A Stryk-ing Predicament: New X-men #24

When things go wrong for Marvel's mutants, they go REALLY wrong. In case you haven't been paying attention, the events of "House of M" did some serious damage to the mutant population of the Marvel Universe. Where there used to be millions of mutants, there are now only hundreds. This has put the remaining mutants, and many former mutants, in some pretty tough spots. And spots don't come much tougher than the one the New X-Men end up in.

Tragedy befalls the team of young X-Men in training in New X-Men #24, by Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, and Paco Medina. There have always been those who view mutants as a feared and hated minority. When there were millions of powerful mutants to look out for one another, there was safety in those numbers. Now that the mutant population has been drastically reduced, there are plenty of people who see this vulnerability as a prime opportunity to strike. The Reverend William Stryker, for example. (And really, anybody with the name "Stryker" just has to be up to no good.)

Stryker predicted the events of M-Day, and he's been preparing for quite some time. He has built up a virtual army of anti-mutant fanatics to join him in his second crusade to wipe out his hated enemies. As Emma Frost and the X-Men try to sneak a bus full of non-powered students away from the Xavier Institute, Stryker's forces attack. The bus is destroyed, and a whole bunch of dead students are left in the aftermath of the attack.

This emotional issue focusses on how the remaining New X-Men deal with their grief and loss. These are young people who have been through some incredibly tough times, and coping isn't going to be easy. Of course, as Emma Frost makes clear, Stryker is not going to wait around for the New X-men to feel better before he decides to attack again. This is just the beginning of a story that will clearly be pivotal in how the mutant community survives in the post-M world.

So strap on your black armband and stroll somberly over to Four Color Fantasies to pick up New X-Men #24. It's guaranteed, so you have nothing to lose, unlike the New X-Men.