the three people that _ my love of comics (along with my older brother and my friend’s Aunt Jane – who was my comic mentor).

I spent many a dollar in Steve’s shop, and he gave me numerous deals that helped me build my collection of both comics and cards.  For the entire summer of 1992, I spent dollar after dollar on packs of the first-ever X-Men trading card set.  This 100-card set (not counting the bonuses) was drawn completely by Jim Lee, and reflected all of the X-Teams, even Excalibur.  This card set let me learn about all the X-Men characters, in a time when Al Gore had yet to develop the Internet.  Back then, you had to read the issues yourself or find some kind of resource to get your knowledge.  And this one was mine.

At a dollar a pack, I spent most of the summer of ’92 piecing together this set.  Steve was nice enough to buy back my doubles as I slowly but surely worked on the entire set.  In fact, two weeks was spent looking for two cards to finish the set – Shatterstar and Danger Room Gambit – until one fateful day I bought one pack that had BOTH cards in it.  I was one happy camper.

In fact, my biggest regret of the numerous lost pieces of my youthful comic collection is that I managed to lose this set somewhere along the line.  It was probably pitched or given away by my mom, but I can’t really blame her as it likely took place during my down period of comic fandom in the early 00′s.  I could actually buy the whole set now for not that much, but I can’t say I have the money for it right now.  (If any reader would like to…just saying, ha!)

But I occasionally go back and look through the set, via a site of scans at comiccovers.com, and reminisce about the fun I had collecting them.

But today when I did so it dawned on me that there are some characters that were highlighted back in this boom period of X-Men that have been lost into character limbo over the years.  After all, it’s been over 2 decades since this set came out.  So let’s look at some of the featured characters from this period that have been largely forgotten over time.

Feral was one of Rob Liefeld’s new creations that got added to the New Mutants in the final issues to quickly set up X-Force’s roster (along with Domino, Warpath and Shatterstar).  Looking like the cat-equivalent of Wolfsbane, Feral was a thus far-unheard of Morlock looking for sanctuary and being taken in among X-Force, though in just her third issue, she managed to gut Cannonball.  Thus it was unsurprising that Feral eventually defected over to X-Force’s  arch-nemeses the Mutant Liberation Front, though that did her a fat load of good, as the group was decimated by its own leader shortly thereafter.  After some sporadic appearances thereafter, she was finally killed off in a Jeph Loeb Wolverine story so horrible it has to be seen to be believed.

Kylun was one of Excalibur‘s original running plot developments, originally being set up in one of the earliest issues before returning and joining the team proper.  Along with a rather strange appearance, Kylun had the mutant ability to mimic any sound, as well as a strong fighting ability honed with much of his life spent in an alternate reality.  Shortly after Alan Davis left Excalibur for the second time, the X-Office took control of the book and cleaned house, removing nearly every member from the team.  Kylun headed off to go find his parents, though I’m honestly not sure if he ever succeeded or not.

Another long-running plot development of Excalibur, Widget was originally nothing more than a small ball of metal made of random trash, but eventually developed into the neat looking thing seen above.  One of the bigger plot developments of it was that it housed the consciousness of Kate Pryde, the same from Days of Future Past that came back to prevent Robert Kelley’s murder.  Like the majority of Excalibur, Widget too was removed from the team in the post-Davis sweeping, but it and Captain Britain were done-so off panel with nothing more than a passing mention.  There have been some appearances since, but never again was Widget any kind of running character.

Even for 1992, Maverick’s inclusion in this set strikes me as odd, especially when the likes of Cypher and Warlock are omitted.  It probably has something to do with the fact that he was created by Jim Lee himself, debuting in the second story of the newly launched X-Men.  Maverick was a Wolverine supporting character, largely tied up in the convoluted Weapon X nonsense.  He caught the Legacy Virus but managed to survive long enough for the release of its cure, eventually becoming a character in Frank Tieri’s Weapon X, where he eventually was killed off.

Another of the eventually forgotten Excalibur characters, Cerise at least got an on-panel departure for the team, eventually having to face repercussions for her actions with her native Shi’ar.  She left the team to serve Lilandra, only reappearing again when Chris Claremont returned to the X-Men books, where he used her to illustrate Nightcrawler’s vow of celibacy upon entering the priesthood.  To my knowledge, she has not appeared since.

Another odd inclusion to this set, especially when the likes of the Marauders and Reavers were omitted.  True, Mojo II was another Jim Lee creation before he departed the line, but his sole appearance set him up not as a villain, like his predecessor, but an ally of Longshot looking to improve Mojoworld.  His ultimate turn was done off-panel, and by the time anyone got back to dealing with Mojoworld, the original was back in control.  Who cares?

Remember when Gideon was a big deal?  Neither does anyone else.  Introduced as the head of the immortal mutants known as the Externals, Gideon really didn’t do anything aside from killing Sunspot’s father.  In fact, most of the Externals’ dealings with X-Force had nothing consequential happening, and eventually the whole lot of them, including Gideon, were killed off by Selene…who doesn’t have a card in this set.

The early 90′s saw Wolverine’s past muddled with terms like “memory implants”.  When the known crop of Weapon X characters headed back for answers, they found Shiva waiting for them.  I’m not entirely sure Shiva has done anything since, but I do know its debut was big enough to get it into several X-Men video games as well as the cartoon.  So there is that.

Gatecrasher was the leader of the Technet, who were the primary enemies of Excalibur for the first third of the book’s run.  By the time this set had come out, however, Gatecrasher had abandoned her team and taken off on her own, fearing repercussions from her own team.  I haven’t read all of Excalibur but I don’t believe she made much of an impact after that.

Note: I’m going to skip inclusion of both the Warwolves, Technet, the W.H.O. and Saturnyne since, like Gatecrasher, all were pretty much abandoned with the rest of Excalibur’s plots.

During the mid-80s, following the Mutant Massacre, a large plot point was the X-Men’s decision to have their headmaster Magneto join the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle as a means of entrusting no further hostility from their longtime foes.  By the time this card set had come out, Magneto and Sebastian Shaw were believed dead, Emma Frost was in a coma and Selene was MIA.  The Hellfire Club was quickly done away with in favor of the Upstarts (see below), and never really managed to rebound.

The Mutant Liberation Front was Rob Liefeld’s contribution to the X-Men villains pool, with such memorable members as Forearm, Kamikaze and Thumbelina.  The main point of it was its leader Stryfe, who as we all know was eventually revealed to be a clone of Cable.  The MLF took a huge hit upon Stryfe’s death at the end of X-Cutioner’s Song, and again when new leader Reignfire basically dismantled the team himself before revealing himself to be Sunspot…only not really.  Since then?  Who cares?  They all sucked anyway.

The most-unmemorable version of the Brotherhood was another Rob Liefeld creation in the pages of X-Force, but it did manage to upgrade Toad into a villain in his own right rather than merely a lackey.  No, I’m just kidding, it really didn’t.  While Blob and Pyro were Brotherhood veterans, Sauron was a new edition, though he didn’t hang around long.  Oh, and there was also Phantazia…yeah, she was there.  This was the first in a line of groups calling themselves the Brotherhood that lasted shortly and mattered little.

Oh, the Upstarts.  When the 90′s relaunch of the X-Line kicked off, many of the regular villains, including Magneto, Sebastian Shaw, Donald Pierce and the Reavers, were quickly killed off to make room for this new group, featuring new characters Trevor Fitzroy, Sebastian Shaw and Fabian Cortez.  And really, they got a hell of momentum starting out, but they just never went anywhere.  I actually wrote an article about the Upstarts a couple years ago, if you would like to learn more.

At this point, I should note that several substantial X-Villains did not get their own cards in this set – Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Pyro, Trevor Fitzroy, Graydon Creed, Fabian Cortez and Sebastian Shaw.  Along with Cypher and Warlock, they could have easily been included instead of the Danger Room puzzle at the end.  But what do I know?

During Fall of the Mutants, Roma was actually a pretty big deal, especially when she resurrected the X-Men and set their whole Australian period in motion.  A Captain Britain character, she also factored into Excalibur, but as the 90′s changed that title into a generic X-Men side book, her role lessened and lessened.  She was eventually killed off in a story you probably have never heard of, but not before giving her knowledge to Sage.

And there you have it.  Early 90′s X-Men history lost in the decades since.  If I were to make a 100 card set today, featuring the same number of all categories, I wonder who I would include.  Hmm…that seems like a good idea for a future post.

Figure 1: Storm suggests the Marauders attack was nothing less than a planned deliberate attempt to wipe out the Morlocks (New Mutants #46, p.8)

Figure 2: …and Sabretooth further tells Wolverine that Mr. Sinister is playing a game that doesn’t allow for “wild cards” like the Morlocks (Uncanny X-Men #212, p.15)

When Claremont was forced from the X-titles in the early 90s it became another of his many “dangling plots”.  When later writers revealed Mr. Sinister as a former servant of Apocalypse, theories arose that his master had deemed the Morlocks as not strong enough to survive and previously programmed him to do it.

Figure 3: Apocalypse reminds Caliban that the weak, like the Morlocks, need to be culled so the strong can grow and prosper (X-Factor #51, p.4)

In the 10 years following Claremont’s original storyline, the Morlocks had been retconned into having been created by the Dark Beast, a refugee from the Age of Apocalypse crossover.

Figure 4: Marrow meets the Dark Beast, who recognises her as “his creation, one or two generations removed” (X-Men Prime, p.41)

In Cable #28 it is inferred Mr. Sinister recognised the Morlocks as being based on his own genetically manipulative style, given Dark Beast learned genetics from his AoA counterpart, and annoyed by the unauthorised use of his theories, sends the Marauders to wipe them out.

Figure 5: Sinister claims the Morlocks are the first such perversion of his work, which were retconned into being genetically manipulated by the Dark Beast (Cable #28, p.8)

However, wasn’t it a bit of a coincidence that the Morlock’s system led from their tunnels beneath Manhattan to Professor Xavier’s estate as stated by Colossus in Uncanny X-Men #243, p.19, and shown in New Mutants #90-91!?

Figure 6: Colossus tells his teammates that the Morlock tunnel network leads from Manhattan to those directly beneath the hangar complex below Professor Xavier’s estate (Uncanny X-Men #243, p. 19). Coincidence!?

Figure 7: Who originally built these tunnels to cover nearly forty miles from Manhattan to Graymalkin Lane in Westchester? (Uncanny X-Men #193, p.4)

Now flash forward to X-Men Forever (v1) #4, written by Fabian Nicieza that hints Mr. Sinister is responsible for muties!!… Threads picked up in this issue were seeded earlier by Nicieza in X-Men (v2) #12 where Professor X explains to Wolverine that his father, Brian Xavier, worked at Almagordo Nuclear Research Facility a front for mutant research (the later revealed government-backed Black Womb Program)…

Figure 8: A file explains that Xavier’s father’s work facility at Almagordo Nuclear Research Facility was really a front for mutant research (X-Men v2 #12, p.18-19)

…along with fellow scientist Kurt Marko, father of the Juggernaut who went on to marry Sharon Xavier after Charles’s father died in a supposed accident at Almagordo.

Figure 9: When Charles was still a child, his father Dr. Brian Xavier had been killed during an atomic blast at the research facility he and his colleague Dr. Kurt Marko worked at. While Marko comforts Xavier’s widow Sharon, young Charles never trusted him (and months later he knew why, when Marko proposed to Sharon Xavier from Uncanny X-Men #12, p.4)

So there’s the thread to start my fix.

Figure 10: The investigators labeled the death of Brian Xavier while working at the research station at Almagordo, New Mexico as an accident (X-Men v2 #13, p.4)

Figure 11: But while Kurt Marko double-crossed and murdered Charles’s father (Uncanny X-Men #12, p.7)…

Figure 12: …was there more behind his reason for doing so other than to marry Sharon and gain access to Brian’s fortune? (X-Men v2 #13, p.4)

That is, I would reveal that Brian Xavier’s death during his work at the research station, Almagordo, was not only an accident and connected with his smuggling some of Sinister’s REJECTS (i.e. the first Morlocks) out of there in order to prevent their deaths.

But where would he safely hide them from Sinister?

What if the network of tunnels beneath NYC revealed to have been constructed in the 1950s by the United States government for it and the military’s use, but later abandoned, was a cover story?  Did Brian Xavier use his government and military connections to construct these tunnels, extending to beneath his mansion, thus providing Sinister’s REJECTS with a community where their distorted physical appearances would be hidden away from humankind’s prejudice?

It also perhaps provided Xavier with a surreptitious means to get food, water, shelter and medicine to them.

Did the Xavier legacy for mutant rights therefore not begin with Charles, but instead with his father Brian?

I would posit that Brian’s efforts are eventually discovered by Kurt Marko who, fearing he would go to jail for his part in the Black Womb Program, kills him and makes it look like an accident.

Brian’s untimely death prevents him from ever revealing the truth to Charles, and so the community is left to fend for itself and goes on to fall under the leadership of Callisto.

I would posit though that just prior to his death, however, Xavier manages to get word to people within the U.S. government sympathetic to the rights of mutants about Sinister’s experiments within the Black Womb Program.

In the meantime, Marko reports what he has done to Sinister. Not wanting the full extent of his activities made public until his plans were fully formulated, Sinister moved his base off American soil.

He reopens shop in Genosha, a nation sympathetic with his eugenic goals.  They give him a free hand to continue his research, as long as the fruits of his labour provide their nation with significant economic benefit.

Sinister exceeds even his wildest expectations, achieving both goals in the one action.

You ask why I reveal Sinister as the mastermind behind the slave nation!  While any true X-Fan shouldn’t even be asking why I would retcon the grotesque oaf Sugar Man as the mysterious force behind Genosha, they should recall how X-Men: Prime, refers to Mister Edgerton (Genosha’s oldest and first recorded mutate) as the original Morlock (so yes I’m retconning AoA refugees Sugar Man and Dark Beast as the masterminds behind Genosha and the Morlocks respectively, and would instead reveal that McCoy only tampered with the Morlocks who became Gene Nation and took credit for their wider creation to establish his reputation as a villainous manipulator on par with the sinister vivisector).

Figure 13: (X-Men: Prime, p.34-35)

And so Sinister was, at first, tasked with finding the illegitimate daughter of one Lord Kelly (another recurring name) who was living in the “white ghettoes”… but even in the cesspool that was Victorian-era London too many missing people tended to draw unwanted attention, as became the case with those Whitechapel prostitutes.  That is after subjecting four of them to Sinister’s tests, the Club and the aristocracy, fearing not only that this would lead back to them, but also fearful of what would occur had certain physical powers gotten into the genetic code of society’s lowest members, the prostitutes were executed.

The Club, still desperate for genetically gifted bloodlines, facilitate a process whereby Sinister can continue to satisfy his need for genetically anomalous test subjects, and reward him with the position of doctor for London’s upper class.

And so he finds a surprisingly flourishing trade as an obstetrician, and one patient in particular proves to be most helpful – the young woman by the name of Amanda Mueller.

Figure 14: Amanda Mueller was coerced into being a birthing factory for the genetic experiments of Dr. Nathan Milbury, an alias for Mr. Sinister(Gambit v3 #20, p.12)

In exchange for helping her deal with the unwanted products of her… extramarital activities, she allows Sinister to keep her… unwanted offspring.  Unfortunately, the arrangement is outed by a London gossip columnist, and becomes known as the “Black Womb murders.”

Figure 15: Amanda was accused of murdering her in utero children, and was given the name Black Womb. In 1891 she was acquitted of the child murder charges against her due to the testimony of obstetrician Dr. Nathan Milbury (Gambit v3 #13)

He helps Amanda vanish, and she becomes his most productive source of genetic material in the coming decades.

After he helps Amanda hide from the London authorities, the Club decides it is time for them to take their show on the road, so to speak.

It was a time of great scientific curiosity on the other side of the pond, so the Club decide that the land of opportunity will be a wonderful place for Sinister to continue his work. The melting pot will not let them down…

During this time he founds his Nebraska base, among others.

He decides that he should try and gather widespread information on the genetic diversity of American mutants.  But how to do so without causing a stir?  And then he realises the perfect means: The US government is looking for anything that might help them advance their power on a global scale.

World War One is a terrible time, but it also provides him an opportunity to approach certain fellow members of the scientific community.  It also allows him an opening into their uppermost circles of power.

He uses this persona as he accesses the American branch of the Hellfire Club to seek government funding for what he claims is eugenics work.  It isn’t that far off the mark, and is actually welcomed by the foolishly bigoted WASP power structure. What he is able to found is no less than Operation: Black Womb.

The project is simple: He will give the US government tidbits of the promise of genetic engineering, and they will give him near-unlimited funding and access to less-than-desirable castoffs of society…

They are eager to do so!  The mentally ill, racially-undesirable prisoners – prisoners of all kinds, actually – the disabled … Black Womb hardly discriminates.  He also is able to channel genetic data taken from socially acceptable people, culled from doctors’ offices across the country.

The program begins in 1927, or at least the first phase.  Brian Xavier is assigned to work with him to examine the effects of radiation on successive generations of humans.  Sinister, of course, already knows the potential such mutagenic energy could have … but when Brian volunteers Charles’ pregnant mother for an ‘accidental’ exposure, Sinister is willing to oblige.

Charles and Cassandra are the first product of Black Womb research.  Sharon evidently miscarries Cassandra, but Sinister takes the still-living sister and places her with one of the foster families in his network – people he had indebted to himself through various means.

Brian is initially terrified of the potential of mutants.  That was part of the reason he wanted his children to be mutants – he hopes that Charles will be defence against rogue mutations.  The irony really is delicious.

Around the same time, Sinister is asked to make his initial findings of mutagenetic advancement available to certain doctors involved in a very hush-hush project.  When Captain America first appears, he knows that his work has finally borne fruit.

So Sinister is tangentially involved in the Super-Soldier Program.  The doctors involved take mere theory and make it living, breathing flesh. I wonder if the good Captain would see it that way … but again, I get off the track.

Black Womb funding becomes scarce as the war effort ramps up.  Sinister is reassigned to OSS work.  The Americans are worried that the Germans will use concentration camp prisoners in genetic testing, and possibly have breakthroughs on the scale of the Super-Soldier Program.  So, with the cooperation that always existed between the secret government of the United States and the Nazi government of Germany (lead by sympathetic secret societies via such aristocrats as Zemo and Strucker), he becomes a scientist in the camps, conducting his own highly secret scientific experiments … and making his own breakthroughs.

He is far more merciful to his… subjects … than many of the so-called ‘doctors’ in those hellholes.  He is the one who kills and replaces a certain German officer in Poland, and he transfers a young Jewish lad who was demonstrating unusual control over metals.

You see, he could tell that Magnus was something special.  If he could have, Sinister would have gotten him out of Auschwitz far sooner, but those damned Nazis were too attentive.  To him, the entire Holocaust was a sickening waste of potential.

Figure 16: (Excalibur v3 #7, p. 9)

After he leaves Germany, just as Berlin is falling, he loses track of Magnus… still wondering what might have been.  In any case, he returns to America in late 1945, and finds Kurt Marko and Amanda Mueller still running Black Womb.

The government has become quite aware of the potential of superhuman mutation, after witnessing the Invaders in action.  The Super-Soldier Program becomes its own project, spinning off into the hands of eventually-deranged madmen, but Black Womb is permitted a certain degree of autonomy.

Thanks to the precognitive advice of a certain British emigre’ whom Sinister had targeted as a “genetic aberration,” they are able to isolate the foundations of several remarkable bloodlines.  Part of that, of course, is for his own pet projects – he never took his eye off of Scott’s family – but he is gratified to be able to trace the Grey, Drake, McCoy, Worthington, and even Munroe bloodlines…

Only Storm’s father, that is.  Sinister regrets that he does not have time to diversify his analysis systems to a global reach.  This would not come until after a series of catastrophes begin to spell death-knells for Black Womb.

The first is the passing of Kurt Marko.  Amanda and Sinister, being British emigres, are considered to be risky, at best, by their “black-budget” overseers.  Also, they have a lack of tangible achievements following World War Two.  The occasional breeding success, masked as a “miscarriage,” tends to be a low-powered mutant here or there, with a couple of exceptions – who have to be given to foster families because of security concerns.

The second is, sadly, Watson and Crick.  When their independent work into the genome becomes public, it becomes fashionable for government moneys to go towards “legitimate” genetic research – never mind the fact that Sinister is already 50 years ahead of those showboats.

The third is the Red Scare. It’s difficult to recruit top scientific researchers when they’re being terrorised by obsessive right-wing paranoiacs.  Also, military funding, which had been the foundation of Black Womb’s financial support, is being shifted towards other biological research programmes.

Postscript: Did Apocalypse, perhaps onto Sinister’s scheme to betray him, secretly manipulate Brian Xavier at the Black Womb project, to smuggle its “Rejects” into the tunnels beneath Manhattan (?another of his abandoned bases?)?

But to what end?

To answer this question I cast my mind back to how, after the Great Cataclysm, the Deviant priesthood was determined to destroy the Celestials for obliterating so much of their race and civilisation.  Hence, the priesthood assumed a new function.  At times designated as “Purity Time,” the priests would attempt to weed out those Deviants who were born with the most extreme and grotesque genetic differences from the others by publicly condemning them to death in the fire pits.

Figure 17: Karygmax ordering Cataphrax to submit to Purity Time (Eternals v2 #1, p.30)

Through this measure the priests asserted that they hoped to keep variation within the Deviant race’s genetic makeup within certain limits.

Figure 18: (Eternals v2 #1, p.31)

However, in actuality, the priests did not kill the Deviants they supposedly condemned to death at Purity Time.

Figure 19: Kro exposes “Purity Time” as a falsehood (Eternals v2 #7, 19)

Instead, the priests secretly placed them in a form of suspended animation called “cold-sleep.”  Moreover, the priests used technological means to wipe the sleepers’ brains clean of their original personalities and to indoctrinate them to obey the priests unquestioningly when they finally awoke.  Through this means the priests built what they hoped would be an army, loyal to them alone, with which they would one day challenge the Celestials.  Over the millennia the priests’ sleeping army grew to number in the thousands.

Could this not, in effect, be what Apocalypse was up to!

Recall how Caliban the Morlock became his “First Hound” (from Rob Liefeld interview by Cliff Biggers, Comic Shop News #142, 13th of April 1990) and would usher in the bleak apocalyptic future shown in the iconic Days of Future Past!?

Figure 20: X-Factor #51, p. 22

Did Apocalypse use Brian to supposedly condemn Sinister’s Rejects, whilst in reality he manipulated Xavier to move them to a safe place where he could use them later to shape his “Hounds” from and build a mutant army?  This is even more chilling, when one thinks that Apocalypse intended, like the Deviant priesthood, to challenge the Space Gods themselves, so was this the purpose of his planned mutant army?  Had the technology he had pillaged in the Celestial Ship been left behind by the Dreaming Celestial, and this is where Apocalypse stole his idea from?  I wonder if Cerebro’s failure to detect the existence of hundreds of mutants underneath New York City for so many years, yet being able to detect a single mutant presence half a world away, was intentional in its design!  Did Brian have a hand in its initial design, and accounted for this as directed by Apocalypse?

Did Sinister then discover Apocalypse’s plan to use these Rejects to recruit his Hounds from, and upon doing so ordered the Massacre enacted by the Marauders.  Perhaps Sinister also found out about Brian’s treachery, and convinced Marko to punish him for his betrayal.  But Marko performed his assigned task too well, and killed Brian before managing to extract the information of where Xavier had hidden the Rejects.  Is this why it took so long for Sinister to initiate the Massacre?

To read more of my theories about his long-term plans check out …Apocalypse’s Twelve plot?

A very big thank you goes out to fnord12 for his invaluable assistance compiling the obscure scans for this post. Fnord has taken on the nightmarish project of trying to physically assemble every Marvel comic and then write reviews/ breakdowns of them in chronological order at the Marvel Comics Chronology, and is a far far better man than I to wade into such murky waters.

New Simonson 2012 (these are random images I found online, perhaps I can scan some soon that may really get my point across, however if you are reading Avengers currently you know what I mean) :

Walt Simonson 1980′s:

Well Walt all I ask is that you put a little more effort into it dude! It’s clear you got the skills still, maybe you don’t think you need to prove anything? Well I’ll be watching closely for a return to form

Differences with the editorial staff aside, it is an impressive collection filled with what I am sure are many yet to be discovered treasures. The book’s existence is a reason to maintain some faith in humanity in these dark times.  As there are many other geek arts in my life searched CUL’s catalog for other editions that might bring more hope. These are after all dark times, watch a Republican debate if you disagree.

Cornell Library again provides: “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” will be ordered later tonight from Borrow Direct, another slam dunk. “1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die” came in earlier this week. The much derided medium has been a big part of my life since I was about 5.

With “A Moment in the Sun” by John Sayles taking up most of my reading time this past week my  exposure with “1001 Video Games” has been limited to the 1970s.  Those period and the games that made it have been read through,  my personal coverage inventoried.

According to the book the high points of video games in the decade of disco are:

1971 – “The Oregon Trail” – Who didn’t enjoy going bare bones with a grueling pace and betting on who succumbed to cholera first?  It beat whatever school work you were dodging at the time.  Before reading this I had no idea the game was older than I am.  Score.

1972 – “Pong” – I love this game.  As a twin single player games held little value for me.  All they meant was that I would be spending at least half my time sitting, waiting and wishing for my brother to die.  “Pong” meant we could both play.

1976 – “Breakout” – I loved it when I was younger.  Let’s just say that my tastes have changed.

1977 – “Boot Hill” – I played this game once. ONCE!

1977 – “Combat” – A huge time sink for the same reasons as “Pong”  Bi-planes FTW!

1978- “Space Invaders” – A classic that I played, but never really embraced.  I preferred “Galaxian”

1979 – “Adventure” – This was a game I drooled over (along with “Superman”) every time I read through the Atari catalog that came with each cartridge.  If I had gotten my hands on it then perhaps I would be an RPG honk now…

1979- “Asteroids” – Fun, but I preferred “Gorf”, which was a few years off.

1979 – “Galaxian” – See “Space Invaders”

1979 – “Lunar Lander” – A fun game if you had only one token left and you were in an Arcade with 2 token games.

9/10 for the 1970s.  That percentage will go downhill from here.  A sports game rut in the 90s and early aughts will have the 1970s games earn highest percentage of “must play” games in the book.

The Marauders  gained their notoriety when they committed the Mutant Massacre. They came into the Morlock tunnels with guns blazing and out for blood. They quickly established themselves as the most evil SoB’s this side of mutant town by wiping off most of the Morlocks.

Long overdue to appear in VS card form, they’ve finally arrived to give the X-teams a run for their money. They are your army of assassins.

 The Marauders theme benefit with having the opposing board stunned. If i were to compose my own Marauder strikeforce, the following members would be part of the team.

Mystique, Raven is a staple in most legend decks. It would work well with Carrying the Torch or legend decks like Jean Grey and Wolverine, AoA. Moving up the curve, we have Mr. Sinister, Famine. He’s concealed optional and can shut down a character’s activated ability safely in the hidden zone.

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I guess I’m feeling nostalgic again for those innocent middle-school days.  I saw some X-Men: Mutant Massacre comics on sale on Ebay and was reminded how much I loved that series.  I had a subscription to X-Factor at the time, which was a spin-off featuring the five original X-Men.  My cousin got the X-Men comics.  Once the Mutant Massacre series started we had to borrow each others books to keep up, since it was a crossover series between the two teams.  Thor, Daredevil, and some lesser known comics were also involved in a minor way. 

The series had a certain mystery noir to it, and it was released around the same time as Elektra: Assassin.  A lot of the action takes place in the underground tunnels of New York with a band of assassins killing the mutant community that lives in the tunnels.  The continuing storyline over eight issues or so, and the, what seemed at the time, more mature action and theme grabbed me.  Characters were getting killed and some favorites were gravely injured.  That’s serious stuff for an eighth-grader in the 1980s.  Remember, there was no internet and no violent video games. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutant_Massacre,  http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.1142.X-Men~colon~_Mutant_Massacre_Cover_Gallery