Line #44 Literature/XMenMutantEmpireTrilogy


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xmenmutantempire.png]]
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3	Published between 1996 and 1997, Christopher Golden wrote three X-Men novels collectively known as the ''Mutant Empire Trilogy''. Individually, they were known as ''X-Men: Siege'', ''X-Men: Sanctuary'', and ''X-Men: Salvation''.
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5	The novels focus on two plots concurrently: the main plot centers around ComicBook/{{Magneto}} and his [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Acolytes]] hijacking a fleet of Sentinels and using it to seize control of [[NewYorkIsOnlyManhattan Manhattan]], while the secondary plot focuses on a secondary squad of X-Men led by ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and ComicBook/JeanGrey in space battling the Shi'ar Empire. They take place in the mainstream Marvel universe, and though published in the late '90s they are set in the early '90s era of that universe, just prior to ''ComicBook/FatalAttractionsMarvelComics''.
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8	!!''X-Men: Mutant Empire Trilogy'' provides examples of:
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10	* ActionGirl: There's superpowered females among both the X-Men (ComicBook/{{Rogue}}, ComicBook/{{Storm\|MarvelComics}}, Jean Grey, Psylocke) and the Acolytes (Voght, Unuscione, Cargill, Scanner).
11	* AdaptationalJerkass: While Unuscione was always a villain in the comics, and a WouldHurtAChild villain at that, her crazy is dialed up several notches by Golden, far surpassing even her worst moments in the comics. She's so AxCrazy here that she attacks her rival Voght practically every chance she gets, even when doing so would incur Magneto's ire, and clearly prioritizes her feud with Voght over Magneto's plans, and indeed gets dangerously close to becoming a SpannerInTheWorks for his EvilPlan (it doesn't work only because Voght soundly defeats her in every encounter).
12	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In contrast to Unuscione above, Senyaka isn't half as murderous in this trilogy as he is in the comics, and while he doesn't come anywhere close to hero territory, he does come across as significantly more sane and trustworthy than the likes of Unuscione and the Kleinstock brothers.
13	* AllPowerfulBystander: [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] in retrospect, considering his high power level established in the ''ComicBook/{{Blood Ties\|MarvelComics}}'' event. Magneto probably would have held Manhattan easily had he just bothered to bring Exodus along, but he remains on Avalon throughout the entirety of the trilogy.
14	* [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant Mutant Guy]]: Bishop is written this way, being described as wading into a squad of soldiers trying to [[ShootingSuperman shoot him with plasma weapons]] arrogantly and treating Iceman with disdain (Iceman, of course, saves his life despite this).
15	* AxCrazy: Several of the Acolytes qualify, most prominently Unuscione (who does not even try to hide it) and Cargill (who is calmer than Unuscione but affects DissonantSerenity as she murders a pair of innocent humans).
16	* BadassInDistress: Between ''Sanctuary'' and ''Salvation'' most of the X-Men are captured by Magneto.
17	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Amelia Voght might be the OnlySaneWoman in the Acolytes, but don't let that make you think she's a pushover. Several characters find this out, including a mob of rioting humans, Unuscione and even ''Wolverine''.
18	* BigBad: Magneto on Earth and Deathbird in space.
19	* BigGood: ComicBook/ProfessorX on Earth and Lilandra in space.
20	* BigGuyLittleGuy: As comics fans known, the Shi'ar Imperial 'Guardsman' Warstar is actually a symbiotic being made up of two individuals: TheBigGuy, C'Cil, and little B'nee who is TheSmartGuy of the duo.
21	* BlondBrunetteRedhead: The Acolytes have this going for them with Scanner (blonde), Unuscione (brunette), and Voght (redhead).
22	* BroadStrokes: The trilogy takes this approach with its setting. Magneto leading the Acolytes places the novel prior to ''Fatal Attractions'', but there are some inconsistencies such as Senyaka still being with the team (despite Magneto killing him off shortly after accepting the Acolytes into his service) and Colossus not being a member of their ranks yet. The novel seems to take place after the Acolytes desert Fabian Cortez, but before they and Magneto crash Illyana Rasputin's funeral (both events take place in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' #304), suggesting that it takes place in an AlternateTimeline.
23	* CanonForeigner: Being a novel trilogy with an original plot, a few of these sneak in:
24	** In ''Siege'' there's Candide, a half-Kree/half-Shi'ar smuggler and associate of Corsair who exists to play the DamselInDistress alongside Corsair's DistressedDude.
25	** In ''Sanctuary'' there's Major Ivan Skolnick, a US Army officer and secret mutant who defects to Magneto. He eventually comes to regret his decision and rejoins the good guys in time for the final battle.
26	* CharacterDevelopment: Many of the Acolytes are more developed in this trilogy than they ever were in the comics.
27	* ChekhovMIA: ComicBook/{{Colossus}} is conspicuously absent from the entire trilogy. Given his relevance in ''Fatal Attractions'', there's no way this wasn't intentional.
28	* CrapsackWorld: Hala, the Kree homeworld, is this, as the trilogy takes places after the "Operation: Galactic Storm" CrisisCrossover.
29	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Magneto's WideEyedIdealist nature gets the better of him again, as he focuses most of his attention on the actual conquest of Manhattan and gives little serious thought to the AndThenWhat after. He has plenty of grandiose ''ambitions'' for his mutant city, but either doesn't consider or just ignores several potential impediments (mutants not being as lawfully-minded as he thinks they'll be, not all mutants rallying to his cause, the reality of trying to defend a lone outpost surrounded on all sides by enemy territory, etc. etc.)
30	* DisproportionateRetribution: Cargill [[MurderIsTheBestSolution murders]] Trish Tilby's cameraman Kevin and his girlfriend Caroline for no reason other than "They pissed me off."
31	* TheDragon: POV Acolyte Amelia Voght finds herself in this position, being promoted to Magneto's NumberTwo after her successful leadership of the Acolyte squad that seizes control of the Sentinel facility.
32	* TheDreaded: Wolverine is this to several of the Acolytes, most notably POV Acolyte Amelia Voght.
33	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Joanna Cargill and Sven Kleinstock aren't at all onboard with Unuscione's plan to kill Amelia Voght and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.
34	* TheExtremistWasRight: ObstructiveBureaucrat and FantasticRacism-fan Henry Peter Gyrich firmly believes Professor X is in league with the X-Men. He is, of course, not wrong.
35	* FantasticRacism: In ''Siege' Kree citizens taunt the Shi'ar-born Raza by calling him "birdy". Which is a bit strange, since Raza's hair (bald with a long ponytail) is nothing like the vestigial head feathers common Shi'ar have.
36	* TheGlovesComeOff: Storm really cuts loose in ''Sanctuary'' fighting Magneto, to the point where even the Master of Magnetism wonders if he can win without killing Storm. [[spoiler:He does, but it's a close thing]].
37	* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: As this trilogy was written before the Marvel smoking ban, Wolverine lights up every chance he gets.
38	* HeroesGoneFishing: Or rather playing volleyball, which is what the X-Men are doing when we first meet them in ''Sanctuary''.
39	* InnerMonologue: The preferred form of exposition in the novels. Characters think about past things such as Magneto's stint with the Hellfire Club, Wolverine's fight with the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre, etc.
40	* TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: A villainous version, as Cargill is delighted when Magneto recruits her favorite novelist to the ranks of the Acolytes. That novelist? Pyro.
41	* LastPlanStanding: Magneto's plan to use the Sentinels is made possible because of his time in the Hellfire Club as its White King, during which Sebastian Shaw was manufacturing said Sentinels for his own EvilPlan. Magneto simply slipped in an override function into the Alpha Sentinel that only he could use, then patiently waited for the right time to use it.
42	* LukeIAmYourFather: Though hinted at in the comics, it is established in ''Sanctuary'' that Unuscione's father is in fact classic Brotherhood member Unus the Untouchable.
43	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Attempted by Unuscione on Amelia Voght in ''Salvation''. [[spoiler:It fails, with Voght soundly defeating her rival and out of exasperation teleporting her back to Avalon for Exodus to deal with]].
44	* MasterComputer: The Alpha Sentinel, which controls all other Sentinels (and is unrelated to Master Mold, a Sentinel which does the same thing ''and'' is a MookMaker).
45	* NobleTopEnforcer: Exodus is this for Magneto and Gladiator is this for Deathbird. Interestingly, this trilogy is the only known work to date in which both of these characters appear within the same story, though they never encounter each other.
46	* NotInThisForYourRevolution: TheJuggernaut shows up in ''Salvation'', but instead of helping Magneto solidify his control over Manhattan he opts to help the X-Men instead, reasoning that a city ruled by mutants will be a hard place for a guy like him to do business.
47	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Henry Peter Gyrich, who shows up in all three books to play his usual odious government official role.
48	* PetTheDog: The Blob has a surprisingly tender moment with Unuscione when he meets her, recognizing her as his old buddy Unus's daughter and telling her what a great guy he was. It's notable for being the only time in the trilogy where the otherwise AxCrazy Unuscione acts like a human being.
49	* PlayingWithFire: This is the specialty of Imperial Guard member Starbolt.
50	* PraetorianGuard: The Shi'ar Imperial Guard, who are the primary foes for the space-bound X-Men.
51	* RecruitingTheCriminal: Magneto recruits the Blob, Pyro and Toad for Haven in ''Sanctuary'', despite Exodus rejecting all three for citizenship on Avalon. POV Acolyte Amelia Voght takes note of this, remarking through her InnerMonologue that it's her first indication that Exodus does not necessarily know Magneto's every whim.
52	* RunningGag: As in the ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' 90's cartoon, Wolverine is the party pooper who pops a ball with his claws mid-game.
53	* SeriesContinuityError: In keeping with the BroadStrokes nature of the trilogy detailed above, a few of these slip in.
54	** In ''Siege'' Storm notes that she and Wolverine are the only remaining members of the second generation of X-Men, with Thunderbird dead and the others all having gone on to other teams. This isn't strictly true, as Colossus was still an X-Man at the time, but the trilogy pretends he doesn't exist for the sake of preserving the spoiler that he [[spoiler:defects to the Acolytes in ''Fatal Attractions'']].
55	** Later in ''Siege'' Beast considers Mr. Sinister as one of the potential hijackers of the Colorado Sentinel facility, forgetting that he was believed killed off post-''ComicBook/Inferno1988'' by Cyclops.
56	* ShootTheMessenger: Deathbird goes from zero to psycho in five seconds and drops a Shi'ar captain to his death in ''Siege'', once she realizes the 'rebels' he failed to capture are actually the X-Men.
57	* ShoutOut: In ''Siege'' Cyclops tells Ch'od they have six minutes to "[[Franchise/StarTrek beam down]]." Ch'od, not being familiar with Earth sci-fi, merely stares until Archangel clarifies what he meant.
58	** Later in ''Siege'' a RealLife example gets dropped when Bishop faces down a tank, a situation which reminds Iceman uncomfortably of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man Tiananmen Square]].
59	* SixthRanger: Juggernaut, who pulls a VillainousRescue twice in ''Salvation''.
60	* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Hepzibah the Starjammer speaks with a Object-Subject-Verb word order that's more than a little reminiscent of Yoda.
61	* SuperSupremacist: Magneto and his Acolytes have this attitude. Their EvilPlan is to establish Manhattan as a mutant-ruled city, with the remaining humans as an underclass.
62	* TakeOverTheCity: Magneto takes over Manhattan and re-titles it as Haven, the titular Mutant Empire the trilogy is named for.
63	* TemptingFate: Wolverine confidently taunts Magneto at the end of ''Salvation'' after the Master of Magnetism is defeated and remarks that he doesn't think there'll be a next time. Come ''Fatal Attractions''...
64	* TookALevelInBadass: Amelia Voght demonstrates offensive uses of her mutation that she never gets in the comics.
65	* TortureTechnician: Deathbird is introduced torturing Corsair and Hepzibah more or less ForTheEvulz.
66	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Sentinels are turned against mankind by Magneto thanks to a secret override command he slipped into the Alpha Sentinel's programming.
67	* UnreliableVoiceover: In ''Siege'' Cyclops assures the reader through his internal monologue that neither Professor X nor Jean Grey alter minds without consent, apparently forgetting the dozens of times Xavier did just that during the Silver Age.
68	* VillainDecay: The Marauders show up in ''Salvation'', though as a QuirkyMinibossSquad rather than the pants-crappingly dangerous MurderInc they were when the X-Men last encountered them.
69	* WolverineClaws: The TropeNamer himself sports these, of course, along with Deathbird.
70	* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Raza the Starjammer talks this way, though his "nearly Shakespearean" dialect is the result of a Shi'ar-to-English voice translator parsing out his "archaic Shi'ar" speech.

Context Literature / XMenMutantEmpireTrilogy