Suddenly, a stalactite clips the Blackbird's wing, sending it off course and breaking contact with the others. Rogue isn't sure that her group is going to be in any better shape soon. Neal figures their one chance is to surf the ram like a wave and ride it out. Storm steels herself to the task, as Sage continues flying the jet as fast as possible. Bishop's almost drained, and tells Sage to hurry. Meanwhile, the explosion's effects are being felt across the world in the form of whirlpools, tsunamis and earthwuakes, one of which causes the cavern itself to collapse. At the last second, the X-Treme team busts out through the top of a volcano in the Savage Land itself, just before it erupts.

Brainchild watches the jet spiral away as Sage pilots it into a crash landing in a snowbank. The Saurians have pulled Bishop inside, but he's in a bad way. Elsewhere, Rogue tells C'Rel they will look for her people in the plane after they find Storm and Thunderbird's groups. She drops Beast down to the water, where he rescues Neal and his passengers from the raging river. Neal is still a little nervous at Beast's new mutation.

Storm's passengers are recovered as well, but Ororo is not with them. She had been hit by something and fell into the water with them. They landed on a floating log, but she was pulled under the water. Elsewhere, Brainchild gloats over Storm's unconscious body.

Beast wakes up, not knowing where he is, or what happened to him. He looks up and find his head on a native woman's lap, then sees giant wolves next to her. He leaps up to the wall, then apologizes when the woman, obviously a mutant or mutate, with claws, pointed ears and furry arms, tells him he has nothing to fear. She calls her pets Dire Wolves, and Beast seems to be familiar with them from some books, though he's never seen any. The woman's name is Lupa, and she takes Beast to find some answers.

The walk to a fortified settlement in the Savage Land, which strikes Beast as strange since the various tribes have always fought each other, yet this group appears to be mixed and peaceful. Even more astounding is that the idyllic community also includes Saurians. Neal is there, and comes over to Beast, who wants to know where the others are. Neal says that Storm's missing and Rogue's been seriously hurt. No mention of Bishop or Sage. Delage, the elected "mayor," explains that other creatures saw the X-Men's entry into the Savage Land and attacked, both physically and psychically, which is why Hank doesn't remember these events.

They are brought to a council of both Saurians and humans, and reunite with C'Rel, who is thrilled that her father's dream has been realized here. Delage explains that it was the X-Men's adventures in the Savage Land that showed the inhabitants that it was possible to live together in peace, regardless of race or creed. However, some of the Saurians are not as evolved as C'Rel's group, and still others are intelligent, but still function as predators, hunting humans for food. Neal recalls similar problems in his homeland, and then Beast volunteers their services to help fight these predators. Neal's concerned about their missing teammates from the Blackbird, but Beast brushes that aside, albeit in a logical manner. Hank seems rather effusive and cocky, which strikes Neal as strange, especially when he soon embraces Lupa.

C'Rel stops Neal and asks if there must always be violence, and though she is committed to peaceful coexistence, she is in the minority. The majority remember that humanity tried to kill them before, so why give them a second chance? Neal symapthizes, as being a mutant has its own burden, but asks that she not judge the whole race by the actions of some individuals. C'Rel apologizes, she was only looking for a way to avert more bloodshed. Delage comes in with a bloody badge that belonged to C'Rel's warlord Khadar, citing evidence of a struggle. Neal vows to help find him, but thinks to himself that things are moving too fast. He wishes he could consult Hank, but doesn't know if he can be trusted anymore.

Meanwhile, Lupa and Hank kiss, as Brainchild watches them on a holographic display and plots the X-Men's deaths!

Review: A strong effort by Sharpe, and a good one by CC. Half an issue spent outrunning water is OK, but not terribly exciting. What happened afterwards was much more interesting. It's clear something's not right in the unity town. That's cool, because it's not clear whether Brainchild is orchestrating it, or if it just works to his purposes. That Lupa is controlling Beast at this point is fairly obvious, but I liked how it was brought out in a subtle way through the issue, so only the kiss at the end is the giveaway. CC did a good job of building to that mini-climax.

The rest, though, was a lot of talk. Claremont sometimes gets blasted for being too wordy. Usually I disagree, as I enjoy what he has the characters say. Here, I also enjoyed, Neal's sermons on pluralism and humanity, and Beast's logical dissection of their dilemma, but it seemed a little much for an LS. I mean, you've only got so much time to tell the story, why take up space with sermonizing? More character development would be better.

Especially with Rogue, whose dreams began this journey. She was barely present this issue. What's up with that? Will we see more of what's going on in her head? Was that important to the story, or just an excuse for the trip and some tension in issue 1? Her absence bugged me.

Brainchild could be cool, IF he's got something really nasty and clever cooked up. If it's just another "kill them with T-Rex" plot I'll be very disappointed.

Overall, compared to most good limited series, this one's slowed down early, before the usual issue 3 drag. However, compared to the drivel being spewed in the Icons series, this Savage Land story is actually great! :) Unfortunately, if you're not a major fanboy there probably isn't anything new here to attract you. Stick with the core X-Treme book, and if you really like them, pick this LS up too.