First of all, those wraparound covers are gorgeous.
A plane. It crashes. Cyclops is in it. This creates psychic disturbance for Rachel, and she and the team track the crash to Canada where she gets uppity with Alpha Flight.
She literally drives them all crazy. Which is both fun and funny.
The obligatory “hi nice to meet you let’s fight” scene expands to the other members.
It occurs to me that Rogue kissing people who don’t want to be kissed is probably something that wouldn’t be seen as cute and playful in comics written today. If it’s not out-and-out rape, it’s definitely “rape-y.”
I think it’s occurring to me here because she kisses a character who we all now know is gay and probably has an extra-averse reaction to it.
As the fight expands, Sasquatch commits unnecessary destruction of property.
And finally, Professor X squashes all the beef.
He’s no fun.
Okay, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about what this two-issue miniseries is about. Loki teams up with a newly introduced set of higher Gods—not Norse gods—who have the ability to bestow increased power on lesser Gods. They’re called “We Who Sit Above in Shadows.”
To win their gift, Loki bestows powers on mortals—specifically, on X-Men. Cyclops and his wife, Madelyne, are flying a few civilians (Maddie’s job is a pilot), so Loki turns all of them into Norselike Gods and sets them up in a cool mystical land.
You can tell already that this is a convoluted Claremont plot, can’t you?
Scott greets them.
Loki makes Scott and Maddy into gods—so Scott doesn’t even need a visor.
In fact, they all have greater control over their abilities, which leads Rogue to get all rape-y again.
Babe. Cut it out.
Also a big revelation: Professor X scans Cyclops and Madelyne to make sure they are in fact the genuine article (given all the weirdness) and…
Maddie is preggers!
Rachel reacts poorly.
And everything isn’t great in this land. Snowbird is messed up and Wolverine goes looking for her.
He wants to know why these godlike beings won’t help her (it’s because of her connection to the ancient gods of Canada, the Great Beasts).
And so the rebellion starts.
After that, it’s all about Gods giving mortals powers to cure all their problems (one of the Gods offers Puck a cure for his dwarfism, e.g.), which the mortals reject, and that makes Loki mad because now he can’t convince the bigger Gods to make him more powerful—he had to get people to accept his gift without coercion.
Not everyone in the land is an X-Man, and not everyone wants to give up their powers. Ultimately, we get to the big Loki reveal.
And Loki is defeated.
And Rachel has a sweet moment with her alternate reality daddy…
Maddie’s pregnancy is having a good effect on Scott. He’s much less of an arrogant dick and much more willing to be paternal.