X-Men #151

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2004
Month
3
LastChanged
2/3/2024 8:13:50 AM
Here Comes tomorrow

Summary

  150 years in the future, Skylark smells sulfur and reports the presence of Crawlers. Haggard "chimarae" of Kurt teleport in and threaten him, but his pet Sentinel Rover arrives and blasts them while repeating the single word, Destroy. They're in the ruins of Xavier's mansion and they need to get out quick, because Beast knows the place.

  EVA arrives, apologizing for being late: she ran into Apollyon. She transforms from a ball of quicksilver to female human form. She represents the Institute and welcomes him to Megamerica. She looks at the dilapidated Rover and recognizes it as a first generation Sentinel, her ancestor. She is a Generation N unit from the world, once bonded to the man Fantomex, before what happened to him.

  EVA sees the Phoenix egg strapped to Rover's back and is awed by its energy signature. Skylark was chased across the Atlantic with it, to keep it from Beast. Skylark mounts Rover's back and EVA transforms to UFO-shape, and they fly off together to the Manhattan crater. Filled with water, it is ringed with monuments from around the world, preserved by the Institute. EVA hopes the X-Men can help against Beast, since the Xavier Creed always stressed integration. Skylark wants payback for the Proud People, who died for the egg.

  Transatlantis: a craggy island in the middle of the ocean, where Beast has his lab. He speechifies to ranks of Crawlers in vats: God has abandoned the earth as a failed experiment; mankind is near extinction; all the new species struggling for survival will fall to his dominion and receive his mark (cf. Rev. 19:20, of course). He wakes the Crawlers, planning to code destructive mutant powers into them.

  EVA shows Skylark the Institute, including a plaza with a statue of a beneficent Xavier. Beast has been sending frequent attacks by Crawlers, spliced with powers from the entire mutant genebase. Skylark notes the Institute has security shields, but a Crawler smuggled itself inside Rover and now attacks, duplicating itself like Multiple Man and blasting with Cyclops's eyebeam. EVA transforms to battle mode, and Skylark orders Rover to protect; it cups him in its hands, shielding him (John 10:28?). It then starts swatting Crawlers, while EVA calls for the X-Men to keep them away from the egg. A new Beak arrives, completely birdlike, and attacks Crawlers with a baseball bat. Crawlers take down Rover, swarm onto its back, and teleport away with the egg. Beast is pleased to welcome this deadly weapon, his Jean.

  Notre-Dame de Paris is now in the Institute and houses Cerebra. There the 3-in-1 (in Latin: "Trinity", evidently the remaining Stepford Cuckoos) tell Logan he may have arrived too late. Beast now has their last hope, and a thousand year Dark Age now looms; worse, there's a flaw at the heart of things. They're amazed it could happen so quickly; Logan notes nobody thought Rome could fall, either. Nova shows herself; she's spent 3 months in silence, observing nature, and something has gone fundamentally wrong; Logan mocks her as "Bad News Cassie" (note: Cassandra was Priam's daughter of Troy, who foretold tragedies that nobody believed). She insists the universe is broken, and only they can put it right.

  Now: Scott stands at Jean's grave again (cf. X-Men I:138, where her birth year was shown as 1956). This time it says, "She will rise again." Emma walks up to him, scantily dressed, joking about the reruns of his grief. He's not in a joking mood; he's convinced mutants will always be targets, and nothing they do can make a difference. Emma ignores that and says she wants to reopen the school; he says it's done: Xavier has retired, and the costumed heroics are over. She tries to convince him, but he walks away through the autumn leaves, quitting.

  Notes: chimera, definition 3: "an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution."

Summary

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