First X-Men #2

Issue Date: 
November 2012
Story Title: 
Common Cause
Staff: 

Neal Adams & Christos Gage (writer), Neal Adams (penciler), Andrew Currie (inker), Matthew Wilson (colors), VC’s Clayton Cowles (letterer), Adams & Wilson (cover art), Jordan D. White (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (editor), Axel Alonso (editor-in-chief), Joe Quesada (chief creative officer), Dan Buckley (publisher), Alan Fine (Exec. Publisher)

Brief Description: 

Wolverine and Sabretooth save another young mutant, a strongman whom they dub Yeti and and who is worried about his brother, who is still in the feds’ hand. They return to the feds’ headquarters and find it empty. They also find Anthony, who survived. They take the kids to a safehouse where they train them. Later, they try to hire Erik Lehnsherr, who considers them madmen and prophesies their failure. In the meantime, the feds argue about how to handle the mutant problem. Trask wants extermination, while Fred Duncan suggests working together with them. Director Hartfield decides to follow both approaches. However, when it comes to working together, he doesn’t intend to give them a choice. He reveals the mutant Virus, who can possess others.

Full Summary: 

Colorado:

A hunter tells his friends that he saw Bigfoot. He was eight foot tall. Came to a log blocking his way and demolished it with one swipe of his hand.

Just like he demolished a twelve-pack, right? his friend jokes. The third tells them to shut up. His animal’s been acting up all day. Something’s out there. Probably just a bear, but they kill you as dead as a yeti. The second guy points out yetis come from the Himalaya. His friends tell him to shut up.

A yeti-like looking, young Native-American shows up and asks them if they could give him a ride east. Kill it! one of the panicked men orders. Oh come on, not again! the boy shouts annoyed, not too much hurt by their fire.

One man tries to shoot him up close when his rifle is cut apart. Ugly amphibian monsters attack them next and the men run.

Mission accomplished, and Holly, looking like a little girl, stops the illusion. Logan asks if the kid is okay, while Creed asks Holly if that was the Manphibian. She liked that movie. Why the hell would a fish be in the woods? Creed wonders. Looking like a taller, sexy woman, Holly hits him and orders him to shut up. He tells her to pick a look and stick with it.

The boy thanks them and Logan suggests not to jump out at guys with guns, especially when you look like a grizzly. They been trackin’ him since the Sierra Nevada. Seems like he is a guy with a mission.

Angrily, the boy asks if they are with the feds who took his brother. Logan quickly explains. He suggests taking the fight to the feds and asks what happened to his brother.

He’s like them, the young man explains. Special. Older than him but his mind is like a kid’s. He can feel he’s alive… they have a connection. Logan promises they’ll help and makes introductions. The boy’s name is Ben Goldendawn.

No, it ain’t, Logan replies. Fake names only for the kids. Keeps the bad guys focused on him and Creed. Holly’s Holo and Ben is Yeti, he decides. Yetis come from the Himalayas, Holo points out. Shut up! Creed tells her and Logan orders all of them to shut up.

They return to Quantico to find the feds’ building abandoned. Logan finds they shoved all evidence into a hole and buried it. He smells something and asks Yeti to dig it up. Before he can, though, an explosion from below disintegrates most of the dirt. While Ben and Logan dig, Holly coos over Creed who got hurt protecting her.

They find Anthony very much alive, no trace though of Ben’s brother. Surprised, Logan tells Anthony he saw him die; blow himself up. Anthony explains that, when Logan cut him off those machines, he started to heal. He heard them and knew he had to get out or die. As he covers him with his jacket, Logan notes aloud that Anthony directed the blast up. Controlled it better than last time. He believes they have a line on more test subjects. Soon as they get set up somewhere else, they’ll look to stock up. They’re gonna be ready.

They travel to a safehouse of Logan’s in upstate New York. Logan attacks Holly, who isn’t paying attention, and tells her they are here to learn to fight. She is good with her illusions but counting on them too much is gonna get her killed.

Holly cuts him with fake claws, her illusion so realistic he throws himself backward to avoid the pain. Holly gloats: seems to her he needs training.

Creed criticizes Logan for almost hurting her. Hurt her? Logan laughs. He could have sworn he was all torn up. But if Creed wants to teach her, be his guest. He’s got plenty of pain around…

The next morning, Logan gathers the three kids. Ben may be strong but no fighter, which he demonstrates by easily dodging Ben's blows and cutting off some of his long hair with his claws. Ben protests that long hair has significance in his culture. Logan doesn’t care. If it’s important for him, fight for it! A fist in his face is the reply.

Creed trains Holly, or rather believes he does, while the real Holly, hidden, watches him fight her illusion. Logan catches her and informs her she is still too easy to sneak up on.

Logan tells Anthony that the reddish boils on his skin are the energy inside him trying to get out. And it’s going to get out - one way or the other. The trick is to do it when he wants. He teaches him to focus it to his hands and release it as an energy blast.

As they extinguish the ensuing fire, the excited boy announces he’s been looking through the dictionary to find a codename: Bombastic Aghast. Is that righteous or is that righteous? Just what you want in a fight, Logan laughs. A codename that takes half an hour to say. Stick with Bomb. But he is coming along. Think he’s ready for a recruiting mission?

In Argentina, a regal, white-haired man stands outside a garage, addressing the owner as Herr Krause. Levitating the scrap metal with a gesture, he remarks he has to confess that he does not come for the engine to a 1955 Corvette.

The Kraut can’t talk comes from a helicopter. He had an accident! Think of it as a show of faith! And should he thank them? Lehnsherr asks. Come out of that vehicle or die in it!

Logan and Creed comply and Lehnsherr asks who they are. They tell him and explain they have something in common with him. Been putting together a squad of folks like them… Mutants they mean? Lehnsherr scoffs. And do they intend to find other freaks like them so they can join a freak show? Have they no shame?

It’s survival, Logan informs him. Back home, the feds are rounding the “freaks” up. Lehnsherr is not surprised. A government that absolves Nazi devils like Von Braun and Strughold simply to exploit their genius will inevitably adopt their methods.

Point is, they are gonna shut them down, Logan continues, and need his help. Lehnsherr calls them fools. For that, they need a trained army, money, meticulous plans. Without that they will spur the humans to exterminate them all the sooner!

Creed calls him a wimp and suggests they leave. Lehnsherr lands in front of them and tells them that they’ll go nowhere until they agree to abandon their suicidal course.

Creed tries to attack and Lehnsherr levitates a car door as a shield. Logan point out it’s his call if he doesn’t want to help. But if he tries to stop them, they have a problem.

He is master of magnetism! They have chosen their battlefield poorly. He tosses a tank at them. And he done forget where he came from! Creed snarls and calls for Holo.

Suddenly, Lehnsherr is a concentration camp prisoner again in the hands of the Nazis. Lehnsherr struggles, then shakes off the illusion. Only one who has been to the camps knows their true horror, he explains. A child who has only seen it on TV does not! He buries Holo under several tires.

Yeti and Bomb attack but are easily pushed back. Lehnsherr hovers above them, all the metal objects at his disposal. Are they truly prepared to reap what they sow? he asks. Are they ready for war? And the kids are flabbergasted.

Ready? His whole damn life is war! Logan shouts and attacks. Lehnsherr creates a shield between them. Logan attacks away, shouting these kids are gonna have it better! They won’t be weapons! Does he think they ain’t afraid to kill for that? How about him? Is he afraid to die?

He is not, Lehnsherr replies. But he will not slaughter his own kind. There are too few of them. Every life is precious. Logan agrees. Lehnsherr flies upward. He hopes they will come to their senses. And if they do not… when their madness leads them to their doom, he will raise a glass to their memory.

He flies away, even as Creed challenges him to fight like a man. Logan tells him to leave it. They have bigger problems.

At an undisclosed location, several men have gathered. One of them, Bolivar Trask, points at a newspaper headline: “Flying murderer strikes in Argentina!” Forced to slow down their research center! he shouts. To run like rabbits. Now reports of murder and mass destruction in Argentina. What has he been saying? It was only a matter of time until these… creatures started organizing! While they hold meetings, the mutants are forming armies!

Another man, Agent Fred Duncan, angrily gets up. Trask want to spend billions on robots to hunt them with! He’s talking about artificial intelligence! Trask insists. Soldiers who can adapt to anything. What is Duncan’s solution? Offer them dental benefits to come work for them? They are monsters! Some, sure, Fred agrees, others are loyal Americans with talents they can use. They are not human, Trask scoffs.

Director Hartfield gets between them and tells them that is enough. He offers Trask another billion for his Sentinel project, but also sees merit in Duncan’s approach as well. They have had a history with special individuals going back to Captain America. Properly supervised, men like Logan and Creed could be assets… The problem has always been how to control them. They think they may have found a solution. Allow him to present Lyle Doorne, although he prefers his mission call-sign Virus.

A monstrous creature sitting on the back of a helpless man enters and assures them he is a very hard man to say ‘no’ to.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Sabretooth

Bomb, Holo, Yeti

Magneto

Fred Duncan

Hartfield

Bolivar Trask

Virus
Hunters

Story Notes: 

Manphibian is a Marvel character who has some resemblance to the “Gill Man” seen in the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Wernher Von Braun and Hubertus Strughold were German scientists with Nazi connections recruited to the US.

Issue Information: 
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