Extermination #1

History

The series was officially announced in April 2018 by editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski as part of Marvel's Fresh Start publishing initiative, with further creative details surfacing at the C2E2 convention in Chicago. Marvel took the unusual step of seeding the event across five currently-running X-books — X-Men: Gold #27, X-Men: Blue #27, X-Men: Red #5, Astonishing X-Men #13, and Cable #159 — through post-credits-style backup stories written by Brisson and drawn by artist Oscar Bazaldua, a deliberate nod to the cinematic post-credits scene format. Writer Ed Brisson, who had been developing his Marvel voice on Old Man Logan and Cable, was paired with artist Pepe Larraz (coming off Avengers: No Surrender), colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer VC's Joe Sabino, with Darren Shan as editor and Mark Brooks providing the primary cover art.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released August 15, 2018 (cover-dated October 2018) as issue #1 of a five-part limited series, written by Ed Brisson with art by Pepe Larraz and colors by Marte Gracia.
• Serves as the grand finale of the time-displaced Original Five X-Men storyline that began in All-New X-Men #1 (November 2012) under Brian Michael Bendis — a narrative thread running approximately six years across multiple titles.
• The adult Cable (Nathan Summers) is killed within this issue by a mysterious hooded assailant — a shocking early death that the story uses to introduce a teenage version of Cable as his replacement, marking the debut of 'Young Cable' as an active presence in the main Marvel timeline.
• The first issue also features the in-story death of Bloodstorm (the vampiric alternate-universe Storm from X-Men Blue), who is impaled by Ahab during a scene with young Cyclops.
• The villain Ahab — a mutant-hunting extremist from a dark alternate future who had previously tortured Rachel Grey into becoming a Hound — serves as the series' primary antagonist, while the true identity of the hooded assailant (young Cable) is the central mystery propelling issue #1.
• The series was preceded by a 'Countdown to Extermination' campaign: five post-credits-style backup stories written by Brisson and drawn by Oscar Bazaldua, embedded in X-Men: Gold #27, X-Men: Blue #27, X-Men: Red #5, Astonishing X-Men #13, and Cable #159.
• Issue #1 shipped with multiple variant covers, including retailer incentive covers by artists such as Olivier Coipel, Amanda Conner, and Frank Cho, in addition to the main cover by Mark Brooks.
• The entire five-issue series, along with its Countdown to Extermination stinger pages, was collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 978-1302913571) featuring additional art by Oscar Bazaldua and Ario Anindito.

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Variants (5)