Since M-Day, mutantkind has been on a low ebb, their numbers brought to less than two hundred by the Scarlet Witch's declaration of "no more Mutants". The X-Men, led by Cyclops, have tried to protect mutantkind as their enemies have tried to take advantage of this to wipe them out for good. Recent events have forced them to the artificial island of Utopia, off the coast of San Francisco, but even with new allies like Magneto, or Namor, every attack risks lowering their numbers further still, loses they cannot afford.
But there is hope, quite literally, in the form of Hope Summers, the first Mutant born since M-Day. Taken into the future by Cable, she now returns a teenager, ready to serve whatever destiny might await her. No-one knows what Hope can do, not even Hope herself, but they know she has to do something. Unfortunately, the X-Men's enemies know about her, and Bastion, foremost of those enemies, has amassed an army with one purpose: Kill Hope, and kill the X-Men.
This crossover contains examples of:
- All Your Powers Combined: What Hope's powers turn out to be. Her fight with Bastion has her use Cyclops, Armor, Colossus, Iceman's powers in rapid succession. Then she pulls out the Phoenix Force.
- And Then What?: Bastion asks this question of himself. What are the mutant haters going to do when mutants are dead? After all, murder's not a noble thing.Bastion: What will define us now, Mr. Creed?Creed: I - I'm sorry, master. What do you mean?Bastion: What purpose will we serve once this profane edifice - Home Sapiens Superior - has fallen? It was such a fine campaign. Such a glorious war. But slaughter - necessary as it is - is banal. It does not tax us. It does not ennoble us.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Archangel slices off Stryker's arm (specifically, his right arm, which he'd covered with Nimrod's), before slicing him in half.
- Karma loses a leg to Cameron Hodge.
- Bastion loses an arm due to Nightcrawler teleporting away with it. He soon grows a new one.
- Hellion loses both his arms at the elbow to the Nimrods.
- Bad Future: Bastion summons Nimrods from a future where the X-Men are all dead. When X-Force arrives in said future, they're treated to a giant-size replica of the famous Days of Future Past cover (with every picture labeled as "Slain") just to emphasize how bad things get.
- Beware the Nice Ones: What happens when the X-Men, backed into a corner, have to be ready to kill their enemies to keep themselves alive. The New Mutants in particular: Karma uses her mind-control powers to make a member of The Right shoot up his buddies, followed by Magma turning the floor under them to lava.
- Call-Back: On seeing Hope make a Phoenix-shaped bonfire, Emma flashes back to her encounter with Jean's ghost back in Uncanny's "Sisterhood" arc.
- Chekhov's Gun: Rogue's brief contact with baby Hope back in Messiah CompleX has given the two a psychic link.
- C-List Fodder:
- The event begins with Cyclops filling everyone in on the casualties of the just-ended Necrosha event; Diamond Lil, Meld and Onyx. Namor, as is kind of typical of him, asks why Meld's worth noting.
- With regards to the event itself, it's actually averted: There are only a handful of named character deaths, those being A-Listers Nightcrawler and Cable alongside C-Listers Vanisher and Ariel, D-Lister Sack, and a handful of villains.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Back in the 80s, one Nimrod was enough to hold off all the X-Men, and the Hellfire Club. Here, the X-Men go through a small army's worth. Understandable, since the X-Men have increased their roster in the years since, and taken many levels in badass since then.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Human League goons are immune to Psylocke's telepathy due to Bastion's tech, the same way the Purifiers were to Emma's in New X-Men.
- When the Avengers show up, Captain America (a.k.a. Bucky Barnes) notices Dr. Nemesis, and how they met once. Bradley doesn't remember him (or possibly doesn't recognize him under the mask.)
- Crazy-Prepared: Bastion and his troops, as comes of being a hyper-advanced android devoted entirely to killing the X-Men. When Stryker notes the arrival of X-Force, he tells his men to initiate contingency 23-C, a weaponized ritual designed to get Magik out of the picture. Note that they didn't know who the X-Men were sending.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Steven Lang and Graydon Creed's deaths at the hands of the X-Men get a single panel devoted to it, with so little attention drawn to it a reader could easily be forgiven for not noticing it at all.
- Fish out of Water: Hope, having grown up in one Bad Future after another, is baffled by the idea of motels, where a person doesn't need to perform security sweeps before getting some shut-eye. This being X-Men, the motel gets attacked to get to her and Cable, quickly placing her back in her element.
- From the Ashes: X-Force (1991) ends in another mega event, Second Coming, up from which two new series that pick up where X-Force left—Uncanny X-Force and new X23''.
- Go Out with a Smile: Cable's last act before apparently dying is to smile at Hope.
- Grand Finale: Of the Bastion storyline that begun in Kyle and Yost's X-Force, along with wrapping up a few other storylines as well.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Villainous version, with Bastion in his final fight with Hope.Bastion: It is beyond our capacity to hate you. It is beyond our capacity to enjoy murdering you. We have grown beyond our capacity.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Cypher's ability to study languages gets a lot of mileage. His analysis of data-flows means he finds Cable when the man tries to hide, and works out his location via the Purifiers trying to institute a dead zone to isolate him. Then, at the climax, he destroys the Sentinel controls with his powers.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Nightcrawler leaps in front of Bastion's attempt to kill Hope, and teleports her all the way to Utopia. He got better.
- Cable sacrifices himself to get X-Force back to the present. He got better, too.
- I Choose to Stay: Just after Bastion's barrier goes up, Cable offers Hope the chance to time-travel out. Hope, feeling a sense of responsibility to the X-Men, says she has to stay.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Logan and Scott justify creating X-Force and their violent means of protecting mankind by claiming that mutants' collective backs are against the wall and there are no better options.
- I Die Free: Bolivar Trask shoots himself when Monet disrupts Bastion's control, rather than let himself be a puppet any further.
- Internal Reveal: The rest of the X-Men learn about X-Force, which had been a secret to them. Nightcrawler in particular is not happy, to say the least.
- It's All My Fault: Hope momentarily believes the increasingly bad situation is her fault. Cable tells her otherwise.Cable: Responsibility and guilt aren't the same thing. And if you did leave here, do you really believe Bastion's going to stop killing mutants?
- Jerkass:
- Logan blames Hope for Kurt's death.
- Beast returns for Kurt's funeral solely so he can tell Scott it's all his fault. He even spits in his face during his rant, albeit accidentally but still.
- Legion of Doom: Bastion uses a transmode-resurrected remote-controlled council of X-Men villains, consisting of;
- Reverend Stryker, leader of the Purifiers.
- Cameron Hodge, founder and leader of The Right.
- Donald Pierce, leader of the Reavers, and prisoner of the X-Men when the event begins.
- Bolivar Trask, inventor of the Sentinels (and the only one who doesn't actually want to kill mutants at all).
- Graydon Creed, head of the Friends of Humanity
- Steven Lang, head of Project: Armageddon
- Meaningful Echo: When she first meets Magneto, who asks if she's gotten rid of all the X-Men's enemies yet, Hope retorts that he should give her a week. At the end, after everyone's over, Magneto reminds her of this.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The first hint of Hope's powers kicking into high gear is them glowing red as she argues with Scott.
- Red Sky, Take Warning: Bastion's barrier is a blood red, leaving the sky in the scenes inside tinted with it.
- Schmuck Bait: Bastion's oil rigs were intended to lure the Science Team in, so that when the barrier goes up, they're locked outside.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Vanisher tries fleeing the minute things get tough. Unfortunately for him, Bastion's mooks are lying in wait and gun him down.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: A rare aversion where the Avengers (sans Spider-Man and, for obvious reasons, Wolverine) actually try to help the X-Men. Problem is, Bastion's barrier is strong enough to keep them out until it's all over, even with Thor hammering on it with all his strength.
- Tin Man: Even though he claims to be beyond enjoying the killing of mutants, it becomes obvious that Bastion takes sadistic pleasure in his success in doing so.
- Trojan Prisoner: Donald Pierce, who was captured during the events of Young X-Men, apparently on purpose. It's all part of Bastion's plan, so that Pierce can get free and scuttle the Blackbirds.
- Villainous Breakdown: Bastion, after the X-Men stop every other plan it has, goes into a snarling fury, ignores Creed and Lang's suggestions to leave, turns them into Sentinels and launches itself at Hope in a last-ditch attempt to kill her.
- Wham Shot: At the very end of the event, Emma goes running to Scott to tell him about what she just saw Hope do... only to find him looking at Cerebra locating five new mutants.
