Credits: Written by Scott Lobdell, pencilled by Joe Madureira, inked by Milgrom with Townsend and edited by Bob Harras.
Cast: Earth 295 versions of Clarice ‘Blink’ Ferguson, Rogue, Morph, Wildchild, Shiro ‘Sunfire’ Yashida, Holocaust, Apocalypse, Erik ‘Magneto’ Lehnsherr and Bobby ‘Iceman’ Drake.
Plot: During the cullings, Blink tries to avenge Victor Creed’s murder at the hands of Holo-Nope, still calling him Lava Lamp. Blink leaves Lava Lamp in the chemical vats used to break down human bodies. Outside, the Infinites face Sunfire, Rogue, Wildchild and Morph who battle on, despite believing that they’re doomed against this army of stormtrooper-esque soldiers. Elsewhere, this is being observed by Apocalypse, who shows the scene to a captured Magneto to help break his spirit, but Magneto knows about surviving the worst of humanity and it doesn’t work.
Whilst Sunfire and Wildchild free the humans who would be processed into parts for the Infinites, Rogue and Morph go after Blink. Lava Lamp gets out of the vat and fights back, but Morph arrives and attacks. Lava Lamp is taken aback by an electromagnetic attack, it turns out it’s Rogue using Morph’s powers, when the actual Morph arrives and drops onto Lava Lamp as a van sized brick, Lava Lamp is knocked back enough for Wildchild and Sunfire to appear and now the whole team is there. Lava Lamp punches Rogue into the ground and Morph changes into Rogue’s son to rouse her to action. Rogue flies back into the fight and when Lava Lamp threatens the actual son of Rogue, she hits so hard his containment suits starts cracking and he has to teleport away. Iceman arrives to stop Rogue following, bringing with him the almost but not actually dead Victor Creed. They don’t have a plan, but Rogue declares that tonight the Age of Apocalypse ends.
Notes: The first of the main series replacements ends it’s 4 issue run with an action filled slugfest. I’m here for that. From Blink’s 90’s action film attitude, to Rogue’s bait and switch it was one of those rare moments when you see the X-Men win. It also gave Sunfire his least a$$hole moment to date, where he frees all the human victims and assures them that Lava Lamp is being dealt with, finally being the hero we all could imagine he could have been. Everyone gets their moment to shine and yet, there’s no real finale here. By the end of the issue, the sacrifice of Creed is undone, Lava Lamp gets away and we learn that Rogue’s entire family is captured, all we get is a look to camera and a declaration. But here’s the plot twist, it worked on me, even 25+ years on, I still want to see what happens next and if the penultimate part of a story can do that, it’s done it’s job well.
Verdict: Writing 4 out of 5 – Lobdell can write this stuff in his sleep and we get character moments, quips and emotional extremes all the way through, maybe nothing revolutionary, but we’re on the third act turn and he delivers exactly what the audience wants and what the overall saga needs.
Art: 4 out of 5 – Joe Madureira knocks it out of the park again, providing exciting visuals and widescreen style action. No one looks like he draws people, but he creates a world that you buy, not an easy thing for a stylised artist to pull off and many don’t. He adds depth to characters with no features and power to the smallest characters and does it all with a consistency that made his run on Uncanny that included this one of it’s best. The colouring is still a bit garish, but everything else is top-notch for the 90s.
Overall: 8 out of 10 – Astonishing finishes as strong as it starts and my excitement at the approach of X-Men Omega just went up a gear.
Next Time: Back to the Clone Saga and we’ve lost someone.
My Marvel Life 