Synopsis & Review by X-Mark. Thanks!
Synopsis: We open with Logan stalking the now-Sentinel-infested streets of New York City, now backed by the X-Men Mk. III (or is it IV? I lost count) consisting of Juggernaut, Cable, Lady Deathstrike, Toad, Puck and Warbird. I’d say “Didn’t Zero kill Juggernaut last issue?” but, you know, whatever. The New New X-Men are outfitted with handy bracelets to throw off the Sentinels so that they can infiltrate Madison Square Garden, where the mutant survivors are gathering. Featured are the new and improved Gene Nation led by Sunspot, and the Banshee-led X-Force with Dr. Strange and Omega Red. Chamber apparently blew off the rest of his head escaping Weapon X and has now acquired a Xorn-like mask and a new team, called Excelsior.

It turns out Archangel managed to survive Zero’s massacre as well (which would have been nice if it was mentioned at the time) and that Sabretooth has formed his own version of the Brotherhood. A weird version, too. Maybe it’s just me, but I see some sort of winged Cyclops and someone dressed as Captain America. Then Magneto shows up, out of years of exile and desperately in need of a haircut, sending the Acolytes nuts. Apparently, only Magneto could unite the remaining factions against the Sentinels. But he forgot to wear one of those Sentinel blocking things, so they get attacked immediately, which is a chance for Magneto to show he’s still a badass at age 100 or whatever he must logically be at this point.

We quickly fast forward a year or so, covering the mutants using Magneto’s usual idiotic terrorist tactics that didn’t work in the past or present, resulting in widespread anti-mutant sentiment, attacks from non-mutant heroes, and eventually, Weapon X reprogramming the Sentinels to take out the Avengers and so on as well. Wolverine and his wife (?) Warbird travel to the Baxter Complex on the Moon to convince the Avengers to return to Earth. The Avengers complain about not trusting Magneto, so the man himself shows up and explains that the Avengers will attack Manhattan while Magneto’s forces attack the other four boroughs of NYC. He plays on their sense of honour and stuff until they agree to do it.

Meanwhile, in the Sentinel Control Centre in the Empire State Building, a Dr. Milbury (guess who?) shows the Director to Sauron’s office. Malcolm explains that Master Mold is holding Sauron responsible for the MSG incident. Sauron reflects on old times, showing that he’s grown so fat from siphoning mutant energy that he can no longer fly (funny, no one ever warns you about the calorie content of mutant energy) and decides that the days when he actually fought the X-Men and stuff were much better. Malcolm agrees, and then shoots him.

Meanwhile, the Avengers are dead. Turns out Magneto really was lying, and he set them up by tipping off Weapon X to their attack so that he could take Staten Island unchallenged and, at the same time, turn them into martyrs to get non-mutants behind his cause. Wolverine calls him out, but Magneto points out that he did it for the greater good, and Logan eventually agrees. And so, Magneto and what appears to be the new new incarnation of the X-Men call a press conference to tell the world that they will end the threat of the Sentinels.

We cut to Argentina, where Fantomex is getting himself a drink in a bar. Something about the barman strikes him as familiar, though, and the last splash panel reveals him as Brent Jackson.

Review: I honestly felt this was one of the worst issues of the run so far, simply because it felt like so much was happening that it was impossible to follow. To be fair, the other issues did as well, but never was it more apparent than here. I mean, in this issue alone, Wolverine marries Warbird, Chamber gets his head blown off, the X-men are reformed (twice), Juggernaut and Archangel are revealed as having survived Zero’s attack that was thought to have killed everyone except Wolverine, the Avengers are forced to flee the Earth… and all that happens off-panel. The constant reforming and subsequent killing off ten pages later of X-Men teams is starting to get on my nerves, too. And the lumping in of random non-mutants with the rest of the mutant plight – Dr. Strange? Juggernaut was clearly shown wearing one of the anti-Sentinel bracelets (and commenting that he hoped his would stop working, so he’d have an excuse to kill Sentinels) despite the fact that he’s not a mutant. It’s been a good series, no doubt, well drawn and for the most part well written, but I can’t get over the pacing of the plot and the lack of consistency. I’ll still pick up the last issue, to see how everything gets tied together, but I hope it’s not quite as crazy as this one’s been.

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