reprints: 2008 year in comic books, pt. II

X-FORCE #05
Angels & Demons

"They took my wings!"

X-Force was created by Cyclops to deal with the tasks that the X-Men can't do - dispose all enemies and threats by all means necessary. Simply put, they get to slice, dice and decapitate the bad guys. During their first mission, Wolfsbane was captured by the Purifiers and was later hypnotized to attack Angel, severe his feathered wings and bring it back to the base. As Elixir was healing the badly injured X-Man, Worthington had a convulsion and in an instant, his metallic wings sprouted out of his back. Archangel is back and he's out for blood.

X-FORCE #03
Angels & Demons

"This is the future of humanity. This is the end of mutantkind."

With Bastion as the new head of the Purifiers, he sent one team to recover the techno-organic entity known as Magus from its prison, and another to deliver all the bodies of the popular anti-mutant personalities, living or not, back to their base. The likes of Donald Pierce, the Leper Queen, Cameron Hodge, Bolivar Trask and Graydon Creed were subsequently infected with the Technarch transmode virus and are now under the control of Bastion. It's the X-Men's worst nightmare come to life.

NEW X-MEN #46
Messiah CompleX

"Take them down X-Men. All of them. And bring me Bishop."

Cyclops rallied all the members of the X-teams to Muir Island where the baby was supposedly being held hostage by Mr. Sinister. They had the fight of their lives as each X-Man, old and young, battled the combined might of the Marauders, Acolytes, Predator X and the traitorous Bishop. Save the baby, save the world.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #23
Unstoppable

"To me my X-Men..."

Cyclops died when his ship was blasted in space. He was brought back to life by the Breakworld technology as Kruun wanted to question him about the supposed secret weapon, Leviathan. It turns out however that it was a fake rouse to set the X-Men in the right places. Summers then knocks out Kruun with his optic blasts and commanded his X-Men to his side so they can finish their mission - a defining moment in Cyclop's history as the undisputed leader of mutantkind.

GIANT-SIZE ASTONISHING X-MEN #01
Unstoppable

"Disappointed, Ms. Frost?"
"Astonished, Ms. Pryde."

As the team on the moon figured out that the Breakworld's weapon is mystically shielded, Shadowcat phases into it hoping to disarm it from within. However, the missile was launched a few seconds after. The X-Men watched helplessly as it was fired into space with Pryde still inside. Meanwhile on Earth, the world's heroes gathered to try and stop the bullet but their attempts proved futile. As a latch ditch effort, Shadowcat gathered all her strength and phased the bullet through the planet itself. In the process, she has merged with the metal. The aftermath showed that the bullet continued to traverse space, and that all attempts to locate it failed; and Pryde's fate still unknown. The loss of Shadowcat devastated the likes of her mentor Wolverine, her lover Colossus and her frenemy Emma Frost.