X-MEN #36: Drop the Leash (The Phalanx Covenant: Generation Next Part Two)

Banshee and the Makeshift X-Men strike against the Phalanx!

The X-Men vs. The Return of the Too Many Titles

Originally Published September 1994

As we know, the Phalanx have ramped up lately, kidnapping the NeXt Generation of mutants. Monet St. Croix has a particularly badass moment of passive resistance. If she won't talk to Miss Gayle, she's definitely not flinching for the Phalanx.

The 'Lanx are trying to figure out why come they can't assimilate mutants. Once they solve this problem, there will be nothing stopping them from overrunning the world and turning it into a techno-utopia. These guys are like modern tech bros who want to put bluetooth in your car's windshield wipers.

The Being Derived From Cameron Hodge says to his leader, The One Based on Stephen Lang, that if they can't figure out how to assimilate mutants, then they'll just kill the mutants, and anyone who tries to stop them from killing mutants. Lang says, even humans, who I like? And Hodge says sure, killing is just good fun.

Lang starts to wonder if this whole project has taken on too much of a life of its own. No kidding.

Down in St. Louis, a young man named Everett Thomas (or Thomas Everett? Or maybe Tom Everett Scott?) faces down with the police. The kid is a straight-A student who is normally well-behaved but lately he's been the focal point of some weird mumble-jumble going on and the cops honestly don't know what to do with that besides shoot him (typical.) 

Some of the cops are Phalanx, but that doesn't excuse them.

The makeshift team of Banshee, Sabretooth, Emma Frost and Jubilee ride in to save the day.

A few states over in Kentucky, the Phalanx grab Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie's younger sister Paige, also a mutant.

In St. Louis, the team grapples with the fact that the Phalanx are evolving to counteract the powers of Banshee and Emma. Banshee has the ability to modify his scream's pitch so that they can't quite keep up, but the villains come up with a rather elegant solution.

With some goading from Emma, Everett is able to use his "synch" powers -- which the book explains gamely but still flies over my head -- to use, or co-opt, Jubilee's powers and use them in ways she never dreamed. I don't love characters whose powers rely on other peoples' powers, especially when those people are standing right next to them, but what's done is done. A huge explosion happens.

It seems like the Phalanx are beaten, but this round isn't even over. Pha-Lang appears and taunts the heroes that he's kidnapped Jean Grey's sister Sara, so nyah.

Lang then explains for our benefit -- in case you missed one of several origin rundowns of the Phalanx -- that this new foe is the beautiful dark twisted marriage between the techno-organic species Warlock came from, and his own hatred for mutantkind. Emma points out that in trying to "save" or "defend" humanity, they've forfeited theirs, and Lang is like "Whatever, you hate us 'cause you ain't us."

He then reveals that he grabbed Paige while they were busy with Everett, so nyah nyah.

With that, the call ends, but Emma was able to get an approximate not-very-clear read on his location so they at least know where to go in the next issue.

Of course, there's another problem: in all the chaos, the wrist detonator of Sabretooth's protective muzzle got shorted out.

Well, shit.