Malicia's best arcs: a storyline from 1981 to 1990

Unlike most characters her age, Malicia has a bibliography legible. Successive authors picked up where the previous ones left off, and the problem posed in 1981 only found its answer in 1990.

Nine years to close a plot: that's what makes this set interesting to read in one go, and that's also what makes it easy to collect.

1. The Founding Aggression (Avengers Annual #10, 1981)

Chris Claremont and Michael Golden. The story where it all begins — and where the character does something irreparable.

Malicia absorbs it so permed the powers and memories of a heroine. It is not a temporary victory: it is a destruction, and she comes out of it loaded with a conscience that is not hers.

What makes this arc superior to a simple first appearance: it sets up a issue rather than a character. The next nine years flowed directly from this.

2. Difficult integration (Uncanny X-Men #171-173, 1983)

Rogue seeks asylum from the X-Men. The team accepts — and doesn't trust him.

This is the best passage from one camp to another in this entire corpus, for a specific reason: the story don't solve the problem. Distrust lasts, it is justified, and it provides years of material.

Most conversions of this type are dispatched in one issue, with an explanation and a handshake. Here, we take seriously the fact that she actually hurt someone everyone knows.

3. The Australian period (late 1980s)

The team publicly disappears and operates from an isolated outpost. For Malicia, this sequence is decisive: the stolen consciousness that she has carried since 1981 ceases to be a setting and becomes an open conflict.

This is the character's most important arc, and the most misidentified by the market. These issues belong to a period of Uncanny X-Men treated as commonplace, even though it contains the essentials.

Direct recommendation: This is where an informed collector gets the best report of the entire file.

4. The Danvers Case Settlement (Uncanny X-Men #266-269, 1990)

The conclusion, nine years after the attack. The character finally confronts what he did in 1981, and the plot closes.

This arc also contains the first appearance of Gambit, in #266 — which produces a notable imbalance: the first issue costs several times the price of the next three, even though they contain the resolution.

For those who buy reading, the decision is simple: #267 to #269 are sufficient, and cost very little.

5. The 2018 series (Rogue & Gambit, Mr. and Mrs.

Kelly Thompson. Two consecutive short series which take the couple as their subject and finally deal head-on with a long-evaded question: what it means to have a relationship with someone you cannot touch.

Recent, short, abundant: they complement each other in full for a paltry budget, and constitute the best reading purchase in the file.

How to read these arcs

If you only read one thing: Uncanny X-Men #171-173. Three issues, the character's entry among the heroes, and the refusal to simplify.

If you want the full plot: Avengers Annual #10, then #171-173, then the Australian period, then #266-269. Around twenty issues, a plot opened in 1981 and closed in 1990. Few characters offer such a clear reading.

If you want the modern character: the two series from 2018, which can be read without knowing anything else.

What sets this bibliography apart

A remark which explains why this file is more pleasant than average.

Most team characters have a bibliography discontinuous: each new author takes up the character in his own way, ignores what precedes, and the reader must reconstruct a thread which does not exist.

Here, the thread exists. The problem posed in 1981 went through three changes of designer and a relocation of the team before being resolved. The character progress, instead of rotating.

This corpus considers this continuity as a collection argument in its own right: it makes the whole coherent, therefore readable, therefore easier to complete - and more satisfying to own than an assembly of unrelated numbers.

Collection side

These arcs are almost all located in the 1980s, with an extension in 1990 and another in 2018. No expensive periods, with one exception.

The exception is Uncanny X-Men #266, whose price is based on a first appearance outside the character. Everything else — including the 1981 annual — belongs to segments where the supply is correct.

⚠️ Vigilance on the annual: format with a lower print run and poor conservation, where beautiful copies are proportionally rarer than on a numbered issue of the same year.

As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

For number-by-number selection, see ourMalicia key numbers, and for the overview ourcollection guide.