Magneto kneels before the grave of Charles Xavier and ponders again how one man could have made such a difference in the world, and if giving up everyone he knows and loves to change reality is truly worth it. Bishop tells him he’s wasting their time, and I can’t help but agree. How many times do we have to hear this?
Thankfully, some Infinites, Vanisher, and then finally Apocalypse show up to start a fight. Continue reading
Havok still hates his brother and plans to get rid of him, and even having Cyclops save his life from a rebelling mutant grizzly bear – bengal tiger hybrid that Beast created isn’t changing that fact. At the same time Jean is sneaking back into the facility to find Sinister, because she doesn’t know he’s gone. When Cyclops sees her we get a flashback sequence that shows us what happened when she was captured many years ago. She strongly refused to join Apocalypse’s side no matter what they offered her, and it was that strong spirit of hers that made Scott question what he was doing and whether he should be following orders so blindly. He was set to help her escape the complex when Logan showed up to rescue her, and it was Logan attacking first that resulted in the fight that made Cyclops lose an eye and Logan lose a hand. Continue reading
Wild Child is being chased by Infinites, but the X-men intercept them and take them down. Unable to communicate with them to let them know what happened to Sabretooth, Wild Child actually licks Rogue on the face so she can absorb some of his memories. Gross. They head toward the plant in an effort to destroy it and possibly also save Sabretooth.
However it doesn’t look like they’ll be too successful when Holocaust seemingly beats him to death.
The actual “story” of this issue is only three pages long. One of the Madri sneaks into Apocalypse’s lair to find out if he is considered chosen or forgotten. The rest of the issue is devoted to character profiles told from Apocalypse’s perspective. While you might think these would provide some new information about this world’s back story we haven’t seen, in fact it just sums up what we’ve already seen so far in the previous issues. And yet this was priced at $2.50 when the normal issues were $1.95.
Suffice to say I’m not going to bother recapping the profiles. What may be slightly surprising is that “chosen” does not equal “fighting for Apocalypse.” He chooses who he truly thinks is the fittest to survive rather than who agrees with him. That is pretty consistent for his character.
Chosen: Magneto and Rogue, Cyclops, Sinister, Storm, Quicksilver, Four Horsemen, Weapon X and Jean Grey, Colossus, Angel, Sabretooth and Wildchild, Bishop, Madri*
Forgotten: X-man, Havok, Northstar and Aurora, Beast, X-calibre, Human High Council, Gambit and the X-ternals, Charles Xavier
* The Madri are chosen but then quickly switched to forgotten on the last page when Apocalypse kills the idiot for snooping. Really I don’t know what else he expected.
Obviously this issue is not much more than an art gallery, though nearly all the art is stuff we’ve seen previously. It’s a cash grab, nothing more. I was one of the suckers who fell for it back in the day, probably hoping to get more details like some of the previous guidebooks I had purchased had contained, but instead was left with nothing but a recap of stuff I already knew. It’s the risk you often take as a comic book fan.
In an effort to speed things along, the remaining reviews will contain both issue #s 3 & 4 at the same time. I imagine that means they’ll be a little longer, but it also means I’ll be done with this project before the end of the year. That part makes me happy at least.
Nate is being pulled in two different directions – Forge wants him to show restraint with his powers and learn how to handle a situation without them, while Essex pushes him further than he’s ready to go. In typical form, Nate is far more attracted to Essex’s way of thinking.
Essex also leads the group to one of Apocalypse’s factories where they discover that Beast is gathering human remains to harvest the materials to help build alpha level mutants. Seeing the carnage, Nate flips out and goes on the attack when they were just supposed to be doing a reconnaissance mission. He manages to make it out of there alive, but not without one of the Madri escaping to go let Apocalypse know about this alpha level telepath. Forge is not happy.
Brute confronts Essex and tells him that he recognizes him, and I don’t know why they’re beating around the bush on this as if we don’t know who the guy with a diamond on his forehead named Essex is. Mr. Sinister is set to attack Brute when Forge comes in and tells him he doesn’t want him as part of their party anymore. Nate meanwhile has grabbed Siryn Sonique and is bringing her via psi-link to Westchester where he saw Magneto last issue. It’s actually baby Charles that discovers their presence, and while Magneto tries to ask who’s there, Sonique breaks the psi-link and sends them back.
And it’s just in time, because Domino and her fellow rogues have arrived to attack the whole group.
I find myself completely uninterested in what is happening here. Clearly Sinister created Nate as an attempt to overthrow Apocalypse, and he’s going to find out that Nate just isn’t that easy to control. On top of the obvious plotting there’s some really weak dialogue and I can’t really enjoy myself at all.
Continuing from last issue (and if you don’t remember, I don’t blame you, because I barely did either) Destiny made physical contact with Switchback and saw all of Avalon in flames. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler is suffocating along with the other refugees within a submarine whose systems are quickly failing. They are forced to rise above the surface so they can breathe. Continue reading
When we last left our heroes, they were hitching a ride through space thanks to Lila Cheney’s teleportation powers. They end up in the Shi’ar galaxy, staring down the Imperial Guard. Their leader Gladiator tells them to surrender, but Gambit chooses to run. The Guard pursue them, but after a brief scuffle that involves Gladiator hitting Strong Guy with a huge boulder and Strong Guy responding by punching him out of the atmosphere, they manage to escape.
They don’t make it far into the forest though until they are taken prisoner by the plants. That’s right, on this planet the plants are sentient. I was kind of hoping this might be the planet that the Dark Phoenix destroyed in the main timeline, but apparently not. A half shi’ar alien who was been exiled on the planet finds the heroes and explains to them what is going on. In this reality, D’Ken came to power, overthrowing Deathbird and killing Lilandra, therefore leaving him free to abuse the M’Kraan crystal’s powers as he chose since Lilandra couldn’t call upon the Professor for help. As such the crystal is going haywire and occasionally blinking planets out of existence, and the one they are currently on is next.
This bout of exposition is interrupted by the Imperial Guard, who have been led here by Rictor, who hitched a ride with the X-ternals. But they don’t truly have time to fight before the world starts turning to crystal. Lila can’t tap into her power again, so it would seem like things are hopeless. But fortunately the Starjammers save them in the nick of time, and in this reality they are led by Deathbird. She tells them that the crystal is much more than they ever imagined, and it wants their help to fix what’s going wrong.
Then Gambit rips some wires out of a console on the ship for no good reason. I have no idea.
I enjoyed the change of scenery after so much apocalyptic bleak landscapes I’ve been subjected to in the other series, but this issue did have its problems. Jubilee’s sarcasm is cranked up to 11, to the point where even I can’t enjoy it anymore. Lila starts the first half of the issue naked, then magically gets a costume that couldn’t have possibly been given to her by the alien, so was it and its bulky belt and headband hiding in Gambit’s purse? And then there’s that last bit of Gambit seemingly trashing a ship he just got rescued by. It’s there mostly so he can raise the wires charged with kinetic energy over his head while he proudly proclaims that he’s going to save the universe. You want to draw something cool, I get it, but it should really make sense in some way. If I was Deathbird I’d drop him off in the vacuum of space for doing that.
Logan finds Jean trying to help the humans who have ridden across the atlantic on sentinels into Europe. Unfortunately, two of Apocalypse’s followers, Box and Copycat, have also snuck in among them and start shooting like crazy. Logan takes them down, but Jean doesn’t want him to kill. It seems the two of them are starting to grow apart.
Logan heads over to give the high council information, but he’s stopped by Mariko. They hint at their past and briefly tease us by reminding us of their history in the main reality before she tells him she does not trust Brian Braddock. They are interrupted by an explosion as yet another terrorist group is attacking, this time a group of altered humans who in the main reality make up the Reavers. I have no idea where they got an airship from or why this is suddenly a steampunk world, but regardless Logan decides to jump into the flames and hope his healing factor will keep him alive long enough to take the Reavers down.
He manages to do just that, even with all the hair burned off his head (and isn’t it interesting that his pants don’t burn up like his shirt does?), but as he’s done he hears Jean telepathically telling him goodbye. She’s making her way back to America to warn them about how the Human High Council plans to blow it all sky high. He manages to catch up to her before she takes off, but she tells him he’ll have to kill her if he wants to stop her, and we all know he can’t do that. Well, unless she’s the Phoenix in a movie we don’t want to talk about.
This is an extremely quick issue. I guess because it’s primarily action and not much else. The Mariko bit feels completely unnecessary, but otherwise its paced fairly well. I like that it hints at a past between Logan and the Reavers without actually spelling it all out for us. It just leaves you wondering and able to make up the reasons for yourself. Beyond that there’s really not much to say because it’s over and done so quickly.
