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Hey everybody, welcome back to another pulse-pounding week in Ye Olde School Café! This week we’ll be continuing our look at Marvel’s limited series from 1987 – Mephisto Vs.! This issue (#3) is one of my favorite books for the story, but more importantly for the artwork by John Buscema. He drew a full page with Mephisto french kissing one of the X-Men! Who is it, you ask? Maybe Wolverine, who knows, but you have to read to find out for sure!

As the next issue begins, some of Mephisto’s minions are torturing Jean Grey. The dark lord punishes them severely for acting without his commands by disintegrating them on the spot! He then explains to Jean how he accumulates souls as mankind does with money and valuables. Jean then asks why, if he is so powerful, does he not just take souls rather than bargaining for them. He explains to her that even though his power is nearly infinite, he has limitations that he must abide by. Jean is dragged off by a few demons kicking and screaming the entire way. A couple of demons stay behind to tell Mephisto that his realm is crumbling on the outskirts of his domain. The demons and Mephisto go to investigate this phenomenon and find that indeed the outer lying area is crumbling to pieces. We then learn that Mephisto’s realm is in fact part of him, and if his power is threatened, so is he. He next peers into his diving pool to watch Reed Richards talk with Cyclops. They discuss how they think Mephisto will set his sights on a god-like being next. This is exactly what Mephisto wanted all along, and he then makes his intentions known.

Reed first calls the X-Men (Wolverine, Psylocke, Rogue, Storm, Longshot, Dazzler) and alerts them to Mephisto’s scheme. Wolverine hardly believes him at first, but then calls the other team members out and tells them what Reed said. Storm then proposes that Psylocke, using Longshot’s powers to augment her own, try to locate Mephisto. She does, but only because he allows it, and then sends a psychic backlash at the entire team. Mephisto then sees the power they possess and makes his plan to attack them. He first approaches Rogue, and she takes the bait. He tricks her into kissing him and he pretends that it actually hurts him. He also lets her believe that he is going to try and steal the souls of all the other X-Men as well. Rogue decides that she’ll beat him to the punch and use her power on each of her teammates first, so he can’t get to them. One by one, she drains her friends to stop Mephisto’s mad scheme.

In the end, though, after Rogue has drained everyone except Longshot (who Mephisto claims has no soul), she tells him he’s too late, because she beat him to it. He laughs at her, and then tells the poor fool that this is what he intended all along. Now he grabs her and for the second time, shoves his tongue down her throat, and steals her soul, and the souls of all her friends as well! He lied to her previously when he said her powers affected him, and then we see all the X-Men’s souls in the hand of a ruthless demon lord, burning in his fiery realm!
Well, that’s it for this week, but come back next week to find out if Mephisto’s plan can gain the ultimate prize in the soul of a god! See you next week!
To check out the previous installments click here
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net