Writer Christopher Yost
Artist Jorge Fornes
Colorist Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer VC’s Caramagna
One and Future Juggernaut, Part Two of Four
Issue opens with various people hearing the call of Cyttorak. South America, someone finishes stabbing an AIM fella. Colorado a rageful lady. Saudi Arabia, a man with a narly helmet. Sahara Desert, some lady with a staff. Utah, some gardener but no ordinary farmer, it is the original Juggernaut, Cain Marko.
The Temple of Cyttorak. Now. The Amazing X-Men are fighting the guardian of the Cyttorak gem. They are not faring well, but Rachel and Kurt take the time to insult Bobby’s usefulness. Eight soldiers from the previous issue arrive and open fire. Storm instructs Rockslide to stay behind and deal with the guardian as the others go after the soldiers.
Firestar catches up toBrock Rumlov, aka Crossbones, mercenary, killer. Always neat to see the X-Men take on someone else’s villain; in this case, Captain America’s old foe.
When this storyline was announced, I figured I would be buying at least one issue due to Magik being referenced. That happens with this issue.
Pixie does not want to do anything for Colossus, as she still holds a grudge (rightfully so) against his sister, Magik. She references both the Quest for Magik storyline, wherein Magik stole a piece of Pixie’s soul and she references the Second Coming miniseries, Hellbound, wherein Colossus yelled at her and forced her to go to Limbo to save Magik.
Colossus lies about the X-Men needing him, Pixie sees right through it, as if they needed him, he would have gone on the meeting. He breaks her lamp and desk, the idiot jerk that he is, and she tells him that this is why no one likes him anymore. Oh Pixie, you are right about that!
Colossus tries to get us to sympathize with him. He starts by saying that he was always strong but once becoming an X-Man, he was never strong enough. Which is totally true, he hasn’t been able to save his sister, friends nor family from pain and death. He isn’t necessarily weak, he’s mostly afraid.
After being assured that Magik isn’t involved, she agrees to aid Colossus. I would have teleported him to Antarctica and waited to be given my award once the X-Men senior staff came back.
Northstar is mad at Nightcrawler, and rightfully so, for bringing the Scarlet Witch to the Jean Grey School.
With Katrina Van Horn, aka Man-Killer appearing, she was the broad in Colorado, which makes me think that Crossbones was the one in South America. She is a freelance super villain and agent of Hydra. So we will find out who the other two are shortly. Man-Killer punches Northstar, knocking him out.
Rachel and Bobby are having a chat, she senses an unknown person. Bobby points out how telepaths haven’t been useful in the past couple years, now that everyone is telepathy-resistant with either helmets or armor. We meet the man from Saudi Arabia – Fahd Alireza, aka Jinn. He is an elemental assassin. When will the person from the Sahara Desert, appear?
Crossbones has a knife to Firestar’s throat and he wants Storm to take a step back. She doesn’t have time for this nonsense and she tells Firestar to end this. Which was my first thought as I was reading the page, that Firestar should never be in this situation where she has a knife to her throat as she can just burn the fool – which she does.
Rockslide is holding his own against the guardian. Turns out, the guardian is impress with Rockslide and it believes he will make a good holder of the gem.
Jinn starts messing with Rachel’s head. Bobby distracts Jinn and asks if Rachel is okay. She reveals that Psylocke has fought Jinn in the past. Iceman throws ice at Jinn as he throws fire at him.
The person from the Sahara Desert, is leading the soldiers to the gem. Storm catches up to the soldiers but they open fire on her. She wishes Wolverine was alive so that he could kill all of them – which seems pretty harsh and not understanding of who Wolverine is.
Jinn knocks down Iceman, Northstar comes through the wall and now Kurt and Man-Killer are in the same room with the other three. Rachel senses another person approaching.
Issue ends with Cain Marko teleporting in with the Vanisher, who I thought died in Second Coming. Let’s see if we get the third part of this story but thus far, this has been pretty good. My favorite scenes have been the ones where people tell Colossus how horrible he is.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 