AMAZING X-MEN #2: Sacrificial Lambs

The X-Men gaze into the Abyss -- and the Abyss gazes also into them!!

Originally Published April 1995

We begin with little Jeremy from the last issue. The helpless human lad has been abducted by Apocalypse's Horseman Abyss, who is feeling a little snacky.

The X-Men are in Maine, with their hands full against the Brotherhood -- religious fanatics in the service of Apocalypse, who have spoiled the X-Men's plans to make friends with the Sentinels and help the human evacuation.

The X-Men are done-for, and Dazzler says as much, but Quicksilver busts out his leadership cred and says "Just for kicks, let's try fighting them." He follows two of the Brotherhood into the crowd where they clearly hope to remain inconspicuous: Copycat, and Box, the giant robot guy.

But when Pietro catches up with them he finds something startling... his long dead sister Wanda!

Luckily, Dazzler is nearby to foil Copycat before she can sacrifice Pietro to her god.

The X-Men are up against the wall, with the Brotherhood getting away and the Sentinels bearing down, but Storm arrives in time to frazzle the Sentinels' circuits.

Iceman reconstitutes himself and gives us an update: Spyne, Yeti and Arclight (who, in our universe, was a lady) are "no longer a problem" having, I suppose, been defeated between the panels (yeah, who wants to waste time in a comic seeing bad guys get defeated?) while Banshee flies after the Madri. 

As he does, he thinks to himself, "I came out of retirement for this?" Looking around at the world of Age of Apocalypse, I can hardly imagine what "retirement" would even look like, but okay.

Instead of Madri he finds...

I think he means Apocalypse's Horseman, unless there's another guy

Abyss makes Sean a deal: bring me Quicksilver and you can have little Jeremy back. That sounds good to Banshee, who runs back to where the X-Men are busy reviving the humans. Quicksilver is reluctant to play Abyss's game until Banshee informs him that he has a child hostage, which is apparently one of Quick's big no-nos.

I think this is supposed to be Quicksilver

Storm offers to go along for support, but she may have ulterior motives for keeping an eye on Quicksilver...

Yes, in all the craziness and violence of the world, Storm has caught feelings for her leader, a fact she keeps closely guarded until hopefully some appropriate moment when they're not fighting for their lives.

They walk into what they acknowledge is an obvious trap and meet their quarry.

They have a punchout while debating the relative merits of Apocalypse's rule.

Con: The world sucks.

Pro: They're on top of the sucky world.

As a centrist, I am very enlightened and believe both sides make good points.

Who's Abyss' favourite guitarist?

Quicksilver manages to loop Abyss so much that he causes the Horseman to get sucked into the interdimensional portal inside his own self (I hate when that happens) thus defeating him.

Talk about sticking his head where the sub don't shine

As they walk away with little Jeremy, Storm congratulates Quicksilver on a successful ploy, but Pietro admits that all he was trying to do was punch Abyss' stupid face in. Storm is amused that the normally reserved and logical Quicksilver succeeded by letting his emotions get the best of him.

Back at the evacuation site, the X-Men have succeeded in reprogramming the Sentinels to be their friends, thanks to ~some technobabble stuff~ so they're off to the races. Job well done.

Back at Apocalypse's swinging Manhattan penthouse, he's torturing some info out of the mutant known as Karma (who has been betrayed by her co-worker Sebastian Shaw, because in any universe Shaw is gonna Shaw) trying to get further details on the X-Men's base: defenses, facilities, bathroom count, snack bar locations, etc.

Further Thoughts: 

Let's first tip a hat to Andy Kubert, who draws a hell of an issue, and the design of Abyss, which is interesting and weird: the exact sort of thing you want when you're sucked into an alternate dimension. So much stuff had to be designed so quickly, I applaud the art team across the board for imagining this world. 

Amazing X-Men #2 is "just a comic" in the sense that it's really mostly a slugfest between Quicksilver and Abyss. Some work is done to deepen the story by coloring the relationship between Storm and Pietro, and characterizing Quicksilver as being cold and removed but also with a soft spot for children. It's all a little bit of an informed attribute but we haven't got much time to establish who these versions of the X-Men are so I'll allow it.

There's nothing wrong, and something very right, about the Age of Apocalypse scenario giving us a pair of issues -- Astonishing and Amazing #2 -- that are mostly given to good guy-bad guy fights. In the early 90's, the X-Men find themselves up against a lot of foes they can't simply punch, and while I admire that kind of ambition, the individual installments may make readers who have come for action restless. Here in the Age of Apocalypse, this version of the X-Men is up against the structure of power itself, and it would be easy to spend 4 issues essentially saying "This is too big for us to tackle," the way they do the Legacy Virus or the schemes of a Sinister or Stryfe, but the construction of the AOA has made it imperative that they have something to do, and in this case, strike out against their foes. The charge against superheroes is that they are reactive rather than pro-active, and while they do react here, it's in the service of acting against the status quo, whereas in "our" world they must protect it.