X-Men #155

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2004
Month
6
LastChanged
2/3/2024 8:15:21 AM
Bright new Mornings

Bright New Mourning
Summary

  Emma compliments Scott on his kissing and assures him they're not doing anything wrong; Scott's uneasy, since everyone's coming for Jean's memorial. They head back to the ruins of the mansion.

  Hank is there; Xavier has gone to Genosha (X-Men I:442) and may not come back; it's up to them to rebuild. Emma wants to, moving the school to a new, secret location if necessary; Scott thinks they should just move on, and Hank wants to focus on his experiments. Emma insists someone has to teach and protect the children; Scott says they'd be safer with their parents. He holds Emma's hands, saying he deserves a life with someone he cares for; she's offended by the non-committal word "someone" and drives away in her sports car.

  Hank watches her leave and suggests to Scott that it's disrespectful to be kissing her on Jean's grave; Scott says it would be hypocritical to pretend to feel otherwise, and if Jean is still around in any sense, she knows what he's doing anyway. She was the Phoenix, after all.

  Scott asks if Xavier is really gone for good, and Hank thinks the experience with Magneto has taken a serious toll, especially after the school riot (iss. 136-138) and Nova (iss. 114-126). They suddenly realize Nova may be loose and start for the mansion's sub-basements.

  Emma, fuming, drive into town to see "her" girls; she finds the X-Corp building they've been sent to surrounded by anti-mutant rioters and on fire. She screams at the rioters, and when they threaten her, she tries to give them all an "erotic overload," but one of them clocks her with a rock to the forehead. (Someone asks how he knew she was a mutant; he says either that or a prostitute, by the way she dresses.) Emma, felled, telepathically calls for Scott.

  Scott, in the tunnels, asks if Hank said something; no, and he's confused, because all the tunnels have been twisted around by Magneto's power (iss. 147). They try to get to Nova's cell but find the Danger Room control room instead. Behind them, a robot activates.

  The Cuckoos drag Emma into the building, after having debated whether to just leave her. They're being helped by the assistant mayor of Salem Center, who admits he's largely responsible for the riot.

  The robot slams Scott's head into the wall, while Hank jumps on its back and tries to shut it down. Suddenly the robot extends it telescoping legs, slamming them into the ceiling. Scott yells for Hank to do something; Hank says it's not his fault Scott's power is useless unless he can look at the target; he objects to that and blasts the ceiling; they're all knocked down by the falling debris.

  The assistant mayor says they called a town meeting to calm fears after Magneto's attack on New York, to prevent anti-mutant violence, but instead they brought it to a head. Emma's head is still spinning from the rock, so she can't calm the crowd now, and she asks if there's a back entrance; the Cuckoos sneer that they would have left already if there were. Emma chides them for their rudeness and calls for Scott again but gets no response: Scott and Hank are unconscious in the debris

  Note: Nova has evidently been free for some time, as the student Ernst.