These days, it's impossible to pick up a book with an "X" on it and assume the story won't cross over into at least two other titles. Second Coming is a 16-part saga stretching between X-Force, Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, X-Men Legacy, and the self-titled Second Coming bookend issues (along with a couple of tie-ins).
A Very Short Recap of Second Coming
Here's the down and dirty of it all: the mutant population is incredibly low after M-Day (when the Scarlet Witch used her powers to render the vast majority of mutants on Earth powerless). Mutant-hunting super-sentinel Bastion decides that now is the time to strike and kill off the remaining mutants, most of who are gathered on an island off the coast of San Francisco. Hope, the first and only mutant born since M-Day, has been raised to her teenage years in the future by Cable. In order to bring her safely to the island, Nightcrawler gives his life.
The mutants gather on the island just in time for Bastion to raise an impenetrable shield around it. He then begins teleporting sentinels in within the shield. Mutants are killed, maimed, and wounded, and the sentinels keep coming. Cyclops sends X-Force to cut off the flow of sentinels at their source. They succeed, and Cable sacrifices himself to get them back safely.
An enraged Bastion decides to take the fight directly to Hope, who has yet to reveal her powers. When they clash, however, she seems to possess several powers, and not only destroys Bastion, but the dome. In the final pages of the event, Cyclops witnesses several lights pop up on the mutant-finding Cerebra: somehow, more mutants are appearing.
The Last Word on Second Coming by Marvel Comics
There's no reason this should have lasted sixteen issues. This was supposed to be a story that has been building for years via a number of other crossover events, but in the end it came down to a big brawl, and a big comic book brawl doesn't need that many issues.
As with any large storyline, characters are killed and new characters are brought to the forefront. But in the end, no one should be shocked if Nightcrawler returns and Hope takes the back burner in later years.
That's not to say that the event wasn't entertaining. It had definite moments of tension and awe, but it was all stretched too thin to have any lasting impact. For what was the ultimate goal in the end? To kill off Cable and Nightcrawler? To introduce Hope as the newest, coolest X-Man? Perhaps both. Perhaps it was neither, and Marvel just wanted something to make the event seem important so they killed off a well-known character, then stretched the event over multiple issues to make more money.
Whatever the end goal was, the event was underwhelming as a whole. Had it been six issues, it would have been amazing. Lesson learned? With a whole new host of X-Men books coming out... Probably not.
Robert Becka - In 2008, Robert Becka graduated from Saint Cloud State University with Bachelor's degrees in Film Studies and Journalism. His senior paper ...
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