Credits: Written by Warren Ellis, pencils by Ken Lashley, inks by Tom Wegryzn with Philip Moy and edited by Suzanne Gaffney.
Cast: Kurt ‘Nightcrawler’ Darkholme, Raven ‘Mystique’ Darkholme, Cain Marko, Douglas ‘Cypher’ Ramsey, Damask, Switchback, ‘Dead Man Wade’ Wilson and Irene ‘Destiny’ Adler
Synopsis: As Damask and Dead Man Wade pursue, Mystique and Nightcrawler stop at her Antarctic station as the last stop before Avalon. Kurt asks why his mother doesn’t go to Avalon herself, going so far as to accuse her of fleecing her passengers, or worse dropping them overboard them as others have. They go on from there and arrive at the shore and are met by Cain. Cain advises them to have hope in their hearts and carries boxes for Mystique as he takes her and Nightcrawler on the long path to see Destiny. That night, Cain talks about his violent path and the pain it causes him. The next morning, the sun shines and the beauty of Avalon is clear to Mystique, who is enchanted by this terrestrial heaven.
Mystique meets Destiny again, who hopes that Mystique is here to stay. She soon learns of Nightcrawler’s plan to bring her to Magneto, so she takes them both to Switchback, whose violent future Destiny has already seen. She knows death is coming.
It arrives in the form of Dead Man Wade and Damask, who each view Avalon differently, Damask is enraptured, seeing beauty for the first time she can remember. Wade just wants it all to die. Back with Destiny, Mystique tries to convince Destiny to leave with them and help change this world. Living in paradise with her beloved adopted son Doug, she’s less than enthused about changing the whole world. It’s during that conversation when a rocket is fired at the hut they are in, Cain is unharmed, despite standing in the way of it. People around Destiny’s home are dying and Nightcrawler demands that Cain do something to help, deploring violence, Cain struggles against his violent nature and the vows he has taken, but finally the neurological strain is too much and an aneurysm pops and kills him. Yeah, not buying that one either.
Damask, shocked and appalled at how the horror of her regular life has come to this paradise turns on Wade and kills him. Now she joins up with Nightcrawler, Mystique and Switchback who are all too happy to take the fight to Apocalypse.
Notes: The structure of this event was very specific, one book end, several 4 part stories in the middle and a finale. The only problem with this is the idea that not all of these stories have a 4 part story to tell. This is one of those. Nothing really happens that needs to happen. It’s tremendously padded out and you can see where the story can be seen through. So this part at least feels most like filler.
Okay, that was the negative, here’s the positive. It plays the duality of a hidden land in a dystopia really well. Both Mystique and Damask are floored by what they see in Avalon. They accept the horrors of Apocalypse’s world and cope with it as best they can, Mystique tries to save some people and Damask tries to fit into it, but in this paradise they find a world that is better than the one they know and they are changed by it. I found that affecting in a story that included Juggernaut having an aneurysm. It’s not much of a positive, but it’s there nonethless.
Verdict: Writing – 2 out of 5: This meeting could have been an e-mail is how I consider this issue and apart from the Damask stuff which doesn’t get much room to breath, its a bit lacklustre.
Art: 3 out of 5: Colouring aside it’s a lot of quality, but suffers from the lack of anything else going on.
Overall: 5 out of 10 – A bit of a let down in a solid series and my fondest hope is a strong finale.
Next Time: Back to the Saga with Maximum Cloneage.
My Marvel Life 