STORY: "Let Loose the Dogs of War" (22 pages)  The X-Men keep fighting the Mole Man, while Professor X helps Angel to get Havok out of his suspended animation tube.

What you need to know:
Professor X's solution to get the Promise members out of their tubes is insanely simple: move the clock ten years forward.  Who says the Silver Age is dead?  Actually, it doesn't quite work - Havok overloads with power and blows up his tube - but it's close enough.

Angel duly goes hunting for the X-Men in the underground tunnels, and promptly gets zapped by two of the Eternals before he can find anything interesting.  They vaguely chat about whether the increasing number of mutants herald the return of the Celestials, which may be a stray set-up for a planned storyline.  The Eternals conveniently drop Angel off with the other X-Men, where he joins them next issue.

The plot of Fantastic Four #102-104 continues to unwind in the background.

Teri Martin takes her daughter to school, as the thrill-packed subplot continues.

The hidden cover number is #87.  It's on Marvel Girl's glove, doubling as part of the shadow.

Comments:
Dead on its feet, by this point.  With one issue to go, the X-Men are off in a pointless storyline with the Mole Man that doesn't even get much panel space.  The Promise storyline turns out to be resolved just by setting the clock.  And the big drama is repeated scenes from a Fantastic Four storyline that the X-Men weren't even in.  What was Byrne thinking?

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X (last behind the scenes at page 11 of Fantastic Four #103; concurrently with this issue, he is behind the scenes in various scenes in Fantastic Four #103-104)
Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast, Lorna Dane, Havok (the latter two both last in issue #19), Iceman and Marvel Girl I

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Ashley Martin (last in issue #18)
Teri Martin

VILLAINS
Magneto (appears on pages 1-3 interweaving with pages 11-14 of Fantastic Four #103, and on page 22 concurrently with pages 13-14 of Fantastic Four #104)
The Mole Man and his Moloids
The Promise: Tobias Messenger, Tad Carter, Craig, Gene, Gracie and Simon

GUEST APPEARANCES
Namor the Sub-Mariner and Dorma (both concurrent with Fantastic Four #104)
The Invisible Girl (appears on pages 1-3 interweaving with pages 11-14 of Fantastic Four #103, and on page 22 concurrently with pages 13-14 of Fantastic Four #104)
Pixie (between issue #16 and Marvel: The Lost Generation #7)
Ikaris (between the back-up strip in What If...? vol 1 #29 and Marvel: The Lost Generation #1)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Lucy Robinson

Written: 3 June 2006

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