Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler Stuart Immonen
Inker Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist Marte Gracia
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
What is with Teen Scott being on the cover? He’s in space at the time. When you have to have the comic covers ready three months in advance, it is hard to make sure everything match up.
Years from now. Beast has clearly gone even more crazy. He has so many chalkboards covered in writing. He mutters to himself, he has a clear steam of consciousness, with themes with similar words.
Xavier Junior and Raze greet him. Raze is impress that Beast actually says, oh my stars and garters. Xavier Junior corrects Beast, he is Xavier’s son. Xavier Junior is 18 years old.
Raze hates the Original Five X-Men. Beast is still trying to figure out how to send them back.
Raze and Beast have a fun exchange of how they are both blue. Raze reveals his parents to Beast – Mystique and Wolverine.
Junior tires of Beast’s rants and calms his mind.
Whoever heard that I like these location captions really added and extended them for this issue.
Canadian Wilderness. Today. X-23 has been stabbed and left for dead. She heals and gets up, ready for a fight.
The Secret Xavier School Cafeteria. Mindee Stepford’s psychic hive mind has been overtaken by Xavier. That is how this is happening. This is the hive mind.
Are the Cuckoo’s last name really, Stepford? That isn’t good.
Poor Kitty, has quite the headache.
Poor Irma just wants to be killed, instead of hurting her friends and teammates.
In the hive mind – Junior confronts Jean. He failed during Battle of the Atom because he didn’t take her out first.
Jean asks why Junior is doing this. Junior wonders why, why, is always the question. I’m right there with him. Who cares why, let’s concentrate on how to stop them.
We get an awesome double page splash of the Battle of the Atom Future. I’ve looked and still don’t see Kate Pryde. We still don’t know if she is alive in this future.
Madripoor. Years from now. The Future Brotherhood of Evil X-Men are gathered. They keep being defeated by the future proper X-Men. Beast is tired of fighting his fellow mutants. Junior tires of all the whining. He relocks the Brotherhood’s minds so that he can better control them. Raze wants confirmation that Junior isn’t doing that to him. Junior just tells him that they are family. Raze recognizes that that wasn’t a, no.
The Secret Xavier School. Now. Kitty makes her second appearance of the issue. Magik makes her first. Irma must really be laying it on pretty thick to hurt Illyana with a mental attack.
Raze finally comes around. He wishes any one present was someone he cared enough about to see them wither in pain. He wants Cyclops, as he wants to gut him.
Cut to Cyclops, carrying Jean with Emma leading the way. Emma is in her diamond form, but still can feel the psychic attack.
Cyclops wants to confront Junior. Jean, calling him Slim, informs him that the Brotherhood is behind him.
Jean wants Cyclops to kill her before she can be used against them.
Junior is still mad that Cyclops killed his father, that makes sense.
Cyclops optic blasts them. Emma is confused, she thought they took care of these future people already. Deadpool was dead, last she saw them.
Madripoor. Years from now. In a very important scene, Raze comes up with a plan. He sees the mess that Beast is and decides time travel is the answer. If the X-Men are undefeatable today, just go back to a time when they could still lose, once in a while.
Junior wants to go back and save his father. Raze doesn’t want to go that far back and undue their existence. Though both are alive in our present, they are just babies.
If they lose, they will just write themselves a letter and try again. Which I don’t get, so would there be multiple versions of them in the present day?
The Present. Jean reveals she has a new trick, but first . . . Don’t look behind you. As the issue ends with X23 coming down for an attack on Junior.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 