Dark Web: X-Men #3 gives Madelyne Pryor exactly what she wants

Dark Web: X-Men #3 art (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The Spider-Man/X-Men crossover Dark Web has focused on clone villains Madelyne Pryor/Goblin Queen and Ben Reilly/Chasm trying to destroy and subsume the lives and memories of their progenitors, Jean Grey and Chasm, respectively.

In January 18's Dark Web: X-Men #3, the finale of the X-Men tie-in limited series from writer Gerry Duggan, artists Rod Reis and Phil Noto, and letterer Cory Petit, Madelyne Pryor gets her wish. And somehow, in doing so, she actually manages to somewhat redeem herself from her recent villainy.

Spoilers ahead for Dark Web: X-Men #3

While Forge uses his mutant ability to innovate and invent anything he can think of to create a machine that uses Krakoa gates to transport civilians to safety and combat the Limbo demons that are still on the surface world, Jean Grey and Magik take on Madelyne Pryor in Limbo itself.

As the fight seems to come to a standstill despite Jean's attempts to reason with Madelyne, Jean makes a somewhat stunning decision (to Magik and Goblin Queen as much as readers) to surrender to Madelyne, knowing that what she seeks is to steal Jean's soul in order to take all her memories.

But Jean's intentions quickly become clear, as she finally slows down and gets Madelyne to open up to her, with Madelyne revealing that what she wants are Jean's lived memories of her time with Madelyne's son, Nathan Summers/Cable, both as an infant and as a teen.

Jean, understanding Madelyne's grief at the loss of time with her child and the life she never got to live, openly shares her memories of Nathan with Madelyne, bringing them both to tears.

Realizing that her unwillingness to speak to Jean and ask her about her time with Nathan led her to team up with Chasm for the Limbo attack, Madelyne calls together the X-Men (with Jean's guidance and blessing) and vows to help clean up her own mess on Earth as the X-Men move into February 1's Dark Web: Dawn #1 finale one-shot.

Before then, Spider-Man's portion of Dark Web continues in Amazing Spider-Man #18 on January 25 - and so far, Ben Reilly/Chasm hasn't seemed anywhere near as open to compromise and reconciliation with Peter Parker as Madelyne was with Jean.

Dark Web takes many of its story beats from the original Inferno event, one of the best X-Men stories ever.

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I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)