Synopsis
Background & early steps[]
Weapon Plus and Fantomex[]
Weapon III was a barrister and a mutant with elastic, multi-sensory skin who was recruited by Father into Weapon Plus. Enhanced, he was dispatched into the Cold War and later sent to acquire the Orbs of Necromon in Otherworld. Someone in Weapon Plus had Fantomex (Weapon XIII) to stop Weapon, leaving him to be found by Corps. James Braddock ordered the removal of his skin while keeping him alive. The skin was stole by Fantomex, who used it as sentient bullets in his adventures, while Weapon III taught his muscles to reproduce the powers of his skin.[2]
The Corps wished Fantomex to be dead for some reasons.[1][3]
X-Force[]
At some point, Psylocke severed her psychic link with her brother Captain Britain.
In order to stop the return of Apocalypse, X-Force attacked Clan Akkaba and discovered the mutant would-be-tyrant as an infant, who was finally assassinated by X-Forcer Fantomex.
During the fight between X-Force and Archangel, shortly after Jean Grey expanded Psylocke's psyche, Brian and Psylocke's psychic bond reconnected, letting Brian witnessed his sister' memories of the past months.[1]
Horoam'ce and Jamie[]
Brian and Elizabeth Braddock's older brother, Jamie Braddock was a powerful being and a madman who eventually reformed himself and joined the Captain Britain Corps to assist his brother and Saturnyne.[3]
Horoam'ce the Goat Devil of Self-Propagation[4] was a goat-headed demon that bound with a human host to gain a physical presence, then seeked a populated area, infecting all in its path.[3]
At some point in a future, Jamie made a pact with him, believing he would acquire cosmic omnipresent enlightenment. Tricked, Jamie was possessed by Horoam'ce, who then saw Tower Omniverse. Seeking to access it to spread in all times and places, he stole the Orbs of Necromon from Merlyn and a time travel pedestal, accessing a time when Merlyn and Roma were hibernating and the Corps was busy with other matters.[4]
War[]
At some point, Horoam'ce started to attack the Corps, anticipating every Corps' move, with the identified goal of accessing the Tower Omniverse, a building whose doors could access every plane of existences.
Brian was unable to contact Psylocke for support, but did not ask the help of the X-Men, seeing them as a self-concerned clan. Meanwhile, the war claimed thousands of Corpsmen everyday.[1]
At the point of Fantomex's kidnapping, there was only one propre corpsman per every ten realities.[1]
Fantomex's trial[]
In order to find reinforcements and put an end to Fantomex (seen as an anomaly that shouldn't exist and allegedly did not exist in other dimensions), Brian came to the Cavern-X along with a few corpsmen, captured Fantomex and kidnapped Psylocke in her sleep.
After presenting her the situation and reuniting with her brother Jamie, whom madness she still feared, Jamie offered Psylocke to reincorporate her former body and claim back her Lady Britain title. Although he refused to acknowledge their authority, Fantomex was tried, opposing the benefits of his preemptive murder on a child to the Corps' court. Despite Fantomex's defense attorney Captain England's protests, Saturnyne found Fantomex guilty of premeditated homicide (not technically infanticide), with the sentence of eradication from existence by Retroactive Molecular Deconstruction[1] (a process expunging the existence of the subject even from others' memories).
As Fantomex deconstruction was to be applied immediately after the trial, Psylocke claimed Lady Britain's mantle and fred an already incapacitated Fantomex, forcing their way out from her brothers and other Corpsmen.[3]
X-Force's arrival[]
Teleported by Gateway, X-Force accessed Otherworld only to find themselves immediately helping the Corps against the Goat and its armies.[1] Wolverine was soon overpowered by the Orb of Metallum, but was saved by Nightcrawler who managed to have the Orb destroyed by a Goat's giant soldier's blow, and then recovered Deadpool (beheaded at the moment he arrived on Otherworld).
Although the Corps' forces were decimated in the battle (save for a corpsman who teleported back to the Starlight Citadel to report on the Goat's progress), and the Goat now controlled everything beyond the Great Rift and the Wailing Mists, Nightcrawler's feats forced him to change his plans and to retreat to the East, heading for the village of South Woode where were stationed Meggan (fore-knowing he would encounter X-Force there).
Despite Brian's protests, he was denied the right to move himself to South Woode by Saturnyne. They were all informed by the previous battle survivor that the Goat was in possession of the Orbs of Necromon. X-Force was soon rejoined by Meggan and her troops.[3]
The Lords of Sorrow, Skinless Man[]
As Fantomex was delirious, Psylocke brought her to the Forest of Sorrows,[3] within the Pyramid of the Ogre Mage Krokwel,[2] where the Ancient Lords of the Thousand Sorrows' Master Krokwel, a mage formerly ejected from the Corps by James Braddockand Merlyn due to his particular use of magic. In exchange for Fantomex's healing, Psylocke offered that Krokwel's exile would be lifted. As the Lord of Sorrow considered there was not much left to do, Psylocke begged him, Krokwel found one costly thing that could make him help them :[3] her sorrow and her capacity to ever feel any of it again.[5]
While Captain England and the Braddock brothers checked that Orbs were still in the Corps' possession in the Citadel, it was attacked by the dead Corpsmen supposed to guard it.
As Meggan and X-Force reached Davis Creek, Otherworld general Widget tended to the wounded Deadpool while Meggan led a brigade against the Goat and its Dragon Monolith, barring the way to the Starlight Citadel. At that point, the Goat allied itself with the Skinless Man, sending him upon Fantomex and Psylocke.[3]
Krokwel managed to restore Fantomex, and promised them transportation to the Earth portal. He also gave Psylocke a sample of poison, insisting on the benefits of suicide over survival into the Goat's custody.
Nightcrawler soon found similarity between Otherworld's and his own universe's humans' situations, and Wolverine reluctantly agreed that X-Force remained and helped them, despite considering they were all going to die. Under Meggan's instructions, Wolverine and Deadpool were to go the Temple of Horoam'ce through the Cavern of the Insect Nobles. Meggan and Nightcrawler were soon attacked by the Goat's Dragons, and Widget was sent to Brian for reinforcements.
At the same time, Fantomex and Psylocke on the back of Krokwel's mummified dragon, reached the Northern Earth Portal, only to be stopped by the Skinless Man who killed their dragon, then removed Fantomex's skinface in return for his own mutilation.[2] Psylocke managed to took down the Skinless Man by using Krokwel's poison, but he escaped. Fantomex recovered and Psylocke telepathically witnessed the situation of their teammates.[4]
Final fights[]
Deadpool and Wolverine managed to infiltrate the Goat's temple in order to assassinate him,[2] but were easily overpowered.
As Nightcrawler and Meggan were overrun as well, Widget returned timely with Brian, saving them but leaving the Citadel and the Tower Omniverse to be breached by the Goat's forces. The three heroes then returned to stop the incursion.
Cloaking themselves as Merlyn and Roma, Fantomex and Psylocke tried to broke the Goat by throwing him into an illusion of the Siege Perilous, but Horoam'ce saw through the trickery.
The Goat entered the Tower Omniverse, declared himself the Omnigod and began to spread to the countless realities of the Omniverse as countless Goats. At that point, Psylocke telepathically informed Brian of the true nature of the Goat, a future version of Jamie controlled by Horoam'ce, and as Jamie was trying to stop the Goats and Brian couldn't force himself to kill him, Psylocke took control of him and killed Jamie, ending the line of the future Goat and stopping the incursion.[4]
—Psylocke (Betsy Braddock) to Captain Braddock (Brian Braddock), after she took the control of Brian's body and killed Jamie Braddock[source]Millions of souls were consumed every second.
There was no other way.
And you know that.
But you made me do it.
So you get to stay the good guy
Aftermaths[]
Confronting Brian with Jaime lying dead in his arms, Psylocke accused him of having refused to make the kill and forced her hand, in order to remain « the good guy ».[4]
Tending to the funeral three days later, Fantomex offered his condolences to Brian, despite his open towards Fantomex, whom he thought was about to gloat on the fact that his way, preemptive murder of innocents, was efficient into saving countless lives.
Brian and Elizabeth were unable to speak to each other, a greater breach now existing between them.[5]
Elizabeth's sacrifice soon led her out of the team,[6] and using her weaknesses, was driven crazy by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants posing as Charles Xavier, Angel and Jamie.
The Skinless Man himself returned to Earth-616 to kill his ex-wife,[7] and soon afterwards joined Daken's Brotherhood, formed to take down X-Force.[8]Issues/Episodes
Trivia
- At some point during the battle, Saturnyne and Jamie Braddock bet Earth-235, a world of Vampires Eternals, on the timely return of Brian to repel the Goat's forces out of the Tower Omniverse.[4]