The Evolutionary War

Since a significant chunk of this crossover comes up in X-Men: Inferno Prologue it seems best to look at the whole thing. As we'll see from some changing status quos over the books it's doesn't take place in one single event so I'll weave in and out of it as necessary though as all three mutant annuals are placed together a big chunk will come at the start.

The Evolutionary War was a bold crossover in its day. Previously there had been many stories told over a couple of annuals but for 1988 Marvel opted to tie all eleven(/twelve) of its annuals together to tell a big story of the High Evolutionary's grand plans for Earth and his work in preparation. In addition the annuals also carried chapters of a back-up story "The High Evolutionary" by Mark Gruenwald which detailed and rationalised the character's history plus various short stories outside the crossover featuring characters from the regular series. As a result the whole set of annuals offers quite a substantial look at part of the Marvel Universe at this time.

Clearly something worked as Marvel would return to the format the following year with Atlantis Attacks before switching to smaller storylines over only a selected number of annuals in the early 1990s. DC would also try the format with the likes of Armageddon 2001 and Bloodlines.

For now let's get started...