X-Treme X-Men (2nd series) #12

Issue Date: 
May 2013
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Greg Pak (Writer), Andre Araujo (Art), Jessica Kholinne and Gloria Caeli (Colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (Letters), Kalman Andrasofoszky (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: 

The team is pretending to be captured slaves. They are escorted to a Sphinx-like monument with the head of Xavier. One of the eyes of the Sphinx is a portal that is flashing with energy. They see three slaves get thrown into the portal and then reduced to bones, so that the evil Xaviers can gain more power. That evening, Dazzler admits that she got it all wrong. She wasn’t committed to killing the Xaviers; she only wanted to stop them. Now the entire multiverse is at risk. She says she has a plan and that she won’t pull her punches anymore. Any one of them could have to kill and any one of them could die. With her new attitude, the team executes their plan. The next day, Hercules creates a distraction and lots of sound. Dazzler powers up and blasts the evil Xaviers. Hercules traps two of them and Dazzler gets hold of the floating head Xavier. He tells her he was being controlled by the other two, which Sage confirms. With the other two contained for a while, Dazzler and Cyclops use their powers to blast the portal. They seem to destroy it, as the Xaviers break free, however the portal suddenly explodes into life and the Xaviers say they actually have fed it. When they try to tap into the portal’s power, the two Xaviers are killed. The portal then starts sucking everything in around it. Seeing that the world is doomed, the floating head Xavier teleports his team out of there. On the other side of the portal, a group of beings get ready to invade.

Full Summary: 

(Kemet, The Ghiza Plateau, The other side of the multiverse)

A bunch of chained people are being escorted along a barren, desert-like landscape. One of the men, a priest, says that the prophecy will be overturned because there is a crack in the eye of God. One of the slavers tells him to shut up but he continues and says it is a window to the world before creation.

The slaver, a dog-like humanoid, hits him with a spear and the priest falls to the ground, coming face to face with the remains of another person. Cyclops helps him to his feet but is beaten down himself for his troubles. Also hidden amongst the slaves is the rest of the team. Hercules tells Dazzler that her plan of pretending to be captured to get into heart of the enemy territory is good but he doesn’t think Cyclops will stand it for much longer. She quietly tells him she won’t either but she’s pretty sure they have arrived at the place. They walk over the brow of a hill to see a Sphinx-like monument with the head of Xavier on it. It is still under construction with slaves and slavers working around it. The left eye of the Sphinx is flashing with a bright blue light.

Kurt asks Sage what she thinks the eye on the Sphinx is. She tells him every world has its own nexus of transdimensional potential but that is something different. It’s a rift; something is breaking through and the energy on the other side is terrifying. Howlett summarizes that the eye is what the evil Xavier’s are after and Dazzler asks where they are. Sage says they are near but she can’t pinpoint them without revealing their presence. Dazzler asks why they haven’t seized the power yet but Sage hushes her as something is happening.

One of the slavers yells for three more and, up high next to the eye, another slaver opens the door to a cabin and pulls three slaves out. He then throws them into the flashing eye and they scream as they are reduced to bones. Dazzler is shocked and Sage tries to calm her down before she blows their cover. Cyclops tells her there is nothing she could have done as Dazzler spots the evil Xaviers. They are standing next to the portal but Sage tells her not to attack them yet. Dazzler says it’s what they came there for but Sage replies they have gotten too strong. It looks like they are getting stronger too… the Witch King… the Nazi… and the floating head. They are working together, tapping into what’s on the other side of the portal. They watch as the Nazi Xavier uses his staff to draw power from the portal and empower himself. He then uses it to make it rain as tears run down the cheeks of the floating head Xavier. Sage admits the team is not ready for this.

Later that evening as it rains, the team sits around a campfire. Dazzler apologizes and says she screwed it up. Howlett asks what she’s talking about. She says they were sent on a mission to save the multiverse from ten evil Xaviers. Kurt points out that’s what they’re doing, they are figuring out the best plan. But Dazzler says they are in this mess because at every step she pulled her punches. She tells Cyclops he had her pegged the minute he got there. She’s not a killer. She may have talked big but she never wanted to kill any of the Xaviers; she just wanted to stop them. Now the Xaviers are going to do to everyone else, maybe even the universe, what they did to the slaves earlier.

So, she will make a plan and send them into battle. Anyone of them might be the one who has to kill without hesitation and any one of them might be killed. She puts her arm around Kurt and says that, if she survives and they don’t, then she will hate herself. But that’s not going to stop her. They are going to see her cut loose like never before because the stakes are too high. Too many people will die if they fail. They have to kill the evil Xaviers… nothing else matters. Hercules smiles and says the end of the world fight to the death is his favorite way to go. When he asks dazzler what she needs, she reminds him that she turns sound into light, so let’s start with a little noise.

As dawn breaks the next day, the Nazi Xavier wearily looks out from his cabin and says he is hungry. The slavers start yelling for three more slaves but they are suddenly distracted by the ground shaking and a rumbling sound. Hercules is using his immense strength to punch the ground. The slavers yell for him to stop but they are attacked by Kurt, Sage and Cyclops. Hercules continues to hit the ground and then yells to the other slaves and asks if they are slaves or men. He screams to let the monsters hear their roar.

The slaves rush forward, creating even more sound. Amongst them, Dazzler absorbs the sounds and then rises up into the air and unleashes her power. Standing at the top of the Sphinx, the Witch King Xavier yells down to her and says she killed them before and it didn’t do much good. Now they are a hundred times more powerful. Before he can finish, Dazzler tells him to shut up and fires a beam of light at him. It blows up their cabin and sends the Xaviers flying. The slaves cheer as the Nazi and Witch King Xavier collide with a pyramid and slide down to the ground.

The Witch King says they have barely tapped into a fraction of the power and now her greatest blow can’t scratch them. He starts to say there’s nothing they can do, but he is distracted by a shadow looming over him. Hercules ripped off the top of the pyramid and it lands on the two Xavier.

The floating Xavier is hurtling through the air but he is caught by Dazzler. He thanks her but she calls him a traitor. He said he had no choice as they were controlling him but he managed to keep them off the team’s trail. Still flying high in the air, she throws the head down to Howlett and tells him to kill him the second he smells funny. Xavier says that if he were still under their control, he would have exploded her head by now. Dazzler asks Sage what she thinks. Sage tells her she’s not detecting any outside psionic presences on him and, if he were helping them, then it explains why the other Xaviers didn’t detect them.

Cyclops alerts them to the evil Xaviers who are struggling against Hercules. The demi-god is throwing rocks on top of the pile he already has on them but they are trying to break through. Dazzler asks their Xavier how to close the portal but he replies they don’t. He says the multiverse is broken and healing the rift is beyond their capability. When she asks what they do then, he tells her to kill whatever is on the other side. She asks what is on the other side but he tells her he has no idea. Whatever it is responds to sacrifices by offering up some of its power. So guesses that it’s evil but Xavier replies that he didn’t say that. For all they know, there are billions of innocents on the other side but the evil Xaviers are virtually unstoppable. They can’t let them feed one more time.

As he says that, the two Xaviers break free, sending Hercules flying backwards. Cyclops and Dazzler decide to fire their powers into the portal. As they do so they hear a screaming coming from it but Xavier tells them not to stop. The two Xaviers fly over to them saying they can’t do it. But dazzler stands triumphant and says they just did. The flashing light has no gone from the Sphinx. As she turns her attention to the two Xaviers, she doesn’t notice the portal sparkle again. It explodes, destroying the Sphinx’s head and sending the team flying backwards.

The two Xaviers float high in the air next to the portal, which is bigger than ever. The witch King says they just fed it and they will now accept its gift. The Nazi Xavier uses his staff to draw power from the portal but it unleashes a huge beam of energy and vaporizes both of them. Amongst the rubble down below, Hercules comments on how that was an ending. Xavier says it’s only just begun as the ground starts to shake.

The portal then starts sucking everything around it into it. All the rubble and slaves from around the Sphinx is lifted into the air and pulled towards it. A devastated Dazzler tries to grab onto a woman and her baby but Xavier tells the team to stay close as they are jumping. Dazzler screams for him to stop but it’s too late and they start to fade away, causing the woman to get sucked into the portal.

As the team fly through the multiverse, Dazzler asks Xavier what he did. He said he could only teleport their team but Dazzler says they should have stayed to fight. He tells Dazzler he heard what she said… any one of them might have to kill and any one of them might die. She did what she could but there was no way they could deal with what was coming out of that portal. That world is gone; no they better hope they can save the multiverse.

Elsewhere, the slave woman and her child have ended up somewhere dark. A light comes from behind them as a squad of sinister looking beings advance on her.

Characters Involved: 

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

Nazi Xavier

Witch King Xavier

Numerous slaves

Numerous slavers

Priest

Slave woman and child

Shadowed beings in the portal

Story Notes: 

This team has now witnessed the deaths of nine Xaviers.

Squid Xavier – Issue #1

Steampunk Xavier – Issue #3

Cowboy Xavier – Issue #5

Dinosaur Xavier – Unseen between issues #5 and 8.

Acanti Skywhale Xavier – Issue #7.1

616 Xavier – Avengers vs X-Men #11

Unicorn/Demon Xavier – Issue #8

Witch King – Issue #9 and again in issue #12

Nazi Xavier – Issue #11 and again in issue #12

Sorcerer Xavier had possessed the bodiless Xavier and then used his powers to reform himself and resurrect the Nazi Xavier in the last issue.

This story is continued in X-termination #1. It is the beginning of the X-termination crossover between Astonishing X-Men (3nd series) and Age of Apocalypse.

Issue Information: 
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