issue summaries

X-Men: Deadly Genesis 4 Writer: Ed Brubaker Penciler: Trevor Hairsine Finishes: Scott Hanna & Mike Perkins Penciler & inker (back-up story): Pete Woods Inker: Kris Justice Colorist: Val Staples Colorist (back-up story): Brad Anderson Letterer: Dave Lanphear Letterer (back-up story): Dave Sharpe Assist. Editor: Nathan Cosby Editor: Mark Panniccia Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada Date: April 2006

Years ago, Professor Xavier arrives at Moira MacTaggert's apartment in the middle of the night, telling her he's lost the X-Men and he needs her help. He explains that he sent them on a mission, and now his mind-link with Jean has cut off.

At the Xavier Institute, Logan, Kurt and Hank are watching Moira's video diary entry of the previous events, and both think that it's disturbing. Kurt believes she's talking about the Krakoa incident, when the original team was lost. They wonder what exactly was so important in the tape that it was worth killing Sean for, and continue watching.

In the past, at Moira's place, Xavier shows her Cyclops, Iceman, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Angel, and Havok being attacked and soundly defeated by a large monstrous creature on Krakoa. Xavier explains to Moira that those are the last images he received from his mind-link with Jean. He knows they are still alive from Cerebro, and that he needs her students to help rescue them.

Rachel wakes up to find herself and Scott released from the chains on the walls and laying on the floor. She wakes up Scott, telling him they have to move quickly. Taking his hand and guiding him out of the room, she guesses their captor is asleep and that he isn't fully in control of his powers. Scott questions how he knows this, and Rachel replies that while he was in her head, she got into his. She learned that he wasn't always this powerful and theorizes that something happened recently to give him a power boost, but that he doesn't know how to handle it. She finds Scott's visor on the banister and hands it to him. She tells him that she's starting to get her powers back, so hopefully he will as well.

Once upstairs, Scott vaguely remembers where they are. He recalls being there a long time ago, but he can't remember why. As he tries to lead them out, he asks Ray if she's learned who their captor is. She reminds him of the severed mental link with the Professor and asks Scott again if he's seen this person before, since he thinks he used to be an X-Man.

At the Institute, Logan, Kurt and Hank continue to watch Moira's video diary. Moira explains that her "students" were just a handful of teenage mutants she was helping. Xavier had meet them all before and helped set-up Moira's training program for them. Moira's students consisted of Sway, a girl with the ability to control time, a geo-morph named Petra, Darwin the evolving boy, and Kid Vulcan, who could manipulate energy. Xavier was particularly interested in Vulcan. All Moira knew of his past was his name was Gabriel, he was an orphan, and he had lived most of his life in fear.

Moira let her students decide if they wanted to risk their lives to help the X-Men, and naturally they said yes. Xavier simulated months of intensive training in their minds over the course of a few hours to get them ready for the mission. They get their own uniforms and head off in a jet to Krakoa to save the X-Men. But before they left, Xavier pulled Kid Vulcan aside and told him something Moira didn't hear.

Moira's tape cuts out as she says something about not letting them go if she knew what Xavier had told Gabriel. Kurt, Hank and Logan try to make sense of what they've just heard, and Kurt wonders out loud what happened to the other team.

Scott and Rachel make their way out of the building, and Rachel finds a sign that says "Muir-MacTaggert". She asks Scott if Moira ever had a research lab in the States. Scott tries to remember. She thinks she did, and it wasn't too far from the Institute, but there's something he can't remember.

From above him, the mysterious villain tells him it's because "he" didn't want him to, since this is the place they first met before he saved him on that hellish island. Finally not under a cloak, it's clear that their captor is Kid Vulcan. Scott angrily questions what he's talking about. Vulcan explains that Xavier didn't want Scott o know that he had sacrificed Scott's long lost younger brother to save him, that Xavier has been messing many people's minds many times so that, and that the X-Men left him and his friends to die.

Back-up Story - Kid Vulcan

Gabriel has been having the same bad dream every night for weeks, of being an baby in some strange red liquid in a contraption with metal pincers and faces staring in at him. It seems as if pieces of his past are coming back to him in the form of dreams. As he paces around Moira's research lab, he starts to recall parts of his past. He remembers being a slave, and the other people in the fortress like mansion he were he worked that had feathers for hair, including an old woman who gave him a book about Roman mythology.

Moira find him out of bed. It seems like Xavier has been helping Gabriel recover his memories, and that's what's been causing his dreams. He lies to Moira that he just has scattered memories and nothing significant. But that night, he remembered something that terrorized him - the time he first used his powers. As a young teenager, his hands glowed red as he dropped a tray of dishes. When the old woman who had been so kind to him approached him, he accidentally blasted her with energy vaporizing her.

He remembered blasting other people as he escaped, and then being discovered years later in a sewer by police officers. A few months later, he's introduced to Moira MacTaggert who offers to help him. Then he meets Professor Xavier. Gabriel and his friends have followed the X-Men's adventures on tv news reports, and clearly idolize them. Xavier takes an interest in Gabe and starts probing his memories, which is when the nightmares start. Xavier claims there is something locked away in Gabe's mind preventing him from having control over his abilities, but Gabe senses that's there more to why the Professor is probing his mind. Xavier even introduced him to Cyclops and they got to train together.

Gabriel overhears Xavier talking to Moira about him. Moira thinks Charles is pushing Gabriel too hard, and wants to know why he's so interested in him. Charles explains that he thinks Gabe's age is somehow wrong and there is far more to him that he can figure out. But with proper training, Xavier feels Kid Vulcan could one day join the X-Men. Gabriel is determined that Moira and Xavier never find out about the day he lost control of his powers, so he can become Kid Vulcan of the X-Men.