X-Men #34 - January 2008

Alarms were going off throughout the U.S.S. Avenger, ear piercing sirens and rapid flashes of red lights filling the corridors with a sense of urgency. The alerts were intended to summon all available security personnel to the deck of the tanker where Bobby Drake, the X-Man known as Iceman, was systematically unleashing a frigid assault on all those who dare turn their attention to him.

It was the nature of Iceman’s powers that led the X-Men’s leader, Scott Summers - also known as Cyclops - to choose him to pose as the distraction while two other X-Men infiltrated the ship’s cargo hold. Iceman could incapacitate his enemies by simply freezing them entirely to the deck of the ship, or if need be he could stop the hearts of any opponent by turning the blood in their veins to ice. He personally chose to passively incapacitate his assailants if at all possible, especially when considering that he was nigh invulnerable to their gunfire and grenades.

This is why one of a number of assault teams were instructed to head to the port quarter's armory and retrieve the specially designed mutant dampening rifles located there. When the five men in all filed into the room and began stocking up on the body armor and weaponry needed to subdue the mutant threat on deck, the door behind them shut with a loud clang and the lights in the armory went out just as quickly.

"What the -- ?!" one of the assault team's members muttered, instinctively looking about the pitch black armory just as his comrades did the same.

Before he could react further, a bulky arm wrapped tightly around his neck and a gloved hand covered his mouth, its thumb and forefinger pinching his nostrils shut. He gasped and flailed about, warranting the attention of his teammates.

"Fuck! Someone's here! Someone's here!" a voice yelled in the darkness, just as the butt of a rifle struck him in the forehead. "Hurk!"

As two of his numbers fell, the assault team's leader backpedaled to the corner of the armory and drew his visor down, then turned a dial down on the side of his helmet. Standing over one of his men was a tall, slender woman wielding an assault rifle, and lowering another of his men to the ground was a short, yet stocky and muscular man.

"Infrared on! The X-Men are here!" the assault team's leader yelled as he raised his gun and opened fire on the woman. "Take 'em down!"

The woman was quick to drop her rifle and reach out to one of the three other assault team's members still standing. She pulled him into the path of the gunfire without hesitation. He screamed out in agony as he took the hot lead straight to his bullet proof vest, causing the assault leader to cease fire. This gave the woman enough time to fling her human shield aside and dart forward, jump kicking the assault leader in the chin.

He let out a sickening yelp as his head snapped back, and when the woman's feet touched the ground again she fell into a martial arts stance, then quickly struck him square in the throat with the tips of her fingers. The eyes of the assault team's leader went wide in horror behind his visor as he found himself unable to breathe, and in moments he found himself sinking to the floor, losing consciousness.

She loosened her stance and began to stand upright, when she heard the cocking of an assault shotgun just behind her head.

"Don't move or I'll blow your head off!" barked the last standing member of the assault team, finally able to get his visor down and activate the infrared on it. The woman raised her arms up slowly as she considered her options, but before the man could make good on his threat, three sharp pains shot through his right shoulder.

SNIKT! was the sharp sound of metal claws popping from the short, stocky man's fist and ripping through the bone and muscle of the assault team's last member.

"Nuh uh, bub. Simon didn't say," was all the owner of the claws said. The assault team's last member let out a fierce cry and involuntarily pulled the assault shotgun to the side of the woman, allowing her to fling an elbow back into his nose, breaking it with a bloody crunch. The short, stocky man retracted the claws back into his fist and out of the assault team member's shoulder, then turned the man around and punched him across the jaw, causing him to drop to the floor of the armory.

It was then that the lights of the armory came back on, revealing the two X-Men known as Wolverine and Domino standing over the five assault team members. Aside from their codenames, the only names they had that came close to civilian identities were Logan and Beatrice, respectively. They both took off their infrared goggles and looked to each other, squinting slightly as their eyes readjusted to the light.

"You good, darlin'?" Wolverine asked, furrowing a brow.

"I had him, but yeah, thanks anyway," Domino remarked, rubbing her eyes slightly. Wolverine cocked his head to the side and smirked slightly, then put a hand to his ear and activated the radio transmitter in it.

"Wolverine here. Domino and I got five down in the port quarter's armory."

{{ Outstanding work, both of you, }} the voice of Hank McCoy, the Beast, said on the other side of the line. {{ That should do it for the majority of the security forces in your area. Everything is going perfectly according to plan. Restrain those combatants, then proceed to the cargo hold and rendezvous with Cyclops as planned. }}

"Will do, McCoy," Wolverine replied, then looked to Domino. "Let's get t' work."

“Damnit! Where are those enforcers?!” the Captain shouted to the three crewmen as he stormed into the bridge, soaking wet from the rain outside.

On the bridge of the tanker, three men in black fatigues similar to the soldiers that guarded the ship were hard at work on the various consoles. They were armed with only pistols due to their position as crewmen on the bridge, but they were nevertheless mercenaries as trained and skilled as others employed by the former Byron Agency. However, they had never experienced anything like the attack they had faced that night.

“Why aren’t the automated guns working?! We need that freak taken out NOW!”

One of the crewmen looked up from his station nervously to answer. “They target heat signatures, sir, and he’s… he doesn’t have one!”

“Then get someone to man those turrets! I don’t care if our own men get caught in the crossfire, just take him ou -- ” the Captain’s orders fell short as his eyes widened in confusion and dismay. At the bow end of the ship, an orange and yellow blur emerged from the dark rain clouds surrounding the ship. Worse, it was growing larger and shooting straight for the bridge of the ship. It was a woman flying straight toward them, surrounded in a vibrant aura and propelled by an explosive energy.

“Captain, get down!” one of the crewmen shouted as he flung himself into the captain, forcing him to the floor. The rest of the bridge’s crew threw themselves down as well, curling up and covering their heads by sheer survival instinct.

Just before striking the observation windows of the bridge, the energy surrounding and propelling the woman vanished and her skin seemingly transformed into steel, and the momentum of her flight carried her through the glass and surrounding metal flame like a wrecking ball. She crashed into the bridge in a dive over the cowering captain and crewmen, landed in a roll, and came up right into a kneel on one knee.

Her name was Rosemarie Charleston, but for the longest time she was only known as Rogue of the X-Men. Until recently, she hadn’t always had complete control over her mutant ability to absorb the psyche and powers of other individuals, often seriously injuring those she merely brushed with her bare skin. Now, she cannot only safely touch other individuals but she can also recall the personas and abilities of all that she had ever touched. Case in point, her comrades with the X-Men, Cannonball and Colossus. The only catch was that she could use those powers one at a time.

“Open fire!” the Captain yelled from the ground, his body covered in glass and metal. His crewmen moved to their feet and drew their side-arms, pistols, and opened fire. The bullets bounced off of her metal shell harmlessly, ricocheting across the bridge and nearly striking its crewmen in the process. They flinched and ducked, ceasing fire, as the bullets whizzed by their bodies in return.

A grin crept up on Rogue’s face. “Nice try, pumpkins,” she said as she rose to her full height and clenched her fists. “But lemme show ya’ll how it’s really done.”

Before the crew could respond to her threats, Rogue darted for the nearest crewman and leapt into the air, dropping a backhand across his face at an angle as she came down. As he struck the floor, she pivoted in a different direction and towards the next nearest crewman, slamming her elbow into his chest and forcing him across the bridge into a bulkhead. The sudden loss of breath caused him to keel over, immobilized.

With her first two opponents dispatched, she turned to face the third and final crewman, who began backing up into a corner of the bridge between the wall and control panel. Her grin returned and she lifted a hand to him, inching her index finger towards herself.

“C’mere, sugah. Let‘s not make this any harder on ya.”

“RUN EDWARDS!” the Captain suddenly shouted. Rogue moved her head to face the Captain, but he was quicker than her and launched himself onto her back, wrapping his arms around her neck in a chokehold. “GO! NOW!”

Rogue grumbled to herself and reached back, taking hold of the Captain’s arms. As the crewman began to run for the exit of the bridge, she flipped the Captain out from over her and spun around in a circle, using the momentum to better fling him into the fleeing crewman. The two collided at full force, causing the crewman to go flying into the door head first and causing the Captain to bounce off of him into the ground. The Captain groaned and rolled off of his back onto his stomach, slowly crawling away from the unconscious crewman left in the wake of Rogue’s counter-attack.

He didn’t get very far before he was stopped by the sound of footsteps in front of him. When he looked up from the floor, the Captain saw two lithe yet powerful legs leading up the woman who had just decimated his tanker’s bridge. Her skin had reverted back to normal and that same, mischievous and cocky grin was etched into her face. She knelt down before him and took a firm grip on his hair, pulling his head up to face hers.

“Nighty night,” she said, brushing a finger across his cheek. The Captain let out a deep gasp before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp. She dropped his head to the floor and stood upright, dusting off her uniform.

Having gotten what she had come for, the psyche and persona of the tanker’s Captain, Rogue strutted across the body littered bridge to its communications console. Howling wind breathed in and out through the shattered observation window, rain and hail carried in with it, and in the distance she could hear the blasts of ice shot from her teammate and the cries of the tanker’s guardsmen as they were struck.

Imbued with the Captain’s working knowledge of the bridge’s systems, Rogue worked quickly to activate the communications console and announcement system. When everything was ready, her eyes glowed a bright yellow and her skin turned a lavender blue, and then her features transformed into that of the Captain.

“Attention all hands,” she said into a microphone before, her voice mimicking that of the Captain’s perfectly. “We’ve been overwhelmed by hostile mutants and the ship’s cargo has been compromised. Begin evacuation procedures immediately! All hands proceed to the nearest escape pods and abandon ship!”

Rogue promptly turned off the communications console and reverted back to her normal form, then reached out with her mind into the X-Men‘s psi-web. “Rogue reportin’ in. The Captain and bridge’s crew are down, and Ah’ve given the order to evacuate.”

“Perfect timing, Rogue,” Phoenix replied over the team’s psi-web that she was able to construct. “Now, if you can, we need you to find out what the tanker’s heading is.”

“On it,” Rogue said over the psi-web. She looked around the bridge and found the navigation controls, immediately approaching it. Suddenly, a body covered in ice was thrown through the shattered observation window of the bridge and struck the floor, tumbling in front of Rogue’s path. “What the -- ?!”

“My bad!” Iceman shouted from across the deck, waving to Rogue as he slid around the tanker on his slide of ice. She furrowed her brow and shook her head, then turned back to the navigation console, stepped over the unconscious and frost covered guard, and then stepped up to the controls.

“Let’s see where this oversized tugboat‘s goin‘,” Rogue said to herself as she typed in a few commands and brought up a computerized map overlapped with a coordinates grid. It was tracking the path of the tanker from San Francisco harbor to an island off of the pacific coast, but the name of the island caught her off guard.

“Oh, lordy… that can‘t be…”

In the cargo bay of the tanker, the soldier in charge of the cargo bay stood atop an observation deck overlooking the large bulks of machinery draped by large tarps. The alarms throughout the ship had been going off for quite a while now, but he had just received word over the phone that confused him. It was then that he dropped the line and ran to the edge of the observation deck, yelling out to his crew frantically.

“There’s something wrong!” the commander said as he rushed to the edge of the observation deck. “We need to lock this place down immediately!”

“But why? The Captain says to abandon ship!” another soldier shouted.

“You remember the briefing, don’t you? We were told to guard the cargo at all costs. Why would the Captain tell us to abandon ship at the first sign of trouble?” the head of the cargo bay. “We‘ve been boarded by enemy mutants. We can only assume that they‘re here for the cargo, so that means we need to reinforce the entryways and prepare for attack,” he said as he dropped down from the ladder and turned around to face the group of soldiers. None of them had moved and threw his arms in the air. “You all heard me! Go! Move!”

Nearly all of them scrambled and darted across the cargo hold in different directions, either heading for doors to lock them down or looking for barricades to drag and place before the entryways. Only one remained to approach the cargo hold’s commander.

“Mutants? You don’t mean the X-- “ he began, but was immediately interrupted.

“Yes, I do mean them!” the commander shouted as he began moving towards the nearest door. “Now shut up and help me get the barricades in place before -- ARGH!”

The commander’s words turned into a scream as the door and surrounding wall exploded in a ruby red stream of energy, the twisted metal and debris colliding into both the commander and the soldier. They fell to the ground underneath the remains of the door and wall, unconscious from the shock of the blast.

Dust filled the air around the gaping hole in the former doorway and soldiers all across the cargo hold dropped what they were doing, running to investigate the explosion and tend to their fallen comrades. However, before they could reach their fellow soldiers, a figure wearing black and gold with a glowing red visor emerged from the dust. It was then the soldiers in the cargo hold realized what had happened.

“They’re here! They’re here!” one of the soldier’s shouted. He drew his assault rifle to open fire, but was quickly with a thin yet powerful force beam to the chest. “Urk!”

His name was Cyclops, and his mutant power to emit powerful force beams from his eyes - optic blasts, they were called - made him a virtual one man army. This also made him invaluable as leader of the X-Men.

“Get him!” another soldier yelled as Cyclops emerged from the dust. The various soldiers across the cargo hold aimed their rifles and opened fire on the mutant X-Man, but he was quick to dive behind one of the barricades that had yet to be placed before one of the doorways. The sound of gunfire exploded across the room and bullets pounded into the barricade in a barrage of hot lead.

It was only a moment before the barrage began to slow down and Cyclops could hear the clicking of metal and the sound of foot steps approaching. With the barricade the only thing standing between him and the approaching soldiers, Cyclops threw himself onto his back facing the barricade and unleashed a wide optic blast. The force of the blast was powerful enough to pick up the barricade and propel it into the oncoming soldiers, crushing them against a bulk of cargo.

Just as quick as he was on his back, Cyclops rolled off of his shoulders and landed upright on his feet. Two of the soldiers still on their feet rushed even faster to reload their weapons, but the leader of the X-Men tapped his visor twice, striking each soldier with a thin beam across the torso. They cried out and collapsed to the ground, cringing and writhing in pain.

Hand still to his visor, Cyclops took three slow steps forward and scanned the cargo bay, his ears open for any sounds. It was a shift in the air around him that caught his attention though, prompting him to spin around on the heel of his foot and draw his hand to his visor in preparation to open fire.

“Whoa there, Slim,” Wolverine said, lifting his hands up in front of him in an attempt to hold off Cyclops‘ wrath. “Finally gonna take me out once an’ fer all?”

“Jesus, Logan!” Cyclops chided him and then sighed, releasing his visor and standing up straight. “You know better than to sneak up on someone during a firefight.”

Wolverine began looking around the cargo hold. “Looks t’ me like the firefight’s over, bub,” he nodded. “Nice job.”

“Thanks,” Cyclops said half-heartedly. then tossed his teammate a bag of C4 charges. Wolverine caught it with ease. “C’mon. We need to get these explosives set up before reinforcements arrive.”

“You’re the boss,” he remarked, running for the other end of the cargo hold. Cyclops turned to Domino and nodded to her, signifying that she should do the same, before he ran up to one of the large, bulky pieces of cargo and prepared to set the charges.

“How did things go with the assault team in the armory?” Cyclops asked as he dropped his backpack from off of his shoulder and began to open it up. Domino looked back to him as she dumped out numerous bricks of C4 from her backpack into a pile.

“Good. We took them all down without a problem and locked them up in the nearest escape pod.”

Cyclops nodded as he began lining his wall of the cargo with the C4 “Alright, then when we’re done here we can give Rogue the signal to remote eject them. Did you lock down the armory?”

“Yep. All bases covered, chief.”

“So far so good then.”

At that moment, Cyclops may have spoke too soon.

“Uh… Slim?!” Wolverine shouted across the cargo hold, unsheathing his claws as he backed away from the . “Ya better get over here an’ check this out!”

Cyclops and Domino both looked up from the explosives they were setting towards Wolverine, just in time to see the tarps fall from the large bulk of cargo near him as it rose up. It was not just a large bulk of machinery, but a large humanoid shaped robot whose eyes were glowing a piercing red. It wasn’t alone in this action.

Domino swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Oh, shi -- ”

Iceman rounded the upper deck of the tanker on a bridge of ice, sliding across it whilst simultaneously extending it in a wide arc around the remaining soldiers. The gunfire from their automatic rifles was trailing him, but he was too far fast for them to strike and the bullets lodged themselves harmlessly into the thick bridge that trailed him.

“Chase chase chase, dudunt-dun-nuh,” he sung loudly as he circled the soldiers, a wiggle in his rear as he slid around them. “Chase chase chase, chase this booo-daaay! Dundunt-dun-nuh! Chase this boo-daaay!”

When he came to the back of the three soldiers he drew out an arm and formed a shimmering ball of ice in the palm of his hand, then flung it at their feet. They quickly turned around and drew their weapons on him, but before they could open fire the ball exploded like a grenade and a sheet of ice washed over them.

Their battle-cries died in their throats as they were encased in a shell of ice, but it fell on deaf ears anyway. If they weren’t evacuating the ship as ordered, the rest of their comrades were already unconscious or entrapped in similar bulks of ice. Proud of his handiwork, Iceman directed his bridge to the deck of the tanker and stepped off of it, dusting his frozen hands off.

“Not too shabby, if I do say so myself,” he remarked.

“Robert!” a voice called out.

Iceman turned at the sound of his name, seeing Ororo Munroe - the weather goddess known as Storm - descend from the dark rain clouds to the tanker on fierce winds. Rogue ran up from behind her in a hurry, stopping at her side only to catch her breath.

“Hey-ey, if it isn’t my two favorite X-Ladies,” Iceman greeted. “Welcome to the party, gals. You’ll have to excuse me for breaking the news, but I think all the fun’s been had.”

“Bobby, we’ve been tryin’ to get ya on the radio for the last ten minutes!” Rogue shouted over the howling winds and extreme rain. Iceman was visibly confused.

“Wha…?” he mumbled, then called out, “Why? What’s up?”

Before Storm or Rogue could answer the deck of the tanker began rumbling, throwing the three X-Men off balance. Iceman looked down to his feet and nearly the entire deck below him exploded, flinging him into the air. He cried out in pain as the explosion caused him to arc sideways over the edge of the tanker and into the violent ocean below.

“Bobby!” Rogue found herself screaming.

Following the explosion, several large blurs of purple and blue plated, mechanical beasts shot out of the crater in the deck of the tanker into the air. They were called Sentinels. Robotic killing machines programmed with explicit instructions to kill any and all mutants that they encounter, and horror washed over the eyes of Storm and Rogue as they found themselves facing down the return of the greatest threat to their kind.

As the Sentinels continued into the air, one eased its ascension and spun around to face the two women, its glowing red eyes flaring to life. The other Sentinels found themselves following suit, turning around to face the mutants.

{{ Hostile mutants detected, }} the lead Sentinel declared, raising an open palm to Storm and Rogue. It began to glow with an intense, fiery aura. {{ Prepare for termination. }}

Not far away from the battle ravaged U.S.S. Avenger rested an uncharted tropical island in the middle of the pacific ocean. In the center of the island was the final, hidden base of operations of what remained of the Byron Agency. It resembled that of a military complex combined with a manufacturing plant of sorts, gated off with large fences and barbed wire, surrounded by an open field that connects to a helipad.

In the heart of this complex was a communications room, dark and lit only by the various monitors supervised by computer and surveillance technicians. Each monitor showed images of the battle from the perspective of a Sentinel. From the doorway, a tall Irishman with red hair in a dark suit and coat walked in.

“Status report,” Agent Sean Cassidy, formerly Banshee of the X-Men, demanded as he approached the largest monitor in the room.

“The tanker’s sinking with the X-Men on it and the Sentinels have been activated, sir,” the technician seated before the monitor said. “They’re initiating termination protocols as we speak.”

Sean nodded somberly.

“Good to know, boyo,” he said, patting the technician on the shoulder. “That means all is goin’ accordin’ to plan…”

NEXT ISSUE: Boarding and hi-jacking the U.S.S. Avenger was the easy part. Now, the X-Men face down the ship's cargo and the Byron Agency's secret weapon - a hoard of Sentinels! To make matters worse, the tanker's sinking with them all on it! Will the X-Men be able to succeed in their mission and escape the ship in one piece? Only way is to be here in February for "LAND OF CONFUSION," Part Three!

~~PRIME~~ ADJECTIVELESS DIRECTIVE

Got any ~~primary~~ adjectiveless concerns regarding this ish? Rock!

Looks like I got this issue out as planned. I hope everyone enjoys it. It’s where the action really picks up and where the plot thickens a bit. We haven’t got a few good words from fellow M2K writers. Bryan Locke, of Amazing Spider-Man fame over in the Knights Branch, tackled X-Men #33 in his Reader’s Choice reviews on the message board. Take her away, Bryan!

Of course, last but not least, by virtue of alphabetical order is X-Men issue 33! Just one more issue before redirection! Haha.

I think you mean one more arc, but I digress. ;)

Firstly, let me commend the Cyclops monologue at the beginning. It really helps to flesh out a character that needed it a little bit, considering his grim/militaristic portrayal in pretty much every issue before this one. Having been one to actually have gone back and read many of the X-Men issues on this site (from Alpha to Omega to X-Corp to Exiles) it feels like the X-Men are very disjointed. And since the murder of Charles Xavier is the main divergence from a typical Marvel story, the reader can feel that the absence of Xavier has hurt the X-Men. The confrontation between Jean and Scott echoes that.

I’m glad that you enjoyed the monologue with Cyclops, as well as his interaction with Jean! He’s a rather abstract individual, so his actions and words don‘t always convey his motivations and feelings as clearly as other characters, and man, I need to commend you for going back and reading the majority of the site’s X-Books. That’s quite a feat in and of itself! The X-Men have been very disjointed since Xavier’s death, which was the aimed for goal since the days of Alpha and Omega, but they should be coming into their own soon enough. But then again… you probably know that just as well as I do…

Moira's alive! Bonus! It's good to see Storm in the flagship X-title, in addition to starring in her own solo title. Makes this feel like a real, strong X-Men team, whereas past teams around M2K have felt like a mismatch of personalities (which made for great reading don't get me wrong!).

Since X-Men Prime, Brad and I both really wanted to see a return to more classic X-Men. Don’t get me wrong. X-Men Omega and X-Corp were both really fun titles, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen an all-star team with all-star supporting characters. It’s great to know that this is working for you!

I felt like Domino got the short end of the stick in this issue. Her addition to the team is the most intriguing, and I'd have liked to have seen a bit of dialogue from her. It felt like the set up for even bigger things to come.

Sorry that Domino didn’t play a larger role in this issue, but she did appear this issue and will be playing a larger role in the rest of this arc. Hopefully you’re enjoying what you’re seeing!

As Cory said, the end of the Byron Agency was a long time coming, but even this conclusion seems to be motioning toward to a bigger pay-off.

That it is, Bryan. Thanks for the review and I hope to hear more from you soon!

Next up is writer of the mini-series Doc Samson, Anthony Crute, with a review of X-Men #33. Sadly, Anthony’s new to the X-Men at Marvel 2000, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped him from diving right in. You’re up, Anthony!

First off I'm fairly new and in saying this I just want to say that I will loose something. What i mean is it seems that this storyline has been brewing in various forms through your entire run and so I've completely missed out on the build up and so the arc does loose some 'power' for me.

I’m happy to know that you decided to jump right into the X-Men’s rather deep waters, but I’m sorry to hear that this arc loses a bit of impact for you. I’m not one for large, over-arcing epic stories, but the Byron Agency Saga that Brad Horton has started up sure has been an exception. There’s always re-reading the back issues, if you like! Just be sure to pop by X-Force (Volume Two) from issue #1 to #12 for more on the Byron Agency.

Anyway the issue itself was solid (as expected) it was great to see the Cyclops/Jean dynamic again (and Moira!).

Everyone seems to like seeing Moira appear in this series. While she’s not a regular supporting character in X-Men (you actually find her more often than not over in Force Works), this isn’t her last appearance by any means. Be sure to stick around for more! Oh, and there should be something about Scott and Jean, too, hehehe…

There were two main things about the sequence between the two which I thought was great and that was 1) Jean not being written as a perfect 'Mary Sue' which people often think that she is. She should have problems and she should be wrong at times.

Oh, and problems Jean has at Marvel 2000. It’s all coming to a head soon and just wait until the one-shot (possibly two-part) epilogue to this arc, titled “Until We Fall.”

2) Cyclop's being shouted down by his wife (and being rather insensitive just beforehand so he deserved it) and blasted for his leading style. One thing you'll notice I like if you read other reviews are when it makes me think myself and the idea of him moving more militaristic and thus away from the dream he's fighting for is a good one...oh and the end! He's beeing all badass instead of a leader, it smells like trouble to me.

I’m glad that it only took you this issue to get Cyclops at the site! He’s gradually moved away from searching out Xavier’s Dream in favor of averting the catastrophes that he’s seen in the visions left to him, but in the process he’s beginning to lose himself. The question is… will he ever find his way back to Xavier’s Dream again? Just how far is he willing to go to do what he believes will make the world a safer place? It should be fun to find out!

Tony and Hank was great. I loved that whole scene with the two of them. One thing I didn't think anyone (The Avengers didn't when Hank was a member) knew Tony's identity. Anyway it was nothing in particular about the scene other than the character interactions probably that made the scene for me.

Woo! Special thanks to Josh Reynolds (new Editor-in-Chief of Marvel 2000 and writer of Avengers West Coast) for letting me borrow Tony and the Whackos for this issue. Just to answer your question, it’s been established that Hank knows Tony’s identity at the site. Check out the “teen” issues of Avengers West Coast and Avengers #50 for details.

The final scene has me really jazzed (never ever used that word before...may not again) for the next issue. Even though I miss out on most of the WOW factor through this arc winding down it still has me looking forward as the smaller group than normal go up against what I think is a massive enemy, right?

Damn right, Anthony! Hopefully this issue has you even more “jazzed” for next issue, heh! Thanks for the review, man, and now everyone go read Anthony Crute’s “Doc Samson” mini-series to repay him for giving me a review!

Thanks for everyone who read and gave me good words on last issue. I’m not sure if X-Men #35 will make it out next release, but it should be out in about at least a month from now. See you all then!

- Cory Wiegel
January 21^st, 2008

"LAND OF CONFUSION" PART TWO Written by Cory Wiegel

"LAND OF CONFUSION"
PART TWO

Written by Cory Wiegel