Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Doctor Doom (Dr. Victor von Doom) (Main story and flashback)
- Summers Rebellion
- Ruby Summers
- Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Mentioned)
- Rev. John Maddox
Antagonists:
- Shatterstar (Possessed by Cortex)
- Cortex
- Dr. Anthony Falcone ⏵ (First appearance)
- Anthony Shaw
Other Characters:
- Winston (First appearance)
- Fantastic Four (Mentioned)
- Reed Richards (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-616
- Earth-1191
- Mojoverse (Mentioned)
Items:
- Doctor Doom's Armor (Main story and flashback)
- Shatterstar's Swords
- Doomlock
Synopsis for 1st story
Madrox, Layla, and Ruby find Doctor Doom in Detroit, on Earth-1191. They find Doom aged and infirm, being attended by a busted, old robot servant, however he still believes himself to be at the height of his glory and wealth. Despite his senility, he quickly surmises that the group is there to learn about the manipulation of time due to a previous communication with Layla Miller, with whom Doom is rather taken. Unbeknownst to Madrox and Doom, they are being secretly observed by Dr. Falcone, science adviser to the President, and a man named "Shaw," presumably a descendant of Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club. Falcone is puzzled that Madrox is alive and in Doom's apartment. Madrox originally died in the mutant concentration camps and they sent Cortex back to kill him again to make sure no weird time-travel thing happens to change the present. Falcone sends a squad of Sentinels to Detroit, and asks for a real-time link to Cortex.
In the present, Rictor (Julio Richter) and Strong Guy are fighting Shatterstar, who is being controlled by Cortex. Cortex himself is sitting on a park bench while he controls Shatterstar in the fight. He observes that Maddox did not replicate when struck, and hypothesizes that Madrox's dupes lose the ability to replicate if they are separated from him for too long. A cop comes by to usher him along, citing vagrancy laws, but Cortex grabs the cop's nightstick and shoves it through his stomach, killing him.
John Maddox brandishes his gun, but Shatterstar throws a chair at him and disarms him. Rictor grabs the gun and fires it, but Shatterstar is able to deflect the bullet with his sword. Rictor is impressed and complements the move. Shatterstar says thanks and prepares to finish Rictor off. However, Strong Guy grabs Shatterstar's sword and hold him back. Shatterstar releases his second sword and prepares to stab Strong Guy, but Strong Guy throws him up through the roof and into the sky.
Guido comments on how light Shatterstar was, and Rictor explains that Shatterstar's bones are hollow and that he comes from the same dimension as Longshot. Rictor guesses that something is wrong with Shatterstar and that he's not acting like himself. He says they should help Shatterstar, not fight him. Shatterstar lands and runs to attack Strong Guy. At that moment, the real-time link from Falcone comes through and interrupts Cortex, who is belligerent and rude with Falcone, telling Falcone that he's too busy to talk so Falcone should go away. Falcone sends a pulse through the link as punishment. The pulse hits just as Shatterstar is getting ready to stab Strong Guy in the brain, and Cortex's mind control link is severed. Shatterstar falls to the ground, disoriented. Rictor rushes to reassure him that everything's alright. Shatterstar kisses Rictor.
Solicit Synopsis
"DIRTY SEXY MONET" AND "CORTEX"
Monet St. Croix: Smoking hot. Steamy. Gorgeous. Did we mention she was smoking hot? And suddenly she's taking charge of protecting X-Factor's client from a serial killer while displaying extreme romantic interest in one of the team. Business as usual? Or something darkly sinister going on? And if you were the one Monet was coming on to, would you care? Meanwhile: what is "Cortex"? The word keeps coming up in Madrox's serial killer investigation. Now he confronts the one individual who may hold the answers: None other than Victor Von Doom - but it's Doctor Doom as you've never seen him before. The shocks never stop and the surprises never let up!See Also
Links and References
http://marvel.com/catalog/X-FACTOR.2005.45