Alright, well, its been hectic lately, but I know I would have to present another set of summaries that few people read and even fewer comment on XP
First offering is the week old Uncanny X-men #485
Recap: Okay, shit is going down, Vulcan is to be married to Deathbird and serve as Prince of the Shiar under D'ken. Xavier is to be executed at their wedding, and Darwin is to be there too as Vulcan's 'friend' and prisoner. Meanwhile Lilandra is pulling out an old General of the Shiar empire to rally some of the fleet to aid her against D'ken. Oh, and Havok and Lorna are banging it again. And now Ed Brubaker has to race against time to fit the entire Shiar war, the rescue of Xavier, and the return home in two more issues! (So intense)
So, we begin in D'Ken's office as he is given the news that a thrid of the Shiar fleet has abandoned them for Lilandra and her forces. D'ken however, is unphased, he still has two thirds of the fleet and the entire imperial guard, all of which happen to be stationed around the M'raan crystal (you know that big friggin Shiar crystal with infinite power that happens to give painful death to all who enter it?Yeah, that thing).
So now we have a meeting of the powers as General Ka'ardum, Lilandra, Nightcrawler, and Corsair meet to discuss a strike at the Crystal and a rescue of Xavier. Ka'ardum is cautious (mainly because they happen to be walking into a friggin deathtrap) But Nightcrawler and Corsair agree that the Crystal is not there just for atmosphere, D'ken has something planned and must be stopped.
Cut to the madman in question and he is discussing with his soon-to-be brother in law Vulcan about the incredibly painful death they intend to give Xavier inside the crystal. Vulcan comments that his only witness, Darwin, is problably finding a way to bust Xavier out as they speak, but he knows he wont succeed.
Okay, okay, I gotta break the summary for a minute: What the hell is up with Vulcan's hair? Seriously, it started out all badass and dark, but now he looks like a freakin' greying Romulan, and it so clashes with his big and bad outfit. Gladiator's mohawk would look better on him than this!
*ahem* Back on track.
It would appear Vulcan is right, as Darwin nudges the badly beaten Proffessor awake. He informs him of the planned execution, and Charles immediately panics as he knows its a trap for Lilandra. Darwin tries to get him to move but he tells Darwin to protect Lilandra when the time comes rather than save him. On cue, two soldiers come in and drag Xavier out the door, Darwin tries to fight them off but is quickly subdued by the brutal guards as Xavier is dragged off to execution and Darwin is taken to join the guests.
Now we get to the fun part, the veritable climax of the arc. Lilandra's fleet is mobilized and assembled as Nightcrawler, Warpath, Lilandra, and Hepzibah watch the wedding kicking off (And man, Hepzibah is fiiine, seriously, Kirk shouldve ignored those green orion slave girls and gone for teal cat chicks in tank tops!) Warpath comments on how they seem to be treating this like Charles and Princess Di out here. Hepzibah laments that shes glad shes not with Corsair, who must be in agony watching this right now. Lilandra panics as the wedding goes underway, but Nightcrawler tells her to have faith, he crosses his forehead and says "God protect us all" as the Starjammers and the fleet of Lilandra begin their attack.
Vulcan and Deathstrike share their first kiss as husband and wife just as the fleet drops out of warp over the Crystal. D'ken orders them to arms and Vulcan panics over the fact that they havent gotten to kill Xavier yet.
Now it gets badass, the Starjammers and the X-men beam down and begin ripping shit up! Explosions everywhere, Polaris moves to fight Gladiator as Nightcrawler begins teleporting his way to Xavier. Darwin and Nightcrawler arrive at the same time at Xavier, but before they can move him and enraged Vulcan knocks them both flying. He picks up the battered Professor and begins dragging him to the Crystal. Lilandra panics and rushes to him, but Rachel quickly stops her. The tide turms on Polaris and Gladiator takes down both Rachel and her new Shiar...psychic...boyfriend...guy, he raches Lilandra and apologises as he drags her to D'ken.
Vulcan carries the bloody and brutally beaten Xavier and tells him this is what he gets, and with a single toss throws Xavier into the crystal. Corsair cries out in anguish at the monster his son has become. Darwin comes too and sees what Vulcan has done, and, naturally, comes up with the most witty insult he can: "You Stupid Jerk!" before dashing into the crystal after Xavier, possibly runing one of the most intense moments in the entire year-long story arc.
Alex and Lorna push back D'kens forces and Corsair oders Chodd (The big green lizard guy) to clear a path to his son ("Which one?" I would ask). Warpath instead orders them all to get to Lilandra and save her while they still can.
And it hardly seems likely as D'ken grasps her by the throat and she throws shiar curses at him. He comments on how much trouble she has caused him and how hes thinking of what he could do to make her death more painful: Dying now among her friends, or seeing his victory first.
It is here that Vulcan finally stops dicking around and blasts D'ken, searing the flesh from his bones and finally claiming vengance. He then said that D'ken was a fool to believe that he would serve under him after what he did to his mother.
Hepzibah's next line sums up the entire issue:"Crazy boy kill Emporer?"
The battlefied grows quieter as Vulcan picks up D'ken's crown, he tells Deathbird that is okay, she does not have to rule the empire- He will. He puts the crown on his head and declares himself Emporer Vulcan, Ruler of the Shiar Imperium.
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Now I gotta say, Ed Brubaker is thanfully making up for lost time, and this is the issue that seriously redeemed the arc for me, lots of action, humongus freakin plot twists, and an incredibly epic battle ending with the first cliffhanger to catch my eye. Billy Tan's artwork is solid and wonderful as usual, and is enough to make me forget the horrible tongue use a few issues back. And frankly, the guy did justice to what Xavier was going through, I cringed at each passing shot of Xavier as he became more and more torn and virtually caked in blood, his white shirt turned a dull pink at the collar, its something hard to see our good professor go through.
Overall, a must have in my book.
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Time for X-men 198 (Quite a significant number)! Only one more issue until Gambit!
Previously: Rogue is under medical care at Providence and looks to be in terrible shape. Cannonball and Karima put Sabertooth in statis. A creature called the Mummadrai is inside mastermind, Bobby and Mystique flirt in a creepy way, and the Mummadrai switches to Mystique to infrom Cable that something truly evil is coming to providence, something even this powerful psychic creature fears-Hexacomb.
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The Helecarrier is buffeted by a bizzare entity pushing through the atmosphere (no doubt our feared friend Hexacomb). The Helecarrier once again takes a huge beating and Cannonball and Karima go sprawling as Karima tries to use her nanotech to keep the ship from crashing straight into Providence, whatever hit them passed through them except for a small area that tore straight through the carrier. Cannonball moves, saying they need to hold off whatever is headed to Providence, Karima protests that the ship is a wreck and someone needs to keep an eye on Creed. Nobody listens to her, and as they leave the carrier, Creed begins to move.
Hectacomb sets down in peaceful providence and leaves darkness and destruction in its wake, taking down everything, he begins speaking gibberish inter spliced with English (some of you may recognize one of its English quotes to have been said by the Shiar captain at the beginning of 'Supernova's'). The beast claims to be hungry.
Cable meanwhile interrogates Mummadrai/Mystique with a concerned Iceman. Mummadrai demands to link with Cable to explain, Cable tells her shes evil and powerful and cant be trusted, the Mummadrai simply says 'But he is worse'. It is then that Cable recieves word of the chaos through one of his many technical links, and he agrees quickly, simply for the sake of saving his people, Iceman protests but is too late. Cable tells Iceman to fight this thing as long as he can and buy him some time for the fusion to complete. The creature enters Cable and leaves a flustered Mystique behind. Iceman rushes to her side, they play off one another about how cold his hands are on her, and Iceman explains their predicament, how they have to hurry, and how tedious this sort of thing is becoming.
Cable's forces arrive and have various snippets of random sentences thrown at them as they try to fight back a creature who passes through them like nothing. It states it will move to the place of highest population density to feed.
Two doctors stand over Rogues bedside and worry about the creature. Rogue is hardly improving, they have cut off the virus for the most part, but its deep in her nervous system and she is left with her own immune system to fight it.
Then we cut to the place of highest population density- The Tyler Dayspring Stadium, which can hold a quarter million people. A sports commentator breaks off his reports in hooror as the creature sets down, causing people to collapse and vomit strange fluid, whoever it touches collapses and ceases movement. Its them that Iceman and Mystique arrive and she rides along side him, taking shots at Hectacomb. Cannonball and Karima are there, Karima is analysing it but can pick up nothing on any electromagnetic spectrum. Cannonball swoops in and saves a young woman who happens to be from Kentucky, his home state.
Iceman dashes around, holding its attention and taunting it saying that hes more 'cool and refreshing' than everyone else. Karima detects a solid core in the creature, the same core that ripped the helecarrier. Cannonball sets the girl down and rushes off to try and strike the core of the creature, he bounces off it like a super ball and is left in a smoldering crater.
The creature inside Cable's mind explains its origin's, it was a dormant Mummadrai inside a man but was extracted by Shiar scientists and dissected her, building out of her a weapon called Hectacomb. The Shair were fighting a war and losing, but they greedily developed a weapon that would destroy the people of a planet but leave weapons, buildings, and equipment intact. This mummadrai they created artificialy was set inside a giant ball (the solid core). They dropped it on their enemies homeworld, within days the thing killed 18 billion. But there was a flaw, it collected the souls of those it killed and those souls fused with the Mummadrai inside, it became self aware and began rampaging across space. When this Mummadrai escaped, Hectacomb followed its scent, across dozens of worlds and destroyed them all, and now its followed it to earth. It promises Cable powers (including his lost ones) in exchange for a home, Cable rejects it, but then realises in fury that it may be the only thing he can do to save his people. But it needs a hidden advantage that hectacomb cannot anticipate, and as it rummages through his head, its pleased to have found one.
The citizens in the stadium strain against the locked gate as Hectacomb appears, then all of a sudden a second Hectacomb appears and taunts the first one. They begin to fight and Lady M steps out, having conjured up and illusion to keep the beast busy. Iceman takes the bought time to bust open the gate and get the people out. Karima says they can get them to the helecarrier, but when she tries to summon it she finds shes locked out.
Victor Creed grins from his console and tells Karima over the intercom that hes enjoying the show they are giving him. Karima barks at him that if he dosent do something everyone is going to die. Creed obviously doesnt care and cuts the signal as the creature roars out the gates of the stadium.
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Wow, when Carey takes an inch on heroes he takes a mile on villains, and thats saying a hell of a lot. He really ups the ante with Hectacomb and of course i'm eager to see how they are going to stop him. Rogue is looking to be in bad shape, her face is cracked like glass which cant be good. There were some great Iceman/Mystique quiet beats in this issue, which makes the whole thing easier to swallow. And its good to see Cannonball back in action. The whole Sabertooth twist is really great and its great to see him back as his twisted sadistic self again. Bachalo's artwork was as solid as ever for characters, but Hectacomb appeared indistinct and it was hard to follow (but its problably intentional). A solid offering, but with Carey you know the best is yet to come. ^^
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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!" |
