The X-Men have been joined by a new member of the team, sent to them by Nick Fury himself, known as the Magician, whose powers can warp reality like nothing doing. For him, anything is possible, and the rest of the team finds him very useful when it comes to fighting bad guys. Handsome, personable and very, very powerful, the women on the team all love him.
But when Nick Fury comes back to claim him for the Ultimates, and says he didn't know about the guy until he saw him in action with the X-Men, Professor Xavier knows something is very wrong with the Magician. With all the powers available to himself and the team, none of them saw through him until this moment. Could his powers be more than even the team he chose to align himself to can handle? And can they take care of him without him destroying them with ease?
Meanwhile, Jean Gray, Phoenix, is in isolation, being checked over by Professor X after she attacked Lilandra. But can he trust her to suppress the side of her that is destructive, as she has done so far, or is she slipping out of control once again?
Finally, Nightcrawler had been tapped by the Weapon X program to become their newest superwarrior, also known as X-3, but now that he is part of the X-Men, can he overcome that killing part of him when it comes to his teammates, or is he slowly being driven crazy by the strain of being a super-assassin? And when he abducts Dazzler from her bed in the hospital, can the others find out who is to blame and rescue her before Kurt twists her around to his own way of thinking?
This was an interesting book, partly due to the fact that the team finally runs into the one mutant who is more powerful than any of them. How do you deal with someone whose wishes become reality? Can you even kill someone like that if he doesn't want it? And how *do* you deal with him? In the end, the X-men manage to make him go away, but as we see, it isn't really the end. Will they encounter the Magician again in the future? Who knows, but the possibility is there.
As for the second story, the whole Nightcrawler as Weapon X thing came at me out of left field. I don't like that the Ultimates Universe changed Nightcrawler from a consummate ladies' man and gentleman into a monster who has no qualms about killing. And while just about anything is an improvement on the original Dazzler, I didn't like or enjoy this plot thread at all. And I certainly didn't like that they killed off Gambit so early either. He was, after all, one of my favorite characters.
The backup story in this issue is why Xavier's cat is named Mystique and who gave him the cat. The four-page short was cute and to the point, and a nice counterpoint to the grim story of Nightcrawler.
Gonna buy this graphic novel? I'd save my money. The stories are rather forgettable, with nothing to recommend them. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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