Story Brian K. Vaughan
Art Steve Dillon
Colors Paul Mounts
Letters Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Dated June 2005
If you want to follow along, this amazing website has the entire issue :
A nice done-in-one issue.
Xavier is at a bank, all of his money is tied up as Sebastian Shaw is claiming that there was an unauthorized transfer of funds. Xavier resists the urge to dilute the banker’s savings account. Before Xavier can leave, the bank is held up by conjoined twins, who go by the name – Syndicate. A lady calls them a Siamese twin but he isn’t from Siam, which is an awesome comeback and I imagine until the word, conjoined, caught up, was a point of contention.
The bank manager tries to give them the money, as the bank is insured and gets a gun to his face – which is completely uncalled for.
Xavier tries to play mind games but since they are conjoined at the brain (is that the wording?) they are able to resist the trick. They kick him out of his chair. He mentally calls out to the local police. Xavier starts trying to mentally give the rest of the bank hostages courage to speak up. He mentally calls to Jean, wondering how they are doing in New Jersey.
Dillon draws a pretty nice Shadowcat there. I really dug his style on his legendary Punisher run and the little I read of Preacher, but I’m not typically a big Dillon fan.
The X-Men are fighting Ultimate Warlock, making his first appearance here.
Syndicate sends out a kid to relay their demands. They want a jet in an hour or they start killing people every 15 minutes. They send the hostages into the vault.
Xavier quickly becomes the leader of the hostages, as he keeps calm. Xavier wants them to come up with an escape plan.
Xavier turns to Sara and unblocks her doubt in her mind so that she can attack with her skills she learned in Tae Kwon Do. Mr. Thomas doesn’t like Xavier sending children out to fight for them – which is super funny as that is what Xavier does best! Mrs. Thomas revives Mr. Kleinfield, the bank manager. Nice to see a fellow Klein in print, I feel like there are a few fictional ones out there.
Xavier comes out to Syndicate, as they are bickering to themselves. He offers the contents of his safety deposit but they turn it down as everything in the bank is theirs. He throws the bag at them.
The dye packs, anti-theft measures, explode and Xavier orders the two teams out of the vault. Team One heads to the exit and Team Two attacks.
There is an ad for God of War on the Playstation 2. I only played the third game and that was pretty fun.
Sara and a blonde dude attacks Syndicate. Xavier tells the two of them, the man’s name is Kevin, to go outside. Once they are gone, Syndicate chokes Xavier.
Xavier calls them by their names, Luke and Matthew. They are robbing the bank so that they can pay for Alice’s (their sister) operation. If they don’t do what he tells them to do, he will order Alice to jump off the roof of the hospital. He tells them he is the leader of the X-Men, so they know he is serious.
They call him on his bluff. He tells them that the cancer has weaken her mind so much that she is easy to locate and control, she is at Central Bronx Hospital.
They come out peacefully but change their minds and go hostile. The police respond in kind and shoot the brothers down. The police only believe they killed Syndicate and leave. They will do better for Xavier’s cause as living beings than dead mutants.
The issue ends with Xavier wanting Syndicate to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, get his money back and he will pay for their sister’s operation.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 