The humans are gathering in Maine because word has spread that they may be able to escape America thanks to the plans of the Human High Council. Unfortunately for them, Apocalypse’s forces are always watching.
Copycat pretends to be one of them in order to gain some information on the coming rescue, and reports back to her team.
But the humans still have a small glimmer of hope thanks to the X-men, who plan to hijack a sentinel and import him with a virus that will see them as friendlies and therefore allow them to aid in the rescue. This portion of the team is made up of Quicksilver, Storm, Iceman, and Banshee, who we’ve seen to varying degrees already, as well as Dazzler and Exodus making their first appearances here.
We have further proof that this version of Iceman is far more advanced than his normal counterpart in that he seems to have a way of converting other people into moisture, thereby allowing him to freeze them and transport them from place to place. I can’t imagine why they never tried to bring that into the main universe. However we don’t get to see an example of how this works now because Magneto reveals to Exodus that he in fact has the ability to teleport people and he should use that now. Despite having never done it before, he brings them all exactly where he needs to be.
This is the second time that Magneto has hid someone’s powers from them, the first being Lila Cheney over in Gambit and the X-ternals. Here he says he never told Exodus because he was afraid his powers would corrupt him. I guess this is all supposed to be a reference to how Exodus acts in the main timeline, but as it is it’s quite silly.
Storm heads out to the ocean and brings up a hurricane to try to mask the oncoming sentinels from Apocalypse’s forces. It’s difficult, and we’re told Storm does something she normally doesn’t do – pray. Then she says “thank the goddess” not long after. I guess the situation is getting her in touch with her religious side?
Storm’s interference works and the Sentinels show up. The X-men enact their plan to hack into the sentinels, and while they at first think it works, a sentinel then completely obliterates Iceman.
But hey, no worries, remember Checkov’s Iceman’s special ability? The characters assure us he can rebuild himself even from that state. As they ponder why their hacking didn’t work, it is immediately explained to them by this world’s version of the Brotherhood.
Their programming was switched so that the Brotherhood is protected from the Sentinels while the X-men are still seen as foes.
This issue is pretty firmly average. We’ve got a decent amount of set up, but not much else. We have conflicting writing, where they keep trying to present Storm as someone different from her main timeline counterpart, but then have her use her same religious catchphrase that completely contradicts that. The misdirect is well handled, and Iceman being destroyed did shock me initially, but having it all solved so quickly kind of spoils the suspense.
