E IS FOR EXTINCTION PART 3

• Writer - Grant Morrison
• Penciler - Frank Quitely
• Inker - Mark Morales
• Inker - Dan Green
• Colorist - Hi-Fi Design
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Saida Temofonte
• Ass't Editor - Pete Franco
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

E is for Extinction

Summary

  Hank and Jean investigate Genosha, now a radioactive waste. Cerebra detected life, and Jean senses thoughts underground. She uses TK to unearth Emma, holding her dead student Phimister. She's in denial (cf. X-Men I:314), and has a new mutant power: diamond skin.

  In Westchester, Xavier monitors the shocking news reports: half the world's mutants killed, and he says Magneto was, too. Nova is in a gravitational bottle Hank designed; Logan slit her throat to stop her voice-control of the Sentinels, but she has a healing factor.

  Emma lets Hank perform tests on her but then goes to kill humans before they exterminate all mutants. Jean fails to dissuade her by calling her a b--ch (note: Marvel recently opted out of the Comics Code).

  Nova is neither human nor mutant, fish nor fowl, but a new breed that preys on mutants (cf. Vargas, X-Treme X-Men 3). She doesn't have to bother with humans: Hank discovered a latent e-gene which he says will cause human extinction in a few generations. Nova may be the first of the next dominant species. Logan just wonders why she looks like Xavier.

  Nova breaks out and telepathically attacks Hank, and neither Jean nor Xavier can stop her. Scott blasts, and she gives him a vision of big, black bugs: his doubts about his marriage. Logan attacks, and she shreds the flesh from his arm. Scott tries to get Jean to increase the speed of the oxygen molecules around Nova, but Jean is out of it. Nova walks away.

  Emma is leaving in a cab, and the bigoted cabbie talks about a mutant teacher his brother saw, who laid 100 eggs one day. Emma considers having her diamond self appraised but then stops the cab.

  Logan catches Nova, but she walks through the wall. Xavier realizes she wants to get to Cerebra, to amplify her powers. She dons the helmet, but Emma was hiding behind her and twists, breaking her neck. Even Scott agrees it was necessary. When their backs are turned, Nova begins to heal, till Xavier empties a clip in her, unwilling to let more mutants die (cf. X-Men Prime). "Things must change now. To me, my X-Men."

  Scott and Jean discuss their marriage, cold for months, since Scott got blue lips (see Search for Cyclops LS). He says Apocalypse shattered his illusions, and his high ideals were just self-serving. Jean says nothing will break them apart: she was possessed, too, and knows the bad thoughts will pass. Xavier, on a TV talk show, without warning his students, reveals himself to be a mutant.

Summary

  Cover name was changed to "New X-Men" for Issues 114 - 156.