Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Charles Soule

Artist Ariela Kristantina

Colorist Sonia Oback

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

The Changling, One Hour Ago.  Mystique is watching a new section (to us) of Destiny’s video.  Destiny is explaining how crucial the final steps are, to bring her back.  There will be a lot of improvising.

Poor Lady Deathstrike is holding onto Shogun.

Mister Sinister comes at Mystique, so hard.  She starts talking and he grabs her by her lying dumb mouth.

X23 wakes up Daken, he wants nothing to do with Sinister and wants to just leave.  X23 is under the impression if they all defeat him, Mystique will get them home.  As they are currently in the middle of the ocean.  X23 wants a progress report on Shogun from Lady Deathstrike, She informs the spawn of Wolverine that Shogun is dead.

Ogun, in awesome page turn reveal, tells her that he leaves.  Which is so fantastic!

Lady Deathstrike thought Fang killed Ogun but he just pushed him way down.  Sharp was finally at death’s door so Ogun was able to finally do what he has been wanting this entire time, and take control over the body.  Ogun really enjoys Lady Deathstrike, which I like seeing a more romantic side of him.  If, romantic, is the right word.

I really enjoy Lady Deathstrike’s disbelief of the situation.  She has two dudes, well two minds, sharing one body, fighting over her to be her gentleman companion.  Ogun’s stakes are pretty low, if he dies, he will get a new body and if Sinsiter dies, that’s one more impressive death to add to Ogun’s vita.

While talking to Mystique, Sinister gets a s-word through the chest and Mystique drops to the ground.  She shouts that everyone should get to the ship.  Which I guess wasn’t destroyed in the crash.  There was a giant explosion but everything, once the dust settled, was pretty much the same.  That’s some impressive construction!

Sinister recognizes that the person he is fighting, should be the soldier, Sharp.  Ogun corrections him, Sinister is facing – The Father of Blades.  Which I imagine sounds cool on the page but I’m feeling like I have to give a lot of emphasis on it, to give it the proper weight.

Ogun claims to be the demon that caused Sinister nightmares as a child.  Sinister, in possibly the coolest line of the year, tells Ogun that he was never a child.

Ogun cuts off the fingers of Sinister’s left hand and Sinister is barely impressed.

Mystique gets the Wolverines back together and starts giving orders.  Sabretooth can’t believe he killed Junk, he has no memory of it.  Lady Deathstrike is to watch Sabretooth.  Mystique keeps calling him, Shogun, and Lady Deathstrike hints that is no longer Shogun but Mystique doesn’t have time to ask follow-up questions.  X23’s orders are to grab the contents of a red chest in Mystique’s room.  Daken is to check on Siphon.

X23 opens the chest and sees that old costumes are in it but it looks like a wedding dress, to me.

There is a great Marvel tribute to Herb Trimpe’s passing.  1939 – 2015, in memory of a Giant among Legends.  So true!

Mystique, as X23, tells Daken that they should fight Sinister.  Mystique gives Portal the Zhulong, a dagger like item that will let him teleport anywhere.  So he agrees to help her, also, he doesn’t want Sinister to kill him.

Elsewhere.  Siphon bites Daken and he puts a collar on Siphon.

Ogun mistakenly tells Sinister how Ogun was so smart to take over Sharp’s body, once it was almost lifeless.  Sinister injects Ogun with the same serum that released Endo, Neuro and Skel from their sooner-than-expected expiration dates.

Sabretooth still can’t believe he killed Junk, he suspects that Mystique had a hand in that. X23 interrupts Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike’s conversation to tell them that she is really done this time with Mystique.

Siphon obsorbs Sinister’s healing factor, which I didn’t see coming!  I should have, as Sinister bragged earlier about how his healing factor rivals even Wolverine’s!  And that guy survived an atomic bomb explosion!

I like how, once the serum kicks in, Sharp takes control of the body and the mask is back to being broken.  When Ogun was in charge, the mask was for real.

Sinister doesn’t recognize Siphon.

It looks like Shogun (Sharp?) cuts off Sinister’s head.  Siphon is back to being able to speak, and if he isn’t hurt – to badly – he shouldn’t have to feed for months.  So, of course, he is shot multiple times.

Shogun and Daken are not happy with this turn of events but Mystique just has Portal teleport them elsewhere.

X23, Sabretooth (who is colored blue throughout this issue, but not everytime) and Lady Deathstrike arrive on the scene.  X23 wants to know where the others were teleported too.  Portal just teleports them to that location as well.

Issue ends with Portal teleporting the two of them to the Nexus of All Realities and he warns that the Nexus has a guardian.  Which I already know who that guardian is, but the last page shows up Man-Thing!  All who know fear, burn at Man-Thing’s touch!

So that ends the Sinister plot, and I imagine the final issue leads us into Secret Wars 2015?

I can’t believe I didn’t think about how the Nexus of All Realities, in Florida, would play some role in Secret Wars 2015, that just makes sense!  I’m glad the series got back on track and it was so great to see Ogun back in charge, even for a little bit!  I can only imagine Ogun/Sharp/Shogun appear in the final issue.  Here is hoping!