X-Men: Elsewhen - 32 Issues of Free Online Fanfic by John Byrne - NOW IN PRINT! - Forum 2.0

Replies

Jeff of Earth-J March 25, 2025 at 6:16pm

No one? Really? *SIGH* I am on the wrong message board.

Well, I read it... all 32 issues. In addition to the X-Men (of course), this series also guest-stars the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, the Watcher, Thor, Alpha Flight, and a Dr. Doom/Magneto team-up. It also features the origin of Wolverine (including his relationship to Sabretooth, his WWII career and how he got his adamantium skeleton/claws) among other things. It reminds me a bit of Chris Claremont's X-Men Forever and X-Men Forever 2 series in that a new reality brances off at a specific point, except the point it branches off from is more interesting. It's kind of like an in-depth "What If...?" The What If...? series would often tell a single divergent story, then leave it at that. X-Men: Elsewhen #1-32 can be thought of as an alternate version of Uncanny X-Men #138-169.

In that respect, it's like a double "What If" scenario. First, it's like "What if the Shi'ar gave Jean Grey a 'cosmic lobotomy' in #137?"

Then it's like "What if the real Jean Grey was discovered at the bottom of Jamaica Bay in "1981" instead of "1986"?

Then it intoduced a parallel reality based on another "what if": "What if Lucifer killed Professor X instead of crippled him?"

(In that case, Magneto would have recruited those who would have become the "X-Men" into his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.)

Seriously, I have not been this excited about an X-Men comic books since... well, since John Byrne was doing The Hidden Years. But I like Elsewhen much more than Hidden Years, and some of the plot threads from that too-soon-killed series carry over. So why hasn't Elsewhen been published by Marvel? Well, there may be some news on that front.

If it does come to pass, I hope they just bite the bullet and release it as an omnibus edition. I'd hate to have to wait another 2+ years for it to spool out in monthly installments. I wouldn't mind if they released it in uninked pencil form, as it exists today. If they end up going the monthly route, I will (I suppose) try to launch another "discussion" at that time.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) July 24, 2025 at 1:49pm

It's been officially announced as coming out in three volumes, starting in 2026. A friend of mine was supposed to be coloring this, but life got in the way and he had to pull out of the project.
- Jeff of Earth-J > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) July 24, 2025 at 1:54pm
  
  Okay, April! Not as good as January, but not as bad as July. Thanks for letting me (us?) know.
Jeff of Earth-J June 27, 2026 at 5:26am

Now that Elsewhen has been released on paper, let's try this again.

Here are some capsule summaries to pique your interest and whet your curiousity.

"In the Jungle, the Deadly Jungle" - Circa X-Men #139; Kitty Pryde has recently joined. A mission takes the team to the Savage Land (where else?), where they find MODOK and A.I.M. Karl Lykos becomes Sauron. The Shi'ar have separated the Dark Phoenix entiry from Jean Grey and are holding it captive, but the process has left Jean with the mind of a five-year-old.

"Prototype" - Mark III Sentinels, controlled by Henry Peter Gyrich and Sebastian Shaw, have no compuctions about killling or harming baseline human beings.

"Father and Son" - Spider-Man; Amanda Sefton; new mutant Willie Evans (sequel to Fantastic Four #203)

"Wideawake" - Muir Isle; Sentinels; new housekeeper Carla Abscal and her mutant son Pablo

"And Call His Name Magneto" - Avengers (circa 1981); Jean runs away from home; Magneto

"Island in the Sky" - More Sentinels, more Avengers; Fantastic Four; the X-Men follow Magneto to Asteroid M; Jean hitches a ride with a sexual predator

"Home is Where the Hurt Is" - Teri and Ashley Martin (from John Byrne's X-Men: The Hidden Years) are folded into the plot.

"In Darkest Suburbia" - Mark IV Sentinels are introduced, which are powered by, and have the same powers as, captured mutants (Nightcrawler, Banshee, Scarlet Witch, Havok, Lorna Dane, Blob, Unus, Mastermind, Franklin Richards); Lilandra lies ill, apparently on her deathbed.

"Reunion" - The X-Men, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four vs. the Mark IV Sentinel/mutant fusions! If that's not enough, the Phoenix Force escapes.

"Convergence" - The climax of the "Sentinel" storyline; loads of cameos; plus, Jean Grey takes four slugs in the back, through-and-through.

And that's the end of the first volume. Two more are coming, but they haven't even been solicited yet.