X-Men: Messiah Complex #1

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Ed Brubaker with interior art by Marc Silvestri; primary retail cover by David Finch; letters by Chris Eliopoulos; edited by Nick Lowe under Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
• Released October 31, 2007 (cover-dated December 2007) as a standalone one-shot that functions as Chapter 1 of 13 in the Messiah Complex crossover, continuing into Uncanny X-Men #492–494, X-Factor #25–27, New X-Men #44–46, and X-Men #205–207.
• The issue contains the first textual reference to the infant who will become Hope Summers — the first mutant born since M-Day — though her first on-panel appearance occurs in X-Men #205 (Chapter 5), where she was created by writer Mike Carey and artist Chris Bachalo. She was not given the name 'Hope' until Cable (vol. 2) #10.
• The story's central incident: Cerebra detects a new mutant birth in Cooperstown, Alaska, but the signal is so powerful it destroys the machine; both the Purifiers and the Marauders reach the town before the X-Men, leveling it in the process.
• The issue shipped with at least five variant covers, including a Previews Exclusive sketch variant by David Finch, an alternate Silvestri cover, a Wizard World Texas sketch cover, a Top Cow store exclusive, and a second-printing wraparound by Simone Bianchi.
• Messiah Complex is the first chapter of a three-part saga that continued in Messiah War (2009) and concluded in Second Coming (2010), directly launching a new Cable ongoing series (by Duane Swierczynski and Ariel Olivetti) to carry Hope's story forward.
• The one-shot sold out at Diamond Distribution shortly after release, leading to a same-week announcement of the Bianchi-cover second printing — a sign of the crossover's immediate commercial traction.
• The story has been collected multiple times: in the original X-Men: Messiah Complex hardcover (April 2008), the X-Men Milestones: Messiah Complex reprint (2020), and is slated for the forthcoming X-Men: The Messiah Trilogy Omnibus (July 2026), which collects all three legs of the saga in a single volume.

Key issues in X-Men: Messiah Complex

Other variants of X-Men: Messiah Complex #1 (4)