Synopsis and Review by Kid Alpha: Thanks!
Synopsis: Storm’s team of X-Men is up to their necks fighting Weaponeers during the pirate’s raid on Zanzibar. They were winning until all of reality dissolves around them in a blinding flash. Marvel Girl quickly grabs nearby team-mate Psylocke and surrounds them both in a TK shield. They watch as the world around them becomes nothing more than an empty white space; a place Rachel surmises must be the White Hot Room, the core of creation, the heart of the Phoenix. This theory does not go over well with Betsy, who’s had just about enough of “that bloody bird.” For the moment it seems the two X-Men are out of places to go and things to do.

In Otherworld, Meggan awakes from her sleep with a loud scream for her husband Brian Braddock, ruler of reality’s intersection. The scream also alerts other members of the Captain Britain Corps. Three members burst into the bedroom to hear Meggan cryptically say: “It is the end my love. Of all that is! Of all that will ever be!” The two former Excalibur members fly to Brian’s tower to look out at what’s causing the sudden earthquakes they all feel. It seems Meggan was right. A giant tidal wave of light strikes them and seemingly destroys Otherworld. In the process it flings Brian and Meggan through several realities and past several different versions of 616 heroes. In the tumult the two lovers get separated. The coherence, the natural order of all realities is being replaced by chaos.

In the center of Creation, Roma’s Starlight Citadel, the celestial guardian hasn’t any power to prevent the destruction of her home and all creation. The once infinite space that was her home is now packed full of creatures and characters representing realities and pasts and possibilities of all types. One of these sudden arrivals is James Jaspers. This “Prime Minister of England and Overlord of the Omniverse” takes in the scene created by the arrival of all these dimensional travelers and comes upon the fallen Roma. No sooner does he notice his former adversary than he realizes a newfound power. The powers of the Fury. It appears that the same creature that destroyed Jaspers has now merged with him. Jaspers couldn’t be happier and presses his impressive arm cannon to defenseless Roma’s head. Her death is only averted by Brian Braddock’s quick action. He pummels Jaspers across the sky and frees Roma.

Brian wants to blame all this destruction on Roma but Saturnyne has a different opinion. She blames Braddock’s home reality for the mess and attempts to strike Brian across the face. This only manages to hurt the woman’s hand. Saturnyne moves away from Otherworld’s ruler and plans to destroy his reality to set things straight. Brian wants to stop her but is suddenly restrained by metal beams that appear all around him. Brian’s new captors are X-Com, gender switched versions of Polaris, Rachel, Storm, Rogue, Psylocke and Shadowcat; Saturnynes personal guard recruited from across realities. Brian, still bound, lunges at his attackers and escapes from Polaris’ restraints. Storm strikes him with a lightning bolt and Rogue moves in to sap his strength. The contact proves too much for Rogue and he passes out, over loaded. Shadowcat moves in. He strikes Brian with some type of energy mace and Brian tries in vain to hit the intangible mutant. Marvel Boy than comes up behind Brian and tries to lock his muscles telekinetically. This doesn’t work and both mutants are taken down.

Psylocke moves in from behind and smashes Brian through the head with a psychic knife. Brian slumps and Psylocke is convinced the fight is over. He’s wrong. Brian grabs his gender reversed sibling and uses him as a weapon to smashes his teammates down.

This done, Brian moves on to take care of their master. Saturnyne has made her way to the Celestial Nullifier and plans to remove 616 from all reality. Brian grabs her by the collar and stops her. She resists but neither of them acts in time to stop Brian’s brother. Jamie suddenly appears and breaks the nullifiers by smashing it to splinters with a large stone. He then disappears again into a flash of light.

Later in the ruins of Roma’s council chambers Brian is reunited with his wife and two of the guards from his bedroom. Roma describes the recent events as being the result of a “temporal tsunami” originating in 616. An alteration of global proportions has affected that Earth and the result is a breach so severe that it threatens to have all of reality implode on itself into a conceptual blob. Ordered existence will no longer be. Saturnyne’s opinion is that the Earth should be destroyed somehow. Brian of course will accept this but Roma tells him that their options are few. Roma is prepared to send Brian back home in hopes that he will solve the problem but he has only until the nullifier is repaired. After that, time is up and 616 will have to be purged from existence. She also warns Brian that contact with his world may envelope him in the new reality, making him forget his purpose there.

Back in the White Hot Room Betsy is enjoying looking at the alternate versions of herself that the omniverse has to offer. Rachel has no such pleasure. It seems that she is unique. She has no alternate version of her present, just aspects of her past to look at. This seems to upset Rachel as she doesn’t understand it fully and can’t explain it to Betsy. Betsy seems to think that just being alive should be enough for Rachel but her companion doesn’t seem to think so. Rachel misses her mother and there is very little Betsy can do to console her in their present situation. There conversation of death and resurrections is interrupted soon after as Psylocke sees her brothers Brian and Jamie zoom past them as if through a tear in reality. Brian seems oblivious to them but Jamie notices the two X-Men and transports them to what appears to be Braddock Manor in England. There, the two X-Men come face to face with a towering Sentinel.

Review: This issue starts off with a massive continuity error. We are told that the X-Men are on Zanzibar during the Weaponeer take over when Wanda’s alteration hits. If you read the last issues of Excalibur however, you first see no mention of the X-Men’s presence during the whole of the battle. At a special prize-giving ceremony in that series there is no mention of hero mutants outside of the Excalibur cast. Also, in Excalibur we see the beginning and end of the attack as happening while Professor X only starts to work with Wanda. All of this is happening before Scott’s team and the Avengers descend on Genosha to deal with the Scarlet Witch. Maybe Claremont was putting the X-Men in a location to satisfy Dani’s claim in New X-Men that all the X-Men are away. If this is the case than I applaud his efforts to tie that book to his, but it’s still a little ridiculous that he can’t get continuity right when he was the one that only recently created it.

I didn’t care for the majority of this issue. Most of the book was a confusing mess that would probably scare off any first time reader unfortunate enough to start reading Uncanny at this issue. I’ll say right now that I didn’t read much of Claremont’s old Excalibur series (I’m assuming that’s where most of these characters originate from) and I have only a slim idea of who Saturnyne or the Jaspers even are. Even my knowledge of Roma is thin. I fail to see why this Jaspers fellow should have even been present in this issue at all. The idea of seeing him again as an antagonist for Brian, Rachel or Betsy does not sound appealing. Even more repellent is the idea of seeing him come into further conflict with those left in ruined Otherworld. I don’t care to see many of these characters again for the remainder of the arc. I would have hoped that a story in which all of reality is thrown into question would be less bogged down by heavy back story.

Those issues aside, I actually enjoyed this issue’s introduction and most of the moments between Rachel and Psylocke. Betsy was particularly amusing when she thought she might have died again. One question though: If there is a shortage of alternate Rachels, why was there a male one on Saturnyne’s X-Com?

While I’m on that subject I may as well jump to art. I enjoyed most of the art. You could tell Davis was having a lot of fun with the background characters and alternate versions he does so well. I loved his X-Men version of the Thing, Deathlok Captain America, and that really weird troll creature walking his mini pink dog. His X-Com creations were interesting as well. They reminded me of some glam band from a by-gone music era. They must be the softest looking X-Men I’ve ever seen. Feathered hair for Shadowcat, the high dracular color for Polaris, the thigh high boots for Rogue coupled with Wolverine’s hair and the male Storm keeps his tiara. Classic. The male Psyloke looked like a Samoan drag queen. I thought they were hilarious and really showed the kind of fun you could have with these multi-earth stories. I also liked the continual changing of Jasper’s suit patterns. Davis’ real talent comes from all the detail his puts into his pages.

If I had to look at this issue over all, it’s probably not that good but I suppose I appreciated the fact that Claremont is attempting to look at this Universe change from a grander scale and notes its effects on the rest of existence. I think this could be an interesting arc, seeing Brian try to set things right without being caught up in the reality recently created on 616. My only concern is that this will all be of no consequence in the long run. It seems to me that Brian’s presence will have no bearing unless it’s written into the core House of M mini as well and I’ve seen no mention of this. I also have to wonder again if Claremont has any real plans for Jamie or if he’s just keeping him around. You would think that all this HOM stuff put a wrench in some of Claremont’s original plans. I hope he can reconcile his plans for Jamie into Wanda’s little fiasco in some way that makes sense. I don’t know.