Era #9, Part 10: The Twelve

Grade: C

Finally, the secret of the Twelve! First mentioned back in March 1987 in the pages of X-Factor #14 (Era, #4, Part 08), the "fabled Twelve" are a "dozen mutant humans who will one day rise up and lead all of mutantkind in war against Homo sapiens in the twilight of Earth." There were several claims and partial lists of potential candidates, but it was not until Kitty found Destiny's diary (Era #9, Part 07) that we get a complete list:

• Magneto
• Polaris
• Storm
• Sunfire
• Iceman
• Cyclops
• Phoenix (Jean Grey)
• Cable
• Bishop
• Mikhail Rasputin
• Professor X
• Living Monolith.

That is an impressive list, but the story was still a pretty big let-down. We waited 12 years for this, and we get another attempt by Apocalypse to possess X-Man's body? Apparently, leading all of mutantkind in a war against humans means being a battery for a supervillain's extraterrestrial machine.

Apocalypse's allies didn't seem to add much value. I would even say that it distracted from what could've been solid reveal. Even after rereading it, I am still puzzled why Alan Davis wanted to add the Skrulls. They never really fit well in an X-Men centric story. It was an odd collection of established characters that took the positions of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen. I had a difficult time buying Ahab (Famine) and Deathbird (War) joining as subordinates to Apocalypse. Wolverine (Death) was brainwashed, but I didn't collect the Wolverine issues that delved more into how this happened and how he regained his own mind. That leaves Caliban (Pestilence) who was already Death in the past, so why did he change?

The Twelve was one of those X-Men mysteries that longtime fans like me really talked about all the time. Alan Davis gave us closure, but it was not all that satisfying. Maybe that is because I set my expectations too high, or maybe it is because the premise didn't take into account any of the dropped clues, fan conjectures, or original purpose of the Twelve.

[3-Stars] Uncanny X-Men #376 - "Filling in the Blanks" The hunt for the Twelve is on as the X-Men attempt to protect them from Apocalypse's Horsemen.

[3-Stars] X-Men (v2) #96 - "The Gathering" The X-Men versus Death/Wolverine.

[3-Stars] Uncanny X-Men #377 - "The End of the World as We Know It" Apocalypse and his Horsemen complete their collection of the Twelve.

[3-Stars] X-Men #97 - "The End of the World as We Know It Part 2" Apocalypse reveals his plans to use the power of the Twelve to transfer his consciousness into Nate Gray merging their powers to become a godlike being.