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X-Men Battle of the Atom # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

We're gonna try to make June, Marvel month and showcase some of these classic epic stories. Now there might still be blog posts of other things, but there will be one Marvel post every day for this month.

Now for this story, this happened around the time that Beast brought back the Original 6 X-Men from the past into modern days to show the modern day mutants how jaded they have become. At this point the characters are adjusting to living in modern day alongside their future selves. To make it even more confusing... this story will bring in Future X-Men as well. Past, present and future, all interacting, all at the same time. Let's take a look.



The issue opens up with Iilyana (AKA Magik and Colossus' sister) using her powers to go into the future. At this time, Xavier is dead (at the end of Avengers VS X-Men), the X-Men of the past are in the present without caring how they might affect the present, and the X-Men are divided (some follow Cyclops, others follow Wolverine) so she wondered if there was a future worth fighting for. She sees the future being full of Sentinels with the X-Men of the future trying to fight them off.

Back to modern day in 'The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning', the Classic X-Men are having lunch and Jean stops Ice Man from starting a food fight. Kitty Pryde guides them as their professor and is surprised to get a message from Cerebro. Kitty explains that the original Cerebro was created by Professor X, but the current version was created by Hank McCoy, and Classic Beast admires his future handiwork. The X-Men notice a new mutant in Phoenix Arizona and Kitty warns that this is a very powerful one.


In Phoenix a mutant woman, angry at the world is using her new-found powers to create all sorts of reptile monsters to attack people. Kitty leads the Classic X-Men to fight her. Beast, Jean and Cyclops fight off the monsters to save them from the innocent bystanders, while Iceman checks her out. Jean reads her mind and sees that the woman calls herself Animax, real name Blake Schiel, and has a long life of an abusive family and being in and out of jail. Iceman says the desert heat is affecting his powers, and Cyclops determines they're wasting time fighting the monster and have to take Animax down directly. Just then Sentinels show up.

Despite the X-Men wanting to fight them, Kitty manages to hold on to all of them so they could all be intangible with her. The Sentinels fire blasts upon them, but due to Kitty's powers, they're all alive. Cyclops sees innocent people stuck in some debris and runs off to save them, despite Kitty's warning. However, Cyclops gets blasted by one of the Sentinels.

 Cyclops is sent flying into a wall. Jean is worried but Kitty holds her back. Cyclops gets up and sees the Sentinels ready to finish him off. Just then a big red blast destroys the Sentinels. It's the Uncanny X-Men, among them Magik, Magneto, the Classic Angel and led by modern day Cyclops. Kitty wonders when Cyclops could fire such wide optic blasts and Cyclops asks why she took time-displaced mutants out on some such dangerous missions when they're not properly trained for combat.


The X-Men all destroy the Sentinels. After seeing all of this, Animax raises her hands and gives up stating she just recieved her powers. Classic Cyclops says it's good to have two of him around when suddenly one of the broken Sentinel heads 'wakes up' and eye-blasts him to death. As Classic Cyclops dies, Emma calls for Christopher Muse. Modern Cyclops vanishes and everything starts turning blurry and fuzzy as Chris tries to heal Classic Cyclops.

Jean is relieved that Classic Cyclops is alright, and Chris is astonished that he was able to bring him back. Modern Cyclops returns and asks what just happened. Magneto and Emma explain that Classic Cyclops died, and thus Modern Cyclops ceased to exist, but Christopher brought him back. Both Cyclops stare at each other, and Magik prepares to warp everyone away since the police are showing up. Animax is left wondering who the hell all these people are.


Later on at Jean's School, Kitty, Storm, Wolverine, Modern Iceman and Modern Beast all decide that it's time for the Classic X-Men to go home. The young mutants are confused, but Classic Beast understands that their stay will jeopardize the time-space continuum. Classic Cyclops doesn't want to return since Xavier will mind-wipe them and they'll forget all their future adventures. Jean also doesn't want to leave and face her fate. Kitty apologizes but they have to go. Classic Cyclops considers this damning them to live out their pre-determined fates. Wolverine tells him that that's the way fate works and reminds him that he almost died again. Classic Cyclops says it was worth it and asks Wolverine what he would he do if he was in his place. Wolverine is silent.

Just then the Time Cube is activated, without Modern Beast having touched it. Everyone is confused but realize that something else is coming through. The Future X-Men arrive, surprising everyone. Future Beast says they came to stop them from making a terrible mistake that will end their species.


My Opinions- 

The Marvel Universe changes quite a bit and when I revisited them at this time, September of 2013, I was surprised by the concept of the Classic X-Men co-existing with their modern day selves. At this point, Cyclops is practically a villain that the X-Men still follow for whatever reason. I mean how can they follow him after he killed Xavier in the Avengers VS X-Men arc? One can only wonder what Classic Cyclops thinks when he finds out that he turned out to be that insane.

I remember that when I first read this, I did like Kitty Pryde's bigger role. She went from being the nervous new girl back in the day, to now being a leader and ironically, now she is the older adult in comparison to the younger versions of the people that first took her in.

I know Animax was a throwaway villain, but I did like her small role and wish she somehow got dragged along for the ride.


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