Marvel made comic collecting easy for me.  After Secret Invasion, I decided that the Marvel Universe was not a universe I was interested in.  I love Spider-Man, but after making a deal with Mephisto and all the yada yada that followed, I just couldn’t get into Brand New Day.  I even tried again when they did the New Ways To Die storyline with…gasp…Anti-Venom!  Mighty Avengers and New Avengers lost me actually before the Invasion, but I still gave them a try until after, just to get the full storylines.  I tried Avengers: The Initiative, just for the Ramos art, but I just couldn’t get into the characters.  I love Captain America, but it got dropped from my pull list, a victim of it’s own decompressed storytelling.

Still…Marvel came in like a Trojan Horse last week.  They released a shiny comic book, featuring some of my favorite 90’s comic book characters crossing over into one big X-Storyline, just like in the good old days of X-Tinction Agenda and X-Odus, and all those good times!  More after the jump.

So…those bastards at Marvel released a book that brought me back to the good old days where I had to read EVERY X-book…when Jim Lee was on X-Men, Whilce Portacio was on Uncanny, Joe Quesada was on X-Factor, and Rob Liefeld was on X-Force.  Not sure all that happened simultaneously, but it doesn’t matter…the 90’s were a blur anyway.

X-Force/Cable: Messiah War is a smart crossover, just like DC’s Sinestro Corps War, in that it has an introductory first chapter special, then only crosses over into two titles, X-Force and Cable, the only two X-titles with anything interesting currently going on.  War is the sequel to Messiah Complex, a storyline that, even though I skipped, gets satisfactorily summarized in the first part of this crossover.

Didn’t realize X-Force was back up and running?  Well, let’s summarize what’s come before.  After House of M a couple of years ago, the world was limited to 198 mutants, from the thousands that previously existed.  Well, after the many battles that have occured since then, though no actual tally exists, there’s closer to about half that remain.  Homo-Superior has become an endangered species.  It took years, but the first mutant baby since House of M was born at the beginning of Messiah Complex.  Of course, many different parties try to get their hand on the baby for numerous reasons and, when it all ended, Cable ran way with the baby, time jumping to keep her safe; Bishop, that cool future X-Man we used to love, shot Professor X in the head; and, most importantly, Cyclops basically said “f*ck this noise,” and decided to fight fire with fire.  He formed X-Force, comprised of the nastiest, most bloodthirsty X-Men he could think of.  Wolverine, X-23, Wolfsbane, Warpath, and, more recently, Domino and Archangel.  The controversial title has been the topic of much debate as these X-guys take no prisoners – they kill people, and they kill them BAD.  Each issue is filled with bloody superhero goodness, all under the watchful eye of the finally-having-some-balls Cyclops.  Keep in mind this dude is keeping the team secret from his girlfriend…and he’s sleeping with a mind-reader.

As Messiah War begins, Bishop has located Cable and the mutant girl over 1000 years in the future, but so has Cyclops.  He sends X-Force to protect them, but Bishop has another agenda, and a new accomplice (totally awesome reveal that I won’t give away here).  Throw in future Deadpool, still alive 1000 years later, and you’re setting yourself up for one badass crossover.

Messiah War #1 is already out in comic stores.  The 2nd part of the storyline, Cable #13, releases this week.