Burning Sage

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Artist - Alan Davis
• Inker - Mark Farmer
• Colorist - Frank D'armata
• Lettering - Rus Wooton
• Ass't Editor - Stephannie Moore
• Ass't Editor - Cory Sedlmeier
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

The End of History

Summary

  Uncanny X-Men continues "The End of History." Theoretically this is the penultimate issue of the story, but this is reading decidedly like one of those arcs which exists more as an arbitrary cut-off point between acts rather than a completed story in its own right.

  The X-Men are still fighting the Fury, who's decided to have a stab at taking over Sage's computer network as well. So some of the X-Men fight the Fury itself in Britain, and the other X-Men fight a possessed Sage in the USA. And that's your plot.

  And so far as it goes, there's nothing particularly wrong with this. It's a fight issue. It's reasonably paced, it's beautifully drawn and coloured, and Claremont does at least come up with a workable device to get rid of all the other characters you might expect to come running to help when a villain attacks the Mansion itself. If all you're looking for is a straightforward fight between the X-Men and a bad guy, then this issue does it perfectly well. (There's also a bit of character interplay between the team, but nothing particularly new. And why doesn't Nightcrawler trust Sage, anyway? Hasn't anyone explained her back story to him yet?)

  Still - a perfectly adequate and attractively drawn action story. But it isn't quite working for me.

  For one thing, if you're familiar with the Fury, it's immediately obvious that this is a drastically watered down version of the character. Superheroes who fight the Fury wind up dead - that's the point. They do not stagger off to regroup with broken limbs. Equally, the Fury does not piss about trying to take over computer systems. He doesn't need them. He's the Fury. Of course, there are obvious workability problems with the character as originally designed - he was meant for alternate reality stories where ploughing through the heroes was a viable option. Come to think of it, he'd be a better choice of villain for the Exiles.

  Of course, this won't bother people who didn't know the character before (and given that he comes from Marvel UK's Captain Britain stories, there won't be too many of them). Still, if you know the character, it's inescapably obvious that he's been extremely toned down. You can't really do the Fury in the mainstream Marvel Universe, and the result is a character who is... well, not really the Fury.

  For another, the Fury is a weapon, not a character. It has no real personality and no motivation, merely programming. It's fine as a device for another villain to exploit, but in this story, the Fury is the villain. That leaves a plot where the X-Men stumble upon the Fury, the Fury attacks because.... well, because that's all he does, and a fight ensues. There's not much there to get your teeth into.

  And it's less than clear why we're getting an X-Men versus Fury story to begin with. He's not an X-Men villain, he has no connections with the X-Men's themes, and you'd have thought the logical starting point for post-Reload Uncanny X-Men would be to do a story establishing the XSE set-up. We kind of got that in the first issue, but now it seems to have been brushed aside in favour of a big fight with a villain whose only relevance is that he was co-created by the artist.

  None of which alters the fact that it's a very nice-looking action story and works perfectly well on that level. It just doesn't do much beyond that.

  Rating: B

Summary

  Sage has lost contact with the teammates at the Braddock mansion. She processes data faster than any computer, but the Fury needs only a split-second to take control of her cyber-glasses and assimilate her. Overhead, Ororo interrupts her waltz with Kurt to answer Sage's call. Her glasses grow tendrils which attack her; she has Kurt teleport her away. On the lake-side dock she pushes him away and calls down lightning to purge herself; Logan arrives, tosses down his glasses, and says they were all lucky. His face still has scars.

  They rush to the carriage house and are attacked by Sage, her eyes transformed into the Fury's composite form. Ororo calls for Scott, who's dining with Emma, but the Fury has Sage activate knock-out gas throughout the mansion, felling all the students and X-Men. Ororo surrounds herself with electricity, but Logan tackles her to shield her: Sage has activated energy guns all around the room. Logan gets hit; he has Kurt port them to the Morlock tunnels under the mansion.

  In England, Sam realizes his leg is broken, but he rallies in time to rescue Lucas. He blasts skyward, carrying the Fury, and feels it adjusting to his attack, so he drops it into a propane tank. The Fury walks calmly out of the explosion. Meanwhile, Rachel burns on re-entry and splashes down into the sea.

  Ororo makes rain to cool off Logan's back; he uses a claw to cut the skirt off her gown, not realizing she and Kurt were using holographic projectors. Sage knows their moves, and their options are limited in the tunnels.

  Sage is still fighting off the Fury's control, so it adjusts her nervous system to make her comply. Ororo approaches, glowing with energy; the Fury analyzes her and has Sage throw metal blades; she screams. Kurt appears, berating Sage for attacking a friend and racing in circles while she shoots at him. He kicks her over and nabs all her weapons, so she switches to martial arts. Ororo observes from a crawlspace in the ceiling: a claustrophobe playing against type, as Kurt fights without teleporting. Logan sneaks up on Sage, pinning her neck with two claws, and he has Ororo blast her with electricity. Sage lashes out at them both, but the nanites in her system were disrupted enough for her indomitable will to reassert itself, and she is free from the Fury's control.