CREATORS:

Script: Grant Morrison

Pencils:

• Frank Quitely (114-116, 121-122, 126)
• Ethan Van Sciver (117-118, 123)
• Igor Kordey (119-120, 124-125)
• Leinel Francis Yu (Annual 2001)

• Mark Morales & Dan Green (114-116)
• Prentiss Rollins (117-118)
• Igor Kordey (119-120, 124-125)
• Frank Quitely (121)
• Tim Townsend (122-123, 126)
• Gerry Alanguilan (Annual 2001)

Ms. Nova guides Trask through a virtual reality show of what the past held for neaderthals when faced with homo sapien dominance. She eventually leads the sickened, confused dentist to the Master Mold in the wilds of Ecuador, where it is revealed that the DNA pattern of Trask enables him to control the refitted Sentinel army at will.

Wolverine and Cyclops return from Australia after cleaning up a mess of Sentinels with a new mutant named Steve, aka Ugly John. The Beast, who has evolved into another level of "beastliness," has set up Cerebra, an updated mutant tracking system. Jean Grey and Prof. X discover a spike of mutant activity in Ecuador that they request Wolvering and Cyclops to check out.

Meanwhile, Prof. X is almost overtaken by outside psychic powers of an unknown assailant, but fights it off.

New X-Men #115: "E Is For Extinction Pt. 2"
23 pages + cover • August 2001

Trask is on board with Ms. Nova, and has sent a cadre of Sentinels off on a mutant massacre. Cyclops and Wolverine, with Ugly John in tow, are shot down in front of the Master Mold complex in Ecuador. The three fight their way through a new breed of Sentinels before finally being subdued.

Ms. Nova kills Trask after revealing she had spent the last ten hours copying his DNA sequence. She is now able to control the Sentinels as he did. Ms. Nova commands the Sentinels to kill Ugly John. Logan is able to break free of his bonds and threaten to kill her. Cyclops kills Ugly John, who was suffering moral wounds, in a mercy killing.

The Sentinels launched by Trask reach the mutant island of Genosha and begin total destruction, annhilating nearly the whole population. Magneto is among those presumed dead, after a large projectile disintegrated the building he was in.

New X-Men #116: "E Is For Extinction Pt. 3"
23 pages + cover • September 2001

The Beast and Jean head to Genosha on a fact-finding/rescue mission. They pick up Emma Frost, who is buried under rubble. Frost appears to have evolved into a new mutant power of super-hard skin.

Cassandra Nova is inert and under control in the X-Men lab. Hank McCoy has stumbled onto evidence that points to the next level of mutant evolution occuring, in which mutants will progress past humans definitively within the next three to four generations, replacing them. Nova breaks free and assaults the team with her psychic powers. She manages to subdue nearly the whole team, but Emma Frost is able to break her neck, and Xavier fires several bullets into her body, ending the threat.

Xavier decides, in the face of the massacre of 16 million Genoshans, there must be an immediate change in his philosophy. In the first step, he appears on national television, outing himself as a mutant.

New X-Men Annual 2001: "The Man From Room X"
41 pages + cover • October 2001

An arrangement is made between Chinese beauraucrat Ao Jun and leader of the U-Man cult Mr. Sublime to transfer the mutant Xorn to the cult leader's custody. Xorn was a Chinese youth, now over fifty years old, who's head emits a lethal power like that of a burning sun.

The X-Men arrive in Hong Kong to attend a funeral for the mutant Risque, who was killed while working with Domino in one of Charles Xavier's new X-Corporation offices. The mystery of Risque's death leads back to the U-Men cult. Investigating the U-Men reveals they intend to incorporate the biological organs of mutants into human physiology to claim mutant powers. The team, along with Domino, infiltrate a party attended by Ao Jung and Mr. Sublime to find out more.

Domino stumbles onto the mystery of Mr. Sublime's acquisition of Ao Jung's "property." In escaping with the key to Xorn's cell, they encounter resistance from Ao Jung's mutant golems. Also, Beast, Cyclops and Emma uncover one of the mutants who was grafted by Sublime's cult. After making it back to their home base safely, the X-Men discuss their next move- to investigate the key and what it guards in the remote Chinese province. Emma is able to psychically divine the identity and origin of Xorn, and they set out to rescue him.

Unknownst to Sublime, Xorn's head is turning into a black hole, with the potential to end the world. Ao Jung, who knew this, is killed by a U-Man agent for his betrayal. The X-Men arrive and Sublime concedes power of the volatile situation to them and departs. Xorn has the potential to destroy the world in minutes, and Cyclops talks him out of it, encouraging Xorn to come with him to Xavier's protection.

New X-Men #117: "Danger Rooms"
23 pages + cover • October 2001

The Beast leads new mutant The Beak through drills in the Danger Room. Personal dramas unfold: Hank gets rejected by his "human" lover, Jean and Logan talk about romantic entanglements and share a brief kiss, and Scott and Emma stand with the students at the school awaiting the arrival of a Shi'ar spaceship. Inside the mansion, The Beast has discovered the Professor's body has been taken over by Cassandra Nova, who responds by psychically crippling him and commanding the Beak to severely beat him with a baseball bat, leaving him for dead. The Shi'ar spaceship arrives and Professor X/Nova boards to go on his "vacation" with Lilandra.

New X-Men #118: "Germ Free Generation Pt. 1"
23 pages + cover • November 2001

A student takes over an assembly at his school with a gun. He has just killed a mutant and cut his eyeballs out, to implant them into his own head so he could claim his mutant powers as part of John Sublime's Third Species movement. A police sniper kills the young man.

Jean practices using Cerebra, Beast lies in a coma under medical care, and Logan is on his way to Wyoming to respond to a new mutant crisis. Jean, Emma and Scott greet the anti-mutant protesters assembled outside the gates of the school. Jean tries to reason with them, but a fed-up Emma Frost implants images of sexual bliss into their minds, disabling the whole crowd. Inside, Jean and Scott wonder about The Beast and why The Beak would beat him to near-death.

A young girl is kicked out of her home for being a mutant. She falls asleep in the woods and wakes up with butterfly-like wings on her back. She is surrounded by a team of Sumblime's Third Species agents, there to kidnap her. She pukes an acidic substance out of her throat at her would-be captors and flies off into the sky, eventually colliding with power lines and falls to the ground, passed out.

Emma and Scott confront John Sublime, demanding from him information about what his organization is up to. The two mutants are lectured to by an arrogant Sublime, who eventually disables them with the aid of a mutant brain held in stasis.

Logan eventually happens upon the Third Species van, wherein the agents are holding the young girl. He extends his claws.

New X-Men #119: "Germ Free Generation Pt. 2"
23 pages + cover • December 2001

John Sublime has suppressed Cyclops and Emma using the captive mutant brain of Martha Johannson, telling them they are going to be used for mutan organ harvesting. Wolverine goes berserk on the Third Species agents holding the girl captive. He takes her away to a restaurant so she can eat, and she proves to be a pretty disgusting young woman, barfing up acidic green sludge constantly, as well as giving Wolverine lots of attitude. They are run out of the restaurant by the hostile owner, and she uses her wings to fly away but crashes down to earth; she submits to Wolverine's protection, realizing she has no other choice. Jean presides over the comatose body of Beast, as well as the Beak, who is lying in stasis after his supposed assualt on Hank. She does a mind probe into the Beak to see why he attacked and sees the image of Charles Xavier, but her probe is delayed by an intruder alert: Third Species agents have arrived at the school to collect organs from the students. Meanwhile, Hank stirs from his coma.

New X-Men #120: "Germ Free Generation Pt. 3"
23 pages + cover • January 2002

Wolverine and the young girl continue their "odd couple" trek back to Xavier's school. Seconds before Scott and Emma are to have their organs harvested, Emma rises from her mental paralysis and overcomes her captors, not but not before her nose is broken. The agents at the school have been met by Jean and an array of students. Their aggression is met by an escalating display of Jean's powers, including what appears to be a manifestation of her Phoenix powers. Wolverine drives up with his young charge and witnesses this much to his shock. Emma, who is very, very cross, charges relentlessly after John Sumblime to bring him to account for breaking her nose. She hangs him from his neck out the window of his tall building, and the brain of Martha Johansson coerces him into releasing himself from her grip, causing him to fall to his death. While Wolverine and Jean commiserate on recent events, Hank stumbles out onto the steps with the body of Cassandra Nova in his hands.

New X-Men #121: "Silence: Psychic Rescue In Progress"
23 pages + cover • February 2002

Silent issue

Jean and Emma enter into the mind of Cassandra Nova, wherein the existence of Charles Xavier has been placed. In an abstract, Dali-like landscape, both women meander through to finish their task: find out what's happened to Charles. Along the way, Jean discovers that Cassandra Nova was Charles' twin sister, and that he tried to kill her while in the womb.

New X-Men #122: "Imperial"
23 pages + cover • March 2002

Lilandra and what's left of her Imperial Guard are being overtaken by the overpowering mental domination of Cassandra Nova, who's intellect is implanted in the body of Charles Xavier. She sends Guardsman Smasher to Earth in a last ditch attempt to enlist help. The school is reorganizing itself while "Xavier" is gone, with Emma, Scott and Jean taking control of the day-to-day activities. Hank is back in action, researching what's gone wrong with Charles' mind inside Nova's body, realizing that her physical being is in a slow, steady march to death and it will eventually kill Charles' mind. Scott sets out to find Xorn, thinking he can assist with the situation. Smasher lands in a field surronded by cows and is able to mutter "take me to your leader" before he passes out from the exhaustion of space travel.

New X-Men #123: "Testament"
23 pages + cover • March 2002

Emma and Jean tour the campus, presiding over the student body, including Emma's five "girls" who together form a powerful mutant mind. One of the girls, Esme, has taken up with a new boy, causing feelings of resentment among the other four girls. Logan brings the new girl, ironically named "Angel," to campus, where her negativity doesn't warm her to others. Hank and Jean lead a lecture to an invited group of journalists on campus, discussing the school and it's mission. Hank finds out what's causing symptoms of flu and worsening sickness among some members of the X-Men, and it's nano-Sentinels- microscoping Sentinels that have been implanted by Nova to break down mutant phsyiology at a cellular level. While leading the journalists around the campus, the new boy "in love" with Esme, reveals himself to be part of the advance team of the Imperial Guard, under the control of Lilandra who is completely under thrall of Nova. At the same time, a team of Guardsmen has subdued Cyclops and Xorn from the religious temple Xorn was staying in. Gladiator, the most powerful of the Imperial Guard, leads a team to join the advance guard at the mutant schoo, to "destroy all mutants."

New X-Men #124: "Superdestroyer"
23 pages + cover • May 2002

Xorn and Cyclops are captives of G-Type and the Imperial Guard on board a Shi'ar battleship. Lilandra is under the sway of the powerful forces of Nova. At the campus, Wolverine rips through Guardsmen, while Angel and Emma's girls work out a plan to take on their would-be captors. Jean and Beast ferry the journalists to safety while the mansion is under siege, then Beast takes the battle to the Guardsmen. Wolverine joins the fray and they battle gamely until Gladiator arrives. Gladiator wipes the floor of Wolverine and Beast and carries them into the lab where Jean watches over the journalists. In comes Smasher, near death from his plummeting to Earth, but he is able to pass on information about Lilandra being mentally corrupted by Nova. This changes the tide with the Imperial Guardsman, but Hank and Jean can do nothing about the nano-Sentinels that are causing them to become debilitated. Back on Lilandra's starship, Xorn and Cyclops break free.

New X-Men #125: "Losers"
22 pages + cover • June 2002

Xorn and Cyclops overtake Lilandra's guards, including G-Type, in front of Nova, who is encased in Xavier's body. The ship is set for self-destruct after the mutant pair commandeer it, and they're able to shuffle Lilandra's unconscious body away to safety. At the campus, Angel and Emma's girls rescue Beak from his cell, and free Emma from her captivity, as well as taking full mind-control of Esme's "former boyfriend," now in its true guise as a floating creature from outer space. Emma's girls have stolen DNA samples of Cassandra Nova from Hank's lab, which Emma finds to be a very useful thing.

Hank, Logan and Jean commiserate over what to do next, and after much passionate argument they decide to give Jean a go at restoring Charles' mind to order so he can rejoin his body when Nova returns from space. In fact, Nova has just returned from space, and rampages through Gladiator and his Imperial Guard members who seek to defend Lilandra.

New X-Men #126: "All Hell"
32 pages + cover • July 2002

Xorn and Cyclops rush away from the destruction of the space craft crumbling around them, carrying the bodies of Lilandra and her guru, Araki. Nova continues her assault on Gladiator and his Imperial Guard. Emma, her girls, Angel and Beak look for an opening in battle, while Jean is inside the mansion coping with the mind of Charles Xavier, which she has stored inside hers. Xorn and Cyclops teleport inside the mansion, and get up to speed on what's happening. Xorn is able to destroy the nano-sentinels that course through the bloodstreams of the mutants, freeing them from the disabling illness that was setting in on them. And finally, the showdown, as Nova enters the mansion to destroy the mutants and reclaim her body. The X-Men fight back but Nova captures the minds of the students and sends them on an assault, while she attempts to gain control of Cerebra. Amidst the fighting, Beast is able to inject the DNA into the body of Charles Xavier, sending her shambling to the lab to reclaim her original body and disengaging her mind control. Jean is able to "download" through Cerebra the consciousness of Xavier across the world's mutants, splitting small pieces of it amongst them all. Nova accesses Cerebra to destroy all mutants through it, but falls into Jean's trip, instead reversing the download and pulling Xavier's consciousness back into his body. Nova's mind, now forced out, seeks to access its old body, which conveniently Emma Frost has carried into the lab to strike a deal with her. Desperate, Nova's consciousness takes over her old body, which is yet another trick, as Emma has actually brought in the shapeshifting form of Esme's "boyfriend." Reduced to the intellect of a "pocket calculator," she is no longer a threat. Xavier, now fully conscious in his own body, reveals that he can now walk on his own.

-- synopsis by Gormuu