X-Men #166

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2005
Month
3
LastChanged
2/3/2024 8:19:51 AM
Golgotha

And What Dark Beast
Summary

  At the South Pole, some mutants were trying to build a utopia. Alex blasts into the complex and warns his team to be ready for anything; inside they find a pile of dead bodies. They killed each other; Bobby recognizes one, "Butterfly-something," never made it as an X-Man or a human. He's still warm; he must have committed suicide just as the team was entering. Rogue asks what kind of fear could make a man rip his own heart out. Bobby finds the word "Golgotha" painted on the wall in blood; he doesn't know what it means. Emma in Cerebra takes over Rogue's mind and talks through her: Golgotha is the place of the skull, Calvary, where Christ was crucified (John 19:17).

  There was violence in the present day Calvary four days ago, and a riot of mutants and humans in Los Angeles. Alex wonders why anyone would write Golgotha on the wall. Rogue thinks it's a warning.

  A mutant approaches from the darkness, talking about his sins; Alex tries to tell him they came in answer to their distress call, but he aims a weapon at his own head and pulls the trigger. Upset, Rogue takes Remy's hand. It's natural; it's impossible; she's wearing gloves. Lorna is upset, blaming herself; Bobby hugs her, saying this isn't Genosha, and she wasn't to blame for that, either. Alex shouts at him: they're supposed to be fighting in formation.

  A mutant approaches from the darkness, saying he's going to love Lorna; she says, "In your dreams," and pushes him back with magnetism. The mutant shoots his explosive bone marrow at her; Bobby covers her with an ice shield, but it shatters; Lorna maniacally repeats, "Yes Yes Yes," and uses the metal of the corridor to wrap the mutant.

  Later, she apologizes. Alex berates her: the X-Men don't kill, no matter what, and they could have had someone to interrogate.

  A group of mutants approach from the darkness. (Note: Alex really should have posted a sentry!) They're zombies, staring blankly while Alex tries to talk to them. Rogue asks what's the sense of having her ridiculous power if she doesn't use it, and, over her teammates' objections, she touches one.

  She sees the memories, backwards in time; being hit on by a mutant and telling him to go rip his heart out; as a child being told by a doctor that her differences were more than skin deep; as a fetus. Emma comes, to make her break contact: there are no more memories here, only sludge which will pollute her.

  Rogue wakes to see the X-Men have come under attack. Remy says they came out of nowhere. While they fight, Alex asks if she got anything; Rogue says she just got weirded out, and the mutant's mind was wiped clean. Bobby wonders by whom; Lorna guesses Golgotha; Remy wonders who or what that is.

  Remy notes they're dealing with two kinds of mutants: zombies and psychopaths. Rogue reminds him there's also the dead ones. After the battle, Alex questions a captive about Golgotha. He just says they tried to hold out, to escape, but it's not good, and the X-Men will be next. He won't say more and then bites off his own tongue; Rogue prepares to touch him, too, but Alex hesitates to let her. He hears a voice in his head telling him to make a decision; it's Emma, who's just arrived.

  She bickers with Alex, noting that Scott put him in charge of the team without a plebiscite. Rogue tells her to stop riling him and wonders what her ulterior motives are; Emma says she's not sure she has any motive.

  The mutant writhes in pain; Emma coldly says he's having a heart attack; Alex asks if she's doing it; she asks why she would even if she could. The mutant dies; Emma says they should be glad she was there. She was able to read his mind amidst all the chaos, and she knows where Golgotha is.

  Note: the storyline is much like the classic Star Trek episode "The Naked Time," stardate 1704.2

  The team seems mystified by the word Golgotha; none of them was raised in church? For many, Golgotha is as familiar a place name as Westchester or Manhattan or the South Pole. Whatever would they do were it Gibeah or Gilboa or Ramoth in Gilead?