Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Kieron Gillen

Artist Geraldo Borges

Color Artist Andrew Dalhouse

Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham

Deep Space.

Kitty Pryde and the cast of Astonishing X-Men (Volume 3) are confronting Orbis Stellar, one of Sinister’s alts, the spade one.  That’s fun seeing a Krakoa villain in an earlier story. 

Logan claws right through him, as Orbis isn’t our main villain here.  I’m not that familiar with Orbis Stellar, outside of his design.

I just love how the X-Men are more annoyed with Logan than anything else.  Did he have to do that this way?  Probably not.  Let’s try not to get someone else’s blood all over your teammates. 

Kitty is looking for the egg that brough them here.  She offers to phase through some doors, but Beast wants a moment to hack the system.  If he can’t do it, he’ll place himself back with the Avengers.  I miss Kitty and Beast being pals, so much.

They were looking for Phoenix eggs, which I guess is a thing, and instead,, found some other sort of egg.  dun dun DUNNN

Cyclops’ ‘alert,’ would make for such a great final word, but Beast gets to start a “you look inter,’ then we skip a week, so this explains why Kitty isn’t in the solicitations for the rest of the series.  At least she gets a great back up feature that we’ll get to below.

One Week Later, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.  The Blackbird is back, and attached to a bigger ship. 

Xavier and Multiple Man are watching the duo ship enter the atmosphere. 

We get to see our cast for the issue – Storm (who is completely bald, which isn’t her typical look), Rogue, Psylocke, Hope Summers, Jubilee, Cannonball, Gambit, Nightcrawler, and Colossus.

Storm is wishing she had gone on the mission, but Hope tells her that no mission needs two great leaders. 

The ships crash, and instead of the X-Men, we get . . . Xenomorphs! 

Poor Cannonball, he was saying his classic line of how he is nigh invulnerable when he’s . . . and he gets got. 

Xenomophs acid spit is strong enough to melt Colossus’ metal arm, so we now know that.

One of the Xenomorphs has adamantium claws, so that’s happening.  I wonder if we can tell which one Kitty birthed?

One of the Xenomorphs grabs Madrox, because of course they do, his mutant power really is perfect for villains. 

We see the Xenomorphs have brought Madrox to Logan, who is also a perfect vessel for more eggs.  Logan offers to put Madrox out of his misery, but right before he knows he is in misery, so he hesitated.  Which is the greatest commandment, Thou Shall Not Hesitate.

Ugh, we see Kitty’s dead body, so unfortunately, she is done with the main story.  But don’t worry, dear readers, we still have that backup. 

Because of Emma is Mother, we see there is a Queen Xenomorph, who also has diamond powers, so good luck there. 

Logan births another baby Alien.

Xavier and Storm talk about how these are not the Brood, so that’s nice to address that.  They are knockoffs of the Brood, and more feral.

Beast left a recording, and thought he had taken care of the threat. 

Turns out, there is a Xenomorph that is worst than one with adamantium claws or diamond skin, one who can phase through walls.  There is no escaping that one.

And now that we think about it, the Mansion is locked down, but not to one that can phase through walls.

This segment ends with a new team arriving – Deadpool, Sage (maybe?), Cable (with a beard), Bishop, and Abigail Brand, who should be doubly invested in stopping this as they killed Hank.

.  .  .

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist Dave Messina

Color Artist Rain Beredo

Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham

I was really really hoping that someone would remember that Lockheed is the Brood’s greatest nightmare, so he should be involved in a story involving Brood knockoffs. 

Of course, Chris Claremont would remember that.  This story takes place during the time Kate Pryde was attending the University of Chicago, working on her doctoral thesis.  She is a bartender at Belles of Hell, and sometimes Lockheed is with her at college, and sometimes, he isn’t, and this time . . . he is!

Kate is surprised by a visit of a Brood Queen Angel.  The Brood Queen claims Lockheed trusts her, but I’m not sure of that. 

The Brood Queen wants to work with Kate to deal with a greater threat.

The Brood Queen is very impress with Kate, she has great skills, and of course, in the right place, and right time, and has great instincts.  Plus, Kate has a reputation, and hope.

Kate needs Rachel, as this is written by Claremont. 

The Brood Queen teleports them to the Danger Room, where we see Gambit (I imagine so someone, me, will tell people to check out Claremont’s Gambit Wanted), Gambit has a face hugger on his . . . face.  Rachel, no facehugger, and Logan, who does have a facehugger. 

I looked it up, facehuggers are the second step in the Xenomorph life cycle, and are called, Ovomorphs. 

We hear Magik’s voice, and we see that she turned Lockheed into a gauntlet, which seems very rude.  Though he does make for an interesting looking gauntlet. 

I can’t believe we are given a backup story, written by Chris Claremont, that features Kate Pryde, Lockheed, and Magik!  Plus, Rachel! 

Illyana claims Lockheed is her dragon, and transformed him like she will transform Kate. 

Illyana even changed Kate’s outfit to be her yellow and blue suit, instead of her X-Treme X-Men suit.

Kate is very much looking forward to turning evil with Illyana. 

This entire page is very charged.

Plus, now my mind is racing about how this places Rachel into the role of good girl to Illyana’s bad, and Kitty having to choose between them.  While the entire time, Lockheed is a gauntlet, for some reason.  Let him be a dragon! 

Oh, and Illyana mentions how her new friends have done something to her, so more on that later, as she’s definitely not showing any signs of becoming a Xenomorph.