Writer Kieron Gillen

Artist Geraldo Borges

Color Arist Andrew Dalhouse

Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham

I had to buy the David Messina cover through eBay, as I had to have the Kitty Pryde, Magik, and Xenomorph cover, and hadn’t seen it until the week before this comic came out.

I had preordered the German Peralta cover, as in Peralta, I trust (and was hoping it’ll be a Magik cover). 

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.  Upstate New York. 

Storm, still completely bald, still throwing me off.  Storm is showing Gambit, Nightcrawler, Hope Summers, Jubilee, Psylocke, and Xavier, the message Beast sent. 

Cyclops was the first victim of the face hugger.

He was able to blast it off, taking off his own head, so that’s why we don’t see a Xenomorph blasting dudes. 

While Kitty was unconscious, is how she got her face hugged. 

Emma also got got.

I love Beast carrying Kitty and Emma’s bodies.  He’s still hoping he can fix whatever happened here.

Plus, it makes sense that Logan will be on stabbing duty.

Logan put up a good fight, but the acid, the acid was too much.  Also, he got his face hugged as well.

Aw, Beast went back, and grabbed Logan. 

Beast does comment that if Kitty was awake, she would have been fine. 

I did want Kitty to be in the first story, but not like this.  Not like this. 

Logan’s face hugger comes off, so Beast can learn that that is possible. 

Orbis did have a Phoenix Egg, so they would have had a successful mission.

Logan gets his chest bursted, and Beast, as of course he’ll do this, goes off to find the little critter.  Turns out, the little critter, turned big, pretty quickly.  Plus, he has claws.  They do appear to be very shiny claws, but maybe that’s just the Xenomorph bones being shiny?

Beast in his recording hopes Kitty and Emma are dead, which seems harsh, but also, that’ll be the merciful route.

Xavier is quick to say that Multiple Man is a lost cause, as Xavier is a jerk.

Cable walks into the room with his crew – Agent Brand, Bishop, and Deadpool.

I do love that we get a moment for Cable and Hope Summers to reunite.  That’s nice.

Agent Brand says they are from the future where the X-Men failed to stop the Aliens.

We get a scene of Logan, who is just a Xenomorph baby factory at this point, he’s so mother right now.  He sees Emma’s Xenomorph, as it figures out her diamond powers.

Storm shouts for everyone to use the Red Triangle Protocol, this where we really benefit from Gillen writing this.  The Emam Xenomorph has telepathy, but not in diamond form, and it is learning how all of that works.

Agent Brand informs us of the rules.  Logan Xenomophs take four hours to create themselves, but with Madrox, they can go from 24 to 30,000 in 72 minutes. 

Deadpool (literally) gives us the tag line, in space, no one can hear you scream.  But you can eat popcorn. 

Cable’s team, minus Agent Brand, combines with Psylocke (which makes sense with this not X-Force team), Rogue, Sage (who must be part of Cable’s team), Nightcrawler (who doesn’t get a cool suit), and Hope Summers. 

Jubilee and Gambit are on rescue duty.

We get a few cool pages of the X-Men burning Xenomorphs.

Kurt finds Logan, which is always sweet. 

Cable wants to deploy the cure.

Turns out, the cure is killing X-Men, as Cable kills Hope (wha?!), and Agent Brand kills Xavier (I’m okay with this).

Storm kills Agent Brand, well, a robot version of her.  Not a robot version, a Sentinel version. 

This was such a great story! 

Belles of Hell, Part 2

Writer Chris Claremont

Artist David Messina

Colorist Rain Beredo

Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham

I do love that Kitty and Magik are talking in Russian, so you know this is intense.

Poor Rachel Summers, and Logan having to just stand by for all of this.

Even worst, is poor sweet Lockheed, being a gauntlet for Illyana.  So she doesn’t have to directly touch the face hugger? 

Kitty is begging for her life here, which is heart breaking.

I do like Illyana saying these creatures are some sort of “Alien,” that’s silly and fun.

Ugh, Kitty’s description of her face being hugged!  So gross, and far too intimate. 

Illyana does call Kitty her girlfriend, so that’s nice.

Kitty is apparently the Brood Queen’s daughter, so uses that link to become a humanized Brood thing.  This gives Kitty the strength back the Xenomorph baby, so that’s pretty rad.

Kitty is able to fight off the face hugger, and maintain her human body – which is what I was worried about.

Now Kitty has the same lines on her face that Illyana has, so . . . is Illyana infected with a Broodling?  I thought Illyana was at least being an Alien Mother.

Kitty gets Snikt-ed for her troubles.  Which makes sense, Logan was hanging right next to Rachel, and he only has the one move.

I hadn’t noticed, but the first page of this back up does show that Magik put Kitty into her training uniform, but was slowly turning that outfit to mirror Magik’s own Bachalo designed look.  Including the head piece thingie. 

Kitty calls Illyana “girlfriend,” but you can just tell there was a very sarcastic tone to it.

Looks like Rachel is still hanged up, but Logan is free, but still having his face hugged. 

So, Kitty must have only been snikt-ed, just a little bit.  A mere flesh wound.  Or more likely, the Brood connection is giving her an extra life.

I would probably say the first issue’s back up was my favorite, but mostly as it had Lockheed actively in the story, but I’ll take what I can.

But the second issue’s main story, was better than the first.

It is very complicated.