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Welcome back for the stunning conclusion of Inferno, in Ye Olde School Cafe’. This week will focus on X-Men #’s 242 and 243 (writer: Chris Claremont, Artist: Marc Silvestri) and X-Factor #’s 38 and 39 ( Writer: Louise Simonson, Artist: Walt Simonson). These last four issues of this TPB (trade paperback) are really packed full of action scenes and also some very emotional ones. The first two issues (X-Men #242 and X-Factor #38) are Giant Size books to add to the lengthy battles. So without further delay here we go!

When we last left off, Madelyne had just delivered a whipping to X-Factor (Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Archangel, and Iceman). X-Factor is surprised to see the X-Men (Havok, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Longshot, Dazzler, Psylocke, and Colossus), so surprised that  Wolverine even gives Jean a lip-lock straight out of an adult film! Jean tosses Logan away and very quickly things escalate into an all-out brawl between the two teams. Wolverine goes after Archangel, Havok blasts Iceman and Beast, Rogue tries to sap Archangel’s powers but instead gets a taste of Apocalypse’s handy work for her trouble.

Now, at this point, we have X-Factor fighting the X-Men with Madelyne watching and cheering on both sides to destroy each other. We also see Maddie with Havok and he’s convinced that Scott is to blame for her problems and it results in brother against brother: Cyclops vs. Havok. Havok is then pimp slapped by N’Astirh who has appeared to help Maddie with her plans against her enemies. Madelyne then takes off with her new boy-toy Havok to her lair in the Empire State Building. The X-Men and X-Factor continue to fight it out while Maddie and her friend N’Astirh are planning to sacrifice little baby Nathan to complete the spell of madness that has befallen Earth. As Maddie and her demon buddy are making final preparations for the sacrifice, the baby mentally calls out to Jean for help. This of course infuriates Madelyne who already has an inferiority complex because Scott left her the second he heard Jean wasn’t dead.

Eventually, Jean and Storm figure out that everybody here is actually friends and should put more effort into saving baby Nathan rather than fighting each other. N’Astirh then makes his move to destroy all the heroes that are trying to thwart his plans. He starts attacking Rogue but she informs him that his trans-mode virus won’t affect her because of the X-Men’s run in with the Magus a while back. The two teams then take the fight to Madelyne, Havok, and N’Astirh at the Empire State Building. They figure out that super-cooling then over-heating N’Astirh and his virus will destroy him. After they take him out, there is a huge explosion in the city and just as the two teams are left wondering what to do next, Jean is grabbed at the throat by the Goblin Queen. She means to annihilate the teams with the help of her demons and the misguided Havok.

The two teams try to co-exist but wind up getting in each other’s way and fighting amongst themselves at first. Eventually though, they figure out that Maddie has been playing them all for chumps for some time now. Maddie then tries to sway Archangel to her side, but meanwhile Scott and Storm are still trying to reason with her. Logan has his hands full fighting the Goblin Queen’s personal guard demons, and Longshot and Dazzler have been zero help because they are affected by the dark magic and think they’re in a movie. Scott and Alex then renew their battle over Scott’s abandonment of Maddie. Jean then finally breaks free and starts to fight Maddie but she’s become very powerful herself and uses Nathan as a shield anytime she’s at a disadvantage. Scott finally gets Havok out of the way and he and the other X-Men try to help Jean and the baby, but Madelyne has created a TK (telekinetic) shield around them. As hard as the X-Men try, they can’t break through Maddie’s defenses. Jean tries to explain to Maddie that the Phoenix is responsible for her death and resurrection, and that she’s sorry for the way things have played out.

Scott finally gets Alex to agree to help him but he tells his brother he’s still angry for what he did to Maddie and won’t help destroy her. Cyclops tells Havok that “I’m afraid that I already have destroyed her.” Meanwhile, inside Maddie’s force-field, she and Jean are still going at it. Jean is trying to make Madelyne understand that Scott realized he did wrong by leaving Maddie and tried to go back for her but she was gone. The teams finally break through Pryor’s protective bubble and not a moment too soon because Madelyne has now figured out that the X-Men won’t give up until they stop her and get the baby; so she says that she’ll just kill everyone to get her revenge. She tries but the piece of the Phoenix that resides inside her reaches out to Jean and KO’s Maddie, then everything returns to normal. With Madelyne fallen, the X-teams decide to find Sinister and make him pay for all the anguish he’s caused.

The X-Men are lead back to the mansion where they all lived and honed their mutant powers for so long a time. Wolverine comments about Sinister having “brass balls” to try something like this. The teams both enter the building and are confronted by The Marauders: Sabretooth, Malice (Polaris) and Blockbuster (he was cloned by Sinister after his death in Mutant Massacre). After they dispose of these three henchmen, Sinister implodes the entire building on top of them. Sinister stands over the X-Men, thinking he’s won but before he realizes it, they wake from their unconscious state and attack him with an unreal ferocity. He shrugs off most of their attacks and when Rogue attempts to absorb his powers, he takes over her mind for a short period as well. At this point we see Cyclops start to remember his time as a youth at an orphanage and Sinister reveals how even at that young age he was manipulating Scott.

Seemingly unstoppable, Sinister starts to gloat about how he has bested all of these heroes but then the X-Men devise a plan to take out Malice and do a dog-pile on top of Sinister. That isn’t really working either but Havok frees Cyclops who had been subdued by Sinister momentarily. At the sight of Sinister whooping his friends and poised to abduct Jean, Cyke unleashes an optic blast the likes of which had never been seen before on Sinister. The shot shatters Sinister into pieces and the two teams are left to look at all the chaos from one man’s plan for conquest. After a brief conversation about each team’s goals and Xavier’s dream, the two squads agree to go back to the way things were before the event known as Inferno even started.
Well, that’s the end of this tale folks. I hope you enjoyed the re-telling of this wild demon filled, mystically charged event! If you don’t own this I suggest buying it if you are an X-fan or just into all things magical or mystical. Many people feel that this was Chris Claremont’s last “good” story, especially as far as the X-Men were concerned. I haven’t really read much Claremont post-Inferno, but I really haven’t heard rave reviews so that isn’t encouraging me to go out and buy anything either. See you next week for more mayhem and madness!

Inferno pt 1
Inferno pt 2

Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net