Analyses by David

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Mutant Massacre

  • Note: The original Jean has returned whose idea it was to reunite the original members of the X-men and call themselves X-Factor. She has friction with Cyclops after he left his wife and son, Madelyne Pryor and Nathan, who he began a family with after Phoenix-Jean’s death in the Dark Phoenix Saga

  • Magneto, now Headmaster of Xavier’s Institute, is offered the position of White King in the Hellfire Club by Sebastian Shaw to combine their strengths against potential threats and enemies like Freedom Force, X-Factor, and Nimrod. Magneto thinks about it

  • The mutant Tommy, a girl who can render her form 2D and become as flat as paper and a member of the Morlocks, a group of mutant outcasts who live in the sewers of NYC, is killed by a group known as the Marauders

  • Freedom Force attempts to apprehend Rusty Collins for accidentally burning a woman when his ability manifested while in the Navy

  • Freedom Force is Mystique’s former Brotherhood of Mutants who made a deal to work for the government and capture super-powered criminals

  • X-Factor (the original 5 X-men Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Beast, and Angel), who took Rusty in when his mutation manifested, realize he’s in trouble and head to Central Park

  • Rusty’s friend Skids leads him to Madison Avenue and 67th where they can access the Morlock tunnels as Skids is a Morlock

  • They are confronted by Freedom Force who capture them momentarily until they are intercepted by regular people and X-Factor who are expected by the people to hunt mutants down: X-Factor is managed by Cameron Hodge and financed by Angel to be mutant protectors under the guise of being human mutant-hunters

  • Freedom Force follows Rusty and Skids into the tunnels using Destiny’s precognitive ability. X-Factor, none the wiser, departs

  • At X-Factor’s complex they see that Rusty has not returned and another mutant, Artie Maddicks, projected his thoughts on a wall, letting X-Factor know that he went into the tunnels to look for Rusty

  • X-Factor go into the tunnels as the X-Terminators

  • Artie is guided by the Morlock Leech to the Morlock Caliban. Leech cancels out mutants’ powers and Caliban can locate and pinpoint any mutant within a certain range

  • X-Terminators and Freedom Force scrap in the tunnels over Rusty and Skids. Freedom Force leaves after Destiny foresees death

  • Jean, Angel, and Skids take an injured Rusty back to X-Factor HQ while Cyclops, Iceman, and Beast continue to search for Artie

  • Mystique plans to sabotage Angel’s reputation by telling reporter Trish Tilby that he’s an evil mutant for financing X-Factor

  • The Marauders begin their massacre in the tunnels. There are 10 members in the group:


  • Vertigo (powerful sensations of dizziness and incoordination)

  • Scrambler (can disrupt a mutant’s abilities)

  • Sabretooth (stronger version of Wolverine)

  • Riptide (can become a living tornado)

  • Scalphunter (skilled assassin, can create numerous weapons from armor)

  • Prism (can transform body into crystal)

  • Malice (incorporeal form, able to possess others; currently not with other members and targeting Dazzler above ground)

  • Harpoon (throws energy-charged spears)

  • Blockbuster (super strong)

  • Arclight (seismic waves) 


  • A Morlock travels 64 km north to the Xavier Institute in upstate NY to tell the X-men of the attack. Betsy Braddock, a telepathic mutant recently rescued by the X-men, tells them she has seen a massacre in the Morlock tunnels 

  • Magik (Colossus’ sister) teleports herself, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Rogue to the tunnels

  • Riptide takes Nightcrawler down who was still weak from a battle with Nimrod

  • Storm tells Magik to take Nightcrawler and the wounded Morlocks back to the mansion. She orders the rest of the team to split up and find more Morlocks

  • While Storm, Wolverine, and Rogue lead unwounded Morlocks to the mansion by foot, they are alerted to the presence of Beast, Iceman, and Cyclops

  • Rogue and Scrambler neutralize each other. Harpoon then attempts to stab Rogue but Kitty jumps in the way and phases herself and Rogue so the harpoon can pass through them

  • After killing Riptide by Colossus snapping his neck, the team notices that Kitty is unable to take a corporeal form again 

  • After Scrambler and Harpoon flee, Storm orders a retreat to the mansion while Wolverine is assigned to find a Marauder to interrogate

  • Jean, Angel, Rusty, and Skids make it to X-Factor HQ

  • As Caliban, Artie, and Leech are walking through the tunnels towards the commotion, Caliban is attacked by Sabretooth while Artie and Leech hide

  • Cyclops knocks Sabretooth out momentarily then leaves as Artie just misses him, Iceman, and Beast, being told to keep quiet by Leech in a hole

  • On public television, Angel is exposed that he is the financial backer of X-Factor- a mutant who hires human mutant-hunters to hunt other mutants

  • Iceman, Cyclops, and Beast save a few more Morlocks from Vertigo and Blockbuster

  • Artie comes out of the hole to get away from Leech just enough to use his ability to physically visualize where they are

  • Jean and Angel return to the tunnels after Rusty recovers and Skids is able to supervise him. This happens after Angel’s girlfriend Candy Southern walks in on Angel comforting Jean and becomes jealous

  • As Sabretooth and Harpoon are about to attack a Morlock named Plague, a mysterious being knocks Harpoon out while Plague touches Sabretooth that, save for his healing factor, would have killed him. The being tells Plague that she shall now be Pestilence, first Horseman of Apocalypse, then they disappear

  • Beast and Scrambler take each other out. Prism uses his crystalline body to deflect Cyclops’ optic blast back at him and knocks him out. Jean then telekinetically shatters Prism against a wall. Prism also managed to blind Iceman by glowing brightly 

  • Jean takes the decommissioned Beast and Cyclops with her along with Iceman leaving Angel in the tunnels alone to look for Artie

  • He finds Artie but is then outnumbered by Vertigo, Blockbuster, and Harpoon who pin Angel and mutilate his wings

  • The New Mutants back at the mansion notice a hole which was made by Lockheed, Kitty’s dragon companion, who is headed towards their training facility. They follow him

  • Magik teleports to Muir Island and shows Moira Mactaggert the situation in NY as Rogue, Storm, and Colossus simultaneously return to the mansion through the New Mutants’ training room. Moira and Magik arrive shortly after

  • Moira sets up her medical equipment in the hangar where the X-jet is kept. The New Mutants assist

  • Magik teleports Karma to go see her family. After not returning for some time, the New Mutants become concerned and plan to go to Manhattan through the tunnels 

  • They arrive in the city to find Karma’s apartment building in flames due to an explosion but Magik and Karma are ok thanks to Magik

  • While back in the tunnels, the team briefly meets Warlock’s father Magus who intends to infect them with the Transmode virus and turn them into Technarchs- his and Warlock’s race

  • The current New Mutants team roster is:


  • Cannonball (Sam Guthrie)

  • Mirage (Dani Moonstar)

  • Sunspot (Bobby Dacosta)

  • Magik (Illyana Rasputin)

  • Cipher (Doug Ramsay)

  • Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)

  • Warlock (Technarch alien)

  • Karma (Shan)

  • Magma (Amara Olivians) 


  • The story changes to Thor’s point of view who returns to Earth from Asgard. Two frogs, Puddlegulp and Bugeye who knew Thor during his time as a frog (due to Loki’s spell and called Throg), tell him about the massacre in the Morlock tunnels. He goes in

  • Thor finds Angel pinned and fends and scares off Harpoon, Blockbuster, and Vertigo 

  • We shift to the point of view of Power Pack and Franklin Richards- a team of 4 child siblings with abilities and Reed and Sue Richards’ son

  • Franklin dreams of Leech in the tunnels and manifests a visual of the dream which Power Pack sees. The Power Pack siblings are Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie Power in that order of age from oldest to youngest

  • They go into the tunnels and encounter Sabretooth who they luckily manage to escape from. They then encounter Wolverine who is tracking Sabretooth and tells Power Pack to get out of the tunnels which they promise to do but turn back on their word to continue looking for Leech

  • X-Terminators go back into the tunnels as Power Pack finds Leech. Power Pack is then attacked by Arclight, Harpoon, and Scrambler 

  • The 3 Marauders are fended off as Cyclops and Jean arrive. They give Leech and an unconscious Caliban to Iceman and Beast to take back to X-Factor HQ. Power Pack and Franklin return home

  • Harpoon, Blockbuster, and Vertigo return for a rematch against Thor and are beaten again. He takes Angel down

  • He finds Artie and is attacked by Blockbuster. After Thor shrugs off a snapped arm, Blockbuster is hit with Mjolnir right in the face, possibly killed

  • Thor, Angel, and Artie run into Cyclops and Jean. Jean and Cyclops take the latter two while Thor stays to pick up the slain Morlocks

  • Feeling that she failed the Morlocks as their leader, Storm takes a leave of absence from the mansion to clear her head

  • Betsy Braddock telepathically calls in Rogue from the tunnels through Cerebro to inform her of Storm’s distress and Colossus’ sudden fainting

  • Rogue flies off to find Storm while Wolverine is ambushed in the tunnels. Colossus experiences metallic misalignment with his mutation from Harpoon’s energy spear. Magneto uses his powers to keep Colossus stable

  • Wolverine finds himself one-on-one with Sabretooth

  • Callisto (former leader of the Morlocks) switches places to talk sense into Storm

  • Wolverine brings the tunnel down on top of Sabretooth and saves the Morlock he had in his clutches. Storm regains her courage. The Morlock is a healer who is taken to Moira by Wolverine and Rogue

  • Just as they make it back to the terminal that connects the tunnels to the X-mansion they experience a mysterious very hot heat wave

  • As Iceman and Beast are carrying Leech and Caliban to X-Factor’s HQ, they’re suddenly attacked by vengeful Morlocks. Cyclops, Jean, and Artie intervene and learn that the attackers are not Morlocks but Tunnelers who cease the attacks 

  • After first refusing the X-Terminator’s protection against the Marauders, the Tunnelers agree to go with them. They leave once they realize it’s X-Factor

  • They go into the streets where 4 total get into a scrap with humans and all but 1 die

  • In an Atlanta hospital, the same mysterious being who recruited Plague to become Pestilence takes a soldier named Abraham in an iron lung to be the Horseman of War

  • X-Factor is informed by a doctor that Angel’s wings will have to be amputated 

  • A Daredevil sub-story wherein Sabretooth is provoked by a kid hanging out with a gang in the vacated tunnels to find and kill Daredevil after the kid speaks highly of him

  • Sabretooth finds him and they fight. Daredevil manages to keep him at bay with his superior acrobatic and martial arts skills though it only makes Sabretooth angry. He inexplicably leaves, leaving his captive woman there for DD to untie and take out of the tunnels 

  • Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, and Callisto seek the New Mutants in the tunnels who haven’t been seen since going to get Magik and Karma

  • Sabretooth attacks the X-Mansion after incapacitating Rogue and attacks Betsy next. Storm and Wolverine return. Wolverine and Sabretooth battle across the mansion grounds

  • While Sabretooth and Wolverine are distracted, Betsy uses her telepathy to peer into Sabretooth’s mind and sees that they have a history. She also sees the master of the Marauders 

  • Thanks to the knowledge Betsy gathered on the Marauders, she is unofficially recognized as an X-man by Wolverine and Storm. Her codename is Psylocke

  • The last major part of the story sees Wolverine, Storm, Psylocke, and Rogue help Dazzler overcome Malice who is expelled with telepathy and Storm’s willpower when she attempts to overtake her. She is last seen possessing a man on a rooftop