Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert
What Went Down: The first page begins in the middle of a fight between Omega Red and the Soul Skinner, our main villain for the story. They fight for a couple of pages until the Soul Skinner defeats Red with his powers; he uses the fears and regrets people have to shut down their minds.
In the Blackbird, Vazhin has already recruited the X-Men and is briefing them on the mission; he also has a spiffy set of battle armor to wear. He and Wolverine explain that a Flagwatch is basically a long term mole planted to observe potential threats. Iceman shows concern for Darkstar and Garnoff because he used to know them through the Champions, a super hero team he was on in the 80s, while Colossus seems very upset that Vazhin interrupted the visit with his family. The X-Men search for life, but only find townspeople standing still. Omega Red comes out of nowhere and attacks.
Safe in Moscow, the general is talking with some scientists and Matsuo Tsuryaba, presumably because he is still working with Omega Red. In Tokyo, the woman in purple has killed all of the bodyguards of a man named Nyorin. He calls her Kwannon, which is the name of the woman whose body Betsy Braddock now inhabits as Psylocke, but we don’t know that yet. The woman announces that she killed the guards to prove her place and that the X-Man Psylocke must die.
It turns out that Omega Red is being controlled by the Soul Skinner, although you wouldn’t be able to tell since he talks and acts normally. His encounter with the Soul Skinner has also left him immune to Psylocke’s psychic knife. After beating on the X-Men for a bit, Omega releases his death spores, which cause most of the team to fall unconscious. The Soul Skinner takes down Cyclops by making him feel the pain of losing his brother in childhood, and the pain that his child might have grown up to become Stryfe. The Soul Skinner even comments that Scott lives with so much guilt that it hurt him.
While the rest of the X-Men are getting beat, Colossus and Vazhin make their escape. They discover a bunch of children being held hostage, and ascertain that children are immune to the Skinner’s abilities. This worries Alexei because it means that the Red Flag, Illyana, will also not be affected.
During the night at the Ust-Ordynski Collective, soldiers break in to the Rasputins’, kill Colossus’s parents, and kidnap his sister. Vazhin reveals that the plan is to age Illyana using genetic acceleration so that she can use her powers to stop the Skinner, leaving many to assume that this story was going to lead to the return of Magik.
How It Was: A lot of fighting this issue, which is always exciting. Omega Red is back, and he usually makes for colorful fights, at least until he activates his death spore and characters end up just passing out. For all of the pages of fighting, it does feel a little rushed at times as characters like Iceman and Wolverine are defeated off panel. Nicieza could definitely have spent fewer pages exploring the motionless people of the village since that idea was already fairly well established last issue. And why does Cyclops fall down when everyone else under the Skinner’s power just stands in place? The sequence where the Rasputins are gunned down by soldiers is very abrupt and effective, as is the sequence inside Scott’s mind. Art once again is fantastic; my only complaint is that Psylocke looks absurd in her costume with a teeny, tiny jacket on in the middle of the snow of Russia.
C+
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