X-men: Omega

If you're thinking that this cover is hideous, it's because those shiny foil special covers don't scan well. 

Magneto stands alone against Apocalypse, doing his best to give his X-men time to put their plan into effect.  Elsewhere, Angel is also making his own last stand.  He finds Karma shortly before she dies and goes on his own suicide mission to bring down the defenses blocking the X-men from entering the complex.  With those down, both they and Nate are able to get inside.  Cyclops and Jean, meanwhile, are trying to make their way out, but Havok is still on their tail.

The Shadow King informs Apocalypse that the humans have launched nuclear missiles in the southwest, killing everyone there, and more are on their way to hit New York as they speak.  Nate appears and takes on Holocaust while Magneto joins the X-men approaching the M'kraan crystal.

When Destiny nears it she can see the alternate timeline clearly and knows what they must do.  She, Bishop and Illyana must go inside, sending Bishop back to stop Legion from killing Charles Xavier.  Colossus is not happy with losing his sister again so soon, but Illyana is willing to go in order to help create a world with hope.  Colossus shatters Iceman when he tries to block his way, and is at least temporarily held back by Gambit as his sister enters the crystal with the other two.  She opens a portal for Bishop to enter, while Magneto pulls together stray pieces of metal (that are all conveniently red) to build some armor for himself while he takes on Apocalypse.

Havok has caught up to Cyclops and Jean, and he blasts his energy through Jean, nearly killing her.  Cyclops calls his brother an idiot, telling him that Jean's telekinetic powers were the only chance they had of holding off the nuclear missiles headed toward them.  Havok would instead rather blah blah on about getting revenge on his brother, and somehow does manage to kill him (I say somehow because they show him blasting Cyclops with his powers, even though they established he's immune to that) before Weapon X appears (falling ahead of the missiles) and stabs him in the back.  He's able to say goodbye to Jean before she dies.  And the narrator tells us that Logan thinks of a legendary bird who could rise from the ashes, but sadly his Jean is no Phoenix.

Bishop has made it back to the past, but he is temporarily waylaid by himself.  Meanwhile Colossus is still trying to get to his sister.  Kitty stands in front of him, trying to block his way, and trusting in their love, she doesn't phase as he approaches.  He keeps coming and crushes her.  Gambit does what we all wish we could and throws a charged dagger at Peter.  Peter transforms back into human form in despair, as his sister emerges from out of the crystal.  He begs her forgiveness for what he has done, and tells her that he only thought he was brave until he met her.  As angry as Colossus' actions have made me through out this whole story line, I have to admit I got a bit misty eyed at this moment.

Guido still has young Charles, but Rogue touches him and absorbs all his strength away from him, and sends it right back to him in a devastating punch before rescuing her son. In the past, Bishop pushes himself aside and makes his way to Legion.  The two of them make contact and it starts a psychic wave going between them that allows Legion to see just what his actions here will create.  It also somehow kills him.  With his death, the X-men who traveled to the past with him are sent hurling back to their present.

In the AoA, Nate manages to kill Holocaust by plunging a shard of the crystal into his chest.  Magneto summons up all the power he can muster and literally tears Apocalypse in half.  I guess he does so using the iron in his blood?  In the last few moments before their world disappears, Magneto holds Rogue and Charles close and once again thanks Charles Xavier for changing his life and teaching him that a dream was worth fighting for.

Overall, a thoroughly action packed issue that serves as a good end to the event.  There are little bits I left out that are there to explain how the Sugar Man and this version of Beast end up back in the main timeline, and Nate stabbing Holocaust is supposed to explain how he was able to crossover as well.  Those were all their attempts to keep what happens here still relevant for a while, but beyond X-man's series lasting for a few years I don't think much else came of that.

There were far more repercussions related to things that happened in the main reality shortly before the crystal blinked it out of existence, like Wolverine plunging a claw into Sabretooth's brain and Rogue and Gambit kissing, but considering how long it's been since I read those issues I can't say I remember much more than that.

Looking at it as a whole, this was a decent event.  There were low points (Generation Next, Factor X, X-Universe) but there were also high points (Morph, Abyss, Dead Man Wade, Rogue and Carol Danvers being awesome).  I also think it's just a fun jaunt in an alternate apocalyptic reality, a place where you can see characters killed off in the blink of an eye.  But I'm also very glad that they kept this to only a four month experience.  Anything longer than that would have been a little too much.  I would like to visit the events they've had since then that continue the story.  I'm pretty sure there is a moment where Jean does become the Phoenix, and that is probably how they manage to explain how everyone isn't dead like they originally end it here.  Whenever I get a chance to read those issues, perhaps I will write about it here.  For now, I'll be glad to take a break!

X-Universe #2

The heroes we saw enter Mikhail's ship last issue are all planned to be experimented on and enhanced in the same way Murdock was, but it's a very dangerous process that kills most people subjected to it.  They choose to operate on Stark next, trying to remove the arc reactor from his chest so they can use it to power the ship.  However this plan backfires and temporarily overloads the ship.  This was actually the plan of the humans all along, and they use it to escape and also release the other humans who were captured on board.  Donald Blake injects Tony with adrenaline straight to his heart to revive him and let him escape as well.

Mikhail is currently meeting with the remaining members of the Human High Council which are Mr. and Mrs. Trask and General Ross, asking if they will agree to let him rule Eurasia.  They're not interested, and Mikhail has one of his minions shoot Moira point blank in the face.

Murdock is watching over Empath who is keeping the humans devoted to Mikhail, when the two of them touch hands accidentally.  For the first time since being enhanced, Murdock feels something, and in experiencing all the pain around him, he kills Empath and therefore breaks Mikhail's hold over everyone outside.  Ben and Sue fly around in ships trying to rescue as many humans from the chaos as they can while Tony realizes that the nuclear missiles have been launched.

Blake takes on Mikhail despite his injuries and is able to send the mutant to his death. Banner becomes the Hulk for a time, attacking the heroes, but when Stark says he needs Banner, that's apparently enough to change him back.  Victor wants to use the missiles to destroy Apocalypse, but Tony says "None of us ever set out to be Avengers."  Yeah, they went there.  Gwen also punches Von Doom in the face for not bringing Blake back with him.  Since earth is about to become a nuclear wasteland, they aim their ship toward space, hoping for the best.

I did my best to do a high level summary here, because once again this issue is slam packed full of characters with a lot happening all at once and it really makes it all very confusing.  Perhaps if you were reading Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Fantastic Four around this time period it might make more sense, but I wasn't so I can't say for sure.  Much like Generation Next, this is another part of the crossover that just isn't worth collecting.

Weapon X #4

The Human High Council is trying to convince Gateway to help them, but it takes Logan showing him up close and personal a young girl being killed in cold blood to make him agree.  We see a brief scene with Apocalypse and one of his minions called Rex, which is mostly there to let us know that the technology that Donald Pierce and his crew are covered with does not let them die easily.

While Gateway and Weapon X sit on the top of one of the airships, Pierce comes flying inside and reveals that Brian Braddock was a traitor to the human cause because similar to Guido, he was infected with something near his heart.  He tries to fight back now, but he's too late and is killed by Pierce.  Pierce has also resurrected Carol, seemingly merged her with parts from Vultura, and sends her up after Gateway.

Carol is just too cool to be completely controlled though and she begs Logan to kill her so she can't fulfill her orders.  He doesn't have to though, as Pierce comes up and decides to kill her instead of waiting around to see what will happen.  Logan's good arm has been hurt, and Pierce thinks he's got this one won when Logan lets him in on a secret - he may have lost his arm, but his claws were sitting in his forearm when Cyclops cut off his hand, so they are still there.  He stabs Pierce in the gut and seemingly kills him again.

Gateway prepares an extra huge portal to try to get the entire armada through to attack Apocalypse.  As is the norm for these, what happens is to be concluded in X-men Omega.  There was also a brief mention in the issue that Apocalypse has not heard from Mikhail at this point, and we'll here what he's up to first in the next issue.

Amazing X-men #4

Quicksilver's team arrives to where they are keeping Bishop, and they split up.  Storm goes to save Bishop directly, while Quicksilver and Banshee go in search of Jamie Madrox to stop the Madri.

Gambit and the X-ternals #4

This issue's sequence of events jumps around in time a bit as we follow multiple groups of people.  For the sake of clarity I'll present it all in the order it actually happened.

Gambit, Lila, Guido, and Jubilee all made it back to earth, with Rictor still trailing behind them.  Gambit and Lila go one way while Guido and Jubilee go another.  Jubilee has the crystal shard.  Rictor follows Gambit, so Jubilee and Guido are supposed to make it back to the X-men to give them the shard.  On their way through the tunnels they run into Nanny and Charles.

This is when we find out that Guido is a traitor.  He was captured by Apocalypse's men and a device was implanted on his heart that would kill him if he didn't do as they asked.  He was supposed to kill Gambit as a way to get to Rogue which would then get to Magneto.  Guido was willing to do this because he hated Gambit and loved Lila.  When he sees Charles, he realizes that's an even better way to impress Apocalypse, so he destroys Nanny.  Jubilee manages to grab Charles and run, but Guido pursues them and eventually is able to take off with both Charles and the shard, leaving Jubilee buried in the rubble.

At the same time, Rictor lets slip to Gambit that he is not worried about where Guido and Jubilee went because he has ways of tracking them, which tips Gambit off to the possible double cross.  He goes back instead of escaping as planned, and Guido, Rictor, Gambit and Lila all end up in the same space.  They see him with Charles and the shard and realize what he's done.  Rictor uses his powers to bring down the tunnels all around them.  Guido uses his strength to hold the place up for as long as he can, so Gambit has a choice - save Lila or grab the shard and Charles.  He chooses Lila.

Rictor is also dragged back to Apocalypse, who is pissed at him because Rictor was so focused on trying to catch Gambit that he didn't realize Charles and the shard were far more valuable.  Apocalypse kills him for his stupidity.  He didn't have to worry though, because Guido was able to save both and brought them to Apocalypse himself.

Dazzler and Exodus arrive in the tunnels, originally looking for Charles but they find Gambit and Lila instead, and Exodus mentions he senses a third life form, which I believe is how they are telling us that Jubilee is still alive.  The end tells us the story will be continued in Amazing X-men #4.

So the main hint for the sudden betrayal in this issue is the way they felt the need to mention once per issue that Guido was still in love with Lila.  That's not really that much of a hint, really, but I guess it works as proper set up.  It's still kind of a let down though, as it feels like they're adding in unnecessary conflict at the last minute just to make things a little more difficult for the X-men in X-men Omega.  It's nice to see Gambit finally treating Lila properly and being able to love her fully, even though the only reason why is the silly notion that he gave up his love for Rogue to the crystal last issue.

Factor X #4

In order to free the prisoners from the pens, Jean and Scott must take out the six telepathic brains that are lulling them.  On the way they run into the Bedlam Brothers, who decide this evil stuff is for the birds and they might as well help them out.

Their plan is successful, though Jean is largely exhausted from knocking out the brains, they are at least able to get the prisoners moving.  Beast is almost taken out by the creatures he's made in his experiments, but he's still quick and agile and even throws in a "Oh my stars and garters" before throwing them into his primordial soup and making an escape.  Havok tracks down his brother and Jean, and the two brothers fight, resorting to physical violence after it is once again pointed out that their powers don't hurt each other.  Cyclops knocks his brother out and decides not to kill him even if it means he'll track them down later, because he's tired of killing.  Havok eventually wakes up and vows to finish this once and for all.

Elsewhere, Apocalypse sends some of his men after Angel to shut down his club and take him in.  While the club is shut down, Angel makes a quick getaway thanks to a flamethrower and an empty elevator shaft.

I was genuinely surprised to find that the relationship between Scott and Jean here is actually pretty heartfelt and touching.  Their reasons for getting together feel more true and romantic than I've seen in a lot of other places.  They're not necessarily in love, per se, but Jean has inspired Scott to be a better man, and she is able to recognize the good in him despite where he is in life.  It's downright sweet.

Beyond that story development there's also a ton of action here, and it helps keep the story moving.  The constant battles feel a lot like the final climax of an action film, where the stakes are high and people reveal what side they are really on.  For a series that started off boring me to death, this one ended strong.

However you might notice that I didn't include a single scan for these issues beyond the covers, and that's because I personally don't care for this art style at all, with very thick lines and an overabundance of shadows.

X-Man #4

So apparently my deduction at the end of X-Calibre #4 was slightly off, as it seems that the Shadow King is able to fracture himself a bit, and they only killed off a piece of him.  A part of him is still alive and letting Apocalypse know that Domino failed to kill Nate.  This makes Apocalypse pretty pissed off.  But he can't do anything about Nate right now, because he's busy torturing Magneto.

Nate meanwhile is fighting Sinister.  Or perhaps the better word is attacking, as Sinister is not fighting him back.  He's not the least bit bothered by the fact that Nate is tearing a big whole in his middle, and instead starts telling Nate about his past and why he was created.  Sinister engineered him from the DNA of Cyclops and Jean Grey as a living weapon to destroy Apocalypse.  Once Sinister and Apocalypse both wanted to evolve mutants to an even higher state of being, but now Apocalypse only wants death, and therefore Sinister wants to stop him.

Nate is not too happy about finding out his true purpose in life, and tells Sinister he has no interest in helping him.  He somehow beats him up using enhanced strength from his telepathic powers, and this is enough to make Sinister bleed and finally die.

After saying goodbye to Sonique and Soaron, Nate searches for Magneto and finds him with Apocalypse.  As he reaches Manhattan, he runs directly into Cyclops and Jean Grey, and as much as he didn't want to believe Sinister, seeing these two in front of him makes him realize they really are his parents.  Jean can also sense it and offers for him to join them.  He tells her no, that he must face his destiny.  He goes off in search of Apocalypse.

Seeing Sinister's appearance in this issue reminds me of why he was one of my favorite villains.  Sinister doesn't care about any of your foolishness because he is both smarter and stronger than you, and he already set his plan into effect 35 minutes ago, if you know what I mean.  He's the type of villain who is a villain because he's willing to take extreme measure to meet his goals.  But that also means he's willing to admit when he screws up, and can even sometimes work on the side of good if it suits him and the people involved are willing to trust him.  And even if they don't, he'll probably find some behind the scenes way to fix it as he wants anyway.

Beyond that, the meeting with Cyclops, Jean, and Nate reminds me an awful lot of moments that happened in the animated series when they ran into Cable and Jean realized what was going on, so that was kind of neat.  Otherwise, it's largely set up for leading into X-Men: Omega, so there's not much else to say.

X-Calibre #4

Kurt asks Damask what Apocalypse was planning to send as his second line of the attack, but she says she doesn't know.  It turns out that the second wave is already here, and that wave is a one man incorporeal force called the Shadow King.  He moves from one citizen of Avalon to another, causing chaos.

Damask tries to attack him, using her psychic blades (which are similar but different to Psylocke's psychic knife.  These look more like chains).  However she only manages to damage the host.  She explains to Kurt that the Shadow King moves along another plane to move from host to host, so Kurt hatches a plan, hoping that it is the same plane he uses to teleport, as the Shadow King takes over Mystique's body.

Kurt holds hands with Switchback and Damask, and the three of them teleport together.  Switchback uses her time traveling powers to keep them in the plane longer, and then Damask is able to attack the Shadow King directly.  It works and seems to kill him.  However his influence on one of the mutants there lasts long enough for him to try to fire off a shot at Destiny, but she is saved when Doug jumps in front of her and takes the blast.

Destiny has seen enough, and now agrees to go with them to take down Apocalypse once and for all.

While there wasn't a whole lot to this particular series, I think the characters involved were enough to keep me interested. It's a nice little diversion from the storyline happening in America.

Generation Next #4

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.

Astonishing X-men #4

Blink squares off against Holocaust, and while he doesn't take her seriously at all, she actually holds her own quite well against him.  He's near impossible to kill, but she makes a valiant attempt.  Morph shows up to aid her, but surprise, it's actually Rogue having absorbed Morph's powers in order to get close to Holocaust and do him some damage.  It's through this that we find that Rogue is just as capable of making bad jokes as he is.  Holocaust still knocks her cold though and only Morph changing into young Charles is enough to awake her and make her get back up.

In New York, Apocalypse shows a captured Magneto this footage of Rogue to aid in his torture of him.  Magneto tells him that he and his X-men will never give up as long as they are alive.

Apparently Apocalypse's followers aren't so brave, as Holocaust prepares to teleport away when Rogue gets the upper hand against him in the fight.  He tries to take her with him but she is pulled back at the last minute, to find both an alive Sabretooth and Iceman standing there.  An angry Rogue declares that the age of Apocalypse is over.

This series was a nice treat for Rogue fans such as myself, getting to see her go through a whole range of emotions and also be an amazing leader.  This issue is also a good solid lead in to X-men: Omega.

X-Man #3

Domino, Grizzly, and Caliban have arrived to either offer Nate a job with Apocalypse or to kill him, and they don't have a problem with killing the other heroes who stand in their way.  Forge drops a flash grenade to buy them some time.  He realizes that they don't yet realize what Nate looks like, and so he sets it up to make Domino think that Mastermind is their telepath.

Generation Next #3

Chamber and Skin are inside the slave labor compound and they witness the mutant guards treating the human slaves horribly.  A man and his daughter are killed simply because they stopped working for a moment when the dad offered his child some food he had left over.  These actions infuriate our two young mutants but Skin says they need to hold back and wait until they have a decent chance of winning.  Nearby, Mondo is making his way through by absorbing matter around him and hiding in the rocks.  After taking out one of the guards he saves Illyana's young friend who was thrown and sent to her death.  However when he sees Illyana, he leaves the other girl to get her.  He promises he will come back for her, but for now he takes Illyana and starts making his way out.

Husk and Vincente are hiding inside Quietus' skin, literally, impersonating him as their way of trying to make their way through here.  They run into a bit of trouble when the Sugar Man shows up and tries to get Quietus to look for any possible spies in the place.  They find Skin and Chamber, but have to pretend to be Quietus still and capture them and bring them to the Sugar Man, who demands they be executed.

Shadowcat and Colossus are just outside the compound, when Know-it-all contacts them and let's them know everything that's happening inside.  While she informs them that all of the students are in serious danger, Peter insists that rescuing Illyana is the only thing that matters.  They go to find Mondo while Husk in Quietus' guise fires at Chamber.

I continue to not really care for the overly gritty style of this particular comic.  I'll be happy to put this series behind me.

X-Universe #1

While I don't think there's anything there in the title to clue you in on it, the purpose of the 2 issue X-Universe series was to answer the question of what all of Marvel's other heroes were doing in the Age of Apocalypse.  When I first read this I knew very little of the other heroes beyond their origins, and I don't think this interested me very much, enough that I didn't bother purchasing the second issue at the time.  Now with all the Marvel movies teaching me a lot more about at least some of these heroes, I'm curious to see if it will have a greater impression on me.

Gwen Stacy is an agent for the Human High Council, currently serving in Wakanda with Dr. Donald Blake attempting to take care of the poor and sick who live there. They depend desperately on the supplies that the Human High Council flies in to them, supplies that the Marauders are here to steal.  In this reality, the Marauders are not mutants but humans, specifically Norman Osbourne, Wilson Fisk, Arcade, and the Owl.  Gwen Stacy holds her ground against them, but her weapon isn't strong enough to take them all down.  Fortunately, a huge spider-shaped ship is coming, piloted by Hawkeye and carrying Anthony Stark along with him.  They take out the Marauders and then land, providing the needed supplies to Wakanda and telling Blake (who walks with a cane) that he needs to come with them.

They are heading back to London, where Mikhail has brought an armada of ships with him to negotiate peace on behalf of Apocalypse.  Sue Storm and Ben Grimm don't trust him one bit, and they shouldn't because someone just blew up the base where they were about to land.  They survive the attack and search through the rubble to find a grey Hulk.  Sue (who is a normal human, as is Ben) chops off the Hulk's ear and he transforms back into Bruce Banner, who they were originally coming here to meet.  They realize he doesn't realize what the monster inside him just did, so they take him along with them to meet up with Mikhail along with the other heroes we've seen previously.

We get a glimpse onto Mikhail's ship first, where we get a confirmation that Apocalypse has no intention of making peace.  We also see that he's been modifying humans with enhancements in exchange for them working for him, and among them is Matt Murdock.

Mikhail descends out of his ship and meets up with the human representative Victor Von Doom, who is scarred on one cheek but not wearing an iron mask, and Mikhail gives a rousing speech meant to inspire hope in the humans, and it works as they begin to chant his name.  Our collection of heroes is escorted onto Mikhail's ship, where they find out that the people are so willing to believe him because he's hooked up the mutant Empath to a machine and is manipulating their emotions with him.

On the following page we get a look at the Human High Council files, a quick way to tell us the status of some other Marvel heroes:

T'Challa - killed when Apocalypse showed up in Wakanda to take the vibranium
Frank Castle - Went to a monastery after his wife and children were killed by Apocalypse, but died there with the monks.
Peter Parker - Was supposed to be a contact for Gwen Stacy to meet up with, but was killed before that could happen.
Reed Richards & Johnny Storm - Died during an attempt to help some human refugees escape America.
Namor - Apocalypse also destroyed Atlantis and he died in that attack.

I think I understand why I didn't originally continue with this series.  Their efforts to shove as many characters as possible into this one very brief series leave it cluttered and confusing.  With the exception of Gwen, Sue, and Ben, most of them have so brief a role that they don't really contribute all that much.  Yes, it's neat to see Dr. Doom on the side of good here, but that's not really enough to make it interesting.  I have since purchased the second issue though, so we'll see how they wrap this one up and if it gets any better.

Gambit and the X-ternals #3

The Starjammers have brought Gambit and his crew to the location of the M'Kraan crystal.  It's up to Guido, Jubilee, and Sunspot to hold off D'Ken's guards while Deathbird, Gambit, and Lila steal a bit of the crystal.  Instead, they end up going inside it, and both Deathbird and Lila are hit by a beam that freezes them in place, right beside D'Ken. A short silly looking alien with purple skin introduces himself as Jahf.  He's the guardian of the crystal and being so allows him to see all versions of reality.

Weapon X #3

Weapon X is making his way through an icy landscape when he is spotted by two of the Reavers, Mangle and Dead Eye.  They go to attack him, but they're of course no match for him, and he slices one in half and chops the head off the other.  He has now made it to his destination, Wundagore Mountain, the former home of the X-men we saw back in X-Men Chronicles #1.

X-Calibre #3

We get a quick shot of Callisto's dead body floating in the water before we cut to Mystique doting on her son.  She shows the same care for him here that she's known to show Rogue in the main universe, and it's a striking difference from the way she tends to feel about him in the main reality.


The mother and son are being tailed by Damask and Dead Man Wade.  Mystique and Nightcrawler bicker with each other a bit while they make their way to the passage that leads to Avalon.  Nightcrawler confronts his mother about the rumors that she robs the refugees blind before leading them here.  She tries to justify it, but he's not interested.  He says that must be why she won't enter Avalon, because she's not worthy.  She yells at him to shut up, and says that some people simply don't deserve peace, and that it is not her fault.

Regardless, Kurt tells her she has to come with him.  They meet Cain at the gates and he guides them the rest of the way.  He talks about how he used to be an awful person, and while he walked away from that life, he's still haunted by the people he killed.  He guides them to Destiny, and they find her with her adopted son, Doug Ramsey (aka Cypher).

Unfortunately, Damask and Wade have also made it to Avalon.  They are both surprised to find how lush, green, and beautiful this place is.  But while Damask sees this as a source of hope, a reason to not be the awful person she has been up until now, Wade just wants to destroy it all.

Raven tells Destiny all about Magneto's plan, but Destiny is hesitant to leave because she fears her departure could bring destruction to Avalon.  But they don't have to wait that long, because Wade is already attacking.  He launches a grenade that goes off in the middle of where they are standing.  Kurt begs Cain to join the fight, but he says he won't.  Kurt pleads further, telling him that everyone he cares about will burn, and apparently the stress of the decision is enough to make Cain have an aneurism.  He falls over suddenly and whispers "Charles" before he dies.

Lucky for our heroes, Raven snuck a whole lot of firepower in with them, so the fight isn't over yet.  Also to their advantage, Damask turns on Wade, because she's suddenly found something worth fighting for.  Her defection is enough to distract Wade for Kurt to teleport in, grab his head, and then teleport away.  Apparently even Wade can't heal from that.  With Switchback also on their side, this team is going to escort Destiny out of Avalon to try to right the timeline and take down Apocalypse.

While this issue is pretty dialogue heavy, there's also a lot of action going on, so there's a pretty good balance here.  The characters are so different from their mainstream counterparts, but for the most part the way they are acting makes sense given the circumstances.  It's also nice to see an almost entirely female team, with Nightcrawler being the only exception to that.

Amazing X-men #3

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.

Factor X #3

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.  Unfortunately for her she is attacked and captured by Havok.

Havok leads Cyclops to Beast's lair where Jean is now being held prisoner, and that leads to 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.

Havok tells Cyclops he knows that he has been freeing the mutants from the pens, and he suggests that Jean is there to help him.  He tells his brother that if he wants to prove him wrong, he should kill her.  Of course Scott cannot do that so he ends up being tied up right along side Jean.  Jean is powerful enough to fight against the constraints Beast put on her, and she also flings off Cyclops' visor to help finish the deal and get them both free.  She tells him of the Human High Council's plan to nuke New York, and they both agree to set about freeing as many prisoners from the pens they can before that happens.

Meanwhile, the Bedlam Brothers visit Heaven to capture Scarlett who has been exposed as a spy, and they warn Angel to watch his back as Heaven may not be a safe haven for much longer.

Apocalypse sits in his throne room, and orders a message be sent to Havok - the pens are now useless with Sinister gone, so they can just go ahead and kill all those prisoners now.

The issue is certainly leading up to a climax, where Scott and Jean will have to race against time to try to free as many people as possible.  There's also a quick bit where Scarlett is shown being nauseous before she's captured, meaning obviously that she's pregnant.  But do you really expect Havok to care?  He's been quite the jerk so far.

This issue isn't necessarily a bad one, it just contains a lot of characters that I don't find myself caring about all that much.

Astonishing X-men #3

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 Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen

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.  However as a reader of this blog you don't have to feel so cheated, as I will be covering another issue later on this afternoon.