Playing God

• Editor - Mark Powers
• Ass't Editor - Pete Franco
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada
• Writer - Joe Casey
• Penciler - Ian Churchill
• Inker - Mark Morales
• Inker - Ian Churchill
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Inker - Art Thibert
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft

Summary

  Savant is a tattooed, anarchist, mutant punk about to turn 18, with the power to discorporate objects.

  Scott listens to yet another news program hyping the mutant problem.

  In homage to Magneto, Savant attacks Cape Citadel single-handedly, dissolving a fence, a tank, and a general with equal snottiness.

  Cerebra (see X-Men II:114) alerts the remaining X-Men; Scott sends Warren ahead and then Jean and Logan, while he follows. Logan senses tension between the X-couple, but Jean doesn't want to talk.

  Logan drops out of the sky onto Savant, but he partially discorporates him and then Jean. They find themselves in an alternate reality marked "City Hell" and are chased by flaming skeletons driving tanks.

  Warren tells the soldiers to back away while he blasts Savant with Forge's mutant-negating device (iss. 185, last seen Bishop 16). Two pulses, and he's down for the count. Scott; "Face it… you're no Magneto."

  Jean and Logan get attacked by the monster under the bed and realize they're inside Savant's brain, so if he dies, they do, too. Jean can't sense Scott's thoughts and panics at the edge of the void; Logan decides not to waste his last moments and kisses Jean. Then they both pop back into reality.

  Scott picks up Jean, while Logan goes to gut Savant; he suicides instead, turning his power on himself. Happy Birthday! Jean, still shaken, goes off with her husband.