Shadow and Flame with Magik

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?354642-Countdown-to-the-Best-X-Event-Storyline!

A while ago, a poster over at Comic Book Resources compiled a list from the posters there, that poster goes by NewMutant.  Who I can only determine, spent a long time counting these.  Once Brain Cronin’s list is out, I thought it would be fun to compare the two lists.  I didn’t get to vote in this one.

53.  World’s Apart, a Storm mini, Kitty’s entrapment in a giant bullet in space, is referenced in the first issue.

53.  Life Death, Storm solo

53.  Schism, the story that would split the X-Men between Cyclops and Wolverine, Magik goes with Cyclops, Kitty & Lockheed go with Wolverine

52.  Nation X, Magik had a two stories in the actual mini.

50.  Manifest Destiny, takes place while Kitty is in space, the actual mini had a nice story with Nightcrawler missing Kitty.  Shame she came back right after he died.

50.  God Loves, Man Kills 2, X-Treme X-Men gets the sequel and Kitty plays a major part with Striker’s super villain turn.

48.  From the Ashes, Paul Smith’s awesome run, the trade starts with 168, so right after the Brood Saga but these stories are simply the best!

48.  Living Monolith / Enter Havok

45.  Magneto War, during the 35th Anniversary team, Magneto goes political with amazing work by Alan Davis.

45.  Phoenix Saga

45.  The End, Claremont’s epic three part saga, each saga has six issues each.  Kitty starts out as the mayor of Chicago and has three children, an older daughter and a set of twins, boy and girl.  Lockheed is there, Magik is not there.  Ends with Kitty going for President of the United States.

41.  Crossroads

41.  Bloodties

41.  Proteus, the storyline that takes place right before Dark Phoenix Saga

41.  Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire, one of the reasons why I’m not crazy about collecting every appearance of Rachel Grey and Nightcrawler, once they get on other teams without Kitty, their stories don’t hold much interest to me.  I love those two characters, and probably own like 60 percent of their appearances, but once they go off to space, I have no interest.

38.  Imperial

38.  Utopia, Magik plays a bigger part there, once Kitty gets back, they are pretty much leading up to Schism.

38.  Return of the Brood

36.  Endsong, nice story about Scott and Emma being a real couple over Jean and Scott.  Kitty has a nice moment or two.

36.  Assault on Weapon Plus

34.  Blinded by the Light, Ramos draws Kitty a little tiny compared to how giant he drew Colossus, that’s pretty much my main memory of this.  That and David Finch’s covers are beautiful.

34.  Days of Future Present, I wish Future Kate Pryde showed up in this but I do own all the parts to it, they keep making a bunch of references to the Days of Future Past timeline so I counted it for the collection.

33.  Welcome to Genosha

30.  Eve of Destruction

30.  Unstoppable, Whedon’s final arc, Kitty stuck in a bullet.  For like three years, I had such a disdain for Whedon.

30.  Muir Island Saga

29.  Necrosha, the world gets Doug Ramsey back!  Shame he and Kitty never get a moment together again.  Not quite sure where Doug is in current continuity.  Another character wherein I have like 75 percent of their appearances due to how much he showed up with Magik.

27.  Deadly Genesis, Xavier had a second team between the Original and the All New.  Kitty shows up, but mostly in background.

26.  Torn, my favorite of the four Whedon arcs.

25.  Second Coming, Magik gets to play a larger part in one of her first big crossovers.  This is the story that Kurt died in.

24.  Legion Quest, leads up to Age of Apocalypse.

23.  Mutant Genesis

23.  Fatal Attraction

21.  Brood Saga, ends with the legend Paul Smith on art, for issues 165-167.

21.  Gifted, Whedon’s first arc and puts Kitty back on a main X-Title, Lockheed shows up in one of the best moments of the series, drawn by Cassaday, in issue three.

20.  Here Comes Tomorrow, Grant Morrison’s take on a Days of Future Past type of story.

18.  Planet X

18.  Onslaught, Kitty missed out on a lot of this due to being in England at the time but as a young man, I adored this crossover.  One of the few and first times where an X-story exploded onto the rest of the Marvel Universe.

16.  Operation Zero Tolerance

16.  Asgardian Wars, Paul Smith art again, fun little mini.  This is where the example of Wolverine’s god like level of healing comes from when he came back from a drop of his own blood.  Actually, that was the bonus feature in the trade, the actual Asgardian Wars has outstanding art by Arthur Adams, Magik has some great moments in it with Enchantress.

14.  Phalanx Covenant

14.  House of M, Kitty’s involvement isn’t huge but she’s part of the Astonishing team and her moments are pretty cool.  I like it that she is standing next to Captain America on the Quesada drawn cover to issue one.  Within the House of M timeline, she becomes a teacher in Chicago, so I loved that as well.  On the assault of M, she teams up with Kurt, which of course, I dug.

13.  Riot at Xaviers

12.  Supernovas, Mike Carey’s opening arc, and couldn’t ask for a better one.

11.  X-Cutioner’s Song

10.  God Loves, Man Kills, this story is simply amazing and I wish X2 had a more down to earth approach to this instead of making it more of a military story but the original is truly a work of art.

9.  X-Tinction Agenda

8.  Messiah Complex

7.  Fall of the Mutants, we lose Doug in this one.

6.  Days of Future Past, the world, in two issues, is given a franchise and so much material in two issues of Uncanny.  They have gone back to this story time and time again, but it is amazing!

5.  E is for Extinction

4.  Inferno, we lose Magik in this one.

3.  Age of Apocalypse , we are given one of the best alternate Kitty Pryde’s of all time.  Truly tragic what happens to her at the end.  Kitty with a major attitude and an edge we will rarely see.  One of the first examples of why I don’t like Colossus comes from this.

2.  Mutant Massacre, we lose Kitty and Kurt for a while but are given Excalibur from it so its a bitter pill but a happy result.  We also get the terrific X-Men vs. Fantastic Four mini from this.

and with 183 Points:

1.  Dark Phoenix Saga, still a classic so many years later.

I’m sure when the Comics Should Be Good tallies come out, these final three will be in the final five in some order.