The Xmen have been through many big events and they typically get to show everyone who’s boss. In AVX, Cyclops proved that he was a pretty powerful force to be reckoned with and in World War Hulk, he managed to take on the Hulk. The Xmen have definitely endured through many events, but this may be their toughest challenge yet!

Well, basically all of the comics in the collection deal with the Mutant Massacre event where the mutants started to be hunted on all corners. The Freedom Fighters led by Mystique are after the mutants to stay on the human’s good side while the mutants go extinct. The Marauders want to destroy all mutants because they aren’t apart of Sinister’s big plan. (I doubt that they’re part of his plan either and will probably be terminated) The X-Factor/X-Terminators (Same group) focus on pretending to destroy mutants while secretly helping them to safety. There are a lot of players involved, but this is all pretty bad news for the Xmen.

Most of the comics take place in the Morlock Tunnels because that is the first target of the Marauders. They destroy one of the mutants and then follow his partner into the tunnels where they begin exterminating all of them. There are only about 5 Marauders and none of them are actually that powerful. C-D rank fighters against a few hundred Morlocks. This should be easy right? Well, it’s easy all right…for the Marauders! The battle stretches my mind as far as disbelief goes and I can’t really buy all of this, but more on that later. It’s time to elaborate on what’s happening.

The X-Factor/X-Terminators are actually the original 5 X-Men as they’ve made their own group. They help two mutants escape from the Freedom Force and then two of them head into the sewers. The original 5 X-Men head after them, but the sewers apparently run through the whole city and there are a lot of miles down there. Meanwhile, the X-Men find out that dozens upon dozens of mutants are dying in the tunnels and they quickly go to help. Calisto and her Morlocks may have the number advantage, but they appear to be weaker than New York’s Finest. Franklin Richards also realizes that something is up and he rounds up the Power Pack as they head into the sewers to help.

The X-Men groups and the Power Pack aren’t the only people to go into the sewers on this occasion as The Mighty Thor enters as well when the local inhabitants let him know what the situation is. Unfortunately, this is Thor after the Surtur incident and Hela is currently weakening him. Not to mention that this was during one of his weaker periods. Finally, we’ve also got Daredevil who is attacked by Sabretooth so Daredevil chases him into the sewers. The New Mutants also go in the sewers, but they don’t stay for very long and that may be a good thing for them.

The Heroes are not the only people to have a stake in this as Apocalypse comes as well so that he can start recruiting people to become his Horsemen. Even the Magus appears as he wants to take the New Mutants down for the count. The Freedom Force also goes underground so that they can take away the two mutants. As you can see….this is a lot of people down here. So, how are the Marauders doing so much damage? Let’s do a headcount of how many people entered the tunnels.

Thor, Daredevil, Apocalypse, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Beast, Shadow Cat, Calisto, The Power Pack, Franklin Richards, Other Jean Grey, The New Mutants, The Magus, hundreds of Morlocks, Hela, Mystique, Pyro, Avalanche, Destiny, etc. The only opposition are the few members of the Marauders and the part that will really get you is the fact that they aren’t even so tough. Vertigo can make you feel faint, but she’s not much of a fighter. We’ve got a girl who can throw shruikens, a guy who can throw an energy spear, a spirit who can possess people, and a guy who has super strength. Oh yes….the leader is a human with a gun. Sabretooth is also with the team and he ends up doing a lot of damage as well.

This collection is all about the first battle. There is an upcoming sense of war as the casualties increase. What you need to remember is that all of these comics take place at around the same time and the action is all happening in different parts of the sewers. The Marauders came to annihilate the Morlocks and they basically succeed. With them out of the way, the next target is the X-Men. They haven’t struck yet and that would likely be in the next graphic novel. All I can say is…the battle should be interesting. I’m not sure how they can pull it off without plot hax.

The Marauders do get a lot of hype, but it’s not very believable. Blockbuster actually holds his own against Thor and nearly destroys him. Thor is weakened and he had to fight the whole group of Marauders, but there’s no way that they should have escaped. This isn’t an amateur or a random hero, but Thor, The Warrior of legend. This takes place a little after the battles with Surtur and I must say that he did not look like the same guy. The old Thor could fight for long periods of time and really take a hit. Blockbuster felled him in a few hits and I don’t believe that Thor would be caught by surprise like that. Thor still accomplished more than most of the other fighters and he put one of the Marauders down…permanently. Thor has never minded crossing that line as much as the other heroes, but I would have preferred that he captured them all instead of only destroying one of them. I was definitely unsure about his portrayal in this comic power-wise, but character-wise he was still solid.

Sabretooth gets a big role and he claims that he would have destroyed Thor if he had been there. I hope that you don’t take those words seriously because if he had beaten Thor….I would have had to facepalm. Sabretooth does a little too well in this comic as he has the upper hand against Wolverine two times and he also manages to defeat Rogue with minimal effort. Psylocke is unable to sense his presence as he quickly enters the mansion and the fighters just don’t look very good against him. Magneto would have ended the fight when he entered, but by then Psylocke and Wolverine were doing fine.

One of the more frustrating encounters was probably when the X-Men were face to face with the Marauders. That should be the end of it…just take them down. Unfortunately, the X-Men do not do so good and they are actually losing pretty badly. Colossus destroys one of them, but the others escape and Colossus also suffered extreme injuries and barely lives through the experience. Most of the X-Men are very injured and head back to the Mansion as they attempt to save as many injured Morlocks as they can. They do not seem ready for another encounter with the Marauders so it will be tricky for them if they get attacked again.

Nothing will be more frustrating than Thor’s encounter with the Marauders because he really should have defeated them. At least warn the Avengers, but instead they all get away. Thor also unleashes a thunder blast that incinerates anything/anyone who was still in the sewers with a large blast. Thor said that he could not see anyone in the sewers as he checked the whole place out, but it’s still overly risky to unleash such a large blast. The X-Men almost perish in it and they believe that the New Mutants also died. Luckily nobody was hurt, but Thor could have caused a lot of casualties.

The Avengers also do not look good because they do not appear. Several times, the action takes place a few blocks from the mansion, but they do not intervene. When hundreds of Morlocks are perishing in the tunnels, they do not seem to notice. It’s as if the Avengers do not watch the news or have any way of getting intel. At least Daredevil did his part since he saved Sabretooth’s prisoner and also gave him a good fight. Getting Sabretooth to leave the sewers was a solid move and it meant that Daredevil helped out more than most of the other heroes in this collection.

Wolverine was a good character although he talked very tough, but couldn’t seem to fully back it up. He arrived too late to actually fight the Marauders and he didn’t look very good against Sabretooth when they fought. Still, personality-wise he was a good character and he isn’t very injured so he should be ready for the Marauders when they attack. The rest of the X-Men aren’t in great shape since Storm may have lost her powers and Psylocke has a few broken ribs. Shadow Cat is stuck in her phased out form and she may die while Colossus is completely paralyzed. It seems like it’s going to be up to Wolverine, Magneto, and Rogue to fend off an attack. They should be able to defeat the Marauders if it comes down to that, but we shall see.

Overall, this is a solid X-Men comic, but very hard to actually believe. You’ll keep on asking yourself how the Marauders can defeat the Morlocks despite the big difference in numbers and how the Avengers don’t know about this. It’s pretty public on what’s happening and their absence is not cool. (It’s easy to see why AVX happened) Captain America of all people should be doing something about this since he’s against such measures. There are definitely a lot of plots around and Apocalypse probably has the most interesting one. Hopefully the X-Men put up a better fight against the Marauders when they strike again. After all, they are down two members so the group is even smaller. I recommend this comic slightly, but if you are an X-Men fan. If not, you may not find yourself very interested and it’s definitely one of the sadder X-Men comics. A lot of casualties and the villains get away scot free for the most part. The next battle would probably be more satisfying…I hope!

Overall 7/10