* (one of five stars)
Summary
- Doom, Spidey, and Xina try to figure out a plan after they failed to stop the Phalanx from activating the world-engine last issue. Doom tries to convince Xina to flee with him, but she refuses, calling him a traitor for helping the Phalanx invade Earth. Doom hopes that she'll understand when they meet again (presumably because his plan to defeat them will have been revealed). Miguel tries to free Nostro, but he can't, since he's become an integral part of the world-engine. He and Xina then flee. At a church dedicated to Doom, Xina tells Miguel that the only way to stop the Phalanx is to kill Nostro and destroy the world-engine, something that she would do if she had Miguel's power. She tells Miguel that it's his responsibility and he's mournful when he seems to acknowledge that she's right (and that she's gone cold so quickly). Winn approaches Nostro (who sports a look of mute horror at having become part of the machine) and apologizes for his role in making him so, noting that he thinks that they could've been friends.
- Bloodhawk attacks the "Dreadnode" that appeared at the end of the last issue, but it dismisses him quickly. Hodge grabs Jade and heads to the bushes, since he knows that they don't stand a chance against the Dreadnode without powers. Willow changes into the Taker that she touched a few issues ago, hoping to use its ferocity to take down the Dreadnode while still retaining control of herself; she and La Lunatica engage the Dreadnode. Krystallin informs Eddie and Shatki that the aliens are attacking; she and Metalhead go to help while Shatki -- who remains paralyzed from Franklin's "attack" -- remains at the base with the human child who's been hanging with them. Arriving on the scene, Metalhead is attacked by the Dreadnode, which infects him with the techno-organic virus. An anti-mutant human in the crowd watching the fray calls Morphine Somers a coward for failing to help the mutants fight the Dreadnode, but Victor Ten Eagles stops Morphine before he can attack the human. He rallies humans and mutants together to fight the alien, much to Morphine's jealous dismay.
- Wulff is horrified by his attack on Trash; the Vulture encourages him to finish the job and earn the right to displace Dorian as his right-hand man. However, Uproar tries to get him to come to his senses. Dorian is furious that the Vulture is encouraging Wulff to kill a Wild Boy but, before Wulff can attack anyone, another Dreadnode attacks the ship. Dorian hurls an explosive device at the Vulture, declaring the Wild Boyz freelancers. In the confusion, the Vulture escapes with Fiona and Uproar and Wulff make it to shore, though Uproar frets whether Wulff is his friend or the beast.
- On Mars, Dr. Isaacs finds her "children," a group of clones that she created and that the Takers kept alive to work the equipment that they stole from Ares. However, she realizes that several of the older clones are in the process of decomposition, showing that she got better at cloning as she went. She reveals that the original strain came from her son, Hayes, and worries that it, too, is decomposing. Elsewhere in the Takers compound, Twilight uses her power to stop Smith from haranguing her over the aliens, but he uses his magnetic powers to get her to release him. She storms from the room and December appears. She reveals to Smith that she thinks that the Takers have lied to Twilight. She asks why, if the Takers are so devoted to Mars, they stole Ares' technology to build a spaceship (which they're in the process of constructing with Twilight's help). She hypothesizes that they're going to rendez-vous with the Mothership, a.k.a. the planetoid that wrecked Earth. Smith postulates that the Takers created the planetoid as a weapon to destroy other planets before their civilizations could threaten Mars. Smith then goes to find Twilight, sharing their theory with her. However, she seems to be under the Takers' sway and announces her intent to join them on the spaceship. Not wanting to leave her by herself, Smith decides to join her in the rocket, which then launches.
The Review
Thank God I only have two more issues. This series is getting painful to read. The good news is that Kelly and Raab have at least merged several stories (and ignored others) to get us to four stories in this issue. But, it's still too many, given how much exposition that the authors are forced to use to advance several plots in this issue.
The Unknown
I'm still not 100% sure what Doom's plan is/was. Xina seems convinced that he wanted the Phalanx invasion to happen. If he did, then I'm assuming his plan was to use the lesson that he learned by expelling the Phalanx from his own body to defeat them. However, given Xina's role in helping him purge the Phalanx, you'd think that this plan would be evident to her, since he said as much in issue #3. So, if it's not that, then what is it?
The Bad
1) As I think I've made clear, the over-arching problem of this series so far is that Kelly and Raab have two or three plots too many running at the same time. They thankfully ignore the Strange story here, but they for some reason decide to use the Mars story to complicate the Phalanx story. (That sentence alone shows you how unnecessarily complicated that it has all become.) I'm remarkably confused by the revelation that the Takers have something to do with the planetoid. Are Raab and Kelly saying that the Takers invented the Phalanx? If not, how were they ever in control of the planetoid? Or, is Smith's theory wrong? (If it's the latter, why would Kelly and Raab even bother to introduce it?)
2) In general, I thought that Armstrong and Brewer did a better job than previous pencilers, but they still fail to render the Phalanx in a way that makes it clear what each member is doing. (Also, Krystallin is unrecognizable.)
3) I don't think that I've made it clear in previous reviews, but Dr. Isaac's name keeps changing between "Isaac" and "Isaacs." We seem to have stabilized on Isaacs, though.
4) The revelation that the "children" for whom Dr. Isaacs fretted last issue were clones that she created is creepy to say the least. But, my main problem is that Dr. Isaacs somehow intuits that the Takers kept them alive because they needed them to work the equipment that they stole from Ares. She simply announces that conclusion as if it's self-evident, but it's not really all that clear to me that she would've necessarily known that. Also, how did they conveniently steal the suspended-animation devices, which appear to be different than the ones that they used on themselves?
5) Speaking of drawing convenient -- if hardly evident -- conclusions, Smith's aforementioned guess at the Takers plan is not something that he's even remotely shown any evidence of having the intellect to put together on his own. It just smacks of a desperate need to advance the plot without taking the time necessary to do it organically.
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