Villain: Sentinels, Dr. Steven Lang, Black Tom, X-Men clone robots (Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman, Beast, Cyclops, Professor X)

First Appearance: Black Tom

Guest Appearance: Peter Corbeau, Starcore astronauts Hilary, Col. Kutuzov & Dmitri, Solicitor Flaherty

Cameo: Roger, Geraldo Rivera, Judge Robert Chalmers (image broadcast in news report)

Death: Flaherty

Innovations: Storm's usage of solar winds for her power arsenal

Gadgets & Technology: Sentinel Atmos-Spheres

Letters Page: Letters page coming soon!

Banshee, Wolverine and Jean Grey float through space, near death from suffocation. Sentinels fly forth from Steven Lang’s Project Armageddon space platform to rescue and retrieve the mutant specimens, returning them to the evil, heckling Lang. Back on Earth, Dr. Peter Corbeau and Cyclops tap CEREBRO into NORAD’s data bank to discover that their kidnapped teammates are outside the Earth’s atmosphere on SHIELD’s orbital platform.

The X-Men go into rescue mode, and along with Dr. Corbeau, lift off from Cape Canaveral in a Starcore shuttle, under the pretense of being a normal science research flight, hurriedly prepared to beat out oncoming solar flare storms threatening space flight. Their mission is so risky, in fact, that it draws the awed attention of the crew of Starcore One, a UN research platform, and the scientists on that orbital wonder aloud how it will be possible that the shuttle can make it through such incredible solar storms.

Cut to Dal’roon, Ireland, where a lawyer named Flaherty makes his way to a post office to deliver a crucial piece of mail addressed to Sean Cassidy (aka Banshee.) After doing so, he is confronted outside the post office by a mystery figure in the shadows, a man who calls himself Black Tom. Flaherty tells him that it’s too late- that he’s already mailed warning to his cousin Sean. Black Tom guns down the lawyer with a strangely powered cane of wood and cackles into the night.

Back in space, Dr. Corbeau attempts to gain sanctuary from solar storms for his shuttle on the commandeered SHIELD platform, a request which is denied after Steven Lang is informed that their mutant detectors are going crazy. Sentinels are dispatched to take on the shuttle of mutants, and a Sentinel blast rips a hole open in the hull that sucks Storm outside. She is clothed in a spacesuit, and is able to control cosmic storm energies to destroy an oncoming Sentinel. Corbeau’s shuttle takes matters into its own hands and dives headfirst into the SHIELD platform, breaching it and gaining entry inside.

A melee ensues, featuring the X-Men Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Cyclops taking on several Sentinels. After subduing the giant robots, their concerns turn to their compatriot Storm, who has impressed all by making her way in from the cold of outer space (especially a perhaps over-affectionate Colossus!) Cyclops is reached telepathically by Jean Grey, who informs them where they are and what Steven Lang is up to. Cyclops and Peter Corbeau head to the deck where Jean is being kept, while the others go to a separate deck to rescue Wolverine and Banshee.

Immediately upon encountering Lang, Cyclops starts to beat the bejeesus out of the man who has kept his love captive. Jean pulls Cyclops off of him before he can beat him to death, when all of a sudden he is shot down from behind by a mysterious force. She stands shocked by the identity of the figure in the shadows, as Lang informs her that this person, and those who stand with him, are the “heart of Project Armageddon.” And as the rest of the X-Men, including Colossus, Storm, Wolverine, Banshee and Nightcrawler, pull up at her side, they stand facing off against Lang’s team arrayed against them: the heroes Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman and Professor Xavier, and the battle is on: New X-Men vs. Old.

(continued in X-MEN #100)

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu