Mutant Massacre

Template:Short description Template:Primary sources Template:Infobox comics story arc "Mutant Massacre" was a 1986 Marvel Comics crossover storyline. It primarily involved the superhero teams the X-Men and X-Factor. The solo hero Thor, the New Mutants, Power Pack, and Daredevil crossed over for an issue each in their own comic books.

The crossover was a surprise success, yielding sales boosts to the mutant-based books and prompting Marvel Comics' long-running policy of holding such mutant crossovers annually.<ref name="PoorDoug">Template:Cite news</ref>

The story depicts a massacre of the Morlocks during an attack by the Marauders. The X-Men, X-Factor, and Power Pack attempt to intervene, with the X-Men having three of their members injured in the conflict.

Plot

The mysterious Marauders attack a mutant named Tommy and her Hellfire Club boyfriend in Los Angeles for the purpose of following her back to New York and finding the location of the underground mutant community known as the Morlocks.<ref>Uncanny X-Men #210. Marvel Comics.</ref> The Marauders kill Tommy and hundreds of Morlocks before the X-Men<ref name="XM211">Uncanny X-Men #211. Marvel Comics.</ref> and X-Factor<ref name="XF10">X-Factor #10. Marvel Comics.</ref> teams arrive separately and fight them, avoiding the total slaughter of the Morlocks. The two teams however do not meet during the battle and suffer crippling losses: X-Factor's Angel is crucified by the Marauders,<ref name="XF10"/> while the X-Men's Colossus, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler are all severely wounded.<ref name="XM211"/> X-Factor's casualties are less due to the arrival of Power Pack<ref name="PP27">Power Pack #27</ref> and Thor,<ref>Thor #373-374. Marvel Comics.</ref> who help save the horribly wounded Angel and the rest of X-Factor from suffering any additional harm.

Thor uses his powers to cleanse the dead from the Morlock tunnels with fire,<ref>Thor #374. Marvel Comics.</ref> which causes problems for the X-Men, who briefly believe that the firestorm was caused by the Marauders and believe that the New Mutants died in said fire.<ref name="XM212">Uncanny X-Men #212. Marvel Comics.</ref> Several Morlocks, including Berzerker and Masque,<ref>X-Factor #11. Marvel Comics.</ref> make their way into the surface world and begin to work for their personal aims.

Meanwhile, Wolverine saves the Power Pack<ref name="PP27"/> and Healer<ref name="XM212"/> from the Marauder Sabretooth. After their clash, Sabretooth follows Logan home to the X-Mansion. He destroys Cerebro, but is kept from hurting the other Morlocks when Psylocke engages Sabretooth in battle. Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men arrive, and Sabretooth falls off a nearby cliff in order to escape the X-Men, pursued into the water by Wolverine. As the fight continues in the ocean, Psylocke gleans some information about the Marauders from Sabretooth's mind.<ref name="XM213">Uncanny X-Men #213. Marvel Comics.</ref>

Reading order

File:MutantMassacreAd.jpg

This flow chart, published in select installments of "Mutant Massacre", maps out the story's chronology. The artist is Walt Simonson.

Uncanny X-Men

• Uncanny X-Men #210 (Prologue)
• Uncanny X-Men #211
• New Mutants #46
• Uncanny X-Men #212
• Uncanny X-Men #213

X-Factor

• X-Factor #9 (Prologue)
• X-Factor #10
• Thor #373
• Power Pack #27
• Thor #374
• X-Factor #11

Daredevil
Daredevil #238 is set after the events of the Mutant Massacre. The issue features Daredevil fighting Sabretooth after his escape from the X-Mansion.

Consequences

File:6.20.19JohnRomitaJrByLuigiNovi40.jpg

Artist John Romita Jr. signing a copy of The Uncanny X-Men #211 at Midtown Comics in Manhattan

• Angel is pinned to the wall by Harpoon and Blockbuster, causing massive trauma to his wings,<ref name="XF10"/> which are later amputated following the onset of gangrene.<ref>X Factor #11-12</ref> He eventually has his wings replaced by Apocalypse and becomes Archangel while serving as Death of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.<ref>X Factor #24-26</ref>
• During the Massacre, Apocalypse also saves Plague from Harpoon and recruits her for his Horsemen of Apocalypse, transforming her into Pestilence.<ref name="XF10"/>
• Shadowcat becomes trapped in her phased form while protecting Rogue from Harpoon.<ref name="XM211" /> This results in a molecular deterioration that almost kills her. She is saved at the last minute by Reed Richards and Doctor Doom.<ref>Fantastic Four vs. X-Men #4</ref>
• Wounded by Riptide's throwing stars, Colossus is briefly rendered quadriplegic as a result of Magneto using his powers to heal the damage.<ref name="XM212"/>
• Nightcrawler, already badly injured after a battle with Nimrod, is left comatose after being ambushed by Riptide.<ref name="XM211"/>
• The Morlock Masque assumes control of the remaining Morlocks. He uses his transformative powers to forcibly disfigure all Morlocks under his rule, an act that causes many Morlocks to go insane.<ref>Uncanny X-Men #263</ref>
• Wolverine discovers that Jean Grey is alive after smelling her scent in the tunnels,<ref name="XM211"/> but keeps the knowledge a secret from the rest of the X-Men.
• After proving her bravery in fighting Sabretooth, Psylocke is officially welcomed as a member of the X-Men.<ref name="XM213"/>
• It is later revealed that Sinister had the Morlocks killed because they were experimentations of the Dark Beast, a version of McCoy who was Sinister's 'student' in the alternate timeline of the Age of Apocalypse and trapped in the prime reality twenty years in the past. As Sinister recognized his work in the Morlocks, he had them destroyed to keep his secrets out.
• It was also later revealed that Gambit was employed by Mister Sinister to assemble the Marauders. Gambit is temporarily expelled from the X-Men for his part in the massacre.<ref>Uncanny X-Men #350</ref>

Death list

Here is the list of Morlocks that were killed during the Mutant Massacre and the issue they were killed in:

Character	Death	Mutant power	Method of death
Annalee	Uncanny X-Men #211	Empathy	Shot by Scalphunter.
Berzerker	X-Factor #11	Electrical powers	Cyclops' optic blast knocked him into the river, where he electrocuted himself.
Blowhard	X-Factor #11	Wind exhaling	Shot by the Savage Wolf Gang leader.
Cybelle	Uncanny X-Men #211	Acid sweat	Killed by Harpoon.
Piper II	Uncanny X-Men #212	Controlled animals using music	Killed by Scalphunter.
Scaleface	X-Factor #11	Transforms into a large dragon-like reptilian creature	Shot by the police.
Tommy	Uncanny X-Men #210	Two-dimensional ability	Killed by Harpoon and Scalphunter.
Zeek	X-Factor #10	Unknown	Killed by Harpoon.

Hundreds of other Morlocks were killed, but were not identified in the comics. Annalee and Piper were the only established characters among the casualties; the others were all generic characters whose sole purpose was to be victims of the massacre. This aspect of the story was satirized in What The--?! #4.

Background and creation

Writer Chris Claremont originally conceived the systematic killing of the Morlocks as a storyline that would run in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, but X-Factor writer Louise Simonson felt that such a big storyline would run overlong in a single title, and suggested that it be done as a crossover between all three mutant titles.<ref name="PoorDoug"/><ref name="DAK39">Template:Cite news</ref>

Claremont and Simonson, the chief writers of the crossover, exchanged copies of their typewritten plots and scripts, and extensively discussed the intersecting storylines over the telephone.<ref name="DAK39"/> Asked what it was like to coordinate all the Mutant Massacre-linked stories, Simonson said "It was horrible. I don't know why we're thinking of doing this again."<ref name="DAK39"/>

Walt Simonson, who wrote the Thor instalments of "Mutant Massacre" and pencilled the X-Factor instalments, said: Template:Quote

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Published date	ISBN
X-Men: Mutant Massacre (TPB)	Uncanny X-Men #210-214, X-Factor #9-11, New Mutants #46	June 1997	Template:ISBNT
X-Men: Mutant Massacre (HC)	Uncanny X-Men #210-214, X-Factor #9-11, New Mutants #46, Thor #373-374, Power Pack #27, Daredevil #238	January 2010	Template:ISBNT
X-Men: Mutant Massacre Omnibus	Uncanny X-Men #210-219, X-Men Annual #11, X-Factor #9-17, X-Factor Annual #2, New Mutants #46, Thor #373-374 377-378, Power Pack #27, Daredevil #238, Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men #1-4, X-Men vs. the Avengers #1-4	January 2022	Template:ISBNT

In other media

In The Gifted episode "calaMity", The Purifiers murdering all of the Morlocks in their tunnels was the premise of the "Mutant Massacre" storyline.

External links

• Template:Comicbookdb
• Mutant Massacre— guide by Mike Phillips.