Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler Stuart Immonen
Inker Wade von Grawbadger
Colorist Marte Gracia
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Issue opens in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, last year. I am not sure if I have read a caption as much as I have this one.
The doctors are assisting ‘MacTaggert’ with her delivery. So right away, we know this isn’t Moira.
Her baby is a boy. As soon as they hand him to her, she freaks out. We are lead to believe that this is the exact same day that Scott killed Xavier during AvX.
Once the doctors and the baby are gone, MacTaggert reverts back to Mystique. When could she have had sex with Xavier? She is crying, saying “I’m so sorry Charles, I thought I could do it.” Maybe she named the baby, Charles?
I know Mystique was active during Messiah Complex, as she has baby Hope kiss Rogue to wake her adoptive daughter. Next, she is involved in Iceman’s story of Manifest Destiny. Could she have been pregnant after that and before she started showing up everywhere as the villain two years ago? Sometime between her time as posing as Xavier as a member of the Dark X-Men during Dark Reign to showing up in Wolverine 300 and Uncanny X-Force’s Final Execution storyline.
Looking at her chronological list over at comicbookdb, she really doesn’t have a period of no appearances from 2009 to present, outside of a missing two months – at most.
http://comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=1981
We see that this baby’s face transitions to Xavier from the Future Brotherhood. During Battle of the Atom, we were lead to believe he was Xavier’s grandson, but maybe he is really his son?
Not sure what the timeline could be for that.
Once Mike Carey was done with Xavier during X-Men Legacy, Xavier just showed up places, so there is plenty of opportunities for him to get into shenanigans.
One thing I am leaving out, is that this baby was born last year, so this baby is in continuity. Where he falls in, is up for debate, but he exists.
Back in the New Xavier School, the wounded X23 is actually Raze – which is super clever. Triage gets his throat ripped out by Raze. Which means that Laura is going to show up later to save everyone.
I like how Magik knew to expect Raze, at some point. Beast grabs the back of Raze’s head and throws him down onto the table. Then the lights go out.
Now, I am loving whenever Gracia gets to bathe the X-Men in right light. He gets plenty of opportunities to do so.
I also enjoy how this issue has both teams, finally, confronting a threat together.
There is a fun moment when Phoebe updates Celeste about the current situation. Celeste, without missing a beat, tells her sister that they have access to the same minds – so that entire paragraph was pointless.
They find their other sister, Mindee, and once thry do, Mindee psychically shuts them down. Lady Xorn is controlling Mindee. Which is odd, as I thought she died.
Deadpool referenced earlier how he died last time.
The Brotherhood come across Cyclops, Emma and Jean. Cyclops blasts the dudes away. That wipes him out, and I like that Emma holds him afterwards.
Emma calls him, Mr. Summers and later, he calls her Miss Frost. That seems like a cute thing to do.
Jean refers to their opponents as, The Brotherhood of Evil X-Men from the Future. Which sums them up perfectly.
Jean recognizes how annoying it is to have X-Men from a different time period showing up and causing trouble. Emma finally forgives Jean for staying in the present.
Jean looks great in that final panel on that page.
Years from now. Not sure if this is Xavier Junior’s foster mother or girlfriend, I am sure it is meant to be his mother as she tells him to get ready for the bus.
Charles is having bad headaches. She comes to comfort him. Just then, his telekinesis kicks in. Unfortunately, she was behind him and she is flung back and dies.
Now. Raze is still holding his own from the X-Men. He then does something silly, that I am not sure what the motivation is. He turns back to X23, and pleads that she is being used against her control. Why would they believe that this is Laura? She doesn’t have shape shifting abilities.
Triage reveals that he can heal himself. Kitty talks to him. His ‘oh no’ face grasp is pretty revealing. Is he immortal, and he just realized it.
Raze makes the mistake of changing into young Scott. Beast punches him in the face. Kitty is sure that felt good.
Raze as Scott said, heap, and Bobby says that Scott and actually no one says, heap.
Angel sees Mindee and their mental torture begins. We see now that Xavier is controlling Mindee now.
Years from now. Madripoor. Xavier has found his mother, Mystique
Is everyone’s comic like mine? Where the Marvel Free Digital Copy sticker is on the comic art instead of on the opposite facing house ad, like it is traditionally. I lifted the code sticker, a little, and it must have happened during the printing process as under the sticker is a white square.
In the future, Mystique has opted for a backless dress. Actually, it is Raze posing as his mother – whom he killed a while back. So these two are half-brothers.
So weird that Raze will protray his mother so sexually, I get he is staying in character but he could have started having her wear pants.
Charles knows who his father is, so why did he tell the present day X-Men that he was Xavier’s grandson? Creates less questions, perhaps?
Raze is curious why their mother abandoned Charles but kept him. Probably due to him being born blue and not wanting to repeat history, like with her first son, Kurt.
Now. Jean feels Xavier’s presence in her head. Emma straight punches her. Finally, got an excuse.
Issue ends inside Jean’s head. We aee Xavier, Lady Xorn and the Cuckoos. Xavier tells Jean that his biggest mistake last time was not taking out Jean. He isn’t making that mistake again.
. . .
Post 375!!!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 