Black Tom Cassidy is an elemental now.
Cool.
He invades the school, with Mondo’s help. His target is Sean Cassidy, his cousin, who he believes made their niece, Siryn, turn away from the dark side. His plan for revenge is to kill all of Sean’s students.
In the process, though, Jubilee escapes, gets cornered by Bastion…
…Who then kills Mondo.
The younger students flee to the Bio-Sphere, where Howard the Duck shows some leadership skills we haven’t seen him display before.
Howard uses his cigar to light Black Tom on fire.
And then uses his old pal Man-Thing to teleport himself and the kids to the Nexus of All Realities.
This is sowing the seeds to the Daydreamers team/comic that will arrive later in ’97.
Black Tom then turns to Emma Frost and Sean. Not sure why, but his elemental nature enables him to occupy their bodies, and he forces Emma to fight Sean. Tom tells Banshee that he will spare the kids if Sean kills Emma.
And Emma uses her telepathy to force Banshee to do it.
And thus Emma is dead. (Not really of course.)
Meanwhile, Penance appears to have figured out how to take care of Black Tom…
…And Gateway appears to quit hanging around the school.
Penance attacks, and cuts Black Tom in half.
In the aftermath, we see that the kids are missing–Black Tom never really captured or killed any of them.
And thus this issue plants the seeds for (1) The Daydreamers series, about Howard and the kids; (2) Jubilee and Bastion; and (3) the missing Gen X team-members.
In the letter page to #26, they point out that this issue’s rush to production led to a couple of significant errors…
