—Cyclops (Scott Summers)It must be the work of...Lucifer!
Appearing in ""From Whence Comes...Dominus?""
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dominus (First appearance)
- Quists
- Lucifer (Main story and flashback)
- Supreme One (Appears on screen) (Last appearance)
- Ultra-Robots (Main story and flashback)
- Robot Alpha (First appearance; destruction)
- Robot Beta (First appearance; destruction)
- Robot Gamma (First appearance; destruction)
- Robot Delta (First appearance)
- Robot Epsilon (First appearance)
- Robot Zeta (First appearance; unnamed)
Other Characters:
- Porter Mack (First appearance)
- Smith (First appearance)
- Unnamed ranch hand
- Unknown Sirians (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Irving Forbush (Referenced)
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
- Boris Karloff (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
- Soupy Sales (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
Races and Species:
Realities:
Locations:
- Milky Way
- Sol
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- Unidentified Southwestern desert
- Buchanan's Butte
- Lucifer's headquarters
- River
- Subterranean cavern
- Dude ranch (Mentioned)
- Buchanan's Butte
- Lincoln Tunnel (Mentioned)
- Unidentified Southwestern desert
- United States of America
- North America
- Earth
- Sirius (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Sol
- Nameless dimension (Mentioned)
Items:
Vehicles:
- X-Jet
- Professor X's Hovercraft
- Ice raft
- Ice surfboard
Events:
- Blue Valley Sharp-Shooting Contest (Referenced)
Synopsis for ""From Whence Comes...Dominus?""
The X-Men are racing toward the secret hideout of their alien foe Lucifer when their ship is suddenly deflected by a strange force field. Flying away from the scene to find another way through, the team notices strange objects being pulled out of the sky into the mysterious base. Also witnessing the spectacle is Porter Mack, the owner of a Dude Ranch near Buchanan's Butte, the location of the disturbance. Feeling that the strange goings-on will drive away his customer base, he takes some of his best men out to investigate the disturbance to try to find some way to stop it.
Meanwhile, the X-Men circle the butte until the strange light source disappears. Upon approaching the butte, they cannot get any closer because it suddenly starts spraying a geyser of hot water at them. The X-Men land further away and spot a nearby stream that goes under the butte. The X-Men decide to investigate to see if it's a safe passage into their foes hideout. Leaving their plane, the team leaves the Professor behind as they begin to search for a way into the base. Along the way, they are spotted and attacked by Porter and his posse, who think there may be a reward for the X-Men since they are still wanted criminals back east. However, the X-Men make short work of their would-be attackers, sending them sprawling into the river below where they retreat. They seal Porter in an ice block around his arms and load the would-be attacker on a horse, sending him packing back to his ranch.
Continuing to search for an entrance, the X-Men make their way to the river and have Iceman create an ice raft for them to ride along. They follow the river to the underground opening and find themselves caught in a whirlpool. As the X-Men are swept away, the Professor is shocked to find that telepathic contact with his students have been severed. Before Xavier can do anything about it, he is confronted by two robots commanded by Lucifer who capture the Professor and carry him away into the base. Taken before Lucifer himself, the Professor is put at the alien's mercy with the robots inquiring if they can destroy the telepathic mutant. Lucifer refuses the request, telling the robots and the Professor that he prefers that Xavier lives so that he can witness as the Dominus super-computer enslaves the entire world.
Elsewhere in Lucifer's base, the X-Men are separated and Angel, Cyclops, and Marvel Girl get captured in a transparent cage. Beast and Iceman, meanwhile, are attacked by another Dominus robot that attempts to capture them, but fails to stop the young mutants. They manage to escape the robot but then run right into a metal wall that knocks them out, allowing them to be captured.
With all the X-Men his prisoners, Lucifer gloats over his victory. He intends to use the Dominus computer (operated by the robots) to activate a device that would strip humanity of their individual wills and turn them into slaves that would toil and work as slaves of the Quist aliens that Lucifer is a member of.
Meanwhile, the X-Men attempt to break out of their prison, to no avail. When the Dominus robots place Iceman and Beast into their cell, they fail to free themselves as they are pushed back by an incredible force. However, the X-Men manage to free themselves when Jean uses her telekinetic powers to operate the release switch on the cell's control panel. Freed, they ambush the one robot left to guard them and race toward Lucifer's control room. With the alarm sounding, Lucifer sends his robots out to try and stop the X-Men. The X-Men duck out of sight to avoid detection and then rush Lucifer.
They get a mental command from the Professor telling them not to damage the computer, however Iceman and Angel don't believe the command came from the Professor and attempt to destroy it anyway, but Marvel Girl and Cyclops stop them. This leads to a brief scuffle between teammates until they all decide to hold off on destroying the computer until after they have dealt with Lucifer and his robots. The X-Men destroy all of Lucifer's robots and with his robots destroyed, Lucifer stops the battle and rushes to his communication device for more orders. When the Supreme Leader appears on the screen, he informs Lucifer that with the ultra robots -- the only things that could operate the computer, destroyed, their mission is a failure. He tells Lucifer to return to their home planet to be punished. Suddenly, right before the X-Men's eyes, Lucifer and all of his equipment are teleported away.
With the threat passed, the Professor explains to his students that through his mental probing he had learned that the Dominus computer has a specific defense mechanism: it would redirect any force thrown against it right back at it's attackers, putting his students at risk, and thus the reason why he ordered them not to attack the computer directly. With all explained, the X-Men and the Professor depart the base to return home, unsure where Lucifer came from or if the aliens he represented will threaten the Earth again.Appearing in "Divided--We Fall!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Count Nefaria (Luchino Nefaria)
- Unicorn
- Scarecrow
- Eel (Leopold Stryke)
- Plantman (Sam Smithers)
- Porcupine (Alex Gentry)
- Maggia Goons
- Churl
- Colosso (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Waldo (First appearance)
- Various unnamed New Yorkers
- Lucifer (Mentioned)
- Ultra-Robots (Mentioned)
- Mimic (Calvin Rankin) (Mentioned)
- Sara Grey (Mentioned)
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Mentioned)
- Blob (Fred Dukes) (Mentioned)
- Unus (Gunther Bain) (Mentioned)
- New York Mets (Mentioned)
- Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Realities:
Locations:
Items:
- X-Uniforms
- Cyclops' Visor MK 1
- Porcupine Armor
- Eel's Battlesuit
- Unicorn's Power Horn
- Hypnotic disc
Vehicles:
- Warren Worthington's Mustang
- Unnamed freighter
Synopsis for "Divided--We Fall!"
The X-Men participate in another training session in the Danger Room against the Professor's newest creation yet: The gigantic robot named Colosso. The X-Men attempt to attack it one-by-one to no effect, and it's not until they attack it as a team that they learn it's weakness: it's sensory eye. With the help of Jean's telekinetic powers and Iceman's freezing abilities, they defeat the robot. With the test a success, the Professor allows his students to go on another vacation since their last one was interrupted when they were forced to deal with Mimic. Warren asks Jean out to dinner before she goes visit her sister, and when they invite Scott to tag along, he accepts the offer, even though he knows Warren doesn't want him there, believing that Warren has won Jean's affections. With his students gone, the Professor allows himself a moment of weakness to break down and lament the lost use of his legs and to express the envy of his students mobility.
Things for the X-Men are going to take an unexpected twist with the return of Count Nefaria to the United States. With his Maggia connections, Nefaria is busy plotting another attack against the United States. Reading a newspaper editorial about the X-Men that questions if they are good or evil, Nefaria comes to the conclusion that the mutants are outcasts and decides to try and recruit them as his allies.
Bobby and Hank meet up with Vera and Zelda to go on a movie date, while Jean, Warren, and Scott have dinner together. The dinner ends with Scott declining Warren's offer to drop him off somewhere and the trio part company, with Jean leaving with Warren. In the car ride, Jean worries if Scott will ever express any feelings toward her. Scott is brooding on the same subject when he suddenly sees what he thinks is Marvel Girl leaping into Central Park and decides to go and investigate. Jean, after being dropped off by Warren, hears a radio report about the same thing and decides to go and investigate as well.
Changing into her Marvel Girl costume and traveling to the Park, Jean is attacked by Plantman, now an agent of Count Nefaria, who binds her in trees and vines and then knocks her out with a chloroform gas. As Cyclops (now in uniform) continues to search for who he thinks is Jean, he then spots Angel flying in the sky. However, this is a fake as well as Warren (still driving in his sports car) hears a similar news bulletin and goes into action as the Angel to investigate the park as well. He is soon captured by the Scarecrow, another minion of Nefaria.
Still out on their date, Bobby and Hank also hear a similar report and Hank makes an excuse to leave early to look into things as the Beast. Arriving in Central Park, Beast is easily defeated by Porcupine, also in Nefaria's employ. Returning to their hotel room, Bobby finds that Hank had not returned and decides to go out and investigate. Along the way, he finds an illusion of himself going toward the park and follows after it. He is attacked by the Eel, who has the advantage against Iceman, however with the timely arrival of Cyclops, the villain is knocked out by Cyke's optic blast.
They are then confronted by the Unicorn, who keeps them on the defensive until Iceman manages to seal the crooks head (and unicorn horn laser) in a block of ice. However this is a temporary victory as Bobby is knocked out by an electrical jolt from the reviving Eel. Cyclops attempts to knock out the Eel again, however, the Unicorn breaks free of the ice around his head and uses his powers to knock out Cyclops as well. The villains take their captives to Nefaria's freighter where they are locked up in the lower hold. Nefaria commends his minions for their work, but is angry that they had to resort to force when he ordered them not to harm the X-Men.
Meeting with the captive X-Men, he offers them the chance to join him in his latest plot: To steal the entire US city of Washington D.C. The X-Men refuse to betray their country by involving themselves in such a plot. Despite the X-Men's refusal to join him, Nefaria goes to the controls and prepares to carry out his plot without their aid.
This story is continued next issue....