Wolverine and Colossus first performed their signature 'Fastball Special' move - in which Colossus hurls Wolverine at a target with his claws unsheathed - all the way back in 1976's Uncanny X-Men #100. Now, almost 50 years later in January 3's Fall of the House of X #1, they've innovated a brutal new twist on their classic combo maneuver.
And as dramatic as it may seem, Wolverine and Colossus' new move becomes the hallmark of the new era of mutants vs. humans.
Spoilers ahead for Fall of the House of X #1
Fall of the House of X #1 by writer Gerry Duggan, artist Lucas Werneck, color artist Bryan Valenza, and letterer Travis Lanham marks the beginning of the end of the Krakoa era. It opens with Cyclops going on trial for crimes against humanity in the International Court of Justice in Paris, France - the same courtroom where Magneto was tried and acquitted in 1985's X-Men #200.
Unlike Magneto, however, Cyclops offers no defense, and is convicted. This in turn leads to Krakoa and mutants being labeled an "invasive alien species" to be purged from the Earth - either by sending them off-planet to Arakko or murdering them.
The X-Men aren't planning to let Cyclops get convicted. They've got a plan to extricate him from Orchis custody and take him back to the resistance, with Colossus and Wolverine waiting in the sewers below the courthouse to secret him away. And of course, they meet with Orchis guards who are expecting an invasion from below.
Wolverine and Colossus have a brutal new move in store for them though, a new twist on the 'Fastball Special' in which Colossus picks up an enemy and hurls him into Wolverine's claws, skewering him. They dub the new move the "Screwball Special," because, in Wolverine's words, the target is "screwed." This is a big departure from the Krakoa era, in which it was forbidden for mutants to kill humans.
Despite Wolverine and Colossus taking down the Orchis guards, Rasputin IV, who is supposed to teleport Cyclops out of the courtroom, is psychically called away by Professor X, who says they can save all the mutants, but only if she abandons Cyclops' rescue and comes to him immediately. She agrees, abandoning the rescue mission and leaving Cyclops to his fate.
This leads to Colossus and Wolverine's X-Men faction declaring open war on humanity, with Shadowkat rallying their troops. Meanwhile, the savagery of Wolverine and Colossus' new move is escalated even further by Polaris, who summons forth Broo and his army of parasitic Brood aliens to invade Earth on behalf of mutantkind.
The story continues in Rise of the Powers of X #1 on January 10.
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