X-MAN #11-12 (1996)

X-Man meets up with the X-Men and Excalibur.

It’s at this point that the X-Man series becomes much more intertwined with the X-Books, and that’s not always a good thing. The X-Books are so continuity heavy and are constantly churning through shared universe events, which means X-Man is now beholden to those restrictions.

In hindsight, we know that X-Man’s hatred/fear about Professor X is because X-Man can sense that Onslaught is being generated by X-‘s subconscious.

While hunting for the Professor, X-Man meets Rogue for the first time.

I like that Rogue has no memory of Age of Apocalypse, and X-Man’s only frame of reference is that same event. As X-Man and Rogue try to sort things out, X-Cutioner attacks, saying that Rogue must die. The two team up and drive X-Cutioner away, and X-Man flies off the Muir Island, where he meets Excalibur.

Professor X warns Moira that X-Cutioner is coming, which gives her time to assemble Excalibur. So, X-Man #12 starts with a multi-page fight. And then Moira and X-Man talk and Nate asks her for help dealing with his repeating headaches. Moira rules out legacy virus as a cause, but discovers that X-Man’s power is killing him.

While waiting for test results, X-Man wanders about Muir Island unsupervised (really???) and comes upon Spoor’s cage. Spoor makes Nate doubt Moira’s intentions, and so it’s another fight before Nate leaves the island. That takes place in Excalibur #95.

And behind the scenes, Mister Sinister is investigating X-Man while Sinister’s “employee”/captive, Threnody, wants to use X-Man to defeat Sinister.

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