Writer: Scott Lobdell
Art: Brandon Peterson
What Went Down: Professor X has secluded himself in the War Room for the last seventy-two hours monitoring news reports on mutant/human relations. Bishop enters to resign from the X-Men due to his failure to protect Xavier, but the Professor refuses to accept his resignation.
At a private school, former New Mutants supporting character Sharon Friedlander is preparing for the school day. She mentions that she is working in this place as a favor to Xavier before being knocked out by the Acolytes.
In the Danger Room, Jean Grey and Archangel are running a test to help Bishop and Gambit learn to work together. This is a major obstacle because Bishop believes Gambit is the traitor who in the future is responsible for killing the X-Men, and Gambit doesn’t really appreciate that.
Over in Central Park, supporting character, and on again/off again Archangel girlfriend, Charlotte Jones is jogging and contemplating her recent decisions. She meets Storm and Professor X to give him a file. While they are talking, Xavier receives a mental cry for help from Sharon. He contacts the X-Men and tells them to leave right away.
Back at the school, Tom Corsi, another New Mutants supporting character, is driving the school bus full of students to the school. He notices that nobody seems to be around right before the school explodes revealing the Acolytes and the unconscious Sharon (who next issue we learn is dead). The new Acolytes are as follows: the Kleinstock Brothers, Unuscione—the daughter of 60’s era X-villain Unus the Unstoppable, and Cargill—former member of the Axis of Evil. They also identify that their leader is Fabian Cortez, the man responsible for betraying Magneto in X-Men #1-3. Their mission is to find a latent mutant to add to their ranks and kill all the rest of the humans.
Right off the bat, one of the Kleinstocks gets killed by a shotgun blast from Corsi, leaving two. Unuscione uses her “psionic exo-skeleton” to grab him. She is about to kill him when the X-Men show up.
The X-Men battle the Acolytes. Events of note include Archangel being engulfed by flames and surviving. Also Cargill apparently knows Gambit because they call each other by their first names, but nothing ever comes of this. Unuscione finds the potential mutant, but he has Down’s Syndrome, so the Acolytes don’t want him anymore. The Kleinstocks start a fire near the bus, and the X-Men get to work trying to save the children. The flames get close to the gas tank, but luckily Storm shows up and puts out the fire.
The issue ends with Senator Robert Kelly on TV denouncing mutants and warning the public about the threat mutants pose. Professor X turns off the TV and looks very concerned.
How It Was: Very enjoyable. It appears that the X-Men once again have a direction as well as some interesting avenues to explore. Everything about this issue feels well constructed. The expansion of Bishop and Gambit’s relationship is very welcome, as is the direction for Professor X as refocused due to his recent near death experience. The fight with the Acolytes is really well done, mostly owing to the fact that Lobdell keeps the numbers down and only introduces us to five of the members (and one of them dies right away, so we don’t have to worry about him). The fight is also well paced and has some clever moments to it, such as Gambit’s use of a tire swing or Jean’s surprise at the Kleinstocks’ powers. My one regret is that the Acolytes’ powers are introduced, but none of their personalities go beyond narrow-minded zealot. On the other hand, Lobdell does get some great moments out of C-list supporting characters like Sharon Freidlander and Tom Corsi.
Peterson’s art looks really nice this issue; just look at the details in the computer screens and newspapers in Xavier War Room towards the beginning of the issue. Also, the room full of Archangels looks rather nice as well. A really good issue.
A
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