The Mutant Messiah Is Born note
"When we first met, Professor Xavier told me his dream.. He saw a world where mutants and humans lived together without fear or hate. Where mutants could discover their potential, and use their gifts to serve all mankind. And on M-Day, when most mutants lost their powers, when we became an endangered species-that vision became just that-a dream. As leader of the X-Men, I’ve had to embrace a new vision for mutantkind. Survival."
— Scott Summers/Cyclops
X-Men: Messiah Complex (sometimes styled as Messiah CompleX) is a thirteen-part X-Men Bat Family Crossover, the first part of a trilogy of linked events, which was released from October 2007 to January 2008. It was co-written by Ed Brubaker, Peter David, Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle and Mike Carey. It ran through its own titled book, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New X-Men and X-Men.
The "Messiah Complex" storyline is the climax of events set into motion in "House of M" and defined the direction of the X-Men franchise for the next several years. The storyline's main plot involves the birth of the first child with the X-gene since Decimation, sparking a race between the X-Men, the Marauders, the Acolytes, the Reavers, the Purifiers, and Predator X to see who will find the child first.
X:Men: Messiah Complex provides examples of:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Sentinels going haywire smashes up the X-Mansion, and Predator X's attack smashes it up even further. In the aftermath, the mansion is abandoned, and remained as such until Wolverine and the X-Men.
- Art Evolution: Mr. Sinister is given a bit of an art evolution of this story, being drawn as younger and with longer hair than the character traditionally sported.
- Bad Future: Since M-Day, the number of potential futures visible or accessible via time machine has dried up, until this story, where Forge's time machine finds two potential futures, which he sends Madrox to. It turns out to be Bishop's future, before the Summers Rebellion smashed the Sentinels. America is a police state after the Mutant Messiah killed millions of humans in minutes, and Mutants are summarily branded and thrown into camps.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: While the characterization was already going that way anyway, this storyline really codifies how Cyclops, pushed to desperation by Mutantkind's dire straits, has become willing to do anything in the name of Mutant preservation, a character arc which would last through to his apparent death in 2016.
- Big Bad: Mr. Sinister is the big villain of this story, bringing back his Marauders and forging new alliances with Mystique and Exodus.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Just before the event starts, the "Adjectiveless" team is disbanded by Cyclops, on the grounds that at the moment, Iceman's the only one active (Karima's possessed, Lady Deathstrike and Mystique turned traitor, Cable's presumed dead and Cannonball's hospitalized).
- The Bus Came Back:
- Warren Kenneth Worthington III/Angel returns to the X-Men titles after an absence.
- Several minor members of the Acolytes, including Amelia Voght, make brief appearances.
- Calling the Old Man Out: When Professor X tries offering mentorship to the New X-Men, Surge tears into him for his Commuting on a Bus since Deadly Genesis and how he's of no help to them.
- Church Militant: The Purifiers are one of the factions in the race for the messiah child, wanting to kill it as they see it as The Antichrist.
- Cliffhanger: The Marauders are defeated, but Professor X is shot through the head by Bishop, leaving the future of the X-Men uncertain. Also, Cable has taken the messiah child into the future to raise and train her.
- Didn't See That Coming: In the final battle, the Marauders and Acolytes have all been trained for a fight with the X-Men. So, with some reluctance, they send the students into battle, banking on the fact they'll be a bigger unknown. And they are.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- A lot of C-List Fodder characters died in the crossfire of Mr. Sinister's precog purge, including Vargas, Finality, and Gateway (the latter of whom got better). Predator X also goes after a few others, devouring Peepers of Mutant Force.
- Sentinel Squad O*N*E, who've been recurring characters / pains in the behind to the X-Men since Decimation began, are suddenly overtaken by nano-sentinels, killing the pilots.
- Elite Mooks: Any villain that isn't Mr. Sinister or Mystique is basically reduced to this, in particular Exodus (normally a team-wrecking threat) never rises above another face in the melee.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: During their fight, X-23 lands a hit on Lady Deathstrike that she sneers at, since it's hardly drawn any blood. Except Laura wasn't looking to draw blood; she was aiming for Yuriko's mechanisms, and now that arm's busted.
- Fallen Hero: Gambit and Sunfire, both of whom were formerly allies of the X-Men, throw in with Mr. Sinister. Bishop turns on the X-Men trying to kill baby Hope.
- Genetic Abomination: Predator X. On Revered William Stryker’s behalf, the Facility created a living weapon to aid in his crusade to eradicate the mutant race.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sinister was dumb enough to trust Mystique. It only serves him right when that character turns the tables on him later.
- Idiot Ball: Lady Mastermind's need for pointless sadism backfires on her when Logan realizes she's using her illusion powers, and will be nearby. He shoves out his claws, and skewers her, dropping her illusion.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Hellion is skewered through the chest by Lady Deathstrike, and only barely survives.
- It's Personal: X-23 has a crush on Hellion. So when Yuriko badly wounds him...X-23: You were dead the moment you touched Julien Keller.
- I Warned You: In fairness, none of the X-Men wanted the Sentinels hovering over them to begin with, so when they apparently turn on the X-Men, Warpath grumbles about it.Warpath: Nobody listens to the Indian...
- Kill and Replace: Mystique feeds Sinister to Rogue's death touch, and pretends to be him.
- Literal Disarming: Scrambler's powers require physical contact to disable someone's powers. X-23 solves that problem in her own way, by slicing his wrists off.
- Living MacGuffin: The Mutant Messiah is the one all want to get their hands on, some to save, others to kill.
- MacGuffin: In a story with a Living MacGuffin there's a secondary one of the more traditional kind: Destiny's diaries, which apparently foretell the birth of the mutant messiah. The involved factions chase after the diaries so that they can more effectively chase after the mutant messiah.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: The Mutant Messiah’s birth was enough to alert everyone and short-circuit Cerebra.
- Mama Bear: Mystique's motivation is mainly to keep Rogue alive and cure her of her bad case of My Skull Runneth Over.
- Mêlée à Trois: The X-Men are initially in competition with both Mister Sinister's Marauders and the Acolytes and Revered Stryker's Purifiers, who are backed up by the Reavers. And one cannot forget the monstrous Predator X, a feral beast who attacks all sides indiscriminately due to being programmed to devour mutants.
- Moral Myopia: Mystique is perfectly willing to risk a newborn child being killed just to save Rogue, never mind one that represents the potential future of an entire species. Rogue is not appreciative when she wakes up.
- No Name Given: The newborn "Mutant Messiah", on account of the Purifiers attacking the hospital she was at. She won't get her name of "Hope" for half a year.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: After several years of being portrayed as Mooks, the Marauders are finally shown as a threat again.
- The Plan: Mr. Sinister has a nebulous-yet-evil plan involving the messiah child that requires the deaths of every precognitive mutant to prevent the X-Men from figuring out what he's up to.
- The Purge: The story begins with Mr. Sinister sending his Marauders and Acolyte allies to kill all mutants with precognitive powers, so that no one can foresee what he is about to do.
- Retcon: A pretty big one to make the major twist of the story work, regarding Bishop's backstory and general motivation.
- The Reveal: For the first few chapters, the X-Men aren't sure who has the new Mutant. They find out it's not the Purifiers and then that it's not Exodus or Sinister, which leaves the question of who it is... turns out it's Cable, who'd been presumed dead in an attack from Gambit and Sunfire back in X-Men #200.
- Sequel Hook: The story is but the first part of a trilogy revolving around the mutant messiah. The messiah child goes on to become Hope Summers, a sort of "next coming of Jean Grey" who is a pivotal character in several later stories.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Predator X was created for killing and consuming mutants and it cannot stop until it does so.Narration: It’s called Predator X..bred to hunt and feed on mutant DNA... It felt this new arrival with a hunger that nearly staggered it. It used all its strength to push on over hundreds of miles. Never stopping...
- Taking the Bullet: Caliban is killed diving in front of several bullets for Cable.
- Tap on the Head: During the final fight, Tempo is about ready to use her powers to put a stop to things... and then gets clubbed over the head.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- When Cannonball and Iceman interrogate a captive mutant whose power is Playing with Fire, Sam reveals that Bobby's control of his powers has become so advanced that he can now control chemical reactions involving a thermal exchange, letting him block the fire mutant's powers at their source.
- Subverted with Malice, who boasts of "moving with the times" when she possesses the Omega Sentinel Karima Shapandar yet in practice is a much less effective presence than she was when she inhabited Polaris.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- The story begins with the Marauders and Purifiers absolutely devastating a town to get to Hope, and the X-Men figure it's going to tank Mutantkind's reputation even further, but it doesn't come up for the rest of the crossover.
- There are two futures mentioned. The story follows Madrox Prime and Layla Miller in the Bad Future, but the fate of the Madrii who went first is never brought up again, and wouldn't be until a few years later in X-Factor, where that dupe is pretty pissed about being forgotten.
- What You Are in the Dark: Bishop manages to get the drop on Cable and the Mutant Messiah, and has her at his mercy. But he can't bring himself to pull the trigger, allowing the Marauders time to catch up and grab her.
- The Worf Effect: Because of the story throwing so many villains together, uses of this were inevitable. Lowlights include Nightcrawler teleporting the powerful mutant Exodus away to get him out of a battle (despite Exodus having the power to teleport himself).
- Would Hurt a Child: An unfortunate requirement when the living plot device of the story is a child. The Marauders and Purifiers are totally indiscriminate looking to get to the newborn, torching a natal ward just to be absolutely sure.
