The X-Men try to warn the Skrulls of their impending doom!
Originally Published July 1999
We begin in the streets of fake New York as Gambit -- hell-bent on getting Marrow some medical attention -- absconds with the fake Avengers' fake Quinjet, fighting his way past "Thor" and an anachronistically boobalicious Scarlet Witch to get it.
Nightcrawler meets up with Wolverine, proving his identity by recapping recent issues.
Charles & Co are on Gambit's trail, observing the seemingly fully-functional hospital with one lone staffer and the rest holograms. Xavier deduces that Remy is headed for the Shi'ar city, knowing a bit about the advanced medical capabilities they'll possess there.
Compounding the issue is the impending destruction of the planet below (they are on a moon) by Galactus, due any day now. Charles decides that, ethically speaking, he must muck with history. Given his psychic powers not working well here, he decides he needs to get on Skrull radio.
Elsewhere, Kitty is being held captive by replications of Adam Warlock, Thunderbird and Captain Marvel, who are miffed -- they gave up their Skrull identities to become permanent replacements for heroes that are now dead, but there's no retirement plan for that, thus leading them to become outlaws. Despite her insistence otherwise, they believe her to be an assassin.
They hear Charles' warning that Galactus is approaching and believe it to be a ruse to smoke them out of hiding. Similarly, however, the Skrull leadership believes the warning to be a ruse from the AWOL Agents.
Wolverine searches for Kitty, stealing clothes from his double, as he is like to do.
Gambit manages to get Marrow into a regeneration pod (or whatever) but the Skrull forces bear down on him, and elsewhere on the other X-Men. Oh, and Galactus is still hovering ominously overhead, ready to take a bite out of the Big Skrapple.
Charles intimates that he may have a telepathic tete-a-tete with the flying purple planet eater.
So against the wishes of his students, who are fending off a throng of Skrull-impostor Imperial Guards, Charles goes to treat with Galactus, and it gets off to as good a start as you might expect.
Be that as it may, Charles continues to speak on behalf of the Skrulls, using his psychic powers to show Galactus the hopes and dreams of the souls he is about to obliterate.
Back in Skrull City USA, Wolverine goes on a one-man rampage against some of the faux-heroes trying to stop him, but he finds himself overwhelmed. Luckily, an equalizer arrives in the form of...
They rout the baddies and head for Shi'ar City.
And speaking of one-on-many brawls, Gambit fends off a group of Skrull security guards or whatever, trying to buy time for Marrow's healing process to work.
Above, Charles finds himself at loggerheads with Galacus on the issue of devouring the Skrull homeworld, as his power begins to wane.
Meanwhile, Marrow's hot now.
And Charles' efforts to beg on behalf of the dignity of all Skrull life come to naught, as Galactus gets busy dining.
Having secured transport for Wolverine and Shadowcat, the members of the Dead Guy Skrull Club elect to face death with dignity alongside the rest of their kind.
On the Skrull Moon, Charles is sent back to his body, forced to watch with the rest of the X-Men as doom comes for all of them. Gambit and Hot Marrow arrive too, and just when things are looking their bleakest...
Wolverine and Kitty swoop in in their shiny new Skrull vessel, which Kitty was telepathically given the ability to drive by Warlock.
The escape is bittersweet, as they watch the billions of souls who could not escape Galactus' hunger perish in a fiery planetary death.
Kitty plots them a course home that should bring them back to Earth at the exact right moment, with the use of stasis technology that lets the entire trip feel instantaneous for them.
Unfortunately, her aim is slightly off as the team actually arrives a few days early, in time to see Magneto and Joseph duking it out at the North Pole.
Wolverine is excited at the prospect of re-living the Magneto War, especially because it might mean they can prevent Magnus from being given control of Genosha.
I mean, they literally just tried to change the course of history a moment ago and came up short, but maybe this time!
But before Charles can rule on the subject, a stray blast catches them and seems to decide for them.
Better luck next time!
Further Thoughts:
This Alan Davis run has been high on frivolity -- excursions to strange places, shapeshifter wackiness, that sort of thing -- but you can't say it's not done well. These issues put our heroes on multiple planes of action with varying degrees of understanding about what is going on, ultimately converging them in the Shi'ar "City" for their dramatic escape. We don't always acknowledge this stuff when it happens, but it's real pro stuff from Davis & Friends.
Ultimately, this story was a brisk and breezy read that doesn't need to bother with the implications of time travel predestination or genocide, but there were some flourishes that I really did like, specifically when Charles Xavier is trying to warn everyone about Galactus and both sides figure it must be a trick. There's some social commentary to be had there, but it really is just "onto the next thing" here.
I can't keep carping on about how lightweight these comics feel, but it's true -- if you go back five years or forward five years you'll get worse comics that at least feel more consequential, and "inconsequential" is a weird word to apply to a comic where Galactus successfully destroys an inhabited planet. Even so, from a craft standpoint, this is the best that X-Men comics have been in years, with a few fun little stories stabilizing the ship while, hopefully, the powers that be scout for some bold new voice to guide the franchise into the 21st Century and capitalize on the publicity from the rapidly-approaching blockbuster X-Men movie.
Right?
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