ISSUE SUMMARIES
Story Title: Blindside
Staff: Chris
Claremont (writer), Salvador Larroca (penciler), (uninked), Liquid! (colors),
Tom Orzechowski (letters), Matt Hicks (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief),
Bill Jemas (president)
Brief
Description:
The five captured X-Men deal with
everything that the Civil Guardia throws at them in their examining Maze, but
they get separated. Rogue and Sage locate the base, and Rogue forcefully enters
the ancient towers, only to find the scientists killed. She is then attacked by
Vargas, who defeats her. Beast and Psylocke come to the scene, and again Vargas
easily beats Hank, breaking many of his bones; only Psylocke is left standing.
In the following battle Vargas kills her by running his sword though her gut.
Vargas claims that she was only the first and leaves to let the rest of the
team find their beaten comrades and a word written with Betsy’s blood : “PRONTO“.
Full Synopsis:
The Guardia Civil watch on a video screen as the five captured X-Men fall
through the floor within their Maze. Maria Pilar Cortes is still not sure about
their actions, yet Diego Sandoval states that the mutants are a possible danger
to the country and so they need to know the extent of their powers. After
having them examined in their labs, they now need to run them through the Maze
to get the full picture. However Cortes points out that they failed to capture
the whole team.
Rogue swims to a beach, she
escaped the army that was chassing her by diving deep into the ocean and
letting the current take her to swim back to the surface at a safer place. Now
exhausted, hurting and hungry, she cries out in anger and pops her claws. It
makes her remember a scene not so long ago :
(flashback)
Rogue is about to clear a road in the Rocky Mountains that has been blocked by
an avalanche. Apparently she ran away from the team, as Storm, Beast and Betsy shows
up to make her come back. Rogue and Storm get into an arguement and in the heat
her anger takes over and she pops her claws. Storm reacts by casting a lighting
bolt in between them. Rogue realizes that she almost injured her teammate and
apologizes. Storm hugs her and promises that the team will help her handle the
out-of-control powers. Still Rogue questions the purpose of the mission in
itself, everyone who is connected to the diaries has received nothing but grief
(Destiny is dead, Mystique not really sane), and it’s starting with the X-Men
too as they already had to isolate from friends and family. Beast and Psylocke
say that at least they have each other, that the X-Men as a family might
succeed where Destiny and Mystique alone failed.
(present)
Shortly after Rogue left, Vargas and his crew come to the place and after
killing an officer of the Guardia Civil, they discover her trail.
In the Maze, Storm, Bishop,
Psylopcke, Thunderbird and Neal fall into a big body of water. Bishop and Beast
take some breathers from their equipment, while Storm generates an electrolysis
field that povides herself, Betsy and Neal with some oxygen. Suddenly torpedos
are fired on them and few attackers on aquasleds arrive. Quickly Psylocke
telekinetically pushes one of them of his sled and claims it for herself, while
Bishop keeps the others busy with some gunfire. Betsy realizes that the
attackers must have come from somewhere and thinks that this might be a
possible exit. She grabs the Beast, needing both back-up and a breather to
share, and navigates the aquasled in the direction where the attackers came
from. They find a locked hatch, but it’s no problem, Hank anchors Psylocke to
the wall and she uses her telekinetic katana to cut the hatch out of the wall.
Immediatly the water flushes out, and Hank and Betsy hug each other. Despite
the danger of their situation, Betsy enjoys this kind of action.
Elsewhere in the Maze, Neal blasts
a way out of the huge water tank, and it seems that everything is clear. Yet
Storm senses movement in the air and right on cue an ambush team comes around
the corner. She confuses them with big banks of fog while Bishop and
Thunderbird shoot them with all they got. Yet after a while the troops cornered
Storm, now having adapted to her weather effect, but Ororo surprises them once
more by firing a gun that Bishop slipped her earlier.
Meanwhile Rogue does an arial scan
of the city, backed up by Sage who down on the streets is in contact with her,
while monitoring the police emergency channel. She picks up a great deal of
activity near the “Los Torres de Serranos“, the ancient gateway to the city,
and as Rogue checks, her sunglasses‘ sensors reveal that there is a huge
complex below the towers. She simply crashes into them and reaches the labratories,
but the scientists have all been killed. She wonders who could have done that
and is attacked by Vargas from behind. He knocks her into a wall, and as she
gets up again, he hits a certain nerve cluster that makes it hard for her to
move. She still struggles, but Vergas slashes her with a sword and finally she
does not get up.
Beast and Psylocke arrive and are
amazed that somebody can so easily take out Rogue. Vargas welcomes them,
stating that he has only come for one of the X-Men today and a second fight
starts. Betsy telekinatically blasts Vargas, but he manages to evade the brunt
of her attack. Beast then attacks the mysterious opponent, while Psylocke deals
with Thais and Thaiis, yet Hank too is easily beaten by Vargas. The Beast takes
blow after blow from Vargas, who claims that mutants are just an aberration of
humanity, but now the true and pure homo sapiens superior start their era
(obviously he is talking about himself). Bleeding and with several bones
broken, Hank is helpless and only Betsy remains to fight. She pulls her
telekinetic katana, and Vargas is handed his sword by his servants. They fight
and Hank can only watch as Vargas runs his sword through Betsy’s gut. Vargas
comments with : “You are the first, you will not be the last.“ When the rest of
the team arrives they find Psylocke’s body arranged in Beast‘s arms (it looks
like “pieta“ pictures of Maria holding the dead body of Jesus) . With
Psylocke’s blood a word is written on the wall over them : “PRONTO“ (= soon /
fast )
Characters:
Beast, Bishop, Rogue, Psylocke, Sage, Storm, Thunderbird (all X-Treme X-Men)
Diego Sandival, commander of the Guardia Civil’s action force
Maria Pilar Cortes, Deputy Minister of State for Justice
Vargas
Thais and Thaiis, Vargas’ servants
Notes:
Issue Summary written by:
Peter Luzifer, contributor, uncannyxmen.net
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