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X-Men Battle of the Atom part 2 (All-New X-Men # 16)

By Mark Rodriguez

The X-Men are dealing with the Original 6 X-Men from the past co-existing with their modern day selves. After a brush with the Sentinels, Classic Cyclops is killed and modern day Cyclops starts to fade from existence. Luckily Classic Cyclops is quickly resurrected but proved that it was time to send the X-Men Classics back to their timeline. Just then, Future X-Men arrive to warn them that sending them back will be a horrible mistake!


The story opens in Xavier's secret school where Magneto is showing everyone footage from their recent fight against the Sentinels. Classic Angel asks where these giant robots are coming from and Celeste blames SHIELD. Cyclops notices that Chris is still rattled by being able to bring back someone to life. Cyclops tries to comfort him but Chris says the X-Men are so used to time and space and life and death it doesn't seem to phase them anymore. Cyclops says he knows exactly how crazy his life is and everywhere he turns there's something to remind him.

Back to Jean's School, the X-Men of the Future say the present day X-Men really did mess up everything. Wolverine asks what terrible mistake did they cause this time. Classic Iceman asks if the giant ice monster is supposed to be him in the future, and Modern Iceman is shocked to think that might be him. One of the future X-Men removed his hood, revealing himself to be Xavier, the grandson of the original. He says their biggest mistake was to bring the Classic X-Men to the present time and let them live there.

Wolverine asks about Future Beast that now has curved horn on the left side of his head. Both Classic and Modern Beasts are fascinated by their future. The older woman is actually Kitty Pryde all grown up. The guy in red hugs and kisses Wolverine, and he shoves him off, recognizing him as Deadpool. The big tall woman is Molly Hayes. Classic Iceman asks if the giant ice monster is really him.


Wolverine asks them what exactly made them break the rules to come back in time for. Future Kitty says the Classic X-Men shouldn't have been brought to this time. Xavier says if they send back right now they might prevent a series of events from happening. Wolverine unleashes his claws for some reason and the Future Iceman attacks him. Everyone tries to calm the ice monster down since they don't want a fight to break out in the lab. Classic and Modern Iceman make two ice barriers to separate everybody.

Wolverine swears it wasn't him, something got control of his arms, and the only one that could do that is Jean. Classic Iceman turns to see that Classic Jean and Cyclops are gone.

We go back two minutes where Classic Jean speaks telepathically to Classic Beast saying that she can't read the minds of any of the Future X-Men. Classic Beast says if one of them really is related to Xavier, he's probably blocking their minds from being scanned telepathically. probably from preventing her from knowing too much about her future. Jean doesn't trust them and says they should leave, but Classic Beast is too fascinated by all this and wants to stay. She turns to Classic Cyclops and tells them they should leave and he agrees. Then she uses to her powers to make Wolverine pop out his claws and cause the distraction.

The X-Men look for Jean and Cyclops, but they already got away in the Blackbird. Xavier tells Classic Beast that he 'chose wisely'. Classic Iceman asks what are they going to do next.

As Jean and Cyclops fly off, Jean doesn't know exactly where they're going and Cyclops reminds her that Wolverine will be able to track their jet. Jean doesn't trust the Future X-Men and says this new world is full of lies and people trying to manipulate everybody. She knows if she goes back she's going to a death sentence, and if Xavier tries to wipe their minds, she won't let him since her powers are growing stronger every day. Jean says this is the only second chance they have.


Wolverine heads out to find them. Storm asks why Jean would run off like that. Wolverine says she must have picked up someone's thoughts she didn't like. Xavier says he was blocking her from reading their thoughts since she shouldn't know too much about her future. The woman with the skull mask says something like this might have happened since Jean is in a delicate emotional state. Storm asks who she is.

Just then Rachel Grey bursts in and demands to know who the woman with the skull mask is, since the last person who wore it was the one that killed Jean Grey in this very school. The woman apologizes and takes off her mask revealing herself to be..... Jean Grey!!! Yep... we'd knew she'd be back.


Elsewhere on some random beach, some random dude jogs along the beach with his dog and finds the abandoned Blackbird jet. Classic Scott and Jean are on the lamb.

My Opinions-

Wow, what an issue... and what a bunch of screw ups the Future X-Men are. They came back to the past to stop them from sending the Classic X-Men back to their time period... to tell them that they must send the Classic X-Men back to their time period... What? And then their sudden visit gave Jean the chance to create a distraction so she and Cyclops could get away. It seems they were better off NOT coming to the past since they were about to send the Classic X-Men back ANYWAY. Seriously, I'm surprised when they said 'you must send them back to their right timeline, NOW' someone didn't say 'we were just going to....'.

I remember some people in message boards complaining about how selfish Classic Jean was during this story, but c'mon, she's a teen. The heroes can't selflessly throw themselves onto live grenades to save others all the time. I mean, imagine being sent to the future and finding out you were going to die sometime before, and if you go back to your timeline Mr. McAvoy is will wipe your memories so you won't be able to act any different to prevent your own death. That's the kind of mess that Jean finds herself in.

However, she should have found some other way to distract everyone than making Wolverine pop out his claws. With so many hot heads in the room, someone could have gotten killed.

The Future X-Men are an interesting lot. Future X-Men can't even talk or reason anymore it seems.

Also, you just gotta love Deadpool.


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