X-calibre #2 (Age of Apocalypse Part 15)

 Age of Apocalypse  Part 15

X-CALIBRE #2

Written by WARREN ELLIS

Art by Roger Cruz & Rentaro Arlem

Lettering by Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Open with RECAP page.

Then on to Avalon. Where Destiny see’s the fall of her dream Avalon being destroyed by Apocalypse's men; burning everyone in site.  Destiny comes out of the vision weak and falls into Cains arms and passes out. But does manage to give a message that they are in danger.

Cut To Manhattan:

The Apocalypse Religious Cult; The Madri. Attack James Proudstar and his Ghost Dance crew at their base of operation on the docks. Proudstar and his group fight them off but not without casualties. Proudstar is shot it the back and presumed dead. They of course question everyone as to the location of Nightcrawler. None as we know give up his location.

Cut To the sub a thousand miles from New York:

A hundred refugees and Nightcrawler are sitting in the cargo hold and we discover that they are all choking on their exhalations as the air conditioning/filtration system has stopped working.  Nightcrawler attempts to contact the captain and tell tells him that  they can’t breathe and they need to fix the system.  We then learn that there is more wrong with the sub than just the air conditioning and that they will have to surface to get fresh air.

A quick rise to the surface and the submarine pops it’s hatches to let everyone get some fresh air. Of course it’s not that easy as the cargo hold containing the refugee’s is actually stuck closed. Part of the crew looks for some typs of cutting tool to cut open the bulkhead.  The rest of the crew head for the top of the sub to get air where they spot a ship; and signal for assistance.

Later:

The Newly arrived ship sends a boarding party over to the sub to assist with resucing the refugee’s in the cargo hold.  They manage to cut open the door to the hold and the refugees are mostly alive but weak or passed out.  The sub capitan searches the refugee for Nightcrawler only to discover that he isn’t there.  

Cut to:  On top of the sub:

An exhausted Kurt is laying down attempting to catch his breath. He feels guilty teleporting out of the hold without anyone else, but he was too weak to take anyone with him.  

Meanwhile:

On an airship hovering high above the two vessels. Three individuals are spying on the ships below. Damask, Moonstar, and Deadpool.  Here we learn their mission is to spy on Kurt to learn the location of Avalon.  

In the process of waiting Moonstar has been slicing up Deadpool out of boredom and the sheer joy of seeing him heal back together.  Moonstar is rather sadistic in this timeline.  Damask gets annoyed by Moonstar and orders her to stop.  

Suddenly a communique comes in from their Lord and Master Apocalypse. Damask answers the call and she is told to follow Kurt to Avalon and kill everyone.   Apocalypse then ends the Skype call and Damask gets out of her seat. She sees Moonstar continues to torture Deadpool. With great joy Damask strikes Moonstar and kills her right in front Deadpool.  Apparently in order to work for Apocalypse you must be a psychopath.

Cut To:

The two ships afloat in the Atlantic Ocean.  Callisto conveniences the sub captain that she and her crew will continue the journey for the Captain and deliver the refugees to their next location.  He acquiesces and we see the refugees move from the broken down sub to the ship. The ship then leaves the sub; and we see it sink into the water, a little hard to tell exactly but was it diving under its own power or was is hit with say a bomb or torpedo. I believe it is left to the reader's interpretation.  

Callisto then tells the refugees that they should hide in the spare ballast tank as it is shielded and should they get boarded by anyone they won't get scanned.  Of course during all this Kurt is nowhere to be found. The refugees agree to hid in the tank and they also fork over their valuables so that it looks like the ship is a salvage vessel.  

The crew shuts the hatch and walks away.  Callisto then opens the Ballast intakes and begins to flood the tank with seawater.  Kurt then shows up at the tank hatch as we learn that he snuck aboard the ship and had been hiding somewhere else on the ship.  While standing at the hatch to the ballast tank he can hear the shouts and cries of the refugees. He attempts to open the hatch but it will not budge.

Cut To:

Ships exterior as the hundreds of refugees are floating in the water dead. The Ballast tank opened to the Ocean and after the refugees drowned their bodies were sucked out into the water.

Time passes:

The crew are celebrating their cleverness and enjoying their spoils; when the ship floats unknowingly into the Atrocity Zone. A location that Apocalypse has dumped the dead bodies of all the culled humans. There are so many that it has become a putrid floating Island of decaying human remains.

Angered by the incompetence of the her crew Callisto shoots the Helmsman and orders the ship to stop so that the propellor doesn't get destroyed in the miasma of dead bodies.  Just then Kurt makes his attack on the ship and crew first taking out the people in the engine room and then teleporting above deck to fight the rest of the crew.  

After a short battle it is down to a Mexican standoff with Kurt and Callisto. Just as we about to see if Kurt is faster than a gun, Mystique drops in literally from a Helicopter and with the Cliffhanger line. “ Leave my Son alone!”

THOUGHTS ON THE STORY:

Warren Ellis has a good tale her to showcase Kurt a.k.a. Nightcrawler. However the pacing seem to be very quick with the action scenes and a lot of time jumps in the story.  It can seem a little disjointed in the first read, but with a couple of re-reads it seems to flow a little better.

ART:    

The art is  good in this issue, the detail doesn’t seem to be as extravagant in  some of the background but this is made up for when we hit the Atrocity Zone in the story.  The action scenes to feel like they are missing something in the layouts.  One of the biggest mistakes that brought me out of the story was the coloring of the Sub Captain from one page to another. First he is blonde then the next he is a Brunette.  His line work is sharp, the shadows and light rendering i very catching to the eye.  

Score  7 out of 10