On the day of its birth, the new mutant baby was kidnapped. Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men, dispatched a team to the Antarctic to ambush Mr. Sinister, one of the prime suspects, and his henchmen, the Marauders. At the same time, Cyclops charged Rictor to infiltrate the Purifiers, an organization of mutant-hating zealots also suspected in the disappearance. Unbeknownst to Cyclops, the frustrated New X-Men, young students of the Xavier Institute, attacked the Purifiers at the same time.
Rictor learned the Purifiers did not have the baby, but the good news ended there. Moments later the Reavers, genetically modified mercenaries led by Lady Deathstrike, attacked the New X-Men and gravely wounded Hellion. Meanwhile Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, lies in a coma after sending two of his duplicates into separate futures in search of clues to the mutant baby’s history. Layla Miller stowed away on the trip, with no hope of return.
- Chapter Four, X-Men: Messiah CompleX*******
New York, 80 years from now, Layla Miller and Jamie Madrox stare at the mutant internment camp devising a plan on how they could get in.
Back at the present, led by Storm, the X-Men field team charged head-on at Mr. Sinister’s base demanding for the baby and Rogue. Seemingly outnumbered by the villainous Marauders and Acolytes, the five X-Men stood their ground until Mr. Sinister found out that the astral form of Emma Frost was with the team using her own telepathy to completely shield her teammates from Sinister and Exodus mind reading.
Back at the Xavier Institute, Cyclops is telling
Bishop that he should have responded earlier if he wanted to join the assault team. The latter said that he was doing his own investigations in the mutant underworld. Emma is shown in the room concentrating on blocking the five X-Men in Antarctica from telepathic attacks.
The battle began as Storm used
Harpoon’s weapon and channeled lightning to take out
Vertigo and
Scrambler, both of whom she assessed to be the tactical dangers among their enemies. Nightcrawler took this opportunity to teleport Exodus, perhaps the most dangerous of all, out of the area and into the Sor Rondane Mountains. Colossus is simultaneously throwing punches at
Arclight,
Frenzy,
Omega Sentinel (possessed by
Malice), and
Unuscione. And Wolverine used broke
Scalphunter’s arm and used the latter’s gun to knock out
Random and
Tempo.
As Sinister recovers from Emma’s psychic attack, Angel confronted him and asked for the child. The scientist did not give in and said that there will be casualties before this is over. Gambit could be seen escaping from the battle but Wolverine caught up with him.
St. Peter’s Church, Washington DC. Another battle ensues as the Reavers, led by Lady Deathstrike took on the New X-Men. Pixie began to panic but Rictor said that if she did not teleport them, her friends would die. She tried to concentrate as she cast the spell. But it was a blind teleport sending the students into different locations between the mansion and Washington, DC.
Emma Frost was distracted by Pixie’s scream alerting the older X-Men of the situation at the Purifiers’ base. This however turned out for worst as Emma could no longer contact the assault team as Sinister has locked her out.
Wolverine repeatedly stabbed the Cajun until the latter gave him the answers on the baby’s location.
Mr. Sinister had fully recovered and assaulted Angel with a psionic blast before heading to Colossus and paralyzing him. Storm realized that they will be defeated at this rate and commanded Nightcrawler to find Wolverine and she will cover the team’s retreat.
Armed with the knowledge he squeezed out from Gambit, Wolverine was heading back when he saw Omega Sentinel throwing an unconscious Angel towards him from above. Instinctively, he caught his supposed teammate only to find out that it was only an illusion by Lady Mastermind and that it was actually Scrambler. Before Wolverine could react, Omega Sentinel blasted him. This has severely injured him as Scrambler’s power has turned his healing factor off. Fortunately, Nighcrawler teleported in and knocked out both the possessed X-Man and Lady Mastermind before both could do more damage to Wolverine. Logan told his teammate that the baby is not with the Marauders. Unbeknownst to them, Scalphunter was already aiming for Nightcrawler’s head but missed it, hitting the X-Man on his right chest. Still, the two managed to teleport out of the scene. Wolverine immediately called for Emma telling her that an X-Man has the baby.
This new information had the X-Men debating at the Institute. As they went on with the discussion, a sentinel surprised the mutants as it punched through the roof of the mansion all the while stating a change in its programming –to destroy the X-Men.
In the Canadian wilderness, the supposedly dead
Cable was seen running with the baby in his arms.
*******
Carey never fails to deliver an awesome issue. And with how things were left in the last issue of Messiah CompleX, X-Men #205, as expected, managed to give us the most awesome kick-ass moments (so far) of the crossover. The issue is heavy on the action but manages to intertwine real plot development – the return of Bishop to the fold, Wolverine interrogating Gambit and the big reveal at the end.
Three separate epic battles have been presented equally – the X-Men strike force vs. Maruders/Acolytes (round two), the New X-Men versus the Purifiers/Reavers and the X-Men vs. the Sentinels. Each team has been given an equal billing so far considering the massive number of characters involved.
And this reminded me why Storm is such a major player in the X-Universe:
Sinister: “X-Men, your destruction had fallen quite low on my list of priorities. By coming here, you run the risk of making me reconsider.”
Storm: “You do not intimidate us, Sinister. And you won’t deter us.”
Sinister: “No? Look around you, Storm. You face an army – many of whom could kill your entire team single-handed. How do the five of you expect to prevail?”
Angel: “Why don’t you read our minds, and see for yourself?”
Sinister: “…”
Storm: “You miscounted, monster! There are six of us!”
The real twist however was presented in the last few pages of the comic book in which Cable was shown holding the baby. We all thought he was dead, but then again he’s a Summers-Grey so he has a thing for resurrections.
Sadly, Bachalo’s artwork is still messy but I can still live with it.
