301: XM Legacy # 231 - 233, New Mutants V3 # 5-8, X-Force V3 # 21 - 25, (Necrosha)
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- 12 min read
What’s Covered?
XM Legacy # 231 - 233, New Mutants V3 # 5-8, X-Force V3 # 21 - 25, X-Necrosha: The Gathering #1, X-Necrosha #1
Roster Watch
Synopsis
X-Necrosha: The Gathering # 1 & X-Necrosha # 1: Necrosha Intro
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Various
X-Necrosha: The Gathering #1: X-Necrosha
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Ibraim Roberson, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Leonardo Manco, Kalman Andrasofszky, Mateus Santolouco
Selene is not building an army by recruiting, she is building it by breaking people. She coaxes Wither into unleashing the killer he keeps buried, turning guilt and grief into a weapon she can aim. Blink gets yanked from her limbo of being stuck between dimensions, only for Selene to warp her into something colder and far more lethal. Senyaka is revealed as an outright monster who enjoys the work, and he slides under Selene’s control like it was always his natural habitat. Mortis, the deadly stepsister of Dazzler, becomes another piece on Selene’s board, while the story reminds you how Eliphas Bard helped set Selene on the path toward godhood.
X-Necrosha #1: X-Necrosha
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Clayton Crain
Selene and her crew crash back onto Utopia with the kind of confidence that only comes from walking in with the dead at your back. Freed and newly unleashed trouble includes villains like Empath and Sebastian Shaw, with the implication that even more familiar threats are getting pulled into the mix. Re animated versions of Harry Leland and Shinobi Shaw add a nasty layer of insult to injury, while Bastion hears the rumbling and immediately hates what it could mean for his own plans. The deceased Hellions show up specifically to punk Emma Frost, and it turns into a brawl until Cyclops, Wolverine, and Domino step in to keep the situation from turning into a massacre. Elsewhere, Hrimhari delivers a dangerously sick Wolfsbane to Utopia with Archangel and Warpath, only for them to get jumped by a deceased Pyro and other returning nightmares, while the resurrected Doug Ramsey uses language like a scalpel to cut into Utopia’s security.
Destiny returns too, reassuring Selene of victory before slipping a secret to Blindfold, then immediately questioning if she just doomed the wrong person with the wrong message.
NMV3 # 5 - 8, X-ForceV3 # 21 - 23: Necrosha
New Mutants vol. 3 #5: X-Necrosha
Writer - Zeb Wells
Pencils - Zachary Baldus
Cyclops drops the kind of casual brutality that only Scott can, telling Dani that Sam submitted a new roster and she is not on it. While Roberto flirts with Rogue, the actual plan is deadly serious, with Rogue siphoning Legion while the team constructs mental prisons to cage each personality. Shan is still haunted by Marci being trapped inside David’s mind, and the stakes spike when Legion is labeled omega level, basically a walking reality rewrite and maybe even the closest thing to an M Day fix. Dani responds the only way Dani knows how, punching Sam and chewing him out until he agrees to put her back on the squad, while it becomes clear Sam is the leader now, not a co-lead partnership like the old days. In therapy, the biggest twist lands, because it was not Magik murdering Legion’s personalities, it was Shan taking revenge for what was done to Marci, and the whole team has to sit with what that means. Then Warlock returns, beelines for Doug’s headstone, and finds Doug missing, which is a terrifying kind of wrong if you remember how casually Warlock treated Doug’s corpse back in the classic run.
New Mutants vol. 3 #6: X-Necrosha
Writer - Zeb Wells
Pencils - Diogenes Neves
Doug is pointed like a weapon at Selene’s bloodline, sent to kill her granddaughter, Amara, and the mission feels like a violation of everything Doug is supposed to be. The New Mutants get a warm reunion with Xavier, but the warmth curdles fast when Doug watches from a window and translates their micro expressions, reading the real emotions underneath the polite words. Warlock reaches out from the inside, trying to hack into Doug’s processing and help him, but Doug still manages to sneak up on Magma and beat her bloody. When the team confronts him, Doug uses language as prediction, outflanking them by reading patterns and even countering Shan’s usual edge.
Shan flips the board by possessing the entire team and making them fight without purpose, turning the battle into chaos Doug cannot forecast, and he finally goes down. Warlock tries to purge the corrupted techno organic influence, gets infected instead, and Doug answers by ripping Warlock’s head off.
X-Force vol. 3 #21: X-Necrosha
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Clayton Crain
Utopia gets swarmed by dead mutants, and the list reads like a grim roll call, with Feral, Stonewall, Super Sabre, Tower, Darkstar, Firefist, and even Banshee crashing in. Selene realizes Doug is no longer under her control, so she dispatches the undead Hellions to handle it, treating them like disposable hitmen. In the middle of the carnage, Risque goes after Warpath, adding personal hatred to the chaos. Archangel turns into a blender, slaughtering undead with his wing blades in a visual that is equal parts awesome and horrifying, except they keep getting back up thanks to the techno organic infection. Then the event detonates outward as Eli Bard raises millions of dead mutants on Genosha, officially turning it into Necrosha. It is not just an attack anymore, it is a nightmare nation coming back to life.
New Mutants vol. 3 #7: X-Necrosha
Writer - Zeb Wells
Pencils - Diogenes Neves
The undead Hellions come for the New Mutants, and the reunion is the worst kind, because nobody is sure whether to feel sad or furious. Dani cuts through the sentiment with a line that feels like a defense mechanism and a confession at once, asking if she is a bitch for not missing them. Warlock focuses on rebooting Doug, treating him like someone who can still be saved if the right switch gets flipped. Sam makes a hard call and orders Magik to teleport them to Utopia, leaving Doug behind because he is too dangerous and too compromised. Illyana tries to lighten the horror with a dark joke to her brother about how they are not exactly the ones to judge the dead coming back. The issue closes with Sam deciding he cannot live with abandoning Doug, and he takes Shan and Illyana with him to go back for their friend.
X-Force Annual vol. 2 #1: X-Necrosha
Writer - Robert Kirkman, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Jason Pearson, Carlo Barberi
Dead Acolytes come after Magneto like vengeance with a pulse, and the threat is real enough that it could spiral fast. Deadpool, of all people, becomes the solution, wiping them out with brutal efficiency and his usual brand of chaos.
The tone is still Necrosha grim, but it plays with that strange X-Force mix where violence and dark humor sit in the same panel. Magneto remains a lightning rod, even when the attackers are corpses with old loyalties. It reads like a pressure release between bigger chapters, but it still reinforces how wide the undead problem has spread. Even side missions feel like they could turn into a massacre at any moment.
X-Force vol. 3 #22: X-Necrosha
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Clayton Crain
The scale gets put into numbers, with only one million of the sixteen million resurrected mutants still having powers thanks to the lingering damage of M Day. Battles fracture across the board, with Synch and Skin clashing with the New X-Men,
Namor colliding with Sienna Blaze,
and Magneto running into conflict tied to Warpath’s people.
Rahne’s suffering finally gets a name, because she is pregnant and the baby is killing her from the inside, turning her pain into a ticking clock. Selene requests a special blade and Eli Bard refuses because Warpath has it, which instantly makes Warpath a target on top of everything else. The situation feels hopeless in a very specific way, like every win is temporary and every loss is permanent. By the end, the message is clear: the mutants are drowning, and the tide is getting higher.
New Mutants vol. 3 #8: X-Necrosha
Writer - Zeb Wells
Pencils - Diogenes Neves
Feral comes at Dani and Roberto like a feral hurricane, and the fight is nasty until Dani pulls off one of the funniest victories in the whole saga. Roberto rips off Feral’s robot arm, Dani throws it off a ledge, and she hits her with a perfect fetch, with Roberto immediately pointing out she is a cat, not a dog.
Dr. Nemesis focuses on Magma, forcing her powers to kick in so the lava can heal her, which feels like mad science mixed with triage. The bigger breakthrough comes when Magik’s Soulsword proves it can beat the techno organic infection, giving the team a way to fight back that is not just more claws and bullets. Illyana cures Warlock, and then Warlock takes the Soulsword and plunges it into Doug, turning salvation into something intimate and terrifying. Doug’s response,
“You are my language,”
lands like a vow, a diagnosis, and a love letter all at once.
X-Force vol. 3 #23: X-Necrosha
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Clayton Crain
Rahne’s life comes down to a bargain with Hela, who will save either her or the baby, but only by taking a life in return.
Hrimhari refuses to pay that price and chooses Elixir instead, and Elixir saves Rahne at the cost of vanishing, which feels like heroism wrapped in heartbreak. While that decision echoes, X-Force stays locked in battle with Selene’s servants, fighting a war where the enemy does not stay dead. Wither makes his move, attacking, and the collateral damage turns brutal fast, with Onyxx getting obliterated and Dust left shattered by yet another teenage death. Warren looks like he is killed by the death touch girl, a gut punch that makes the whole mission feel cursed. Warpath finds the knife Eli Bard wants, and then Blink teleports Warpath away with Selene’s other servants, turning the blade into a ticket to the worst place possible. Wither’s real desire surfaces too, because he wanted Emma dead, and Selene’s influence keeps dragging everyone’s grief into a body count.
X-Men Legacy # 231 - 233, X-Force # 24 - 25: Give Up Your Dead
Writer - Mike Carey
Pencils - Clay Mann
X-Men: Legacy vol. 1 #231 - 233: Proteus on Muir Island
Writer - Mike Carey
Pencils - Clay Mann
Blindfold brings Cyclops a vision that is bad enough to justify an immediate deployment, and Scott orders Nightcrawler to lead an away team to Muir Island. The roster is stacked with heavy personalities and odd chemistry, with Nightcrawler, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Husk, Rogue, Trance, and Blindfold all heading out together. Magneto spends the trip needling Rogue with Savage Land talk and flirt energy, which is exactly as uncomfortable as it sounds. Colossus tries to problem solve by asking if Psylocke has telepathy back instead of telekinesis since they could use a heavy hitter, and she answers by laying him out and asking if that is heavy enough for him. When they arrive, the threat is not a simple Necrosha side problem at all, it is Proteus, and that name alone tells you reality is about to break.
The next chapter opens in pure panic, with the issue throwing you into the middle of disaster by claiming Colossus and Nightcrawler are dead and Magneto is barely breathing. Then the clock rewinds, and you see how Proteus does it, because he is not just strong, he is invasive, taking over Nightcrawler, Blindfold, and even Destiny at the same time. He turns the iron in Magneto’s blood into lead, a personal, cruel flex that shows he can weaponize biology as easily as physics. The team tries to escape, but the Blackbird is broken, leaving them trapped on an island with a godling. Proteus escalates by taking over almost everyone, leaving Rogue and Magneto as the last pieces still moving on their own.
Rogue rallies and frees the captured X-Men using a Silax energy sword, turning the tide through sheer refusal to give up. Magneto drags Proteus, wearing Blindfold’s body, high into the sky to keep the fight away from everyone else, because he knows a ground level battle would get teammates killed. Magneto eventually cracks the code on what kind of energy fuels Proteus and realizes he can manipulate it, then he uses that discovery to destroy him. While the island is still shaking from what almost happened, Destiny drops two emotional grenades, telling Rogue she will die by the end of the day and insisting she will be alone when it happens. She also tells Blindfold she has a brother, planting a personal mystery right as the arc closes the big external threat.
X-Force vol. 3 #24 - 25: Fall of Selene
Writer - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Pencils - Clayton Crain
Vanisher ports X-Force straight into Necrosha, and the whole thing immediately feels like a suicide mission with extra steps. Elixir casually destroys Vanisher’s self pity by telling him he cured his cancer a long time ago, and that his current sickness is syphilis, which is both funny and vicious in the way only X-Force dialogue can be. Eli Bard returns the spirit knife to Selene and gets rewarded for his loyalty by being stabbed with it and killed, which is the most fitting end possible for a guy who kept trying to please a monster.
Rahne realizes she is stronger than she should be, and Elixir explains he accidentally amplified her abilities by syncing her powers with the baby, turning motherhood into a power boost and a curse. Logan and the team hack through an endless zombie horde, and Vanisher, instead of running, sacrifices himself to teleport in and save Warpath, which is a real hero moment from the least heroic guy on the roster. Selene completes her ascension by stealing the souls of all the dead on Genosha, then aims higher, planning to take every soul on Earth in a full god state.
The finale is personal as much as it is brutal, because it comes down to Josh versus Kevin, Elixir versus Wither, both of them bleeding old pain and arguing over who really loved Laurie. The fight is epic, ugly, and doomed, and Elixir ends it by killing Wither, a mercy and a murder wrapped together. Wolverine confronts Selene with the truth, reminding her he once saved her life, then admitting he considers that act a mistake. X-Force holds god Selene in place long enough for Jimmy to drive the special knife straight through her heart, finally ending her reign before it becomes the end of everything. The epilogue has that exhausted comedown vibe, with Domino and Vanisher in Brazil on R&R, Warpath walking away after making his peace, and Elixir is gone because he's struggling to keep himself gold. Wolverine also says X-23 is out, and the cold simplicity of that choice lands like a final bruise after the war. Wolverine also says that Wolfbane is out, simply because she never should have been in the group to begin with.
My Connections and Creators
Boring or Great?
I mean, this was ok. Selene's pretty cool, I guess. This was just a whole lot of fighting. Fight this dead guy, fight that dead guy. Isn't the art so dark and mysterious. Ooooh. Let's break down a few interesting tidbits though.
Blink's cool. Everyone loves Blink. Why bring her back, just to be make her easily become a villain and have absolutely no personality. Poor writing and choices there.
The New Mutants team goes through a noticeable shift with Dani no longer co-leader. Sam is very clearly in charge now and I feel bad that Dani keeps being told to stay home. Didn't she go to Hela to get new powers though!? Was that only a one time thing?
So Doug is cool now? Yea, I guess he is. I'm reminded of how Louise Simonson said that she killed Doug originally because they constantly got letters saying that he was boring. I like this new interpretation of his ability to decipher languages of all sorts. Warlock has always been fun, so happy to have him back.
I have to call out that Wolverine specifically mentions that he saved Selene's life once and regrets it. This is referring to UXM # 207 when Rachel Grey loses her fucking mind, attempts to kill Selene, and Wolverine is so against murdering this random villain that he stabs her and almost kills her (her being Rachel). Claremont always said that he liked Rachel, but he had her do some of the dumbest stuff around this era, then she was killed off until Excalibur.
Thoughts on Art
The Gathering issue has that anthology energy, with multiple art teams giving different corners of Selene’s operation their own mood, from eerie character horror to full-on violent spectacle. X-Necrosha #1 leans hard into Clayton Crain’s glossy, high-contrast intensity, which makes the resurrected cast feel like a nightmare that got polished into something even more unsettling. Across both, the visuals match the premise perfectly since this is not a clean superhero event, it is rot, revenge, and resurrection dripping off every page.
The Baldus issue is a shock to the system, because the faces and proportions can feel off in a way that makes character beats land weird, even when the writing is delivering big drama. Diogenes Neves brings things back to a cleaner storytelling rhythm, with solid action staging and strong expressions that sell both the fights and the heartbreak. Clayton Crain, meanwhile, makes Necrosha look like a glossy horror fever dream, with violence that feels sharp, wet, and relentless, perfect for an event where the dead refuse to stay down.
Clay Mann makes the Muir Island arc look sleek and sharp, with clean figure work that sells both the quiet character tension and the sudden body horror of Proteus possession. Clayton Crain’s X-Force pages are the opposite vibe in the best way, drenched in glossy grime where blood, rot, and techno horror feel like they are practically crawling off the panels. The contrast works for the crossover, because Legacy reads like controlled dread while X-Force looks like the apocalypse already won and nobody told the heroes yet.
Larger Impacts & Things to keep an eye on
The seeds were planted that Karma has a dark streak, (when Magik took the fall for murder,) but will this continue or be ignored?
So are Doug and Warlock just on the team now!? I think that would be cool.