STORY: "Bolt" (23 pages)  Jamil turns into various other villains, until Storm works out that he is simply a projection of Karima's mutant power.  She calms Karima down, and seemingly kills Candra by shattering the Heart.

What you need to know:
The explanation of Karima and Jamil is horrendously complicated.  We're told that Karima's power is "giving both form and function to desires pulled from the minds of others", whatever that means.  Jamil is apparently just a manifestation of Karima's "own desire for companionship."  And on top of that, she's taken Candra's desire to retrieve the Heart, and projected that onto Jamil as well.  Quite what any of this has to do with turning into supervillains is less than clear.

Shattering the Heart of Candra does indeed cause her to vanish in a puff of energy.  Although she turns up again in some flashbacks in Gambit, we never see her again, so apparently she's dead.  Marvel killed off a lot of the minor Externals during this period, with a lot more being wiped out in X-Force.  As for Jamil, the implication is that he's been dispelled and has simply ceased to exist, but strictly speaking we're never shown that.

Storm announces that she's taking Karima "home", which presumably means Cairo.  Given that Karima's a vulnerable and powerful mutant, you'd have thought packing her off to Generation X would be rather more sensible than dumping her back on the streets of Cairo.  But then that wouldn't be as heartwarming, would it?

Psylocke is being harassed by the Undercloaks, but she's keeping it from Archangel.  The Undercloaks are agents of the Crimson Dawn and the idea is apparently that they're trying to claim the price after the Dawn was used to save Psylocke's life in Uncanny X-Men #330.  This is a lead-in to the Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn miniseries.

In an odd little scene, Jean Grey briefly finds herself in an abandoned Manhattan.  The point of this never really becomes clear.

Sebastian Shaw turns up in the last page, in a teaser for the storyline starting next issue.

There's an obvious continuity error, as this issue claims that Creed was killed earlier in the night, while last issue Sam had just attended his funeral.  This is probably the result of crossed wires with Ralph Macchio, who guest scripted last issue.

There's also some really, really obvious last-minute re-lettering in this book.

Comments:
Baffling and chaotic.  The big reveal is meant to be that Jamil doesn't really exist, and is simply a projection of Karima.  But Karima's powers are defined in such an impenetrable way that it's hard to be sure what's going on.  It doesn't help that, even when you work out what her powers are supposed to be, they still don't bear any discernible relationship to some of the things we've just seen on the page.  Meanwhile, Candra's death is treated almost as an afterthought, even though she's been a fairly prominent character in the satellite titles for the last few years.

Nocon's fill-in art is about the same quality as last month's - readable, but not what you'd call pretty.

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Phoenix III (next in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #455, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #13, then in Silver Surfer vol 3 #123, then in the second story in X-Man '96, then in X-Men '97)
Storm (next in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #455, then in X-Men '97)
Wolverine (last in Marvel Fanfare vol 2 #2; next in Wolverine: Black Rio, then in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #454-455, then in X-Men '97)
Archangel (between Uncanny X-Men #338 and X-Men '97)
Cyclops (next in Incredible Hulk vol 2 #455, then in the second story in X-Force '96, then in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #13, then in Silver Surfer vol 3 #123, then in the second story in X-Man '96, then in X-Men '97)
Psylocke (last in X-Men '96; next in Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn #1-4, then in Uncanny X-Men #348-350, then in Iron Man vol 3 #1, then in Uncanny X-Men #353, then in issue #73)

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Gomurr (last in the second story in X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #13; next in Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn #1)

VILLAINS
Candra and Jamil (no further appearances for either)
The Undercloaks (last in Uncanny X-Men #330; next in Psylocke & Archangel: Crimson Dawn #1)
Sebastian Shaw (last in X-Man #28; next in issue #63)

OTHER CHARACTERS
Karima (no further appearances)

Written: 21 July 2005

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