Synopsis: Dallas, Texas. Sometime before the events of X-Men: Alpha. Rogue and Morph battle the Infinites and wait for backup to get the surviving humans out. Rogue asks for Blink, but Clarice is gone, contrary to orders. Blink is scoping out an experimental lab elsewhere, and then she attacks the guards, teleporting them to parts unknown. She enters the operating rooms and is greeted by a video call from Dark Beast himself. McCoy has been operating on an alien from the planet Poppup, using his unique identical DNA to create hordes of soldiers.
Meanwhile, Rogue and Morph continue to fight the Infinites.
In the lab, Blink takes one of her javelins and prepares to stab the alien, who asks her to end his torment. Dark Beast doesn't believe she'll do it, being an X-Man and all, but Blink was trained by Sabretooth, and plunges the spear down. The alien disappears to parts unknown.
A week later, in the remains of New York's Grand Central Station, Magneto tells Blink that if she everdisoberys orders, she's out of the X-Men. Blink is severely ticked, and goes off on her own.
Blink breaks into the citadel of Apocalypse and finds Holocaust and his soldiers battling Blastaar and his legions of Baluurians from the Negative Zone. THe aliens retreat, but promise to return and conquer Earth. Blink is discovered, but evades capture and jumps into the portal the Baluurians just used.
Blink wakes up with a gun in her face. The leather-clad guy opposite her asks for her name before he kills her, but she can't remember...
Review: Sadly, I think this will end up being one LS I could have done without. I was really looking forward to getting back into the Age of Apocalypse, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen much here. Also, the art was terrible. Part of what made AOA so awesome was the artistic talents of Joe Madureira, Adam Kubert, Chris Bachalo, Carlos Pacheco and other comic greats, with their incredibly vibrant and active pages. The artwork here is really not up to that level, unfortunately. It's not bad, but there are a few things that really bugged me. First thing is the lack of appropriate facial expressions in many places, especially with Rogue and Morph in the opener. The other thing is Blink's costume. Part of her character is cheesecake. She says it herself in Astonishing #1, yet this issue her costume was much more reserved, not at all like Kubert did it on the cover (which is more true to Joe Mad's original). Not that I always want to see skin, but it's part of the character, and is probably one of the things that contributed to the popularity of this version of Clarice Ferguson. Anyway, the story has its moments, like when Magnus puts Blink in her place when she sublty accuses him of being a dictator, and the inclusion of Impossible Man. I liked that Impy was in a situation that is the opposite of those in his other appearnces. Another interesting thing was the connection between Blink and Dark Beast. It kind of explains the differences in this Blink and our "Blink" well. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't see Sabretooth in this story. His relationship with Blink was another thing that made her character so endearing, IMHO. Oh, well. I do like seeing aliens interact with this alternate reality, so that's a plus. I hope that this story has a real point to it, and isn't just a "coming-of-age" journey for Blink. That would be kind of silly to do as a retcon. Now to stop being so critical. If you like Blink, pick this up. If you want to get to know her, this is probably a good start, though the original AOA issues are of course key. I have no idea where this story will go, so let's hope for the best and keep reading!