Illyana Rasputin is currently inside Mondo's belly, and he's doing his best to keep her in there but not actually digest her. The science behind being a man made of mostly rock and earth is a mystery to me. Two of the guards notice Illyana's hand poking out of his stomach and stop him.
The other young mutants are doing much worse however, as while Chamber lies on the ground, Sugar Man is not satisfied. He thinks Chamber got in thanks to inside help, and he accuses Quietus before stabbing him in the gut. Vincente and Husk are revealed, and while Husk can heal herself by pulling off her outer layer, Vincente seems to be hurt for real. Chamber uses this moment to reveal that he was only faking death thanks to his psionic powers, and then a fight breaks out between pretty much everyone.
The young mutants try to use the time to escape, but Sugar Man overhears them talking about how important Illyana is and he basically tears Mondo apart to get her. Colossus and Shadowcat come busting through, and Colossus grabs Illyana and starts making a run for it. He ditches all his students while Illyana narrates that her brother is big and strong and brave and wonderful and will totally save them all, just you wait.
Shadowcat wants to go back for the students, but Peter refuses to lose his wife or his sister. He says he will go back for them, but a large iron door slams shut, trapping them in with all the mutant guards and rampaging humans. It's too damn bad they didn't have a mutant around who could have phased through that and pulled all of the students out, right?
I remembered hating this series, and now I've reached the end and I still hate it. This version of Colossus is needlessly cruel. He's too cruel for this version of the X-men, I'm not even talking about the main timeline. I'll admit the juxtaposition of how Illyana sees him versus how he fails here gives an emotional impact, I just don't like that it exists at all. Kitty looks cool with her Wolverine claws attached to her wrists, and it's nice to see a Chamber who doesn't have half his face blown off, and that's pretty much all the positive I can say about it. If there's any of the AoA comics you can skip, it's this one.
This was... wow. I did not see that ending coming where, yeah, Colossus throws strategy to the wind for a personal choice, and it ends up slaughtering almost our entire cast. I found it to be quite moving, but to move me only in the final issue of this extended storyline still doesn't make me hate it any less. The majority of the issue is still an atonal slog, and the final tag and the end just stupid.
ReplyDeleteFor years, I've been curious to explore Generation X, but, while I'm definitely now a fan of Bachalo's art, I just don't want it accompanied by Scott Lobdell's writing. I know Lobdell was a big part of your era of X-Men, Angie, but I've never read a single issue of anything written by Lobdell that I've liked. His stories are a mess, and he never quite hits the tones he's aiming for. I just don't like the guy's work.
For what it's worth, I would not judge Generation X by reading this series. The kids who are actually in the series are so drastically changed in environment here that they come off differently, and Colossus and Shadowcat make for far less interesting teachers than Banshee and Emma did. And while it's been quite a number of years since I read it, I'm pretty confident that the main series is no where near as dark in tone as this either. I'd still recommend giving it a shot to see if you like it. From what I remember, I never cared too much for the villain choices in the main book, but I enjoyed the dynamic between the characters.
Delete