Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert
What Went Down: The young boy abducted by Abyss last issue, whose name is Jeremy Graves, is being tormented by the mutant. Meanwhile, the X-Men are confronting a force of Apocalypse’s Brotherhood and reprogrammed Sentinels. Exodus mentions that he was experimented on by the Madri and can never forget the horrors he experienced. While most of the X-Men protect the humans, Quicksilver chases after Vanessa and one of the Madri. He finds his deceased sister Wanda, but really it is Carlyle using her powers to fool him; she is about to kill Quicksilver when Dazzler stops her. A Sentinel attacks Dazzler, preventing her from capturing the villain. Exodus is about to attack the Sentinels when Storm shows up and uses her powers to scramble the Sentinels.
In the air, Banshee is searching for the Madri and contemplating his decision to return to this life after retiring. He finds the Madri’s body, and Abyss appears, telling Banshee that he is the one that killed the Madri for failing in his mission. Abyss shows Banshee the captive child and tells him to go get the son of Magneto, Quicksilver. Banshee delivers the message, and Quicksilver decides to risk his life to save the child. Storm goes with him, and Exodus tells them not to worry because Storm and Banshee’s powers have apparently made it possible to reprogram the Sentinels again.
During the journey, Storm comes to realize that she is in love with Quicksilver. The two mutants find the boy, but Abyss attacks them. Quicksilver defeats Abyss by punching him and then shoving Abyss’ body into itself; because his body is a dimensional portal, Abyss becomes tangled in himself. Storm and Quicksilver take Jeremy back to his family, and the once-again reprogrammed Sentinels begin taking the humans to New Eurasia. In New York, we find out that Sebastian Shaw has captured Angel’s assistant Karma, and he is torturing her for information. Apocalypse announces that they are wasting time, and he is ready to attack Magneto’s base.
How It Was: Well, this issue is a pretty big letdown. Last issue teased a battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood with the Sentinels on the Brotherhood’s side. Somehow, all of these conflicts manage to just resolve themselves, so it leads me to ask why any of the Brotherhood mutants bothered to show up in this book. Half of them disappear and aren’t seen this entire issue, while the others get chased for a few pages before getting away. I do like the way Copycat uses her powers to trick Quicksilver by turning into Wanda, but other than that moment, the entire battle with the Brotherhood consists of one energy blast from Exodus.
Then there’s the conflict with the Sentinels, which also sounds promising; the X-Men have to protect the humans from them while not damaging them too much so that they can still be used as transport later. Instead of a tense battle, we get Storm’s power stopping all of the Sentinels quite easily, and then all of them get fixed off panel. All of this comes off as very rushed and inconsequential; it’s really disconcerting to see the majority of the threats to the X-Men solve themselves so easily. And Banshee’s powers include harmonics now, which is some kind of sound that allows him to reprogram robots? This definitely reeks of plot convenience and laziness.
It doesn’t help that most of the X-Men don’t have a lot to do this issue; Exodus, Dazzler, and Iceman literally contribute nothing to the issue except fixing the Sentinels off panel. All Banshee really gets to do is deliver Abyss’ message to Quicksilver.
As for Abyss, he’s a mess of a character. His powers include his tendrils that he ties people up with, limited telepathy, his body is some kind of portal or something, and I think that he might suck the life force out of people…maybe? A lot of these powers seem unnecessary, especially the portal that ends up being his undoing this issue. Plus he comes off as more of a bully than one of Apocalypse’s elite Horseman; he spends the issue picking on a little kid, and then gets beat by Quicksilver in all of one page. Pathetic! Compare that to Holocaust chasing after humans and cutting Sabretooth’s throat…now that’s a bad guy.
At least Abyss looks really cool because the art is awesome as ever. It’s a shame that all of these unnecessary elements are even in this comic. Nicieza has too many characters and not enough room/ideas to make them work, leading to a decidedly unsatisfying resolution.
D+
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