How do you rank the Messiah Trilogy in all time X-men stories

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

Messiah Complex is one of my top 5 favorite X-Stories of all time: just an all-around triumph. Messiah War was a bit of a mixed bag: it had awesome moments (anything involving Apocalypse) and a lot of bloat (anything involving Deadpool). It was kinda fun but mindless. I wasn't crazy about Second Coming at the time it came out, but I think I might enjoy it a bit more upon a second read. It's better than anything we've gotten since, especially Battle of the Atom and IvX, so I guess it's got that going for it.

The unfortunate thing about these stories upon reflection is that Hope's story was fulfilled in AvX, and that's a freaking load. They took what should've been an X-Men story and turned it into a damn Avengers story. It'd be like if you were reading the Kree/Skrull War, seeing the Avengers go through all that toil and strife, only to have the X-Men show up on the last 2 pages, say, "F%&$ you, Avengers. We've got this."

They also never gave any credence to Bishop's claim that Hope killed a million humans: when was this supposed to take place? What the Hell happened?

So much wasted potential, but Messiah Complex is still one of the all-time greats.

[Captain Nash]

To me, Messiah Complex and Second Coming rank as two of three of the best X-overs since 2000. The other being Necrosha but I'm biased towards a Selene-centric event. Sadly Second Coming is also IMO the last decent X-over.

Where do they rank as a whole though? Messiah Complex rivals all but AoA, and Inferno, IMO. Second coming ranks lower, more along the lines of OTZ, the Mutant Massacre, the X-tinction Agenda, Phalanx Covenant, and X-ecutioner's Song, but somewhere in the middle of all that. I'd put Messiah Complex as probably the 3rd best X-over, over all, and Second Coming in the lower top 10. Messiah War though is mostly junk that is on par with most of the rest of post-2000 X-overs.

[lurkerforyears]

I thought Age of X want bad

[darkalamator]

IMHO : I really enjoyed it and it gave us great moments (Emma vs Exodus was my favourite one). But I still regard it as a missed opportunity: A)The character of Hope as Jean-2 was basically made redundant and I feel it should have never been introduced and B) I als feel it would have been a fantastic moment to bring Jean back (instead of Hope).

[Purplevit]

Messiah Complex is my favourite crossover.

[Sundowhn]

It had good pacing, and was an interesting story, but the story-telling methods used changed the franchise in a negative way that it hasn't yet bounced back from, in my opinion.

The X-Men became a paramilitary group and any element of family was lost, not to be recovered. The crux of the story itself had three core characters -- Cyclops, as the axis around which the X-Men turned (as stated by Alonso himself), Wolverine, because it had to, apparently, and Hope as the red herring. Hope was someone who was forced down readers throats for the sole purpose of these events, then just...disappeared.

The ultimate resolution was also unsatisfactory for me.

[PrezValentine]

I really love Messiah Complex. It's up there for me with Mutant Massacre and DPS. I couldn't choose a favorite amongst those three even if I wanted to.
Messiah War is pretty forgettable.
Second Coming should have been way better. It had some great moments, but at the same time it should have been way better to close the Messiah/extinction plot. The fact that it was so underwhelming (as its consequences) is what gave us the tragedy that was AvX.

[PrezValentine]

Agreed. Admittedly the middle (Messiah War) wasn’t as strong as the beginning (Messiah Complex) or end (Second Coming), but man I really enjoyed the Cable series with him raising Hope in the future that took place between those book ends!

That Cable series as a whole is really good. The relationship between Nathan and Hope was really compelling and the actual reason for her name was very smart and touching.

[yogaflame]

It had good pacing, and was an interesting story, but the story-telling methods used changed the franchise in a negative way that it hasn't yet bounced back from, in my opinion.

The X-Men became a paramilitary group and any element of family was lost, not to be recovered. The crux of the story itself had three core characters -- Cyclops, as the axis around which the X-Men turned (as stated by Alonso himself), Wolverine, because it had to, apparently, and Hope as the red herring. Hope was someone who was forced down readers throats for the sole purpose of these events, then just...disappeared.

The ultimate resolution was also unsatisfactory for me.

Well said. I agree completely.

[sungila]

the Messiah Complex was the best X-Men movie (but it wasn't a movie)...as a comic book, it's still the best X-Men movie! ;-)

Seriously great art, fantastic action, totally satisfying, and as enduring as any cinematic catharsis.
messiahcomplex6.jpg

[WhiteQueenEmmaFrost]

Messiah Complex is contender for one of the best x-stories of all time.
Second Coming is REALLY good.
Messiah War is a turd.

Agreed. Messiah Complex had the feel of a classic crossover as did Second Coming. Messiah War was for profit.

[MyriVerse]

Sounds about right to me. When would you say is the cut off point?

The last crossover/event I liked was literally 20 years ago-- OZT.

And everything since House of M was just as if Marvel was purposely coming up with completely stupid ways to marginalize the entire mutant line.

[DDM]

It was all trash except the Carey issues.

[yogaflame]

The last crossover/event I liked was literally 20 years ago-- OZT.

And everything since House of M was just as if Marvel was purposely coming up with completely stupid ways to marginalize the entire mutant line.

Interesting. OZT started off very strong, but I found the ending to be so abrupt, it lost some points for that (SHIELD saves the day out of nowhere, come on!?). I might would push it back a bit more to Onslaught, even if that was a bit messy too. Maybe even X-Cutioner's Song? That was a proper crossover that involved all the squads and brought something very new to the table(the revelation of Cable and Stryfe's origins as Scott/Maddie's child/clone).

[hedgehogvampire]

I never read Second Coming or Messiah War so I can't judge those but I absolutely love Messiah Complex. Messiah Complex was like one of my first non Sonic the Hedgehog comics along with House of M and New X-men vol. 5. It was one of the comics that made me want to start collecting more comics. I love the art, the action was great, and I thought the writers did a good job at blending 4 different comic book series together to tell one story that flowed nicely. Its still is one of my favorite comic book stories of all time.