X-Treme X-Men (2nd series) #5

Issue Date: 
December 2012
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Greg Pak (Writer), Paco Diaz (Art), Jessica Kholinne, Chris Sotomayor and Jim Charalampidis (Colourists), VC’s Joe Sabino (Letters), Kalman Andrasofszky (Cover), Jeannie Schaefer (Editor), Jennifer M. Smith (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Group Editor), Axel Alonso (Editor in Chief), Joe Qeusada (Chief Creative Officer), Dan Buckley (Publisher), Alan Fine (Executive Producer)

Brief Description: 

Dazzler, Kurt and Xavier are on a mountain ridge overlooking the farmhouse where Jamie Howlett and his family live. Dazzler lights up the surrounding area so they can find the approaching evil Xavier and his gang. They do so and a small ranged-fight breaks out until the evil Xavier forces his way inside the team’s Xavier’s head. He reads his memories and finds out that the team’s Xavier used his powers to find out more about human DNA. He collected together some mutants to be goodwill ambassadors for the mutant race but they were killed by human-sentinels. Xavier lashed out and killed the sentinels and was horrified by what he had become. The evil Xavier presses further and looks into Xavier’s mind until he finds out a secret he has been keeping from his own team. The team’s Xavier manages to break away from his evil local counterpart and orders Dazzler to kill him before he reveals the secret. Another fight breaks out and the team takes out a few of Xavier’s gang members until the rest head towards the farmhouse. When Dazzler gets to the farmhouse, she takes out the rest of the gang and enters the house but is overwhelmed by the evil Xavier. She manages to free the ropes holding Jamie down and he lunges at Xavier but is stopped by a lobotomized Howlett. However, the lobotomy healed just in time and Howlett decapitates the evil Xavier. Afterwards, the town is returned to peace and Xavier’s gang is freed of his influence. The team journey to the next world but, during the transit, Kurt thinks he sees his family and is separated. Though he ends up back on his own world, he is immediately captured by robots.

Full Summary: 

Dazzler decides to recap to Kurt the events since they arrived on this world. They have a nine-year-old Wolverine with his critically injured father, who’ll die if he’s moved. They are trapped in a little wooden farmhouse which is vulnerable to attack on all side from an evil Charles Xavier and his gang of psychotic mutant cowboys. She asks Kurt if she left anything out and he points out about the giant pool of blood where Howlett used to be.

Dazzler, Kurt and the bodiless Xavier are stood on a mountain ridge in the dark overlooking the farmhouse. Xavier lets out a small laugh and Dazzler asks him what’s so funny. He tells her she’s having a wonderful time isn’t she? When she becomes confused by this, Xavier mind-links with her and shows her a mental image of Johnny Ito. He tells her that the first time they jumped between realities, she conjured up a vision of her boyfriend back home. She corrects him and says he wasn’t exactly a boyfriend. Xavier tells her that his powers key off of emotion and the jump follows the traveler’s strongest desires. But on the last jump… no Johnny.

Kurt is amazed by how deep Xavier is. Dazzler corrects him and says it’s obvious. The alternate-Johnny they met on the last world cheated on her with the very next blonde that crossed his path. Xavier smiles and says that, whether she chooses to admit it or not, she is exactly where she wants to be right now. Dazzler crosses her arms and states their situation for him… they are barreling through the infinite multiverse hunting down evil Xaviers on the say-so of a head in a bottle. Xavier tells her the heart doesn’t lie… a line she said to him on a previous world. She merely glares at him in return.

She turns around and rallies the team to begin. Xavier mentally scans the area and informs them that the local Xavier is cloaking their location and he needs a few minutes. But Dazzler doesn’t give him that time; instead she stands on a jutting out piece of rock and lets out a huge burst of light which illuminates the surrounding dessert. Down below as Xavier and his gang ride together on horses they are blinded by the light. Xavier yells for Summers, who immediately lets out an optic beam which hits the rock Dazzler is standing on. As she is blasted backwards, she lets out her own blast at them and sees that they have Howlett with them.

Kurt teleports down to him and calls out for Howlett to take his hand. However, Howlett unsheathes his claws and lunges towards Kurt, who promptly teleports back to Dazzler. He tells her he just tried to kill him and deduces he must be mind controlled. Xavier corrects him and says that Howlett is broken and that this Xavier isn’t much for finesse. Instead of actively controlling his gang, he has merely ripped out the parts of their psyche that stops them from murdering innocents he points them at. Down below, Colossus picks up a huge rock and hurls it towards the team, but Dazzler shatters it with a light blast.

Dazzler has enough of playing around and starts to charge a big light blast but the local Xavier down below calls for everyone to calm down. Now holding two light weapons Dazzler tells him that it’s a smart move and then orders them all to lie on the ground with their hands on the backs of their heads. The local Xavier tells her she misunderstands, she can’t beat them even though she is powerful enough to try. He’s skimmed her mind and she’s no killer, unlike every man in his gang. So if this fight continues then she and all her friends die, which isn’t something he would normally care about but they happen to have something he wants.

With that the team’s Xavier reels back in pain. Dazzler rushes towards him as he tells her that he can’t keep the other Xavier out of his head. The local Xavier realizes that the head in the bottle is another version of him. On the psychic plane, the local Xavier takes hold of the team’s Xavier and asks who he is then but the team’s Xavier replies that he won’t tell. The local Xavier tells Xavier of course he will. Xavier starts to stutter as the local Xavier forces his way further into his head and reads his memories.

Inside Xavier’s mind, he starts to visualize his past. He introduces himself and says he was a genius born into idle wealth and celebrity but he also knew he was something more. As he speaks, he sees himself when he was a young man at a classy party performing card tricks to guests. He goes on and says he built labs and taught himself genetics and molecular biology and studied his own DNA. He was the first to identify the mutant genome. But his abilities let him skim the thoughts of others so he knew how perfectly normal people feared and hated each other, much less the truly unknown.
He assembled a team of bright young mutants and taught them to be role models, ambassadors and entertainers, and the world loved them for it. But one night he watched his dream die and he reacted a bit badly.

As he says this, he pictures his group of X-Men at a TV station being filmed showing off their abilities. Suddenly, a group of human sentinels burst into the TV studio and slaughters the team. Xavier lashes out in anger at the sentinels and psychically kills them all.

Back on the psychic plane, the local Xavier holds the bottle containing the Xavier head. He tells him that he’s too hard on himself but Xavier disagrees and says they should never give in like that. The local Xavier smiles and says that’s all he does but the team’s Xavier says he will stop him and all the Xaviers before they have a chance to… “A chance to what?” the local Xavier demands but the team’s Xavier starts resisting and refuses to tell. Xavier forces his way inside his head as the Xavier in the bottle screams in agony.

Back in the real world, Dazzler picks Xavier’s bottle up. He yells at her that the evil Xavier knows. When she asks what he knows, Xavier says he knows what he is hiding. A confused Dazzler asks what he’s talking about but, with a terrified look on his face, Xavier yells at her that she cannot let him live. Dazzler chucks Xavier to Kurt and tells him to teleport him out of there but don’t think about where he is going as the evil Xavier is listening.

As Kurt teleports away, the evil Xavier observes from further away and tells her that that was a bad move. But Dazzler replies and says that she’s Dazzler and all her moves rock. With that she creates a ball of light that creates light blasts. As beams of light slam down around Xavier’s gang they start to scatter. But Colossus picks up another rock and prepares to launch it at her. She intensifies the light beam on him and shatters the rock in his hand and causes the ground beneath him to become molten. Colossus yells in pain as he starts to sink down.

Elsewhere, Kurt starts teleporting around Danger and removing various nuts and bolts on her body until she is a pile of junk on the floor. Kurt looks to Dazzler and asks how that was. She tells him it was beautiful but then is distracted by the absence of the rest of the gang. When they look to find them, they hear yells coming from the farmhouse a little way off.

Kurt teleports them to the farmhouse and Dazzler immediately sends him away before Xavier can read his mind. Dazzler yells for Xavier to leave the family alone but Cyclops comes forward instead and tells her Xavier’s a little busy. She addresses him as Scott and tells him he doesn’t have to do this. He corrects her and says his name is Summers and he does. She replies that he isn’t being mind-controlled, he’s just broken but their Xavier can fix him. She pleads with him that, even though he’s probably a cold fish in every reality, he’s also a hero.

Cyclops starts stuttering and says that he remembers he spent a lot of time trying to do the right thing… but this is a lot easier. With that, he lets out an optic blast at Dazzler which she narrowly dodges out of the way from. As he fires another one, he tells her she isn’t strong enough and she knows it. She fires off small bursts at him and says if he really wants to be the strong man than he needs to be smart. One of her light-bolts hits his visor and breaks the leather strap holding it on.

Summers starts screaming as an uncontrollable blast comes from his eyes. Sabretooth comes from the farmhouse and rushes towards Dazzler. She gets to Summers and grabs his head and aims it at Sabretooth, who is promptly fired away by the optic blasts. With that, Summers passes out and slumps down on the floor.

Dazzler kicks down the door to the farmhouse and immediately blasts a gun out of Xavier’s hand. He turns around and yells for Howlett. Howlett, sporting a scar across his head, has tied up the family and stands over Jamie’s father and pops his claws. The evil Xavier smirks and tells Dazzler to bring him their Xavier and he will leave the family alone. Instead, Dazzler hits Howlett with a light blast, which causes his to fall backwards. Xavier tells her that she should have hit him first because now he is in her head and she’s not going to get a chance to fire the light blasts at him. As blood gushes from her nose she starts stutters and reaches out her hand. She finally makes a sentence and says she doesn’t have to, as she uses her light to cut the ropes holding Jamie down.

Jamie leaps forward towards Xavier with his bone claws unsheathed. But Howlett steps in the way and Jamie’s claws impale into his chest. Howlett throws Jamie on the floor as Xavier thanks him. Howlett turns around and says that he’s welcome but he didn’t do it for him. With that, he swipes his claws and takes Xavier’s head clean off. He looks down to Jamie, apologizes and says his brain has just finished healing. He crouches down to the boy and tells him that he shouldn’t kill anyone till he’s at least eighteen. Jamie promises he won’t.

(Two weeks later)

As Colossus and Sabretooth push Danger, who is in the form of a plough, they are singing along with Dazzler. As she leans against a fence Summers comes up to her and tells her he doesn’t remember Creed being so docile. He turns to Xavier and asks if he’s sure he’s fixed them. When he says “cross my heart,” Dazzler slyly points that he doesn’t have one.

A little way off at the water pump, Jamie and his family are also singing along. As Howlett and Kurt observe them, Dazzler comes up to them and says that Jamie seems to be okay so far. When Howlett asks what she means, she quotes him from earlier about telling Jamie not to kill until he’s eighteen. She then sarcastically tells him those are real high standards. He replies that he isn’t a miracle worker… that’s his parent’s job.

Xavier tells them that it’s time to go. As they start to shift between realities, Kurt looks back to Jamie and his parents. Xavier tells them to stay focused but Kurt suddenly sees his own family. He rushes towards them as the rest of his team yell for his to come back. He leaps through a portal and yells for his mother. However, when he gets to the other side, all he sees is an old family photo in a broken picture frame. As he turns around, he sees that he is surrounded by robots and realizes that he’s made a big mistake.

Characters Involved: 

Dazzler, Kid Nightcrawler, Howlett, Xavier (all X-Men)

Xavier, Colossus, Sabretooth, Danger, Cyclops

Jamie Howlett

Jamie’s mother and father

(In Dazzler’s memory)

Johnny Ito

(In Xavier’s memory)

Xavier

Jean Grey, Cyclops, Angel, Magneto

Party guests

TV production crew

Human sentinels

Story Notes: 

During the first jump the team did, Dazzler saw an image of Johnny Ito, a guy she had just began dating. In it, he hugged another woman. Then on the first world they landed on, she met an alternate reality Johnny who subsequently was seduced by the team’s Emmaline Frost-Summers. [X-treme X-Men (2nd Series) #1-3]

Issue Information: 
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