Elsewhere in the Savage Land, Sage and Bishop have landed with the remainder of the Saurians. C'Rel is overjoyed to see them, but the reunion is short lived thanks to Storm's attack. She's vicious, fast and mean, and the team is hard pressed to stop her, especially once they recognize her. Even worse, Storm is not alone. The X-Men are blinded by Whiteout, then fall to the combined might of Barbarus and Gaza. Leash captures Thunderbird, who blasts Bishop into next Sunday, while Vertigo causes Rogue and Sage to fly into a river. Amphibius instigates a fish feeding frenzy on the X-Men, and tears off an X-patch as proof of their demise. Rogue, however, is not so easily dispatched. She holds her breath and gets herself and Sage to a sewage pipe, where they regain their wind. Bishop lands far away, his clothes burned to a crisp, but thankful for the supercharge Neal's blast gave him.

Later in Brainchild's sanctum, Leash tries to possess C'Rel, but has difficulty. Rogue busts in and starts beating on the mutates, but Brainchild uses a new telepathic power to enhance the tumult of absorbed personalities in Rogue's brain. Lupa tells Beast to join the fight, and he does, but surprisingly, not on her side. Lupa is knocked out by her supposed thrall, who then attacks the feral Storm.

At the boneyard where Bishop landed, Barbarus, Gaza and Thunderbird are disposing of some Saurian bodies. Bishop confronts them and is blasted by Neal again. Unfazed, he advances and absorbs more blasts, knocking out all three. Unfortunately, he succumbs to Vertigo, who arrived behind him.

While Beast's and Rogue's fights turn for the worse, Bishop is confronted by dinosaur riders working for Brainchild. However, Beast gets pitched into Rogue, and she absorbs his unique attributes, and Bishop's barely got enough power to stand. Fortunately, Leash has fled into Brainchild's citadel, but run into Sage. Leash attacks, but Sage reflects her power back upon her, turning Leash into Sage's thrall. With that, all the dinos, humans and Saurians under Leash's control get their minds back. Khadar is severely ticked, and prepares to wipe out the humans. Bishop stands in his way and orders him to back off.

Meanwhile, Brainchild eggs Storm on again, and she leaps at her erstwhile teammates. Fortunately, Sage in in the process of "Leash"-ing him, and does so in the nick of time, allowing Beast to knock Storm down. Beast then stares down Lupa's Dire Wolves, who scatter in fear.

Soon, C'Rel and Delage survey the damage. Delage is still out for blood, but the X-Men force him to calm down, promising that the humans won't cause more trouble. Elsewhere, Beast looks in on Storm, still physically feral but in her right mind (though missing any costume other than her birthday suit). Storm is upset that she came to revel in what Brainchild did to her, to enjoy the unfettered killing thoughts of the beast inside her. Hank says she's lucky that at least she can return from her beast. Storm says she still embraces that wildness, and worries about what happens to her the day she decides to give into it completely. As they leave, Beast reminds Ororo that she isn't going through this ordeal alone- the X-Men are a family, and together can accomplish anything!

Review: Hmm... On first read I thought this was a great issue, picking up all the pieces of the plot and tying them up neatly. In retrospect, I think that assessment was premature. I was probably happy to see that Storm was still fighting against Brainchild on the first few pages, the lack of which was something that bothered me in #3. Originally the action scenes were gratifying as well, though now I'm not sure exactly why. I guess I liked seeing the full spread of Savage Land Mutates, and the re-addition of Vertigo was nice.

Don't get me wrong. This issue was (I think) much better than its predecessors. But the plot was still a little thin, and the art really lost momentum. Too many mind games and possessions going on, and way too much "going native" costume-wise to really make sense. Bishop's was plausible, but Storm at the end was not. Also, when did Brainchild get psychic powers? Not that I wouldn't accept the idea that he experimented and mutated himself, but it would have been nice to have some explicit statement of the fact. However, I did like the fact that Rogue's fractured psyche was again part of this story, even if no real resolution occured.

Another thing that really bothered me was the way the factional fighting was totally glossed over this issue. In fact, the final conversation with Delage looked mostly like it was supposed to have been Khadar talking, but then some lines were not. It made the last scene with the Saurians very confusing. Finally, I'm still confused by the dream Rogue had that brought the team to the Savage Land in the first place - dinos in X-Men uniforms? What was the symbolism?

So overall, I'm still torn, but now leaning more to the bleh side of reviewing. The TPB will be out soon (another dubious move), so if you didn't read this LS in monthly form, you can find it then at your local bookstore and flip through. Who knows? You might like it. Personally, I expected better.