Comic Info
Comic Name: Chaos War: X-Men/Chaos War: God Squad/Chaos War: Alpha Flight/Chaos War: Chaos King
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Claremont/Marc Sumerak/Brandon Montclare/Jim McCann
Artist: Dougie Braithwaite/Dan Panosian/Michael William Kaluta/Reilly Brown
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2011
Chaos War: X-Men #2
Reprints Chaos War: X-Men #1-2, Chaos War: God Squad #1, Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1, and Chaos War: Chaos King #1 (January 2011-March 2011). The Chaos King is slowly taken over dimensions and bringing the dead back to life to battle for him. As the Chaos King tears through realities, the numbers who can oppose him grow smaller as the realities are destroyed. Those fighting the battle include the X-Men, the Silver Surfer, the resurrected Alpha Flight, and the God Squad (made up of members like Daimon Hellstorm, Bast, Venus, and Sersi). They are the only ones standing between Mikaboshi the Chaos King and the destruction of the universe.
Chaos War: X-Men collects the Chaos War: X-Men series plus a number of one shots that occurred during the Marvel storyline Chaos War. The series was written by Chris Claremont (Chaos War: X-Men), Marc Sumerak (Chaos War: God Squad), Brandon Montclare (Chaos War: Chaos King), and Jim McCann (Chaos War: Alpha Flight). The series features art by Dougie Braithwaite, Dan Panosian, Michael William Kaluta, and Reilly Brown. The series was met with mostly positive reviews but the stories collected in this volume received mostly negative reviews.
Chaos War was kind of a weak event series by Marvel. It did not seem as big and booming as series like Secret Invasion and Civil War, but it seems like it should have been. In a world where there are so many choices of stories to follow, Chaos Wars: X-Men is one you can skip.
Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1
The biggest problem with Chaos Wars: X-Men is that it is called Chaos War: X-MEN!!! The series has a short series involving the X-Men and then is made up of supporting teams. You could argue that Alpha Flight is an X-Men spin-off, but that is a stretch…There really isn’t a tie to the other Chaos War stories in this volume to the X-Men.
The Chaos War: X-Men limited series is also confusing as hell. The X-Men have such a rich collection of “dead” X-Men that they could have selected a ton of characters. Warbird was a good choice for the series lead, but other than that, I had a hard time following it. The other one-shots at least have kind of cohesive stories that can be followed.
The artists do their best with the story they are provided with. Dougie Braithwaite, Dan Panosian, Michael William Kaluta, and Reilly Brown are solid, and they do a nice job with the subject matter. It might not be the best series, but at least the art holds up.
Chaos War: X-Men was probably the weakest Chaos War collection. The positive that came out of it was the rebirth of Alpha Flight (which I always enjoyed), and that is about it. I say that because the Chaos War gave a chance for some popular “dead” heroes to come back, but I’m not even sure after the Chaos War series ended who is still alive. It was unclear in the big overarching story what exactly happened. This book provides no answers since they all lead into the Chaos War limited series finally which can be found in the regular Chaos War collection.
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