Uncanny X-Men #202
I got a wrist pad for my keyboard, and I'm going to try a bit of typing and see if how it does... It's been a while, so let me summarize. We're butt-deep in Secret Wars II. Magneto has replaced Professor X, who fled into space with the Starjammers and some life-threatening injuries. Cyclops had his son and left. Rachel has gained the Phoenix powers from the homeopathic crystal containing the essence of her mother, but they have brought back Jean at around the same time, so the Phoenix story has become hopelessly muddy. Storm has lost her powers.
Anyway... The X-Men find a message from Rachel, saying she's gone to kill the Beyonder now that she has the Phoenix powers. Wolverine is all for it, but Storm is concerned that Rachel will just make the Beyonder angry. Magneto tries to use Cerebro to find Rachel, but the interference field he's created in the atmosphere makes it hard for him, as a non-telepath; moreover, he cannot undo the damage to the magnetic field. Wolverine needles him about it, and Magneto is annoyed with him. Kitty thinks that Wolverine is just taking his measure, but Magneto is deadly serious.
Elsewhere, the Beyonder is in a field near San Francisco contemplating life. Rachel shows up and blasts him with all her strength, creating a Phoenix-shaped nuclear mushroom, but the Beyonder is completely unaffected. He senses her troubled mind and transports them to her timeline. We see the X-Men getting attacked by an Omega Sentinel and Scrapper/Franklin Richards getting vaporized. We then see Nimrod shooting Kate Pryde in the back after she sends Rachel to our time. (These are two interesting bits of history that aren't really shown elsewhere. Scrapper simply dies between pages in the original Days of Future Past storyline. He is sort of brought back in the annuals for Fantastic Four/X-Men/X-Factor, in a good few years. Kate is shown to be alive at the end of the Alan Davis Excalibur run, nearly ten years later, but I think Nimrod is pretty clearly supposed to be killing her in the picture here.)
The Beyonder gives Rachel enough power to kill him, but to do so she must forgo saving her friends: he has returned them to present time and brought the X-Men to them. Storm is aboard the Blackbird and the rest are on foot. Omega sentinels attack them, brought there by the Beyonder. Storm manages to shake off a sentinel that's grabbed ahold of the Blackbird. Magneto is neutralized in tendrils that stop his powers. Rogue is blasted and lands in a crowd, stealing many of their powers and psyches, stunning her. Wolverine slashes one's head open, but it knocks him away. Rachel rushes to the aid of Wolverine and Magneto. Wolverine goes to work with his claws and Magneto creates a magnetic vortex, sucking "super cold air from the very top of the atmosphere to sea level." The sentinel he's fighting is immediately frozen, then destroyed by Rogue. Elsewhere, a sentinel is giving Kitty and Colossus a hard time, but Rachel rushes to their aid next. Colossus attacks a sentinel with a light pole, but he has Kitty phased inside him, and phases the pole into the sentinel and lets it go. Rachel vaporizes it. The Beyonder congratulates her on making the right decision and saving her friends, unlike the past where they had died. She is unamused and slaps him one before leaving. The end!
Overview: Kind of a mediocre issue. A few noteworthy tidbits regarding the Days of Future Past story, but mostly forgetable. The action just didn't seem to click for whatever reason. I'm sure it sounds exciting, but John Romita Jr.'s pencils were kind of a miss at depicting it that way. Oh well.
Next: The New Mutants clash with the Beyonder! Rachel tries to destroy the universe! The first half of an aborted storyline that shows Nightcrawler's parentage! Lady Deathstrike becomes a cyborg! Freedom Force comes for the X-Men and wins!
Anyway... The X-Men find a message from Rachel, saying she's gone to kill the Beyonder now that she has the Phoenix powers. Wolverine is all for it, but Storm is concerned that Rachel will just make the Beyonder angry. Magneto tries to use Cerebro to find Rachel, but the interference field he's created in the atmosphere makes it hard for him, as a non-telepath; moreover, he cannot undo the damage to the magnetic field. Wolverine needles him about it, and Magneto is annoyed with him. Kitty thinks that Wolverine is just taking his measure, but Magneto is deadly serious.
Elsewhere, the Beyonder is in a field near San Francisco contemplating life. Rachel shows up and blasts him with all her strength, creating a Phoenix-shaped nuclear mushroom, but the Beyonder is completely unaffected. He senses her troubled mind and transports them to her timeline. We see the X-Men getting attacked by an Omega Sentinel and Scrapper/Franklin Richards getting vaporized. We then see Nimrod shooting Kate Pryde in the back after she sends Rachel to our time. (These are two interesting bits of history that aren't really shown elsewhere. Scrapper simply dies between pages in the original Days of Future Past storyline. He is sort of brought back in the annuals for Fantastic Four/X-Men/X-Factor, in a good few years. Kate is shown to be alive at the end of the Alan Davis Excalibur run, nearly ten years later, but I think Nimrod is pretty clearly supposed to be killing her in the picture here.)
The Beyonder gives Rachel enough power to kill him, but to do so she must forgo saving her friends: he has returned them to present time and brought the X-Men to them. Storm is aboard the Blackbird and the rest are on foot. Omega sentinels attack them, brought there by the Beyonder. Storm manages to shake off a sentinel that's grabbed ahold of the Blackbird. Magneto is neutralized in tendrils that stop his powers. Rogue is blasted and lands in a crowd, stealing many of their powers and psyches, stunning her. Wolverine slashes one's head open, but it knocks him away. Rachel rushes to the aid of Wolverine and Magneto. Wolverine goes to work with his claws and Magneto creates a magnetic vortex, sucking "super cold air from the very top of the atmosphere to sea level." The sentinel he's fighting is immediately frozen, then destroyed by Rogue. Elsewhere, a sentinel is giving Kitty and Colossus a hard time, but Rachel rushes to their aid next. Colossus attacks a sentinel with a light pole, but he has Kitty phased inside him, and phases the pole into the sentinel and lets it go. Rachel vaporizes it. The Beyonder congratulates her on making the right decision and saving her friends, unlike the past where they had died. She is unamused and slaps him one before leaving. The end!
Overview: Kind of a mediocre issue. A few noteworthy tidbits regarding the Days of Future Past story, but mostly forgetable. The action just didn't seem to click for whatever reason. I'm sure it sounds exciting, but John Romita Jr.'s pencils were kind of a miss at depicting it that way. Oh well.
Next: The New Mutants clash with the Beyonder! Rachel tries to destroy the universe! The first half of an aborted storyline that shows Nightcrawler's parentage! Lady Deathstrike becomes a cyborg! Freedom Force comes for the X-Men and wins!