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"Messiah Complex, Part 3"
by Peter David & Scot Eaton
Part of the Messiah CompleX X-Over
Synopsis: In Chelsea, New York, a group of civilian Purifiers are holding a meeting to discuss their next step. Armed and hiding in an empty church, they discuss how the X-Men are now aware of the baby and that means they have to be on their guard. A moment later, Wolfsbane jumped down from the rafters and attacks one of the men. When the shooting starts, she races for the exit and leaps over several cars to make her escape. As she runs down the sidewalk, a darkly dressed man pulls out a gun and takes a few shots. He seems to hit her dead in the chest, but then a pickup pulls up and Wolfsbane jumps in the back, making her escape. The darkly dressed man confers with the Purifiers and tells them his name is Joaquin Murrieta, but he's secretly Rictor playing spy. As Wolfsbane and her rescuer, Siryn, drive away, they reveal that Rahne was shot with fake blood squids under her shirt and they radio to Cyclops that Rictor's infiltration was a success. Cyclops, at the X-Mansion, is then interrupted by Rockslide and X-23, who want to talk.
In Dallas, Texas, Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller arrive at Forge's workshop, on Cyclops' instructions. Forge has built a machine that crosses the time/space continuum in order to send duplicates of Madrox into the 'future'. The multiverse in the Marvel universe is based on the idea that there are an infinite number of alternate realities, and they are aware of some of them like the Age of Apocalypse, among others. Forge had previously built a device that could detect mutants in these alternate realities to see if those that took place in the 'future' might still have mutants, but apparently Scarlet Witch' magic on M-Day erased all mutants not only in the normal Marvel Universe but in all other universes as well. That was until the new baby was born, now two of those universes have registered mutants and the X-Men think that's worth investigating.
At Sacred Heart Hospital in Santa Cruz, an injured man is rushed into the emergency room to see Dr. Amelia Voght, former Acolyte. He stepped right in front of an ambulance. Now that he's in the hospital though, Wolverine reveals himself and says that getting himself run over seemed like the fastest way to get in (because apparently walking in the front door wasn't fast enough for him). Voght turns herself into a gas and escapes through the ventilation, but Wolverine warns Nightcrawler and Storm, who uses her powers to blow Amelia out. Voght says she wasn't running to protect the Marauders, former allies of the Acolytes, she was running to protect the X-Men from the Marauders. But if they want to find the Marauders so badly, Voght says she'll give up their location...a really, really cold location.
Forge informs Madrox that the plan is to send duplicates into two of the realities that register new mutant life. Jamie pops a couple out and away they go, only as the second dupe is sent into the 'future', Layla rushes onto the platform and goes with him. Madrox screams for Forge to reverse it, and that's when Forge reveals that the trips to the future are 'one-way'. Upon transportation, each dupe was sent a psionic message that they are supposed to gather as much intel as possible and then kill themselves, transferring the memories back to Madrox Prime. Layla wasn't supposed to jump in, and Forge doesn't know how to get her back. Madrox is very angry, but just as he's about to tear Forge a new one, Madrox passes out.
Back at the X-Mansion, the New X-Men have confronted Cyclops, complaining about not having a role to play. Even Jamie Madrox has a role! They surround him and keep asking questions. Rockslide gets right in Cyclops' face and he blasts the large student away. He tells the New X-Men that they will have a role to play, but it will be when and where he says. If they don't like it, they know where the door is. Hellion asks if he would really let them leave like that, and Cyclops says he would, but then he'd go out and drag them back and then chew them out for abandoning their species. He tells the teens that their time will come, and when it does, they may just wish it hadn't.
As Rictor is being welcomed into the Purifiers, he's scanned to see if he's a mutant spy. When no X-gene registers, courtesy of M-Day, he's welcomed into the church and shown to the munitions room. They have boxes of weapons piled several stories tall! And the man showing him around tells Rictor that New York is only a small base, Washington will really blow him away.
Review: I am enjoying Messiah CompleX, and it's great that this issue of X-Factor focuses on the members of specific team instead of the wider cast. Unfortunately, there's a sense that nobody really had anything interesting planned for the members of X-Factor going into the crossover, most of them anyway. The entire potential of Jamie Madrox is wasted by sending his duplicates on recon missions while Madrox Prime is quickly shuffled off into a coma. Though the addition of Layla Miller, of course, will make that trip into the future far more enjoyable. She makes everything more exciting, and it will be fun to learn what she knew that prompted her to jump into the trip. Her banter with both Madrox and Forge was delightful. But, again, she's trapped in the future instead of actually contributing to the Messiah CompleX. Likewise, Siryn, Strong Guy and Monet either don't or barely appear. Rictor and Wolfsbane, however, seem to have a job to do, at least in their own little corners of the story. It's nice to see Rictor's loss of powers being used as part of the story, at least someone in this entire event was actually effected by M-Day.
The issue itself is a nice read. Peter David's usual wit and skill with dialogue is on proud display. The scenes between Madrox, Layla and Forge are the humorous standouts, even if their adventure isn't as interesting or exciting as Messiah CompleX as a whole. Cyclops continues to carve out a badass path for himself, even though randomly blasting Rockslide through a wall seemed a little too much. He's trying to keep them on his side, the least he can do is not attack them. The New X-Men, unfortunately, come across as whiny teenagers and it's inevitable that they're not going to listen to Cyclops. Oh well. They were fun while they lasted, soon they'll be mercilessly slaughtered by their writers. The Amelia Voght segment was worthless. Wolverine's plan was rather stupid and the information they get, to be followed up on in the next part of the crossover, could have easily come from the Acolytes they fought in the previous part. So, kind of a page-consumer.
The art was a plus. Not Raimondi, of course, but close and rather to my liking.