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X-Men Blue (Collected Editions)

X-Men Blue, Vol. 3: Cross Time Capers

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Collects X-Men Blue (2016) #16-20.

The X-Men travel through Magneto's time portal to save the past! But something is wrong with the portal, which sends the team careening through time and space. Will they be able to figure out a way to get back to the present?

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2018

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137 people want to read

About the author

Cullen Bunn

2,106 books1,059 followers
Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

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5 stars
58 (11%)
4 stars
155 (29%)
3 stars
236 (44%)
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68 (12%)
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9 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
Profile Image for Baba.
4,084 reviews1,542 followers
August 31, 2023
Argggggggggh I loathe the inanity and pointlessness of excessive time travelling so the original X-Men stuck in the current time, travelling back through time to fix it, is all a bit much. Nevertheless Bunn doesn't do too bad a job and puts in some good pointers for the future of the book. 6 out of 12, time travelling Three Star read.

2019 read
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
May 2, 2018
Jeebus! Another time travel X-Men story! These guys time travel more than Dr. Who. Since when is Magneto smart enough to build a time machine? Bunn could have least had one of the geniuses on the Marvel universe build it. There's not much point to the story other than to get a couple of cameos from X-teams of other eras. It makes the time travelling aspect of these original five X-Men even more convoluted. I doubt the writers can even keep it straight at this point. Secret Wars would have been the perfect time to just wipe this whole mess away, but these writers just keep mucking with it, making it worse and worse.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books124 followers
March 21, 2018
[Read as single issues]
The Original Five X-Men head back, forward, and sideways in time as timestream anomalies force them to try and return to their original timeline before it all goes horribly wrong. Of course, things aren't all they seem. It's true what they say - you can't go home again.

I actually quite liked this arc. X-Men Blue has remained the more ambitious and overall stronger of the two coloured X-titles (not counting Red which just started), and this arc revisits a plot point from Brian Bendis's run on the characters while explaining it away with some very clever baiting and switching that brings back a group of characters you'll love to hate.

Along the way we get cameos from the X-Men of 2099, Emma Frost and friends, and some more familiar faces. It's a cavalcade of characters that are mostly fit for purpose. This is the first Blue story that's been more than three issues though, and it does feel a bit wavey in the middle, spinning its wheels until the last two parts kick it back into high gear again.

The art can't be faulted; Thony Silas starts us off fairly well before RB Silva takes the remaining four issues. He's becoming a superstar artist that I feel a lot of companies are sleeping on - teaming him with iunker Adriano Di Benedetto has been one of Marvel's best artistic moves in a while, because Di Benedetto really elevates Silva's pencils to another level.

X-Men Blue's third arc is a little too long, but it's attempts to do something different yet familiar with these characters can't be faulted for trying.
Profile Image for Molly™☺.
977 reviews110 followers
January 31, 2022
40% | D+ | Meh

"I like to think Charles would forgive me for what I'm about to do...because I know God will not"

The X-Men travel through a time portal, visiting various points in time and seeing some familiar faces along the way


I literally have no idea what I just read. I was confused before, now I'm completely and utterly lost. I don't think the time travel has been well fleshed out at all, with no real attempt at explaining the in-universe rules. I really do love this team, especially Jimmy, and want to see them in a story which deserves them. Although, I was tempted to give it an extra star because I'm a sucker for Emma Frost cameos...

description
Profile Image for Frédéric.
1,992 reviews84 followers
June 16, 2018
3,5*

Yet another time travel story, rather decent actually.

Friends of the X-Men start disappearing due to time ripples, meaning the timeline is being altered by something from the past. The Blues' past. So they use some gizmo supposed to help them correct the course of events. First stop: 2099 (?)

I didn't think I'd ever say it but Bunn wrote something quite good. He deftly uses past events and characters from before Secret Wars to weave his plot and even bring answers to some unexplained stuff.
It's coherent, self-contained and well-constructed and overall the dialogues are less cheesy than usual-except the fight scene of issue 18, itself time travelling to the glorious 80's when everybody tried to get a killer punchline while beating the shit out of someone else.

R.B. Silva illustrates most of the book. His style somehow reminds me of the great Stuart Immonen so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

After 3 volumes very so-so, this one goes back on tracks. Knock on wood and hope it lasts!
Profile Image for Michael Hicks.
Author 38 books509 followers
December 25, 2019
Ok, this volume was pretty damn awesome. It’s time travel a-go-go as the world begins to change and the young, time-displaced X-Men are forced to journey back to their past to save the future. With a few stops along the way to some familiar eras, including a stop-over in 2099! But things are noticeably different and the X-Men are to blame! This is easily Cullen Bunn’s best entry in the X-Men Blue series this far and it’s a freaking blast, drawing on just enough (warped) nostalgia for the hook but delivering plenty of differences to keep you interested. This one’s an X-cellent entry.
Profile Image for Robert Kirwan.
348 reviews50 followers
July 22, 2018
I LOVED THIS STORY!! OMG a time travelling story done right with sumptuous art!! It tied up some loose threads that were annoying me and it was a heck of a fun time getting there!! Easily my fave volume of X-Men Blue so far!!
Profile Image for C. Varn.
Author 3 books401 followers
September 8, 2018
Cullen Bunn seems to have trouble figuring out what to do with the alternate time classic X-men plus Bloodstorm and Draken, so enter yet another time travel plot. This trope has made X-book continuity almost impossible to follow starting in the 1990s, but Bunn does not completely botch it. While I am not quite sure what the point was in introducing X-Men: 2099 team again--which hit a mid-90s nostalgia for me-- and the Generation X team under Emma Frost showing up, but once Bunn gets the Blue team into a proper Brian Bendis' plotline and revisiting that, this feels more grounded immediately. Silas and Silva both do good artwork here even if they are in Marvel house style. There are some out of character developments, Magneto builds a time machine in the basement subliminal suggestions by Professor X. This element fairly sloppy writing given the general talents of the characters involved. Yet this is a great improvement over the Gold Team and the Weapon X lines--and there isn't enough of the Red Team and Astonishing line to make a strong judgment yet--but there are some major flaws here.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books167 followers
April 1, 2018
X-Men Blue continues to be the better of the current X-Men books, and this is the best volume of it to date, finally fulfilling the promise of Vol. 1.

That's in part due to the characters. Bunn did great with them in the early volumes, and that may be somewhat lessened here due to the larger cast, but still we get lots of attention to these people as people.

However, it's in larger part due to the plot. This is the finally the story that unwinds the terrible mess made of the timelost teens' plotline, which was thoroughly inconsistent by this point. And it does so with great attention to recent X-Men continuity, making it feel like a continuation of the Bendis era in a way that none of the other post-Secret Wars X-Men comics have.

Oh, and the cross-time meetings with 2099, Gen X, and the classic Magneto are fun. There's too much meet-and-fight, and too little attention to expanding those eras, but it's a good enough MacGuffin to hang the main plot upon, and it doesn't feel too decompressed thanks to the visits to three different eras.
Profile Image for Christian Zamora-Dahmen.
Author 1 book31 followers
November 30, 2019
This was a fun read about the X-Men and time travel. I read some people complaining about the time traveling thing, well, guess what? This is a time displaced X-Men team. Time travel is intrinsic to them and it is bound to happen.
Some complaints just make me scratch my head, ha!
Anyway, while the story has its low moments, it has an interesting plot and it explores some issues that this team should really worry about.
One of the things I like most about this series is that each character has a nice portrayal; even if I'm still wondering what Bloodstorm is doing here--
I enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Jen.
1,468 reviews
June 15, 2018
Time travel - the lazy way to fill a whole issue, and yet change nothing.

I will say having some of the "guest" characters was nice. I like reading stories with this specific incarnation of .
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
May 18, 2019
It was cool seeing the X-Men interact with the various characters from different places and points in history, but other than that there wasn't a lot of substance going on here. Still interesting, however.
Profile Image for Sarospice.
1,213 reviews14 followers
January 28, 2019
Ugh! It was actually interesting to see the original kids time jump to these different X eras but they didn't spend enough time in any, and the end reveal of why this caper was a conplete letdown.
Profile Image for Adam Fisher.
3,607 reviews24 followers
June 4, 2018
Since the debut of All-New X-Men, the question has always been "When are the original X-Men going to return to their original time?". This Volume, starts the process on that path (at least that's what it looks like).
The members of Blue Team (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Jimmy Hudson, Bloodstorm) are experiencing "temporal headaches". Magneto is having them the worst, and they are also giving him echoes of Charles Xavier's voice. Gathering them all together, it is revealed that Magneto recently built a time machine in the basement (later we find out it was from a psychic suggestion from Xavier) and the team jumps in, intent on returning to their time.
Given the title is "Cross Time Capers", you know you are in for a ride. First stop: 2099, where they meet up with the X-Men 2099 (Skullfire, Bloodhawk, Metalhead, Krystalin, La Lunatica, Cerebra, and Meanstreak). In 2099, they suffer under the regime of the original 5 X-Men, so Blue Team helps them by stopping a powerful Sentinel. Machine gets repaired, they jump again....
.... this time to the 1990's, where the residents of Xavier's School are Generation-X (Chamber, Jubilee, M, Mondo, Skin, Synch, Husk, Penance, Banshee, and Emma Frost. As a reader of Gen X in the 90's I was so glad to see them all back!) At first they fight each other, but Emma takes them aside and sorts them out. It is here we find out that Blue Team is not only travelling through the past, but also through parallel universes where the Original 5 take over the world. A harsh lesson for them to learn...
Machine repaired, jump again..... they show up in the 1960's, where the Original X-Men are fighting Magneto. The problem of two sets of X-Men gets resolved when the impostors reveal themselves to be the Brotherhood (Raze Darkholme, Bruiser, Ice Thing, Beast, Old Man Deadpool, Xorn, and Charles Xavier II) Obviously, a fight starts (like usual), but this time, Blue Team pulls the 2099 and Generation X teams forward to help. They find the real 60's Xavier, who tells them when they are ready to return, they must return to the exact moment they left in order for time to be restored. They return to present day, but with a new mission: getting home, the way they were when they left, at the time they left.

X-Men Blue is a great title and perfect for messing with all kinds X-history. I have really been enjoying seeing all the changes to the original team, but am excited to see them finally addressing the problem that has been around since the beginning. I hope the writers know what they are doing....
Recommend.
Profile Image for Jesús De la Jara.
820 reviews101 followers
April 15, 2018
Uno de los volúmenes más bajos sin duda. Ahora que el equipo está conformado por los X-Men originales pero también por Jimmy Hudson (el hijo de Wolverine del universo Ultimate) y Bloodstorm (Storm del universo demoniaco de Madeleyne Prior) hay tensiones sobre todo entre Jean y Scott. Al parecer por unas paradojas del espacio tiempo están obligados a viajar al pasado lo que los llevará a algunos saltos en el tiempo, algo interesantes.
Profile Image for Scott Lee.
2,180 reviews8 followers
July 11, 2018
It's an X-Men time-travel story (comic book time travel story for that matter) that didn't completely suck. That in itself is an accomplishment.

Going with the Goodreads definition of 3 stars here ("I like it," as opposed to mediocre). Bunn manages to tell a time travel story that answers some questions about the team and the timeline without just raising more or accomplishing nothing at all. The time displaced X-Men are summoned back in time to stop a problem from the past and do so. The book acknowledges their changes from what they'd have been if they'd stayed in the past and explains some questions that have hovered over the team for a time. And while the time travel does reset itself, the goal was for it to reset itself, to restore the timeline not to change it more, so it seems likely it succeeded, meaning the story actually does something instead of most timestories that occur, threaten to change everything, and then change nothing. So yeah....

The art was sort of inconcsistent this volume. There were some panels where a given character would look great and then you flip the page in the same issue and s/he looks awful. Not sure what happened there.
Profile Image for Tomás Sendarrubias García.
901 reviews20 followers
April 9, 2023
Después de enfrentarse a Mojo y de que todo el mundo descubriera que Magneto seguía vivo y que este equipo Azul trabajaba con él (sigo sin pillar en qué momento se supone que Magneto había muerto, se me ha quedado fuera de foco), el equipo formado por los jóvenes Cíclope, Bestia, Chica Maravillosa, Hombre de Hielo, Ángel, Jimmy Hudson y Tormenta de Sangre va a verse abocado a la resolución de una de sus propias razones de ser: el viaje en el tiempo que realizaron de manos de Bestia después de X-Men vs Avengers. Y es que además, recordando aquel momento, el viaje de los jóvenes X-Men supuso uno más de los "ataques" a la corriente temporal que acabaron desencadenando la Era de Ultrón, con la aparición de Ángela en el Universo Marvel tradicional y el Galactus clásico yendo a parar al Universo Ultimate, por ejemplo.

El caso es que en un momento previo, el equipo había vuelto a viajar al pasado, para encontrarse con que seguían estando allí, como si no se hubieran marchado, lo que les dejó anclados en nuestro tiempo y sin un hogar al que volver. Y es aquí donde va a incidir ahora Cullen Bunn, ya que de pronto se van a encontrar con que Magneto desaparece en una especie de reajuste temporal, pero antes de hacerlo, revela a los jóvenes que ha estado trabajando en una máquina del tiempo para que puedan volver a su tiempo, pues Magneto sospecha que el desplazamiento de los jóvenes es la causa de ese seismo temporal. Así que el grupo va a tratar de viajar al pasado, a su lugar de origen... pero van a descubrir que, al parecer, el propio Magneto había programado sus saltos temporales, así que a lo largo de este arco argumental, vamos a ver a los jóvenes miembros de la Patrulla viajando al mismísimo año 2099 para unirse a la Patrulla-X 2099 (madre mía, cuánto tiempo desde que leí aquellos cómics...) y luchar junto a ellos contra Alchemax; a los tiempos del arranque de Generación-X con Emma Frost y Banshee en la dirección; van a volver a vivir su primer enfrentamiento con Magneto... y van a terminar descubriendo que jamás volvieron a su tiempo, sino que fueron sustituidos y engañados...

Una historia muy entretenida, bien solucionada, y que recupera a unos adversarios (no voy a revelarlos aquí por si las moscas) que ya en su momento me gustaron mucho y que tienen unas implicaciones interesantes con el propio equipo azul...

Efectivo, en definitiva, muy Bunn.
Profile Image for Alex E.
1,721 reviews12 followers
December 18, 2025
Man this team really like bouncing through time huh?

So if you've been reading the adventures of the X-Men - the original 5 to be precise - you know these guys have been pulled out of time, have gone forward to the present, have gone further to the future, they've been to alternate realities, they pretty much got time travel tachyons dripping off their undies. So when I saw the title of this volume I was like oh wow here we go again. And I get it - they're out of time, literally - so it makes sense that time traveling would be a part of their whole deal, but I think maybe explore other types of stories for a bit maybe? Especially when the big bads are revealed to be These guys just do not learn. They've literally been defeated like 4 times in the past... what? couple of months? 3 months? Comic book time aside, there's been a lot of this group and it's kind of getting a bit old.

However, I will say that for what it is, Cullen Bunn makes it work. It's an interesting angle that he takes here with the villains taking the place that the original 5 left behind. And the realization that they need to go back sooner rather than later was played out well. The consequences of these time jumping antics are sometimes forgotten - but here Bunn makes it succinctly clear that bad times are coming if they don't rectify things... permanently. I also like the intervention of Beast. He has been running amok with no guardrails, and the whole team telling him to chill out was a really smart move by Cullen Bunn.

Overall good - but nothing we haven't seen before. Let's see how Bunn moves things forward from here.
Profile Image for C.
1,754 reviews54 followers
November 27, 2018
Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

Probably 3.5 stars...

Okay, it's another time travel story with alternate reality characters. (yes, really...) And it is another hardcore nostalgia fest. But you know what? This one is pretty darned decent and finally moves the story of the original 5 a little bit further.

pros and cons:

+ An appearance of *all* of Generation X. Skin was one of my all-time favorite x-characters (I know it's an odd one, but...) and it was nice to see him (and synch and Penance and...).
+ The time travel plot actually makes some sense and everything follows from some earlier plot threads which is nice.
- The longer the original 5 are away from their original time, the less sense it makes that they can return without destroying the whole timestream...
- Bloodstorm and mini-wolvie continue to be more or less pointless to the story. Edie, Evan, and Laura were much better returning backup characters.
-Why do the writers keep having these teens have hints of romance/attraction with *much* older characters? (Jean/Old Logan, Scott/Bloodstorm) It's just a bit creepy in my opinion.

Overall, it is a pretty fun story that addresses some interesting stuff and moves the story along. I'm good with that and I look forward to the next volume.
Profile Image for Travis Duke.
1,140 reviews16 followers
May 18, 2019
(2 stars only for the art)What a mess...seriously can someone....anyone please close out this time traveling crap in the x-men? I used to turn a blind eye and focus on other story elements with these young (from the past) X-men but enough is enough. Like before they teased us with the idea of fixing these time displaced x-men ( the magic beast stuff) but it didnt stick because supposedly there was already some young x-men in the past so the real younger x-men didnt stay... confused yet?

So now some other wonky time travel shit is happening and they use magneto's time machine to figure it out...well the result is this book and its only complicated it more! The only redeeming factor is we find out who are the x-men in the past that took over... its those pesky future brotherhood with charles Jr. I actually like these dudes but nothing can save this book....

please fix the x-men :(
Profile Image for Willow.
532 reviews15 followers
February 7, 2022
I'm not sure how to feel about this one. On its own, the story is fine, and the outcome has been inevitable forever, and I'm really hoping they explore what that inevitability is going to mean for all of them. Especially Bobby and Jean. But also Warren and Scott and to a lesser extent Hank.

But also, having another "highlights from different eras" story arc immediately after the Mojo Worldwide one was... repetitive and made most of this story feel stale and boring.

And, just as a general rule? Goyishe writers really need to stop pretending they know how Jewish characters relate to God and how "forgiveness" from God works in Judaism. Because Magneto talking about God not forgiving him for something was just ridiculous and clearly Christian-washing with no understanding of how Judaism works.
Profile Image for Kay.
1,872 reviews14 followers
May 17, 2018
I have nothing nice to say about this series
I skimmed Vol. 2 & Mojo world... but I was just so bored with how pointlessly aimless this series is. New love interests join the team, but oh no, Scott and Jean now share a mind-meld thing! So awk. Haha (lame).
More time travel. More muckups.
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or whatever are back. Again.


What makes the X-Men a great series for me is their interactions with the real world. Their character development, and their cultural diversity. Here we have a boring team + a wolverine and a vampire (seriously wtf?!), getting into unrelatable and poorly explained hijinks.

Also Magneto and Charles are talking to each other through the past? Meh.
Profile Image for Michael Church.
684 reviews4 followers
January 26, 2020
This was such a fun read! Right off the bat, the art by Tony Silas and R. B. Silva was a breath of fresh air. It probably isn’t for everyone, but it was right up my alley. Rain Beredo did a great job on the colors as well.

The story was excellent as well. I loved the characters they brought in. It was a fun play on the old idea of a cross time caper from Excalibur. It seemed like it may have gone a little quicker than it should have, but it still had plenty of room to breathe and develop as a story.

I also really enjoyed how this is contributing to the overall story of this title. It was nearly a perfect arc in my eyes. Self contained and interesting, yet building something greater than itself at the same time. I’m still very excited to see even more of where this is going.
Profile Image for Lindsey.
260 reviews22 followers
April 16, 2018
I'm honestly not sure what I just read. I read the previous volume in the X-Men: Blue series (Toil and Trouble) but I felt lost throughout this one. I must have missed something in a crossover title. I don't keep up with X-Men: Gold, which seems to be where the Mojoverse reappeared.

I agree with other readers that they need to lay off the time travel for a while. I've embraced the presence of the teen X-Men from the past, because I love the original five and they've managed to sustain that storyline for years, but it seems like every new title I pick up involves time travel shenanigans. It puts all other story arcs on pause.
Profile Image for Andy.
810 reviews4 followers
October 26, 2018
Yes the thing I love most, time travel, not!

Talk about confused. Maybe I am dumb but this whole storyline made no sense to me. The best thing about this is that we are getting a story, I just don't like it that much in all honesty. The story was very science fiction and I really appreciate that but the reveal of what is going on was so meh and who? that it just made the whole thing not matter that much anymore.

I thought these characters were going bye-bye, but apparently no? or are they? God knows at this point, sigh.
Profile Image for Sean.
4,189 reviews25 followers
February 7, 2022
A weird and wild through time as the young original X-Men meet lots of characters that affect them greatly. As with most time travel tales, this might make your head hurt. Cullen Bunn is having fun with this team but sometimes I think they need to take a breath. Angel gets no development. Iceman is cliched and repetitive. Scott and Jean are redundant to...Scott and Jean. There needs to be more and adding more to the mix isn't it. The art was good but rushed at times. Overall, a seemingly harmless romp through time.
Profile Image for Dean.
991 reviews5 followers
May 16, 2025
art in the first issue is really not for me. after that it is r b Silva which looks like immonen and is great.

story was fun but I didn't enjoy it.
Mutants vanish back to the future style. the original five use a time platform to travel to 2099, Gen X 90s and an early encounter with Magneto and the Brotherhood. turns out the future x men/Brotherhood created by bendis are impersonating the original five x men in the past. it's a clever solution to the bendis problem and it also clears them off the board but off panel so they can be used again if need be.

but seriously, send them back!
Profile Image for Garrett.
1,731 reviews24 followers
July 26, 2018
More fun, but mostly because of all the damned time travel and illusions and the hearkening back to periods of X-History that were delicious but perhaps too cheesy to live - the 1990s Generation X, the X-Men of 2099 - good stuff, and important to refresh copyright through frequent use, and a little clunkily done here, but not so much as to fuck up a good time travel story. Enjoyed over a light dinner of aged cheese and diet cherry soda.
Profile Image for Adan.
Author 32 books27 followers
April 3, 2019
Time travel and X-Men?! Two great tastes that taste great together! The original X-Men being in the present finally starts to muck with time, so they go to the future (X-Men 2099!), the recent past (original Generation X!), and their original time (the original X-Men! ...wait, what). The mystery of who’s hanging out in the past is revealed, and it’s pretty great, actually. More blasts from the past, and I’m having a lot of fun reading the X-Men.
Profile Image for Adam Eastment.
13 reviews
January 12, 2019
So, this is probably more of an extension of the entire time travel saga started by Beast back in All-New X-Men #1 by Bendis - and I would recommend reading as such because it fits in really well. So read suggestion: All-New X-Men #1 -> Battle of the Atom -> Cross Time Capers

The book is really good, story is good fun and I definitely enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
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