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Alright, now right now I am quelling frustration at my first bit of misinformation, which will come to light at the end of my annual summary.
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The Annual takes place between Supernovas and Primary infection, so these events are a couple months behind us.

It starts out in 'Nowhere.' (I.E. Wherever the hell Xorn's head sends people) Exodus is floating around, having acid flashbacks about his life. Becmong the Grand Duke Bennet of Paris, lots of french stuff, meeting Magneto, how Magneto protected and Gave refuge to many Mutants. Things start going to hell in his dreams, and then he wakes up.

The scene cuts to the new X-boat (that is what I shall refer to the Helecarrier salvaged from the Children in Supernova's) is hooked up to a fancy SHIELD helecarrier. Cable is musing on how unwelcome he feels they are, and Mystique reassure him that its been almost a year since they last tried to kill him and he should relax. So they meet this shrew of a woman, Maria Hill, acting head of shield, who begrudingly lets them aboad under Nick Fury's orders and Rogue explains that they need VR equipment to heal Northstar and Auroura. The twins went nuts and Cable and Emma believe that if they use the VR to allow them to relive the entirety of their lives up to this point it should snap them out of it. (Theyre gonna give em a magic pill basically, but a cool one).

Then Mystique makes the mistake of calling Rogue 'Anna' which sets her off. Then Mystique gives a surprisingly honest and open speech to her, that she is sorry for hurting her all these years, and she did all the things she did because its what she though would make Rogue happy. When she cares for someone she tries to manipulate them and push them in a direction she thinks its best. And if its not possible for the two of them to ever be close again she feels it would be better to just leave.

Rogue responds in laymans terms with: Okay, dont let the door hit your ass on the way out

OUCH

So Cable has set up the machine so the twins can relive 20 years in a day, he flips it on and they begin reliving their lives. We get a flashback from Northstar about a mentor of his pushing him to excel in life in spite of the fact that people push him around for his differences. And Aurora flashing back to a catholic school where she recieved abuse for wearing lipstick one day. (Man, these kids got more issues then a news stand, and thats without the brain washing and schizophrenia).

So while all is going smoothly, a hugs ass fleet of things that look like aborted X-wings fly out of nowhere and begin their attack of the Helecarrier. Everybody starts panicking on the bridge, and one of the ships makes a kamikaze run on the carrier and dosent make it past the shields. However the wreckage does and it finds its way down a torpedo tube. Some big bulky guy slips through one of the cracks in the tube and reforms, then he proceeds to start ripping shit up. the big guy, Random, tells Exodus the coast is clear and he can come in and he enters with Frenzy and Tempo. Random is upset about the whole setup and reminds Exodus that there should be no deaths in this mission. Exodus tells him that he is not God and cannot stop death. They turn their attention to creating a diversion, and Northstar and Aurora are ideal for this purpose.

The twins in question are still having flashbacks, Northstar is having a fight with a woman that is a page out of my last breakup, and Aurora is sweet talking a robot and then being told to kill a guy with an icepick.

Then Cable picks up on somebody hacking into the memory feeds and him and Rogue have an 'OH SHI-' moment before the twins hit the fan and blow open a wall by them. The twins are literally finishing each others sentences, they wig out and start rampaging while Rogue springs into action to stop them.

Exodus meanwhile is on the bridge and breaking anything they throw at him, even telepathy. Maria freaks out, she dosent understand how anyone can take that kind of assualt. He claims hes not a person but rather an idea, he cannot be stopped.

The team splits up and Rogue is flying down a corridor, Tempo messes with time and causes her to crash. Rogue fights back, but Frenzy puts the smack down on her and just before shes about to finish her, Mystique rushes in and saves Rogue, blasting them both with Claymores which Tempo uses her powers to stop. But Mystique dosent let up and takes Tempo down, allowing the claymore to do its work.

Cable meanwhile has run into Random and theyre having a bit of a standoff. Random explains that this is about mutant survival. They are working on 198 people, "And what are the X-men doing about it?" Cable blows him away saying "Right now? Working on 197." But it hardly phases Random and Random takes him down, all of a sudden he relizes that Exodus needs what is inside Nathan's head.

Northstar and Aurora, while still linked mentally begin to come to their senses and realize that they cant run from whats going on in their heads. They touch hands knowing that even if they look into the abyss they will still have eachother, they begin to glow and then the scene changes.

Exodus is meanwhile ripping up the bridge and re-assembling its instruments, building a mysterious device.

Back with Mystique, she is having a rough fight with Frenzy as the two cannot seem to match eachother. Frenzy tells Mystique that there was a time she would have seen it their way, but since she dosent theres always force: The last and strongest argument. Mystique adds: "'The last argument of Kings' And I thought you King was dead." Frenzy gets pissed and claims Magneto will be back. Mystique enters her spiked form and starts going Mortal Kombat on her ass. However, the battle is still evenly matched until Northstar and Auror come in and blast Frenzy into a window, cracking it but still not harming the woman, but Mystique lunges forward and kicks her out the window, hoping gravity will harm her.

Northstar rushes to Rogue's side and helps her up, telling her that everything is okay with them now. Aurora is surprised to see Mystique fighting for the X-men, and perhapse she is still dreaming.

Exodus has built some...wierd....device...tingy, and is explaining to Maria that when the X-men sent him into darkness, the decimation gave him enough will to bring himself back. He has reassembled bits of the ship to make a new Cerebro as he can use it as an arc to assemble all of the newly born mutants of the world. However, he finds it empty, in a world where hundreds of thousands of mutants should have been born already, there are none. Right then our heroes arrive with Random who is backing up Cable now. They tell Exodus the truth: The X gene has been removed from the human Genome, and none will ever be born again. Exdus panics, going into a rage, stating that it dosent matter to him how many humans die as long as he saves mutant kind. Exodus leaves with Random and Tempo.

Rogue apologises to Maria who yells at her stating that this is what happens when the X-men are allowed to act on their own. (Very significant in my mind). She orders Rogue to leave. As they walk down the hall, Rogue thanks Northstar, but he tells her that it was Mystique, she risked her life to protect Rogue, and that perhapse there is a part of our hearts in everyone where things like this find balance. Rogue stats that she hasnt found it yet.

Exodus is out in Antarctica with his team, walking into an old research laboratory. There Exodus bows to a mysterious figure. The figure states that he believes he has a solution, something that might save the mutant race. That Man is.......

Sinister.

Yeah, you heard me, I dont need to say it twice, sinister. apparently the man who wrote the summary was either lying or couldnt tell the fact that the presence of red glowing eyes and a big chin and NO freaking metal lip might mean that its SINISTER and not APOCALYPSE

We were duped, but I suppose we can breathe a sigh of relief.

The artwork in this issue was actually pretty good, better than Ramos but I still perfer Bachalo, the only real complaint I have about the writing is that an awful lot of it was in French so I wore out my Babelfish hotkey on Firefox. Its really good to have the twins back, and I know Carey has been killing to have Northstar on his team, so we can expect him in future. Overall an amazing annual, and the stakes are going to be higher than ever, because now we know that mutant kind is on the edge of extinction.

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Uncanny X-men #483

So I unwrapped my issue and stared at the cover and for the first time...faltered....This arc is boring the hell out of me to be honest, its far too fast paced in way of plot, everything happens so quickly. Do I give a crap about Vulcan? Have I been given reason to. Sure, I get it, the entire Empire is at stake...But really...its getting old.

So we're on part 9, the home stretch, and another Vulcan-centric issue.

It technically begins where the last one left off, from a different perspective. While the Starjammers are attacking the Shiar cruiser to rescue the Prof and Lilandra, Vulcan stands by Deathbird at the inauguration of D'Ken. Then we go back to the events that lead him to that point.

Where we last left him two issues back he was busting out of prison with Deathbird and the two of them are certainly making a very bloody escape (Unfortuately, the Shiar guard helmets dont protect their jugular veins). So they snatch themselves up a ship and go on the move again. Deathbird explains that she nearly died but was imprisoned. So, like two power hungry psychopaths, they go on a rampage. They go from world to world screwing shit up for the entire empire, and they find a kindred spirit in one another for the satisfaction they gain from killing. So, naturally, they start screwing all the time. And then- HELLOOOOO. We get to see a really disturbing image of their tongues goin round one anothers, and really, its not something I need to see in my X-books, seriously. We get it, they like doing it non-stop, you dont need to go into the tonsil-cleaning details.

So, one day theyre flying around and she leads him to...The Emerald city? No, sorry, its just a random Shiar building, apparently this is where D'ken is recovering. Vulcan complains that Deathbird is supposed to take the throne, so why is she dragging her brother into this? Apparently, Deathbird has had it with ruling and really just wants to kick back and have power withour really having to do anything. So the guy guarding D'ken has ordered that Vulcan cannot pass, Deathbird says hes coming, and Vulcan says theres really nothing he can do about it (cause hes powerful, like we didnt know that already).

So Vulcans pissed because he hates D'ken, but Deathbird just leads him around by kissing him and, true to reality, if the guy knows hes gonna get some, sure, he'll put aside a vendetta against the man that killed his mother. (Why do you think Cyclops and Havok take it so easy? One of them goes to sleep every night with Emma Frost and the other keeps stealing Polaris from Iceman)

So, basically, they've been stealing telepaths from all over the empire and having them piece together D'ken's brain. Consequently, they're all catatonic. However, although his mind is patched up, the neuro pathways have been danaged to such a degree that the three parts of his brains cant communicate. So naturally, Vulcan comes forward with his mystical DEUS EX MACHINA!

Meanwhile a Shiar scout ship finds Deathbirds vessel on the planet and they question how she knew their forces would be so thin this day, then departs like a frightened dog.

Back on the surface Araki, D'ken's caretaker finally lets Vulcan do his magic friggin...magical neuropathway thing....and poof! D'ken is back in business. Vulcan boasts that he will kill him eventually, and then HELLO! Her tongue is in his ear and obviously hes subdued.

Then, as D'ken awakes Chancellor Araki hears that a whole mess of Shiar ships are coming for them, so now that they have their Emperor revived, theyre going to strike back this time.

So the guards come and in a 2 page picture has the Shiar forces getting their asses handed to them by Vulcan and Deathbird. Vulcan as he fights begins to realize hes being manipulated, that he cant refuse Deathbird even though he should have killed D'ken where he lay, but he dosent understand the feelings he has for her. (Dude, I can totally sympathise)

So, a few days later, D'ken decides to have a one on one talk with Vulcan, and gives him 'the talk'. Basically, as a loophole, anyone born in the palace is royalty, and since Vulcan was cut from his mother in the palace, he is royalty. So, knowing Vulcans power, he would rather have Vulcan and Deathbird marry as to attone for what he did to Vulcan and thus make his new Empire stronger.
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And the issue ends here....GOD....its really boring....seriously...this arc is killing me, I mean, Astonishing and Adjectiveless has so much character dynamics and personality to it. This is handled like a Greco-Roman tragedy, all narrative, no dialogue. Well, either way, its solid, but boring, the writings great, the story is epic, the artwork is incredible, but the whole arc lacks character. And really, cut it with the tongue action you two!
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I always thought that Rogue and Gambit should adopt that Leech kid from X3.
"Alright son, you can sleep on dis here futon next to our bed! put on deese earmuffs, an' dis blindfold, and if you hear screamin' ignore it!"