My Rating
“Finale”
Hell has come to Manhattan!
The X-Terminators and New Mutants join forces for one final battle as the demonic invasion of New York reaches its breaking point. N’astirh has gathered the kidnapped infants needed to fuel his unholy plans, and the streets surrounding him have transformed into a battlefield of magic, mutant powers, and demonic technology. Rusty, Skids, Rictor, Boom-Boom, Artie, and Leech have survived everything Limbo could throw at them—but saving those babies will require more than survival.
Fortunately, they aren’t fighting alone. The New Mutants have entered the war, while the Morlocks launch their own desperate attempt to rescue the kidnapped children. N’astirh now finds himself surrounded by enemies from every direction. Even his fellow demon lord S’ym has entered the conflict, turning an already insane supernatural war into a struggle for control of the Inferno itself.
It’s magic versus technology and mutant versus demon as N’astirh battles both the heroes and his monstrous rival. Can the X-Terminators and New Mutants stop the Inferno before Manhattan completely falls to the forces of Limbo? Will the Morlocks reach the kidnapped children in time? Most importantly—save those babies, Morlocks!
Reviewer Notes
Well, now that this four-issue miniseries is over, I have a feeling that Inferno Omnibus is eventually going to find its way onto my bookshelf. I started X-Terminators knowing f*ck-all about X-Factor and mostly came aboard because I had recently read Illyana Rasputina’s Magik miniseries. Four issues later, Marvel has successfully sent me down another rabbit hole. That’s probably the best compliment I can give a crossover comic from 1989.
Issue #4 throws just about everything onto the battlefield. X-Terminators, New Mutants, Morlocks, demons, kidnapped babies, N’astirh and S’ym are all fighting for space in one wonderfully chaotic finale. What surprised me is how much fun I had following characters I knew almost nothing about when I started. The younger mutants have grown on me, especially Boom-Boom, and the series manages to balance their personalities with a story involving some genuinely dark material. Kidnapping infants for a demonic ritual isn’t exactly lightweight Saturday-morning-cartoon stuff.
The biggest hook for me, however, continues to be Illyana Rasputina. At this point in Marvel continuity, Illyana has transformed into her Darkchylde form, and I clearly have some homework to do. After reading Magik and now X-Terminators, I want to know exactly what happened between those stories and how everything eventually exploded into Inferno. That’s the danger of reading old Marvel Comics—you pick up four issues out of curiosity and suddenly you’re pricing an Omnibus. X-Terminators #4 delivers an action-packed finale and leaves me wanting to explore a much larger chunk of Marvel’s mutant history. I give this issue five out of five stars.