The New X-Men (Beast, Wolverine, Cyclops, and now Emma Frost) are in a boat on the way to a funeral. Emma and Scott converse about a number of things. Emma questions the validity of Cyclops' vow of celibacy, and Scott responds by questioning the validity of Emma's allegiance to the X-Men.

They meet up with Domino, now a member of the X-Corporation. (The X-Corporation is not very well defined at this point.) Domino tells the X-Men that one of her partners, Gloria Dolores Muñoz, (Risque) was killed in the car park of Mr. Sublime's Pharmaceutical Corporation. It seems she had found out that Sublime undertakes in mutant organ trafficking, so that he and his associates can graft mutant parts onto their bodies. Domino can't handle such opposition on her own, which explains why she called for the X-Men.

Mr. Sublime introduces to the world his "U-Men." The U-Men are what Sublime calls the third species of man, "Homo perfectus." These are the self-mutated: the men whom embed mutant parts onto their body, a self-propelled evolution.

Wolverine and Domino on duty at a party (probably hosted by Sublime, but left unclear) when they spot Ao Jun, the mutant in charge of Xorn's sale to Mr. Sublime. When Ao Jun sheds skin or hair, or anything of the sort, each piece grows into another Ao Jun, with a short life span. Domino and Wolverine plan a rendezvous for after the mission, and then Domino drops down an elevator shaft.

She spies on an exchange of cash from Sublime to Ao Jun, and is soon met by some of Ao Jon's flaky replicates. She uses the laser function of a special contact lens to take them out, and disables building alarms so that Wolverine can enter, and create a diversion.

Wolverine enters the party, and is flirting with a few beautiful women when Ao Jun spots his intrusion and interrupts. Wolverine rips apart the feeble clones of Ao Jun. He then rushes to Domino's side, and slashes apart a whole room full of Ao Jun copies.

Cyclops and Beast are with Emma in the car park where Risque was killed. Together they spot a hidden entrance to an underground lair, which Cyclops opens with an effective optic blast. They find a processing station where Chinese mutants have their mutant organs amputated, and then are left to die in their own blood filth.

Wolverine and Domino have breached security and are being fired upon. Domino was successful, however, in stealing the keys that Ao Jun sold Sublime. They leap out a window to get away, and fall about 15 stories into a pool. (Is this because of Domino's luck power?)

Beast is attacked in the car park by the U-Men, who aim to harvest his organs and leave him to die. Cyclops fires a blast at them, which shatters their glass helmets and forces the U-Men to breathe outside air, which they despise. Emma turns into organic diamond and threatens to slice a U-Man if he doesn't talk.

Back at their base, The X-Men ask Emma to telepathically find information. By scanning the keys that Domino stole from Sublime, Emma uncovers the power of Xorn. She discovers that Xorn has a miniature sun inside his head, but his powers were locked because of China's intolerance for mutants. Emma can't handle the emotional overload, and transforms into organic diamond to shut off her feelings.

Later, after Cyclops converses with Jean Grey telepathically, Emma comes into his room, eager to share some champagne.

Sublime is talking to Ao Jun from his corporate office. Ao Jun is at Feng-Tu, completing the process of handing Xorn over to Sublime's U-Men. A U-Man discovers that the sun inside Xorn's head is becoming a micro-black hole, and is sucking in the light around it. The U-Man opens the safe (transported from office) and instead of finding keys, finds a note that reads, "We are the X-Men…Boo!"

The X-Jet bombs Feng-Tu and the X-men barge in. The U-Men attack Ao Jun for betraying Mr. Sublime, but then Xorn's black hole gets bigger, and increasingly dangerous. The U-Men back off, and let the X-Men handle Xorn. Xorn is set on destroying the world and everyone in it, but Cyclops, with Emma, tries to talk him out of it. He succeeds, and Xorn is freed. He accepts an offer from Cyclops to join the X-men.

Review:

First off, cool issue. The wide/horizontal layout was pretty neat. (They call it Marvelscope, I believe.) Sound story, strong art, pretty well done. Now, onto specifics.

The plot was great, and all the characters introduced were either really awesome, or had the potential to be. Morrison hits you from every angle, on every page. Xorn, (The man from room X, I assume) has a lot of promise. His character grabbed my interest from the start and if he is written well, Xorn will be an excellent addition to the book.

Domino's appearance was a brilliant idea, as she is a captivating character. She and Wolverine mesh so well together, and it was a joy to see them interact. Also, this was Emma's first appearance as a team member, and I'm not sure it was supposed to be in this book. Her new powers weren't explained at all at this point. I think we'll get more info about that in New X-Men #116.

In this book it became more evident that Scott and Jean are having marital problems. Maybe Scott is shutting himself off to the world around him, that's what it seems like. After being one with Apocalypse, who could blame him though? I wonder if he'll be able to push away Emma's advances, she seems pretty interested in him. Morrison isn't wasting any time in using Emma's intense personality in the book, and I think he's written her well.

The U-Men and Mr. Sublime may seem like a bit of a stretch at first, but you've gotta think about it. This comic has been around for a long time, and humans have always seen mutants as something to be afraid of. Isn't it about time that somebody looks at a mutant and says, "Gee, I wish I had those power!" ?? I think that Morrison is making a logical step in taking this book to the next level.

One interesting point, there were no narrative boxes, the whole book centered on dialogue. That made the story harder to follow, but I think Morrison was able to pull it off pretty well.

I liked the art a lot. It wasn't anything to hang in the Louver, but Leinil Yu did a great job, in my humble opinion. The Marvelscope deal was alright, a nice new look, but I'd rather see the typical layout. I just think that artistically, better things can be done that way. It was an okay change though, for one issue.

This is a book that you can't read just once. When you finish it you'll have so many questions that you'll wind up reading it again. With some books, I consider that a hassle, but I liked the story and new characters so much that I didn't mind. Grade: B+/A-

CharleyX's Comments: Great art, wonderful plot and concepts, lousy dialogue and script. Morrison's ideas and words seem to go to opposite ends of the quality spectrum with each issue. The notable exception here being the flirting between Dom and Logan, which I found funny and delightfully appropriate. I also liked Logan's description of Scott, albeit a little more crude than the one in X-Men #112, and the fact that Morrison is finally keeping Logan to his character, who truly respects Scott. Thank goodness they nipped that love triangle thing in the bud. Almost all the rest of the dialogue was confused and did not appear to flow from one panel to the next. I had major problems with a few specific things, like Ao Jun being Dom's connection, yet attacking her with his shedded clones, and Beast not being able to speak Chinese. For heaven's sake, if he could speak Pushti in X-Men Annual #1 and Japanese in Unlimited #3, why wouldn't he have learned to speak Chinese? It's basically ridiculous. And if Logan speaks Chinese, why did Scott have to go through that whole scene with Emma telepathically teaching him the language "from the nearest Chinese speaker?" Logan was right there! And Risque's last name was "Muñoz, not Mu-oz! This I might forgive as a transcription error caused by different electronic formats, but it's an unacceptable editing job.

However, conceptually this story shined. The Third Species is actually very interesting: I totally related to Sublime's wish to fly (though I wouldn't go as far as he did to achieve it). The X-Corporation and Xavier's "outing himself" was very unexpected, and I hope to see more ramifications in the future. And the fact that the X-Wing had weapons was totally cool. It's about time the X-Men went after people who oppress mutants rather than waiting for the next super-villain's ambush. Xorn himself was cool, with an interesting power description, and the offer made by Scott for him to join the school was intentionally shocking, and it worked. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Finally, the Marvelscope format was cool, but I would have liked to see Yu take more advantage of the wider pages. Most of the pages were made up of panels that could have been reorganized in a regular format without much difference. Also, I've heard that the next Marvelscope books will have a card stock cover, which is good, because the floppy cover on this issue makes the book hard to hold.