Dominant Species

• Writer - Chuck Austen
• Penciler - Kia Asamiya
• Colorist - J.D. Smith
• Lettering - Paul Tutrone
• Ass't Editor - Mike Raicht
• Ass't Editor - Norm Rapmund
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Carter asks his mother about Alex, who's still "mostly dead," but Annie reads to him. She no longer dreams about him, even though she's still not dating, and although she has told her 6-year-old about her fantasies and frustrations, she asks him to keep quiet, especially since Lorna is coming. Rumor has it Lorna is crazy (cf. X-Men II:132), but Annie expects Alex's long-time girlfriend (till X-Factor 126) will have huge breasts, and he will wake on cue and have constant, loud sex with her in the room next to Annie's.Carter notices the scar over Alex's right eye and then a string of light coming from his head, going back into a cloud. He thinks if he pulls hard, he can bring him back, but then he blacks out. Annie pulls them apart physically and then shakes Alex, yelling at him to give Carter back. Lorna arrives and threatens Annie with levitating scalpels.In White Plains, Warren has Jean-Paul speed Logan away so he can heal, leaving him and Paige to face Lobo's team alone for now. Paige husks to steel and hope it's enough; the werewolves eerily repeat their words as they change to wolf-shape. Warren admits that if these creatures took out Logan, then they have no chance.Kurt, upset, goes to confess to Father Whitney at St. Michael's, Brooklyn.Annie faces off against Lorna, saying Carter's life is at stake. Lorna cuts her a little, and then momentarily reverses her blood flow, and Annie cries out but won't stop fighting for her son.Paige and Warren start fighting, both realizing that though the X-Men are supposed to be the pinnacle of evolution, they're flawed, and they might die here. Paige gets cut through her steel skin, and Warren holds her while the werewolves gather around. Warren asks why they're doing this, they say because they can, and they will be the Dominant Species, by survival of the fittest. Warren and Paige realize they're a rapid variation on homo superior. Darwin, Wallace, and Stephen Jay Gould would be proud.Warren flies away with Paige, and the werewolf who grabs his legs falls to his death. Warren is able to get to the woods but then falls as well, too wounded to fly. He apologizes, blaming himself for not planning better. Paige thanks him for trying, and then he passes out.Bobby, who seems to be in competition with Jean-Paul for the catty queen crown, tells Cain he's no longer welcome. Cain says that's up to Xavier; then Jean-Paul arrives carrying Logan and starts giving orders.Paige lays under Warren's body as the sun sets, musing how evolution doesn't reward intelligence or superiority but just the ability to adapt. Humans want to feel special, but they're just good at reproduction, but something may come along and kill all the rest. An inchworm crawls over her lifeless, steel face.Note: Carter, like the current President Bush, mispronounces nuclear as "nuke-yular."