mutant massacre recalled

I think it was 1986 that I read the first -- and only good -- merry Marvel mutant massacre. I remember the story arc because it crossed over nicely and reasonably. It didn't show up in every comic, just the ones where it made some degree of sense: the mutant titles, Thor (whose writer's wife was one of the brains behind the whole idea) and Power Pack, whose writer was also writing X-Factor.

I believe it began in one of the X-men titles, when a group called the Marauders showed up in one of the abandoned subway tunnels that are so prolific in New York City -- Lex Luthor even converted one into a palatial penthouse for "Superman: The Movie" -- and started blowing away a bunch of lesser characters. The carnage ran through "X-men," "Thor," and "Power Pack" and its aftermath spilled over into "Fantastic Four" and other titles as well.

It was a fantastic story. Not because of the action and cliched slaughter, but because of the character development. Everyone who went through that experience was changed somehow: Peter Rasputin actually killed Riptide, one of the Marauders; the kids from Power Pack were seriously wigged out by what they had seen, Angel was nearly killed and had to have his wings surgically removed, and Thor went absolutely nuts and torched the entire tunnel network with lightning.

For what was probably the last time in more than 10 years, the Marvel writers and editors implemented an incredible idea and then explored the fallout over the next year. Peter Rasputin and Kitty Pryde's powers were messed up so that his natural state became Colossus and she couldn't stop phasing; Angel ended up becoming a pawn of Apocalypse because of his post-operation depression, the surviving Morlocks were both scared to go back home and aghast to find all trace of their previous lives erased by Thor's lightning fire, and so on.

Of course, they've done mutant crossovers pretty much every year since then, and each one's been a paler and paler echo of the one before, but that first one was a doozy.