STORY: "Escape to Oblivion" (22 pages)  The X-Men are reunited as a volcanic eruption destroys the city.  Cyclops exhausts his powers to save the slaves, and then the X-Men and Avia stow away on Magneto's airship as he escapes.

What you need to know:
Magneto explains the magical effects of the city, but basically just says it's all due to special underground radiation.  This radiation also makes everyone in the Savage Land mildly telepathic, which is why nobody ever has language barrier problems when they're dealing with Savage Land natives.  The city is due to be destroyed by a volcanic eruption within days, which is why Magneto and the Nhu'Ghari are so keen to get out of there.

Avia is named for the first time.  She and Angel head back into the city, where the group are finally reunited.

The volcanic eruption duly hits, and the X-Men rescue some slaves before stowing away on Magneto's airship (with Avia still in tow).  Cyclops exhausts himself in the process, entering a coma which will conveniently allow him not to meet Storm in the next two issues. As our cliffhanger, the airship starts to tear itself apart.

Iceman is trying to follow the X-Men to the Savage Land by charter plane, but bad weather means he can't get past Tierra del Fuego.

The number #70 is either covered by text, or it's the squiggle in Jean's hair just over her right shoulder (with the seven above the zero).  Hard to tell, really.

Comments:
Mmm.  Doesn't quite work.  The whole "volcanic eruption" plot seems to come in at the last moment.  There's also no real pay-off to the idea of the Nhu'Ghari running a slave city - the slaves make a token rebellion at the last moment, but basically the place just gets destroyed by a deus ex machina.  And Magneto's "radioactive gas" exposition strains pseudoscience too far.  Radiation worked fine as an explanation for everything in the 1960s, because readers only had a very hazy grasp on what it was, but by 2000 they know too much about it.  (Genetic engineering is a good contemporary substitute.)

On the other hand, there's still a suitably epic feel to the collapse of the city, and the book undeniably has a charm to it, particularly with the unrepentantly Silver Age take on Magneto.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Cyclops, the Angel, the Beast and Marvel Girl I

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Iceman (last in issue #2) and Avia

VILLAINS
Magneto (also in flashback following X-Men vol 1 #63 and preceding issue #1)
The Nhu'Ghari (also in flashback following the flashback in issue #3 and preceding issue #2)

Written: 23 October 2005

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