ISSUE SUMMARIES
XTREME XMEN #1
Story Title: Now
It Begins
Staff: Chris
Claremont (writer) Salvador Larroca (artist), (uninked), Liquid (colors), Tom
Orzechowski (letterer), Frank Dunkerley (assistant editor), Matt Hicks
(editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Bill Jemas (president)
Brief Description:
The team are in Valencia, Spain, where they all get attacked the local guardia
forces. Rogue is shot into the sea, while Storm, Bishop, Beast, Psylocke and
Thunderbird are caught; only Sage manages to escape. The Deputy Minister of
Justice arrives at the high tech base of the guardia where she is met by the
commanding officer. He tells her about the testing and dagnostics they are
performing on the X-Men team. Meanwhile Vargas and his henchmen kill some local
police who are hoping of capturing Rogue when she washes ashore. The rest of
the team wake up to find themselves in a maze and after a short battle fall
through a hole in the floor.
Full Synopsis:
The issue opens with Vargas sitting on a throne somewhere in Spain, next to him
lies an open book on a cushion. He is flanked by a male (Thais) and a female
(Thaiis) with swords and says, "Now, it begins."
Elsewhere in a hotel in Valencia,
Beast has just received room service from a busboy, and Storm comes to join
him. Thunderbird and Psylocke are enjoying a morning drive together, while
Bishop has coffee at a cafe and Rogue sits on a rooftop taking in the suns
rays. Suddenly, the busboy in the hotel calls out and armoured police burst in
and shoot Beast and Storm. At the same time, Psylocke and Thunderbird are also
shot, their car crashing and exploding. Bishop is also hit, while an air
assault team attacks Rogue.
They knock Rogue around a bit and get her down to the ground, but she uses her
claws to escape. She takes out some of the helicopter gun-ships and flies off,
but she gets hit by gunfire, and manages to fly into the sea, however they fire
missiles, which explode in the water, where Rogue had been.
Back in the hotel, the armoured
Guardia Civil approaches Sage. She fights her way to a laundry chute and goes
in, but the Guardia are waiting for her at the bottom. A few minutes later,
Sage fakes a message from the team leader back to base, buying herself a few
minutes of breathing room (apparently she took out the guardia off panel).
Outside, dressed in a tracksuit,
Sage wonders how the local guardia knew they were coming, especially as they
were keeping a low profile. She recalls how she and her team-mates got to Spain
in the first place :
(flashbacks)
They travel by yacht to prevent being detected, with Rogue driving the whole
way, as if to punish herself for some misdeed. Thunderbird wants to know more
about Destiny and her prophecies, and Sage gives him a rundown of the history
leading them to their current self-imposed exile from the X-Men. Thunderbird
shows concern about the fact that they seem not to trust the X-Men, especially
Professor X. Psylocke explains that they don't want to take the risk that a man
of nearly limitless power, might one day use his power to control the Earth if
he had certain knowledge of the future. This future knowledge is stored in the
13 diaries of Destiny, that the team now attempts to find, they already have
one of them - Volume 3 - with them. Destiny wrote these books when her mutant
power of precognition manifested. It took her one year to write them, and
afterwards she had gone blind.
(present)
A sleek Ferrari drives up to the walls of Valencia's ancient towers and drives
right through a stone wall, to emerge in a high tech lab. The lady driving is
stopped by military men at first, but she then reveals that she is a member of
the Spanish Ministry of Justice. The base's commander introduces himself, but
the woman chews him out for taking his top-secret team out to do a very public
round up of the X-Men. The commander shows her the testing they are doing on
the X-Men and their equipment. Storm is currently being tested and some strange
spectral readings are coming from the ruby in her uniform's collar. She is
questions why they are regarded both as terrorists and heroes, especially since
one appears to be a cop (Bishop) and another has Avengers credentials (Beast).
The commander gives her a brief overview of the X-Men, and their public
perception. One of the scientists there is rabidly anti-mutant and wants to
kill the mutants, but the commander swears to uphold the law of "innocent
until proven guilty." To that end, he is going to run the X-Men through
"The Maze," which will let them evaluate both their powers and them
personalities.
Elsewhere, Vargas and his two
henchmen attack and take out a police patrol. The man carries one of Destiny's
volumes with him, and opens it to a page with a sketch of the X-Men with skulls
instead of real faces.
Bishop wakes up in a tunnel, his
team-mates around him. Although he is still dressed in the same clothes and
weapons are all how they should be, he knows he has been drugged, stripped and
tested over the last day or so. Storm takes charge, noting that since they're
all in uniform, their captors obviously know who they are. The team note that
the tunnel is too small for Storm's powers to work well, and is shielded
against Thunderbird's powers. They also note it is too deep for Psylocke to
punch through with her telekinesis and Beast's sensors and link to Sage are
being jammed. Bishop tells Thunderbird to stick close and charge him up when
they see the enemy. Beast notes a junction up ahead, which looks like a perfect
spot to be ambushed.
Thunderbird makes a plasma ball
using skills that he had been taught by Psylocke and throws it down the
corridor like a grenade. It explodes and reveals the Guardia Special Forces,
whom the X-Men take out quickly, but without causing any harm to the humans.
Two of the policemen grab Storm, but she fires lightning through their armour,
shorting it out. They all discuss the fact that Rogue is missing, but Storm
says they have to put that aside for now. Psylocke is upset that they were
attacked just because they are mutants, but Bishop and Storm still feel that
they have a duty to protect the future from people who would continue to
perpetrate such prejudice. Suddenly the floor gives way and the X-Men fall
through.
Characters:
Bishop, Thunderbird, Psylocke, Storm, Rogue, Sage (all X-Treme X-Men)
Vargas
Thais and Thaiis, Vargas' henchmen
Deigo Sandoval, commander of the Guardia
Ms. Cortes, Deputy minister of Justice
Notes:
The diary in the X-Treme X-Men's possession is the one earlier found by
Shadowcat, it's entitled Volume 3. Vargas too is seen with one of the diaries.
The ruby in Storm's costume is the
cameo crystal she gained from N'rin (a queen from an alternate dimension) in the
backstory of Classic X-Men #22, it was also used in X-Men Annual #12.
This is the first issue that
mention's Bishops first name as Lucas, however this is not confirmed until
issue 4.
This was the first issue from
Marvel to not use an inker. The artists "lines" were colored instead
Issue Summary written by:
Dean Clayton, contributor, uncannyxmen.net
BACK TO REVIEWS PAGE
– BACK TO MAIN PAGE