X-Men: Omega

X-Men: Omega
Writing: Scott Lobdell and Mark Waid
Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down: Holocaust is toying with his captive, Magneto, while his father Apocalypse watches. Apocalypse taunts his prisoner and explains the trap that has been set for his X-Men. The villains still have possession of the M’kraan Crystal, which the X-Men need to fix the time stream. Elsewhere, Angel takes the time to rescue Karma, but she apparently dies in his arms.

Blink teleports the X-Men to the pens, and they fight some soldiers. After the fight, Gambit pulls the Dark Beast out of some rubble to use him to get into Apocalypse’s base. In another part of the city, Cyclops and Jean Grey are leading the prisoners of the pens to freedom. Unknown to them, Cyclops’ jealous brother Havok is following them. At the same time, Angel flies into a defense tower carrying a load of explosives, freeing up the way for the X-Men, and making it possible for Nate Grey to escape.

The Shadow King tells Apocalypse that the southwest territories have been bombed; Apocalypse prepares for reprisals. He’s about to finish off Magneto when Nate Grey shows up and attacks. Magneto finds his helmet, and the two prepare to battle Apocalypse and Holocaust.

Blink teleports the X-Men to the chamber holding the M’kraan crystal, and another fight begins. Destiny glimpses the regular universe in the crystal and announces that she, Bishop, and Illyana are the only ones who can approach it. Holocaust and Nate fall through the ceiling, and Magneto approaches his X-Men. He gives a speech about the necessity of sacrifice and the fate of the universe. Colossus has issues with his sister potentially being sacrificed, but the X-Men begin fighting anyways.

Outside, Jean projects a telekinetic shield to try to protect the prisoners from the bombs that have been triggered by the Human governments. Wolverine, known as Weapon X, makes it through the shield with a parachute. Nate beats down Holocaust some more.

In the midst of the main battle, the Sugar Man escapes from Colossus’ boot to the M’kraan crystal, so he’ll show up later in our universe. Colossus freaks out and decides that he has to be with his sister. Iceman tries to stop him, but Peter shatters him. Gambit attacks him to hold him off. At the crystal, Destiny tells Illyana to use her powers to create a portal for Bishop to go through.

At the Human High Council in Europe, Apocalypse’s defense grid is attacking England. Magneto busts in on Apocalypse and creates a suit of armor out of stray pieces of metal. However, Magneto is forced to hesitate because Guido is holding his son. Outside, Havok attacks and kills Cyclops and Jean. Weapon X kills Havok, and then sits by Jean as she passes away. Logan is reminded of a legend about the Phoenix.

Bishop travels back to the moment right before Xavier jumped in front of Legion. He’s about to interfere when he is stopped by himself from the past.

Back in the AOA, Morph is injured, and Dark Beast makes his way to a teleportation device. Quicksilver quickly scrambles the coordinates, since Dark Beast’s destination is the crystal. Shadowcat decides to get in front of Colossus, hoping their love will stop Colossus’ rage. Instead, he accidentally kills her, and Gambit in turn kills him. Peter apologizes to his sister, but Quicksilver is forced to intervene and save Illyana from enemy guards.

Rogue uses her powers to remove Guido’s mass and rescue her son. Nate Grey attacks Apocalypse and steals a shard of the M’kraan crystal that the villain was holding. In the past, Bishop beats up his past self and tackles Legion out of the way. Bishop stabs himself with Legion’s energy blade, absorbing and redirecting the energy until it consumes Legion. Legion sees the Age of Apocalypse and apologizes, saying he only wanted to help. Legion dies, and the past X-Men are sent back to the present. Charles, Magneto, and Gabrielle forget all about the recent events in Legion Quest, although they all have a sense as if something important just occurred.

Magneto and Nate have Apocalypse on the ropes, but Holocaust interrupts the fight by shooting Nate. Nate has no choice but to stab Holocaust with the M’kraan shard, sending them both into the regular Marvel Universe. Apocalypse wonders why Magneto isn’t fighting back, but it is because he is concentrating. Magneto tears Apocalypse in half, then walks off to spend his final moments with his family before the nuclear weapons go off. He takes the time to thank Charles Xavier for changing his life.

How It Was: Well, it’s double-sized, shiny, and there’s not an advertisement to be seen in it. Nevertheless, it still feels really rushed as Lobdell tries to plow through the storylines of nine books in one single finale, plus the whole Age of Apocalypse story has to be resolved so that everything can revert back to normal next month. So this book goes at a pretty fast pace. A lot of inconsequential characters like Dazzler and Exodus completely disappear because there isn’t enough room for them, and poor Roger Cruz already has more than enough characters to draw. A lot of other characters are left up in the air; Morph gets injured, but we never see what happens to him. Nightcrawler and Jubilee get forced into the background as nothing but fighters.

All the same, there are some really awesome moments in this issue. Rather than discuss them all, because it is a really big book, I think I’ll list my favorites.

1. Colossus accidentally kills Kitty Pryde
2. Magneto rips Apocalypse in half.
3. Magneto and Nate Grey vs. Holocaust and Apocalypse.
4. Weapon X avenges Jean.
5. Nate Grey to Apocalypse, “This is for Forge!”

I will elaborate on my number one pick. I can see how many would see Colossus’ reactions as out of character, but I think that given his reactions to Illyana’s death in the Marvel Universe, his behavior isn’t that far-fetched. I mean Illyana’s death pushed Peter to join the evil Magneto’s Acolytes and later he sacrifices himself to help cure the Legacy Virus (much, much later, we’ll get to it). Plus you throw in the fact that his students all died under his care, and I think it’s perfectly natural for AOA Colossus to become overwhelmed by his emotions. And the speech he gives to Illyana as he’s dying is so well done down to the part where he wants her to stay with him, but she can’t.

Not every moment is solid. The fact is that the only way that this story could have any impact on the greater X-universe was to have some of the characters make it back to the normal universe; the ways in which these characters make it to the Marvel Universe are rather contrived, and none of them have had any groundbreaking moments in the last decade or so. Yes, X-Man had his own book for a while, but most X-collectors never really bothered with it, and it rarely affected the wider X-Men franchise.

I must say that the end is superb; I love how the panel is engulfed in white and you’re left to figure out if it’s a nuclear holocaust or reality fixing itself. And while the story doesn’t have very many ramifications for the characters, it is a well-constructed story with a solid direction that opened a lot of possibilities for writers to play with the characters and themes of the X-Men and present them in a new light.

B+

Amazing X-Men #4

Amazing X-Men #4
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: The Madri cult members are in the middle of a ceremony where they are about to sacrifice Bishop. Storm bursts in and attacks the cult members. She unhooks Bishop from his restraints with her lockpicks and helps carry him away.

Meanwhile, Banshee and Quicksilver are looking for the prime Madri because if they kill him, the rest of the Madri will be defeated. They find him, and it turns out that the Madri are duplicates of Jamie Madrox, the normal universe’s Multiple Man! After years of being experimented on to increase his duplication powers, Jamie has been reduced to an insane infantile state, all though his speech patterns are quite mature and lucid for his supposed state of mind.

We cut to the Astonishing X-Men team returning to the mansion. They find Colossus and Kitty Pryde already there; all of Kitty and Colossus’ students were killed in the rescue of Peter’s sister, Illyana (read Generation Next). Sabretooth and Rogue then go into the sewer to try to find Charles, only to discover Dazzler, Exodus, and the remains of Gambit’s team. Rogue flips out and attacks Gambit, wondering where her son is; Gambit tells her that Guido, normally Strong Guy, betrayed them and captured the boy.

Back in Quebec, Bishop and Storm are fighting against a seemingly endless supply of Madri armed to the teeth. Jamie Madrox keeps telling Pietro and Sean to kill him, but they don’t want to since Madrox is innocent. Their debate is postponed by an attack from Abyss. Banshee decides to sacrifice himself to kill Abyss by flying into the villain and unleashing a huge sonic scream. After the explosion, Madrox decides to kill himself by slowly shutting down the Madri by sheer will.

Back at the mansion, Rogue freaks out more about her husband and son. Nightcrawler teleports in with Destiny, so his mission was a success. The rest of the Amazing X-Men return, and it is established that everyone succeeded except for Gambit’s team. The X-Men strike dynamic poses and announce that they are going to rescue Charles and Magneto and defeat Apocalypse.

How It Was: This issue is paced really well, and the A and B plots really complement each other nicely. I like how the high action scenes of Storm and Bishop facing off against gun-toting priests contrasts with scenes of Banshee and Quicksilver working through their moral dilemma. It works surprisingly well, except for the fact that at no point do we believe that the X-Men are going to kill Jamie. And there is the inconsistency of Jamie Madrox’s dialogue, which isn’t really consistent with his appearance in this issue; he’s surrounded by baby toys and wearing diapers, giving the impression that his mind has been severely debilitated, yet he is fully aware of what is happening the whole time.

Seeing the remaining X-teams come together is also a nice treat. Sure it doesn’t directly tie into the story, but it does build up anticipation for the final chapter, X-Men: Omega. Nicieza saves some nice character moments for these scenes, like how Kitty phases so Rogue can’t touch or comfort her about the death of Kitty’s students. The sad fact is that the deaths of characters that never appeared in this book carry more weight than the death of one of the main characters this issue. Banshee’s death doesn’t carry any emotion because really we never learn anything about him other than the fact that he was retired, but came back to help Magneto. Plus he kills Abyss in a two-page fight; it took Quicksilver one page last time. All in all this book is a little bit of a disappointment since it fails to inspire me to care about any of its main characters, but it does offer a couple of cool moments.

B

Amazing X-Men #3

Amazing X-Men #3
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Magneto starts this issue by visiting Charles Xavier’s grave. He talks to his dead friend about how Xavier influenced him and might be disappointed by how the world turned out. Bishop shows up complaining about how unsecure the area is. Magneto senses some enemies teleporting around them and tells Bishop to fire over his shoulder. The Infinites are being brought in by old sixties villain the Vanisher. Magneto and Bishop easily defeat the Infinites, but Apocalypse shows up to ambush them.

After losing the fight, Magneto threatens to detonate the charges in Bishop’s gun. Apocalypse gets him to relent by threatening the safety of Magneto’s youngest son Charles. Down in the sewer, Vanisher ambushes Charles’ caretaker robot, Nanny. Nanny’s defenses make short work of the villain. The rest of the X-Men return to the mansion and find signs of the battle with the Infinites. They find Vanisher’s body and recognize the burns on him as belonging to Nanny’s weapons. Quicksilver runs off because he knows someone who can help them find Magneto and Bishop; before leaving, he tells Iceman to get Rogue’s team, and Dazzler and Exodus to find his brother Charles.

Angel is in his home contemplating the capture of Scarlett and Karma, and how all his plans are falling apart. He is ambushed by Quicksilver, who demands to know where Bishop and his father are. Angel explains that the Madri are holding Bishop while Magneto is being held by Apocalypse; this forces Quicksilver to decide which mutant to rescue.

In Quebec, the Madri are using the Shadow Thief, this universe’s version of the Shadow King, on Bishop. The Shadow Thief sees memories of the regular Marvel Universe and recognizes Xavier from his past. Then something causes Shadow King to be expunged from Bishop’s mind. Abyss appears and announces that he’s there to protect the Age of Apocalypse. Quicksilver returns to the mansion and tells Storm and Banshee that they are going after Bishop.


How It Was: Well, this is a lot better. The events of the issue have effects on the larger narrative, there is finally a serious threat to the heroes, and for the first time in Amazing there is finally some suspense over what is going to happen. The action is all pretty good; we get the Infinite fodder battle to make Magneto and Bishop look good, followed by Apocalypse decimating them and demonstrating how powerful he really is. I like that Apocalypse exploits Magneto’s love for his child and his uncertainty to gain the upper hand. Also, my favorite scene in this series is probably Nanny pulling all of her guns on Vanisher, even if it is predictable.

Once again Iceman, Exodus, and Dazzler are pushed off to the side; it’s really disappointing that these characters don’t really get any sort of development over the course of these four issues. Quicksilver’s reaction to having his life fall apart is compelling, but none of the other characters have anything to contribute to the story. On the other hand, the art is still fantastic, especially the sequence where the Shadow King enters Bishop’s mind. Ultimately, this is a step in the right direction; it’s too bad that the actual X-Men couldn’t get more of a spotlight in their own book.

B