"Mutant Massacre" was a 1986 Marvel Comics crossover storyline. It primarily involved the superhero teams the X-Men and X-Factor. The solo hero Thor, the New Mutants, Power Pack, and Daredevil crossed over for an issue each in their own comic books.
The crossover was a surprise success, yielding sales boosts to the mutant-based books and prompting Marvel Comics' long-running policy of holding such mutant crossovers annually.
The story depicts a massacre of the Morlocks during an attack by the Marauders. The X-Men, X-Factor, and Power Pack attempt to intervene, with the X-Men having three of their members injured in the conflict.
Plot
The mysterious Marauders attack a mutant named Tommy and her Hellfire Club boyfriend in Los Angeles for the purpose of following her back to New York and finding the location of the underground mutant community known as the Morlocks. The Marauders kill Tommy and hundreds of Morlocks before the X-Men and X-Factor teams arrive separately and fight them, avoiding the total slaughter of the Morlocks. The two teams however do not meet during the battle and suffer crippling losses: X-Factor's Angel is crucified by the Marauders, and Thor, who help save the horribly wounded Angel and the rest of X-Factor from suffering any additional harm.
Thor uses his powers to cleanse the dead from the Morlock tunnels with fire, which causes problems for the X-Men, who briefly believe that the firestorm was caused by the Marauders and believe that the New Mutants died in said fire. Several Morlocks, including Berzerker and Masque, make their way into the surface world and begin to work for their personal aims.
Meanwhile, Wolverine saves the Power Pack
Reading order
thumb|left|This flow chart, published in select installments of "Mutant Massacre", maps out the story's chronology. The artist is [[Walt Simonson.]]
Uncanny X-Men
- Uncanny X-Men #210 (Prologue)
- Uncanny X-Men #211
- New Mutants #46
- Uncanny X-Men #212
- Uncanny X-Men #213
X-Factor
- X-Factor #9 (Prologue)
- X-Factor #10
- Thor #373
- Power Pack #27
- Thor #374
- X-Factor #11
Daredevil<br>
Daredevil #238 is set after the events of the Mutant Massacre. The issue features Daredevil fighting Sabretooth after his escape from the X-Mansion.
Consequences
thumb|Artist [[John Romita Jr. signing a copy of The Uncanny X-Men #211 at Midtown Comics in Manhattan]]
- Angel is pinned to the wall by Harpoon and Blockbuster, causing massive trauma to his wings, He eventually has his wings replaced by Apocalypse and becomes Archangel while serving as Death of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
- During the Massacre, Apocalypse also saves Plague from Harpoon and recruits her for his Horsemen of Apocalypse, transforming her into Pestilence.
- Wounded by Riptide's throwing stars, Colossus is briefly rendered quadriplegic as a result of Magneto using his powers to heal the damage.
- Wolverine discovers that Jean Grey is alive after smelling her scent in the tunnels,
Death list
Here is the list of Morlocks that were killed during the Mutant Massacre and the issue they were killed in:
{| class="wikitable" width=100%
!| Character
!| Death
!| Mutant power
!| Method of death
|-
| Annalee
| Uncanny X-Men #211
| Empathy
| Shot by Scalphunter.
|-
| Berzerker
| X-Factor #11
| Electrical powers
| Cyclops' optic blast knocked him into the river, where he electrocuted himself.
|-
| Blowhard
| X-Factor #11
| Wind exhaling
| Shot by the Savage Wolf Gang leader.
|-
| Cybelle
| Uncanny X-Men #211
| Acid sweat
| Killed by Harpoon.
|-
| Piper
| Uncanny X-Men #212
| Controlled animals using music
| Killed by Scalphunter.
|-
| Scaleface
| X-Factor #11
| Transforms into a large dragon-like reptilian creature
| Shot by the police.
|-
| Tommy
| Uncanny X-Men #210
| Can transform into a two-dimensional form.
| Killed by Harpoon and Scalphunter.
|-
| Zeek
| X-Factor #10
| Unknown
| Killed by Harpoon.
|}
Hundreds of other Morlocks were killed, but were not identified in the comics. Annalee and Piper were the only established characters among the casualties; the others were created solely to be victims of the massacre. This aspect of the story was satirized in What The--?! #4.
Background and creation
Writer Chris Claremont originally conceived the systematic killing of the Morlocks as a storyline that would run in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, but X-Factor writer Louise Simonson felt that such a big storyline would run overlong in a single title, and suggested that it be done as a crossover between all three mutant titles.
Claremont and Simonson, the chief writers of the crossover, exchanged copies of their typewritten plots and scripts, and extensively discussed the intersecting storylines over the telephone.