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Welcome back for part 2 of Mutant Massacre in Ye Olde School Cafe’. This week you’ll see what life changing event forced Warren Worthington into the role of Apocalypse’s Horseman of Death. Also you’ll get a taste of just how insane Victor Creed can be when it comes to murder and revenge! This part will cover X-Factor #10 (written by Louise Simonson, art by Walter Simonson), The Mighty Thor #373 (written by Walter Simonson and art by Sal Buscema), and Power Pack #27 (written by Louise Simonson and art by John Bogdanove). If you’re just tuning in, I’d advise checking out the Mutant Massacre part 1 article from last week before reading this one!

So with this, part 2, we start out with a few of the Morlocks going about their daily lives when all of a sudden they are attacked by The Marauders. Without provocation, The Marauders callously murder anybody within their sight. A few of the Morlocks luck out and run into Cyclops and Beast, and are saved…for the time being. Meanwhile, Angel and Jean are trying to help Rusty and Skids get out of the tunnels with their lives intact, but they aren’t convinced X-Factor is one of the good guys. In the tunnels there is a more ominous scene about to unfold; we see Caliban, Artie, and Leech searching for Rusty but get ambushed by a berserk Sabertooth. Luckily Cyclops and Beast came looking for more Morlocks in need of help and Cyke blasts Creed, temporarily knocking him out.

In the next scene, Blockbuster and Vertigo are killing a few more innocents when Iceman, Cyclops, and Beast show up to stop them. Initially, Vertigo gets the upper-hand on the trio but she can’t focus on all three of them well enough to stop Beast from kicking her in the face. The story next switches to Jean and Warren having a heart to heart about what’s going on and also their thoughts about X-Factor in general. Just as it looks like Warren is going to get a shot at Jean though, we see Warren’s current woman, Candy Southern, enter and see the two embracing. She tells Warren off and then storms out of the room. The next piece of action in the tunnels shows Sabretooth and Harpoon arguing over who is gonna kill the next couple of Morlocks. Sabretooth then lunges at a Morlock called Plague, who touches him and he drops like a swatted fly. Just as Harpoon tries to act on this though, we see Apocalypse enter the battle to stop Harpoon and rescue Plague for his own devious purposes.

Another big brawl is brewing, this time with Cyclops, Beast, and Iceman on one side and Arclight, Prism, and Scrambler on the other. X-Factor seems to be getting their collective butts handed to them and while this is transpiring, Angel and Jean enter the fight to help tip the balance in favor of our heroes. Cyke and Beast go down so Jean agrees to get them out. While Iceman is covering the hole behind them, Warren goes looking for Artie and Leech but as he finds him around the corner, he also finds Vertigo, Blockbuster, and Harpoon. Angel tells Artie to run and he keeps The Marauders busy while the kid escapes. Warren KO’s Vertigo but Blockbuster beats the snot out of Angel and just when you think it can’t get any worse, Harpoon crucifies Warren and The Marauders gloat over their victory.
The Marauders are pretty much having their way at this point with the Morlocks, and X-Factor isn’t really doing a whole lot to stop the ruthless killings. I guess it’s a good thing a couple of frogs tell The Mighty Thor that something bad is going on down in the sewers (yeah, I’m not kidding about the frogs- read Thor #364-365). Thor then enters the dark underground to investigate and is immediately attacked by The Marauders. They quickly find out though that Thor is nobody’s punching bag. He flattens the whole group and turns his attention to Angel who he thinks is dead. We all know he isn’t dead though, well not physically, but this beating has long term effects on his psyche that push him in a direction nobody saw coming…

In the next chapter of this war, we see the Power Pack enter into this team spanning fracas. I’ve got to admit, at first I thought having the Power Pack in this story was kind of dumb, but they are good friends with Artie and Leech and it is really funny to see little kids beating the pulp out of these towering killers, The Marauders. We get to see them make Sabretooth look like an imbecile, have a run in with Wolverine, and basically taunt the entire team of bloodthirsty killers. The best of these fight scenes was with Jack Power knocking Arclight unconscious! Honestly, it was an issue that had zero bearing on the story, but it was a fun little tale to break up the killing and blood-spattering of the previous issues in the crossover.

Well, that will do it for this week’s installment but hurry back for next week’s stunning conclusion to this blood-thirsty tale. In this final part we’ll see a clash for the ages between Sabretooth and Wolverine (two actually), Thor will cross a line that no hero is ever supposed to cross, and the newest X-Man, Betsy Braddock, get her feet wet in her first real battle! Hopefully Psylocke’s feet won’t be wet with her own blood as she battles Sabretooth! We know Creed takes no prisoners even when he’s just fighting for kicks on a Saturday night.

See you next week and Make Mine Marvel!

Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net