TITLE: X-Man vol. 1, Issue #1
YEAR: March 1995
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Pencils by Steve Skroce
Inks by Bruce N. Solotoff
Inks by Sellers, Smith, Larosa, Conrad
Lettering by Starkings/Comicraft
Colors by Mike Thomas
Editor: Lisa Patrick
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras
As the early ’90s would popularize Cable (Nathan Summers) in the Marvel Universe, Marvel decided to confuse readers even more by introducing us to Nate Grey, the alternate version of Cable but from the “Age of Apocalypse” (Earth-295).
Where Cable (Nathan Summers) is the biological son of X-Man Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey’s clone), Nate Grey is the biological son of his dimension’s Scott Summers and Jean Grey, born of genetic tampering by Mr. Sinister (Nathaniel Essex).
Unlike Cable who was born with an infection of a techno-organic virus, Nathan Grey was not. And as Cable has to keep his powers in check because of the virus, Nathan Grey was able to use his vast telephatic and telekinetic powers and no doubt quite powerful.
What was originally supposed to be part of the “Age of Apocalypse” alternate reality storyline, Marvel would eventually bring Nate Grey to the Marvel universe and would run from 1995-2001 and would be known as “X-Man” with a total of 75 issues published.
The first issue features Nate dreaming of a reality where he keeps seeing a mansion and seeing Bishop and Magneto talking to each other.
When he wakes up, he’s back to being in group headed by Forge.
Set in a place where humanity has nearly been killed off by Apocalypse, while many humans left to Europe, those who stayed behind still leave under Apocalypse’s tyranny. And Forge’s group which includes Toad, Soaron, Mastermind, Brute and Nate, pose as actors for a play but it is used as a front to save people from Apocalypse’s tyranny.
When Nate starts to use his power, despite Forge telling him not to, Apocalypse now wants Nate Grey and sends Domino to go after Nate and force him to work under Apocalypse.
But what happens when Forge’s team are under attack by Apocalypse’s robotic soldiers?
While Nate Grey has been killed off and brought back, currently, from what I have read, he is now in a relationship with Dani Moonstar and has lost most of his power. Needless to say, when he had his solo title, X-Man was a popular character with immense power.
While those who read the series understood who the X-Man was, one major problem with the X-titles back in the mid-90’s is that there were way too many X-titles, one-shots, limited series that were being released and “X-Man” became another issue for X-Men fans had to collect. And trust me, with so many titles one had to add to their comic queue, it wasn’t easy.
Still, I enjoyed the series, I even have the Toy Biz action figure for Nate Grey but it was a character that started out strong but unlike Cable who has been popular in different forms of multimedia, the confusing timelines and plethora of characters introduced didn’t go so well for the X-Man.
While I haven’t read any issues featuring the character in the present time, hopefully they get him out of his funk and bring back that cool, powerful mutant once again.