They take a tired idea of a crappy group of characters (honestly, this book didn't do anything for the X-men when it originated way back in the early 90s) and they have forced them into a new era. An era where mutants are forced to survive by any means necessary.

Wolverine and his band of badass mofos take the fight to the Purifiers and Bastion and the Angel army and the entire issue is told as if Wolverine is giving a debriefing to Cyclops after the fact. Which is fine. Gives it a very procedural feeling. Only problem is that it takes some of the momentum away from the characters as we know things worked out in some way for them.

Wolverine and the crew have followed Angel to the Purifiers hideaway as Warren is pissed that his wings are gone. So they do a quick count and realize that each of the X-Force members gets 16 kills of their own, of course, that is after Rahne has rushed off to enact vengeance against her father and Warren has taken to the sky.

It quickly becomes about Wolverine and Bastion, Warpath and X-23 versus the Purifiers and Warren vs. the Angel Army. Nice quick side change and a nice throwdown in the mix. We get nice touches. We learn that Eli, another of the Purifier lords, has decided to bond with the Magus (seemingly part of Warlock from the New Mutants/Phalanx) and he and Matthew Risman fight each other, Eli being the victor.

Wolverine and Bastion have what could have been a great fight, had Wolverine remembered that Bastion is part Mastermind/Master Mold and therefore being part Sentinel is very much going to kick his ass. Which Bastion does. Wolverine is torched and burnt and reminds me of the panels from Uncanny's Days of Future Past storyarc (though this Wolverine keeps on ticking, seems his healing factor is amped up again).

Warpath and X-23 continue their killing as Warren rips and tears through flesh and bone of the Angel army and kills each and every one of them looking for his wings.

Rahne attacks her father but doesn't kill him, until she sees him in front of the wings. Then she tears him to pieces. Seems that she has a trigger to tear and rip and destroy, that being the Angel.

After Wolverine gets his ass handed to him and Eli makes his way away from the battle, the team catches sight of who they are up against, and each and every one of their old villains is there to say hello and essentially give the team the finger.

The second to last splash page, of Archangel standing atop the corpses of so many dead Angels is haunting. He is screaming toward the sky, and he is pissed. Now, this would have been an even more haunting image had Brubaker allowed Archangel to stay Archangel. Because we all called for it and couldn't figure out why he was Angel in one and Archangel in the other, it seems that the Apocalypse Blood only changes him from time to time. Like a bloodlust. He changes back to Angel by the end of the issue and has no recollection of what he did. So he's like a secret weapon.

And that is the ultimate cop-out. By taking what was essentially the coolest thing done with Warren in 10 years, they make me feel like I've been slapped in the face. Warren Worthington has always been a better character when he is damned, when he has that edge to him. By making him plain white bread WWIII, he just is boring. He's no Avenging Angel, he's just some prick with a perm and an endless stream of cash-flow.

So that bothers me.

Will I drop this book over that? No. Now if they do something completely badass in the next arc only to have to change it in the next 2 issues, I will. It won't seem worth spending my money on a book in which they have to completely undo some of their amazing character changes just to fulfill someone else's wishes.

Now the fact that the issue ends with another splash page involving all of the villains seen fleeing from the incident, Risman's face crossed off and the reader being asked, who's next? That kicks you right back in the face. Sure they had to change Warren back. But that doesn't change the fact that this isn't your dad's X-Men. This isn't some kiddie cartoon.

This is what a black ops team should look like.