ALL HELL

• Writer - Grant Morrison
• Penciler - Frank Quitely
• Inker - Tim Townsend
• Colorist - Brian Haberlin
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Ass't Editor - Mike Raicht
• Ass't Editor - Pete Franco
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Xorn knows he's indestructible, but he wonders how Scott can be so confident, as they carry Lilandra and Araki through the exploding Shi'ar ship, trying to get to the transmit streams.

  Nova shows the Imperial Guard their ship exploding in the sky, and they despair. She taunts Gladiator, making him feel like a failure, and his power dissipates. Angel and the Beak watch from the bushes, while Frost and the Cuckoos have Stuff, who begs for his life. They examine it, psychically and physically.

  Jean bleeds from nose and eyes, straining to contain Xavier's mind. He takes over and tells Hank he has to deal with Nova. The students ask what they're going to do; Xavier sees that killing her would be the most direct answer, but he wants a better one.

  Logan gets thrown through the front doors; Jean collapses and tells Hank she's losing Xavier; Hank can't do much but yell at the students to get back to the Danger Room. They want to fight, but then Scott and Xorn teleport in, just the miracle Hank was hoping for. Jean: "Scott. You're my favorite super hero."

  Hank explains they're all sick with nano-Sentinels; Jean has septicemia and could die. Xorn goes to Nova's body in Cerebra; he can't heal that and realizes he should heal the X-Men, Jean first, and then Scott, who didn't realize he was that sick till he felt better. Jean says Nova is a legendary Mummudrai, a kind of evil twin; the alien everyone faces shortly before birth. In Xavier's case, it took form, using his cells and mutant powers. Xavier admits his first conscious act was attempted murder; Nova, stillborn, stuck to the side of a sewer for forty years, till she could walk. Xavier takes responsibility, and Jean enters Cerebra, which Nova wants to use to contact and destroy every mutant mind.

  Nova offers Logan a place at her side and threatens to use his id against him, calling him James (see Origin LS). Logan says he can go feral and avoid her telepathy, as can Hank. So Nova uses the students to attack them.

  Xorn arrives and grabs Nova, to stop her by healing Xavier's body. He has Hank jump in with hypodermics, but Nova throws them both off and heads for Cerebra. The Cuckoos break her mind control over the students.

  Scott senses Nova and tells Jean to destroy Cerebra, but she's using it to store a bit of Xavier in every mutant mind (TCP/IP?). Nova arrives; Scott collapses; Nova orders Jean to give her body and Xavier. Jean says she's not scared, as she expected, realizing Nova is powerful but has no friends, and the mass of humanity will survive.

  Nova puts Cerebra on and starts ordering mutants to kill, but when she touches all those minds, Xavier reassembles and attacks, and Jean joins in, the Phoenix enveloping the school. Nova is ousted from Xavier; Xavier, in his own body, says they must attack before she finds another body.

  Emma arrives, smiling, with Nova's body, offering it to her if she lets her and the Cuckoos live. Hank is angry, but Logan and Scott keep him back. Nova takes the body, but Emma has betrayed her, not the X-Men. The body is Stuff, a mechanized being, and Nova has been reduced to "a pocket calculator."

  Nova sees herself in a classroom in 1996, with Xavier and Jean as teachers. She realizes she can't think straight, and she starts learning the alphabet.

  Emma says the Cuckoos thought of that plan; Hank apologizes for thinking the worst; Xavier can walk.

  Note: a chapter of Jay Leno and Spider-Man follows; I will refrain.

Summary

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