Synopsis and Review by Jacob: Thanks!
Synopsis: Bliss spits venom into a vial and hands it to Masque, who puts it into a bomb. He says that according to ‘the book’, they have to make their move today. He hands the device to Skids and Erg, telling them to move. Skids mentions the cruelty of what Masque did to Caliban, which he responds by saying the only reason Caliban’s alive is because he’s serving a purpose.

In an alleyway, Warpath checks on the much-thinner Caliban as they head towards an entrance to the tunnels under New York. As both plan revenge on Masque, Storm tells them to concentrate. Hebzibah follows her into the sewers, but lands directly in water. Warpath stops their progress when he senses an alligator. Caliban tells them of their old safeguard, controlled by Killron. Warpath warns everyone to pay attention to the water around them as the move forward.

In the Xavier Institute, Val Cooper accuses Professor Xavier of stonewalling her about the X-Men’s activities and tells him that she knows Caliban is no longer on the grounds. Xavier tries to tell her that Storm took him to the Baxter Building, but she calls him on the lie. As he tries to persuade her to let him handle it, she contacts her men and tells them to get ready to head after Caliban.

In the sewer, Warpath wrestles an alligator as the rest of the team watch. He smashes it into a wall, opening a path into the former Morlock tunnels. Caliban leads them to the tunnel where he and Leech were attacked. Storm and Warpath question why the entire tunnel was brought down as Hepzibah discovers something else. They find a wall of script, mostly broken, that doesn’t make much sense. Storm is alarmed when she discovers that the script has all four of their names on it.

At the Institute, Xavier and Nightcrawler prepare the Blackbird as Xavier discusses his disdain for the O*N*E troops’ supervision. He decides that he’s had enough of playing by their enforced rules and that they’re going after Magneto without clearance. Nightcrawler asks about Cerebra’s failure to locate Magneto, so Xavier decides to go to the places he’s been spotted and start probing minds. They take off and stream past the Sentinels on the grounds.

In the tunnels, Storm reveals to the team that it seems that the writings appear to be predicting the future, and it’s not one she’s interested in seeing. Elsewhere, Skids walks into a subway station and boards a train. She unloads Masque’s device and leaps from the train. The device goes off, spreading a gas that renders everyone aboard unconscious. On the track, Erg stops the train mere feet from his own body. Despite complaints from Skids, Masque boards the train and begins disfiguring the unconscious passengers, as a way of sending a message about being a mutant in the world.

Review: In a five part story, part two is not usually what one would call ‘the most exciting part,’ and this issue doesn’t break that. It’s a good issue, but there’s nothing much to really comment on. The scene is being set, and the plan is starting to come together. The X-Men (or a hodge-podge group that can sort of be called the X-Men) have discovered what Masque is following, but only have a broad idea of what it means. Masque and the Morlocks are going forward with their plan, but it’s far too vague to really get a grip on it. So far we know that it involves Caliban, Leech, and stopping a train and knocking out the passengers on board. The maiming of Caliban and the disfiguring of the passengers is just an added perk for Masque.

In setting this up, Brubaker takes the Morlocks back to their mid-80s Claremont-era roots. If one is only loosely familiar with the Morlocks, they may not think that anything of consequence has transpired with them since the Mutant Massacre. It certainly is written as if the X-Men are journeying to the tunnels for the first time since the Marauders ravaged the tunnels. Never mind the Masque-induced insanity, X-Force tie-ins, Mikhail-led mass-suicide, Gene Nation, Callisto-led return, et cetera. The Morlocks are coming across as a mutant colony that was dispersed after the Mutant Massacre and are regrouping in fear after the results of M-Day. In all the craziness that has transpired over the years, it’s easy to forget that the Morlocks were simply a colony of mutants who simply wanted to be left alone. The reluctance of Skids and Bliss represent this old norm, while the more violent types like Masque and Erg are willing to cause more havoc. It’s been so long since the Morlocks have had consistent characterization, it’s actually quite refreshing.

Professor X’s confrontation with Val Cooper and subsequent thumbing of the nose towards the O*N*E is a story that’s been waiting to be told. Since the Sentinels hit the grounds, they’ve been briefly mentioned and mostly ignored. Besides Psylocke posing and Cannonball flying around, the X-Men’s reaction to them hasn’t been explored. With Xavier, powers restored, returning to his school, it raises the question whether he would have allowed this to occur for so long. It’s good to see the Sentinels story finally moving ahead. If this brings the Magneto story forward as well, then this will be one of the most productive Uncanny stories in quite a while.

Salvador Larocca’s art is beautiful as usual. This style is so much nicer than the seemingly-simplified style we saw on X-Men before the Apocalypse storyline. In most cases, his characters are dead on. Skids looks like an overly stressed girl who has been living in tunnels for a while, rather than the stunning model that some artists would depict. My only complaint is that for a second issue, he’s drawn a rather homely Val Cooper. Really just nitpicking, I guess. Art’s fantastic. That’s the main point. Anyone else catch the hand flipping the bird while Storm’s looking at the scribing?

Another quality issue to push the story forward. Next issue’s the story’s hump. Looks like this one’s going to be good.