Black Holes

Day of the Atom

• Penciler - Salvador Larroca
• Inker - Danny Miki
• Colorist - Udon Studios
• Lettering - Virtual Calligraphy
• Lettering - Rus Wooton
• Associated Editor - Cory Sedlmeier
• Associated Editor - Stephannie Moore
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada
• Writer - Chuck Austen

Summary

  Note: the title has reverted to "X-Men," as part of a general reshuffling of the X-books, and can be read in conjunction with X-Men I:444, Astonishing X-Men 1, Excalibur 1, and New Mutants: Academy X 1.

  A tourist in a Buddhist temple in China sees people panicking about a prophesied apocalypse; a wall collapses, and a rope bridge bursts under a man pulling a cart with his children in it.

  The mansion has been rebuilt, and Annie would like some alone-time with Alex, but he's moody and aloof, like Summers men are, saying it's not a good time since he's now heading one of the reorganized teams. Annie presses him to find out what's wrong, and he asks her if she had been with Bobby (X-Men I:425); she's angry he'd ask about that, when he was ready to marry Lorna, so he just walks away, claiming duty calls.

  Lucinda Guthrie drops Joshua off at the school; he's reluctant to come, but she thinks he really wants this, having revealed his wings to the public during a rock concert (X-Men I:441). She understands he's proud and ashamed of what he is, and the school can help him more than she can. He's still resentful, accuses her of doing this for herself, and stomps into the school, where he's disturbed by all the obvious mutations.

  Alex greets him and introduces his new roommate, Sammy. Scott is the new headmaster since Xavier left; Josh worries he's going to get a nickname, but Alex says that was Xavier's province (Sammy wants "Sub-Mariner," but it's taken). The Danger Room is the first stop on the tour, and the control room is now in the ceiling, with a glass floor. They see Cain lifting weights; Alex mocks him for struggling even though he's not even at Colossus-level. Josh thought Cain was a criminal, but Sammy says he never killed anyone and is a good guy now.

  Bobby enters, angry Cain has been given access to the X-Men's secrets, and cuts the power. Alex argues with him, and when he tries to pull rank as an original student, Alex chalks it up to his cranky attitude since he's changed permanently to ice. Bobby insists Cain tried to kill them all, and his concerns shouldn't be dismissed; Alex decides to get Bobby assigned to another team; he wasn't aware Alex was made team leader, and Alex mocks him for not reading the bulletin board. They cut through the greenhouse; Ororo, floating in mid-air, confronts them, saying it's off-limits, and Alex should have read the bulletin board.

  Bobby insists Alex can't push him off the team if he doesn't want. They pass the cafeteria, where Remy derides the gumbo; he and Rogue spot Alex and ask to be dropped from his team, because they want some time off. They get to Scott's office, which is full of complaining X-Men. Warren doesn't want to go to Genosha; Logan doesn't want to be on every team; Jean-Paul wants to do more than just teach, etc. Scott sits silently and then announces there will be no changes to team assignments.

  Alex's team quickly leaves and finds Emma in Cerebra; she sees none of them are happy but thinks a 5-hour flight to China will help them bond. There's a new mutant signature there, which suddenly grows to the size of a small town. Lorna rushes in, distraught, because something is tearing the earth's magnetic fields.

  The X-Jet lands in China; Alex says the village is now just a hole; Bobby bickers with him for pointing out the obvious, and Rogue tells him that's why he's alone. Lorna senses some residual warping in the hole and moves debris, revealing more dead bodies and a chained figure who is, apparently, Xorn (cf. iss. 146).

  Note: the team is back in costume: Logan's yellow and blue, Alex's black and white, Rogue's green and yellow, Lorna's Goblin-Queenesque, Cain's armor, Remy's coat, and Bobby's ice.