Oh good. Another X-event. I suppose when you have what is essentially a universe of heroes (mutants) inside a universe of heroes (Earth-616), telling global stories about the sub-group in event form makes a kind of sense. But it’s also dizzying. This one is actually good, though–so that helps, too.
This post covers:
DO delete ALL THE ISSUES AND UPDATE MY SHEET
- X-Men: Messiah Complex #1
- New X-Men #44-46
- Uncanny X-Men #492-494
- X-Factor #25-27
- X-Men #205-207
Note that these are the final issues of New X-Men, which is then relaunched as Young X-Men #1. Likewise, adjectiveless X-Men ends with #207. After that, it changes its title to X-Men Legacy but retains its numbering.
A one-shot introduces the event with some of the core X-Men team looking for a newly identified mutant in Alaska, but when they arrive they find an entire town destroyed. They find the bodies of several Purifiers and also Blockbuster and Prism of the Marauders and figure out that the two warring groups were fighting over the new mutant, who is an infant. It’s not clear who won the battle, but several were killed.
We also see that a Predator X is hunting the child, and that hunt continues across most of the first two Acts of this event.
The X-Men search for the baby, who is the first mutant born since M-Day. Wolverine and Storm track the Marauders and bring a team their Antarctica base, where they learn that Mister Sinister was behind the attack in Alaska.
Big Chris Bachalo fight so…
…It’s not that great to look at.
The X-Men are able to beat the Marauders, but the baby is not with them. Turns out it’s with…Cable!
Yeah, we all thought he was dead but it turns out he’s a babynapper!
For their tie-in, X-Factor are compelled by Emma Frost to use their skills to infiltrate the purifiers, sending in the de-powered Rictor as their double agent. At the same time, Forge sends a Madrox dupe into an alternative future timeline to see if they can figure out who the baby grows up to become. The dupe will never be able to return to the 616 timeline. Knowing this, Layla still hitches a ride with him into the future. They learn that in the future mutants are all kept in concentration camps.
Once his dupes are launched into the future, Madrox falls unexpectedly into a coma, and he stays that way for most of the story while Layla and his dupe uncover the secret of the camps, and get an”M” face-brand just like Bishop’s. More on that in a bit.
The students in the New X-Men are ordered not to take action, and they are losing faith in Professor X.
Given that the Purifiers killed so many of them in the past, they pursue them anyway and find the Reavers in league with them.
Wow. I thought they were all about being pure, and there they are working with mutants.
Back at X-Mansion, Valerie Cooper’s sentinel army goes nuts. The X-Men destroy the robots and find that their pilots are dead and inhabited by nano-sentinels. The X-Men believe Cable is responsible, so Cyclops forms a new team…
That’s Wolfsbane, Caliban, Hepzibah, and X-23, all led by Wolverine. It’s a team with two wolverines. And their black-ops mission is to hunt Cable, with authorization to kill. Professor X tries to be all “we don’t kill” and stuff but Cyclops tells him to F-k off.
Lady Deathstrike’s Purifiers find Cable first and attack, but X-Force arrive just in time for another issue of New X-Men, which sadly means Bachalo gets to draw another big fight. And it’s an important one, too.
Caliban is shot and killed by the Purifiers and…
X-23 kills Lady Deathstrike.
Cable and the child escape during the fight, only to be caught and get shot in the back by Bishop.
But before Bishop can kill the child, some Marauders show up, led by Gambit. They’re able to capture the baby and bring it to Mister Sinister, but Mystique kills him and takes the child for herself.
Wow. Lots of important people dying in this story! Mystique figures out that the baby has healing powers and uses the infant to heal her daughter, Rogue, who lost her mind several arcs ago. The cost of the healing is that all other consciousnesses and memories Rogue had absorbed are now gone.
Meanwhile, in the future, Madrox’s dupe and Layla meet Bishop as a boy.
He tells them that after M-Day a “mutant messiah” was born who grew up to kill over a million humans, leading to mutants being put in camps. Bishop says he wants to kill that Messiah. And so now we know that we are in a “go back in time and kill baby Hitler” scenario.
After hearing young Bishop’s story, Layla kills the dupe.
This causes Jamie Madrox in the 616 timeline to wake up from his coma and become reunited with his dupe. He tells the X-Men that Bishop is trying to kill the baby.
Now, it’s time for all the various groups to come together and fight.
Including the Predator X. Wolverine makes short work of it.
Sadly, much of the big fight happens mostly in the final issue of New X-Men, which means that Bachalo is YET AGAIN drawing the big fight.
In the final battle, Cable teleports into the future with the baby and Bishop kills Xavier, accidentally, as Cable disappears before Bishop’s bullets hit him, pass through, and kill Charles.
In the aftermath, the X-Men disband.
On the final page, we see Cable and the baby in the future.
No, wait, I lied. The final final page tells us that ANOTHER event is coming next: Divided We Stand.
Oh. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, the baby is Hope Summers.
English (US) · 