X-Men Series Beats Part 1

I did a previous piece on pacing in TV shows, but this is one on supers comics – specifically the classic X-Men plotting leading up to the Dark Phoenix saga. This stands out as being the best of the late 70’s Marvel trend of long running subplots leading up to climactic events[1]. Things open with issue #94, the first regular issue after the giant sized special that introduced the new team. Two issues of fighting a long standing villain, Count Nefaria, highlights how this is not your father’s X-Men (with the death of a team member on a mission and Jean Grey leaving). After that things really start.

Issue 96 is filler: Demons come out of a Westchester County, NY ruin (?) to be fought off by Storm and the rest of the team. The issue is notable, however, for a foreshadowing of the Sentinels and the first appearance of Moria McTaggert, master geneticist & Xavier’s ex-girlfriend. She is the start of the new NPC cast. In issue 97 we officially start the Shiar plotline: Charles starts getting strange dreams about a fleeing alien, and Eric the Red appears to bedevil the X-Men because they might someday help said fleeing figure.

We take a brief break as The Sentinel foreshadowing kicks into gear in 98, with Jean’s return and kidnapping leading to the three issue fight against Trask and his giant robots in space and culminating in issue 100 with Jean’s death and rebirth as Phoenix.

Then it’s back to the Shiar plot, with Eric the Red using a variety of cat’s paws to defeat the X-Men: Black Tom Cassidy and Juggernaut from issues 101 to 103, Magneto in 104 and Firelord in 105 – that’s when the mysterious figure Charles has been dreaming about since 97 reaches him, unmasked as Princess Lilandra of the previously unknown Shiar Empire and (for some odd reason) the soul mate of a human mutant. On this flimsy hook hangs all of Eric the Red’s – actually a Shiar agent – attempts to defeat the team, but it’s enough to propel the X-Men into space to fight a copy of the Legion of Super-Heroes with the serial numbers filed off.

Well, they would if issue 106 wasn’t a filler story about some of Charles’ post Korea exploits fighting an evil mutant telepath in Cairo[2]. But after that little interlude the X-Men, and specifically Phoenix, save the universe, she reveals her full power, we learn that Wolverine has a crush on Jean and that the leader of the anti-Shiar space buccaneers known as the Starjammers is actually Cyclops's long-lost father. All this tells us is that the GM really wants to keep using the Shiar.

In any event, 13 issues later and we have concluded our first story arc. Pacing is 1 issue intro, 3 issues of reducing the story arc to the C plot (with Lilandra’s dreams messing with the Professor), 4 issues of indirect threats to keep the PCs from getting bored with the main villain (essentially making the story arc the B plot), then 3 issues with the arc back as the A plot, with the big bad being revealed as just an agent of the real villain, who must now be defeated to save the X. That’s a clear 12 issue run driving to the big climax – the story arc is always there, but broken up by the appearance of older, long standing threats (in this case the Sentinels). Note how returning Magneto as a threat is dropped in this arc, and that the metaplot – Phoenix’s temptation by ultimate power – is brought up again and again.

Issue 109 starts off what I call the “round the world tour” plot, but it’s really time to explore Wolverine. The team gets some personal, character growth time interrupted by Wolverine’s weakness (Hunted: Alpha Flight) in the form of a quick battle with Weapon Alpha that foreshadows things.

Then we have an apparent filler issue: some villain no one ever cared about, a guy named Warhawk, attacks the team at home, does surprisingly well and then gets beaten. Why is this not just filler? Because his bugging of the mansion for the Hellfire Club is what keeps the Metaplot running during the round the world tour, and the GM is playing fair – someone bugging the PC’s base is a big thing, and the heroes have to have a chance to stop it. It’s not something that can occur in the background without the players crying foul.

Then we break the main plot with a long standing threat; Magneto, reappears for three issues, just as the Sentinels cropped up a couple of issues into the last arc. Then the team is split again, with Jean thinking the others are dead – she wanders off into her metaplot.

The others are trapped in the Savage Land, a perfect place for Wolverine to strut his stuff. The differences between Wolverine and Cyclops as Jean’s suitors are displayed, he gets to fight dinosaurs with his claws, displaying his leadership prowess and for the first time, ever, displays his regenerative powers[3]. It’s not that the rest of the team doesn’t do things in this story, but it’s the first step to Wolverine becoming the fan favorite that he is today.

117 is another issue with Professor X as filler, with him leaving Earth thinking his disciples are dead, Moria ruminating on some mystery from her past and Jean starting her own vacation, with the Hellfire Club tailing her. That metaplot keeps bubbling under the surface, and she has asides in 118 and 119 as well (as does Moria).

During those issues the X-Men are in Japan, reuniting with Sunfire, fighting Moses Magnum and discovering that Wolverine used to be a secret agent, that he speaks Japanese and starting his romance with Mariko. Since all thing Japan and Ninja related are cool, this makes his star wax even more.

We conclude the round the world tour with the X-Men’s return to New York taking a detour in Calgary with Alpha Flight’s appearance and the ‘conclusion’ (at least temporarily) of Wolverine’s mysterious history plot. That’s 13 issues which, in a lot of ways, are filler between the beginning and end of the Phoenix plot. There is no big, save the world push, but instead a focus on character growth.

For all that I’m focusing on Wolverine the other PCs have lots of meaty character growth – Cyclops’ stoic fight against grieving for Jean, Nightcrawler’s swashbuckling (and, to be fair, he’d been the GM’s favorite PC for the first arc, getting the lion’s share of the heroism), Colossus’ self doubt, etc. – that makes this middle arc really impressive. There is no drive to save the world, just four solid 2-3 issue adventures with Jean Grey simmering as the B or C plot in almost every issue. Still, seen as the Wolverine arc there are parallels in pacing: 1 issue intro with Weapon Alpha, 3 issues reducing it to the C plot (the Mesmero/Magneto plot), 4-5 issues of highlighting his background skills (essentially making the story arc the B plot), then 2 issues with the arc back as the A plot when Alpha Flight appears. Meanwhile, an NPC’s history – Moria’s – keeps coming up to lay groundwork for something else.

Then we get the Dark Phoenix saga proper. Issue 122 is another bit of personal time for the PCs. The temptation of Jean kicks into high gear this issue, as it is the main plot for this arc, but the PCs don’t necessarily notice it.

We then have a two issue plot with Arcade acting as Black Tom/Juggernaut’s agent against the X-Men – essentially a side story as well, tying back to the first arc. Then some more personal time followed, again, by 3 issues of disconnected plot – Moria McTaggart’s mutant son Proteus, which had been foreshadowed in the last arc, just as the Sentinels had been before Arc 1 and Magneto before Arc 2[4].

Finally, after working in the shadows for the entire last arc the Hellfire Club appears, attacking the X-Men as both sides try to recruit two mutants – Dazzler and Kitty Pryde – in a 3 issue ambush. Then the X-Men turn the tables and attack the Club’s Manhattan brownstone for 3 more issues. Starting in issue 129, this has been building for 20 issues – an eternity in 70’s comic book time – and ends with Phoenix becoming omnipotent and evil, which has been building for 36 issues! The final battle includes the Shiar Imperial Guard, drawing in elements from the first story arc in a tight continuity.

This arc is longer – 16 issues – and therefore runs on a slightly different pacing. Still, we have an initial appearance of the threat, some unconnected plot intrusion (Arcade, then Proteus) and personal time, the use of cats paws (the Hellfire Club’s agents), a 3 issue battle with the Hellfire Club, who turn out to be the fake Big Bad covering for Dark Phoenix. That 3 issue story concludes a metaplot building since #94. To me this feels a bit like Buffy season 5, where the driving force of the Glory plot broke the existing beat structure and the pace was not so much breathless and numbing.

We then have a dénouement with Jean’s funeral, a recap of her life (and the previous 137 issues of X-Men) and Kitty Pryde joining the team as Cyclops leaves. I’m not going any further, other than noting that in 6 issues Kitty fights one of the demons from issue 94 – a 40 issue lag between subplots!

So what does this mean? Well, the pacing structure is pretty solid for a 12 episode arc: spend a session on personal time that is interrupted by a new threat, then break for three sessions to explore an old threat. In sessions 5-6 and 8-9 return to the season threat but keep it as a distance: the PCs need to be aware of it but not able to directly engage it. Let them face the threat directly in session 10, then reveal the real threat behind it in sessions 11-12. Use issue 7 (or, of you want to maintain a cliffhanger longer, re-arrange so it’s in issue 10) to throw in a backstory focused session for a character who hasn’t had a lot of spotlight time.

In between each major arc include a minor 12 issue arc that focuses on character development for everyone, but with the arc focused on one PC. The beat structure is the same, but rather replace the main villain with extra spotlight time for the focus PC.

Finally, maintain a 3 arc metaplot, so that issues brought up in session 1 are finally and fully resolved around session 36. A failure to do this leads to the dreaded Subplot Kudzu – especially if you keep re-hashing the earlier successful plots.

Of course, the beat structure for X-Men isn’t constant (eventually Clairmont lost it in a haze of subplots), nor is it applied evenly across all comics (Paul Levitz used a different beat structure for his excellent run on Legion of Super-Heroes, or Grant Morrison for his Justice League of America). But it is worthwhile as an example – it would be nice if some of the licensed super-hero games included this sort of analysis in their GM sections, as advice on how to run things. After all, the X-Men stories listed here have a driving forward motion, with events flowing into one another and the past constantly resurfacing. This is very different from the old structure of self contained issues, and will give the book, or in our case, game, a very different feel.

Just for fun, compare this to a Buffy structure: sessions 2, 3, 4 and 7 would be Monster of the Week stories, while the end of session 10 is when we reveal the real Big Bad for the main fight to end out the season. That’s a pretty close parallel, all things considered.

My own Revolution game has a beat pattern of 4 session stories built around 12 session themes, with every other theme having an extra session for a big climax. This works because the 4 session arcs are easily remembered in monthly games and the 12 session themes are just long enough to feel well-foreshadowed. But I might want to abandon this for a the 12 session X-Men style arc in the Universal Comics game, to give the campaign a different feel.

[1] Not the only one, of course. For example, the Korvak story ran, albeit sometimes in the background, from Avengers 167 to 177..

[2] A story hook that isn’t touched again for more than decade.

[3] That’s right, it’s not till his 26th appearance that his now ubiquitous healing factor is even mentioned! It makes the 9 issue delay in Nightcrawler discovering he’s invisible in shadows seem rather reasonable!

[4] You can see some concern here. A 2 issue story referencing every previous arc inside the current one means eventually there will be more references than plot. This is indeed what happened to X-Men, so GMs, be warned! I think these issues would have worked more if Arcade were the Hellfire Club’s cats paw rather than as a favor to Cassidy & Juggernaut, but that’s just me.