Era #10, Part 26: Here Comes Tomorrow (New X-Men)

Grade: C+

The Phoenix is dead, and the future will not be the same. When Scott Summers refuses to reopen the Xavier Institute after the death of his wife, he creates an alternate timeline. In 150 years, the remanents of the X-Men, now led by Cassandra Nova, recover the Phoenix Egg from the Proud People. They are unsuccessful in protecting it from the Beast and his minions of Crawlers giving him the total power of a reborn Phoenix.  

This run was so confusing! The fun thing about alternate futures is that they often reveal hints about the current timeline, and this one has a few that I was supposed to understand (I didn't). It attempts to explain Sublime, the creator of the U-Men, and Kick, the addictive mutant drug, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me. The same can be said for the Cassandra Nova / No-Girl / Martha Johansson connection. All of these dangling plot points are implied, so it is hard to figure out what I was supposed to pick up. I needed to use online resources.

The story also reused a similar concept that started in Age of Apocalypse -- using the Multiple Man to create an evil army. At least this one merged Multiple Man with Nightcrawler to create the Crawlers (each of whom is further merged with another mutant). It was cool to see them, but it was not so original.

Seeing Marc Silvestri back, however, was fantastic. I am a fan of his work, and this was no exception.

[6-Stars] New X-Men (2001) #151

[5-Stars] New X-Men (2001) #152

[5-Stars] New X-Men (2001) #153

[5-Stars] New X-Men (2001) #154

Collected in New X-Men (Vol. 7): Here Comes Tomorrow