Comic Info
Comic Name: X-Tinction Agenda/Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Marc Guggenheim/Chris Claremont
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico/Jim Lee
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2016
Warzones: X-Tinction Agenda #1 Variant
Reprints X-Tinction Agenda #1-4 and Uncanny X-Men (1) #270 (November 1990-November 2015). The X-Men of Genosha have discovered a mutant plague which is tearing their world apart. The infection is spreading and Lord Doom and Baron Grey seem unwilling to help. While Havok and Wolfsbane hatch a desperate plot to steal a “cure” from X-City, the real danger could be growing in the Genegineer’s laboratory. The Genegineer is an agent of Cameron Hodge and hopes to resurrect Cameron’s war on mutantkind!
Written by Marc Guggenheim, Warzones!: X-Tinction Agenda is a four issue limited series produced by Marvel Comics as a tie-in to their Secret Wars limited series from 2015. The collection also includes Uncanny X-Men (1) #270 (November 1990) which featured the start of the original X-Tinction Agenda.
The X-Tinction Agenda was a big deal. This was at a time when the “Big Event” series were actually special and rare. The X-Tinction Agenda crossed over between the Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Factor, and it features moments of death (like Warlock) and life altering events for the characters (like Rahne) while also setting up the New Mutants cancellation and relaunch as X-Force. Revisiting this “world” as part of Secret Wars was kind of interesting.
The series does ask a lot of the readers. Despite a little flashback at the beginning with the death of Cameron Hodge, a person reading Warzones!: X-Tinction Agenda needs to research the comic on both sides. Younger readers probably don’t know the X-Tinction Agenda, and its significance like why Genosha mattered, the Hodge and Archangel relationship, and the relationships between Bombshell (formerly Boom Boom), Rictor, Havok, and Wolfsbane.
Warzones: X-Tinction Agenda #2 Variant
Readers not following Secret Wars will need to brush up on Secret Wars, Lord Doom, the set-up between X-City and Genosha, and half of the X-Men presented in the book (since some were made for the comic). It is a tricky set-up that has to happen if a person wants to enjoy the series. Not everyone will be willing to do that.
If both sides are understood, the series itself isn’t bad, but it also feels unfulfilling. Four issues run pretty short and the story tries to cram a lot of things into it while also having action and adventure. The two big fights (one in X-City and one in Genosha) feel kind of sloppy and undermine the storytelling of the bigger picture with Hodge etc. (plus, the creation of Locke from Bulletproof further confused things since you couldn’t always tell Hodge from Bulletproof).
Overall, Warzones!: X-Tinction Agenda is a quick read for those mostly familiar with the older original series. On a side note, it is a bit odd to include Uncanny X-Men (1) #270 since it feels like readers would have benefited more from the final issue of The X-Tinction Agenda in X-Factor (1) #62 (January 1991) which serves as a prelude to these issues more so than the “bonus” issue provided…but since they couldn’t include the entire X-Tinction Agenda, it does lay some groundwork. Groundwork is something that this series and the whole Secret Wars desperately needs.
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