Anatomy of a Monster

• Writer - Joe Kelly
• Script - German Garcia
• Penciler - Art Thibert
• Penciler - Dan Panosian
• Inker - Scott Hanna
• Inker - Jon Holdredge
• Colorist - Digital Chameleon
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Bob Harras

Summary

  Logan is feverish and wakes angry, looking for Maggott, who is in Salem Center berating his slugs for murder. He kicks them and hurts himself. Cecelia insists to Hank that Maggott's slugs weren't responsible, but someone autopsied Logan.

  A man wakes on an operating table, with high-tech blades above him.

  Ororo, Rogue, and Sam look for Logan in the woods. He ran off after saying Maggott didn't do it. Still bleeding, he makes it to the N'Garai cairn.

  Hank makes Cecelia wear an old costume from the Wasp (from the Avengers, which he happened to "borrow") and swings through the trees to catch up to Logan.

  Maggott goes to turn himself in to the cops, but Rogue swoops him away; she and Ororo tell him he's not responsible. The slugs tunnel underground, then they are all ported away.

  Ru'Tai emerge from the cairn, and Hank realizes they're intelligent, not like N'Garai, and have sorcery that counteracts mutant powers. Cecelia panics and runs; Hank follows, to keep her safe. She runs into Marrow, who has already killed a Ru'Tai, then kills the one Hank is struggling with. Cecelia is ashamed. Three more Ru'Tai show up with Logan's claws and uniform in their mouths.

  Ororo, Sam, and Rogue are in Ukraine among dissected corpses. They see another cairn, realize they are multiplying, and go in after Maggott. He is weak without his slugs and about to be killed, when Logan rescues him. Time passes strangely inside the cairn, and Logan has been hunting Ru'Tai for a while.

  Hank nearly finds the cure for the Legacy Virus as he wakes; he is captive with Marrow in the Ru'Tai lab. Cecelia is being dissected, but her force field holds. Pilgrimm speaks, saying its people were the slave caste, but they evolved and overthrew the N'Garai. He was selected to have individuality and explore, so he has been dissecting humans.

  Ororo, Sam, and Rogue come to the rescue but are felled by the eye of Kierokk. Logan and Maggott arrive; Maggott sees his slugs on Pilgrimm's shoulder; Pilgrimm bows in honor to Logan, calling him Mai'Keth, and releases everyone. Seems Logan inspired the Ru'Tai by showing the N'Garai could be defeated (Wolverine '95). He is shamed into inaction by his previous savagery, so Ororo leads the attack. Hank realizes the Eye is the key, so Marrow gets Maggott to throw her to it, and she slices it from Pilgrimm's neck.

  Logan snaps out of it, and even Cecelia participates, accidentally breaking the Eye. The lab starts collapsing, and the team rushes out of the cairn with the surviving civilians. Cairns explode around the world, and the X-Men find themselves in the fountain of a Las Vegas casino. The police capture one remaining Ru'Tai in Salem Center, and Black Air takes it away. One of the rescued civilians is actually Pilgrimm.