Writer: Scott Lobdell & Jeph Loeb
Artist: Joe Madureira
Inker: Tim Townsend & Al Milgrom
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comcraft
Colorist: Steve Buccellato & Digital Chameleon

Cover Date: May 1995

As this issue opens, Wild Child (who I still feel as though I know next to nothing about) races to destroy Holocaust’s Infinite production plant on the orders of Sabertooth. In pursuit are a small group of those very same Infinites, who manage to stop him in his tracks with a well-placed laser blast to his back. Peculiarly, the laser blast in question is accompanied by some unusually verbose and unnecessary narration which gave me pause. Having greatly enjoyed Scott Lobdell’s writing on the first two issues of the Astonishing X-Men series, something immediately seemed to be amiss this time around. Well, a quick glance at the credits on page 1 revealed that, while Lobdell plotted this issue, Jeph Loeb wrote the dialogue… 

*sad trombone sound effect*

Anyway, Holocaust himself shows up before the Infinites have a chance to finish Wild Child off, then reveals himself to actually be Morph in disguise, accompanied by the rest of the X-team who are the focus of this particular mini-series (Rogue, Blink and Sunspot). Sunspot takes out the Infinites and then the crew desperately tries to communicate with Wild Child to find out what happened to Sabertooth. However, lacking the ability to speak (I guess…?) he instead leaps onto Rogue and touches her skin (see: licks her face) so that she’ll absorb his memories and know what he knows without having to be told. What they don’t know, but we find out in the very next scene, is that Sabertooth is alive and is a currently captive of Holocaust.

A short while later the team arrives at the Infinite factory Wild Child was meant to destroy. How exactly he was supposed to do that on his own, I’m not sure, but the group sets out to finish what he started when Blink suddenly seems to sense Sabertooth’s presence. She teleports away to discover him chained up and hanging on a nearby cliff overlooking the facility, which is where the issue ends. This ending seems to thematically tie in to an earlier sequence which flashes back to Sabertooth and Wolverine rescuing Blink from a burning building. When, where and under what circumstances that scene takes place, I’m not sure. Hopefully it will be expanded upon later.

The one other sequence of note in this issue is another cutaway to Magneto and Bishop back at the dilapidated, would-be X-Mansion. In a moment of confusion, Bishop (who, let’s all remember, is apparently a bit off his rocker due to everything he’s experienced since Legion Quest) threatens to kill Magneto, thinking that it could somehow reset things to the way they were back in the regular Marvel Universe timeline. After Bishop comes to his senses (following a swift slap to the face from Erik), Magneto’s robot maid/nanny alerts the two of a security breach at the mansion before cocooning Charles (Magneto’s young son) in a protective, metal egg which sinks into a hole in the floor…as one does. Having been teased at some point in one of the various Age Of Apocalypse tie-ins (there are so many that I’m beginning to lose track of what happened where and to whom), this breach is presumably the coming of Apocalypse himself.

Despite Jeph Loeb’s intrusive writing style, I still enjoyed this issue of Astonishing X-Men quite a bit. While the artists of some of the other mini-series’ seem to be falling behind and relying on fill-ins, Joe Madureira is holding strong, which is a big positive in my book. The overall story of this particular series is still one of the more compelling to me (despite how annoying both Sunspot and I find the Age Of Apocalypse version of Morph to be) and I’m greatly anticipating the final showdown between the X-Men and Holocaust, which I am assuming will be the ultimate climax of the series in the next issue.

- R.

Writer: John Francis Moore
Artist: Steve Epting & Terry Dodson
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Glynis Oliver

Cover Date: May 1995

It would be really fascinating if a more succinct world was created within the Age Of Apocalypse crossover event. There are a lot of neat ideas swirling around, but so many people, places and things just get off-hand mentions or are merely a means to an end which I would like to see explored further. Case in point: multiple issues of the event thus far have mentioned “the pens” where Apocalypse keeps seemingly untold thousands of humans, mutants and science experiments captive. This issue of Factor X opens in a heretofore unmentioned area of the pens called “the kennel,” which specifically houses human/animal hybrids and were-creatures. Seems awfully specific.

The reason we find ourselves in the kennel at the start of Factor X #3 is because  a 9 foot tall, humanoid cross between a bengal tiger and a grizzly bear has gotten loose and Havoc has to stop its reign of terror. Cyclops shows up just in time to save Havoc from the monster with a mortal wound from his one good eye (in other words, he cuts it in half). Afterward, Havoc insinuates that he knows his brother is a traitor, but doesn’t show all of his cards just yet. He definitely gives Cyclops something to think about, though.

Shortly thereafter, Jean Grey arrives on the scene, hiding in an automated delivery truck and taking out a perimeter guard at Apocalypse’s HQ. She sneaks inside, bypassing the “brain trust” (see: the 6 disembodied brains of telepaths which psionically keep Apocalypse’s prisoners docile…except for that monster that escaped a few pages before, I guess…?) and makes a bee-line for Mr. Sinister’s former lair to confirm the rumors she’s heard about him abandoning his position within the ranks of Apocalypse’s elite. Before long Havoc runs across Jean and gets the drop on her, rendering her unconscious.

Meanwhile, the Bedlam Brothers show up at Angel’s nightclub to arrest Scarlett (who we found out last issue is working with the Human High Council). Despite how close they are, Angel turns on her almost immediately. It is also insinuated (unless I’m really reading this wrong) that Scarlett is pregnant, and if I had to guess, I’d wager that it’s Havoc’s kid.

Speaking of Havoc, giddy as a schoolgirl, he reveals to Cyclops that he knows he’s been moonlighting as a chaperone for escapees from the pens and lures him down to Beast’s lab where Jean is strung up to some kind of complicated torture machine. As he gives his brother the opportunity to prove his allegiance to Apocalypse by killing Jean, we’re treated to some flashbacks to the last time Jean and Scott met when he let her escape from the pens 3 years prior, as well as Jean’s involvement in the skirmish that saw Wolverine lose a hand and Cyclops lose an eye to one another. Obviously, Cyclops has no intention of killing Jean, so Havoc sics Cannonball and his sister (who is essentially Giant Man, I guess) on him.

Left to the whims of Beast (who, if you haven’t figured this out yet, is a right bastard in the Age Of Apocalypse universe) for use in his inhumane experiments, Jean and Cyclops manage to escape once more (obviously Havoc isn’t familiar with the James Bond movie trope of the hero ALWAYS escaping when the bad guy leaves him/her in a complicated death trap instead of just shooting them in the head when he has the chance). Finally, as Jean and Cyclops race to release all of the prisoners before they can become collateral damage when the Human High Council tries to nuke Apocalypse’s New York home base from the face of the Earth, we cut to a brief scene of Apocalypse himself (who has gotten surprisingly little “screen time” considering that this entire, massive storyline is named after him). Essentially, in defiance of Jean’s crusade, Apocalypse orders every prisoner in the pens put to death. Aaaaaaand…cliffhanger!

Surprisingly, Factor X remains one of the more interesting and gripping stories in the overall Age Of Apocalypse crossover event. I like the (admittedly “been there, done that”) rivalry between Cyclops and Havoc, and this series really does give us our best look into what exactly life is like in Apocalypse’s version of the future. Or, at least, what Apocalypse <i>wants</i> life to be like. I’ve enjoyed Steve Epting’s art all along, but I also didn’t mind the fill-in pages by Terry Dodson in this issue. I’m so used to seeing his art inked by his wife Rachel that it’s kind of neat to see his style peeking through someone else’s finishes. All told, I’m looking forward to seeing how this particular mini-series wraps up.

- R.

Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Ken Lashley
Inker: Tom Wegrzyn & Philip Moy
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Joe Rosas & Digital Chameleon

Cover Date: May 1995

For whatever reason, X-Calibre continues to be the only Age Of Apocalypse tie-in mini-series to feature a recap page at the beginning of the issue. Picking up where we left off last time, Mystique has dropped in on Callisto’s ship and apparently killed her off-panel, dumping her body into the ocean along with all of her pirate buddies. Nightcrawler joins Mystique aboard her airship and the two take off for Avalon, unknowingly tailed by Damask and Deadpool in an airship of their own.

A quick ferry ride and a long trek on foot accompanied by Cain (see: Juggernaut) later, Nightcrawler and Mystique have arrived at their destination. They promptly meet with Destiny (aka Irene) to ask her to accompany them to the America where she can meet with Magneto and “read Bishop’s future,” but she wants nothing to do with their mission. Having seen the destruction of Avalon when she read Switchback’s future last issue, Destiny is concerned that this horrific event may a result of her leaving with Nightcrawler for some reason.

Nevertheless, Damask and Deadpool (or Dead Man Wade as he’s referred to a few times) go medieval on Avalon’s ass and proceed to blow the hell out of everything. Mystique and Nightcrawler leap into action to try to stop the attack, but Cain refuses to help because he’s a monk-like pacifist. In a bizarre twist, his conflicting desires for peace and violence cause him to have a brain aneurism…because that’s something that can happen, I guess.

Having now seen the beauty of a place untouched by Apocalypse’s influence, Damask has a sudden and intense change of heart and turns on Deadpool, who continues on his rampage through Avalon. Inevitably, in order to stop him, Nightcrawler teleports Deadpool’s head off of his body, once again proving that Age Of Apocalypse Nightcrawler is a real dick and Warren Ellis really seemed to get off on extreme violence in his early comic writing career.

Within moments of her turning on Deadpool, Damask is accepted into Nightcrawler and Mystique’s little party along with Switchback (who we still know pretty much nothing about as far as I can recall) and the four of them pose and flex their muscles for a splash page before setting off to deliver Destiny to Magneto (whether she wants to go or not, I guess?).

I’m a little surprised by how little I care for the writing in this X-Calibre series since Warren Ellis is probably my favorite comic writer. Then again, this <i>is</i> from pretty early in his career, potentially before he found his “voice.” Also, it doesn’t help that this is one of the less interesting stories of the Age Of Apocalypse crossover event. Nightcrawler’s mission to go find Destiny feels a bit like busy work. Then there’s Ken Lashley’s art, which looks like that of every other artist who was copying Jim Lee’s style at the time…but somehow worse. On the plus side, this issue doesn’t have 4 different fill-in artists like issue 2 did. All-in-all, I could take or leave this X-Calibre mini-series. At least there’s only one issue left to go.

- R.

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Steve Skroce
Inker: Mike Sellers, Bud Larosa & Kevin Conrad & Scott Hanna
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Mike Thomas & Digital Chameleon

Cover Date: April 1995

As X-Man #2 opens we catch up with Domino, who was tasked by Apocalypse with tracking down the source of great telekinetic energy that he’s been sensing (psst! It’s X-Man). Along with Caliban and some big, red guy named Grizzly, she tries beating information concerning their prey out of a big Russian mutant named Rossovich who seems like a combination of Omega Red and Dr. Octopus. A quick trek down Google Avenue informs me that Grizzly is a member of Wild Pack/Six Pack in the 616 Marvel Universe while Rossovich is, indeed, the Age Of Apocalypse incarnation of Omega Red. So, there you go.

Inevitably, Domino kills Rossovich without gleaning any useful info from him and we move on to see Nathan Summers (aka X-Man) training with Forge. After Nate has a temper tantrum he wanders off in a bad mood because he feels that Forge still treats him like a child, which is the perfect frame of mind for him to be in so that a less-than-ethical guy like new member of the group Essex can take advantage of him. Despite Forge’s orders for Nate to keep his power usage to a minimum so as to avoid detection, Essex is like, “Hey boi, can u fly, tho?” Then Nate’s all like, “Dunno, son. Let’s give ‘er a go, eh?” X-Man then does a few aerial laps around the forest clearing they’re in, after which he and Essex decide to keep this little experiment to themselves.

Later on the group is discussing what their next plan of action should be when Essex pipes up and tells everyone that he just so happens to know about a lab that is integral to Apocalypse’s plans that they could go and try to sabotage. The group hesitantly agrees to at least go check this place out and where they end up is the facility where beast performs all of his twisted mutation experiments and creates Apocalypse’s army of homegrown goons. When the group spots some members of the Madri (who, to recap, are one of the many groups of particularly dangerous mutants in Apocalypse’s employ, all of whom I find it hard to keep straight from series to series and issue to issue), the consensus is that they should peace out, but X-Man has other plans. And those plans consist of diving into a fight head first to destroy some of Beast’s equipment.

Following the obligatory fight scene of the issue during which X-Man proves Forge’s concerns about him not being ready for a real fight, the team retreats to an abandoned farmhouse to get some rest. Desiring answers, Nate sneaks away and, with new girl Theresa (who now goes by the codename Sonique because of her sonic scream powers, and also because Jeph Loeb can’t help himself when he has the opportunity to give characters unnecessarily weirdly spelled names) in tow, takes a little trip through the astral plane to the would-be X-Mansion in Westchester, New York just as he did in the previous issue. There he once more observes Magneto, who can’t see or hear him and Theresa in their astral forms. As it turns out though, Magneto’s young son Charles CAN see them and, freaked out by all this, Theresa somehow breaks their “psi-link,” sending them back to the farm.

Finally, Brute, the biggest, strongest and dumbest member of Forge’s little band of merry men, has an epiphany about where he recognizes Essex from and confronts him in a barn. Just as Brute calls Essex out as actually being Mr. Sinister (which, I mean…we all knew that’s who he was, but they hadn’t come right out and said it until now), Domino and her gang show up and pose menacingly for some of Jeph Loeb’s overbearing “Hey, it’s a cliffhanger!” narration.

I enjoyed this issue of X-Man much more than I did the first one, which is due in no small part to the fact that there’s nary a mention of Shakespeare nor traveling theater troupes this time around. Steve Skroce’s art, while, as I mentioned before, would get much better in subsequent years during his Marvel tenure, is still a welcome addition to the line-up of AoA artists. Conversely, if you couldn’t tell from the amount of jabs that I took at Jeph Loeb’s writing in the preceding review, his dialogue and narration hasn’t grown on me at all. 

This issue marks the official halfway point of my journey through the Age Of Apocalypse. Part of the reason why I began reading Uncanny X-Men starting at #300 all those months ago was that I wanted to experience an era of X-stories that I’ve always felt I’d missed out on. Another part of the reason for starting this little project of mine was that, while I love the X-Men, I haven’t been able to get into any of their recent runs or stories. So many mainstream superhero comics these days seem to have a “every story arc has to be 5-8 issues long so that it neatly fits into a trade paperback for the aftermarket even if the pacing and storytelling suffer as a result” vibe to them. Those earlier days of superhero comics rarely worked out into neat little story arcs and flowed more naturally as episodic, ongoing stories, which is a style of superhero comic storytelling that I sorely miss these days. 

While I’m glad that I’m finally taking the opportunity to scratch the Age Of Apocalypse off of my bucket list of comics that I’ve been meaning to get around to reading for years, I have to admit that, even though I’m largely enjoying it, AoA does have a bit of that larger storyline stink to it that I was hoping to avoid. The experience has been largely positive though, and while I’m excited to move past the Age Of Apocalypse and tackle some more of the random issues and stories beyond it, I am very curious to see how this whole crossover event is going to wrap up. 

Onwards and upwards, true believers!

- R.

Rian Reads: Factor X #2

Writer: John Francis Moore

Artist: Steve Epting

Inker: Al Milgrom

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Colorist: Glynis Oliver

Cover Date: April 1995

Factor X #2 opens with a brief foray into Apocalypse’s oft-mentioned breeding pens. Under cover of night, a mysterious figure enters the pens to help two captive mutants escape. A third captive named Lorna Dane (aka Polaris) witnesses this escape and begs to go with them, but she is denied. Laying eyes on her would-be savior, Lorna believes him to be her father, Magneto.

There’s also a neat little detail that writer John Francis Moore throws in there whereby the prisoners in the pens are kept in line by the disembodied brains of 6 telepaths which prevent them from even considering escape. That’s just the kind of weird stuff I like to see in a dystopian sci-fi tale such as this.

Cutting to the next day we see a meeting between Cyclops, Havoc and Apocalypse, who doesn’t seem all that surprised that their boss Mr. Sinister turned out to be a traitor. Apocalypse tells the pair in no uncertain terms that Cyclops is next in line to take over Sinister’s former position as one of his Four Horsemen. This, of course, makes Havoc incredibly jealous and he silently vows to kill Cyclops if it will help prove to Apocalypse that he is more deserving of the role than his brother. When will hotheaded, vengeful henchmen finally realize that it’s because of how cool-tempered and patient their brothers are that makes their fathers/masters choose them as their trusted right hand men?

As Apocalypse’s head of security, Havoc’s next task is to figure out how the two mutants from the opening scene escaped, so he visits Liz and Sam Guthrie to check the security tapes from the breeding pens. While the identity of the interloper who freed them is obscured in the footage by a “field scrambler” and/or a “TK damper implant,” the video does show that Lorna Dane was a witness to the escape, so they go to speak to her next. Unfortunately, Lorna is a bit loopy after spending a year in the pens, so no one believes her when she says that Magneto was the intruder and Havoc decides that the sadistic AoA version of Beast is the only one who may be able to extract the truth from her.

At this point we cut away briefly to Heaven (see: Angel’s nightclub) where Havoc is having an off-hours rendesvous with his lady friend Scarlett from the previous issue. The only thing of note about this scene is that we learn that Scarlett is secretly working with the Human High Council. To what end, I’m not quite sure yet.

A while later as Beast is trying to torture some information out of Lorna, Cyclops shows up and very forcefully shuts him down, citing the Kelly Pact Negotiations which prohibit genetic testing. Not that I condone torture, but I kind of agree with Beast who is dismissive of the Kelly Pact. I mean, this is a full-on dystopia that these characters are living in. At all times Apocalypse has innumerable bands of terrorist cells running loose in the U.S. rounding up humans to either experiment on or kill, so every time the Kelly Pact comes up it makes me wonder who is enforcing its regulations. America, at least outwardly, seems to reside firmly beneath Apocalypse’s blue, metallic thumb at this point.

Before the scene in Beast’s lab ends we get a glimpse of Cyclops from Lorna’s point of view and learn that she (for some reason) sees Magneto when she looks at him. That bit of blatant foreshadowing is confirmed in the next sequence when Cyclops enters the breeding pens that night to help Lorna escape as he had with the other 2 mutants the previous evening. He encounters some of his fellow prelates in the form of Aurora and Northstar as they make a run for it, but they are quickly dispatched. Arriving at a dock on the bank of the Hudson River, Cyclops hands Lorna off to a female smuggler referred to as Cooper and the issue ends with Havoc disdainfully watching this act from afar through some binoculars.

So, brother versus brother. A tale as old as time. This probably won’t end well for Havoc, if I had to wager a guess. John Francis Moore’s writing is solid and I’m still quite enjoying Steve Epting’s art. While not the most bombastic of the Age Of Apocalypse mini-series, Factor X remains a strong addition to the line-up.

- R.

Rian Reads: X-Calibre #2

Writer: Warren Ellis

Artist: Roger Cruz, Renato Arlem, Charles Mota & Eddie Wagner

Inker: Philip Moy, Tom Wegrzyn & Harry Candelario

Colorist: Joe Rosas & Digital Chameleon

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Cover Date: April 1995

For the first time in the entire Age Of Apocalypse event (to the best of my recollection) X-Calibre #2 begins with a recap page. While I’ve altogether been enjoying the crossover so far, I’m now thinking that every issue of all 8 mini-series should open with one of these. With so many characters and so many different plot-lines going on, I could certainly use a refresher from time to time. Case in point: two of the lingering questions I was left with after reading X-Calibre #1 are answered in this recap before I even get to the story itself.

1.) Mystique is indeed the one ferrying people to Avalon (see: the AoA’s version of the Savage Land).

and

2.) The reason for Magneto sending Nightcrawler to find Destiny is that Destiny’s powers allow her to see people’s futures by touching them and he wants her to reach out and touch Bishop for some reason. Rogue already proved that Bishop was telling the truth about the alternate reality he’s from when she touched him and absorbed his memories, so I’m not really sure what seeing his future will tell anyone. Who am I to question the whims of the great Magneto, though?

Getting into the issue proper, we’re treated to a brief sequence in Avalon in which Destiny touches the character Switchback from the previous issue and sees death and destruction in Avalon’s future.

Jumping to the Stark facility that Nightcrawler hitched a submarine ride to Avalon from in X-Calibre #1, John Proudstar (aka Thunderbird) makes a futile attempt to fight off some of the Madri, but ends up getting shot in the back by a hooded figure. Is his identity a mystery for some reason or is he just a random bad guy? Who knows? Also of note is that Proudstar’s finger, which Nightcrawler had teleported off of his body in the previous issue, is magically reattached.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t “of note,” but I felt like mentioning it anyway.

Moving along, the submarine that Nightcrawler is aboard begins to malfunction and all of the passengers begin to suffocate in record time, causing the captain to surface the vessel. Once on the surface, Nightcrawler teleports onto the top of the sub to get some air, and then makes himself scarce when a huge ship approaches. The ship is run by Callisto, who is the sometimes leader of the subterranean Morlocks in the regular Marvel Universe, but is just a helpful boat captain in the Age Of Apocalypse…or so it seems.

In a brief cutaway, we see Damask, Dani Moonstar and Deadpool aboard a high altitude ship of some kind tracking Nightcrawler’s progress. Damask gets a call from Apocalypse (which is illustrated with some really ugly computer renderings or something) stating that they are to destroy Avalon once they find it, then as soon as he hangs up, Damask murders Dani for some reason.

Aaaaaaanyway…once all of the submarine’s passengers are loaded aboard Callisto’s ship with the promise of a continued journey to their destination of Avalon, the crew cons everyone out of their valuables with some lamebrain line about pretending it’s their salvage haul if they’re caught, and then they’re all flushed out of a ballast tank into the ocean to drown and freeze to death. Luckily, Nightcrawler was suspicious of Callisto and company (and rightfully so!), so he’d snuck aboard without anyone knowing. He begins to take out the crew, but when confronted by Callisto, the two are descended upon by Mystique, who appears from out of nowhere, dangling from a rope ladder hanging from a flying machine.

How’s that for a cliffhanger?

This was a weird issue. I’m not sure what all of this pirate business has to do with anything aside from giving Nightcrawler a chance to attack some people with swords. How did that trend start anyway? Why does Nightcrawler always seem to have a rapier handy? Once again, this is not Warren Ellis’ best work, but Ken Lashley, who drew issue 1, is nowhere to be found. He’s replaced on this issue by Roger Cruz and 3 other guys I’ve never heard of, and anytime there are 4 artists on an issue that isn’t an anthology book, that’s a bad sign. I’m not sure whose work is whose, but the sum of all those different artistic parts is not particularly good. The whole time I was reading this issue I was wishing that I were reading one of the other, more interesting titles of the Age Of Apocalypse crossover, so without further ado, I think I’ll give this issue a rest and do just that.

- R.

Writer: Larry Hama
Artist: Adam Kubert
Inker: Dan Green
Colorist: Joe Rosas
Letterer: Pat Brosseau

Cover Date: April 1995

Picking up the morning after the events of Weapon X #1, Wolverine has awoken to find Jean missing. Following the faint remnants of their “psi-link,” he tracks her down to the shores of Bristol on the west coast of England. Here, Jean is aiding in the check-in process for the untold thousands of humans rescued from Maine in Amazing X-Men #2. It wasn’t really clear to me before what Wolverine and Jean had been doing in Weapon X #1, but it is clarified during this scene that attacking the “Atlantic Sea Wall” created a hole in Apocalypse’s defenses through which the army of sentinels carrying human refugees could slip into Europe.

Moments after Jean and Wolverine reunite on the beach amid crowds of relocated humans, two of the evil mutants known as the Madri (Copycat and…Box? At least that’s what Copycat calls him) who had stowed away among the evacuated humans (in Amazing X-Men #2) are discovered by some security guards after setting off an alarm and a fight ensues. Wolverine and Jean jump in, quickly dispatching of the baddies, but the skirmish provides all the distraction that a separate group of nogoodniks need to slip past security.

Now, far be it from me to question the fast and loose logic which has heretofore run rampant throughout the Age Of Apocalypse storyline, but…an awful big deal was made in those first 2 issues of Amazing X-Men about who the mutant killing Sentinels would and wouldn’t turn to mutie pulp depending on which virus they were infected with by some disk that Quicksilver had. In the end, Dazzler had reprogrammed the Sentinels for about the 82nd time that day to recognize the X-Men and NOT their enemies as friendlies, which begs the question…how did 2 evil mutants stow away aboard one of these Sentinels and catch a ride all the way across the Atlantic ocean amidst an entire fleet of them?

Yeah, you’re right…it’s probably best not to think about it.

Anyway, Wolverine leaves Jean to her volunteer work and hops aboard one of the Human High Council’s fleet of zeppelins which will deliver the bombs that they’re planning to use to nuke Apocalypse from orbit over in the United States (and anyone else unfortunate enough to be there at the time, which is presumably A LOT of innocent civilians). 

Question: Why not use the Sentinels who just arrived on the shores of Bristol to deliver their bombs? They’ve got to be faster and more maneuverable than blimps. I mean, it’s even revealed in this scene that Brian (the leader of the HHC) Braddock’s Braddock Industries are the ones who manufacture the Sentinels. But I digress…

After Wolverine has a brief chat with Mariko, those other baddies who snuck past security in the first scene hijack one of the zeppelins in an attempt to halt the HHC’s attack on Apocalypse before it even gets off the ground (no pun intended). Wolverine makes the smartest possible decision and leaps out the window of his zeppelin, plummeting who knows how damned far to the hijacked (and flaming) airship below him. He takes out most of the bad guys, who it is revealed are “altered humans” (perhaps some of the guys that Beast has been cooking up in his lab for Apocalypse?) with names such as Pierce, Clegg and Slocum. Unfortunately, the leader of the pack manages to succeed in his mission, destroying the “analog guidance system” and foiling the HHC’s doomsday attack.

In the wake of the battle, which leaves Wolverine burned to a crisp, he feels Jean’s psi-link stirring again and takes off on his motorcycle for a remote airstrip. He arrives just as she is in the process of taking off in a small plane to go and warn the folks in America of the HHC’s intention to blow them all to smithereens in hopes of saving some innocent lives. They share a kiss as Wolverine clings to the wing of the plane and Jean gives him permission to stop her from leaving by killing her if that’s what he thinks is the right thing to do. Of course, he doesn’t. Much to my surprise though, he hops off of the plane, letting her jet off to the U.S. on her own.

I’ve got to be honest, I really enjoyed the melancholy ending of this issue. I fully expected Wolvie to end up siding with Jean and accompanying her to America. While he may eventually back her play somehow, the fact that he stayed behind in England was a pretty big shock. I also tend to love when characters who feel like they should be together on some kind of quest are forced by their circumstances to separate and go it alone, so this gave me a real “end of Fellowship Of The Ring” vibe when Sam and Frodo head off toward Mordor alone, leaving the rest of the Fellowship behind.

Nerd Alert!

Anyway, the writing by Larry Hama and art by Adam Kubert continue to be a good match for a story that isn’t my favorite of the Age Of Apocalypse event thus far, but certainly brings the action, which is always welcome. Onward and upward!

- R.