The Uncanny Xmen roster was one of the most memorable lineups in Xmen history. They heavily influenced the 90’s show and continue to be remembered as some of the most popular Xmen characters. This collection includes the 200th issue, which is definitely a big milestone. The collection is nice and big, so it brings a lot of comics.

The issue starts out with Shadowcat and Magneto at a reunion with a lot of old folks. They were Magneto’s friends back in the day and they aren’t to be underestimated. Unfortunately, the Freedom Fighters attack and decide that Magneto must be defeated. The Freedom Force is actually the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but they do work for the Government now. Shadowcat calls in the Xmen, but things get pretty embarrassing for them at first. With Destiny in the field, they’re able to counter everything that the Xmen have.

When you have a roster that includes Colossus, Rogue, Cyclops, and Wolverine, they can’t be stopped for long. They quickly take the advantage, but Magneto decides to turn himself in. This way, he can free mutants through peace instead of violence. The Xmen are likely skeptical, but they don’t try to stop him as Magneto is taken away. Magneto goes to a large court and the case begins. It’s pretty fun, but the Xmen have bigger things to worry about. Someone is framing the Xmen and trying to jeopardize Magneto’s case. Who can it be!?

The Xmen head out to stop the menace, but the opponents may be closer than they think. In the aftermath, Professor Xavier is finally at the end of his rope and he is forced to leave Earth, leaving Magneto as the rightful leader of the group. Storm and Cyclops also have their big confrontation to decide who the leader will be. The battle is pretty……unrealistic, but Cyclops is distracted. The result should still have been different. This marks the end of Cyclops for the rest of the collection.

Now that the situation has been settled, Rachel Summers decides to inherit the Phoenix Force and destroy The Beyonder once and for all. The Beyonder gives her the necessary power to do so, but she has to decide between destroying him and saving her friends. Rachel decides to keep the power after helping er friends and launches another attack, but she’ll end up destroying the entire universe! Needless to say, the Xmen don’t like this. The Beyonder comes in person and the final showdown begins! Only one will walk away from this battle in control.

We get two standalone comics to help pass the time by. In one of them, we see a very out of character Nightcrawler. He’s sad because beings like The Beyonder are just too powerful. He prefers to put his life on the line against weaker opponents, who outmatch him, but can still be defeated. Nightcrawler must match wits against Arcade and save a mutant who needs his help. This definitely sounds like a job for Nightcrawler!

In the other (Much better) comic, Wolverine is being hunted by Lady Deathstrike and the Ravagers. Wolverine is definitely on the losing side and he can’t even speak for a while. Luckily one of the Power Pack is here to help him. She doesn’t end up fighting, but she gives him a pep talk. Wolverine’s healing factor also helps him out as they team up to fight Deathstrike and her lackeys. It was a pretty fun comic and definitely shows how tough Wolverine can be.

As the Xmen adventures continue, The Freedom Force attacks once again, but this time they’re after the Xmen themselves! Once again, the Xmen are being defeated, but I’m sure that they would have made a comeback. Rachel was the most disappointing since the Phoenix should make short work of these guys. Luckily the Police chase them off. Rachel also starts to have nightmares where she destroys Wolverine or he ends up destroying her. They both begin to feel the damage in the real world which is a problem.

Rachel decides to avenge one of her friends that Selene destroyed. She heads to the mansion and quickly defeats her, but Wolverine gives her an ultimatum. Turn back, or he’ll have to end her. Rachel doesn’t care and attempts to finish Selene off, but Wolverine is quicker. Rachel barely survives and escapes, but now things get tricky. The Hellfire Club goes out to take Rachel down, while the Xmen are also looking for her. She’s far too weakened to defend herself, but the other two groups are busy fighting. Things really get interesting once Nimrod appears. He makes short work of both groups, but with the power of Heroics, they manage to fend him off. Rachel decides to dance her way out of this and goes into a portal. Unfortunately, it may not have been her best move!

The final comic involves Mojo and he shrinks them down to size. Not much to say about this comic. It was all right, but the New Mutants got too much screen time and the Xmen didn’t look so good. They can’t always look good I suppose, but it’s just embarrassing how often they get mind controlled.

The character roster was very good. This collection helped me gain a lot of respect for Nimrod and he’s definitely a very cool character. I think he’s now in my top 5 Xmen villains and you can expect him to be appearing on the site soon. Cyclops was pretty cool as well, but things take a turn for the worse towards the end. Magneto was pretty good and I can’t really complain about the Xmen. Storm losing her powers was pretty annoying, but hardly her fault.

I didn’t like any of the New Mutants. They all talked really tough, but they could never win when it counted. Rogue was pretty tough, but her power is constantly backfiring on her. Wolverine was still the best Xmen in this collection and he seems to be the toughest. That healing factor comes in handy and he never gives up. Colossus and Shadowcat appeared a lot, but they didn’t really do anything that was very important. Professor Xavier was also a non factor for this collection.

The Beyonder was intriguing, but his ending was anticlimatic. Still, I can see why he was a threat in The Secret Wars. His abilities are pretty fun to watch and I’m glad that he talks tough. Most cosmic entities forget that trash talking is the best part about being a villain. The Freedom Force is all right, but they looked much tougher than they should have. Just a minor complaint of course.

This was definitely a solid Xmen collection and it had a lot of action. It’s easily the best comic I’ve read in a while and probably in my top 5 Xmen collections. The art was very well done and has aged well. This was back during the golden age of comics for me and reminds me why I miss those days. I highly recommend this comic to all readers.

Overall 8/10