issue summaries

Uncanny X-Men 468 End of the Greys Part 3 of 3: Deathmark Writer: Chris Claremont Penciler: Chris Bachalo Inkers: Hunter, Mendoza, Olazaba, Parsons, Rapmund, Townsend & Vey Colorist: Studio F Letterer: Joe Caramagna Assist. Editor: Sean Ryan Assoc. Editor: Nick Lowe Editor: Mike Marts Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada Date: March 2006

After 24 seconds show in the last issue, Rachel and her grandmother, Elaine, are the only surviving Greys left at the Grey home.

The Shi'ar Death Commando, Blackcloak, tells Rachel that she had been ritually branded and cannot run or hide from her death sentence. Blackcloak grabs Rachel, but Kitty arrives in the nick of time and phases her.

Rachel finally gets her wits about her and gets angry. She starts blasting Blackcloak for each of the members of the Grey family killed and tells him he won't get her grandmother too.

In what's left of the house, a Warskull has Elaine and Psylocke. He threatens to kill them if Rachel gets any closer. But Rachel is feed-up. She blasts the Warskull out of the house.

Blackcloak, with a group of Death Commandos behind him, tells Rachel she does justice to her name and has fought valiantly, but now should accept her fate and join her mother. Rachel swears to protect her Grandmother and yells at Blackcloak for killing children and innocent people.

Blackcloak explains that they had to die because of her genome.

Elaine turns on Rachel, slapping her and calling her a monster. She rages at Rachel, telling her not to call her Grandma and denying that Rachel is anything to her. She wants her husband and family back. She curses Professor Xavier, the X-Men and the Phoenix since they have brought the Greys nothing but heartache and she wishes that Jean and Rachel were never born. Rachel remains kneeling on the ground, sobbing.

Blackcloak continues to explain the reason for the attack on the Greys. The Shi'ar have suffered enough because of the Phoenix. Rachel and the other Greys mere existence presents a threat. To prevent the risk of another Phoenix attack on the Shi'ar, the Grey genome must be wiped out.

The entire house is rocked by a huge BOOM, which announces the arrival of Cannonball. But he flies right into Saga’s force field.

Blackcloak and Sega discuss whether the force field will hold right in front of Rachel, who telepathically passed the information onto Kitty, who helps Betsy disrupt the field.

That allows Cannonball and the rest of the cavalry to arrive on the scene. Within moments, Colossus, Gambit, Rogue and Bishop take out various Death Commandos. Sentinels land nearby and Cyclops and Emma Frost also arrive.

The battle is down to Blackcloak against Rachel and her grandmother.

Rachel tells Blackcloak that it’s over. But he abruptly shoots and kills Elaine. Cyclops calls him a monster and blasts him, but a Sentinel gets in between them and tells Cyclops to cease hostile action. Colonel Reyes orders Scott to stand down.

The Shi'ar Death Commandos have surrendered, so O*N*E won't tolerate the X-Men attacking them. But Scott is furious over the death of his former mother-in-law. Col. Reyes tells Scott if he fires on the Death Commandos, it’s the same as firing on O*N*E.

In the O*N*E office at the Institute, Val Cooper monitors the situation, calling the O*N*E commander to find some place to hold the Shi'ar murderers and she urges Scott to make the right decision.

Rachel pulls Scott onto the astral plane and tells her dad not to do it. She says that she’s sorry that she tried to save the Greys but she wasn't good enough. Scott kneels down next to Elaine’s body and tells Rachel that she did her best. But Rachel thinks she failed them. Scott starts to cry.

Emma invades Rachel and Scott’s private moment, telling Scott that she couldn't stay away since he is in pain. Scott says that they're the heroes that are suppose to stop this sort of thing. She hugs him and says that they're only human. Kitty appears on the astral plane and hugs Rachel. Kitty tells her the Elaine didn't mean what she says, but Rachel argues that a telepath can't be fooled. She knows her grandmother meant every word of it.

Rachel watches as the ghostly forms of the Grey family move on to the afterlife. Kitty replies that Elaine was wrong. Rachel’s grandfather looks back at her and smiles, and Rachel faintly waves. She sees the outline of Jean Grey and a Phoenix firebird, and tear streams down her cheek.

Some time later, at St. Stephen’s Chapel on the campus of Bard College, Rachel and other X-Men attend the funeral for the Grey family. Rachel notes that the Shi'ar completely missed Cable, even though he is genetically her half-brother (Nathan’s mother, Madelyne Pryor, was a clone of Jean Grey. So, Nathan genetically is a member of the Grey family). Rachel hopes if she keeps the Shi'ar’s attention on her, they won't notice their mistake.

Kitty asks Betsy to look out for Rachel.

As Rachel stands at the graves of her mother, grandparents, and cousins Joey and Gailyn, she thinks about the Phoenix and how because Jean was the Phoenix, the whole Grey family was feared, especially her. But she isn't her mother nor the Phoenix. She’s her own woman and before she is done, the Shi'ar will wish she was the Phoenix.