303: Second Coming (UXM # 523-525, XM Legacy # 235-237, New Mutants V3 # 11-13, X-Force V3 # 26 - 28, X-Factor # 204 - 206
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- 10 min read
What’s Covered?
UXM # 523-525, XM Legacy # 235-237, New Mutants V3 # 11-13, X-Force V3 # 26 - 28, X-Factor # 204 - 206, Second Coming # 1 - 2, X-Men Hellbound # 1 - 3, X-Men: Blind Science # 1
Roster Watch
Synopsis
Second Coming
Writers - Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, David, De Landro, Simon Spurrier
Pencils - David Finch, Terry Dodson, Ibraim Roberson, Greg Land, Valentine De Landro, Mike Choi, Harvey Tolibao, Stuart Immonen, Paul Davison, Francis Portela
Second Coming kicks off exactly how it should, with Hope and Cable finally returning to the present and instantly getting hit with chaos.
Bastion’s forces waste no time, the X-Men split into teams, and the tension on Utopia is immediate because not everyone knows the full story behind X-Force and the resurrected villains. There is a fun little bit where Cyclops tells Namor he is one of the strongest X-Men they have, and Namor, of course, agrees in the most Namor way possible. The whole thing has that big crossover energy right out of the gate, but it still makes room for character beats and simmering distrust inside the team.
Uncanny X-Men #523 adds some of the emotional backbone by having Nightcrawler learn the truth about Bastion and Scott’s approval of X-Force. Kurt is horrified, immediately confronts Scott, and makes it clear that this is not something he can just shrug off. Meanwhile, Hope gets one of the arc’s sweetest little scenes when she is distracted by a brush and barrette set, reminding us how much of her life has been survival rather than normalcy. Bastion then sends Stryker and the Purifiers after Hope and Cable, and the various X-teams converge as the pressure starts building fast.
New Mutants #12 is one of the nastier installments in the early portion of the event. Magik and Nightcrawler are both hit with specialized weapons, and the New Mutants are thrown into a brutal fight against Hodge’s forces with Cyclops giving the order even though the odds are rough. Shan is awesome for a while as she turns enemies against each other, but things spiral hard once Hodge fights back (by turning back into his gross Cyborg design.) Warren going full Archangel and absolutely butchering Purifiers is one of the most savage moments in the event, and it really drives home how ugly this war has become.
X-Men: Legacy #235 is where things feel especially hopeless until Doug and Warlock come through in a huge way. Rogue’s connection to Hope is brought back into focus, which helps ground their bond in older continuity, and it gives Rogue a strong emotional role in the story. Warlock ends up doing some horrifying but necessary work through the techno organic virus, and Cameron Hodge finally gets taken off the board in spectacular fashion. The missile strike that follows is devastating, with Wolverine and Laura getting torched and Ariel paying the ultimate price, so even the victories feel awful.
X-Factor #204 mostly runs on parallel event energy, but it still contributes to the sense that Bastion’s side is attacking mutants on every front. The MRD and Bolivar Trask move against X-Factor while Baron Mordo and the Absorbing Man setup turn the whole thing into a trap. Siryn, going by Banshee now, is a fun little status quo note in the middle of all the tension. The issue ends by making it look like the team has been gunned down, which gives that branch of the crossover a nice cliffhanger.
X-Force #26 gives us one of the most unforgettable moments of the entire era. Rogue steps up against Bastion in a really cool showing, but the issue belongs to Nightcrawler. Kurt chooses to save Hope, teleports her out, and Bastion murders him in a scene that lands like a brick because it is so fast, so cruel, and so final. This is where Second Coming stops being just a big action event and becomes something genuinely tragic.
Uncanny X-Men #524 deals with the fallout, and it hurts. Wolverine blames Hope for Kurt’s death, which is unfair but also completely believable in the moment. Colossus wants to get Kurt’s body to Limbo immediately so they can honor him properly, while the subplot with Danger, the villains in stasis, and Donald Pierce’s escape reminds us that things are still falling apart behind the scenes. It is one of those aftermath chapters that lets the anger and grief breathe without slowing the story down.
Second Coming: Prepare #1 is basically what it says on the tin, a small prologue package rather than a major story engine. It does not carry the emotional heft of the main event chapters, but it helps frame the moving pieces and primes the reader for the scope of the crossover. This is very much a table setting comic. Perfectly useful, just not one of the defining chapters.
Hellbound #1 - 3 is a really fun side mission that still matters emotionally, especially for Magik, Pixie, and Sam. Colossus wants to go save Illyana, Cyclops refuses, and Sam gets trusted with leading a team into Limbo instead, which continues the nice mentorship angle between Scott and Sam. Gambit going dark and leading a demon horde is wild, Pixie’s soul drama gets more attention, and the whole thing builds to Sam beating Gambit in a brawl while Pixie and Magik together help purge the darkness from him. This mini also gets a lot of mileage out of Pixie’s resentment and hesitation around Illyana, which keeps the magic side of the crossover from feeling disposable.
New Mutants #13 keeps the pressure on with Stephen Lang (seemingly) killing Vanisher and Donald Pierce blowing up the Blackbirds (those Blackbirds get blown up as often as the mansion does.) There is also a very funny but very believable fistfight between Hope and Dani, because Hope has reached the point where tension with basically everybody feels inevitable. The issue does a good job of showing that the younger characters are not just spectators in this event. They are exhausted, angry, traumatized, and still getting dragged into impossible situations.
X-Men: Blind Science #1 is the odd little X-Club side story in the middle of all this, but it is a decent one. The team is manipulated into thinking they have been thrown into the future as part of a plan to force Dr. Rao into recreating the mutant cure. Thankfully, Rao is smart enough to see through the con, so the plot fails. It is not the most essential issue in the reading order, but it fits the broader theme of anti mutant forces trying every possible angle.
X-Men: Legacy #236 raises the stakes in a big way. Hope is still wrestling with whether she should stay when so many people keep dying around her, while Prodigy gets to shine by offering tactical support to Cyclops. Then the giant sphere encloses Utopia and parts of San Francisco, trapping some heroes outside and setting the stage for one of the event’s coolest images. The smaller sphere opens, the Nimrods arrive, and suddenly the crossover becomes even more of a nightmare than it already was.
X-Factor #205 reveals that the team was not actually massacred last issue, which is a relief even if the fakeout is a little cheeky. Darwin and holograms were doing some heavy lifting there. Layla shows back up (yay!), Banshee gets intercepted and then rescued, and the title mostly works to keep its cast moving back toward the main conflict. It is another connective issue, but an effective one.
X-Force #27 is just loaded with big moments. The battle imagery is gorgeous and grim, with character after character getting maimed or burned, including Hellion losing his arms in a status quo changing injury.
Cyclops comes up with a desperate plan to send Cable, Doug, and X-Force into the future to rewrite the AI at the core of the Nimrod threat, and everyone involved understands it is probably a one way trip. There is also a great darkly funny Wolverine line about Doug’s main weakness being bullets, followed by Dani being absolutely furious, which is very earned.
Uncanny X-Men #525 keeps the heat on Scott as Hope tears into him over Cable’s fate. The Fantastic Four join the effort alongside the Avengers and X-Club, which gives the conflict even more of a true Marvel Universe scale. The Sentinels keep coming, Cyclops keeps making impossible calls, and he even asks Xavier to work with Legion, which tells you exactly how desperate things have become. This is one of the issues that really sells Scott as a wartime leader, for better and worse.
New Mutants #14 gets a lot of mileage out of bouncing between fronts. Rogue and Hope go hunting, Colossus gets swarmed badly enough that his arm is broken, and the future team keeps tearing through waves of Sentinels. Legion is a beast here, cycling through personalities and powers to destroy Nimrods in a way that feels chaotic but awesome. Then Magneto gets out of bed, and that alone gives the issue a nice sense of momentum because you know things are about to escalate.
X-Men: Legacy #237 is where Doug gets one of his coolest moments ever. Master Mold tries to hijack his mind, but Doug manages to seize control instead and shut the Nimrods down, proving once again that his power can become insanely important when writers remember how to use it. Laura is nearly destroyed trying to push through the time beam, and Cable ultimately lets the techno organic virus consume him so the others can return home. It is a very Cable ending, heroic, grim, and just ambiguous enough that nobody should fully buy it.
X-Factor #206 wraps up the X-Factor branch pretty efficiently. M cuts a deal with Baron Mordo, the team links back up, and the combined forces finally win their fight. There is not as much emotional weight here as in the main books, but it closes the loop well enough and gets everyone pointed in the same direction again. It is solid event maintenance.
X-Force #28 gives Hope her huge payoff moment. She starts mimicking powers, goes one on one with Bastion, and actually beats him while bringing down the dome that even Thor could not crack. That is the kind of giant statement the story needed to make about her at the end. The issue finally lets Hope look less like cargo and more like the future everyone has been killing and dying over.
Second Coming #2 is a strong epilogue because it understands that the event cannot just end on explosions and speeches. We spend time with the injured, see Karma get her cybernetic leg, get some nice quiet material with Magneto and Hope, and then hit Cable’s funeral where the grief really settles in. Cyclops benches Rogue, Wolverine mourns Kurt in a raw and effective conversation with Storm, and Scott finally has to reckon with how much X-Force has cost him in the eyes of people he loves and respects. He ends X-Force, Bastion and Osborn are gone, and the X-Men are supposed to stand for something cleaner again, but the final note with five new mutant signatures popping up makes it clear that the next chapter is already beginning.
Wolverine has no plans to stop X-Force, so he gathers Psylocke, Deadpool, Archangel, and Fantomex to run a secret mercenary group, which will be re-launched as Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force.
Overall, Second Coming absolutely earns its reputation. It is one of the best X-Men crossover events because the stakes feel huge without losing the character drama, and because the wins come with real pain attached to them. Nightcrawler’s death, Cable’s sacrifice, Hope finally stepping into her role, and Cyclops having to stare directly at the moral cost of his choices all make this feel like more than just a big fight against robots and anti mutant lunatics. It is brutal, exciting, and surprisingly emotional.
My Connections and Creators
Boring or Great?
I think this is one of the best comic events in a long time. Maybe one of the best? I should do an X-Men event ranking one of these days. Regardless, this was very well done! I was also getting sick of all these long dead villains being back on the playing field, so I hope they are all gone again.
Let's start by talking about Nightcrawler. First, I appreciate, in hindsight, how there was a big scene with NC being appalled by Laura killing a purifier, and then he demanded for Scott to tell all of them what was going on. It was great for us to remember that while Kurt resembles pure evil (a demon) on the outside, he's always been the most pure on the inside. And thus, we are led to Nightcrawler's ultimate sacrifice. Where should we take this first? Many characters have either died or had fakeout deaths, but I don't recall this ever happening to Kurt. That gave this more punch. This also made me feel nostalgic. While I haven't characterized NC as one of my favorite characters during this 6 year X-Men journey, I have strong memories of playing with a NC action figure as a kid and being drawn to his design. Most young kids think he's cool, and he's been around since the beginning of the Claremont days. I couldn't help thinking that Kurt's words also ring true to the audience...Hope better be worth it.
Alright, so let's talk about Hope. One of my favorite moments through this run took place when this battle hardened solider from the future got distracted by a barette set, and the tough nosed soldier father got it for her. He probably stole it, but let's not go there. I liked Hope's little fight with Dani in the mess hall. Everyone can see for themselves how tough she is. Also, I don't buy Hope and Rogue's connection. Ok, so Hope helped cure Rogue in some comic a while back (I barely remember it,) and that's supposed to mean they have this strong connection? Nah. They feel like strangers to me.
The natural next topic is Cable's death. This didn't really hit for me. I mentioned earlier that NC's death had more punch because it was his first death. That's definitely not the case for Cable. Do you know how many times he's either died, almost died, disappeared, or been de-powered? Well I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot. I doubt he'll stay dead for the rest of 2010, whereas I feel like NC may stay dead for at least a few years.
Speaking of deaths, Jean died Grey died in 2004. We are all the way to 2010! 6 straight years! That's cray! If you really think about it, I bet Emma is making it hard. You can't have Jean without Scott drama, but him and Emma are doing quite well. Ok, back to Second Coming.
Bro, what's up with Gambit going dark!? Enough already.
Hellion lost his arms and I didn't even realize it until the epilogue when he was making jokes about it. He used to have short, brown hair and actually get dialogue. Now's he's just cannon fodder. There is also a great dark and funny Wolverine line about Doug’s main weakness being bullets. That made me chuckle. Speaking of Doug, he can be pretty damn cool when a writer knows what to do with him. I like this Zeb Wells guy.
It's also worth mentioning that this is the end of the X-Force run. I'll be doing a retrospective on that soon.
Thoughts on Art
David Finch gives the opening chapter a massive blockbuster feel, and Mike Choi absolutely crushes the war imagery in X-Force with some of the most memorable visuals in the whole event. Terry Dodson and Greg Land help keep the core books polished and readable, while Ibraim Roberson brings a gritty urgency to the New Mutants material that fits the desperation of the crossover really well.
Larger Impacts & Things to keep an eye on
How long will Nightcrawler and Cable stay dead?
How long will Rogue remain "sidelined" for letting Hope get involved?
Are we done with the dark Gambit crap?
Can we please be done with all the deceased villains being back?
How will Hope acclimate to the present timeline and integrate with the team?