First, the spoilers:
- Apocalypse is gathering his thoughts in some garden, and Genesis comes to see him.
- She somewhat mocks him for being weak and peaceful. He replies by asking her why she is carrying the Twilight Sword.
- She says it's just a tool. Powerful, but not really important. She then offers to hell him what really happened to them in Amenth.
- It's exactly the same art from X-Men #12. The story is very similar to the one told by Summoner, but with some key differences.
- Genesis says that Arakkoans do theorize why Apocalypse stayed behind, but that it does not matter because they (she and Apocalypse) know the truth (He wasn't strong enough).
- One detail that Summoner didn't mention was that about 1/10th of the mutants lost their minds as soon as they entered Amenth and were lost to the wasteland. Genesis says it was hundreds of them.
- Apparently Isca begged Genesis to come parlay with Amenth.
- Genesis reveals that those mutants lost thousands of years ago had been captured by the demons, and bred with them to create Mutant Demon hybrids.
- She actually defeated Annihilation, not the other way around. Except that there was a catch.
- Turns out, someone must always wear the helm. Otherwise, the demons go mad and destroy everything until they die. If anyone has ever played WoW this is very similar to the "There must always be a Lich King".
- Genesis refused to wear the helm for 100 years, and for those 100 years the true (because before they had been somewhat restrained) horde attacked Arakko.
- Just like Summoner said, they hoped that Apocalypse had created a stronger mutant society. However the difference is that Genesis expected Apocalypse to get there on his own.
- She didn't want to reopen the way back to Earth/Krakoa. When she saw this had happened, she decided to put on the helm. She doesn't explicitly say this, but I think she did it to stop the horde from going to Earth.
- However, she was unable to control the helm. While she isn't a zombie, she wants want the helm was, which is everything.
- That's why the attacked Dryador, and why they want Krakoa.
- Apocalypse asks her to fight it, but she says even she isn't strong enough.
- We get a data page with some more info
- The mutants of Amenth seem to be prisoners. The "Vile school" seem to have them under their control, by mentally searching for insurrections and by depowering them. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the Vile School is made up of the mutant-demon hybrids.
- The last prophet of Arakko had one last prophecy "Only under the black moon will the two become one. A white light will judge them, and a red land will see them split forever."
I had read elsewhere that this was another retelling of the same story from X-Men #12 and #13, and it is. It's particularly sad that they reused all of the art from #12. I get what they were going for, but it still feels lazy. Having said that, I did like knowing more about Genesis and what had gone down with Amenth. It's still more build up, but at least it sounds like it's the last of it.
I am beginning to think that Isca is playing a really long game of 5th dimensional chess. The fact that she "begged" Genesis to come talk to Amenth may mean that this is all part of her plan, and that she is doing all of this in order to "win".
The whole story of Arakko reminded me a lot of Moira's 9th life.
Apocalypse created a great mutant society. Built cities, and they seemed to be prospering. But then it turns out that those battles they had won against the machines were just the humans buying time. They had turned themselves into a machine-human hybrid that would eventually mean the mutants defeat. Krakoa fell.
Genesis created a great mutant society. Build the walls and towers, and they seemed to be prospering. But then it turns out that those battles they had won against the horde were just the demons buying time. They had created demon-mutant hybrids that would eventually mean their defeat. Arakko fell.
I think there are still some holes in Genesis' story. In particular the part with the White Sword. He didn't seem crazy at all in Stasis, so I don't get why they would battle. I am beginning to wonder if we'll get a 4th retelling of this story from the White Sword's PoV.