At that, we go out into space, where we can see the energy signature at the edge of the Earth seen at the end of House of M #8 in the back, but focus on a space shuttle next to a large chunk of rock hovering over what appears to be the moon. A close up shows the astronauts in the shuttle and the one outside of it are all dead and greatly deformed. Then there is a close up of the rock, as we can see a face on the side of it. Suddenly, the eyes in the face glow, and a person bursts out, saying he can’t be the only one left, and lets off an energy burst. The person goes over to the astronaut outside the shuttle and sees how deformed he is, and places his hands on him. He’s then thrown into a vision of what happened when the astronauts were killed, which appears to have happened because they were hit with a part of the energy beam that resulted at the end of HOM. The mystery man then makes his way into the shuttle, where we can still hear mission control trying to contact the astronauts. He sees the date and realizes that it’s the 21st century, and becomes infuriated, saying how could they do this.

Back at the school, Colossus comes upon Nightcrawler looking at a picture of when they first joined the team with Wolverine, Storm, and Banshee. Kurt says it’s hard not to be nostalgic at this time, and that this picture reminds him just exactly who is still left. Peter quickly reminds him that they can’t assume Xavier is dead. Kurt then begins to reminisce the first time he met Xavier and was saved by that mob by him and how he taught Kurt that he wasn’t a monster. Colossus reassures him that they’ll find Xavier.

Down in Cerebra, Kitty is helping out Emma with her search. Neither is very thrilled to be in the other’s presence, nor does Lockheed enjoy the White Queen’s company. Suddenly, Emma picks up a major energy signature, at least an Omega level mutant, but before she can get a full lock or identify it, she’s hit by some kind of blast which shatters Cerebra’s helmet. Kitty goes to help, but also sees an image of the space shuttle rocketing to earth that Emma last saw. Cut to Emma being wheeled on a stretcher to the infirmary by Scott and Hank while Kitty informs them of what happened and what she saw with the shuttle and lets them know that it was going to crash in upstate New York.

Almost immediately, Scott has Wolverine and Rachel preparing to take off in the Blackbird with him, saying he wants to get to this mystery mutant before the government investigates the crash of their shuttle. Rachel wonders if he really thinks that this mystery guy could be the professor. He says there’s always a chance, but he’s counting on her to pick up his thought patterns once they’re close enough. Logan doesn’t want to rain on the parade, but how exactly does he plan for them to leave without their Sentinel buddy following. That’s been covered. As they take off, the sentinel wastes no time in following, but as soon as they’re out of his line of sight, Cyclops sends out 5 probes with their same heat signature to head in different directions to confuse their unwanted attraction.

Back at the school, Kitty is splashing water on her face to soothe the left over migraine from Emma’s vision, when she looks up from the sink into the mirror to find some zombie looking creature looking at her. She screams but when she turns, it’s just a frightened Colossus who was behind her. They think that it was just a side effect from Emma’s vision and decide it’s best for her to rest.

She’s not the only one having weird visions though. When he’s out for a walk in the woods, suddenly, he’s attacked by apparitions of the mob that was after him when Xavier found him. And no matter where he teleports to, they’re right there ready to strike. He begins to panic and falls, but when he gets up, they’re nowhere to be found.

Over the Adirondacks, the X-Men out on the search are starting to get a bit worried about finding their guy before the military, until Logan spots something rather out of the ordinary. It’s a giant hand that has come out of the earth and literally caught the shuttle. They easily figure this guy is definitely not Xavier, but they still have to check it out.

Over on Muir Island, Beast has contacted their old ally, Banshee, to look through their late friend, Moira Mactaggert’s files since he now lives at their old place to see if he can find anything that might lead them to know where to find Xavier. Sean says that the pain from losing her is still pretty palpable, but he’ll do his best. He begins to say to keep him informed, when he sees someone out through the window, and he recognizes that it’s Moira! He dashes out into the rain to follow her, leaving Beast still on the communicator.

Back at the crash site, Rachel is tracking the psychic signal, but it feels all wrong. Then, a shadowy form stumbles out and, much to Logan’s chagrin, it appears to be Jean! Rachel, letting her emotions get the better of her, dashes after her “mother”, but Scott and Logan hang back knowing it’s not really her. Then, the mystery man steps out, holding an unconscious Rachel by her neck in one hand, and says they must be the smart ones. The X-Men rush him ready to attack.

Banshee is still chasing a ghostly looking Moira, when he finally reaches another building, and she disappears. He goes inside, thinking that he’s losing his mind, but finds a computer, with tons of files on the wall, and finds one specifically marked “Charles Xavier’s Notes: Important” and figures this is what she wanted him to see.

The mystery mutant now is zapping Wolverine with a electric bolt, saying he wanted to be gentle like with the girl when he just shut off her mind, but they’re just getting on his nerves. Logan is down and Cyclops lets off an optic blast, but the mutant just turns it around with a wave of his hand where it hits Logan and sends Scott flying into the wall. Logan tries some more threats, but the mutant just toasts him. When he’s finally gone quiet, mystery guy examines Rachel, and says she’s no Marvel Girl he knows, and Scott hasn’t really changed. Scott gasps how he knows him, but passes out, as Mystery Mutant kind of laughs that is just too perfect, and now he has a use for the girl as he drags Scott and Rachel off.

Back on Muir, Sean has accessed the file on the computer, and a video of a visibly upset Moira comes up. She tells herself to calm down, because she knows this man and she knows that she’ll forgive him in time for what he did, but she needs to remember what an utter bastard Charles Xavier really is!

A naked Wolverine is finally waking up as the sun is rising, but a booming voice overhead tells him to stay down. He fully awakes to find a Sentinel and several helicopters from O*N*E hovering over him.

Back-up story: Petra always puts up a strong front, but she’s always been scared. We see her walking through an industrial area, and being followed by a couple homeless thugs, but with a wave of her hand, the ground beneath their feet turns into a giant concrete hand to grab them. She knows she’s got secrets, but not many others have the kind she has. Seeing the murders of mutants on the news all the time and Sentinels flying overhead everyday serve to remind her just how much the world hates people like her.

She remembers her past and how she got to where she is now. She was with her family, her parents and brother, on a camping trip right after her 13th birthday, when a rockslide killed everyone but her, and it almost seemed like the mountain was at her command. She was placed in foster care soon after, but it was horrible. The wife was always bitter and smoking and drinking. The husband was nicer, but too nice, always wanting to touch her. He tried one day to touch her while they were in Central Park, but before he could, it was as if the earth started to swallow him up to his knees. They both knew she was a mutant then, and she ran away. She knew a lot of homeless stayed in Central Park, but she couldn’t afford to be arrested. Thanks to her powers, she learned that she could mold rocks to her desire, and formed a cave in a giant boulder and closed it off just enough so no one would notice, but she could still live in them easily.

She did whatever she could to survive as the years passed, such as pan-handle, dumpster dive, and even steal, but she didn’t resort to other low methods. She later used her powers to help her there as well, and began to transform coal into diamonds, and pawned them off. She continued to do this, even making them smaller so they wouldn’t look so suspicious, but one clerk told her that he needed to talk to the owner, but she knew he was calling the police. She ran for her home in the park, and was almost there when the police found her. She found, but it was no use. She later wakes up in a holding cell, but is soon told by a kindly female guard that she’s not in jail and is being released soon. There’s someone coming for her that cleared her with the courts as long as she’s released into their custody. They have a soft spot for kids like her. Petra acts as if she doesn’t know what she means, but the guard makes a clear hint that she means because she’s a mutant. Now Petra’s really scared.

Review: I really, really like how this is set up. Mysteries are my favorite kind of story to read, and this one is really set up very well, cause I have absolutely no real clue to who exactly this Mystery Mutant could be and just what exactly Xavier’s terrible secret is. I do have a theory though, that I’ve been tossing around since I learned of this book, and with recent revelations as well. Here it is:

I believe that this new guy was a part of the second team, with Nightcrawler, Colossus, and the others, to go save the older X-Men from Krakoa, or maybe him and others were a second team, and the team in Giant Sized X-Men #1 was actually a third team. Thanks to the solicitation for issue number 4, there’s gonna be more than one mystery mutant. There’s also evidence of that in this issue on the page where our current mystery guy emerges from the rock, in the right corner of the panel, you can see what very much appears to be another skull/head and a hand in the rock. The rock itself, I believe to be a piece of the original Krakoa, which broke off when the big guy was launched into space.

The reason I believe that these mystery mutants were a part of another team that Xavier got together is what also ties into what I think Xavier’s secret is. When these other mutants were killed or left for dead on the island, Xavier went and erased all memory of them from all the other X-Men’s minds. He did that so the other X-Men stick around. Think about it. If four other people you were working with, and were possibly your friends, were killed on a mission that some guy you just met sent you on, you would stick around when he asked you to? I wouldn’t think so. This also explains why the first Mystery Mutant knows Cyclops, but not Rachel or apparently Wolverine but the latter wasn’t totally clear, yet Scott doesn’t know him. As for who he is, a lot of people really think he could be a souped up Thunderbird I, especially with the cover for issue 5, but I think that could be a bit too obvious. Also, what would really be the point of bringing him back, unless this also ties into Xavier’s big secret. Maybe Mr. Proudstar actually died on Krakoa, and Xavier made it look like he was still alive, and that’s why he was killed so quickly in the next mission with the new team way back when, so Xavier didn’t have to keep up the façade forever. But then why would he keep John alive in their minds, but not the others that apparently died as well? Ya see why I say I have no real clue what’s going on? Another thing that might contradict it being Thunderbird is all these extra powers he has. But that could be explained by the power wave from the end of HOM that apparently hit the astronauts as well. Also, the Third Summers Brother dangler is apparently going to be worked into this story as well, another thing I have no real clue on as well. It’s likely that the other brother was also a member of those who died, and it could be used to carry more weight on just how bad this secret of Xavier’s is.

With the back up story, Brubaker revealed a while ago that the back up stories would indeed tie in to the main story. Petra does seem like it’s a bit random of a character to include, but I noticed a couple things. For one, her power certainly seems to have a connection to our main bad guy. It doesn’t seem like it would be that much of a coincidence to have two instances of powers being used to form a giant hand from the earth by two different people in two different stories. I think that Petra may have been one of mutants killed on Krakoa. What is that you say? That’s impossible because her story is supposed to be in the present? Hold for just a second there. The big difference I noticed that told me her story takes place in the past is the Sentinel she sees flying in the sky. The design is clearly very different from those the Sentinel Squad O*N*E and much more like the classic design from when they first came out. Also, the way she’s reacting to how mutants are treated and attacked seems to mirror more of how they were treated in the past, rather than how they are now. Also, I think that it is Xavier and probably Cyclops who are coming to take her out of her cell, cause after more recent events, the guard would more likely have known what Xavier’s school was by name, and Petra probably as well, and she wouldn’t be as terrified as she is acting. So, she likely was found by Xavier soon after the first X-Men were taken by Krakoa and she went to save them, but wound up dead. This would go along with there being one noticeable female figure in shadow on the number 4 cover and maybe they could say that all their powers were merged when the mutant power wave hit the rock since they were all a part of it. Just remember, I’m talking about all this with no facts to back it up, so I could easily be wrong, but I can’t wait to find out! The sure sign of a great mystery.

As for the art, I personally love it. It goes along perfectly with such a dark story. Hairsine’s designs are nice and rough to give it a gritty, dark feel, and he really drew a lot of the action really well. I especially love how he managed to make Wolverine look like he took some of the worst punishment he’s seen in years. And I’m so happy to see someone finally drew Wolverine’s hair as being damaged singed all the way back into a bit of a buzz cut after him being burned up. Yeah, I know that hairstyle is one of his trademarks, but be real, unless he’s got some super hair gel, that kind of thing should have been happening more often. The only things negative I can say about the art is his designs for Kitty and Beast. Beast almost looked like he was back in ape form, especially in the nose, and that’s not nice to tease us with when everything else shows him still in cat form. I just hope this shows the rumors of him going back to the ape form may be true. As for Kitty, it looks like she’s in her 40’s or older. Also, she looks way to much like Roma. Other than that, the art’s perfect.