STORY: "Destroy All Mutants!" (22 pages)  Ashley Martin's mother returns home to learn about her daughter's mutant powers.  Meanwhile, Krueger captures Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Candy Southern, and sells them to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

What you need to know:
The first three pages are a recap of the scene in X-Men vol 1 #58 where Larry Trask is exposed as a mutant.  The original story was out of print at this time, although it's still rather questionable whether the repeat scene is needed, since it's only there to explain where Ashley's pet Sentinel came from.

Ashley's Sentinel is, apparently, the result of some damaged Sentinels rebuilding themselves after the battle in X-Men vol 1 #59.  (All the functional ones flew into the sun at the end of that issue.)  It flew around for a bit, found Ashley, tried to attack her, and then fell over because it was broken.  Ashley has been keeping it in the barn so her mother won't notice it, which happens to be rather similar to the plot set-up in the recent Sentinel title.

Ashley's mother Teri returns home and finds out what's happening.  This is the point where she meets Professor X and the Beast.

Over in the other main storyline, Krueger and his band of freaks get a proper introduction.  They're just low-level mutants with physical deformities, for the most part.  Krueger himself is a proper mutant, who can suppress mutant powers and drain the life force of mutants.  His powers are completely ineffectual against normal humans, as we find out in issue #14.  The actual purpose of the group is never made entirely clear, but it seems they just scavenge for slaves and technology, and sell them on to criminal buyers.

Although Krueger recognises the X-Men, he assumes that Candy Southern is Marvel Girl because she's still wearing her costume.  Apparently he doesn't know that Marvel Girl is a redhead.  He also apparently doesn't recognise the X-Men's original costumes, since it never occurs to him that there's a duplicate Marvel Girl in the room.  In fact, he never asks who the other girl is - although that doesn't stop him counting her when he sells "three X-Men" to the Brotherhood next issue.  If we're being honest, it's a shameless plot contrivance and doesn't make much sense.

Krueger has already sold the Angel to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and he now makes a deal to sell Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Candy as well.  At this point, the Brotherhood is just the Blob, Mastermind and Unus - the same roster who fought the Beast in Amazing Adventures vol 2 #12-13, fairly soon after this story.  They're currently running a circus on the side (as we see in the next few issues and also in the Beast story), which is presumably how they made contact with Krueger's sideshow freaks.  Since the Blob's running the show, this is a particularly unambitious version of the Brotherhood, and really they're just out for revenge.

It's not really clear why Krueger sells the X-Men but holds on to Avia.  The obvious reason would be that Avia is deformed because she doesn't have arms, and therefore "belongs" with Krueger's group - but that doesn't really explain why he nailed her to a wall.

Krueger's ship is called the Teratos, which is Greek for "monster."  Because the term was coined in a pre-PC era, it's also the root of the word "teratology" (the study of congenital deformities).

As for the Savage Land plot, it goes strangely non-linear with this issue.  There's a subplot page early on with Magneto and Amphibius in the woods near the house where Bobby Drake and Karl Lykos are sheltering.  And then, right at the end of the issue, we have Bobby and Karl on the run from Magneto, which leads to Karl accidentally touching Bobby, absorbing his mutant energy, and turning into Sauron. 

The explanation of what's going on here doesn't come until the next issue, where a further eight pages establish that Magneto has discovered some useful machinery beneath the island and is trying to get rid of Bobby and Karl so that he can have it all for himself.  After that, there's a two page repeat of the closing scene of this issue (which was only two and a half pages to start with).  Although I've referred to this material as a flashback in the continuity listings below, it's not presented that way in the story itself, and the reality is that the timeline is now jumping back and forth. The same thing happens with another storyline in issues #14-15.

The hidden number on this issue's cover is #77.  It's on Avia's right wing, just below the spike.

Comments:
Well, it's another issue of all the storylines edging very slowly forwards without really getting anywhere.  The Ashley Martin story reveals a bit of exposition but ultimately just fills space with pointless fighting between the Beast and Ashley's Sentinel.  The Krueger plot at least has a bit of momentum in this issue, and the group of proto-Morlocks are potentially somewhat interesting.  The out-of-sequence storytelling in the Savage Land storyline is just plain strange, however, and doesn't work at all.  By this stage, though, the book is dragging badly, and you wish Byrne would just pick a story and get on with it.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Cyclops, the Beast and Marvel Girl I

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Iceman (last in flashback in issue #12)
Ashley Martin (also in flashback between issues #9-10) and Teri Martin
Avia (next in issue #14)
Candy Southern

VILLAINS
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: The Blob, Mastermind and Unus the Untouchable (all last in flashback in Avengers #103)
Krueger and his freaks
Magneto and Amphibius
Sauron (last in flashback in issue #12)

Written: 16 April 2006

back | next