London, two days earlier: As repairs continue on Big Ben (blown up by the Brotherhood in issue #5), Storm and Marvel girl skate the streets of London, where the X-Men have come with Professor Xavier, who is on a world tour promoting his new book. Jean's in heaven, since she's very into British clothes, music and culture, while Storm is just having fun with touristy things. The girls razz each other about their respective love triangles, but resolve to enjoy it while they are young and the only females on the team. At the moment, though, they are looking for someone to help for their next school assignment. Suddenly, Marvel Girl's telepathy picks up the thoughts of a woman with a gun. Mission accepted.

Meanwhile, Wolverine, Iceman and Colossus are in Soho (the one in London, not the one in NYC) in a club on a sting to trap a bunch of drug dealers. Iceman, however, is on the cell with his mom, who's upset that he's not home for Sunday dinner and doesn't recall signing a permission slip for an international trip. Wolverine takes the phone and tries to charm Mrs. Drake, but apparently gets the third degree from her as well and hangs up, leaving Bobby to moan about their new nemesis - his mom. Regardless, the guys are there to make a drug bust, which Iceman's call interrupted. Off to one side, a local notes that "those Americans" are totally inept at being inconspicuous.

Walking the streets are Beast and Cyclops, also looking for a situation in need of their particular talents. Beast rejects a bunch of options, and Cyclops agrees, seeing as how Beast's picks have all been A+ material so far. Then their search ends, as a bunch of muggers runs up to them.

The next morning, Professor X asks the students what they did for the last two days on their assignment. Marvel Girl holds up the most popular British paper, whose front page heralds her and Storm's bust of a terrorist cell. Iceman's got the second most popular paper, with a splash page about the boys' drug ring bust. Beast has no article on the muggers he and Scott dealt with, but he did "finish the crossword puzzle in near record time." Charles awards the top grade to Cyclops and Beast, even though placement in the papers is the normal way of denoting success.

Not that he cares, but Wolverine questions that evaluation. Simply put, Xavier is unhappy with the violent tactics used by Wolverine especially, but also by Storm and the others (a giant hailstone comes to mind) in order to stop their targets. Cyclops and Beast, on the other hand, spent two days finding jobs for their muggers, even for the ones who went into detox. Iceman isn't happy about being trained as a "social worker" and Xavier retorts that he isn't training them to be thugs, either. His "Phase 3" is supposed to find ways to show humans how to solve problems without violence, and he doesn't want his students' exercises to tick humanity off.

Later, the X-Men go to Professor X's book release, and are confronted with a mob of anti-mutant people as they enter. Colossus catches the eye of a young boy screaming and is disturbed. Inside, the press question Charles about a supposed second secret school for less socially acceptable mutants, and about using his powers for personal gain, both of which he denies. He deflects a question about being hated by some humans, but it's clear the subject affects him.

Later, the X-Men are back at their hotel and notice that Colossus is missing. They wonder if he's gone over to the other side, and Wolverine says no way, he's not the type. Cyclops isn't happy about the intimation Wolverine's statement made about him, but before anything further develops Professor X's cell phone rings. It's Moira MacTaggert, who's sitting in her blown out lab with two agents from the British division of S.H.I.E.L.D. standing over her. Charles asks about David and gets an affirmative from Moira - their son has escaped!

Review: Another top-notch issue from Millar and Kubert. The story about Professor X's plans for the world is really starting to take shape now. At the same time, we are still getting a lot of detailed character information and development for many of the main characters. I enjoyed the banter between Jean and Storm, and the scene with Wolverine trying to sweet-talk Iceman's mom (and failing miserably) was just fantastic. Xavier's answers to the press were perfectly portrayed, and I was also glad that he specified some of the details of his plans. And of course, the revelation about Xavier's son, while not unexpected for anyone with a sense of MU history, was still a good monkey wrench to throw in at this point.

One thing that bothered me in the previews was the fact that it seemed that the X-Men (specifically Beast) were choosing to help people based on the possible grade it would get them, and not because the people needed help. While that still appeared to be true, I think Millar pulled it off by contrasting the various ways in which the kids fulfilled their assignments. Perhaps it was more Beast's tone in describing the people he and Scott were ill-equipped to help that bugged me. Although, if they could get the muggers into detox and get them jobs through special intelligence contacts, why couldn't they help the other cases Cyclops mentioned? Did Beast instincitvely feel that those people didn't want to be helped or would be too difficult to handle? While I liked the resolution in the Prof's evaluation, I still have trouble swallowing Hank's rationale.

Speaking of the evaluation, it was very enlightening to hear Xavier's pacifist views. Granted, MU Charles was always about restraint and pacifism where humans are involved, but it was never stated so boldly, perhaps because the MU X-Men were not in the public eye in this manner. Yet, it makes sense as well, since a telepath (who can feel other people's pain) would probably do as much as he could to accomplish his goals without causing more pain in the process. It does beg the question of violation of civil rights and free will (as with Magneto), but on the whole the philosophy is sound. I also liked the quote from the book about not needing to be a mutant to be an X-Man. It would be interesting to see a human member at some point, just to prove it.

The subplot with Colossus was interesting. Did he recognize the screaming boy, or was he just distraught by his appearance? Did he go home to Russia to see his parents? Or is something more sinister at work?

Finally, Proteus. Or Legion. Well, a little of both. Though he will be called Proteus, his real name is David, and he's Xavier's son, not the son of Moira's human husband, as in the MU. Though a potentially confusing change for fanboy referral purposes across the realities, it's a good move by Millar, because keeping track of Xavier's MU love life and the various children is confusing even for long-time fans - especially since many of the stories happened a very long time ago. What I also liked were the small touches that Millar put into David's limited dialogue that showed his pain and the things he's lacked because he's been locked up in the lab his whole life. It makes him a more human character. It also makes me wonder if Xavier will be able to find a peaceful solution to this problem, or if, as in the MU as well, both he and Moira will lose a child.

Kudos on a thought-provoking story! And the best is yet to come!