We start with the preview pages in The Vulture’s Orchis base.
He pays Sable and her team for capturing their mark and orders the men to assemble a firing squad to shoot their captive. “No headshots, of course. We’ll need a brain to dissect if we’re going to figure out how he hides from our scanners.” Lovely.
Sable’s team depart, apart from Kramer and Sable and the mind control device is mentioned. Kramer removes his helmet to reveal, as we all guessed, Kurt.
And the Kurt in captivity is, of course, Mystique, who can alter her appearance down to the genetic level, as revealed in Xmen Blue. She is also concealing weapons. Sable and Raven go on their happy rampage while Kurt goes looking for Warlock, who is the resource Orchis/The Vulture are using to enslave mutants and turn them into hounds.
The computer system is in accessible but Ghost Bamf has another idea; the Orchis operative reduced to a zombie when he tried to access Raven’s mind. Raven and Sable flirt. Ghost Bamf enters the mind of the Orchis guy and pilots him to get through the computer firewall, which frees…
Warlock! Hurrah!
Warlock reabsorbs his code, stollen by the Orchis Hounds, freeing them from Orchis influence too. But he can’t absorb The Vulture’s as he has the source code.
Vulture attacks, augmented, he takes down Warlock, Raven, Sable. But not Kurt’s hope sword.
“We won’t ever make it work, we won’t ever buy the dignity that puts us all on a level, instead of in layers, if we continue to normalise the hatred of bitter old men.”
The sword downs Vulture, allowing Warlock to reabsorb his code.
Wrap up. Warlock accesses the Orchis files, including ones exonerating Kurt. Orchis are massing outside the Gate in Central Park, Kurt needs to know where they are if he’s to ‘port them out, they could be off world for all they know. Warlock confirms that they are 2.63 metres below the X-men’s tree house, they are still in New York. Kurt uses the Orchis mind control gizmo they have planted on Rhino to summon him back and he takes out all the Orchis goons and Sentinels in a satisfying manner.
Kurt and Spidey have a heart to heart, I’ve got their first team up, from 1976, so they have a long history together.
Kurt and Raven part, Raven is planning to work through her trauma with nihilistic abandon, which is in character. She also has an invite to go for a drink with Cloak and Dagger. She wants to introduce her son to her wife… they hug. Mystique being nice to Kurt is weird. She goes off with Warlock.
Kurt has a final heart to heart with Ghost Bamf, confirmed as Legion. Or a facet of his personality and powers. He says that David is hiding in the safest place possible, in Kurt’s hope, whether this is actual or metaphorical, is up for debate, guessing the latter.
The book ends with Sable and Kurt sharing a drink on the top of a skyscraper.
Writing it up makes the plot seem thin, but there’s a lot of ground covered, no real surprises for those who have been following the book, but enough loose threads to give future plots. And Kurt/Sable is cute as hell.
Will be interesting reading all Si’s Kurt stories end to end, he has definitely grown into writing the character better and better, this feels like his swan song and is a fitting end.