We get Magik continuing her origin story. One day on Earth equals one week in Ultimate Limbo. When she went missing, her father was utterly broken. Colossus, on the other hand, was determined to find her. When he couldn’t, he assumed she was taken by dark forces.
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Magik had become a Dark Child, which is just cool to work all of her monikers into this story.
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I love so much that Colossus took care of her, she wasn’t a monster to him, but his sister. Also, sleeping is such a great cure for so many ails.
Balga Castle, E.R.
Logan and Jean Grey are trying to find a way into Limbo. A find a person who can open and they both enter it. They locate the missing people, and Jean starts getting them all to safety. Logan is going to head off by himself to confront Magik. He comes across a dreamscape, and sees Colossus chopping wood.
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Logan finds Magik sleeping on her bed, with her giant souldsword out. A younger Illyana shows up with her little teddy bear.
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Little Yana wants Logan to read her a story, just one story. My heart is breaking reading these pages.
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I love so much that Logan, the killer that he is, still read her a story. There’s always time for one last story.
But! He didn’t forget what Magik did to him, with the mind control, turning him into the Ultimate Winter Soldier. Logan kills Magik.
Jean rescues Logan, and they are ready now for Ultimate Endgame 5.
So this new Ultimate Universe killed both Katherine Pryde and Magik. We never got Lockheed introduced, or even teased. I would love to say this is me being done with the Ultimate Universe, but I can’t as I already preordered Ultimate Endgame 4 & 5, and I’ve been searching every panel for Magik, but that’s not going to be necessary anymore.
I imagine we might see them as characters we lost along the way. I also preordered Ultimate Finale, and the first issue of the Miles Morales Ultimate Reborn miniseries, but I am definitely done with this Ultimate Universe. All of my enthusiasm for it is gone.
It is nice that with four bonus issues, we got Magik’s origin story, and also, her last story.
The Rasputin Household. UST-Ordynsky Collective. Russia. Then.
Young Piotr is getting super bullied, which I don’t care for. Mama Rasputina, who we never really got much of before, needs to toughen up her middle child.
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Possibly the youngest we have ever seen Illyana?
Now.
Illyana is in an arena, being run by Koschei, who is trying to absorb magik.
I like how smart Illyana is, that she knows that’s the plan, so she’s just punching and kicking goons, and doing quite well for herself.
Then Magik has to fight . . . Count Kaoz, who seemed very familiar with me, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to get an editor note telling us where we know him from. He made his first appearance in Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo’s Doctor Strange V4 7, part of the Last Days of Magic arc, that I own many issues of. Which I’m sure whenever we get Doctor Strange 3, would be the storyline I’ll cover on the pod.
The Lucky Bear. St. Petersburg, Russia. Piotr is hassling some goons in hopes they’ll lead him to where Illyana is. I like that we get a Mikail reference here, that’s how Piotr knows who to talk to in the Russian criminal underground.
Colossus, one of the few guys who can headbutt a fool, and not also take damage doing so.
I love Magik & Kaoz’s chemistry so much! They are in danger, but they’re not in serious danger, so they are having fun.
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Colossus breaks through the barrier, and starts helping out. Did I need four pages of Colossus getting closer to Magik? No, show us that he’s on the right track, and then surprise us with the reveal. That’s such great pacing.
Colossus rips off a demon cow’s head, that’s pretty intense. Anyone start watching Primate now on Paramount Plus? We thought the trailer looked good, and been eager for it to start streaming somewhere. We got to the first scare, a gorilla ripping off some dude’s face, and Walker D noped out. I should try to go back, but it is hard to watch a movie by myself. The demon cow wasn’t as intense as that.
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Magik does not want to end up back in Florida.
The trio leaves, and Koschei takes it pretty well.
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I love so much the three pages we get of Illyana and Piotr sharing their feelings, I just love them communicating. It was worth the effort.
I also love so much that Illyana takes after her mother. If this entire miniseries was to make us love Mama Rasputina, then mission accomplish!
Count Kaoz is leading the Rasputins to his ex-girlfriend’s house. His ex-girlfriend being . . . Baba Yaga. Who is NOT happy to see Kaoz.
The Airspace Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Danger’s Room goons shoot down the Marauder, with Psylocke and Xorn aboard.
The Danger Room. Danger is updated that there are no survivors, which seems super silly not to actually triple check.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska. Quinten Quire wants blood from whoever shot Glob Herman. Magneto is telling him to calm down, and I like Quire’s retort of “you need to get angry!” Oya also wants revenge as the two of them head out.
The Danger Room. Danger is annoyed she hasn’t heard of any destruction in Merle yet, but Colton assures her, it is coming.
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The Spirit of St. Augustine. Currently a living biomechanical monster.
Such a cool team shot.
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I love so much Magik casting spells.
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I also love so much what such besties Magik and Juggernaut are. Juggernaut is stopped by the wires of the ship, and brought underneath them, and Illyana immediately dives in after him.
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Cyclops tries to get her to focus, but now the wires have her. Then Scott also gets tangled up.
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Danger is excited about how they monetize this technology now.
Quire and Oya have made it to Merle, so stuff is going to happen next issue.
70s Beast and Sheriff Robbins are trying to figure out what the ship is made out of, and Hank can only think of one way to figure it out, dive into its center. I guess she is maybe safer with him than being tangled up on her own? Seems like a conversation he could have had with her.
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Agent Jackson wants to kill Greycrow, and Danger tells her she can do that. Jackson gets confirmation that Greycrow is dead, which I feel like, even if he’s in a bed, he’ll put up more of a fight than that.
Turns out, Kwannon has gotten to him, and has taken out the goon squad. So next issue, the X-Men start fighting back, which is always the exciting part of the story.
Variant Cover Todd Nauck, the Doctor Doom Homage Cover
I’m on record that I’m a huge fan of a villain spotlight issue, which was true for X-Men V7 24. Is it too soon for another villain spotlight issue? For me? No, I’m on record for being a huge fan of a villain spotlight issue. This time, we get Ms. Danger’s Danger Room.
I’m also on record about how if a villain knows the X-Men will win, the way to get your agenda done is by making sure your end goal happens toward the middle of your plan, so even when you get optic blasted, you still got your goal accomplished. The X-Men are notorious for not locking their villains up.
Maxine Danger, who is between a high functioning sociopath and a narcissistic solipsist. Which I had to look up. Apparently they believe that the only thing they can guarantee is the existence of their own mind – which seems interesting, but also, other people do exist, but I guess not from their point of view. Which I know I’m the type of guy, once someone passes me on a highway, I do consider that person. Where are they going? How did they catch up to me on the highway to pass me by? Are they thinking about me right now? Probably just in terms of “get out of my way!”
We meet former SHIELD Agent Jackson, in Arbfield Women’s Prison. She has the ability to make people sad enough that they kill themselves, so that’s not great, please seek help before hurting yourself or others. She knew she had this within herself, so knew once she was a SHIELD agent, she’ll have to get her body count as high as possible.
Ms. Danger works for the Beyond Corporation, who I’m pretty sure Spider-Man also worked for, so is that the same corporation?
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We get the group shot of everyone together, as they are pleased with themselves. I do love seeing a plan come together.
I do appreciate that they planned to take Psylocke out first, by separating her from the rest of the team. One always has to take out of the telepaths first, then the speedsters.
Psylocke is with Xorn in the Marauder, as it gets blasted out of the sky. This new Danger Room is full of killers, who, of course, won’t be killing the X-Men. A real shame that we don’t have resurrections anymore so these new villains can be established as a new lethal force. I supposed that could make them deadlier, but there is a world of a difference between killing regular humans, and elite mutants.
We next meet Colton Colton in Calford Penitentiary. We all know a person with the same name, right? Or know a person who knows a person? In high school, my Life Science teacher was Thomas Thomas, and I’ll never forget him. In my jobs over the years, I have mailed letters to people with the same name. Those poor nurses having to bite their tongues to not want to request double confirmation on the name.
Fun fact, my college friend Susie, is a Leap Day baby, so she’s only nine now.
Colton is a Machiavellian, which I’m starting to think my understanding of some of these words are not exactly what I think they are. He lived in a trailer park, and turn everyone against each other, to the point they were killing each other, and then he killed everyone else.
We catch up to the X-Men at the Factory. Glob Herman is bleeding out on the table, which is odd they didn’t take him to a hospital, especially as they know they don’t have Xorn NOR 70s Beast. Which is very clever planning on the Danger Room’s part. I really do wish it was simply called, Danger’s Room, that’ll be fun, plus distinguishes her group from the actual room, or the robot gal. But like they mentioned in the issue, the X-Men and Merle, Alaska, don’t quite trust each other. Quintin Quire is mad enough to make some poor decisions.
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We see Magik on a screen in the back, which is fun, as we head towards the main event.
I was thinking, isn’t there two more bad guys, how many pages are left of this comic? So, the solution is, time to double up. We meet Grigos and Marquez, thanks to the podcast, I might have a chance at remembering their names, or thanks to the website, I can at least refer back to this. These are two guys who think they have depowered Skrulls, thanks to that cursed Reed Richards! I think it would be a lot of fun if it turns out that she’s wrong, especially being a solipsist, and they actually are depowered Skrulls. Why not? They created a giant fire, which brought the firefighters, who they murdered, so they hate infrastructures.
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We see the X-Men fighting off the ship. Even if they win the day, and we know they will, without Magik’s teleportation abilities, they’re still stranded deep in the ocean.
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More fighting of the ship.
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Magik’s “Cyclops, what’s the plan” reaction meme drop!
I do love Cyclops being “I knew there was a trap, so of course, I sprung it.” He brought along a slew of sledgehammers, and they’re going to wreck their way out.
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He’s going to make whoever this is pay.
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Then, to my wonderful surprise, I got my 11th letter published! I didn’t think a letter for Age of Revelation Book of Revelations 1 would ever get printed, but it is nice to see it was received, plus, I guess we’ll be picking up on Apocalypse’s kids eventually. Hence the publishing of the letter. I see you.
Milwaukee. Issue opens with Greycrow robbing a bank, and getting shot up during his escape.
Merle, Alaska. Scott is happy it is spring time. Kwannon is surprised as Scott grew up in Alaska, and thinks he’ll be comfortable with the snow. He corrects her, that he was only here as a child. I suppose it is smart of him not to mention he lived there for a time with Madelyne and Baby Nathan, but that was like what, a few months? Better not to mention it.
Sheriff Robbins is missing, as Deputy Smith informs them.
Glob Herman is setting up a nice garden, as he’s producing too much for the X-Men to eat. He was going to give the food away, but Scott thought that would be suspicious. Which he’s right, as even I would think there was something wrong with the food, or that it was expiring soon. I like the older couple who arrives, they haven’t heard of the Shi’ar or optic blasts, which I would think the Shi’ar was known, but I guess if all you are getting from the news is alien attack after alien attack, they probably all sound alike. Before they arrive, Glob is visited by Piper and her mother, Rose. Piper’s twin sister, Robin, is working with 3K now, but it is nice that they’re keeping her in the loop. Well, now she’s in the loop, seems like someone should have sent an email or telepathic message to Rose about her other daughter.
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Cyclops asks Magik to track Sheriff Robbins’ blood to the source.
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Magik has located the nice sheriff, in the Gulf of Alaska.
Psylocke can’t make the mission as she has to check on Greycrow. Cyclops tells her to take Xorn with her, as Greycrow will need a healer. That’s nice of him.
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Gulf of Alaska. The Spirit of St. Augstine. We get a very cool team splash page.
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Things are a little too Raph. And a little too quiet.
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They locate Sheriff Robbins, she informs them it is a trap. I like how 70s Beast knows it is a trap, but they have a handy teleporter.
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Except, of course, Magik can’t teleport them, so ruh oh.
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The X-Men have to battle the ship.
Glob Herman gets hate crimed, which I immediately was worried about when Scott and Kwannon was discussing Glob having a garden, and I thought the room they hinted was his shop that was wrecked, but it was the police station (though it should be a sherif’s office, if they’re sheriffs and deputies, but okay). Glob is shot, and we don’t have resurrection anymore. Maybe he was just shot in the shoulder? I have my doubts.
Washington DC. The Office of National Emergency. We see Crimson Commando talking to new character, Maxime Danger. At first I thought she was WARDEN Ellis, but she’s a different lady. Danger is working with or for the Bureau of Prisons, so one would think Danger and Ellis would eventually be working together, right?
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Danger is all about branding, and wants her think tank to be called, The Danger Room. I guess Danger’s Room was too silly of a name.
Rogue tries to get answers from her mom, Mystique. Destiny was in jail at the moment, so she can’t really provide any insight. Rogue leaves, wanting to talk to Constrictor. Gambit reveals that both Constrictor and Sabretooth are dead, or at least, at the moment.
Destiny states that Rogue will eventually remember everything, so Mystique should have just told her now, it would have been better that way. Mystique wonders if this is another one of her prophecies, but Destiny gets a great line about how that’s just common sense.
Flying in a general direction, Rogue starts using Mystique’s power, even though she never touched her mother. So either Rogue’s powers are broken, or Mystique’s broken powers are causing Rogue issues.
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I like Rogue turning into Emma’s leg, Glob Herman’s arm, Magik’s arm, and Beast’s leg. I imagine Luigi Zagaria had fun thinking of which characters to attempt here. Needed to be mutants we immediately recognized.
Because of Rogue’s powers, I believe, whoever she shapeshifts into, she has that person’s powers, so it isn’t looking like Emma, but still her traditional powers, she would Emma’s physical powers.
As Rogue is falling from a great height, she shifts into Fred Dukes, to absorb the blunt of the impact as she falls through a warehouse. One of those classic normal looking warehouse, full of evil, and goons.
Some gross mutant hating goons are making a arms deal. One of them states that only a mutant can crash through a building and not get hurt. Which immediately makes me think about how any number of superpowered individuals can withstand that fall, and walk away.
Rogue shifts into her 80s look, which is fun. Her arm shifts to Emma’s diamond form to block the bullets. She shifts into her current look, then shifts into some goons to retrieve their information.
Issue ends with John Stelton, who set off this entire adventure, coming home. He saw Rogue, and now wants to make her pay. He has a real Why So Serious grin facial scar.
Solid enough issue. Is Sabretooth currently dead? Is Constrictor? Constrictor is getting his own Secret Wars action figure from the same line I got my Magik from recently.
So rare for a modern comic to reach issue 25! Though Uncanny will be doing it with its next issue. Just to get it out of the way, here is your Fenris trigger warning. I treated myself to the Luciano Vecchio variant cover. We weren’t given this theme cover for Exceptional X-Men, which I would have gladly bough the Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, and Melee covers. Actually, I probably would have gotten all of them, as I do love the format. Maybe with X-Men United we’ll finally get them? I’m still waiting for the Russell Dauterman Kitty Pryde costume gallery cover.
Issue opens with Cyclops telling the team about the Age of Revelation. I do like the idea that you can just skip AoR, and what you really need to know, you’ll be told through X-MEN dialogue. Future bad because of Doug Ramsey, and 3K (more about them later).
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Scott’s new goal in life? Fix the Present, Save the Future. Such a good team shot here.
Arizona, three miles from Rio Verde. Which is three and a half hours away from Yuma. When I was growing up, there was a popular blue shirt that had, “Yuma, four hours from everywhere else” that is burned into my mind.
We catch up to Fenris, who are eternally gross. Now, they’re super prideful of being white mutants, so they have a new lower level to their grossness.
I do love how out Jed MacKay is with calling the Strucker twins and Fenris (the name of their hate group) Nazis. Why hide behind code words? Also a good time to mention I was wrong about 3K being a clever way of not writing KKK, which makes sense now that we know Krakoa Beast is the Chairman of the Board.
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Then. Cyclops really needs to find Doug.
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Now. Cyclops sends Magik and Psylocke to join the fight. Once we’re done with the Psylocke retro series (which apparently is selling quite well), I would love to get a Magik & Psylocke miniseries.
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These two are great together!
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Then. I love the X-Men sharing a meal together, this team is very close.
Cyclops reveals that AoR had never heard of R-LDS. 70s Beast let’s out a “retrocausality” which sounds very fun to say aloud. I wonder what that would have looked like as a Mortal Kombat finisher?
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Magik telling Psylocke that her sword is sharper, and Kwannon calling Magik a brat. These two are the best.
Again, I just love Juggernaut and Magik being besties. This series has been great with showing Illyana being actual friends with people. I love to see it.
Juggernaut throws a car at Fenris, he’s so upset that they blasted Magik. Taking her out of the fight for the rest of the issue, which one has to do as she can end a fight rather easily.
Psylocke fights Andreas, and Oya fights Andrea.
Quenten Quire, who also can end a fight easily, has been holding back, as he really doesn’t want to enter a white supremacist’s mind – completely understandable.
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Juggernaut helping Magik up, they’re the best!
We finally learn who the mutant is who is in charge of O*N*E* . . . The Crimson Commando, who I barely remember. He’s on the cover of Uncanny X-Men 215, with Stonewall and Super Sabre. I mostly only remember Stonewall because of the historical event, and the cool flight helmet. He’s a WWII veteran, with the mutant power of peach physical health. I own his first appearance, so that’s cool. He is a Claremont / Davis creation.
The Crimson Commando arrived with a crew, and a press conference, announcing O*N*E*, and Cyclops’ X-Men are working together, then immediately has them stop recording, so mutants everywhere should have some distrust of Cyclops now. Which seems silly, as all it’ll take is for him to reach out to Rogue and Emma, and clear the whole thing up – he’ll probably do that in-between issues.
Cyclops references how the last time he fight Crimson Commando, he died, in Uncanny X-Men 529. Which was the issue Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost with Fantomex were searching for Sebastian Shaw, so I only remember that plot from the issue, but I owned his first and last appearance (until this issue, which I also own, so that’s nice).
We do get a reference to how Cyclops hadn’t realized Crimson Commando was resurrected on Krakoa, so that’s nice that era exists so any mutant can be brought back with ease. As long as they didn’t die in Fall of X (or Rise of X).
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Crimson Commando leaves, knowing he’ll win the long battle.
We get a back up where 70s Beast chats with Animalia, who likes the codename, another legacy of AoR.
70s Beast figures out 3K is actually 3000, otherwise written in Latin, MMM, Make More Mutants, and learns the Chairman of 3K is . . . Krakoa Beast! So, everyone knows what they are up against.
Magik and Quinten Quire start out throwing up as a jerk AIM agent change their biological make up to only breathe sulfur dioxide. Cyclops comes in, optic blasts everybody, so we see how cool he is.
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I don’t love that he chastises Magik & Quire, nor that he is looking for soldiers, that doesn’t seem to be his relationship with Magik or Quire. He must be just hyper focused right now.
I love so much Juggernaut barging into the room, and wanting to make sure Magik is okay. They really are the best of friends.
70s Beast confronts Cyclops about the solider remark. I like to think Illyana and Scott had a chat off panel about it as well, as he was being overly performative. Cyclops gets a message, and is off to Nebraska. He is going to take a Quinjet, which I thought was a mistake, but makes off wonderfully later.
Roxxon is changing Mister Sinister’s Orphanage into a new data center. Dr. Robin Honover reveals some information about Scott’s first days here. He was protecting Alex so fiercely he bit a few guards. I love that we get some editor boxes, always handy. Classic X-Men 41 & 42 are the stories to check out.
I thought Alex was adopted immediately, but it would make sense that he would have stayed here for a few days until the adoption was finalized. Scott leaves, giving Alex a call, which I appreciate that he would want to call his brother after this. We get another editor box referencing X-Factor V5 8, so they haven’t talked since then. We are reminded that Alex blew up the orphanage in Hellions 4.
Meanwhile, Donald Pierce is creating new Reavers, but he has a new plan to make them more loyal, and not as hateful, so that’s progress. Two Reavers see a Quinjet, and immediately shoot it down, thinking they are going to take some lame Avengers captive. Fun to see that get paid off so quickly. Instead, they get one of the more dangerous X-Men, Cyclops! I do like how Donald Pierce recognizes the danger they are in.
What they don’t know, is that Scott hit his head on the way down, so he doesn’t have control over his optic blasts. A mutant the Reavers were hunting finds Scott, so at least he isn’t alone, nor is she now.
Since we’re having editorial boxes, I wonder if we’ll get a reference to X-Men Unlimited V1 31, where Scott was blinded, and has to use all of the skills his fellow X-Men taught him. Kitty taught him some defense moves that are referenced in that issue.
Future Scott swaps minds with Present Day Scott. He does optic blast Doug, BUT! Doesn’t even cause him a concussion. He figures out pretty quickly that Future Beast didn’t swap with him. I guess the plan was that Future Beast was supposed to deliver the death blow? Seems not like Cyclops to train for X years, just to fail at this crucial moment. I do like how he had a plan to attack the X-Men, and he succeeds at that rather well. He takes out Quentin Quire first, then Psylocke, who he was most concern about.
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He dodges Juggernaut, realizes how he must succeed, optic blasts Magik, takes her soulsword, rude!,
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He knocks down Glob Herman, and Beast tackles Future Scott.
In prison, and I like how this was teased in Age of Revelation Finale, so we think this is the end of the story, Future Scott is in The Brig. He explains the situation, but no one wants to kill Doug, as there must be a better way.
I really love that Doug and Bei the Blood Moon are creating their own sign language, that’s very cute. Oya reminds Doug of her time on Krakoa, which I appreciate that we haven’t forgotten she was a prisoner during that time.
Future Scott breaks out, and chats with Magneto, who sticks to his story that he is powerless, so which is it? Is he faking it? Is Age of Revelation already a splintered timeline that will be shredded from memory?
Psylocke shows up, and Future Scott is back in The Brig. Doug goes to talk to him, and dumb Future Scott just tells Doug how he’s going to take over the world by simply telling people to obey him, and geez Scott, just give him the directions to rule? This isn’t the Scott I know, which of all of the AoR characters, he is the one character we don’t know.
Issue ends with Doug, Bei, and Warlock simply leaving.
I like how Magik clearly had the thought that she wasn’t going to fight Scott, and after his attack, she grabs her soulsword, and leaves the issue. My head cannon is that she got attacked by him, and decided to go hang out with her brother, Colossus.
I also really like how this issue doesn’t try to sell you on the Age of Revelation crossover. There’s not even an editor box to tell you to read the crossover. Are you interested in where this Future Scott is from? Go check out Age of Revelation. He’s simply a Cyclops from the FUTURE! If you are interested, you can look it up. That is very new reader friendly.
#Inferno V1 1#SecretWars 2015Magik succumbs to her Darkchild personaA year later, Colossus gathers a team that includes Kitty Pryde, to rescue his beloved sisterIt does NOT go well for anyone involved
#Inferno V1 2#SecretWars 2015Darkchild is having a hard time breaking Kurt, so she rips out his soulA demon updates her that Colossus, Madelyne Pryor, Kid Cable, and Domino are coming for herDarkchild reveals she has own personal Nightcrawler, so she's not that worried
#Inferno V1 3#SecretWars 2015Inferno has been unleased on Earth! Darkchild is taking the fight to the X-Men, including Kitty PrydeThey are definitely way too much for the X-Men to handleMagik easily defeats Captain Britain & RogueMagik then defeats Cyclops pretty easily as wellShe's won
#Inferno V1 4#SecretWars 2015We open with a reminder how sweet young Illyana wasSnap cut to the present, where we find Darkchild just plain enjoying her big winSheriff Strange acknowledges that Baron Summers has last control, and promotes her to Baroness Darkchild
#Inferno V1 5#SecretWars 2015I really like how a defining trait is that Illyana likes to eatDemons are slaughtering X-MenColossus vs Darkchild, she is winning until she threatens Domino, then Colossus slays herMadelyne Pryor arrives & absorbs Darkchild's Limbo energies
Shadow and Flame with Magik 