x-men #85-97, uncanny x-men #366-377

THE CREATORS: Alan Davis plotting both and pencilling X-Men; Terry Kavanagh scripting both; Adam Kubert pencilling Uncanny X-Men; and Mark Farmer inking X-Men. (Uncanny didn't have a regular inker this year - or not noticeably, at any rate.)

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Er, six on Uncanny X-Men, although in fairness the book didn't have a regular artist until March. Three on X-Men.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR: The Magneto War storyline in which Joseph died; a visit to another dimension; that Skrull plot which seemed so pointless at the time; Rage Against The Machine (yes, forgotten about that, hadn't you?); the Shattering; and the current Twelve storyline.

The X-Men ended 1998 in a dire state. Joe Kelly and Steven Seagle had just quit the books complaining that, in effect, the editors didn't want them to write so much as transcribe. Their plots were hopelessly mangled over the course of their last few issues, and whatever the backstage politics of the whole thing, it was obvious to anyone that things were not at all well. The impression that the editors were writing the whole thing, and doing it rather badly, wasn't helped much when Marvel announced the Magneto War storyline - before they'd announced any creators to work on it.

In these circumstances, the arrival of Alan Davis on the X-Men came as a surprise. He had talent. He had credibility. Most of all, he surely had other offers. Fans who remembered his two runs on Excalibur perked up enormously. And while we haven't seen anything as quirky or inspired as that, it's still turned the X-Men around.

Things didn't start off too well. The Magneto War storyline, presumably plotted before Davis arrived on the titles, was serviceable at best. Then the books launched into two off-world storylines that seemed totally irrelevant to the main plot, and looked for all the world like time was being killed. And after that, the books spent a month setting up the M-Tech titles in an inevitably forced crossover.

The biggest problem, though, was that the X-Men spent a lot of the time playing the generic hero role. Not much happened to suggest that any of what we were seeing was really specific to the present line-up. You could have shoved any X-Men into the Magneto War, or the Skrull storyline, and it wouldn't have made much difference. This was a serious difficulty because the X-books had done an absurdly contrived reshuffle at the end of 1998 to put Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Colossus back on the team. If this was going to be justified, and the team made to feel organic again, then the characters needed to be given some storylines of their own. For the first half of the year, they weren't.

But with the Shattering, things finally clicked. With the team split up, the characters finally got some screen time to pursue their own stories. The revelation that Wolverine had been swapped with a Skrull may have been corny, but the benefits more than outweighed that - by tying back in with an earlier storyline in a way that had obviously been planned at the time and actually made sense, the important signal had been sent that the X-Men had a direction again. That somebody was actually thinking this stuff through. That there was, honestly, a proper story here and it had been worked out in detail. This was somethng the X-Men hadn't had in a while, barring the brief flicker at the beginning of the Kelly/Seagle issues.

There's still a way to go - the big problem with the Twelve storyline is that it's not really about anything much other than resolving an old plot for the sake of doing it. The X-Men could do with some more stories that are actually about something, rather than simply big epic romps of the sort we've seen this year. But even if the recent stories haven't been ambitious, they've still been fun, and that's nothing to complain about.

Given how grim things were looking when the year started, it's amazing we've got back to this point so quickly. The year as a whole isn't that great, but it's an impressive improvement when you look back on it.

x-men: the hidden years #1-3

THE CREATORS: John Byrne writing and pencilling, and Tom Palmer inking.

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil, but then it's only been three issues.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR: Um, they went to the Savage Land.

The John Byrne retro book wasn't exactly hotly anticipated. Dreaded would be closer to the mark. This may seem an unfair greeting for a creator who worked on the Dark Phoenix Saga, but Byrne's recent work - Spider-Man: Chapter One, a horrific Hulk relaunch, and the feeble Spider-Woman - more than justified it. In the last few years, he hasn't been going through a creative trough so much as a creative Marianas Trench, and while it's never wise to write off somebody who's done so much good work in the past, anybody in their right mind was going to approach this one with scepticism. Byrne's widely-reported desire to put certain stupid retcons into effect involving Magneto's origin wasn't too inspiring either.

But in fact, Hidden Years has been surprisingly good, with solid character interaction, pleasant artwork and some amusing if inconsequential plots. It still hasn't quite overcome that nagging sense of "yes, but what's the point?", but it's a quietly endearing little series in its way. Of course, the solicitations for next year suggest that Byrne may be getting into his old ways and embarking in some gratuitous mucking about with continuity, but that's a matter for next year's review.

It's hard to see this series sticking about very long, though. Marvel haven't had a successful series set in past continuity in ages (even the acclaimed Untold Tales of Spider-Man sold terribly), and to open a commercially questionable series with a lengthy Savage Land plot (not a concept that seems to have all that much appeal to modern audiences) seems downright perverse. Ultimately, I suspect it'll have a nice little ten or twenty issue run and will be looked back on with moderate fondness as a quirky footnote in X-Men history. For the moment, it serves its role as a haven for people looking for something a little bit less busy than the mainstream books.

x-men unlimited #22-25

THE CREATORS: Since issue #25, Joe Pruett and Brett Booth are the regular creative team. Before that, whoever's passing.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR: The one where the X-Men fight ULTIMATUM; the one where Xavier's a bit depressed; the one with the plane crash; and the one where everyone's upset about Wolverine.

Ah. The title with no point.

X-Men Unlimited, like the other Unlimited quarterlies, was created for no other reason than that Marvel thought they might be able to shift it. For six years now it has been churning out any old nonsense in the endless quest to fill its 38 story pages without actually advancing the plot. This has resulted in a small number of stories that were actually good, a large number that were entirely dull, and a distressingly high proportion that were absolute shit.

The first three issues this year fell under this format, and fortunately they weren't too bad, as X-Men Unlimited goes. Brian Vaughan's ULTIMATUM story gave Marrow better material than the core books had managed in ages; Ben Raab's crisis of confidence story was a bit of a time-killer, but was okay; and Joe Pruett's plane crash story was readable enough. None of them really made much difference, though, and it's hard to imagine anyone really going out of their way to read them. This is a book which has always sold to core X-Men fans who buy it because it's there rather than because it's got anything to offer of its own.

So this year Jason Liebig decided to finally do something about it and reformat the book. From now on, what we're meant to get is a lead story by Joe Pruett and Bret Booth that ties in with the core titles, and a back-up by quality guest creators. Well, that's the theory, anyhow. What we got in issue #25 was a load of flashbacks to other stories, purportedly showing the X-Men mourning the loss of Wolverine (who had just been turned into a Horseman of Apocalypse for a few issues). It didn't advance the plot at all, and it was effectively a clip show. Doug Moench and Mark Texeira's Wolverine back-up story was much better, but really just re-visited old ground. If this is what the new format amounts to, it's not much of an improvement.

Well, it's unfair to judge Liebig's revamp on the strength of one issue, so I'm not going to dismiss it out of hand. But so far, we've seen nothing to change the standard view of X-Men Unlimited - the pointless title with weak stories where nothing of importance happens. It's up to the creators to change this in 2000.

generation x #49-60

THE CREATORS: Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (penciller) and Rachel Dodson (inker)

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Two, but with guest artists on some pages on a further three issues.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR: Maggott visited the school; the school decided to admit normal pupils again; there was a crossover with X-Man; the kids met Tristan Brawn and his father; the kids visited Madripoor with Paladin; there was that story where they wake up as the Hellions on the morning of their death; the school ball story; Monet's twin sisters were seperated from Penance; and Monet left the team. Bitty, isn't it?

At the beginning of the year, Jay Faerber had just taken over as writer, following on a run by Larry Hama so disastrous that it probably qualified for federal aid. It was a blessed relief; for the first time in ages, Generation X had personalities and the series was mercifully free of surrealist crap. Faerber wrote solidly engaging stories and the book was readable again. He was hailed accordingly as the saviour of the book. And he probably was.

Viewed as a whole, Faerber's run on the title (shortly to end when Counter-X takes over) doesn't quite live up to the early potential. Although he's turned the cast into strong characters who are enjoyable to read about, what he hasn't done is generate any overall driving plotlines. Yes, there are bubbling subplots with the Jono/Paige/Tristan romantic triangle, but there's nothing driving the book as a whole forward. The stories have been perfectly good in their own right, but the book doesn't seem to be going in any particular direction. Instead, it's set up a status quo and stayed there.

The other problem with Faerber's run is that he remains much stronger on his character work than on his action sequences. A Faerber issue of characters sitting around playing Scrabble would be great stuff. A Faerber issue of characters beating one another around the head with lead pipes is much like any other writer's. It's a shame the romance genre is dead. He'd be great at it. Having said that, his action scenes have been improving, and it's perhaps unfortunate that he's been cutting his teeth on complex team book fight scenes.

On the bright side, Faerber's character work has been glowing, helped by the cartoony but cute artwork of Terry and Rachel Dodson, and some of this year's individual issues have been great - particularly the Hellions story, which is a killer hook if ever there was one. (Although in fairness, I believe Faerber has said the idea was Bob Harras's, so credit where credit's due.) The book has been consistently entertaining, and if it hasn't quite lived up to expectations, that's more a sign of unrealistic expectations. Must have been the shock of seeing proper stories in the book again.

Faerber's continuing to do equally good work on New Warriors, and existing Generation X fans might like to take a look at that book now that he's moving on. This hasn't been everything he's capable of, but for his first year on a regular title it's impressive stuff.

x-force #88-99

THE CREATORS: John Francis Moore (writer), Jim Cheung (penciller) and Mark Morales (inker)

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Um, six issues, plus a fill-in artist on some pages of a seventh. Ouch.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR: X-Force fought the Hellions; Siryn lost her voice and left the team; Domino met Hallowe'en Jack; the team visited Genosha; the Damocles Foundation plotted away in the background; and Selene turned up at the end of the year.

Let's be honest, it's gone a bit patchy, hasn't it?

The glitch this year has been the amount of time given over to the Damocles Foundation plot, which involves Deviants and has all the hallmarks of a story that the writer was determined to shoehorn into whichever book he was working on. Despite some contrived attempts to connect existing characters with the Deviants, it simply doesn't feel like an X-Force story. You could do this plot with the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, and when your protagonists are interchangeable it's never a good sign.

Oh, and then there's issue #93, the only time this year that the book dipped into being just plain bad. And since the end of the road trip storyline last year, the book has slipped into a more generic superhero formula.

But the Hellions and Genosha storylines have been good, solid action stories, and the Siryn solo story after she lost her voice was good stuff, despite highly questionable fill-in art. The book has lost a lot of the edge it had in 1998, partly because of the end of the road trip and partly because of the replacement of Adam Pollina by the more conventional Jim Cheung. Even so, it's still delivering decent superhero material, and while it may be in the beginnings of a decline, it's still had a good year overall.