Fury's support team tracks down the secret entrance to the lab and he goes in. The facility is more complex than they expected. Technicians pass by and Fury requests intangibility, but gets less time than he wanted due to budget constraints. It's enough to let him phase through the wall, but he ends up in another room full of armed men. They open fire and Fury requests invisibility, but again only gets a few seconds, though that's enough for him to take out all the soldiers.

While S.H.I.E.L.D. identifies the dead men, Fury is reminded about his explosive gum, which he spits at a large entry hatch. It blows open and Fury is dumbfounded. As a great light comes at him, he tells his team they have to destroy this facility. Then Fury is cut off.

Soon, S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander General Ross fills Col. Wraith in on the situation: Fury is missing, and every secret in his head will be auctioned off to the world's terrorist community if they can't find him. He asks Wraith if Weapon X can help find Fury. Wraith says that with their new recruits, the X-Men, he can. Ross is upset that Wraith abducted such well-known mutants, and ones who are on good terms with the Preseident himself! He is even more shocked at the experiments being performed on them, case in point, Beast, whose strength and agility is being augmented. Wraith says the only one who was in contact with the President was Xavier, and they shot him because his powers were too dangerous. Ross is livid, but tries to look on the bright side - at least they got Wolverine back. Wraith confesses that Wolverine was the only one that got away, and Ross leaves in furious anger, telling Wraith to get Fury back, or else.

Down in the Weapon X holding cells, Juggernaut and Rogue bicker with the X-Men. The Weapon Xers hold the X-Men responsible for what happened to them, because they stopped Magneto from taking out the humans who captured them, and that being in the Savage Land would be better that working for Weapon X for the rest of their lives. However, Cyclops already has three escape plans, but Juggernaut keeps taunting him. Jean tells Scott to calm down and help her bypass Nightcrawler's language centers so she can communicate with him, as he doesn't speak English.

Inside Nightcrawler's mind, he and Jean are in the Bavarian Alps in a happy memory from his childhood, and Kurt is overjoyed that he can finally talk to someone. Picturing Jean in her underwear doesn't hurt his morale, either. (She's not bothered, as all the others do it, too) She tells Kurt to relax as she fills him in on Cyclops's plans.

They are interrupted by someone coming down the hall. It's Sabretooth, leading some guys bringing Beast back to his cell. His skin has turned all blue, and he looks like hell. Juggernaut comments on the great decision the X-Men made to save humanity, the idiots.

Later, a Weapon X jet brings the team to the facility in which Fury is supposed to be held. The mission is to get him out before the villains can pick his brain for secrets. Colossus asks where the others are, and Sabretooth replies that they are finishing the job Fury started, and indeed Jean, Kurt and Scott are heading towards the mutant experimentation facility.

Back at Weapon X HQ, Dr. Cornelius is uncomfortable with Wraith's lying to Ross about killing Xavier, especially since S.H.I.E.L.D. knows many nasty torture methods. Wraith says he had to do it, since Ross is being so pressured by the liberals that he's about to shut the program down. Their only hope now is to find Wolverine, and Wraith puts on Xavier's Cerebro helmet to do just that.

Elsewhere, on a snow-covered mountain, Wolverine trudges along, looking for something...

Review: Part 2 of the Weapon X story is significantly less exciting than the first was. The whole issue doesn't really go anywhere, as it's mostly setup. That I'm pretty OK with, because it's a necessary part of the plot, but it didn't have to take up a whole issue. We should have gotten some more decent action out of the team.

The best part was definitely Nick Fury. First off, he looks great as a black guy. Cute switch there from our universe when paralleled with Wraith, who's black in our world and white here. Fury seems set to be his opposite number. The tech he was using was very, very cool, and the budgetary constraints issue was so perfect. You really get the sense that this is a fledgling operation, and it's grounded in the real world, where nothing is without a budget. Very cool.

The rest was pretty blah. I would have liked to have seen more of what Weapon X did to the X-Men. The shot of Storm in the tank with the electrodes and stuff sticking out of her was very reminiscent of our world's Weapon X saga. I wonder what they were doing to her. Presumably jacking up her powers, but we don't have details yet. I was a little surprised that the X-Men weren't brainwashed. Seems weird, but given past issues, I guess that's not their MO. Seems more like long-term conditioning to be killers. The back-and-forth between Rogue, Juggernaut and the X-Men was OK, but nothing special.

Of interest to long-term fans is of course, Beast's turning blue. Expected and delivered, yet still incomplete, I hope, as he's not all furry and has no claws - yet. A plausible explanation for this event, but I wonder which newbie fans will care. That means they'd better do something more with it. I'd like to see him have a beast mode that he goes into when he gets angry. That would be an interesting change.

Nightcrawler seems to be the next likely bet to joining up. He doesn't seem to have the socio-political problems of Rogue and Juggernaut. Notice also how he was teamed with Cyke and Jean for the mission. I wonder if Scott will put his plan into effect now or wait until later. They do have to bypass those detonator bug implants first.

Now for the art: Tom Raney did a commendable job of keeping up the quality on this book, especially his take on Fury. I loved the first few scenes. The only downside was that he's missing the wonderful interplay of light and shadow that the Kuberts used so well in the first arc, which gave this book kind of a signature look. As a result, the coloring was also less vivid. Still and all, a good effort.

To sum up, this wasn't the best issue, and if the story doesn't get moving this will be a pretty lame arc, but there is a lot of potential here, and seeing Ultimate Fury is well worth the price of the book. Given that he's supposed to quit S.H.I.E.L.D. and help Logan find the X-Men, I'd say we're in for some more good times.

PS - I know Fury appeared in an Ultimate Team-Up issue: #2 or 3, I think. Can someone send me a scan? Thx.