Dazzler and agents of O*N*E, SHIELD, and SWORD, are here at Graymalkin Prison to finally dismantle it. Before they can, Sarah Graunt has located the mutants who were given the Wolverine treatment. I do like how the O*N*E agent apologized to Dazzler, she’ s a fan.
Repent tells Rogue that Gambit can only be healed by love, so she takes him Maison Blue Petit Paris in New Orleans. Apparently they have come here before to get all romantic.
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Look how cute Ember is, with Gambit’s cats on his back!
Dazzler calls Logan to tell him Sarah Graunt is on her way.
Logan asks for volunteers, and Monet & Quicksilver will stay behind with the New Mutants.
Rogue and Gambit go to a fancy restaurant, and Gambit refers to the waitress as a nighttime friend, a sweet-cream lady, and that seems all types of gross. But Rogue reminds him to remember who keeps his bed warm, and steals the covers.
Sarah Graunt and her squad are heading straight to Rogue & Gambit, I must have missed that. Logan, Jubilee, and Kurt are outside to combat them.
A few pages after I had the thought of, how has Rogue and Gambit NOT heard all of this fighting, Rogue and Gambit come out in their underwear. Gambit is wearing X-Branded underwear.
Sarah Graunt says, “to me, my Scavenged,” so I guess that’s the name of these mutants.
Graunt will be back in seven days, so that sets up the next issue pretty nicely.
I would have bought the ACO variant cover if I had saw it in time to preorder it.
Issue opens with O*N*E* Agent, Abbie Bennett, wanting to take a splinter group of officers to attack the Alaskan X-Men’s base, while they are away. Doug killed her husband in issue 18, thanks Tom. This cell hates mutants. I do appreciate calling them a cell.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska. Xorn is listening to John Greycrow, who wants to be where the fight is. Just wait, bud.
The way Greycrow talks, one would think he’s on the X-Men, but he isn’t, so he doesn’t get a say in the missions. Kwannon asked him to stay behind, and she’s an executive officer of the X-Men, do they all have official titles? That’s what I’m interested in.
Then the power goes off in the Factory. The Cell has tampered with the Shi’ar stardrive.
Xorn properly gives us the stakes, if the stardrive isn’t returned in time, the reactor core will explode, taking the base, and Merle with it. Greycrow has his mission. Greycrow takes out two of the cell members. Then more, and more of them.
Xorn was on keeping Glob Herman save, so this before Infernal Hulk 7, I guess? Xorn has knocked out the cell members who came for Glob.
We get confirmation that Greycrow killed everyone who came for them, and Xorn picks up on his word choices, Greycrow wants on the X-Men.
Greycrow congratulates Xorn on his deadly approach, but he never made it to Medical. Ruh oh.
Then. Glob Herman woke up, and dealt with his assailants. Bennett went running into the snow. Glob killed all of these folks, and treated himself to a nap as the issue ends.
No Magik appearance, outside of the ACO variant cover.
I bought the Skottie Young variant cover, but would have loved to have preordered the Mahmud Asrar variant, that has Magik on the cover.
Juniper, Pennsylvania. The Trask Statue has released the Age of Revelation virus, not to the scale of the original plan, but a healthy dose of it. Well, not that healthy.
3K Airship, Command Bridge. Philadelphia Airspace. Cyclops is concerned for all of the people who died, and Chairman Beast doesn’t care as only the humans would die from the exposure. Grimm goes in for a punch, but Chairman Beast teleports away, so I guess he could have done that the entire time? He was trying to include 3K, as it is always better to work with others.
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Launch Bay. Juggernaut is battling Wyre.
I love Juggernaut asking about Magik, making sure she’s okay, and lovingly refers to her as the brat, and Scott knows exactly who he is talking about.
Wyre had a backup plan, an escalation, where the anti-grav thrusters would fail, and this entire airship will crash into Philadelphia.
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The Baxter Building, New York City. Magik teleports Grimm and herself to Reed, Sue and 70s Beast. Magik informs them that the airship is crashing, AND the virus has been released. Reed can’t do anything, as he’s about to shrink the Fantastic Four down to go inside of Magneto.
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Magik is simply there to make sure all of the eggheads work on the virus, the X-Men will work on saving Philly. She needs the mutant Ben. Not sure how his illusion powers will help here.
Ben is surprised Cyclops needs him, which is an odd reaction. He probably knows that he was on the 70s Beast team, as it was a do nothing job
I do love Magik interacting with the Fantastic Four, I feel like we haven’t seen this grouping before, or not often.
3K Airship. I love Cyclops having to call Commander Bohannan, of O*N*E* as this is a national emergency. Bohannan is still upset, and rightfully so, as his last conversation with Cyclops was Scott threatening Bohannan in his hope, with all of the X-Men present, so there is some tension there. Plus, Bohannan did attempt, and failed, to murder the X-Men.
Bohannan does point out that this is great news, for him, as he’s about to be in charge of this giant operation, having near complete control over the Eastern Seaboard.
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Magik teleports to Slim (I so love these two’s friendship), asking if he has any good news, and he can’t recall the last time he heard any. Magik also brought Ben here.
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Ben believes, as does Scott, that the airship is where Ben was made into a mutant. Scott believes Ben can help this situation, and just needs the proper motivation.
Below Decks. Wyre wakes up Time Bomb. They need to make a hastily retreat. Wyre still wants to use this class of X-Men, I can only imagine he will change their name to something else. Cyclops has his own Hellions team, so not that name.
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Philadelphia. I love Cyclops giving Quentin Quire his kudos for taking care of Cassandra Nova, that’s good leadership there.
Quire and Psylocke are mass telepathically evacuating the people.
I also just adore that Illyana and Scott can have proper conversations about his choices. It comes from a respectful place, so Scott isn’t offended. Magik just wishes he had used a kinder approach.
We then see Cyclops’ approach, and now I’m completely on Magik’s side, which isn’t much of a shocker.
Cyclops chained Ben to a crashing ship, so results have to happen. This is just cruel, and also, a poor decision as Ben is going to resent this.
Ben does take a breath, and summons the alien horde that he originally thought was attacking him from issue 21. Thanks Tom.
It starts to work, and the aliens arrive.
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Magik is pretty impressed, and Cyclops is proud.
So, is Ben’s powers to manifest an alien attack? It works, they are solid constructs.
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I love seeing Magik being happy. Cyclops tells Magik to go save Ben.
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The airship gets righted, and the day is saved!
By Magneto! So the Fantastic Four tie in issues must all be taking place during this issue. Maybe? That is right, thanks again Tom, Fantastic Four issues 17 & 18 are that mission. So we don’t have to read 18, but you should still do that.
70s Beast asks Reed how it went, and Reed has this bizarre reaction of questioning if Beast is a friend, but hands over the data. We might be able to stop the X-Virus!
Northern Italy, a location no map shows. Three centuries ago. La Cattedrale oi Ferro. The Iron Cathedral. A ritual is performance.
A frecciorossa train in Northern Italy, three centuries later. Rogue, Gambit, Gabriel, and Repent are traveling together. Repent is quite thirsty, and apparently has a demon inside him, but a nicer one than the one Gambit has inside him.
Apparently Repent’s mother died during child birth, which is super sad, and she had a demon inside of her, so when she died, it transferred over to Repent. He tired to perform his own exorcist, costing himself an arm, an eye, and his sanity. I checked, and he has one black eye, and one red eye.
Monet is on day three of leading the Uncanny X-Men, and they find themselves fighting a big bruiser of a guy, Calamity.
Logan, who Monet thinks of as a Canadian, but the way she does it, feels loaded. Logan confirms that Calamity is a 22 year old, who isn’t being mind controlled. Calamity was one of the mutants held captive, until he got promoted to tormentor. With that knowledge, Logan attacks Calamity, berserker rage style.
I really appreciate that Monet isn’t tempted to stop Logan, these are child traffickers. Monet gets the killing move on Calamity.
Monet is tearful that she gets to free the children. Though I can’t help but think about how she was cool with holding mutants prisoner who were just being a little loud in public.
Rogue and company make it to the Iron Cathedral. Repent explain the world has always known mutants, which makes sense as we are well aware of Apocalypse and Selene. Like modern mutants, the ones from centuries ago were hunted as they were feared. Some died here, while trying to cast out demons that didn’t exist.
Rogue threatens to kill Repent if Gambit is hurt. Repent doesn’t seem too concerned.
We learn that Repent’s mutant power is to transmute liquid, any liquid, into holy water. One of those classic mutant powers that is created out of the situation the mutant needed most.
Wyren arrives, claiming the underworld hates two things, mutants and priests. Rogue uses her mutant power to transfer the demon to her, so that Gambit is weakened, and can have the other Eye of Agamotto carved out of his chest.
Louisiana. A guard is freaking out about all of the uncaged mutants, gross, and Jubilee swiftly kicks him. Then she destroys the house they were in.
I like Nightcrawler and Quicksilver working together, plus the green & white looks great with the black & red in these panels.
Kurt says that not every evil wears capes, which is a silly take on that expression.
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Always great to see Ember and the New Mutants joining into the battle.
The land owner tries to flee in his fancy limo, but Howler is there to finish the job.
Howler is justified, but is also sad about the whole thing, Logan tells him it is okay. I love that it is Becca who holds Howler.
I love how the local police show up, recognize the situation completely, and not going to do anything more than give Monet a citation, maybe.
Issue ends with Gambit free of demons, or at the very least, this demon.
I would have bought the Geoff Shaw Fall Fantasies variant cover, if I had seen it by the time I had to submit my DCBS preorder.
We see the full conversation Chairman Beast and Magneto had, where Beast offers him a place on 3K. We are actually in Magneto’s dreamscape, so he is visited by Xavier. It is nice to get a bit of a recap of Resurrection of Magneto, with his wall of names he’s killed.
We get a different take on what could have happened on The Iron Night, where he just collapses, and dies, so this issue is pretty much Magneto’s It’s A Wonderful Life.
Without him living, 70s Beast continues his other experiments. Oya moved on from her Krakoa torment. Ben Liu didn’t have a mentor, so I guess Magneto has been doing more with them than we’ve been treated to.
We are reminded there was a Second Iron Night, when Myraid grew large and in charge, and attacked Merle. Was Magneto important to that fight? I can’t remember, he must have been.
Without Magneto, when Glob Herman was shot (apparently he will always be shot), Quentin Quire and Oya simply burn through Merle. Which brings missiles to Merle.
Xavier questions why Magneto was given the future virus, which I also have questioned, but figured we’ll find out eventually. Magneto suspects it is because he is the Master of Metal, and like metal, he must endure. I guess this is a reason?
Magneto wants to know if this was the real Xavier, but he plays it coy.
Variant Cover Skottie Young, I would have gone with the Dike Ruan or Tony S. Daniel variants that both have Magik on them, but they didn’t reveal those in time for my DCBS order to be submitted.
Issue opens with Agent Lundqvist hanging out in Juniper, looking at the Trask statue that Juggernaut spent an entire day not breaking.
I love it when characters speak in logo. Do you think it sounds differently?
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Juggernaut fights Galatea, who I’m glad we are name checking people. Cyclops tells them to switch, so now Magik is fighting Galatea.
Psylocke fights Psychovore.
The Baxter Building. New York City. Drs. Richards, 70s Beast, and Ben are still chatting about Magneto. Apparently no two mutants share that much DNA, because of their powers, which maybe makes sense? Magneto’s powers are making it so they can’t treat him properly, or remove the Age of Revelation virus code. Just like how Kate Pryde’s phasing power messed up her resurrection.
Reed needs Human Torch and Ben Grimm here to perform a radical operation. I imagine it is because he views all problems through a lens of how can the Fantastic Four solve this?
3K Mothership. Grimm and Johnny are fighting Joseph.
Chairman Beast knows that Cyclsop’ inside man is Schwarzschild, which I figured was the case last issue. He’s just not that much of an inside man, as he’s not on the mothership. Chairman Beast can’t launch the virus because of a computer error, so Wyre has to do it manually.
Psylocke defeats Psychovore with a poison thought, as she’s awesome.
Oya is fighting Juice, so we get to see a cool ice versus water battle. Cyclops helps in this fight.
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Constellation is down.
I like Magik giving Galatea one more chance to surrender, but she’s not one to ever surrender. She can do this all day.
Wyre shows up to manually release the virus, but Juggernaut has been wrecking the place.
I like Johnny making fun of the knock off versions of Magneto and Beast. He doesn’t know Astra, but is assured she is a knock off of somebody, which is very funny.
Chairman Beast does NOT find this funny, as she’s the original Beast.
I do like that Johnny takes the time to recognized that even he is a knock off of the Jim Hammond Human Torch. So, we’re just having lots of fun here.
Johnny performs the Clean Room Protocol and burns all of the oxygen in the room, which doesn’t hurt Grimm at all. I’ve read that he’s essentially immortal, which is very interesting, and sad, as he has quite the family.
Cyclops walks into the room to declare he has defeated 3K. I love these two chatting, this should be the event. Chairman Beast recognizes the weakness of 3K, and now wants the X-Men to help him.
Turns out Chairman Beast had a backup plan. He releases the virus through the Trask statue, which I knew they should have teleported it away when they had the chance. Or at the very least, put a dome around it.
We see a young Rogue, who has a very religious Aunt Carrie. Whatever happened to this lady?
Repent, the mutant exorcist, is trying to exorcise either Agrippa, the Child Ripper, or Kristen.
Rogue tries to overpower Repent, but he is able to cut her hand. Gabriel tries to calm everybody down.
I like playing up the fact that Rogue is sort of a vampire.
Meanwhile at Haven House, Monet is having a hard time getting Howler to relax enough to come into the house. Poor guy has clearly been beaten, and believes he doesn’t deserve the pleasures of indoors.
I love that we see The New New Mutants relaxing in someone’s room, I’m betting it is Calico’s room as she has a horse painting on the wall. I love that they are just in their nightwear. They’re not cartoon characters always wearing their uniforms. Unlike the X-Men, who are always dressed for battle.
I like Logan trying to relate to Howler, as they walk the line in both worlds, animal and human.
The St. Juniors try their best to tell Howler he is welcomed inside.
Quicksilver, the forever jerk, has an aside to Monet that Howler might be beyond help. She rightfully tells him to never talk that way to her.
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I love so much Calico instructing Ember to watch over Howler. He is a good horse, a kind horse.
Alce St. Junior makes Howler a nice bed in the barn, and oopsie, has made an extra plate of bacon so he can enjoy it without worrying about resources.
Something about Howler’s “I thank” that also feels traumatic.
Howler asks why everyone is so accepting of Nightcrawler, as he looks like a demon. He’s the most best friend Logan has.
Howler wonders if Logan is going to kill his captures, and they sound horrible.
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Ember keeps proving how good of a boy he is, and sleeps next to Howler.
Monet has Quicksilver, Jubilee, and Kurt at a table, while Alice is doing the dishes. Quicksilver wants to rush into the house, and save the mutants. Kurt wants to teleport in, and get all of the mutants. Alice offers up that they should be working together, which is odd as Kurt usually does think within the terms of the team. Tensions must be high. I do love Monet remembering she has telepathy. Monet has a plan, but it involves the New New Mutants.
I do appreciate Monet telling Alice it is her turn to do the dishes, she’s trying to be nice
Agrippa attacks everybody, and Gambit turns into Wyrven.
Jubilee pretends to have car trouble, she’s wearing very short shorts, and using the alias, Shogo.
The security for the Gunther Estate is suspicious, but a call to Vig settles things. Shogo is transporting the New New Mutants.
Mister Gunther looks like a stereotypical “dashing” Southern man, but with an electric baton.
We see a new mutant, Tabby, who has a very striped left arm, being held captive. Mister Gunther isn’t too thrilled that Howler has escaped. He hits her as mutants are a disease, it is infectious, and needs to be burned away. Gross. Also, is this Simone’s soft way to connect to DNX?
Alice goes to check on Howler, and he’s gone, writing “I Thank” on the wall. Did Ember go with him? Or is Calico out of range?
Jubilee learns the Etate has a big guy named, Calamity.
I like Monet flying Logan around. He recognizes the emblem on the barn as the World of Strength that he met way back in issues 20 & 21. Oh, they are the thugs Logan and Ransom met at the Comic Convention in Argentina.
I was picturing big, but Calamity is big big, like Hulk big. But he’s purple, and with a Bane like mask.
Meanwhile, Gambit cures Kristen. Repent feels like he can cure Gambit, but it will be a bitter pill. Repent is sending Gambit and Rogue to the Iron Cathedral.
I got the JeeHyng Lee variant, as it was the solo Magik (Darkchild) cover.
3K is preparing to unleash their version of the Revelation virus onto Philadelphia. We are seeing that there are clear cracks in this alliance.
Beast and Ben Liu are getting help from Reed Richards to help save Magneto. That cursed Richards! is hesitant in returning Magneto to his full powers, due to his history. Reed really is the worst.
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Cyclops has brought Magik and the rest of the Alaskan X-Men to Philly. They know 3K has to arrive eventually, and they are done reacting to them.
Scott mentions how he has an inside man, and I’m wondering if Schwarzchild was snuck back onto the team.
I really like Vicentini’s art here.
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I do like this use of Quinten Quire’s telepathy. He can’t sense 3K through their stealth technology, but there are a lot of birds dying – which I don’t love – so, he knows where their ship is. Would it have been nice if the birds were just being knocked aside? Yes.
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Such a cool team shot!
3K is so untrusting of each other, that they won’t even drink Chairmain Beast’s Heidsieck 1907.
I was wondering if we should read X-Men V6 37 first, or DNX 1 first, but I feel it plays better to read X-Men V6 37, as that issue takes place during this page.
Reed is trying to defend his harsh decision to not help Magneto, even knowing 3K has their own fully powered Magneto in Joseph.
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Inside 3K’s Airship. Alaskan X-Men are making their way through the ship. Psylocke is filling in as psychic support, though she doesn’t like it.
I do appreciate that Cyclops name checks Timebomb, as I just can’t keep the 3K X-Men’s names in my head. It is nice not to have to go back to the character recap page.
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Oya gives Timebomb the slip, and Magik makes her go to sleep. Cyclops is fully prepared to take down 3K.
Cyclops’ mentions Schwarzchild is gone, so I’m not sure who Scott’s inside man is now.
70s Beast is trying to still convince Reed to help Magneto. Dr. Sue Richards comes into the room, and since she’s the best, she tells Reed he wants to help, and introduces herself to Ben, which is nice of her.
Sue asks the right questions, and 70s Beast reveals what the X-Men are really up against. There will be a virus, a version of him, ten years from now, or X years from now, if you will, creates it, it was sent back to the present, and Magneto has that virus code in his blood. For some reason.
Chairman Beast figures out how Cyclops got the codes, but we’re not told how. I like Chairman Beast shouting about how they can’t trust each other. This entire plan rests on their trust for each other, and it is falling apart. In the meantime, he’s going to just drop the virus, rapid style.
Before he can do that, the issue ends with Human Torch and Ben Grimm crashing into 3K’s ship.
Variant Artist Rod Reis, I had to get the Magik cover.
Krakoa Beast, the 3K Chairman, wants Magneto on his side, and he can restore Magneto’s powers to sway him.
Meanwhile, Joseph, in Magneto’s purple boots, is leading the 3K X-Men – Timebomb, Psychovore, Juice, and Galatea.
The 3K X-Men do NOT care for Joseph.
Cyclops and the Alaskan X-Men (I’m going to try to be as clear as possible with this) are immediately ready for a fight.
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70s Beast and Magik are making their way back to the Factory.
I like how Chairman Beast fumbles his pitch with Magneto. Magneto is Right, we all know this. Magneto’s current state is because it is a message from the future.
Quintin Quire is taken out, so the X-Men have to fight old school.
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Constellation, I’m so happy Magik name checked this guy, as I wouldn’t have known.
I do love Cyclops fighting Joseph, and saying how the 3K X-Men are still unknown to them, but he’s fought Magneto for years.
This entire attack was a distraction as Chairman Beast only needed Magneto’s DNA, and no interference, and he gets what he wants.
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Magik tells her X-Men that she took Magneto to town, which Cyclops immediately knows what the goal was.
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Krakoa Beast has really went to town on Magneto!
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Epilogue. Scott is telling the X-Men how important it was that 3K didn’t get all of their objectives completed.
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Cyclops has a plan, they are going to data mine everything Schwarzchild knows.
Variant Cover Alexander Lozano, as soon as I saw that plush Lockheed, I had to have this 80s Magik variant cover.
This was such a great comic!
It looks gorgeous too, Daniel, Morales, and Hesli really brought it this issue.
I really appreciate that we got to see how Magik interacts with this 70s Beast, as I don’t feel like they have too much character history together. She hung out with Teen Beast during Brian Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men / Uncanny X-Men tenure. Nothing else really comes to mind.
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I really love Magik bringing Magneto to a temple in Merle, Alaska. That was very kind of her.
Maybe a reference to Kitty Pryde would have been too much to ask for?
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Magik is such a great character, that we can establish where everyone is with her portals, Such a clever use of her power, and we get a quick glimpse of how she interacts with her team, as she’s looking for 70s Beast.
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70s Beast is still unraveling his interaction with Krakoa Beast, the Chairman of 3K. He’s not used to seeing a personification of his inner darkness, so who else to ask but Magik, who has her own personal Darkchild.
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Is this Magik learning about Krakoa Beast’s involvement in 3K?
No, Cyclops must have told them when he updated them on the Age of Revelation.
But always good to reestablish plot points.
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Age of Revelation Darkchild did look cool, and I love that her and Juggernaut are Best Friends Forever.
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Apparently, Cyclops has kept the Krakoa Beast a secret, and only Beast, Animalia, and now Magik know who they are truly up against.
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70s Beast is so vulnerable here.
And I just love the softness of the colors here.
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Magik tells 70s Beast that seeing her darkness personified is a gift.
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It is interesting how living in a comic book universe, that one is treated to seeing what their worst selves look like. That must be such a trippy experience.
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Magik must give the best hugs. The absolute rarest of gifts is a hug from Magik.
The panel of her saying she’s a big softy, and just thinks spikes and swords are cool is a panel that will live on forever. It is a shame she’s not seen saying it inside the panel, but might as well include the hug and the quote when reposting it.
There, I did it for you. You are so welcome.
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Issue ends with an explosion at The Factory.
This probably is my favorite issue of this series thus far. It is so great!
