2099 World of Tomorrow #6

Background

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up... There's a big alien space ship in orbit that is doing really bad things to earth's environment, such as melting the polar ice caps and causing the sea level to rise so much there's no inhabitable space except for the Savage Land at the South Pole. An assortment of superheroes and average joes have assembled there and are trying to rebuild civilization.

Story 'Final Decision'

We open where we left off last issue, in Castle Doom where the not-so-terrific trio – Doom, Spider-Man, and Xina – are fighting a pitched battle against the Phalanx. Nostromo has just been plugged into the alien mainframe and so the Emissary (now calling himself Magus) declares, “The Earth belongs to the Phalanx!!!”

Meanwhile, the Dreadnode that landed on the front porch of the Last Refuge starts up with his own monologue about taking over the world within one solar cycle. Before Bloodhawk and the gang can move to stop it, the Dreadnode shoots several metallic tendrils into the ground. Is this how the Phalanx plans to terraform the planet, by sending these goons all over the world? Who knows, the story doesn't say - you just have to make sense out of it on your own.

Anyway, Bloodhawk attacks and gets caught up in some more metallic tendrils that electrocute him. Hodge grabs Jade and makes a run for it. That just leaves Willow and La Lunatica to defeat this guy. Saying that desperate times call for desperate measures, Willow transforms into the Martian form she took a few issues ago since its the biggest, baddest thing she can think of. La Lunatica attacks the Dreadnode's front while Willow takes the back.

Meanwhile, inside the Last Refuge Metalhead, Maddie, and Cerebra hear the fighting. Krystallin (Where the heck did she come from? She hasn't been seen for the last five issues!) appears and tells them that the alien invasion has finally begun. Metalhead sets Cerebra down in a ready-made Professor X chair (apparently she lost the use of her legs, too) and goes outside to fight alongside his friends. Before he can even take two steps outside he gets smacked by a couple of tendrils that drill into his chest.

Somewhere close by (the geography of the Last Refuge has never been all that clear... shocker, I know), the humans see the mutants fighting the Dreadnode. One of the humans goads Morphine Summers to go join in. Morphine almost uses his mutant powers to take out this rando but Victor Ten Eagles steps in an gives a motivational speech to rally the humans to aid the mutants in saving the world. (Such a novel concept!)

In Latveria the Emissary / Magus is still prattling on, so Spider-Man decides to try and rip Nostromo out of the alien mainframe. It does not go well; the art is unclear, but it looks like he ripped off one of Nostromo's arms. Meanwhile, Doom is trying to convince Xina to escape with him. She is reticent however, because she is still in shock over the Magus' revelation that Doom was working with the Phalanx all along. Doom flies off alone after Xina's rejection. Spidey quickly grabs Xina and they swing off somewhere else, too. Where everyone goes isn't exactly clear, because the entire country has pretty much been overrun by Phalanx by this time. The Magus lets them go, since he has his scout now and figures there's nothing more the heroes can do to stop the invasion.

Meanwhile, Wulff snaps out of his berzerker rage and is upset by all the blood he sees on his claws. Here's the moment of truth. Vulture tells him to kill Trash and sit by his side once again. It's the classic Emperor / Luke Skywalker come over to the Dark Side deal. Uproar tells Shiv and the other Wild Boys that they should turn against their leader because it's clear he doesn't care about them at all. Wulff wisely skips the murdering but does obediently sit beside the Vulture and allow himself to be leashed (kinky).

Now that the Vulture has won, he orders his new pet to kill Uproar. Just then, an almost literal deus ex machina arrives in the form of another Dreadnode that plummets from the sky and crashes into the ship. Explosions ensue. Conveniently, Uproar and an unconscious Wulff winds up on the same piece of driftwood. What, so now we're re-enacting Titanic? Is there a boat trope that the authors' haven't trotted out yet? Anyway, Uproar ponders whether his friend will turn out to be a human or beast when he wakes up.

Meanwhile, Miguel and Xina have a heart to heart in a church somewhere in Latveria. Xina believes the only way to stop the invasion is to take out Nostromo. Miguel is aghast at the suggestion of killing a kid. But after an undetermined amount of time (which spans exactly three panels) he finally decides its the only option.

Speaking of heart to hearts, Winn, the Phalanx-ized double agent, walks into the Phalanx battery chamber and speaks to Nostromo, who is getting harder and harder to distinguish as a real person as he is further integrated into the mainframe. Winn wants Nostromo to know that his betrayal back in the caves under Antarctica was nothing personal.

Finally, back on Mars, Dr. Isaacs is in a clone chamber. She reveals that the only reason she followed the X-Kids this far was so she could find out what happened to all the colony's children. Well, I say children but she explains that they are actually all clones, as well! And not just any clones, but clones of her one true child that she left behind on Earth – Hayes Isaacs aka the late Clarion of X-Nation 2099. (He bit the dust in X-Nation 2099 #6.)

Elsewhere, Metalsmith and Twilight are still fighting over whether they can really trust the Martians while December is trying to contact Earth via the Martian's communications control room. She fiddles around with some knobs and finds some computer files about another project, besides cloning, that the Takers were working on – another rocket ship! Based on this new info she thinks the Martians are actually in league with the Phalanx and are going to attack the Earth together.

Meanwhile, Twilight is preparing to board the very space ship December just found out about (so, it looks like they weren't keeping it too secret) with Metalmith trying to dissuade her one last time. Twilight counters by saying that she's always dreamed of doing something that matters... like saving the world (which is supposedly what this trip to Mars was originally all about). So, Metalsmith decides if he can't beat her, then he will have to join her on the ship. December watches from her control room as they initiate a countdown and then the ship blasts off.

General Comments

This is the penultimate chapter in the Phalanx 2099 saga. Usually at this point there would be one final reversal of fortune for our heroes, or a setback of some kind that makes us doubt whether they can come out on top. But here we pretty much just get more of the same thing. Wulff and Uproar are still arguing back and forth. Spider-Man, Doom, and Xina are still trading blows with the Phalanx. And the heroes of the Last Refuge are still struggling to fight a lone Dreadnode. Basically, this entire issue is just treading water.

Overall Rating

With this issue Garokk, Strange 2099, and Umi, officially join the List of the Lost (along with the Fantastic Four, Father Jennifer, and a handful of others) as we will see no more of them in this series. Why did we spend so much time on these characters and their backstory if they're gonna be dropped with no explanation? That's the epitome of bad storytelling.