Technically the “Sign of the End of Times” story starts with #66, but issue #65 has Cable getting a message from the future–from Rachel Summers–and has Harbinger appearing in New York, alongside other omens of Apocalypse. So, I’m including #65 in this post.
All Apocalypse stories are basically the same: Lots of slow boil hints that the big badass villain will be arriving soon. He arrives. A bunch of heroes get together and fight him.
This one is done well, but at bottom is the same. This time, the heroes assembled are Cable and The Avengers.
There’s also the return of the mysterious “twelve” mutants who will factor into this.
Ozymandias warns not just about the arrival of The Twelve, but also that all of New York must be destroyed to prevent the return of Apocalypse.
Harbinger arrives before big A, and Cable fights him.
As always, Ladronn’s art is amazing. And how about the World Trade Center being destroyed? That’s a little chilling.
Cable loses. The Avengers arrive. More fighting.
Thor joins in.
Eventually, Apocalypse arrives and turns Harbinger into a self-destructing bomb. And the Statue of Liberty gets blown up.
All this much to the Mayor’s dismay.
I miss Mayor Ed Koch appearing in comics. I’m not sure who that’s supposed to be.
Ozymandias ultimately says Cable is supposed to form the twelve.
But instead he uses Iron Man’s jet boots to take Harbinger into the atmosphere where the living bomb can just blow up and not destroy New York.
I’m not tagging all those headshots.
Cable is believed to die in the explosion but no reader could possibly have been fooled by that.
Again, not bad, but not great either.