Team X – Maverick, Logan, and Creed – are in the middle of the mission to recover the carbonadium synthesizer and Creed has just shot the female double agent working inside the Soviet program. Omega Red demands the return of the synthesizer. Creed throws a thermite grenade at him by way of answer. A short verbal fight between the team ensues over the fate of the double agent, ending when as Creed suggested, they “defenestrate” and jump from the window, taking the woman as evidence. Maverick’s fall is stopped by the tentacles of Omega Red wrapping around his body.

(Now) Prophecy Hotel in Ottawa, Canada

Maverick awakens with a shout of “It didn’t happen this way” and falls from the bed to the floor of his debris in a tangle of sheets. Kneeling on the floor amid the clutter of empty pizza boxes, he realizes that it was just a dream about the old days before the three men who were Team X became codenames. Berating himself for dwelling in the past, he comments bitterly in voiceover how it’s only natural when you don’t have a future.

Someone calls out “Herr Nord” and Maverick is quick to arm himself as he demands to know how the person knew about Nord, since that name’s as dead as his past. Enter Elena Ivanova, ex-KGB psi-talent, the cause of the manipulated dream ending. She’s read Maverick’s dossier and now wants his help in finding Sabretooth. Incredulous at her request, Maverick pulls away the bandages from his face and reveals he’s in the final stages of the Legacy Virus infection. As they talk, he dons his faceplate and Elena tells him that Sabretooth killed her mother just to cause her father pain and that she intends to kill Sabretooth. She also tells him two people are watching the room.

Maverick goes to the window and recognizes both of the figures – John Wraith and Omega Red. Putting on the rest of his armor, he is felled by pain but manages to leave with Elena in her car. Omega Red gives chase on foot and nearly catches them until Wraith distracts him with a shot from a rocket launcher. Omega Red doesn’t give up, taking a motorcycle to continue the hunt, having spent thirty years in a tomb, he wants his revenge. Elena drives and Maverick asks her story. She declines to tell, saying a lot would be lost in translation. Maverick remarks with a laugh “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Elena takes the challenge, giving him a mind’s eye view by putting him in her mother’s shoes. Elena’s mother was married to Epsilon Red, genetically engineered Soviet astronaut. Logan was sent to kill him. Elena’s mother pleads for her husband’s life. Creed arrives to tell Logan the mission is off and as they leave, Epsilon pleads to Creed to kill him. In response, Creed shoots Elena’s mother. Elena was born on the operating table by C-section as her mother died with these memories forever imprinted.

Maverick is released from the memories by Elena in time to deal with Omega Red. He directs Elena to drive into a Canadian military base, where they and Omega Red come under fire from the soldiers. Rockets take out Omega Red but Elena and Maverick are in a dead end and before she can turn the car around, the entry is blocked. Wraith calls out to them and tells them how to get out of the base before going out to stall the soldiers.

In the base motor pool room, Omega Red is shackled in chains and hung over a pit while Wraith is questioned. A computer has spit out the details on who Omega Red is and Wraith tries to tell them to kill him. The Canadian soldiers won’t listen to Wraith and he fades out just as Omega Red gets free.

Maverick and Elena emerge from the base beyond the perimeter and flee on foot through the woods. Once again, Maverick stumbles and this time he can’t get up. Meanwhile, helicopters have been sent to search and are looking for groups of two, since they’ve sent their soldiers in groups of three. Wraith arrives and carries Maverick out with Elena at his side, making them a group of three that is misidentified by the searchers overhead as their own men. Omega Red is still in the base, surrounded by the dead when he overhears a radio transmission regarding the flight path of a small plane carrying the fugitives. Using the base computer, he discovers it intersects the secret Weapon X site. When challenged by one of the helicopter crews, he just grins.

In the small plane, Wraith, Maverick, and Elena have a briefing of sorts. Wraith reveals what he knows about Elena, then hands over a dossier on Omega Red – Arkady Gregorivich. Before he was Omega, Arkady was Spetsnaz and his indiscretions were covered by the military for years until he killed one little girl too many and was executed. When he survived, they turned him into Omega Red. Wraith lands the plane and Maverick expresses surprise at the destination – the abandoned Weapon X compound. Wraith points out that this is where Maverick hid the carbonadium synthesizer and there’s nothing better to lure Omega Red with than that.

Much later, Omega Red arrives via the helicopter and lands as well, wondering what else they have besides the ability to land a small plane at night. He decides it doesn’t matter and enters the compound. Overhead, a radar plane gets a fix on the fugitives and two fighter planes are dispatched to go for a paveway missile strike. Inside the compound, Maverick has come up with a plan and asks if everyone is ready, telling Elena after they deal with Red he’ll tell her where Sabretooth is. Wraith tells her about Birdie, the last Alpha-class psi-talent sent against Creed. Creed enslaved her mind to help himself control his demons until Creed’s son killed her.

Omega Red attacks grabbing Elena, who manages to get free by making him think she is the last girl he murdered. Dropping her in shock, Red is fired upon by Wraith who then runs with Elena. Maverick calls out and waves the synthesizer overhead to get Omega Red’s attention, running off with Red in pursuit, managing to lead Red into a large open area. Red catches Maverick to find it isn’t Maverick at all, but Wraith in psi-disguise courtesy of Elena. Maverick throws a switch and a containment chamber encapsulates Omega Red, who deridingly suggests that it will not hold him unless the building is collapsed on top of him. Wraith hears the RCAF planes overhead and Maverick realizes that Wraith let them know his heading. The planes confirm their firing order as the three fugitives seek a way to escape, finding Logan’s old Lotus Seven. Maverick hotwires the car and the three pile in as the bombs are dropped to collapse the base around the building, which holds both the containment chamber and Omega Red. Once more, Omega Red is entombed.

Maverick holds up his end of the bargain, telling Elena where she can find Sabretooth, then collapses over the steering wheel. Elena starts to ask “Is he...” but Wraith cuts her off, telling her that he’s still alive and that it’s a shame that a good agent like Mr. North has to go back to the dingy Prophecy hotel to die alone. After a moment of contemplation, Elena rests her hand on Maverick’s and decides he won’t die alone, that Sabretooth can wait.

Review: I absolutely hated the art in this one-shot issue, though there are places where the dark and rough method is absolutely brilliant (the scene of Maverick kneeling among the clutter in his hotel room is perfect in its tone and color). For the most part, there’s a grainy half-finished first-draft feel to Santiago’s art that I just don’t like at all, though the layouts are perfect and I can’t imagine the story being told any better. The coloring is also suspect in several places, and matches the art in that half-finished feel (at least they’re consistent).

I enjoyed the story as much as I hated the art. It’s an issue heavy on exposition that needs to be read more than once to catch all the nuances. I am still wondering what it is about the Prophecy Hotel that attracts men like Logan and Maverick (remember, Logan was staying at the Prophecy Hotel in the BWS Weapon X). There’s a lot of information about Omega Red and Elena, about just about everyone except Maverick. Maverick is bitter, jaded, tired, and all too human in his expressions of his pain. We see glimpses of his tradecraft and experience interspersed with the gunfights and it starts to paint an interesting picture of the man, but we are told little else about him.

This issue not only sets up Maverick for his own (and sadly short lived) series, but gives the reader a look at the Canadian Weapon X compound (Maverick’s nickel tour) and at the mindset of a man used to having things on his own terms dying without dignity. A very strong issue in every way except for the art, which I am hoping will one day grow on me – sort of like fungus.